Friday, October 28, 2005
It's Friday. I'm dizzy. I have no pictures of my cats
...but i do at least have time to post an entry. I'm dizzy because I've been sick all week (and the end of last) - with a cold or something. It started with my ears, and I presume my ears are still involved, since they keep popping, and the aforementioned dizziness. I've been putting hydrogen peroxide in my ears (like my mama used to do) - at this point, I don't know if it does any good, but it feels nice. Funnily, my right ear (which seems the most mixed up) doesn't cause the hydrogen peroxide to react much, while the left one does.
In other news...I had a busy weekend planned last weekend, but ended up cancelling most of my activities because I didn't feel well. I have a moderately busy one this weekend, too - we'll see how it goes. I'm supposed to see some music Saturday night, and go to brunch Sunday and later watch a movie with a friend. None of these are high-energy, which is good.
That's all for now. I'll try to update more frequently in the future.
In other news...I had a busy weekend planned last weekend, but ended up cancelling most of my activities because I didn't feel well. I have a moderately busy one this weekend, too - we'll see how it goes. I'm supposed to see some music Saturday night, and go to brunch Sunday and later watch a movie with a friend. None of these are high-energy, which is good.
That's all for now. I'll try to update more frequently in the future.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Better late than never, better sporadically than not at all
I'm trying to keep up an at-least-one-post-per-week regimen, but last week I slipped. Mea culpa.
As an update from my last post:
Rita - my mom's house was indeed fine (though a tree dropped onto my step-dad's truck), but last I heard they were still without electricity. My mom went to Katy for a few days, and was actually going to come here to stay with me for a while, but it turned out that electricity is coming back in Moss Bluff more quickly than expected, so she went home instead. Not that they have electricity, but apparently they have a generator, and the expectation of lights sweet lights soon, so it's all good (or as good as can be expected).
Lyle - was pretty cool. I got there a little late and left a little early, and the set was only an hour anyway, so I saw maybe 40 minutes of it, but I'm glad I did. I think my favorite song that he did was "If I had a Boat" (read the lyrics. I also went to ACL on Saturday and Sunday, but I have to admit I didn't stay very long either time. It was too damn hot - over 100 degrees both days - and that really dampened my enjoyment. I don't know that I'll go next year. It's too bad, really - it's a great opportunity to hear a lot of awesome bands, but the Austin heat (even at the end of September!) is just too much to withstand. Of course that means it's going to be 78 degrees and beautiful next year, but what can you do? It's necessary to buy tickets months in advance because they sell out so quickly (though I guess I proved that you CAN buy them at the last minute on ebay, if you're lucky - so maybe I'll do that if I have a change of heart).
More news - I've gotten the official word that I'm going to be gamutting (testing for my black belt) in April. It will be almost exactly 5 years since I started training (in April of 2001). I wish I remembered the exact day I started training, I'd request the gamut to be on that day. actually, I bet I could figure it out.
...
.
...
I bet it was April 4th, though it may have been the 11th. I know it was a Wednesday. Well, technically, i guess it was the 5th (0r 12th), since that Wednesday I only watched. It was an advanced class. I remember Joy (now Sensei Joy) coming over to say hello to me, and having to make sure it was ok that I was there (I had emailed Sensei Suzanne that day and asked if I could come, and she said yes). I remember that I got lost looking for the dojo and drove around for 30 minutes looking for it. I remember that someone (I want to say it was KJ, but I don't know for sure) learning that "yoi" (Japanese for "ready," basically - it's said at the beginning of forms) rhymes with "Joy." April 5 2006 is a Wednesday, though. Maybe I can do it that Saturday.
A couple of weeks later, I went in for surgery (to remove my gall bladder - and I wish I had it back), and almost never went back to training. I'm glad I did.
Anyway, I've added gym kata (that's what I call kata I do in the gym - clever, eh?) to my extra-karate training. It looks like it'll be on Mondays and Fridays (and maybe Wednesdays). I didn't do my cardio this week, but I did everything else. And I've eaten better for most of the week. So good news on the health front. Knowing I'm gamutting gives me extra motivation (it really all comes back to karate for me, usually).
What else? My cd player in my car spontaneously healed itself this week. It's been out of comission for over a year (since Jason and Elaine's Baby Shower of Aunt Amy's Bad Luck) - a cd got stuck in it. I guess it's been trying to eject that thing all this time, and earlier this week (Monday I think), it finally did it - just a little bit, but enough for me to grab it and pull it out. And the cd player seems none the worse for wear. Hurrah! As much as I've gotten used to listening to the radio (and learned to appreciate Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, Marketplace, Selected Shorts, Tales from Lake WoeBegone, et al), I've learned that much of commerical radio is crap, and I'm just not enlightened enough to enjoy the jazz and other esoteric music of KUT much of the time. So it's nice to have control over that aspect of my life again.
Aaaand - Agliff (Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival) is this week. I've seen a few good films, and one really bad one. As luck would have it, that was the one that Sun Dragon was spotlighted for. Good exposure, but I had to sit through the movie. Awful, awful, awful. It was done by a local production company, and the acting, writing, and production values were abysmal. Other than that, it was great! I actually saw another film by the same company last year, with much higher expectations, and so I knew what I was in for this time, and it was a marginally better experience because of that. But it was still bad, bad, bad. I'm going to see more (hopefully better - they couldn't be much worse) movies tonight and tomorrow. yay, movies!
And finally, some political commentary. I did not listen to Bush's speech, but I did read it. And a couple of lines struck me as telling.
First [speaking of terrorists]:
"The radicals exploit local conflicts to build a culture of victimization in which someone else is always to blame and violence is always the solution."
and then, later:
"No act of ours invited the rage of the killers, and no concession, bribe or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder. . . Against such an enemy there is only one effective response: We will never back down, never give in and never accept anything less than complete victory."
and still later:
" Throughout history, tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that murder is justified to serve their grand vision. And they end up alienating decent people across the globe."
I'll leave interpreting and analyzing these various statements as an excercise for the reader.
'Til next time...
As an update from my last post:
Rita - my mom's house was indeed fine (though a tree dropped onto my step-dad's truck), but last I heard they were still without electricity. My mom went to Katy for a few days, and was actually going to come here to stay with me for a while, but it turned out that electricity is coming back in Moss Bluff more quickly than expected, so she went home instead. Not that they have electricity, but apparently they have a generator, and the expectation of lights sweet lights soon, so it's all good (or as good as can be expected).
Lyle - was pretty cool. I got there a little late and left a little early, and the set was only an hour anyway, so I saw maybe 40 minutes of it, but I'm glad I did. I think my favorite song that he did was "If I had a Boat" (read the lyrics. I also went to ACL on Saturday and Sunday, but I have to admit I didn't stay very long either time. It was too damn hot - over 100 degrees both days - and that really dampened my enjoyment. I don't know that I'll go next year. It's too bad, really - it's a great opportunity to hear a lot of awesome bands, but the Austin heat (even at the end of September!) is just too much to withstand. Of course that means it's going to be 78 degrees and beautiful next year, but what can you do? It's necessary to buy tickets months in advance because they sell out so quickly (though I guess I proved that you CAN buy them at the last minute on ebay, if you're lucky - so maybe I'll do that if I have a change of heart).
More news - I've gotten the official word that I'm going to be gamutting (testing for my black belt) in April. It will be almost exactly 5 years since I started training (in April of 2001). I wish I remembered the exact day I started training, I'd request the gamut to be on that day. actually, I bet I could figure it out.
...
...
I bet it was April 4th, though it may have been the 11th. I know it was a Wednesday. Well, technically, i guess it was the 5th (0r 12th), since that Wednesday I only watched. It was an advanced class. I remember Joy (now Sensei Joy) coming over to say hello to me, and having to make sure it was ok that I was there (I had emailed Sensei Suzanne that day and asked if I could come, and she said yes). I remember that I got lost looking for the dojo and drove around for 30 minutes looking for it. I remember that someone (I want to say it was KJ, but I don't know for sure) learning that "yoi" (Japanese for "ready," basically - it's said at the beginning of forms) rhymes with "Joy." April 5 2006 is a Wednesday, though. Maybe I can do it that Saturday.
A couple of weeks later, I went in for surgery (to remove my gall bladder - and I wish I had it back), and almost never went back to training. I'm glad I did.
Anyway, I've added gym kata (that's what I call kata I do in the gym - clever, eh?) to my extra-karate training. It looks like it'll be on Mondays and Fridays (and maybe Wednesdays). I didn't do my cardio this week, but I did everything else. And I've eaten better for most of the week. So good news on the health front. Knowing I'm gamutting gives me extra motivation (it really all comes back to karate for me, usually).
What else? My cd player in my car spontaneously healed itself this week. It's been out of comission for over a year (since Jason and Elaine's Baby Shower of Aunt Amy's Bad Luck) - a cd got stuck in it. I guess it's been trying to eject that thing all this time, and earlier this week (Monday I think), it finally did it - just a little bit, but enough for me to grab it and pull it out. And the cd player seems none the worse for wear. Hurrah! As much as I've gotten used to listening to the radio (and learned to appreciate Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, Marketplace, Selected Shorts, Tales from Lake WoeBegone, et al), I've learned that much of commerical radio is crap, and I'm just not enlightened enough to enjoy the jazz and other esoteric music of KUT much of the time. So it's nice to have control over that aspect of my life again.
Aaaand - Agliff (Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival) is this week. I've seen a few good films, and one really bad one. As luck would have it, that was the one that Sun Dragon was spotlighted for. Good exposure, but I had to sit through the movie. Awful, awful, awful. It was done by a local production company, and the acting, writing, and production values were abysmal. Other than that, it was great! I actually saw another film by the same company last year, with much higher expectations, and so I knew what I was in for this time, and it was a marginally better experience because of that. But it was still bad, bad, bad. I'm going to see more (hopefully better - they couldn't be much worse) movies tonight and tomorrow. yay, movies!
And finally, some political commentary. I did not listen to Bush's speech, but I did read it. And a couple of lines struck me as telling.
First [speaking of terrorists]:
"The radicals exploit local conflicts to build a culture of victimization in which someone else is always to blame and violence is always the solution."
and then, later:
"No act of ours invited the rage of the killers, and no concession, bribe or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder. . . Against such an enemy there is only one effective response: We will never back down, never give in and never accept anything less than complete victory."
and still later:
" Throughout history, tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that murder is justified to serve their grand vision. And they end up alienating decent people across the globe."
I'll leave interpreting and analyzing these various statements as an excercise for the reader.
'Til next time...
