Where is Ray’s Brain?!

I discovered a neat little program on the intarwebs today. One of the forums I frequent had a thread which asked the question, “Is there a minimalist word processing program that just lets you write? No desktop publishing or fancy features. Just distraction free writing.”

I thought, distraction free writing? What the hell is that? The thread went on with replies that DarkRoom was a good candidate for windows users and was the Windows version of WriteRoom for the Mac. So I went ahead and downloaded it. Its a small little program. It doesn’t even install into the registry. There’s a config file and an executable. Double-clicking the .exe turned my whole screen black with some symbols on the right (non-context sensitive) and a green cursor. A little weird, yes, but then I decided to write. The program had pre-defined margins such that the words on the page take about the same space per line as words on a paperback. And before I knew it I was a page into writing about a meeting between a man and a woman, talking about a dead body on the floor.

Wow, I thought. That’s what distraction free writing is all about. No quick previews to see what the text looks like, no “helpful” auto-correction for spelling, no thinking about hyperlinks to add into the content. Its about the closest thing to banging out words on an electric typewriter.

Which is why this post is going up today. I’m hoping darkroom will inspire me to write more. More prose, more flights of fancy, maybe even more of that book that I’ve started and re-started a few times. Fair warning, this last part will contain a hyperlink so it wasn’t added via darkroom, it was added just before today’s blog was published. Thanks DarkRoom for helping me discover the joy of writing again.

It is a week and a day now since Arianna was born. Let me back up. My wife delivered a baby girl on 8-8-08 at 10:39am. Her name is Arianna and she’s been breaking hearts left and right. She was the talk of the delivery ward after she came out. Three nurses actually came into the room to check out this “beautiful baby”.

The reason I’ve not talked about this for about a week is two-fold. First, we had to stay at the hospital for 4 days since Arianna was delivered via C-section. And while the hospital had excellent staff and equipment it was still lacking in internet access. Second, its been a hectic week, but not like you would imagine.

Let me back up again. Guin’s parents were visiting and staying at our house to help take care of the baby. Unfortunately there were two things that worked to our disadvantage. First, her dad is a very hands off kind of person. Wayy off. At the start he didn’t do the laundry, didn’t do the dishes, didn’t cook, and seemed to spend most of his time watching the Olympics or taking photos of the baby with his camera phone. Second, Guin’s mom means well but is a product of the income disparity of the Philippines. Which is to say, her mom had staff. A cook, a driver, and a nanny for each daughter.

So, with Guin at 50% operating capacity (due to having to heal from the C-section) I had to try and get Guin’s dad off the couch and helping out and train Guin’s mom on how to help take care of the baby. Now, I’m not saying I’m an expert. I didn’t know much either on Day 1. But, the nurses at the hospital were excellent and very patient at showing me how to change the baby, recognize hunger signs, swaddle her, feed her, and burp her. And they helped Guin and me figure out how to get little Arianna to breast. Not mine, Guin’s.

Armed with this knowledge I’ve managed to get Guin’s mom to recognize wet or poopy diapers, when the baby is hungry, how to burp, and how to change her quickly (before Arianna knows whats going on and really starts to cry). And between everyone else we’ve managed to get Guin’s dad to do the laundry and…..set the table. Oh well, you can’t have everything.

I’ve always had a soft spot for interactive fiction, ever since the early Infocom days. Which is weird because I’ve never been able to finish an infocom game by myself with the exception of Zork. I think it was partly because I was into all types of computer games growing up and partly because my first computer was the Commodore 64.

So, while I loved the infocom games they could only hold my attention for so long before I got distracted by games like “Raid on Bungeling Bay” or “Jumpman Jr.”. Games that had great sound, animation, and action.

Still, every now and again the realms of interactive fiction pull me back in. At my first job I learned that there were actual computer programs that let you make your own interactive fiction games. I got as far as programming a basic game about work that included all my friends as funny stereotypes before I got distracted by another game: Quake.

And now the realms of interactive fiction are pulling me in again with the start of the 13th annual interactive fiction competition. I’m going to be judging a smattering of the IF games entered, starting with 6 and seeing how much more I can play through. It sounds like a lot of game time, but the people who want to judge the games have to limit themselves to 2 hours per game.

I’m going to be looking at the quality of prose - whether the writing style flows and stimulates my imagination, the premise and plot, and the general fun factor that I get playing the game. And now, its time I used my typing fingers to delve into the first one…

Ahhh, guilty pleasures: those movies that we would not openly admit to liking, but which hold a special place in our hearts. One person’s guilty pleasure might be Soul Plane. For someone else it might be PCU. This past weekend Guin and I added another movie to our guilty pleasure list: Dead or Alive.

Based on the Dead or Alive videogame, it centers on beautiful buxom babes who kick much booty. Normally videogame movies are utter crap, but in this case it succeeds and passes into the realm of guilty pleasure. From the opening sequences in which we are introduced to the four heroines one by one to the way they incorporate the elements of the videogame into the movie it all adds up to just plain fun. They even included a volleyball scene as a nod to the Dead or Alive: Volleyball videogame. The central plot itself is wacky, but wacky enough to work. Interweaved with the central plot are the individual character subplots that, short as they are, make one care about each of the characters and in their own way they grow and develop through the course of the movie.

Of course, as a movie based on a fighting game, it would not be nearly as good if the fights looked lackluster or incredibly fake. In this case, Cory Yuen, the fight choreographer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and other martial arts flicks, does not disappoint. The fight scenes consist of some wire work and a few slow-mo effects but mostly consist of long sequences where the camera just focuses on the action. No quick editing or unsteady-cams to give the illusion that a fight is happening, which means that the blocks and hits, parries and counter-attacks are given a chance to shine.

The casting was great too, and we find in the ‘behind the scenes’ featurette that the actresses actually have had some prior martial arts training. The actress who plays Christie for example did Muy Thai for 14 years prior, and I think that kind of experience adds to the feeling that, yes, Christie really could kick my ass.

It was a netflix rental, but after seeing it I think I’ll have to find a way to sneak this into my DVD collection.

It has been two weeks and 1 day now since I have been missing my naginata bag from my trip to Belgium. Last time I saw it was at the Brussels Airport. That was quite the adventure as well. I had gone to the check-in counter and they asked me what was in that long bag. I figured that saying it contained naginata wouldn’t explain anything, and I knew better than to give the english translation: “Japanese spears/polearms/weapons”. That would have brought the wrath of European security down on me.

So I told them it was “sports equipment”. Of course the check-in lady needed more information. What kind of sports equipment? Its long wooden sticks used for martial arts. Still not registering. It was like I was playing a game of Taboo, and I knew the words I couldn’t use were “weapons, hitting, striking”. Luckily her check-in partner at the next desk said “Its like kendo” and mimed hitting one over the head with a stick. I said, “Yes, its like kendo, only we use longer sticks.” So check-in lady’s supervisor said “Mark it down as sports equipment.”

But it didn’t stop there. Apparently I was over the maximum length allowed for free luggage check-in and would have to pay extra for the excess length. That was a new one on me since I didn’t have to pay anything when I started the trip from Washington National. Not only that, apparently I had to step out, go to another counter, pay there, and come back to the line. Luckily there was not much of a line anyway, and I was at the aiport 3 hours before departure. So I go to the other counter, and pay my 50 euro for the oversized bag. Not only that, the guy was nice enough to print out my boarding passes. So I take my passes and receipt and go back to the first counter.

I show the lady my excess baggage ticket and boarding passes and think I’m home free. But not yet! Apparently the 2nd counter dude had not printed things out to the first counter’s satisfaction and had to get on the phone with the second counter. Then the lady prints out her own set of boarding passes, staples them over my “bad” ones and checks in my other suitcase. “What about this bag?” I asked, pointing to the naginata bag. “Don’t put it on the belt. I will call a porter and he will pick it up.” Fair enough I thought. I figured they would take care of it.

And that was the last I saw of that bag of naginata. What’s worse, it was holding not only my own naginata, but the naginata of one of my friends and the naginata of my instructor. 3 sets of naginata are now missing. Next time I’m not bringing these things on the plane. I’ll beg and borrow them from others.

Has it been that long since I made an entry? Amazing how much I don’t want to touch a computer after I come home from work. Unless it is to play a mind-numbing game of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (beta).

The 4th World Naginata Championship and Seminar was just held, from Sept 1-6 in Brussels, Belgium. Teams from the USA, Canada, Japan, and several European countries competed in both team and individual matches, divided into men’s and women’s divisions. Our own US team managed to secure 2nd place in both the men and women team matches. But we did not place in the individuals.

I arrived on Sept 2, so I wasn’t able to view the championship events on Sept 1 but I did get to see the Friendship tournament. Basically the Friendship tournament was for individuals who did not get to compete in the championship or, who did but did not get to place. The level of competition was higher than I imagined. I had only ever seen local or national competitions so I’ve seen the competitors the US can field. Still, I was impressed at the different speeds and styles of fighting presented on the world level. It made me wish I had more vacation time that I could have used to try out for the US team and practice for this event.

Then again, I had enough on my mind as I was going there to test for the rank of San-dan (3rd degree black belt). Its an important rank in naginata, as that’s the rank where one is considered able to teach others and where one starts on the path where he can evaluate folks testing for kyu grades (grades below black belt). Teaching is a big responsibility, especially since the sensei are always emphasizing the perfection of naginata in order to keep it from being “watered down”.

So, Sept 3-5 were training days where from 9am to 5pm we practiced naginata. There were enough sensei that we were able to separate into groups according to our grade. So all of us Ni-dan (2nd degree) people were together, learning how to lead the class in exercises, how to perfect our own techniques, and therefore be able to see and correct them in other students. Not all the people in my group were testing for San-dan but we all trained together and helped each other out. The Belgian students were really nice, and all the Europeans were really good to work with. It helped me grow a lot, training with people who I’ve never met before.

There’s this other requisite for dan testing: all dan candidates have to take a written test for their particular level. The format was the same for everyone: pick and answer 2 questions out of a possible 4. Still, I came out of there thinking I nailed one question and was grasping at straws for the other. I felt better once I talked to my fellow exam mates and found out we all answered the same two questions in basically the same way.

Then the last day was the day of the test. It started at 1pm for all candidates, regardless of grade. The only difference was, the lower your test grade, the sooner you were able to leave. This of course was all based on the requirements of the grade you were testing for. The higher the grade, the more stuff you needed to show proficiency in.

For us we had to show that we could lead a group through their required exercises with confidence and give commands in a clear voice. In a way, our success and the success of the group we led were intertwined. If we gave confusing commands or were unsure, then the group would look bad, do the wrong thing and then get scored lower by the grading panel.

The kyu candidates (below black belt) were the luckiest. They got out by about 1:30pm. Shodan and Nidan (1st and 2nd degree candidates) got out by about 2pm. My group got out at 3pm. The poor Yondan (4th degree) candidates were done by 4:30pm. Then finally, those testing for shimpan (referee) credentials were tested. They didn’t get done until 6:30pm. That meant the poor pitiful few who decided to test for Yondan AND shimpan were in testing for 5+ hours!

Long story short, I passed. Now all I have to do is get the airline to find my naginata that they lost on the flight back home.

My parents bought me my first computer, a Commodore 64, when I was in high school. I had many fond memories of that computer, and it had quite a few games for it that to this day I consider classics. Games like Gunship, Raid on Bungeling Bay, and this one space trading game called Elite. Elite cast you in the role of a trader in space, flying his spaceship and buying goods from one system to sell to another system. But you weren’t restricted to just being a trader. You could fight against other ships, take their stuff, and sell that. That didn’t sit well with the police ships though, who would start to attack you on sight. You could also fight pirate ships who tried to kill you so they could take YOUR stuff.

It was great, and for the longest time I’ve tried other space sim games trying to recapture the magic that was Elite. Elite II didn’t do it for me, and neither did some of the newer games inspired by Elite - like Freespace or X3. In fact, it wasn’t until this past December that I found something close, nay something that possibly surpasses Elite in terms of its addictiveness.

That something is EVE. EVE is an MMORPG that was released about 3 years ago. At that time I didn’t really pay EVE much attention, and haven’t for all these years simply because I haven’t read any reviews telling me what I could do in the game. What I had read convinced me that EVE was too hard to learn. Still, the developers of EVE have been steadily releasing expansions for the game. Unlike traditional expansions these are free and don’t require any installation by the player. They modify the client somewhat and provide more content, more options, and more changes in gameplay on the server side.

It wasn’t until I read an article in PC Gamer that EVE had even begun to register on my radar. The article talked about a long term infiltration by a group of players into another group of player’s corporation. Check out the original article for more info. Its a really good read. So then I called up the EVE-Online website and found out that they a trial option for people who wanted to see what EVE was all about. I had to download the client and activate the trial account for $19.99, which gave me 30 days of playing time. A pretty good deal, considering the monthly fee is $14.95.

So I tried it out and to my surprise found that it was like Elite but better. The market prices fluctuated because the prices changed with supply and demand. The supply and demand was created by players and NPCs buying and selling ships, equipment, materials, everything that was needed to produce all the equipment and ships shown in EVE. Not only were there NPC pirates, there were player pirates to watch out for. Combat actually had tactics, influenced by range, transverse velocity, ship power, and sensor capabilities. And it was all controlled by an intuitive interface where right clicking would tie an item to an action you wanted to do on the item. Slowly but surely I was getting hooked. I didn’t realize the hours I was spending playing EVE until Guin started asking me what game it was that would keep me up late at night.

I would go on and on, but I already have on the gaming blog site, so I’ll stop now :).

Guin and I spent our New Years extended weekend up in New York City and stayed with her parents. On Saturday she revealed that her big surprise was to take me to an actual show on Broadway - a musical called Avenue Q.

Guin was trying to explain that it was a show with muppets and their experiences in New York, trying to get a job and find their place in the world. But that doesn’t begin to describe how cool it was. Think of the nostalgia of seeing Sesame Street coupled with the edginess of Carlos Mencia type humor sung to songs and tunes that just can’t get out of your head (in a good way) once you’ve heard them.

I’d rather not say any more about it because I don’t want to spoil any of the experience, except that you should catch it if and when you can - either on Broadway or when it comes to D.C.

That was a great way to close out the year.

Today is Guinevere’s birthday. And, as a good and loving parent, her father likes wishing her a happy birthday over the phone. He also wants to be the first one to wish her a Happy Birthday ON her birthday. Of course, as you know, the only way to guarantee that is to call at 6am in the morning.

Which is why I found myself half-asleep this morning, pushing the snooze button in the vain attempt to stop the alarm that Does! Not! Stop! and sounds just like Guin’s cell phone ring. Guin was saying something as well, but the words never made it past my ears to imprint on the brain cells.
Mental note: put cell phone on silent ring on the night of Oct 19th.

Last night was jodo practice. Specifically the Japanese martial art of using the jo (a 4 1/2 ft long staff) to defeat the sword. Wednesday practices are pretty small, so we get a lot of detailed instruction from our instructor. Note that I’m not calling him Sensei, as for reasons too long to get into here, he is not. So, back to practice. It was myself, another student (Ray), and our instructor. Ray and I had paired off and were starting to do one of our kata. The other Ray was holding the sword and I was holding the jo.

In jodo, kata are really the only means of practicing the various techniques of attack, defense, counter-attack. It seems like its not effective, especially considering that other, more popular, martial arts styles have sparring in their curriculum. But it does work on the principle of repeated practice and continual repitition till you get to the point where a response is automatic. You do not have to think about what to do, you just do it.
In every kata the jo man and the swordsman always start out about 12 paces apart. In this particular kata, called tachiotoshi, the swordsman already has his sword out and is holding it to the side of his body, edge facing toward his opponent. The jo man is standing, holding the jo down by his side in a relaxed posture. The swordsmen moves in, closes the distance, and at a certain point, the jo man brings up his jo, mets the tip of the sword with the tip of the jo, and you end up with the swordsman and the jo man facing each other, weapons crossed, waiting for something to happen.

This is where our instructor pointed out the dialogue that is happening as the swordsman approaches. The swordsman already has his sword out. All he is thinking about is cutting down his opponent. I’m going to cut you, I’m going to cut you, I’m really going to cut you and kill you. Meanwhile the jo man is just standing patiently, thinking, he’s not a threat, he’s not a threat, he’s not a threat, and doesn’t react. More importantly, the jo man is giving the swordsman an opportunity to back down and not escalate the situation. So at the same time the jo man is implying that “we don’t have to do this, put away your sword and we’ll talk.” Then, just at the point where the swordsman is at the right distance, where the next move is to raise his sword and bring it down on the head of the jo man, the jo man reacts - causing confusion and self-doubt on the swordsman side, at which point the two match weapons and are now fully engaged.

What’s the point of the dialogue or having us keep this in mind as we ran through the kata? Mainly that the kata (and therefore its real-life application) doesn’t work without it. The jo man doesn’t move because he wants to match weapons, he moves to make the swordsman think twice about killing him. Moving too early limits the jo’s options and tips his hand, while moving too late means the jo man is already suffering from massive head trauma. Similarly, the swordsman doesn’t match weapons because its the “honorable” thing to do, he does it because the jo man is now doing something weird instead of just standing there and being a perfect target. When confronted with something weird the swordsman defaults to an “en guarde” position, putting as much of the blade between him and the target and pointing the pointy edge at the target’s throat.

Now that I think about it, this silent but implied dialogue means you have to keep in mind (and practice) other things besides the rote movements. There’s the feeling of intent (which forces your opponent to react), gauging the lethal distance between you and the opponent, and (for the jo side anyway) a practice in patience and not moving until you absolutely need to do so.