Is it seriously almost May? Holy crap.

Just got back from a quick trip to New Jersey. On said trip, I … well … let’s just say it was work, a little stressful, it’s not quite done yet. You should see the other guy. I drove, so staple 10 hours in the car onto an otherwise full week. The high point was meeting up with for a quick pizza on the way down.

The second high point was Crank 2 (High Voltage). It’s a B movie – but it’s freakin’ genius. “What would happen if we turned every single knob on this movie up to 11?” Genius, I tell you. See it late at night, at least half in the bag, and woot and holler at the screen.

Tomorrow a friend is testing for his first degree (black belt) at the school in RI. I’ll be headed down for the traditional supportive hazing. After that, it’s on to socializing with the Skeptics club.

Um, I’m going to Honduras in a couple of weeks and buying a house at the beginning of June? Then my brother is getting married a week after that?

Help?

— UPDATE —

Lest there be any confusion, this review of Crank 2 is really pretty accurate. If you go in expecting anything other than “dumb action movie, turned up to 11,” well, don’t come whining to me that there were totally unnecessary boobs, violence, and unremitting silliness in there.

28 bottles of wine on the shelf, 28 bottles of wine …

And now we wait for at least a month to crack one and see if the effort was a total waste of time. The glass that I extracted during the bottling process (bad luck to not have one – bad luck as in you might bottle 28 bottles of spoiled wine!) is tart. Tart tart tart. On the other hand, there are echos of oaky cabernet goodness in there. We shall see.

Totally social weekend: and I went to two birthday parties on Friday (happy birthday !) and then had friends up from Providence for the evening last night. Today we explored the bike trail by our new house, and it ROCKS. Two blocks down from the house, you join up with the trail. Perhaps a quarter mile down the trail, you’re beside the water. We got as far as the UMass campus before turning back, but it seems to go all the way into Boston, if you’re so inclined.

In other news, one of my favorite customers gets to meet the Dalai Lama when he’s in town in two weeks. Jealousy stands in the way of personal development. I am jealous.

Did you know that Boston gets the day off tomorrow because of “Patriot’s day?”

I’ve been considering the house, and decided to consult The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path. In the chapter on preparing for meditative serenity I found this:

Dwelling in an appropriate area

The area should have five attributes:

(a) easy access, so that necessities such as food and clothing may be readily obtained.
(b) being a good place to live, where there are no wild beasts such as predators, no enemies, etc.
(c) being on a good piece of ground, in that it does not breed sickness
(d) offering good companionship insofar as your companions are ethically disciplined and like-minded
(e) being well situated inasmuch as there are not many people about in the day and little noise at night.

So, I’m thinking (a) near a T stop, (b) the nice part of Dorchester (c) not in a swamp (d) will be there and (e) not sure yet, but it seems to be on a fairly quiet street.

Back in March, I wrote a letter to Focus on the Family about a show that they aired on ‘the new atheism.’

They wrote back.

So today I’m firing off a response to the response.

Also, my friend Dan has a radio show called Freethought Rhode Island. He’s planning to talk a bit about Focus on the Family this evening, and has asked me to call in and share my heartwarming story of interfaith dialog. That’s gonna happen, most likely around 9:30 during their broadcast from 9 to 10 this evening.

Triple Headshot

Three gunshots. All three fatal. Fired in the dark by three specially trained U.S. Navy SEALs as the pirates’ boat rocked in the water off Somalia.

“Phenomenal shots — 75 feet away,” said Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, who oversees the region.

A senior defense official told CNN that each was a shot to the head.

That’s three, simultaneous headshots … from one boat to another.

Damn.

I’ve got a Dalai Lama “quote of the day” tear off calendar on my desk. The insights are sometimes more directly applicable and sometimes less. Sometimes I’ve been reminded of a friend and sent them the quote directly.

This one strikes me as not unreasonable for broader distribution:

We are all on this planet together. We are all brothers and sisters with the same physical and mental faculties, the same problems, and the same needs. We must all contribute to the fulfillment of the human potential and the improvement of the quality of life as much as we are able. Mankind is crying out for help. Ours is a desperate time.

Those who have something to offer should come forward. Now is the time.

Weekend has been pretty good so far.

Started off with a massive technical win – which I’m still struggling to even describe without resorting to a whiteboard. I think that I did something pretty cool … so cool that I can’t even really explain it. Usually these things turn out to be simple. “So then I deleted that one damn semicolon, and everything worked perfectly!” This wasn’t one of those.

Following that was what might be called “romance fail.” I stopped off to pick up my very own “stimulus package:” A dozen roses and a bottle of plum wine. Get home to find redmed sound asleep. Figuring this was just a quick nap, I caught up on email – still snoring – watched some TV – still snoring – made a light dinner – checked pulse – and finally called it an evening. Around 10:30pm she woke up all like “what? Oooo. Flowers! Pretty!”

Yesterday I went back to judo for the first time in a month and got a private lesson for two hours from two black belts. That was pretty cool. Since my knee is still on light duty, I learned a lot of terminology and lot of stuff about arm and shoulder locks.

Last night, and S. came over for dinner. We got the apartment all cleaned up, and redmed made an awesome polenta. As usual, one bottle of wine turned into two, and we all sat around laughing until the wee hours.

Woke up this morning around 7 – oddly focused, and killed off two lingering tasks from the terrifying list of lingering tasks for work. Took a nice walk with redmed at the local park, and then visited the house we’re gonna buy. Yup, still looks good.

Finally, bottled the Bass Ale clone. 49 bottles. I was expecting 48, so I had to unexpectedly take one for the team (empty a bottle) right at the end. I may have to take another one here … the refrigerator seems pretty full … or something. Gonna be tasty. That brings me down to 6 gallons of Cabernet left to bottle. Sheesh – productive weekend.

I’ve had a story to write for a while, but haven’t taken the time to put it down. Here it is:

Recently, my judo club hosted the Lebanese men’s Judo team for a week. Basically, we trained every night with some very high level players. I’m told that that the open randori (free-play) night that I missed was something to behold, with some of the better New Englanders coming out to try their game.

Among the Lebanese was Rudy Hachache, who represented Lebanon in the 2008 Olympics. He walks around at about 270 or 280 pounds. Big guy, but light on his feet.

The first night that I trained with these guys, my coach told us to split up “heavyweights on that side, lights on that side.” I figured that with a 270lb Olympian in the room, I was probably a lightweight. I was almost safe when I found myself being yelled at: “Dwan! What are you doing? You’re a heavyweight! Get over there!”

I slunk over, glaring at my friend Wally, who is *exactly* my weight, but had the presence of mind to hide behind someone while he sandbagged. My walk was interrupted by the interval timer, indicating the start of the first round.

I looked up and saw that Rudy and I were the only ones on the heavyweight mat.

“H’okay,” says I. Let’s get this done.

I’ve never had so much “nothing” for three straight minutes in my whole life.

The best analogy I can find is this: Imagine that you’re in the ocean up to about your shoulders. You’re bobbing around, having a good time – but sometimes a wave comes, knocks you over, and puts you on the beach. The first few times, you imagine that there’s something you could do to prevent being knocked over and put on the beach … but there’s not. This was sort of like that. I never even felt him move before I was thrown. Again and again, I would be in the air thinking – “woah, that was smooth.” The best I could do was to recognize the techniques – by name – with which he owned me. I want to be clear, this wasn’t a strength thing. I don’t know that he used his strength the whole evening. He was quicker than me, lighter on his feet than me, technically superior to me, and oh-by-the-way 100 pounds heavier and in better shape than me.

So yeah, that’s probably about as close as I’ll come to the olympics.

For the record, he also threw my coach, though I like to think that he had to work harder at it.

redmed informs me that there is a Hebrew tradition of celebrating a 28 year solar cycle – when the vernal equinox falls on a Tuesday at Sundown. According to wikipedia this represents a return of the sun to the position where it was when the world was made.

It’s worth noting that the Julian calendar messed everything up, and this particular observation is now progressing forward through the week. Welcome to the Wed. edition of a Tuesday celebration.

While I’m not a creationist, I do have a certain appreciation for the long, slow cycles of nature. A fortunate human being might get to hear this particular heartbeat three times. Some of us may get to see Halley’s comet twice. Most won’t.

Further, most people pass their lives wrapped up in the minutes and hours … barely getting their heads above water to observe the days or months. Seasons pass without notice – and so a lifetime goes by unobserved and uncherished. In that spirit, I too am celebrating this 28 year cycle.

28 years ago, I was 5 years old. I was approaching the end of kindergarden, living out in the country as an only child with my two parents. My hair was blond and uncontrollable, and I would tell endless stories out of my active imagination. For amusement, I painted on pennies with watercolor paints.

Now I’m 33 – I’m married and I have two siblings and one parent. Or – by another way of looking – I have three siblings and three parents. I’ve been all the way around the world, and I make a pretty darn good batch of beer.

Where were you 28 years ago? Where will you be 28 years from now?

This glass of water
Left on the bedside table
Is claimed by the cat