Tune Up

Despite the end of the year closing in quickly, I'm going to post-pone the end of year assessment post, and make another one filled with random things. Anthology has gone well, mostly completed despite me having forgotten to bring my pin drive to school so Hill could get it printed double sided. Memoirs of a Geisha is nearly complete, closing in on the final twenty pages of Sayuri's tales, much better of a book than I was anticipating, pleasant surprise to say the least. Sayuri's thoughts as of late tend to confuse me, acting more heavily taken with the Chairman than with Nobu, despite the fact that Nobu has had interest in her for 10 years now.

In other, nerdier news, the Audi R8 5.4 Quatro set up I've been tuning for the past few days in my free time has come along nicely. Suspension is lowered in the back, putting more weight onto the rear tires and taking it off the front. I'm hoping to give it a better launch and handling rating by forcing the Audi's systems to react to the extra rear weight and put more power into those wheels, forcing it to act more like a rear wheel drive car than a four wheel drive, improving it's speed and acceleration points as well, all the tweaking aside, I freaking LOVE this car.

In other, even nerdier news Jacob and I have been experimenting with different slots on our LoL team. Swapping out champions that we regularly play in favor of more unorthodox champions and throw off the enemy team. While Jacob most commonly runs a sturdy and reliable mid lane champion such as Lux or Karthus he has lately been choosing counter pick choices such as Kassadin and Galio. While their counter to AP champions such as Lux and Karthus they lack a certain bang. Galio's role in the team is better suited to support tank, initiating the fights and taking all the punishment, and despite his AP Nuking ability, Galio is not a full on AP carry for the team. Kassadin is a it different however, his abilities hit hard and can disrupt other AP carries in mid lane, his early game is horrible. If the other players get aggressive in the least bit before Kassadin can hit level 6 it's more than likely Jacob will lose the lane. I've been messing around with a Pantheon solo top lately, his passive isn't the best, and I had my butt handed to me by a Riven last night, but good lord is he fun to play. Pantheon's ultimate, Grand Skyfall, can cover most of the map and hot-drop me into another lane for a gank with power and efficiency, letting me drop my stun not long after I impact as well, that shock and awe power helped Jacob and I secure my two hundreth win last night, looking forward to doing more of this Saturday with him at his house. Always good to throw around some dumb ideas and have them work beautifully.

Claws

Well, I dug myself a cozy little pit to tear myself up and out of. I'm desperately far behind in my anthology and my book review, considering that I've yet to finish Memoirs of a Geisha, despite being about 50 or so pages from completion.  To say it has enthralled me is an understatement, I love the book dearly, which is what is keeping me from simply looking up a plot summary of the end. Sayuri's conflicting thoughts of Nobu and the Chairman add a sort of life into the plot, despite Nobu being the clearly better option the Chairman's kindness all those years ago have are what pushed Sayuri (Earlier in the book known as Chiyo) to finally become a geisha. My iPod ended a playlist and as I changed it to another I lost track of where I was going to take this review, so moving on. The anthology can be completed fairly easily, I just need a push from someone to get me to finish this thing. Considering how easy of an project it was the book making process of it seems to be the hardest part of it, considering my crafting skills are horrible despite my dexterity of the hands and digits. I don't even know where I'm going with this anymore, might as well stop.

Disregard me and my cars

Hill started talking about cars in class today. Being a car guy I LOOOOVED this. So when he asked for a car that was beautiful but efficient I had to say the Audi R8.

But he also asked for cars that werent quite as beautiful, so my mind came up with a few.

First up is the Peugeot LMP, with narration by Jeremy Clarkson later in the video.

http://youtu.be/sWSpCIgB0_U

And the other odd car, the Gumpert Apollo S. A gull wing car is odd enough (Except if it's a Mercedes SLS, that car is BEAUTIFUL)

http://youtu.be/YTKwQiUI9r0

(Highlight the URLs and right click "Go to")

Note #5

The Lie

By Don Paterson b. 1963 Don Paterson

As was my custom, I’d risen a full hour
before the house had woken to make sure

that everything was in order with The Lie,

his drip changed and his shackles all secure.

I was by then so practiced in this chore

I’d counted maybe thirteen years or more

since last I’d felt the urge to meet his eye.

Such, I liked to think, was our rapport.

I was at full stretch to test some ligature

when I must have caught a ragged thread, and tore

his gag away; though as he made no cry,

I kept on with my checking as before.

it was a child’s voice. I looked up from the floor.
The dark had turned his eyes to milk and sky
and his arms and legs were all one scarlet sore.

He was a boy of maybe three or four.
His straps and chains were all the things he wore.
Knowing I could make him no reply

and put it back as tight as it would tie
and locked the door and locked the door and locked the door

We all have those lies that haunt us, for if their guise shall fail we will suffer not only those concequences, but of those actions that casued us to lie. "I'd countd maybe thirteen years or more since I'd last felt the urge to meet his eye. Such, I liked to think, was our rapport." Showing time since the man had even gained enough courage to aknowledge what he has done, thirteen years since he has simply maintained his lie without reflecting upon it. "The dark had turned his eyes to milk and sky and his arms were all one scarlet sore." Has one turned blind to what they have done and began to believe their own lie? Forgetting what he had even began to cover up, or has is simply had a blind eye turned onto it, left to die to fading memory. "He was a boy of maybe three or four." The Lie is bound as a child, forced into the dark for none to know of, to be the one forgotten.

Note #4

Promises Are for Liars

By James Galvin b. 1951 James Galvin

Because, you know,

Either you're going

To do it or

You're not.

Slight as light

Reflected from the stream

Onto the wavering

Willow leaves,

Eternal love

Doesn't need

Eternity, see?

A cyclone of sand-

Hill cranes

Rises from the corn

Slathering the

Ephemeral work.

Let's don't worry.

Let's don't ask.

Our institutions

Are standing by.

But I keep thinking

How easy it is

To get lost in the sky

With nothing holy

To defend.

The poem seems to echo to me throughout each day since I've read it. Even the title seems to poke at me, considering how hihgly I value promises to friends and those close to me. "Either you're going to do it or you're not", isn't that how all promises are? A black and white decision of yes or no? You say the word promise as a sing of it will be done, not lie for some one elses comfort. "Eternal love doesn't need eternity, see?" I cant help but feel rattled at this. Everyone views love as something that will never fade, never lose it's sight of that one person. But eternal love is not there, the one you love will die, and there you are, to stand alone. "But I keep thinking  How easy it is To get lost in the sky With nothing holy To defend". I saw myself in this, I often stand outside my home, gazing into the sky as I think, it's a time where I can cast my phone aside and look into my life for a retrospective, I think of my actons, my lies to others, and all the possible scenarios of what could have happened had I not told that white lie. I think for hours at a time about all my lies. Standing here, beside myself.

Those of water may live freely (Reading)

I continue my reading of Memoirs of a Geisha the main character, Chiyo, she is currently called, has just been taken under the wing of another Geisha, Mameha, who belongs to another Okiya in the Gion district of Kyoto. Mameha is described to be one of the most beautiful women in all of Japan for the time, and the only thing that can even compare to her is another Geisha named Hatsumomo, who lives in the same Okiya as Chiyo. It is clear to Chiyo that the only reason Mameha has taken her as a "little sister" is to have revenge upon Hatsumomo, who viciously drove out Mameha's best friend many years ago. A recurring point throughout the story is that Chiyo's personality is "Full of water" in contrast to "Made of wood." While wooden personality is sturdy and focused, those of water find freedom to be most refreshing and can adapt to new challenges easily "Water will bend and curve around large objects, Chiyo. You can flow freely over what others cannot". Chiyo holds another unique aspect bound to those of water, her eyes. While most people in Japan commonly have brown or dark colored eyes Chiyo has light, blue gray eyes, and this is the feature most commonly pointed out to her by someone she has just met or when she is being inspected for qualities of a geisha.

I'll continue with the book despite its horrendously slow pace, I'm nearly half way through and Chiyo is still only a teenager, with no information of how she came to be in New York and her befriending of Jakob.

Peer Into Others

I've found a favorite genre, memoirs. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Memoirs of a Geisha, seem to captivate me. True, they are both about asian women but my fascination of stereotypes and love of historical Japan make them wonderful reads to me. Amy Chau, in Tiger Mother raises her children as a typical Chinese mother would, as her father raised her, and the inner and outer rebellion of herself and her family. Memoirs of a Geisha  is what I'm currently reading, and as her good friend "Jakob-san" as she refers to him Nitta Sayuri recalls her tales from growing up in the small fishing village of Yoriodo to Mr. Tanaka plucking her and her sister to becoem Geishas. While I'm not nearly close to being done with the book, it has already enthralled me in Sayuri's tales.