I think bonsai are interesting in that in creating them one is compelled to think in terms of years, if not decades. Whether it's my dad collecting trees from the canyons (which, incidentally is a whole other angle of naturalist skill required for the art), which can take several years of preparation before the tree is ever dug up, or the tags at a show listing how many years a tree has been stylized (for example, the annual SABE show which just finished), the art or cultivating plants that are already hundreds of years old is measured in appropriate terms - not very much instant gratification involved, I guess.

words I just understood today:
-algebra (yeah I knew it was Arabic) ---> Al-gebra. Yes, yes, obvious, &c.
-geurrilla ---> from "little war." I know, like geurre in French. The double-l threw me off, so neener.

Xuemei's (and sous-chef Magda's) Nice Meal of the Day:
-miso soup with nori
-pork and cauliflower (with many and sundry spices)
-Orangina

Calvin and Hobbes - and lots of it

The Awakening of Consciousness - a short film starts out hauntingingly surreal, then just gets silly

      I'm not sure if it was my post-exercise endorphin rush or not, but I got a real kick out of two shows tonight. One was Stargate Atlantis, in that the fight scenes were all jujitsu. I mean, basic, clinch-->flying armbar-->cross-body armbar kind of stuff, but the thing was, it seemed to fit into the ambience of the show because it's so rarely used in fight choreography that it looks exotic, and yet at the same time is practical rather than fantastic. The other was Battlestar Galactica, of which there seems to be a growing fanclub of across a few different cities, because the episode was based around complexly written theistic discussion which circled a main ontological issue of the show (what is it to be human/what qualifies as human?).

Guys are only allowed suits, but women get to dress up; but that's cool, it's kind of interesting to have a Secretary of State like that

See, personally, I'd be more worried about the basement

      So I went back to meditating. I haven't really meditated at all for a couple (or a few? not sure) years, partly because my headaches weren't as severe as they used to be since I started doing yoga, and partly because of little white pills each morning. But, alas, those silly little blood vessels seem to have their hearts set on constricting (how's that for mixed metaphors?), so back to meditating each day I go. Anyway, the point to all this is that I realized there are a lot of birds outside our house; I guess usually with all the noise of the construction, traffic (local and Speedway), cooking, my own thoughts, music, &c, I just didn't notice the birdsong,or even the rain and wind, not in any real way anyway. It's nice.

Chaos Theory - simple, kind of clever little game

Fasting fakir flummoxes physicians - not sure if I believe it, but I really can't argue with that alliteration

poem rough -
And Aphasia

What is in your blood?
We need to know.

What do you see, before your eyes roll back?
Is that fear, or wonder beneath that sheen of tears?

What is crawling under your skin
that makes you writhe and arch?
What crystal demon have you taken into yourself?

I need to know.
What is in your blood?

What is happening to your mind?
Every moment, a coma shattered,
bolt upright with eyes wide -

what dream are you trying to give me,
that fits in your hand, and makes you cry?

What is in your blood?

Well, I think I understand on some basic level...sort of...mach diamonds (via Wyatt)

Anybody have any more information about this new ice on Mars?

Skillz (via Phil)

Fun immersion dealy from some game

Barefoot and Pregnant - minicomics by Erika Moen. An oldie, but these are some of my favorites

Fearless Little Love Poems - freaky, but some of them are almost sweet (via Phil)

Chain & Jane - art

If someone builds one of these, I will be their superfriend

"There were caves whose walls and ceilings are covered with soft light. As one gazes in wonder in the stillness of these caves it seems that the Creator has reproduced there in microcosm the ehavens themselves, until one scarcely remembers the enclosing presence of the walls. As one looks more closely, however, the scene is explained. Each dot of light identifies an ugly worm, whose luminous tail is meant to attract insects from the surrounding darkness."
      To that speaker, that image along with the knowledge that the worms are carnivorous and even cannibalistic "epitomizes pointlessness." To the author of the article that is using that quote, however, a similar experience with the glow worms taken in with his wife is indicative of how "meaning is what the phenomenon symbolizes to the viewer." He attributes meaning to the being in the moment and in love with his wife and in awe of the image before them, rather than looking for the image to have its own inherent meaning. Existentialism with Zen slipped in, interesting.

Shuai Chiao Takedown Tactics for Grapplers - Yes, Matt Furey goes just a bit overboard in his advertising, and we catch him sometimes stealing exercises from yoga and then turning around to decry the source. But he does seem have a good few undeniable good qualities in each of his products. In this case, credential-wise he is the first and only Westerner to win the world chamionships in shuai chiao, and his experience in wrestling helps with his explanations of techniques. The principles used are the same as in the Kodenkan's and Ko Sho's judo and jujitsu, and so as far as has been told by our initial tests the techniques on the video integrate quite well (one would hope, of course, considering the historical connections between the styles). While the variations on single-legs, hip throws, and foot sweeps aren't omega-be all-end all techniques, they work well and are decent enough for catching opponents unawares just because of their different-perspective nature. The real gem of his instruction is the conscious connection of just about every technique given to every other technique in terms of shifting between them as needed, enough to be worthy of rivaling a TKD stylist's flow in their kicking routine.

      I was flipping through an old Anne McCaffrey book, and something occurred to me - her series of books set on Pern might be a riff on the utopian genre that science fiction came from. The spacefaring colonists initially set up a technologically, environmentally, and politically idyllic settlement in Dragonsdawn, which is interestingly only marred from within by those who want to leave it. The only other threat is the later-ubiquitous Thread, which is a mindless, weather-like danger whose origin is extra-planetary in any case. Even during the later books where there is little widespread knowledge and less technology, there is little to no interpersonal or territorial conflict - which seems to be in one sense an assumption of the author about the nature of humanity, and in another enforced by the strain of surviving in a periodically hostile environment (the latter of which I never found entirely convincing in terms of it being a roundabout cause of utopian qualities). Another thing I find somewhat questionable is that there is never any mention of a character having any spiritual or even existentialist thoughts. I could lean towards the first part of that, as one of the main points of the original colony was that religion would be a frivolous historical note to the intellectual nature of the settlers, but that's ignoring any of my own bends towards that topic. For the setting being as rich as it is, I would hope that there would at least be an interesting take on the descendants of the colonists wondering at their origin or their existence in a world that is constantly under threat from the skies, but considering some of the assumptions made about gender roles in a stark environ, I'll go with taking what I can get.

Constantine with Keanu Reaves and Rachel Weisz. This was the first movie I've seen in the theatre in a while that spurred me to comment on how good it was immediately after the credits started to roll; in truth, that seemed to be true for Wyatt and several other people in the theatre as well. Weisz was beautiful - both in her appearance and her acting - and Reeves filled out the attitude of his role quite well, and still moves like a martial artist during the fight scenes to boot. The movie's cinematography and sheer style were impeccable, as well. And mind, me doing my best not to promote a story just because it deals with one of my favorite themes. Tangentially, that they got the same woman to play an androgen as was in Orlando is kind of funny, but kind of cool.

      Incidentally, it also made me think of a possible advantage of dark settings such as Constantine's, Shadowrun, In Nomine, and the World of Darkness. When the setting is that bleak, anything heroic that there is is enhanced by the comparison (sorry/poor syntax). Moreover, the hero is naturally bent towards either a seriously flawed or an anti-heroic nature (aka more interesting), which might otherwise come off as over-the-top or contrived in other contexts.

Bob's Tropicals - not quite as neat a name as Kabloom, but they have leis (via Carolyn)

mmm...genetic imperatives and compliance; something sounds kind of sketchy about the whole issue (via Kevin)

Omai - art + history

An Eye On I - art; he did some for White Wolf, but it doesn't seem to be on the site, unfortunately, but there are other nice works

      The other moonless night I was talking with my dad outside; in our field of view were five different blinking lights of aircraft. It reminded me of a daydream I had when I was really young of a future-Tucson with all sorts of aircraft in the sky, as if Tucson International were a science fiction spaceport or what. In any case, the slow, smooth movement of the planes in the sky was a graceful sight; similarly, the A-10's that buzz the university - though painfully loud - are beautiful in their long arcs.

DrumLab - what I'm wondering is what is that thing in the middle?

Back in the day we used to play a great game called Earthsiege, which has apparently expanded into a meta-epic story (nice snippet here)

In the haircutting place, I think it's funny because with all the mirrors everywhere and the client's usually facing away from the hairdressers there's a unique dynamic for interaction. Most of the eye contact made is only through reflections, or there is a complete lack of eye contact with the clients hair down; when something is being emphasized, then there might be a turn for some real eye contact, or the there's a wait until an opportunity for eye contact for an important point. Anyway, the point of that was the affect of the mirrors on the dynamic of communication in the room. Yes.

It's a ball. Which is theoretically kind of cute. But the whole cornering-people thing is pretty creepy, if you ask me.

Kogepan - something about the main issue being whether or not one is appealing for the eating...yeah...

the Octopuses are being all smart again; something about the whole comparison to humans thing seems a bit off in the article, though

"Immortality, or a state without death, would be meaningless, I shall suggest; so, in a sense, death gives meaning to life." - from Bernard Williams' "The Makropoulos Case: reflections on the tedium of immortality." That sentence is the little simplified bit of what is a lead-dense essay otherwise, but one little thing that clicked in my head as I read the counter/arguments was that the White Wolf Publishing people who redesigned their vampire line seem to have (at least to me) developed much of their setting based around if not this essay, then one that is very, very similar. So, kudos to the writers for making a point of bringing in higher-end philosophy, if that's the case. Basically it helps the reader/writer/game player or whoever is using the resources they make to not just discuss the philisophical questions involved, but to really engage them in it by providing a forum and parameters (the setting and rules).

I think I just might be able to get a VHS of White Dwarf. I saw it a long time ago on television, but unfortunately I think I was too young to really understand it. In any case, a nice plot summary is in the link, but the actual production of it was definitely a nice mix of SF and fantasy. At least in my memory at any rate.

How many I's and you's in Japanese? (because I'm a linguaphile)

Missile Command - one of the original bestest games ever

Something seems vaguely unsettling about using a computer to predict this; also, Kevin's questions: If all songs will be as good as Stairway to Heaven, will Stairway to Heaven be any good anymore?

And do you think that machine is just calibrated to Western music or do you think it's universal? I can't imagine Arabic, Chinese or Indian music would have the same asthetic variables as Western music. Then again if Linkin Park and Norah Jones are in the same statistical group then maybe it applies to all music. I wonder how that Tunak Tunak Tur song would score on that damnable machine. Or Splashdown for that matter. (via Kevin)

Ohh, this is just funny. (go UN go)

Uncle Sam - the music really makes it, I think

Good postcolonial joke - took me a bit to understand because at first all I recognized were the pronouns, but it's understandable (now with the proper link, thanks Carolyn!)

   One thing I like about jujitsu and yoga that clicked the other day is that they have been around for hundreds or thousands of years, so I've been applying myself to practices that have been taught and applied for that long. Not exactly in the same form, of course, but very close in certain respects. Yogic practices and philosophies stretch back through many a century, and the kind of jujitsu that we practice at Ko Sho is an extension of the shuai chiao that extends through Chinese history (which, as Xuemei can attest, is quite long). Similarly, while the Baha'i sort of spirituality I ascribe to is relatively new to the world, the source of the beliefs at its core stretch even past Zoroastros, thousands of years back. I'm not quite sure why I like the idea yet, except maybe that it gives me a similar sense of place as when I unexpectedly see the mountains ringing the city and inherently know from that for a brief moment exactly where I am within the basin; I think it grounds me, somehow.

Until Then - wonderful. (via Wyatt)

Rabbit Linguistics - can anybody with a bunny verify this? Or, if anybody wants a rabbit there's a customer at the diner that breeds them. Either way, this site seems pretty in depth, without being too sugercoated.

Interesting report on the damage wrought on the sea floor by the tsunami quake.

-another poem rough
Mojave

I walk in the middle
of a bare, salt plain,
the soft crust breaking
beneath my weight.

The white stretches all the way
to the base of mountains,
a wall
like a dark sky themselves.

The metal of far gantries
and bunkers stops glinting,
subsumed subtly
by a dimmer light.

By the time I step back
from the foreboding shadow
I'm already in it, so I stop
and tilt my gaze

to the storm building over
Olympian peaks,
like another earth itself.
Something rumbles within, alive.

The dark stone
in its epic proportions bows
before the weight of dark,
heavy vapor; and I kneel.

I feel small,
a speck on a dry frozen sea
of dust, staring up
at the ephemeral that is greater than mountains.

This parched earth will no longer crack
for want of moisture,
but drown
beneath the ocean of airy water above.

I measure the distance back
while wind cools the sweat
trickling down my spine, and thunder booms.
I stand, and run.

Printculture - Now this is my kind of website. Basically, my thesis advisor and a few of his friends got together to put their random thoughts down. The topics range from politics to superbowl commercials to teaching to, well, one gets the idea. For example, one of the more probably generally accessible bits is this article on videogames such as Grand Theft Auto.

Total Yoga - with Tracey Rich and Ganga White. A bit longer than most yoga tapes, Total Yoga is probably not the best tape for a beginner (not because of it's length, correct that poor syntax, but because of its pacing and sequencing). The beginning is a nice introduction to ujjayi breathing, which is unusual for a video to concentrate on at all, and most of the rest of the session is a progressing series of sun salutations that are centered around a varying asana (ie lunge/twisted lunge; cow's face/half lord-of-the-fishes). The asanas themselves are fine and sequenced nicely, but the instruction and general appearance leave something to be desired; I think memorizing this one and not using the tape might be more beneficial, at least for me at any rate. Sidenotes, the introduction has some advanced asanas in motion that are great fun to watch, and several of the names assigned to things were just plain unfamiliar or odd to me, though I'm not sure of the significance of that.

Another practically pre-made skiffy setting; I could see writers using that as a basis for intergalactic travel; that, and it seems like it might explain some of the vague concepts from David Brin's Uplift trilogies and Babylon 5.

Dissonance: A God Amongst - pretty poorly written (or translated, maybe?), but in that it seems to take on a kind of myth quality. Or maybe they were going for that? I can't tell. But it's funny, because of the way Baha'is are used in it. (+ concept art)

Periodic military tech news (via Wyatt)

NinjaCupid (a game within tokidoki) - yes, it's cute and mindless, but it's got kind of a nice modern art thing going in the changing backgrounds

Splashdown is my favorite band right now. Though it's somewhat difficult at times to catch the words through the occasional undulations and trippy cadence of Melissa Kaplan's voice, it's worth it to listen to the songs while glancing at the lyrics. So far I've realized one of the songs is a series of almost-haikus, another is an odd Adam and Eve parable, another is a cover of a World War I Maori love song in the original language, and another sounds really innocent but is dirty enough to widen my eyes. Basically it's one of the few bands where I enjoy reading their lyrics in the same way that I enjoy reading a good of book of poetry, in that there is the same sort of depth. (via Michelle originally)

      I was struck by how much is communicated by body language today while dealing with an overdose patient in the ER. He was seeing who knows what when his eyes weren't rolling back, scratching at bugs all over,going from fast asleep to bolt upright awake, and was trying to scream (as best as we could tell, he had aphasia, so communicating was not going to happen much from his end). He wasn't understanding me either, at any rate, but I tried to change the tone of my voice as best I could while gauging his reactions, which seemed to work a little. But during the moments when he was in the land of the real (real for everyone else anyway), I got his attention best with hand gestures that became signals for movements, conspiratorial winks, and changing the level of my eyes to meet his. For whatever reason, it feels like it's something that bears more thought.

Who else is qualified? - my favorite is Inigo Montoya I think

The bottom is the hottest part. This is an established fact.

wonderful quote:
"The division of one day from the next must be one of the most profound peculiarities of life on this planet. We are not condemned to sustained flights of being, but are constantly refreshed by little holidays from ourselves, always falling to little ends and rising to little new beginnings. Angels must wonder at these beings who fall so regularly out of awareness into a phantasm-invested dark."
-Iris Murdoch

Three Tissues - I really liked this article; it's short, sweet and simple

minipoem!

Clinch

Close the eyes, and
feel
an osmosis
of tension, and will.

At equilibrium,
pause.

And go.

Release the muscles,
whips cracked
into liquid tension

to fill the void
between bodies:

momentary violence,
released.

---
Xuemei's Nice Meal of Yesterday:
-honey-garlic chicken breast
-orzo with spinach
...in less than ten minutes - take that, Iron Chef

Indian arms and armor - some of these are truly odd (all the images are at the bottom); everything from katars from India to jambiyas from the near East to kukris from Nepal, and all sorts of other weird axes, swords, cudgels, &c

Tucson article; interesting outside perspective, I guess (via Carolyn)

Skinjet? (via Wyatt)

Xuemei's Nice Meal of the Day:
-potato and green pepper stirfry with garlic
-beef and spinach soup
-rice

      I think that (if it were possible, mind) philosophy should be more encouraged as a subject of study. Not so much for any high falootin' (which I incidentally hear is a good restaurant) reasons about learning the actual philosophy per se, but for the aspects that involve ideally doing well in the class. For example, at some point or another one will be forced to understand someone else's point of view that they disagree with; I say forced because basically what one is graded on is proving comprehension of the material. Also, one has to really listen (to the teacher and the text) to really comprehend - for example, when a teacher has the opportunity to remind a student, "That's not what I asked. Answer the question I asked," so the student doesn't spout off something complex sounding and then sit pretty thinking they're intelligent. Lastly - clarity, conciseness, simplicity.

      In other news, the parking at Tucson International got all tricky. There's a little parking lot for people to wait in, instead of waiting in front of the building, but the parking lot is hidden in a tiny little nook. So basically people try to be sneaky and wait in random lanes, hoping cars won't pile up behind them, all because no one tells them there's a parking lot, and there's no signs to it. And there's no way to feasibly walk from said lot without getting yelled at, so they keep you from using that to avoid the short-term parking (and assume that you have a cell phone your pick-up-ee can call you on). I narrow my eyes at thee, airport.

Peter Hönnemann - photography

Japanese corpse names - I like the comparison between the characters, and the trivia

World's Smallest Pacman - =)

Arcipello - art (and a mean Ghost in the Shell tribute)