Water...Music!

Currently in Earphones: "Drowsy Maggie" performed by The Chieftains, "Love Pledge / The Arena" by John Williams, from Star Wars Episode II.

Might as well update, I guess.

Memorial Day Weekend is coming, lock away your daughters!

In Fencing news, Epee is sure is fun. I got a chance to spar with Patrick and learn some valuable tips while getting my ass kicked. I got some good hits in, and it felt so good to know that if someone came charging in at me, all I need to do is use my reach and stab out. As Patrick said, an Epeeists best defense is his point. He fleched against me twice and both times I just counter-attacked and hit him first, much to my delight.

Matt had his way with me, so to speak, afterward. He had me work on disengaging an opponents take of my blade. Consequently, there was a lot of blades spinning about. I had to do single and double disengages from each line, and also change-of-line disengages (where ol' Rock swept his blade down to a low line then back up to a high line in both 7 and 8). I got really worn out but Rock kept on pushing me, which was double edged. On one hand, I don't think I'd ever been so physically worn out, arm wise at least, as then. I seem to remember thinking, "So this is what it's like to be pushed really hard," while after every mistake I had to take a second to catch my breath. On the other hand, I was glad I was being pushed, which I'm sure is increasing my stamina.

Went for a swim this afternoon with Toes, Preston and Sascha. I'd forgotten how much fun it was to swim! I was really surprised at the 12 foot deep end where the diving boards were: I've become so used to 8-9 foot depths that it seemed boggling to have a deep spot twice as tall as I. Though I didn't partake in any of the diving that went on off the boards (Toes was quite majestic with his spins and pike-positions), splashing about sure was a blast. I left early for the Baroque performance around 5:15ish.

Not too much to say about the performance, other than I rushed over the rehearsal at 6 and everything else went off without too much of a hitch. We accompanied Theresa Tam in her performance of a Bach Cantata and played the Brandenburg 4. I said a hopefully not final goodbye to the Cellist Anya, who I've become good friends with over the past few weeks. She said she'll probably be coming back for Fall Quarter Baroque Ensemble, Score!

Well, it is now 12:30am, Saturday morning. I am now going to bed. That is all.

Enough. More Later.
- James

Parents, People, and Footmen Frenzy

Currently in Earphones: "Absurd" (Whitewash Mix?) by Fluke, from the Sin City Soundtrack, "Battle of the Heroes" by John Williams, from the Star Wars Episode III Soundtrack.

Hello All.

What a weekend.

So, first off, hung out with Toes, Sascha, Lisa and Preston Fri. Night. Watched Equilibrium and socialized. I joked with Preston that I'd rip the line "We've been watching you, Preston." from the sound track of the DVD and play it in odd places to freak him out. Lamented missing a swim with Toes and Sascha, but I think I'll be able to make it up later. Went to bed late.

Woke up at 11 am Sat. Morning and got ready quickly to meet my parents for lunch. Missed breakfast at the DC. Joined with the parents around 12:30 with much rejoicing. Drove downtown to futz with the bank and ended up finally getting a taste of what Murder Burger had to offer. Came back to start laundry and walked to the MU with mum and dad. Pointed out a thing or two that I wouldn't mind having, and dad gladly took care of the bill. Came back to finish up laundry and got some help folding. Final small trip to Rite Aid to pick up some amenities, the bill once again picked up by the Father unit. Bade the parents goodbye and set out downtown again.

Picked up the Star Wars Ep. II Soundtrack (Now I've got all 6, wowzers!) and the Sin City soundtrack. Got a ticket for the 10:30 pm showing of Ep. III and swung by the bike shops to see if I could pick up some new pedals. Realized that sun stays in the sky longer during the summer and that the stores hours hadn't compensated for it. Returned to eat, only to find that I'd missed the insanely early dinner hours at the DC. Ventured to Subway at the U-Mall and picked up a sandwich instead. Headed out on foot around 9:20 pm to the theater in order to get a good place in line.

Met up, by coincidence, with Beck from Paloma and her boyfriend. Chatted amiably until we were let in. The crowd was still in the "OH DEAR CHRIST" level of people and geeks, and were appreciative of the new "Narnia" trailer, as well as the now familiar "A Long Time ago..." opening and crawl. I thought the crawl rather odd, phrase-wise (It starts out with "War!" and when trying to be all weighty and dark like Empire, it felt too light).

I will say this, the Lightsaber fights are twice as fast and furious as anything you've seen before. Though it seemed that for the final Anaken/Obi-Wan fight Nick Gillard, the fight co-ordinater, thought "Spinny moves and attacks are cool, so it should be really cool if I make the fight consist of nothing but spinning, whirling moves." It follows the same geek logic as "If Ninjas are cool, and Pirates are cool, then what could be cooler than a Ninja Pirate?!?!" There is a section of the fight where both combatants whirl their sabers around in an impressive display of prowess, but don't actually hit anything, only to finally reel back and whack their blades together really hard in the classic "Frowing-at-each-other-over-clenched-blades" cliche. The Fencer in me was goin' "If it looks cool and it doesn't work...."

Got up late and ate breakfast with Andrea and Troy. Played Star Wars Battlefront with Troy for an hour or two and did some reading. Watched a little Naruto and then dragged myself over to play IM Ultimate Frisbee. Now, tossing a Frisbee around is fun, and I originally thought that Ultimate Frisbee would be the same. And it is, to a certain extent. But for me it was too much competition and not enough fun. I'm glad it's over. Got back and ate with the crew at the DC.

Had a really horrid moment when I was doing my Psych. reading and realized I had TOTALLY blanked at the Baroque Ensemble thing I was supposed to go to earlier on. It was a recital for Teresa Tam, who we backed up for a Bach Cantata. I was so set for it a few days ago after rehearsal. "Alrighty! 3 pm at the music building on Sunday! Got it!" And when the heck do I remember it? 7 freaking pm on Sunday evening! Too much other crap going on and pushed it right outta my head. Goddamn, that's the second recital I've missed. I guess it's a good thing then that I missed the deadline to add it as a class and get my measly one credit for it: at this rate I'll need to drive spikes under my nails to make sure I remember the final concert. Yeeeeesh....

On a final, more happy note, I'm starting to get into playing Warcraft III online with Will and co. Footman Frenzy is the name of the game, and man is it fun. Games take up just enough time to fill in gaps between finishing one thing and waiting for class or some such: about 15 min to half an hour. A nice time killer.

Enough. More Later.
- James

Wumpus!

Currently in Earphones: "Crusaders" from Kingdom of Heaven OST, "Contradanza" perf. by Vanessa-Mae.

Hello All.

First off, Epee rocks. I FINALLY got to use one last week on Thursday (and got beaten about the head by Rock during the lesson until I got stuff right). It feels SO GOOD to be released from the chains of Right of Way. Granted, I see the wisdom of it. But goddamn it, if I can poke you first, I should freaking get the point! What good is right of way when you can stab someone before they even get within scratching distance? Wha-BOW! Damn if that sucker is heavy tho...

Psych Midterm tomorrow and Anthro Project due the next day, then a Viola lesson on Friday. Bring it on!

My newfound realization of the whole relationship thing has curbed my ardency for a partner, but it's still there. Perhaps it's time to start asking ladies out for coffee. There's a great thing: just a small get together, nothing too lengthily, just enough time to have some conversation and test the waters. Just enough of a hint towards attraction but not too serious. My God, why didn't think of this sooner? It's Brilliant! (Now watch me go and screw it up, oy.)

Alright, there's a big ass space below this for some reason. Blogspot's being an arse fez and I don't know why...

The Keys to James' Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.

In love, you feel the most alive when your partner is patient and never willing to give up on you.

You'd like to your lover to think you are loyal and faithful... that you'll never change.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets.

Your risk of cheating is low. Even if you're tempted, you'd try hard not to do it.

You think of marriage pessimistically. You don't think happy marriages exist anymore.

In this moment, you think of love as something you don't need. You just feel like flirting around and playing right now.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?
All this from asking me questions about animals...Ok then...I don't agree with that marriage thing, but everything else in order. Use your own judgement.

Enough. More Later.
- James

Moving on then...

Currently in Earphones: Kingdom of Heaven Soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams

::picks self up and dusts self off:: Well, so much for that then. Pluses, I can flirt and look at girls and not feel guilty. Minus, I'm alone. As C3PO said, "Here we go again..."

Boy, that O'Neals book of Irish Dances is really cool, I keep on finding great tunes in there. I'm especially fond of anything in the A Minor mode, which there are a bunch of. Can't wait to show the fencers et al. what I've got in my fingers now!

2/3rds the way done with my Anthro Project. I'll need some sort of intro and concluding paragraphs as well as some citations. Thank goodness I have one more discussion to get the facts straight about how the citation should go. I hope I'll get a good grade for this...

Saw Kingdom of Heaven and bought the soundtrack. The movie isn't bad and the music rules, composed by Harry "Enemy of the State/Metal Gear Solid" Gregson-Williams. There's a great moment in the movie (which I'm sure I've told everyone about by now) where the Orlando Bloom character, Balian, just did something cool to halt the Saracen advance on Jerusalem. There's a shot of Balian looking out from the battlements, assumedly at Saladin, the commander of the Saracens, and a shot of the latter looking back. There's no dialogue, but I could totally imagine: Balian, "You gotz pwned, beotch!" Saladin, "Yeah, I got pwned." I'll probably end up getting the DVD when it comes out.

Got TC's Shindig in 45 min, I'll probably give an update on that after I get back, but until then, I look forward to it.

Enough. More Later.
- James

Thus another End

Currently in Earphones: "Remembering Ned Kelly" by Klaus Badelt

Salutations.

So it ends. Failed again. It was like maddeningly trying to tie down a ship that was leaving port, and not only was it painful to realize that no matter what you did, that the ship would leave, but to have to hack through all of the lines you painstakingly tied down, each a valiant effort to halt the inevitable, pains me.

I don't know what's worse, that I'm so near to crying that I can't do it, or that my regret is tinged with emptiness.

I've done a horrid thing, I've lied to my partner about how I felt about her, in hope and with the intention of changing that lie. Everything was in place for a happy relationship, except me.

I leveled with myself and in such took a step forward, recognizing that I, too, should get happiness out of a relationship. Yet there is no self-satisfaction in this step. To be similie-like again, though I felt the swell of the Romantic in me as I fought the demons away from my ladies' castle, protecting her from them, I realized there was only pain to be had if I couldn't reciprocate her Love for me. I realized that I was doing no good for myself by staying at that castle, and though I knew that the demons would then get what I was trying to protect, I realized that I didn't care enough.

I tried. I wanted to badly to Love her. I wanted it so bad that I could taste it in her mouth, that I could feel it, just below the surface of her hands, I could feel the dull yearning when she was away. And yet, it was only a weak construct of my feeble mind.

Forgive me, Lady Dragon. I have done you a horrible disservice. So I take up the motley and the Jester's staff once again, and though your regal clothes made me feel kingly, I will always be the Fool.

Enough.
- James

What part of "Blarg" don't you understand? (Updated)

Ok, good news/bad news time.

The good, or roughly equivalent: consumerism and going home for a bit. The book of Irish Dances I ordered (musically, that is, notes and so forth) finally came, and boy, is it chock full of awesome stuff. I recognized a good amount of the tunes, and low and behold, I found an interesting dichotomy. Now, there is a fairly well used Reel called "Sleepy Maggie" or "Drowsy Maggie," I had originally thought they were just two different names for the same thing, but it turns out I was wrong. I found two different reels under each name. The cool thing was this: the majority of recordings of Sleepy Maggie I'd heard were Reel called such in my new book. Drowsy Maggie, however, was also in a recording (and sounding rather similar): The Chieftans did a rendition of it, calling it "The Reel with the Beryl" following another tune called "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" (also found in the new book). This illustrated the commonality of the same song sharing different names. No-one ever bothered to catalogue old fiddle tunes, so sound-alikes are common.

And speaking of commonality, good news/bad news in a little dose for the book. I had been looking for some sheet music for "O'Sullivan's March" and found the book I now own. Yet, when I finally opened up to it and started playing, it sounded like NOTHING I'd ever heard. I wasn't disappointed, I could easily play the version I've heard by ear. On the positive note, I FINALLY found the version of "Ms. McCloud's Reel" that I have a recording for. The funny thing was, every other place I've found "the dots" for that particular Reel had it as another tune from what I had originally heard (The one done by Gaelic Storm in "Whup Jamboree/Ms. McCloud's Reel"). Huzzah for notes that match the music!

On other media consumption, I picked up the Soundtrack to Star Wars Episode III (with its kick ass bonus DVD) and House of Flying Daggers. The "music videos" on the SW DVD are pretty neat, not what I'd call 5 star material, but cool enough. The music itself is usual Williams, which is a good thing, but can get rather similar with too much listening. I'm always amazed at how ol' Johnny can sound so different, yet so the same. Now, given how prolific the guy is, I can forgive him for using what works. The only opportunity for laze here is that whole "Bridge to the first movie of the original trilogy" thing. I'm starting to hear some startlingly familiar phrases here and there. Nothing too bad overall, but I'm getting the feeling this guy is resting on his laurels a tad.

Wow, I'd forgotten how much I liked the fight scenes in House of Flying Daggers. The story is enh, but I really like the swordplay. The first one in the Peony House highlights the major reason, it's not frantic. Regular people can follow it without being confronted by this wall of lightning-fast moves, and as such appreciate it more. With things like "Hero" and "The Matrix," we see all this amazingly fast and intricate work, too fast for us to really follow, and can only take it in as a whole with general amazement. "Wow, look at those guys go!" In this movie, you're like "Wow, not only are those moves cool, but I can actually follow it! It's no longer this impressive flurry of fury, but something I can handle bit by bit. Awesome!" The cinematography for the fights are cool too, because of the use of fast frame rate/slow frame rate/fast frame rate/slow frame rate. Instead of feeling like a bullet time Matrix-ripoff, it's like pauses in the overall rhythm, to let the audience catch its breath and then continue on. Neat stuff!

The only complaint I have about the DVD is the documentary, in which all the clips from the movie are hopelessly washed out color-wise. It's also a documentary made for and by the easterners. The translation and subs are spot on, but the narration clearly is geared for the Asian culture: Slavish praise for too long at odd times and a decidedly stingy narration. After being spoilt, I suppose, by the western-style documentary for "Hero" I find it hard to draw pleasure from this one. All in all, not bad though.

I get to go home for a bit tomorrow. Woo!

Ok, for the annoying/bad news. First, the easy one, I've got to work on my Anthro project. Wahhh wahhh wahhh. Ok, that's done.

Second, and for the second time, Toes has stood me up. Maybe that's too harsh, but that's what it feels like. It has been something like this: (Tuesday at lunch or fencing)

Me:"Hey, Toes! Wanna watch a Movie Friday Evening?"
Toes:"Oh yeah! Friday works."
Me:"Right on! I'll contact you Friday afternoon for the specifics."
Toes:"Sure, sure."

A few days pass, Friday comes along, evening arrives, and I contact Toes.

Me:"Toes, lemme know when you're ready for the movie."
Toes:"Movie?"
Me:"Yeah, you agreed to watching a movie on Friday, remember?"
Toes:"Hmmm, I don't remember...."
Me: "Dude!..."
Toes:"Yeah, Sorry, I'm already doing something...."

And then I, annoyed and hurt, putter around and eventually fall asleep. This is annoying. Granted, the first time, we still got together and watched movies, but relocated to fit the other agreement Toes had made. It was fine, because it turns out it was another fencer, so it was all cool. This time, I have no freaking clue what the other thing he was doing was. I was too disgusted to ask anything else.

So my problem is this, I don't know if Toes is just a flake (Which I wish he's isn't, but may be the case) or he's trying to tell me something. I don't know if I just need to be in contact with him more to remind him, or if he has other pressing matters to do on Friday evenings. I'm guessing it's not the latter, because I've watched movies on Fridays with him before. I don't want to have to confront him with it, because I don't like calling someone out on being flaky, and if it happens to be the other case, boy, that'll be a hard pill to swallow. I want to be his friend, because we do cool stuff and I enjoy his company, but.....well, I just don't know.

I know, it's not like seeing a movie is a dire matter, but I feel hurt. He agreed to something, and then went right ahead and planned something over it. It makes me feel unimportant, and to this day I haven't had a friend who forgets an agreed time. I suppose there's a time for everything. I'd feel better knowing that it was just him being forgetful and flaky and that it wasn't me. But until I find out, I'll continue to feel bleh.

UPDATE:

Ahh, good. Toes was just busy and forgetful. I got a flurry of apologies on my cell/net/AIM etc. when I got back from home. We ended up watching AvP and it was all good. I'm now chatting with My Lady and she's fretting over how she's gonna get to a friends B-day party today (it being midnight, Sunday morning). I bid her good luck and am gonna go rest my weary head. Oh, and if you want to see a good movie, go see Kingdom of Heaven. You probably won't be blown away, but you won't regret it either.

Enough. More Later.
- James

Small Update.

Currently in earphones: "Home (Radio Edit)" by Dream Theater, "Harder to Breathe" by Maroon 5

Hello All.

I got a 90% on my Psych Midterm! Huzzah! Now on to Freud!

Ohh man, this week hasn't been going to well so far. Monday night I'm studying for the Psych. Midterm, it's around 9:30pm and I'm checking my UCDavis E-mail. I see the letter with all the info for the next few weeks about the Baroque ensemble, and darn it if I missed that night's rehearsal for a performance the next day! Not only that, but since I was freaking out about the midterm, I also forgot about the performance. "Baroque rehearsal at 7 tonight...Baroque rehearsal at 7 tonight...Baroque rehearsal at 7 tonight..." I told myself this morning, and halfway through it this evening, I realized I blanked on my Viola lesson at 6. Arg! I sent a profuse apology to my teacher and am hoping there might be some time this week to recoup. Blah.

On the good side, the Star Wars Ep. III soundtrack is out with a free DVD. Now, this DVD has a bunch of Music videos to all the movies with music by good ol' John Williams. There's one out on the net that caught my attention, and I am so ready to get the thing because to me, it oozes coolness. "Wow, James, you sure are a material guy, always talking about Music and Movies you want." What can I say? Media is my fave stuff. And hey! I finished Howl's Moving Castle (GENIUS book, by the way) and am working on The Count of Monte Cristo (the huge abridged edition). I'd forgotten how good books are. If only I had more time to read the stuff for pleausre and not the textbooks....

Enough. More Later.
- James

Well, I don't know who that guy was....

And now to the better things of this weekend...

Went with Toes over to Courtney's place on Friday. Learned how to play Pinochle. Now, being interested in linguistics, I'd wondered how you got the seemingly universal pronunciation "PEE-knuckle" out of what looked like it should be along the lines of a Spanish "Pee-NOH-klay." In any case, it was quite intricate and fun. You only play with the 10's, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces, but with two sets of them found in a usual 52 card deck. I'd go into detail, but it's both too much info and I've forgotten a good amount of it. We watched Alien 3 and 4 and I didn't get back to the dorms until around 4 am.

Luckily for me, I wasn't needed for painting at TC's place in Sac until around 12:30 (rather, I was getting a ride over there at 12:30). I slept in until around 11:20 then showered, ate, and headed out.

We had an absolute blast helping TC paint his living room. Those who showed up included Myself, Toes, Adrienne, Aljay and Fez. What helped speed the procedure, in addition to having 7 people there, were these neat Paint roller/resevoirs. There was a roller on one end, connected to a hollow tube (about a meter long or so) with a plunger that could be drawn in and out of it. The plunger also had a trigger that pushed it into the tube about an inch with each click. So what you would do is place this special cap on the paint can, which looked a little like a soft drink cap because of the plastic, straw-like protrudance in it, then jam this little nozzle near the roller end of the tube down on the straw-like thing. Then you'd unlock the plunger and pull it out, drawing a bunch of paint into the hollow tube. Suffice to say, you'd then squeeze small amounts of paint into the roller when needed. It was a cool toy.

We painted the anteroom and living room, the former what TC described as a "Library green" and the latter with what was called "A Cup of cocoa." Boy did the painting go fast. TC was so impressed that he was constantly complimenting with a "Wow, you guys rock." Toes and I were even able to get the upper reaches without step stools, and ended up doing most of the high edging. Adrienne commanded respect with the Roller/resevoir, yet was "playing to lose." She got the most paint on her, from being the only one to lean against a wet wall, to stepping in one of the trays and getting paint inside her shoe. It was all in good fun, and we had one hell of a time.

Alas, there was a dark spot in our time there. At one point we heard a bang that could have been a gunshot or a tire, and we didn't pay much attention to it. When TC's wife, Chris, went to grab some extra brushes from Home Depot, she discovered that someone had side-swiped their car: it had torn a gash in the tire (the bang we'd heard) took off the fender from the left side and crushed some sort of undercarriage component that was directly in front and to the right of the front-left tire. Big-ass bummer. And not only that, but we later discovered Fez's car to be hit in the same place, but with less damage. His tire was intact, but the left portion of the bumper was torn off as well. It was quite a bit of a downer, but we still managed to have some fun afterward.

After I returned, I got into a right old funk when I wasn't able to see My Lady. It was a culmination of many things that happened over the week, capped by this last thing not working out and lasted into Sunday. Fortunately for me, I was finally able to talk about it to a friend and, luckily, My Lady. As seems to be her usual custom, she stays up waaaay to late Saturday and then sleeps in until Sunday evening. Seeing my rather dejected previous post, she came to meet me and I, by then feeling considerably lighter, told her of my troubles. I was able to spend some good time with her afterward which also drastically helped my mood, and since then have been studying my Psych.

Enough. More Later.
- James