| Off to AC! |
[02 Jul 2009|09:57pm] |
Mercy, no post in all of June. I need to get back into the LJ game! Just so darn busy lately.
Off to Anthrocon in the morning. If you're going to be in Pittsburgh, wave hi!
--Axiom
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| Axiom's Joke Book |
[12 May 2009|02:35pm] |
How can we be sure the scientist who popularized H-bar never cheated on his wife?
Everyone knows PLANCK'S CONSTANT!
--Axiom
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| Worse than I Thought |
[02 May 2009|03:34pm] |
I've been avoiding the fancy new scale ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cargoweasel bought, because I knew it was going to give me bad news.
Current Weight: 248.6
Up from my all-time contemporary low of 220, but my real "plateau" weight the last few months has been 225, so the gain is really a solid 25 pounds.
It snuck up on me. It only took FOUR WEEKS, but I put on 25 pounds. Incredible. That's the danger of a) having been morbidly obese in one's life, and b) being forty years old. Weight can come on VERY quickly.
So the goal is to return instantly to the life patterns I had before: nothing but the shakes, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day, and if I eat any other food, fine, just don't let it disrupt the pattern. For instance, next weekend I'm going to a wedding, and there WILL be food and I'll eat it. But I can contain it to just the actual wedding, not the whole day of, not the whole weekend of, no giving up exercise that day.
I have to. My life depends on it.
--Axiom
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| In Trouble |
[29 Apr 2009|10:31am] |
I'm in trouble.
Gained 20 pounds since my recent low:
Lowest contemporary weight: 220
Current weight: 240
Several false starts. Attempts to return to the diet and exercise are full of energy and "can do!" in the morning, fail by the evening. It's shakes and determination until about 6:30pm, when it's suddenly normal food, then bad food, then crazy bad food.
I have to address this now, before I gain any more.
PLAN: There is no plan but the same plan: get back on shakes, return to regular exercise and progress one day at a time. But now I'm announcing the problem, pulling in my support network, admitting something's gone wrong and facing it with open eyes.
We all stumble. Sometimes we fall. Sometimes we stay down for a while. We lay there, baffled, in denial. But so long as we eventually stand back up and start again, we can NEVER LOSE.
--Axiom
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| Weasel go zoom! |
[08 Apr 2009|03:02pm] |
The weasel's at biking camp, riding hard.
Go weasel go!
Have fun, cargoweasel! Don't fall down, don't stop to chase rabbits, do breathe lots of air!
--Axiom
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| Axiom Returns |
[10 Mar 2009|11:21am] |
Hello fatties. I'm back, after several weeks of uncontrolled behavior. That's the problem: no structure, no control. Fattening food? I can have that and did all last year, so long as it was part of the lifestyle that's kept me slim and active. But the last few weeks featured a collapse of good habits and a return to the bad ones.
I've gained weight and lost my exercise patterns. Is it bad? Not so bad. The gain is minor, but enough to erode my self esteem and establish unhealthy behaviors. Time to break them and get back on track. Even a whole year of great living isn't enough to protect me against getting cocky with my inner demons: they are not to be ignored or trifled with.
The answer is always the same. Face them, then re-establish the good patterns, remember the fun and joy of healthy living, re-engage the support network (that includes you guys!) without shame or fear. Stop avoiding that which can help me.
I'm back! Ticker returns on Thursday. Thanks for being here.
--Axiom
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| The Black Hole in Star Wars |
[05 Mar 2009|10:48am] |
Few things are so passé as amateur pop-critical analysis of Star Wars, but I just had to speak my peace on this. It's been bugging me for years.
Whether or not you agree with me, just for this essay, submit to me on two points:
1) Star Wars (1977) was a stand-alone film, never meant to be part of any trilogy or nonology or some massive universe. Sure, the writers (including Lucas) had a backstory, maybe even more, that's what good writers do. Heck, maybe he even thought up a whole universe around it, as he claimed. Doesn't matter, that's true of every well-written movie, to some extent. But the proof is in the film: it has a start, a middle, a finish: big bad guy dies, threat removed, princess is saved, everybody gets medals, the end. Sure, the black hat is bruised but flies away to lick his wounds and return for another day, and the mysterious Emperor is yet unseen, and the girl was kissed but not married, this leads to my next axiom (sorry):
2) Star Wars (1977) was made as a FUN film, an homage, redoing, retelling, revising and to capture the spirit and joy of the "B" picture adventures of the 30s and 40s. I don't have to defend this, Lucas has come out and said it in numerous interviews (citation needed, someone find it for me, I'm lazy). All of these serials were based on the same formula, and that formula is followed in the film and before it in countless plots, identified by Jung and Campbell as the Heroic Journey (citation: go read Jung and Campbell, jeez!). The Heroic Journey is always the same, and it necessitates just about everything that happens in the old "B" serials, the adventure stories and Star Wars (1977) itself.
Okay, if you've granted me those two points, I can build my case. It's a sad case, really. My case is:
Luke is boring, and that's what killed the Star Wars franchise.
Ouch. But it's sad and true that the Hero archetype (Hero with a Thousand Faces, etc.), with damn near every story that follows what Campbell calls the Heroic Journey (Beowulf and beyond), and every "B" serial that inspired Star Wars (1977), such as the 1930's Flash Gordon series, the hero is a BIG DUMB BLOND GUY or an ADVENTURE-SEEKING WHINY GUY or some mix of the two. Most heroes are either naive (and learn wisdom, near the end) or just powerful and have to prove it over and over again. Boooooring.
Lucas picks the "young kid who wants more than this provincial life" who is "destined for greatness" but is "naive about the world out there" and thinks it's all fun and games, is "aware of his potential" and "chafes under the swaddling" and feels his power growing. Okay, that's a fine heroic archetype, used constantly. But the truth is, he's the alcohol-based propellant in the aerosol can, used to drive things forward, and it's EVERYTHING ELSE in Star Wars that's interesting--the flavors, the product in the can, if you will, that's interesting.
His mentor, Obi-Wan, is interesting. His world, his universe, full of evil empires and scrappy rebels, is interesting. His toys, landspeeders and ELECTRIC binoculars, are interesting. His tools, X-wings and lightsabers, are interesting. His companions, droids and space smugglers, are interesting. His love interests and challenges are interesting. His adventures...I can go on and on. But he is not interesting. He is not the MacGuffin, that's the "plans in the droid," but he's carried along right beside the MacGuffin, and aside from being blond and doing derring-do, he's not that interesting. Even the REALLY interesting villain, Darth Vader, isn't HIS enemy--he's Obi-Wan's enemy! Dammit, Luke doesn't even get a cool nemesis!
Okay, enough picking on Luke, people have picked on Luke for years. That's not the real purpose of this essay. What I'm saying is, the boringness of Luke brought down the Star Wars franchise. How? Because 1) the film Star Wars (1977) was meant to stand alone, with Luke at its heart, boring as he was, and 2) it followed the heroic journey/"B" picture formula. BUT THEREAFTER, for every other film, every other book, every other scrap of Star Wars franchise material, Lucas and everyone else tried to yank it around to make someone more interesting the hero.
That someone was Darth Vader. From the OPENING CRAWL of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), we have a wrenching turn. "The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space..." Wait, what? We went from Vader not knowing crap about our Hero except, "Hmm, the force is strong with this one," from his ship while locking on him, just before Han Solo shoots him from behind (love those pirates), to obsession? We will learn, of course, that Luke was lauded throughout the galaxy for blowing up the Death Star, yay young Skywalker, a name they might have considered changing, considering Darth Vader was passing familiar with it! But I digress.
The point is, the cipher that is Luke, that anyone inhabiting the Hero role in a "B" serial (or homage to it) in a fun flick meant to be a stand-alone is going to be a bit boring, a zero, a hole, a gap. In archetypical analysis, Jung would say, it was an empty spot where the listener could project him/herself, where we all could, a space left intentionally close to blank, culturally empty so we could share it, as part of the collective unconscious. Later cultural critics would drop the "collective unconscious" part but keep the rest.
I've been bothered by the remaining films and especially the prequels by the fact that they bent over backwards to "infill" that hole with the story of a dark non-hero, Anakin, Darth Vader (proto), heck, anyone but Luke. It's a reaction in part, I think, to a bit of sting I suspect Lucas felt when everyone said, "Great movie, George, that Star Wars, loved everyone in it, except that boring Luke." But who cares if the hero just moves things along, everyone else in the movie WAS great. I loved it! In trying to find a compelling hero, a "complex" center for the other films, the remaining entries in the franchise LOST ALL THE FUN for me. Personally, I'd take a dozen more hours of whining Luke if it meant awesome characters like Han and Chewy and Obi Wan.
This is why, in those cases when someone asks me for advice on how to make their central character in the book their writing "more interesting," I say, "Who cares? Just give them more interesting things to do and people to meet and places to go--and have them react to those. If that doesn't work, then at least we'll all have fun along the way."
--Axiom
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| Little milestone |
[20 Jan 2009|05:00pm] |
The home scale reads 221 pounds. While this isn't accurate and doesn't count (only official doctor visits on the doctor's scale really count), I've found it's pretty accurate. My modern-era all-time low is 220, so I'm back to my current threshold. That's not the milestone.
The milestone is, apparently I weigh less than cargoweasel. He's up a bit, though dropping rapidly. I'll likely fall behind him again as he's training for a triathlon and my goals aren't as hard core, but still. It's nice for once to weigh less than my partner of eight inches greater in height!
--Axiom
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| Hello |
[15 Jan 2009|06:43pm] |
I haven't posted in a month.
Wow. That's not good.
So! Hello, everyone.
I'm still down 110 pounds, no real change, up a few, down a few. A tad heavier right now from all the holidays, but that'll melt off shortly. Five pounds is a week's work for me these days.
Otherwise, all is well! Just busy busy busy.
Hello!
--Axiom
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| Ticker |
[16 Dec 2008|05:15pm] |
332.0 <--START (October 5, 2007)
.
.
318.5 <--START, Meal Replacement Diet (October 26, 2007)
.
.
225.5
222.0
229.5
225.0
227.0
220.0
222.0 <--CURRENT (December 11, 2008)
110.0 <--TOTAL LOST
1.900 <--loss per week (average)
92.00 <--remaining to lose to reach GOAL
130.0 <--GOAL
35.87 <--weeks to go at current average (May 7, 2009)
NOTES: A few days late, and a month since my last weigh-in, and during that month, two weeks of sailing on a cruise ship around the Caribbean, gorging on fancy French food, kayaking, SCUBA, high tea, great fun. When I got home, I had gained 13 pounds! So by weigh-in, I'd lost 11 of them. A triumph! I call a 2-pound gain after a month of that a total win for me. :)
--Axiom
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|
| Movie Meme |
[05 Dec 2008|09:57am] |
A movie meme:
1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times: 2001: A Space Odyssey.
2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in a theatre: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie: Ian McKellan
4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie: any "Spice Girl"
5. Name a movie that you can quote from: Airplane!
6. Name a movie musical that you know all the lyrics to all the songs: My Fair Lady
7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with: Singing in the Rain
8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see: 12 Angry Men
9. Name a movie that you own: Fantasia
10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops: Jack Black
11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in?: No.
12. Ever made out in a movie?: No.
13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't gotten around to it: Tremors
14. Ever walked out of a movie?: Waking Life
15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theatre: Schindler's List
16. Popcorn?: Very occasionally, I don't like the phony butter, and it's so oily and salty, too much so.
17. How often do you go to the movies?: Weekly, when I lived in the suburbs; far less so lately, here in the city.
18. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?: Batman: the Dark Knight
19. What is your favorite/preferred genre of movie?: Comedy
20. What was the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?: Mary Poppins
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| Go Fish |
[17 Nov 2008|11:12pm] |
New Yorkers will argue about a lot of things, including where in the city to buy the best smoked fish. I'll happily join the fray, and so far my money is on Russ & Daughters. For almost 100 years, Jews of the Lower East Side have come here for caviar, sturgeon, halvah, herring, chopped liver, beet salad, chocolate and above all, smoked fish. Sable, whitefish and salmon, salmon, salmon. I love the other places, like Zabar's on the Upper West Side, but my heart belongs to Russ & Daughters.
Just now, cargoweasel and I finished up some insane smoked salmon. This time, even R&D outdid themselves. Around November, only in good years, the Danes produce a smoked salmon that's cured in some special way that turns the fish a kind of pale gold-yellow, the color of light topaz, champagne. It's hard to get. Russ & Daughters was the only place in the city with it. Wicked expensive. I got a pound anyway, and tonight, standing over the kitchen island, we just just ate it with our fingers.
Oh my God. It was oily even out of the cold of the fridge. It was sleek and had such a subtle smoke it almost tasted of oolong tea. A sweetness shone through, but not of a sugar cure, simply out of the tender, tender pale flesh itself, that color I'd never seen in salmon before. The cats were stalking in, trying to lick up the wrapping paper, meowing plaintively. It was probably the best smoked salmon we'd ever tasted, and that's saying something.
This city pulls at me with its hooks in the marrow in my bones, and I surrender to it, laughing up blood.
--Axiom
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| Ticker |
[13 Nov 2008|02:49pm] |
332.0 <--START (October 5, 2007)
.
.
318.5 <--START, Meal Replacement Diet (October 26, 2007)
.
.
225.5
222.0
229.5
225.0
227.0
220.0 <--CURRENT (November 13, 2008)
112.0 <--TOTAL LOST
1.900 <--loss per week (average)
90.00 <--remaining to lose to reach GOAL
130.0 <--GOAL
32.87 <--weeks to go at current average (March 7, 2009)
NOTES: Now that is what a perfect week looks like. SEVEN pounds down. Boom. Seven! In a single week! That's five shakes a day with nothing else, lots of fresh spring water, hitting the exercycle every single night and a happy outlook.
I'm pre-dieting for the debauchery to come. Still, it's a considerable accomplishment.
I'm at a new record. This is as slim as I've been (by one pound) in the last twelve years.
--Axiom
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| We Consume by Night |
[07 Nov 2008|04:50pm] |
After months of patience, I finally made it into one of New York City's secret supper clubs.
These shady organizations work entirely by email and Website, managing lists of regulars and their friends, taking over peoples' houses, private dining rooms of restaurants, lofts, abandoned and deconsecrated cathedrals, once-thriving aquacar foundries, decaying ruins of worlds fairs past and such. There, top chefs on their nights off, talented amateurs, visiting gastronomes who've hand carried ingredients unimportable by any other means cook all day for people who are really, REALLY serious about eating.
These supper clubs aren't for restaurant critics. They're not even for people all that into restaurants. There's often no "atmosphere" in the traditional space: if a fine restaurant is analogous to an opera, these supper clubs are more like a rave. It's about the vibe. Everyone swoops in, cooks, eats, talks, chills, enjoys the hell out of the drug, the conversation, music, doesn't care about health codes or the fact that the cheese is raw cow's milk illegal in the over-protective U.S., or that there may not be a poster demonstrating how to help a choking victim somewhere on the wall. The china might not match, it's just some person's home. It's about the food, the love, the skill. You might even be asked to clean up, now and then.
So I got the invite, finally. The Websites are public knowledge, but they're password protected. I got the email with the password. How? I went to the open faces some of the prominent supper clubs have ("Hi, yes, we're a secret supper club, glad you know about us, there's nothing on this Website, but leave your name, don't call us we'll call you!") and left my name and and went away. So why did they eventually write back? Perhaps because cargoweasel and I have now been to half a dozen other really cool food club meetings. Maybe because last time, we happened to make REALLY good friends with the founder--did he drop our name in the right ear? My guess: the nature of this event.
This particular "secret supper club event" is actually a collusion between FIVE of the largest, best funded supper clubs in NYC. These are the clubs so prominent they usually take place in actual restaurants. Meetings of these clubs tend to be almost public, resemble more a "restaurant closed for private event" and people just show up and eat, rather than the more guerrilla invade-the-home-or-secret-spot style I was describing above. These clubs are big, and almost legit. Now, five of them are acting in concert, and even though the usual secrecy is in place (you pay up front, it's big money as usual, and you're only told where it is 48 hours before the date), they mentioned it's for 150 people.
150 people!! So this can't be an intimate dinner for a few. This can't feature something smuggled in on a plane, or just some guy and his roast piglet. It's a big affair. They're calling it a "Thanksgiving." For something this big, I suspect they simply can't afford to have "regulars" be unable to make it. So I suspect they went to the big list and said, "Okay, here's a chance to see how many of these patient, patient people who've been waiting will really come if we give them a shot."
In other words, this is an event, yes. It's a money-making event. It's an experiment. It's a stab at near respectability (I'll bet you this particular event will even have all the proper permits, choking signs, fire codes, health and safety, and liability insurance). I figure this will be as "underground" as the San Diego Comic Con! But I detect it's also a kind of test. Those who come to this event will have proven they have some degree of daring and some degree of trust. They're willing to drop $150 per person, first time, sight unseen, for a meal at a place they don't know about and won't know about until 48 hours before. They're willing to do it all with strangers, all through the Internet, solely on the strength of the reputation of the supper club to which they've never yet been given a password.
So Cargo and I will be going. It's my hope that we'll not only eat very, very well, make a lot of friends, have a wonderful time, but also get some passwords to some of the "real" supper club events in the future. You know, the clandestine ones, the ones where you suddenly find yourself in the back room of some guy's house, some guy who just happens to really love Italian wine and invited 10 strangers who were first to click "I Accept" and donate $100 on the supper club Website and simply come over and share. Or the meal at that crappy, hole-in-the-wall Thai place that has a back room where a little mama has some authentic crispy Thai rice from the northern provinces like you CANNOT GET outside of Asia. Or maybe an actual durian that wasn't frozen first. Or maybe just Daniel Boulud is cooking at his house. Or the Whisk & Ladle supper club restaurant: a supper club that's also a fully functioning restaurant, only you can't make reservations, you need to be INVITED, just like the supper clubs of Harvard. Maybe we'll get a chance to try some of those.
Should be fun!
EDIT: Well, seems they've alerted all the New York City event, food and culture blogs, and are inviting anyone who wants simply to write any of the five supper clubs an email and ask for the password to this event. Not so restrictive or secretive this time, not with so many seats to fill! Sigh. Oh well, should be fun anyway.
--Axiom
|
|
| Ticker |
[06 Nov 2008|06:42pm] |
332.0 <--START (October 5, 2007)
.
.
318.5 <--START, Meal Replacement Diet (October 26, 2007)
.
.
225.5
222.0
229.5
225.0
227.0 <--CURRENT (November 6, 2008)
105.0 <--TOTAL LOST
1.870 <--loss per week (average)
97.00 <--remaining to lose to reach GOAL
130.0 <--GOAL
52.87 <--weeks to go at current average (April 7, 2009)
NOTES: Okay, okay, I partied when Obama won, and then got drunk and partied some more, and ate ice cream and drank and...woo Obama! WOO!
Put on muscle, so body fat percentage actually dropped, so, not too bad, despite the gain.
--Axiom
|
|
| You Know... |
[06 Nov 2008|12:22pm] |
I think we all learned something from this experience.
I've learned that, no matter how complex the issue, no matter how non-Euclidian the political machinations, no matter how high they pitch the dog whistle, not only does cargoweasel root it out, but he discovers it passionately, intelligently, and proposes concrete ways real people who might actually be reading his journal might fight it and make a true difference.
Is he the best or what?
--Axiom
|
|
| Concertina |
[03 Nov 2008|03:45pm] |
I wish to purchase, teach myself to play, and play an English concertina.
You can try and stop me, but it won't do you much good.
--Axiom
|
|
| Ticker |
[31 Oct 2008|05:46pm] |
332.0 <--START (October 5, 2007)
.
.
318.5 <--START, Meal Replacement Diet (October 26, 2007)
.
.
225.5
222.0
229.5
225.0 <--CURRENT (October 30, 2008)
107.0 <--TOTAL LOST
1.910 <--loss per week (average)
95.00 <--remaining to lose to reach GOAL
130.0 <--GOAL
49.87 <--weeks to go at current average (March 30, 2009)
NOTES: Much better. Down 4.5. Shakes work wonders. Even had a crazy day of bingeing last week and still lost lots. Feel better, too.
Whew, what a relief. I always feel so much better when I'm on shakes. I walk like I'm light as a feather, I don't have that bloated, heavy, lethargic feeling. Love it, and love the results!
--Axiom
|
|
| Marshmallows |
[31 Oct 2008|03:32pm] |
I want to make marshmallows tonight. Yes, make them. Home-made.
Nothing says Halloween to me more than marshmallows, and I have lots of awesome extracts (almond, mint, hazelnut, cocoanut) to make cool flavored marshmallows from scratch. No fat, of course, but it's still sugar, it's candy. Not on my diet or Cargo's. So I ask you:
SHOULD I MAKE HOME-MADE MARSHMALLOWS TONIGHT OR ANYTIME THIS WEEKEND?
--Yes?
--No?
Thank you for voting. This is far more important than any other election.
--Axiom
|
|
| It's True |
[28 Oct 2008|03:22pm] |
Underwear is not surrender.
--Axiom
|
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