| One moment in time.... |
[Jan. 7th, 2010|10:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  grateful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Rehna tu... | ] |
The kids are abed, the tealights are sparkling burgundy and gold all over my room....it is cold and foggy and it is all *outside*...."rehna tu" [Delhi 6] is playing...the next few songs are "Behka", "Jai Ho" , "Kaise mujhe", "Rubaru"...there is a lemon tart in front of me, waiting to be savoured...
Life is good. :)
My baby turns 10 tomorrow...her first double digit birthday...a decade since she came into my life...aren't decades supposed to take longer?
She is all excited...doesn't need to wear uniform to school tomorrow...after that is family day and sunday we have her party... |
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| And we're off... |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|07:44 am] |
The new year has started, along with my three-times-a-week rehearsals in Connecticut.
Monday was originally to be a read-thru, then was changed to something else, but when a cast member became available, turned back into a read-thru (surprise!). It went pretty well! We have good basics - and now have a lot of work to do. Tonight I'll do what I'd planned for Monday. We're also working on replacing a cast member who has become unavailable due to family issues, argh.
Work is suddenly busy busy because our immovable release date is approaching and of course there has been slippage, including in my own work. So that's a problem.
Reportedly, I got a new workstation in my office yesterday to replace my (two) old ones that aren't rated to support a new piece of software I'll be using. I will get to meet this new machine today, but will have my laptop with me anyway, so will be able to work on the one while working on the other, if that makes any sense.
I have to give the Boom Blox and Harry Potter 6 Wii games back to Blockbuster today. Boom Blox I probably won't rent again - I may want to re-rent or buy Harry Potter, but I've gotten the gist of it. I'm looking forward to the HP lego game, and I can rent the Indiana Jones and Star Wars ones too. |
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| And so it begins (Dadposting)... |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|09:06 am] |
One of my daughter's friends dyed the tips of her hair blue - presumably so she could look more like a shojo heroine or something - and one of her other friends told my daughter she thought it'd look really cute on her. Ayup. We've reached the "listening to my idiot friends' ideas" stage now, and she's gotten it into her head that she wants to get some pink streaks or purple tips or something like that as well. Yet another test in my life I don't need.
But to both her and her mother's surprise, herein follows the conversation after she brought the idea up at dinner last night
Me: "Sure, whatever you want, Sweetie."
My wife, looking at me like I was a complete stranger who also happened to have lobsters crawling out of his ears: "Really? You don't mind?"
Me: "Not really, no. If it's OK with you it's OK with me. Find someone who'll do a nice job. But on one condition: she has to do some chores around the house to 'pay' for it."
My daughter: "Really Daddy? AWESOME!"
What it comes down to - and I talked with my wife about this later when it was just the two of us - is that I don't *always* want to be the parent who says "No." And that really, a silly dye job is pretty harmless, and it's far better than some of the other things she could be getting up to. She doesn't date boys or get in trouble at school and her friends are all "good girls," so some hot pink or purple streaks in her hair are hardly worth worrying about. I'd rather save my vetoes for important stuff.
Now, whether or not she's willing to meet my condition, seeing as she's a *bit* of a lazybones, remains to be seen. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 4th, 2010|04:32 pm] |
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I'll never truly comprehend people who are willing to post some frothing rant from either end of the political spectrum and then be completely unwilling to discuss the topic with anyone who doesn't slavishly agree with them. Have the courage of your convictions, or find new convictions. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 4th, 2010|01:38 pm] |
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I met a grown woman this weekend who openly referred to herself as a "Twi-Hard." She was none too pleased with my assessment of Edward as a creepy stalker. Coincidentally, this is the same woman whose child I am fairly convinced is a sociopath-in-waiting. |
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| Errm, what? |
[Jan. 4th, 2010|06:51 pm] |
An Indian army officer said that the Training courses now include scenarios such as a two-front simultaneous war with both China and Pakistan. I raised a brow at the 'now' - I would have assumed they were in place for decades. Training of the armed forces, after all, is a function of realpolitik and not a function of ideology and philosophy. I may *want* to live in peace with Pakistan and China, my army better know the best ways to repel hostile invaders in all possible permutations and combinations....
The Pakistani Foregin Minister and its Army Chief however find this inclusion "absurd and irresponsible" and a good reason to expound on how much they want peace.
Yippee.
Can we talk some sense about cross-border terrorism then please? It's a long overdue conversation.... |
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| Carnacki and Me (and HPL) |
[Jan. 3rd, 2010|04:19 pm] |
It being a new year, I'm luxuriating for the nonce in the illusion of open frontiers and free time. And I'm also reading Gaslight Grimoire (one of my presents from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mollpeartree), a (pretty decent) collection of supernatural-themed Sherlock Holmes pastiches. One of them, "The Adventure of the Grantchester Grimoire," by Chico Kidd and Rick Kennett, pairs Holmes with a young Thomas Carnacki, William Hope Hodgson's "Ghost-Finder". And as always, whenever I read a Carnacki story, I have an overwhelming urge to write a Carnacki RPG.
While I'm fairly confident that Atomic Overmind will publish whatever I should produce in that line, there remains the question of demand and purpose. (There also remains the question of creating or tweaking a game system such that an hours-long vigil with only one failure-point actually results in suspenseful, dramatic, or interesting roleplaying, but that's secondary.) Does the world even need another Carnacki RPG, given that it already has ffutures' excellent Edwardian Forgotten Futures IV: The Carnacki Cylinders? I snuck the Electric Pentacle (and a few Ab-humans) into GURPS All-Star Jam 2004, so GURPS is covered, too. One imagines that building them for The Kerberos Club wouldn't be much harder.
And then there's the standard Indiana Jones-James Bond problem of modeling solo heroes in group games. Maybe, since much of the fun comes not from Carnacki's fairly inert personality, but from Hodgson's wild metaphysics, a putative "Carnacki" game should be one of team ghost-breaking and psychic investigation instead: an Edwardian mod for Trail of Cthulhu complete with Ab-Human stats and a "build your own Saiitii" sub-system? (I think GUMSHOE is the right way to go for the investigative half, but then again, I would.) A Savage Worlds game, likely set in the modern British covert warfare milieu a la Warren Ellis' Gravel or Gordon Rennie's Caballistics Inc., with a special squad of the SAS based in an abandoned Underground station beneath Cheyne Walk? I'd have to come up with some sort of artificial stat to encourage investigation, maybe building a Guts pool for the vigils. Or something.
Or maybe not, or maybe I'm missing something obvious. Feel free to chime in on your ideal Carnacki game in comments; maybe I'll write it.
* * *
Also in comments, feel free to chime in on my interview on Tor.com, conducted by the mighty mighty bruceb. It's part of the crescendo to Tor.com's Cthulhu December; in it, I discuss Lovecraftian studies, Lovecraftian gaming, and the Mythos As She Is Properly Understood. |
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| Another day, another year |
[Jan. 3rd, 2010|07:38 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | In aankhon ki masti ke | ] |
Welcome 2010 and play nice. :)
I hope y'all have been good and played nice too.
It is not surprising that the first thing I wish to talk about in my first post this year is politics. Michael Connellan opines that Rahul Gandhi must renounce India. Not because he finds fault in Rahul, on the contrary Connellan waxes eloquent about Rahul's sexy dimples [?], beautiful mind [??], and his inherent decency. But because Rahul represents dynastic power which is the antithesis of equality and democracy.
I have many problems with this article but most of them are inconsequential. I do strongly object to three basic undercurrents running through this article:
- The first is the notion that an individual represents anything other than who he is, and that needs to be judged through that person's actions and not any of the external paraphrenalia. Rahul's lineage renders him no more fit to rule India than anyone else. Conversely, his lineage renders him no more unfit to rule India than anyone else. It is his actions, his conduct, his capability that need to be the criteria here. Anything else is besides the point.
- The second notion is that India needs a sacrificial goat and that anyone anywhere in this world has the right to demand a sacrifice of someone. That is a load of bull crap. 'Nuff said.
- The third is the notion that democracy means a curtailment of choices. And that this curtailment of choices is to be facilitated by voluntary sacrifice of the families in power. Leaving aside the unsavoury notion of reposing the future in those same hands once again, let's get practical here: Firstly, power is addictive [infact only one thing is more addictive than power, imo] and to expect addicts to give up their fix is beyond silly. Secondly, democracy is not about expecting sacrifices, democracy is about getting off your collective butts and creating a polity you wish to live in. How long can anyone justify blaming others for not doing what you want? How long do you expect others to do what needs to be done? And why? If dynastic politics is a problem, what is stopping billions of Indians from stepping forward and cleaning their own house themselves? Why can't we have *more* choices instead of less? Why can't purported analysts think beyond expecting these same people to make the changes that need to be made? Are the rest of us dead?
Connellan quotes the Mahatama in Rahul's context and reminds us that we all must be the change we wish to see in the world. May I say that it is the height of dynastic thinking to apply that only to Rahul and not to the rest of the billions who make up India? Let us either decide to be that change, or let us at least enjoy the labours of the poor saps who are trying to be that change, even if their parents and grandparents were famous....
Edited shortly past midnight
Having re-read the third point, I think it is best to sum it up as: I resent being told that I am a party to be acted upon. And that I need someone else to do something for me and then it will all be fine. The whole point of a democracy is that I can, anyone can, change the power equation the day we want to. It is all about wanting enough, and working hard enough. We have the tools and we do not need anyone's sacrifice. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 2nd, 2010|05:14 pm] |
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/books/01wetzsteon.html
Rachel Wetzsteon’s “Sakura Park”
The park admits the wind,
the petals lift and scatter
like versions of myself I was on the verge
of becoming; and ten years on
and ten blocks down I still can’t tell
whether this dispersal resembles
a fist unclenching or waving goodbye.
But the petals scatter faster,
seeking the rose, the cigarette vendor,
and at least I’ve got by pumping heart
some rules of conduct: refuse to choose
between turning pages and turning heads
though the stubborn dine alone. Get over
“getting over”: dark clouds don’t fade
but drift with ever deeper colors.
Give up on rooted happiness
(the stolid trees on fire!) and sweet reprieve
(a poor park but my own) will follow.
There is still a chance the empty gazebo
will draw crowds from the greater world.
And meanwhile, meanwhile’s far from nothing:
the humming moment, the rustle of cherry trees. |
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| Christmas week, Part 2 |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|09:04 am] |
Part 1 is here
Forgot to mention (how?) in Part 1 that my big present from Mr. Man was a Wii! Whee! Also WiiFit, which was the point. I'm having a great time with it so far. I see that the local Blockbuster has Harry Potter 6 for Wii - I'll have to rent it and see if it's worth buying. (I've played all the Harry Potter video games, but from #4 on, they were so clearly designed for systems and not for PC, they're almost unplayable. Plus #4 was terrible. But I digress.)
Anyway... ( Night Music and Anniversary Dinner ) |
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| Year in Review (but quickly) |
[Dec. 30th, 2009|07:51 pm] |
Yeah, I know, I haven't finished the Xmas week post.
Personally, it was actually a great year, especially considering how blah 2008 was. I was in two fully-staged shows, two concert shows, and two concerts (as a singer), plus produced a cabaret, played horn in another one, and conducted my old band one more time (as well as playing horn in that concert too). Mr. Man and I are still together, both still have jobs, and they're both pretty good. Our trip to Germany was fantabulous. We saw a BUNCH of shows this year on Broadway, mostly excellent. (Oh, yes, and Mr. Man QUIT SMOKING this year. I cannot tout this accomplishment enough.)
What's especially cool, though, is I seem to have regained a joie de vivre that has, sadly, been not around for the last couple of years. I've taken some steps forward in my musical career, hurrah, and now have plans to investigate carrying that even further - and that's exciting!
Bad things: well, being hypertensive and heavy are bad things, must do something about that. But the whole 'liking life again' thing should help with that.
But I did want to note some 2009 end of year stuff.
- Best book I read, "The Hour I First Believed" by Wally Lamb
- Best movie I saw, um, gosh, we didn't see much in the theaters this year, just Harry Potter. I saw "Coraline" and "Up" on my own. I'll go with "Coraline".
- Best TV show: The Rachel Maddow Show
- Most surprisingly enjoyable musicals, "Finian's Rainbow" and "Ragtime"
- Not surprisingly enjoyable plays: "Superior Donuts" and "In the Next Room: The Vibrator Play"
- Most surprisingly enjoyable show to be in, "The Sorcerer"
- Best software/website: Facebook. I love the reconnections I've made on Facebook, it's tremendous.
Let's hope that 2010 continues this upward trend - for me and you. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 30th, 2009|04:21 pm] |
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I think I should watch Conan the Barbarian tonight. I have the house to myself, the Joker and his minions have been defeated, and I have Magic decks that need building. So why not complete the nerd trifecta with my very favorite bad movie of all time? |
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| From the FO movie thread |
[Dec. 30th, 2009|08:37 am] |
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Finding Nemo vs. Spirited Away What's your vote there, even if you're not voting in that thread? Because I'm surprised at how many people are picking Nemo. I love Nemo, but SA is Miyazaki's finest work and is just dazzling. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|10:19 am] |
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Another note about Arkham: I *love* the inverted takedown. :-) |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|09:23 am] |
So far I am seriously enjoying Batman: Arkham Asylum for the most part. With the family gone skiing, I was able to play a ten-hour guilt-free session, which nevers happens anymore. The cinematic combat is fabulous and the plot and characterizations are cool and the voice acting, well, having Hamill and Conroy back in the saddle rules. Though I may want to punch Matt Frewer before all is said and done, because the Riddler is a weenie and I am reasonably certain he's doing the voice, or at least it's someone who sounds like him.
One idea the game drives home for me, though? One thing about Batman that has nagged me throughout my comics-loving life? Batman's code against killing (to use Champions parlance) costs far more lives than it saves. I get that it's part of his psychlogical makeup and all, but still, his unwillingness to cross that line and kill guilty guys like the Joker causes a lot of innocents to die.
I acknowledge this is not an original thought, but playing the game definitely crystallized it for me. |
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| The closing of the year... |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|08:00 am] |
Much to blog about, so here are some placeholders to fill in later...
- Mom and Dad's visit
- Many great meals, including Xmas Eve, Xmas day, pre-show brunch and last night's early celebration of Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary
- "A Little Night Music"
- Christmas presents, whee! Or should I say, "Wii!".
- Various movies seen on DVD, discussions had, books attempted to read, general entertainmentness.
So we'll leave that til later. Mom and Dad are packing up and on their way to North Carolina, to visit Sibling Sam for a couple of days. Mr. Man and I are back to work, sigh. And this is the last week of prep work before Gondoliers completely swamps my life.
Happy end-of-09, everyone! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 27th, 2009|09:08 am] |
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In addition to Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Warhammer RPG boxed set and a crapton of Zepplin, Maiden and Ozzy CDs, my wife got me the Star Trek special edition, which comes with an assembable DVD case in the shape of the Enterprise. I am truly blessed by a wife who gets me. |
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| In which our heroine excercises an ancient right |
[Dec. 27th, 2009|12:38 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  peaceful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya | ] |
Since the dawn of time, well human time in any case, certain rights have been claimed and excercised by the wisest of us all. While others may have tried to curtail these rights, or argue about whether they are found in nature, or the result of a compact, or inherent in the prevailing theory of jurisprudence, these folks just went ahead and claimed what was theirs.
One such sacred right, enshrined in myths, legends and philosophical treatises, is the inalienable right to embarrass your friends. Especially when you are too nice to freak them out with private letters of appreciation [if my halo wasn't busy holding up the radio antenna, it would have gleamed a wink]...
lamentables and f4f3, you have eased the last 6 odd weeks for me. I will not say thank you, though you do have my thanks, but I will say I love you, for that always suffices. :) |
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