Archive for March, 2006
here comes the rain
When we first moved to Maui, it rained. A lot. In fact, it rained like it was never going to stop for a time. And when I say it rained, I don’t mean that light, sprinkling rain you get on the mainland. I’m talking 40-days/40-nights type precipitation. It doesn’t start slowly, build up, peak, and slowly diminish either. It drops out of the sky in buckets from outta nowhere and when it decides it has rained enough, it just stops like someone turned off a faucet.
This year we hadn’t had much in the way of rain. I was beginning to think last year was a fluke. Then four weeks ago it started to rain on Oahu and flooded Honolulu and the surrounding areas. All the other islands were getting rained on too, but not Maui. I thought maybe we would be spared the powerful rainstorms assaulting the other islands. Then about a week ago, the rain gods finally appeared in the form of a series of rain storms that dropped a foot of rain all over the island.
This picture was taken on my cell phone camera as I got caught in a torrential downpour. Keep in mind that when I walked out of my house, it was sunny and warm. By the time I got down the street, I felt like an extra in a cecil b demille epic about a great flood. I cowered in an alcove for twenty minutes as the rain hammered the ground around me. It was fun to watch the tourists, sneering their bad luck, run to the cars and head to their temporary lodgings thinking that the rain would last an eternity. Of course, 20 minutes later, the rain stopped, the sun came out and all was once again perfect in paradise.
I love living here when it rains. It washes away the dust obviously, but it also washes away the dirty bastards who take it all for granted.
the collector
I am a nerd. Not a closet one, but a full-blown nerd. I know this unequivocally because I fit the profile. I write articles about technology, I have three computers (one of them a Macintosh), I read scientific articles, I like genetics, quantum physics, and most importantly, I read graphic novels.
Oh, it all started so innocently. I picked up my first graphic novel back in college when another closet nerd introduced me to Frank Miller, an up and coming comic artist who had just created his first creator-owned title, Ronin. It read more like a storyboarded script (something I was learning a great deal about at the time) and less like the traditional comics that could never hold my interest. I began collecting Frank Miller’s work at that point and when he took over writing and drawing for Batman, I was hooked.
Around the same time, another graphic novelist, Alan Moore, started to capture my attention. With the release of Watchmen in 1987, Alan Moore had cemented his place on my bookshelf (yeah, i consider these books… sue me!). It wasn’t until late 1989, though that graphic novels would find themselves with a political voice. Though written off and on since 1981, V for Vendetta was released as a graphic novel in 1989. It literally changed my understanding of the world around me. Gone were the simple ideologies developed by 8 years of Reaganomics. Gone was my simpleminded innocence. I no longer believed that there was right and wrong… just diverging ideologies… MINE vs yours. Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta did that. It illuminated the idea that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. It is all a matter of perspective. It blew my mind.
Yesterday the Red Queen and I caught the Wachowski re-imagined V for Vendetta and I’m not sure I understand why Alan Moore has asked to have his name removed from the film. Granted, Alan Moore is one of those fickle people who doesn’t believe anyone can do his work justice unless they’re named Alan Moore. If we only look at what was done with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, you’d be hard pressed to argue with him. The difference here is that the Wachowski’s were clearly in control and say what you will about Matrix part’s two and three, they know their way around a plot.
The thing is, and this is the surprising part, I agreed with all the cuts the Wachowski’s made to the original story. Some of the more complex ideas (facism, democracy, fear of government, terrorism, religion, hate, and fear) are still there, only flow more smoothly. The story has been boiled down, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Natalie Portman and a masked Hugo Weaving are pefect on screen as Evey and V respectively. I can’t fault any of the cinematic choices that the Wachowski’s made and found myself totally lost in the world the wrung out from Alan Moore’s story.
If you can sit still for a while, go catch V for Vendetta at the theaters. Let the film wash over you. Don’t let preconceived notions taint your enjoyment of the film. See if you like it and let me know if I’m high because I really enjoyed the adaptation in ways that the original graphic novel left me wanting.
how to be invisible
I disappear sometimes. Not in any real way, that’s impossible of course. I disappear from expectations and from responsibility. I’ve done it a various times in my life and find myself doing it again lately. Hence the long periods without much going on here on this old blog. I’ve been writing a blog for a very, very long time… longer than most I would imagine. My blog has existed in one form or another since 1991 and I’ve rarely run out of things to write about.
Unfortunately I find myself vanishing slowly. I don’t have a lot to say and the things that used to bother me bore me. If they bore me, I’m sure writing about it would only bore you. How can it not if my heart isn’t in it anymore. I still read a few blogs, but nowhere near the number I read when blogging wasn’t a form of self-promotion. I have a difficult time writing to gain popularity or notoriety because I am not looking for attention or acceptance. I write because I generally enjoy discourse. I write something, people comment, I respond.
That happens a lot less lately and it could very well be because I post so infrequently that my one time loyal readers come visit less often. Or it could be that I’ve outgrown this particular habit. Five years is a long time. I don’t think there is anyone on my blogroll who has written for five years… well except 6togo who I’ve known in real life for about as long as I’ve been blogging (we’ve even shared a glass of Courvosier and toasted our mutual admiration of the "ladies man" Leon Phelps). I’m not sure what that has to do with this post except to show that I do have a life outside of what I write here. Just because I don’t write about things here doesn’t mean things aren’t happening in my life. I just choose not to share them with relative strangers. I mean, if I told you all I was dying of cancer, I would imagine a few of you would be worried. If I told you I had less than a year to live, chances are you’d be worried AND a little upset that you now have less than a year in which to say goodbye.
Of course I do not have cancer and as far as I know, I will be alive and well a year from now. The question though is not IF, but WHERE. The Red Queen and I have discussed moving for a few months now and as much as I love living here, I know that I can’t live here forever. Eventually I will have to get a real job again and be responsible. It is very near the time when I can no longer be invisible and must once again be present for whatever it is life has in store. Chances are very good that I will write about it if and when I do decide to appear. Perhaps it will be in your town… and if that is the case, be afraid… be very afraid.
king of the mountain part II
As I stated before, I love fucking with people… and the internet scammer who sent me a message previously has responded to my romantic queries…
Dear Random Internet Email Addressee,
Many thanks for your urgent response to my proposal. I have all documentations to back us up to ensure smooth conclussion of the Transaction. So there is non room for doubt. All I need from you is your Indepted interest and Maximum support. The expenses that will incur in this deal,will be treated by the both of us.Percentage will not be our problem.All we have to think about is how to bring the money out of the Sampet security company.
king of the mountan
I love to fuck with people. I love to fuck with people who cheat even more… a few days ago I received one of those phishing emails that you occasionally get… you know the kind where some "barrister" from Nigeria or Zimbabwe emails you and lets you know that 1) a distant family member has died; and 2) you stand to inherit a vast sum of money.
The following is the message I received and my response… let’s see where it goes… if anywhere.