Sanity… is for the Weak

Merry Met, and here’s wishing all a joyous Samhain!

Planning is almost done, we’ll be off on a holiday from 19-28 Nov. Just need to confirm the hotel and we’re all set to go see fabled Byzantium.

Ayasofya, Blue Mosque, Yerebatan Saray Cistern and the Grand Bazaar, oh my!

*edit*
Nov! I meant Nov! ~arrrrgh!~

It’s been a while since I cooked dinner for the both of us, seeing as how busy we were lately.

Made a simple Polish sausage in Pea soup dinner, with a side of simmered Shitake mushrooms with onions and herbs:

And paired with a rather refreshing 2003 Blue Nun Resling, and ended with a Chocolate Fondant:

All in all, a very satisfying meal.

If there’s anything better than reading the hilariously funny web-comic The Order of the Stick, it’s playing the Order of the Stick Adventure Game: The Dungeon of Dorukan

Seriously funny shit ~ we were laughing non-stop!

“I still live.”
- John Carter, Warlord of Mars

Still alive, after a week and a half of mind numbing druge-work in 12-hour shifts. I shall now spend my rainy saturday morning reading a good book and bothering my dogs. Need to uncompress and recharge, you know.

Had a haircut today, and being very tired of having to go back to the barber every three weeks because my hair grows fast (and that the cut I tend to get looks really messy when the hair grows out), I told the guy to cut it really, really short ~ probably the shortest since OCS.

Suddenly, my head feels a lot lighter and cooler… I think I’ll keep this hairstyle for a while

On a side note, my armor is finally here. Chainmaille made locally, and spaulders from The Mercenary’s Tailor. Surprisingly, the new haircut goes really well with the metal.

Yes, I am now on Facebook.

And yes, it’s terribly addictive.

*poke*

Caught the latest offering from KyoAni, Clannad.

Two episodes so far, and it’s great animation and pacing right from the start, with what is now the studio’s characteristic off-beat humor and gorgeous colour palette.

Now, why is it that I keep expecting to hear a “Uguu~” during the above scene?

Oh. Kanon. Right.

Æon Trinity

It’s been a while since I’ve picked up the dice, and I’m enjoying every minute of it!

*roar!*

And since I’ve taken up swordsmanship, I figure I can use my training kit as a costume. So all I have to do now, is to find me a party to go to….

But in the meantime, here’s some groaners:

Q. What do zombie cows eat?
A. Graaaaiiins!

Q. What is a zombies prefered mode of transport?
A. Traaaiiins.

Q. Why were the zombies clothes dirty?
A. Staaains

Q. What do you call zombies who are from Denmark?
A. Daaaanes.

Q: Do zombies eat popcorn with their fingers?
A: No, they eat the fingers separately…

Q. Why didn’t the skeleton cross the road?
A. He didn’t have the guts.

Q. What happened to the guy who couldn’t keep up payments to his exorcist?
A. He was repossessed.

Q. What has fur and flies?
A. A dead werewolf.

Q. How did the ghost say goodbye to the vampire?
A. So long sucker!

Q. Why do ghosts have so much trouble dating?
A. Women can see right through them.

Bwahahahaha

Remember the X-Wing scaled-model rocket I wrote about last week?

Oh well.

Would you pay USD$9,250 for a Song?

Apparently one woman did. No willingly perhaps, but she has been ordered to pay USD$222,000 to the music recording industry for allegedly sharing 24 songs online.

A little extreme, don’t you think? Kinda changes our view on the price of Peanuts huh?

And it probably doesn’t bode very well for the guys over at Xedo Defence either.

:Links:
+Reuters: Music industry wins song-download case
+ Recording Industry vs The People
+Sony BMG: Making One Copy of a Song You Own for Yourself Is Stealing
+Idiotic Jury Awards RIAA $222,000 for 24 Pirated Songs
+Four reasons why the RIAA won a jury verdict of $220,000 today

Two words: Heavenly Sword.

I *heart* my PS3

We went for a Test Cutting, or tameshigiri last month, and here are my results:

And so, with apologies to Dr Robert Oppenheimer:

“I am become Death, the cutter of PET bottles.”

But seriously though, there are lots of lessons to be learned from a test cut, which are not easily apparent in routine training and cutting drills:

敵も打出さんとし我も打出さんと思ふ時、身も打身になり心も打心になって、手は何時となく空になり、唯心の命するまゝ知らず知らず打事、是れ無念無想とて一大事の折なり、此打度々出合ふ打なり、能々習ひ得て鍛錬有べき儀なり

Or, (roughly) in English:

In this method, when the enemy attacks and you decide to attack, hit with your body, and hit with your spirit, and hit from the Void with your hands, accelerating strongly. This is the “No Thought-No Concept strike” cut.

And the road to the mastery of the sword goes ever on….

E-Lynn’s Photo Journal through Lhasa is up on Flickr.

So surf on by and have a look

Good lord. Some people just have too much time on their hands (that, or a passion that burns hotter and brighter than mine!)

These guys built a scaled model of a Starwars X-Wing fighter…. powered by rocket motors you find at rocketry clubs.

Built completely of wood, with aluminum rods for wing supports. It will be launched with four rockets, and will deploy three parachutes for recovery.

The launch will be next week, on 10 Oct.

May the Force be with you. And remember, “Use the Targeting Computer. That’s what it’s there for!”

:Links:
+Polecat Aerospace
+Gizmodo

Just some random madness…

Myth:

All Chinese know Kung-Fu

Fact:

All Chinese know Kung-Fu…. but only a few practice it.

:D

Audio/Visual Update
Audio:Slave
In the B&O:
+Queen: Greatest Hits
+OST Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Wave 103
+Red Hot Chilli Peppers Greatest Hits
+Utada Hikaru: Ultra Blue
+Diablo Swing Orchestra: The Butcher’s Ballroom
+OST Samurai Champloo - Departure
+Monkey Majik + Yoshida Brothers - Change
+Lisa Ono: Soul & Bossa
+Enya: Paint the Sky with Stars

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Mythbusters: Season 1 / Season 2 / Season 3
+I.33 - Fencing with the Sword and Dagger
+Man of the Year
+CSI - Season 1
+Initial D - 4th Stage: Project D

In the PSP:
+Sumomo mo Momo mo Dropped.
+Pumpkin Scissors
+Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge
+Freedom
+Kanon 2006
+Ghost Hunt
+Lucky ☆ Star
+Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Dropped.
+Lovely Complex
+Murder Princess Dropped.
+Monster Princess Dropped.
+Sola
+Hayate no Gotoku
+Dennou Coil

Movies to Catch - ‘07:
+Spiderman 3
+Transformers: The Movie
+Ghost Rider
+Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
+300
+Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Missed this
+The Simpsons Movie Missed this.
+Shrek: The Third Missed this
+Bridge to Terabithia… missed this one.
+Seraphim Falls
+Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
+The Last Mimzy… looks like we missed this one.
+Day Watch
+Nomad
+Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End
+Live Free or Die Hard
+Next
+The Golden Compass
+I Am Legend
+Hot Fuzz
+The Kingdom
+The Seeker
+Beowulf
+Get Smart
+Ratatouille

Movies soooo bad, it’s gotta be gooood
+Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters
+Grindhouse Missed this
+Balls of Fury
+Black Sheep Missed this

Movies to Catch - ‘08:
+Iron Man
+The Dark Knight

Gone to the Movies
Got around to catching movies again after a long break, and we caught two: Ratatouille, and Balls of Fury. Typical feel-good fluff in the first, and oh-god-it’s-so-corny funny in the second. Christopher Walken simply is classic as the deranged Feng, and the ending karaoke of “Pour Some Sugar On Me” was a riot.

Saturday Morning Singlesticks
We’ve started with our inaugural Saturday morning training with singlesticks last weekend, over at the Botanic Gardens.

Although we got some stares, it generally went quite well. One thing I discovered from the session was that doing any kind of fencing on grass and uneven ground is very different from what we’re used to at the salle. Balance, grounding and footwork becomes much, much more important and takes up a lot more of your concentration.