1) After the catalyst of Stephen “The Hearts of Space Man Himself” Hill posting in my comments previously about subscribing to Hearts of Space, I broke down and did so. Well, it was more like arm twisting in the lightest of ways, in a direction I was heading for anyway. :-)
In any case, I’ve been pretty much listening to the weekly cast and the radio cast nonstop, even when I took a nap (which always starts spinning the weirdest of dreams). Later on I’ll troll through and hit up the Middle-Eastern themed sessions, the Lisa Gerard sessions, and then just roll around in it from there.
Anyway, I gotta say, if you like experimental/”space music”, I’m finding a subscription to HOS is pretty much worth the price.
Thanks, Stephen!
2) After Keith Senkowski’s glowing recommendation, I picked up and started reading Night Watch. I actually did like the movie a lot, and unsurprisingly I actually like the book more. It’s odd, because I usually don’t like books written in the first person, but this one is gripping enough that I don’t notice. Plus, I think the horror genre gains points over me that override other dislikes.
3) Last week, I saw that a large gym opened up about 3 miles from my house. That was all I was waiting for. I signed up on Friday, and have been working out since. We’ll see if it lasts, but I have been thinking about going to a gym regularly for over a year now, the only thing stopping me was knowing that if it wasn’t near my house I’d stop going, and that I could hold the tide back a little with the small gym at work.
Anyway, we’ll see if I can stick to it. I’m going to try to get back to my post-marriage pre-Cisco weight. Basically remove the last 40 pounds that stress and sedentary IT work (oh yeah, and the fact that I have No Self Control :-) ) have put on me. I picked up the book “Complete Conditioning for Martial Arts” a few weeks ago to basically build an exercise plan or three that are focused on a tight, athletic frame and not on “gaining beefcake”.
3) I forgot what the third thing was.
4) Organizing a house-con on a Saturday in early June to play some RPGs, board games and stuff with friends. If you’re in the RTP area and interested on coming by, let me know and I’ll make sure to keep you informed if you haven’t heard about it already.
Just wanted to throw down a post of various things going on:
Working a lot of 9-10 hour days lately. Pretty busy at work with the start of the new year.
In a month or so I head to the first of advanced linux (specifically RedHat) training.
Went to Dim Sum at Peking Garden in Raleigh. It was delicious, but we were the only people there so it was a little weird.
Lately, no notable food experiences outside of the home. Inside the home there’s been some real magic lately. Orie’s going nuts making new dishes, particularly seafood and Indian dishes.
Been under the weather a little due to allergies, so now I’m on Allegra. This is probably the first year that I’ve really been affected by allergies. It’s been pretty messy.
Over the past two weeks, with the aid of a chainsaw, I’ve cleared between 1500-2000 pounds of trees from my property. The previous owners were messy with the planting, and a lot of them were simply growing too close together to live without bending everywhere. This is also the first step to plant a bunch of cherry blossom trees in the front and back yards.
The previous owners also decided that a fountain in the back would be nice. It is, save for the baby rabbit that fell into it and died, and (way more importantly) the 10 billion mosquitoes that used it like a Zerg Breeding Pool. Bought a sledgehammer and demolished concrete and brick. Great exercise. Oddly enough, more than my arms, shoulders or back, the arches of my feet hurt the most after 2 days of sledgehammering.
Watched the first DVD of Avatar the Last Airbender. Turns out that I do like it a lot. Very fun show.
After working up the courage for years after hearing about it from my buddy Dave Gann, I finally rented Bad Lieutenant from Netflix. I should not have.
Still waffling on whether to go back to Japan this year or not. In any case, my passport expired this year so I need to renew it.
Reading? Not much literature (but very much enjoying the latest Sumomomo Momomo manga (I can’t wait for it to be released in English, it’s currently my favorite manga, and about a million times better than the anime), as well as Yuki-pon no Oshigoto, which is TURNING INTO A LIVE-ACTION TV SERIES?????????
Music: Getting more into soul and hip hop these days, although I managed to TWICE miss seeing Brother Ali when he came through on tour. Also I seem to keep missing the Sunday Hearts of Space broadcasts, so I’ll probably break down sometime and subscribe. As always, still into electronic and experimental, and currently on that front I’m waiting for my best bro to release some more stuff from his once-DC Area teamup with Tobias Kienle “Sixtus V”.
Punching and Kicking: Little. Trying to get back into shape. Still hitting the punching bag every now and then with some wing chun, but I might end up trading it in and buying a weight bench. I’ve been in a serious lifting mood for a while, but the company gym has no free-weights.
Tea: Yerba Mate, Vanilla Chai w/soymilk, Ruibos Caramel/Fruit
Movies: Scary enough, about one a week for the past few weeks. Loved Spider-Man. Hated Aqua Teen Hunger Force save for the first few minutes and one joke here or there. Next is going to be 28 Weeks Later with the gang.
Gaming: Holy crap, too much! Weekly group has one more session of TBZ to wrap up a small campaign that dragged a little too much. Bi-weekly group is doing Savage Worlds Conan for a one-shot (perhaps 2). The irregular meetup crew is looking for some time to meet up and play… ? And Camp Nerdly this last weekend was fun as hell, but very draining (I only got 4 hours of sleep a night, and no idea why). On deck: More TBZ, Beast Hunters, With Great Power, and at some point some good ol Dungeons and Dragons 3E (set in a mythical India).
This weekend: Finding a bedframe replacement. The one that came for free with the bed broke 2 nights ago, so we need to find a real frame now.
Replacing the old broken garbage disposal with an Insinkerator. That’s tomorrow’s plan.
Also: More yardwork, cleaning up rocks, redoing the natural area where the fountain used to be.
That’s it!