Push ups

It has been a while since my last post. Which is funny, since I sit in front of a computer 8 hours a day. Granted I'm working 95% of that time; but I could take notes, jot a draft, etc. Nope. I sit here and read between calls, or lately I watch stuff on my iPod. Either way, no good excuse for my recent absence here.

Soooo... what to write? I am so far successful in the one New Year's Resolution I made- push ups.

My original thought for a resolution was the generic "get in shape" dealy everyone seems to attempt-- but that attempt is the reason I shied away from the traditional format. I think the biggest cause for broken resolutions is that people try to bite off too much too fast. Fitness is not easy, nor is changing a habit. Put them together, and you have a very steep climb. So here is my theory. it's crazy, it's radical: one step at a time.

Seriously. No one takes it slow anymore, and the tortoise should have freakin' taught us this one.

Rather than making some new workout schedule, or deciding on x days a week of gym time, I set my sights on doing push ups every day, as soon as I wake up. If I forget, it's fine as long as I get them in before I go to sleep(which has happened maybe 4 times). I started in January with 10 every morning. You would not believe how many people ridiculed that as going too slow. THERE IS NO TOO SLOW IF YOU DON'T STOP. I am increasing my set by 5 reps every month. So right now I do 15, and March will be 20. As I said, I haven't missed a day. If I can keep this up, I will be at 65 a day in December, and that cannot happen without an effect on my physique. I am not looking for aesthetics, just strength and health.

Now, that doesn't mean I'm not trying to go the gym as well, but if i don't make it right now it is OK. My plan starts with push ups. I try to get 2-3 cardio workouts in a week, and soon I will start very small weight sessions. When it is warm out, I'm going to start swinging my shinai again also, but slow and steady.

Listen to me folks, slow and deliberate works, if you keep it steady and cumulative. There are no quick fixes. Results only come from hard work and perseverance. Wait, when the hell did this become a lecture?

I'm done for now- back to my book. Incidentally I am now on book 9 of the Wheel of Time series, and I can't wait to read the new book 12- probably will get to it in April...

Books in 2009

I meant for this to come out before the new year, but I was drunk, so yeah. Here it is anyways:

As 2009 comes to a close, we reflect upon our year. I'm not doing that yet. I reserve that thought process for when I'm really drunk like 15 minutes before the ball drops. What I will think about is how many books I have read in 2009. I don't have a full count yet, but it has been a good year for reading, so let's hash it out:

David Farland - The Runelords

The Sum of All Men
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Wizardborn
The Lair of Bones
Sons of the Oak
Worldbinder
The Wyrmling Horde


J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter Series

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows


Raymond E. Feist - The Riftwar Cycle

Magician: Apprentice
Magician: Master
Silverthorn
A Darkness at Sethanon
Prince of the Blood
The King's Buccaneer
Shadow of a Dark Queen
Rise of a Merchant Prince


Stephenie Meyer - Twilight Series

Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn


Brandon Sanderson

Warbreaker


Terry Brooks - Landover Series

A Princess of Landover


Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time

The Eye of the World
The Great Hunt
The Dragon Reborn
The Shadow Rising
The Fires of Heaven

*************************************************************************************

Ok. That's it. 33 books. I'm actually a little surprised; hadn't counted them all until now. I obviously read like a fiend this year. As you can see I like Fantasy. I will say that The Feist, Rowling, and Jordan books were re-reads, and I think the 3rd time through for most of them. I don't only like this genre, it just turned into a fantasy year I guess. The above is order is pretty much how I read them, with a few books thrown into the series. I'm currently on book 6 of the Jordan series. I want to go into detail on the books, but that will take a lot of time, so I'll end with the list for now. More soon.

Lou Jing and the new multienthnicity craze

I was randomly online last night and found an article about a girl named 娄婧 (Lou Jing):


Lou Jing is half Chinese, half African American. Seems like her mother is Chinese and had an extra-marital affair, who then skipped town before Lou Jing was born. The mother's Chinese husband seems to have left shortly after, so Mom raised Lou Jing herself. They live in Shanghai, and aside from her appearance Lou Jing is just another Chinese 20 year old. Well, I think so anyways. There is this show in China called 加油！东方天使 - roughly translatable into "Let's Go! Oriental Angel." It's like American Idol except that it is only for girls (There is a partner program called Let's Go! Good Boys (加油！好男儿) for the men-folk) and Lou Jing was one of the 5 top finalists. What doesn't surprise but still sickens me is that this TV show monopolized on Lou Jing's story to help ratings, and it worked.
She didn't win, but her presence has sparked a lot of debate about the fact that she is half Black and what that means to China. There have been all kinds of horrible web posts with stupid racist people condemning this poor girl because of her heritage. The country has 56 different recognized ethnicities, but 90% of the population is Han Chinese. After living in Japan which is even more homogeneous than that, I understand the Chinese's reaction to people who look different. I don't like it, but when you live somewhere your whole life and everyone looks the same, you tend to stare at those who stand out.
Now as an American (correction- an unbiased intelligent American), I have no problem with race. It really truly baffles me that anyone does. Who the fuck cares what someone looks like? Would it really be better if everyone looked the same? Well, in a way I think it might, but that won't happen for thousands of years. I speak of the wonders of multi-ethnic people and their advantages. Take a dog, for example. A mutt is more likely to be healthy than a pure-bred because by its nature it is more resilient to disease. Pure-breeds can have congenital diseases from being inbred for centuries. It's the same with people. Certain races are more prone to certain inflictions than others. People that are multi-ethnic are more resilient.
Also, I think that by and large mulit-racial people are more attractive. That is not always the case, but there has been a surge in the last decade of models, movie-stars, sports figures, presidents, etc. that claim multi-ethnic backgrounds. My friend Seb is Jamaican, Chinese, Irish and I'm sure something else; and the ladies seem to like him. In fact, most people I know that are various ethnicities are attractive.

I mean case in point:

English/Irish/Scottish/Cherokee + Russian/Italian =

Perfect.

So here is my theory. If people were to stop all this racial, cultural, ethnic bullshit and just fuck everyone else, I think in a thousand plus years we could have a single, golden-ish race of healthy attractive humans that didn't fight. Moral? Go bump jumblies with someone who doesn't look like you.

Weekend Movies (beware spoilers)

I actually managed to watch 3 movies this weekend; which is rare as I am normally too busy to sit for that long. Wait, that is a lie. I usually sit for that long, but it's playing video games. So OK, the rarity is that I put down the controller and watched something longer than 22 minutes. I was really lucky in that I knew very little about these movies; I knew the gist of them without giving anything away, and I hadn't seen any previews. This is how I prefer to watch films, but it is very difficult as everyone wants to tell you how it was. I prefer to make my own opinions. One movie was OK; the next was so good I watched it twice; and the third was amazing and while I might not watch it again anytime soon it evoked the strongest emotions.


Beth had tried to download this movie like 400 times and couldn't get it, so we finally got a copy from my friend Meric. It was pretty funny, and I could watch parts again. Definitely the kind of comedy I could have in the background while hanging out with people or working on something. As a co-worker pointed out to me this morning, the plot smacked of Dude, Where's My Car? in that they wake up oblivious and lose the groom, but that's as far as I would compare it. Dude has a playful, pseudo-stoner-innocent feel that makes it whimsical, whereas Hangover is a lot harder in its humor.
Decent cast; and I like that while many actors have been around, there weren't many heavy hitters. Sometimes too many big stars dim the movie itself, and I thought everyone in this did a good job for what it was. Zach Galifianakis is by no means a favorite of mine, but he can be funny and handles the oddball slot in the group well. The group is (like a billion other comedies of this genre) the nerd, the average guy, the rebel, and the loon. Ken Jeong was also really good, and come to think of it I like him in everything I've seen. Funny twists, a baby (Beth and I were squirming when the kid was but in the car without a car seat), and a sweet-ass tiger. Best moment for me - Mike Tyson KO-ing Galifianakis. He was out before he hit the floor. I'm gonna go with 3.5 out of 5 stars.


I had been waiting to see this movie for a while, and again I was pleased that when I finally did it was with a pristine ignorance as to the plot. All I knew was it starred Woody Harrelson and some zombies. That was enough for me, so I was even more pleased when everyone else in the movie was equally awesome. I didn't remember ever seeing the actor Jesse Eisenberg before, and to be honest I thought the role was played by Michael Ceras until I actually saw the movie. Eisenberg is a bit of Ceras clone, but he does it really well so I'll just say he is a similar actor instead of calling him a carbon copy. I liked Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine, and she's cute in this also. Well, cute for a zombie movie. She does mention Hannah Montana at one point, and that fits well in the horror genre. Emma Stone was also very good, and looks better in this movie than in previous films. Not that she was fugly or anything before, but for a showerless apocalyptic world, she does alright. Now my favorite character was definitely Bill Murray. God he was awesome, even without a large part. Again for me this was so much better because I hadn't seen the movie yet; so if anyone reads this before seeing the movie it is your own fault. I also love the way no one really mourns too much after he gets it, and no one blames Columbus. It really was Bill's bad.
The rules of Zombieland are hilarious as well as practical. Beth has The Zombie Survival Guide, and these rules go pretty much hand in hand with that interpretation. I am a big fan of zombies, but I like the more recent "realistic approach." Well, realistic if zombies existed. For instance, the Survival Guide states that one of the best places to rest and stage before taking off in the event of a zombie apocalypse would be a cemetery. I completely agree with this. If Zombies ever happened- it would be due to some kind of virus probably. Zombieland is also in agreement with its outbreak scenario. With that said, if a virus breaks out, already dead people in the ground are not going to become zombies. Even if they did, it wouldn't matter. Both the book and the movie portray zombies as having comparable strength to a living human, just undead. Maybe they can hit a little harder or run a little more (yes, Zombieland zombies can run) because of the lack of pain receptors, but they are also rotting corpses. A regular person can not get out of a wooden box (if not metal or polyurethane) that is under 6 feet of dirt. A rotted corpse would just stir itself into gumbo. Anyways, the rules make a lot of sense, especially the double tap. Never just shoot once, make extra-sure you did the job right. I also really like the way the rules keep appearing throughout the movie, and how they are sometimes tangible and interact with the environment. Good stuff.
All in all great movie that I will watch repeatedly. Scary "realistic" zombies, funny lines, and finally a movie where the good guys win as much as they can in a world filled with undead.
I'll say 4 out of 5 stars.


I have been thinking about this fucking movie so much since Beth and I saw it last night that I am sure I will not be able to get everything out in this post, and what I do may be highly disjointed.
It is rare that I love a movie, but I will say that here. Quentin Tarantino makes good movies. I like every one I have seen. Not that they are all amazing, but they are all interesting and have memorable moments in them. A co-worker this morning said he disliked Basterds because there wasn't enough action; and that is the staple of a Tarantino movie. Really? All of his movies are chock-full of action? That is buuullllshit. I mean, Kill Bill had a lot of fighting and violence, but it was a samurai revenge flick! Of course it was action packed! Pulp Fiction had action, but not the whole movie. There was plenty of violence, but it had more of what I think encapsulates a top notch Tarantino movie: dialogue. That is the defining element of his films; edgy, driven, subtext-dripping dialogue. Basterds is full of it. I love the way Tarantino writes, and it makes me happy that a period piece did not hamper him, but simply allowed the use of dated colloquialisms and colorful curses. The words, the inflections, the reactions all so important to the director's vision. What I especially like in Basterds (as in any good movie) is that with great dialogue comes great subtext. Saying one thing while meaning something entirely different. Christoph Waltz, whom I guess is new to American cinema by his IMDb page, has I think the best lines in the movie and does a fantastic job of delivering them with amazing clarity of purpose. He tells a waiter that Mélanie Laurent's character will have a glass of milk. Doesn't ask her, but tells her. And the choice of beverage is deliberate. He delivers the line so innocently, but the audience knows that there are pages of emotion within the statement. He knows who she is; she didn't really escape but was simply set loose on a whim; to be used at his convenience. It is chilling and wonderful.
I also enjoy that Tarantino doesn't just draw from the American actor pool, but goes wherever he needs to find the right talent. Laurent is just like Waltz in that she has only done French film up till now, but what a find! Great emotion and a fitting image for raging, engulfing Jewish vengeance. Her face laughing in the smoke was beautiful and horrifying. The strength she showed having to hide in plain sight of her enemies was great too. She kept her cool though her whole conversation with Col. Landa to the point where you weren't exactly sure how scared she was, then she lets her mask slip in a sobbing gasp as soon as he has left the room. Good actor- I hope she does more American film.
I kind of hate to say it because he gets so much buildup, but Brad Pitt really is a great actor. He is also, I present here, more a character actor than a leading man. Sure he plays lots of leading roles, but he plays more roles with an accent, a mannerism, a specific trait. Speaking as an actor I think is craft is very good, and you can't say that he simply subsists on his looks. He is awesome in Basterds as Lt. Aldo Raine. Come to think of it, they never really say if Raine himself is Jewish, though I think he must be. Everyone else in the platoon is. Is it a platoon? I division? I don't know. His accent is good, and there were obviously southern Jews (my grandmother is from Mobile, AL) so I will just assume he was. I like that he was always squinting, and the character really seemed to enjoy his mission.
I'm only going to talk about one more specific actor cause this post is getting huge, but everyone in this was great. I liked all the soldiers, but especially Eli Roth (Sgt. Donny Donowitz). He wasn't actually in the movie too much, but the "Bear Jew" was a great character, and I think Roth got one of the best shots in the movie. I the end, when he already shot Hitler, he stands over the corpse and riddles it with bullets till Hitler's noggin mushes apart. The look in Roth's eyes- the triumph, the hatred, the savage gleam knowing he has won but will also die- it is fantastic.
The big reason I love this movie so much I suppose (besides the fact that it is simply a well made film) is that it resounds with my heritage. My friend Jon told me he went with his dad(current president of Temple Sinai) to see this and they both loved it. Now does this mean you can't really love this movie without being Jewish? No, of course not. I think you just have to hate Nazis, and that should be a fairly large number of people. My family itself was not in any camps- we had already immigrated in the early 1900s- but we know so many people who have direct connections to them, and my grandfather fought in WWII. I Have always had a hard time with movies concerning any part of the Holocaust. I will watch them, but only once even if it is good. I will watch Basterds again, but probably not for a while, and there wasn't much Jew killing at all. That was my connection. I think most Jews have an inner fire against the Nazis and Hitler that can be stoked easily. This movie does it so well. An entire theater of people, mostly officers but women as well and maybe they all didn't directly harm Jews, but they were all Nazis. When they burned I felt good. I reveled in it. Just like Shoshana's laughing face, I felt triumphant. Now, I know history didn't happen like that, but I'm glad Tarantino decided to show us a little story that could have been. Catharsis is important, even emotions like rage and vengeance.
I have to stop rambling and do some work.
5 Stars of David out of 5.

and I'm done.

Ancient spirits of evil, transform this decayed form to Blumm-Ra, the Ever-Living!

Muahahaha. I live... in Bristol, CT. Meh. I have tried on a few separate occasions to "blog" and it always fizzles, but right now my work is so braincurdlingly boring that I need some cerebral exercise to stay awake. Sooooo, here's attempt #n at extracting my thoughts into cyberspace with as much clarity as possible. Cheers.