merry christmas to all. and if you're not a celebrator of this holiday, have a nice day.

just got back from the in-laws, who being german celebrate christmas on christmas eve. i have to get to bed so i can have american christmas with my side of the family tomorrow, which is technically today, but won't be today for me until i've gotten some sleep.

hoffentlich ist der Weihnachtsmann bei euch fleissig.

beats a visit from krampus. for a recent interpretation, check out a very venture christmas.

four jobs you've had in your life
caddy
welder
bmw motorcycle mechanic/salesman/whatever else they needed
pricing coordinator

four movies you could watch over and over
star wars
the man who knew too little
rat race
joe vs. the volcano

four cities you've lived in
chicago, il
northbrook, il
dublin, oh
upper arlington, oh

four tv shows you love to watch
venture brothers
good eats
deadly arts
no reservations with anthony bourdain

four places you've been on vacation
washington state (near seattle)
germany (most areas in the country)
san diego, ca
adirondacks

four websites you visit daily
slashdot
penny arcade
[H]ard|OCP
CGTalk

four of your favorite foods
lamb vindaloo
chimichangas
gang panang
reuben sandwich

four places you'd rather be right now
whatever

i wasn't thrilled with the way i tested, but i did prove i knew the curriculum for my level. so i was promoted to antas lima (level five), which is low green in modern arnis.

the main problem is that i get nervous about tests. i had some other useful things to work on my instructors told me about, which if they had been my only obstacles i would have thought i tested really well. i need to make my motions a little more fluid. i need to angle off a little more. according to my instructors, i'm also a little hard on myself.

in other news, this cover of björk's "army of me" is one of the funniest things i've heard in a long while. whatever makes brits take up country music is beyond me, but they're not bad at it.

warning: slashdot games section color scheme appears in the following link.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/23/138200&tid=128&tid=211&tid=10

notice taco's journalistic integrity. from the can't-say-anyone-is-surprised dept.

all i ever remember reading about the 360 from it's announcement is how everyone said what an unstable piece of crap it was going to be and how it wouldn't be worth buying. wait, i mean everyone said how great it would be.

oh, i get it. microsoft is bad. how funny and original. sure, microsoft has had more than its share of problems. and it does suck for those who got faulty consoles. but let's think about it. microsoft doesn't have a whole lot of options other than fixing this as soon as they can. they need the 360 to do well. a stained reputation and the impression that they don't care about customers that have problems at the beginning of the product cycle isn't going to help their sales over the next five or six years, the life expectancy of this generation of consoles. microsoft has botched it several times before, but i think they've noticed that they've botched it and that there is a lot of resentment out there. after all, they want to continue to make ridiculous amounts of money. i think they know how to do that by now.

don't get too excited. i haven't aquired a mac and still don't see myself considering it as a good idea.

i do have a friend whose seven month old ibook g4 running OSX 10.3.9 started crashing frequently at random intervals yesterday. he's getting an error something to the effect of:

system failure: cpu:0; code 000000007 (unaligned stack)

there's also a bit that says:

backtrace terminated-frame not mapped or invalid

i know enough to get that the memory stack is out of whack, but not a whole lot more than that. any mac people seen this? anyone know if it's usually hardware or software? any diagnosis we can do to find out?

is he better off just taking it to a mac store?

thanks.

here is an ad that gmail seemed to think i would be able to read. i saw it on a conversation a friend and i were having about music bands. if you take this ecode section and look at it as an html file, you'll see why it's a strange ad for an english conversation. had to use entities because slashdot doesn't display these characters.

note: chinese fonts required

<a href="http://www.paylessbookstore.com/yingcheng/CDBestSeller.asp">&#24800;&#21451;&#32593;:&#28023;&#22806;&#20013;&#25991;&#38899;&#20687;&#24635;&#27719;</a><br>
1&#19975;&#22810;&#31181;&#22823;&#38470;&#28207;&#21488; &#38899;&#20048; &#30005;&#35270;&#21095; &#30005;&#24433;<br>
&#20840;&#29699;5-7&#22825;&#24555;&#36882;&#37197;&#36865; &#20445;&#35777;&#20302;&#20215;<br>
www.paylessbookstore.com

i can't read chinese, so i'm not sure what this has to do with built to spill or the halobenders, the bands that my friend was describing in the email that prompted this advertisement.

i looked at other messages and came back to that email conversation and still got the same ad. so i know it wasn't a one-time fluke.

1. Name someone with the same birthday as you.

my little sister, who has a slashdot id, but doesn't use it. sarah michelle gellar.

2. Where was your first kiss?

hiding in my garage. sor some reason it seemed the place a couple 10 year olds were least likely to get caught.

3. Have you ever seriously vandalized someone else's property?

oh yes.

4. Have you ever hit someone of the opposite sex?

i've hit my sister when we were kids. i've hit women in training fencing and martial arts, but that's goes with the territory.

5. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people?

yes i have.

6. What's the first thing you notice about the preferred sex?

eyes, smile, expression.

7. What really turns you on?

not so much a specific thing. depends on mood. could be a look, could be a kiss. could just be as trite as pulchritude

8. What do you order at Starbucks?

it's been so long i don't remember.

9. What is your biggest mistake?

only one? damn. i've been quick to judge a few times. i've worked hard not to, but sometimes i still manage to on occasion.

10. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose?

more than just a few times.

11. Say something totally random about yourself.

i am a really late bloomer.

12. Has anyone ever said you look like a celebrity?

yes.

13. Do you still watch kiddy movies or tv shows?

if they're any good, yes.

14. Did you have braces?

no, but i probably should have.

15. Are you comfortable with your height?

yes. i'm just shy of six feet. not so tall as to stick out, but still slightly taller than average.

16. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you?

that is a difficult thing to quantify. at the right moment, a smile can be incredibly romantic.

17. When do you know it's love?

shen i start wondering if i'm in love.

18. Do you speak any other languages?

ich kann gut Deutsch.

yo pude hablar español. no recuerdo mucho de las palabras. no puedo los verbos conjugo muy bien.

je parle seulement un petit peu français.

tá beagán gaeilge agam

my german is pretty good. we'll call it fluent, but a little rusty.

i used to be fluent in spanish, but have forgotten most of what i knew.

i can get around in french with basic things; my french writing is for crap; my reading is only slightly better.

i know some key irish gaelic phrases, but reading and writing is mostly beyond me. i can ask for directions and order food, but that's about it.

19. Have you ever been to a tanning salon?

no, and i don't plan on it.

20. What magazines do you read?

tape op, computer graphics world.

21. Have you ever ridden in a limo?

no.

22. Has anyone you were really close to passed away?

yes. an uncle, a teacher who was very much a mentor, some other relatives.

23. Do you watch mtv?

no.

24. What's something that really annoys you?

self infatuation.

25. What's something you really like?

wisdom.

26. Do you like Michael Jackson?

like as in i like a few of his songs, but i don't really like it that much, which is different than disliking. i recognize that he is talented, but he doesn't make the kind of music that i really enjoy.

27. Can you dance?

i guess.

28. What's the latest you have ever stayed up?

i don't remember what time it was, but it was after 3 or 4 days of being awake.

29. Have you ever been rushed by an ambulance into the emergency room?

no.

30. Do you actually read these when other people fill them out?

sometimes.

32. What are your car/truck radio buttons set to?

classical 89.7 WOSU, public radio/NPR 90.5 WCBE, WWCD 101.1 modern rock

33. When you're completely burned out, what's a good way to recharge (other than sleep)?

music, martial arts, time with the wife.

34. What's your favourite place that you've travelled to?

berlin and the black forest are about tied.

35. What do you want to try that you haven't yet?

scuba diving, t'ai chi, fatherhood, truffles (the fungus)...

36. Five things you love to eat, and five things you hate to eat?

thai food, mexican food, indian food, cheese, kiwi

sültze, beef liver, brussel sprouts, gristle

37. Did you learn to drive stick or automatic first?

automatic. i also learned to crawl before i could walk.

38. Do you like board games?

most of them.

39. Tell me your opinion about gambling.

it's like so many things considered vices. it isn't bad in itself, but it becomes bad in excess. i also think that casinos thrive because people like the idea of getting something for nothing, which almost never happens.

40. How many dictionaries do you own?

i don't even know. more than five, fewer than twenty-five.

41. What's your favorite medium to work in?

the soul.

42. What was your undergraduate major, and was it always that or did you switch?

as a freshman i started out with a dual major in studio art and computer science. as a sophomore i added german for a triple major. my junior year i dropped computer science both so i could take more art classes and because i realized i didn't want to code for a living.

43. Worst physical pain you've been in?

that is a funny question. i've experienced severe physical pain many times, but i've found that my state of mind has clouded the connection i have had to it in different situations. just to pick something i'll say the time i fell off the deck of a mostly finished halfpipe onto the thin edge of a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood, landing on the soft part of my side between my left crest of iliac and my lowest rib. i ended up with a bruise that started a couple inches to the left of my navel and wrapped around to to four or five inches to the left of my spine.

but i've also had my flesh ground off on pavement, burned myself, and smashed muscles. maybe the most painful smashing of a muscle was when i missed a three foot madonna air on a half pipe and landed with the middle of the outside of my thigh on the coping of the halfpipe. i've since learned that the spot i landed on corresponds to the meridian gall bladder 31.

44. Who's your best friend?

if i have to pick one, i'd say my wife madith. although i have a few very close friends that i don't like to choose favorites between, so i'll list them by how long i've known them, my father, my younger sister, jens, mike, sloan, and bill. i feel blessed to have that many close friends.

45. Was high school good? Why (not)?

the first two years sucked. the last two years ruled.

46. What kinds of music do you like best? Get specific, if you can.

i like electronic/industrial type music, specifically IDM, intelligent industrial, crossover industrial, drum 'n'bass, etc.

i also like classical, particularly the romantic period, but also some neo-classical music, which shares a lot with IDM outside of instrumentation.

47. Last three CDs you bought:

jackson and his computer band smash
the warp records compilation we are reasonable people
the postal service we become silhouettes (probably, it could have been something else.)

48. And conversely, what kinds of music would you rather never hear?

mainstream house music, new country

49. Five favorite movies:

the fifth element
joe vs. the volcano
star wars
lord of the rings
the matrix

and honorable mentions to
hero
la story
dead men don't wear plaid
kung fu hustle
shadow of the vampire
the man who knew too little

several others

50. What's something other people like that you just can't get into?

sex in the city

51. When you want to look good, what do you wear?

black.

52. When your heart breaks, how do you put it back together?

art

53. Should the following be exterminated:
white briefs:
since there are people who have excrement fetishes, i imagine someone somewhere is turned on by those things. who am i to deny them their secret pleasure? not for me, though; they can find them somewhere else.
blue eyeshadow:
good for period works and haute couture runway shows
pants that create the muffin-top look on women:
wtf?
flip flops in the office:
depends on the office, i suppose

54. Were you a Boy/Girl Scout?

for about a week.

55. Can you swim?

yes. i won't win any races, but i can get around in the water.

56. Tell me your guilty pleasures:
song:
ace of bass, jem
book:
i don't feel guilty about reading.
movie:
dude, where's my car?
food:
i don't feel guilty about eating. i'm 6 feet tall and only weigh 165 lbs.
other:
schadenfreude

57. Do you have a library card?

a current one? no.

58. What's the best present you've received in the past five years?

59. Do you have a favorite:
Painter:
gerhard richter
Sculptor:
rodin or umberto boccioni
Photographer:
man ray
(fiction):
herman hesse
(science fiction/fantasy):
star wars books, tolkien, philip k. dick
Poet:
i don't know, goethe?
(nonfiction):
art technique, art history, history, how to, ...

60. You're in a strange city for the weekend. What will you do while you're there?

taste the local food, talk to the locals, see anything unique to that town

61. Are you thrifty?

usually, but sometimes i am not.

62. You bought tickets for a cultural event. What are you going to see?

the symphony or a piano concert, although most recently it was a ballet.

63. What's something you're hanging onto that you don't need anymore?

my old library card and piles of other things.

i've been studying martial arts, specifically modern arnis, for nearly a year and a half. i've earned my high blue belt, which is the fourth level in modern arnis. i posted something in someone's journal that got me thinking about it more, so i've decided to make my own journal entry.

i consider myself a creative person. while i don't consider my creations particularly phenomenal compared to others, i do think that the process is important to my maintaining a good inner balance. for many years i've been stuck thinking about the quality of my creations and worrying about whether they were "good enough." last year i got the idea that taking up a martial art might be beneficial to me in many ways. i was right.

i am really grateful that i found the modern arnis, and i'm equally grateful that i'm studying under the instructors at my school. they're "only" third and second degree black belts, although the head instructor is unofficially fourth and is just waiting for some red tape before it becomes official. that isn't the point. the point is the kind of people they are and their approach to the art. they are approachable and willing to learn from outside the art. the instructors i have really take an interest in the art for the art's sake, which is common, but not always the way in people below the master level. i've had the opportunity to train with the masters, and there is no questioning that they all have a staggering amount of knowledge or that they truly love the art. but they live far away from me and my relationship to them is different.

i've learned about relationships and myself and maintaining balance. i've learned a better way of approaching my creative endeavors. i've learned that it's ok if everything i make isn't top notch, as long as i take a lesson away from the time i spent working on it. i've learned that i will improve more if in addition to finished works, i let myself work on things that are simply studies. just like a drill or flow pattern may not be actual combat but prepares me and teaches me, practice in any other creative endeavor is paramount to creating good finished works. i've learned that this is true of all endeavors, not just creative ones; or rather i've learned that all endeavors are creative, whether it's making something or it's the relationship i'm building with my wife or it's finding a job.

things are good. i'm learning how to move a little faster. i'm still working on making the best use of my time. but i see my 3d portfolio starting to come together. soon it will be time to jump out there with it and see what happens. i'll let you know if anything does.

in the mean time, i'd like to encourage anyone who has every toyed with the idea of picking up a martial art to go ahead and give it a try. visit a couple schools and see what you like. i'd be suspect of a school that doesn't allow people either to observe a class or participate in a trial class before they commit to a program. some styles and schools are really traditional, and some are completely without tradition. there is a full spectrum of teaching styles and martial art styles. find something that interests you and give it a shot.

my father, the man who introduced me to motorcycles, showed up today at my house riding a suzuki burgman, a scooter. after riding it, i have to admit that it is easy to operate, practical at 60 mpg, and even a bit of fun to ride.

borrowed the ignition impulse trigger off my dad's '95 r100rt to check if the wierdness on my bike (r100rs) was that unit or another in the ignition system. looks like it was that piece. in a way it's good to know what piece it is, on the other hand i don't feel like shelling out the 3 or 4 hundred a new one costs. it's my own fault for trying to make one useable unit out of three broken ones when i built the bike. oh well. at least it's still fun to ride. pretty zippy for a pushrod, air-cooled 1000cc twin. maybe if i'm lucky bmw na will have decided it's ok to sell components of the unit so i won't have to get the whole thing, but i'm not getting my hopes up too much.

other things move forward. slowly, because they concern me and i'm slow.

well, something happened to the drain in our building and we're back to having things that should go to the sewer come up the drain in the basement floor. landlord is supposed to have someone over to fix it again some time today. at least the toilet is still fixed so this time it isn't leaking out of the bathroom into the kitchen.

i couldn't sleep a few nights ago, so instead of playing any of the multitude of newer video games i have, i started playing the original half life. well, it's half life: source, so it has the high def pack that came with blue shift and it has pretty water, but other than that it's the same. even though the graphics are really outdated, that game still holds up. the game play is solid, the levels are interesting and varied. it definitely deserves all of the good press it's gotten over the years.

i meant to go to the b&n down the street to get myself a copy of shadow hunter (events before the phantom menace focusing on darth maul), but didn't feel like going out again last night. so instead i picked lord of the rings up off the shelf and started reading it again. last night i read up to the part where gandalf has returned and discovered that frodo's ring is in fact the one ring. it's wierd how i've gotten so familiar with the movies that a lot of the finer details in the books are almost surprising even though i've read them before. my wife also decided to read lord of the rings again. fortunately we still each have our own copies from before we were married.

so it seems many things from my past both recent and distant have returned for another turn. half life and LotR are proving enjoyable, but the sewage smell in the basement can't leave soon enough.

i was just thinking about some of the people i haven't seen around in a while. i checked on shadowspark and was surprised to see he hasn't posted any comments or JEs since april. it seemed like it was more recently i conversed with him, but i was mistaken. time went by quickly. looking down my friends list i see a lot of familiar names of people who've been gone for a while. it's hard for me to believe that intermodal has been silent since the second day of this year. i see a lot of other names with old journal dates, but who are still posting regularly. i just think they're not around because i haven't been seeing their comments. sorry if you're lurking around and you're not one of the examples i chose. there are many names i could add to the list and haven't. i was just thinking about how many people i have had contact with through slashdot and how i've lost contact with most of them. i imagine a day will come when i fade completely away from the shadows of slashdot. so to those who have left and to those with whom i'll eventually part ways, i'd like to wish you all well in your real life endeavors. that's all.

i just heard this playing on the home page of warp records. it's really good. if this guy stays with it, he's really going places. it's expensive to order from warp because the US dollar sucks against other currencies, especially the british pound. but i ordered this anyway.

you can also listen to the songs (the whole songs, but only 30 seconds until it pauses again) on his bleep page.

---

i got a part time job as a mobile DJ to supplement my non-existent income from being an artist. i wasn't sure if i'd like it because most people hire DJs for weddings, and the music heard at weddings isn't really my favorite music. but when i think of it as facilitating the party, it's pretty fun. it's not about how good the music i'm playing is (or isn't - how many times can you listen to the electric slide or holla back girl before it drives you mad?), but how good the party is.

---

my band isn't doing a whole lot right now. my sonic co-conspirator travels a lot for his work, and when he is in town he squandors his time away playing WoW. maybe when his work slows down we'll get back to working on some songs, which some day you all might get to hear. maybe.

---

our bath tub backed up yesterday. that's the suck. especially since liquid leaked down to the kitchen, where it has dirtied our entire spice cabinet, several of our dishes, the stove...

at least the landlord is already working on getting it fixed.

one of my old college roommates got mf doom to make a guest appearance on his soon to be independently released sophomore album. the song is also currently available on the ghostwirl single. the full song streams from his myspace page.

he's also got serengeti and hi-fidel appearing on a track. i'm stoked for him.

why do people use the word "electrocution" in conjunction with events involving someone being electrically shocked and living to tell about it?

why do stupid things like that bother me?

why can't i fall asleep?

the things that the beatleman mentioned are in fact true. madith and i were in chicago last weekend, and had the opportunity to meet up with btlzu2 and fdb for a few hours on sunday afternoon.

btzlwnu2's real life persona is the same as his online self. so if you like him here on the dot, and i think you do, you'd agree with me that he is both a fine human being and a fun person to hang around with. of course i knew this because i had encountered him on the prime material plane once before. during this most recent meeting he got a chance to appreciate the presence of my character because i wasn't overshadowed as was the case the last time we met.

but it isn't surprising that bzytwdlmnu2 and i get along. what was surprising, or at least unexpected, was how well his fiancé got along with my wife. he and i would be discussing manly things and occasionally notice a whirring sound. as we looked to the source of this sound we would see our women speaking and gesturing to each each other in a quick manner resembling the buzzing and gesticulations of honeybees describing the flight plan to reach a new patch of pollen rich blossoms. from what boozltu2 had said of their relationship, i had a feeling that fdb and my wife would get along, but i didn't expect them to become such fast friends. but it meant we didn't have to feel guilty for just talking about man nerd things while we let them converse on their own. another added bonus for this is that bizeetul2 and i will have no problem obtaining a blessing to meet up again.

that pizza place, the name of which i've forgotten, was pretty good. it was even beyond chicago style pizza, as it was baked in a style combining deep dish with calzone and pot pie. rather than just putting sauce on top, the entire pizza was baked upside down with the crust on top, the innards being held in by a round ceramic dish like you'd use to bake a pot pie. the server turned our pizzas out onto our plates. tasty, though some pineapple would have added some nice tanginess to the dish. ok, that was just for tweaking rob. the pizza was good. ask the beatleman where that pizza place is or go to the vicinity of 2200 n clark st in chicago and start looking for a pizza place if you want to check it out. you should.

by the way, i heard him pronounce his name, and it left his lips sounding just like "beatles U2."