Yes... but is it art?

Here's a painting I did:

(If you click on it, you should get a bigger version)

The hardest part was sitting on a track for that long with an easel...

---

I was at a BarBeQue with some of the folks from MaiasTown and we were discussing the finer points of art.

We discussed many kinds of Animation styles, and the Animated show "South Park" came up... for those who don't know, South Park is an animation series which is done in a cut out style, as in, they cut out construction paper in the shape of the characters (Badly done, I might add), and move the cardboard pieces around using the "Stop Frame" approach. Though the comedy is pretty funny at times, I have a real hard time getting over the miserable animation.

I admit that I'm a real snob when it comes to Animation... I work really hard to do animation, and I think everyone should work hard too...

But my friend kept asking me; does it evoke a reaction?

And I kept struggling with him... Art, I told him, is something you should work at... toil a little, get your hands dirty. Not throw paint on a canvas and hang it up (*Cough*son Polluck)...

Yes, he replied, but Jackson Polluck evoked a reaction...

My disdain... I snapped back.

And that is a reaction...

True.

But no wonder no one respects artists... how can you compare saving peoples' lives (*CoughMal*) to a piece of Polluck goodness? Polluck splashes paint on a canvas, hangs it up, gets 9 billion dollars, a Doctor saves a life, gets $1000....

It's almost like a life is worth a little less than a 30th of a "Paint second"

Which brings me back to that painting I did.

Wonderful, isn't it?

(you can tell there's a catch, because I'm never this cheeky :D)

It is my work (All of it), nothing was taken off of anyone elses work...

But it's a Photoshop painting of one of my photographs.

So... now is it a good painting? By technicality it is a painting now (Insofar as one can call anything digitally mastered)... but I didn't do the "Work", I just set up the shot...

But if that isn't work... is the Photography art?

Wow... this can give you a real headache...

Just pondering... not having any problems feeling inadequate, don't worry :D

---Me.

All the Fan in the World

I try very hard not to let my inner geek speak here on the blog... because... well... you wouldn't appreciate it... and he rarely showers.

But in this one thing I must speak.

Here's the story;

About 10 years ago in Somewhere-New-York, a fellow named James Cawley decided he was going to do something no Fan has Done Before... he built the Enterprise...

Not a model, the actual bridge set... accurately... from the blueprints.

And he built a few other sets as well...

Then he decided to do something interesting with his set; he made a fan film... Set in the "4th year" of Kirks' original 5 year mission (So, in the Old Series Era, those beautiful 60's era sets and uniforms...).

"Come What May" was their first endeavor... it was amazing... because of that set... but the story was not so hot, and the acting was really scary... it really needed help...

But there was potential.

I found the site by accident while looking up ways to film a movie cheaply... and I watched Come What May and cringed... but I could see what they were doing.

Then they released their "Pilot"; "In Harm's Way", and they jumped... They had suddenly gotten better... not good, yet, they still had some kinks to work out. The most interesting thing is that they had managed to get a few people from the Original Star Trek to join in and reprise old roles...

Then they made a Coup... they got Dorthy Fontana (An original Star Trek writer) to pen a script and managed to get Walter Keonig (Chekov) to reprise his role...

The Episode "To Serve All My Days" was really nicely done. They brought in a fellow to play the "Young Chekov" who didn't just do the accent, but actually seemed to be a younger version of Keonig... It was touching, and amazing for a fan film... But the directing made it fall below par for real Television.

Yesterday they released their 4th episode; "World Enough and Time". This one features George Takei reprising his role as Sulu... Written by Marc Zicree & Michael Reaves (Writers from the Old Series and Deep Space 9), and directed by Marc Zicree, this episode moved into Television quality. It's not the best episode of TV you'll ever see (Ev... I know how harsh you are about these things), but it is an episode of Television. It feels like a TV episode, it has the pacing of a real TV episode. And the story is beautiful. The script was one of the ones lost when Paramount decided to not do Star Trek Phase II in the 70's and instead went to Star Trek, the Motion Picture.

The actors are still those guys from New York, and only one of them is professional (Cawley is an Elvis Impersonator), so the acting can be rough at times, but they are truly stepping up to the plate on this one... and amazingly (I know I couldn't do this), going toe to toe with George Takei and managing to pull it off!

If you are interested in seeing it, you can find all the episodes here:

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com

If you are Ev, you'll really need to take into account these guys were novices... (I love you, EV! Honest!).

They are trying to stream the episodes, and that's having a major impact on the Internet... so they are trying to find different ways to get the episodes to us. It may take a while to get World Enough and Time (I waited 24 hours for my copy), but it is worth it. If nothing else to see what a few geeks can manage to pull off...

If you have never seen their work before, I recommend watching "To Serve all My Days" first, then watch "World Enough and Time". It'll also delay you a little because you can download TSAMD, but you have to stream WEAT...

I... I'll be over here with my stupid Spock ears if you need me...

---Live Long and... well, you know the rest...

Friday the Semii-teenth

Semii... it's a lovely word for the Japanese, it brings forth visions of summertime, and walks in the park and songs of happiness. and the gentle sound of "Weeeeee We We Weeeeerrrrrrrrr..."

For me, it's sheer terror...

Semii, you see, is Japanese for "Cicada"... if you don't know, but really want to know; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada (I looked at that page and was horrified beyond belief... view at your own risk!!!! God... there was even an animation! *Shiver*)

I know people in Texas know them, I saw my first Cicada there... see, my cousin lost his life once by putting a molted Cicada shell next to my head as I was sleeping. Unfortunately for him, I woke up before he could get out of the room... it was ugly...

Anyway, Japanese Semii are, you see, a way of life here.

For me it's a passage in terror.

You see, the Semii here are HUGE... lemme say that again; HUGE... they are about 15 feet in length with a 40 foot wingspan. They are part of the Mothra family.

Luckily Godzilla summers here, so generally the Semii duke it out with him every summer. It makes for a fantastic light show. Sometimes the Japanese put on a festival, with little Semii and Godzilla print kimono and add their own fireworks to it. It's really rather lovely.

In World War II, the Japanese employed Semii as part of a smear campaign on American bombers' windshields. A practice, I'm sad to report, that still continues to this day as they seek out helpless Americans and smear their windshields... The Japanese Defense Force has denied any involvement in their continued training, citing that it was written into the peace treaty signed in 1945. They are quick to remind us that the Americans considered Semii a Weapon of Mass Destruction at that time.

When they hit it shakes my entire car... I cannot express how unnerving it is to feel an insect impact through the gas pedal...

Anyway, the Semii are out to get me. They hate me... I don't know why, I guess it's genetic memory from the Hiroshima bomb that is obviously the source of their mutation.

The other day I was walking across my parking lot, when I noticed a Semii sitting in the middle of the lot (it was double-parked)... It chittered at me, sinisterly (nothing chitters more sinisterly than a mutated bug). Naturally, I gave it a wide birth...

So, naturally, it flies right at me. Chittering the entire way!

It strikes me square in the chest, which feels a lot like being shot with a 30/30 rifle... (I could see the navigation lights on the thing's wings...)

I do the only thing that one can do when under attack by a War-trained, Nuclear Bomb mutated, steriod pumped (though they'll deny it) sinisterly chittering bug...

I scream like a woman.

I flail, I run, I weave, I jump, I holler, I hoot, I summon rain for the next three weeks for this and all neighboring prefectures.

My neighbor looks out of his window at me... well... he muses... this brings a whole new level of "wierd" for the foreigner... at least he's not naked...

I fumble with my keys, trying to unlock the door, my heart racing, my forehead sweating, I'd be less terrified if Freddie and Jason were standing next to Jack the ripper all sharpening their knives on my thighbone.

I get inside... I'm safe... for now...

But, outside.... that stupid insane bug is repeatedly crashing against all the doors, maddened that he didn't kill me when he had the chance. He's still chattering, but now it's in frustration (I know these things, "Know Thine Enemy" it's a commandment or something) I'm sure this ruckus brings all of my Japanese neighbors outside (Thinking, of course, that it must be the mailman... at 9 oclock... on a Friday night... this is part of the semii subterfuge. It's from the urban WWII training)... of course, I know my neighbors probably stuck their heads out, saw the semii, said "Oh! How adorable! A Semii!", hugged it, patted it on the head, and went to bed, not giving a second thought to their consorting with a demon.

Fast-forward to today. I go to the park with my friends and my lovely girlfriend for a cookout.

The Semii's see me coming and conviene a war council... attempting to distract me from my cheese-filled hotdog, they buzz me numberous times... do they buzz anyone else? Of course not.. just me. You see, semii, like cats, are sensitive to those who are afraid of them (Or allergic to them), and nothing makes them want to cuddle more than knowing you are among the fearful.

I manage to eat lunch and even enjoy the company, but I am always keeping one eye on the Semii (Which is rather painful, and takes many, many years of practice and experience working in a Kindergarten).

So as I'm leaving, I'm saying goodbye to Maia when...

A semii mistakes me for Narita International Airport and lands on my arm... And it proceeds then to look at me...

looking...

Maia says something awesome; "Um..." (what can she say? She knows what'll happen when I realize what has just landed on my arm...)

I'm not one to let Maia down. I love her, see... thus, I dutifully begin screaming like a woman, flailing my arms and performing that ancient and elaborate "Getoffmyarmyoudisgustingcreature" dance. Which I might say, I performed rather well... maybe not as well as ultra-tiny dog owners (They have more opportunity to practice, thank goodness), but I did a pretty bang-up job.

The shame... the shame...

When I look back on it, I always hope that what Maia saw was a wonderful interpretation of the ancient Whatahazi mating dance... but I really think she was wise to me... to her credit, though, she didn't start laughing until after I unwrapped myself from her head and ran to my car and drove off, weaving to dodge the gaggle of cute little kids laughing merily and exchanging their Semii and Godzilla trading cards.

The worst part is that even as I write this, I have had to do a double-take on my arm at least three times because I could have sworn there was a semii sitting on it... I'm truly traumatized by this...

God, I hate semii... I'll be glad when summer is over and the beasts are all dead and gone...

---Chitter... shiver...

Turning of the Bow...

I've learned a couple of things lately that I simply didn't know before;

1) No matter how simple the martial art appears, the Japanese won't respect it as a real martial art unless there are 1000's of layers of subtlety imbedded... There is no such thing as a simple martial art... Martial Hand Washing never existed...

and 2) My forearms can sweat... I've never seen that before... in my entire life...

There is a technique called "Yugaeri", it is the "Turning of the Bow" or "Bowspin"... It is arguably one of the hardest techniques to master in Kyudo (Right after the much less discussed, but no less important, Don't-let-your-ear-get-in-the-way-of-the-bowstring-and-get-itself-lobbed-off-during-arrow-launch Technique)...

When an archer fires the arrow properly, the shape of the hand causes the bow to spin, allowing (If done correctly) the bowstring to swing all the way around your left hand and tap the outer side of the forarm gently (The bow has rotated 160 degrees in your hand)...

You read that correctly... the shape of the hand. As in, if you are holding the bow impoperly, there will be no Yugaeri.

This is the easiest way to tell the beginners from the ones whom are 5th Dan or higher (5th Dan would be about 3rd degree black belt). It's a technique that takes, literally, years to master.

If you are a rank beginner, the bowstring does exactly what you'd expect; it stops right at your forarm, just like in Western Archery.

The transition to "Not a beginner anymore but nowhere near 5th Dan" is when the bow turns slightly in your hand, so the bow ends up with the bowstring at a 60 or even a 90 degree angle from your palm.

That's what happened tonight for me. The bow began to do the Yugaeri.

It's interesting, the bow turns the tiniest bit and my heart skipped like, three beats.

And, being as this was a classic Japanese Dojo, Sensei noticed, I noticed, my uppper-ranked person watching me noticed and none of us said a word or made any sign that anything interesting happened at all.

...And, being typical American, I tried to make it do it again and totally screwed up everything else in the process, ruining my shot and my Yugaeri and everything :D

Which brings me to another thing.

I have a sempai, the word sempai means "Upper Classman", it really means the person who is assigned to make sure I have the basics down. I'm not good enough yet to warrent Sensei's attention, really.

Usually my sempai is this adorable tiny, 20-something Japanese teacher, one of only 5 women in the dojo (Most of whom are wives of other members of the Dojo).

She is very patient with me, and has to struggle not to say anything to me in English (Sensei has banished English from the Dojo in it's entirety).

Recently, however, she has been moving up to firing on the targets in the back yard (This means she isn't in practice rotation, as those firing on the targets are firing out the back door. Targets in Kyudo are 28 meters away or about 25 yards), which leaves noone to watch over me when I get up to the practice targets.

So Sensei instructs our newest member (He's newer than me) to be my Watcher.

Now, this doesn't actually bother me, because he's a College student, and he took Kyudo in High School, so he actually has a lot more experience than I do.

But he's painfully polite...

It's actually kinda cool.

You see, many people tend to treat foreigners with reduced politeness Japanese. Usually that's because we learn the basic Japanese and they are replying in kind (We talk rude to them, they talk rude to us), the ones that are closer to us (Like my Japanese teacher), tends to use the friendly Japanese, but not the super-polite, highly complicated Japanese, mostly because they know we don't understand as well.

This fellow, however, does.

He bows to me before I start my firing sequence, he always uses "To Omoimasu" (I think) and "Kedo" (However... (I might be wrong).. the "I might be wrong" is implied ) to every critique ("I think your hand moved forward just a little, but... (I might be wrong)" "I think you might have released a little too early, but... (I might be wrong)"). It's actually very interesting.

I've never been treated with as much respect... it's really nice... for now...

Of course, I'm American, and I know that once the "Newness" of his politeness wears off, it's going to drive me crazy...

For now, however, it's really cool :D

---I think I'm Me, but... (I might be wrong)

Modern Sensibilities

A long time ago people were employed to wander around the world's greatest art pieces and paint or make (For statues) little fig leaves over the penises or vaginas so that it wouldn't offend anyone.

Artwork was destroyed forever by a little "Modern Sensibility" and today we sit here and shake our heads saying "How could anyone even think this was an acceptable practice? Where were the lynch mobs to beat those people within an inch of their lives? What idiots would think that destroying history is an acceptable practice?"

Luckily, we have outgrown that...

Or have we?

My sister and I have been working for many years on our family Genealogy. It's been a very large project, with a great deal of data collected. For the last 5 years, we have been working in collaboration via a website which (Even though it is clumsy and sluggish) allows us both to work on the same family tree.

It also makes GEDCOM files, the computer format for Family trees (Like a Word Document for Family trees).

As of today we have 3550 members in our family tree, traced all the way back (Directly) to King James I of Scotland.

But, as I said, the website we use is clumsy and slow... I thought "Hey, there has to be a Wiki for Genealogy out there somewhere! Wiki's are perfect for Genealogy! You can link to all the people forward and backward and all would be cool!" I go and look and lo and behold! There are Genealogy Wikipedeas! :D

The first one I come to is great! But you have to build a new page for each person you upload (We do have 3500 people... that will take approximately 6 years to upload)... well.. that kinda sucks... the second one is even cooler! It allows you to upload your GEDCOM And makes the pages individually... automatically! It's awesome!

Except...

Anyone living is stripped of all data, their first name is removed and all birth/death/vital data is stripped and removed. Joe Smith Born 1979 Died ??? is then made into Living Smith Born UNK Died UNK...

This is done so that no one can get onto the Genealogy site and derive your mother's maiden name or something like that so that they can get your bank information...

The problem is, we don't put a death date in when we don't have that data...

So we now have many "Living Smiths" who were born in the 1300's sometime... We don't know when anymore because the birth date and all data on that individual has been stripped.

So, because of "Modern Sensibilities", Genealogical data becomes the art of today...

And if you said "So?" to the above statement, you are among those who would have said "So" to the fig leaves...

And if you said "So?" to the fig leaves... erm... just don't talk to me about it (Art degree and all).

You gotta wonder what else is getting destroyed by modern sensibilities while we sit here and happily say "So?"

---Miffed by having to rebuild his GEDCOM...

STS-118

Orbiter: Endeavour (OV-105)
Payload: ISS S5/CMG/ESP-3
Launch: 06:36:36 PM August 8, 2007
Pad: 39A

Flight Duration: 13 days, 18 hours 12 minutes, unless the Shuttle to Station transfer module works, at which time the flight may be extended.

The STS-118 mission will deliver and assemble the starboard S5 truss segment to the International Space Station, as well as External Stowage Platform 3, and a replacement Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission also will carry the Spacehab (Logistics Single Module).

It is the:

150th manned US space launch (Since Mercury)
119th Space Shuttle flight
20th flight of Endeavour
94th Post-Challenger mission
6th Post-Columbia mission

Notes on this mission: Barbara Morgan (MS-4), was the backup for Christa McAuliffe in the original Teacher in Space program. In the 22 years since the Challenger tragedy, Barbara Morgan has become a real astronaut, engaging in the standard Astronout training regimine (McAuliffe was really more or less a passenger on Challenger, receiving only minimal training). Morgan is a legitimate Mission Specialist on the flight. Also, this flight was originally slated to have Lisa Nowak as a mission specialist. Of course, Nowak has been retired from the Astronaut corps and has been replaced.

---Me.

Completely Random Thought for the day...

Nature always builds just to capacity... She doesn't build for "Future expansion"...

Our brains have been the same size (roughly) for many thousands of years... And it grew to this current size for a reason.

Ergo "caveman" (Prehistoric Man) would have had to have had a life (roughly) as complex as ours today...

I wonder what the Prehistoric equivalent of computers, finance, automotive engineering and surgery were... I guess one could say "hunting mammoth"... but really... since many people manage to perform even more complex versions of the "Classic vision" of hunting mammoth (like, say, martial arts or... well, hunting. Though gunpowder did make that markedly easier), while still managing to work on cars, or balance billions of dollars/yen/pounds, or manage microprocessors that are half again the size of the previous microprocessor... I can't imagine our historians are fully comprehending the complexity of whatever it was that Prehistoric man was doing...

Maia commented that perhaps the complexity of our brains was developed to accommodate the construction of language... and I was satisfied with that...

Until I realized that we master language before our brains finish the growing cycle... We even have managed to circumvent natural process to accommodate this massive gray thinking thingie (Because our heads are now too large to pass through the birth canal fully developed, thus we get to continue to develop outside of the womb... something that isn't very "natural"... so much so, we had to develop culture because our young are completely incapable of surviving without assistance during that multi-year development time)....

Also, we can master many different languages before that cycle is complete... and still have the brain capacity to perform Brain Surgery (Ahem, Mal :D)... Which again brings me back to "What was Nature building this massive brain for"?

What was prehistoric man doing? Now aren't you curious? I certainly am... :D

---Homo Sapiens-Sapiens.

Perspective (Part two)

I go into McDonalds;

"I would like a Grilled chicken salad, please. And I'd like Ceaser Dressing." I say, in Japanese.

"Oh," Says the girl behind the counter, "We don't have Ceaser Dressing. We only have Creamy Ceaser Dressing."

I look at her like she has grown a second head.

Then it occurs to me, these are English words, and Sheezaa (Ceaser) and Kuriimiisheezaa (Creamy Ceaser) are two completely different things... mostly because the words are completely baseless in Japanese.

It would be like saying, "This cup is full of Snergle"... then three weeks later being told, "We are replacing Snergle with Fastilliosnergleopolis" Would you know that they were the same thing?

I wouldn't...

But man, did that throw me for a loop...

--Muching on a salad with Kuriimisheezah dressing on it...

One of the two constants in life...

Well, next time April 15th rolls around think of me...

We get taxed about 30% on our income taxes (Not that bad, really... considering that we are technically below the poverty line...). Sales tax in these parts is about 4.5%, which is okay.

But then Japan has another tax... One they don't advertise about on the brochures...

City taxes... Yep, the City wants a part of the picture too... and this isn't connected to land or owning a house... this is tax placed on you simply because you live in a city...

So, one day you just get a bill from the city... pay it or else incur fines... pay at the city hall...it's due at the end of the month.

This is all well and good except that last year, the cities decided they didn't want to have to wait for their "Share" of Income taxes... so they broke free of the income tax system...

And this year, my taxes are $1000.00 US (10,0000 Yen)... please pay by August 31.

Now, they realized this is a lot of money to ask people who are working poor, so they gave me a payment book and three easy payments of $333.33...

Isn't that nice.

Here's the kicker: the income tax isn't going to go down to reflect this, either... nope... we just get double taxed.

I'm lucky... I live in a little town in the middle of nowhere... Maia has to pay $1500.00 in taxes.

I can't imagine what people in Tokyo pay... it's apparently also worse if you actually own anything.

To think... we threw tea off ships into Boston harbor for less than this...

---Over taxed...