Summer's Finally Arrived--Almost

Well, relatively speaking. DC's weather pattern is something like: January-March = cold, April = schizophrenic between hot and cold, May = warm but lots of rain, June = right into summer. So, over the past few weeks, I've finally been able to enjoy a semblance of warmer weather.

As the summer movie season is here, I'm going to start reviewing any movies I see, starting with Star Trek (later this week--I want to wait 'til my sister has a chance to see it). My cricket updates will continue in my next post (also later this week). Before that, I'll just recap a few of the things I've been doing the past few weeks.

Fleeting Cherry Blossoms

I just barely managed to catch the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin this year before they all faded away. I didn't go to the actual festival (on account of oddly good weather, it was madly crowded) but I hear it was fun. Anyway, since it was late in the month, there were only a few spots where there was still anything visibly in bloom--we did see a little bit, however, and visited a couple of the monuments around the basin.

XKCD Meetup Again

Also managed to put together another XKCD meetup in the DC area, which went by pretty well. We met over at Teaism in Penn Quarter as usual, and then went over to Dupont Circle (this just happened to be the same day and same time as a Washington Capitols game let out, so we nearly got separated at the metro on the way up--but, some planning avoided that being a problem).

The main reason we went up to Dupont Circle was because of a protest by Project Ch*n*l*gy at the Sc**nt*l*gy Center (vowels removed to avoid coming up on searches, but you can figure out who I'm talking about). It was interesting, but since it was great weather and we were in a good area, we didn't spent that long there.

Thereafter, we went over to Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe for dessert, then spent the rest of the day playing card games in Dupont Circle.

Minor Cricket Aside

Oh, and for my birthday, my sister got me a cricket bat! Now that I have a bat and ball, all I need to find are a large field and 21 other people in the area who know how to play cricket, and I'm set!

Well, that's that. Next post, I'll get back to another cricket update, and review the first "summer movie" this year, J.J.Abram's Star Trek. KF

Cricket Week - Pt. 1

(Source: DLF/IPL)

So the Indian Premier League is back for its second year. I followed it last year to its thrilling conclusion, as my favorite team, the Rajasthan Royals went through to victory. This year, it's being held in South Africa instead of India (pick a reason you'd like, but the short story is that there were breakdowns in negotiations between DLF/Lalit Modi [the company and chairman of the IPL] and the Indian government, due to concurrent elections going on across India at the same time and lack of guarantee of security). It was slated to be in either England or South Africa, but eventually they went with South Africa on account of expectations of better weather--of course in a beautiful bit of irony, 2 matches have already been rained out thus far, while England is enjoying a rather sunny spring. (But if you ask me, South Africa is a far better location anyway, and crowd turnout has seemed pretty good so far.)

What's New

Besides the venues, there are a few things different this year. Notably, none of the Pakistani players are in the IPL--likely due to the incident in March where the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked in Lahore, prior to a Sri Lanka - Pakistan match (article). Now, I'm upset about that mostly because it seems as if it's punishing the cricketers, when it's really a failure of the government for being unable to fulfill their guarantees of security. And, some of the best players as a result are absent--mostly, Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir (the latter of whom was the leading wicket-taker in last year's IPL season, and on the Rajasthan Royals, no less).

Additionally, I think the ICC has wisened up to how silly the "bowl-out" looks as a way to resolve a tie game. So, they've replaced it with a "Super Over", similar to a sudden death round of overtime in soccer. Basically, each side gets one over to score as many runs as possible; the fielding side can only use one bowler for the over, and the batting side has three batsmen--if two wickets are taken, then the over is ended. It ends up being a lot more exciting, and less anticlimactic, than the bowl-out (which happened for the first India-Pakistan match of the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007--mentioned here).

Also, while not new, this season has sort of highlighted one of the more interesting aspects of the IPL: what team to support? I mean, my favorite players are scattered across all the eight different teams. And oddly enough, Rajasthan has the least number of players that I really like. The reason why it's my favorite team, though, is because the team, and captain Shane Warne, have a way of pulling out previously-unknown talent from within their ranks, and bringing themselves together as a team, despite the lack of big-name stars. That happened last week.

Week 1 of the IPL

So the first week... A few matches rained out, a few shortened by rain, and me of course getting up to watch the games which come on at 6:30am and 10:30am Eastern Time. For full details, I suggest the following:
- CricInfo IPL Home
- CricInfo IPL Fixtures/Results
- and, a good week-in-review at CricInfo Page 2

Thus far, it looks like the Deccan Charges, who last year had a lot of talent but was lousy at putting it together, have gotten their act together and are pretty good this time around. The Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians also seem to be having a better year.

Unfortunately, my favorite team, the Rajasthan Royals, hasn't been faring so well. The first match, with Bangalore vs Rajasthan, had Rajasthan restricting Bangalore to only 133 runs, which seemed an easy target to get. Rajasthan then proceeded to have an atrocious innings, and was bowled out for only 58 runs in 15 overs, to lose by 75 runs... I don't know what happened--they kicked ass at bowling, but did the entire team get food poisoning or something?

Anyway, their second match was rained out. But their third match, with Rajasthan vs Kolkata, was absolutely brilliant. Rajasthan bat first, putting up 150 runs, and managed to keep Kolkata's run rate down. Through it all, there was one new guy, Kamran Khan, an Indian bowler who's only 18 years old, virtually unheard of until that day, coming in and taking 2 wickets with an amazingly good economy rate (conceding only 4.5 runs an over).

(Source: AFP/CricInfo)

It came to the last over... and Warne goes up to Kamran Khan, and says that Khan should be the one to bowl it. If you can picture this: the entire game is riding on the last over, and the veteran cricketer (Shane Warne) puts his trust in an 18-year old kid (Kamran Khan) to bowl this over, while one of the best batsmen is at the crease (Saurav Ganguly, for Kolkata). As Khan put it himself: "'Before the final over of the match, Warne asked me to bowl. I was stunned after seeing his faith in my ability,' he said. ... 'Warne handed the ball to me and advised not to get tensed and do my job freely as I was going to bowl to Ganguly. I listened to his advice and did not try to do any extra bit and bowled my normal deliveries.'" (source)

And, Khan, who signed for $24,000, manages to take the wicket of Ganguly, a player signed on for $1 million.

But it didn't end there! The match ended in a tie! Almost as if it were fated, so soon after the ICC introduced new guidelines for resolving tie T20 games with the Super Over instead of the Bowl-Out, we get a tie game in a major tournament. So, Kolkata put their best batsmen forward, while Warne yet again puts his trust in Khan. And... Rajasthan goes on to win the match.

See, this is why Rajasthan is my favorite team, even despite their losses. With everyone else, you can figure out who their major players are going to be, and who the match will come down to. I mean, you know Punjab will rely on people like Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayawardene, and Kolkata will rely on Ganguly or Ajit Agarkar. But with Rajasthan, you never know who'll be the next big thing.

Anyway, besides that, Kolkata finally debuted one of my favorite players, Ajantha Mendis. So, that gets back to the whole conflicting loyalties thing: my favorite team as a whole, versus my favorite players on another team.

Rajasthan's latest match, this weekend, didn't go so well... Again, their bowling is great, but their batting leaves much to be desired.

In Other News

I'm also following the Pakistan-Australia series in Dubai (no matches will be held in Pakistan for the foreseeable future, for obvious reasons, so they're moving venus to the UAE for the time being). Thus far, Pakistan won the first ODI (with some killer bowling by Afridi, though Misbah-ul-Haq was taking an annoyingly long time with the run chase), and Australia won the second. I'm hoping Pakistan wins out the ODI series, though I seriously doubt if they'll pull off winning the Test match at the end.

So... I'm done for now. I'll try to give another cricket update at the start of each week of the IPL. In between then, I'll post up regular, life-related updates. KF

A Disney Wedding

On March 28, two of my friends, CG and DA, got married. It was pretty clear early on that this would happen eventually--they've been together as long as I've known them. Anyway, they had the wedding in Orlando, at Disneyworld. So six of us went down there for the weekend for the wedding, and took a much-needed vacation on the side.

We stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter resort:

It's a really nice resort, by the way. As the name implies, it has a New Orleans theme, so while it's themed it still has some class about it (a few of the other themed resorts are kind of... kitschy by comparison--the Polynesian is really nice, though). Plus, it's just a short boat ride up-artificial-stream from Downtown Disney:

We were only there Friday to Sunday, so we passed on the theme parks since there wouldn't be much time to really enjoy them. We did take the chance to go to Downtown Disney (plus DisneyQuest of course), eat out quite a bit, and generally relax for the weekend. Saturday afternoon was the wedding, so we went down to the pavilion near the Floridian:

The wedding was nice and small (about 60-70 people total, I think). So it felt very comfortable being there. We sat on the groom's side for the ceremony itself. It was very sweet (and I managed to avoid tearing up). After that, they left the wedding chapel...

...and entered a white pumpkin-shaped coach drawn by six ponies and three people in powdered wigs:

Lastly, the reception was held at the Boardwalk. It was fun, and all of us, including CG and DA (or DG now?) had a chance to catch up. There were more very cute moments:

That's it. The next day we went out for a bit before heading back home in the afternoon. I also took Monday and Tuesday off (where I pretty much stayed up and played video games all day), so this turned into a five-day weekend with a wedding right in the middle. All in all, a great time, I'd say. Here's wishing all the best to CG and DA on their life together. KF

Quick Holdover and 25 Things

So the last month or so has been pretty busy. A couple of things that've gone on:

• I got accepted to Georgetown's Master in Public Policy program. I should be starting this fall.
• One of my friends came down to visit for a week.
• Two of my friends since college got married last weekend (March 27th) at Disneyworld. I went, and I have pictures.

I'm going to make another post this Wednesday, exclusively devoted to the wedding and Orlando vacation. Since it'll be a bit lengthier, it'll take a bit more time to put together. In the meantime...

25 Things

There's this list of 25 things that I was tagged with by Onigiriman. I've been meaning to get around to it, though the above things, plus plenty of work, getting sick for a week, etc., sort of got in the way. Anyway... the idea is that you write a note with "25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you." Since I don't know that many people who still update their Xanga, the response rate may be a bit low. But in any case, here goes:

(Background)

1. When I was little, my dream job was an astronomer. When I took an economics course in high school I found I had two subjects I liked, and I opted for the one that I liked and would be more lucrative. I still love astronomy, though.
2. I grew up playing tons of video games. I still play a lot, though I have more of an affinity for older games.
3. I got interested in Japanese culture starting with video games, then anime, and finally studying Japanese when I was 14. I did self-study in high school, and then formal classes in college.
4. I did two summer stays abroad with AFS in high school: Nagoya in 1999, and Rio Cuarto, Argentina, in 2000. I went back to Nagoya for a semester in 2004--completely coincidental.
5. I did three years of speech and debate in high school. I was pretty good at it, too--went to Nationals twice (once in Lincoln-Douglass Debate, once in House). I'm pretty comfortable speaking in public as a result.
6. I was valedictorian of my high school (class of about 270, school of about 1600). We had our graduation in the Grand Ole Opry, which is where I gave the speech.
7. During my graduation, there was a part called the benediction that was a thinly-veiled school-led prayer. I was on stage, so when they asked everyone to stand for the benediction, I remained seated. (The year after that, they quit doing the benediction at graduations.)
8. George Washington University was my 4th choice for colleges; the three before that (UPenn, University of Chicago, and Brown) all rejected me. In retrospect, I'm really glad things turned out how they did.
9. I've been to 22 different countries. Most were for brief vacations; the longest stays were in Japan, Argentina, and Bangladesh.
10. I speak both Japanese and Spanish to a reasonable degree (enough to get around). I understand a tiny bit of Bengali (never actually learned it), and briefly studied Chinese for a year.

(Interests/Entertainment)

11. I'm the foremost expert on the Lunar series, an RPG series with its first installment in 1992-1993. I've played all the games (English and Japanese versions), read the manga (even translated two of them), read all the novels (and summarized/translated 8 out of 9 of them--working on the 9th), and have my name in the credits of the latest game for the Nintendo DS (Lunar: Dragon Song--unfortunately, it's not very good).
12. Science fiction has always been my favorite genre of entertainment. I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, and really like TNG, Deep Space 9, Enterprise, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly (top choice), and a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting. Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite authors.
13. I have a dangerous addiction to turn-based strategy games--particularly Sid Meier's Civilization series. There were several times during college that I had to uninstall Civilization 3 or Alpha Centauri to avoid spending all day playing it instead of studying.
14. I really love museums, particularly anything related to human history (that is, I like things like the American History Museum and Freer/Sackler Gallery over the Air & Space and Natural History museums). I make very frequent visits to the Smithsonian.
15. Calligraphy is probably my favorite visual art form--Arabic calligraphy in particular, but Japanese and Chinese calligraphy to some extent. I did take one calligraphy course while studying in Japan last time, and really enjoyed it; it's been a couple of years since I picked up a brush, however.
16. I love cricket, though I don't follow any other sports. My love of cricket really began only a couple of years ago, but since then I've tried to make up for lost time.
17. I have a weakness for cats. If I see one, it takes all my willpower to avoid playing with it, meowing, and speaking in a high-pitched voice.

(Beliefs/Habits)

18. Right up until I was 15, I was homophobic. Not to a horrible extent, but an embarrassing one. That changed when I found out one of my close friends was bisexual, which triggered some closer inspection of my own views, and I soon realized how stupid I was being by forming preconceived notions about people based on who they were attracted to.
19. Right up until I was 15, I actively disbelieved in evolution. This changed when I realized two things: (1) I was taking my cues on what to believe from evangelical Christians, despite being Muslim, and (2) There was no conflict between my religious views and evolution, or any scientific theories for that matter (that goes for correct and incorrect theories). I had to go out of my way to learn about what evolution and natural selection actually are, though, since my 8th and 9th grade biology teachers didn't teach it. This is one of the reasons I feel strongly about teaching evolution in schools, because failure to teach evolution makes kids stupid. I was there once; thankfully I'm not anymore.
20. I changed my opinion on the death penalty while researching it for one debate topic in high school. Previously I was completely fine with it; now, I think it's an antiquated practice that's barbaric for any society that has the means to imprison people (which applies to any developed country, including our own). In general, this is why I'm pretty amenable to changing my mind on things if I'm provided compelling evidence and good logic for it.
21. Nearly every morning, just before I leave my apartment, I go to my kitchen and check that the stove and oven is off. Sometimes, I take a few steps down the hall before doubling back, unlocking my door, and going to the kitchen to check. Last time I visited my mother, when we were going out someplace, she turns to me and asks if she turned off the stove and oven. It wasn't until then that I realized where I got that habit from.
22. My OCD comes into play with organizing things, too. Files on my computer, my desk, my books, everything needs some logical order to them. I prefer to organize my things geographically, particularly my music (East to West then South to North).
23. I have a really strong belief in free will. What this translates into is that I don't believe in fate or destiny, I don't believe in soulmates (in the sense that there's that one single person who's perfect for you--I do believe there can be incredibly close connections between people, though), and I have a strong aversion to anything that compromises that free will (drugs and alcohol, e.g.).
24. I do believe in objective morality. There are some things that are subjective, things that are right or wrong depending on the circumstance. But there are many things that I do think are objectively right or wrong, regardless of surrounding societal norms.
25. I consider being Muslim my primary identity. Though, I also believe everyone has multiple identities they ascribe to themselves: ethnicity, nationality, religion, philosophy, occupation, etc.. Most of these identities aren't in conflict with one another and don't need to be prioritized (e.g., being American and being Muslim).

So if I tagged you, try to put up the same 25 things message. It needn't be so lengthy and detailed as this--just to whatever extent that you'd like. You can post something in these comments too, if you want.

Anyway, as I said, next post will be all about the Orlando trip and wedding. 'Til Wednesday. KF

(EDIT: User tags is down right now for some reason... I'll try to edit this post and add that in once it's back up.) (UPDATE: User tags back up.)

Some Conventions Get Better, Others... Not So Much

Ok, a few negative things have happened over the last day or two. But I can't really talk about them just yet, so I'll try to keep this post upbeat.

Katsucon 2009

I went to Katsucon this year again. Every year, I have to find a new reason to justify going, and it really does get harder every year--it's very likely this time will be the last I'll go. Some conventions get better year after year (like MAGFest), some conventions hit a point and then plateau (like Otakon), and some just slide downhill.

This was a case of the latter.

The Bad

Basically, there were a few problems that really stood out this year. Starting at the top: 

• There was a similar crowd, but in a much smaller venue (the same hotel that it was in back in 2003). This caused some massive overcrowding.
• I couldn't find where to wait in line. Now, I didn't mind the long wait (2½ hours--but I had a book with me), as I expected it. But, when I arrived, I waited in a line outside the front entrance of the hotel that I was told (by staffers) was the registration line. When the line got up to the hotel entrance, and filed inside, it vanished. It took me 10 minutes to finally track down someone who could show me where the end of the line really was.
• The "Maid Cafe". I'd rather not provide a link. It was an awful idea, and I wouldn't mind having a word in person with whatever dipshit thought it was a good one. Fortunately, it didn't eclipse the convention itself, but it did provide plenty of fodder for the WaPo article that basically mocked the entire convention (which chose to focus on the Maid Cafe, conveniently forgetting that there was an actual con going on).
• DS Pictionary sounds good in theory, but it sorely overestimates the capacity of the DS to keep up with 4 concurrent chats of 16 people each. If you use PictoChat, then don't use it for something that's dependent on timely responses and a lack of lag-time.

The Good

Now, that being said, there were some significant highlights that still made it worth attending. I just have my doubts if they'll be enough to get me to come out next year. Starting with the quick-to-explain things:

I did meet up with a few people I know through XKCD. I did get to talk to some of the folks who run MAGFest, and let them know how amazing their convention was. I saw a few good artists, and I might be able to get a neat Kuribo's Shoe icon to hang on my car's rear-view mirror. On account of the Anime Music Videos, and the concurrent DS PictoChat commentary, I noticed a new series that looks good enough to check out, called Baccano: an action/crime/semi-paranormal series set in 1930s New York and Chicago, with a jazz/swing soundtrack. It looked so good that I went ahead and picked up the first DVD volume.

The Really Good

There were a couple of other major highlights.

First, I managed to finally pick up a Japanese Sega Saturn--which I've needed since I ran into memory issues with playing imports on my US Saturn. (Picked up from Mad Gear, the best vendor for new and classic video games.) Second, I found another place that had Daigassou! Band Brothers DX for the Nintendo DS, a sequel to Daigassou! Band Brothers. Basically, it's a music/rhythm game that's sort of like Rock Band for the DS, though with more flexibility to play a range of notes, write your own music, and so on. The DX version has a ton of new features, including: more songs to play, up to 100 additional songs available for download, better sound, and, most importantly, a karaoke mode where you sing into the built-in microphone. I've already downloaded several J-Pop, J-Rock, anime, and video game songs for this (the shot on the left is of the karaoke mode for "Single Bed" by Sharan Q). I may have more to say on this later.

Third was Marble Madness. Katsucon regularly has a pretty good game room set up, with at least a few classic arcade cabinets set up as well. This year, they had an original Marble Madness arcade machine, complete with the track-ball. This was one of my favorite games for the NES, so I was playing it off-and-on over the weekend. Sunday was the best day for that, though. With the con winding down, about four of us (randomly, I don't think any of us really knew one another) were taking turns trying to get as far as possible through the levels. We were cheering, high-fiving, and everything--basically, the four of us were making more noise than the group of two-dozen folks playing Street Fighter 2. And this was for a 25-year-old arcade game with a trackball, just fighting the clock (and that damned black marble). When I got home, I tried playing the NES version via emulator... and got to the last level on the first try. I did that once when I was a kid in all my years of owning it. I suppose the arcade version really is a lot harder (not to mention it's more challenging, and fun, with a trackball instead of the NES controller).

Next Time

So... I'm not so sure there'll be a next time now, at least for this convention. It's definitely gone a bit downhill, and the highlights, I'm sure I can get at other conventions that are improving (like MAGFest). But, we'll see.

My next post, I mean to respond to this "25 things" list I was tagged with. I'll aim for doing that this weekend. 'Til then. KF

The Inauguration of Barack Obama

NOTE: This post is both on my Xanga site and my smaller blog at Kizyr for Obama.

Last Tuesday, there were more people in Washington than I've ever seen in my life. It was a larger crowd than I've ever seen in my life. And what's more, nearly every single person there in the crowd was happy.

I knew it was a day that'd go down in history, so crowds, cold, and closed metro stations weren't going to stop me from seeing it. My sister flew in from Nashville to see this, and the two of us along with some of my coworkers went into the city to see what we could.

Fortunately, no camping out was necessary. We left around 8AM and, after some reverse-metro rides we managed to get to Gallery Place, walk all the way around the White House and parade route, and find a spot near the Washington Monument. In all, we walked something like 7-8 miles that day (check the route on the left).

We managed to get to the Washington Monument in front of one of the jumbotron screens around 11AM, half an hour before Biden's swearing-in. It was quite crowded, but we found a good spot for viewing amidst the 2-million-strong party going on. Take a look at a few shots of the crowd there (click for larger image):

Despite it being a screen, it was definitely worth the trip downtown. All the cheering and the energy was pretty indescribable. It all came to a head when Barack Obama was sworn in...

I also enjoyed the inaugural address (and got a bit emotional when taking in the moment). There are plenty of other places where you can hear the entire address, so I won't waste time with repeating it here.

As I said, both me and my sister were there, and I broke with my usual tradition and stood in some of the photos myself. Also, we figured that if George Bush can have his "W" signal, we can give Obama an "O" signal:

After everything was done, we walked back across Memorial Bridge all the way back to Crystal City. It was tiring, but definitely worth every minute.

And 2 days into the Presidency, Obama is already fulfilling his promises of closing Guantanamo and reversing the previous administration's tacit acceptance of torture. I think this is shaping up to be good already. KF

MAGFest 2009

Quick holiday recap: Work was light, I took a lot of days off, and now I'm rested again.

But the best part was January 1st - 4th, since that was MAGFest - technically the "Music and Gaming Festival", but really one of the most fun conventions I've ever been to.

For starters, it's pretty small. Maybe 1,200 or so people came out this year--compare that to the ~9,000 at Katsucon, or the 30,000+ at Otakon. Yet, it was run far better than most larger conventions. In fact, never have I seen such extensive support for a convention come from not just staff but the average attendee, and never have I seen folks come from clear across the country for what's essentially a small convention. That should be evidence of how, well, great it is on all counts.

As a result, the atmosphere was one of just a lot of folks with a common interest--video games, old video games, and music related to games--getting together without anything all too formal. Considering that I grew up playing video games, and always loved the music as part of that experience, this was basically my ideal con--I'm just surprised that this is only the first time I went. Anyway, I went in all four days (Thursday-Sunday), though one of my friends, AI, came with on Friday-Saturday. Here are some of the highlights:

Concerts

There was a great lineup of video game-themed bands there, and a lot of folks I'd heard about before. The chief of which was The Megas, a Mega Man-themed band from California. Now, I'd first heard of them when I listened to The Annihilation of Monsteropolis, a song based on Airman's theme from Mega Man 2. After listening to it repeatedly for two days straight, I went and ordered their album. So, I was excited to see them.

I know it might sound a bit odd for a band to be based entirely on a game series. But, the reason I'm a fan is both because their music in-and-of-itself is great, and because their lyrics are really brilliant. Each robot and character has some added depth and distinct personality through the lyrics. Take these lines from their Bonus track, The Message from Dr. Light:
    Latex and steel, zeroes and ones make up my son.
    This world gave me no child, so I built one.
    Now I will cry, for fear that he may lose this fight...
    I made you in my image!
    I built your heart, I gave you eyes, I gave you power!
    A sense of justice beyond any compare!
    I gave you hands, a child's face, I gave you hair!
    But the burning in your heart, I did not put there.

They played on Thursday night, playing most of their songs off the album, plus the bonus track, and one from an upcoming album based on Mega Man 3. I also got the chance to talk with them outside of the concert (and got my album signed), and saw them again at the JamSpace room on Saturday night. In both venues (the concert room and JamSpace), the sound quality made any recordings sound a bit lousy, and the vocals weren't as clear, but otherwise they put on a great show.

Besides The Megas, there were some other bands that weekend I liked: Smash Brothers, Entertainment System, and Rare Candy in particular.

JamSpace

I mentioned a JamSpace room set up. As the name implies, it's a place where anyone can sign up and play--improv or rehearsed, scripted or unscripted. It turned out to be a great thing--lots of improvised concerts and other things went on there.

One thing on Saturday night was a chiptunes DJ concert. I'm no good at descriptions, so I'll make do with a few photos:

   DJ Blind throwing down.
  
   Dancefloor
  
   Q-Pa and the graphics
  

As an aside, those NES-style visuals were really awesome. Brings back memories of days struggling with NES carts to get the damn things to work.

Speaking of JamSpace, and the relaxed nature of the whole convention, this also ended up being a huge gathering of folks from OverClocked ReMix.

OC ReMix

I've mentioned OCR many times before (a video game music/rearrangement community, but check their site and "about" page for more), so I'll skip the usual explanation. But, it was good being able to see people I've met before at Otakon--like Pixietricks, Zircon, Jose the Bronx Rican, DrumUltima, and q-pa--and meeting a ton of other people for the first time. I mean:

(And this isn't even half!)

The OCR panel itself was fun, too. Since their major news on being called on for the soundtrack of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - HD Remix (X-Box 360 and PS3) is still recent, there was a little HDR tournament going on.

Other Stuff

Besides that, there were also other panels--like the industry one with several VG music composers (including someone from Microprose/Firaxis who worked on the Civilization series' soundtracks--can't remember who, though, sorry). Angry Video Game Nerd was also there.

Oh! And if you've seen King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters... The ref from Twin Galaxies Arcade was there, on official business, since there were two guys competing for a new world record in Nibbler (the precursor to Snake). Apparently some folks from Paramount were also shooting video of it all.

For the rest of us, there were plenty of old and semi-new arcade games set up (free play), and a huge console room, too. I was like a kid in a free candy store, really.

In the End

In the end, I was pretty wiped. I took the following Monday off, and it's taken a while for me to get back into full working mode. But now, the next few days should be exciting as the Inauguration and all its related events are taking over Washington. I'll be back for that. 'Til then. KF

Holiday Ups and Downs

For starters, when I say "holiday", I really mean about 4-5 separate holidays. So none of that bullshit about the word "holiday" replacing "Christmas"--I'll get to that later anyhow. Oh, and, I figure after that blitz of posting in the run-up to the election, I'm still at my "one post per week" average that I set out for at the beginning of this year... at least for the last few months.

Now then, holidays...

Saving Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite non-religious holiday of the year. Think about it:

You're encouraged to spend time with your family It's all about positive feelings: cheer, gratitude, etc. It's a feast. It's nearly impossible to commercialize. I mean, you can't convince folks to get any more than the usual Thanksgiving fare: turkey, side dishes, pies...

I love Thanksgiving. It's a simple concept, and it always leaves me with a good feeling throughout the four-day weekend (and tons of leftovers). Yet, there's one aspect of said weekend that's just been growing worse year after year: Black Friday.

I fucking hate Black Friday.

I don't use that phrase lightly. Black Friday embodies all of the worst aspects of Christmas. Don't get me wrong--I love the spirit of generosity and good will of Christmas, and the religious aspect is all fine too. But the commercialism is horrid. Black Friday is all about convincing masses of people to cash in on apparent deals and spend more than they should. Black Friday glorifies greed and debt, masking it in phony generosity.

And it's taking over Thanksgiving.

In the run-up to Thanksgiving, it was nonstop advertising about Black Friday deals, midnight shopping, pre-dawn deals... It's turning Thanksgiving from a day of family and thanks, to the day-before-tons-of-shopping. That's why I got so pissed off at the retailers' commercial showing families eating Thanksgiving dinner in the parking lot of said retailer. That's why after the Wal-Mart stampede death (link) that I got pissed at the audacity of some of the shoppers' complaints that they'd been waiting since Thursday morning.

It's not the shopping itself that gets me. I don't mind a bit of consumerism. (I even bought a few things myself that weekend--but you can bet I didn't sacrifice any of my Thanksgiving to do so, and I sure as hell didn't wait in any lines before stores' openings.) I just hate how Black Friday's come to symbolize greed and debt at the expense of one of my favorite holidays the day before.

For the record, I spent that Thanksgiving with my family in Maryland. It was very enjoyable. And... there were a lot of pies. Everyone brought a dessert, leaving us with 9+ desserts including the pies. (...I brought two of them).

Eid-al-Adha - Side Thoughts

Eid-al-Adha was on December 8th this year. I didn't do much for it--just went to prayers in the morning and took the rest of the day off. (Not like previous years, though, where I either went to Nashville or celebrated in Morocco.)

Something amusing came to mind, though. Non-Christians I'm sure are familiar with a lot of pseudo-religious diversity. One classic example is putting up "holiday decorations" while insisting that it's not specifically Christian or about Christmas, since anyone else is free to put up their own holiday decorations. Now, this is utter nonsense as there's no other major holiday that regularly occurs at the same time of year*, so it's not as if anyone else has an incentive to provide other "holiday" decorations. (And personally, I prefer that people just be frank about it and call it Christmas decoration--seriously, nobody really gets offended.)

*(Muslim holidays are based on the lunar calendar and shift each year. Hanukkah isn't that significant a holiday by comparison, and is mostly prominent in the West as an alternative to Christmas. Kwanzaa... isn't a religious holiday, is less than 50 years old, is completely unfamiliar to most everyone, and anyone who celebrates that likely also celebrates Christmas.)

Yeah, so about the "holiday decorations". I thought that we could do some decorations for Eid-al-Adha. I mean, with Christmas, you have a nativity scene that depicts the event that Christmas commemorates: the birth of Jesus Christ. So, I figure, since Eid-al-Adha commemorates the near-sacrifice of Abraham's son, then perhaps we can put together another scene depicting that! Come on, if anyone gets offended, we can just say "But you guys believe in the same event!"

...well, I thought it was a pretty amusing image.

Other Updates

Other than all that, things have been going fine lately. I've been meaning to make another update about the Las Vegas trip I took a while back, but I sort of prioritized the election-related updates and put that on the back-burner for a little while. I'll make an update about that next, before some other things towards the end of this month start coming together. KF

Yes, We Did, and This Is Just the Beginning

NOTE: This post is both on my Xanga site and the smaller blog I've started up on my Kizyr for Obama page.

VICTORY!!!

Stream-of-consciousness style, I'd like to just lay out what my thoughts were as the events of the day progressed. All times are estimated.

7:00am - I get to the polls. Lines are long, but no longer than I expected. I had my DS with me and so I spent the seventy-five minute wait playing Civ Revolution.

8:20am - Finally voted. Arlington County, and my precinct in particular, were very nice and very efficient with getting through the number of people that were there. Much, much thanks goes to those folks.

Daytime - Tried to avoid all news of polls, except for refreshing FiveThirtyEight.com repeatedly.

7:00pm - Well, I'm home now. Time to channel-surf between CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Comedy Central... and why the hell not, let's check out Fox News. I load up FiveThirtyEight.com while I'm at it.

7:30pm - CNN HAS HOLOGRAMS! Yes I know it's just cinematography, but still, how awesome is it to hear Wolf Blitzer say "And now we're beaming Yellin in from Chicago" and the caption below read "CNN's Jessica Yellin Via Hologram"!? I'm telling you, holographic anchormen are the future of cable news! Although, as cool as that is, I'll still prefer print.   Clip of CNN's Anchorwoman of the Future, Jessica Yellin

8:00pm - States start getting called. What kind of states? Vermont and Kentucky. Come on, I gotta find out about Virginia!

8:10pm - James Carville, man, you're great and all, but you gotta learn to annunciate! I can't understand anything you're saying unless you open your mouth a little wider!

8:15pm - Oh, Fox News, I've found a new reason to watch you. Your depressed tone brings me much joy. Let's see how much you can deny reality before it sinks in.

8:30pm - Ohio and Pennsylvania get called for Obama. I'm ecstatic, since now it seems like it's the end for McCain's run. But, still no word on Virginia! Only the non-allegedly-fake districts have numbers in.

8:45pm - Brit Hume, man, you need to work on your facial expression. I can never tell if you're pissed off or just being yourself.

9:00pm - One good result from Virginia: Mark Warner (Democrat for Senate) has trounced his opposition. Excellent! One part of the ballot down, more to go.

9:15pm - Tennessee is called solidly for McCain. Unfortunately, I can't think of a good remark to make to my family back in Nashville, since I'm so tense about the ultra-close result of Virginia.

9:30pm - What's with Fox News using "liberal" like a four-letter word? Do they realize how utterly comical it sounds? "He's the most liberal senator of the liberal liberals pushing liberalism grumble grumble liberal liberalists with liberal ultra-liberals grumble grumble liberal liberal liberal libear lier aelirb aelirb alerb eailr bl---." You know, I consider myself a moderate (given my views on things like abortion, gun control, free markets, etc.), but if calling myself a liberal will piss Fox off more, then call me liberal.

9:30pm - Obama has won Virginia! Hah! What do you say to "fake Virginia" power now?

10:00pm - Florida is called for Obama. No hope for a McCain victory now. ...let's see how Fox News is taking this!

10:15pm - Forget Fox News. Let's see how Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are taking this.

10:30pm - So, McCain has called it in and given his concession. A gracious speech from him, and tons of boos from the crowd. Man, talk about being bitte--no, wait, that's not right. But the boos are rather disconcerting, particularly if you contrast the crowd's animosity with McCain's graciousness.

11:00pm - So, all the anchors are waxing poetic (except for Fox, which is waxing oddly--oh, no end to the amusement there). Anderson Cooper says that everyone will remember where they were at 11:04pm when the election was finally called for Obama. I remember... I was in front of a computer and television talking with several people at once and following half a dozen news sources, while posting "VICTORY!" everywhere. ...that doesn't sound as good as I'd hoped. Eh, no matter.

11:15pm - Quick thought... I wonder if this is the last we'll hear from Joe the Plumber or Sarah Palin? I hope so. We need some new caricatures.

11:30pm - For that matter, once Obama is sworn in on January 20th, what are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert going to do?

12:15am - Obama's speech has just finished. Even as he praised McCain, no boos from the crowd. Quite a difference. Best line? "This isn't the change we seek, but the opportunity for this change."

12:15am Man, Fox News can turn anything a Democrat says into a negative. "Oh there are no new ideas. There's nothing policy-related in that speech." ...it's not a policy speech.

12:30am Arlington County results are in (except for absentees). Let's see what the numbers are:
 

12:45am - People are celebrating in downtown Washington. I really want to go down there and honk a few times in support, but... ...I have a meeting tomorrow morning. I really, really, really should get to bed.

Good night! KF

Vote Now, No Excuses

NOTE: This post is both on my Xanga site and the smaller blog I've started up on my Kizyr for Obama page.

No more excuses. Vote now. Long lines? Shouldn't matter--find the time. Lousy weather? You can grab a coat. Fifty years ago I could've had to deal with the Klan threatening my life on the way to the polls. A hundred years ago I wouldn't have been able to vote (and neither would the majority of you, I'll add). When you put it that way, scattered showers and an hour-or-two wait doesn't seem like a very good excuse.

In 2004, I took a flight from DC to Nashville just so I could cast a vote. And that was even a vote in a "Solid Red" state that year. This year, I'm even in a swing state, so there's nothing that could stop me from voting.

Anyway, I did cast my vote. In total, the ballot had:
- President / Vice President (Obama / Biden)
- VA Senator (Warner)
- VA-08 Representative (Moran)
- Arlington County Council
- Arlington School Board
- 4 county resolutions

There are numerous reasons to vote. The point isn't to be the one whose vote influences the outcome of the election, but to contribute to the principle of democratic rule. The idea that everyone, at the very least, can cast a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to the things that come up on the ballot. And, it's not only the President you're voting for, but also Senators, House Reps, and local elections (and, if you're in California, something like fifty different propositions).

You may be in a Solid Blue or Solid Red state. That shouldn't affect your likelihood of going to the polls. You may not affect the outcome, but you will make a mark on the numbers. Notice how Virginia has gotten a lot of attention--do you think that would have happened if everyone in this state had just contented themselves to the state staying Republican? You may not be the deciding vote in this election, and you may not affect the direct outcome, but your vote can have an effect on how your representatives will behave in the future.

Anyway, that's enough from me. The polls close in a few hours here, and if you are in the VA/MD/DC area, you should be on your way to the polls if you haven't voted already. Remember that, at least in Virginia, if you're in line by 7:00pm, you can still vote after the official close time. KF