reunion?

so my 10-year high school reunion is coming up....this weekend. I'm pretty excited about it on the whole.

Should be good to see old friends & people who I haven't seen in 10 years or so.

peaceful

Despite a lot of big thoughts to go over in my head over the past 3 weeks + the near financial implosion of the US economy, I feel pretty good at the moment.

Then again, that might be the wine talking.

New music (at least for me) that I'm liking a lot at the moment:

 - Me First & the Gimme Gimmes - everything they've done...I had to wikipedia them to get the whole deal; I'm thrilled to know that they are a side project from members of several excellent rock/punk bands. They cover everything and are super fun.

 - Rancid "B sides & C sides" - although some of the B-sides aren't stellar, there's enough unique Rancid there to make me very happy...

 - Fleet Foxes - Another great Seattle band! Very melodic...

 - Kasbian - good enough Brit-rock
 
 - The Verve - although I am listening to their new album, I also am revisiting "Urban Hymns", and like it a lot.

noteworthy weekend

2 major events & one comment:

Event #1 - On Saturday, we went to PAX (the Penny Arcade Expo). Was fun. Lots of cool new games that one could play with (but we didn't do much since the lines were huge). Nice people, among those we talked to. Got to see the people behind Mega64. They had some amusing clips & did an insightful yet humorous Q & A session. The location in downtown Seattle was great too, in that we could run over to the Pike Place Market for lunch.

Event #2 - On Sunday, we went to Bumbershoot, which is a big festival/concert/performance/art event in central Seattle (around the Space Needle). Lots of bands & other artists over 10 different stages. You can't see it all. But what we saw was good. Some jazz acts, some world music /fusion acts, some rock acts, & other stuff. My favorite act (& the whole reason why I wanted to go today) was the Saturday Knights. They did not disappoint; they did a fun show that involved the crowd. Marsha & I were in the front row and it was super cool; got to high-five members of the band!

Comment: While I disdain watching TV all the time, it is nice to have a connection...

happy for the internet!

Good to be able to connect to friends all over the world to chat with; especially after having a busy day.

Good to not have the TV on & just some silence in the house; save the chat indicators and the click of my fingers on the keyboard.

Although I've been in front of a computer much of the day for work, right now it doesn't feel like work at all - it's good to be here.

primaries!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/375506_primary19.html?source=rss



Not sure if you've heard (I don't know if this has made national

headlines or not); Washington state is having a "top two" primary

tomorrow...vote for your favorite two candiates to duke it out in

November, regardless of party.



I'm leaning towards democrats & independents.



Some interesting green candidates; also one Republican who has based

his entire platform/manifesto on his AIR POWERED CAR!!! (his stance on other issues was non-existent, however...)



We'll see how it goes.



Yay democracy!

a little hard to believe

So apparently everyone on the Chinese gymnastics team is 16 years old.

They all look super young to me; but I suppose that gymnasts do tend to be short in stature.

The commentators did not really do much to hide their suspicions..."the IOC says that all of the ages on the passports received were 16."

Tough to say, I guess...I mean, it's really up to each country that sends a delegation out to the olympics, right? If the country really wants to send out underaged atheletes, they ultimately will find a way to do it - it's not like a government issues documents that are forgeries...(they might just be "errors", right?)

It's not as if the IOC can go claiming shennanagins on the officially government issued documentation of each athlete that is competing.

liking the Olympics

Have been watching the latest round of the Olympics fairly closely....keep hoping that they'll be showing something of the Beijing that I knew - but no luck on that so far.

Some things that caught my attention:

1. Announcers on NBC can't pronounce "Chaoyang park" (朝阳公园)...they keep saying "Chaoyong park"...doesn't seem like that should be so hard to say.

2. There was some Budweiser(?) sponsored ad supposedly showing some popular 'local' bar in Beijing...but it sure looked like a generic blues bar that was sparsely filled - really wonder how they came to even know of that bar.

Although it is fair to say that I'm totally out of touch with the Beijing bar scene, however, I do know what a popular 'Chinese' bar tends to look like - this wasn't it.

broken record?

Is it just me, or was the music during the Beijing Olympic opening ceremonies about a 15-minute record that was on continuous loop? Sure heard A LOT of bagpipes.

Might just be me.

on being broken?

Does one have to be broken to fit into society?

I mean, at what point does conformity to socially acceptable norms break down to smothering one's inner self?

At what point is it worth it to have stability vs the excitement (and huge risks) of a constantly shifting existence?

No good answers here...but it does seem to support the notion that one should take risks while you are young, as when you get older the stakes get higher and the chances of full recovery lessen.

1 year

It's been 365 days since we moved back from China. My world feels smaller.

More comfortable in a lot of ways, I suppose. 

My ass is fatter.

My mandarin is probably in need of some practice.

I can cook more things than ever have before. I've read more than I have before. 

Have broader, fuller work experience.

Still feel like there's a lot left to do - as if things are just getting started for me here.

But miss China & my friends there, the past life, quite a bit. Would be happy to revisit even if just for a little while. 

(I'll probably have to wait until post-Olympics, however, given the visa situation there and everything...)

Flight of the conchords - fantastic!

Well, although their show is sort of old news - having aired in 2007 (?), I'm just getting into the show & the music, and I think it's fantastic.

One of the better things that I've heard in a while.

At first glance, one might think that they are a New Zealand version of Tenacious D.

While they are a comedy music duo, their style & humor is different; perhaps a bit more dry. Tenacious D's music was more of a metal band with accoustic guitars, the Conchords do many more musical styles (pretty much everything except metal).

Also, the D haven't been up to that much lately...

This video is pretty solid anyway:

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proud

Never have I been more proud to share my homestate with Jessie Ventura as I was last night.

He was on Larry King live.

The article linked above does not do justice to the awesomeness of his interview there.

Highlights, paraphrased by me:

- Drilling in Alaska? Follow the money - clearly this is just gouging by the oil companies & a little extra drilling isn't going to affect our prices at the pump.

- Endorse a candidate? - He's not sure if he's even going to vote as both of them are pretty much pushing the same lines; neither is offering anything along the lines of being truly fiscally conservative.

- Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan - "Apparently the president talks to God. I've been a pretty good man for the past 7 years, and God hasn't told me anything about starting wars in other countries..."

Larry King looked uncomfortable, but I was so happy that Jessie Ventura kept it real (as he tends to do) rather than reading off some carefully scripted PR-bullshit.

MAME! :)

This is one of those things that I had always heard about but never tried...MAME is a program that lets one run arcade games on one's computer.

Ended up getting very drawn into this - playing many of the games that were in arcades everywhere back when I was 12-14.

Didn't find anything terribly engrossing, but I hadn't played any simple shooter games for a while (UN Squadron, anyone?). Got my fill.

MAME for OS X has been performing/behaving rock-solid.

iphone 3g madness

I did walk by the mall last night (we got ice cream), surely enough there was a line snaking around the Apple store, even at nearly 9pm.

The new iphone does seem like a pretty cool toy, but I'm not sure if it's so cool that it's worth spending hours of one's day waiting for it...I'm pretty sure that within 2 weeks availability will be all worked out.

Anyway, I'm also quite amused by the fact that the new iphone OS 2.0 has already been jail-broken...seeing as cingular would intend to rope me into another 2-year contract as well as charge me extra for the privilege, I'd really rather just get the hardware and plug my existing SIM card into it (a la every phone purchase I made in China or Hong Kong).

Seeing as I don't have reason to even use my cell phone that much anymore anyway, the whole scheme seems like a money sink anyway...

perfect day out - lazy day

Slept in until ~10 am. Felt good. Then worked through a pot of coffee, read up on the news. Bagel for breakfast.

Doors and windows wide open. It's hot out, at least by the standards in western Washington. Things are somewhere in the 80s, which to me is still very pleasant - it's nice to have a breeze.

May do a little reading; then will run errands later.

I suppose I could do more with my time if I was intent on fulfilling my ambitions today...but just relaxing feels pretty good for now.

disappointed in Obama

Gotta say - LAME that he supported this whole telco-wiretapping immunity thing.

I still prefer him over the republican option, but seriously - where the hell is this whole "change" thing that he's been pushing & riding to get to his present position?

I thought that he represented the part of the Democratic party that had spines.

Lame lame lame.

other news - July 4th was fine

Stuck around and saw a local fireworks display; made pizza with homemade dough, drove to a town on the other side of the mountains which felt like it lived up to many outside conceptions of "old west", later on found a cool area in Seattle & hung out.

Talked to bands that are looking for guitarists; had some phone conversations and one try-out; we'll see how that goes.

quickie game note

One title that I must recommend for Nintendo DS is Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

Have been playing through that before bed the past few months, usually solving a few puzzles at a time. Has been fun and I feel like I'm learning something.

But finally finished the game! I'm happy that I completed it, but this seems like one I'll really miss after it's wrapped up.

Holy Crap!

Turned on the radio in my car yesterday for the first time in a while, and I was drawn into listening to a remake of the Dio classic, "Holy Diver".

It kept my attention, but on further reflection I'm kinda shocked that such a half-ass cover song is getting airplay.

They haven't really done anything to re-invent or update the song, but instead they did the following:

1. Change out vocalist to a very generic-sounding dude
2. Update guitar sound from late 70's period guitar to late 90's / early 00's "big guitar" sound
3. Add in seemingly random death-metal growls (cookie monster style)

It's almost like they're trying too hard - it's almost like a parody of half-ass music remakes, but from what I can tell about the song it seems to be intended as a wholly sincere effort.

A google search reveals that there are some rabid defenders of this version, and I can't figure out why.

thoughts for now

Had time to reflect during the drive this morning.

Close to a year being out of the China life, and still adjusting; not so much in terms of how to live in the country, but now finding what I want to do with my life & taking advantage of the opportunities here.

It's easy to get caught up in the wake up / work / TV / sleep cycle and the net result of that is that I'm getting nowhere on what I feel like I should really be doing with my life.

Need to keep a positive attitude about things - at least in identifying this I can take steps to adjust.

Some unbridled joy would be nice too...by its nature, it can't really be an everyday thing...but it seems to have been a long while since I felt that.

Things here seem to be keeping up at a very solid medium...not that much bad happening, and not that much crazy good happening either. Given the situation in the world, I shouldn't complain. On the other hand, I might as well be striving for the ideal, as this life seems to be the only one I have, and it's likely not going to get crazy better unless I do something about it myself.