Tuesday, May 31, 2005

4:24 PM - This entry is mostly for Dustin.

sonic the hedgehog...

Dustin asked me to write how I really felt about Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. I felt that it should have been better than it was. I also wrote a more detailed summary of my feelings, but it contains spoilers and isn't very positive. In fact, it might also be a bit snarky....

1:21 PM - inner peace through personal suffering and sacrifice

the rhinestone trifecta

Wow, it's been a really busy weekend. I usually control my activity schedule with plenty of time to rest and recover, but too much was happening this weekend that I -had- to pack it all in.

I spent Saturday at a going away picnic for my former roommate Brian... Brian's completed his PhD in Public Health and is moving to Iowa. Iowa?!? I was a bit surprised too, but he's going to be doing research on what makes certain cows genetically predisposed towards getting mad cow disease while others seem pretty much unaffected by it. I personally don't need bovine encephalitis (I also personally don't eat cows!) and so if that means a good guy gets to spend some time in Iowa, then so be it! The time in the park was really fun, and I also got to have Thai food with Brian later that night, as he helped rescue some of my old documents from an old PC disk drive. Not only did we find my Elvish font pack (which I used for this costume) and some old MP3's, but we had a really fun conversation while we waited for the DVD to burn.

Sunday I went down to San Jose to meet up with AJ and Judy for an anime convention. I spent part of the day as Iori and the rest of the day helping four women in and out of corsets, airplane steel hoopskirts, and ibuprofen. Under the rhinestones, these girls were suffering. The best place for info about their costumes is their collective LiveJournal community, which has up-to-the-moment information and tidbits. Sundy evening they performed a witty skit in the convention's costume competition and won the Craftsmanship award, and if you're looking at the pictures you'll see the award was well-deserved.

I think the most fun part for me about going to these events is meeting people that I know of exclusively through LiveJournal... People who I think of in my mind as "PositiveSpace" or "TristenCitrine" rather than their ordinary names, which I can't always remember. I also got my picture taken a couple of times, and a few photographers even demanded the omnipresent "I'm going to Photoshop in the Purple Flames later" Iori shot, but for the most part I was there to hang out and support the ladies on their big day. As a side note, I was fascinated just how many people played World of Warcraft. We were sitting at dinner and I kept hearing words and discussions that... well... it was just weird hearing words from this online game actually being said out loud by others.

I got home late Sunday night and was supposed to meet Fenny at 10am Monday to go find some nature... and of course I woke up at 10:15. I swear my alarm clock makes its own decisions some mornings. After forgetting to bring my cell phone as I attempted to meet her at the BART station (I used to be so reliable and responsible, too!), I took Fenny to brunch and then we went to the state park of her choice. Of course, Fenny picked the most Scooby Doo park in the state... We hiked up Devil's Gulch, along Gravesite Road, past Deadman's Gulch and onto the side of a hill where we saw an enormous... vulture. I will say that without cartoony bits of carrion dribbling from its beak, the vulture was quite majestic. I think he was just trying to lure us in. We also saw the beautiful and secluded Stairstep Falls (which also sounds oddly ominous, if you think about it) and had a lot of fun making up our own little cartoon series. Coming soon to a theater near you... hanging out with Fenny is so fun! And we had yummy roadside cherries.

We tried to contact Cyclona for a rendez-vous at Café Gratitude, but she was unavailable. Imagine our surprise when we found her with CC finishing up a meal at the bar when we walked in! Nearing their hippie quota for the day, CC and Cyclona left while Fenny and I settled in for such organic vegan raw foods treats as I AM ABUNDANT or I AM ETERNALLY SWEET. It was a beautiful meal at the end of a fantastic day, and we topped it off with peppermint tea and gossip Chez Cyclona.

All in all, the weekend was almost perfect. The only foible: Café Gratitude caused some extremely potent gas. Enlightenment through personal suffering and sacrifice.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

1:39 PM - *insert witty, original Star Wars comment here, if there are any unused ones left*

there might be some funny bits in this one

We are stepping into dangerous territory; I am writing a blog entry after reading an article by Mark Morford. Please leave your expectations of proper grammar and linear thought process behind.

Cyclona was right-- we had a fabulous Saturday with an exquisite brunch and some time in Dolores Park devouring People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People and wondering if the sunbather with a bandana stretched around his genitalia counted as "clothed". As if anyone wants to see your perfectly tanned body except for a ghastly pale penis....The Ghost of Penises Past?... but I digress. I've always thought of the People's Most Beautiful 50 as an enlightened facet of our world that recognizes that men can be beautiful instead of merely just "handsome." In my mind over the past several years, I'd thought of this tiny bit of pop culture as the direction in which our enlightened society might eventually go. The afternoon with Cyclona helped me realize that People magazine is really trashy (and they had such terrible layout issues!), and I've pretty much aborted the idea of doing a photoshoot to lampoon the outfits and poses that the magazine used in this year's beauty issue.

Cyclona also thinks I'm a "beauty fascist."

My neck is a lot better, and I got one of those expensive ergonomic, orthopedic, stereoscopic pillows for sleepytime. I've slept on a futon for the past 6 years, but I think it's time for me to get a real bed. Even if the futon mattress was rather nice for a futon, I'm a big boy now. Let's get something that is good for my back.

The tribute to Terry Sendgraff went well; it was really touching to see how many people she has touched and influenced over the years. Fenny pointed something important out-- even though Terry is very wonderful and nurturing and sees people's inner beauty often before they see it themselves, many of her students who teach or go on to form their own companies don't treat people the same way that Terry does. Fenny thinks that if you are going to call yourself a student of Terry Sendgraff, then you should try to mimic her openness and love in your own life, out of respect for her. I only really got to know Terry in the twilight of her professional career, and I'm left sometimes guessing what her creativity felt like in the 70's or 80's, but I'm going to take Fenny's advice and try to manifest some Terry in my daily life and goings-on.

I tend to only go see movies when a friend suggests one. I saw Star Wars last weekend (through a haze of cold medication!) with Matt and his finacee Kaiann. I remember in college Matt would talk about watching Star Wars with his father when he was young. I don't have those same emotional connections to the Star Wars franchise, but it meant a lot to me to be able to see this final movie with Matt, because I know the movies are special to him.

It was also fun to blatantly sneak people into the theater with several bags of Vietnamese take-out, only to be approached by a menacing-looking usher: "Are those two seats next to you taken?"

"Yeah, they're getting some popcorn." And I munched on a spring roll.

Friday, May 13, 2005

1:45 PM - ow

My neck hurts a lot! Urg. I'm going to the doctor on Monday, but in the meantime, I just needed to whine for sympathy. *golf claps*

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

11:59 AM - It's not happy political, but read it anyway :-P

Tony gets political

What is wrong with our country?? I used to believe that the Constitution guaranteed that our country would, for as long as it existed, stand for equal rights for all people. That we are a government "of the people, by the people, for the people."

It's no secret that I've been unhappy about just bout everything that has happened in Washington since 2000. Maybe the world really did end at Y2K and we've just been slow to come around to realize it. Public education is in such a state that most people don't even recognize the magnitude of the changes that are going on right now. It would seem that Democracy and a system of Equality can only last for so long without the help of people who are willing to stand up and fight for their rights... and right now our freedoms and our rights are being leeched away by tyrants. Maybe I'm just getting uppity because both of my grandfathers fought in World War II against a mad (but charismatic to his own people!) tyrant, and maybe I'm just being vocal because I'm related by blood to Patrick Henry and I've inherited a knack for expressing my temper in words. In any case, I have something to say.

I believe that success of the attacks of September 11, 2001 was a direct result of who held power in the United States government at that time. I believe that there are many important unanswered questions related to those events, and those questions have largely gone uninvestigated by the government and the media. I believe that the attacks were deliberately used to create an environment of fear and hysteria that facilitated an invasion of Iraq that was advocated in writing as early as September 2000. I believe that the people of this country have neglected our responsibility to make informed decisions as voters, and that we share responsibility for an invasion and thousands of deaths that were utterly preventable and unnecessary. These deaths, the erosion of our civil rights, the destruction of our national ecological treasures, and the poisoning of our planet all continue on a daily basis. I'm going to spend some time today trying to figure out what I can do to make a difference before it's too late (if it isn't already!). I would ask that other people think about doing the same thing.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

1:00 PM - with a bit of nerdiness

a cascade of shattered sparkles

Augh!! The pain! I came downstairs this morning and found that someone had broken my windshield. It was very strange-- cracked glass but nothing shattered, so no one actually went inside my car to steal anything... not that there is anything there to steal. I can't decide if it was someone deciding to get revenge because I've offended them in some way that I'm not aware of, or one of the homeless people that likes to sleep in the corner behind our cars, or maybe some drunk neighbors had an accident, or maybe a botched thiefing job when they realized that windshields are tough to crack. I really don't know. In any case, it's going to be $250 to fix, which isn't pleasant but not as bad as I was expecting.

Now all I need is to get a ticket for the registration stickers that still haven't arrived in the mail (I've re-requested them!)

In more pleasant news, I will be performing in a Mothers' Day tribute to Terry Sendgraff at counterPULSE this Sunday. Terry is retiring and her students past and present are coming together to say thank you. I will be on stage for all of 1 minute, so this is really more of a "support Terry" event than a "come see Tony perform" event!

Finally, my friend Mok is doing the AIDS LifeCycle ride from San Francisco to LA again this year, so he's raising money again, just like I was a few months ago. I will not be doing any marathon fundraising any time soon (oh my aching body! ow) so if you're looking for a way to support local AIDS organizations, try Mok's donation page: http://www.aidslifecycle.org/3067.

5:05 AM - the aforementioned nerdiness

We were overdue for a geek post anyway...

May 5th is 05/05/05. It's also the 125th day of the year, which is 5x5x5.

My co-worker Jeremy suggested celebrating by waiting until 05:05 and then (wait for it...) giving someone a high five.