Currently in earphones: Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 (Pathetique)
::semi-hopeful opening::
::gushing review of soundtrack::
::mediocre anecdote::
::thinly-veiled admission of Single-tude::
::Pause for literary bitch-slap by a certain Epeeist::
::Lament::
::spiral into madness::
Enough, More Later.
- James
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Monday, August 08, 2005
Breathe Deep, Seek Peace
Currently in Earphones: "Finale (Furiant)" from Dvorak's Czech Suite, "A Number of Microphones," "On Her Majesties Secret Service," "Bigger?" and "Cominagetcha" by Propellerheads.
Work continues as per usual. Sitting in booths and smiling to the populace. I like to think that I'm customer friendly: I do my best to be polite and deferential. I just hate how one dissatisfied customer can ruin your whole day, even if they are polite about it. I try to treasure and hold on to the people who give encouragement, but they just don't stick in the mind like angry ones. A few days ago the cashier I was training and I were on the receiving end of a not-nasty-but-heartfelt barb, and he wasn't angry, just forceful. As is per usual, it felt like it was directed right at us, the Cashiers. But, once the customer saw me cowering in supplication and my co-worker on the verge of tears, he relented a bit, acknowledging that it wasn't our fault per se. On the upshot, I learned how to work the Credit Card machine in the Back Entrance for refunds.
Damnit, My buddies and soon to be roomies need to get together for a jaunt around the City! But darned if Preston has a job that keeps him away from the comp all evening and makes him very hard to contact. It would have been cool to go do something with Sascha and Toes in the meantime, but our respective jobs aren't letting us.
Gonna go help my old buddy Daniel T. set up his new comp tomorrow. I think I'm gonna ask him for some payment for my time: I've put in so many man hours on his old toaster of a comp (and learnt the hard way that new programs and old OS don't mix very well) that I think I deserve a little compensation. Hell, he even mentioned it himself a while back, and I'm gonna take him up on his offer.
I was reading an article in the Chron this morning about how Special FX have so taken over movies that directors rely more on it than on anything else. Now, since I don't yet own the mega-edition of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (And have only read one article on the Making of), it came as a surprise to know that they did, in fact, use CG for some of the shots. What I wanna know is, for all of you who saw Master and Commander, did YOU figure out there was CG in it? I certainly didn't! (Not before reading the making of stuff, that's for sure) Now isn't THAT a measure of how good CG work is?
I know though, in an age where we can create entire undead armies, make a flaming man fly through skyscrapers and create other such fantastic things, replication of EARTHLY realism may seem ho-hum. But isn't it true that we look for REALISM in general when admiring CG work, whether it be fantasy or more commonplace? There is always a certain amount of suspension of disbelief when dealing with fantastic images: we don't REALLY believe that a big red man with horn-stubs and a stone hand will come crashing though the BART station, battling a slimy, evil creature while we're waiting for our train to Daly City. But do we believe that that creature really did have the strenght to knock the red man flying into theceilingg without thinking that there were some invisible wires attached to the red man, and presumable a team of guys on the other end of the rope going "NOW!!!"
So I guess the question is, not that do we believe these things can exist in the world we live in, but could they exist in a world LIKE ours, at least when dealing with fantasy.
Enough. More Later.
- James
Work continues as per usual. Sitting in booths and smiling to the populace. I like to think that I'm customer friendly: I do my best to be polite and deferential. I just hate how one dissatisfied customer can ruin your whole day, even if they are polite about it. I try to treasure and hold on to the people who give encouragement, but they just don't stick in the mind like angry ones. A few days ago the cashier I was training and I were on the receiving end of a not-nasty-but-heartfelt barb, and he wasn't angry, just forceful. As is per usual, it felt like it was directed right at us, the Cashiers. But, once the customer saw me cowering in supplication and my co-worker on the verge of tears, he relented a bit, acknowledging that it wasn't our fault per se. On the upshot, I learned how to work the Credit Card machine in the Back Entrance for refunds.
Damnit, My buddies and soon to be roomies need to get together for a jaunt around the City! But darned if Preston has a job that keeps him away from the comp all evening and makes him very hard to contact. It would have been cool to go do something with Sascha and Toes in the meantime, but our respective jobs aren't letting us.
Gonna go help my old buddy Daniel T. set up his new comp tomorrow. I think I'm gonna ask him for some payment for my time: I've put in so many man hours on his old toaster of a comp (and learnt the hard way that new programs and old OS don't mix very well) that I think I deserve a little compensation. Hell, he even mentioned it himself a while back, and I'm gonna take him up on his offer.
I was reading an article in the Chron this morning about how Special FX have so taken over movies that directors rely more on it than on anything else. Now, since I don't yet own the mega-edition of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (And have only read one article on the Making of), it came as a surprise to know that they did, in fact, use CG for some of the shots. What I wanna know is, for all of you who saw Master and Commander, did YOU figure out there was CG in it? I certainly didn't! (Not before reading the making of stuff, that's for sure) Now isn't THAT a measure of how good CG work is?
I know though, in an age where we can create entire undead armies, make a flaming man fly through skyscrapers and create other such fantastic things, replication of EARTHLY realism may seem ho-hum. But isn't it true that we look for REALISM in general when admiring CG work, whether it be fantasy or more commonplace? There is always a certain amount of suspension of disbelief when dealing with fantastic images: we don't REALLY believe that a big red man with horn-stubs and a stone hand will come crashing though the BART station, battling a slimy, evil creature while we're waiting for our train to Daly City. But do we believe that that creature really did have the strenght to knock the red man flying into theceilingg without thinking that there were some invisible wires attached to the red man, and presumable a team of guys on the other end of the rope going "NOW!!!"
So I guess the question is, not that do we believe these things can exist in the world we live in, but could they exist in a world LIKE ours, at least when dealing with fantasy.
Enough. More Later.
- James
Friday, July 29, 2005
One o' these days...
Currently in earphones: "Ironclad" from the Sahara soundtrack by Clint Mansell, "Blind Pew" from the Treasure Island Soundtrack by The Chieftains, "The Fighting Donellys" and "Fighting for Dough" from the Far and Away soundtrack, composed by John Williams and performed by The Chieftains.
An update wouldn't go amiss.
Finished off the Jenny Lin Summer Music program tonight. The usual bunch of pop and showtunes with some gutted classical thrown in the mix. I do it because there are some good people and friends and the great Mrs. Meier conducts.
On a slightly different note, my chicken-itude never ceases to amaze me. I see the same few girls that I wouldn't mind talking to for the third year in the row, and I still don't work up the nerve to go talk to them, even though some of them are stand partners with good friends of mine. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid! On the upshot, there's a nice violist/alto (voice) who wants to collaborate with me next year for a chamber piece. However, she seems to already be attached. I'll take what I can get.
In other news, I got some more Chieftains music (as my above Now Playing list attests). The first is their sparse contributions to John Williams' score to Far and Away, which like many of the soundtracks I buy, I have never seen. It's pretty basic Williams, easily identifiable and very hummable. He composed all the music, has some pretty good Irish in the mix, and has the blessing and performance of The Chieftains to bolster it. The two tracks I mention are the only ones featuring the Irish group, consequently my favorites, along with a great action cue titled "The Land Race."
The second of three discs new in my collection is simply titled "Film Cuts" and is a collection of all the compositions/arrangements of Irish stuff done by The Chieftains for various movies. I was disappointed to find that most of the stuff they'd done were copy and pastes of tracks from their albums, obviously done at different recording sessions. The only stuff of note that I enjoyed was their score to Treasure Island, which, although not stunningly original, featured more interesting variations on old trad. Irish tunes as to make them interesting. My favorite being the track mentioned above and an interesting arrangement of "The Morning Dew," otherwise known as "The Hare in the Heather."
And finally, what arrived today, the soundtrack to the movie Sahara scored by Clint "Requiem for a [Atonal] Dream" Mansell, and yet another movie I threw money at for the music and not the film. Here's how it went down. I had purchased the soundtrack to that awesome piece of cinema, Batman Begins, and shortly thereafter received an e-mail from Amazon.com going something like this: "We see you've purchased X, and since we've noticed that not only do the majority of people who buy X buy Y as well, but seeing that Y is just coming out and will be on sale, we were wondering if you'd fancy a listen?" X being the Batman Begins soundtrack and Y being the Sahara soundtrack, I decided to listen, knowing how much the former rocked my socks.
One listen to the first track and I was sold. I didn't know ol' Mansell had it in him do to the kind of sweeping, bombastic, horns-blaring-sexy-James-Bond-themes, having only sampled his score to "Requiem for a Dream" featuring the very modern and atonal Kronos Quartett. Suffice to say, I've only listened to the big action cues since the soundtrack had arrived at my doorstep, being that kind of junkie. The only comparison I can make is the "Kingdom of Heaven" soundtrack with its combos of pounding action interlaced with ethnic, though not nearly as fun as this soundtrack right here. Once again, having never seen Sahara, I can't pass judgment on the movie, but a good friend of mine told me that it was fun. From the sound of the music (and various reviews I've read), I can guess that this was a rollicking romp that didn't take itself too seriously, and all the more power to it. This music is gonna be on my playlist for a while.
And that's enough of that, I've got a 9 am call tomorrow morning for the Zoo, and seeing that it's now 11pm, I should get some sleep!
Enough. More Later.
- James Keith
An update wouldn't go amiss.
Finished off the Jenny Lin Summer Music program tonight. The usual bunch of pop and showtunes with some gutted classical thrown in the mix. I do it because there are some good people and friends and the great Mrs. Meier conducts.
On a slightly different note, my chicken-itude never ceases to amaze me. I see the same few girls that I wouldn't mind talking to for the third year in the row, and I still don't work up the nerve to go talk to them, even though some of them are stand partners with good friends of mine. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid! On the upshot, there's a nice violist/alto (voice) who wants to collaborate with me next year for a chamber piece. However, she seems to already be attached. I'll take what I can get.
In other news, I got some more Chieftains music (as my above Now Playing list attests). The first is their sparse contributions to John Williams' score to Far and Away, which like many of the soundtracks I buy, I have never seen. It's pretty basic Williams, easily identifiable and very hummable. He composed all the music, has some pretty good Irish in the mix, and has the blessing and performance of The Chieftains to bolster it. The two tracks I mention are the only ones featuring the Irish group, consequently my favorites, along with a great action cue titled "The Land Race."
The second of three discs new in my collection is simply titled "Film Cuts" and is a collection of all the compositions/arrangements of Irish stuff done by The Chieftains for various movies. I was disappointed to find that most of the stuff they'd done were copy and pastes of tracks from their albums, obviously done at different recording sessions. The only stuff of note that I enjoyed was their score to Treasure Island, which, although not stunningly original, featured more interesting variations on old trad. Irish tunes as to make them interesting. My favorite being the track mentioned above and an interesting arrangement of "The Morning Dew," otherwise known as "The Hare in the Heather."
And finally, what arrived today, the soundtrack to the movie Sahara scored by Clint "Requiem for a [Atonal] Dream" Mansell, and yet another movie I threw money at for the music and not the film. Here's how it went down. I had purchased the soundtrack to that awesome piece of cinema, Batman Begins, and shortly thereafter received an e-mail from Amazon.com going something like this: "We see you've purchased X, and since we've noticed that not only do the majority of people who buy X buy Y as well, but seeing that Y is just coming out and will be on sale, we were wondering if you'd fancy a listen?" X being the Batman Begins soundtrack and Y being the Sahara soundtrack, I decided to listen, knowing how much the former rocked my socks.
One listen to the first track and I was sold. I didn't know ol' Mansell had it in him do to the kind of sweeping, bombastic, horns-blaring-sexy-James-Bond-themes, having only sampled his score to "Requiem for a Dream" featuring the very modern and atonal Kronos Quartett. Suffice to say, I've only listened to the big action cues since the soundtrack had arrived at my doorstep, being that kind of junkie. The only comparison I can make is the "Kingdom of Heaven" soundtrack with its combos of pounding action interlaced with ethnic, though not nearly as fun as this soundtrack right here. Once again, having never seen Sahara, I can't pass judgment on the movie, but a good friend of mine told me that it was fun. From the sound of the music (and various reviews I've read), I can guess that this was a rollicking romp that didn't take itself too seriously, and all the more power to it. This music is gonna be on my playlist for a while.
And that's enough of that, I've got a 9 am call tomorrow morning for the Zoo, and seeing that it's now 11pm, I should get some sleep!
Enough. More Later.
- James Keith
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Quick update
Got my Old Job at the Oakland Zoo back. Come visit me!
I think I finally figured out that "Keys to Your Heart" test-thing that's been floating around the net. Here's some updated results from my taking it. Does the world make sense, or do you make sense of the world?
Frikin Space for no reason again!!
I think I finally figured out that "Keys to Your Heart" test-thing that's been floating around the net. Here's some updated results from my taking it. Does the world make sense, or do you make sense of the world?
Frikin Space for no reason again!!
The Keys to Your Heart |
You are attracted to good manners and elegance. |
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 emotional, moody, and difficult to please. |
Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. |
Your risk of cheating is low. Even if you're tempted, you'd try hard not to do it. |
You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. |
In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily. |
Friday, July 15, 2005
Let's see if people ignore this....
Currently in Earphones: "Molossus" from the Batman Begins Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, "Ned Kelly" from the Ned Kelly Soundtrack by Klaus Badelt, "Rannoch Moor Suite" from the Rob Roy Soundtrack by Carter Burwell.
Fine, I'll post, but it's gonna be short, damn it!
Job search becoming futile. I've got a line up with some chick in the Chamber of Commerce for Job Help for Teens, but that's all of next week. It's darned humbling to send in your resume to a bunch of places, show up, have good interviews, and get turned down anyway. All the freakin' same too..."Wow, you're a good lad, but I've already got the team I need for the summer. Ya never know though...." Yeah, and pigs might fly.
I'm not doin' the fast food crap. Period. Baskin Robbins may be my last line of defense. But who the heck is gonna want a guy for two months? I'll keep my head up, but next time I'm getting started earlier with the job search.
It's not gonna kill me to be without work, but it's frikin' annoying!
Enough of that, for all you zero ladies out there who fancy me, I'm warmin' my engine up again for another three beats of that endless waltz: Love, Breakup and loneliness (yet again). It must not be enough that I learn from my mistakes and don't commit them again; I have to make new ones. Perchance Lady Luck with stick with me this time, and not wander all over the room and blow on some other guy's dice (Go Guys and Dolls!).
SINGLE: Tall male, 19. Stable personality. Twitchy around reminders of the past. Can write poetry, play Viola, serenade, et cetera. Avoidant of "Friend Zone" at risk of personal health. Like a good dog, hates being left alone and enjoys cuddling. If he likes you, you'll know. If he doesn't, he'll tell you. Seeking woman of similar attributes. Music- and book-lover a plus! Inquire Within.
Enough. More Later.
- James
Fine, I'll post, but it's gonna be short, damn it!
Job search becoming futile. I've got a line up with some chick in the Chamber of Commerce for Job Help for Teens, but that's all of next week. It's darned humbling to send in your resume to a bunch of places, show up, have good interviews, and get turned down anyway. All the freakin' same too..."Wow, you're a good lad, but I've already got the team I need for the summer. Ya never know though...." Yeah, and pigs might fly.
I'm not doin' the fast food crap. Period. Baskin Robbins may be my last line of defense. But who the heck is gonna want a guy for two months? I'll keep my head up, but next time I'm getting started earlier with the job search.
It's not gonna kill me to be without work, but it's frikin' annoying!
Enough of that, for all you zero ladies out there who fancy me, I'm warmin' my engine up again for another three beats of that endless waltz: Love, Breakup and loneliness (yet again). It must not be enough that I learn from my mistakes and don't commit them again; I have to make new ones. Perchance Lady Luck with stick with me this time, and not wander all over the room and blow on some other guy's dice (Go Guys and Dolls!).
SINGLE: Tall male, 19. Stable personality. Twitchy around reminders of the past. Can write poetry, play Viola, serenade, et cetera. Avoidant of "Friend Zone" at risk of personal health. Like a good dog, hates being left alone and enjoys cuddling. If he likes you, you'll know. If he doesn't, he'll tell you. Seeking woman of similar attributes. Music- and book-lover a plus! Inquire Within.
Enough. More Later.
- James
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
The End is Here!.....Wait, just kidding....
Currently in Earphones: Ocean's Twelve Soundtrack by David Holmes
Greetings all!
These have been some eventful last few days.
So yesternight I was puttering about on the laptop and happened to catch a rather interesting headline in Google News..."Tsunami Warning Issued for California Coast" or some such...And my initial reaction was "Oh, funky."
Evidently a 7.1 quake hit off the coast and a 5.0 hit north of the bay, probably far enough away not to rattle the Golden Gate. A Tsunami warning was issued and alertness was stressed. Not 20 minutes afterward, after which I was busy telling people about said event, an update was posted to the extent of "Whoops, Sorry. No big waves after all. Just kidding!" I then felt it my duty, seemingly being the only one up on this stuff, to update everyone I just told with the decidedly less interesting (but more safe). I'd already been the bearer of false news a week before (albeit for something not quite so potentially lethal, viz whether or not a movie was being shown), so I was in no interest to keep the title.
Had my Anthro Final, and what happened? The multiple choice section had me scratchin' my head (nothing especially bad, just took more time) and I breezed though the short answer section. Guess which part I studied for and which part I scanned over, deeming it fairly unimportant beforehand? I'm gonna pass this class, and with a non-shabby grade to boot, I'm sure of it. So I'm not worried.
Went with Sascha and Toes to see Batman Begins. WOW. That movie owned me. Everyone must see it. It's got Swords! And Explosions! You'll like it! My only qualms were that the fight scenes were shot entirely too close to the action and the Scarecrow was an awful sissy. Granted, he was really creepy and has my favorite line....Grunt: "Who is it?" Him: "It's the bat...man!" I'll say no more, but you all must see!!!!
I'm kinda sad-hat because I just picked up the "Ocean's Twelve" Soundtrack, specifically for the music that played during the scene where Le Renard dances through the laser traps, but I don't think it's on here! There's some good tracks here on the order of "Swing/Jazz Heist Music" that's particularly titillating, but darn it, I wanted that song!
Gotta start some serious packing, I'm goin' home tomorrow! Farewell, Davis, until next September!
Enough. More Later.
- James
Greetings all!
These have been some eventful last few days.
So yesternight I was puttering about on the laptop and happened to catch a rather interesting headline in Google News..."Tsunami Warning Issued for California Coast" or some such...And my initial reaction was "Oh, funky."
Evidently a 7.1 quake hit off the coast and a 5.0 hit north of the bay, probably far enough away not to rattle the Golden Gate. A Tsunami warning was issued and alertness was stressed. Not 20 minutes afterward, after which I was busy telling people about said event, an update was posted to the extent of "Whoops, Sorry. No big waves after all. Just kidding!" I then felt it my duty, seemingly being the only one up on this stuff, to update everyone I just told with the decidedly less interesting (but more safe). I'd already been the bearer of false news a week before (albeit for something not quite so potentially lethal, viz whether or not a movie was being shown), so I was in no interest to keep the title.
Had my Anthro Final, and what happened? The multiple choice section had me scratchin' my head (nothing especially bad, just took more time) and I breezed though the short answer section. Guess which part I studied for and which part I scanned over, deeming it fairly unimportant beforehand? I'm gonna pass this class, and with a non-shabby grade to boot, I'm sure of it. So I'm not worried.
Went with Sascha and Toes to see Batman Begins. WOW. That movie owned me. Everyone must see it. It's got Swords! And Explosions! You'll like it! My only qualms were that the fight scenes were shot entirely too close to the action and the Scarecrow was an awful sissy. Granted, he was really creepy and has my favorite line....Grunt: "Who is it?" Him: "It's the bat...man!" I'll say no more, but you all must see!!!!
I'm kinda sad-hat because I just picked up the "Ocean's Twelve" Soundtrack, specifically for the music that played during the scene where Le Renard dances through the laser traps, but I don't think it's on here! There's some good tracks here on the order of "Swing/Jazz Heist Music" that's particularly titillating, but darn it, I wanted that song!
Gotta start some serious packing, I'm goin' home tomorrow! Farewell, Davis, until next September!
Enough. More Later.
- James
Monday, June 13, 2005
Toooo much free time...
Currently in earphones: "Lilium ~opening version~" by Konishi Kayo and Kondoo Yuk, "Mass in G Minor" by Ralph Vaughn Williams.
Greetings all,
One of these days I'll wise up and find classes with finals that DON'T land days apart. This extra time is dulling my knowledge, and it's all I can do to drag myself back to the review questions and scribe down some more answers. Oh well, hopefully I'll finally get together with Whitney and get some serious studying done, not to mention compare notes with Jon. Poor guy, I hope he realizes the goof I made with calculating the number of review questions.
On another note, this has caught my interest of late...
(WARNING, SQUEAMISH SHOULD NOT PARTAKE! Some material judged disturbing by many)
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/243164
Now, this exemplifies "Goth" in essence. Vaguely Victorian in dress and speak, mildly morbid (or severely, depending on your level of squeamishness) and having a obsequious obsession with the occult and occlusive oddities. The problem with "Goth" is that it gets all too hammy and pretentious all too easily. This flash animation, however, is a prime example of, as one user put it, "a non-try-hard noir." All too often, "Goth" comes across as "Ooo, look at me! I'm all dark and depressed and creepy. Aren't I cool?" As a result, I don't have much respect for it. Well done "Goth" I appreciate and find entertaining, but the majority of those who claim it are either those in it for the attention and shock value or those so dismally arrayed socially and mentally that you wonder how they function. How can you honestly give credence to something like that?
Anywhos, only a few more days, and the first year of college is over. Yikes! How'd that happen? Didn't I just move in? A whole lot has happened, academically and socially. And man, oh man, how I wished High School was that productive in this sense! I've grown more in this one year than in most of my pre-college years put together. And yet, there is still a lot I wish to do. I want this year to go on for another few months or so: Get to know my dorm buddies better, not worry about rent or food, take more lower-division classes without feeling hounded by deciding on a major, and solidify my existing friendships without worrying about adjusting to relocation. It was long, and I've had a lot of experiences, good and bad. But I both am glad that it's over and still yearning for more.
Uhh, yeah. That's about it for now. I have chocolate. Life is good.
Enough. More Later.
- James
Greetings all,
One of these days I'll wise up and find classes with finals that DON'T land days apart. This extra time is dulling my knowledge, and it's all I can do to drag myself back to the review questions and scribe down some more answers. Oh well, hopefully I'll finally get together with Whitney and get some serious studying done, not to mention compare notes with Jon. Poor guy, I hope he realizes the goof I made with calculating the number of review questions.
On another note, this has caught my interest of late...
(WARNING, SQUEAMISH SHOULD NOT PARTAKE! Some material judged disturbing by many)
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/243164
Now, this exemplifies "Goth" in essence. Vaguely Victorian in dress and speak, mildly morbid (or severely, depending on your level of squeamishness) and having a obsequious obsession with the occult and occlusive oddities. The problem with "Goth" is that it gets all too hammy and pretentious all too easily. This flash animation, however, is a prime example of, as one user put it, "a non-try-hard noir." All too often, "Goth" comes across as "Ooo, look at me! I'm all dark and depressed and creepy. Aren't I cool?" As a result, I don't have much respect for it. Well done "Goth" I appreciate and find entertaining, but the majority of those who claim it are either those in it for the attention and shock value or those so dismally arrayed socially and mentally that you wonder how they function. How can you honestly give credence to something like that?
Anywhos, only a few more days, and the first year of college is over. Yikes! How'd that happen? Didn't I just move in? A whole lot has happened, academically and socially. And man, oh man, how I wished High School was that productive in this sense! I've grown more in this one year than in most of my pre-college years put together. And yet, there is still a lot I wish to do. I want this year to go on for another few months or so: Get to know my dorm buddies better, not worry about rent or food, take more lower-division classes without feeling hounded by deciding on a major, and solidify my existing friendships without worrying about adjusting to relocation. It was long, and I've had a lot of experiences, good and bad. But I both am glad that it's over and still yearning for more.
Uhh, yeah. That's about it for now. I have chocolate. Life is good.
Enough. More Later.
- James
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Hah-Whack!
(Nota Bene, the comments section is enabled for all users for a reason, anyone and everyone is allowed, nay, encouraged to talk back to my entries. Live life on the edge! Say what's on your mind!)
Currently in Earphones: "Mass in G Minor" by Ralph Vaughn Williams, "Titus" Soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal.
Greetings All,
Two down, one to go. My good grade on the final Psych Test means that I'm getting a B+ in the class as it is. Odds are with the favorable curve (brought about by the bitching of the students who didn't study well enough), it'll be bumped up to an A.
Took the Latin final today. Andrea, Carla, Trina, Preston and I all wore makeshift Togas to bolster our spirits. Unfortunately, the translation portion was somewhat tough, but I aced the vocabulary, grammar and comprehension. Now all that's left is the Anthro. I hope to get some studying in with Jon and Whitney between now and weds.
Yes! I don't need to mess with my bed. Since it isn't "lofted" per se: it isn't up on the height extentions, there's no need for me to bring it down. Ms. Molly Kinnear left today, and 'twas a sad goodbye. Lovely Molly was a fellow violist and loved to hear me practice. I'll miss having that appreciative ear in the dorm for these last few days. To bring back to point, she de-lofted her bed to the same height as mine and said it was ok. I need the length for my great height, and it's one less thing to do in these final days.
I've acquired two more movies for my "theatrical fencing" collection; the 1952 version of Scaramouche (with Mel Ferrer and Stewart Granger) and the 1993 version of The Three Musketeers (with Kiefer Sutherland as Athos, Charlie Sheen as Aramis, Tim Curry as the Cardinal and a young Chris O'Donall as D'Artagnan) and yes, it's the Disney version.
While Scaramouche feels closer to real fencing (Though it illustrates virtually every cliched bit of movie swordsmanship, including "The Back up the Stairs Retreat," "Swinging back into the Fray," and "The Circular Flip from-Opponents Hand Move," as shown here), I knew that this version of Musketeers had some vestiges of the right stuff when I saw parries in one and two in the first fight between D'Artagnan and foppish Girard (played by Paul "Golic from Alien 3" McGann, making an aweful fool of himself).
A week or so ago at Pizza after fencing, Fez brought the PS2 to hook up to the TV and we watched a bit of the Richard Lester version of The Three Musketeers (Go Christopher Lee!), of which TC fully applauded for being the best adaptation out there. I'm anxious to obtain a copy; so far Ihaven'tt been totally impressed with what I've seen (from the confused "The Musketeer" to the so-so '93 version).
Oh, and I've acquired a nickname in Fencing. So far, only Cenzo and TC have taken to it. "Snoop" they call me, of Vinnie's own making. Don't know where it came from, I would say it's short for Snoopy. In any case, perhaps it will spread, perhaps not. However, all fencers agree, I need one. There are too many tall guys and not enoughmemorablee names. I suppose I could adopt "Robert," given that everyone knows him by "Toes" and the rest usually call me, accidentally, by his name. They say it's too confusing, but hey, why try to fix what seems to work? (Though whenever Matt or TC or others call "Robert!" and it seems to be in my direction, I usually just turn and say "Robert?" which is enough to elicit a "Uhh...Damnit! Sorry James!").
Urf! It is now 12:30, Saturday morning. I've got plenty of time between now and my last final, but I wanna get stuff done early. For now, off I go into the Morpheus' purple cloak (doesn't even rhyme!).
Enough. More Later.
- James
Currently in Earphones: "Mass in G Minor" by Ralph Vaughn Williams, "Titus" Soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal.
Greetings All,
Two down, one to go. My good grade on the final Psych Test means that I'm getting a B+ in the class as it is. Odds are with the favorable curve (brought about by the bitching of the students who didn't study well enough), it'll be bumped up to an A.
Took the Latin final today. Andrea, Carla, Trina, Preston and I all wore makeshift Togas to bolster our spirits. Unfortunately, the translation portion was somewhat tough, but I aced the vocabulary, grammar and comprehension. Now all that's left is the Anthro. I hope to get some studying in with Jon and Whitney between now and weds.
Yes! I don't need to mess with my bed. Since it isn't "lofted" per se: it isn't up on the height extentions, there's no need for me to bring it down. Ms. Molly Kinnear left today, and 'twas a sad goodbye. Lovely Molly was a fellow violist and loved to hear me practice. I'll miss having that appreciative ear in the dorm for these last few days. To bring back to point, she de-lofted her bed to the same height as mine and said it was ok. I need the length for my great height, and it's one less thing to do in these final days.
I've acquired two more movies for my "theatrical fencing" collection; the 1952 version of Scaramouche (with Mel Ferrer and Stewart Granger) and the 1993 version of The Three Musketeers (with Kiefer Sutherland as Athos, Charlie Sheen as Aramis, Tim Curry as the Cardinal and a young Chris O'Donall as D'Artagnan) and yes, it's the Disney version.
While Scaramouche feels closer to real fencing (Though it illustrates virtually every cliched bit of movie swordsmanship, including "The Back up the Stairs Retreat," "Swinging back into the Fray," and "The Circular Flip from-Opponents Hand Move," as shown here), I knew that this version of Musketeers had some vestiges of the right stuff when I saw parries in one and two in the first fight between D'Artagnan and foppish Girard (played by Paul "Golic from Alien 3" McGann, making an aweful fool of himself).
A week or so ago at Pizza after fencing, Fez brought the PS2 to hook up to the TV and we watched a bit of the Richard Lester version of The Three Musketeers (Go Christopher Lee!), of which TC fully applauded for being the best adaptation out there. I'm anxious to obtain a copy; so far Ihaven'tt been totally impressed with what I've seen (from the confused "The Musketeer" to the so-so '93 version).
Oh, and I've acquired a nickname in Fencing. So far, only Cenzo and TC have taken to it. "Snoop" they call me, of Vinnie's own making. Don't know where it came from, I would say it's short for Snoopy. In any case, perhaps it will spread, perhaps not. However, all fencers agree, I need one. There are too many tall guys and not enoughmemorablee names. I suppose I could adopt "Robert," given that everyone knows him by "Toes" and the rest usually call me, accidentally, by his name. They say it's too confusing, but hey, why try to fix what seems to work? (Though whenever Matt or TC or others call "Robert!" and it seems to be in my direction, I usually just turn and say "Robert?" which is enough to elicit a "Uhh...Damnit! Sorry James!").
Urf! It is now 12:30, Saturday morning. I've got plenty of time between now and my last final, but I wanna get stuff done early. For now, off I go into the Morpheus' purple cloak (doesn't even rhyme!).
Enough. More Later.
- James
Monday, June 06, 2005
Mr. Aelius, White Courtesy Phone....
Hello all,
Yes, I'm still here. Finals are upon us. Only a few more days of classes to go. Just need to put the finishing touches on my second Anthro Paper, study for my Psych Test, my Latin Final, arrange for my packing and departure....
Oh, and by the way, if your a fencer and in search of a good movie, don't see "The Musketeer" with Tim Roth and Justin Chambers. It's high on the "What the Fuck?!?!" scale, even if it looks pretty. Evidently they spent all their money on sets/costumes/choreography and not enough time on the script or the opening titles. Eugh! Go for Richard Lester's version with Christopher Lee. Kick ass.
I'll update more when I have the time.
Enough. More Later.
- James
Yes, I'm still here. Finals are upon us. Only a few more days of classes to go. Just need to put the finishing touches on my second Anthro Paper, study for my Psych Test, my Latin Final, arrange for my packing and departure....
Oh, and by the way, if your a fencer and in search of a good movie, don't see "The Musketeer" with Tim Roth and Justin Chambers. It's high on the "What the Fuck?!?!" scale, even if it looks pretty. Evidently they spent all their money on sets/costumes/choreography and not enough time on the script or the opening titles. Eugh! Go for Richard Lester's version with Christopher Lee. Kick ass.
I'll update more when I have the time.
Enough. More Later.
- James
Saturday, May 28, 2005
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
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
Monday, May 23, 2005
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
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
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
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...
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
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. |
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
Saturday, May 14, 2005
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
::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
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
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
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
Sunday, May 08, 2005
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
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
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
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
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
Sunday, May 01, 2005
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
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
Saturday, April 30, 2005
We don't need no friggin' titles.
Currently in headphones: ".45" by Shinedown, "Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras" from Brahms' German Requiem.
I would like to apologize for the following rant to the regular readers out there. This egocentric happenstance is not indicative of normal posts and should not be construed as such. Regular readers are urged to skip this post in favor of catching a more informative, interesting entry to occur later. I apologize for the inconvenience.
begin(personal tangent)
Alright, what the hell am I supposed to feel here? Whenever something happens and I can't see My Lady, I always feel let down. Which, I suppose, is normal, but I feel like a manipulative, evil partner for it being so. I've always read those love stories, in which the young, infatuated man can't seem to take being away from his other and usually breaks some rules to see her, achieving brief happiness but complicating things later on. What I usually thought of the said young man was that he was overly brash and destructive in the long run and shouldn't have done what he did. He somehow should have been more mature and waited, making the small sacrifice of loneliness to, somehow, be happier later on.
Now, before I continue, let me just say that I've at least reached a level of comfort in the after-effects of my last romantic endeavors. As my Psych textbook says, Separation is a gradual thing, not an instant resolution. Therefore, I don't worry that I'm "hung up" on my last relationship, because I know that something that intense doesn't just disappear quietly. I don't know how long it will take for me to fully "get over" it, but I'm not worried that it has not yet happened.
With that said, in my last romantic encounter, I suddenly came to realize what pain it was to be away from the other you cared about, and following in the footsteps of the dissatisfied youths of the stories, I let my feet do the thinking. Though nothing incredibly dangerous/bad happened on my yearning sojourn, I will merely say that the effects of such were opposite, and started my downward spiral that led me out of those final months.
I was vindicated in my thinking, and nastily so, for my immediate actions had the opposite outcome, as it had been repeatedly shown in the stories I was familiar with. Now, to be fair, that wasn't the only factor in this romantic demise, but it sure as hell expedited it.
Now, at this point in time, when I am again frustrated by the coming together of circumstances and the like that prematurely separates me from My Lady, I feel bound. On one hand, I feel the frustration and the letdown that I can now empathize in those stories of old. On the other, I'm so frikin' biased based on that last time I let my self and soul wander that I dare not do anything lest I complicate the matter. So I beat my head and heart against the cages of reality and my bias and feel generally horrible.
As Peter Parker inquired of the world, "Am I not supposed to have what I want?"
Man, I've got issues.
End(personal tangent)
If you, reader, have read all down to here, you are entirely vindicated in thinking less of me. Something so intensely personal probably has no right to be where the public can see it, much less the impertinent whining of a thwarted Romeo. Once again, I urge you to disregard this post in reference to the continuity of what this blog should be. I'm sorry to have wasted your time.
Enough. More Later.
- James
I would like to apologize for the following rant to the regular readers out there. This egocentric happenstance is not indicative of normal posts and should not be construed as such. Regular readers are urged to skip this post in favor of catching a more informative, interesting entry to occur later. I apologize for the inconvenience.
begin(personal tangent)
Alright, what the hell am I supposed to feel here? Whenever something happens and I can't see My Lady, I always feel let down. Which, I suppose, is normal, but I feel like a manipulative, evil partner for it being so. I've always read those love stories, in which the young, infatuated man can't seem to take being away from his other and usually breaks some rules to see her, achieving brief happiness but complicating things later on. What I usually thought of the said young man was that he was overly brash and destructive in the long run and shouldn't have done what he did. He somehow should have been more mature and waited, making the small sacrifice of loneliness to, somehow, be happier later on.
Now, before I continue, let me just say that I've at least reached a level of comfort in the after-effects of my last romantic endeavors. As my Psych textbook says, Separation is a gradual thing, not an instant resolution. Therefore, I don't worry that I'm "hung up" on my last relationship, because I know that something that intense doesn't just disappear quietly. I don't know how long it will take for me to fully "get over" it, but I'm not worried that it has not yet happened.
With that said, in my last romantic encounter, I suddenly came to realize what pain it was to be away from the other you cared about, and following in the footsteps of the dissatisfied youths of the stories, I let my feet do the thinking. Though nothing incredibly dangerous/bad happened on my yearning sojourn, I will merely say that the effects of such were opposite, and started my downward spiral that led me out of those final months.
I was vindicated in my thinking, and nastily so, for my immediate actions had the opposite outcome, as it had been repeatedly shown in the stories I was familiar with. Now, to be fair, that wasn't the only factor in this romantic demise, but it sure as hell expedited it.
Now, at this point in time, when I am again frustrated by the coming together of circumstances and the like that prematurely separates me from My Lady, I feel bound. On one hand, I feel the frustration and the letdown that I can now empathize in those stories of old. On the other, I'm so frikin' biased based on that last time I let my self and soul wander that I dare not do anything lest I complicate the matter. So I beat my head and heart against the cages of reality and my bias and feel generally horrible.
As Peter Parker inquired of the world, "Am I not supposed to have what I want?"
Man, I've got issues.
End(personal tangent)
If you, reader, have read all down to here, you are entirely vindicated in thinking less of me. Something so intensely personal probably has no right to be where the public can see it, much less the impertinent whining of a thwarted Romeo. Once again, I urge you to disregard this post in reference to the continuity of what this blog should be. I'm sorry to have wasted your time.
Enough. More Later.
- James
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Glad that's over....Wait, there's more? Titty biscuits! (Updated)
I suppose another post is in order.
For those of you not acquainted with this specific online toon, do so immediately. Monty Python Fans a plus...
http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/
Hey! I find the exclamatory statement in the title of my post funny! (found at the above site).
Just finished my Anthro midterm. Wasn't quite as bad as I'd thought. Sure, I still goofed on the dates (and almost avoided a question, but figured an educated guess rather than a sneaky turn of phrase with no info a better choice), but I was surprised at how much I retained. It's not that the information is difficult, just a heck of a lot of it.
On one sore point, the division between more monkey-like types (Cercapithacoids) and more ape-like (Hominoids) is slightly debated term-wise. Rather, just the Hominoids. Generally, Man and his precursors are referred to as "Hominids." Technically speaking, the term HominID and HominOID are very close, but the former meaning Human and the latter referring to the branch HominOIDia. Now, a smart person went "Hmmm, Hominid is really close to Hominoid, what if we classify just humans as HominINEs? That way anything resembling Hominoid/-nid is in reference to the Family Hominoidea while Humans and there kind be relegated to the Subfamily Homininae." Brilliant! No close spelling to twist the tongue and mind.
However, our Professor, respect him though I do, has elected to keep calling Humans and their kind Hominids (as it has been for years, which usually doesn't post a problem). But, especially on one question of the test, there can be some marked confusion. There was a certain fossil, Proconsul, that had the makings of being in the Family HominOIDia. The question was, did it have the traits to be placed higher up in the tree, with the Hominines, viz Us? The phrasing of the question was thusly..."Your friend argues that (a primitive trait, not useful in classification) makes Proconsul a Hominid. Explain why he is wrong. What traits DOES it have to place it in the family Hominoidia?"
Now, the question steps on its own feet. The Primitive trait is ONLY considered Primitive when comparing it to something higher up on the evolutionary tree. Viz, "Lucy" has five fingers and a grasping thumb, therefore she should be considered a Homo Sapiens. That doesn't work, because ALL Hominines have five fingers and an opposable thumb. It was a trait that begun with a really far back ancestor, and since we all have it, we can't use it to refine our classification WITHIN our small group of Hominines. Therefore, we need to search for a Derived trait, or a specific difference that sets us apart from more CLOSELY SIMILAR ancestors.
It is the Final part of the question that maddens me. It's obvious that the Primitive trait does not justify placing Proconsul with us Hominines. However, if they are asking for a trait that places them with HominOIDs, then they've just given us the answer and not really stepped anywhere. The Primitive trait becomes Derived when we step farther away from specifics. Yes, Proconsul was in that LARGE family Hominoidea by that Primitive (now derived, from this viewpoint) trait. However, there is also a trait that places it in the Subfamily Homininae with us, but are you asking about that, or the large family Hominoidea? What I can't tell is whether they've lumped the -noid/-nid together, in which case they should have said "What trait does make Proconsul a Hominine?" Or just asked a "Duh!" question with no merit. Get this stuff straight, people!
< /anthro rant >
Alright, sorry if I was getting all textbookish, but I had to get that outta my system.
I've still got a Latin Quiz to study for. The Midterm for the class is also coming up soon, not to mention the next Psych Midterms. Yeeesh! I get done with one only to have another pop up.
On the plus side, I get to go paint TC's House on Saturday. That should be fun.
Perhaps I'll get to see my Lady again soon, as well. I hope so.
UPDATE
Currently in headphones: "Dogs Among The Bushes" by The Cheiftans.
Bother, My Lady is busy friday. Hopefully I'll have some time saturday evening to see her. I know I shouldn't be grumpy about it. I don't have priority in her life. Wheres the justification in feeling a bit down then? Suck it up, buddy!
Latin vocab down, working on grammar with Mr. Hatfield as we speak. Hands down, the Future participle ending "-ūrus" sounds the coolest. Such as "Athēnās profectūrus, comitēs aspexit dormientēs." or "As he was about to set out for Athens, he looked at his sleeping friends." The "pro-fec-TOO-roos" is just so tasty on the tongue. Latin kicks ass!
Recēdite, plebes! Gero rēm imperiālem!
Enough. More Later.
- James
For those of you not acquainted with this specific online toon, do so immediately. Monty Python Fans a plus...
http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/
Hey! I find the exclamatory statement in the title of my post funny! (found at the above site).
Just finished my Anthro midterm. Wasn't quite as bad as I'd thought. Sure, I still goofed on the dates (and almost avoided a question, but figured an educated guess rather than a sneaky turn of phrase with no info a better choice), but I was surprised at how much I retained. It's not that the information is difficult, just a heck of a lot of it.
On one sore point, the division between more monkey-like types (Cercapithacoids) and more ape-like (Hominoids) is slightly debated term-wise. Rather, just the Hominoids. Generally, Man and his precursors are referred to as "Hominids." Technically speaking, the term HominID and HominOID are very close, but the former meaning Human and the latter referring to the branch HominOIDia. Now, a smart person went "Hmmm, Hominid is really close to Hominoid, what if we classify just humans as HominINEs? That way anything resembling Hominoid/-nid is in reference to the Family Hominoidea while Humans and there kind be relegated to the Subfamily Homininae." Brilliant! No close spelling to twist the tongue and mind.
However, our Professor, respect him though I do, has elected to keep calling Humans and their kind Hominids (as it has been for years, which usually doesn't post a problem). But, especially on one question of the test, there can be some marked confusion. There was a certain fossil, Proconsul, that had the makings of being in the Family HominOIDia. The question was, did it have the traits to be placed higher up in the tree, with the Hominines, viz Us? The phrasing of the question was thusly..."Your friend argues that (a primitive trait, not useful in classification) makes Proconsul a Hominid. Explain why he is wrong. What traits DOES it have to place it in the family Hominoidia?"
Now, the question steps on its own feet. The Primitive trait is ONLY considered Primitive when comparing it to something higher up on the evolutionary tree. Viz, "Lucy" has five fingers and a grasping thumb, therefore she should be considered a Homo Sapiens. That doesn't work, because ALL Hominines have five fingers and an opposable thumb. It was a trait that begun with a really far back ancestor, and since we all have it, we can't use it to refine our classification WITHIN our small group of Hominines. Therefore, we need to search for a Derived trait, or a specific difference that sets us apart from more CLOSELY SIMILAR ancestors.
It is the Final part of the question that maddens me. It's obvious that the Primitive trait does not justify placing Proconsul with us Hominines. However, if they are asking for a trait that places them with HominOIDs, then they've just given us the answer and not really stepped anywhere. The Primitive trait becomes Derived when we step farther away from specifics. Yes, Proconsul was in that LARGE family Hominoidea by that Primitive (now derived, from this viewpoint) trait. However, there is also a trait that places it in the Subfamily Homininae with us, but are you asking about that, or the large family Hominoidea? What I can't tell is whether they've lumped the -noid/-nid together, in which case they should have said "What trait does make Proconsul a Hominine?" Or just asked a "Duh!" question with no merit. Get this stuff straight, people!
< /anthro rant >
Alright, sorry if I was getting all textbookish, but I had to get that outta my system.
I've still got a Latin Quiz to study for. The Midterm for the class is also coming up soon, not to mention the next Psych Midterms. Yeeesh! I get done with one only to have another pop up.
On the plus side, I get to go paint TC's House on Saturday. That should be fun.
Perhaps I'll get to see my Lady again soon, as well. I hope so.
UPDATE
Currently in headphones: "Dogs Among The Bushes" by The Cheiftans.
Bother, My Lady is busy friday. Hopefully I'll have some time saturday evening to see her. I know I shouldn't be grumpy about it. I don't have priority in her life. Wheres the justification in feeling a bit down then? Suck it up, buddy!
Latin vocab down, working on grammar with Mr. Hatfield as we speak. Hands down, the Future participle ending "-ūrus" sounds the coolest. Such as "Athēnās profectūrus, comitēs aspexit dormientēs." or "As he was about to set out for Athens, he looked at his sleeping friends." The "pro-fec-TOO-roos" is just so tasty on the tongue. Latin kicks ass!
Recēdite, plebes! Gero rēm imperiālem!
Enough. More Later.
- James
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Wine, Women and Song!
Hey all!
Wow! What a weekend! Where to begin?
I had a lovely time with M'Lady Friday evening, though it did get rather cold. Heavier jackets next time!
Saturday morning, I get up at 8am, shower and meet up with Toes to go to Cuarto. We met up with Tim and soon Preston's parents and the SLO folk. As what was appearing to be a trend, Preston was still sawin' logs when the prescribed time arrived. When he finally did get up, he was so surprised and out of it that he was bidding a happy birthday to everyone he met for lack of attention. What a way to begin a 21st B-day. It was all good.
We drove up to Napa/Sonoma and visited first the Buena Vista Winery. Very cool, quaint place in a glen with most of the old buildings intact. Had a very informative tour guide named Doug, who as Patrick pointed out, "Would probably still give tours even if they didn't pay him." Doug loved what he was doing and loved the entire subject. He studied Enology and Vitrinology (The former a branch of Chem. the latter one of Bio.) and was neck deep in information. Two things stuck with us, as he urged us to remember. One: There are two types of wine, good wine and bad wine. It's all about what you like. Nobody is wrong when it comes to judging it. Two: in most cases of wine merchants hawking their wares, you can always add an "..., or not" to anything sounding too much in one direction or the other. Once again, no-one is wrong when it comes to judging wine. Consequently, if you hear a "This vintage has a great, buttery after-taste and really tickles your tastebuds" (or other, better wine lingo, I didn't exactly memorize the wine adjectives) or something in the negative direction, chances are a ".., or not" can also clarify it. Good stuff.
We also got a great amount of tips for how to taste wine, ones that I'm not going to soon forget, far away though my 21st is. The whole swirling of the wine in the glass and the smelling of it isn't just visual bravado. First off, bad wine will smell different if swirled. That's point one. If you smell it, swirl it, smell it again and find a different smell, warning! Oh, and on an initial note, if you go wine tasting, if you drink a proportion of (2-1? 3-2?) water to wine, you can avoid much of the adverse effects of it. Also, when switching from one wine to another, 3 sips are needed to accurately judge the taste of the new sample. Rinse, calibrate and test. Back to the immediate tests, though.
Color plays a role. If you let light go through the glass and cast a colored shadow on, say, a napkin, you can tell quality by color. Generally, Doug said, good wines are Brick to Burgundy, however the heck you judge that. Or not! He also said he's had good wines darker/lighter than he mentioned, but it was a generality that was usually true. We left Buena Vista in high spirits.
We had lunch in Sonoma proper in the small central park. There was some errand Patrick had to go on, so we walked all around the surrounding shop fronts. There were numerous back allys with some great shops to be had. We found one that had not only an Irish store, but an Irish pub as well. We went down it for kicks and those who knew the words started singing "Johnny Jump Up." Patrick and some of his SLO buddies have received and really like all of the Gaelic Storm stuff that I initially sent to Preston, and we've got quite a group of people who just like to sing for fun. We kinda died down as we entered the store and looked around. We found some great merchandise, though didn't get anything. Here's the great part. As we were exiting the store and making our way back up the ally, we heard someone say "Can you sing again?" There was this group of what looked like semi-goths, all decked out with black hair and designer sunglasses, all of whom were looking intensely interested in us. Every obliging, we immediately broke out again into a spirited round of "Johnny Jump Up" and sung our way out of the ally and up the street. We might have gotten some odd looks, but man did it feel good!
I won't waste too much time on our other trip to Benzinger Winery afterward. The tour was nice, and the guide was knowledgeable but ehh. As a corollary, Patrick said "This guy would probably not be giving tours if he wasn't getting paid." What was different was we got a tour through the fields and into the caves. Very neat visually.
Part two of the birthday was an evening of food, fun, and a sleepover. Made a quick stop back at Davis to grab some overnight junk and my Viola. Boy, I hadn't had a sleepover in ages! We were very fortunate to have Preston and Patrick's family as our gracious hosts. In addition to owing a roomy and beautiful house in Roseville, they made sure we were well taken care of. Food a-plenty, lots of sleeping space (and cushions) and even toiletries offered if needed. Fun Stuff!
Had a great big barbecue and played with Stripe, an old but rambunctious pup that liked his tennis balls. Started a round of Name that Tune (finally was on a winning team!), opened presents and socialized. Both Preston and Patrick received numerous wine bottle openers. Patrick even got a wine rack and an entire carton of different wines from the SLO crew. Preston got a fencing jacket and a sabre, and man is he ready for it! I promised Patrick I'd try to turn Preston from the Dark side, but it's not gonna be easy. How many saberists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Eight. Two to run screaming at each other, one to call halt, four to abstain from making any claims, and one to go get someone else to change the light bulb. (For those who want a more raunchier light bulb joke of that evening, How many Liberal Arts Majors does it take to screw in a light bulb? They don't screw in light bulbs, they screw in hot tubs!).
We played Name that Tune until Midnight, I unfortunately didn't get to string along on me instrument. We all pretty much were told "Here are some places to sleep. 'Night!" and left to our own devices, though there was definitely a strong suggestion to the "Goodnight!" that left no room for bunkum. We got ready for bed and crashed around 1.
I woke up around 9ish and took my shower, went downstairs and ate a hearty breakfast. We chatted and socialized a bit more before heading off to our respective universities. Not much of note there.
The only other point of conversation was our second IM Ultimate Frisbee game. We managed to improve: we lost only 9-5, which was darn good considering that we lost the first game 13-3. Now, you're probably wondering why the game stopped at 9, and funny about that. Evidently the teams aren't segregated by dorms (or even years) because we got some additions to our team, V from Nova, John from Malcom and our very own RA Gus. Man, did those guys earn their keep! Had an amazing dive catch from V that netted us a point, John was all over the place tossin' and catchin' with verve, and Gus proved himself a valuable asset even though he proclaimed that he "wasn't a very good thrower."
Here was the crux, however. There was a pretty tall dude from the other team that always went long, and I guess he was a little uptight, but Gus was covering him in defense. The both were running to catch a wayward toss, and both jumped to get it. There was a little jostling, as often happens in these games, but right afterward, the guy said something along the lines of "You fucking touch me again, I'll fucking (something or other, but not an idle threat)" to Gus, who immediately called for Time out. "Time out! This man threatened me!" I was far off, didn't hear the full exchange, and at first didn't think much of it. "Threatened? What the? What could have been so bad as to give Gus pause?"
After I heard about it, however, I instantly revised my opinion of the guy. The game was stopped as soon as the Ref. heard the story, and although they still won point-wise (viz the game), they got a Sportsmanship demerit, which carries more weight. So, say there were on the cusp of getting in the playoffs, 2-2. With the demerit, they stand little to no chance of making it against any other team that's 2-2 as well. While they may have won the fight, we shook them up point-wise, which may or may not have caused that guy to shoot himself in the foot. It was a moral victory if nothing else.
Thus my weekend has been. If Julia gets her rear in gear, I might watch a movie with her and Ikhlas. If not, I'll probably turn in early. I wouldn't mind the sleep to recover from this full weekend. And with No Latin tomorrow, I can sleep in for a long time. Wow! What a ride!
Enough. More Later.
- James
Wow! What a weekend! Where to begin?
I had a lovely time with M'Lady Friday evening, though it did get rather cold. Heavier jackets next time!
Saturday morning, I get up at 8am, shower and meet up with Toes to go to Cuarto. We met up with Tim and soon Preston's parents and the SLO folk. As what was appearing to be a trend, Preston was still sawin' logs when the prescribed time arrived. When he finally did get up, he was so surprised and out of it that he was bidding a happy birthday to everyone he met for lack of attention. What a way to begin a 21st B-day. It was all good.
We drove up to Napa/Sonoma and visited first the Buena Vista Winery. Very cool, quaint place in a glen with most of the old buildings intact. Had a very informative tour guide named Doug, who as Patrick pointed out, "Would probably still give tours even if they didn't pay him." Doug loved what he was doing and loved the entire subject. He studied Enology and Vitrinology (The former a branch of Chem. the latter one of Bio.) and was neck deep in information. Two things stuck with us, as he urged us to remember. One: There are two types of wine, good wine and bad wine. It's all about what you like. Nobody is wrong when it comes to judging it. Two: in most cases of wine merchants hawking their wares, you can always add an "..., or not" to anything sounding too much in one direction or the other. Once again, no-one is wrong when it comes to judging wine. Consequently, if you hear a "This vintage has a great, buttery after-taste and really tickles your tastebuds" (or other, better wine lingo, I didn't exactly memorize the wine adjectives) or something in the negative direction, chances are a ".., or not" can also clarify it. Good stuff.
We also got a great amount of tips for how to taste wine, ones that I'm not going to soon forget, far away though my 21st is. The whole swirling of the wine in the glass and the smelling of it isn't just visual bravado. First off, bad wine will smell different if swirled. That's point one. If you smell it, swirl it, smell it again and find a different smell, warning! Oh, and on an initial note, if you go wine tasting, if you drink a proportion of (2-1? 3-2?) water to wine, you can avoid much of the adverse effects of it. Also, when switching from one wine to another, 3 sips are needed to accurately judge the taste of the new sample. Rinse, calibrate and test. Back to the immediate tests, though.
Color plays a role. If you let light go through the glass and cast a colored shadow on, say, a napkin, you can tell quality by color. Generally, Doug said, good wines are Brick to Burgundy, however the heck you judge that. Or not! He also said he's had good wines darker/lighter than he mentioned, but it was a generality that was usually true. We left Buena Vista in high spirits.
We had lunch in Sonoma proper in the small central park. There was some errand Patrick had to go on, so we walked all around the surrounding shop fronts. There were numerous back allys with some great shops to be had. We found one that had not only an Irish store, but an Irish pub as well. We went down it for kicks and those who knew the words started singing "Johnny Jump Up." Patrick and some of his SLO buddies have received and really like all of the Gaelic Storm stuff that I initially sent to Preston, and we've got quite a group of people who just like to sing for fun. We kinda died down as we entered the store and looked around. We found some great merchandise, though didn't get anything. Here's the great part. As we were exiting the store and making our way back up the ally, we heard someone say "Can you sing again?" There was this group of what looked like semi-goths, all decked out with black hair and designer sunglasses, all of whom were looking intensely interested in us. Every obliging, we immediately broke out again into a spirited round of "Johnny Jump Up" and sung our way out of the ally and up the street. We might have gotten some odd looks, but man did it feel good!
I won't waste too much time on our other trip to Benzinger Winery afterward. The tour was nice, and the guide was knowledgeable but ehh. As a corollary, Patrick said "This guy would probably not be giving tours if he wasn't getting paid." What was different was we got a tour through the fields and into the caves. Very neat visually.
Part two of the birthday was an evening of food, fun, and a sleepover. Made a quick stop back at Davis to grab some overnight junk and my Viola. Boy, I hadn't had a sleepover in ages! We were very fortunate to have Preston and Patrick's family as our gracious hosts. In addition to owing a roomy and beautiful house in Roseville, they made sure we were well taken care of. Food a-plenty, lots of sleeping space (and cushions) and even toiletries offered if needed. Fun Stuff!
Had a great big barbecue and played with Stripe, an old but rambunctious pup that liked his tennis balls. Started a round of Name that Tune (finally was on a winning team!), opened presents and socialized. Both Preston and Patrick received numerous wine bottle openers. Patrick even got a wine rack and an entire carton of different wines from the SLO crew. Preston got a fencing jacket and a sabre, and man is he ready for it! I promised Patrick I'd try to turn Preston from the Dark side, but it's not gonna be easy. How many saberists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Eight. Two to run screaming at each other, one to call halt, four to abstain from making any claims, and one to go get someone else to change the light bulb. (For those who want a more raunchier light bulb joke of that evening, How many Liberal Arts Majors does it take to screw in a light bulb? They don't screw in light bulbs, they screw in hot tubs!).
We played Name that Tune until Midnight, I unfortunately didn't get to string along on me instrument. We all pretty much were told "Here are some places to sleep. 'Night!" and left to our own devices, though there was definitely a strong suggestion to the "Goodnight!" that left no room for bunkum. We got ready for bed and crashed around 1.
I woke up around 9ish and took my shower, went downstairs and ate a hearty breakfast. We chatted and socialized a bit more before heading off to our respective universities. Not much of note there.
The only other point of conversation was our second IM Ultimate Frisbee game. We managed to improve: we lost only 9-5, which was darn good considering that we lost the first game 13-3. Now, you're probably wondering why the game stopped at 9, and funny about that. Evidently the teams aren't segregated by dorms (or even years) because we got some additions to our team, V from Nova, John from Malcom and our very own RA Gus. Man, did those guys earn their keep! Had an amazing dive catch from V that netted us a point, John was all over the place tossin' and catchin' with verve, and Gus proved himself a valuable asset even though he proclaimed that he "wasn't a very good thrower."
Here was the crux, however. There was a pretty tall dude from the other team that always went long, and I guess he was a little uptight, but Gus was covering him in defense. The both were running to catch a wayward toss, and both jumped to get it. There was a little jostling, as often happens in these games, but right afterward, the guy said something along the lines of "You fucking touch me again, I'll fucking (something or other, but not an idle threat)" to Gus, who immediately called for Time out. "Time out! This man threatened me!" I was far off, didn't hear the full exchange, and at first didn't think much of it. "Threatened? What the? What could have been so bad as to give Gus pause?"
After I heard about it, however, I instantly revised my opinion of the guy. The game was stopped as soon as the Ref. heard the story, and although they still won point-wise (viz the game), they got a Sportsmanship demerit, which carries more weight. So, say there were on the cusp of getting in the playoffs, 2-2. With the demerit, they stand little to no chance of making it against any other team that's 2-2 as well. While they may have won the fight, we shook them up point-wise, which may or may not have caused that guy to shoot himself in the foot. It was a moral victory if nothing else.
Thus my weekend has been. If Julia gets her rear in gear, I might watch a movie with her and Ikhlas. If not, I'll probably turn in early. I wouldn't mind the sleep to recover from this full weekend. And with No Latin tomorrow, I can sleep in for a long time. Wow! What a ride!
Enough. More Later.
- James
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)