Kitkowskiland!

I was feeling both in my thighs and “core” last night. Yesterday was the first time my gym offered its 90-minute yoga class. It was *awesome*. I love doing it, and surprisingly even after doing yoga hardcore, I might notice a little stiffness, but I’ve not suffered a pulled muscle or strain because of it. Which is pretty crazy, because I’ve been holding some pretty brutal poses. At the time, it feels like devils and devas are high-fiving each other while stabbing pitchforks into your muscles, but about 30 minutes after it’s over you’re in bliss until the next session.

Unfortunately, the next yoga session is on Sunday morning. Not sure if I’m going to be awake for that, though I figure I’m going to give it an honest shot: Show up, yoga out, then go home and sleep for another hour or two.

So, outside of the gym, I was thinking of supplementing my yoga with More Yoga, so I started scoping out area classes and the like. Everything from Bikram Hot Yoga (the one where you wear shorts and a biker shirt, and they turn up the heat to about 100 while you sweat your nuts off, which sounds kinda awesome) to Regular Yoga at Regular Joe’s School of Regularity costs a friggin ton. The pricing scheme for yoga seems to be the same everywhere: It all averages out to approximately $12-15 per each single 90 minute class.  Some have passes where you pre-pay and get them stamped as you go, but they too tend to cost around the same. Unlimited passes tend to run over $1200 a year.

The Bikram Hot Yoga place moved from mid-Raleigh to North Raleigh, and with their evening classes starting 30 minutes after work, there’s no way I could ever make it. Which is unfortunate, as they have a “come as many times as you want for up to 10 days” ticket for trial members. I figure that one of these days I’m going to take a week off of work and just hang out locally (maybe visit Rafi over in Columbia SC on a weekend). I’m going to probably do that plan then, and go like morning and evening for 10 days, then say “See ya!” (or, if it’s extremely unsettlingly fun, then perhaps get a pass and do it on Saturdays/Sundays or something).

Expensive Yoga is Expensive.

So, Orie’s been making lots of Japanese friends lately, friends who are going to stick around the area indefinitely. She’s met up with Sayaka, Kazue and Akira a number of times and became fast friends with them. So, this kid of about 24 years old named Sho is staying with Akira and finishing up college at NCSU. The last time we met up, we talked about PS2 games (he’s into sports and driving, I’m into just about everything but sports and driving, but we both like horror and some console RPGs). I lent him Forbidden Siren 2 (one of the best horror games. EVAR) and the Taiko Tatsujin game.

Last Thursday, Sho and Akira and others came over for dinner. Sho brought Final Fantasy X International Edition (it’s the Japanese game, but with some extras, a new optional and totally different sphere grid, bigger badder side-bosses, etc). When folks left, for nostalgia’s sake (since I beat X few years back and sold it, as well as X-2), I popped it in to see what it was like.

I was sold in like 8 seconds. It was like a recovering addict stumbling into a drug den. My skin itched as those first few seconds of the song “To Zanarkand” played and the sad/reflective opening unfolded. Those few bars of that song made me forget

Chocobo Racing

Butterfly Collecting (never did complete it)

Dodging lightning 200 times

and that first Blitzball game.
Yep, the good I remembered drowned out all the crap. I found myself on eBay repurchasing the original Import/Japanese (language: The International versions are in English. And while some character’s voice actors are ok, I wanted the Real Deal) of Final Fantasy X and X-2. When Orie leaves for Japan in a week, I’ll be in a cycle of doing game writing/translation, work, and FF-X.

This time I’m going from start to finish. Going to take a shot at Omega. But I’m definitely up for collecting every single ultimate weapon and armor. Yep, even gonna give a good few hours at the butterflies.

I was telling Orie about this: FF-X and FF 12 were games that we both played together: Mostly me at the controls, but both watching the story unfold together.

We were comparing the two. I’m finding stuff that I really don’t dig about FF-X: The battle music and victory dance, while “historic” throughout the series, was way overdue to be put down. I like the 3-person battle system but I don’t like the “crash explode random encounter makes you jump out of your seat every 10 seconds” effect. In short, I wish there was a version of Final Fantasy X but with Final Fantasy 12’s superior real-time combat engine.

Also, FF-12 is quicker to “get into play”, fewer cutscenes and stuff in the beginning before you get to make meaningful choices. In FF-X, your first real meaningful direction where you steer the dude yourself comes like 40-90 minutes into the game. In that regards, 12 was better. If they knew then what they know now, the first scene in FF-X would be a random fishing boat getting attacked and destroyed by Sin, but you play the doomed (or Are They?) crew in the first fight of the game. Then the “real story” began.
But in all other regards, Final Fantasy X wins. The story is better. The visuals are more inspiring and fantastical. The whole thing has more flavor (mostly man-asian, southeast asian, etc). And mostly, the characters and their backstories are memorable. Even Orie knows the names of all the characters from FF-X. It took both of us a few minutes to remember the name of a single character from Final Fantasy 12 (Van. Later, actually as I typed this, I remembered “Ashe”. The rest, to me, are “Pigtail girl”, “Han Solo”, “Bunny Eared Serious Girl”, and “Good Twin”). I don’t remember like any single aspect of the story, save the bits about getting to Bunny Girl Village, parts about the Evil Twin, and the final battle. Milquetoast white fantasy with absolutely no teeth.

Maybe it’s because X was totally more Emo, about the sometimes-whiny protagonist with friend/family issues (who strives to overcome them! Wow!), and everyone with their own hangups (Wakka is prejudiced and his brother died, Lulu is pining for a dead lover, Khimari was exiled, Yuna’s a ball of doom, Auron is double-doomed, and Rikku… is… uh… too hot in that Al-Bhed hunting outfit).

In any case, FF-X is on the brain again, burning like an atomic coal. I’m putting off serious play on the International edition, instead waiting for the original Japanese language version to show up. And when it gets here, I realized I’m only going to play it a little until I finish more Tenra Bansho translation - and also tonight came to the decision that I will only play FF-X while simultaneously holding yoga positions (even minor ones), so that the experince isn’t a total wash of mind and body.

Anyway, here I go again. 80-120 hours of play over the next 3-5 months or so. No other game, not Persona 3, not even Shadow Hearts Covenant had that amount of hold over my psyche.

So for the past two days it’s been over 100 degrees in NC, with high air advisory warnings. How hot is that?

This hot:

CHOBI Daraaaan!

YUKI Daraaaaaaaan!

NACHI Daraaaaaaaaaaan!

MAYA Daraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnn!

Also, bizarrely enough the grass seed that we put in our tilled yard hadn’t been growing well, despite lots of watering. But these past two days, it’s been all Power of Nature up in here, the grass is growing and spreading like the weed it is. Yay! Green!

-Andy

For those of you in any service industry: Pulled from my buddy Scott’s blog:

http://www.stservicemovie.com/ 

It’s cute, and attempts to be a corporate tear-jerker, and also tries to get you to buy something at the end, but for any of my friends in the service industry, it still is pretty awesome.

It kinda speaks to me, as I work in computer service jobs (and love interfacing directly with customers), and have always tried to add a personal touch: Personal greetings, followups, etc.

Anyway, enjoy! It’s a Flash movie so will take some time to go through.
-Andy

Andy Kitkowski, NACE MCSE RHCT

Last week kicked my ass: I spent a week of training at the Red Hat corporate office in Raleigh studying server-level Linux concepts. The training was excellent, but fast paced and high-level. The other problem is that when something new happens (new job, vacation, etc) I have a hard time sleeping due to the excitement. The first day of training I went in on 90 minutes of sleep. By the end of the first day, I was having audial hallucinations and other crazy stuff.  But I got through a week of intense training to find out that the exam I scheduled for myself on the fifth day was pretty much unpassable based on the training alone: It was more expected that everyone takes the 4 days of training, goes off and uses it for 6-12 months, then comes back and takes the test. And yet, the test is always on Friday, after the four day block of training??

Anyway, it just so happened that most of the others in the training class signed up for the exam as well. I spent the week studying in class, then coming home and running everything again and setting up demo environments on VMWare hosts. I took the test, and it kicked my ass. Unlike other technical tests, Red Hat actually uses live machines and active hands-on testing. No questions, no multiple choice, just “do all these things to this server or you fail”.

Despite totally missing a section, and a total mess where I missed a simple fix and instead reconfigured my system at the kernel level (”You see a small rock in the road”. Instead of going around or stepping over the rock, I basically dug a hole, put the rock in the hole, covered up the hole, and then built a bridge and a pond over the dirt where the hole was, and a put up a sign that says “Do not dig here”), I went home with no idea whether I passed or not (you’re supposed to find out in three days). I found out later that night that I passed!  Yay!

So that’s why I was totally out of it last week, and basically retreated from the world.  Another cert, another step up, more skillz, and a headache that took a weekend to shake.

-Andy

I love my job. I LOVE my job.  And yet, lately, I’ve been a little stressed out by it. The surprising thing is, every time I think, “Holy cow, I’ve never been this busy in one day”, or “I’ve never seen this amount of work come in in a week”, I am surprised to see that a few days or weeks later, I’m thinking it again.

Anyway, I did just get a big fat promotion a few days ago, basically a grade up in responsibility and pay for a job I already do. So that recognition was nice.

Next week, I’m out all week for Linux training.

Also, I’m sending thanks out to Matthew Gandy for recommending I watch the fun anime series “Full Metal Panic”. I love the comedy-only offshoot “Full Metal Panic: FUMOFFU”, and recommend it unilaterally to anyone who seems interested in anime (even my folks love it), but I didn’t watch the original series that it was based on. I had seen the manga at a bookstore somewhere and skimmed it, but it sucked. Matthew told me to give the anime a try: Apparently the light novels came first, then the anime (based on the light novels), then finally somewhere along the line the manga came out, and it was apparently godawful.

Knowing that, I went back and downloa rented the anime series, and sure enough it’s really entertaining. I can’t recommend it as much as the “FUMOFFU” series, but it is *really* fun. A delicate balance of comedy, action, and para-military.

-Andy

First, before I forget: Here’s the link to the names book, Beth: The Story Games Name Project.

Anyway, last night Jeremie bought the board game The Fury of Dracula, a revised version of the game that he played a lot as a kid in France.  The new version is pretty complicated at first, but very very pretty.  In any case, Jeremie was Dracula, and we miraculously managed to track him down and kill him by about halfway through the second day.
During this time, the Milk Challenge went down. Alan agreed to the terms (1 gallon of 1% milk in one hour, then no getting sick/throwing up for one more hour). Despite the odds, and some fairly close calls, he beat us. He won the bet. He gets a free dinner at an Indian restaurant and bragging rights.  He didn’t even get sick after the second hour (he was totally fine at that point), in fact, declaring “Just to show you fuckers”, he ate a bowl of ice cream afterwords.

The only thing is that he ended up going to the bathroom a lot (#2). I’ll spare the descriptions, but let’s just say that most of the liquid made it to his intestines, forcing all other liquids out. That’s what got him through the challenge.

So, after seeing all the attempts online that ended in failure, I will present some various facts about the event that will help the Next Person out there:

==For the DRINKER of the Milk==

* Alan reports:
“I do not recommend this to anyone”
“I’m never going to do that again”
“I think in the end it was my intestines that saved me”
“I had to go in the other room and lay down to not get sick from your taunting” (see below on Taunting

* Alan’s strategy:

Last time (when he failed) he had eaten pasta that day. He also paced himself. This time, Alan pretty much skipped food the entire day.

His strategy was “drink as much as possible quickly, until you can not drink any more”. He made it through 1/2 gallon in the first sitting, glass after glass after glass. Note that both half-gallons were in the fridge until right before he started, as he didn’t want to drink warm/room temp milk. The first half-gallon was done in the first 5 minutes or so.

Then he simply waited for the milk to pass through. Then started drinking from the second half-gallon about 20-30 minutes into the hour.

He almost gave up, almost didn’t make it. But he managed the last glass and a half in the last four minutes. We encouraged him on, but only because we thought our encouragement would cause him to fail. We were surprised when it did not.

And don’t forget the aforementioned bathroom trips. Alan’s an honest guy (too honest, maybe!) and between his honesty and the lack of sounds of heaving, he did not cheat. However, he was completely annihilated gastrointestinally for that period of time, the milk draining through him.

==For the People Betting against the Drinker==

*  If you add to the terms of the bet that *they can not go to the bathroom*, then you *will win*. However, in my opinion that’s just not a fair bet. Do what you must to make sure they’re not covering up getting sick (especially if there is a lot of money riding on it: At work last year, one of the coworkers tried and failed, and the prize pool was close to $200.00), but let them go to the bathroom. Else ready a bucket. Perhaps two buckets for simultaneous use.

* I saw on the internet that someone did the bet with Skim Milk. Skim Milk is practically water**, don’t plan on that bet. We thought we could get Alan with 1%. 1% was not effective enough. Make the terms of the bet 2% (or whole milk, but that’s probably too much). **BTW, with milk there’s no acidosis/water poisoning. With skim milk, dunno. But you’d probably have to drink a lot more than a gallon to get to the levels like that person who died in the Radio contest for the Wii.

* Be earnest with your taunting and jibing. However, do not bring out the big guns in taunting until the person is physically uncomfortable (for max effect).  We had some real big guns, but unfortunately we think we used them too soon.

* Find the weak spots in the armor.  Alan’s was GRAVY. He almost lost it when we started talking about gravy (incl “gravy milkshakes”, and washing one down with “glasses of warm butter”).

* This taunt was great, but unfortunately we used it too early. It only works if there’s a bucket. It almost worked, though.

(with a straight face) “Hey, (NAME), I’ll tell you what. If you throw up in the bucket, but then drink your milk-puke in the time limit, you’ll still be in; We won’t disqualify you.”

The above almost set off the rest of us. It could be the WMD in your bet, if dropped well, with a straight (almost “concerned”) tone of voice, and at the right time.
That’s it!  Alan proved the better of us, will NEVER do that bet again, and got a free dinner out of it. Plus, while that was going on the rest of us played The Fury of Dracula, which again is a seemingly fun game, but has tons of rules that are complicated your first time through. If you get it, I suggest trying to download a few extra copies of the rules from Boardgamegeek.com so that you don’t have to stop up the game if more than one person needs to read them, especially on your first game.

-Andy

So my friend Alan, not daunted by the last horribly failed attempt (”I ate earlier that day”), and the fact that it’s humanly impossible, decided that he is going to try it again:

Drink one gallon of 1% milk in one hour, and not throw up for one more hour.

The battle goes down at my house on Thursday. We’re postponing gaming that week to make room for the mess. The rest of us will either watch movies or play board games as Alan makes himself sick.

I’ve researched it on the internet, and the only reference I could find for someone who did it was a guy who did it with skim milk, and he got horribly sick after winning the bet.

We’ve warned Alan at least a dozen times each time he said he was going to do it, but his stubbornness is supreme. Either we get a “Forever I Told You So” certificate, or he will totally show us up and get a free meal at his favorite Indian restaurant (on another night, of course).

What movies go good with stupid milk attempt?  I’m thinking Bubble Boy or Brain Donors.

I met him once at a lecture at my college, and loved the way he thought, taught and lived.  Coming from the philosophical tradition, he basically spent the 70s and 80s (and, well, the rest of his career) giving traditional “stump the freshman” philosophy a big fat middle finger, while at the same time used academic rigor and and open heart to follow in the footsteps of great American “doing real shit to help the real world” philosophers like Dewey and James, in basically creating a moral, right-thinking, good-deed doing society based on principles of humanity, entirely divorced from religion and “objective morality” thinking.

He was an a great thinker and an awesome, awesome human being.

Farewell, Richard Rorty.

The above is an awesome obituary which I’d urge people interested in him to give a look at. My highlights, which really summarize where he came from and what he stood for:

“Raised in a home where “The Case for Leon Trotsky” was viewed with the same reverence as the Bible might be elsewhere, Mr. Rorty pondered the nature of reality as well as its everyday struggles. “At 12, I knew that the point of being human was to spend one’s life fighting social injustice,” he wrote in an autobiographical sketch.

Russell A. Berman, the chairman of the Department of Comparative Literature at Stanford University, who worked with Mr. Rorty for more than a decade, said, “He rescued philosophy from its analytic constraints” and returned it “to core concerns of how we as a people, a country and humanity live in a political community.”

…

“The widespread notion that the philosopher’s primary duty was to figure out what we can and cannot know was poppycock, Mr. Rorty argued. Human beings should focus on what they do to cope with daily life and not on what they discover by theorizing.”

-Andy