Kung Fu

by Dennis••9•Posted inJournal

I just wrote an entire post about my frustrating evening yesterday, and I switched to another tab to download the Fallout 3 trailer, and my browser fucking crasht, so I lost the post. Let me see if I can recreate it…

I had a very frustrating evening yesterday, since I badly wanted to go to Kung Fu, since I haven’t been there with everything that’s been happening lately. I couldn’t reach my step-father, and therefore kind of took a gamble that he had left his car for me to use. He hasn’t been using it a lot lately, so I took the train to Hoorn, walked over to his house, only to find that his car wasn’t there. I ended up taking a taxi from my mother’s house to Kung Fu, and after Kung Fu one from there to my father’s house to pick up some things that had to be returned to the doctor (mophine pump, etc.) and then drove on to my mother for some food and a shower. It cost me 35 euro, which ticked me off, but I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way of going to Kung Fu again.

At Kung Fu everyone was really glad to see me, which warmed my heart, and I got to train in the new gym we share with a kickboxing school. The space was a bit smaller than what we had before, but the mat was perfect, and it has a dedicated boxing ring, which was great, too. It also has very neatly attached hooks all along the wall, with a full-length kickboxing bag hung from them, which you can slide forward, away from the wall and lock in place; a really nice way of storing the kickboxing bags. The area is high, which is good so that it doesn’t run out of oxygen quickly, and it has windows and a door to the outside. It’s abit more spartan than what we had before, which I like, but good ventilation in the summer is a luxury you get used to really quickly.

The training went well. The push-ups I’ve been doing every morning have really helped out, because I didn’t get too winded when we did them during training, which normally does happen. My legs had become quite a bit weaker, though, but that’s just a matter of time. I was really happy when my sifu told me that we’d knock off the extra weight I had put on over the last few weeks in no time. :)

Karel, my Kung Fu brother, immediately challenged me to a sparring match in the ring, and when we started I immediate shot for a double-leg take-down, tried to put him in a kimura but pinning his arm instead and I went for a full-mount. It was all over from there. I got applause. Not really Kung Fu…but fun nonetheless. :)

I’ve decided that if I can find a BJJ school in Amsterdam I’m going to go and have a look at it. Kung Fu is really cool to do, but it’s a sport, not really combat.

Amazing New Tech

by Dennis••1•Posted inJournal

If you have 8 minutes, watch this video on Photosynth.

Quote:
Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. “Perhaps the most amazing demo I’ve seen this year,” wrote Ethan Zuckerman, after TED2007. Indeed, Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and experience digital images.

It’s really amazing stuff.

Guilt

by Dennis••1•Posted inJournal

I was at the doctor’s office today for a long list of overdue maintenance (the most important of which was the fact that I had injured my hip a couple of months ago, and it was still sore. Turned out it was a irritated gland behind my joint. Anyway.) I also told her about my father. They like to know about any diseases in the family, and so some time ago I had already informed her about my mother. Back then she was very concerned for me and my emotional well-being. Very concerned. Today, when I told her that in the meantime, my father had developed cancer and died since the last time we spoke, she was even more concerned. She actually made me feel guilty for not being devasted and not crying more.

First Laugh of the Day

by Dennis••0•Posted inJournal
“Time Magazine” wrote:
TIME: When you have so many stars in a movie, and it’s the third in a trilogy, how do you keep it from going off the rails and becoming Cannonball Run 3?
CLOONEY: Well, we like to think it’s more like Lord of the Rings, in the trilogy sense.
PITT: Wait, what’s wrong with Cannonball Run 3?
DAMON: I don’t even think there was a Cannonball 3. Look, you have us confused with deep thinkers. You’ve already put more thought into why we did the movie than we did.
CLOONEY: You’re thinking that we’re not just whores for money. There’s your mistake.

The Namesake

by Dennis••0•Posted inFilms

The Namesake [2006]

Director: Mira Nair
Actor: Irfan Khan, Kal Penn, Tabu

Gogol is the son of Indian parents who immigrated to the United States when they were just married. He wants to fit in with people around him, but it doesn’t always seem to happen as easily as one would want it to be. His name, Gogol, after the Russian author Nikolai Gogol, seems to be the embodiment of that difficulty to fit in. His name invokes jokes and jest from his peers, and slowly but surely he starts to resent his father for giving him the name. Of course, the name holds a very special significance to his father, and it causes a rift between Gogol and the rest of his family.

This is a coming of age tale that’s probably very familiar amongst Indian immigrants in the United States and will strike a chord with them. I thought the film was well-shot, but badly cut, and the story kind of roams and strays off course a bit. The acting is solid, however, and not so exaggerated as Bollywood films. It’s also more risqué than the standard Bollywood film. It’s more of a straight-to-video type of film, but one that’s not to be overlooked, especially when you get tired of Michael Bay films. :)