Archives: June 2004
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Updated FloodWorld, which was overdue. Added a submitted bug fix, and only one submitted link. People seem to have problems comprehending the statements that reciprocal links are required. And some of the sites either weren't loading at all, were half broken, or just so crappily designed that there was no way to find the information you were looking for. Always handy to have a website to an IRC network that has no information at all about what services and programs are run there...
Broken "Contact Us" pages are also handy.
So supposedly Greymatter is supposed to do things that I've wanted it to be able to do but never managed. Only at the moment it's still screwing up somewhat on that front. There's also a newer version availible, which I believe is now being developed by other people. Hopefully an eventual reinstall will clear up the problems.
The migraine I thought was gone isn't, and that bothers me a lot, not even from a pain perspective. It's more of a low-mid grade headache that's just been a constant bother since Saturday night, but it has stooped me from going to karate on Monday, and will stop me doing so this afternoon too. There's no way I could get through a class like this.
Last week we only had 1 class on Wednesday because the dojo was closed on Monday. So by the time I go back again on Monday (hopefully), my fitness levels will have tanked again somewhat. Feh.
@ 03:03 PM EST
The site I did for Kim Wilkins is live, which is cool and exciting and kind of weird.
Goth.net's a big site, and I remember feeling weird and apprehensive when my first design for it went live back in late 2000... I remember feeling like a bit of a fraud, putting up this goth site that had people all over the world seeing it, and assuming we were experts on the subject and such. The way people react to you when you run or design a site, especially a popular domain, can just be a bit strange. And I felt that way because I was a tad insecure about the design, knowing that plenty of people could design better than I could, seeing as Goth.Net at the time was one of my early forays into webdesign. Etc. etc. I'm not one to pat myself on the back for work well done that easily.
Kim's site won't attract the kind of numbers that Goth.Net does, so it's not super mass exposure or anything. But this is the first commercial project I've done that has gone live. A while ago I did a great design (in my probably quite biased opinion) for a site where the site owner later decided, after having it up very shortly, that he preferred the old site/book's artwork and decided to use the old design instead. And the old design stunk, and I'm not just saying that out of ego... it was riddled with bad outdated code, massively unnecessarily oversized graphics and a shoddy look. At least he paid me some money for the design (not enough, another lesson learned), but it was still a disappointment to me. You want to see your work used and appreciated.
But at any rate, Kim's site is one of the few sites that are out there right now that I've designed for someone else entirely, not as a project of my own or one I'm involved with, or something for a very close friend.
I'm still proud of the result. Though it's often hard to judge your own work, you're too close to it. Having stared at it for days or weeks also means it's not as fresh and novel to you as it is to the outside world, so you get a bit jaded and the excitement starts to leave you. But then it's nice to get the outside feedback, that people think it's incredible. It's always nice to hear, even if you've gotten jaded to the point that you're not feeling it's that super special anymore. Creation seems to take (some of) the romance and magic out of the final project... too much behind the scenes exposure can ruin the illusion. It's something I've seen many people comment on over time, so I know I'm not alone.
@ 03:28 AM EST
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Doing some fanlisting maintenance last night I came across a site and it's blog. I was glancing at the most recent entry in which the person in question was talking about Michael Moore's latest documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 and about Bush.
She managed to complain that she felt that Michael Moore was cashing in on the tragedy, as well as with Bowling For Columbine. Now, I'm not sure if she ever saw how much BFC made, but the $28 million during it's entire domestic run isn't exactly that much to make you a wealthy person in movie-making land, especially seeing as most of that goes to cover costs, and then gets eaten by the studios. So F9/11 is doing much better than BFC, raking in more than BFC's entire domestic run in the first weekend... but still, to charge a documentary maker with "profiting off the tragedy" is a bit rich. I didn't see her indict the cable newsmedia over that, and they surely get revenue from well watched broadcasts, nor did I see her complaining that other documentary or movie makers are profiting over whichever subject they portray in their latest piece, nor did I see her complaining that Mel Gibson made money over Jesus' back by having people sit through quite a bit of graphic torture with The Passion Of The Christ... and pretty much all the profits for that movie went straight into the Gibson coffers, not the studio. I'd say $300+ million bucks is really profiting, don't you?
She also hasn't seen F9/11 yet, so any claims on what the movie does or doesn't do are a bit stupid anyway, and she wasn't planning on seeing it because she didn't want to financially support Moore. Well, she wasn't going to watch it in theatres, she'd wait til the dvd came out and rent it then. Ah yes, principles :P At least he makes less off her renting it than going to theatres, I guess that's all that matters.
To add to that she went on to comment about why she supported Bush... which boiled down to "I have to support my fellow Christ-lover". Err... does she pay ANY attention to US politics? Have you ever seen a president or viable presidential candidate that was not Christian? Outwardly at least. Maybe they don't throw "God Bless America" and other religious reasonings into their speeches *quite* as much as Dubya does, but the vast majority of politicians in office in this country are definitely on the books as being Christian. Though Kerry's a Catholic, maybe that's not the right kind of Christian for her.
And finally, she bitched about the fact that Dubya gets made fun of for looking/acting stupid, and quoth something to the effect of "so he choked on a pretzel, and he's not a great public speaker... what do you expect?". Well, I expect a hell of a lot fucking more from someone who is supposed to represent the leader of the free world, of one of the most powerful nations in the world, and someone who is the public face of a country to its outside neighbours. He's the president for chrissakes, it's part of the fucking job description that you do public speaking! Plus as governor of Texas he already had quite a bit of training methinks. Having him choke on snackfood, while accidental, is just downright embarrassing, much like Yeltsin's vodka-induced stumble at some summit where he had to be caught and steadied by some minder must have been a pretty embarrassing moment for many Russians. But I guess I have to wonder if she's even really old enough to remember that particular news bite.
Personally I expect a little more from my public representation, especially at its highest level like the president. I like them to be intelligent and articulate and not embarrass the fuck out of me and my country towards others. That's their job, that's what they get paid for, and I'm definitely not unreasonable in requiring those small things.
I'm fine with people having reasons for doing stuff, by all means, but it's just when their reasonings are so completely flawed logic wise, like the Christ-lover thing that it gets to me.
@ 03:14 PM EST
Sunday, June 27, 2004
So I thought it was only a headache, but 24+ hours later and the 2 Aleve I took early this evening not even making a dent, it's official... it's a migraine.
And I was exposed to my trigger Saturday night too... incense (sorry verv :P).
Hello MigraineLand, say hello to paracetamol with codeine! and here's hoping it makes a dent.
Oh I long for a Mersyndol. Pity they don't have those over the counter here in the US like they do in AU. Mersyndol is paracetamol with codeine and a muscle relaxant, the one they use in Nyquil that makes you drowsy... 2 of those babies were the only things to get me to sleep the last time I had a migraine, which lasted 2 weeks. It was blissful unconciousness amidst stabbing pain. At least the migraine isn't that severe, but I wouldn't have minded one to help me sleep tonight.
@ 11:20 PM EST
Friday, June 25, 2004
Just a short while ago I zipped up and attached Kim Wilkins' site to an email and sent it to her. So it's all done.
Yesterday I finished the Enemy At The Gates fanlisting which I got PreZ to give me database permissions for earlier, so that's uploaded and the finished form submitted.
So all done.
I spoke to Luna earlier today and she confirmed she'd received the email regarding her site, but time on her end has been short with jobhunting. That's okay, as long as I know things haven't gone astray.
So now it's time for me to re-do the main silentgarden.net site, and to split up the personal stuff and the more professional stuff. The personal stuff, and this journal, will move to the onyx.silentgarden.net subdomain, the professional bit will stay on the main domain.
Having done the site design thing as mostly a lark and for friends, relatives and acquaintances this is a change of pace, and a little scary as well. I'm not expecting it to take off and turn into some flourishing home business or anything, but we'll see how it goes.
With my details on Kim's site I do expect some more exposure. Plus I already have a few other gigs tentatively lined up, for Kit's budding hairfalls business and also for Amber's budding clothing/sewing/design business and another project. So enough to keep myself busy and spread my name around more and more. Those 2 or 3 sites don't have any start date yet, so I don't expect them to crop up very soon, which will give me the time at least to organise my own stuff.
I also need to work on a bunch of stuff for goth.net, of course. I need to dedicate a bunch of time to various chores for that on Sunday, do some art submissions and go through some email/site applications. PHP is still a learning project that's languishing. The book hasn't been so compelling yet, so it's been hard to get through. I need to start making inroads into this. I have some ideas for the new goth.net design so maybe I can incorporate doing both from scratch as they need to build on each other. Promises, promises...
@ 11:09 PM EST
Camera batteries always run out at inopportune moments...
The other day Chestnut was being her nosey curious self, and was sniffing around at stuff in the kitchen like some groceries I'd just gotten and hadn't put away in the pantry yet, when she encountered a plastic grocery bag. She apparantly stuck her head through the handle and couldn't get it off. So I could hear all this rustling, and she wanders out of the kitchen rustling too, trailing this plastic bag on one side and looking very non-plussed. It wasn't tight or anything, just looped over her head like a loose collar trailing stuff.
It was so funny to see. I went to grab the camera to take a quick snap of her looking very indignant, but alas the batteries had gone flat. So no blackmail pictures for the nosey kitty ;)
@ 10:18 AM EST
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
PreZ booked the tickets to LA this morning. After the cheaper fares we found the other day mysteriously vanished the next day, they mysteriously returned this morning and PreZ wasted no time in booking them.
So we leave here on the Friday Aug 20th and arrive there around 11.30pm, and we leave Monday the 30th around 10pm or so.
And now we can start planning what we want to do while we're there. At least if we plan ahead things will get done. Usually days drift by if you don't plan and you always get a lot less done than you thought you would.
@ 11:57 PM EST
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
I like Livejournal, really I do. I probably spend too much time reading it, and there are plenty of interesting people and helpful informative communities around.
However, lately I find myself irritated by a lot of the stuff that comes scrolling by on my friends list.
It seems that there are numerous people who suffer from senility or such, posting quizzes or memes that I know have already circulated LJ once before, maybe months or a year or so ago, which I'm also pretty sure they posted then as well. Most quizzes aren't interesting the first time around, and they certainly don't improve when they come around the second (or third or Nth) time.
Also there are some people who have friended me, whose journals, when I look at them, contain nothing more than the odd post once in a blue moon filled with 30 quizzes or memes at a time. And they're not behind a cut tag either. Ugh. For starters, that makes them seem like boring assholes to me. If your journal is all I have to go on about you, and usually people expect or would like reciprocal friending, then at least give me SOME content to read that isn't generated idiocy. Needless to say I don't friend those back. There's enough inanity on the friends page without knowingly contributing to it, plus it's not like I need more stuff to scroll past without a glance.
Then right now there are 2 Drama Queens/Whores on my LJ. Both consistently bitch and moan about the same fucking problems over and over and over and over. Problems that they seem to refuse to want to deal with or fix. But I guess if you fixed it you probably couldn't attention whore about it so much, could you? Not just that, but the topics were uninteresting to begin with. It's becoming extremely hard to have to look at that shit on my journal without getting irritated at being confronted with the same drama every fucking time on an unnecessarily frequent basis. For them it's time to move the fuck on, or put it behind a fucking cut tag or something. Or maybe it's time for me to cull my friends list. One of whom definitely has been long on the consideration list. Which is the one who has whined the longest and posts pretty much nothing else of interest outside her moaning about life sucking and having it in for her.
Another friend issue is the one where I have a person who has a public and an explicit/private livejournal. The biggest problem being that the public one is never updated, so in order to keep up with that person's life I have to read the explicit/private one, especially as that person's blog was removed from their site (I think maybe in favour of LJ or because of the fact that there is little control over who reads weblogs). But there are very blatant references to that person's sexlife in that journal. No cut tags, no warnings, and then you'll get smacked in the face by random insertions about what style of fucking was engaged in that morning. Now of course it's that person's own journal, and they can post what they like in it, but it puts me in a Catch-22 situation. I want to keep up with their life, however, I just really don't want to know the ins and outs of their sex life, but because of the fact that the private journal is the only one maintained, that puts me in a bind.
Plus I've always wondered at the need to include such information anyway. "We came home from the movie, which I enjoyed, then we did some hard fucking on the kitchen table and then the floor after eating some snacks from the fridge." It just seems so ridiculously gratuitous. Or maybe that's just me and I'm just showing myself up as being a prude or something. Or maybe that person has gotten a taste for exhibitionism, which might be a possibility.
I hope my journal doesn't annoy people as much as some of theirs annoy me. That said, the blog here on my personal site is easy to avoid for those not wishing to read it, not as easy to avoid friends on livejournals. I think the number of people reading this blog are about nil anyway, with Vervain being the sporadic commenter. But even on LJ, I never post ridiculously whiny shit, usually it's just a breakdown of recent events and such. Nor do I rehash the same fucking topic over and over (well, parental crap might count, but usually there's a new problem occuring whenever I bring that up again), I cut posts when it's necessary, and don't confront people with information about me they never ever needed to know. I don't flatter myself into thinking that I post anything that's earth shatteringly interesting or rivetting reading, but I don't think I irritate, annoy, embarrass? people when they read my journal. I'd like to think that people get through my posts without rolling their eyes.
@ 12:28 PM EST
Monday, June 21, 2004
Days seem to be vanishing into this void of uselessness, unused potential. Time's zooming by and I feel that there's little at the end of the day to show for it sometimes. I think it might be time to start making lists, that way I have a set number of things and I can cross stuff off the list as I acheive them. Also it should help me stop forgetting a bunch of stuff that I keep consistently forgetting until it's too late in the day to deal with them.
Another way to waste hours in one's day was this afternoon's expedition into the city, to find the dojo closed. Which is a pain in the ass when it's 45 minutes each way. And a pain because I would have liked to train. Slightly amusing as I've never been a fan of physical exercise or exertion. But I feel better now that we've incorporated regular exercise into our lives... being able to run up stairs two at a time at the train station and not be out of breath at all at the top is so much nicer than feeling out of breath and horrible. It's the small things that make you realise that you're getting more and more in shape. I've yet to incorporate the home yoga tapes though, which I really need to start doing sometime.
My vitamin supplement intake is still a bit patchy, but I'm doing better there. The eating habits have taken a hit recently, and easy foods/take out/eating out have dominated too much, which isn't good for various reasons, notably health and money wise, so I need to get cracking again in the cooking department.
We went to Bed, Bath & Beyond on Sunday and acquired various home essentials... new shower curtain, a blender/food processer (yum, smoothies!), scales, a black vintage 50s looking radio alarmclock for me, a hang up shelving unit closet organiser, a Brita water cannister etc. Money fritters away in that place like crazy everytime we go, so it's good we limit it to about once a year. I also finally got a straightening iron for my hair. I've fought a lifelong battle with trying to tame my hair, and this is another fight in the war. I tried it out Sunday night and I'm happy with the results. It's time consuming to do, but it makes such a difference. Finally I might be happier about my hair when we go clubbing. The frequency of which is once in a blue moon at present though.
Last week we went for eye exams and both got contacts. For me that's nothing new, but PreZ is a glasses wearer of old, and it's all new for him. He's adjusting well so far. I also had nothing to do with his decision to get contacts, mostly because as they are somewhat user intensive in their care and wear, it's something you really need to decide for yourself. We also tried on glasses while we were waiting at the optometrist's office, and this weekend we got our glasses. Or, PreZ got his, mine are on order. They made his up in an hour at the place, mine have to be special ordered as they're rimless glasses. Finally new glasses, after I broke mine back just before PreZ lost his job, which is like 2 years ago now... kind of sad really.
@ 11:25 PM EST
So we're going to LA for a week in August. Even before waiting for PreZ's boss to finish hemming and hawing over whether or not he can get 2 consecutive weeks off, which is unlikely anyway, we've just decided to split it into 2 and save a week in Vegas for another time. The Vegas portion will either be Oct/Nov or even May next year as that's the best time weather/temp wise to be in Vegas according to Vegas native Pam who works in PreZ's office.
Looking online it looks as though some of the large hotels have nifty deals every so often, like the Luxor (the pyramid hotel) has a deal with cheaper room rates ($79/night, for a 4 star hotel, though weekends/holidays are exempt), complimentary 1 day spa access, money off a Midnight Fantasy (topless) revue, preferential seating for Blue Man Group, shopping discounts, America West airmiles and King Tut museum entry. So hopefully there will be nice deals going on around the times we want to go too.
We have kind of decided that if we go, we're going in style. Yes, whilst casually searching I managed to find some place with a $31/night rate with a 7 night minimum stay about 5-6 miles from the strip, which is almost cheaper than many of the mid/higher end hotels' nightly rate, but a vacation is a time to splurge. It's not like every day life is lived in the lap of luxury, so you might as well do it when you go to somewhere like Vegas. Especially in Vegas... with all the gorgeous theme hotels you really don't want to be stuck in a Motel-6. The Luxor is our number one contender, both for theme and the fact that it gets good value for money ratings on sites we've been to. I also spent a while salivating over the various spa options in both the Luxor and other hotels in Vegas... I want a treatment when we go :P
But that's a vacation for a later date ;)
As for the one closer at hand, cheapest airfare we've found comes in at $220/RT/ea which isn't too bad. Travel dates are most likely Fri Aug 20 - Mon Aug 30. Other than that we haven't really looked at week planning for when we're there. The Sunday before we leave is Bats Day In The Fun Park which we'll be attending, I know that the Saturday they have some bazaar, as well as a Meet & Greet Dinner. The Friday before that I believe is Release The Bats, which would be fun to attend.
Mapquest gave about a 4 hour estimate for LA - Sequoia and Death Valley, so we might rent a car and hop up there for a day or two, spending the night in the region and giving our hosts some respite ;) Maybe even 3 if we decide to tack on Yosemite. Other than that, I guess explore LA. The last time I was there was over a decade ago, I was a teen and with my parents, and I think Anaheim, Universal Studios, Hollywood Blvd. and gawking through Beverly Hills/Bel Air was the extent of our stop there, so I haven't really seen much in the area, not even of the "regular" touristy non-theme park crap ;) But I'm sure our hosts can come up with fun things to do around the city of angels.
But I'm sure we'll brainstorm about all that stuff in the weeks/months to come.
@ 05:36 PM EST
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Ever have those moments when you listen to tracks by bands that are really good, but when you remember your first encounter with them you thought they sucked? Must have been a bad first choice of track to listen to the first time around I guess.
Today we headed into the city for the All American Open Karate Championships. Several of the people from our dojo were competing as well, including senpai Eduardo who generally had the best chance of all of them, and who made good on it by coming second in the Men's kumite division. It would have been nice if he prevailed, but the guy he lost to was a lot better in their match, and now won his fourth consecutive All American Open title, so he lost to the best, which I guess is some consolation. He also got an award for best technique, which was justly awarded as technically he was a much nicer fighter to watch.
I think the best match that I watched was the women's middleweight final, which a Canadian fighter won. She eventually also won against the heavyweight champion and lightweight champion to become Open American champion also. It's interesting to see the difference in the way people fight depending on weight, it seems to work the same way... the heavyweights often end up just being more stationary and pushing people around with their weight (or bosom if they're women), the lightweights have a lot of technique and get many moves and kicks in, but often lack in the strength and stamina department, and the middleweights seem to have the best of both worlds. More power than the lightweights, and much more agile than the heavyweights. The Canadian really kicked ass... she was so hyped before each match and dominated them, executing a load of kicks, many of them very successful. There also seemed to be a marked difference between the men and women... the men seem to punch a lot more and the women kick more, as a result I found the women's matches more interesting to watch, because quite a few of the men's matches ended up looking like close quarter boxing type fights.
PreZ and I got lucky there as well, winning in the raffle. All tickets were automatically entered. Alas we missed out on the 2 plane tickets to Japan, but we did win a $100 sportsbag/goodybag full of stuff, supposedly Japanese food. Should be interesting to see what's in it when it arrives, as they're mailing it to us. Considering we never win a damn thing I was quite surprised.
@ 11:22 PM EST
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Our original plan was to go back to Australia late this year (Oct/Nov) for 3 weeks or so. It's been 3.5 years now since we left, so it would be nice to visit again. However, there's a change in plan.
We were looking at airfare, and even the cheapest fares we could find still totalled about $2600 for both of us to fly to Oz. And that's just the *flight*, let alone anything spent while we're there... even though we'd most likely have people we could crash with in Bris, Syd and Melb, we'd still be looking at several hundred bucks easily in various spending monies. It also makes sense to see this country while we're here, especially as we already know our time will be relatively limited, and trips back here are going to be expensive once we move back and decide we didn't really see the things we wanted to etc. Plus $2600 here would already give us a nifty vacation, much more than just seats in planes and airline food.
So we're sticking to this side of the pond. We threw out some feelers on the GN forums which basically just made it easier for us to plot the course we wanted to go anyway. With offers of lodging (and board, and most excellent company who double as guides) in Hollywood itself, L.A. seemed like a prime destination for a visit. Also August carries the promise of Bats Day in the Fun Park where goffs hit Disneyland up for good times. I had been sorely tempted by the idea last year, but money was tight yadda yadda and it never eventuated. This year it just might.
So when PreZ and I were originally batting around North America ideas, L.A. and Vegas were the two places we wanted to go to, as well as a number of the national parks that are in the region. Ever since I visited Sequoia/Kings Canyon N.P. in 1993 (as a teen with parental units) I've wanted to go back, I loved Sequoia, it was such a quiet and beautiful place. Mapquest tells me it's about 4 hours or so from L.A. so that's doable, ditto Death Valley National Monument, which is up that way anyway. And then of course there's the cornucopia of National Parks in the NV/AZ/UT area, many of which are relatively attainable from Vegas. Zion Canyon N.P. and Bryce Canyon N.P. are places I'd love to go back to, as well as the almost standard trip to see the Grand Canyon.
And Vegas has Cirque Du Soleil. 3 different shows. That's a no-brainer on the entertainment scale ;) Plus it would be nice to visit Vegas as a mature adult who doesn't have restrictions placed on her. And hotels there change so frequently, that in the 11 years since I was there last many things will have changed a lot. For starters they were still building the Luxor when we were there. And Vegas wasn't yet so family oriented with all the theme parks and things to do.
So we narrow down a date range. 2 weeks in August, coming back on the Monday the 30th (Bats Day is on the Sunday), so we can be back in NYC for the Drop Dead Festival that following weekend (an event I really hope our Hollywood hosts will be able to attend, and have us play host to them that time instead). And PreZ put in for leave at work.
And of course there's a spanner thrown in the works by his job. His boss doesn't think he can take off 2 consecutive weeks. As PreZ already mentioned for us as people who've lived and worked elsewhere, it's already ridiculous that you only get 2 measly weeks vacation time (generally speaking) in this country, the fact that he now gets told he can't even have them consecutively is basically just insult to injury. Because he works for a very small company, where he is at the moment essentially their only programmer, he's a precious commodity, and they don't want to spare him, even for his first real vacation he's had since we moved her in Jan '01.
Ugh.
His boss is currently pondering whether or not he gets the 2 weeks consecutively, or whether we have to split the trip. It's even more frustrating when you realise that vacation time doesn't carry over to the next year, which we found out late last year. At the behest of his boss no less, he scheduled a bunch of time off just before the new year, which all got cancelled because it was so busy in the office. So technically his work owes him vacation time because they cancelled his vacation on him late last year too, and now they're pulling this.
The obvious downside to splitting it is the fact that we'd have west coast airfare twice. That said, there is also a slight advantage... we gain a few extra days, due to the fact that we'd have an extra weekend. If forced to split it, then the Vegas portion would obviously be the one to be shifted to a later period. Weather wise that would work out too, as the desert is generally bloody hot in summer, and is likely to be much more pleasant later on in the year. And if shifted to an off-peak season we might be able to pick up some nifty air fare rates.
But we'll see what the verdict is first.
@ 08:08 PM EST
Much as I love the place we're living in now, I frequently entertain the idea of moving closer to the city. Especially on Monday's when the added half an hour of kata class and the usual 45 minute train trip with assorted other subway/walking transit and waiting time means that we don't get home until 11pm.
I do love our current apartment. Our landlord and lady are lovely people who are friendly and helpful and will fix any issue as soon as it comes up. The place is spacious, clean with modern appliances and the polar opposite of nasty or dingy or roach infested or whatever other issues you generally encounter when forced to rent. The location is great with a short walk to the train station. But that damned commute into Manhattan bugs me. And I'm not even the one who goes into the city most days, PreZ is. Even though it's only a 45 minute train trip, or half an hour (traffic willing) by car (not that you do that during the day with the exhorbitant parking fees in Manhattan) it's just offputting, mostly also the 1 train an hour that adds to the aggravation. At least subway trains come much more frequently.
The reason it comes up is because of our currently twice-weekly karate classes, a number we'd both be willing to increase, but there's that commute thing again... though it's not an issue when PreZ goes into work as he works in Manhattan. Then there's the cost of travel. He has a monthly train pass anyway, but I don't. At least 10-trip tickets take the edge off full fare, and I don't spend enough to warrant a montly pass (yet?). However, just subway fare would be a lot easier on the wallet.
Of course I doubt the savings in transit costs would really make much difference when in exchange we get 5-burrough rents and utilities (our current utilities are included). And then of course there would be the headache of finding a decent place with what we want and that isn't dingy and disgusting, otherwise flawed or a big step backward from what we have here.
And so we stay put, and I bitch and moan about travelling into the city and entertain flights of fancy of moving closer to Manhattan.
@ 01:37 AM EST
Monday, June 14, 2004
Much as I enjoy the furry company of a cat, I think this might be the last time we cat-sit Chestnut. Not because she's not a personable kitty, she really is, but I hear the agonising sound of cat-nails-in-couch way too often. Even though I've reprimanded her on numerous occasions when I've caught her doing it, I still hear her doing it when I'm in another room and not watching her.
Our couch is starting to look quite ghetto at this rate with little ripped up fabric loops all over it. Not that it was super expensive furniture to begin with, thank fuck, but still, this is way more wear and tear than it would normally be facing.
@ 11:09 AM EST
Saturday, June 12, 2004
The site for Kim is pretty much all done. All content has been added, changes made, etc. I'm just waiting on her to okay the whole thing and to see if there's anything she needs changed or added as a final thing before I zip the lot up and send it to her.
I'm very happy with the way that it turned out, it's a lovely clean design. Though it's always hard to look at it very objectively towards the end of a project because you've been looking at it for so long you start to get a bit bored with it, jaded. Or at least I do, but then I've always been someone who had to rearrange all the furniture in her bedroom every few weeks because it would get to me. Ditto personal site designs, though they usually last longer than a few weeks, mostly because mostly I do like them a lot and I don't want to replace them so fast (and sometimes Real Life (tm) throws a spanner in the works and makes it so you don't have the time to re-do things).
I did create the subdomain (onyx) that is going to house my personal site, as I make the main domain more design oriented in an attempt to step this webdesign thing up a bit from solely a personal hobby to what I'd like it to be, something more professional. It's kind of scary seeing as I feel it kicks up the pressure a few notches, but when I see what some people offer as webdesign-"talent"-for-hire I remind myself that at the very very least I can do what they do, and at most a hell of a lot better. Plus as I'm adding my site/contact details to Kim's site, per her request, and as her site probably gets its fair share of traffic, I need something more professional looking than what's on the main domain now. The projects/portfolio section is in dire need of updating as well as a reorganisation as it's not easy to peruse at present.
Currently I'm working on the Enemy At The Gates fanlisting, which is late, which has never happened to me with a fanlisting design. This past month has flown by so fast I can't believe I didn't have time to get to it earlier. I should have that done maybe by tonight, more likely by tomorrow, dependant on how fast I get the graphics stuff sorted out.
@ 12:32 PM EST
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
PreZ and I are now in posession of orange belts.
As such, we took our first kata class after the regular all students class. Back to feeling like a fish out of water when loads of new different things get shown...
@ 10:21 PM EST
So Saturday, after a mere 5 or so hours sleep, and then a trip into NYC followed by 4+ hours in the dojo doing the promotion test, we headed back home again. A plan had been hatched earlier in the week to go see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with Kit for his birthday. I was happy to be informed that he'd drive up here, we have more entertaining space than he does, and after that exhausting day I'd already gotten to the point where I was bribing PreZ to go out anywhere.
We headed off to Applebees for some dinner, and desserts-to-go for later, then watched a couple of episodes of Coupling's second season before heading off to see Harry Potter. Coupling just seems to get better and better. I love that show, it's so damn hilarious.
I really enjoyed HP a lot. The movie felt a bit rushed, but that's because of the amount of storyline they had to cram into the 2 hours and 20 minutes of movie. All in all they did a good job of getting it all in there without having to cut too much, and whilst maintaining a fairly tight plot. There were a few small things that irked both PreZ and myself, little things that could have used a few moments of explanation, that should have been explained, but weren't. Nothing major in the scheme of things.
I found that Michael Gambon's Dumbledore worked for me, much more than I thought it would, as initially from the trailers I really had to adjust to the difference in actors/appearance/mannerisms/voice. He still had the all-knowing vibe only it was shown in a different manner, much more straight forward rather than the ultra cryptic way that Harris would do things.
From interviews in a Making Of I've seen, the differences between Richard Harris' Dumbledore and Michael Gambon's were on purpose. They specifically changed Gambon's Dumbledore so that it wouldn't just be a pale attempt to step into Richard's shoes, which wouldn't have been possible anyway. So Gambon gets to put his own stamp on the character.
Gambon was more dynamic than Richard Harris, which also seemed to fit this film better, because that was a lot more dynamic than the first two. Not that nothing happens in the first two movies, but there seemed to be much more momentum of events in the third movie than in the previous ones, and I think that the director also captured this well.
I felt this film was more realistic, due to the the more gritty portrayal of the world. Harry's neighbourhood was more tangible, as was London, rather than the atmosphere of childlike awe and wonder that surrounded the first two movies. This really felt as though the magical world was integrated into the Real muggle world, the one as we know it, rather than a more fantastical real world which was portrayed in the first two movies.
Very enjoyable. It was also interesting to see how much the kids have changed. In the first two movies there wasn't a huge difference, but now most of them have really been vaulted into puberty, and that was amusing to see.
I've read rumours that they might have to replace the actors with younger versions to maintain the proper ages with the storyline, but personally I hope they don't do that. The casting is spot on, and they have such chemistry together. Plus if US tv can show us 20 and 30 somethings playing teenagers in school (and quite unbelievably so in most cases), then I think we can deal with kids slightly older by mere years.
From looking on imdb.com I see that Alfonso Cuaron won't be back for The Goblet of Fire, unfortunately. According to that listing filming started in March, and the director is Mike Newell who directed Mona Lisa Smile, Pushing Tin, Donnie Brasco and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
After the movie we had desserts, tea and watched some more Coupling before Kit headed off around 4.30am or so. A good yet exhausting Saturday.
@ 09:51 AM EST
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
Whilst reading an article recommending specific summer reading on salon.com I came across this snippet about Kings of Infinite Space by James Hynes. And while the general premise of the novel isn't one to really entice me, this one sentence in the review made me giggle and almost reconsider...
"And to top it off, he's being haunted by his ex-wife's dead cat, a phantom that bites his toes in the middle of the night, restricts his TV reception to cat-related programming, and stinks up his apartment with spectral piss."
The thought of ghostly cat revenge just tickles me.
@ 10:30 PM EST
Monday no promotion test results back yet at the dojo, supposedly Tuesday, so we'll see those when we go tomorrow/Wednesday. Tomorrow will probably be torture as they're forecasting 92F, and the dojo has no AC. I hope they turn the fan on, not that that alleviates much. It's NYC, so there will be humidity too, argh.
I braved the mall today to find some new tshirts and socks, which I managed. The mall was also blissfully quiet, unlike the usual madhouse we encounter on the weekends. I also picked up some summery shoes as well at Payless. 2 pairs for like $25 total, so even if they only last me until the end of the summer that's fine, but they're a bit cooler than knee high Docs. Now I need to paint my toenails for one pair of them ;)
@ 10:10 PM EST
Sunday, June 6, 2004
Saturday was our promotion test at karate. A 30 minute written test, and a good 3 hours or so doing warming up, basics, kata (forms) and kumite (contact freefighting). I was knackered, and still am a bit. Part of the basics stuff included the particular joy of doing 150 mawashi geris... roundhouse kicks, at face height. Now, we've done up to 100 twice or so, but 150 was a novelty. A painful one :P And I can't say my leg was remotely face height when we hit 150. I can't wait for my general physical condition to improve some more.
The 100 push ups were fun too. Full pushups, all the way up, and all the way down. Not that anyone made it to 100 (which is the minimum requirement if you ever want to get your blackbelt) but they wanted you to keep score. I was having enough issues with just getting my body off the floor so I had no idea how many I did, I told him 20, but that was probably very generous. Suffice it to say I have no upperbody arm strength. And the rolling pushups we do as warming-up/basics usually definitely don't target the same muscles. Must start practising at home so I can at least beat the 20 next time.
I'm also glad the weather was quite cool that day as well... I think I would have passed out if we'd had the heat and humidity of earlier in the week, or 2 weeks ago (when it hit like 90F). You also don't get any breaks during class or promotion tests, so you can't just run off for some water or anything either.
The white belts got to sit down through part of basic once they started doing the more advanced punch/block/kick combinations. Then we got to join in when we went onto kata (traditional sequences of blocks/attacks). After doing the basic kata, the white belts got to sit at the sidelines, as they started doing more advanced kata. The more advanced, the more of the lower belts got to sit down. You're required to know certain kata for each belt level.
Yellow and green belt kata was interesting. During one of the kata sequences the shihan wandered by each person and hit them with a large stick, about the size of a samurai sword. Because the stick was comprised of several pieces of wood (bamboo I think) it made a hell of a lot of noise on contact. Quite intimidating to see when that's your first promotion test :P Though there's a good reason for it... that kata has specific breathing and stances in it which requires you to tense the appropriate muscles, and he was testing to see how tense the muscles were, and whether the legs/arms/stomach/back were immovable under the blows, rather than you just lightly holding your stance.
Last but not least, freefighting. Supposedly light contact, but I guess "light" doesn't mean the same thing for a lot of people. Though the higher the belts, the more full contact it becomes. As a white belt you only had to spar once against someone of the same belt colour, and usually they pair you off with the same gender also. The higher your belt, the more fights you had to do. The current director of the IKO Kyokushin once did the '100 man kumite' which is 100 fights with a fresh partner, done consecutively. Right now the amount of effort that would take just blows my mind.
I'm sporting a nice new bruise on my right lower arm, about an inch from the one I got on Tuesday from holding a bag when we were practising certain axe kicks. So there's pink/purple and yellow/green/purple blooming. At least the one on my right upper arm is faded to the point of barely being visible... otherwise I'm going to really start looking like a victim of domestic abuse or something.
We should hear whether we passed on Monday or Tuesday, though one of the black belts mentioned to PreZ that white belts nearly always pass. I think I did pretty well, I was horribly nervous before and during, mostly because I hate doing stuff in front of a group of people, and of course this was a dojo full of people, at turns completely focussed on just a few people (especially during sparring), and one of those few could be you. Public exhibition really isn't my thing.
And now you probably know more about kyokushin karate than you ever wanted to ;)
@ 03:54 PM EST
Thursday, June 3, 2004
So if Dr. Phil is leading the way in weightloss with his tv show weightloss campaign, and book, and no doubt other related merchandise, why is he so fat? I mean, if you're going to admonish people about their bad lifestyles and flabby asses, and motivate the country to lose weight, you can't exactly be sporting what looks to be at the very VERY least a good 50+ excess pounds and a second chin.
The media's hypocritical attitude to weight is also annoying me to tears. Every time I stand in line at the supermarket I catch a glimpse of those gossip rags which always complain about stars' weight. There's a constant media pressure to look thin and beautiful, and if you have 10 extra pounds there's almost an extra issue released to talk about how much this or that actress is "letting herself go", yet now they harrass the Olsen twins and Calista Flockhart and various others for being anorexic and too skinny. Then, on the very same cover as where they're claiming Kelly Ripa is too skinny, they have pictures where they complain that Lisa-Marie Presley is so overweight, coming in at 150lbs with her 5'3" stature. Okay, maybe 150lbs isn't that ideal if you're very short, but I mean, it's not as though she's the size of a whale at a mere 150lbs! It looked like some extra butt, thigh, chest and tummy padding at most, not layers and layers of blubber which would make it hard for her to walk through a door without going sideways.
It's no wonder people have such fucked up weight issues, when you're getting too many conflicted signals.
@ 05:35 PM EST
It's interesting having animals in the house again. I forgot how amusing it can be to have animals wandering around. Chestnut had some fun last night sitting in a corner going randomly nuts... jumping after her own tail, pouncing at the door jamb and trying to open the door to the bedroom, and randomly bouncing around in circles.
She'd come by for the occasional cuddle while we were watching tv, and while we were having pizza, with her eye on the pizza the whole time. Though she did not get any ;)
Other than that she'll generally curl up and sleep wherever we are. Yesterday afternoon when I took a nap she napped at the foot of the bed. If I'm at my desk she's either asleep on the red plush star-shaped pillow that's on the floor next to my desk, or, like right now, she's asleep under my desk. Sometimes she'll sleep next to PreZ's chair if he's the only person in the room.
This morning she watched the world go by from the living room window, so I cracked it open for her so she could get some fresh air and hear some sounds. The window is covered in a metal flyscreen, so she's not going anywhere.
Last night she got on my nerves a bit. I'd left the bedroom door open because I knew from last time she stayed here (a year and a half ago) her first night she decided to do full bodyslams against the door along with lots of wailing, because she was disoriented and lonely and she doesn't like closed doors. Only last night, at about 5am, she decided to wander around in the closet on top of noisy plastic bags, and noisily wander around the wooden ledge that goes around half the room, so I evicted her. I don't deal well with interrupted sleep... I need it to be quiet so I can get some decent shut-eye. Luckily we didn't get a repeat of her previous stay's first night... other than a few small wails and some pawing at the door she didn't get too noisy, and eventually wandered off to sleep somewhere else.
@ 01:41 PM EST
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
All sore. Mostly from the fact that we did karate on Tuesday and Wednesday. We generally never do concourrent nights, gives some recuperation time as well... plus Tuesday's class had kicking practise with pads, and the pads get awfully heavy when you have to hold them at shoulder height or higher for quite a while with someone bringing their leg down on it pretty hard. I'm sore not sleeping too well last night didn't help either though.
I have a nice new bruise on the top of my right underarm to add to the collection ;) It's kind of faint, but a nice pale purple shade.
Saturday's promotion test looms, and I'm somewhat nervous. We paid the money for the test today, so that's an additional $70 (each) incentive to do well. The weather looks like it'll be okay on Saturday... 22C and partly cloudy, so hopefully not too sweltering in the dojo.
Yesterday I also found out why Nancy, one of the other white belts is so surprisingly good. I knew she'd done karate before, but I didn't know she used to be a third dan blackbelt. Which means she'd outrank the senpais that usually teach us. She used to do a related style of kyokushin. There were some splits in the organisation, many dating back to 10 years ago when the founder of the style died and not everyone agreed with the successor. Politics in sports, fun stuff. Not my bag really, as long as the place I'm studying teaches well, I'm happy.
Saturday the 19th is the All American Open Tournament in NYC. PreZ and I are thinking of going to that. I'd love to go all day, but PreZ has skating in the morning, so we won't be able to leave here until noon or so, which still leaves us most of the day programme, and the finals, so all's well.
PreZ and I now have a kitty and a bird. Pet-sitting for Cherie while she's off road-tripping. Luckily Chestnut's generally not a handful, and Zen usually only gets excited when the taps are running within earshot leading to much animated chirping.
Tomorrow a sport free day, though I guess I should finally try out one of those tapes and get some stretching going. Friday is yoga. Hopefully it won't leave me sore or tired for Saturday, last thing I need is for that day to be one where I don't feel 100%. Of course now I'll have issues sleeping the night before ;) I already had a weird dream this morning in which I was forgetting all the punches, blocks and kicks. Argh.
@ 09:31 PM EST