Tonight's battle may have been lost,

but the war ain't over till sometime in the second or third week of June... yeah, I'm fairly certain that's when the war will be over.

But not to take away from the subject at hand, "Thank you Capt. Chapman for handing me that loss, you definitely deserved the victory my friend." : )

As a note to anyone who doesn't work with me, our company is hosting it's first ever ping-pong tournament, entitled "King-Pong" (the poster has this great picture of King Kong with a ping-pong paddle in his hand... totally sweet), and it starts Monday, June 6. It's looks like about 20, maybe more of us, will be competing for:

• 1st Place: A shiny trophy and a Ping-Pong table
• 2nd Place: A shiny trophy and a 6-star Double Happiness ping-pong paddle
• 3rd Place: A really shiny trophy and a 5-star Double Happiness ping-pong paddle

Competition will be stiff, and there are those amongst who, despite not playing at work, are rumored to be most excellent.

See yall later,
Zach

Another site.

I've decide to create a personal, unposted site for myself.

Hopefully thru writing and reflection, I'll gain some clarity in some troubled spots of my life.

Good night all,
Zach

My apologies!!

I just realized that I "Anonymous Posting" turned off!!!

This blog is open for everyone to leave your comments, views, thoughts, perceptions, or your recipes for Tuna Casserole.

Thank you again,
Zach

Wanna learn some Tamil?

One of my friends at work is Tamil (Tom-uhl), and he's been teaching me some 'beginners' phrases. Accompanying each phrase will be a (pronunciation guide)* and brief explanation of what it is, and maybe what is isn't. *It's been my observation, and my friend has substantiated this point of view, that the last syllable in any multi-syllabic word is almost silent, and is almost indistinct (at least to my Western ear) from the preceding phonemes.

1. Vana kam : (Von-ugh Kom) An all-purposes, all-encompassing phrase for greetings and farewells. In Tamil, and maybe in other Indian tongues as well, expressions like Vana Kam have no temporal relevance- "Good morning" and "Have a good night" have no literal translation. That said, one could view Vana Kam as simply "Hello" for a greeting, or "Live/be well" for a good-bye.
2. Eppedy Iruke : (Epp-ih-dee Ee-roo-kay) "How are you doing?", or more accurately, "Are you well?" Iruke is less formal, and used when addressing familiar acquaintances. Irukinga is the formal form, and is used when first meeting another.
3. Nala Iruke : (Nah-lah Ee-roo-kay) "I'm well." Notice here, as with Eppedy Iruke, that Iruke denotes a state of being that is 'well'. Again, use Irukinga when engaging in a conversation with someone that you are unfamiliar with, or when that person is unfamiliar with you.

That's all I have for now. I'll posting more blogs with these little language lessons, maybe with some Japanese or Spanish. I'll also be devoting an entire post to a little history lesson of India- I'm finding the history and culture of South-Western and Southern Asia (don't mind me while I steer you away from the Eurocentric term "Middle-East") to be very interesting.

Vana kam,
Zach

P.S. Mouse Gestures for FireFox, and Queen's One Vision rock!

So, Capt. Chapman says

that if it wasn't for the spectators, I wouldn't have even gotten to 15 points.

He is, of course, referring to the ping-pong game we played at 20:02 hours this evening... in which I won 21-16 (or sometin' close to that). Well Capt. Chapman, Zachy says:

• Spectators are par for the course, even though we're not talking about golf (granted though, B-Ice and the Marv-Diggidy were quite distracting and humorous... "What's that sound again?" : ) ). What strategy do you have for King Pong- not bathing for a week prior to the tournament in hopes of driving away any poor soul with an inkling of desire to watch a game? What poor sportsmanship. : )

Now, for anyone thinking that Capt. Chapman is just talking smack, let it be known that our game, was my third game of the night and his first, and so I did have a slight advantage... but other than that, he is talking trash, and I will take him down-town to Little Saigon come King Pong.

Have a great little evenin' all!

Hmmm... Zachy-Bloggy!!

Hmmm... Zachy-Bloggy!!Testing BlogThis!

Revenge of the Sith

Back from Ep. 3 and I must say, "I'm glad it's over" (at least the hype of it all anyway). As you may have guessed from the 12 words in my previous sentence, I'm not a huge fan of Star Wars- and I'm even less of a fan of spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning light-sabers (more on this later).

Here are some of my low and high points:
Lows

1. I felt that the chemistry between Natalie and Hayden was lacking, and when the relationship of Anakin and Padme was supposed to drive the plot emotionally, the story only moved forward on an intellectual level.
2. I can only take so much, and comprehend so little, of Yoda flipping, jumping, and spinning in a fight.
3. Spinning, spinning, spinning, and twirling lightsabers- and I referring to non-combative gestures here. Also, the following sentiments hearken back to Ep. 2 when Obi-wan is finishing off the Acklay in the Genosian arena. Why? It's obviously not necessary. From my limited experience with combative (martial) arts, I have the perception that conservation of energy is key, and I imagine that the Jedi feel the same, so why waste this energy and time flippin' your sword about? Execute the blow, be finished with it, and move on; and in my mind, this is not just use of 'artistic license'.
4. Some of the cinematography/directing called attention to itself. I thought the opening shot of Anakin and Obi-wan flying through the battle, while important in revealing the location, scope, and magnitude of the action, was a tad on the long side. There was also this low, wide, 'looking-up' shot, maybe of Gen. Grievous, that didn't seem to fit my perceived mold of Star Wars cinematography. Lastly, I found the circuitous pacing during Palpatine's and Anakin's dialogue in the hallway leading to Palpatine's office to be distracting. Mr Lucas, was there no other way to film that scene?
   

Highs

1. The theater I saw this movie at came equipped with a Storm Trooper and Sith Lord to greet me at the door- the Trooper was the coolest(I remember wanting to be one for Halloween when I was like 8 or 9 yrs old), and I can imagine the time, effort, and money needed to make the costume look as cool as it did!
2. I really enjoyed Jimmy Smits' performance as Bail Organa. He really exuded sophistication, class, and a noble character; and while I had no pre-conceived notions of what he should have been, I immediately accepted his as the man and father that would raise Leia, and a leader in the Alliance.
3. Yoda's character animation was magnificent. From the small gesture of running his hand through his wispy white hair, to the more emotionally demanding scenes of dealing with the anniahlation of the Jedi, the animators, leads, and TDs at ILM, and Mr Lucas, did a phenomenal job representing my favorite Jedi. On the subject of CG work, there was also a shot where a clone trooper runs in front of the camera in a zig-zag fashion while firing his rifle in a battle scene that really came across very well (don't know if it was Mo-Cap, or key-frame/IK/FK/what-ever else, but it looked great).
4. I did enjoy Ewan's and Hayden's portrayal of the relationship between Obi-wan and Anakin, and really felt the bond being stretched through-out the movie, and eventually broken.

Well, there's my take on it. I will definitely buy this movie on DVD and enjoy it with the others.

Later,
Zach

Marinara over alfredo any day of the week, or century of the eon for that matter.

So tired.

Going to bed real soon.

Good nihgt.

I'm back!!!

To my thousands of devoted readers, (down from the tens of thousands who, no doubt, threw themselves off the nearest teeter-totter when they found out that) I lost my internet connection yesterday for unexplained reasons and could not, I repeat "could not", update my blog.

Oh well, I'm glad that at least everyone reading this account survived the harrowing event. I'll need to ask my room-mate, as he's the official keeper of the connection, what happend. Maybe his SETI@home desktop-computer program found some bogus data from an errant NPR broadcast and decided that Ralph Nader was:

1. extraterrestial
2. intelligent (in his own right),

and that's why I got booted.

P.S. If you haven't heard any pieces from the Jacques Loussier Trio, there's some free, legal downloads available at www.amazon.com and www.telarc.com (actual links to come soon- I'm typing this in a browser that does not support blogger's cool, web post-wrtiting interface, and I only have a white belt in HTML kung-fu). Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire played on a piano, an upright bass, and a jazz drum kit is a very sweet sound.

-Zach

Confutatis

I watched Amadeus with my mom on Mother's Day, it's her favorite, and was absolutely amazed by the scene very near to the end of the movie when Mozart is dictating Confutatis from the Requiem Mass in Latin to Salieri. While I know very, very little musical theory, I was transfixed by the scene with it's myriad of musical terms flying between these two musically learned men, the amazing acting of F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce, and of course, the third actor in any scene of the movie, as described by director Milos Forman, the music (itself).

What I love most about Confutatis is the difference between the ominous sound of the men's choral parts, and the serene, angelic sound of the women's chorus.

The mass itself has had a dark history*:

• Commissioned by a Count to be played on the anniversary of his wife's death
• Mozart died while writing it (unfinished parts would later be completed by other composers)
• One of the following, finishing composers, Joseph Eybler, died of a stroke while conducting a performance of the piece

With all that said, I still recommend listening to this opera.

I can't believe that it took me 25 minutes to write that. (:^O

*Historical accounts were culled from http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Mozartreq/main.html.

Memories of Utah (08/2004)

Horses in the meadow


Sweet.


At the feeders outside the cabin


Dad with his RB-67

Mystery beverage.

The name of the previously mentioned brewed beverage with an undisclosed moniker is Mission St., Pale Ale.

Enjoy!

Pale Ale

Well, I'm definitely a Pale-Ale drinker. I was at Trader Joe's tonight and picked a new brand (they were out of my fave: Fat Weasel) and I'm currently un-decided if I'll by this brew again. It has an initial taste that's kinda bitter, and I'm not too keen on that, but what I do like is the after-taste (which is almost sweet)- and I'm not mentioning the name of this new beer for one very great reason, I can't remember it's name and I'm not about to get up and walk all the way to the refrigerator just to satisfy your curiosity. : )

Well, here I am!

This is my first installment of my new blog- yipppeee!!!