Kipworld

I did a show in Evanston on Saturday. Performed with Jim and also the Kastles. We did two sets… I led off with the Betrothal. The Kastles did 2 songs and then Jim did this new bear story. Second set started with Jim and another bear story, me with Mr. Pan Asia and then the Kastles closed. It was a pretty fun show, although most of the audience were my friends (which feels weird, but oddly familiar, seeing as my last show was the same way). Anyway, Jim’s sound guy recorded it for free, just to experiment w/ live recording so hopefully I’ll have that up here soon.

Google Video link from this amazing Guitar Hero player doing Cowboys From Hell on Expert… The video is just of the guitar (which doesn’t move, so it’s possible he doesn’t use star power at all) and then he blows your mind around the 3:21 mark or so.

Just watched Tom Yum Goong, the second movie from the team behind Ong Bak. I hope it gets US distribution like Ong Bak, but really I think that Ong Bak was a better movie. It was definitely funnier and had better characters. In this one, Tony Jaa’s really just a dude who likes elephants a lot.

The action sequences were higher budget. Also, there seemed to be a lot more of them. The warehouse fight scene, the capoeira scene and the vaguely Burly Brawl near the end were all pretty jaw dropping. Tony Jaa moves so efficiently and there’s no noticeable wirework to distract from the crazy stuff going on. Also, his environmental work just looks awesome. However, there was less of a sense of whimsy and humor than Ong Bak.

The dialogue was painful. Between the horrible subtitles and the horrible accent of the cop character, I just sort of stopped reading and listening to the lines.

Maybe it’s not fair to compare the two so much, but when you share much of the same cast and stuff, it’s hard to see this movie as a separate entity…

T-Shirt folding machine

Found this on digg. Built one this morning out of an Amazon box. It works pretty well, although I like my tshirts trifolded vertically and this only does bifold. Ah well, maybe it’s time for me to switch that up, if only so that I can use my new machine.

UPDATE: For people who can’t use cardboard for whatever reason (lack of material, religious beliefs, etc), you can use this Japanese ninja method.

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone (Year of the Dog). El and I went up to Milwaukee on Friday for dinner with my family to celebrate. We had to drive back the same night because I had this thing early the next morning, so that was a little straining.

Got back from my Malaysia trip last week after a long journey… full blogging of that will commence whenever I have time to write the whole thing down.

Last night was the 5 year anniversary of Uncommon Storytelling. It was pretty much all open mic style (no featured teller). I was going to tell the story I told at my dad’s 60th birthday dinner in Malaysia, but since I had the time and the other stories from other people were also sort of heavy, I decided to tell my betrothal story instead to lighten things up a bit.

I found that Amazon is selling reconditioned Roombas for $160. Then you can use the code JANCLEAR to get 25$ off that. Plus free shipping. So I finally bit the bullet to get one. I’m excited, although it won’t get here until I’m in Malaysia. Ah well… Last year Adam bought a cheap knockoff called the Zoombot and it didn’t work out so well. The main problem was that its battery really sucked and we’d have to wait for it to charge constantly. This Roomba will return to its base, so that problem should go away.

I was just on hold for a while with Cingular Customer Service (getting my phone unlocked before I leave for Malaysia). First I had a lady ask me for my identifying info and then I was put on hold. Then another operator picked up and asked me the exact same questions. I made sure to get his name in case I got transferred again. The guy had to keep putting me on hold while he tried calling this other number to set up my international roaming code or something. Anyway, during the second time on hold, the phone started giving me a busy signal and I was getting pissed that I would have to start over with some other operator. But then the busy signal started getting faster and faster until bam: dance beat. It was song. About phone service representatives. Complete with voice samples like, “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you- sir, I’m going to have to ask you- sir, I’m going to have to ask you to- DANCE” Tried a quick google search, but pulled up nothing. Ah well.

So, I downloaded the Condemned demo for the 360 the other night. I didn’t get a chance to play it as I was heading out the door. And it’s probably a good thing. I booted it up yesterday in the middle of the day and I actually was too freaked out to play it to the end of the demo. I am a total wuss. I can handle zombie movies and being a zombie in a game but something about Condemned’s weak little flashlight and only 9 bullets in my gun and dark shapes running by in the distance just was too much. The Se7en style opening credits were pretty sweet too.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was The War Between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids. I read and reread the book over and over and it probably inspired several crazy recurring ideas throughout my life. Basically, the story is about a kid named Skinny Malinky who leads a Kid uprising against the teachers. The villain is an ant named Mr. Foreclosure who wants to put them all through the Status Quo Solidifier and turn them all into preps. There’s also this feral girl named Alice who eats a teacher. And a gang of kids called Bookworms who don’t want to fight, just hang out in the sewers and read (I totally identified). So, anyway, I loved that book. I even gave a copy to someone in third grade (they must’ve thought I was weird. Or, um, weirder). Haven’t thought about it in years.

Then, I read this book called Kung Fu High School by Ryan Gattis. It was an OK book, nothing really earth shattering. However, the book really did a good job of conveying this tense mood, this feeling that you’re never really safe and that the man is right around the corner. A feeling you can get in Neal Stephenson’s The Big U. And… in The War Between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids. Thing is, I read the Big U when I was 19, Battle Royale when I was 21 and Kung Fu High School at 25. I read “The War” when I was 8. Imagine the impact on my young psyche…

So, I finished KFHS yesterday and started looking online for “The War” but I couldn’t find it, as I was searching for “the war teachers against students” and coming up with nothing. I even tried plugging in characters names, but I didn’t remember Skinny Malinky, I thought Alice’s name was Janice, and Mr. Foreclosure was Mr. Penulsifer or something. Bleah. Today, I tried again and voila: found it. And a sequel! Ordered both from Amazon… I’m very excited.

Happy holidays, again… hope it all went well for you.

I finished wrapping presents here at the condo late Fri night and drove up the next morning. Went pretty much straight to church with the folks. The Christmas service has definitely changed over the years. This year was a multimedia presentation through some major events in Christianity, including the WWI story of the English and German truce in the trenches. At least we didn’t have to see scenes from the Passion, like last year. After church, we went to lunch with my Uncle Peter and Auntie Suzanne. This began the long weekend of eating… so much eating.
(more…)