Black Belted

Today, my Sensei presented me with my first level black belt in Shotokan. I tested last Sunday and was told I passed, so it wasn't a surprise to me. Still, for the rest of practice, I was a little shocked whenever I caught a glimpse of my own waist, wondering why my belt was so dark against my white gi.

A black belt. That's what it was. No big deal, it's just a different color of my belt, right? I don't feel particularly different. There are still many things to learn, many things to improve about my karate techniques. There are still plenty of years to be training and levels of black to strive for and possibly achieve. How is this belt color change any different than the last time I changed belt colors?

Perhaps it's the expectation that comes with the words 'black belt'. The term assumes mastery in a martial art. The other colors don't have that connotation. The expectation feels a little intimidating. I don't necessarily feel like I've mastered the art. Far from it. But I told myself earlier that now I'm training and studying for real. So far, it's just been a preamble to the real thing. And for some reason, that made me feel better.

I started karate again a little over 6 years ago when I realized that I was horrible at keeping up with a regular workout. The gym membership near work ended up being free money for them because I always came up with an excuse why I didn't/couldn't go to the gym at lunch. Even a semi-regular stint with the rock climbing gym in the evenings didn't take as well as I'd hoped. Exercising at home, in front of some exercise videos ranging from Taebo, belly dancing, Pilates, to hula dancing was even shorter-lived. So I went back to my college roots and looked up the nearest Shotokan dojo near me.

I had good memories of going to karate practice in school. Even through finals, I would make sure to go because it had such a calming effect on me. I started on a random whim when some cute boy asked me to join his karate class. I was thrilled that the Sensei taught karate in terms of forces and vectors and other engineering terms I was learning about during my classes in the day. I had just earned my green belt three years later when my Sensei moved away. Between co-op jobs, graduating and applying to grad school, I never did settle into a new dojo afterwards.

Cut to post grad school when I discovered that the nearest dojo to me was being taught by the Sensei of my college Sensei. I figured that was a good a sign as any that I should start up again. I went to watch a class and I was itching to get up and practice again. So I signed up for a class the very next day.

Since then, I've competed at some local tournaments, attended karate camps, injured my ankle, healed, worn my share of bruises and now I'm a black belt. As a marker on my path, I guess it is a big deal to me, after all. I hope to be practicing karate for many years yet to come.

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Back in the Rice Habit

I come from a culture where rice is the basis of the three squares a day. And by rice, I mean the white, sticky stuff, not any of this fancy wild/brown/yellow and loose alternates. We'd gotten out of making rice at home because I grew to loathe cleaning the rice cooker pan afterwards. It always needed to soak because the rice had crusted and burnt to it. The lid would be covered in white, hard to scrub froth. The pain had not been worth it since I would just get my rice fix when we ate out. It's especially not worth it when an impatient toddler will not wait until I am done with the dishes and will physically try to push me away from the sink so I can play with her.

But we discovered that she's a fan of brown rice. We try to feed her healthier than I feed myself so I looked into what it takes to make brown rice. Apparently, it's more finicky and harder to cook than white rice, which didn't recommend itself to me. Enter Zojirushi

We were at some friends' house for a barbecue where they served up some brown rice. Their daughter is the same age and I figured that if they could manage making the stuff, maybe I could learn some tips and tricks. It was simple enough - she pointed to a squat, bubble-shaped appliance on the table and declared that it was easy to make brown rice with it. The bubble shaped thing was apparently a rice cooker. I had enough time to note the name emblazoned on its side before my daughter decided she wanted to tackle the steps on the deck by herself and I had to go supervise.

Later that week, I went to look up Zojirushi and see what they had to offer. They have a bewildering array of rice cooker choices, boasting bells and whistles I never knew one needed for a simple pot of rice. But they're a Japanese company and they should know about rice and I was determined to wade through the choices to see if they had a rice cooker that would work for us. Of course, they had the simple standard rice cookers I recognized, but what if I actually needed some of those extra features and I never knew it before? Their comparison chart only sort of helped. I zeroed in on the ones that listed brown rice as a menu option. Ooh, the same rice cookers could also do sweet rice. Mango sticky rice, here we come! Oh and there's a timer function so we can have our rice ready at our preset time? Score! And it also does porridge (read: it can do the good oatmeal that takes half an hour)? With a timer so it can start breakfast before we get up on a weekday morning? Score another point! I don't really need my rice cooker to make cake or use it as a slow cooker. I also wasn't sold on induction heating element or the pressurized system, especially as it added another $100-$150 to the cost. So we ended up with the NS-YAC10 model.

I certainly wasn't expecting to spend over $200 for a rice cooker. I'm a victim of my own self-imposed feature creep and besides I put in all that effort to research the cooker and it was recommended by some friends. Darn it, I deserve that rice cooker now! To get back to my roots! And feed my girl some tasty, healthy rice!

The rice hit the pan last week, and I'm still plotting the list of rice/oatmeal we need to try with it. White rice? Delicious, chewy, better than the restaurant rice! Brown rice? Well, it's not my preferred and we ended up eating it the day after because it took about an hour longer than we anticipated. Definitely a candidate for that timer feature. But still tasty and The Girl shoveled it into her face by the handful (to be fair, it's how she eats most things that she's willing to eat). I need to find some sweet rice and then we try the good oatmeal one morning. The best part? It's a breeze to clean.

Our household has joined the 21st century of rice cooking.

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Cat Truths

Found this video that encompasses both Ka's and Zaia's behavior around the computer. Ka takes it one step further and actually chews the cable in two rather than just unplugging it though.

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NaNoWriMo Year 4 Win

And I thought I was delusional to think that I could write 50,000 words this past month with work, a new baby and little sleep. Once again, my goal-oriented self won out. I'm happy to report that I've won my 4th NaNoWriMo (I skipped last year's).

This year, I decided to write science fiction, a cousin to my usual genre, fantasy. I had no plot and only the vaguest sketch of characters. While I wrote 50,000 words (actually 57,656) I didn't finish my story. I did end up with an outline of scenes to sketch my way to the end of the story so I guess I can finish it up later. This was the first year that I started with no plan - 'pantsing' as it's termed on the NaNoWriMo forums, short for 'writing by the seat of one's pants.' It was a little intimidating and I think it made for a more roundabout first draft than my pre-planned ones. I also think I didn't manage to flesh out much more than caricatures out of my characters. If I did go back and edit, I'd like to know more about who they are and what the heck they think they're doing in my story. I also spent a lot of time having my characters expound on the technology of the story as I tried to figure it out for myself. I'm not sure I was that consistent and there were plenty of spots that I had to sort of hand-wave or else it would bog me down. Still, the story evolved as it went on, but there were size-able stretches where I plunked down words while I tried to figure out what happens next which makes for boring reading. On the flip side, I think I did a better job of switching between different points of view within the story without rehashing what happened in between scenes to the umpteenth degree. Refreshing. At any rate, here's my synopsis. Read more to get a very short excerpt. I'm still trying to think of a title for it.

Synopsis:
When the leading MMO game company hired neuroscientists, the world was thrilled to welcome the ability to control their games and computers with thoughts. But the picture behind the scenes tell a more sinister tale. Brilliant scientist Penelope Redding inadvertently opened the door to TsunamiCorp.’s new tech but she scrambles to undo its darker ramifications when people start disappearing, trapped in the machines they play. Will she be able to destroy TsunamiCorp’s secret labs before it's too late or will she become a victim of her own breakthrough research?


~~~~~~

Penelope was still poring over the data on the screen, "If they did it the way I would have, the only thing the consciousness that transfers would have is the knowledge that their body is breathing, their heart is beating, all of the autonomous stuff. You don't actually need to transfer the signals that actually carry out those processes. They wouldn't actually be controlling anything so they might mess up actual systems in the new consciousness housing but the consciousness would need to 'know' that these things are happening or else it would believe itself dead and actually die. The readings here have the correct profiles that would match that behavior."
"So the body left behind would retain enough autonomous function to keep the flesh alive?" Gabriel completed.
"Yes. If they did it right. That way you can reverse the process and download the consciousness back."
"Seems like there would be some loss somewhere. Epsilon radiation isn't the most precise of technologies," Gabriel said.
"Upload is theoretically easier than downloading. Thanks to Sally, we can communicate with the brain matter and impose new pathways, but the download after an upload of a consciousness isn't making any new pathways, just turning them on again."
"Sounds like that would be easier?"
"My theory is that epsilon radiation is far less efficient at that than creating new pathways. It's a more nuanced communication that I've just started to contemplate. There's no way they have that sort of nuance perfected."
Gabriel waved his hand around the bank of equipment, "They have a little more resources available to them than you do. Maybe they might have gotten ahead of you?"
"Obviously they have gotten ahead of me," Penelope said as a look of irritation crossed her face. She adjusted her glasses. "My point is that they can't have done it right. That level of nuance can't be done methodically. It's not a linear calculation that you can just canvas over. You tend to miss things. When has the human brain looked like a nice, neat grid you can methodically march through?"
"I don’t often get a look at the human brain, but the few times I have it looked pretty organically laid out."
"Exactly,” Penelope scratched her temple. "Somehow, they did upload a consciousness though. And it wasn’t an accident. This most recent pass was their most successful, but this isn't the first time they tried." She stabbed a finger at the display. "See these other files? Similar profile but they get simpler the farther back in time they go. It's trying to do the same thing. They just keep forgetting some bit of information that's key to a functioning consciousness."
"Do you mean to tell me that they've killed as many people as they've tried?"
Penelope’s lips narrowed to a line, "Not dead exactly, but comatose. Vegetables. Unless they perfect their download process, they'll stay that way."

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Alice: Madness Returns Steamdress

Finished and debuted! Whew! I was finishing up my gloves (oh the straps!) the morning of wearing it, so it was pretty close. While it's a pretty easy wear costume compared to others I've worn, it's still a little warm. Joy hasn't worn the full bunny suit because it was too many layers and the bodysuit part was the heaviest. She dropped down to just her waistcoat and bunny hat which accomplished the effect. We wore our costumes to the Halloween parties at my work and at Lee's. Lee's was definitely cooler and where this picture was taken. Click on the 'Read more' for the breakdown.


Baby Girl's costume was a conglomeration of 2 costumes. A pirate princess one and of course, a bunny one.

I had to get a larger size white rabbit costume because it was all they had and the bodysuit didn't fit her (not to mention it was only a wider neck opening and getting her in and out of that for diaper changes would have been maddening to both of us). So I also got a white chenille pajama to stand in for her bodysuit. I added the footpads on the bottom. Got rid of the belt and faux dress from the pirate princes to get down to a red coat and added some gears to the back. Oh and I added the teeny top hat to the bunny hat. The clock was made of a clock sign and some upholstery foam covered with fabric and ribbon. I had to make it squishy and chewable because that's exactly what she does to anything in front of her.

My costume was a bit more involved. But first, I neglected to put up a reference shot of the back of the dress.

And for the comparison:

I started with the Simplicity 2827 pattern and added some modifications: changed the neckline, shortened the skirt length, added snap opening to the front. I attached the apron to the dress to cut down on the weight that the belt harness would have to hold up. The icons are painted onto the apron, but I'm going to have to thicken those lines to make them show up more.

Lesson learned: if I'm going to use a moleskin cloth type of fabric to get a leather look without having to work with leather, I should pick a fabric that doesn't require finishing to make the edges look nice. The straps (galore) on this dress took a lot of extra seams to clean up the edges.

The belt harness required some internal boning structure to hold up to the 3 belt buckles on the front and hold it's shape. I attached the bow straps to the harness, but the bow was velcroed on for easy removal. Given that the bow is made with wire hangers covered with the moleskin cloth, I would not have been able to sit and drive in it. The compass in the middle of the bow glows in the dark though I think technically, it's supposed to be another clock. I also learned that hot glue does not make a robust system for maintaining the bow shape. I had the bow knocked off my back a few times during the Halloween festivities and it's now droopy and the compass fell off. I'll have to come up with something else to hold that together better.

It was kinda fun adding the eyelets to the apron and strings with my new eyelet pliers. The trimming around the skirt and sleeves was a ribbon though so I didn't need to do those. Have I mentioned the straps yet? I opted for simpler vest buckles on the arms and harness so they could be smaller and actually fit 7 on one arm. The smallest belt buckle I found were the 3 on the front of the belt and that would have been ridiculous to wear 7 of. Oh, and for the fun of it, I got some green contacts to wear.

Carrying my white rabbit around along with my vorpal blade was kinda heavy. I ended up using my boots as a sort of sheath to hold the blade in. My other boot was where I sheathed my phone. Sadly, no one I work with was cool enough to recognize the outfit (aside from my immediate circle of friends) but they appreciated Joy's bunny outfit anyway. For that matter, no one at Lee's work recognized us either. Oh well.

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Madness: Scaled back Halloween costuming

I can't believe Halloween is almost upon us, which means it's time for making a new costume. I tossed around a few ideas with some new parameters. I'm looking to do a coordinated costume with The Girl that would be fairly easy to construct on limited time. Lee ended up going with a different theme (he's always wanted to do a good Jedi outfit and since we're not likely to be attending a nighttime costume event together, it made sense for him to splinter off this year). We considered a Portal 2 costume with me in the main character, Chell's, outfit and the baby as the cutest Portal gun ever. Instead we settled on a revisit of American McGee's Alice in Wonderland, only this time based on the second game, Alice: Madness Returns. Happily Alice has quite a wardrobe in the game, so I'll be able to wear a different style dress than the first goth Alice attempt. Due to fabric availability, I decided to go with this one:


Meanwhile, Baby Girl will be my trusty White Rabbit. Only not quite as dementedly evil as the picture below.




I've already got a white rabbit outfit for her. I need to deck it out with a red waistcoat, top hat, a giant clock and gears. I've gotten my fabric for my dress and even a bought pattern that I'll be modifying to better replicate the steam dress. The stripey tights were relatively easy to buy and shockingly so were the shoes (thanks Spirit Halloween Store!). And Epic Weapons already makes the Vorpal Blade. Now all I need to do is get some sewing time. Whew.

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Nifty Technology: Photography

This is a DSLR camera clipholder being made by Peter Dering that looks like a better way to have your camera attached to you, so that you can carry it around, ready to take shots while having it more rigidly attached to prevent accidental damage. (Of course, it doesn't take into account walking yourself into objects that could damage your camera, but at least you won't be swinging it into said objects.)


Aside from the actual product, (which does sound nifty, but I'd have to defer to the resident DSLR photographer in the family, Lee, to determine its true user niftiness), I was also intrigued by the method by which this is being manufactured, getting funding, getting advertised. I'd have to look into it further to see how he found his small run manufacturers, but the product clearly has some prototypes but hasn't gone through a larger scale production. He's using the Kickstarter website to solicit funding and generate some enthusiasm out there before he has production going. The marketing apparently worked since I stumbled across this on the internet and I don't know the guy. I know enough people with good ideas for useful designs that could hook into this system for getting that good idea into the hands of more than just their friends and family. It strikes me as somewhat akin to Amazon's self-publishing system only for more than just books. I'll have to keep this in mind the next time I get a bright idea that needs to be made in bulk.

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