triviaball, a Thor's Day edition

-from Ms Connie, finally, an interface that is made for people who run practically entirely on intuition (like me!)

-wow, who'da thunk teleportation would have been a concept in Islam for hundreds of years, folding-space ideas and all?

-the games of the small states would be funnier if it was entirely midgets participating

-a song involving Lady Godiva being the saint of engineers

-if I could go back in time, I'd visit Suyab, slash, I suddenly give a helluva lot more credence to George Martin's Fire and Ice novels and his extravagant mixing of cultures

Beals = hotter than in L Word, inexplicably

Four Rooms, with Tim Roth and Jennifer Beals. I've been wanting to see this for years, and though it was nowhere near as dark as I expecting, I still enjoyed it. At first I was thrown off by the offbeat music and sheer twitchiness of the main character, but I eventually warmed up to both. My favorite out of the different directors' segments was definitely the one with the kids, it was was just straight up slapstick, well, not quite, but relative to the others it was. There was something discordant about the structure of the movie what with the different directors and the splitting into disparate scenes, and that made it hard to just relax and watch it, but the interestingness of that made up for it, by the end, I think.

Also, I finally remembered to talk about Marvel Zombies vs Army of Darkness that Mr Brian was nice enough to get me through interwebnetty magick. And I have this to say: hilarious. And the medium he got me the comics in is perfect, because they're not any I really would have gone out and bought (though I probably would have were I not short on the fundage), but they're a great read nonetheless. It's really the only way one could have Ash interact in a good way with the Marvel characters, if they weren't wrapped up in the zombie humor, Ash's Evil Dead humor would fall flat. Mr Brian: Mme Penguin salutes you!

Things of Note: A Tubular Weekend

-Happy Anniversary, sweetpea! Mwah!
-best linguistic invention: "slash"
-I can think of one reason moving to a new house can be awesome, and it involves a ker-wink
-moving can also be exhausting, hot, sweaty, and smelly...and also gross
-what's with the Mexicans colonizing the shores of the Salt River?
-and what's with Chris and Adam being threatened by the Rock, slash, his evil twin?
-Chris: king of shotgunning!
-Wyatt: we need you to design us a floating grill.
-for cleaning walls: vinegar, 409, water, bucket, sponge = golden
-yay for finding keys! not yay for Corinne getting pulled over and then having her car broken into...no good deed goes unpunished, I guess
-in other news: I think my girlfriend is hot in a Kimkini top and shorts...that is all

recommendations from Ms Kim

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales, by Stephen King. Ah, Stephen King; you were one of the first authors I really got into reading, way back in that middle school library, and you still have me hooked. I think I'm actually going to write a letter to the guy, for true. In this anthology King approaches, as he notes in his notes, many of the stories that are horror staples, such as the idea of premature burial (I'll note that one in particular has a snicker-worthy ending, interestingly). Actually, many of the stories are not even so much horror as exactly what the title purports - they're dark tales. Not so much scary as rather what King seems to love to go for: unsettling. All that, and a couple stories that are Dark Tower tie-ins, one directly about Roland, and another explaining the origin of one of the side characters, Dinky Earnshaw. Anyway. Go read Stephen King! Like David Brin and the Rock, he's an author who writes for the people.

Swimming with Sharks, with Kevin Spacey and Michelle Forbes. Entertaining! And, it's odd to see Admiral Cain from BSG in another role. Especially a somewhat smoochy role. I can only imagine what kind of lovin' her character had on the Pegasus. Anyway, I thought this movie was very interesting, in terms of it being a character study with an emphasis on progression, but man the ending still just does not click for me at all. I get the logic of it, after having it explained to me, and that makes sense, but on a more intuitive level something is just not right. I don't know, someone watch it and tell me whether I'm just being dense.

-and, a great column on using aikido in a social sense

easy as pie...mmm...pie....

Talking with Wyatt last night about the recently (mutually) read novel, False Gods, we realized it would be pretty workable for some fun essay writing. Because I really am that weird, and would consider doing that.

One interesting duality we couldn't really resolve was whether the main figure of the novels (Horus) is expressing more of a Lucifer-allegory, or a Jesus-allegory. There are points towards the latter - messianic nature, father-son role, the end feeling of being forsaken - and that makes for an interesting, "what if Jesus was fallen?" story. But, I think the primary aspect of Horus' nature being ambition really skews it all towards a more Lucifer-ic archetype. And that, especially, when viewed in light of the overall epic (a failed attempt at usurping), though the pathos surrounding his fall is much more interesting than the fall itself.

From a different angle, I bet there's some fun Freudian analysis that could be done, especially with the sons (Horus and the other primarchs) and their desires and envies and conflict with their father (the Emperor). One might question, though, where's the female, mother aspect of that, though? Well! I say that can make a wonderful segway into the other aspects of the novel, such as the religion that springs from the ranks of the remembrancers, who embody a kind of feminine (as opposed to the warriors) in their poetry, music, and such, and moreover contain the only female characters in the novels in their ranks. Oo! I forgot the witchy gal that helped with Erebus' dream-manipulating. Mmm. That would also make a crazy, mother-birth angle. Anyway, I could go on.

-an interesting point; I wish I'd found it while I was using narcissism as my focus in literary theory, alas...
"Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading.”
~W.H. Auden

This actually happened to me, while working in the hospital. My reaction was a bit more sedate, though, as the first person I could tell it to was a gentleman suffering from delusions that he couldn't get his bed into the parking space quite right.

nooo, damnit, noooooo!!!! (in a good way)

False Gods, by Graham McNeill. Well, if one wants to ask the question, how does one follow up an amazing start to an epic series of novels by Dan Abnett in any satisfying way, the answer is to call on Graham McNeill. If I were so inclined to give awards, he'd get Best Author I've Never Ever Heard of Before. I'd go on about the grand space opera that The Horus Heresy is shaping up to be, on how it has so skillfully taken the already-well-done backstory of the 40k setting and made it into a heart-achingly personal narrative, but I fear that it just wouldn't have the same import to a reader not versed at least somewhat with the original setting. So it's up to Wyatt and I to struggle through them, I guess - not struggle on account of poor quality, of course, but just on account of how tragic the story is - I'm sure I looked randomly stricken at several points this past weekend because of it. Now, let's just hope the next author can match up to the first two....

And as a postscript, the opposition and synthesis of religion, politics, and science in The Horus Heresy is almost already a match for Herbert's Dune novels, in my opinion, in the sense of the Dune epic being well-regarded in academic literary circles for that aspect. Unlike Stargate, which has made it kind of banal, but I guess I can give them points for trying, within a television show and all that.

Things of Note - A Very Long Weekend

-nothing like getting to a hotel at 2am, only to find they didn't hide your key outside like they said they would...mmm, sleeping in the car...
-bad idea: a dog show in a fairgrounds building, fine, whatever, but to avoid dust, watering it down? dog show in mud: annoying
-best brewery logo ever: a kokopelli sprinting for all he's worth, while chugging a giant beer stein
-in Cortez, they don't have Sheriff's deputies....they actually have a Sheriff's posse...no lie
-wandering around in a little juniper forest, I came to a random, tiny cliff, and a massive, green, cloud-dappled valley, and not to be melodramatic, but for a split second I gained a better understanding of that Shangri-la documentary I watched a while back
-thank Mr Nice Cop for not giving too big of a ticket on the way home
-taking silly photos with dinosaurs: awesome
-
Cassini photojournal - I like the photo of Titan's terrain the best

on masticating

The random things I have taken upon myself to cook! A random list. Of, basically, three things. One was mango slices with lime, chile powder, and salt. Interesting, much better than the dried versions I've had, but also half-assed, and I had no business trying to slice a mango. Completely incompetent. Then, for a 'romantic dinner,' there was some pepper-spiced lamb from Trader Joe's (best store ever), which I kind of mangled the searing of, and vegetables which I cooked a bit too long (but luckily Ms Kim likes them mushy), sparkling apple cider, and a simple salad. I forgot to bake the apple turnover thingamabobs, though! And last night, it was the lamb, seared much more competently this time, and sliced, which made it a lot better somehow than the random chunks it came in, which we wrapped up in garlic nan (won't be getting that again, that's definitely a restaurant-only food) for some odd gyro-ish sammiches, and edamame as a random complement. And limeade.

Long story short, what I'm getting at is that I hope to improve in both quality and creativity, perhaps even do food photography at some point, as we've found the lotus-lamp in the dining room is fun for still lifes. Yay!
-
I don't really quite believe this would work, but identifying songs by phone is an interesting idea

not quite time for World War Hulk, Mme Penguin

But it's getting closer! Anyhoo, Buffy 3 continues to do everything I wanted to the television show to do, and promises to keep on doing it. The only way it could get better is if they brought Illyria into it somehow. The art of New X-Men 38 fits this arc perfectly, and answers the question, "At what point would one mix Hellboy-esque art with Marvel mutants?" There you go, Mme Penguin. There you go. Though Stormwatch PHD 7 isn't exactly the Die Hard style romp it was touted as, it sure is a lot of fun, nonetheless! Still one of the most bar-none clever books out there. There's an interesting cameo in Gen13 8, and though it's still not quite the Gen13 of yore, it's developing it's own voice, I think. And what a great reference back to an obscure, meaningless moment involving panties on Grunge's head, ending in a boob-honk! Hilarious, I assure you. At least Mme Penguin knows what the hell I'm talking about. And, lastly, The Lost Books of Eve still has me interested, what with the fun twist on Biblical pre-history, and the adorable and oddly sexy-but-not art.

on adjectives

Going back and reading Autobiography of Red again, I'm realizing it's one of those texts where I just wasn't mature enough to really get into or appreciate it when I'd read it previously. But that's besides the point.

The introduction is interesting in how it points out that up through Homer's time (the Greek one, not the yellow one), adjectives were set and fixed. That is, anytime the dawn was mentioned, say, its rosy-fingers were also mentioned. And I remember learning that way back in eigth grade, even; of course, that probably made things easier, as my teacher of yore had pointed out, for all the balladeers reciting stuff from memory, to be able to flow through some stock adjectival description while remember the next part of the story.

But then this dude Stesichoros comes along. He's the guy who wrote the poem that Red is based upon. And, besides it totally twisting around one of Hercules' labors from heroic to tragic, he also blew the whole concept of adjectives out of the water. Instead of using the standards, he threw everything for a loop and started describing things poetically, and I don't have the text in front of me, but reading through his fragments he had some really interesting, clever turns of metaphor. Anyway, as was the point of that introduction, how much did that hep cat Stesichoros matter? I'd say a lot, given his historical and literary context. Otherwise maybe we'd have, say, rappers using the same old, tired, turns of phrase to desribe their wealth and women...oh...wait...hm.

Things of Note...an Oddly Long Weekend

-people were really determined to steal our pool table on Friday, like, rudely so
-it's fun to make up stories when one sees young women with olden folk, especially after midnight at a bar (I'm still voting, "I wouldn't have graduated if I hadn't...")
-man, we slept all day on Saturday, we were in nocturnal mode or something
-I did not cry at the end of Lassie...my eyes only welled up with water for some reason
-why do I drink when around Andrew? we may never know. it may have something to do with the tequila
-I got a curving, arcing shot in a corner pocket while playing pool! but the only person who saw it was the creepy pasty girl, and she didn't say anything
-I saw my first Sopranos episode, which, gratifyingly, had the hot Irani actress from The L Word in a sex scene
-bug zappers are awesome...and someone remind me to find a cheap dartboard! when I have more money, anyway

trizziviaball

I've always been a fan of courtesy (though the article's somewhat longish)

A quick intro to pilates, which I'd personally call a subtle-workout, it always surprises me with little things

They discovered Herod's tomb, mayhap? That seems like it should be important somehow.

Arkhanglesk has a cool coat of arms

In other news, The Boys are back in town! Woo!

on characterization and spanking

Mmm, spanking. I'll circle back around to that. First, some thoughts based on an editorial on Spiderman 3 that Ms Connie sent me. The editorial makes the point that unlike Pan's Labyrinth, say, which really explored some interesting aspects of the nature of a shape-shifter, S3 just makes the Sandman brutish, at best. Which I'm of two minds on; in one sense, yeah, that's pretty much what he is in the comics, so they kind of stayed true to the source...but, in another sense, even as I watched the movie I was thinking, hey, wow, if his body is like that now, he could live forever, I wonder what he thinks about his immortality (etc, etc).
On a bit of a flipside, Venom was really given short-shrift, to many ardent fans' irritation, it turns out. There I think there was more source material to really explore Venom's mindset, but the issue in that case rather was a confusion of which source material they wanted to use, I'm guessing. They obviously couldn't do the original Secret Wars origin, where Parker gets it on another planet in a forced cape-war, so as far as I understand it instead of coming up with something new (military experiment, maybe?), they (as I've heard it) went with the Ultimate storyline, and I don't think that cut it for the more pragmatic of viewers (ie, the luck of the meteorite landing perfectly right next to him, and gently, at that).

As for the spanking, this line of thought was started because I realized last night that a bundle of thick sunflower stems would be really great for said activity. So! My (very) quick reading of how the film Secretary doesn't eroticize or condone masochism. That is, while at the beginning the female main character cuts herself (in this interpretation) as a way of feeling like she has control, there is nothing erotic attached to the act, so it's not even taking-pleasure-in-pain, so much. Later, though the spanking is of course obviously painful, the erotic element is about the transfer of power, the control she surrenders and he takes. Interestingly, along with that erotic element, her self-destructive behavior is banished or transcended or whathaveyou, eliminating the possibility of it being incorporated into their erotic relationship. Finally, at the climax of the movie, her behavior is an exemplary disply of self-control that no average person would accomplish, and while that may be considered socially-self-harming, there is no pleasure in it for her (she's doing it for a specific purpose), and furthermore it's a manifestation of control, by both her lover and herself.

le cry, want more Venom

Spider-Man 3, with that guy from Panic at the Disco oh wait I mean Spider-Man. Seriously, that emo bit was kind of hilarious. Someone made the interesting point on the radio that Sam Raimi was maybe following in part the storyline from the Ultimate label, which suddenly makes a helluva lot clearer about the movies. I'll still point out that I think it might help if someone were interested in reading the comics to remember that the literary version right now, and even for many years now, is what the movie-character will eventually grow up to be - the hero that the other heroes cheer on. All that said, I didn't think the movie was as horrible as I'd heard it made out to be (hee, Bruce Campbell can save anything, and Bryce Dallas Howard - wowzers), but it wasn't exactly great, either. Ironically, here's one point I think where a comic book movie might have actually made a better novel.

Stock Investing for Dummies, by
Paul Mladjenovic. Whoa that's a crazy last name. Mlaaad...anyway, pretty damn good book, lent by Wyatt. For as dry as one would think the topic would be, the author is concise, personable, and even punny in getting his explanations across. Not much to say, except that this book does exactly what it sets out to do - it's a perfect starter point for getting into its topic and full of further resources to look into. Now, who wants to invest in Wyatt and I, so we have some capital to work with?

ooo, practical knowledge, that's the best

Interesting thing learned by Ms Kim today! Instead of scolding a dog for barking, it's better to distract them away from whatever set them off, and thank them for doing a job (protecting, alerting - "omg, Kevin's home look it's omg Kevin omg!"). Then, instead of being confused by being berated for something they see as necessary and useful, they feel fulfilled and acknowledged and stop barking! And it works. Awesome.

This is what it would look like were someone to force me to conduct an interview

*gah! face*

My dad recently ran into some people of note in the course of his job. One set was the Couple from Hell. They had every complaint one could possibly have, invented new ones each day, complained and cursed and tiraded, and on top of that somehow the contractors managed to spill stuff and break heirlooms each day (the wife even got some of them to do her laundry and fold her clothes, underwear included). At first it seemed they were playing some sort of manipulation-game, the husband and wife playing off of each other for advantage and unbalancing; as my dad spent more time around her, though, there was a point where she eventually broke down and sobbingly explained that she was in constant fear of her husband, and their literally almost never spoke to each other except for him to curse and scorn her. Not sure where to go with that, except to note the interesting shift a little more information can make in a situation, and that rich people aren't happy just for being rich, as the cliche goes.

The other interesting person he met was an elderly Japanese gentleman; my dad, finding common interest in his swords and bonsai trees, struck up a conversation with him. Apparently he had ranged around the world, and apparently ended up in the USA after having trained American spec-ops people in Europe after World War II. Long story short, the conversation turned to US troops in Iraq, and the Japanese gentleman suggested that the Americans were some of the technically best fighters in the world, but that they weren't killers, and would be doing 'better' if they were such. My dad queried (or rather, really, challenged), like the Japanese in China? (hinting at atrocities committed) The immediate answer was, "Exactly!" Which threw my dad off a little, needless to say. But it was an interesting exchange.

to be written in two colors

Wow, been a while since I posted a poem. Haven't decided whether the shadow is in a Jungian sense or more fantastic literal sense.

Hijacked
-
Happiness becomes a discipline when there has been no rest.
No blissful oblivion, no blessedly smothering darkness
blanketed my eyes, my dry eyes that could not close.
Crystalline tears formed and held acid rimmed eyelids
open to the not-black, the ghostly light that shouldn't-be
of a moonlit night with the curtains pulled.
And in that noir of half-dreaming and sleepless trance, it-

The morning is not bright.
(greylight scab-red curtains it weighs)
Her body is cold, it's never cold.
(my head down my eyes veiled it thickens)
Where there isn't light. Behind me, inside me.
(my voice thoughts are pain suspicious)
Her dream, her voice, it's absurd.
(or is it darkly true, tenebrous verity, I-)
am shadow through the dark glass
(Why am I mute? The world is frosted in smoke.)
I become I subsume I am shadow
(Despair. It is all I can manage: to breathe, weakly. My shadow is me.)

Pretty random, Mme Penguin.

Pretty random. That is, the comics for this week. Take Midnighter 7, a comic I never really would have thought about getting, but for that I'd read that it was supposed to explain his much-vaunted anticipation-powers. The Memento-style ordering of things is kind of amusingly clever, but my favorite Midnighter moment is still him getting his ass handed to him by well-drawn jujitsu in Stormwatch: Team Achilles. I'm sure you agree, Mme Penguin. Initiative 2 is proving to be much more interesting than the other Avengers titles, a lot more expansive in setting and intriguing in characters, and is really capturing the spirit of what was supposed to happen after Civil War, I think (also: George Bush calls Yellowjacket "Pymmie"). I'm not exactly sure why I got Amazons Attack 1, which is pretty, but kind of a nonsensical beachhead issue. The Amazons...well, attack. Funny the imagery of them blowing up the Washington Monument, though. Ironically, kind of a ditto for Damnation Crusade 3 - as much as it's written by an amazing novel author, it's not really going anywhere, and I'm not too keen on the new art. Now, Wisdom 5, on the other hand, has Pete Wisdom kicking men, hard, in the balls. And I loved how it got creepier and creepier...only to have a hilarious ending, which still amazingly ties into the British subconscious-culture. And Runaways 26 is a step away from the Whedon-izing I was worried about, and was utterly hilarious (I can't quite explain the sheer humor of "Put the thing in the thing!" properly), though I'm leary of that time travel twist. Man, we hate time travel usually, don't we, Mme Penguin?