Captain's blog: 2004/03

Posted Saturday, March 27, 2004 at 3/27/2004 07:57:00 PM

Sadly, yesterday was the last class of Aikido for this semester. Here’s my slightly edited group pic of about half of the total class, all seniors except me, who stayed around to about 5:30 pm in the Hart House activity room.

Basically the picture-taker was added into the middle row (Raj ?- the experienced senior guy who Sensei usually uses for tossing around to show us techniques) , and the topmost letterhead from my Kyu certificate was added on the wall.

Class ended with the usual bows to the dojo and Sensei, followed by independently approaching classmates one after another to do sitting-kneeling mutual "thank-you" bows. Then there was just general chatter, while others practiced favourite techniques and throws on others. I had some nagging questions about the side break-fall, as well as techniques we were taught today so I got a few demonstrations, and I also witnessed some kind of perhaps ending tradition of doing 10 back break-falls per participant, to be done by all participants, so there were 4 guys who just did 40 back break-falls.

The picture-taking was done near the very end, so unfortunately no spectacular Sensei demonstrations since he had left so soon, just group pics and various seniors throwing each other silly. Photos here or here with originals.

After the fun of Aikido, I had a more surreal experience at an evening Superhero/super villain themed cocktail party, dressed as Lex Luthor (but with some hair growth, not completely bald like Lex). Other readily recognizable characters were Wonder Woman, Cat Woman (Sanaz) who cooked some pasta, but otherwise it was a creative costume party.

The best improvised outfit I think was Greg the upstairs tenant with the red-striped shirt, socks-for-musles and wet suit pants, all put together apparently on 5 minutes notice.

On another note, yesterday I also found the best resource and listing of links I’ve seen so far about how to enter the game industry, focused on high school students but of course anyone can use it:

http://www.igda.org/breakingin/resource_links.htm

Posted Wednesday, March 24, 2004 at 3/24/2004 07:21:56 PM

Sensei Kimeda handed us our certificates today in Aikido class, so I got my 8th Kyu rank, for successful testing monday of basics and 4 moves we were taught since starting in January.

I would have greatly preferred to receive it in the form of an ancient scroll, and have that scroll presented to me via an elaborate ceremony involving drums, sumo wrestlers, pyrotechnics, wine, sushi and other carnal delights, and a promise to have my name etched in stone somewhere sacred to go down forever in the annals of Aikido history.

However, switching back to reality I decided to settle for Sensei's firm handshake, bow, and the really oversized Aikido Canada certificate, which essentially says, in a mix of modern laser print and traditional seals and calligraphy, that I rank 8th Kyu grade according to Aikido Yoshinkai HQ in Tokyo, Japan.

Sounds impressive for an entry-level rank.

Posted Saturday, March 20, 2004 at 3/20/2004 01:17:38 PM

Last night’s Battlestar Galactica (part 1, TV movie) was a nice surprise. I thought it was the original old 70’s TV show or film but after repeatedly recognizing contemporary actors/actresses (and other clues, like the Cylons looked taller/skinnier/more like the robots they’re supposed to be, contemporary-looking level of graphics/SFX, etc) I checked.

Its actually the 2003 remake as a TV-movie, and as part of a larger entertainment strategy of using interactive TV, an XBOX console game, involving Vivendi Universal Games, Microsoft, and the filmmakers, which I had read about earlier in an interesting
wired.com article. Buzzword-of-the-day: convergence?

The actors/actresses that I instantly recognized:

Actor/actress in BSG:	Also starred as:
The chief engineer? who just needed 40 more seconds to evacuate his crew	The deputy in Smallville episode 120 "Obscura" who gets wacked unconscious by the other deputy who is the actual villain.
The secretary of education lady	Same actress who plays the injured First Lady in Independence Day (starring Will Smith).
The doctor? on Caprica	That old private detective in recent Smallvile episodes 306 'relic' to 307 who is hired by Lex to investigate Lionel but ends up as a corpse in the morgue.
The african-american woman who reads the oath of the presidency to the secretary of education lady	Lex Luthor's psychiatrist from several recent episodes of Smallville who ends up 'with her car wrapped around a tree' in the 309 'Asylum' episode after not cooperating with Lionel.

And then there was the Asian pilot Valerii "Boomer" whom I didnt recognize but I thought I saw somewhere (Romeo Must Die, "dancer" in the beginning. Apparently Grace Park stars in Edgemont but I’ve never watched that show).

Looking forward to tonight’s part 2 of 2.

Posted Monday, March 15, 2004 at 3/15/2004 04:08:29 AM

I now know more about the Lockheed U-2 high altitude photo reconaissance aircraft than I ever wanted to know (Recently finished this 10 page essay, complete with value-added timeline and index)

Some day, somehow, I'll go to Burbanks, California and take a look inside Lockheed's top secret Skunk Works...if they are still based there.