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AussieAri's weblog
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last modified Dec 22, 2001 at 22:31
There is a bottomless cistern of stone, built rock by rock, that flows deep within the ventricles. The thread of grief need only be touched for the rope tethered there to haul up its bottomless murky stuff. Bucket after bucketful of this thick indestructible substance. Pouring endlessly, bathing in waves the entirety of the body.
Last night i played a ficticious god to the character of all my friends. Some burned bridges, or let ties rot. Most grew roots or made amends. No one changed the world. Divorce, addictions, and violent crime on the rise aside, quite a few had fine boys and girls.
One went by suicide, two by misadventure, another without a miss, three by hazard of duty, and at least four by cancer. Gratis of either occupational passion or unhealthy hobby.
It was difficult to not design their lives without being guided by a flow of least resistance. But of course, gods never considers their own.
Post Nuptial Depression. Look for it in the DSM soon! Thanks to Americans and Brits!
Bitch, i stole your purse!
I am most definitely a contralto, but i can do a mezzo-alto if i have to. High C sucks and so does the D two below Middle C. There you have my range.
Your porn name is supposed to be the name of your first pet + the first road you lived on. If so, mine is either 'Percy' or 'Velvet', 'Wallangra'. Wallangra is an aboriginal word meaning 'big water hole'. HAAA!
Hank Bobbit, of the Berlin based band, Lorena and the Bobbits is coming to Santa Fe. This sounds hiii-larious.
If i ever did go into mma or bjj pro time, i'd want to get totally odd ball sponsors. Like...Honda Motorcycles, Babeland or Good Vibrations, Klingspot abrasives, Twinings tea, The City of Santa Fe, Exhale nightclub. Yep.
Today was filled with twits and cramps.
The twits i have the unfortunate pleasure of trying to work around in a professional capacity shall remain nameless, as i may have an odd profession, but i aim to maintain professionalism regardless.
Then there's this twits everyone here has to deal with. There's one who want to ban MMA in my home state of New Mexico. Then all the good ol' Catholics came out to ban gay marriage in AlbQUEERque today. Hoo-ray.
I could get a really good rant going right about now on both these topics but i won't. Though you don't see me skipping down the isle in pink MMA gloves with my best fag coordinating all the wedding decoration and my best man coaching me in the corner, let me just say, "I will defend to the death your right to do so."
At least my hopping around like an idiot work out this evening was free of both cramps and twits. It did good things for my heart rate. I'm trying to extend the ever important proverbial 'gas tank' for the Pan Ams. Screw weight classes and cutting or adding, i'd rather have a big gas tank!
In creepy NM news (it's always something preposterous and unsolved around here i swear), more bodies found on West Mesa. Eeeee-ECKH.
I was just taking about Hello Kitty branching out into non-normal rolls and pass times. Apparently Mattel, makers of so many American children's toys for decades, is either fucking desperate, or run by a bunch of demented people, or more likely both.
I give you:
Hitchkock's 'The Birds' Barbie.
If you've gotten over your confused after looking at it, let's keep it going. Here is:
Classic Star Trek Barbie.
Pooper scooper Barbie
And Kink wear comic book character Canary and Cat Woman Barbie. Pervy fan boys rejoice.
Queen of Hearts Barbie. OFF WITH HER HEAD!
Marie Antoinette Barbie. No, her head doesn't come off. Nore does she come with a guillotine.
Goddess of Wisdom Barbie. Oy, the stupid- it hurts.
Medusa Barbie.
Morgan Le Fay Barbie. There on a roll here with the 'nasty women of legend' thing.
Arabie Nights Barbie. Uh... which way to the Harem?
Pirate Barbie. I think i'll write and suggest like Malibu Barbie they give her her rightful vehicle- a ship named 'The Quivering Thigh'. In honor of S. Clay Wilson's bit in ZAP comics #3 of course.
The Addams Family Barbie. I suppose they were a happy family...
Now we begin the less than fashionable section of odd barbies:
Nascar Barbie. Nuff said.
Chicago Cubs Barbie. Who likes to hang out at bars near Wriggly field.
Australian Barbie. JESUS BLOODY CHRIST you people are wwaaaay off the mark here.
George Washington Barbie. Digging that beard barbie.
Aaaaand, Army Barbie. Who knows all about 'don't ask don't tell' and will kick your ass for suggesting.
You know about the Khmer Rouge's taking of children soldiers. Had you heard about the 'Invisible Children' of Uganda though? When the children escape they're called 'night commuters'. God damn religious war bastards.
You know 'Our Chart', that social networking and self advertising tool created by Showtime off of the premise of the original 'chart' from their hit series The L Word?
No?
Yeah i don't really give a schite about it either and i am not a member. BUT i have the name and the concept for what would be either the female equiv of Manhunt or something more akin to the original chart's idea.
Myface.com
The best of both myspace AND facebook! A much better suited site for both dyke drama with it's endless message boards and mail system and for hookups with it's highly specific search-able database of members and their relations to one another! Why? Because we all know with women, you never get one (sexy time) without the other (drAMA!).
On my god i think i just wet myself in excitement. The fights are back and IT. Yes IT which has needed to happen for such a long time finally WILL happen, somehow.
*runs around joyously singing 'Cyborg's gonna kick Carano's aaaaaass!' over and over again*
I really hate the fact that women's sports wear seems to change every few months. Many faithful well worn (and entirely necessary) garments are simply not available after the first time you buy them. Maybe it's just my body and requirements for my sport that only do well in 2% of all women's sports wear available. I tend to think not though from the feedback i've heard. This trend makes it infuriating when i need to go shopping because i've worn through all my old athletic wear.
This fast turn over in types and styles of sports product is purely dictated by fashion and not popularity because of fuction. For about a year Vicky's use to have an amazing sports bra that boasted it was the world's favorite, and well believable too. They do not carry any of that line anymore.
This turn over is far worse than say, women's jeans and shirts, which you can usual track down after they stop being produced. Cuz really- who is going to sell a 'lightly used' or even 'previously owned' sports bra? That's not happening.
Until i find a consistent supplier that makes a truly wonderful sports bra/training shorts i will KEEP complaining about the numerous specific drawbacks of every changing piece of women's sports clothing i end up having to wear as my alternative.
The women's locker room at the academy seems to already seems to be a place i could hold meetings about this at.
Last night at the school I rolled for the second time ever with a recent black belt. It was no-gi which we only do once a week. No gi is great for my conditioning and learning to flow better. I was rolling much better with him this time than previously, for reasons that wouldn't be apparent to someone else but that i won't get into. Afterwards we were chatting and he mentioned the 'improvement in performance' and said, 'You're almost there.' I in no way take any of this as a dis, i simply wonder where 'there' is.
Any good blue belt realizes doing BJJ and improvement in BJJ must be an ongoing process. By the time you're purple belt, you've figured out how to make it a sustainable process for yourself and you've dedicated to that practice for the future.
So where is 'there' when something is a process? Does he mean to really being an advanced practitioner? Let's face it, every woman (with the glaring exception of one) who i've met that's purple or above is in a league of their own compared to blue and below practitioners. They are all good, technical, and tough. The differences for advanced BJJ women seem to come in not so much in use of strength or amount of technique, but in personal style, and the undeniable but still somewhat subjective distinctions of good, really good, and really fucking good (read: god).
There are just not that many highly ranked BJJ women in the world and the majority of them have to contend with constantly training against men who are stronger and bigger than them. Is this why there seems to be at least a slight difference between male and female purple belts? I know a lot of male purple belts who have great technique but still use ALOT of strength. Not so with female purple belts. Is that were 'there' is for me?
In similar BJJ musings, i just don't kill myself anymore in both the strength and speed i use in BJJ and my conditioning. I judge it by heart rate- I will complete the same sorts of workouts but it's rare i let my heart rate get so high i feel blood ringing in my ears and my heart ready to burst out of my chest.
Part of my not training to the intensity i use to is i'm in general more tired these days and get sick when i do 'kill myself' regularly working out. By 'killing myself' i mean i end up on the floor for a few minutes afterwards as i get my breath and strength to stand and go on to whatever else back. I know about not training to fatigue and i think that kind of crazy workout that leaves you on the floor is not necessarily a training to fatigue sort.
I take way longer to recover from those sorts of workouts- i could probably only do 2 a week where are in the past i would do probably 5 a week. Yes, part of this is due to health things i need to investigate more but sometimes i also think it's because i've lost some 'edge' that people talk about. I relate to what Shad Smith says about losing his edge. I don't have as much to prove anymore, i'm not trying to protect myself or fortify myself against anything in particular. I believe what Jay Day of fightlinker refers to as his 'warrior mode' is basically the same thing. Yes it's a little crazy, no you don't fucking care when you're on it.
Who knows? It's not like i've stopped doing BJJ or physically conditioning myself or don't really love these things. It's not like my goals have changed and therefore are LESS challenging. I suppose i just want to be challenged in different and more specific ways, still going towards the same goal.
I don't care if they're 'Organic'. Peaches are simply not what they used to be.
*sigh*
The only reliable source for peaches that i've found in the past few years is Monroe's Peach stand on 287 in Texas. I come by it on those otherwise long and dull flat drives between Dallas and NM.
First of all; Bumbells are stupid.
One day, i will get certified to tell people this. Hopefully i will also get certified to show people why Scott Soonon and co are minor deities in the world and substantial ones in the realm of fitness and athletic health.
Now that that's out of the way, my St John's college kettlebell class is liable to get canceled due to lack of attendance- let's face it- if i were back at St. John's i would never give up my one hour lunch time between classes to do a workout that makes me want to eat neither before or afterward, for obvious reasons. If i WAS going to give up a lunch in the middle of the week it would be because it wasn't sandwiched between classes- and i would probably want to take the yoga class that goes on at the same time instead of busting arse in the middle of the day (i prefer to bust arse mid-afternoon to evening time).
ANYWAY. It makes me pissy. There are an inordinate amount of buff johnny boys these days (quite a thing considering as a school, we are the philosopher's parlor talkers) who seem to be very concerned with their muscles and how much they can lift. I want to throw a kettlebell at them and say
"yeah- you bench twice my body weight. Here's a 24kg kettlebell, now watch me do a Turkish get up. Now you do it. Now reverse it and go down. No? Here, watch me do it again."
and watch them flail. I don't really have the time to do these sorts of individual guerrilla recruiting. Maybe i could put up a challenge poster- 'Can you bench press me? Great! But don't think you can out kettlebell me! Come find out!'
It want to share my own 'schadenfreude' (German: the joy of suffering) with others. What can i say. I'm gonna take a poll in my BJJ class to see if it were at a different time if they would come.
In GOOD news my fall BJJ class for adults at the community college has been approved. After jumping through a bunch of hoops just to get to this point i'm told i've got a bunch more to hop through. Got to bring an official transcript to HR, along with two forms of ID, got to take a CPR class, and to let people know what it is we need to do at least one demo of BJJ for the college community around the time they sign up for BJJ. Tedious but do-able paperwork. Demos aren't that hard.
Did i mention they can not require materials for physical ed classes (or most classes) as a policy to keep it cheap for the community? This means i'll be teaching primarily no gi for beginners unless i successfully convince them buy a gi. This is new for me and honestly I'm not entirely thrilled but it will be a challenge. I think training beginners in GI is infinitely more productive. It's almost like training wheels on a bike. Sure you won't be able to go as fast right away with them on but it will make sure you're not going to fall and really hurt yourself when you do eventually take the wheels off. It does in a way keep them safer than they otherwise would be.
Akihiro Gono is my new idol as far as fight entrances go. Check out both these gems. Especially the last one. I wish i could find a better vid of it but it seems UFC has not released any official vid of his Akihiro dancing with his corner mates in matching silver sequence gowns (maybe they'd rather just forget this happened at their event?). Great show. Oh, and he's a pretty damn good fighter too.
Now as outlandish sorts of MMA stuff goes, have you heard about Shinya Aoki's magical submission tights? Though i like to wear tight clothing when i grapple no gi, for some reason, i can not stand to wear tights past my knee. Not that others don't look good wearing them though, i'm glad they do.  When ever will the yanks and the brit fighters catch up with the Japanese fighters flair?!?
One of the best Valentines gift i've ever gotten was presented to me this weekend by Cheryl. She made me an authentic Aussie lamb meat pie, with ground meat and lamb heart inside. What's a meat pie valentine?
"It's like a box of chocolates for an Australia." - Cheryl
Last night i had an adverse reaction to yohimbine which was in something i ingested. I experienced almost all of the 'numerous side effects' listed above. Needless to say, it really sucked. There are good reasons i don't do recreational drugs or stimulants people.
T.(again)I.A.I.L.W. Oh Gina, you're funny. And I'm glad you don't take yourself seriously! You like Cheryl Crow and Tori Amos though don't you?
Everything you ever needed to know about Cougars (the kind that prey on young men, not the kind that prey on deer and birds and things.)
Will someone please do a 'Chickenhawk' (that's the dyke counterpart) version of this?
Micro Wrestling. i really have nothing to say about this other than, What the fuck?
This device makes me quiver with joy and yet...i am befuddled by it ultimately. This object truly touches two polar opposite parts of my personality at once. Thus, there's really no resolution just continual fascination. I found it via this site which is for those who love to hate the Hello Kitty.
Personally, i love the Hello Kitty. One of my earliest memories involved a hello kitty wind up bucket doll thing that you could carry along with you and it would popped out and go 'Mew!'. I still have it somewhere deep in the family boxes i recon. This toy may be why i often find myself randomly Mewing these days. It could also be because i like with three cats. It could also be my true existential cry. I could be digressing though-
I told you about the shirt i picked up in NYC over x-mas right? Though it's a knock off it does represent a growing new trend to apply Hello Kitty to anything.
For the longest time i knew about the plethora of Hello Kitty products available (come on, i was in Hong Kong in the early 90's. You couldn't walk 5 feet without seeing a Hello Kitty something or other.) but i never really thought they would branch out into alternate styles and personas of Hello Kitty. They did in the late 90's. After that, I could not imagine them making interesting items like fire extinguishers but guess what? Power suit Hello Kitty on an office fire extinguisher says: If you're selling retail crap then you have to keep consumers interested and get a new generation of customers somehow. So they did. My delusion of the much adored, cute, but somewhat boringly repetitive Hello Kitty world came crashing down when Cheryl got me a Samurai Hello Kitty for x-mas two years ago. It was like discovering that Julia Childs was an undercover spy during the war before she was a drunken cooking show host. I feel in admiration of this ridiculous little character for completely different reasons all over again.
Of course, like any new take on an original, it can all go terribly terribly wrong.
In the end, we have learned one important thing. That through the wonders of capitalism and nostalgia's desire to make things relevant again, hello kitty is for every kitty out there and IS every kitty out there. Meow!
I remember years ago my dad had a computer screen saver that actually counted the US national debt growing by the second. There's a clock in Times Square that does the same. The numbers have changed a bit and now when thinking about just the portion of that debt that was created by the iraq war (3 trillion) it turns into a zen coan. 3 trillion in 100 dollar bills? How many hundreds of miles high is that when stacked? I found a little tool that may help illustrate 3 trillion.
Space dust is actually mostly dead planet cells...just like earth dust is mostly dead skin cells. Go figure. Why was this such a mystery again?!??
More interesting is that scientist (totally backed by the US army) have successfully teleported information, albeit limited, between two atoms. Don't get too excited, we're not beaming anyone or any thing anywhere and we're not about to say 'goodbye wi-fi!'
What to wear off the mat other than 'a tattoo to rep your set'? Most fight companies (*cough-tapout|affliction|pride|ufc-coughcough*) have a slew of insanely graphic-ed out t-shirts which i can't stand. Want something a little less garish and even humorous? Hurt clothing has one cute (and other instructional) options. If you're really hard core and don't mind people approaching you with the usual, 'oh you do martial arts...well i bet i could kick your ass' response, you can get a BJJ belt converted to be used on your regular pants. Then there's evolution according to BJJ practitioners. If you're into Mixed Martial Arts (and crafts), want to make a statement about the negative public opinion of MMA, or just like to watch your girlfriends fighting.
Now, i know i said this was about what to wear OFF the mat...but i can't resist. I have to show you the purple leopard print fight shorts that the Alpha Female (Fighter Girls clothing line) is making. If lounge isn't your style you can go a little fancy or even a little more intimate.
Believe it or not, there are quite a few etch-a-sketch 'artists' out there. This bloke does it best and most amusing though. Rather than copying other well known works of art or trying to do sketches of people like a street side caricature artist, he does recent events. The GWB shoe thrower is his latest piece. Brilliant.
Cheryl can testify that every time we go into an international grocery i start saying things like 'I had this when i was little!' and 'This reminds me of years of my childhood!'. Because a good deal of foreign commercial food and snack stuff does.
Anyway- when we were in Hong Kong i drank Yakult. Ok, more like i snuck yakult. My mum being the protective one she was had bared me from eating many snacks for a variety of odd and not entirely founded reasons. Yakult was on the list because it was a milk products. From Asia. That was enough right there. I've looked at international markets and i've seen Yakult knock offs but no Yakult. Along with many people in Asia i have oddly strong brand loyalty for these silly snacks.
The other day i found myself wandering around a Wild Oats that is closing in ABQ. I'm in dire thirst and looking to drink anything that isn't a can of MAX EX-TREAM NATURAL ENERGY JUICE PUMP YOU UP! I see Mix 1 lime flavor. No caffeine, no soy-gluten-lactose, whey protein, vit-e-mins and min-es. Sounds pretty good. And it tastes very very much like Yakult. WOW. Haven't tried the other flavors but i'm stuck on the fact it tastes like Yakult and feels pretty good inside me. I will have to do further research into exactly why.
Over December and the ridiculous amount of hours we all worked at the chocolate shop, a few of us got addicted to Kettle Foods' Beer and Cheddar chips. It even spawned a beer and cheddar truffle. Yes it was THAT GOOD. Currently it is NO WHERE to be found in Santa Fe. Believe me, we have checked and compared notes. You have no idea how upset this makes me. I love these chips and i'm not really a chip person aside from fish and crisps/chips.
Damn it. I'm going to have to wait till March till the clinic in Santa Fe can look at my nose so that i can get my frickin' deviate septum fixed. Yes, that's right. I'm having a nose job. I'm sick of only being able to breath through one nostril, having to deal with huge balls of snot that build up in there, and as a result breathing through my mouth when i sleep. That and Cheryl keeps whacking me on the nose by mistake. It hurts. A lot. Shut up.
True it's been a few years like this but it's only been the last few months i have decided i MUST get this thing taken care of. NOW.
I'm tempted to just go to ABQ for the procedure...
Either way, if i want to train BJJ after they fix my face i'll be wearing something like this or this for the 6 months afterward. Did i mention i hope to be teaching kids in the summer and adults in the fall at the community college? Nice.
There's this horribly trashy sitcom Cheryl likes to watch called 'How I Met Your Mother'. Some people may chose to disagree with me here about the show but it doesn't make me laugh and really i find it boring with predictable humor. Anyway- she made me watch Barney's Video Resume. This did made me think someone should ACTUALLY do a resume like this and see how many job offers they get back. No substance, lots of flashy crap. If i do one for myself i'd want to try out a resume that compiles all the 'awesome' random crap about me. It would go something like this:
"I use to work with REAL LIVE WILD CATS!"
*RaaawwwwRRR*
"Calm down Sheba! Here's some meat..."
*throws meat into enclosure*
"During my usual stunt sequences, i can double as Jodie Foster."
*Ari running through snowy woods a la 'Silence Of The Lambs' from afar*
"I can take a solid hit to the face."
*punch*
"But i don't like it."
*Ari proceeds to throw, mount, and pound*
"4 cylinders are better than two!"
*Flips down helmet cover, revs bike and takes off*
yeah...what do you think? AWEEESOME! AWESOME!
mmm...by the way i'll be in Dallas the weekend of March 14th for high school friends' wedding. But just for the weekend.
Morrissey (almost) nude for his new single "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" (classic Smiths crooning by the way...). Don't even pretend like you're not going to click on that first link. I know you listened to Morrissey in your teens and still do on the odd sentimental occasion. It's funny- the guy has been a sex symbol/heartthrob for decades. He has often taken off his shirt at his concerts and has even posed at least once in his youth with his shirt off. But he has not done a nude shot till he's oh what- a year shy of 50??
Note that he's fixing his hair in the pic. He is FIXING...HIS HAIR. Because, you know, you need your hair looking awesome when you're being photoed wearing only a 7" lp somehow affixed to your wang.
Way to go Moz. Middle aged men everywhere envy you!
Fight Linker is a funny blog about MMA that gets up dated a ridiculous amount each day. This guy knows all the dirty dirt, has the kind of irreverent intelligence i feel right at home with, AND he avidly supports women in MMA.
It's cold but not that cold. Unfortunately- i am a weenie when it gets anywhere near cold so these past weeks i've been thinking more and more about warmer locals very vividly. In particular Sri Lanka. Mmmmm.. 28° to 30 °C (82–86 °F). I can easily forgive the constant humidity of 70% for temperatures like that YEAR ROUND.
My day dreaming has also been spurned but interrupted in it's fantasy like attempts by recent reports of the rebel forces, the LTTE, finally (?) being squashed. I question 'finally' because since we lived there over a decade ago i've heard of the rebel war 'finally' being over about three times. Of course it all got me thinking. We may have studied Sinhalese culture, National economy, learned a great deal about poverty, and were told about the LTTE in general and their reasons for rebelling but that has never explained why the a bloody war causing the most violent deaths Per Capita in Asia has gone on all these 25 years.
I haven't been able to find that much info on Tamil rebel's mindset (you go try to interview a militant guerrilla sometime), or that of Sinhalese in response, or even documentation of what the war is originally suppose to be over- the mistreatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
So i still don't know why we kill each other en mass other than the general reason of 'resources'. What else is new.
Using Google Maps Satellite function I began to look up places around Colombo i remember. The international school i went to, the club i took horse riding lessons at, and the hotel where we first stayed in Colombo. I found them all with next to no help from business searches. I surprised myself with how much I remember of the geography along the routes we took regularly and i found them all. For some reason though, in the mass of this city with its many roads that aren't roads or don't have names, ridiculous number of shanty houses, and mishmash of buildings, i could not find our old house. We had a very simple address. No street name to it- just the district in the city and a number off of the general neighborhood/route. There was a dentist that occupied the main street front next to us and burnt their medical waste in the lot between us, a huge round about just down from us, a temple and a large gate over our street before the round about. I'll have to ask dad.
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