I spoke to my dad earlier, and he brought up an terrifying point for all those people in the USA who are worried about $4 gasoline....

Currently the price in the UK is 1.11GBP per litre. That works out as $8.30 a US gallon...

...the UK isn't really that much more expensive than the rest of the world. Maybe 1.50 of that is the extra tax that they use to, well, have a road system that doesn't suck¹

So yeah, when people say it's going to get worse before it gets better? It's more of a - it was artificially good before (subsidized), now the US is actually catching up.

owch.

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1 - ok, so I'm in California which has roads designed as if by tripping hippies and built as if by a stoned surfer name Jeb, but... still...

Jesus fuck I feel awful today.

Firstly I didn't get a full nights sleep, it was ok though, and on any other day wouldn't have mattered. We'll call this Funk 1 tho.

Funk 2 - stomach telling me "woah, I'm feeling like I'm trying to claw my way out of your spine" just before I leave for work. I write it off as hunger pangs or something. I was wrong, my stomach is making a bid for my spine as I type.

Funk 3 - Feeling like I've been hit in the eyes with a brick. Seriously. Since about 10am. argh.

Funk 4 - Cold. Regular sniffly cold. Nothing too bad but it's on top of everything else, so bleh.

Funk 5 - My back really fucking hurts today. It's like my shoulders are trying to implode and take the rest of my spinal column with them. Bastards.

Funk 6 - my head and neck, sort of related to Funk 5, are trying to explode and crush me respectively. Fuckers.

Tylenol Extra Strength appears to have given me +1 to my Death Funk rolls, unfortunately The Funk is wielding a +5 Sword of Kicking Greg's Ass. That, and I think it's Thac0 is better than mine¹.

So I'm sick, grumpy, and at work. Yay. Oh and I need to go to Kung-fu tonight. Why? Because I'm a tardy asshole who has failed to go very much, and that is why I am currently a level 6, not a level 7 like Miriam².

Fuck. At least Adrian might be able to fix my back.



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1 - If you ever played AD&D that shit was fucking hilarious alright? If you didn't then, well.. I guess I just got nerdier.
2 - Who, by the way, could probably totally kick my ass if she really wanted to. Why? Because she actually puts the time in while I procrastanate. Congrats to her for passing Level 7 and getting to work on more cool shit. She rules.

My ongoing battle to actually get fit and healthy has, unfortunately, not really gone well historically. This is mostly, frankly, more due to my own laziness than any "slow metabolism" excuse, even if I wish I had a speedier one, my metabolism is pretty normal.

So yes, historically as I say, not so great.

Up until this last year, and even then I've been a complete fricking slacker really. I've had a gym membership for about 9 months and have probably only really used it for 3 of those, last month included. That's pretty crap.

However combine that with kung-fu, and eating better (and more fresh vegetables courtesy of Full Bell Farm I have lost 20lbs in that 9 months. That's pretty darn good.

I started at 293lbs. Just shy of the big 300. Not acceptable, and yet still less than I weighed when I came to the US I might add.

Now, at 274lbs (ok, its 19... whatever) I'm just 20 more pounds from being the same weight I was when I was 17 years old. Concidering I'm in better physical condtion now (stronger at least) that's a good goal to have. My overall goal is 220, but.. well.. that's a long way off, so I'm not too worried about that.

So to sum up:

Previous Weight	293lbs	(when I started 24 Fitness)
Current Weight	274lbs	(what I weighed a few days ago)
Next Goal	252lbs	(what I weighed when I was 17)
Goal After that	231lbs	(what I weighted what I was 15!!)
Eventual Aim	220lbs	(probably what I weight when I was 14)

So what now? Well... Cardio, basically. I am doing some free weights, but mostly as a maintenance and general improvement things, not muscle mass.

Cardio, cardio, and more cardio. Lets do this.

Ok... I know I write so infrequently these days, we'll see if that improves though because as part of my job I've now started blogging (and aim to produce something every week, we'll see).

So click away to see my first "professional"* blog post "Seeing The World In 2D" on the Tendo corporate blog.

Whee!
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* ie - I get paid for it, which is my working definition of professional.

The Man himself.

SF Sketchfest had a Salute to Gene Wilder last night - a night of Young Frankenstein, a Q&A, and Gene doing a book signing.

I've had the tickets booked for months.

Miriam was less excited by the night than I was - seeing famous people in person doesn't quite interest her as much as me. She's also right in saying that you never quite see them, just their public front. Which is true. cmpriest   - don't go changing, ok?

Still - it was Gene Wilder. It was fun. Even if the Q&A was poorly hosted by some unfunny Comedy Central half-hour special reject.

I'd been thinking of what I'd say to him, if I got the chance, and something rinnywee   said some years ago stuck in my mind...

Back when we both were in our OMG!Bjork phase I asked what she would say to her if they met. She thought for a second and then emphatically said: just thank you. Bjork's a person, she said, whose work I've enjoyed, and I wouldn't want to be one of those people.

I don't think I fully understood at the time, though I got the meaning, and it has greatly influenced how I think of celebrities.

When I got to Gene at the book signing I said simply "I just want to say thank you for your work. It's been wonderful to watch over the years." he looked up from the book with those twinkling baby-blues and smiled, "thanks, thank you very much."

I may have just been another person in the line to him ( and I'm sure I was) but still.. that moment meant a lot to me.

I could have said so much more, but it would always be too much, and it would never be quite enough. In the end it would boil down to "thank you" and I would have become one of those people.

I once won the Arthur C Clarke award at my High School for "Being on another planet most of the time". True story.

Sadly the great man is now gone. The man who pretty much created modern sci-fi and predicted much modern technology (including communications satelites), has - at 90 - decided it's time to go.

I repeat... Arthur C Clarke is dead.

*sigh*

"Life is just one big banana. Science fiction allows us all to peel open the reality and discover the yellow truth inside." - Arthur C Clarke

Edited to add - video of Clarke that he made last December.

Soon I shall be launching a new website - abritinthebay.com (don't go looking, there's nothing there atm).

Part of my immigrant status here means I get to see things with outside eyes. Things aren't better or worse here, they are just different.

Cool stuff happens in the bay, and it's fun to see other people pick up on that, as well as the differences. So so that end - some driving differences:

1. "To an American 100 years is a long time, to a European 100 miles is a long way." This is true, but that's because it likely takes the European a long-ass time to get that 100 miles. Much longer than it would in the USA. This is because the road systems grew up usually several hundred years before motorways, therefore they aren't exactly the shortest route.
   For example - it's possible to get to LA from SF in around 7 hours, if traffic is good. It's possible to get to North Devon in 5 hours from East London, if traffic is good. The distance is about 3 times as short to Devon... but it takes time.
   From my parents house to Newmarket took an hour and a half, but in a straight line it's only about twice the distance from Oakland to San Francisco... adjust your perceptions!
   
2. 25mpg is not impressive. Stop pretending it is. When I drove the hell out of my gas-guzzling Rover in the UK I could still get 28mpg out of it, easy, and that was crap - My Nissan got 36 on a bad day. Yes there are some differences between the US and UK gallon, but it's still not enough to make up for it.
3. US cars can't turn if your life depended on it. Need to make a sharp turn? Good luck with that. The average car here seems to be designed to have a turning circle approximately the width of Dakota. I'm not sure why... perhaps its because they have roads here that you could run Olympic track races across...
   
4. Air Conditioning is not optional. Do you hear me UK? Just because the UK only gets about 4 weeks of sun a year is no excuse to skimp on a feature that should have been standard on all cars 20 years ago. It's not a feature you should have to advertise as standard - it should just be a sodding standard.
5. Gas is more expensive because that money pays for stuff. This needs to be beaten into heads both sides of the Atlantic. Like your nice high quality roads Mr "I voted for the Tory's because petrol is too expensive under Labour"? Suck it up, because nothing is going to change. Likewise I hope you like the barely-a-step-up-from-a-concrete-slab-covered-in-dirt Freeway you have for your cheap gas Mr US-of-A. Because $4 a Gallon is not expensive. Call me when it hits $6, then we may be in agreement...
   

Anyone out there know anyone at Sony Pictures?

I have a cunning plan... but I may need some help.

Gary Gygax is dead. This may not mean anything to you, but to summarize: he pretty much invented modern RPGs with Dungeons & Dragons.

Sad.

My dear friend cmpriest  mentioned this contest, the gist of which is - add zombies to a paragraph of a book. Cherie has her own take on this... which is awesome. And god it hits me in all the right places - I mean... zombies! In books!

I love this idea.

Here's my entry:

Title: The Art of War
Author: Sun Tzu (as translated by Lionel Giles in 1910)

1. Sun Tzu said: The Art of War Against Zombies is of vital importance to the State.
2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.
3. Zombies, then, are governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.
4. These are:
   1. Zombie Law
   2. Brains
   3. Earth
   4. The Zombie Commander
   5. Method and discipline
5. Zombie Law causes the people to be in complete discord with their ruler,
6. so that they panic and flee, in fear of their lives, dismayed by the rotting, shuffling, danger.

Honestly? I could go on... maybe some other time ;) It's interesting how zombies improve even a 2400 year old work...

Ok... so... I'm an Obama supporter.

I can't event vote, I'm not a citizen, and I'm an Obama supporter. That should tell you something I guess...

anyhow *ahem* moving on.

Even though I'm a supporter I'm still shocked by this real time (refresh it to get an update) display of how much people have donated to his campaign since Super Tuesday:


Seriously.... wow. Thats pretty awesome.

anyhow, sorry about the political spam.. I just thought it was interesting.

So we're back online at the Miriam & Greg household finally.

Much love and thanks must go to ca_snowflake & caramida, without who we would have not had any internet at all these last 8 months. They graciously let us share their network wirelessly, putting up with me bugging them when any little think went wrong (which, when bridging two wireless networks... as we were, it will).

However it was time to move on, so now we have Speakeasy (like they do, actually) because we don't need a phone line, and they are awesome. It's running nice and fast, and we don't have to annoying Brian and Erica about quirks and things any more.

Thanks again guys.

Btw - who out there owns an XBox? What's your XBox Live name? Mines abritinthebay add me! Lets get connected :)

Breaking the silence for a moment...

some thoughts and events:

My good friend Alan has arrived in the Bay Area. He's touring with Machinehead and staying with us when he's around here. That's pretty cool by itself. He's also the reason that the Danish Music Award for Best Album (Machinehead's The Blackening) was on my mantel the other day!

No internet really atm, except on the old outdated laptop that takes 10mins to boot. It's slow. Seriously slow. Anyhow, that should be sorted soon. Many thanks to Brian & Erica for letting us mooch off their DSL, but I think it just makes sense to have our own now... too many technical/hardware issues overall, and it means more flexibility on our end too. Thanks guys!

Miriam and I have tickets to see Kids in The Hall on Saturday, and Gene Wilder in March. I could not be more excited about these two things.

Also... Heath Ledger is, as I'm sure you know by now, dead. This fact sucks, and makes the day suck by it's association with it. He was 1 year older than me, and had a bright future ahead of him. Sad.

More... when there's more. Talk to you all soon.

When an eel swimming by, bites a chunk from your thigh
That's a Moray.
When you swim like a seal, and an eel bites your heel
That's a Moray.
When you swim in a creek, and an eel bites your cheek
That's a Moray.
If it's long and dark green and it makes you scream,
That's a Moray!

Winter is always the time I wish for snow, though I'm in the wrong state for that now I guess.

It snowed a lot more when I was a kid, and school was canceled several times that I remember. The fluffy power would coat the school garden outside my 5th Year classroom window. Turning the big, easy to take care of, tall broad leaved plants into a complex machine, loading up on snow only to release that load to the lower plants latter as they flexed and bent under the weight.

It also snowed more, not just the number of times, but the amount. I remember snow coming up to our front porch door quite easily, sometimes a lot further, requiring my father and I to clear it. Well... mostly my dad, I tended to stomp around in it. Getting wet, and cold, and not caring one little bit.

In later years there was barely an inch. Two, if we were lucky, a dusting if we weren't.

There's a more immediate, more intimate, quality to the world when it snows. Everything has acoustic dampening, noises far away are hushed and snuffed out,and the air makes you feel more alive, more alert, more there.

I remember sliding on ice across the playground in school when it closed, seeing how far I could get. I remember walking home at 2am in -8C weather and sliding down the slightly graded slope of the road all the way home without lifting my feet.

It's time to cuddle up, wrap up warm, and enjoy time with friends and family. Christmas is coming, but winter is here.

Enjoy it.

Or rather... Terry Pratchett is. He has rare, early-onset Alzheimer's...

That. Fucking. Sucks.

Still, he's pretty chipper about the whole things seemingly, and good for him. Here's hoping early diagnosis means better treatment and longer, healthier, life.

Still... that blows.

Trust the Japanese... I mean, stop the press - there is no need to make any more b-movies. They just beat them all, at least if this trailer is anything to go by.

This is the type of movie that cased Grindhouse/Death Proof to be such a failure - its not original when it's already and still being done like this. You can't spoof something that spoofs itself.

I give you: The Machine Girl...

Ok, so... a brief bit of Greg Gaming History for you.

I began playing games when I was 4, maybe even when I was 3, but definitely 4. My grandparents had an Atari 800¹ (8-bit, pre-ST era), and I played a TON of games on it. Rescue on Fractalus, Ballblazer, Beach Head, Super Breakout (a lot of Super Breakout), and many, many more. After the Atari left my grandparents (they got an Amiga) we got it, later we borrowed my mothers school PC, and then later still we bought a PC (a speed demon of a 386SX: 25mhz of CD-Rom running goodness).

Along the way I played games on other systems and consoles (Sega Mega Drive, Acorn, ZX Spectrum) but other than the mega-drive, those weren't owned by me or my family.

Those games rocked.

Today I find more and more I'm just playing because of two things 1) The game is pretty 2) The game has a big plot I want to see through to the end. It's rarely because it's just plain fun to play the game. Very rare.

Anyhow - I've made it my mission to collect a lot of retro games, and I've finally compiled most of them into a list. I have a few more than this, but it's most of them. At least... most of the PC ones. I'm not including emulators and ROM's here....

Greg's Classic Games Collection:
( there's a lot of them... )

See anything you like?

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1 - A much superior system to the Commodore 64...

So I ache like I wrestled a lion last night... which isn't too far from the truth.

I had a private Kung-Fu lession with my Si-Hing last night, just to clear up my Chi-Sao and such like (don't worry if that makes no sense to you, it doesn't have to). Anyhow, another class was there doing 'HIIT'¹ which is the sort of mixed martial arts training course that they suggest for people that want to do it for fitness, or just aren't sure about doing a full martial art.

At they end they sometimes do a 'King of The Ring' type thing, where the winner stays on until they are beaten. This time it was about wrestling someone to the ground (no hits, but sweeps, takedowns, and grapples basically). I got drafted... unsurprisingly, as I'm 6'3" of largeness².

You are now reading the words of The King Of The Ring!

I even beat the instructor (not Adrian, but John, Adrian's top instructor below him). Twice! That was pretty awesome - I got hi-fives all round for doing that, even from John. They kept going around... by the end I was practically falling over... I'm shocked no-one got me down.

On an unrelated note - here's your weekly dose of WTF?:



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1 - High Intensity Impact Training
2 - My nickname at the Dojo is Chewbacca...