Chuk's LJ

Direct, actual quote. (No context for you.)

clbyers@gmail.com — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:44:33 GMT

Audra: "This jar of cherries is inscrutable and confusing. Whereas the command line is awesome and learnable."

clbyers@gmail.com — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:25:50 GMT

Small worlds - I was playing The Path, last night, when the music credits caught my eye: Jarboe & Kris Force. I don't know Force's work, but for anyone who was into really dark experimental goth/industrial (or um... Hungarian conceptual burlesque, I suppose) in the early 90s: Jarboe is that spooky European synth geek who Yokoed the Swans. And I say that with nothing but fondness. Everybody needs a Yoko. At least in my head, she's best known for performing entire tours wearing nothing but 40 pounds of live snakes, and for writing the more interesting tracks on the Swans' Children of God and Soundtracks for the Blind. The Path is a particularly good fit - she's great at writing and performing those haunting, ethereal choral things, both The Path and Jarboe's best work are about women in a way that few things are, and I'd lay money she did the wolf noises, too - but I like the idea of her doing music for interactive stuff. Hell, Mother/Father was one of my all-time favorite background songs for Unreal.

I assume my little patch of the blogosphere shares enough borders with the world of geek feminism that I don't have to tell you what The Path is, but I will cautiously recommend it. If you've been holding out because you were skeptical about it being what it claims to be, then allow me to vouch for its authenticity. On the other hand, if you've been holding out because you think it might be an uncomfortable experience, you're probably right.

clbyers@gmail.com — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:21:50 GMT

Disclaimer: I like my roommate.

Right now I am listening through the closed door as two metalheads attempt to operate my kitchen, and I wish each and every one of you was here with me. One of them is revealing his arcane knowledge that hot water is the best way to clean a pan, and the other is frightened of the mechanism you have to use to light the stove. They're both pretty sure there should be seasonings involved, but I think they're intimidated by my spice rack. (Intimidated in a sort of stoic, black-metal way, I guess.)

In a few minutes, I'll either be enjoying an omelette, or explaining all of this to a fire marshall. Keep your fingers crossed.

Things that happened last weekend

clbyers@gmail.com — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:28:07 GMT

Whirlwind fun abounds, out here in the desert, but there were a couple of happenings from the weekend I wanted to share:
First, Nick and I went out for dinner at a freakin' delicious shabu-shabu/sukiyaki place on Sahara, called Swish. It was my introduction to that genre of food, and I was quite impressed. It was Nick's postponed-due-to-illness, sorry-I-missed-your-party birthday dinner, too. I do those.

Second, I got to hang out with my buddy Jon, one of my oldest friends, who was in town from LA for the weekend. He and his folks were in town to celebrate his youngest sister's 21st birthday. She was a toddler when he and I met, so that put a kind of exclamation mark on how long we've been buddies. I'm happy to report he's doing really well for himself - working lots and schooling like mad and planning a wedding to his sweetheart, and it warmed me the hell up to see how happy he and his family are, these days. I'm grateful to have friendships in my life with that kind of history, even if we don't get to visit as often as I'd like.

And lastly, after kicking around uncertainly in my CD collection for most of the last year, April March's Triggers finally found its niche as hangover nap music. I highly recommend the album to anyone who likes goofy french synth-retropop with lots of brains, or who might like that. Check it out.

dribble and dark

clbyers@gmail.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:14:12 GMT

Vegas winter officially began today, with the two advents sharing a day: People started to wonder out loud just this morning whether we might see some snow, this year; and in the early afternoon, the sky clouded over into an apocalyptic, sunless wad of dark, and started gushing down rain. This is one of those cities that doesn't know what to do with rain. The ride home was a slalom course of hazards, from puddles in the road where we just didn't think to put any kind of drainage, to lane dividers that are faint enough in broad daylight, and just vanish completely under a sheen of rainwater. It's the day when Vegas people start thinking that they really meant to replace their windshield wipers the last time it rained.
Boy, it's pretty, though. I'm so used to seeing these mountains in full sun that their silhouettes in black are startling. They look good. They look spooky.
It's also the day Aimee got back from her combined Christmas/Thanksgiving vacation, to see her family out in California. I got home from work planning to stay home, but when she called on a borrowed cell phone from the Greyhound station to ask if, just maybe, I just happened to be in that part of town and felt like picking her up before she walked all the way down to the bus stop on Charleston in the rain, I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her. I sloshed my way downtown to the station to pick her up, and got to hear the latest about her folks, with an occasional glimpse in the rear view mirror of the strip, with that towering cloud of neon-lit rain hanging over it.
I don't expect to live here too much longer, but it sure is putting on a good show, while this lasts.

clbyers@gmail.com — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:09:30 GMT

I posted some lyrics last week from that PJ Harvey & John Parish disc, A Woman a Man Walked By. To anyone taking notes: the opening track, Black-Hearted Love, is *exactly* the kind of song I like. The recording has that kind of warm-but-noisy feel that makes me think of Thurston Moore's best stuff, and the writing is a bullseye - It's personal, it's inventive, it changes its momentum effortlessly, and it knows exactly which secrets to keep. It's stayed stuck in my head, this week, no matter how many times I listen to it.

I'm not sure who I can recommend the rest of the album to, though. Don't get me wrong, it's brilliant, this just isn't an album that much wants to be admired. I keep comparing it to Patti Smith's Horses; there's amazing poetry set to great music, but the vocal performances put up a wall that you won't get over unless you're trying. (The title track is screamed more than sung, and Pig Will Not features Harvey literally barking.) There's art in the inaccessibility itself, really, and it's damned good art. Just not the kind you'd mistake for entertainment.

Meanwhile, though, I still haven't taken it out of the stereo. If you catch me rocking out to some growly babbling with good noise-rock guitar behind it, just smile and nod, okay?

Flamewar in 3... 2...

clbyers@gmail.com — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:48:29 GMT

I haven't bitched about this publicly, because I assumed it would be a short-lived phenomenon, but it's been a year, now, with no end in sight, so to hell with it. Right-wing gun nuts have created the ammo shortage they were so paranoid about last year. And it's screwing things up for all of us nonpartisan gun nuts.

For those of you who don't shoot, let me describe what it's like to buy ammunition, this year: First, you call all of the stores in your area and ask if they have anything in the caliber you want. Anything at all, and the typical answer is a no. Nothing. Mind you, this is my experience shopping for .22lr and 12 gauge birdshot, of all things, and I'm talking about every kind of shop, from mom-and-pop gun stores to big sporting goods chains. In those one-in-ten cases when they do have stock, you drive over, get in line, and insert yourself into the conversation with your fellow shoppers about who is buying what, and how you can arrange it so that everybody gets something they can use. Last weekend, I watched two police academy cadets and a civilian bargain over the last 60 rounds of .40 at the local Wal-Mart, and that's a pretty typical scene.

Believe me: it was nothing like this before the election. Ammunition used to be as much a retail product as inkpens or french fries, and it's hard to put a finger on what has really changed. News outlets have offered explanations ranging from the war, which is utter bullshit, to increased demand from law enforcement, which is... a more thoughtfully chosen line of bullshit, but still bullshit. The plain fact is, people are stockpiling. Many shooters saw the Obama election as the end of an era in gun legislation. The NRA made him out as someone just itching to reinstate every gun ban and surcharge the country has ever seen, and to add a few more on top, just for the fun of it. That's a characterization that I didn't see greeted with much scrutiny, either - sadly, gun culture seems to be a ready-made echo chamber for republican talking points. It just seemed to become a mantra. And sure enough, by the time our new president was sworn in, your friendly neighborhood ammo counter had been cleaned out of everything down to snap-caps.

Here's the punchline: The sudden uptick of demand created a temporary shortage, and the temporary shortage created another sudden uptick in demand. Thus, the prophecy was fulfilled. It's hard for me to believe, but the cycle has continued all year. Some people have wished out loud that manufacturers would step up production, but I think they're right to see this as a speculative bubble, and I lay the blame solely with consumers. Folks, can we have a brief reality check? Like, maybe limit your stockpiling to types of ammunition that could be restricted by an assault weapons ban, so I can get on the range with my damned .22's again? Or hell, how about paying attention to your elected officials' actual voting records, instead of believing everything you heard during the presidential campaign? You guys 'playing fort' every time a democrat gets elected make us all look like idiots.

sometimes i also play video games

clbyers@gmail.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:13:55 GMT

I just finished my first playthrough of Borderlands (or 'murderlands', as it's coming to be known around here) last weekend. I really dig the game. The mix of genres they attempted is a risky thing, but they got all the intangibles just about right. The humor is genuinely humorous, the rpg elements really invite obsession, and the combat delivers a near-perfect sense of whoop-ass. (Bonus points for making the king of the bandit miners a Tom Waits charicature.) It's the first game I've played since Diablo 2 that really scratched that itch for compulsive, low-concept loot grinding.
Many players have complained about the ending, and you can add my name to that petition, too. It's hugely unsatisfying. The difficulty curve is also pretty erratic, especially if you don't play online. But really, this isn't a game you play for closure, or for balance. It's just lots and lots of smashy, ADHD fun.

If anybody else is playing on xbox live (yeah, yeah,) friend up ChuckDeluxe.

(song from the new PJ Harvey/John Parish disc)

clbyers@gmail.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:32:17 GMT

April,
how could
I not have
seen

April,
you
coming

April,
how could
I have worn
inappropriate
clothing?

April,
all that
careful stepping,
rounding of my soul
and now
your rain.

April, I feel you leaving.

I don't know what silence means.
It could mean anything.

April,
won't you
answer me?

These days
just seem
to crush me.

Hatching,
collapsing,
tumbling down.

April!
What if
I drown?

I don't know what silence means.
It could mean anything.
Won't you answer me?

I dreamed,
April,
that I'm walking,
that I'm watching
your rain.
It overcomes me.

--PJ Harvey, "April"

clbyers@gmail.com — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:17:48 GMT

Meant to mention: As part of getting ready to apply to real colleges, last weekend I got to go godmode the SATs. Interesting experience. I was the oldest person in the room by about a decade, and there was no missing the fact that I was taking a test designed to terrorize high school kids. But I got it done.
I was struck with the fact that I didn't really have much of an emotional stake in the results. Like most of my higher-education career so far, it seemed like something that would have been agonizing, if I'd done it as a teenager, but now it just felt like another few steps down the road. When it was all over, one of the kids who'd been sitting next to me asked me how I thought I'd done. He seemed pretty rattled by the experience. My answer was 'Hey - I'm old. I know how I do on standardized tests.' Which is true.
So, nice to have that errand out of the way. And to any college-seeking students working themselves into nervous wrecks: there's no teacher like time.

clbyers@gmail.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:22:52 GMT

Doodling with scratch paper at work yesterday, I ended up with a woolly mammoth head. (Or perhaps 'woolly mammoth emerging from pond'.) I kinda like it.

Muppet news flash

clbyers@gmail.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:32 GMT

I've got a roomie! Everybody, say hi to my buddy Aimee. We've known each other for a while, now (she and another mutual friend were actually planning to move in, back when I first got this apartment,) but it took until now for things to actually come together.
I'm happy to finally be splitting this apartment with someone. It's just big enough to feel empty with one person, and two seems just about right. Plus, sharing expenses is a welcome change. I'm excited.

Puzzling evidence

clbyers@gmail.com — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:01:23 GMT

I don't know what that's about. But we went to the San Diego zoo! More photos in a bucket.

clbyers@gmail.com — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:07:30 GMT

This weekend, I went out with a couple of buddies and saw the new Michael Moore movie. It's actually the first of his I've seen (though I did catch a few episodes of TV Nation when I was a kid.) It was about what I expected - not fair enough to persuade anyone who didn't already agree with the premise, but a pretty enjoyable documentary. It's nice to see someone get passionate about social justice.

Bonus points for Bill Black's extended appearance. He was one of the main investigators of the 80s savings and loan scandal, and I've come to put a lot of faith in his observations on the present meltdown. Look up his appearance on Bill Moyers from a couple of months ago, if you're interested.

For the record: I do not believe capitalism is essentially at odds with democracy. But if you expect an economic system to be the moral compass of a society, you deserve what you get.

clbyers@gmail.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:20:16 GMT

Goodie of the week: Yesterday's Fresh Air featured an interview with religion scholar, TED prize winner and king-hell badass Karen Armstrong. Check it out - I always get a lot out of her interviews. (And apparently she has a new book out!)

Weekend.

clbyers@gmail.com — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:24:19 GMT

Another awesome weekend in the drizzly northwest with my sweetheart. Now it's back to my routine, and I miss her already, but I had a great time.

Things I learned this weekend:
-A very basic waltz pattern
-The layout of the South part of Portage Bay, as seen from a 2-person kayak
-My girlfriend has good taste in friends
-Bananagrams is the same game as speed scrabble
-When Audra is working on her laptop and we're sitting on the couch and she hooks her legs over mine and leans into the arm of the couch, and I get to listen to her typing and talking to herself while the rest of the world goes on, I feel just about home
-I am impatient

Also: Nick picked me up at the airport, and we found Jesus.

clbyers@gmail.com — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:20:28 GMT

I get to go see Audra today! I've been looking forward to this trip all month. Vegas: You're in charge while I'm away. Try to behave yourself.

state of the Chuck

clbyers@gmail.com — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:06:44 GMT

First: James, you're right: The chase scene from Road Warrior is a classic. Shame on me for thinking the one from Ronin outclassed it.

I finally caved in and got Netflix, and... well, some tiny inner snob in my head keeps thinking this much amusement is beneath me, but I'm really digging it. The integration with set-top devices like my XBox turns a merely *smart* service into something downright space-age. It's like having some weird little truck stop video store right in my living room. The new feature that lets you form a 'party' and synchronize playback between two users' screens, across great distances, is also awesome. Even if the network can't quite handle it. Anyway, take this as my grudging recommendation of netflix. Only grudging because I've held out for so long, I feel like I ought to have something to show for it.

My fall semester started today, too. So far: The prof for critical thinking is a bit of a mumbler, but he also used the word 'mollycoddle' in a sentence, with no irony whatsoever. That counts for a lot. I'll get to know the rest of my classes later in the week.

Lastly, I'm remembering why I splurged on a new laptop last month. At the moment, Nuit is happily perched on my lap, letting me review syllabi for the coming semester while I scarf edamame and watch Beyond Thunderdome on a whim. I think this 21st century crap may be going somewhere, after all.

conversation

clbyers@gmail.com — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:23:26 GMT

C: Jeez, first yours, then my brother's, then my dad's, then your mom's. Lots of September birthdays!
A: September babies are common.
C: I guess.
A: It is because December is a good month for staying in bed.
C: Every month is a good month for that, dear. :) December just isn't good for anything else.

Dollar store find of the day, and Charlie goes to the movies

clbyers@gmail.com — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:08:00 GMT

For those nights when old Donna Reed reruns just won't do the trick:

Your local 99-Cents Only store is there, for all your supplements-of-ill-fame needs.

In other news, District 9 is either an action-packed think movie with lots of gore, or a very thinky action movie with lots of gore. In fact, it might spend the whole movie transitioning from one to the other, but there's a really elegant shift in perspective happening at the same time, which I think excuses some of the excessive explodey-ness. Either way, it's a sci-fi story you haven't seen in movies before, and it achieves incredible tension, purely by dint of good direction. Neither a popcorn movie nor a genre classic, but worth a serious watch, if you're into that sort of thing.

long angry post about healthcare reform

clbyers@gmail.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:11:59 GMT

I've had a hard time reading the news about healthcare legislation, lately. I'm very interested in where this goes, but the progress of the debate, and the coverage around it, have really made my skin crawl.

First, I'm seeing all of the worst things about our ability to debate ideas, as a population. There's very little disagreement on the essentials of the problem: something is deeply wrong the economics of healthcare in this country. From there, I counted about two days of relevant, sincere argument on that subject, before the war of propaganda had kicked in, and any possibility of principled debate had gone out the window. I remember hearing part of a television commercial in which a couple, sitting at their breakfast table with a copy of the healthcare reform bill, talked about the problems with it. Which struck me as a strange thing, since this aired a month before any draft legislation was published. Or, the constant stream of stories about how great Canada's system is, on one channel, and how terrible it is, on the next, with no effort anywhere to reconcile the two narratives. You don't have to take a side to see how little credit we're giving each other, here.

What really scares me, in situations like these, is how good we've become at preventing each other from being heard. Or how readily we substitute opinions for fact. I wonder, sometimes, if we have perfected the tactics of derailment - if democracy itself, just like tic-tac-toe, has been solved to a draw.

Second, we have a real problem with healthcare! Honestly, I think the two best solutions would be either full-scale universal healthcare, or a free market. But neither is a political possibility, right now, and we all know it. Meanwhile, we're living under a terrible system, administered by private interests and shielded by law from market forces. And it's a system that doesn't give us the advantages of private or public healthcare. We already gave them the enormous gift of creating public programs to take the poor and the elderly off their hands, so they can concentrate on profitable customers, and I'm terrified to think we're about to make their lock on the American people complete, with a law requiring every citizen to participate in a plan. Every time I hear someone protesting about a government takeover of the health insurance industry, I want to smack them – yes, that would be a bad thing, but an insurance industry takeover of our government ought to scare us a lot more.

I'll probably have more to say on this later. For the last five years, I've been working in the industry of administering and auditing public healthcare programs here in the U.S., so I do have a little perspective on what's right and wrong with those programs, and the industry around them. For the moment, though, my strongest reaction is just revulsion. We have prevented a debate that we needed to have.

Movie night!

clbyers@gmail.com — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:27:17 GMT

Allow me to put your doubts to rest. Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus is exactly the movie you think it is. Terrible? Yes. Fucking awesome? Double yes. Lorenzo Lamas and Debbie Gibson star in a small-budget disaster movie that manages to encompass global warming, seekrit Navy shenanigans, evil Japanese corporations and, yes, love, all while telling the story of a mega shark and a giant octopus... and their dream. The defining moment in the film is right on the damned box cover; A shark the size of an aircraft carrier has leapt from the ocean, gnashed its teeth and bit a jumbo jet in half. If you're looking for context, there is none. The shark just thought the integrity of the film demanded it.

The movie made the perfect adjunct to a night of feeding my friends. We all had a great time. Bonus points for getting James & Beca hooked on Castle Crashers.

The evening ended, as is becoming typical, with me and Nick watching something especially strange. Last night it was - *ahem* - Tokyo Gore Police. ...I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be art. So the only problem is, now if I say I don't watch movies like Tokyo Gore Police, I'm perjuring myself. I can see that coming up, say on a loan application, or a job interview.

2 items about news stuff

clbyers@gmail.com — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:05:57 GMT

Interesting segment on yesterday's Democracy Now, about the drug war in Mexico. Their guest, journalist Charles Bowden, did a great job connecting U.S. drug policy with the human rights situation in Mexico. This piece struck me as a prime example of what alternative news outlets do best.

Second, I bitch at my senator enough to be on his mailing list, and there was a line from his latest email blast that made me smile: Talking about building up Nevada's clean energy industry, he said "Our solar, wind and geothermal resources can provide jobs for generations of Nevadans..."

That's a really pretty way of saying how much blazing hot, wind-blasted, uninhabitable wasteland is just outside our back door, here in Nevada. I get a kick out of seeing that become a precious resource, all of a sudden.

clbyers@gmail.com — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:29:50 GMT

I just found out that some old friends' house in Agoura, California, where I spent a staggering portion of my high school years, has been foreclosed on. The news has affected me more than I would have thought. It's hard to imagine a world where I could walk down that street, knock on the front door, and have no one answer.
My dad likes to say you can tell it's time to move on, when they start striking the set around you. Maybe 'moving on' can mean a lot of things.

In happy news, I had a great weekend with Audra. There were a couple of fun outings, and we got to catch up with her family a little, too. Basically, though, we spent the weekend just geeking out over the luxury of face-to-face communication. ...and I guess 'face to face communication' can mean a lot of things, too. :)

Hope you're all having fun.

clbyers@gmail.com — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:09:52 GMT

Hey, I haven't updated this thing in about 4 weeks, have I? Life's still good! I just finished my English class and school is awesome. Just at the moment, I'm in Seattle with Audra, riding the Bainbridge ferry, just for the fun of it. Back Sunday. If you're lucky. :)