Some interesting bits from a customer at the Diner that my dad regularly talks to, who just spent a while travelling all over France. One general thing was that while Bush obviously wasn't particularly popular, at the same time apparently Chirac seemed to be equally unpopular, on the reasoning that his policies were killing tourism.
      Also, at one point this American couple were relaxing on their hotel balcony; they soon saw a small group of students carting effigies of Chirac and Bush and burning differing flags as they moved down the street beneath the balcony. As odd as that duality was, soon after that a much, much larger crowd of students came from both sides of the street and dispersed the first, burning-things group. The couple's main remark upon this was that as they watched the BBC later on, they saw that very first burning-things group, but there was not a single mention of the second, larger group of students. Ah, objective reporting.

      In the (now week-long) continuation of a very diplomatic and tactful argument at the dojo over various martial arts principles, I have to confess that I was holding up my side with very little confidence because of lots of recent disilliusionment (I'm really hoping that's actually a word) - having refined and better understood what we were actually talking about, today it boiled down to explaining previous training from differing disciplines and comparing. But, when the head instructor finally wandered over and his opinion was asked, he pretty much repeated exactly what I had said in almost the same words. I found this fairly odd, as he and I had never discussed the topic before, nor could I remember him expressing those opinions; I'm not sure whether it relieved my feeling disillusioned to be backed up, as it were, but I certainly found it striking that our (the head instructor and me) training from the same teacher carried through so consistently in us.

Serenity, with Jewel Staite as the really attractive woman. And there were other people too. Yay for advance screenings! And friends who win tickets from local alt. rock radio stations! Though, interestingly, we saw an inordinate number of people that we knew. Go figure. I still can't pin a negative or positive opinion down about the movie; I had only ever seen enough Firefly to get a general idea of the setting and who each character was, though that seemed to work fine in terms of understanding the movie, at least. The stilted/altered/embellished language the characters use threw me for a loop at first (I had forgotten it from the television-watching), but I quickly warmed up to it. Though a few lines fell flat, all in all I got a big kick out of it by the end. The martial arts were great quality...at least, I think so, we were sitting on the very end of the second row. I could be mistaken. There was a plot and whatnot as well, but that's mainly the part I can't decide whether I liked or not; maybe I'll go see it again from a better angle and decide then. And also not have one of the lenses of my glasses fall into my eye this time.

      And while clambering through boxes in the warehouse today, I listened to an interesting conversation between two of the receiving guys. Basically, they were talking about science fiction shows, like the kind they show reruns of on Saturday afternoons or late at night. That doesn't sound like much, but I marvelled at the realization that these guys, who I thought were so inescapably macho that they wouldn't go near anything but the basest of Rambo-style action, could take such delight in parsing out the details of setting and character for each of the shows, and if the other guy hadn't seen it, in describing and explaining the same. That all sounds arrogant or pretentious of me to say, I'm sure, but they were like a couple of English majors; of course, they lingered over describing the time the hot actress had to wear a maid's uniform, but honestly, who wouldn't?

      I was reading an article that claimed that the muscles that are most commonly very tight are the hip flexors and the very bottom of the abdominal muscles. And at first, I thought yeah, yeah, yeah. Then a little while later, in a fit of boredom or whatever, I sat there thinking about it. And those muscles certainly felt relaxed. And then just when I was about to shrug and forget it, those muscles actually relaxed. And I gasped. I think half of my palpable relief was from the release of the mental block, and half from the physical. Later, I realized that as I pushed on the gas pedal while driving home, I was flexing my toes as well as my foot. I certainly didn't need to be flexing my toes, and there was a smaller, but still palpable, release there as well. Now, the trick is keeping those muscles relaxed.

Tingo, nakkele, and other wonders - fun article about un-translatable words

Alias - beautiful, but (at least for me) a bit uncannily disturbing

      Quick notes on tonight's Pride Fighting Championship - for one, the general consensus among all of us watching was that while Pride rules allow for a few more brutal movements (stomps to opponents on the ground, for one), nonetheless the UFC is more intense and enjyoable to watch. That's not to say that these fights weren't enjoyable, per se; I particularly enjoyed one of the Japanese fighter's repeated traditional throws (hip throws and harai goshi's), and the suplex's that popped up here and there. There were even some hammerfists when fighters were on the ground, a few odd double-hand techniques, a couple spinning elbows and heels, and even a completely random tornado kick. But we thought that last guy was just being silly because he knew he had lost. So, all in all, good times.

Woogle - well, it doesn't quite turn out right, but maybe that's half the point

Rock, Paper, Scissors to the nth - all of a sudden, a deck of cards might not be needed when stuck in, say, airport layovers or the like; though I suppose people might think you're talking in sign language

Word of the Day: williwaw - a violent gust of cold wind blowing seaward from a mountainous coast (it seems like one of those "the Eskimos have a hundred words for snow" words)

Insurrection, by Thomas Reid. This being the second novel in a shared-setting series, I think, as one reviewer also pointed out, I started reading with the desire to learn more about the unique society and psychology of the drow that the books center around, but I've been caught up by the various characters and (big!) story. Which, in this novel, starts out a bit ambigously but quickly crescendoes in terms of huge amounts of intrigue and excitement. That being said, I'll note that I didn't particularly enjoy the characters and action this time around as much as in the first novel by Richard Lee Byers, but to be honest I'd say that's a hell of a tough act to follow, with fighting being described by a martial artist and the chance to introduce the characters in question.
      In any case, there is some fun writing, with things like the phrase "incendiary alchemy" used seriously, and "My mother always told me not to get involved with bad girls, especially if they had wings."

      Martial arts having been mentioned, I'll just note again that the choreography in Atlantis maintained it's extraordinary quality through the season finale, with fight scenes that both traditional and MMA stylists can appreciate. Now, that being said, the finale for Battlestar Galactica was very, very interesting for a few reasons. Firstly, its usual high-quality cinematography and character-driven storyline. Then, the other bit; for the whole week up till Friday, I'd noticed that they were hyping the Atlantis finale over and over, and barely if ever mentioned the Galactica finale which was to be on the same night (which was decidedly odd, as the latter show was the much bigger draw for ratings). Then, about halfway through the Galactica finale, there was one of those "The follow segment contains scenes of a mature..." messages, which really confused me, as I'd never seen one before in the middle of a show. And the next segment was quite disturbing, almost to the point of making me walk out of the room for a moment (as it was, I ended up just standing up and looking away because I realized how they were going to end the scene); basically, it dealt with a sanctioned rape of a prisoner.
      Which is interesting now that I've had some time to adapt to the memory, in that it was sanctioned by a female officer, who appears to have only males under her command. If anybody with some gender issues experience wants to tackle that one, I'm all ears. I will say that at the least I thought the SciFi channel did the best they could with that episode in terms of advertising it, and in justifying that scene in terms of the story.

Deeper Than Words - art

Welcome to the Thrid Season of the O.C., Bitch! nice...or rather, very not-nice primer...sort of (via Carolyn)

CharacterDesigns.com - art resource

      I'm not even going to talk about Lost. Damn cliffhangers. I also watched Invasion, if only for moral support of the bevy of science fiction shows this year (besides the original series on SciFi, Threshold and Surface, namely). I liked the affable UFO buff, he was pleasant and interesting. The recquisite carefully doled out bits and hints have potential for growth, I suppose. But the relationships between the characters - I mean, who's married to who and who's step-sibling's uncle is related to which of the other characters? Maybe that's supposed to be a reflection of a modern-family-archetype or something, but sheesh, they couldn't have expanded the connections a little bit? Or maybe they'll just add more characters later, I hadn't really thought of that. But still. Incest - but not really.

blanc fonce - art

      After searching and experimenting for a long while, I think I finally found a good aid for meditation. Concentrating on purely on my breathing or stimuli (visual or aural) works well enough for me, and chanting does - but only if I'm really in the right mood - but I've really come to like mudras, or placing my hands in certain positions. I can't say I buy into them actually having some physical or even mental effect simply of their own accord in any way, but I can say that the physical act of contorting my hands a bit and relaxing them in front of my chest focuses my attention without drawing in clouds of connotation-thought better than anything else I've come across. Anyone else have a particular focus they prefer?

Also, I made a Flickr account to play around with the new camera I just bought, so I'll probably link it to the right and add to it as I go

I honestly haven't seen enough Firefly to really get what this guy is arguing (I didn't realize the setting was like that), but it passes the time till Serenity comes out

      An interesting point came up in a conversation with someone I hadn't talked to in a long time (Spoon rocks!). Basically, this gal and I, while dissimilar in passions or interests (except for a strange penchant for dancing at random and inappropriate times) share a similar issue. That is, while we have often been advised to 'do what makes [us] happy' or 'make a living doing what interests [us],' and this is sound advice, at the same time we run into a conundrum. We either do what we love or what interests us, and make the sacrifice of not having very much of a living or being able to support a family comfortably etc etc, or make a living doing something we care little about and do our best to continue our passions and interests on the side.
      Now, the biggest trouble in explaining this thought is not coming off as whining, bitching, complaining; we were really trying to objectively figure out the best course of action. Also, at the same time, we tried to recognize (and think of) basically, things we hadn't thought of - lucky breaks, wise investing, change in life-perspective; maybe something will happen with the lovely lady come January from her time with AmeriCorps. Anyhoo. Thinking.

for lighter fare, comic-find courtesy of Cherubim:
-for the few who'll have any idea what this might represent
-10 points to living in Arizona

The Consolation of Philosophy, by Ancius Boethius, translated by Victor Watts. I don't really recall why I own this book, I think it must have been for a class that didn't end up using it, so I figured I'd read it instead of sellling it on the basis that it was in a recommended reading list in the back of another good book. As much as I probably wouldn't go out of my way to read it again any time soon, I will admit it was enjoyable to work through, especially in its interesting intermixing of prose and poetry. The basis for its being written is especially interesting if true, in that Boethius apparently wrote it while in prison watiing for his violent execution, particularly for its finishing optimism. And especially for a philosophical text, it was astoundingly easy to read and comprehend, though whether that was by Boethius' original writing or Watts' translation I'd be curious to find out. A good bit of late-Roman and Byzantine history is scattered in footnotes and in a handy introduction as a nice extra; and if anyone else ever gets around to reading this I'd be curious to compare opinions as to whether a huge amount of the ideas in this text seem scattered in every-day Western cultural assumptions (that sounds pretentious, but read it and also be like what the hell?).

Art of Philip Straub

Moonstruck, with Cher and Nicholas Cage. Hilarious, and classy; where Old School dealt with cheating and relationships in as tasteless a manner as possible, which wasn't necessarily too bad, just a different kind of funny, this film somehow turned its exploration of infidelity into an intelligent foray that was even warm at times. Just watch out on the volume, there's a lot of screaming.

-nice article on ankle locks

      I had several good ideas in the midst of an endorphin rush on the way home. But I lost them in the crash afterwards, I think; ah well. In any case, recently I'd been feeling somewhat lost in my martial arts training - I was kind of asking myself, 'What the hell am I doing anymore?' Which seems a bit odd in retrospect for the amount of hours per week I've been putting in, which is probably more than ever before. I don't think tonight was a complete turnaround, but at least it might get me out of my slump.
      Basically, we tried to approximate full-contact, no-holds-barred fighting as best we could. We used grappling gloves, makeshift headgear (chanbara helmets), and a slight modicum of restraint. The dynamic of this kind of fighting from the usual sparring of traditional martial arts is a world apart. Range takes on an entirely different meaning, and I found myself having to correct all sorts of bad habits (pulling strikes short of their targets, slowed down pull-backs based on courtesy, giving up grappling position for the sake of training escapes) on the fly. High kicks went from a staple to rarely used strikes based on opportunity or strategy, as I quickly found out that in this context they are horribly easy to catch or lead to having one's 'tree chopped down' with a kick to the supporting leg; I was only able to pull off one clean roundkick to the face after a series of feints and switches (ironically slapping my instep on the hard face-guard of the mask - ow). And strategy in turn played a bigger role than I've been used to - there doesn't seem to be any room for half-way choices. It's just strike, strike to create opportunities for grappling, or clinch and grapple; trying to switch strategies in the middle of things required too mental acrobatics for me to handle at this point in time, at any rate. Regardless, there is a huge amount of self-analysis that's going to be occurring for the next few days, most definitely.
      Random notes: grappling gloves actually aren't as bad of cushions as one would think; they do great job of protecting one's wrist and hand, and while they aren't exactly boxing gloves, they diffuse the bone-hard feeling of a fist at least. Chanbara helmets - hmm. Great cushioning job, which makes sense considering they're for fighting with weapons, though one's neck better be conditioned to check the yanking it'll still take. Having them pop off during grappling, or pretty much cancel out one's vision in a clinch were big hindrances; even ranged fighting suffered the obfuscation of the bars across the face (hands and feet are a lot smaller than the sword and staff-length weapons they're designed for, I guess).
      And now, off to nurse the tennis ball sized bump on my ankle, so I can start running again this weekend to build up my cardio. And possibly so I can get a shoe on tomorrow for work. Damn leg blocks...as a post-script, low shin-roundkicks to the thighs were only slightly less dangerous to use than high kicks.

interesting article on on joints that go snap, crackle, pop

      This is going to be really esoteric, random, and possibly high falootin'. Not like the restaurant, though. I don't think like the restaurant, anway. Anyway. I was reading this book and it had a little about a God-concept from back in the old Platonic days (I'm resisting making a horrendous ancient-Greece-platonic-men joke), where the god-figure is the prime mover, who sets everything in the universe in motion without being moved itself. And a few different angles on that same thing, but it's late and I'm sticking with that. Then I completely randomly thought of some article I read way back about some people viewing aikido as a spiritual practice. Then I thought of the zen idea of something being still and yet in motion at the same time - ye old moon's reflection on water, etc. Then I wondered whether that zen idea might be applied to the prime mover, which led to me wondering whether the idea of the prime mover might be combined with that zen idea to describe an ideal mental state for an aikido practitioner, based on the principles of the discipline. Then I remembered that some zen practices view attempting to achieve an ideal mental state as a way of getting closer to God/unity/nature/etc. And that's how (I think) I now understand maybe why aikido might be viewed as a spiritual practice.
      That breaks things.

Old School, with Will Farrell and Luke Wilson. I always struggle a bit when talking about comedies after I see them, because they generally don't do much for me; I pretty much watch them either when there's people who can Rocky Horror along, or when I'm obligated to - like when a short Mexican hands me a movie that I have to watch to find out why he's been going "Frank the Tank! Frank the Tank!" all day long. So, in light of all that, I still thought this movie was pretty lame. It had its share of skin and funny moments and a slew of generally funny actors. I suppose it was kind of generally funny. I wouldn't call it a total waste of time. Eeyup.

"...the condition of human nature is just this; man towers above the rest of creation so long as he recognizes his own nature, and when he forgets it, he sinks lower than the beasts. For other living things to be ignorant of themselves, is natural; but for man, it is defect." - translated from 5th century Latin - which in my mind begs the question, what is it to recognize one's own nature?
-versus-
Shadowcat: "Science and sorcery... is there any thing you can't do?"
Dr.Doom: "Knit. I find it overly repititious."
- I'm more of a cross-stitching man, myself

...hey suburbia! - Cute drawings, and writing that engenders smiling. And cheap shots at emo people. Heh. (But, all in good fun.) Some musical commentary, not too obscure. Also, a fat hamster (with a cute little purse).
      And would someone send me a Rilo Kiley mp3 if they have one? This is the umpteenth time I've heard good things about them.

IronBrush - art

      After watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon again, I started thinking. One, for all the fantastic elements in the fight scenes, there were at least a couple pretty realistic things that I noticed this time around: a quick close-up of the result of Sanchin conditioning (re: Okinawan martial arts, so I assume it's also in the Chinese somewhere), where Zhiyi's character almost breaks Yeoh's character's wrist with nothing but her belly, and this wonderful sequence where Chow Yun Fat's character just keeps sidestepping ever so slightly on 45's and riposting, all the while lecturing his opponent (focus on the angles there, but the rest made it really cool).
      The second bit are questions I had near the end of the movie; namely, if Chow Yun Fat's character is a Boddhisatva, or someone on the verge of enlightenment who postpones it to help others, he's certainly a complicated one. For one, (bracketed by the context of the story) is he postponing his enlightenment to help the young, morally conflicted noble girl, or because of his unconsummated love for his Yeoh's character? While it seems that in order to share that love his enlightenment is permanently forestalled, is he actually still a Boddhisvata who is remaining behind to help ("I would rather be a ghost wandering at your side..."), or has he renounced his efforts in that regard for love, which might just be a different kind of nirvana?

The Constant Gardener, with Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes. Well, for one this makes me want to see City of God (by the same director) even more. I adored Weisz's acting as usual, even when I was actively disliking her character, and Fiennes performed admirably in acting the character development that I specifically went to the movie to see. The cinematographic details, acting (even in body language, always a plus) and plot (which was pleasantly complicated) all fit together quite nicely, with parallels complete and details returned to in surprising ways.
      I also thought the movie was interesting in that it seems to use a similar story-archetype to my favorite novel, Evolution's Shore, even to the point of similar details (tart, somewhat idealistic UK girl, Kenya, uncovering plots by big political players), but unlike the novel, here the female character development is played out in the background, as it were (in flashbacks) whereas the male character's development (which took place somewhat off-stage in the novel) is primary; I only split it by sexes because of the similarity between the given characters, mind. Where the novel is science fiction and the movie is more realistic is the splitting point I think in terms of how the role of disease is played out, with the former turning it into an creator of potential, and the latter placing it in a more overtly economical role - but, I think there is a parallel there nonetheless, just that it's a complex one that hopefully will bear further meaning for both if I can figure it out.
      And I really wonder whether Evolution's Shore might be used as an elucidating comparison to the real-life work of Wangari Maathai, in how integration with the environment plays such a positive role for Kenya in the novel, or whether Maathai's words and work might be used to pull further meaning from the novel based on her real experience.

      Not to keep going on the same subject too much, but I alo wanted to note the role martial arts have been playing in the two Stargate shows. At the very least, they've come a long, long way from the horrendous, even pathetic choreography of Star Trek back in the day. In Atlantis, the military personnel use wonderfully basic traditional and Brazilian jujitsu (and even make it look good, which seems ironic somehow), whereas one of the more exotic characters does and even trains other characters in Filipino style martial arts. What interests me in these points is the use of distinct styles of martial arts to characterize, and as a sort of body language to convey relationships between characters (in the training scenes).
      The body language bit was applied the same way in SG-1, but what interested me more in that show was the impressive cinematography; I don't know how much experience Ben Browder or the other actor he fought have with scenes choreographed like that, and I honestly still don't think at least Browder has had that much, but damn. The slow-downs, shifting camera distance, and angles made for a fight or few that were genuinely rock solid. I just hope they keep up the good work.
      Those, along with random bits in Battlestar Galactica like characters training or the last season finale where it turned out the Victoria's Secret model had some moves worth noting, and not for her looks, kind of makes me wonder whether martial arts might be coming into a companion role with the science fiction genre. Maybe adding an element of art to violence complements the genre in the same way that it adds art to science. Or, as in the case of the Dune series, for example, perhaps martial arts provide a way of really getting into the speculative possiblities for the human body and mind with their connotations of discipline and mental/physical ability.

Although, in a different line of thought, I must admit I feel like the dude in blue some times...but it's good get a laugh out of oneself, hien? This one made me chuckle, at any rate - and at least one person I know laugh (uproariously, even) when I pointed out the possible connection

I don't even know what forty-nine of the real slogans are

      Sort of random thought-stream, running off of my television intake for the week. Which, besides a few cartoons, consisted of tonight. I'll note first of all that the only other person I know who watches Battlestar Galactica consistently, and whom I also know is quite female, was ironically more attracted to Lucy Lawless (guest starring) than Apollo (and, strangely enough, Lawless' character was enough of a bitch that I was ironically almost more attracted to Jamie Barber). And then there was Katee Sackhoff hitting a heavy bag; that brought me back to the female side of things, luckily.
      Not even tangentially, I hadn't noticed the contrasting parallel in themes dealing with symbiotic relationships in the two Stargate shows. While the parasite in question in SG-1 seems generally to be more truly parasitic, especially in its fullest extent of imposing its will upon its host, the symbiote in Atlantis (at least so far as has been hinted) seems like it could be more insidious - to me, at any rate, it's hard to tell whether they're pushing the their-behavior-is-the-other-DNA's-fault angle, or the more interesting augmented-urges-that-are-really-just-human angle. Time will tell, I suppose.
      I also like those little spots they have between commercials, where two actors from a given show are briefly shown in such a way as to hint at their relationship through gesture and body language. Ten points to the SciFi channel.

And how would one translate this random line out of a poem, say, into French:
"French has no word for home."
Something tells me I should take this to a man named Zuzga.

Just for fun, since I'm re-reading one of my favorite books, excerpts from Jack Gilbert's poetry:
"Isaiah said each man walks in his own fire
for his sins. Love allows us to walk
in the sweet music of our particular heart."
--
"...purple is black blooming"
"gray...a thousand colors from white to silver"
--
"Maybe, he thinks, it is like the Noh: whenever
the script says dances, whatever the actor does next
is a dance. If he stands still, he is dancing."

      Just to add to that last reality bit, an oblique take on the issue might be found in Stephen King's novel The Gunslinger, wherein *SPOILER* one reality is actually contained at a submolecular level in another reality (ironically, this time, the real-life reality). So as that space in which the characters' reality is contained is affected, their reality is in turn affected; in this case, I think that the story begins and takes place almost entirely in a different reality than our own, without any invasion or even mixing but with our reality affecting another, leads to an almost completely romanticized and myth-influenced story, with despair or perhaps stoicism, if anything, replacing survival/panic. Woo! Long sentence.

The River of Time, by David Brin. Wow, Amazon has a really old school cover, there. Anyway. This is an anthology of some of Brin's earlier/earliest work, and in that sense if one has read any of his novels or other short stories it's quite easy to tell the difference in the writing. Nonetheless, the writing actually seemed not so important in the sense that the bulk of these stories are speculative science fiction, and the ideas themselves that were conveyed well enough by the writing to give me chills at the end of nearly every story, as if each one was a particularly good Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, what with their twists. As a sidenote, Brin (as with his other books) adds quite nice elucidating commentary between stories, which is especially helpful with this kind of fiction.

Now, What Might Have Been (Vol. 1) as edited by Martin Greenberg and Gregory Benford, on the other hand, basically faceplanted in terms of how much I enjoyed it. These stories are also speculative, but in the sense of "what if..." ideas in terms of whether certain events might not have happened or people existed, etc. Great idea - and the first story with it's contemporary-time-wise but massively different global culture (based around Saxons, Franks, Persians, and Iberians as the dominant political players) sucked me in. But every story after that would have been eminently more enjoyable as an essay detailing what idea the author was basing their story around. It wasn't that the ideas were bad or boring (well, several of them were), but more that the writing was bad and/or boring. Ah well.

Giant Octopus....Shark...Throwdown! - hmm, sharks having been and evolving to be consummate predators for millions of years, octopus has full-body neural net brain power, and possibly tentacles that are worth expending for that much food....hmmm....

"Sarlacc Pit of Platonic Frustration" - yes.

      I think they should have used this article about 'human's closest living relative, the chimpanzee' as part of that 'last of the human genome has been mapped' or whatever it was tagline in the Doom trailer; but then they would have had to bring in chimpanzees, and that would have complicated things. And made it a lot scarier. You know, monkeys - creepy. That, and the phrase 'shotgun sequencing approach' is fun.
      Tangentially, that whole thread of worlds mixing by mistake or otherwise seems interesting. Let's explore it! In the aforementioned Doom, it's been told that I know of as a science community (operating within a corporation) that opens a portal for monetary gain; through that portal come the aliens/entities that either a) are actually demons or b) the slightly more interesting take the form of demons in order to scare and manipulate world leaders through offers of power. Interesting points: our reality is not itself inherently altered, and the link between the monetary purpose of opening the original portal and the corruption-by-power end result.
      In Stephen King's short story, "The Mist," the mix-of-worlds in question originates in a military base (purpose unknown). First, reality itself is altered - this manifests in the form of a mist, which isn't really a mist but a kind of meta-static that resulfts from the mixing of worlds. Then the creatures from the other reality manifest within the mist, which leads to the horror elements concerning the isolated survivors of the resulting mayhem. The interesting thing about this one to me was that it's the only one off the top of my head I can think of where there is minimal fighting-back, as it were, and more purely panic and base survival - perhaps because it is also the one where reality is inherently altered?
      In the Half-Life games, the mix is the created by a scientific community working under the aegis of the military/shady-government-elements, again, purpose unknown (supposedly scientific). The story begins with survival/panic, but leads into fighting-back, but then (like Doom) repeats the cycle after world domination. Here reality itself is not altered, but for all intents and purposes humanity's social and cultural reality is altered when they reduced to a slave race by the other reality. And there, I think it rises above its parallel, Doom, in interesting complexity, as the obliquely altered reality creates panic/survival elements and at the same time leaves room for the more romantic fighting-back.

Word of the Day that I think would be cool to put into contemporary use: aedile - an elected official of ancient Rome who was responsible for public works and games and who supervised markets, the grain supply, and the water supply

Toba Tek Singh, by Saadat Manto - an interesting bit of (kind of satirical) historical perspective

WhiteBelt.Org - this website has skillfully written reviews and articles on teaching having to do with martial arts, though many of them are universally applicable - labeled as Great Stuff, by me

A Sound of Thunder, with Edward Burns and Ben Kingsley. It wasn't quite the worst movie I've ever seen; I mean, it wasn't atrocious. Horrible might be a better word. The special effects, plot, and much of the writing were painful to experience. I'll note a couple of things; there's a slight bit of metafiction in the repetition of the 'time safari;' and there's this one little bit that's horribly creepy, not because of anything gratuitous, but rather because of the complete lack of any gratuitous effects where one might expect them, so that was mildly interesting.

updates from former Green Beret in N'Orleans

I can't imagine it's real; nonetheless, it reminded me of that similar sub in that old show Seaquest, so that memory was pleasant

Stream of thought!
....
....
....
Ok yeah that was dumb. Anyhoo. I just finished watching Garden State again. There are several reasons why I think that it's a lovely movie, but the one I really noticed again was the attention to meaning-rich detail; whoa. When I drive home for work now, I go right under the path of A-10s landing at DM; it's a bit like a slow version of the ones in the trailer for Jarhead. But not so exciting. They really are amazing machines, though, especially when one turns so slowly on practically a dime right over your head that you cringe a little. I wish I could remember whether I mailed my penpal or not, as it takes us months to communicate, so it will be very hard to tell whether I really did. I think I did. I hope. Departure - yeah that messes with my head a little. Sd&#M*&Em38kjd*. Ah, another bad stream of consciousness joke. Ehh. Hm. I end with Macgyver.

"Ay yo, though I be fallin' to my messy-ass death I shall fear no evils..." - yes.