It was a mild April morning today, as I stood at the bus stop by Seattle's Westlake mall. I had some businuess to take care of, and I was going in to work late. The lunch time crowds were strolling about, and enjoying the weather.

At the bus stop there was the usual crew of characters: Several white collar techies waiting for the bus that goes to Microsoft, a mother with her duaghter on an afternoon shopping trip. There were several bums napping in a bench, and a well dressed fellow who was desperately harranging people in an attempt to sell a bus coupon and reclaim his spent $1.25.

It was then I noticed a fellow who was avidly reading from a magazine. What caught my eye, was the fact that he seemed to be reading them aloud to himself. He had look of serene fullfillement on his face, like a child who has dicovered a new toy. His focus was laser intense as he flipped the pages of the magazine. I wondered at first if he was one of the countless homeless who have some sort of minor mental illness. He seeme to be carring a fair collection of belongings in a draw string sack.

As I further watched this engaging character, I noticed that he was too nicely dressed and kept up to be homeless. He was wearing a polar fleece that had a star trek insignia pin on it, and his reading material was sci-fi fan mags. He seemed to be literally in another world.

Say what you will about gamer geeks, trek nerds, and tolken heads, but Buddhists sometimes work decades to achieve the oneness this guy seemed to be radiating. He was oblivious to the world at large. There was no taxes, no war in Iraq. There were no deadlines or bills, just a warp capable ship and deep space.

since, as I noted in my previous posting, I seem to have acquired a small collection of 'fans', I decided to start allowing comments on my journal postings. I'm curious to see if these, or anyone else is reading it, or are they simply charmed by my crass attitude and wit, or simply clicked the wrong button while surfing for wombat pr0n. Statistically speaking, I'm putting money on the latter.

Anyway, I realized awhile back, it really doesn't matter what sort of topic is being discussed, people will engage in incoherent babbling and backstabbing on a chatboard whenever they see an interesting flame-war brewing. So, post to the latest SCO bashing thread on /., or post to my little tirades.

As a side note, I posted this under the heading of 'quake', as I'm sure I will quake when I read some of the unmodded trolls that will probably get posted here. Ces't La Mond

Recently, I was looking over my profile, and sweet Jeesus, there are a bunch of poor, twisted bastards who have decided to mark themselves as 'fans'. It takes a total speed freak strung out on gin and mescaline to do something that sick. 'What the hell', I though, 'With that emotionally stunted man-child that is rocketing the country into the ground with gleeful abandon, why not just grab tight, and enjoy the ride?' The pigfuckers are going to blow out everything in a single, mad two term orgy, so why not just acid up your brain, and watch the dementation? Why not mark yourself as a fan of some twisted geek who calls himself 'TiggertheMad'? Damn the torpedos, and fire away, Gridly. Give me another bag of blow, call some hookers, and put it all on my credit card.

Eventually I sobered up, and just decided to ditch town before the grease weasles realized that there was no way I could pay my rapidly growing Internet bill. It had been swelling, like some sort of mold festering on the corpse of Nixon. (Pure hyperboyle of course, mold knows it's to good for the corpse of Nixon.)

To many nights of EQ, mob grinding, spawn camping, and PKing. Jesus, it felt like I was covering the Republican convention again. I had to blow out, to hit the road in a fast car. I needed a 3000 pound detroit bullet to put somemiles between me and this fucked up scene. But I'd come back, I always did.

Something felt different, though. The desert air was ripe with the same thick, rancid scent of diesel and there was the familiar crazed laughter in my ear as my roommate cybered on his AOL account and popped more of those strange brain bending little red pills. But this time, the air was a little thinner, the sky was a bit more pale, like a faded photograph. It felt like something was missing from the American dream. Perhaps not any tangable element, but some background noise that you only miss once it is taken away. I could almost imagine hearing the furious scratching of a mad pen fading into the roar of the wind.

RIP HST, you crazy bastard.

I was traveling to the east coast this holiday, to visit family. While stopped over in the Cleveland airport, I noticed a girl behind me in line wearing a 'Northern Mantis' Kung-fu Sweatshirt behind me in line.

I resisted the urge to call her out as the person responsible for the assassination of my master and challenger her to an extended king-fu duel in the air port terminal, as I was concerned that the passers by might be injured by stray chi bolts thrown in the midst of the battle. Her school, it turns out, is in the Seattle area too. (My school is http://www.thebamboogrove.com/, and is located in the Ballard area of Seattle.) The world is indeed a small place, at least if you study Shaolin Kung-Fu.

I have been quiet for awhile, as I subscribe to the 'shut the hell up if you don't have anything worth saying' school of blogging.

I was dissapointed with the recent election results, being a city dwelling, gay marrage supporting, decadent goddless hedonist. Me and my cult of liberal, America-hating communists are upset that we couldn't enslave the decent, God-fearing rural Americans by getting Kerry elected. But hey, there is always 2008.

For all you indignant leftys, here is an interesting little rant: http//www.fuckthesouth.com/. While it is a rant, the author makes some interesting points. One glaring omission is a comparison of the total volume of money spent by state. I would presume that the greater number of people in densely populated cities and economies of scale more than make up for the difference.

The idea of succession from the union has been tried before, and it didn't go over too well. A less radical concept might be an attempt to usher in a new era of strong states's rights. Then, when all the red states impliment their wacko fundy agendas, people will vote with their feet and move away, further shrinking their economic and political power base.

I am waiting for the bus in downtown Seattle again, and I see a guy walking down the street. He's wearing a black t-shirt that says, 'Professional Sex Instructor - First lession is free!'

Now this is ironic (notice I avoid the word 'funny') as the guy in question is tipping the scales at what I am guessing is 250lbs. For a person that is average height (say 5' 11"), this isn't what you would call a sculpted bodybuilder. To top it off, he was wearing a dingy looking parka with that cheezy white fur around the hood, and a pair of ratty old jeans. I'd guess he was mid 20's, possible still in college, but deffinitely still living in the basement.

The shirt combined with the overall appearance made a statement that seemed more desperate than funny. I wonder if he bought the shirt in an attempt to be ironic? He certainly couldn't have hoped it would get him girls. Or was it a pathetic cry of, 'PLEASE SOMEONE PAY ATTENTION TO ME!'

As a side note, I marked this as a 'software' topic since I was speaking of a t-shirt.

I was browsing around the site today when I noticed a user named wiredog that had a sig proclaiming this posting to be the greates Slashdot post ever.

All I can say is wow, truer words have not been uttered. I think that I need to get that posting ranked as high on Google as possible, just to warn people off. I may be getting old, but I do recall that in the mid to late 90's the site had a more er, restrained audience. And, while I'm on the subject, prices were low, music didn't suck and politicians were honest then too....BY CRACKY! YOU DAMN KIDS, STAY OFF MY LAWN!

In a recent thread here on slashdot, there was quite a lot of bitching about the changes that GL keeps making to episodes 4-6 of the Star Wars series. (Yes, I know, bitching on Slashdot about Star Wars, if that isn't a redundant statement, what is?)

Anyway, someone commented that there soon will be DVDs with multiple scenes where a) Han shoots first b) Greedo shoots first c) they both shoot first and d) The french version where they sit down and talk out thie diffrences. I couldn't let this opening pass, so I whipped out the following:

GREEDO: Is it not a melancholy day, Captain Solo? I morn the fleeting tentrils of night.
HAN: Well met, Monsuir Greedo. I was just going to eat a fine Brie and drink a bottle of wine with you employer. He wanted to confide his angsts to me.
GREEDO: Give me your purse of Francs, for lo! I have consumption and the cold hands of the reaper chill me even now. Life is but a cheap wench!
HAN: Does a man's life ammount to but a purse of gold? Are we ever fated to wander the maze that is life blindly seeking nothing more but piles of shiny metal? I think not!
GREEDO: Love is capricious and stern. She has taught me to be stoic. I will slay you without remorse, but with a light heart, as in doing so, I will save you all future woe.
(Han throws his drink on Greedo.)
HAN: Alas, the laughing mime has failed! I will go now, for, life is but a river traveling forever to the fate we are all blind to. A pox on your taylor!
(Han exits)

N'est-il pas beau? Non? Au Francais?

GREEDO: N'est-ce pas un jour mélancolique, capitaine Solo ? Matin I les tentrils passagers de la nuit.
HAN: Le puits s'est réuni, Monsuir Greedo. J'étais aller juste manger un brie fin et boire une bouteille de vin avec vous employeur. Il a voulu se confier ses angsts à moi.
GREEDO: Donnez-moi votre bourse de francs, pour bas! J'ai la consommation et les mains froides du froid de reaper je même maintenant. La vie est mais un wench bon marché!
HAN: un ammount de la vie de man's à mais une bourse d'or? Sommes-nous toujours destinés à errer le labyrinthe qui est la vie ne cherchant aveuglément rien davantage mais des piles de métal brillant? Je pense pas!
GREEDO: L'amour est capricieux et sévère. Elle m'a enseigné à être stoic. Je vous massacrerai sans remorse, mais avec un coeur léger, comme de cette manière, je vous sauverai tout le futur ennui.
(Han jette sa boisson sur Greedo.)
HAN: Hélas, le pantomime riant a échoué ! J'irai maintenant, parce que, la vie est mais un fleuve voyageant pour toujours au destin que nous sommes tous abat-jour à. Une varicelle sur votre tailleur!
(sorties de Han)

So, I'm standing at a bus stop at Westlake mall in Seattle this morning. For those of you who aren't from the Northwest, Westlake is at one end of Seattle's monorail, and it's a nice looking building, and somewhat upscale. They have cut stonework laid into a courtyard outside and on the surrounding sidewalks. To keep it clean, the maintenance guys drive around a little steet cleaner that squirts water on the sidewalks and then scrubs it down as it drives. Very nice, right?

I noticed that they put up wet floor signs around were they scrub. UNFREAKIN-believeable! This is for an outdoor area. In Seattle. Where it rains. Sometimes a lot.

I wonder if they skip the scrubby machine in rainy days and just put up the signs? I'm really tempted to mess with them a bit, and complain to management on a rainy day that I nearly slipped and broke my neck where the scrubber had driven.

This country is getting MIGHTY odd...

(I had to post this under the Robotics topic, just for irony.)

I recently picked up the Robotech Remastered Extended Version DVDs, or at least as much as have been released so far. I have heard some whining from fans about the re-release, for various reasons. Personally, I liked them. I'm not really hurting for money, so 're-purchasing' the series in a remastered format doesn't bother me.

You get the series visually remastered. The colors are a lot better in most areas. There are still spots that look like there were artifacts on the film, but most of what I have seen is a distinct improvement. The scenes in space aren't against a meidum gray background anymore, but black as intended.

The series has footage that was cut from the source shows. It isn't very much, just an occasional flash of nudity, or a few seconds of really violent fighting in the middle of a battle.

Some people have complained that since there is maybe 30 seconds of extra footage per episode, that the set doesn't really warrant the 'Extended' moniker in the title. I could see their point, but the fact is you do get extra material that wasn't in the shows aired in the 1980s. Besides, what were they expecting, a lost episode?

The sound has been redone, and it needed it. The sound in the series was very flat sounding, probably due to poor quality mastering. They replaces some sound effects. I particularly like the fact the veritech chainguns actually sound like chainguns. The sound is better, but it still sounds a bit flat on the low end. (Disclaimer: I am not a sound engineer, but I am a musician, and have a fair ammount of experience with pro-quality recording gear.)

I have heard some purists claim it's trash, because it isn't the pure, untainted show that they loved in their childhood. If you are of this mindset, don't buy it. It isn't George Lucas level revisionist, but they have changed a few things. Overall, I liked it, and will pick up the rest of the series. If you don't have the series already on DVD, by all means grab it. However, if you already have it, let your fanboy ID fight with your budgetary ego to make the call.

I am blogging this, I freely admit, to boost the Google rating of thebamboogrove.com. I practice Northern Mantis Shaolin Kung-Fu there, and the instructor/owner is interested in building a web presence in hopes of building businuess and using it as a distribution platform for distributing (entertainment) videos. Similar to Those cool guys at the Kwoon. The insructor, Paul Langer, is an amazingly good teacher and martal artist. If you need a good workout and you live in the Seattle area, stop by.

I have enabled comments on this thread, so if you have .02 to throw in on the topic of Kung-Fu (or Kung-Foo, as This.Coder == 1;) feel free to spam away.

I recently noticed that you get an extra link under your name if you have journal entries. I want an extra little link under my name, too, so I decided to make a journal entry to get one.

After reading the last paragraph, you still linger. Why? Are you hoping that, perhaps the statement above was but a ruse to fool casual browsers, that I may impart some sacred jewel of wisdom to my loyal followers in secret?

You really persevere, don't you? I admire that in a person. Only the strong willed will survive the long haul. Would Columbus have discovered North America if he gave up half way there? Would George Bush Jr. be. alive today, if he had not kept whining to his father for a safe and cushy posting in the Texas national guard? (Probably, but only because Viet Cong snipers were notorious for not bothering with 'total pussy' GIs.)

So, I feel that I must reward you, the determined reader for your efforts. Trudging through the dreary prose that I am posting. Putting up with meandering discourse. (Hey did you know that lung cancer is the #1 killer of people with lung cancer?)

So, here is your reward. A bit of truth for all time, wisdom that has been learned through years of bitter experience.

"Never spit into the wind"