Dakao v. 2.0 - The Crooked Cut

Penance

Ξ September 16th, 2003 | → 1 Comments | ∇ General |

Screw people.

Screw fencing.

Screw Wiess.

Nihilism was never so difficult when it dealt merely with externally imposed values.

Winding down

Ξ September 16th, 2003 | → Comments Off | ∇ Work |

Meeting over.

The Freemans were wonderful people. Down-to-earth, humble, and thrifty. Mrs. Freeman (well into her 80s) wouldn’t hear of taking three of our information packets — she said she and Mr. Freeman would share, while their son Graham could take a second one back to their office.

Mr. Freeman made jokes about how he likes kim chee, but that the Austin Children’s Museum probably wouldn’t serve it in their Korean exhibit.

Graham asked some very relevant questions about community involvement and linguistic aids in the exhibit.

All in all, you would never think that these good folk have a controlling stake in AIG and dispensed a fortune to children’s museum this past year (including the entire grant for my exhibit and six others like it across the U.S.).

..And their 4-year old son didn’t want to leave our museum. We enjoyed their informal visit, and I think they enjoyed our museum.

Stagefright

Ξ September 16th, 2003 | → Comments Off | ∇ Work |

On Sunday, I passed by Sgt. Holbert, our security guard at the museum. While I waited on some VCSA members to arrive for a training session for Saturday’s big event, she and I chatted about the exhibit. She said she was looking forward to it.

Yesterday, Sgt. Holbert said she thought it was nice that I’m always so cheerful. I laughed, and said, “Thanks, but after 8 p.m. I put on my AngryEyes™!” She laughed, and I went upstairs.

..And I’m afraid that got me to thinking…

“A dangerous pasttime,”

“I know. But that crazy old man is..”

..10 minutes from participating in a presentation to a $25m walking endowment.

No sweat. No one’s told me what I’m supposed to talk about, but I guess I’ll just wing it. I know my exhibit. I know what I’ve done, and I can talk knowledgeably about our steps and processes to date. But damn, who’d have thought I’d be getting face-time with someone who’s personally worth 9 figures?

I only have a minor supporting role in this act, thankfully.

Too much on my mind. Don’t want to present, but I can do it, and I will do it.

I hate people. Their capriciousness. Thin skins. Pettiness. Insensitivity. Irrationality. Contradictions.

I’m tired of them. I don’t want to hear them, look at them, talk to them. But I need them. Without other people, I’m no one. Perhaps I’m a classic example of subscription to Girard’s theory of mimetic desire.

Alright. Go time.

Public debut

Ξ September 12th, 2003 | → Comments Off | ∇ Fitness / HEMA |

Obsessions has finally been updated with the Houston Chronicle pic!

The mind boggles to contemplate that 552,052 people picked up the paper that morning. …Then many of them handed it off to their spouses, kids, or roommates.

All in all, not a bad way to enter the public consciousness.

“You mean people really do this?”

That’s right, Junior, and right in your hometown, too.

More’s the pity that I wasn’t in a clean stance at that captured moment.

Scatter!

Ξ September 11th, 2003 | → Comments Off | ∇ Work |

I need to get a handle on things. Not sure why, but I’ve felt all week like my life’s gone out of control. I think it was the 11-hour all-day conference on Saturday that broke the camel’s back. Ever since then, it seems like I’ve been running lots and getting nowhere.

I know, I know, vague sensations of disquietude aren’t good enough. We need results! Firm numbers! Tangible goals and milestones! Am I missing something?

I may be… MooBob42 has just informed me of the correct date for the Mid-Autumn Festival. This upsets a couple apple carts, due to my bad calendar reading.

At least I’m caught up on my readings for class tonight.

Flocks and herds

Ξ September 4th, 2003 | → 1 Comments | ∇ Fitness / HEMA, Work |

Pics are up, from the cultural exchange between Ross Reedstrom and myself. Go check out my gallery.

I have Moobob42 to thank for introducing me to this little gem back in our sophomore year (Spring ‘97, I think). Of course, it’s been updated for the new millenium. Did Flash even exist back then?

I hope that it stirs some fuzzy (or warm) memories for others of the Gumbie set.

This neatly segues into a scene I have unfolding outside my 2nd-floor office window. Down below and behind our next-door building, I see three, no, four women all talking on their cellphones or dialing. They’re all pacing around aimlessly as they have their disjointed conversations.

What with the chickenwire-ish stuff which encloses our parking lot, there’s an amusingly barnyard cast to the whole scene.

To further delve into this theme, I found myself heading a veritable gaggle of newcomers at RFC practice last night. Since I was the first one there (usually showing up about 6:30 p.m. or so), the newbies who showed up early talked to me. At 7, I asked them if they wanted a brief oral intro or to just get right into it.

They opted for choice B (my personal preference), and so I lined ‘em up and got ‘em started on stance and footwork.

Well, we never had a chance to stop, as more and more people filtered in until we had 12 new folks in addition to the 4 or 5 old regulars.

Stance led to footwork led to lunges led to weapon-handling led to bladework.

Before I knew it, we’d spent nearly two hours on it all.

I hope the kids were pleased with what the other old-timers and I gave them. ‘Cos for my part, I feel like Obi-Wan must have when he started training Anakin. I love teaching, but in this case (as with so many other cases) I feel that there are others so much more qualified.

It’s always a case of fun vs. learning. Was it fun enough that they’ll come back? Was it educational that they’ll feel it’s worth coming back? Etc.

And for my part, when should I introduce the historical side of it all?

Celestial operators are standing by

Ξ September 2nd, 2003 | → 3 Comments | ∇ Current Events, Science / Technology |

So the question was put to me: Does the notion of Cosmo + Jesus = Revolve disturb you?

MooBob42 suggested that the next Big Thing would be the appearance of e-Vangelism. I can see the spam mail now…

Feeling forsaken? For your spiritual needs, click on www.eVangelism.com now!

God’s just upgraded His connection. Now supplicants need not wait to chat with Him live on matters of personal faith.

And as a special bonus to all you sinners out there (you know who you are!), we’re throwing in a special, limited-time offer of three trial months in purgatory, absolutely free!*

*Restrictions may apply.

And a few months later, Apple will roll out their new product line — the iVangelist™:

Sleek form.

Organic functionality.

Capable of holding a dozen contradictory belief systems simultaneously.

It’s the latest version of the electric monk!

Angel S’s response proved to be more reactionary — she felt that we should never have gone to vernacular in the first place. …Never mind permitting the blasphemy of Top 10 lists, 100 ways to apply your faith, and questionnaires on your Godly Guy.

I mean, really. How on earth are we to understand all the nuances of the teachings if we haven’t read them in Hebrew? Y’know?

Or Greek / etc. for the New Testament, which is in itself a ribald piece of crockery that detracts from the Old Testament. ;)

I love Angel S.. She’s so conservative, she could teach all these American Johnny-come-lately so-called “fundamentalists” a lesson or two.

“If you can’t speak Aramaic, you don’t deserve to call yourself a Christian!!!”

Maybe go throw some pigs’ feet at them, or something.

“…And you eat pork, too, you sick church-splitters!”

But seriously…

As the article itself states, Christianity has always attempted to employ contemporary culture in conveying the Message. Heck, the translations into Greek, Latin, German, and ultimately English were all forays into modern culture (at the time). Sure, it may seem to be conceding too much to sell the New Testament in a Cosmo style, just to appease some teeny-boppers who think the New Testament is “too freaky”. It’s selling out. It’s giving away the farm. You’re losing the respect of your congregation.

…But the Catholic Church felt the same way when it excommunicated Martin Luther for nailing his 95 Theses on the doors of the Wittenberg Church in 1517.

…And that linked article mentions that period hymns and etc. were written to the tune of popular tavern drinking songs. Can you imagine your church choir doing a rendition of “For He’s a Jolly Good Deity” with organ accompaniment?

Speaking of writings in the vernacular and pop culture… I still have trouble figuring out James Morrow’s Biblical satire writings. I honestly can’t tell if he’s for or against Christianity. But since he’s written so many fiction books and stories, I’m guessing he’s just writing it with a critical eye to promote thinking about issues of faith and belief.

I think Bible Stories for Adults is pretty good. Towing Jehovah is the one that started it all for me, though — what happens to Man’s faith when God’s 2-mile long corpse is found floating in the Atlantic? Is it a cosmic joke? Did God sculpt it from clay of the firmament and deliver the body to test Man’s faith? Or is He really dead?

Not quite the same as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but I think it addresses the same issues more lucidly. And it’s more light-hearted as well.

Labor Day groovin'

Ξ September 1st, 2003 | → Comments Off | ∇ Fitness / HEMA, General, Work |

Slow end of the week at work. I guess people were winding down for the Labor Day weekend.

I was the last one to leave work — had a lot of fun and frustration learning to use the duplicator. But once I got the hang of it, I cranked out 2000 double-sided copies in, like, 10 minutes. It’s not a mimeograph machine (which would make those icky wet purple copies). It has 4 colors, but can only print monochromatically for each run. You have to switch out the ink drum for each color so that the drums don’t get contaminated with different colors.

Saturday morning, I got my ass rousted from sleep at 7:48 in the freakin’ a.m. by Dawn’s loveable hubby, Bryant. My first groggy thought was that maybe it was Kim getting me back for waking her up at 12:30 a.m. the night before.

But nay, good sir! Bryant had news for me — he instructed me to check page 39A of the Saturday edition Houston Chronicle (Section 2). I promptly went back to sleep for another 4 hours.

I never managed to get myself a copy that day, but it turned out that Angel Askins and I made it into the paper — a big honkin’ 5″x7″ photo, too, or something like that. We were demonstrating historical rapier fencing at the Rice activity fair. The photographer caught me in a bad parry, so now there’s 300,000 people out there in Houston who think you’re supposed to walk like a duck when you fence.

Picture will go up when I get around to it.

I also exchanged some hands-on interaction with forms and techniques against Ross (don’t know his last name) — he’s the Rice aikido instructor. The juxtaposition of contradictions struck both of us as highly humorous. I mean, we’ve got a white guy with a bokken (wooden katana practice weapon) using aikido sword techniques against an Asian guy with a wooden longsword using Italian / German techniques.

I envied (and will strive to emulate) Ross’s poise and balance on every defense and strike. Looking at the photos that a friend took, I saw some major faults with my own footwork and balance, but also some good things.

Pictures also to be posted.

Fencing practice went well Sunday night. I’m settling into a groove wherein I cover 4 new techniques each week and review the techniques from the previous week. This way, I cover the new stuff first on Sunday night and again during the week at Rice fencing practice. Overall, each techniques gets drilled for at least four sessions in two weeks. I’m also trying to pair techniques up, e.g. a strong and weak approach for the same engagement entry situation.

Had some free movie passes, so some friends and I went to see The Italian Job Sunday night. It was a fun movie. Good cast, witty dialogue and scenes, and Charlize Theron is a hottie.