Can't ... look...away...

Generally when I work on Architecture projects (like I am tonight) I watch Netflix on demand movies.

I've worked my way through a passel of documentaries, the entire first season of Heroes, and every Sci-fi film in their meager online available library.

Tonight I was in a strange mood so I started watching Mulva: Zombie Ass Kicker!

I have actually paused working on my project (but still watching this movie) to type up this post.

I have discussed before some really bad movies.

This is a whole new strange world of badness.

Their tagline is "Low Budget films: Better then suicide."

I'm not so sure.

I mean, it actually makes Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter look high budget and professionally acted.

YE GODS AND SMALL FISHES!

Sorry. Bit of liveblogging. This film contains most scarily dirty, depraved sexual suggestion I have ever heard. All without using a single profanity.

Dare I reproduce it here?

Okay, I will, but it is not for the faint of heart... or the vivid imagination.

Still here?

Really?

Why?

You can skip ahead.


Here it is.

Speaking: Crazy Kinky Lady wearing football shoulder pads adorned with antlers and a fur cape:

"Oh Jimmy-hat. It's time to come please me with your rendition of the Styx classic "Mr. Roboto" whilst you rub my bleeding hereafter."

I'll let that sink in for a bit as I go scrub myself with some caustic chemicals.


That is just a tiny little sample of how strange, surreal, depraved and painful film this is.

It also contains a main character so obnoxious as to make Jar-Jar Binks look like a good choice in ANY film.

And yet... I can't stop watching...

*Edit*

OMG. There is a sequel... it was actually worse then the first. But in completely new and different ways.

Good News...bad news...

Good News... The exacto blade I dropped into my lap doesn't require stitches. I think.

Bad News... I dropped an exacto blade into my lap.

Ow... ow... ow...

*gasp*

Real... good...

*cough*

Kenpo... class...

*wheeze*

Sparring was ummm... long. It's a joy to be sparring but it sucks to be so out of shape. Also, I kept blocking the instructor's punches into my left wrist, which inexplicably hurts now...

Naturally, we worked on more techniques as well, one of which starts with you smacking the opponents grabbing hands with an eagle beak strike.

It hurts.

A lot.

They let go. (I did.)

Must shower and then die.

A little slice of ...Heck?

I found a book of postcards including the oubliette where I spend M,W,F.



Please note the helpful labels in case you are confused about our place in the hierarchy.

Orange Belt update. (Oh... and doggy opera)

Even though I am only two class session into the new belt we have already covered over half of the new techniques. Sensai seems really pleased with the speed that I'm picking them up.

Frankly, I suspect it because most of the techniques are just variations of the preceding belt or similar to techniques I learned in the other Kenpo style I studied.

Also after sparring session my instructor said that my aggressiveness, situational awareness, and technique were at green or brown belt level... my speed, stamina, and accuracy were about orange. He also said as I continue he expects that will ramp up swiftly as I get into better shape. Oh, he also has noticed that I've lost weight. He's the first person to notice... mind you he's been seeing me every week for 6 months whereas most people down here haven't.

Lastly, and most pleasingly, I have made a permanent mark on this style of Kenpo. A knife disarm I learned in my Tang Soo Do days is the center point to a new Green belt technique named broken reeds. Also a wrist escape I shared with my instructor may become the Anvil variant B.

~~~~

As I was typing this Sarah Brightman was playing fairly loudly on the stereo. I realized that there was some weird crooning noise coming from near my elbow, and when I looked down there was my dog; her head tilting to one side and then the other staring intently at the center channel speaker and crooning in harmony to the opera.

Weird dog.

Another Deadline... another sleepless night

Good News... my revised drawings are done after only... um... (math is hard) 15 hours or so.

Bad news... if I go to sleep now I get 30 minutes of sleep before I have to get up to get ready for class.

Worse news... Thus far this week I have got to sleep Wednesday night... and that it. Well... actually I got about two hours of sleep Monday night, but I was coughing so hard it was not restful. Anyway my time sense is completely screwed up at this point.

Also, I think it is safe to say I am in a seriously grumpy mood.

Public Service Announcement.

This is a reminder that sleep-deprived architecture students are not to be using the razor sharp kitchen knives.


This message is brought to you by your friend "Lefty" and the number "Nine."

Model done

It only took me 13 hours and 25 minutes to completely redesign my project from scratch and build two models.

That leaves me 10 minutes to sleep until my alarm clock goes off and I need to get up and shower.

But I should have almost 2 hours after class to study for my math test at 2:00... and then I get to sleep after that.

P.S. thank god for Mozilla's on screen spell check... there were 11 misspeellings in that post...

Tired old phrase

Okay. I'm a computer tech. Apparently we tend to be literal problems solvers.

I am officially tired of being told I am not being abstract enough.

Thank you, I am aware of that fact. To date I have been told this by 3 professors, 3 TAs and 2 of my fellow students.

You can stop telling me it. I got it. Especially if you aren't going to give me constructive advice as either an example of what would be "abstract enough" or method reaching this nirvana like mental state... then you can just stop repeating it to me and shut the hell up.

BTW did I mention I have to complete redesign the project I've been working on for two weeks from the ground up... well basically tonight.

The final models are due tomorrow and the total package is due on Friday.

So complete a complete redesign + building all my models tonight, and then I get to redraw (with my new design) all of my previously completed drawings before Friday.

All while being more abstract.

Not happy.

Symptom Rotation

I'm still sick. Oddly enough I seem to have an evolving set of symptoms.

Thursday: Fever, Dizziness, Nausea, Joint Pain, Constricted Chest, Headache.
Friday: Fever, Joint Pain, Back Pain, Headache, Sore Throat.
Saturday: Fever, Chills, Night Sweats, Headache, Mild Cough, Sore Throat.
Sunday: Sever Cough, Sore Throat, Congestion.
Monday: Mild Cough, Severe Congestion, Painful Sneezing, Headache.

This entire time I have been taking both prescription anti-cough and anti-congestive. Seemingly without effect.

Tuesday Prediction: Painful Sneezing, Stigmata, Congestion, Narcolepsy and Headache.

Dear God/Yawah/Loki/Coyote/Whomever...

Okay. I'm impressed.

I wasted two hours that could have spent doing homework looking for my graphic calculator. I will admit that some harsh accusations aimed my dog's way as far as responsibility went. I even began to doubt my sanity that it wasn't packed... but I used it just last Tuesday... so I was mostly certain it hadn't been packed in the move.

Mostly.

You can imagine my surprise when I found it by accident in my sock basket. I suppose I can attribute to you the fortuitous occurrence of knocking the basket it off the shelf and discovering it at all... but I have to ask... how did it get there? Four feet off the ground and in the closet it seems unlikely that the Wonder dog was involved.

While I have your attention... I would have thought I would have run across at least one of my eight exacto holders while looking for the calculator.

Verdict is...

Pnumonia. And the evil chest/head virus that apparently sweeping the campus.

I've got my anti-biotics, my anti-cough stuff, anti-undewear, anti-congestant, anti-Toni... wait no I don;t.


Anyway the Dr. at Health services was very nice, very thorough AND i'M NOT ALLOWED TO DRIVE AFTER TAKING THE COUGH SYRUP.

gAH... whee sorry.

When I'm outside the cold offsets the fever and everything is fine, when Im inside things are bit blurry.

It is unfortunate that I have to go use and exacto blade now...

Sick...ill...under the weather... kicking up daises...

So late last nights little chest cough turned in too tooth-rattling incredibly painful chest contractions of doom. Add to that a fever, headache, persistent joint ache, and feeling of exhaustion...

I am not a happy rabbit.

I have to go downstairs to get supplies so I can work on the homework that is due tomorrow... but I'm afraid because going down the stairs to let the dog out nearly killed me. Twice.

First I was week enough that I lost my grip on the railing and almost pitched head first down the steeper then normal stairs. The second time was climbing back up the stairs when my restricted air way put me in an oxygen surfeit state and when I reached the top I had to lie there gasping like a fish while my head swam.

Cinnamon was quite helpful and lathered dog slobbered on my face and ears until I moved. I was actually a pretty good motivator.

I crawled back into bed, and checked my alarm to make sure I would get up in time for class.

I slept through my alarm by almost two hours. And 2 phone calls.

Thing about my alarm is... it doesn't turn off. It keeps going until you manually turn it off. Which means I slept through it's raucous blaring until the dog stuck her cold nose into my feverish side.


The bizarre thing is I felt fine yesterday. I had a little soreness from the previous nights Kenpo class, but otherwise I had no problems. The only warning I had was that little cough right before I went to bed.

This has me worried enough that I am planning on going down to student health services. Something I would not normally do... well ever.

Remind me to tell you about OIT student health services trying to kill me.

Worst move ever.

So the noise from the downstairs Super-bowl party motivated me to move my computer and art supplies upstairs. This also will conveniently empty the downstairs bedroom should I find a roommate. Until I do find a roommate it'll give me a space to practice Kenpo.

I managed to do the following:

Drop my computer - denting the frame, but it's working
Knock my scanner of a shelf - status unknown
Break my desk - Temporary fix in place
FUBAR my router - three hours to get it working again


Worst Tech Ever.

Life on Mars...

So I09 ran a poll on the most under-appreciated sci-fi show on TV. Someone mentioned the show "Life on Mars."

The premise is that British cop is struck and catapulted 33 years back in time where the case that haunted him in the present day haunts him then.

It's pretty good. I've noticed the following though...

1) 1973 was an ugly ugly time. Bellbottoms *shudder*
2) Linguistic drift between American English and British English is bad enough. Travel back 30 years of colloquial drift... well sometimes the dialog is impenetrable.
3) Did I mention the Bellbottoms? How about those polyester shirts with lapels that double as sails?
4) I realize that there is a limited number of high-profile actors filming for the BBC, but seeing a pivotal near-omniscient bad guy from Dr. Who play a frightened and confused policeman actually caused my brain to stutter step.

I enjoyed the first episode, but I'm not sure I can suffer the heavy-handed stereotypes and 70's fashion enough to continue the series.

Overheard in class...

Girl 1: "So like I totally went home this weekend, and my dad had totally made an all metal bong! He was so proud of it he wanted to make me one too."
Girl 2: "Gross! My dad did that once too, doesn't he know it makes like the weed like, totally taste bad!"
Girl 1: "Yeah and like who wants to be smoking in metal fumes from vaporized metal? Ya know he like made it out of brass!"
Girl 2: "That would totally kill your lungs!"

I almost turned around to point out that since they were sitting in a FRIKIN advanced metal-smithing class I would hope that they would know that would have melted almost 500 degrees before it vaporizes... and if the bong is that hot they've got a lot more serious problems to worry about.

Then I came to my senses and realized what an utter waste of my time trying to talk to the two of them would be.

Facinating Interview with Alan Moore.

On of my favorite comic writers is a bloke known as Alan Moore.

While his comics V for Vendetta and From Hell didn't always transition well to film... (least of all the execrable The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ) but his comics are sheer genius and potent socio-political analysis of society, culture, media and more.

There is a documentary about Alan Moore that you can watch online. I have learned the following things.

1) He is a fascinating and insightful speaker. With a very honest self-depreciating analysis of both himself and the world around him.
2) He and I are almost certainly on divergent political travels, but his insights into fascism, it's growth and implications are keen and worth paying attention too. The fact that in the early 80's he used ubiquitous cameras as a visible sign of "fascism in action" in V for Vendetta... and now the nanny-state of Britain has adopted them with great fervor is something he notes with a certain amount of irony.
3) In spite of his alluding to the contrary, I'm pretty certain you could call him a genius. I've never heard someone tie together quantum physics and Genisis so... beautifully before.
4) At approximately 30 minutes into the film he also appears to be completely barking mad... but in very peculiar and... dare I say... logical sense.

He starts talking about magic, shamanism, and the like and it seems very strange... but there are two key points to focus. Assume for the moment he is using magic metaphorically to describe the transformative process of bringing change (hopefully positive) into the world. That process is the means be which the artist, the writer and the architect uses to affect the world around them. To shape culture and society. He alludes to (at least in my mind) the concept of the Nam-shub and the power that the magi/artist/creator has.

The second point is about 37 minutes in, when he starts to talk about the soul... well it darn well could have been Joseph Campbell talking about following your "bliss." Alan Moore goes further to talk about a certain percentage of the population who seem to actively seek out and destroy their ability to fulfill that higher purpose. But then again he's a lot more cynical the Joseph Campbell was.

One last thought... that occurred to me while washing dishes. (hands occupied... brain free to roam.)

Humans are closest to the divine at two times: during the act of creation... and during the act of destruction.

Discuss.