Adventures of Mediocrity

A return of sorts.

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:25:30 GMT

So, I think I'm going to return to blogging. At least for a bit while I've got this vacation time. If you follow my twitter, you know what's roughly going on in my life. However, there are some things that are a bit too long for 140 characters.

Shameful things.

Things I don't talk about in public.

I've started...

Tabletop gaming.

No, no, shh, shh. It's okay. I'm not crazy. Look, I know that this is a very insular hobby, one that tends to alienate you from people (particularly of the female variety) who look at you in askance when you say you're going to pretend you're an elf this weekend. But there's something fun to it. It has a cerebral nature, something that lets you contemplate what you're going to do on the weekend while you're standing in front of a copier waiting for copy number 200 to come out.

Plus, I like the communal mythopoesis of it all. I like creating the epic stories while being able to actually share it with my friends. We all get to experience that which is awesome, we all share the victories, everyone gets a chance to get a voice and affect the story. Everyone gets to be a hero.

And I think that's what I like the most. Big surprise. People get a chance to be Big Damn Heroes.

There are about two of us in my gaming circle who are willing to GM. I'm one of them. So, I think I'll be using this forum to post up some of my campaign notes. So yeah, Jason C, if you see the gaming tag, you don't get to read.

The good is the enemy of the best.

Sat, 16 May 2009 14:47:50 GMT

Good morning, LJ people, sorry I haven't been around much. With getting a twitter account and work getting hectic and getting an X-box 360 and Mass Effect, I have been rather away from writing. That shall be corrected here, hopefully.

The good is the enemy of the best. That is Plato, or Nietzche (I'm updating via my phone and don't feel like starting over to verify the spelling at the moment).

I want to do good in the world, and that means not being able to do the best in the world. The world is finite, there are only so many resources in the world. In order to help many people, you must share. So that may mean not giving everyone a sumptuous 5 course meal, but letting everyone get in their ADA recommened supply of vitamins and minerals. It means that I can't prepare my students to bend the GED over, but I can help them with their weaknesses so that they can pass the test and start working.

And this is not a bad thing. I believe in sharing, that by sharing, we increase what we have, like the Parable of the loaves and the fish. Sharing was impressed upon me by my father, as were many of my life lessons.

I'll never do my best, and I'm okay with that, so long as I am doing good.

Live music.

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:02:23 GMT

I'm here at a live music show. I really don't like live performances of anything. It's because I'm an analytical person and a visual learner, and live music isn't conducive to either, really. Analysis asks for dialogue, reflection. Live events are about the moment, something ephemeral that vanishes in an instant and yet is ever present.
Also, the live musics scenes in the Valley are very rarely lyric friendly. Most often they are about loudness. Noise-core, grind-core, etc. are always playing in bars here in the Valley. I wonder if it's a limitation of technology. I mean, we can hook up a guitar to an amplifier and get it loud with little interference, but vocals still need mikes, so I wonder if they need to be at a lower volume because they might pick up feedback otherwise. Or maybe it's just that people don't like acoustic sets and I'm in a minority.
I like semi-vapid music, pop songs with a story.
In the end, I think that's what it is. I enjoy narrative. I enjoy there being a story told with the possibility of a lesson learned. Live music can have a story. However, I haven't learned to decode music into a story. I can't listen to Wagner's Parsifal, for example, and understand where in the story I'm at by listening to the cresciendos and what not. And furthermore, most live acts aren't about the story. At best, they are about an emotion. They play their sets and, especially with established acts, they pull their songs from a wide variety of "albums" (if they have albums at all) and if I'm lucky I can tell if it's a happy, sad, or angry song. But I want more than that.

And that's why I don't care much for live music.

Dear Hollywood

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:44:12 GMT

Stop making Re-Boots. I get it, I do. You want to make money. Movie making takes a lot of capital, so you want to recoup all that. But there's a difference between using a concept, and making a remake. Look,you're making copies, asexual reproduction. A copy of a copy loses integrity. Asexual reproduction, while fast and simpler, leads to less biodiversity and populations that are terribly at the whims of the environment. But if you follow the concept without the direct blueprint, you allow for greater adaptability and integrity. All this copying is like inbreeding. Soon it leads to hemophilia and flipper babies. You want to make Predator again? Great. Just call it some other fucking name. The Casablanca story could be mined for a wealth of movies. But don't fucking call it Casablanca! Set it somewhere else in the African north. It'll still work. Fuckers.

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:59:43 GMT

Meagan Fox broke off her engagement with Brian Austin Green. Looks like it's time for Chris to go to Hollywood!

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:32:54 GMT

My Friend (8:27:57 PM): in a random daydream today (here's an example of how much my mind wanders)... Mila Kunis was visiting an old family friend, who happened to be my professor, and I met her in his office. I ended up giving her the grand tour of the Valley, and inviting her to game night, where she became our fourth for the six months or so she was going to be in the valley...
Me (8:28:15 PM): ...
Me (8:28:28 PM): I want to live inside your head.
My Friend (8:30:01 PM): Heh, should I let you in on the part where the two of you started dating?

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:22:17 GMT

I do believe that I am my brothers' keeper. I believe in charities, community service, social welfare providers. This does lead me to have socialist leanings. Universal healthcare, social security, scholarships; these are all things to be worked towards, and sacrificed for.

It's beautiful when these things are done voluntarily, out of the goodness of people's hearts. But then there are times when I start wondering about how much easier it would be to provide these sorts of things if the people were required to. I mean, it's for the greater good, after all, that everyone have access to healthcare.

So we pass laws requiring that. People can afford to give to the greater good. And then the people in charge could probably make service involuntary. After all, we want a cleaner environment for everyone's good.

We could then go into other countries and spread our system. I mean, if our system is good, it should be better if more people followed it.

And so the farther down this chain of thought, I find fascism and imperialism. And sometimes I don't know how bad that is...

This is my shadow. This is one of my dark sides. It doesn't mean that I should change my beliefs. These are good and noble things, but they can be taken too far. I just need to watch for that step too far.

Also

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:34:57 GMT

I would like to watch Bob Newhart sitcoms. From what I hear, they are incredible.

Epic fail

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:43:05 GMT

Okay, so I got a monitor to hook up to my laptop so I could use it despite the dead screen. Then I drop the AC to DC adapter and that dies. Fuck.

Fuck Yeah!

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:52:35 GMT

Okay, so we've gotten a new contract for GED and been picked up for a year! Fuck yeah! Also, there will be more updates when my computer gets fixed. (It broke you see.)

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:41:15 GMT

Billy Mayes is truly an enjoyable infomericialist.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Huh.

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:47:05 GMT

Zombie Strippers was actually a surpisingly funny movie. It was campy, but in a good way, with a surprising philosophical tone. I'm not shitting you here, people. It's by no means an Oscar winner, but for a movie about Zombie Strippers, they take the right kind of tone. It works on damn near every level of commedy, from Slapstick to Satire. Kinda like one of Shakespeare's lesser works. Only with more tits.

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:08:25 GMT

I really like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. They make me feel festive and Christmas-y

Talking points

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:34:07 GMT

* I was accused of being a misogynist the other day. And probably rightfully so. I need to work on that.

* I have had a crisis of faith in just about everything these past two months, yet I still believe.

* I am wrestling with the concept of enough right now. Expect an essay (reference medieval literature, Psalm 23 , Buddhist theology, and probably comic books) on this topic soon.

* I have been told I am wasting my talents lately, by many sources. See above topics.

* I am pretty happy, especially considering the above. When I am happy, I tend to write more. For the first time in years, I want to write a short story. We'll see on that.

Seriously.

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:02:28 GMT

This is a question that's been weighing on my mind lately.

Why should I not try to save the world?

Quick thing.

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:15:57 GMT

I have other stuff I've been meaning to talk about, but I've been busy and had to do some serious thinking and then a friend needed my help to move, so that took up a weekend...

And so I haven't had a chance to formulate up what I want to say.

On the other hand, http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/165216/Dark-Knight-Toy-Story-Recut.html is so awesome, it doesn't need words. Outside of Dark Knight as Toy Story.

you know, I used to think meme was pronounced mimi

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:11:24 GMT

More fun from the Katie C. interview of Sarah Palin: apparently, she was asked to name a Supreme Court decision other than Roe v Wade. Thus, a meme was born to fight ignorance.

The Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic to your lj. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) For those who see this on your f-list, take the meme to your OWN lj to spread the fun.

Brown v Board of Education is the first one that springs to mind. The ruling that struck down "separate but equal" schools is one of relevance to me as an educator. As one of the key victories that paved the way for civil rights in this country, it important to us as proof that America is a land of de jure equality.

Now, in a moment of Honesty, when I read the meme, this was the first and only one I could recall, and before I read demiurgent's explanation and recalled it as well, I thought it was about evolution in schools. But, you know, at least I remembered the name, and if pressed, would have known what it was. .

Neuromancer

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:19:10 GMT

It's 24 years old today. It's almost one year younger than me. Happy birthday, Case.
As I have spoken and written about at length, Neuromancer is odd to me. On the one hand, it is filled with the awesome. Razor-girls, hackers prowling cyberspace in the alternate consciousnesses of their avatars, mega corporations, all of it. And then it sucks. My God, the ending and the half finished symmetry.

I don't know of many other genre creators that were on the one hand so awesome and on the other so frustrating.

Dear friends,

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:06:34 GMT

I got a job again, bitches! Fuck yeah!

Thoughts on cinema

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:53:02 GMT

I saw The Godfather for the first time tonight. Man, Al Pacino has gotten old.

Mobster movies have never really been my thing. It's not really in my motif, you know? Mob movies are about the lengths men (and women) will go to to have/maintain [security, power, protection, etc.]. The ideals, relationships, and dreams that have to be sacrificed for that goal.

My idiom is more about the things people will not do. The way they try to maintain their integrity, no matter what the cost to themselves.

Now, sometimes, they do intersect. They both tend to involve the building of empires, legacies. But for the most part, they don't intersect much.

They are two sides of the coin. They are the sacred and the profane. Sacrifice occurs in both. In the heroic epics and romances, that general occurs in the form of martyrdom. It's a voluntary kind of thing Then there are the profane kinds of sacrifices, people getting offered up as meat for the grinder.

Duality fascinates me.

This should not be terribly surprising to people.

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:47:02 GMT

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

HBPS - The Optimist

Humanity, Background, Big Picture, and Shape

You perceive the world with particular attention to humanity. You focus on the hidden treasures of life (the background) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the shapes around you. Because of the value you place on humanity, you tend to seek out other people and get energized by being around others. You like to ponder ideas and imagine the many possibilities of your life without worrying about the details or specifics. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You prefer a structured environment within which to live and you like things to be predictable.

The Perception Personality Types:

Take The Perception Personality Image Test at HelloQuizzy

Except for the measure of extroversion they give me, I'd say it's fairly accurate.

imitations of immortality

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:06:24 GMT

Today I am a quarter of a century old.
I am older than many regimes and French Constitutions. While some people get freaked by that, I love this feeling. Life sucks right at this moment; but, you know, in general, my life is pretty good. I have accomplished almost all of my life goals. I have a house, an education, a dog. A job and a family of my making us all I need to complete the set. I have changed people's lives by helping them get their G.E.D. I have seen a quarter of a century of movies, read books, eaten dishes. If this is what I have done in a quarter, what could I do with half? Today, I feel powerful, lasting, damn near unkillable. It's just a feeling. I'm sure tomorrow I will be mortal again, but today, I am a golden god.

Movies

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:16:43 GMT

Does anyone else really want to see Death Race?

Sofi, I know you need some Statham action.

Speaking of action stars, it looks like Vin Diesel has a new movie in the works. Has anyone read the novel?

Hurricane Dolly, the aftermath.

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:23:10 GMT

There's something I could say about the way the relief agencies are handling things here; but I haven't experienced any of it, I'm just hearing things fourth hand, so I don't want to say anything without research.

On the other hand, I can say that there is still plenty of standing water in fields and places. And that the life cycle of a mosquito from larva to adult is approximately one week. Fucking mosquitoes the size of crows! Don't send bug spray, send shotguns.

If you'll excuse me, I need some quinine for the malaria. What's that you say? No quinine except in tonic water? Well, by all means, get me tonic water... with some gin in it.

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:02:58 GMT

Here's what happened:

Wednesday 8:00 AM Rain starts. Nice drizzly rain. "Good for us, we need rain," I say. I start reading Book 4 of the Dresden Files: Summer Knight.

Wednesday 10:00 AM Tia Bea and Tia Lydia make chicken and potatoes "for laters". I sigh, wondering where I can fit this into the fridge. Hurricane Dolly is just swirling around off the cost. It's still raining.

Wednesday 12:01 PM I finish Book 4. I pick up Book 5.

Wednesday approximately 2:00 PM I set up the dvd player in the living room for my cousin, Diego. The power goes out. I swear under my breath, but this is not expected. Meterological condition: water is falling from the sky!

Wednesday 4:00 I am 100 pages in to book 5. I'm reading slow because I'm constantly distracted.

Wednesday approximately 7:00 PM Power is still out. Rain still falls. Wind is picking up. Humidity is around 100% and the temperature is 75 degrees Farenheith.

Wednesday 8:00 PM Power has been out for six hours. Rain has picked up. Wind has picked up. Temperature outside: 75. Temperature inside, thanks to kerosene and oil lamps: 85 degrees. No fans. Greatttt. I get out the chicken and potatoes. I thank my Tias.

Wednesday 10:00 PM My aunts and cousins are playing poker in the living room. I finish book 5. I lie in bed and try to sleep. Still raining. Wind speeds are approximately 30 mph, with 40 mph gusts, by my guestimates.

Thursday 1:00 AM I am still trying to sleep. The temperature increased as the eye of the storm passes a dozen or two miles north of me.

Thursday 8:00 AM Somehow, I fell asleep. I wake up, and call to see if power will be restored soon. I sigh in frustration when they tell me to wait and see. Rain has mostly stopped. Sun comes out. Temperatures increase.

Thursday 1:00 PM I get fed up, and go to my parents' house (who have power). We east chinese food. I help them move approximately 50 trashcan lids worth of branches and leaves from the house.

Thursday 8:00 PM I get done moving things around outside, I take my first hot shower in over 24 hours. I go home to assess the situation. We have power. I praise St. Lucy, Patron Saint of Electricians.