i was just on the lunchtime wsyx 6 news. they were running a spot on the asian festival taking place this weekend. my martial arts school was chosen as the school to bring in for a short demo. another student and i were the ones selected to be the demonstrators. the spot was only a couple minutes long, so i managed to go against what it says in my bio and not make a complete idiot of myself.

we didn't do anything too fancy, but we did it with sticks, which automatically makes it cooler. i got a voice mail from the head instructor saying we rocked. i'm pleased we did well by him. if he's happy, i'm happy.

tomorrow i get to participate in a 1/2 hour demo at the asian festival. so we'll get to show a little more than just flashy basics.

w00t.

... in this slashdot journal circle thingy.

post pictures if you want. it took me seeing a few of these before i gave in and started participating. now that you're all tired of doing them, i've decided to put one here in my journal.

1. think of the first word or phrase that come to mind when you think of me.
2. go to: http://images.google.com/ and search for that word.
3. reply to this journal with one of the pictures on the first page of results* (but do not tell me the word). if you want, limit yourself to the very first image that is returned. that could either make it wierder, or exclude the use of something you think is perfect. i leave it up to you as long as you take something from the first page.
4. if you want, do something like this in your journal, too.

*a corresponding footnote has been added here after reading ethelred's version of this journal.

today as i was drifting through thoughts and links of dub, riddims, and breaks, i eventually stumbled upon an audio installation covering some of the history of the amen break. you know the one even if you think you don't.

here's the link for those interested. (requires quicktime.)

http://nkhstudio.com/pages/amen_mp4.html

specifically i read angels and demons followed by the da vinci code. this entry was going to be part of a comment in em's journal, but i decided to put it here.

i think dan brown uses cheap tricks to make the books more suspenseful. anyone can tell you what information is missing from the story that would make things fall into place and then simply refuse to tell you that information for a couple chapters. it's particularly annoying when all the characters in the book are acting on that omitted information because they all know it even though the reader does not. sure i didn't want to put the book down when reading it, but i would rather i hadn't been frustrated with the suspense tactics simultaneously with wanting to read further.

i think the da vinci code will probably translate to a very successful movie. it is easier to forgive those tactics in a movie because of pacing and time constraints. even so, i'm not falling over myself to go see it.

my biggest complaint about angels and demons is that mr. brown treats the reader like an idiot. anagrams are neat, but to suggest that no one could come up with the designs over the course of centuries is a bit much. i also thought it strange that although robert langdon is supposed to be involved in academia, he is amazed by science that i heard about in high school. the very last ending part is pretty cheesy.

some light da vinci code spoilers may appear in the next paragraph. just a warning for those who might want to see the movie or read the book.

the ideas weren't particularly earth shattering to me or my world view. some people might be upset about this, but even as a christian i don't think jesus' marital status increases or diminishes the things he taught. but then i also had already read some of the apocryphal and gnostic gospels before stumbling on dan brown. on the other hand, other people probably haven't heard those ideas. if it makes people think about what they believe or adds new light to the way they think about their beliefs, it isn't all bad. the idea that paternalism was founded by the early catholic church is a bit of a stretch to me, though i'd agree that it did do a lot to reinforce paternalism. the damage really comes from the people who will accept everything presented as truth. but really, that's the problem with anything. it's a lot easier to accept what you're told than it is to make up your own mind.

dan brown isn't a terrible writer, but i don't think he's fantastic either. in all honesty, if he would just set his novels in the expanded star wars universe i would get enough extra enjoyment out of them to overlook their faults.

this weekend there was a modern arnis training camp hosted by the school where i train. i was there. my head instructor put together a great weekend. there was one injury, which was unfortunate. a woman who joined the school pretty recently but was very enthusiastic and a fast learner dislocated her kneecap. that part was bad. the rest was good.

we were fortunate enough to have two of the masters present at our camp, dr. randi shea and ken smith. ken has been studying up on pressure point applications and is happy to tell (or show) you how various vital points can be used to enhance the effectiveness of techniques we already know and work new techniques into the modern arnis framework. dr. shea didn't teach as many sessions, but had some good instruction to share as always. he's really good at breaking down student's movements to make them more efficient.

master ken smith has been developing double-stick tapi-tapi, which as a phrase probably doesn't mean much to people reading this. i'll try to explain for those who care. we have something called tapi-tapi, which is stick fighting with a counter-for-counter continuous flow. it can be choreographed or free flowing. up until recently it's been single stick only. i only got the very basic principles involved, but it's really fascinating to me.

i also tested for my green belt, which is level six in modern arnis. i was promoted. in number of belts, this marks the halfway point to black belt. for a change of pace, i was really happy with the way my test went. maybe not everything was 100% perfect, but i rocked it pretty steady. the masters paid me some nice compliments too. it's good to feel like i'm progressing.

it was good to get some focus back this weekend. i feel it's been lacking in all aspects of my life.

emogirl21 was a joke, and it's over now. but they're still at least a bit amusing if you haven't seen them already.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=emogirl21

it's better to watch the older ones first. or at least one of the older ones. then watch the newest one because it reveals everything. there's someone else on there named emokid21ohio who is also a fake angry kid.

i was really angry the other day when something went wrong with my opera 8.54 causing it to use inordinate amounts of my cpu power. i tried a clean install with no results. this was frustrating because i really hate using ie, and firefox annoys me because it doesn't work as smoothly as opera does and doesn't have some of the little things i like about opera (i find the gestures implentation far superior to any of the extensions for firefox; opera has nicknames for bookmarks and searches; the middle click can be set to scroll pages smoothly; i just like the way opera feels).

then i remembered that there was a tech preview of version 9, which i installed. some things weren't quite as good as they should be. then i learned early this morning that there was finally a beta version available. i have to say this version is pretty darn spiffy. if you're a fan or just of a mind to try a new browser go ahead and check it out. if anyone cares, i found a new clean skin that i like even more than the one i was using.

i'm using opera again, and i've set the default font of the browser to verdana. it's like the internet is back again.

in other news, i decided to listen to the process for the first time in a few years. i still don't think it's skinny puppy's best work, but i am enjoying it much more than i did the last time i heard it. i don't know if it's just my mood or that it came out too early.

and the best thing ever is that my wife gets back from leading a spring break tour of some of her high school students through france tomorrow. i like it when i get to see my wife.

i'm 31 now.

i had forgotten that qui-gon used to live on a planet called krull.

i also forgot to turn my car's lights off yesterday. charge charge charge.

i didn't do the meme thingy.

final hero was reset today, so there is a chance to get in before there are a bunch of super powers already established.

just in case you feel like wasting time and playing final hero, here is my recruit link:

http://72.232.64.234/recruit.php?id=4285

or if you'd rather be recruited by the person who got me into this, here is bethanie's recruit link:

http://72.232.64.234/recruit.php?id=3348

either way you can join the saucy alliance that bethanie started. i'm a member and i still haven't seen one nun. it's just as well because i'd like to keep the wife around.

http://72.232.64.234/allstats.php?id=233

my rank is unlikely to last, but i'm enjoying it while i can.

when the whistle blows,
anything goes.
but when you do it,
do it with soul.

i'm trying to become more of the person i want to be. it's not always easy to do the things i want to do, to be the way i would like to be. but the more i exercise it, the easier it becomes. it's a lifelong process. unlike some role playing games, there is no experience cap other than what i prevent myself from accomplishing.

your last chance to catch this US tour is tonight in chicago at the abbey pub. if i weren't a little wiped out from the drive home from cleveland, i'd consider the drive to chicago just to catch it again.

rob, elmegil, you should think about taking a break and catching a show unlike anything you've seen before. so should anyone else around chicago. here's a link to the venue for your convenience. i was underwhelmed by dälek, the opening act. it could have just been that the sound set up the had was bad, but it made it hard to want to listen to anything the dude was rapping about. so i don't know their message. all i can tell you is that they're angry and noisy, but the noise i heard was mostly non-destinct.

anyway, back to the topic at hand. meat beat rocked it. as my friend bill said, "that may be the best live show i've ever seen in my life." i think anyone with even a passing interest in electronic and/or sampled music would love that show. it was very similar to last year, but this time around mark pistol wasn't running any of the gear on stage, so it was just jack dangers and ben stokes manning the electronic gear and turntables. they again used xovox video software by chris o'dowd to have all samples video based instead of just sound based. so all of the movie samples you hear also have the corresponding video projected onto one of the two video screens, whether they're triggered the traditional way with a MIDI keyboard or scratched up on digital turntables. lynn farmer is still in the show, and is still one hell of a drummer. lots of stamina. it was probably about an hour and 15-20 minutes of the main set and then another 15-20 of encore.

so good. the fact that it was mostly the same set that i saw last year didn't diminish it at all. even the songs that repeated from last time were different this time around. even though it was sample based and electronic, it was still obviously a live performance.

look and listen.

elmegil notified me a while back of an occurence on ebay (a search for "bill leeb" will turn up more). i recently checked to see how front line assembly (and delerium) frontman and ex-skinny puppy member bill leeb (aka wilhelm schroeder) was doing selling his old analog synths. remembering a snippet from the blog entry elmegil had sent me, i decided to look at the items mr. industrial had been buying on ebay.

http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemWithCategory&item=8239253794

age of empires ii isn't so embarrassing. and it isn't surprising he'd go after the mac version. but check out the books he's been adding to his library.

http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemWithCategory&item=8754861566
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemWithCategory&item=8752990745
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemWithCategory&item=8754765378
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemWithCategory&item=8754788588
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemWithCategory&item=8375768893

on the other hand, let him read that. i still respect the man. he would probably be surprised by some of the things i read.

important! records sent me something a while ago that i ignored because i don't always read their email updates even though i signed up for them. then amazon sent me something about this as well, and for some reason i did read that. this is a band called citay. check this out (just keep clicking on the images until you get the mp3. ok, if you're too lazy for that, here's a direct link).

it's not like most of the music i'm into, but i can't deny that this is really good stuff. fantastic musicianship. it's like everything that was good about 70's rock with something intangibly contemporary thrown into the mix.

and now a ridiculous bonus poll:

imagine that you work in a paper mill and you're there at the paper mill talking to some of your pals on a coffee break when someone lets a floating air biscuit/squeazes cheese/cuts one/insert your favorite euphamism. is this:

• a. particularly bad form because it already smells terrible
• b. unnoticable because it already smells terrible
• c. as bad as anywhere else because it adds a different dimension of stench to a place where it already smells terrible

you're diqualified from this poll if you already know the answer from personal experience. man, paper mills do not smell good.

the dojo where i train is looking to get the photo gallery going on the website. a friend of the owner administers the site. he is pretty fair, but short on time, so we're hoping to get something going that would let us upload picks through a web interface, so he'd only have to set something up once.

i've heard of plogger and gallery, but haven't used them. are there any particular advantages/disadvantages to using either of these open source programs? are there other open source solutions out there that are better than either one? do they all suck compared to something else that we should buy? if anyone has experience with any of this, your advice is appreciated.