BOOK REVIEW - House of Cards

House of Cards (Star Trek: New Frontier #1)
Peter David
Pocket Books, 1997
168 pages

I suppose it is a good thing when my biggest complaint about a book is the value proposition in buying the book itself, something we have seen in my other book reviews so this should be old-hat for you guys. With a cover price of $3.99, which is a purchase price of $4.32 after taxes, I would like to think that I am getting more than the approximately 168 story pages offered by this book. As I am typing this it occurs to me that I buy comics every week which offer only 22 story pages for a dollar less so maybe I should just shut the hell up on this particular topic. Perhaps it is best if we just move on to the actual contents of the book and forget this ever happened, shall we?

House of Cards introduces us to the new characters of M'k'n'zy, a Xenexian freedome fighter cum Starfleet officer, and Soleta an half-Romulan half-Vulcan scientist who seems to, despite her desire to be Vulcan, have a slightly rebellious streak to her. The book begins twenty years in the past with M'k'n'zy, who eventually changes his name to Mackenzie to get around people mispronouncing his name, as he fights the Danterian occupiers of his home planet as a teen. I will admit that at first I was concerned with how this might turn out, particularly since rather than just a short chapter this introduction to M'k'n'zy takes up over a quarter of the book, however in the end David's storytelling instincts were correct and this introduction does an excellent job of creating the character who will be central to the forthcoming tales.

After introducing us to M'k'n'zy, David then spends about twenty pages introducing us to Soleta and another twenty or so introducing us to Selar, the Vulcan medical officer who appeared in the TNG episode "The Schizoid Man," before we are finally brought to the present day (that being the time shortly after the events depicted in Star Trek First Contact). In the present we meet several familiar faces from the Enterprise-D as well as Admirals Jellico and Nechayev and are brought up to speed on the collapse of the Thallonian Empire, the ensuing humanitarian concerns, and Starfleet's response, which is to dispatch a single ship to observe and render aid where necessary.

When it was published in 1997 House of Cards represented a new and risky venture in the Star Trek universe. Peter David, John J. Ordover and Pocket Books were going to slip free of the bonds of Star Trek's familiar characters and explore new main characters, moving beyond the various cults of personality that each individual Star Trek series represents and pushing Star Trek as a setting and a theme. This was a risky move, despite the acclimation David's work had met with in fandom, due to the nature of Star Trek fandom. As I rule I dislike lumping a diverse group of people together however, with the notable exception of hardcore Transformers fanboys (and don't get me started on those chowderheads) Star Trek fans seem to truly be the most hidebound and vocal fans in sci fi, often dismissing new things out of hand before even giving them a chance to succeed or fail on their own merits.* Fortunately for all concerned it appears that the New Frontier experiment succeeded, quite possibly beyond anyone's expectation. With sixteen New Frontier novels now published, the recent release of the first New Frontier comic from IDW and the start of the Vanguard line of novels in 2005 it seems that perhaps fandom is more open minded than I give it credit for. Of course it does not hurt that this initial book was an enjoyable read. It was nice to escape the familiar faces and concentrate on new characters and new stories.


* For example look at all of the hubbub about J.J. Abrams changing the design of the Enterprise for the new movie, much of it coming before 99.99% of fandom had seen ANY smidge of the ship. I would also like to note that this sort of attitude is THE EXACT OPPOSITE of the ideals enshrined at the core of Star Trek. I think there are some interesting parallels between hardcore and hidebound Trekkies who have lost sight of the forest for the trees and many modern Christians who have done the same and this just furthers the idea that radicals of ANY stripe are not a good thing.

Fat Fuck vs. Food - Week 8

Tired of these thing yet?

Too bad 'cause they're just going to keep on coming! Particularly as long as the news remains good news and this week's news? Oh yeah, it DEFINITELY qualifies as good news. This morning I weighed in at a svelte 278.8 pounds which brings my total loss to 41.2 pounds. For you science-types out there who love their percentages, and who doesn't, this means that 12.875% of pre-February 1st James has gone missing. Clearly things are going well despite me not necessarily eating like I am on any sort of diet (See Friday's and Wednesday's menus below if you doubt this assessment.)

Beginning on Wednesday of this week I went ahead and pushed my morning workout to 40 minutes on the elliptical as well as bumping the level up two difficulty levels on the machine. I found that after 30 minutes on the previous level I was not very tired after my workout let alone ragged out an barely able to walk. Clearly it was time to take things to the next level, or in this case the next next level. I feel pretty ragged out after the 40 minutes and getting through the 40 minutes is challenging, but I fell pretty good for the rest of the day so I think the decision was the right one.

The biggest motivator I encountered this week was a shirt I had bought back before my first trip to Korea. Shortly before heading to Korea for my brother's wedding my suit pants decided it was time to give out and thus a trip to Men's Wearhouse was required to quickly replace said suit. While there I got suckered in to buying this shirt that I REALLY liked, an almost French blue button-up, which fit my neck and arm measurements however I suspected it was not as long as I like my shirts. I was right and thus I was not able to wear the shirt. I wear my pants a little low, beneath my gut, therefore I prefer my shirts to be very long otherwise they tend to pull out of my pants at the sides, something which I find tacky and personally very distracting when it happens to me. Regardless of the fact it was ill-fitting I wore the shirt a couple of times because I REALLY like the color and I think it, the color, looks VERY good on me. Due to the fit issues I was very self-conscious when I wore the shirt and therefore it has been relegated to the Some Day side of the closet. Well, last night as I was trying to decide what I wanted to wear to the office today and packing for College Station I went ahead and pulled the shirt out on a lark and decided to try it on. The fucker actually fit pretty well and while I still cannot really wear it tucked in, it looks just fine being un-tucked as my once prodigious gut is not quite as prominent these days and thus the shirt hangs a bit better. I know this is somewhat silly in light of the larger positive outcomes I am seeing from this process however it provided a HUGE boost last night which has carried over to today.

One thought that has haunted me from the beginning of this process is when am I going to fail? I have HUGE amount of self-doubt and have failed at these sorts of initiatives before therefore part of me thinks it is only a matter of time before I fuck up pretty badly. Once that happens I have real trouble getting back on the horse. In the past this has been the downfall of the diet program. So far things are going far better than I expected, both physically and mentally, and I find myself eager to hop on the scale Friday morning to see where I am at in the process. With all of the success I have been having and quite frankly how easy the success has been, I find myself wondering WTF has taken me so long to get going with this process. The other thing I found myself wondering this week is whether 250 pounds might have been too conservative of a goal? I know I am tempting the Fates by thinking this way and therefore I am banishing the thoughts from my head. I have to HIT 250 before I can start lowering the bar.

Anyhoo, thanks for sticking with me through this process. I think a lot of my success here has to do with the fact that I feel accountable to my friends and loyal readers whom I have drafted in to this process.


Friday - 3-21-08
The Drink
2 scrambled eggs
Corned beef hash
4 pcs. of bacon
English Muffin (1/2 with jam)
Sm. Orange juice
Hash browns
Black Currant Tea (No sugar)
Lg. salad with grilled chicken, bacon bits and creamy Parmesan dressing
Cup of chili
Moules Gratin (Mussels gratin with Parmesan cheese)
Carbonade Flammande (Belgian beef stew prepared with Maredsous beer, onions and carrots)
Mashed potatoes

Saturday - 3-22-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
12 oz. bowl of Creamy New Potato soup
1 serv. Oatmeal with skim milk
Med. salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
11.5 oz. Spicy Hot V8
2 Nature Valley Oats-n-Honey Granola Bars
Walked 4+ miles

Sunday - 3-23-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
2 serv. Kefir
1 serv. Whey protein
1/4 box of Potatoes Stroganoff Hamburger Helper made with turkey
1/4 bag of Broccoli & Carrots with Garlic and Herbs
1 lg. cup apple juice
11.5 oz. V8
Med. salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
Walked 6+ miles.

Monday - 3-24-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
11.5 oz. V8
Med. salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
1/3 box Chili Cheese Hamburger Helper
1/3 can green beans
30 minutes on elliptical

Tuesday - 3-25-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
11.5 oz. V8
Med. salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch
2 Nature Valley Apple Crisp Granola Bars
1/3 box Chili Cheese Hamburger Helper
1/3 can green beans
1 pint Guinness
30 minutes on elliptical

Wednesday - 3-26-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Iced tea (no sugar)
Cup of seafood gumbo
Crab and cornbread stuffed jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon
Horseradish mashed potatoes
Med. salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch
11.5 oz. V8
40 minutes on the elliptical

Thursday - 3-27-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Largish salad with avocado, bacon bits, chicken breast strips and Ranch
Iced tea (no sugar)
11.5 oz. V8
Med. salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
40 minutes on the elliptical

The New Maths

So Tuesday evening I met a couple of friends out at the Kelvin Arms and after seven weeks of consuming no alcohol of any stripe I thought I would celebrate my success in loosing weight AND making it through Lent without breaking my Lenten abstinence by having a single pint of Guinness. The next morning I awoke to learn:

1 pint Guinness + James = Hangover

This sucks worse than calculus.

Scratch-n-Sniff

Over the weekend my mother and I went to see the Pompeii exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Lucy exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. At the Lucy exhibit I picked up the book The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey: Unearthing the Origins of Monkeys, Apes, and Humans by Chris Beard. Now, as the title suggestions, is all about the search for Eosimias (dawn monkey in Latin or Greek) and given my simian obsession is a must-read. Then I stumbled across this quote:

While such a predilection is common among lemurs, the dominance of visual pornographic media, rather than scratch-and-sniff cards, demonstrates that the same pattern does not hold among at least some anthropoids.

How often do you get to read about monkeys and scratch-and-sniff porn in a book where it is not pretending to be science but actually is science? Not often enough, me thinks, not often enough by far.

(BTW. You should go and check out the Lucy exhibit before it leaves town April 27th. It is well worth the money.)

BOOK REVIEW - World Without End

World Without End
Joe Haldeman
Bantam, 1979
150 pages

World Without End arguably predates the Pocket Books Star Trek publishing bonanza with which I was to become far too familiar during my teenage years. While I am a confirmed Trekkie and have enjoyed many thousands of pages of Trek fiction I was not aware of this book's existence until I stumbled across it during a recent visit to the local Half-Price Books. I snapped it up, along with a 1968 edition of Whitfield and Roddenberry's The Making of Star Trek, for a couple of bucks and brother, those two bucks were the best money I have spent on books in a long while.

In World Without End the Enterprise encounters a spherical spaceship which uses a primitive Bussard ramjet for propulsion. The hull of the vessel is disguised as a planetoid and lined with an impossibly heavy metal which makes communication difficult at best. Then when Kik, McCoy and the away team get into a tight spot with the indigenous beings, a type of sentient bipedal flying squirrel, they realize they cannot beam back to the ship. Meanwhile the Enterprise itself has been trapped by the alien ship and is loosing power.

As I indicated earlier, I really enjoyed reading this book even if the resolution owes more to a deus ex machina than the ingenuity of the crew and I highly recommend it to any Star Trek fans out there and would go so far as to suggest it to someone looking for a light sci fi adventure along the lines of Heinlein's Have Spacesuit, Will Travel or Starman Jones. No obtrusive social commentary here, just good adventure in an alien world.

When I sat down to finally write this review I was trying to quantify what it is that I like about these early Star Trek novels. So far both of them I have read (you can check out my review of Gerrold's Galactic Whirlpool here) have been mush more enjoyable than the average Star Trek novel. I think part of this may be due to the authors involved as both David Gerrold and Joe Haldeman are masters in the field of science fiction, however other Trek authors are no slouches. I think it can be boiled down to the fact that novels which predate the released of Star Trek: The Motion Picture do a better job of preserving the feeling of the television series where novels written after 1979 seem to be trying to be more cinematic in scope and thus loose something which makes Star Trek work for me.

Fat Fuck vs. Food - Week 7

Not a whole lot to say today. My mom is in town and I am dashing this off between visits to the museum and meeting Mr. & soon-to-be Mrs. Tunacan for dinner.

I dropped another 3.8 pounds this past week which takes my total loss to 36.8 pounds. I am now tipping the scales at a down right petite 283.2 pounds! The most important thing to come out of this week is the fact that I have passed the half-way point on this trip. I AM OVER HALF WAY TO MY GOAL! I could not be more excited about this! If my weight loss stays consistent with the loss I have seen the last few weeks I should be doing this for just another ten weeks or so, putting the end of this stage of the diet around the end of May. I do not expect this to happen as I expect my weight loss to plateau at some point, however it gives me a good place to start.


Friday - 3-14-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
6 Taco Bell tacos
2 Chicken Grilled Stuft Burritos
Med. Salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
30 minutes on the elliptical

Saturday - 3-15-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Bowl of chicken minestrone soup
Small salad with blue cheese, walnuts and some sort of vinegrette dressing
Med. Salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
11.5 oz. Spicy hot V8
2 hours of hockey

Sunday - 3-16-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 serv. kefir
1 serv. Whey protein
Med. Salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
Iced tea (no sugar)
Cup of Baked Potato soup
1 1/2 fish cakes
French fries
Walked 4+ miles

Monday - 3-17-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
11.5 oz. V8
Med. Salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, turkey, ham, and Ranch
1/4 box Potatoes Stroganoff Hamburger Helper made with turkey
1/4 bag Broccoli & carrot with garlic & herbs
30 minutes on the elliptical

Tuesday - 3-18-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
11.5 oz. V8
Med. Salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, turkey, ham, and Ranch
1/3 box Chili Cheese Hamburger Helper
1/3 can green beans
30 minutes on the elliptical

Wednesday - 3-19-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Potato-crusted mahi mahi with au gratin potatoes, leek & roasted garlic cream sauce and fried leeks
Cup of Manhattan Fish Chowder
Iced tea (no sugar)
Med. Salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
30 minutes on the elliptical

Thursday - 3-20-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
8 pieces of sushi
1 California roll
Small salad with ginger dressing
Iced tea (no sugar)
Large Caesar salad with chicken
3 small slices of garlic bread
30 minutes on the elliptical

Fat Fuck vs. Food - Week 6

This morning I just noticed that I have now completed six weeks of this loosing weight thing and thought to myself, "Six fucking weeks? Holy shit Private Pyle." (Yes, I do actually talk to myself in R. Lee Ermy's voice at times. I think it freaks out the neighbors and this is a good thing.)

I dropped another 3.4 pounds this week which means I am tipping the scales at a downright petite 287 pounds. This brings my total loss to 33 pounds over the last six weeks and puts me 2 pounds shy of the half-way point of 35 pounds lost. I am really pleased with the progress I am making!


This week I started doing The Drink in the mornings again and I am going to try and stick with it for a couple of weeks even if it is foul, foul crap and makes me want to stay in bed just to avoid it. I also hit the gym five days this week instead of the usual two. On Tuesday and Thursday I only did 20 minutes on the elliptical instead of my usual half-hour but I plan to work up to that.

Well that's about all I have this week except for this moment from Val Kilmer Mash-up Theater:

I was thinking of the immortal words of Hollywood who said "Where'd who go?"


Shall we take a look at Ye Olde Foode Journale?

Friday - 3-7-08
1 Yoplait yogurt
1 Fuze Slenderize drink
Bacon Cheeseburger
Fries
2 egg rolls
1 Tazo Giant Peach tea
3 pieces of 12" deep dish pizza with whole wheat crust topped with ground beef, pepperoni, ham, bacon, and double Italian sausage
Iced tea (No sugar)
30 minutes on the elliptical

Saturday - 3-8-08
1 Yoplait yogurt
1/3 box Philly Cheesesteak Hamburger Helper made with turkey
Asparagus
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey, and Ranch
11.5 oz. Spicy Hot V8
Walked 5.7 miles

Sunday - 3-9-08
1 Yoplait yogurt
3 pieces of 12" deep dish pizza with whole wheat crust topped with ground beef, pepperoni, ham, bacon, and double Italian sausage
1 cup Kefir
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
11.5 oz. Spicy Hot V8
Walked 8.1 miles

Monday - 3-10-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
1 bottle Lipton Green Tea with Citrus
1/2 cup rice
Spicy beef and kimchi stew
30 minutes on the elliptical

Tuesday - 3-11-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1.5 serv. Kashii Go Lean cereal
Skim milk
New York strip with bordelaise sauce
Black truffle creamed spinach
1.5 dinner rolls with butter
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
20 minutes on the elliptical

Wednesday - 3-12-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Banana
Medium salad with a hard-boiled egg, chicken chunks, and Ranch
11.5 oz. V8
1/4 box of Potato Stroganoff Hamburger Helper made with turkey
1/4 bag of Broccoli and Carrots with garlic and herbs
30 minutes on the elliptical
Walked 2.4 miles

Thursday - 3-13-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
11.5 oz. V8
1/4 box of Potato Stroganoff Hamburger Helper made with turkey
1/4 bag of Broccoli and Carrots with garlic and herbs
20 minutes on the elliptical

BOOK REVIEW - Old Man's War

Old Man's War
John Scalzi
Tor, 2005
314 pages

After a year of suffering Mr. Wheaton's pimpin' (or is that Zombi pimpin'?) John Scalzi's debut science fiction novel Old Man's War I finally got off my not quiet as fat as it used to be ass and picked up a copy during one of my walks last weekend. I think the fact that I bought the book last Saturday and completed it Wednesday evening will tell you more about the book than any words I write here.

I did not tear through Old Man's War because it was an easy read but rather the quality of Scalzi's writing forced me to continue. The novel was perfectly paced and I was compelled to continue reading, even when I should have been turning out the light and going to sleep. (This book is directly responsible for me getting out of bed late twice this week.) However with all this praise I am getting a bit ahead of myself here.

Old Man's War is the story of John Perry and what he did on his seventy-fifth birthday. He visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army, or rather the Colonial Defense Forces. Mankind has made it out of our own solar system and begun to colonize other worlds. The problem is the universe is full of aliens and worlds worth colonizing are few an far between. This means competition for the usable worlds is fierce and the CDF is the only line of defense for the human colonies. The CDF does not accept young recruits. They want recruits that have a lifetime of experience thus you can only join up once you reach retirement age. Once you join up and leave Earth you can never come back. After your term of enlistment ends, which starts at two years but can be extended to ten, then you are given a homestead.

The mark of any great science fiction is that at it's core the story is about the human condition as it exists today. Actually now that I type that, it is really the mark of ALL great fiction, science or not. Old Man's War clearly fits this definition and takes a place alongside Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Card's Ender's Game as a masterpiece where the social commentary is encapsulated in a military setting. I HIGHLY recommend this book.


Bonus Content Time!!!

Here is John Scalzi speaking at an Authors@Google event in April of 2007:

BOOK REVIEW - Foreign Foes

Foreign Foes (Star Trek: The Next Generation #31)
Dave Galanter and Greg Brodeur
Pocket, 1994
276 pages

Foreign Foes opens with Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise hosting delegations of Klingons and Hirdans at a peace conference intended to end the seventy-year-old conflict between these two races as well as bring about a modicum of cooperation as they both face internal issues which the opposing party can assist in resolving. The Hirdans, having suffered decades of oppression and war at the hands of the Klingon agressors, are blinded by their hatred of the Klingons and with the death of the Hirdan ambassador, apparently at the hands of the Enterprise's own Worf, things quickly spin out of control. While Picard struggles to hold things together on Velex, Riker and Troi have gone AWOL and Data begins to act irrationally.

Before we go any further I have to let you know that of the various Star Trek novels I have read for some reason I have consistently found the Next Generation novels to be my least favorite of the bunch. This holds true across the line, regardless of the author therefore this novel started out behind the eight ball as far as I am concerned. I am not certain why this is as I enjoy the television series. Enough about me, let's talk about the book, shall we?

I picked this book up because I have recently become acquainted with Dave Galanter via these fancy internets* you kids go on about and felt it would be good for me to acquaint myself with some of the man's work. To be brutally honest the book did not grab me from the get go and thus it was difficult for me to grind through the book. Galanter and Brodeur are clearly capable authors and it shows that this was their freshman effort. I look forward to reading some more of their work and seeing them grow.


* It's pipes, dammit!

The Calculus of the Soul

Inspired by this bit from 60 Second Science I spent part of my morning contemplating dark matter. It started with a joke based on the conception of dark matter being created when a scientist could not get his numbers to work with everything he knew. There was an effect that he could not account for therefore this scientist posited that something must be causing said effect. Since he could not see anything which would cause it then he would call this affecting agency Dark Matter and thus his formula worked. Basically I was poking fun at what appears to be a little cheating on the part of scientists to make their math work. This is the kind of crap I got in trouble for in school all the time.

Since I am a rational, well somewhat rational, adult who loves him some science, I understand the scientific process and understand the creation of the concept of dark matter is a result of this process that has been vetted by many people far smarter than I. Therefore I believe dark matter exists, however as I was thinking about this it occurred to me that for us unscientific types we have to take a lot of what Science tells us on faith. For some reason Hebrews 11:1 popped in to my head. This verse says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."*

This got me thinking that the arguments for why one should believe in the conclusions being derived from the more complex forms of science, such as quantum physics or cosmology, and the arguments for the existence of the divine are not so very different. In the end the argument will come to a point where you have to trust someone who has more knowledge and experience in the particular field. Both arguments rest on either direct experience or faith in what someone is telling you is the truth. Of course in questions of science you can set out to learn everything you need to know to construct the proof of what you have been told. It is conceivable for you to do this from the ground up via the scientific method and at the end of this process you will hold the sacred knowledge of SIN and COS; of quarks and leptons; of Heisenberg and Einstein.

Then there is the question of the divine? Can one prove the existence of divinity? You can, much like proving the existence of dark matter, spend years delving into the divine, studying what the great thinkers have said over the past several millennia. Read Thomas Aquinas, Plato, the Koran, and the Pali Canon. You can attend different masses across the world, spend a season in meditation in a temple, or hours in a sweat lodge. Who knows what you will see and experience on this journey as you gather the sacred knowledge. At the end will you be able to prove the existence of the divine? Is there some calculus of the soul out there waiting to be discovered or are we stuck having to have faith in those who have seen the truth?

I believe Truth exists, both in science and spirituality and that Plato had the right of it. There is a Universal Truth which each one of us holds within us. The scientific method allows us to work our way down to the truth of the physical world but it is our accumulated experiences and learning that allow us to work our way down to truth on the spiritual side.

I firmly believe in science and the methods we use to learn about the world. I also firmly believe that I have a soul and that soul is divine, at least in nature. To a certain extent I am confused by people who allow dogma to force them in to positions on the natural world which are untenable in the face of the evidence. To me they are no different than the Holocaust deniers which seem to pop up with alarming regularity. Even worse they are hypocrites since they expect people to accept the existence of the divine on faith while they themselves cannot accept provable facts, even if the proof is beyond their capacities.

I am not certain what my point is anymore as I have wandered fairly far afield from what I initially wanted to say. I guess this has turned into a stream of consciousness piece. I would like to close with this quote from Shakespeare:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Hamlet, Act I, Scene IV

I think these are important words to live by. There is always something new in the world that you never considered.


And just so you know, the Fearsome Flagellum is so my next sports team's name.

* This is the translation from the New American Standard Bible as shown here.

Fat Fuck vs. Food - Week 5

I am not feeling particularly chatty today, although in light of my 5.4 pound loss this week I had an excellent line earlier about being just like the American economy, only without Bernake's desire to turn the dollar into the new lira. Oh well. Let's take a look at the chart, shall we?


Like I said, 5.4 pounds this past week and I am not certain how I managed to do it. I keep expecting things to stall out on me how ever it has not happened yet so yippie! This week I also passed the second and third benchmarks on my list which were loosing 17.5 pounds and then 20 pounds and keeping it off for two weeks. Here is what I ate:

Friday - 2-29-08
1 Yoplait yogurt
Sausage, cheese and egg sandwich on toast
Bacon cheeseburger
Order of fries
2 egg rolls
1 Tazo Giant Peach tea
Med. salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey, and ranch
11.5 oz. V8
30 minutes on the elliptical

Saturday - 3-1-08
1 Yoplait yogurt
3 pieces of small pepperoni, sausage and bacon pizza
Iced tea (no sugar)
2 Nature Valley Oats-n-Honey granola bars
90 minutes of hockey

Sunday - 3-2-08
2 servings of Kashi GoLean cereal
Skim milk
Iced tea (no sugar)
2 English muffins with butter
3 pieces of small pepperoni, sausage and bacon pizza
Med. salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey, and ranch
11.5 oz. V8
Walked 6.6 miles. last 2.4 with 14 pound pack.

Monday - 3-3-08
1 Yoplait yogurt
2 Tuna salad sandwiches on toast
12 oz. V8
Med. salad with chicken chunks and Ranch.
33 minutes on the elliptical

Tuesday - 3-4-08
1 Yoplait yogurt
Med. salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
12 oz. V8
1/3 box Philly Cheesesteak Hamburger Helper made with turkey
Asparagus
Walked 2 miles.

Wednesday - 3-5-08
1 Yoplait yogurt
Large salad with avocado, bacon bits, chicken breast strips and Ranch
Iced tea (no sugar)
1 banana
4 Nature Valley Oats-n-Honey granola bars
33 minutes on the elliptical

Thursday - 3-6-08
1 Yoplait yogurt
Med. salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
11.5 oz. V8 (Low Sodium)
Spicy beef and kimchi stew
1/2 cup rice

I had some intestinal issues this week (bet you wanted to know that) so I am going to be adding a serving of Metamucil in the morning to help things along those lines as well as bringing The Drink back in to the mix. I guess I will see you cats next week!

MOVIE REVIEW - 5 Centimeters per Second

5 Centimeters per Second: A chain of short stories about their distance.
(Byosoku 5 Centimeter)
Makoto Shinkai, director
101 minutes
2007

Shinkai's follow-up to 2004's The Place Promised in Our Early Days (Kumo no Muko, Yakusoku no Basho) is another examination of the themes of love and distance explored in his 2002 piece Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no Koe) (I review the manga here) however in this work the distance covered is not interstellar but rather the distance of time which, in some ways, is a greater gulf to cross.

The piece is broken down in to three separate stories, all centered around Takaki Tono. The first story, Cherry Blossom Story, is set in the 1990s. After the end of elementary school Takaki's friend Akari moves out of Tokyo and while the two keep in touch via letters, Takaki knows they are slowly growing apart. When Takaki's parents tell him they are moving to Kagoshima, on the southern island of Kyushu, he decides to go and visit Akari before the opportunity slips away. A train ride that should have only taken a couple of hours is turned in to a journey of epic proportions by a snow storm. Takaki finally arrives hours late and the two spend the night together (not in that way, it is not that sort of anime). They share a kiss and then Takaki has to head back to Tokyo, longing for Akari and yet knowing that they will continue to be pulled apart by time and distance.


The second story, Cosmonaut, is set on the island of Tanegashima, the site of the Tanegashima Space Center. Here we see Takaki in high school with a not very secret admirer, Kanae Sumita. Told from Kanae's point of view, this chapter is about her love for Takaki and her confusion about what she wants to do with her life. Kanae struggles with her desire to tell Takaki how she truly feels about him and then, on the day she decides to tell him, she realizes that Takaki has always been looking at something in the distance and never really saw her. She decides she will love Takaki but she cannot tell him and that night cries herself to sleep.

The final chapter, 5 Centimeters per Second, is set in 2008. Takaki is a computer programmer in Tokyo however he still longs for Akari. Akari is preparing for her upcomming wedding. One day Takaki sees a familiar face at a train crossing. He turns to see if it is Akari but a train comes and blocks his view.


I found the entire piece to be very moving and powerful, and much like Voices of a Distant Star Shinkai had me crying as the world pulls his star-crossed lovers apart. There is something universal in the unrequited or impossible love and despite the cultural differences I am able to identify with his characters. The emotional impact of the stories is heightened by the score which is usually a solo piano playing a very simple tune.

While the genius of Shinkai's work is his characters and their ability to get the viewer emotionally invested in them very quickly, his work is also incredibly beautiful. The spaces in which the characters move are sometimes more important that the characters themselves and contribute to the story in a way that few anime directors embrace.

I cannot find the right combination of words to express how strongly I feel about this piece except to tell you that it is one of my top five anime's of all time, a list inhabited by only one other director, Miyazaki. Check it out as the U.S. DVD release is tomorrow, March 4th.

James: Phase 2

Around the end of January I had a bit of a breakdown which led to the realization I had gotten away from doing things I love and that I was not happy with where I was headed as a person. This bundle of realizations motivated me to begin a program of changes in my life. The purpose of these changes is to allow me to get back to a James that I like. A James who is more confident in who he is and who is willing to let his freak flag fly.

Last month's obsession with dieting and getting healthier was the first phase in the program of changes I want to make. I decided to concentrate on my physical well-being first since this would be rife with challenges for me and is the single biggest change I need to make. Not to mention that I suspect it will take the longest time to reach my goals in this area.

Phase 2 of this process is getting back to being creative. I love to write however over the past year I have not completed a single writing project besides missives for this blog. I have started and stopped on more projects than I will admit to even thinking about however I have not seen any of them through to completion. I am going to change that starting this month. Beginning with March I want to do my best to produce one work of creative writing a month. Depending on the length of the project will determine how complete it must be by the end of the week. In the case of poems, short stories, and essays I feel it is not unreasonable to have them ready to be submitted for publication by the end of the month, however in the case of my still-dormant Starship Farragut script having the script ready to go out for a first pass by my readers is acceptable.

To this end I am looking for three or four people who are willing to read and critique my rough drafts. The first of which I plan to have done in about two weeks as I want to submit it to the contest detailed below. Contact me via the usual protocols if you are interested in editing my crap. Thanks!

The Fourth Annual Equivocality Writer’s Travel Scholarship

Once again, we’re doing the Writer’s Travel Scholarship. Once again it’s
very simple: you write something, and if it wins you get a round-trip
ticket to anywhere in the world. Really.

In the contest announcements for previous years, I penned elaborate
discussions about why I would do such a thing. Why it might matter. This
year, I don’t feel the need to explain why I think writers need to travel,
and hence why I would want to support that. If you don’t already know,
that’s an even better reason to go abroad. Instead I’ll just say:

I think travel is good. I think writing is good. I think it is important
that writers travel.

As before, I would like to make it clear that I am not specifically
calling for travel writing. Write about your pet dog, if you can do it in
an interesting an enlightening way. This contest is not about travel
writing but writers travelling.

On to the details:

* Applicants must submit a short piece, 10,000 words maximum. Fiction,
non-fiction, whatever, poetry or prose, on any topic.

* Also tell me a little about yourself, where you would go with your free
ticket, for how long, and why. You can’t ever have been to that country
before — I impose this restriction to encourage people to go somewhere
new, rather than using the ticket to visit their overseas girlfriend.
Also, you don’t have to write about your destination. I just want to know
why you want to go there.

* Email entries as an attached document in text or Word format to wts (at)
equivocality (dot) net by April 30th 2008. They will be judged by myself
and my writer friends, the winner to be announced on May 15th 2008.

* To keep things fair, I will not consider pieces I know to be written by
friends or acquaintances. What this means is that if you know me, you must
anonymize your submission (including your email address!)

* Entries must be previously unpublished, there is a limit of one entry
per author, and the ticket is limited to $2000 US. I will work with you to
book the cheapest available round-trip ticket, based on departure and
return dates given to me by the winner. I will try to accomodate these
dates and other preferences as much as possible, but I reserve the right
to shift each date plus or minus up to a week, and to make other choices
such as routing and airline, in order to find the best fare. Other travel
requirements, such as additional destinations or an open return date, may
be accommodated if the winner wishes to make up the difference in cost.

* By submitting a piece, you grant me (Jonathan Stray) limited
web-publishing rights, specifically the right to display it on
equivocality.net and any other sites of I may have some degree of
editorial control over. I reserve no other rights. If someone sees your
work here and wants to publish it, fantastic.

* All decisions are final, and by submitting a piece you agree that I am
under no obligation to award any prize at all. The idea is also to fund a
developing writer who might not otherwise be able to afford to travel, so
please keep this in mind when considering whether to apply. I have no
funding, no committees, no mandate. I’m doing this just because I think
it’s a good idea, so let’s keep it simple

Random Bits

I think it comes as no surprise that Tony Snow would say, "It turned out to be the most natural job transition I ever had," about his transition from Fox News commentator to White House Press Secretary. The thing I am wondering is whether this is a comment on Tony Snow himself or a comment on the Fox News organization.

You can view the Colbert Report segment where Tony drops this little nugget here.


With the Texas primaries next Tuesday this is somewhat timely and VERY funny. (Although it is no Luftwaffle.)


Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early


Pete over at A Perfectly Cromulent Blog brought this to my attention. I have to say that I agree with Pete, or rather take a less nuanced view of it and wonder how the fuck these two highlights can even compare? I still tear up every time I see Eruzione put the biscuit in the basket. Please go vote for what maybe the single greatest sporting moment in the history of American sports. I am CERTAIN we all know which one I mean.




Here is the call that I bet people remember from that game even above the Eruzione goal:




While we are on the subject of hockey here is the highlight reel from Thursday night's Dallas game which I discuss here. Richards assists on the first, third, fifth, sixth, and seventh goals. Bourque's short-handed goal is mighty nice and Modano's goal, the Stars second, is just beautiful to watch.




And this? This is what an beating looks like. Morrow works Burish's head like a speed bag.