A2K's Wonderful World Of Reinvention

i saw a tiny two-line mention in the local subway paper (it's awful) that Israel will be doing a prisoner exchange with the palestinians. does anyone know if that means that those two soliders who've been captured for a couple years will be released? i was kinda hoping they're not dead. but i couldn't find anything more on it. thanks!

Happy birthday, America!

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ENDE

Apollo 19 (the bitpig computer) is now about 95% restored, thanks to software assistance and advice from Cousin Donnie. I apologize for the delay in getting back online.

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One of the main reasons that I love manga is the adaptability of the artform. Besides being pure entertainment, manga can and are produced for use as textbooks, instruction manuals, and propaganda. One example of the last-mentioned (in a benevolent sense) is a new manga published by (believe it or not) the United States Navy. The manga, entitled Manga CVN 73, is a light-hearted look at daily operations aboard USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN-73), the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that is replacing USS KITTY HAWK (CV-63) as America's forward-deployed carrier at our base in Yokosuka, Japan. The story in the manga is an easy and fun read about an American sailor of Japanese ancestry who makes his first visit to Japan as a member of the GW's crew. The "propaganda" angle of the book really more like public relations, being less about the mission and combat capabilities of the ship and more along the lines of "look, folks, nothing to be afraid of here". (GEORGE WASHINGTON is the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be homeported in Japan, and, as such, has become something of a magnet for controversy — hence the manga.) The military function of the ship is definitely soft-pedaled; the action in the story is limited to flight ops, firefighting, and the like, with the bulk of the story centering on the daily lives of the Japanese-American hero character, his black buddy, and their winsome blonde sempai. (As a former carrier sailor, I can attest to the general accuracy of the book's depiction of life at sea; unlike the ship in the CVN 73 manga, however, we had no hot babes aboard the good old ENTERPRISE — the Navy had a "no chicks at sea" rule back in those days.) Published by Commander, Naval Forces Japan (CFNJ), Manga CVN 73 clocks in at a respectable 200 pages, and is aimed at the 10-30 year old Japanese audience. I have no idea how to get a paper copy, but the manga is available online in both English and Japanese (pdf) for free.

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I've posted a crapload of new photos on my Flickr site. Included are updates to Hans Pictures, Lewis Life, B-chan Sketchbook, and Miscellany. Feel free to kill an odd minute or two viewing them.

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Xorsyst.com has published a list of the Top 10 Japanese gravure idols (gravure = cheesecake pinups). Other than the sublime Ourei Harada, who literally made me feel faint the first time I saw a photo of her, I find these girls to be cute, but not especially hot. Of course, the fact that they are all pretty much young enough to be my daughters may have something to do with my lack of interest! Man, I'm gettiing old...

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I'm still looking for a day job. Having applied for a really groovy position in Japan, I ask all of you to pray that I get it (or one of the other positions for which I've applied) if it be God's will. I wouldn't mind living in Japan for a few years, that's for sure, but right now I'd pretty much take any reasonably-paying gig.

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Baby McBaby had his sixteen-month checkup today. He's in the 95th percentile for height and the 70th percentile for weight, has excellent blood iron, and is generally strong and above average in every way. He's into everything. is starting to talk, and Lord knows he eats enough. Thank you, God, for a healthy and happy baby.

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Speaking of my kids, Child Zero, the inimitable Exchange Daughter Yuki, checked in via Skype yesterday. All is well as her takeover of Japan continues; she's doing well in school, has started her own personal-service business (foot massage, ladies only), and is still working part time as a tour guide at the shrines in Kyoto where she lives and goes to college. She's also in good health, and sends her greetings to all of you readers who knew her during her time with us here in Texas. Ol' bitpig is extremely proud of her.

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Again, sorry for the delay in updates. We're off to the backwoods of Oklahoma for our family reunion for the weekend, but I'll be back with more unimportant crap for you come Monday. Have a great Independence Day weekend!

ENDE

1 cup multigrain baking mix
1/2 tsp baking powder (or 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder)
1/2 cup flaxseed meal
1/4 cup dry milk powder
1/4 cup vanilla whey protein powder
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 large eggs
4 T butter, melted
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 T vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries (or 1 large apple, chopped finely or grated and 1 tsp cinnamon for apple cinnamon muffins)

Preheat over to 350

Mix flour, baking powder, milk powder, whey protein powder and flaxseed meal in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together agave nectar, eggs, butter, ricotta and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix together. Stir in blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin tin and bake in 350 degree over for 20-25 minutes (check often since flax meal likes to brown quickly).

So far, these seem to be great muffins if you need to watch your blood sugar. Flaxseed meal is essentially all fiber, and can be used to replace quite a lot of flour in a recipe. The milk, protein powder, eggs and ricotta combine together for a nice amount of protein to keep blood sugar in check. Agave nectar is some sort of unholy concoction that has freakishly little affect on the blood sugar. And I can't think of a better use for the lovely fresh blueberries I picked up the other day (except perhaps for shoveling them into my mouth like a bear coming out of hibernation). In total, a large muffin has 15 grams of carbohydrate, 2.5 grams of fiber and 9 grams of protein. Not bad at all for a baked good.

Yesterday when I opened up the window to the patio to put the fan into it, there were the usual assortment of plants in my railing planters -- nasturtiums, basil, oregano, two varieties of pepper plants, more nasturtiums (the seeds turned out more enthusiastic than I thought this year).

Today, looking down the line -- blah blah blah ...asparagus? blah. Except I didn't plant any asparagus.

Upon looking closer, I realized that something has come along and eaten every single leaf off my pepper plants. Hasn't touched the herbs or flowers -- just the peppers. And not the stalks, either.

If this were in the ground I would suspect rabbits. However, it's in a railing planter three feet off the ground on one side and five feet on the other.

Color me baffled. Either that or I am somehow breeding superrabbits.

Happy Metal Birthday!

( Cut for the benefit of the uninterested )

Item: The rashes and swelling are just about all gone, and the settling down has been nearly monotonic (that is to say, decline followed by decline, rather than up-and-down type progress).

Item: To my utter surprise, the return of my normal skin tone and texture came with a buddy - sleep. Quite a lot of sleep, particularly by my standards, and deep sleep at that. I don't think I wrote about having a lot of little nightmares on Sunday-Tuesday, but they didn't stay around. I'm aware of having dreamed a lot, and of a very few snippets about as meaningful as any second-long sleep of dream is likely to be (i.e., not much), but feel none of the lingering traces of nightmares. Just sleep. A lot of sleep. Probably over eight hours a day, the last couple of days. This is me not complaining at all.

The plan for yesterday was to get a lot of work stuff done by lunchtime, and in the afternoon slow down a bit and maybe write a rather lengthy explanation of why D&D 4e isn't exciting me.

If you want to amuse the Universe, tell it your plans.

About five minutes from the office yesterday, I took a sip of Coke and suddenly felt like I'd been punched in the gut.  Reflux and pain galore.  After telling myself I wasn't allowed to have an ulcer, it seemed to calm down.

After the weekly department meeting, I headed out to make my rounds and run my errands.  That's when I realized my stomach still felt very unsettled.  Also, I noticed my legs and lower back were cramping up.  And I was feeling weak and getting the occasional chill.

I tried to make myself eat lunch, but it didn't work so well.  Finally, around 2 PM, having finished my errands, I told my boss I was feeling crappy and headed home.  Took my temperature, a lovely 101.3.  Collapsed into bed until Jane got home.

After Jane got home for that matter.

My temp finally topped out at 101.7.  The pain and cramping continued for most of the evening.  I finally got to sleep and spend much of the night tossing and turning and having weird dreams and sweating a lot.  I think the sweating helped, because the fever broke sometime between 4 AM and 6:30.

I feel like I fell down a couple flights of stairs, and I'm really wanting to stay home today, especially since I have to work tomorrow on the holiday.  But if I'm going to work tomorrow, I really need to get everything together for that project today, since all of the gear I'll need is at my office and the server I'm upgrading is in another building.  So, I suppose I'll go in late.

D&D post to follow at some point.

I never mean to go so long between posting. I usually just get caught up in the mundanity and busyness of existence. In this case, I've been dealing with some last Ebay orders, going through training for the new job and fretting about same training, which seems to take up more time than the training itself. This fretting isn't necessarily justified; my actually starting this job does depend on my performing well enough on the final assignment, but my performance on my homework so far indicates that I shouldn't have a problem with that. I just tend to panic a little when I suddenly experience being judged on my performance if it hasn't happened for a while.

So I'm attempting to chill, while still putting the necessary amount of work in. And I think I'm just feeling a bit quiet at the moment. I don't have a great history with the month of July, between my mother's car accident and my father's death. I'm not lying on the couch mired in the deepest depths of despondency, but it contributes to my feeling the need to retreat, my main defense mechanism in times of stress. I'm just curled up in my little mousehole, Shy Sheldon stuck in my shell, waiting for this month to be over.

In completely unrelated news, I lightly bopped K over the head with some plastic flowers tonight. She looked indignant and said, while rubbing her head, "Stop hitting my head." Only in her three-year-old pronunciation, it came out "Stop hittin' mah haid."

My child speaks lolcat. I'm not sure what to think about this.

Past 10 days, next 10 days:

Work day: Wake up, bike to restaurant job, come home, shower, work on freelance.
Day off: work on freelance.
Comic work wedged in where I can fit it.

Broke, so no going out.

That's all. Nothing to report, really.

 I was wondering if anyone's family has any personal prayers/traditions for American independance that incorperate elements from Judaism.  

anyone?

-TL

Wow. This is one of the just plain most beautiful movies I've seen in ages. The trailer shows you what's up: it's an sf noir story rotoscoped from live action into animation and processed into nearly pure black and white. It could easily have gotten harsh in 1h 45m, but it stays fresh, and repeatedly dazzling.

The story is pretty straightforward. A brilliant young scientist is abducted, her patron the megacorp that looms over 2054 Paris wants her back, and the cop assigned to find her finds lots of other things, too. There is a nice level of ambiguity about the motives of key players, and a darkly satisfying ending. (Not what I was expecting, actually, but as soon as I realized where it was going, I thought to myself, yeah, that works.)

In addition to the brilliant animation, it's got some fine voice work. Daniel Craig is the detective, Jonathan Pryce the CEO with secrets, Ian Holm the aged scientist with secrets. It took me a while to place the folks whose work I know from other films because none of the people rotoscoped for the film are those actors. For instance, the CEO is a short, slightly jowly guy who reminded me of Joe Pesci. Pryce's voice fits him very well, it's just not the voice you'd expect for that particular look.

I believe I'll be rewatching this a few times before returning it to Netflix. Some of these scenes demand more attention.

SWEET ZOMBIE CHRIST WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? D:

I am 4 months pregnant and i recently found out i am having a boy. I am married but my husband is not Jewish. I have decided that i want my baby to have a bris. Now I am not observant at all nor am i involved with any shuls/temples etc but I would prefer the service be conducted at a shul/temple (basically for logistical reasons). Is it a complete faux pas to contact a shul or temple and request to have a bris performed there even if you have no intention of joining the congregation? Also does anyone have any tips for finding a reputable mohel? I know a lot of mohels will perform a bris as long as the baby is halachically jewish but i would prefer someone who is comfortable preforming a bris that involves my husband. Is that possible? While i am not observant and don't plan on becoming more observant i feel its important to give my child the opportunity to be able practice Judaism if he chooses to and this is the only ritual that really should be done in childhood and probably should not be done in adulthood!!! So that's why I want to do this even though I am not observant. Any thoughts, tips from others who were in similar situations? Thanks (oh btw i live in NYC so if anyone has any recommendations in the NYC area please feel free).

For when you totally forgot to fill up the sun tea jar before dashing out the door heading for the bus in the morning.

1 tsp. your favorite tea
1 fill-your-own tea bag or tea ball
1 16 oz mug
1 cup boiling water (I loooooove my Hot Shot)
1 cup ice

Put the water and tea-containing device in a mug that's at least twice the size of the hot water you're using. Brew the tea a couple minutes longer than usual. If you like it sweet, stir in your sugar or honey before filling the cup with ice and swirling around until the mug feels cold to the touch.

...in completely unrelated ramblings, gah, work is determined to make my brain explode. D:

I haven't done this in a while, so here's some music I'm really enjoying right now. Some is older than others, but still awesome. ( YouTube videos under the cut... )

OK, so you all know I've been planning this epic space game for a while. You know the one where the players start with a race just leaving thier home system for the first time and discovering who and what is out there.

Well...I've been pouring though space combat games to find the perfect system to run the combats in. Right now, everything I'm finding is either (a) too damn detailed in the combat (Full Thrust/Galactic Starfire) or (b) the player needs a calculus degree to build the ships (Starmada). I remember the first time I played in one of these games, we used a modified version of Imperial Starfire. It was ALOT of fun and simple. So my solution...make my own space combat game. That's right, I'm sitting down and throwing what I like about the various games into a giant stew...stirring it up and taking out what I don't like while keeping what I like. In the initial phases I'll be keeping the game simple, and then adding on to it as I see fit.

As for the rest of my epic game, I'm modifing Victory by Any Means a bit to get what I want. I'm also using AutoRealm to make my maps, though printing the master map will run my ass out of ink in no time flat. (but it will be printed and mounted on a poster board.)

Onto the other stuff...

Right now I'm thinking of making a Mad Steampunk Scientist costume for halloween. I'm bidding on a gears-exposed pocket watch that some one has mounted onto a leather wrist band to make a wrist watch out of the thing. Plus I'm looking at a pocket watch compass to put on my other wrist in the same manner. Add a victorian ruffled shirt, some goggles (or 1920's motorcycle glasses) a top hat and a walking stick (or perhaps a sword cane) and I think I'll have a good start. I'll want to get some other clock-work stuff to add to the costume (Like a series of gears to built something into the top hat), but I'm starting simple. So, any of my fellow geeks have any other ideas? Right now I'm doing most of my shopping on eBay, but am willing to look elsewhere if the price is right.

Work is gonna be killer this week. I'm being cross-trained into another department, so I get to work from 3:30 P.M. to Midnight on Wednesday and Thursday. To make up for it I get Saturday off...oh joy!

The writings of Thomas Ligotti comprise an extended gloss upon "Duck Amuck", which is never referred to except via indirect means.

Life proceeds apace.  It doesn't suck.  This past weekend, we got C-Monster a new computer, which took the better part of an evening to set up, which led to me reinstalling XP on his old machine so Jane can use it in her studio to replace the aged and twitchy iMac.

I also printed out a number of gaming PDFs I'd picked up recently.  Mainly stuff for Atomic Sock Monkey's PDQ System, which I'm thinking of using for a short game/series in the near future (a short run of Truth & Justice to see how the HeroClix crew roll with RPGs. I found The Zantabulous Zorcerer of Zo a particularly worthwhile read which gave  me all sorts of ideas for things I could run for C-Monster (it would be a snap to do a "Camp Halfblood" game with these rules, for instance).

Work is work.  I will probably have to work on Friday, a holiday, specifically because it is a holiday.  We're running very short of space on one of our servers and it needs a newer bigger hard drive.  Since I can't operate during business hours, I'll have to go in and take care of it when no one's around.

Tonight D&D returns to 3rd edition.  I'm looking forward to it. Fourth Ed. has some neat bits, but I'm still far from sold on it.

Also, I need to go buy a shirt after work.  Stupid tomato sauce.