Poi beginnings
A coworker asked me about poi spinning today, what it is and why I do it and where I learned. After a brief discussion he asked if I could send him some videos of it. Here's what I shared with him.
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Here's a video of a friend of mine spinning fire at that Connecticut retreat (WildFire Retreat, mentioned last month):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLE658Da6rQ
Nathaniel Everist from Australia is one of the folks I learned the most from when I was starting out:
http://www.youtube.com/user/NathanielEverist#p/c/A0C299DC8A312068
Another great group I learn from is Nick Woolsey (from Canada) and playpoi.com
http://www.playpoi.com/poi-basics
My Trip to Las Vegas
Las Vegas is a place like none other. I felt, therefore, that the best way to document my trip would be to tweet about my experience, in real time, exclusively in Haiku.
Below are my Haikus, taken directly from my Twitter account, in chronological order.
[10:48 PM EST March 11th, 2011]:
Oasis of sin, you are where I want to be. Viva Las #Vegas. #Haiku
[12:51 PM EST March 12th, 2011]:
Neon lights abound. No shoes? No shirt? No problem! Las #Vegas sunrise. #haiku.
[01:09 AM EST March 13th, 2011]:
And that's the last zip. I'm packed and ready to go. #Vegas, here we come. #haiku
[05:44 AM EDT March 13th, 2011]:
Waiting at the gate. On the plane I'll close my eyes. Las #Vegas dreaming. #haiku
[07:22 AM EDT March 13th, 2011]:
Our flight got delayed. We would have missed our connect. Now we fly direct. #Vegas #haiku
[02:21 PM EDT March 13th, 2011]:
Landed in #Vegas. By the time I send this tweet, you know I'll be drunk. #haiku
[05:19 PM EDT March 13th, 2011]:
#Vegas vacation: the festivities begin. Rock hard at #HardRock.
[07:08 PM EDT March 13th, 2011]:
No swimming bathing or other use of facility after dark. #haiku
[02:18 AM EDT March 14th, 2011]:
Going to the club. Vanity, dancing, drinking. God blesses the youth. #Vegas #haiku
[02:45 AM EDT March 14th, 2011]:
Waiting in the line to ask the big bouncer guy about the door line. #Vanity #HardRock #Vegas #Haiku
[05:06 AM EDT March 14th, 2011]:
Didn't get in club. Won a fortune's worth of life. God bless Las #Vegas. #haiku
[02:34 PM EDT March 14th, 2011]:
Awake and drinking. Zack made us morning cocktails. Sip these. Don't shoot it. #Vegas #Haiku
[01:58 AM EDT March 15th, 2011]:
Lucky 6 and 8. She hit 5 points in a row. She's my golden goose. #Vegas #craps
[04:15 PM EDT March 16th, 2011]:
Love how, in #Vegas, the waitress says good morning at one-ten P M. #haiku #Denny's
[04:25 PM EDT March 16th, 2011]:
Like a champion, like a champion that is fo' sho'. I'm #winning. #Vegas #haiku
[04:27 PM EDT March 17th, 2011]:
And she is drinking like she's never drank before. She is #biwinning. #Vegas #haiku
I have no recollection of anything that occurred after that last tweet. The next thing I remember, I was waking up on the plane after landing back in Newark.
Yeah, it was a great trip.
-DLZ
Countdown
This year is a big one for me. I've been planning to go to a few events. Today I put a bunch of countdown widgets on one of my spare homescreens on my phone. Can't tell if this makes it more scary or less. Time will tell.
Update: Got a few questions about the apps/widgets I was using and the event dates, so here's all the answers...
Android Apps/Widgets (android market links):
- All the widgets you see in the screenshot are instances of Countdown Widget
- I took the screenshot using ShootMe (Screen Grabber)
Events:
- (orange) Burning Man
- (pink) Playa del Fuego - Burning Man regional event
- (all others) Wildfire Retreat - Spinning/Fire Arts training camp
Expect to see some more updates on the Burning Man front throughout the year, this will be my first time going and there's a lot of things to learn along the way.
Obama says discrimination against gays is generally unconstitutional!
It's about time!
From the article: "In a key shift on gay rights, the administration says a section of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional as applied to gay couples who are legally married under state law." The good news is that we're finally moving in the right direction. The bad news is that this still only applies to gay couples who are "legally married under state law" and does nothing to help gay couples who live in states where gay marriage is not yet legal.
I'm personally a heterosexual male in a long-term committed relationship. However, I have yet to hear a valid argument against gay marriage that isn't colored by religious prejudice or general ignorance and bigotry. In general, what you do in the privacy of your own home, as long as it stays in your own home and does not affect me in mine, or me in public, is none of my business. We, as a society, cannot legislate behavior or personal choice.
It's time for American society to make the next intellectual leap in public policy and social ideology.
If you can manage to muster a coherent argument either way, I'd love to know what you think.
Ubuntu
Because it's good for you.
That is all.
Edit: I have been using Ubuntu almost exclusively since starting my new job, 2 months ago. I love it. It definitely requires a little bit more comfort with the way computers work than a cotton-candy operating system such as Windows or OSX. However, once you get over the intimidation of a black terminal (and practice a little with vimtutor) it's really a very nice operating system for the up-and-coming technical elite. I'm sure once I get more comfortable with it, I may find that I enjoy some of the more "Hard Core" Linux flavors, as I believe Ubuntu is considered "cotton-candy" in the Linux world. However, for someone who is just getting their feet wet in the Dark Side Hot Tub, I'm quite pleased.
The Egg
Recently, dracoling shared with me The Egg by Alex Weir. It's a very interesting and thought provoking story and has done a lot to make me much more comfortable with some of my non-Christian theories of the universe. I believe very strongly in morality, ethics, laws of nature and the like which govern every living creature. I call these "hard limits", and whatever may have created them: "God". However, in American society today, it's rare to have a belief in God "accepted" unless it's the God defined by one of the Big Three. I'm so glad to have my mind opened to an alternative way of looking at life and the world.
I'm in no way saying I consider this story to be truth or reality. However, it certainly is nice to see a "viable" alternative to the imposed doctrine of the ruling class.
Give it a quick read. What do you think?
[EDIT: 2011-02-17]
I think many people would agree this could be an awesome movie twist that would blow Inception clean out of the water. Here's Andy's policy on films based on his work.
The happiest time of the year
Tastykake pumpkin pie is back!
This is one of my favorite reasons for never moving out of the greater Philadelphia region. It's like a birthday present that lasts for 3 months of the year and I get to share it with my friends.
Om nom nom nom.
Thoughts on a sleepy morning
Last night I made a whole bunch of paper stars. Paper stars are awesome. They're cute, simple, easy to make, and yet for some reason people get happy just playing with them. I love crafting things, for some reason just following some simple instructions and making something out of something else impresses the hell out of certain people.
Today's shirt: Nuclear Physics (from shirt.woot!)
Morning, Sunshine!: Experiment #001
Welcome to the Morning Sunshine Experiment. I'm going to try every energy drink I can get my hands on... one at a time and rank them (primarily based on taste).
The first contestant: Full Throttle - Citrus Flavor
The following are my quotes on IRC while engaging in this experiment...
12:32 < dracoling> oh my god12:32 < dracoling> how the fuck do they get the taste of "FML" in a can!?
12:34 < dracoling> NewsFlash12:35 < dracoling> Full Throttle "Citrus" flavor still tastes like distilled self-hatred with a mild carbonation kick12:35 < nullren> dracoling: that sounds like some cheap, prison hooch12:36 < dracoling> prison hooch tastes better
12:43 < dracoling> AGH@#!$ this fucking eviljuice is attacking my heart12:43 < dracoling> why does this always happen when I drink this shit?12:43 * dracoling drinks more12:43 < nullren> because you do that12:43 < nullren> most people, when something is attacking their heart, they stop it12:44 < dracoling> this needs vodka12:44 < dlz> not dracoling12:44 < dlz> he's hardcore12:44 < dlz> HARD12:44 < dlz> CORE12:44 < dracoling> xxHARDCORExx12:44 < dlz> HAR DUH12:44 < dlz> KOR EH
12:45 < dracoling> 'panthothenic acid'12:45 < dracoling> does that mean acid of the gods?
12:46 < dracoling> man, I hope the other can I bought tastes better
12:49 < dracoling> ow. goddamnit... fuckow...12:50 < dracoling> must. finish. energy. drink. before. dying.
13:05 < dracoling> I was just told I look mad strung out13:05 < dracoling> fuck yes13:05 < dracoling> lol13:05 < dracoling> "dude, you're drinking that full throttle shit again? You may as well just do an 8-ball!"
14:24 < dracoling> hokay so14:24 < dracoling> I'm fecking tired now14:24 < dracoling> stupid energy drink
I give this horrible taste abortion -100 points. It feels like I'm paying for my sins or something and I didn't even get a good buzz.
termcap/terminfo on FreeBSD
aka: why doesn't it like my rxvt?!
copy your termcap info from the computer running rxvt to your server for great justice!
local# infocmp -L rxvt-unicode > ~/rxvt-unicode.termcap
local# scp rxvt-unicode.termcap user@server:rxvt-unicode.termcap
server# su
server# portmaster devel/ncurses
server# tic rxvt-unicode.termcap
server# infocmp -C rxvt-unicode >> /usr/share/misc/termcap
server# cd /usr/share/misc
server# cap_mkdb termcap