Elgin Marbles: 2008

Well, sure let October go by with nary a whisper from me. Still contemplative as ever, holding your words until you know what you truly want to say?

No, not really. A best friend has now left and gone into the military, an election has past, Fallout 3 has arrived, and Batman now appears to have swapped powers with Superman in the so named "Batman/Superman" comic; all this has transpired and nothing on the blog.

And this! - after that large monologue that just preceeded this. This leads me to think when I go big, too big, this tends to stunt the proceeding posts. Gotta keep a balance.

Where to put one's energies these days? It seems to me I am in need of a reevaluation of my talents; where I am placing them, and what I am to do with them in order to be, become, and serve as the being God has created me as.
[Although we are reminded of the wise saying: "Prepositions are never words to end sentences with."]
I really like that one.

To be sure there are times when most grow into a feeling of "un" fulfillment, as if one's limit or true North is not before them but in a direction they do not know and feel lost in the finding.

I see many directions and the sheer potential present in the world in which we live is staggering, so much so it truly sets one on his or her heels. Time to move from the heels to the balls of my feet, make some progress in a true direction, trust the guidance and support I am given and take to the chase.

Sure is a lot of talk going on here, I'll have to see about backing it up. Yeah, sounds like something I am,will,going to do.

Apologies if the meta-play of being/am/will et. al. seems a bit heavy handy. I have just been in a 'being' 'doing' mindset, and a sincere Lack of hat tip to Chopra, if that was where anyone was thinking toward. Well meaning, but in all honesty, I have absolutely no presence of mind concerning his work.

I have a Heidegger, Santayana, following Hegel feeling about picking through all of this, a C.S. Lewis hope for my humanity's revelation through God, an Aldous Huxley distrust in my surroundings to provide my answer, and a feeling as though I am stuck atop Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. There seems to be no time, yet some"where" time is proceeding and must be accounted for, yet how to deal with all these thoughts I have up here.

Ah yes, the horizontal life, as he would call it in those High German Mountains. The air just seems so crisp and clean, good for thinking, now how to act, where to proceed.

How shall it seeks its ending.

I just got back from the Folsom Cyclebration. An event so exciting the had to start smashing words together just to get the whole concept across without melting people's cerebellum. All sarcasm aside it was a fun event and I was able to attend with my sister and dad. All the big bike dealers were out, some very impressive machines out there. All in all and wholly suprising lack of pretension. Perhaps it has something to do with the pure nature of man's might expressed honestly through the best of machinery he has devised to cover ground: No motors to blame, nothing but rubber across terra firma singing harmony to the breathing.

Sister has been getting into triathlons. I think that's the perfection of the ideal. Here, we have devised various means of human locomotion across spans, various terrain, and water. About all there is save the skies. Let us place them all in single competition.

Currently reading Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Gibbons, and am finding it terrifically compelling. Borrowed from LG, major hat tip there, finding a lot of what I suspected, expertly delivered, however, with exceptional interplay between the text and the art. I can see the movie spawning a very receptive re-admiration for the piece. It having compelling contemporary parallels, "the War (Vietnam)," our current conflict etc; the decimation of the hero concept, predestination vs. human potential, and an overall existential angst almost. A true coming to the end of the humanist's equation with appropriate terror, desperation, and hatred. Dr. Manhattan plays the perfect visionary to the modern dilemma, and his cold, not entirely dispassionate, yet alienated (definitely author intended; a once-human finding home on Mars) sense of being is the phantasmic highlighting that remains dutifully subtle in order to counter-balance the main plot's spiraling insanity.

Another offering in the free MMO world. This one could take the cake, and also several hours of my time.

However, I don't think I am ready to dump my Night Elf Hunter just yet, especially this close to 70. :D

I will have to post up a pic or two of the mighty creatures. I have begun life in a small tank in my office. They rose up and are now trying to lay siege to the small plastic castle that lies in the middle of their domain.

In honor of the champion of their species, I give you the source of his name.

And to the individual who introduced me to this quote, he truly was the quote master.

The dance station from GTA4 is here, presented for your entertainment.

It is true, I am not the biggest sports fan. However, the match up currently underway between Woods and Rocco has been a pleasure to watch. Now even easier with the good people at NBC Sports and Lexus (they deserve the plug eh?).

First day on the new job. Unfortunately, I have been unwinding a bit and looking up stuff for work tomorrow and so time has escaped me. Need sleep for another big day tomorrow and so not enough time to successfully devote to a full disclosure of today's events. I hope to have those forthcoming very shortly.

This is definately how we do. Raptors? Covered. Molten volcano? Done. Boss taken down with style and grace? Yes always. Aquaninedex dinging the big 60 after two years? Yes indeed.

Huge thanks and shouts going out to Kireffej and Phylahdex for the massive amounts of support and the terrible amounts of damage. We sure brought it to them.

It's been a little too long for a new post and a little too long since I played some World of Warcraft. I am getting back into it tonight if all goes well and I am excited about the changes. I am moving to a PVE server and off of the PVP frustration and chaos. More of that later when I get a feel for it. Also some of the cool kids from who I played with on my last server also made the jump and the improvements have made them get into playing more regularly. So it couldn't be any better.

These are some shots I took over the time I have played thus far. Good memories. Phylah, my Mrs., has been back on for weeks and already rocking two new add-ons, Auctioneer and Titan Panel, and making the most out of both; auction baroness! Might have to borrow some of that sweet sweet gold, right honey? :)

Coming to you courtsy of our friend at Gamer's Circle
Terrific new promo for Secret Invasion:
Are you ready?! I know I am, issue one, success.

I am always a sucker for a good you-tube baby video:
This baby will have the greatness of the best ninja ever!

Seeing as how the last vids posted were of a flammable nature, I thought this would be a wonderful change of pace.

Henry Higgins himself might have a hard time keeping up with Amy Walker... from genius-town.

Best thing I can do is let them speak for themselves. I will process what I think about them and might write some commentary about it later.

I did not go looking for these posts, they are headliners on Google Videos popular videos feed.

For those of you who are following this gentleman with me I know you will be excite to see this, his next published novel. Amazon has it for $10, but you could pay more for it at your local retailer if you want.

Mack Megaton drives a cab in the mutant-infested technotopia of Empire City. It's a step down for a massive killing machine created for world domination, but kindhearted unapologeticMegaton has bucked his programming, and when his secretive neighbors, the Bleakers, go missing, he begins a search. Young Holt Bleaker has something in his mutant blood that makes him valuable to aliens poised to invade Empire City, and only a giant robot—a robot like Mack Megaton—can break him out of the fortress where he's held prisoner. Soon plans go awry when sinister psychic Grey subverts Megaton's programming, but he finds an unlikely ally in Lucia Napier, an outrageously beautiful and talented media star and roboticist. Eccentric characters, all of whom are clever twists on stereotypes, populate a smart, rocket-fast read with a clever, twisty plot that comes to a satisfying conclusion.

That's the synopsis and I can tell you, it's already better than it sounds. Martinez delivers on his classic wit and humor, this one is technical in nature, hence robots, and he is brilliant in the way he pulls of android humor. The writing is more tight than Gil's All Fright but there is still the silliness and ingenuity that makes Martinez stand apart. Some of the elements he has created for this novel are really clever and the ones he borrows he does so with unapologetic cliches. It contains some expertly wrought tributes/assemblages of several genres; detective, sci-fi, noir.

Enjoy.

So great, so many memories, still awesome after all these years:

/me remembers the sacLANd days

Let this man stand forth to show his greatness: public schools not withstanding.

Please be sure to watch 3yrs old Star wars review below for this to make any sense

Greeting a Monday morning with an excellent and harrowing Faulkner quotation, from As I Lay Dying

How do our lives ravel out into the no-wind, no-sound, the weary gestures wearily recapitulant: echoes of old compulsions with no-hand on no-strings: in sunset we fall into furious attitudes, dead gestures of dolls.

207

I tend to have strong beliefs about things; religion, politics, logic, art, pop culture. And you know, I have come to learn that this should not be the case. There, I said it, actually got it out onto the keyboard and into this dialog box despite the need for my mind to work out the best of all possible ways to say it. It's kept me from a lot of writing, that personality flaw, should see some progress as I work away from it. But back to my opinionated nature, no better way to put that. Nothing, it seems, is the source of more of my problems that this one trait. Which is why it should be at the forefront of my striving to become a better person.

Hold one moment while I upload this week's sermon: If you would like to check it out, I highly recommend it, Tom Rupp was our special speaker and he did a marvelous job, really spoke to my heart, and is perhaps part of the force behind this reevaluation. [brb] Bridge Community Church

Where to find Tom's talk

While that's uploading... I don't mean to make light of this with that little aside and I am not trying to be cavalier about this.
But it seems true that stress at work, between personnel, at home, on the road, in discussions, on topics of taste and preference, in games, well, I think the picture begins to solidify, should be a focus of my change.

What do I know anyway. I will put that down right here and make it a part of my life pattern for the time being, just short of tattooing it to my wrist. Do I know that much about movies, books, or even politics? Do I know that much about debates, arguments, discussion topics, or theories thereof? I need to start answering NO.

I know some things about some stuff, but who cares. I am distancing myself so much from the people I care about and for what?! Something I think I might know something about... not the most definitive statement ever made to be sure.

What I need to do is start valuing the moments over the knowledge, the relationships over my interpretations, the joy of existing over what other people insist on doing with their lives and to other people. Even to ME. What should I care if some guy somewhere, in a car, store, or whatever, doesn't care a wit about me, his surroundings, the people that work at a place, or the people on the road with them, who should care? The authorities. They get paid to and are good at what they do. The managers. They want to allow reckless, disgusting, embarrassing behavior in their store, it's their store.

The liberation in acknowledging "what do I know?" can only be rivaled by the freedom Christ gives me to be me. I will be no less me by changing this way that I live, Christ will be with me, even MORE with me because "ME" will get in the way less of my expression of love for others. I think ultimately that was one of my fears, but if this "altered yet still me" me gets along with others better, enjoys work (employees and customers) to its fullest, rides home everyday thinking more about the blessings of breath than about the lanes that are changed, then how wonderful that me might someday be.

And although those opinions have been part of my identity, they won't be there to get in the way of my happiness and joy for life.

A beautiful vision of Napa Valley. I took a field trip there on Thursday and there was much to be seen. I should be able to fit one more picture on here, although I am not sure I have ever tried it. I was blessed with an excellent, gorgeous day, and let me tell you, the Napa Valley Visitors Center really sets you up for a great day. Although a bit hard to find from the freeway, it is worth the search; maps, coupons, and a list of must sees, all worth the price of admission, free. We first stopped by the V. Sattuoi winery, had sandwiches and homegrown olives. Next we took a ride over to the Beringer winery, took an excellent tour through their caves and learned a lot about their history. After that we swung around to the other side of the valley and went by the Mumm Napa winery, famous for their champagne. They had a wonderful piece of land, sure it was farther than we could even see, and nice shop, and they were even host to a Ansel Adams photographic art gallery. Among the gallery were also windows into various parts of their factory floor which was very cool to see. One room boasts about 1,100,000 bottles in it alone and there were other rooms. One can't help but think of the value of that which rested inside.

I will have to include some more pictures at a later point. This on here is from the V.Sattoui picnic area, an old wine press outside what is now their storage cellars.

There it is folks. The best review that has ever been done on the Star Wars movie. Obi Kenobi would be proud.

/bow to the little girl

Much of the entertainment I get out of the GTA series is from the scathing, and often balanced yet over exaggerated, social commentary. It looks as though IV will shine again in this category.

Adding some different links to the sidebar, if I can remember how. One is a personal friend's project, "Dynamite Gun," a collection of artistically clever art pieces in the style of absurdist abstraction. Also, Ruby Skye, premier club of S.F. Not entirely because I am always there, or have been recently. But I do have good memories and they have an excellent music player on their flash site that can be a good avenue to new dance tracks that are being spun on dance floors on the more upscale clubs world wide. Itunes generally has the tracks they play, if they have been released by then, and I learned an excellent trick from my wife; if you can't place the name or artist in the song, listen to some words then type those words in quotes followed by lyrics, works all the time. :)

It's finally almost here: My b-day is tomorrow and I am quite excited about getting my friends together for some good times. On the docket: Rock Band (maybe), Guitar Hero (not that redundant), Carcassonne, WOW CCG, "For Sale," perhaps WOW the board game, might throw down some Risk, and any other games that might come up, it will most definitely be a gaming weekend. Maybe zombies? Maybe.

Just want to give another, I think, shout out to my fav jungle-d&b site

Bass Drive

good vibes

:)

It appeared to me to be a good Sunday topic, talking about the meaning of "sanctity." Of course the meaning is implicit for most people, to be holy or in a state of holiness. I suppose where it has become an enigma to me is in its implementation. How does one witness sanctity in the modern world? How does it manifest itself to the experiencer? Too often it seems we relegate the term to a feeling. This cathedral or that graveyard feels sacred, holy, sanctified. But those are mostly, if not entirely, feelings derived from the aesthetics. The gothic arches give one a sense of granduer or the solemn rows of the intered reflect a sense of mortality. But what, if anything, makes those places sacred? I think I may have hinted at it with the sense of mortality. They are places that are imbued, albeit artificially, with elements that reflect abstract concepts. I do not use the word artificially in a derogatory sense, I simply mean that pains were taken with the expressed intent to instill such emotional responses; cathedrals have vaulted ceilings which express as sense of the majestic and cemetaries have the still quality of carefully manicured nature, relgious symbols, and rows of names of those dearly departed.

I suppose the nature of my inquiry lies with the concept of the treatment of these locales, if that is indeed what makes them sacred. I know in the modern age the sense that any given area or space is sacred only because it is decreed so and that an inate respect for a space for that which it is, in itself, is held as an archaic belief. Too many churches or housed for the sick and dying leveled and turned into parking lots and convenience stores I suppose. But therein lies the problem. Even if spaces are holy or sacred only as they are made to be, how much more should we cherish and respect that place as it is in the moment. I do think the transiency of places takes a great deal from the matter though. Cathedrals are easy to recognize as special places partly because they have been there for so long, although you can see the difference in those who have been close to the throughout much of that time. Many of the European cathedrals I visited had quite the gift shop appeal to them in parts, but still, there was great respect to be had.

It is hard for us, I must suppose, to think of our concrete tilt-up buildings, stucco and sheet-rock, with replaceable carpet that comes and goes every ten years or so, as holy and precious places of worship. I am mulling this all over for myself simply as a way of dealing with current humanity's disregard for places they themselves commonly worship in. People seem free to clip nails, fix hair, play with babies, text friends, check messages, and generally hang out in a space we are meant to meet with a great and mighty God weekly. I understand that the modern church is a place for the community, for the people to inhabit and carry out their lives in fellowship and joy, but something in me still thinks some respect is missing, some bit of recognition of just what it is we are there to do that is not currently a part of people's church routine. Primarily the issue for me resides in the time in which the word of our Lord and Savior is being preached; a time like that seems hard to misunderstand and I think there is something at stake when we fail to place proper worth and respect to that which is so vitally important to us.

I am still trying to think of what I was thinking about on the Dec 28th post. It probably had something to do with Christmas stuff and perhaps some up and coming New Years plans, Christmas was wonderful and New Years was enjoyable, but hmm what could it have been?

We did get a new TV, that's one big bit of news that probably factored in there. Shopped around and got a very good deal on a Panasonic 42" plasma, which was significantly bigger than we had even intended, however, with the deal CostCo had going on, their extension of an extra year on top of the 1yr mnft warranty, added to the fact that other smaller TVs were not significantly cheaper, it was an easier choice to go with the Panasonic. It was also the highest rated and preferred by by Consumer Reports, so it had that going for it.

Beat Mass Effect, which was quite amazing and thoroughly fulfilling, they certainly delivered on that promise even if a good portion of the game was exaggerated about in the hype. Took about 25hr for those who were wondering and since I had "grinded" out any of the middle missions I could possibly find the end was essentially a cake walk, which speaks to the ends strengths because it made it no less enjoyable.

Now are you sitting down, because this is really serious. Just when I was dusting off the old DS to be getting some good gameplay back in, looking to find some new games to replenish the lot, this comes to me. From the art to the music to the game mechanics this classic has a new home and perhaps might even find some new fans, as long as they approach it knowing something of what it was in its day.

We can all rest easy now.

Just a happy new year post. I just hope there are no techies that have to sit in store houses and monitor the systems this post will travel through. I hope that only the systems already in place will take care of this post and those involved with the running of this system get to enjoy fun with their friends and family.

I know that's what I am doing.

A nod out to Logical Gambit's cocktail party. Hope that went off really well.

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