Sanity… is for the Weak

Audio/Visual Update

Audio:Slave
In the B&O:
+Quincy Jones: Big Band Bossa Nova
+Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix
+Café Tel Aviv - Middle East Chillout

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Mama Mia! The Movie
+Journey to the Center of the Earth
+The Good, The Bad, The Weird
+A History of Violence
+Paprika

Animania:
+イヴの時間
+ToraDora (とらドラ)
+To Aru Majutsu no Index (とある魔術の禁書目録)
+Rideback
+K-On! (けいおん!)
+Eden of the East (東のエデン)
+Strike Witches (ストライクウィッチーズ) DVD

Movies to Catch - ‘09:
+Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (崖の上のポニョ)
+Slumdog Millionaire
+Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
+Full Battle Rattle
+Reclaiming the Blade
+Watchmen
+Terminator: Salvation
+Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
+2012
+Star Trek
+Up
+Angels and Demons
+Fanboys
+Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
+Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
+Fast and Furious
+G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

WTF, Hollywood? WTF?
+Astroboy
+Dragonball: The Movie

Movies soooo bad, it’s gotta be gooood
+Zombie Strippers
+Jack Brooks - Monster Slayer

Current Reads
RAWs
+謎の彼女Ｘ - Chapter 33
+魔法 先生 ネギま! - Chapter 249
+会長はメイド様! - Volume 6
+ソード・ワールドRPG 2.0 (SW2.0)

Dead Tree
+Homework for Grown-ups: Everything you learnt at school… and promptly forgot
+Dragon Warriors RPG 2008
+The Book of War

Online
+Questionable Content
+Real Life
+The Order of the Stick
+Turn Signals on a Land Raider

Sword World 2.0
Or, ソード・ワールドRPG 2.0 (SW2.0) as it is known in the original Japanese, is one of the pioneer Japanese languange role-playing-game systems. And it happens to be just one of the things I specifically went to Tokyo earlier this year for:

This should take me a while to translate to a point where it’s actually playable, but hey, what’s another hobby?

Interestingly enough, I had quite a bit of a hard time looking for the books, because the first time I saw the book, it was printed in a large filo format, rather than the current handy three-part paperback. I had looked for the large hard-cover all over Akihabara, and was about to give up when Great Cthulhu showed the way, literally. Simply put, I was looking at the RPG section, which contained oddly enough, Japanese language editions of GURPS, D&D and the Call of Cthlhu RPGs to no avail, when suddenly stack of books collapsed and dropped the Call of Cthulhu rulebook onto a small paperback stack. And when I picked up the dropped book what did I see? Sword World 2.0. Ha!

This is what happens if one does not take care to properly form a closed kinetic chain with both hands when executing the Fourth Remedy against dagger.

A severly wrenched thumb. Ouch.

Lessons to be learnt:

1) The strength of a single thumb is insignificant when compared to a whole arm wielding a dagger coming forward in a strike. Make sure to reinforce it by taking the blow with the base of your palm, preferably together with the other hand as well, thus forming the afore mentioned closed kinetic chain.

2) Wear gloves!

From the treatise itself:

“I am the fourth Master who plays with this presa. With similar to this my scholars will offend many. And if I turn to the right side and I do not release your arm, I will take your dagger and I will make trouble for you with it.”

Poor Josh. Oh well. A day in the life of a crash test dummy?

Today marks the last day of training in Singapore by Ken, who leaves our sunny shores for Finland this Tuesday. After two years of trading sword strokes and other assorted bullshit, I’ve come to appreciate his wit, his humor, his encyclopedic knowledge, his dedication to our art, and most importantly, his friendship.

And so, we wish him the best in his journeys, and may his life be long and prosperous.

Good bye, and Kiitos - I’ll see you again when the Brown Horde once again invades the Frozen Wastes of the North.

It’s been crazy at work ever since I moved to my new position. In some ways it is a promotion of of sorts; in responsibilities if not in rank or pay. And to top it off, my predecessor has left me pretty big shoes to fill. Not to cast aspersions on the guy, but I’m discovering rather painfully that his and my working styles are very much polar opposites to one another. His is a dynamic, seat-of-the-pants, fight-fire-now style that looks hghly pro-active, but with the rushing about, record- and book-keeping tends to fall by the wayside and on many occasions results in duplicated and/or wasted effort. I’d like to think that I’m more of a laid-back, slow and steady, with minimum wasted effort kind of guy. All this running and shouting, it gives me a terrible headache….

Motivator/De-motivator
I find myself feeling more and more unmotivated towards work as the years go by. The passion that drove me to this profession was, and remains the Sea, and to be told that I’ll be driving a desk for the rest ofmy career is enough to drive a man to despair. It’s not all doom and gloom though; looking back, I realise that I’ve been given opportunities and have been able to make a difference in the world; and the recognition for a job well done was well worth the effort. However, highlights like these tend to be few and far in between.

A Swordsman in Finland once said: “only prostitutes work for money”. And these days, I cannot but help see a glimmer of truth in that statement. Coming home from work these past few weeks, I sometimes feel as if I have been well and truely screwed-over. Perhaps one day I will follow in the footsteps of so many friends and colleagues to tender my papers and leave for greener pastures, but nothing so far has tickled my fancy and ignited my dreams.

For now, I’ll continue, if not for King and Country, then to pay the bills and to use my munificent pay-cheque to indulge in my hobbies of travel, gaming and swordsmanship.