absent without going anywhere

no excuses over here.

MY FATHER BLEEDS HISTORY

History, or at least historical consciousness,is a terrible gravity. My mind reaches back and sees this thing, this weight called capital H History. Thousands of events, millions of lives. That one crossing of the Rubicon we call important. The founding of countries. The Holocaust and the Trail of Tears. And I hit a blank. I can't really conceive of these. I suffocate under it all.

The millions of things happening right now and the paths we've all taken.

How can I possibly imagine what is what like to be a Tutsi in 1994 Rwanada, to be butchered by my neighbours? How can anyone who was even there truly appreciate the scope of it? I try think of mass graves and 800,000 dead people but I just can't. It's too much, my brain shuts down. The complexity of the lives in front of me is already dizzying enough. Grafting that reality onto everyone? To function in the day to day is to ignore the true implications of our shared experiences.

I can't come to terms with our species. I can't grapple with our history, and I can't stand up to our pasts.

titles are for chumps

This. Go watch this.

It's a movie called The King of Kong: a Fistful of Quarters. It's about Steve Wiebe's quest to set the world record for the highest score in the original 1981 Donkey Kong game and his rival, Billy Mitchell's attempts to keep his score on top. It's also about the culture of competitive retro gaming.

The best thing about this movie is Billy Mitchell, the then current record holder. He's ridiculous, and so arrogant. His USA ties are also great.

Secondly, though, is how good these people are. They develop intense strategies and techniques to boost their score, all under the watchful eye of Twin Galaxies, the referee organization of this world. We talk about excellence all the time in the martial arts. Well here's a handful of people who are the absolute best in the world at what they do. They devote countless hours to it, shaping their lives around this passion.

And there is absolutely not practical value to this skill.

That's what makes me respect these two guys all the more. They're playing Donkey Kong because they want to. They're amazing at it because they decided to be. Mario is the original ubermensch.

nearly made it the whole way

Missed last week, sorry!

So this will be the first year since about 2002 that I'm missing out on the annual kwoon maintenance. I'm disappointed for two reasons. Firstly, this year involves smashing things. I enjoy that.

Secondly is the sense of ownership I get out of helping out. When I'm actually shaping the place I train in it's a nice reminder of the work I've put into it that doesn't show. I've long since realized, especially after moving away, that a school adds a tremendous amount to my training, and silent river especially gives kung fu a home. So I'll miss that reminder this year, but I'll be thinking about what else I'm missing too.

That being said, I hate painting.

this is not the future

So I like terrible things. Especially on the rare occasions I watch tv, it's Jersey Shore or American Gladiators.

I want to describe it as applied nihilism: staring head on into the headlights. This culture is a truck barreling down on me, so I get a giddy thrill seeing how bad it truly is.

Have you seen Snooki from the Jersey Shore? Seen what kind of person she is, or is at least portrayed to be? And how about the guy who has a nickname for himself and his abs (weirdly, it's the same one: 'the situation'). These are ideals I'm up against, a sort of half cocked vomit of the celebrity industry. Thousands of dollars spent on a dress or a hat to be worn once.

PEOPLE LIKE THIS EXIST, AND THEY ARE ALL AROUND YOU.

internet failures

oh man, i have nothing to talk about this week.

sled island this week. hello calgary.
then hello edmonton. yup!

regrettable cooking with graham robertson

Some of the worst decisions are made in broad daylight, simply because you know other people are up to something better.

Take the contents of your fridge. In this case:
half a can of refried beans
some veggie hot dogs
salsa
crackers

Cut up the hot dogs and add them to the beans. Add a little bit too much salsa. Microwave. Garnish with broken up crackers whilst coming the grips with the kind of person you now are.

car mosh

A late post, but worth talking about. This post will be boring/obvious for my friends but hopefully everyone else gets a glimpse into my life.

I went to Rainfest this weekend: a three day long hardcore fest in Seattle. I got to see some bands I'm extremely stoked on and hang out with many cool people. Plus I ate a vegan calzone at Vegan Pizza Pi, which was next level delicious.

Hardcore, as a community (and I'm using that word tentatively) has many problems. The largest being that there are quite a few guys who only like it because they think it's hard and that moshing somehow makes them tough. I am annoyed enough with macho posturing in mainstream culture, I don't need it at shows. There are other issues too.

But by and large, hardcore is full of excellent dudes and ladies. It's not every day you get to see hundreds of people screaming and flailing wildly to incredibly heavy music, then later happily singing along to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song when it comes on the PA.

I got to meet some of my favourite artists not as a fan, but as a peer. They were just people hanging out. Al Brown, vocalist of Dangers, is a man I greatly respect. I love that band and have learned so much from their music. We argued about whether hot drinks are worth it. There is no separation between fan and musician, no barrier of security guards and business. We're all just stoked to be there and that's that.

Some singers of bands called out the crowd on their everyday hypocrisies. Others encouraged us, reminding that this didn't have to be a phase. I saw and met people in their late 30s and 40s who were still playing in bands and keeping to their ideals. It was hundreds of people gathering together because we're angry, because from this music comes catharsis, togetherness and joy.

So keep your Justin Bieber and Nickleback. This music doesn't make money. It's flawed and I often hate it but punk and hardcore is special because it's ours. It's the music of the weirdos and cynics. As Minor Threat played it all those years ago, we're out of step with the world.

It's only music, yes. But it's music worth believing in.

sarcasm much?

According to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, nuclear arms are dangerous to international relations and human existence in general. In short, they're bad and signatories of the treaty agree to disarm.

Oh, unless you're the government of France, China, the UK, Russia or the United States (who also the five permanent members of the UN security council. surprise!). Then it's fine. Really, just hold onto them. Those ~1000 actively deployed nuclear warheads of China or the 5,113 the US has, that's fine. Because we all know that all of those countries are never wrong or wage any horrific, unjust wars.

Also, Israel can apparently just do what it wants, being such a strategic ally of the US. And Pakistan is allowed to test nowadays because it's important to the war in Afghanistan. But if a strategically unimportant nation decides to develop weapons, especially if it's not full of white people, then watch out. That's what the schisms with North Korea and Iran are about. Apparently the evil empires are the ones with nuclear weapons. Even one. But not 5,113--that's a number bristling with freedom.

...

I have heard the justification that we (we apparently being the rich people) need such weapons to maintain the delicate balance of power between less than friendly nations--such as the US and China. But such huge stockpiles are also useful as a deterrent. No one would dare attack those nations while they hold the trump card. As a result, they act as a worldwide protection against others developing nuclear arms. You know what I say to that?



Those five nations have some of the bloodiest and most manipulative records in the last 50 years. They support brutal dictatorships for strategic or business interests, wage proxy wars against each other and, most chillingly, are willing to use said nuclear or atomic weapons, often on civilian targets as in the case of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. This is clearly a case of might makes right. The governments with the biggest guns are trying to rewrite history and shape perceptions that they are somehow the shining white knights. Well, I'm more scared of those five countries than anything Iran can put together.

Oh, and enjoy the 1.03 TRILLION DOLLARS the US is spending on the military this year. I feel the world becoming safer as we speak.

dear abbey has nothing on me, besides syndication...and heteronormativity

You know what annoys me? Well, a lot of things actually.

...

But let's stay focused. There's a tradition in pop culture (especially movies and comics) of the nerdy guy or girl who is in love with the popular, good looking cheerleader/quarterback/whatever. Usual this will take place in a high school, sometimes not. It's everywhere. From Taylor Swift to Spider-Man. Especially in the case of the nerdy guy, ms. pedestal will stick up for him when her jock boyfriend makes fun of him. It's twu luv--all the nerd has to do is gain superpowers, be good at football or get a makeover (in some cases, just taking off her glasses). Well I call shenanigans.

Ok, we all know it's a stupid plot. The outcast has to somehow prove his or her worth in some idiotic contest, treating their crush like some sort of prize. Added to that is in the case of the girl outcast the contest is nearly always getting hot (oh hey, look: misogyny!) and for the boy it usually involves sports. While it's a pretty obvious symptom of the status seeking, patriarchal aspects of our culture, it's hardly alone. Most of pop culture is a monument to those things, after all.

No, my particular beef today is with the nerdy outcasts, speaking as one of your own: why do you want mr or ms. pedestal in the first place?
Usually it's because they're really attractive and show a basic level of kindness towards the protagonist. Oh! My heart is skipping beats as we speak.

First off, while finding someone attractive is important if you want to date them, being good looking doesn't make you a good person. That's such a stupidly obvious statement I feel dumber for writing it. But if so why am I constantly surrounded by messages that say the opposite?

Secondly, liking sports and cars also doesn't make you a good person. We all have varying interests--some more out there than others. Liking all the things most people like isn't a plus in fact it can be a bad thing. Those interests define our personalities, which are kind of a big deal. Guess what, that rich, popular girl/guy isn't going to suddenly like the things you do! And radically changing yourself to fit in with them is just a shade above suicide.

Finally, and this was the hardest won lesson so pay attention: someone being nice doesn't mean they're attracted to you. We always assume the opposite sex have these bizarre mating rituals that we'll never be able to decipher. Put two minutes of thought into it and I bet you can come up with some ideas about what a person does when they want to date you.

So let's all take a look down the hall and into the cubicle of that attractive person who always says hi but you've never had a real conversation with. Who talks about getting drunk and shoes/fantasy football while we might prefer Robert Jordan or gardening. Now let's admit we only like them for their looks and this weird idea that we have to be attracted to them because they spent too much money on their car and seem to have lots of friends around the office. Let's (and I'm saying let's because I need to do this to) take a deep breath and realize that someone who we can have an actual conversation with would be a much better match.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Mean Girls is a good movie.

targeted blocks

"is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons?"
-michael foucault

there is something in the air today. oh yes, oh yes there is.

missives

It's so easy to slip into a existence of blank pages.

Get up. Go to work. Come home, snatch at happiness. Go to bed.

repeat until dead.


Creating routines can be both a boost and a trap. That's wage slavery for you.

But I have loud music right now, which always helps. And tomorrow I bring out a little something my parent's brought me when they visited. The three section staff is waiting in my weapons bag for me. I haven't held it since February. It'll be like seeing an old friend.

nothing doing

This has not been a good week for kung fu. I'm distracted and unmotivated. Starting a new job (at an ice cream shop, no less) has given me a bit more structure to my day, but overall I can't get my act together. First thing first is a major cutback on my daily pushups, down to 150. I have rarely managed 500 a day for the past 3 weeks, so I'm so frustratingly behind I just need to get a rhythm back and increase from there. This will most likely mean I don't make my total, but who knows? I've got time, but the consistency matters more than the numbers.

Lately I've been feeling, more so than usual, that I'm just filling in the hours, that everything I do lacks substance. Very little feels real when I'm like this. But words keep their weight. I'll cling to them.

A small reset, because there's always next week.

carry along the black flag

sitting on the couch, listening to henry rollin's 'get in the van'. non communicative but inspired.

today i was at a demonstration that was meant to block a white power march. the nazis never showed, but good vibes nonetheless. i was talking to a distressed hippy who didn't like the aggressive tone to some of the signs, etc. i repeat what i said to him.

i don't like violence, but i do support anger.

i'm such a nerd. and i love it.

Yesterday I went to the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. It was an incredible amount of fun. It was just a bunch of people who were stoked on comics, so the vibe was incredibly positive. Almost everyone I met who was extremely friendly and just enjoying themselves--except for a grumpy 8 year old dressed as Iron Man.

There isn't much else to say beyond how much I love comic culture. Most people don't read if they don't have too. But here's an entire subculture devoted to their passion. I saw people of all ages and walks of life united by their enthusiasm. I got to meet a few of my favourite writers and artists, who all put up with my fanboyism. There were ton of people in great costumes. Also, Leonard Nimoy! I don't even like Star Trek and I was excited.

Have some photos:




So Obi-Wan and Magneto walk into a bar...


This was me for most of the day.


Meet my new girlfriends.


Meet my other girlfriend.


This is Lou Ferrigno, who played the Hulk on the tv show from the 70s. He was kind of a jerk.


They'll never take me alive. This was taken with the 501st Legion, a large group of Star Wars fans with high quality costumes. They go to conventions and other events, doing photo ops by donation. All proceeds go to various charities. They were some of the most fun people at the convention--the costumes were mind blowing in quality and detail. Helmet was a weird shape so sorry for the crooked fist.


Good day.

have fun with the theme stuck in your head

I was reading a few articles today on how a video game can be addicting (I'm using that word pretty loosely here) and the choices designers make to encourage that. One especially insightful piece, written by leading game designer Erin Hoffman, puts the issue in perspective by saying

"Addiction is not about what you DO, but what you DON'T DO because of the replacement of the addictive behavior"

hmmm.

It's true to an extent. I've happily spent an hour or two playing Tetris because what I was supposed to be doing was boring enough that I sought a diversion. Plus, as others have pointed out, the sense of accomplishment we so crave is immediate and often in video games. It's an extension of the Skinner Box--mice pushing levers to get pellets. I play video games not only because they're fun, but they are also stimulated a very important but very stupid part of my brain, which I'm not receiving (or at least not often enough) from the activity I'm avoiding.

Instead of working against our addictive tendencies when it comes to the martial arts (or whatever), it's a lot easier if we harness them. While the two criteria I mentioned above--engagement and fulfillment--aren't the whole story, they are really important for holding interest. So the strategy for staying motivated is to realize that you're stupid. Now settle down, don't get all offended. I'm stupid too.

We like clear problems that when solved lead to direct, tangible results, and we like those results to happen fast. In Tetris I'm presented with a easy to understand situation. I need to flip the shapes around to make rows. Bam. There you go. The task is hard enough to be interesting, but not so difficult or complicated that I get discouraged. Most importantly, I am constantly taking action and seeing fast results. Rows are disappearing quite often, which is a nice, tangible result for my actions. I can point to the result and say "I did that".

You're probably rolling your eyes and saying "if only my life was so easy". Well it can be! All you need to do (broken record alert) is break it down. Set small, clear goals that you can accomplish in days or weeks, not months or years. The 200,000 pushups I'm doing is a great example. Thats a massive number. If I thought of that in those terms I would go back to Tetris. But I see it as 500 a day. Which is still a lot. So I see it as a few sets. When I complete one set, I tick it off mentally. When I complete a day, I get to tick it off on my spreadsheet. That makes it real. I can point to my spreadsheet of daily tics or my mounting numbers on physout and get a real sense of satisfaction from it.

So I've realized to make it simple, straightforward and rewarding. It may never be as fun as Tetris, but it'll be just as easy to start and just as impossible to stop.

sure, it's always raining when the rain is here

I live in Vancouver now. Just one province away from Edmonton/Stony Plain, but still far enough to miss it.

Living in China was kind of a cheat when it came to staying engaged with my kung fu. If I didn't, I got hit with a stick. Now comes the real challenge. I'll have to rely on keeping in touch with my fellow students, along with the prodding of my roommates, to keep me motivated and practicing. I'll still be attending Friday classes by webcam, so expect many living room horse stances.

But I'm excited to be here. I'm living in a big city now, with all the grime, naiveté and potential that promises.

I live with a cat (appropriately) named Bitey. He rules.

2 months into this good year, and things are going well.

i(don't)c

Perhaps I'm setting out to be unpopular here. Of course, that means I would have to be popular in the first place.

Anyways.

I don't like the Olympics. If I were in Vancouver, I would be protesting. Every time the 'Olympic report' comes on the news, complete with obnoxious fanfare, I get a bit angry. Forget the Olympics, is what I say. But why, oh why?

You would think, what with the UBBT and all, I would be stoked on individuals pushing themselves to peak levels and join in the celebration of that. And if the Olympics were just about that, I would be fine with it. I completely acknowledge the power of sport and individual achievement. The games sure aren't about that, though.

I'll even ignore the sanitized and corporate controlled image, the long history of politically (re: capitalist) motivated IOC dealings, the issue of Native land rights connected to these games, the 750 units of low income housing that were scrapped to build the athlete's village, and the enormous efforts which amount to trying to convince tourists they need to buy more useless stuff. Along with all the other problems.

I won't even take issue with the money being funneled into the games, because I know that those holding the purse strings wouldn't have spent it on anything of value anyways.

No, what I dislike most about the Olympics is that instead of celebrating individual achievement it promotes a mindless nationalism, a rabid need that most people have to see their country do better. Because if Canada doesn't get at least 10 golds, the terrorists win. I think. That's why it's such a big deal, right?

Ok, I get it. When you're watching a sport, it's more fun if you've got someone to cheer for. But once the closing ceremonies are done nothing will have changed on the world stage--no matter how many shiny medals we get. People are still starving and dying in various parts of the world and us blindly waving our little flags does nothing except subtly promote the worldview that our country is somehow better and dissent is a bad thing.

I just want to slow the rampant patriotism for a bit and try some perspective instead.

cowt

Here's something I learned today. When I say 'moot' I mean irrelevant. A moot point is one not worth arguing. That's what I thought the word meant.

Well guess what? IT TOTALLY IS THE OPPOSITE.

Here's the Oxford English Dictionary's take on moot:

"1. Originally in Law, of a case, issue, etc.: proposed for discussion at a moot (MOOT n.1 4). Later also gen.: open to argument, debatable; uncertain, doubtful; unable to be firmly resolved. Freq. in moot case, [moot] point."

Seriously? What happened there?

That being said, the second definition acknowledges the use normal in North America:

"2. N. Amer. (orig. Law). Of a case, issue, etc.: having no practical significance or relevance; abstract, academic. Now the usual sense in North America"

You can almost taste the disdain dripping from the definition there. Despite (or maybe because of) it's massive authority, claiming that the OED is run by a bunch of snobs is hardly controversial. But still, I love how the dictionarians (made up word) needed to emphasize how North American the second use is by mentioning it twice.

Language evolves in different ways, words change meaning quite frequently over the course of years. A surprisingly common way is what we have here: at some point a bunch of people on this continent didn't get what moot meant. By using it wrong, they began to pass it onto friends and children and eventually the meaning changes by sheer force of numbers.

Due to my insanity, a dilemma pops up. Since the word is still at a point where the usual definition is kind of wrong, which do I go with? If I use moot the way I'm 'supposed' to, I'll be using it incorrectly as it applies to daily life. People won't get what I'm trying to say and it'll inevitably lead to some hilarious misunderstandings involving Mr Roper. So every reasonable part of my brain wants to keep using it the way I always have. But for the next 6 months or so I know I'll be haunted by the Ghost of English Major Past every time I use it.

Side note: I love the word moot, it's got a great niche meaning and is fun to say--so abandoning it altogether is out of the question. I challenge you to work it into conversation at least once today.

There's some politics at play here, which don't really concern me. People are always very quick to decry the americanization of our language, but that's really just holding onto our old colonial masters as opposed to embracing our new ones. Either side is a bit distasteful to me.

The real star here is my rampaging need to analyze daily speech. Lacking any clear goals or methods, I'm on this eternally unsatisfying quest to play with and dissect language. And, that, my friends, often doesn't work.

I am still reeling from this information. It's going to take some time to get to grips with.

a greener blog due to the recycling

It's easy to forget how polarizing and strong a force the act of defining is in our world. I was at a recent debate over whether morality could exist without a god and one of the major points was what a person means when they say morality is 'objective'. Many people are on either side of the fence of the abortion debate due to how they define life (though that is by no means the only reason to feel either way). These are cases of conflicting definitions. But when it comes to the concept of knowledge, we have less a conflict of clear definitions but rather the frustrating issue of a concept getting murkier. Talking about knowledge is becoming increasingly alienating and unwieldy.

As a society increasingly obsessed with generating knowledge, we're finding our way of talking and thinking about knowledge inadequate to how we actually experience it. We've moved, at least partially, from storing to processing information--but until we reconsider how we are defining and classifying our knowledge, we're going to get frustrated and disconnected.

Right now, something like spellcheck is a crutch--I use it to hide my terrible spelling in my writing. That makes me look more intelligent (well, not less intelligent, at least) and helps get my points across. But it's not like any of my written communication is handwritten anymore. Every time I write, I'm using spellcheck. Can I call that a useful tool anymore? Or is it now a normal, even integral part of writing?

Let's take it a step further. Anyone you know with an IPhone or equivalent smart phone is about two minutes away from finding out any basic fact you want to know. Population of Uganda? 25,827,000. Who played the inventor in Edward Scissorhands again? Vincent Price. He also in this buddy cop/zombie movie called Dead Heat. That one's on the house.

As these devices become ubiquitous, what will be more important than knowing these basic facts is strategies for getting reliable information easily. I don't have to know these facts because I know where to get them. As this becomes more common, what counts are true knowledge may shift.

A little pause here to quote from the disarmingly straightforward Saul--a passage I quoted on here in 2008 but is worth another look.

"[The general public] react to waves of expert truth which continue to wash over them with a sort of mute indifference. An uninvolved outsider might interpret this as the first stages of a purification rite. Indifference is often the manner behind which humans consider change. Given our history, it should be possible to decipher our intent. We are trying to think our way out of a linguistic prison. This means we need to create new language and new interpretations, which can only be accomplished by re-establishing the equilibrium between the oral and the written. This is a situation in which dictionaries should again be filled with doubt, questioning and considerations. They can then be used as practical weapons of change."
-John Ralston Saul, The Doubter's Companion

It's been two years since I first read those words and I find myself still struck by how obvious yet brilliant they are. As information becomes easier to obtain, we're forced to deal with more of it--assaulted from more sides we can't deal with info at the same rate it's coming in. As real knowledge becomes more specialized, we can no longer communicate across professions or interests. A particle physicist and a chemist, even though they're both scientists, would have very little in common to discuss beyond the basic info anyone has easy access to.

The point is that if you care to look you have instant access to the majority of human knowledge ever produced. As a result, just knowing stuff isn't good enough anymore. We've responded by making knowledge more specialized, but that's cut us off from each other. Culturally, we've arrived at a state of difficult evolution: used to solving problems by generating more info, but the real problems now require--to paraphrase Gregory Treverton--judgements on uncertain situations with no straight, factual answers.

Within the past 50 we've gained new ways of thinking. These new, technologically supported ways can help us--like a hydraulic press lifting a car for a mechanic we can make our lives/jobs easier by using the emphasis on processing rather than knowing to free up our brains for more important info. However, if we paralyze ourselves into obsessively gathering data, we'll be unable to keep up. Rather than info sponges, we need to learn how to become filters.

ps-Malcom Gladwell has a great article applying some of these ideas to the Enron scandal. Read it here.

fanfare much?

Sometimes when I hear about a pop singer who's tearing up the charts right now I feel the need for a little research. I read a bio or two, even watch their music videos on youtube. The last part is a bit odd. I can see watching one, but I have a tendency to hit up quite a few, all the better to...what? Not enjoy it? You all know, or can at least guess, that I hate the music industry and hope everyone who prefers to think of music as a commodity gets bitten by a monkey.

Yeah, you heard me.

Despite that, I do respect someone who manages to make it in such a horrible place, especially if he or she manages to maintain a semblance of creative control. Plus I actually do like some pop music, such as Kate Nash or the majesty that is Gobble Gobble.

But Taylor Swift, the subject of tonight's investigation, doesn't make the cut. Like I said, while I have no problem with her brand of inoffensive country-ish music, I didn't enjoy listening to it for the past half hour. But I did. I watched 'You Belong With Me' (it's the one that goes "she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts" and so on) three times. Not because it was good, nor because it was so bad it was funny.

It's as if I feel some sort of obligation to at least kind of know about mainstream music. Maybe it's some sort of roundabout superiority trip, or even a skewed sense of fairness--giving her a chance. Not listening to the radio and avoiding MTV (if they even play music anymore) means I'm exposed to someone like Taylor Swift sideways--through random snatches that our celebrity culture manages to force down my throat. I knew quite a bit about Taylor before hearing her music, able to wager a guess at what she sounded like--we're even on a first name basis on this blog. One listen would've been enough to confirm or deny my expectations, it is for the myriad of bands that are actually recommended to me. Friend says, listen to this band, you may like them. So I listen, if I do enjoy it I may check where they're from and how many albums they have, that's where it ends. But for music I don't like I afforded far more interest for the details.

Another sure stop in the research train is how they got noticed--mostly to confirm my cynicism for the manufactured stars or to give a little cheer for those who managed to make it on their merits. I also check the age, Taylor being two years younger than me. Some kind of validation, probably.

I think I delve into this info because musician fame baffles me a little. There are bands whose music I am admittedly obsessed with, jamming their records at an incredible rate. But that's the music. The people themselves, while I'm sure are neat, aren't the focus of my attention. When I had the chance to shake hands with vocalist of one of my favorite bands I obviously thought it was cool--but as much as I geek out over the music, I can't muster the kind of shrieking enthusiasm millions of people have over Taylor, the girl. So my forays into this fame are at least partially an attempt to understand what's so interesting about it. Why we should value who she's dating over what she's writing. And I keep coming up empty handed.


In other news, this is apparently my 100th post, having had this thing for over two years. I'm celebrating by reposting the link to Gobble Gobble's Myspace. I don't care what floats your musical boat, you are a click away from one of the most strange and wonderful listening experiences of your life. Do it.

furrow this, jerks

One of the many things that annoy me is cultural hierarchies. The very idea that some genres or mediums are inherently more intellectual or worthy is ludicrous and plain snobbery.

So many of us have this hang up that art should somehow be morally improving, or that the gap between art and simple entertainment isn't microscopic, if it exists at all. Forget that! Art is itself.

(tangent: if you agree that art should reflect life as accurately as possible--like many, many artists do--what sort of effect does that have for reality tv?)

Take Batman. An almost perfect depiction of obsession over the years, and an interesting take on justice (seeing how he breaks the law in order to preserve it). He also beats bad guys up and swings from rooftops. I like both those things and prefer to get them from one source. Furthermore, the amount of dirty puns in any Shakespearean play is mind boggling.

So let's stop enforcing rigid definitions of quality based on class and money. Good art tears itself from the page/screen/speakers/whatever and grabs by the collar. Bad art doesn't. There's a lot of middle ground but none of it has to do with the genre or medium.


To completely change the subject, I went through a few older posts of mine and in one I express a hope for a robot uprising by the end of UBBT 6. All I have to say is: whats with the slacking, robots?

and you ask why we're all doomed

Now, I usually consider infomercials a source of misguided comedy. But even I have limits.



This is real. HD Sunglasses are a real thing you can buy. For only twenty dollars you can have a product which makes no sense. For only twenty dollars you can officially admit you're a drain on society.

I ever see someone wearing these hip, "euro-designed" monstrosities...oh man, they are getting such a lecture.

Let's all calm down with something great. And why not make it another embedded video!



ps- shamwows are actually pretty amazing. i'm just saying.

after the fact introductions

Downed internet yesterday makes Jack a dull boy.

Also means a late posting.

Guess I haven't introduced myself properly to the UBBT 7 crowd. So here we go:

Having trained in Kung Fu since I was thirteen, it's hard to imagine my life without it. Because of this, I thought I was pretty hardcore until I joined UBBT 6 as a student member. The test completely changed the way I approach my training and also allowed me to take those lessons into my life and the lives of those around me. Now, I see every part of my day as training--taking every opportunity I see to improve as a person. For me, 2010 means moving to a new city, starting new school and just generally being awesome. I also plan on pushing myself beyond even the scope of my current abilities and mindset.

Now that's a pretty one sided picture of me, so to set the record straight I will say this: I'm a rowdy punk rocker and as cynical as a person can get, but I'm also stoked on life and ready to fill every day with meaning.

so...that happened

Getting off the plane, I was fresh faced (re: half-awake) and excited for more time in China. I gave my passport to the immigration official with an extra warm greeting (mostly because I was excited to be there, but she was also really cute). She looks at my picture, nods, flips to my visa. Says "huh?"

Around this time the fun began.

Turns out the office manager at the academy I was staying at screwed up, extending my visa in November as I had asked but neglecting to get the one that allows for a re-entry. An honest mistake and easily forgivable. I figured I would have to sign a form, smile sheepishly, maybe get her on the phone as a last resort. Well, after a half hour of discussion I was politely but firmly escorted by one Air Canada employee and three cops (who seemed thankful for something to actually do) onto the next flight to Vancouver.

Including takeoff and landing of both flights, I'm guessing my second trip to the People's Republic clocked in at around an hour and a half.

So I'm back in Van, staying at my friend's house, chilling for a few days until sorting out a flight back to Edmonton. I don't think I'll be heading back to the Orient anytime soon. Not only do I have no money I was told it would be a good idea if I didn't apply for another visa until at least a year had past.

Lesson learned. The bureaucracy of China may be disorganized and chaotic, but if you lack the proper paperwork they don't screw around.

circular endings

1000 pushups, 1000 situps.  Hangouts and real talk with my friends. 

A little bit of vegan chinese food.  

Beating mega man 2 on the NES in one sitting.  

New year and new ubbt.  Good start.  

Speaking of ubbt, here's my requirements:

UBBT 7:  even more ultimate, I guess?

The core:

-Blog once a week

-No quitting!

Keeyah!:

-at least 1 hour a day of mindful, constant practice

-Devise and achieve two variations for all applications, one varies intent (that is, outcome), the other the original attack (for example, a defense against a kick is now against a hook).  At least 50% of original moves must remain.  Perform two sets (on different days) of 50 repetitions of both variations and the original application.  This is because I've realized that I had trained mindlessly for a large chunk of my martial arts career.  Just doing the moves is insufficient, I need to understand them in both mind and body.  

-Learn the Tai Chi short form

-A once a month revisit of all curriculum techniques

-1000 reps of Kempo.  

-500 reps of three section staff, culminating in a blindfolded performance and a newly designed form. 

-224 reps a year of all other forms (4 a week), including weapon and Shaolin forms.   

-At least half of daily practice must be applications or techniques, including kicks.  

-15 minutes a day of mediation

-20 minutes a day of Tai Chi.  

-Partner stretching 5 times a week: toe touching, shoulders, hips, back and splits.  Starting with 30 seconds each, increasing by 5 seconds every month.

-The four dynamic stretch kicks (stiff swinging, inside/outside cyclone, side swinging) for warm up every day before practice.  

-Conditioning every day

Check out my biceps:

-200,000 pushups.  Dear me, that's a large number.  

-200,000 situps.

-Power training three times a week.  This will be around 1 1/2 hours of shaolin style brutalization, geared towards building fighting strength and endurance. 

-Biking at least 40 km a week, whether stationary or real world.   Includes two sessions of at least 15km.   This may go up--I'm just pulling a number out of thin air for biking.  

Starting new things:

-Start a new martial art, but not until at least June.  I need to get into a good practice routine before branching out again.  

-Take a reality based self defense course, one that focuses on the psychology of self-defense. 

-Receive instructor certification in the UBBT anger management course

-Start or join a motivated hardcore band that practices regularly 

Pen and Paper:

-Write (creatively) for at least 30 minutes a day. 

-Write at least one good story a month.  A longer one (~10000 words) can be worked on for two months, but the key is more output than usual.

-Write at least one high quality, academic style 10 page paper in August as a warm up for school. 

-Write 5 essays over 5 pages on the assumptions and mental habits of a particular area of my life. 

-Write a 10 page paper summarizing the major historical paradigms (using Kuhn's writing on science) of the martial arts, with emphasis on the past 50 years.  

-Write a 10 page paper on the current attitudes and paradigms of the martial arts, analyzing the business, the influence of sport fighting and mma, and which (if any) of these paradigms the UBBT is challenging. Also summarize the fundamental approaches to training most take, and suggest new, little used, or combined ones the community could benefit from.   

Community:

-Consistently (once a week at least) volunteer in an organization that promotes real, local good. 

-Contribute to (heavily) or lead at least 5 community projects.  At least 3 must be unaffiliated with Silent River.  

-Encourage and help promote shows in Vancouver, with the aim of  developing a more thriving punk and hardcore scene there.  

-Reject consumerism in my daily life as thoroughly and practically as I can.  Use tactics such as dumpster diving, growing my own food/making my own stuff and trading communities.  When I do buy things, preference to local, DIY or used goods.  Heavily promote the benefits of this lifestyle to others, possibly through organizations.  

-1000 acts of kindness

-Reduce my plastic and disposables usage to a minimum level (this will  begin with a one month evaluation of how much I use)