Morning

Working on a construction site this week. getting there at 6:00am is tough. I am there before sunrise.

Reflective

I have always liked breakup songs. This becomes a problem for a span of time after a breakup. As it has been about a month and a half since I broke up with Sarah, I am still in that place. I am listening to 'Slow Dancing in a Burning Room' by John Mayer right now. It is one of my favorites but it always seems to catapult me into a pensive melancholy mood. I know that it was the right decision to end the relationship with Sarah. Perhaps (as some of my friends say) it should have happened earlier.

I have certain ideas about what a long term relationship (I would say marriage but I am fairly turned off to the idea of that form of legal bondage at the moment) should be. I believe that the two should share interests and goals, that they should work together as a team to accomplish things and have experiences that neither would have alone. I see attraction and compatibility as being easily divided into three categories Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual.

The physical is the easiest to define, its that attraction that makes you want to bring your bodies together in an expression of the physicality that you each bring. This can be expressed as it most commonly is with sex, but that is merely the most obvious expression. Sports, hiking, skydiving, or whatever else you can do to connect with someone else is an expression of this physical attraction.

Emotional attraction is perhaps the hardest to define but yet somehow easy to understand. The person with whom you share an emotional bond is the person you call when you need someone to talk to, or perhaps only someone to listen. It is an important sense of connectedness to a person who you can trust to be there even if only so that you are not alone. Emotional attraction makes for friends that are important to you even if they are far away in body and mind. A person who is important to you even if they are not part of your daily life.

For me, the intellectual attraction may be the easiest to define because it is where I am most comfortable. I believe that I am at my core, an intellectual person. This is not to say that I think I am a genius. It means that I live my life with my head in control not my heart or my body. The intellectual attraction is a meeting of minds and a shared conversation or debate. This is the person you love to talk to and to reason with. Most friends, or at least most of my friends, fall into this category because it determines the things that I chose to do with my time. The people that I find mentally stimulating are the people that I want to see again, to talk to, and to meet across a gaming table. I often have long drawn-out debates with my father to the point that his wife and her children think that we are angry with each other, but that is the form of our mental connection to each other, to test and push each-others minds and share our own. With other friends it is a collaborative effort in creating something or a sharing of our separate fields of interest in a way that interests us both.

That being said Sarah and I had a fatal lack of connection on the intellectual front. Let me say here that I do not think that Sarah is dumb. She is smart and capable. The problem lies in the near complete lack of overlap between the things that she likes to put her mind to and the things I like to put my mind to. Sarah, as far as I can tell is centered in the physical. The marathons that I never managed to keep up with, the love of being outdoors, and the way she processes things make me think that perhaps we could never line up and be what I believe a couple should be.

The hard part comes when I think of the ways in which Sarah and I did connect. She delights me even now that we are apart. The quirky observations and the way she came at life with smiles and wonder. I start to ask myself if we were really good enough and maybe my ideas about connections and levels of attraction are all a bunch of overblown unrealistic bullshit. I start to wonder if I have made a huge mistake pushing away something that was good but not great.

I tried to open up the future for the both of us but at the cost of something that was very good at times. I believe in my head and somewhat in my heart that the split is best for both of us, and that is why I did it. I believe that we each can and will find someone who will be a better fit. But for the time being, I still have a place in my life that is vacant. Part of me wants to fill that space as soon as I can but the larger part, the careful thoughtful part knows that I would be a fool to rush ahead. I feel the absence and some piece of me wants that same person back even though there is no future for us in that relationship.

I hope that someday Sarah and I can be friends again but I fear that is not an option. The same reason that we could not be a couple may be the reason that we cannot be friends. We share very little. There would be no reason for us to see each other. The physical connection is blocked, the emotional connection is damaged, and the intellectual connection is terminally weak. With all of this in the way I don't see any kind of new relationship, even one of friendship that we can build together. Yet she was such a huge part of my life for so long that it seems insane that she no longer has any meaningful part to play.

I'm not sure what I want from her. Can I really be her friend? Am I just unwilling to completely sever the tie? or am I trying to find forgiveness for pushing her away?

Workin out

So this week was a mixed success for personal endeavors. I hit the gym on Monday went to HapKiDo on Tuesday, and got in a 3 mile run (3:1 run:walk 33m45s) but I didn't complete the set with a second helping of HapKiDo on Thirsday. Maybe next week I will manage to get all four days down.

I also went around to my banks and got my cash situation rearranged. With the current federal discount rate being so low, there isn't much interest that the banks are paying on deposits, but I am now getting the best available. Gotta get the rest of my stock account invested.

Terrible News

Seems that we didn't get the bid we spent a whole week working on. Now I have no idea where that leaves us.

Good Weekend

It has been quite a weekend! It started friday after finishing off a complicated bid at work and sending it off to the potential client. After work a bunch of us gathered t0 play Warhammer 40,000. I faced off against my friend Zeb at about 11:00pm (2000pts Tyranids vs Space Marines) and we played until 5:30am. I managed to grab the victory but it was looking dicey for a couple of turns. I didn't make it home until 6:00am and then since the sun was coming up in a half hour, I stayed up and watched it from the roof of the apartment below mine.

I grabbed a few hours sleep and then headed down to Costa Mesa to hang with some friends and watch the new TV show "V". Overall I was underwhelmed. There seemed to be very little innovative or original in the show. Most of the graphics were spotty and some of the scenes were almost comical (not in a good way). All that was made better by the company though. We had some good chill times and rather than drive home at 1:00am as I usually do when I visit the OC I spent the night.

Pancakes for breakfast at noon (thank you Amanda) and then Jeff took me along to his Sunday 'Hackmaster' game. This is a system I hadn't played before. It started more or less as a parody of Dungeons & Dragons based on the comic "Knights of the Dinner Table". The game is designed to be complicated and intricate, and to sometimes be flat out difficult to understand. A few times I felt like what every gamer's girlfriend must feel like when dragged to a D&D game and thrown into a complex roleplaying system that they are not prepared for. All in all I had fun. I had already met most of the players once and they are good people. I have to think about if I am going to play again. Their next session is in two weeks so I have time to make up my mind.

Durring the game I got the opportunity to try Sam's home brewed German-style hefeweizen. It had a light taste with a bit of citrus flavoring imparted by his secret yeast. I complemented him on it and he gave me a couple of bottles to take home. New RPG, new friends, and free beer, what a day! After the game I headed home.

Back in Pasadena, I took a look at Sarah's bicycle to try and fix its brakes. I gave it a look-over and adjusted a few things to get the brakes lined up better and took it for a quick test ride. During the test ride the chain snapped, and so now the brakes work but the bike has no chain! I will have to see if Sarah wants me to help her with the chain. Maybe she doesn't want me to touch her bike again.

Music

For a few weeks now I have been moderately obsessed with the band Placebo. I had heard a couple of their songs over the years but never given them much attention. I was working at the facility that edited the trailer for the upcoming movie "Daybreakers" and overheard the Placebo cover of the song "Running up that Hill" repeatedly while they were editing. It got into my head, and lead me to look into them a bit more. My co-worker Aarin noticed and bought me their live in Paris DVD. So it has been Placebo in the car, on the home computer and on headphones at work. If you like alternitive music, songs in minor chords, and good lyrics, check them out.

Also I picked up the new John Mayer album yesterday, and I am disappointed. There is noting extraordinary on this album. I am a fan and really get into about half of the songs on each of his previous albums, but this one left me flat and unimpressed. The musical arrangements are good, there is interesting layering of sounds but nothing sticks out. The entire album sounds like the songs that I skip in his previous albums. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Hollywood

I'm doing serious work I promise

View

This is the view from where I am working today at the corner of Olympic and Figueroa in downtown Los Angeles

A Good Read

Cliffs Books in Pasadena. Narrow corridors and countless books. I wish I could film a scene here.

Paranoid

Sarah told me yesterday that she has come down with H1N1, the flu commonly known as swine flu.
She was diagnosed after stopping by to pick up a few things from my apartment. I am now paranoid that I will catch H1N1 from touching something she touched yesterday. I bought Clorox wipes and spray and have been running around wiping things down. Most importantly the keyboard that I am currently using, which I know that she used to get directions somewhere. I don't want to come off as not caring how she is feeling, I do but I am also going to do whatever i can to keep from catching the flu.

Beat

Today was a very active day. Work was only 4 hours but I used my free time to hit the gym for an hour of cardio, go to HapKiDo practice, and install Windows 7 on my desktop at home. I am going to make a serious effort to lose weight. I have never been very fat, but I have always seemed to be in the same category of slightly overweight. I want to change that. And with my newfound free time because of less hours at work and no girlfriend, I have no excuse left to miss out on the gym.

About the computer, I got a student upgrade of Windows 7 and have it installed on the computer behind my TV. It seems to be working fine, and thanks to ninite.com I am almost done installing things on it. I have the Placebo live in Paris DVD playing on it right now which is something my Ubuntu install wouldn't do. I have a little more playing to do with this thing but it looks promising.

Double Trouble

Work has slowed down quite a bit. Now I am not sure about the stability of my position. I don't think I would be fired but I may lose my job. This is quite scary for me. I have held this job for something close to 5 years, and now I need to start running the 'what if' through my head. I am going to need a good resume, and perhaps need to start making calls. What frightens me the most is my uncertain set of skills. I have an associates degree and A/V wiring experience. I can write a basic website, and have done some small management on a per project basis. As I think over what my resume looks like on paper, it is not impressive. My real assets are an emphasis on teamwork and the ability to solve complex problems. How do you write that down so that it doesn't look like bullshit?

I have never been one to live paycheck-to-paycheck, so I am safe and secure for a little while, but nobody likes a question mark hanging over their financial future. If I start a job search what do I look for? what jobs am I suited for besides the one I already have? The uncertainty of it all.

My hours have been cut. I am home very early to putter around my lonely apartment looking at the things that Sarah hasn't taken home yet. I was with Sarah for a long time and she is still in my thoughts. I wonder how she is, I wonder where she is sleeping, I wonder when she is going to start packing her stuff out. My present is in flux, my future is in flux. I am afraid and eager. My emotional state is chaotic when I am at home, with little to focus on and nobody here to distract me. I am calm when I am away from pictures, Like the one of the two of us when we went to see Zumanity in Las Vegas, or the picture of Sarah in her hot-pink playboy bunny costume posing with a pair of hooters girls, and here I cannot help but feel the lack. I want to have my space back again but I am also sad that it is over.

Part of me wants to lay down and sleep it all away. Just sit there and stare off into the distance while time does its all wounds cleaning trick. Another part of me says to get out there and get busy. To bend myself to my website project, to turn more goblets, to build a ceramic kiln, to flirt with pretty girls, and to get on with life.

I have never been filled with so many conflicting emotions in my life.

A New Chapter

This past weekend I threw a birthday party for myself and my brother. It was a smash hit and it seems that everyone had a great time.

After the party, the next day, I sat down with Sarah for a much needed talk. I have been brooding on this out for a while and finally had no more reasons to wait. I told her that its not working between us. We went over the facts and the situation. I did most of the talking, but the long and the short of it is that Sarah and I are no longer a couple. Whether we are friends after the dust settles remains to be seen.

For my part, I am not angry or tortured. I have just come to the conclusion that Sarah and I are not compatible for a long term romantic relationship. Our interests do not overlap, our goals in life are not the same, and we do not connect in a very important intellectual level. This makes me sound cold, and maybe I am, but I believe that we are better suited for other people, and that this is best for both of us.

I really have that 'new chapter' feeling. My life has changed. I dated Sarah for 7 years and 7 months and now I have to figure out who I am without her.

Running

Ran tonight with Matt. We ran a 3:1 run:walk. Came in at 32:45 a little faster than last weekend. I slowed a little because Matt was hurting. Gotta push to 4 miles next week.

Short work = extra exercise

I left work a little early today and hit the gym for 30 minutes on the elyptical. Then after a break I went to HapKiDo. I just need to keep this kind of intensity up, and then add in personal projects. I really wish I didn't need so much sleep.

kumquats

My boss has a kumquat tree in his back yard. I check it regularly and there is definately delicious citris in my future.

Wednesday night run

Went running with Brook and his female friend Katherine. A good 3 miles at 3:1. We finished at 33 minutes. This was kind of a tough one proving that I really need to make a habit of running more... but when? I have HapKiDo Tuesday & Thursday Running Wednesday, Friday is for partys... I guess I need to start hitting longer runs on Saturday mornings.

Who will run with me?

A Full Weekend

It has been quite the weekend for me.

Friday night after work I went down to the Yardhouse in downtown LA and had a few beers with a client. Technically he is not directly a client because he is freelance for the company we are doing work for, but he has been full time for a year, and his opinion is important one for most things. We talked about how things are run, and what we think and have done. It was an interesting conversation and I made a good contact.

Saturday I started early with a HapKiDo test. I received my red-stripe-2. This is the last color belt before Black. I will be getting my black belt sometime in the first half of next year. On some level I thought that I would never get here. Whenever I thought about HapKiDo for those years that I was a non-practising brown belt, I felt regret about not getting to black. Now I am fairly certain that I will make it to black and (financially permitting) beyond. After the test I went to the gym, lunch and then caught "Surrogates" with my mom. Her birthday is coming up and I always try and make more time for her.

Sunday I slept in. Sarah and I slept right past breakfast and had a late lunch at Ichima sushi in Pasadena. in the afternoon we went out to Mar Vista to a friend's birthday. It was an excellent party. He has a suspended cloth rig for a type of suspended performing called aerial tissu, that proved intensely entertaining as people of various skill levels gave it a shot. After that came some firedancing. If you have never seen firedancing you simply must find someone who does it and check it out. there were three performers, two with poi (a torch on a chain) and one with a rope with a torch in either end. Lastly there was a performance by the birthday boy's band Windows To Sky. It was an excellent performance. Of particular note they did the entire 15 minute Disneyland Haunted Mansion ride song including the announcer parts. It was a Great time. Happy Birthday Joseph!

Yardhouse Los Angeles

I got a few beers with an editor after a long day for both of us.

A Post About Posting About People

I have once again run into one of those hateful quirks of the internet that can drive a man crazy. Many of my friends have blogs of their own, and of course when you have a blog you post your feelings much like I am doing right now. This allows you to gripe anonymously and get things off your chest. The problem occurs when you wish to vent about a friend who is in your social network or subscribes to your blog. I have recently found a third place where a friend has posted something that I perceive as negative about me on the net in a place I should not have seen it. There were no names and the post was written to not point out who it was about but I felt it was about me and about a conversation I had. I was alerted by a mutual friend as before, and I had to figure out how to proceed. It is a different friend posting and a different friend notifying me each time, so It is not a personal pattern, but a general one.

This is one of the most seductive things about the internet. The ability to anonymously, blow off steam, or offend with no real fear of consequences. Should I be offended when my friends post negative things about me on the internet where they think I won't find them? I feel that it is as if they are talking behind my back. Or is it just a common part of our hyper-connected culture that I need to accept. Is it acceptable to post something behind a privacy filter so that some of your friends can see you complaining about another friend? Or should these things be open to anyone trolling the internet? I am left offended but uncertain as to how justified I am in my offence.

I try to resolve differences in person and with no ambiguous terms. Not everyone is as assertive when they have been offended or perceive that they have offended others. I posted months ago about a friend that decided that they don't like me and would not like to be around me if we didn't have mutual friends. In that case I let the matter go, but in this case I wish to repair the friendship. I enjoy spending time with this friend, we have things in common, and are in regular communication. This makes me feel like the whenever this person looks at me they are thinking "what an asshole" and I care about the opinions of those I chose to surround myself with, and if there is a problem, I want it resolved.

So I got in contact with this friend to talk it out. In the post It seemed to me that my friend was upset at some things I said and I wanted to clear the air and expunge the offence. The conversation can be summed up shortly

ME: I saw this thing. what's up?
Friend: WTF? that wasn't really about you
ME: so we good then?
Friend: we're good <3

Now I'm not sure if I'm still the asshole for bringing it up or emo for getting all upset. Am I in the wrong for peeking into a private post? or should the friend not have posted about me hidden from me? It is very difficult to find boundaries on the internet. Now here I am posting in vague terms about a friend who posted in vague terms about me. So is this just repeating the offence? Damn this is complicated.

Good friends and bad traffic

I spent the weekend driving around to various friends's places to visit. Played boardgames Friday night, drank beer and watched internet funnies Saturday and played Beatles Rock Band on Sunday. I have such great friends, and I had a great time, thank you all (you know who you are). On Sunday I got the short end of the traffic stick. I ran into a closure of the 710-405 interchange on the way out to Costa Mesa, and on the way back I got stopped behind an accident on the 55, and then detoured around a complete closure of the 5, and slowed by no less than 3 other road constructions. Good grief! are ALL of the freeways broken?

Driving through LA

I took this from the 101 freeway north (actually west) at sunset LA

Running

Got back to running at the rose bowl. Its been a while with the fires and my running buddy on vacation. 3 miles 36 minutes at a 2:1 run:walk.

Big Bear Lake

Website Project

I have registered the domain name craftboxstudios.com and have begun writing the html for the site. I picture it being a cross between a blog, a textbook, and a magazine. I am building the framework now, and am open to input. I only have about 4 pages up as of now, but once I get the format figured out I will copy it across to all the pages. If you have any suggestions comment here or drop me an e-mail.

Devourer King

I just bottled my first batch of wine. I am pleased to introduce to you: Devourer King 2009 malbec with spices.

Olivewood goblet

I took off from work a little early yesterday to hit my workshop. This goblet is the result. I think I am going to give it to Sarah's uncle Stan and aunt Kim in thanks for all of the olive wood they gave me.

New Website

I registered a domain name today for my new website project. After about 50 e-mails (no joke) back and forth between friends we finally decided on a name. Now I am just waiting for the registration to finish resolving. Next is getting a host (a friend whose opinion I respect recommended that I keep the host and registrar separate). Then I can begin the real difficult process of building the website. I know that I want a blog as well as individual how to pages and project walkthroughs. Time for more brainstorming and lots of work.

Beach trip

Went to the beach this weekend.

Want to Make

I really want to make a website to bring together all of my scattered interests in one place. To share and collaborate with my friends and with strangers. And for some reason I want to make some absinthe. I think I will need to much new equipment to make it happen. Oh well, I had better focus on my wood turning since Thorin is going to help me cut down the olive logs I have into turn-able blanks. I love making goblets in clay or wood, and now I have a chance to make some more

A beating

Yesterday I went out to my local martial arts supply and picked up some sparring gear. Today was sparring at my dojo, and since my Wednesday running partner rescheduled for tomorrow, I found myself fresh out of excuses. I went in and did a little fighting.
For my first match as an adult I was opposite Jujitsu black-belt. He had clear control of the fight with superior aim and timing despite the fact that he was old enough to be my father. He landed one punch squarely (if not very hard) on my nose giving me a double nose bleed. I retired to the restroom to sort it out. After I stopped the bleeding I had to reconsider my enthusiasm in the sport. I had been fighting less than 5 minutes in a light contact easy manner and already I had my own blood on my gi. I pulled myself together eventually and went out with a green belt (I am what is called a red-stripe-1) and managed to get some good even light sparring. He did at one point kick me square in the balls, bit it was a light hit and I was already a little pumped up so it barely hurt. Last I faced a Hapkido black-belt and we traded punches and kicks in a more easy rhythm. Overall I learned quite a bit. I will be going back but I am not sure when, as I do go running on Wednesdays.

Mead batch 5 Bottled!

Sarah and I bottled our 5th batch of mead last night. It is excellent. This batch had a few additives: freeze-dried cranberries, vanilla, and oak. Since the batch was 6 gallons to start we divided it into a 5 gallon batch with all of the additives and a 1 gallon batch with none. They are both good but i think the plain one is better. It is a bit dryer and I think that leads to a bit more drinkable. This batch is the first one that I have used a filter on. I bought a Jet mini-filter, and it worked wonderfully. The mead is clear and beautiful, and now I don't have to worry about fermentation restarting and blowing the corks. I had 4 bottles of the plain, and 20 bottles of the cran-vanilla-oak (4 of which are magnum 1.5L bottles). I am now going to design the label for the batch. This is probably the best batch yet.... I didn't get the final specific gravity measurement for this batch. Next I have to move mead batch 6 (apple cinnamon) to secondary fermentation, and hopefully to a cooler place than my 85+ degree apt.

No Pain No Gain

I am in some pain today. On Wednesday I did the abs portion of the P90X system and then went on a 3-mile run. The problem comes in where I sprinted the last 150 yards of my run, and yesterday I had a Hapkido belt test. Today my hip flexor muscles are wrecked It is painful to stand and painful to walk. At least I got my next belt.I am now a red-stripe-1 that is a red belt with a black stripe down the middle of it. My next test is for red stripe 2/recommended black belt in two months. I hope to be test for black in February.

Running in a group

I went running tonight with 2 of my friends tonight. First I went over to Friend Brook's apartment. He was doing a P90X arms and shoulders workout (30 minutes) with our buddy Ben then we all did the "Ab-Ripper X" workout (15 minutes) and then drove on over to the Rose Bowl to do a 3-mile run with my running buddy Parker. we did a 2:1 run:walk and came in at 35:30. We were doing too much talking to run too fast.

I kind of like the whole P90X thing so far. Maybe I should try to jump in on this.

Kings

I just watched the first episode of a TV show called Kings. It is excellent. It is about a modern day king and how he rules his kingdom. Check it out while you can it is available on Hulu.com

A Reading

For those of you who don't know... I do Tarot readings from time to time. I did one on myself and on some of the things that have been on my mind lately. If you can read it here it is. Celtic cross 10 card spread

0. the magician
1. Princess of cups
2. 4 of swords
3. 10 of coins
4. Queen of wands (Inverted)
5. Princess of wands
6. The Hermet
7. Ace of Coins
8. The Tower (inverted)
9. two of Cups (inverted)
10 Seven of wands

Another Wedding

I drove down to Fallbrook today for a friend's wedding. He is a co-worker but we get along very well, and would probably be closer if we weren't so busy and we lived closer. I gave them two bottles of mead as a gift. It was a nice ceremony at their local church followed by a reception at the local golf club. I felt a little isolated there because I only knew 4 people including the bride and groom. My girlfriend didn't make it out either so I was just left to watch awkwardly while the bride's friends cut a rug to classics like Living on a Prayer and Thriller.
It was a Lutheran wedding and as I always do in churches, I felt uncomfortable. There was a lot of talk about having Jesus in the center of the marriage, which I found very strange. Even seeing how happy the bride and groom were I am still not sure if I will ever get married myself. I have no religious compunction to get married, and the legal consequences of a failed marriage are horrific. I do however feel the social pull of going through this ritual as a kind of right-of-passage.
Fallbrook seems like a nice town. It is a smallish hilly spread-out place. I really need to make some time to get to know this friend better. We have a good rapport and mutual respect. Plus, his father (and I think he as well) has gotten into making fruit wines, and he gave me two bottles of blood orange wine. They also have a neighbour with about 1500 wine grape vines split between sangeovese and syrah.

Running again

another three miler, This one was at a 2:1 run:walk ratio with my friend from work. We finished in 35:45. I was hoping for faster but oh well. It seems that I have a dedicated running buddy now.

Run

I went for a 3 mile run in Alhambra. 32minutes 45 seconds. I was hoping for faster. I ran straight, except for a couple of red lights. I am finally healed and ready to get back to some good exercise. Now I just have to make time for the gym!

Back To Running

I went to the Rose Bowl today with a friend for a 3 mile run. We took it easy for a 36 minute total running 2:1 run:walk ratio. It went very well and now I have a new running buddy

My Aching Back

It all started three weeks ago. I was doing some work under a desk in a Protools room and I developed a muscle knot in my back. It hurt a bit, but I figured it would work itself out in a few days. It didn't. Two weeks later was watched the movie "UP" and like I do during movies I was slouching in my theater seat with Sarah leaning up against me. When I went to get up I felt a stab of pain in my back where I had the knot, but this time it was much more intense. I managed to walk to the car with a shot of pain with every step I took with my left leg. I was hoping I would sleep it off, but I didn't. The next day was monday and I had work doing much the same thing that started this whole chain off, so I told the boss I got a stunt double to do the wiring for me. I, in the mean time got a massage that I should have gotten at least a week sooner. Unfortunately it was too late for that, and although the massage was nice, the problem had progressed from a muscle knot to a couple of ribs out of place.
It seems that the knot in my back had weakened the muscles enough that when I was slouching with my sweetie in the theater, I put enough pressure to do a little damage. Now it was time to see a Chiropractor. On Tuesday I got on my health insurance's web page and looked up a local bone cracker. I went in that day and he confirmed what the masseuse had said, it was a couple of ribs out of place, the difference is that he could do something about it! He more or less jumped up and down on my back a couple of times, and then attached muscle stimulating electrodes to my back for a few minutes, and after settling the tab, I went on my merry way. My back hurt worse for a couple of hours but then It has been constant improvement. I went in again on friday and got adjusted again. I will be going in a few more times but all is going well. I have been healing except for the jumping up and down with my hands in the air that I did at the VNV Nation concert that set me back a little. I think I will be pain free in a couple of weeks.

Decision Engine

So Microsoft has launched a huge ad campaign promoting Bing.com as the new "Decision Engine" that provides a more contextual result to your queries. While Google quietly develops Google Squared Take THAT Microsoft. Stick to what you're good at......

UM.....


well at least you tried

Back Pain

So now I am in some serious pain from an aggravated knot in my back. I have had a little pain mostly when I cough for about two weeks bun now its much worse. I can't walk without a little pain bending over is out of the question and getting in and out of my car is a careful maneuver. There is no way I will be able to do the work that I have scheduled today so I am going to have to get a subcontractor to do it. I just can't squeeze into the required areas. I am going to have to get a massage today to fix this.

R.I.P.

Grand Master Chong S. Kim, the founder of Kim's hapkido died last week. Even though my Dojo no longer carries his name (we switched to Mile High Karate about 6 months ago) and even though I never met the man in person, he had an enormous effect on my life. He taught Master Les Connard who is the master of the Dojo where I train and it is the Jang Mu Won style that he taught that I learned. His teaching and the sense of family that he instilled in his dojo will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Mead Batch 6

My Girlfriend and I just put together batch number 6 of mead. This one is using Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast which is my standard, 6 pounds buckwheat honey, 6 pounds clover honey, 5 gallons of water, 3 ounces of freeze-dried apples, and 3 cinnamon sticks. The initial specific gravity was 1.08 but I think that was a low reading because the honey wasn't dissolving very well into the must.

Last time I added the fruit in during secondary fermentation(batch 5 with freeze-dried cranberries) so I am interested to see if this is different.

I am not well

I am in worse condition than I have been in a long time. I still have a lingering cough from when I was sick with all that chest congestion a week ago. Every time I cough I get a stabbing pain in my back from a muscle knot that I think I got from working under desks. I am now nasally congested and I can't blow my nose because it will trigger a serious nosebleed that has been haunting me for 5 days now. I need to get a massage to work the knot out and If the nosebleed doesn't heal over soon I don't know what to do.

Sick

I've been sick for about a week now. The only symptoms are a cough and a sore throat. It has been keeping me from running and going to HapKiDo. What a pain

Zune

Today a press release about the upcoming Zune HD hit the web. It popped up on a couple of tech blogs that I read and now I am left thinking 'Will i get this gadget?' I don't have an iPod because it doesn't have an FM tuner and I would be forced to use iTunes. Is the new Zune any better? It has a HD FM tuner and can playback 720p video. It is intended as an answer to the iPod touch but that thing is just too pricey for me anyway. A thought occurs to me. Will it be possible to load android onto the Zune HD. The possibilities there are intriguing.

Long Drive

I just dropped my girlfriend off at her friend's place in Santa Clarita. It was about 50 minutes each way. Now I am tired and need sleep. I have an install to work on and I hit a complication today. I need to run digital capable audio lines to replace analog ones and I need to solve a problem with power cables running next to audio cables for 12 feet. (it causes interference). When the hell am I supposed to pick up that tux anyway, and how much is the 16 pair audio cable per foot, and where is my bill from the dentist that I haven't paid yet and what...

Facebook

Yes I am now on the facebook. I finally gave in when I couldn't see pics from the cool-tastic party I thew last weekend. I find it cumbersome and narrow.

Computer madness

I downloaded Windows 7 RC1, bought a second hard drive, and 4 more Gigs of memory. I am keeping Ubuntu on the first hard drive have installed Windows 7 on the new one. I plan on making a dual boot but I can't get grub to figure out where windows is stashed. Hmm off to the forums I go.

Oh yeah I still don't have an enclosure. With the second hard drive things are starting to get messy.

Running

I was going to run yesterday, I even skipped HapKiDo to do it. I flaked. Today I was late for HapKiDo because I was getting a replacement power supply for my DSL modem, so I couldn't flake on running tonight. I took my usual 3 mile route at a 3:1 run:walk and came in at 32 minutes even. Towards the end the song Coming Undone by Korn came on my MP3 player and really pushed me through the last half mile.

Not what I thought

I went to the Rocky Horror Picture show again a few weeks ago. It was my 16th time seeing that damn movie, and each time with a shadow cast. I have never actually seen the movie the whole way through without a room full of foul mouthed 16-25 year olds screaming horrible things out while a cast capers about recreating the movie. I went for a couple of reasons. Firstly it was switch night, when the women play men and the men play women. Switch night is always fun.

Second was to talk a few of the ladies there into coming to my friend Jeff's bachelor party. It was a laid back affair but I wanted to show him a party with plenty of beautiful women around. It was more difficult than I had expected because I didn't have any help. The fact that I was going to invite my girlfriend's friends but not her got her very angry at me. She refused to help, but she didn't hinder me either.

The night sparked a bit of introspection because for the first time I was there essentially without my girlfriend. She was there all-right but she was mad at me and so was not around me or interested in seeing me. This left me somewhat isolated as there was only one other person there that I was comfortable talking to. I went in with a mission. To gather outgoing and pretty female guests that Jeff had never met for Jeff's Party. I talked to the girl I already knew but not many others. It seems that I am not as outgoing and confident as I thought I was. This may seem kind of strange to some of my friends and completely expected to others. I met with only limited success. I got a couple of bites but they flaked on me the day of.

This brings me back to another challenge to my confidence that I failed a couple of years ago at the same place. I was going to their annual "Animal House" night and I had agreed to let one of my female friends put make-up on me. I laughed it off carelessly until it came time to actually apply the stuff. I got upset and moody despite my earlier bravado. I just couldn't handle the situation and I was moody for the rest of the night. Sensing my mood the friend went incredibly light on me (she is a real sweetheart). I have learned something about myself. I am not as careless and open as I once thought.

This is a sort of disturbing to me. I try to be confident and now thinking about it from a distance I just don't get why I was so upset. Given the place and the time the make-up that she put on me was not even unusual but I got all worked up and avoided reflective surfaces. When I finally saw what I looked like I was embarrassed at my overreaction and at the same time not relieved at the lightness of it. I need to do some serious thinking about what I think of who I am and what I am capable of.

Attitude adjustment

I was recently told by a friend that another mutual friend really doesn't like me very much. My first reaction was to blow it off. I thought that if that person couldn't come to me and talk it out then it invalidated their right to resolution.

Well since then I have been thinking a little bit on it. Perhaps the individual in question is irrelevant and the important part is that I am pushing someone in my social circle away. I am an aware and introspective person and I am am cognizant of my own personality and how it has been changing over the past few years. I would like to think that I am the architect of who I am and that my own choices lead me consciously to be a better person bit by bit.

I have role models the people I look up to. I pay attention to the people who are the kind of person that I want to be, and I attempt to follow their example. One of the things that I noticed these past few years is that people who are witty and even pompous and dismissive of others seem to be well liked. A cutting snarky remark is the new black. I began slowly with a dirty joke here and a friendly jab there until I could judge the reaction of those around me. To all appearances it was working. People seemed to enjoy my antics and I was having some fun cutting loose.

Now I am worried that I have taken the new cares-to-the-wind attitude too far. Have I started alienating my friends with my irreverence? I am proud of my ability to converse with people. I feel that I am good at establishing a positive dialog and opening up communication when it gets jammed. A side effect of this confidence is that I am somewhat dismissive of people who deal with problems by avoiding them. Now I know that I am not going to confront this friend but I am still going to think about their reaction to me.

Another friend of mine has said more than once with a smile and a laugh “you're such an asshole, we love you.” I took this to be amused approval through mild shock over what I had just said. Perhaps it was shock and reproach masked with humor. I will talk to her about that because we have a closer relationship. She has once caught me up when making some racial comments and jokes. I was coming from an attitude of absurdity, but she and others only felt the deep and enduring hatred that runs with them.

It is time to reexamine and see how I am doing.

Running again

I got a run in last night. It has been a while but I was feeling gooe. 3 miles at a 3:1 run:walk ratio and 35.07 minute time.

I Need More Power!

On Saturday the power supply for my DSL modem/router died a quiet death. Now I need to find or buy a replacement. It is kind of strange to be without internet at home. I use he net for so much, from e-mail to television to looking up obscure facts. Now I am reduced to doing my usual online BS at work. Maybe I will get to sleep on time now.

NAB

I am back from NAB. It was quite a two days! This is the second time that I have gone and just like last time I am left with a feeling of just how much I do not know about television. At least I have a couple of leads to go on. I spoke with a new cable company and a new connector company so I can do some price comparisons. I looked into some new (to us) design software called WireCAD. It looks more stable and user friendly than the VIDCAD software that we are using. Now I have to get back into the swing of things back at the office and over at our various clients locations.

Las Vegas

I am in Las Vegas with my company for the National Association of Broadcasters convention. Here I will wander around the convention center with the crew looking at the new professional equipment that we will no doubt be installing this year. It is a positive experience. I get a free trip to Las Vegas and all I have to do is look at cool new stuff and hang out with my co-workers who I like anyway Groovy.

Website UP!!!!!!!

I finally got the website I wrote up and running I am quite happy with it. I learned a lot about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript while I was writing it. I used jEdit to do it all text-editor style. Why do it if you are just going to go through the motions.

Anyway check it out at www.skylitemedia.com

EZ Lube

Here I am at EZ Lube getting an oil change. I am going up to Big Bear to work at the boss's house and I had less than a quart of oil. I figured that If I wanted to get up and down the mountain I would have to get the car serviced. What I didn't expect was to get upsold to an engine flush and radiator service. The fact is that I really needed the work done. My oil was black and so was what little radiator fluid I had. It is a good thing that I checked my oil on wednesday and realized the problem. The solution hqwever is quite expensive. The bill totaled about $180 before he gave me a 10% discount.

I gust got pulled into the bay and shown how bad my oil really was. I am getting a synthetic oil that is more or less clear and the oil that they flushed out of my system just came out black. They are doing a great job of being transparent here, and in addition they have cameras over and under every car that rotate on a LCD TV in the waiting area. I can watch what they are doing from the lobby while I blog about it on their free Wi-Fi. A pretty good experience.

Mobile Phone

I have been thinking of changing phone carriers. I am currently with Verizon Wireless, but am thinking of jumping over to T-mobile to get a G1 and unlimited data service. Do any of you know anything about the T-mobile, the G1 or Android? please kick me down some knowledge.

Crapcakes

As some of you Dear Readers will already know. I am planning a bachelor party for my friend. It was all going swimmingly until tonight some of my plans upset my girlfriend. Unfortunately I cannot reveal what those plans are because my intended target (the groom) reads this blog. But rest assured that she is not upset for the reason you would expect.

Hapkido and turning

As you can no doubt tell from the title, I went to HapKiDo tonight. I almost didn't make it there though. I left work a little early because there was nothing going on , and I got a little time alone with my lathe. I almost missed HapKiDo because i didn't want to stop, and I skipped out on MMA because I wanted to go back. I have a Shopsmith 10ER. I got it on eBay a few years ago for use as a lathe. It is immensely useful as it transforms to be a lathe, table saw, drill press (or horizontal boring machine), and a disc sander. I use it mostly as a lathe though. Tonight I broke it out and turned a wooden cap to go on a metal wine bottle stopper. It is a pretty standard kit but the possibilities are endless because you can turn (or carve for that matter) whatever shape you want to go on top of it. I ended up turning a piece of tulip-wood in the shape of a large Hershey kiss. I will post a picture of it when I have it properly glued on.
This brings me to the idea that has been bouncing around in my head for the past two or so years. I have been thinking of putting up a website about all of the various crafts that interest me. I would post tutorials descriptions and my art. I even had a rudimentary site up for almost a year, but I took it down due to my own inactivity and lack of follow through. The eventual goal would be to get me work making props for movies or something like that. I just lack confidence that it would amount to anything.

Brown Belt

I had a HapKiDo test today. My brother and I were testing for our mid belt test. So he is still a red belt and I am still a brown belt but now I have a black stripe down the middle of mine, and he has a piece of tape denoting that he has passed the test. The new schedule is to test every 2 months and to get a new color belt every 4 months. I am now half way to red. Now we are on to a new set of techniques.
During the test they had a couple of demonstrations. First was a stick fighting demo, and I really want to learn that. Second was a defence against sword attack when wielding a knife, and now I want to learn that. Third was a Wing Chun Gung Fu demo, and now I want to learn that.
So much to learn still.

back to running

I went out for a run tonight. I ran in Alhambra in a 3 mile loop. It has been months since I went out for a run. Sure I have done the elliptical trainer thing at the gym (not in a couple of weeks though) but there is nothing like a good run on hard pavement over actual distance. I feel good now in the post run glow and although my legs are more tired then I expected, I feel like I kept up a good pace. I don't have a watch to time intervals (since I lost my watch and ring) so I just took a few walk breaks here and there but I kept it to a minimum. I need to get back into the swing of running because I weighed myself last night and I clocked in at 199lbs. That is too much.

Las Vegas

My girlfriend and I went to Las Vegas this past weekend. She was running the second leg in the Baker to Vegas relay. So we seized the opportunity to head on out to Las Vegas for some fun.

We left mu place at 5:00am and headed out to the start point for her 8 mile leg of the relay. It was a mostly uneventful ride and the next time I am going to Las Vegas I will probably try and leave that early to avoid all the traffic. The relay was tough, but at least she got to start in the cool of the morning. She ran 2 miles downhill 2 miles flat and then 4 miles up a fairly tough hill. Everyone kept telling us that she got stuck with the toughest leg. After the run I bundled her back into the car and after a quick stopoff back in Baker at the Mad Greek for food we resumed our drive to Vegas.

We arrived at our the South Point hotel at about 2:00pm. We checked into our very nice and reasonably priced room and got showered and changed. I was in a Black Suit with blue shirt and white tie, and she was in a black vintage dress with a red cravat, and a white headband with a giant daisy on it. We proceeded out to have some good times. After some arranging and back and forths we wound up having dinner at the seafood buffet at the Rio and then took in the Penn & Teller show. The show was very cool. They did their unique combination of comedy, commentary, and magic. My favorite part was probably the nail gun bit that Penn does, My Girlfriend's favorite part was the blood and guts during the sawing a woman in half bit. All in all a good show.

After the show we headed over to the Palms to check out the Playboy club. We had a few drinks and headed right up to take in the sights. A little looking around a little dancing and she got some pictures with some bunnies. It is a really cool club (not like I am any great connoisseur). We stuck around there for a while until we were ready to call it a night. One final cap off to the night I got rear ended when just about to make a right turn at a stoplight. It was not a huge accident and everyone is ok, but it looks like I will be getting a new rear bumper soon.

The next morning we packed out and went over to visit the Pasadena Baker to Vegas team at their "Hospitality Suite" at the Mandalay Bay. It was cool and we hung out for a while but we were ready to leave and so headed for the door at about 4:00pm. Nevada it seems, was not ready to let us go and we hit nasty traffic. I decided I needed coffee and a walk around so I stopped off at Primm and dragged my girlfriend to Starbucks and around the outlet mall there. After she was totally worn (she was sore from the run and very sick from a nasty cold she had been suffering from for a few days) out we headed home on a more hospitable road. one long drive later we got home and to bed.

Olive Wood

This picture is of a Goblet I made out of some olive wood that I got from my girlfriend's aunt and uncle. I made 4 goblets from the wood I got when they cut down one of the trunks from an olive tree in their front yard, Well, they just cut down the whole tree. You know what that means. I now have a bunch of olive wood to turn! I took two 2 foot logs split them and sealed the ends. Now as soon as they have dried out at least a little I am going to be making bowls an goblets out of them. I am very excited because olive wood is my favourite wood to turn. It has a dense grain so takes a smooth finish easily, and it has beautiful greyish heartwood with brown rings running through it. It is an added pleasure to work with because of the smell that it gives off when being cut. A spicy aroma that makes working with it a pleasure for all of the senses. This picture was taken at my mother's place where my Shopsmith 10ER is. That is the shopsmith that the goblet is sitting on . It is in table saw mode in the picture, and needless to say I change it over into lathe mode to do my turning. Wish me luck.

Review: Watchmen

I went out to see Watchmen on Thursday night with my brother and a few friends. It was a midnight showing which was probably a bad idea seeing as I had work the next day, but I did it anyway. The movie was good. They did a great job of adapting the novel. The scenes, background, and characters were all very faithfully reproduced. The problems with the movie were few but deadly.
First was the choice to show Dr. Manhattan like he is in the comics. Part of his personality is a certain disconnection from regular human society. One way this manifests is his disregard for clothes. He appears naked in many panels of the comic and so appears naked in many scenes in the movie. The film makers did a good job of limiting the amount of time he is shown naked from the front but they also don't force awkward cover-ups in order to censor the image. I wouldn't have done it any other way, but this limits the possible appeal of the film to more conservative moviegoers.
Another problem that is actually a flaw and not a regrettable reality is the music. The soundtrack includes quite a few good songs central to the times and places where the events unfold. The problem is that it happens too many times. There are far too many music breaks and musical montages where you are almost beaten about the head and shoulders by an iconic song perfectly representative of the era and mood.
Lastly there is a love scene in the movie that is a bit too long. I find that in love scenes the goal is to describe to the viewer the emotions between the participants and then get out of there before it becomes pornographic. So to achieve this purpose you generally don't show more than two positions. This scene had more like four positions and had me thinking 'what kind of movie am I watching here?' I am aware that this is not a rule written in stone as the sex scene in "the Thomas Crown Affair" was sensual and expressive but this one seemed uncomfortable and a bit unreal for the characters.
To wrap up The Watchmen was an excellent movie and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys comic book films or hero films or action films. Just think twice and maybe three times before you bring young children.

Review: Coraline

Sarah and I saw "Coraline" this weekend. It is an animated film about a little girl who finds a door to a parallel realm and deals with adventures there. I couldn't help but be reminded of "Pan's Labyrinth" even though Coraline was much less brutal. It was a good film if a bit predictable. The young heroine moves to a new place and has trouble with her parents, then she finds an alternate world with alternate parents that are too good to be true. (This is not a spoiler because you know that much from the trailer so don't whine) It doesn't get any more original plot-wise but the stunning visuals and entertaining characters keep you interested. One note though. This is not a movie for small children. The events get kind of freakish but I won't spoil it for anyone by spelling it out. I recommend.

Sprain

I went to MMA class tonight(it is Tuesday after all) and succeeded in making my toe worse. I thought it was just a bad bruise before but now I am sure that it is a sprain. It must have happened one of the times that I got my foot stepped on last Tuesday. I was on the mat and when stepped on the toe must have hyper-extended. It fits the description so that leaves me with a sprained toe (or two its hard to tell) on the right foot and the mostly healed ankle sprain that I sustained weeks ago. I really think that maybe I should lay off for a while... But I don't want to.

Blackbelt Test

I attended a black-belt test on Saturday at my Hapkido studio. It was awesome. The precision and technique that these fellow students have is quite a thing to watch. I am now more motivated to reach their level. I want to be that good. There were about a dozen students getting their first degree and then a little bit of exhibition as the higher degree black-belts did portions of their eventual tests. In particular the head instructor demonstrated defence against attacks while in a seated position. Oh man did I feel bad for his partner. This fresh new black-belt was thrown over and over. He got up slower each time and when he was through he walked slowly off the mat clutching his left shoulder. Yikes!

Game Session 4

Last night I lead the fourth session of my D&D campaign. Oh man combat galore. I threw a whole bunch on nasties at them and they beat them back. I really did a more combat oriented game then I wanted but Its kind of how they handled it too. Rush onward! Well I plan on more puzzles next time (and I mean it this time). I have three weeks to prepare so I think I will find a couple of hours in that time to sit down and write something up. Four sessions! its the second longest game I've ever run!

Step Up

It has been a long day. I got in to work on time for once but nobody was there to notice. My sub-contractors were one and two hours late and the rest of the company was cleaning out our warehouse (I use the term loosely). I worked a little longer than said subs and then to top it off I has a conversation with the client about company relations. I may be overstepping my role here. I am not sure if my boss is going to see this as initiative or overstepping. Someone had to step in and get the communication lines repaired. I took on the role because I am the person in charge of the installation and I am the one with my feet on the ground every day (except for the day I was out for jury duty). The work contracts and the communications were starting to get tense and strained, so I opened up the conversation. I started from the standpoint that we, as a company want to satisfy the needs of them our clients. I tried figure out what they needed and what they were dissatisfied with. I think we made some progerss. I am going to try to get more of an advisory role with this client and become their point of contact with our company. I hope it works.

Jury Duty

I am writing this post from the jury assembly room at the Los Angeles Superior Court house. I just got back from a 2 hour lunch break (enough time to drive home, eat, watch an episode of Heroes and get some tea at the local spot before driving back) and now my purgatory begins anew. The morning was a total waste of time. I got here at 7:40 (10 minutes late) and waited. We checked in at 8:30 or so and then waited. We watched a mostly useless orientation video and then waited. We took roll call and then were dismissed at 11:30 for lunch. The court seems to have a strict 12:00- 1:30 lunch break so since they weren't ready for us we were given the time for lunch. Now I'm back and the boredom is already sinking in. I brought a book to read, "Golf in the Kingdom" by Michael Murphy but I am not so interested. I have already read "The Rub of the Green" and "The Legend of Bagger Vance" so I am not so sure I can take another book about the mysticism of golf. I will give it a good chance. There isn't like there is much else to do.

On a kind of zany note there is a TV in here and it is tuned to People's Court. How wrong is that!

Its five am and your are listening to Los Angeles

After watching Fanboys with my girl in Burbank we went to Amoeba records in Hollywood. I wanted to pick up an album recommended to me by a co-worker. The Album is called Ruby Vroom. For those of you who have never been there, Amoeba is a huge music and video store. It is where you go when you want to find something for sure. A side effect of their variety and location is that there are always interesting characters wandering up and down the isles of media. People who are dedicated to a look and a style. I wandered around looking at things for a while with Sarah in tow so she could see. They have all sorts of movie posters hung up high on the walls, and movies and albums a-plenty. So much to see. I found what I wanted swiftly and when I had had enough looking and wandering we paid and left. The first thing I did when I got back to my car is slip in my new CD and cue up a song called Screenwriter's Blues. We jumped on the 101 freeway south headed home.
Listening to that song, on that freeway at night brought together one of those moments that will stick with me. The lights of Downtown after the varied and dedicated folk of Hollywood made me think just for a moment that I love Los Angeles. It is a place like no other. I am not the most traveled person but I have been a few places and Los Angeles offers this variation and exciting strangeness that is intriguing and frightening at the same time. I could spend decades wandering the myriad streets and neighborhoods and never see all there is to see. From harsh and gang ridden badlands to the shaped and pruned gardens of the rich. Some places are cramped and some spacious. Some poor and worn, some shiny and new. I feel that I will have wasted this place if I do not explore it, yet it frightens me. I think I am going to have to go on expeditions with my camera if I have the courage.

Mead Racking

Sarah and I just racked mead batch 5. This was to take out the oak chips. It was about time. I left the oak in there too long. Luckily for us the mead is very sweet and does not seem too oaky when balanced with the sweetness. I think it has a little farther to go ferment because of the sweetness, and with the weather warming up it may get the chance to finish. Sarah thinks it is just about the best mead we have made. I think it is too sweet. I can't wait until its done (yeah a freakin year to mellow out too)

review: Push and Fanboys

My brother and I went out and saw Push on Saturday. It was a cool movie. The plot based around people with special abilities. Movers (telekinetic) Watchers (can see the future) pushers (mind control and memory alteration) and others, and how some of them were fleeing a government organization that aimed to control and weaponize them. Overall it was cool. Except for an unrealistic learning curve and too good master plan, the movie was a neat ride. The special effects were excellent and the powers were impressive. I liked it and found myself wanting them to make more. In all honesty it was a flimsy fantastic and unrealistic story where every character with more than one line seems to have some huge power, but it was fun and I go to the movies to have fun. I recommend.

Sarah and I went out and saw the movie "Fanboys" today. For those of you who don't know. it is a film about a group of Star Wars fanatics who take a trip across the USA to break into skywalker ranch (George Lucas's home) and get a first look at Star Wars Episode one(it takes place 6 months before the release of SWE1). This was another fun movie but not as much as I expected. The trailer has most of the funniest jokes in it and there were way to many shots of trekkies with bad hygiene. In the last few scenes it gets a little sentimental in a way you aren't prepared for, and the characters are tired stereotypes. Overall its a good movie if you are familiar with the movies (as well as with Jay and Silent Bob) and have a good sense of humour about your love of them and if you don't love them are prepared to mock those who do. One thing I didn't expect is that Kristen Bell is actually in more than half of the movie and is kind of funny in that surprisingly hot nerd-girl way. Now if you are still on the fence as to whether to see this move allow me to tip you over. In one of the last scenes Kristin Bell is wearing the slave Leia outfit. The tragic part is there is only one good shot of her and only for about 1.5 seconds. Well its not exactly like more of that would have made it a fine film.

MMA

Today I went to Hapkido and MMA class. It was quite a workout. The normal hapkido classes don't wear me out, but the MMA classes tear me down whatgood. We started by dragging each other across the mat which is more tiring then you would expect when you are dragging a fat lump of a kid with no muscle tone whatsoever so you cant get a solid grip on the boy. It was like dragging a bean bag chair but heavier and wearing a tent.
Anyway that's not the point of this post. the point is that later on while we were doing some take-downs starting from kneeling position my opponent managed to get behind me and flip me over. This is not unusual as I was thrown hard multiple times tonight. I know how to fall and we were on a mat, so it doesn't hurt its just what happens. The worst two falls were: one directly on my back where I was stunned for a second and another where the instructor came down full weight on top of my chest (I felt my spine realign). But I digress. The real surprise of the night was during the take-down from knees drill when one of my classmates basically reached under me cupped my junk and flipped me over onto my back(he was aiming for my leg). I was so shocked I couldn't do anything but laugh. He apologised of course but I was fine. A little unsettled but unharmed. I told him he doesn't get to do that to me without buying me dinner first. Now we are on a first name basis.

Beatboxing

A few weeks back one of my co-workers proposed that the new company slogan for 2009 should be "Cash Bitches" and the boss seemed to like the idea. Today we were talking about selling more gear to a client to remove the chance that the editor would mess something up by pressing the wrong button, and I said "I am perfectly willing to let them pay us more money" to which that same co-worker replies in his best pimp voice "CASH BITCHES!" to this my boss started in one word at a time "Mo... Mo Cash... Mo Cash Bitches... Mo Cash Bitches in my hand..." to this new stimulus, my co-worker starts beatboxing. This continued for another few additions to the mo cash line of thought and a few amusing beatbox squeeks and bumps out of my co-worker.
I was shaking with laughter. Oh man do I love my job

I Hurt

I just got home for the night. Right after work I went out to Hapkido practice like I do on Tuesdays, and I stayed after for the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) class, also like I do on Tuesdays. The thing that happened differently is that I got beat this time. We did more sparring this time then we have before (more than I have done in something like 8 years) and I am now not only tired but also bruised. I have two good bruises, one on the top of my left foot (I went for a kick and wound up getting elbow) and another on the back of my left arm just below the wrist. OUCH!
I really need to learn to block better!

Fudge Fest

Sarah and I just got back from the first ever Fudge Fest. It was a kind of mini film festival set up by PJ Gaynard and showcasing some of his and his friend's projects. It was held at the Rialto theatre in South Pasadena, a neat old single screen theatre from back in the day. It was very fun and interesting to see a bunch of independent productions. It made me wonder if maybe I should have followed that path. I am very happy with the job I have but my stated purpose when I got this job was to get into films. I have all but abandoned that goal. I am now interested in continuing along at work geting more responsibility and more money. I really don't know where that will lead in the long term but it keeps me comfortable in the near term.
The films were mostly good. A great comic series was Bartokular that tragically has already been cut off at two webisodes, and well acted piece was love sick love. Check out Goat Milk Fudge Productions for more details. I hope they do it again and I get to go next time.

Car Accident

This morning my brother got in a car accident. He is fine. The only injury he sustained is a broken left collarbone and some slight scratches. The car, however did not fair so well. Between me, my brother, and our mom we have three Honda accords of different years. this morning the youngest of the three met its match in the form of a one two combination punch from a rather large puddle on the 110 freeway, and a tree. The good news is that Adam is ok and that he doesn't have to go to drill this week. The bad news according to Adam is that this throws off his workout schedule.

Fitness

Oh man...
So I loaded my MP3 player with an episode of This American Life and keyed up an hour on the elliptical trainer now I am totally beat. I hope that hour makes up for the meatballs I had for dinner, and the pizza I had for lunch... Oh man I have to get my eating habits under control. Its a good thing I have a membership to 24 hour fitness because my schedule is erratic. Oh and this is the first time I have gone alone to the gym. I usually go with family or a friend.

sleep now

Guitar

I dragged out my guitar for the first time in months today. I went back to the beginning of the how-to book I have and started over (I hadn't gotten that far anyway). It is cool to sit there and try to make out the 6 notes that I know. I really need to make more time for this thing.
And for those of you that care, Its a strat knock-off made by Ion.

Business cards

I am strongly considering getting some business cards printed. There are times every once in a while that I need to card someone and I have nothing. The boss seems to be waiting on an uncertain personal problem to resolve and settle out mailing address, but I need the business cards to have a phone number, e-mail address and a URL, not a street address. I think I am going to go ahead and print some up for myself with my own info on it for when I need it. This means that I need to think up the design and If I want to mix business with pleasure or make two sets. Also am I going to write up a website again? I had one last year but I never did anything with it. What shall I do?

Workout

So instead of watching the Stupor Bowl with friends or family, even though my brother was having people over to do just that on his Sharp Aquos LCD TV, I took my girlfriend to the gym and hit the elliptical trainer. Now I'm tired! Yesterday before hosting a D&D game I went to the gym with my mother and brother for some weights and 30 minutes of cardio. Today was 45 minutes and just a little weights. It is so past my bedtime!

Oh and I still managed to catch the last 5 minutes of the "Big Game"(as all unofficial personnel must refer to it) what an upset, If I were from Arizona, and a football fan, and prone to displays of emotion I would be crying right now.

The Super Bowl

Everyone gets excited about the superbowl like it really matters. It doesn't. The game doesn't save lives or bring peace to the middle east. Its just a bunch of overpaid athletes scrambling for more money and endorsements.

Ants, Ants Everywhere!!!

Today was the second session of my campaign which I am calling the "New World" campaign for lack of a better name. It worked out well except for a certain repetition. I once again handed over a plot hook with all the finesse of a 17 year old with a hard-on (wow that was unnecessarily graphic). And so the party was off to kill giant ants. 5 hours and 41 man sized ants later everyone made it to 3rd level. A good time was had by all. Now I have two weeks to plot and scheme about the next session. I am thinking that since we spent all of last session hacking apart mindless giant ants, that the next session will involve more thinking and traps. Bonus hint for any of my players who read this: not all keys are shaped like keys.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" review

Today Sarah and I saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." It was a grand film with stunning special effects based around the life of the title character. The central focus of all of the movie's conflicts and plot points is that for some never explained reason, Benjamin is born as an old man, and grows younger over the course of his life. This is an interesting premise, but to build an entire movie on it leaves you wanting. Individually, the events in the story are interesting, amusing, or compelling. Every scene is well constructed and they are emotionally effective in pieces. The great problem comes when one considers the work as a whole. The characters show no great triumph, and no unique insight. In the end it is two imperfect people who share a love that ends imperfectly.
The title character is a quiet polite person with a unique perspective borne of patience and observation. I could not help but think of Forrest Gump, and then later of Joe Black (another Pitt character). In the end Benjamin is a weak character despite his depth.

On a less professional note: when I saw in the credits that it was based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I threw my hands in the air and said "of course, that's why it was pointless" My girlfriend was not amused.

"This is your Captian speaking"

I started DMing my own campaign yesterday. It was fairly successful. The characters seem to be a good mix of abilities, and the players are getting along. We started the game without my brother due to a scheduling conflict (he was in Vegas) but I think he will forgive me. The story begins as the group is asked to slay the monster that is tearing up the vineyards of one of the PCs girlfriend's father. The funny thing about this is that the player in question is a woman playing a man. Her character's name is Richard Turgidson. Yeah she went there. They were successful and are starting to develop their personalties and style.

Parade?

I was in a parade today. The 32nd occasional Doo Dah Parade in old town Pasadena, CA. It was a gas. I put on some brightly colored clothes and wandered down Colorado Blvd with Sarah, Dennis Miller (a regualar at rocky) and a Jester ahead of the parade proper. I was carrying a speech balloon that said "we arent the whole parade" and a "?" on the other side. I just meandered around with the others and whenever someone wanted a picture I would sneek up behind them and put the question mark bubble above their head. It was an interesting experience. After we went through Sarah and Dennis went back for another go while I opted out. I found a wine bar near the starting point and had a drink. Interesting groups include: Disco dancers (30 or so) a marching drum band, and a group of storm troopers with Darth Vader, Boba Fett, a rebel pilot, and a Jedi with Yoda doll.

Will It really?

So I was in Costco a few days ago and they had a Blendtec salesguy giving demonstrations. I snickered to myself and said "Will It Blend? That Is the Question!" as I walked by. The salesman took up the call and repeated the tag line louder and into his microphone. Sadly his general audience didn't seem to get it. Poor sad people may never know the joys of blending an iPhone.

Hapkido

I have gone back to martial arts training. My brother and I went to our old Hapkido Studio and got signed back up for lessons. I have been back three times so far and plan on going at least twice a week. It is great to be back in the studio kicking. I feel energized and confidant. unfortunately I also feel sore and beaten. We have access to the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) classes where we learn striking, grappling, and submission moves. I got a sore neck and bruised knee from that class to go with my sore leg muscles and blisters on my feet from the kicks. In short its awesome.

The Dentist

On Monday I had an appointment for a dental cleaning, like I do every 6 months. It was pretty standard until the last couple of minutes when they started talking about a cavity. The doctor came in to check up on my teeth like he does after every cleaning and said "Yes that's a cavity" in a very matter of fact way.
Damn, so I made an appointment to get the damn thing fixed up. The appointment was today at 3:00pm so I had to leave work early. I raced there and come in 10 minutes late (I budgeted 30 minutes for the drive and it took 40). I sat down and they prepped me and began the drilling. It was a shallow cavity in a molar so there was no need for drugs. I was in the chair for about 10 minutes. Then I paid for my procedure and was out of there by 3:30. That was the quickest dentist appointment I have ever gone through. My dental record just keeps getting more interesting.
My Doctor is excellent.

Mead Batch 5 Move

Today Sarah and I moved mead batch 5 again. We moved it off of the cranberries and vanilla and onto some oak chips. We boiled the oak chips to sanitize them before adding them to the must. We let a little of the water from the boiling into the must to add more oak flavour but I am a little afraid that it was a bad thing to do. We will see if it affects the taste in a few weeks when I taste it. We tasted the mead as we moved it and I found it too sweet and added some water to the must. I hope that the fermentation will restart when the weather warms up and eats more of the sugar, because it just isn't done yet. We left the 1 gallon control batch alone in its container because it doesn't have any fruit to remove and we are not adding oak. This means that we haven't tasted it yet, but if it is anything like it was when we took it out of primary, then it is smooth and maybe a little too sweet.

I am waiting for warmer weather to start the next batch of mead. We plan on making several one gallon test batches out of the next mead. We will probably use wildflower honey from Klausesbees.com. They are local and I have tasted their honey (its good). We will add a variety of things to 5 different test batches and see what works.

Happy New Year

I just got back from a couple of new years parties. I am very tired and a little cramped from trying to make my new suit look good. I have a few new years resolutions so I guess I had might as well share them with you.
1. Go to the gym at least weekly
2. Learn some spanish
3. Learn to play my guitar
We shall see