213 things Garpu is not allowed to do

#1: Take apart the Hoopy Frood's Nintendo DS lite before it dies.

#2: Take apart the Hoopy Frood's Nintendo DS Lite and put it back together again. Not even if I put all the screws in the right places.

#3 Teach the song "Charlie Mops" to my nieces, including those I'm not directly related to.

So I'm totally lusting after an ice blue Nintendo DS lite. Because they aren't region locked in any way, they're fully compatible with any other DS game. (Steve and I both have Wifi Yakuman DS, a Japanese mahjong game--he got it for birthday/Christmas.) I can't really justify the extra $30-50 plus shipping for it, though. I was considering getting the case and modding a refurb (no way would I want to do that to a new DS lite), and I found this video describing how to take apart a Nintendo DS Lite:



No, the Hoopy Frood won't let me practice on his. Although since the ice blue cases go for $20 on Ebay and the refurbed DS system is about $100, I'm not so sure I'd save much money. Completely dreaming, here, since I can't justify spending money on a DS lite, when my old DS works perfectly well. (Although it's touchy, the battery doesn't last long anymore, and it's a crapshoot if the wifi works. But the brightness control on the LCD screens on a DS lite would be nice, since I mostly use the DS during the day in sunlight on public transit.)

But, yeah, I've totally called dibs on the Frood's DS Lite when it finally gives up the ghost.

So what does everyone have planned? Christmas is kind of a bummer for me, so I need a contact high from everyone else's cheer.

Us, not much. We've got Christmas with the Hoopy Frood's dad and stepmom today, so we're all piling over there for holidays with the first set of inlaws. (Inlaws-to-be? Hell, we're as good as married, so I guess they're as good as inlaws. And thanks to divorce, I have two sets of inlaws.)

Then tomorrow is our birthday (Yes, the Hoopy Frood and I have the same birthday, which happens to be Christmas Eve.) Normally we do sushi (sushi restaurants are empty on Christmas Eve) and some sort of movie, but there haven't been many movies the past couple of years that we've wanted to see. Christmas Eve birthdays kind of suck because before the Frood I didn't really get one once I turned twelve or so. (I did as a child. But then as I got older, it was thought that I'd "understand," and the two days got combined out of convenience.)

Christmas we don't have anything planned other than going over to the Hoopy Frood's mom and stepdad's. Normally we hang out, munch on stuff, then play games. I'm kicking myself for not bringing my mahjong tiles, but Japanese rules mahjong is completely different from American mahjong, and it's not really something you can teach in an afternoon. (Plus the Frood and I aren't good enough at it to teach other people yet, although there are some easy truths: don't deal into an open riichi, which is along the lines of don't pee on an electric fence, since you can see their tiles.)

Anyhow, have a merry Christmas!

And in my fandom news, the show, "Doctor Who" is getting flak from both the last survivor of the Titanic and a Christian group. Never mind that the special everyone is bitching about hasn't aired yet (3 days to go). Anyone want to start a betting pool as to when Bill Donohue will get penis envy and start complaining about "Doctor Who" having an anti-Catholic agenda?

In the interest of full disclosure, this one will be filled with spleen venting and minor airing of grievances. I'm seeing a trend in the blogosphere that's disturbing me. It seems like any kind of Catholic who doesn't openly identify or sympathize with the SSPX has a big target painted on their ass, especially if they openly identify as female. I've seen two bloggers lately harassed and quit blogging because of it.

It's as if in their minds--the bullies--that any Catholic woman must be demure--read subservient and non-threatening--homeschool, and be a mother. Fortunately for the rest of us, the Church is big enough to accommodate everyone. You know the old adage about praying as you can, not as you can't? That isn't limited by sex. Some women do find their spirituality through motherhood and raising children. Others don't. I find it unsurprising that most of these bullies are men under the age of 25 and are single, not by choice.

These attitudes towards women scare me, frankly. This is behavior I'd expect from certain tribal regions of the middle east, not in westernized nations out of a religion that's gone through the Enlightenment already. It's as if they can keep women ignorant, they won't demand things like equal pay, access to education, and the like.

And these attitudes aren't just towards women, either. You should read some of the hate they spew towards gay, lesbian, and transgendered people. Really, folks, gay is not catching. You can't become gay because of gay cooties. All confessing your disgust with "the gay lifestyle" does is make you an asshole. While I'm not in the least bit attracted to women--my kidding about Natalie Portman, aside--it isn't helping anyone, least of all myself, to emphasize this point. There are a ton of lifestyles I wouldn't be happy with, but it doesn't mean they're necessarily bad. All it means is, for whatever reason, they're wrong for me. And while I'm on the subject, I fail to see how a loving and committed relationship between two consenting adults does anything other than encourage my relationship. We need more love in this crappy world of ours.

Point the third, related to the second. Reading books by non-Catholics won't make you Protestant or atheist. Witness the ranting by Bill Donohue about the Dark Materials trilogy. I thought they were entertaining. One of my favorite TV shows is produced/written by an atheist (*gasp* and a gay one at that), and I'm finding plenty in it that engages me as a Catholic. (See also the end of "Last of the Time Lords.") Thank God, but we don't live in a Catholic world. We need to be able to engage and deal with other points of view besides our own, and being able to appreciate another's argument is not the same thing as accepting it.

Point the fourth. Just because someone has a blog doesn't mean that every point of view is welcome. The First Amendment only pertains to political speech, the right to assemble, and public speech. This blog is not public. Nor is any other blog. The blogosphere would be a more pleasant place, if more people remembered that. Nobody has a right to say what they want in any blog, not if they don't want to be sitebanned.

When drama works

And I'm not talking about the bloggy kind of drama. It's weird for me dealing in forms that aren't abstract, since drama in abstract music is far removed from drama in other arts. There was a post over on Paul Cornell's blog about drama and the audience. He makes the point that in mutli-faceted drama:

That’s the contract I make with it. It’s not there to console me, comfort me, make me feel better right now, although it may end up doing that in the end. The comfort it finally affords me is that of the blues. It’s actually there to make me feel alive and connected with the rest of human experience, hopefully extreme human experience that I’d prefer to do like this rather than first hand, thanks very much.

I think when drama works, I'd rather have the kind he's discussing (Found in BSG, Studio 60, et al) than the cheap kind. If I wanted feel goods and warm fuzzy, there's Lifetime or whatever made-for-TV movie is out there. If an author is going to play with my emotions, I'd hope that there's something to show for the investment I make in the show.

For instance--and here be spoilers for Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica--when Kat dies in "The Passage," her death meant something. She was far from a sympathetic character--if anything she was one of the characters I think the audience had a hard time identifying with because of her failings. But, if anything, this also endeared her to characters, because we all know people like her, even if we wouldn't want to have a social event with her.

I like it when characters do something that makes me wonder what the hell they were thinking, because when a character is perfect all the time, it makes me wonder what he or she (or it in sci-fi) is hiding. Cornell brings up the passage in "Human Nature" when John Smith allows Tim to be beaten. Certainly I think at that point, more than any other, the audience fully realizes that our hero isn't there anymore. Or Joan's comment at the end, that a whim got people killed. Our hero screwed up.

The end of Season 3/29 of Doctor Who was about as dark as the show gets. Once again the consequence of genocide is front and center, and there's absolutely no escaping it, or the damage that's been done to certain of the characters over the course of the last three episodes. It'll be interesting to see where the series goes from there. I'm hoping that it isn't a cheap kind of catharsis afterwards--it would be too easy to hide behind the facade of "wacky alien in space," ignoring the dramatic fallout. (I think that's why I didn't mind the Rose angst, even if I didn't like her character much. If someone you're close to leaves suddenly and not as part of some kind of breakup, then odds are any intelligent being is going to deal with it. Or not.)

So long as "All Along the Watchtower" isn't used as a plot point, I'll be happy.

So in the words of my Minnesotan relatives, we're gettin' a little bit of snow, dere. I'm in Boston. Flight was drama-free, and I had a seat to myself both ways. Go figure. I love some of the euphemisms they have for snow. "Flurries," is anything under 6 inches. "A little snow" means that it's over 6 inches, visibility might be down, but the plows are out and you can still move. "Some snow" is decreased mobility from there. "Heckuva lot of snow" means that you had to get the snowblower out and probably aren't driving anywhere. "Blizzard" means that you stay put, complete white out, and probably can't see the driveway from your house, and will have to get the neighbor to plow your driveway out.

Think I'm finally acclimating back to colder weather. Seems like the first Christmas break I spent in Boston, I did nothing but freeze. Then again it's actually been slightly colder in Seattle lately than Boston. (It's a dryer cold out here, too, so it doesn't feel as miserable as Seattle when it's under 30 degrees.) I think this is the remains of the Ragnarok '07 we had a few days ago that left western Washington looking like the 9th Ward.

And in other news...I finally broke down and bought a real laptop bag. My backpack ripped the night before I was supposed to leave town, so I got this one. (Was the cheapest one at the store I could get to.) Even though I paid $65 for it, it was worth every damn penny going through two airports. (Already paid for it, I think.) It's balanced, it doesn't throw your center of gravity off, and I'm pretty sure it's bigger on the inside than the outside. Plus it has a pocket for everything, including one that fits my breviary perfectly. That side entry panel for the laptop is the coolest thing since sliced bread, too, especially if you have to pull it out at security checkpoints. One review of it was complaining that the panel was too small, but he thought the inside pocket was the laptop sleeve. (That's for cords, mouse, etc, or so it says in the manual that came with the backpack.) RTFM saves the day!

Eight meme

For those of you on facebook, you may want to read this about beacon, what it does, why it's bad, and how to block it. If you haven't inherited the skepticism I have from my computer security partner-in-crime, then disregard.

So the number eight is popping up a lot lately on various blogs, and I got tagged for a meme. Don't normally do them on this blog, but I haven't had much to discuss lately. (That should change in the future...been reading books about the Camaldolese Benedictines.)

8 passions in my life:

1.) composing music
2.) Benedictine monasticism
3.) Doctor Who
4.) Computers
5.) mahjong (Japanese rules)
6.) video games
7.) Balinese music
8.) knitting

8 things to do before I die:

1.) the Camino de Santiago
2.) study music in Bali
3.) See Doctor Who being filmed in Cardiff
4.) Travel.
5.) See Firefly/Serenity
6.) learn to rollerblade
7.) quit renting
8.) beta test a video game that doesn't totally suck.

8 things I often say:

1.) Huh.
2.) Some variant of "frak."
3.) "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow." (I've used this on a support call.)
4.) A stream of profanity at NPR when it wakes me up in the morning, both because it's waking me up and because of the content.
5.) "Hihi." (default greeting, both online and in my analog mode.)
6.) "What the heck?" (Or if I've been talking to Minnesotan relatives, "What's the deal?")
7.) WTF, LOL, squee, OTM, AFK bio (in analog mode) For instance, the Frood will say something funny, and I'll respond "El Oh El." Or if I'm going somewhere, I'll say, "OTM. Back in a bit" (OTM: MMO speak for "on the move," meaning a slow moving raid is moving.)
8.) "Hey cool."

8 books I read (or am reading) recently:

1.) Film and the nuclear age : representing cultural anxiety / Toni A. Perrine
2.) The imaginary war : civil defense and American cold war culture / Guy Oakes (Guess what I'm writing a paper on)
3.) the Dark Materials trilogy (which I like.)
4.) Forever Autumn, Mark Morris (OK. Total brain candy, but after some of the stuff I read, it's a good break.)
5.) And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, Randy Shilts
6.) Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality, Peter-Damian Belisle
7.) Rationalizing Culture, Georgina Born (pretty interesting...an anthropologist looks at the power structures at IRCAM)
8.) Just Plain Folks, Loraine Johnson-Coleman

8 films that mean something to me:

1.) "Fargo," watched it with a close friend of mine, who described it as a modern morality play
2.) "Blue," crappy ending, but it's an interesting study of what it's like to be a composer (how ideas come to you, etc, not that I'm a ghost writer for my husband.)
3.) "Jackie Brown," movie I saw my first day at CalArts.
4.) "Shaft," (remake, first movie seen with the Hoopy Frood)
5.) "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," the Frood and I saw that movie the day after 9/11. We just had to get the holy hell away from CNN for awhile.
6.) "American Movie," was a preview at CalArts, and the filmmakers in the film were actually there. I thought the whole thing was a mocumentary, until I actually met the makers of "Coven." Holy crap, that's the way they are.


8 songs that mean something to me:

1.) "So Many Roads," Grateful Dead
2.) Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
3.) Gorecki's third symphony, first movement
4.) "Bakersfield Bound,"Chris Hillman and the other Desert Rose people. Really speaks to how my life was the summer between my first and second years at CalArts. I was stuck in a part of the country I hated, and I really was "...Bakersfield bound like so many gone before / Just to cross our River Jordan and reach the other shore / When we first set eyes on The San Joaquin / Was like a friend we always knew."
5.) Coltrane, Love Supreme (OK, it's an album)
6.) Miles Davis, Aura (Ditto, but I can't pick just one song.)
7.) Ellington, Queen Suite (you want to learn orchestration, check that suite out. Instrumental color deliminating form doesn't get much clearer.)
8.) Teruna Jaya (Balinese gong kebyar piece)

8 living people I'd like to have a beer with:

1.) Jonathan Harvey (composer)
2.) Russel T. Davies (heh of course)
3.) Anne Sophie-Mutter
4.) The regulars on here.
Hrm...can't think of any more. If I can, I'll update.

8 people who I'm passing this on to:

Eh, tag yourselves.

And...it's snowing. The Frood has corrected me. If it's snowing, it's Ragnarok, not Armageddon. So yeah, Ragnarok '07 has begun, and they're calling for more snow tomorrow. Here's hoping it doesn't stick. Much, at least.

They're forecasting Armageddon from the skies:

Statement as of 5:23 AM PST on December 01, 2007

... Snow Advisory in effect from 10 am this morning to 10 PM PST
this evening...

The National Weather Service in Seattle has issued a Snow
Advisory for the western Washington lowlands... which is in effect
from 10 am this morning to 10 PM PST this evening.

Up to three inches of snow is expected across much of the western
Washington lowlands by late this evening. There may be local areas
close to the Olympics that may receive around 4 inches of
snow... such as Hood Canal and along the south slopes of the
Olympics.

Hasn't started yet, but it's pretty dark for 8:30 a.m. 3-4 inches isn't much, but it is when your city just doesn't get that kind of snow and doesn't have the small army of snowplows and de-icers that every little municipality has in the midwest. Fortunately I don't have to be anywhere this weekend I can't walk to. Depending on what the front behind the one bringing Armageddon does, we could get more snow tomorrow, too.

In which I win the internets. Or something.

I win the internets or something. The part I was working on--since my "novel" is in four parts, having finished the main plot at 10,000 words--isn't quite done, but the objective was 50,000 words in 30 days. 1600 words a day isn't that tricky, unless you get more than a day or two behind.

Point the second: if you don't already read the Real Live Preacher, check out his most recent post here. The insurance situation in this country is messed up beyond belief.

Point the third: Ironically as I was reading RLP's post, there was a report on NPR about the Pope's new encyclical. I'm on my way through it, but we all need a little hope now and then.

Huh. I'm only 2105 words short of where I should be. That's totally doable, if I get a good streak. Wait, scratch that. I could easily write (+ 2105 1667) words in a day if I were writing an academic paper. (Why, yes, I mostly do LISP, thanks for asking.) Having to tell a good story? I may have to go back into academic-mode and bust out some footnotes and citations. I still need the name of a (fake) psychedellic drug that reacts badly with alien biochemistry. Stumped on that one, and I can't keep calling it $drug. (I know enough perl to be useful.) I'm finding I have the most horrible luck coming up with names.

No, this probably won't ever see the light of day. Perhaps I might show it to people, provided that they buy me several beers and sign an NDA.

Things I've learned from NaNoWriMo

So I'm actually trying to do NaNoWriMo this year. I'm about 33,941 words into it, but am 2733 words short for where I should be today. About 1600 words a day really isn't difficult. 1600 words a day that's actually good is difficult.

Fiction is different from academic writing in that you have to lie to tell a good story. Nobody wants to hear every little detail about a given event, although in academic writing, every little detail does matter. In fiction, leaving out details can make it more appealing.

Getting an idea for a plot is easy. Keeping it going past 20,000 words isn't. I'm doing the Tolstoy thing, and my "novel" is actually in 3 (possibly 4) parts.

I think just spewing words and not (initially) caring about quality is helping the dissertation. I was starting to get hypercritical of what I'm doing, which was slowing me up. Keeping at least 1660 words a day flowing has helped the writing that matters.

Who knows if I'll actually finish. This won't ever see light of day, but it's been an interesting exercise.

From Paul Cornell's blog. Too good not to share.

In honor of Talmida:



A classic. Their friend in the background, who's oblivious to them, really ties it all together, I think.

More serious stuff to come. Been super busy.

A video found from a friend...oddly appropriate given the Gospel reading yesterday:

Bella?

So in my websurfings, I found a link to a blog post about the movie, "Bella." Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I don't like chick flicks. If there's any hint of romance or hurt/comfort (if I may use parlance from the fic world) as central plot issue, it'll make me snooze. I'd watched the trailer to "Bella," and, honestly, it didn't look like anything I'd be interested in, even if it's being hyped as the next great Catholic movie. And, yes, I realize I will be labeled a Bad Catholic for not wanting to see "Bella."

So when I found that blog post, I started feeling better--here was someone who knew something about film (and I'm sure she'll be dismissed as part of the librul academic atheists), and wasn't impressed with the movie. The fact that others associated with the film's production cast aspersions on her faith is enough for me to not see it. Nothing in her critique of it is the least bit ad hominem, yet people associated with the film are quick to sling it.

Any good filmmaker would be able to respond intelligently to criticism. Lord knows the ability to take criticism gracefully is something you have to quickly learn in any kind of art program. Plus, being able to respond to criticism clarifies your own point that much further. Responding by saying a critic has deep spiritual problems? Doesn't say much for one's film making abilities, there.

I think her post and the reactions to her thoughts illustrate two things about Catholicism these days:

1.) Our political climate is fostering extremism. If you disagree, you're BAD, when in reality it means nothing more than one disagrees.

2.) Why do we, as Catholics, accept trite pablum for art? Look at the liturgical music produced lately. When's the last time we had a Flannery O'Connor or a Graham Greene? How about the visual arts? Why is it that everyone sings "On Eagle's Wings," but clams up at "Pange lingua" or "Salve regina?" (Personally I think chant is way easier to sing than anything that OCP publishes.) From Palestrina to Pärt, we've had a tradition of good liturgical music that can stand on its own as art. Why is it that parishes won't (or can't) support a choir and music program so that they can encourage and commission new music?

I have a theory that the decline of music education and role of western art music in society has more to do with the decline of liturgical music than anything Vatican II did. If people aren't ever exposed to anything which challenges or stretches them, then it's difficult for them to understand it. There are plenty of composers out there, and not everyone sounds like the modernist composers of the 1950's. And even if they do, don't they deserve a chance to bring glory to God?

Radio Fork: "Hurt"

I'm being Posty McPost Pants today, but this is also a poll on my LJ, so ignore, if you've seen it twice.

Johnny Cash vs. NIN on "Hurt." Who's better? I can't decide because they're both very different songs.

Hello, wayward blog readers. I'm still here.

1. Been busy. Like Liam, I'm stuck in work hell.
2. Haven't had much interesting to write about lately.
3. If you haven't seen season 3/29 of Doctor Who, you'll note that the spoiler tags went away. I figured since it had aired both in the UK and in the US that they were no longer necessary. If you're going back through my archives, don't complain to me if I spoil the ending of "Last of the Time Lords."
   
4. There have been a few issues lately that have made blogging decidedly unfun. To some extent, we all create a persona when we're online. But the internet is also a harbor for mentally fragile people, who find support for their own distorted view. I've been online since 1993, when I started college, back in the days of DOC and Citadel BBSes. I assume people are putting forth that which they want me to see when they post here (everyone engages in some form of subterfuge online), but when I'm confronted with it (namely in the form of sockpuppets), that's clearly a cry for help. While I have sympathy for such people, I don't want to engage them here. I am not a therapist, and I can't provide the help they need.

First, there was a lack of due-process with a bunch of RIAA letters forwarded to UW students last year. (Because obviously IP's are never spoofed, proxied, or otherwise manipulated.) I'm sure there were students guilty of filesharing, if file sharing is something to be guilty of. (I'm not convinced. I think it's more of a gray area.)

Next, we have my university forcing people out of their neighborhood. Said area is not owned by UW, although a large percentage of the people living there are students. Did I mention the people being forced out are sex offenders? Yes, they are. And, it should be noted, were placed there because their crimes involved children, not adults. Also note the line in the article about how UW is interested in purchasing the five properties their landlord owns. It even made the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

Okay, sex offenders are creepy, scary people, I'll admit. The thought of what those men did makes my skin crawl. But if they were legal tenants, does UW and the governor have a right to force them out? What's to keep some other group lobbying and forcing out another group of people they deem undesirable?

Either they paid their debt to society, or they didn't. If they didn't, they shouldn't be free. If they did, then they've got a reasonable expectation of privacy and freedom from harassment, like the rest of us. I think it says a lot about how a given society, given the way the lowest members of that society are treated.

And, by the way, before someone accuses me of being academic (pardon the pun) about this, I lived across the street from those guys for the better part of a year and a half. By far, the worse neighbors were the fraternities, sororities, and other college students. That article and the actions by UW make me wonder whose legacy, big-donor mommy or daddy called to complain. The sex offenders were known when I lived there. I can't believe UW just learned about them.