Blather, rinse, repeat

This is what I wrote last night but could not post because LJ was down.

Tests clear way for "Big Bang" experiment

( Article under the cut )

I have a love/hate relationship with this kind of stuff. I'm fascinated; I adore wacky physics in as much as I am able to understand it; I love quantum, I love particles and collisions and big bangs and I love living in a time interesting enough where humans can create these events. I love it overwhelmingly.

Yet another part of me feels that humans perhaps shouldn't be messing with the infinitely small and portentous, and that money could be better spent etc. I feel the same way about the space program. I love it, I would go into space if I could. Yet a small part of me thinks, "But, why? Just because we can?"

Yes, I supposed just because we can.

Oh, everyone who showed up to the party and got pictures was so pleased! I mean like, incredibly pleased! I'll post them (yes, MORE,) once I make them small enough and finish the set. Sifu really liked them and wants to use some in advertising. How about that? Neat, huh? ^_^

Also, I trained my stupid face off. I was actually wiped out by the end of the first class. Good stuff! It felt good after that slice of peach pie on Saturday. :D

I MISS MY GOD(DESS)DAUGHTER! VERY MUCH WITH THE MISSING, OKAY!!! AND SB TOO!

Okay, had to get that out of my system.

And today, I want to upload a few more pics. They are small so I'm not going to cut them.


What I ended up doing that night at the photo party was ripping off the Mah Jongg oracle. The cards / characters of Peach, Peacock, Pine, Chrysanthemum, all represent different things and the people who showed up ended up being perfect. Maybe it was meant to be.

The pine is associated with a man in his prime. He's not as authoratative or aggressive as the tiger, but does not bend as easily as the willow. The pine can weather the severest storms, therefore it represents someone resolute; a man of firmness as well as skill.


The Peach denotes a young and beautiful girl, usually in her teens, feminine, youthful and lovely. She looks ahead to her future. She represents feminine charm and hope for the future.


The Peacock symbolizes the woman in her prime who is content with her life. In Chinese Mah Jongg cards, she is depicted looking into the mirror, the symbolism of which is that she is looking both back to her childhood and forward to her future.


Finally, the Chrysanthemum represents the refined, mature woman. It signifies the grace, charm and kindness that come with life experience.


Those are just a few of the pics that I gave to the people who took part. Ideally I would love to call "DO OVER" and do the whole thing again with more people and more light. Because everyone who didn't get a photo like this was kind of jealous. Well, you should have come to my party, then! :P

Ands then me being dead with photoshopped blood and hair:


LOL!

Neat, huh? Now tonight there is a Kung Fu seminar, whoop whoop! This guy is the last teacher of his style of Kung Fu, and his eldest student doesn't want to teach it, so the style is going to die out if he doesn't pass it on. That's why it's only twenty dollars to sign up. Apparently he was talking to my Sifu online and basically asked if he could have some students, just because he doesn't want the style to die out. What a shame, right? For something so ancient to just be forgotten.

So I'm going to try to make it to that tonight even though it is across the goddamn Island. ^_^

Hope you are all enjoying the fading summer days. The sun's a little different now, right? The angle, the heat, all that stuff. Enjoy it while it lasts. :)

It was fantastic.
Long, pleasant day of swimming and partying with my training brothers and sisters, eating cake, and laughing till I had tears. As usual, spent most of the day with young Alex, a snarky, too-smart-for-his-own-good, seventeen year old brownbelt, and Chris. For some reason it seems to be us together most of the day during these things.

The party favors were Baoding Balls, I effing kid you not. The best part was that the insert on how to use them read: For relaxation, place two balls in hand and move them about.... That was funnier than it should have been to the adults, because every once in a while we would open the box, read the insert and go, "Khhkhhkhh!" I've had a pair of Baoding balls since I was in my twenties and I know how to use them in both hands, but no one else really did so I was showing some people how to do it. Sifu walked in just then, saw me with them and said, "I thought yours would be bigger. And brass." And I just lost it. Toward the end of the day, I was showing Raq's Mom how to use them but the pair I had were really teeny. Chris was carrying his around, which were bigger and I wanted to show her using his ones so I called him over, only to realize that I had no idea how to ask him.

Hilarity, of course, ensued. It ensued many, many times, actually.

But there was more to it than Baoding balls. There was cake and swimming and long talks. In the pool, Raq's family had these really cool toys and one of them was a huge, gold round one. I climbed on it (with help from Chris; it was slippery and hardly anyone could climb on!) then sat in the lotus position and called out, "Hey guys, who am I?!" Everyone was like, "BUDDHA LOL!"

In the pool, I talked for a long time with Chris about everything under the sun (mostly college, since he's going into the medical field and I am going back to school,) travel, and we compared scars. And out of the pool with sharp-witted Alex about Kung Fu, people with issues, our own issues, and how they don't really go away when you "grow up" the way people seem to think they do.

At the end of the day, Mike, from the other school but the toughest of the tough in the entire academy, found a mantis in the grass and picked it up. It was a juvenile one. We all held it and it was so sweet. We thought it was really cool because we do the mantis style in some of our attacks. Then he let it climb on his face.

Raq really loved the gifts that I got her and she got a lot of other cool stuff, too. I really hope it was everything she wanted.

PICTURES!

( Raq and Chris lighting candles. )

( Raq and Alex )

( Raq and Tristan )


( Raq and Mike )


( Raq with the mantis! )

( Here is a nice closeup of the mantis on my hand: )

( And here are some ones of Mike with the mantis, including when it's on his face. :D )

I owe my LJ a massive update. I never even told about, nor put pictures of the awesome sumemr BBQ of two weeks ago. Damn.

( Pics! )

At the end of the night I was having some fun with the fire and my camera. ( Under the cut. )

A few days later I took some really cool photos of some little dragonflies that were chilling around my yard. ( Clickety. )

Then this awesome one of The Ninja Wizards, sorry, it is too cool to cut:



So I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but a few weeks ago my Dad asked if I would want him to go into one of my gardens with the weedwacker and take care of some of the weeds. Foolishly I agreed. Not only did he cut down all of the flowers along with the weeds, but he cut 2/3 of my huge, well-cared for wisteria tree.


( This was what it looked like in the Spring. )

Me, I love the green. I don't even mind weeds as long as they are green and look nice and lush. There's a word in Hawaiian, uluwehi, and it means things that are lush, verdant, alive etc. That's what my K-mart pond/garden place was.

( This is what it looked like two days ago. )
This is what it looked like two days ago. Wisteria tree mostly gone, everything dead and dry. Looked like the desert.

( This is what I did yesterday and today. )

Surprisingly this didn't cost very much. Home Depot is my friend.

It's not uluwehi like it used to be, but it is sort of zen, peaceful, interesting and artistic, right? The yin yang, the figure eight, the swervy lines? It's not so bad anymore, right?

It reminds me of like a Japanese garden or something. Like in the Meiji or Heian, right, or even the the Chinese Empire like outside of the Forbidden City at the turn of the century, right, and then I'd be living there and I made that garden thing, and then like warriors would come along and be all tired and I'd be all like, "Come into my garden to rest and rejuvinate" and they would feel all magical and whatnot and I'd be like, "Have a drink," and they would, and I would get them drunk and they'd be all drunk and they would forget that I was this plain looking woman and I'd get all silly and girly and say, "Teach me some of your secret warrior moves!" and they would oblige me and teach me all this martial arts stuff and I would repay them with sex--because there are no STDs and they are drunk so they have sake goggles on--and then they would continue on their journey and the next warrior would come by and I would play out the whole scene all over again until I had learned so many Kung Fu forms which I would practice outside of the garden until I was nigh unstoppable, and then one day Bad Guys would come and try to take away my house, but little do they know that I had spent all those years learning from wandering warriors and honing my skill, and they wouldn't stand a chance against me.

That's what my new garden makes me think of, but I still miss the green.

So you may have noticed I've been posting lots of political stuff, lots of outrage. Well, I am always outraged but I think that since I lost my job I'm really struggling to find my place, and anywhere I find where people are fighting for a cause, speaking up, and actually doing something, really gets me tingly in my political places. It's exciting for me to have some time to discover these things. I've always been political, and I've always had lots to say, but now that there are all these roads in front of me I feel like I need to choose all of them. I don't know.

I went ahead and joined theyoungturks.com and I actually emailed the folks at the show and the blog. I thanked them for existing, briefly told them how I lost my job, and asked if they had any openings for freelance writers. They didn't, but said to keep in touch.

Like I said the other night to some friends of mine, this here ain't no beautiful heroin gonna bring down the evil infrastructure. This here is just a mouthy, frustrated thirty something who doesn't fit in much anywhere else. I've spent the last few years just bitching about the system and lending my voice, giving money and doing things that are easy for a privileged person to do.

But now I want to really do something, and people like this inspire me. When I go to the web page and it says "rebel headquarters," I know how ridiculous this is, but I feel like I just went into the basement of the Seventh Heaven to have a meeting with Avalanche, or am going to meet Princess Leia or something. It appeals to the geek in me, the one that has always been in love with the underdog rebel, with the Salvatore Giulianos and Luke Skywalkers. It appeals to the part of me that thinks that, maybe, in some weird, sick, twisted way, living in a post-apocalyptic mad world would be sort of fun; anything to be free of this reign.

But more, it appeals to my logic and the things I believe in outside of fantasy. I believe in the things that need to be done and I want to be a part of doing them, instead of just screaming about them needing to be done.

*Sigh*

Anyway.

Tonight in Kung Fu we did some drills then went outside for sword and staff. Lee got hit in the head pretty badly which was quite disconcerting. She is a tough lady though. I also put the idea out there for a party next Sunday and everyone was game for it. Now the weather channel says it's going to rain.

NOOOOO.

Happy Lughnasadh, my pagan homies. Today was hotter than fried ass, very appropriate for the holiday I think.

I scored big at the store today! I'd been searching frantically for two little white sundresses for the movie. Two because they have to go through stages of bloodiness / being torn to shreds. I thought I'd never find them, but lo. Two exactly the same, and one I got at a discount because the strap was broken and someone had tied it together. Then I went off to Target thinking I'd never find white slip-on shoes to go with them, at least not for any good price, but once again, LO. White slip-on shoes for 10 bucks, only one pair, in exactly my size. I flipped out for real because I took it as a sign that this movie is so going forward. Now I just need gallons of fake blood. Dave, my training brother, is trying to get TeamSplash (a local blood-effects group who worked on Hey You've Got Zombies In Your Backyard) to come down and help us out, too. Can I tell you how hard that would rule?

And Shane will be there on the 12th! Originally I had planned to shoot just the one song, but now with Shane there, I might just shoot two. We'll see how much we can done.

For the first time, I am nervous over this.

MONTY PYTHON SKETCH TRANSCRIPTS

That is all.

Another awesome summer party. I didn't have the tremendous load of people I had last year, but about 15 people I really like. The nicest surprise was Jenn W. strolling in when I had no idea she was even back in the country. Haven't seen that girl since she went to vet school in England last autumn.

A few people left around 8:30-9, leaving Casse, Donna, Tanya and her boyfriend John, and we all went nightswimming. We had a hilarious time trying to navigate various pool toys made for children. It was epic, I tell you.

I'm tired now, but these parties are always worth the trouble. ^_^

Last night was Spencer's graduation party in Easthampton. Let me preface this by saying that you have not seen evil until you've seen Easthampton town on a Friday night in the summer. The Townies are out in droves, all bleach and scene and metro and money and attitude. I would rather talk to a crackwhore in downtown Riverhead than associate with these people.

The party itself was fantastic. SB's friends are the best group of teenagers / young adults I have ever met in my life. I have a fondness for teenagers (as well as for old people) in general; I like them ever so much more than young children because teenagers are at an interesting, challenging age where they have so much to say. Anyway, this is the nicest group of kids I have ever met, and they all adore Spencer, and rightly so. ("They think he's a righteous dude!")

SB's parents (my aunt and uncle) also hired a DJ, which is a guarantee for me to have a great time. Jo-chan has recently become obsessed with the song "Come on Eileen" which was my favorite song when it came out in, what, '83? Back then I even made up my own dance to it. It was so neat that Jo-chan had only just discovered it (through the game Silent Hill, no less!) Jo-chan wasn't sure about going out on the dance-floor, but I am like a dance-floor fool as some of you know. I requested "Come On Eileen" and when the DJ played it, Jo-chan and I were the first ones on the dance floor. We just started spazzing out and then I showed her my dance I had made up when I was like 10 or something. By the time we were doing that (and the pics of that are priceless!) a bunch of people decided to come and dance, too. I requested a bunch of songs through the night and we hardly left the dance floor. My aunt and her co-workers and friends were up there busting a move, too. At one point one of Spencer's young friends was dancing with me, too, but this kid was dancing with everyone: people's moms, Spencer, the music teacher... He was just having a blast.

Then their music teacher, the very cool Mr. Howe came over to talk to Jo-chan and I for a good half an hour. He's a supercool teacher and the three of us talked about the state of education and teenagers and school, fitting in, and alternately, choosing not to fit in, which is where Jo-chan is right now in her life. I have always respected her for that punk ethos that has always been so important to me, and Mr. Howe told her how brave she is for choosing to be herself even when it meant not fitting in. (By "punk" I don't mean like street-punk or even necessarily music choice, but just the punk ethos of "this is how I live my life and you don't have to like it.")

At one point Betsy got up and made a speech to Spencer which pretty much had everyone in tears. She told him that it was her honor to raise him, to never change, to never forget where home is. Towards the end of the night some guy in his 50s or so came up to me, grabbed my hand and said, "Don't ever stop dancing, kid." O_o By that time Spencer was hanging around with a group of his friends and his girlfriend and the DJ was playing his song, which, unbeknownst to most people, has always been his song. Or rather, a song that I've always associated with him. It's Billy Joel's "For The Longest Time." The reason I've always thought of SB for this song was that on his second birthday, Celie (our other cousin who used to live with my parents and me) and I had been singing it in the car on the way to their house. Once we got there, we started seranading SB with this song. SB used to hate it when people sang to him or at him, and Celie and I used to torment him by singing to him. (I know that sounds mean, but he was such a funny little boy and he never got really upset.) We sang it to him until he put his head under the cushions of the couch. Anyway, so then last year when SB was in his very small choral group at high school, (The Manly Men,) they did an a capella rendition of this song which pretty much made me want to cry. Last night they closed out the party with this song and it got me all emo again. I can't believe this boy is going away.

I forced him to introduce me to his adorable girlfriend, which he did reluctantly and with an embarrassed grin. But she's the cutest little thing.

Anyway, but most of the night was Jo-chan, Betsy and I dancing around to the side of a group of teenagers who were younger than most of the songs they played. I can happily say that I outlasted every single one of them with hours to spare. But I also stupidly twisted my ankle and today I'm really tight from all my superfly hip-hop moves. ;D I dance like a maniac when there's a DJ but it never occurs to me that it's going to hurt the next day. >_>

AND THEN! I came home to an email from Shane, the guy I have in mind for th lead in that movie. It's a very casual email sort of like, "Sure, sounds like loads of fun! But the blood is going to be expensive." To Shane, this is just another movie he's in on (because he's always doing stuff like this,) but to me, this just MADE MY NIGHT and I peed my pants in joy.

Basically, YES, SHANE ACCEPTED THE ROLE and THE MOVIE IS DEFINITELY GOING ON! I emailed him today giving him the starting date but told him that I would work around his schedule. I only met the dude once but I have the feeling he's going to be awesome. You know what? This finished product is going to be beautiful. I just know it absolutely. I'm so psyched it's all I can think of sometimes.

And today: Cleaning the house and massively cleaning the birdcages again for tomorrow's party. Then, setting down to read HP7. Okay, one quick, non-spoilery note on this series, and I'm sorry if it's less than positive: I love JK Rowling, you all know that. I admire her and respect her, I think she's a terrific woman and I adore her stories. The one complaint I have about her storytelling though, is that she uses all of these extraneous characters when she's already got hundreds at her disposal. I think she could just as easily recycle characters from the other books, characters that have been pointless of have fallen by the wayside, instead of introducing a thousand new ones for each story. In one instance, one character is completely pointless. Why not use an established one? This way when something intense happens involving that character, there is an actual emotional reaction? Instead I sat there and went, "Oh. Well, okay then." Too many useless characters. That's my complaint.

And tomorrow: Going to pick up Jo-chan, stopping for ice cream and last minute shopping, then waiting on folks to show up for our annual office summer party. Evening: me crashing and not wanting to clean up. Monday: Taking the birds to Laura, maybe even more last minute shopping, and then evening: ice cream and movies at my parents' house with Jo-chan. I'm thinking Blazing Saddles unless she's already seen it.

And Tuesday: Dropping the dogs off for boarding and seeing my folks and Gran off to Florida.

And Wednesday: Jo-chan and I getting to MacArthur and getting on a plane to FL.

Holy crap, full week coming up!

Then Disneyworld and the huge Hula show (that I am attending and not performing) and seeing all of my Hula brothers and sisters and meeting new Kumu Hulas perhaps. Then coming home to work and possibly Wong tournament and then starting to film THIS MOVIE THAT IS HAPPENING!

The Kung Fu party Sunday was really fun and just the perfect kind of day. I was so happy that the rain held off. When it started out around 6:30 or so, I was really stressing. Chris K was the first one to show up and for a while he was the only one. We ate some sandwiches and talked about the upcoming Wong Fei Hung tournament until Nikki and her family showed up. Then until around 7 it was just all of us. Lee came next, and Lee brought me this fabulous T shirt from Thailand, with blessings written circular all over it. It's beautiful. Then Tracy and Ashlyn, then Jess, Rita and their family, then Sifu, his wife and Tristan. Tristan brought me some Captain Morgan's spiced rum and made me this drink that I drank really quickly. I'd already had one pina colada so after that it was like WHOOOOAA. It does not take a lot to zombiefy me.

So the kids all went in the pool and the adults all hung around eating The Big Sandwich and taking turns sitting in the sky chair. I had a really nice summertime party mix on my iPod, I will have to keep that mix for my future parties. (The next of which is next Sunday! But that's a very small one that might just be an outdoor pizza party with five or six friends.)

In fact, this week is going to be crazy. Scratch that, the rest of the effing summer is all ate up. I work straight through the rest of this week, Friday is SB's graduation party which I have to jet to after work (it's like a 2 hour drive.) Saturday I have to get a bunch of stuff done for Sunday which is the next party. Monday I take all my birds to Laura (this is like a 3 hour thing or more,) and then Tuesday I bring the dogs to board. Wednesday Meg and I are flying out to FL. There we have, well, a really fun vacation, and in the middle of it is this big, huge Hula show, which I will just be watching and not participating this time. We come back the 31st.

Then I have to pick up said animals and then go back to work. The following weekend is Wong Fei Hung which I really hope to go to. Then work straight through again, and the week after that we start shooting for the movie! YES!!! August 12th is the official beginning day, even though I've already shot a few scenes. That's going to be one of the big ones. I can't wait to do it. Then the 15th is Projekt Revolution. The following weekend is hopefully going to be a party with Lao Shir. Then the rest of the weekends will probably be dedicated to filming some more.

I spoke to Dave last night and he said he talked to Shane and Shane is really interested! *crosses fingers* You guys have no idea how much I'm peeing in my pants, it's like a constant stream these days. And my training brothers and sisters are all being really helpful and trying to gather more people to be a part of this. If I can pull this off? It's going to be HUGE.

The one thing I didn't get to do this year that I usually do every summer is to put on that one big, self-produced Hula show. I feel badly about that and I do miss it. I just don't even know where I would fit that in. I mean, I've done lots of Hula shows this year including one that I've wanted to do for a long time, but that self-produced one is always my favorite.

Ah well, I will so get on that really early next year.

*whew* Pau!

Thank you sunshine for shining all day! And thank you rain for holding off for the duration of the party! ^_^

ETA: It actually just started raining now, right after I finished cleaning up from the party. It was clear and beautiful all day. How sweet!

When they do that ridiculously cruel "running of the bulls" thing in Pamplona each year... Am I the only one here who roots for the bull? Am I the only one here who watches a video of that and cringes when they are all tormenting the poor animal, but outright cheers when the stupid bastards get what they deserve and get gored? I'm sorry, but if you're stupid and cruel enough to partake in something like that, I really want the bull to win. The only downside to that is that animals almost always get killed for acting in the way that's only natural to them.

I hate people.

Anyway, today at work was mad, mad, mad, frustrating, rushed, booked solid, one of those "holy hell how did we make it through the day and walk out on two legs at 5?" kinds of things.

My car is back from the shop, to the tune of just under a thousand dollars this time. They said it was the distributor or something like that, how the hell am I supposed to know, I have a vagina and I don't get these car-ish things. /ironic stereotype (And it is ironic because I'm not typically your girly-girl. But the unfortunate truth is that I really don't know carlike stuff, and I should. I just can't fit the time to learn about it in my life.)

Lohi'au is developing pox all over, there was one on his wing the other day and now there's one on his ankle. The little dude is so compromised by this virus. (Little, ha, he's freaking HUGE now. If I could get the spit to actually upload my pics you could see, but alas that will have to wait another few days.) Bosslady at SITF told me about a few good herbal extracts to fight this virus, then my friend Laura--you know, Crowlady?-- clued me in to another. I will have to swing by my hippie-nature store tomorrow and pick those up during my EPIC shopping day.

I will have an EPIC shopping day tomorrow for the party on Sunday, so it's not going to be the fun kind of retail therapy, but rather all stuff I need to buy while I'm stressing about getting the house clean enough to be presentable.

And then of course it's supposed to rain Sunday. Wouldn't you know? Can I please just make a deal with the weather gods? >_> GAH!

Yup, Kung Fu was hardcore tonight, spinning binh choys and steal step punches combined with spinning binh choys, then spinning back kicks (one of my favorite kicks ever!) until we could hardly stand up. Then Raq leading blackbelt warmup with like thousands of side crunches and pushups and then our usual situps. I'm getting better pushups and hey guess what? I actually went to the floor with my straddle split tonight. It was only for about four seconds then I had to crawl up, but I got there. Then we went outside for staff. It was just me, Raq, Tracy and his daughter Ashlyn doing staff form in the misty rain. 'Twas lovely.

I've got at least 20 people coming over this Sunday for the Kung Fu pool party, many of which I don't even know. That promises to be super fun. Only thing is I'm working the next two days, a ten hour shift and a nine hour shift, then early Tai Chi and Hula practice Saturday (unless I decide not to go) which leaves Saturday and ONLY Saturday to: get all the shopping done, including The Big Sandwich, clean the house, clean the yard, set up the torches, set up the music, dye my hair, clean all the birds' cages, get at least Adam into the aviary, re-cage the fledging starlings with Gerard, finish my laundry, OMG it never ends.

In the meantime, here is my favorite song meme. Open your music player of choice, hit shuffle, pick the first 20 songs and add the words "in my pants" to the title. (Or, alternately, "in my ass" if you want to be vulgar about it, but traditionally it is "in my pants" so that's what I'm going with.)


1) Set Phasers To Stun in my pants (Fire it up!)

2) I Who Have Nothing in my pants (Absolutely nothing.)

3) Vampires Will Never Hurt You in my pants (You'll be safe here!)

4) I'll Let You Live in my pants (For a small fee.)

5) Wake The Dead in my pants (Please?)

6) Sometimes I Just Go For It in my pants (Who doesn't?)

7) Cattleprod in my pants (Ouch!)

8) Find A Way in my pants (Oh, stop!)

9) Sleep in my pants (Too tired to change into pajamas.)

10) Caldonia in my pants (What makes your big head so hard?)

11) Dynamite! in my pants (BANG!)

12) Battle of One in my pants (Man, shut up.)

13) My Blue Heaven in my pants (It's BLUE.)

14) The Ghost Of You in my pants (It's haunted!)

15) Jive At Five in my pants (Everyone's invited!)

16) I Don't Love You in my pants (Please get out of them.)

17) Clint Eastwood in my pants (He felt lucky.)

18) Somebody Needs You in my pants (I'm not gonna mention any names.)

19) I'm Not Okay in my pants (I'd much rather be wearing shorts.)

20) Welcome To The Black Parade in my pants (I hope you have a good viewing spot!)


GO!