Odds and ends

[pecunium]

Worldcon: For me, so-so. I somehow managed to miss damned near everyone I was hoping to see, and the timing of some of the people I'd have liked to sit down with was bad (we passed in the halls, when headed to other places). I did get to see my folks, and Marty caught me up on some family gossip.

We should have gone Friday (esp. because the party I most wanted to attend was Friday, but I misread the schedule).

The con itself seemed decently run (though I think the constraints posed by not having a Monday made a one-day Saturday membership less valuable than it usually is. Maia and I missed the art-show altogether, which I think she would have enjoyed a fair bit). Not that I am blaming Maia, but because she needed to come home and do about five hours worth of homework we decided against staying over. This did mean I could decide to buy her some jewelry, without feeling guilty, since I wasn't paying for a room. (had either of the con hotels had an open room we'd have stayed, and left early in the morning).

We'll be going to LosCon (thanksgiving weekend) though lots of people I'd like to have seen are likely to be staying at home on the East Coast. The other possibility is that we'll drift up to OryCon (which has a different crop of people who would like to see us. I'll have to talk to her about the timing. Is PotLatch in SF this year?).

As libertango says (per akirlu) I seem to be less certain what of what I'm looking for in a convention. I want to see people, and go to some ineresting discussions. Smaller is ptobably better.

On the less pleasant side, people who "knew me when." I stopped counting the people who seemed to recall me at 15, and think the subsequent time to be some sort of warp wherein I skipped the middle bits. The most annoying was the one who's daughter told her to come see me (it's not the daughter's fault I don't care for her mother much; it's not the sort of thing I felt the need to share), and said, "Look at you, all grown up."

Never mind that in the past twenty years she's seen me at least a couple of dozen times (though to be on the generous side of fair, not many in the last ten).

There was the friend who commented I was looking grown up. More lines and character in my face. I can almost accept that, save that I am far too frequently treated, at least slightly, as though I were still in my late teens. It wasn't so bad when I was in my twenties, irksome when I was in my early thirties, now that I'm just shy of forty, well...

Maia and met akirlu and cluefairy as well as cluefairy's nbh (non-blogging husband) for breakfast. That was great. We all three live too far away from each other, and the chance to gossip, talk and just catch up comes rarely. I suspect Maia and nbh learned things about our various pasts which were new (the three of us have known each other for something like 25 years, and our lives have braided in ways both simple and complex for all of them).

I can say that Johhny Reb's in Orange has a magnificent butcher. I ordered the steak and eggs. The steak was a 6 oz piece of skirt (the size was mentioned, not the cut). It was aged. It had a rich flavor, not quite gamey; sweet, mellow and complex. Pieces were shared around the table.

I also brought a couple of gifts, no longer permitted on airplanes, being fruit jellies from Le pain quotidien (an upscale-ish bakery. They make a baguette in the style called ancienne. I can get most of the flavor at home, (though I think I've been baking it too soon, and not using cold enough water), but the crust... I've not got the oven. It's think, dense, and chewy. It also prevents my greatest complaint about baguettes; it keeps the crumb from going stale.

Ok, bread aside they sell various treats; I bought a .lb of honey. Honey, like wine, coffee, tea, etc., has a lot of variety. I like darker, more strongly flavored honey, so I bought the chestnut blossom. At this point, I think I'm going to return it.

It's strong, pungent and overpowering. This isn't always a problem. I have some italian heater honey (Dr. Pescia, I believe, but the direct website is eluding me, and the re-sellers are asking about twice what I paid for it in a shop, plus shipping) which is the color of strong Darjeeling, with the texture of molasses. It's divine.

This stuff, not so much. It's aggressive in the nose, musky and sharp. On the tongue, undiluted, it's bitter, slightly acrid and it ends with a strong soapy note.

On yogurt it doesn't get any better, the best way I can think of to describe it is corrupt.

I'm trying to see if there's anything it would go with.

But I suspect I'll be swapping it for some wildflower, or perhaps the acacia.

Yesterday I went dojo-shopping. To be more honest, I went to see if the dojo I was looking at was so horrible as to prevent my joining.

The mat is too small, but that's not a deal breaker. At first I thought it was just crowded, but when there were just three of us doing rondori the edges were often too close.

But it's an active crowd (there were 18 people in line on Monday) with an interesting second class on Mondays. The teacher goes up the line (seated in rank order) and either assigns a task she thinks needs work, or asks the student what they are looking for. I was asked 1: if I'd ever done rondori (non-stop attacks, where the idea is to just deflect the aggressor), and 2: if I was up for it.

I said yes to both, and the pattern of the drill was called, in detail. I had already seen it, so that part wasn't really needed. It flowed well. Then I swapped with one of the nage and was on the attacking side. In the latter portion of the evening I was nage in another rondori was tossed into the path of the other nage. He leaped over me. I was too busy taking ukemi (the art of becoming one with the mat to be paying attention.

I took a couple of high-falls in the course of the evening, and a couple of hard ones. I was greeted warmly, and given time to absorb the culture of the place. It's not as egalitarian as Akido of SLO but I can adjust.

The the hardest thing to adjust to will be the belting/hakama. This is a dojo which allows/encourages women to wear them as soon as they are competent at ukemi. Having always been in dojos where hakama were only worn by very skilled aikidoka I am afraid I'll treat people as if they were more skilled than they are. This means my mistakes are more likely to hurt them.

The other thing is that the dojos I've been associated with use a three tier/color system, with two grades at each belt-color. Here each rank has its own color, so now I have a green belt.

Oddly enough, having so many belts makes me think less of each of them (even though no one here will think me a rank beginner, as opposed to merely unskilled). On the upside, I can train as much as I like, with five days a week of Aikido, some tai-chi, and qi-pong (some sort of healing discipline.

Downside, my sprained wrist, and toe (both two-months old) are still tender. I am being careful, but I'm afraid if I train too hard, I'll just make them worse.

I am not, however, willing to wait another couple of months to get back in practice.

Comments

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

At my first dojo only black belts wore hakama. Do you know why they specifically encourage women to wear hakama?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

No. I've never gotten a good explanation for women wearing hakama from the get go.

I can understand a dojo where all wear them, but for a sexual bifurcation, nope.

I also wonder why this dojo/sensei, is doing so, as it's not tradtional in the affiliation to which he belongs (it's why I looked at this dojo with the idea that they would have to prove to me they were not what I wanted, instead of convincing me they were).

TK

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

The 2007 Potlatch will be in Portland. Current expectations are that '08 will be Bay Area and '09 will be Seattle again.

[michael-b-lee.livejournal.com]

I can get most of the flavor at home, (though I think I've been baking it too soon, and not using cold enough water), but the crust... I've not got the oven.

Is this a function of how the oven distributes heat? I've heard, for example, that a gas oven heats more evenly and consistently as opposed to an electric oven.

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

I'd encountered the gender differentiation with the explanation being that women's modesty was being preserved by offering them the hakama sooner (in one instance in my experience in Ireland, at 3rd kyu rather than 1st kyu for the men). After all, the keikogi in which we practice is supposed to be analogus to a pajamas... *wry grin*

(It's feeling even stranger in Belgium, where apparently one can pull on a hakama as soon as one's commitment to aikido is considered solid: I've seen people at workshops wearing hakama and colored belts indicating 5th and 4th kyu, though I haven't been that eager to test this for myself - the point being not that it's a mark of attainment, but that they're concerned that you don't spend the extra money before you're sure you'll stick with the practice. Why this is the case rather than just requiring students to wait until their upper kyu level or even shodan, I haven't yet learned.)

You know, it's quite funny, but I began reading your journal for other stuff, and discovered only along the way that we share aikido as an interest. I am seriously pleased by this. Please keep writing when you can also about your aikido work, please.

Crazy(And thanks!)Soph

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Mostly, I think, it's a function of size.

A commercial oven is much bigger, so the lost heat when opening the door is less.

Further, a professional baker's oven has a steam injector, so it doesn't cost ambient heat to get ambient moisture.

The last thing is temperature. I can get my oven to about 500F, which isn't quite what I need to get the set I want in the first few minutes (because I am trying to get the oven walls to radiate like hell, and thus quickly raise the air to about 450F in the period of oven spring), which prevents the deeper drying of the crust.

TK

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Not PJs, so much as undergarments (though winter undergarments, as a sumo-style groin wrap is for summer).

I have known/seen dan who wear just undershorts with hakama, and heard of one fellow who went regimental. The former seems a tad unseemly (though in hot weather I can understand it, and if the shorts are long enough, and the hakama well fitted, it's not that big a deal.

The latter, well no.

Thinking on the nature of gi, and the fondness for many people to wear lightweight ones, I can see a modesty factor, as the seat of the trousers can be quite flat to the butt, and exposed, during ukemi.

But it still seems strange, and a trifle condescending to me.

I understand the strange sense of pleased. I do regency dancing, and when I hear a piece which we use for dancing (usually, strangely enough, from suites of dance music) I am ridiculously uplifted by it, as if I am somehow enlarged by my more intimate awareness of it as a dance. Perhaps this is from having internal memories/associations with the music.

So to find someone has an interest which one shares, intimately, it makes one feel closer to the person.

Sometimes this is to the good, sometimes not.

TK

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

>>I somehow managed to miss damned near everyone I was hoping to see, and the timing of some of the people I'd have liked to sit down with was bad (we passed in the halls, when headed to other places).>>

That's exactly what happened to me. Oh well.

As for people who keep talking about how they remember you when you were 15, I got my fair share of that stuff by people I know have seen me since then (many at ConJose what, three years ago?). Yeesh.

Thanks for the red currant jelly. I can't wait to use it! And it was great to finally meet maia and see you over breakfast. Which was very, very good.

I wish I could have met you

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

in real life. But I was very busy with our bid for KC in 2009. Between the bid table, shopping for the parties and keeping the actual parties stocked, Friday was the only night anyone cut me any slack and that was because I was on the site selection committee and we were busy until about 9 p.m. I still went to the part and stocked the smoked meat because people started it and forgot there was more.

Ms. Teresa did give me a beautiful black fan (wood spokes, woot) and I helped her find the Tor Suite because the hotel was pretty Escher-esque. I didn't linger in the Tor Suite (presidential suite, looked out over Disney) because I had to go back to my own party, but I met several people at the con that I've had good conversations with in Making Light.

[allucquere.livejournal.com]

I'm getting quite the kick out of returning from WorldCon and discovering how many journalists I read were also there. Such a small world...

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

if you like strong-flavored, dark honeys, have you tried buckwheat honey? I can usually find it up here in Washington state at one 'fruit barn' just east of Leavenworth on Hwy. 2. My grandmother first introduced it to me, on sliced fresh peaches, and I try to keep a jar of it around. Also lovely as a pancake syrup. mmmmmmmmmm honey...

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

Not PJs, so much as undergarments (though winter undergarments, as a sumo-style groin wrap is for summer).

Nifty! You wouldn't have a cite for that handy, would you? (In case I'm sounding bratty, I apologize - I'm just thinking a book with that kind of info would probably be an interesting read...)

I've seen varients on the "shorts under hakama"... although not so many in Belgium, as the hakama wearers are typically pulling them off right after class, and laying them out on the mats to properly fold them. (In a dojo where you have to put the mats away, if the club is also reserving the hakama for the senior students, that leaves the juniors with the work of cleaning up. Although some of the more tolerant ones seniors would get some good natured teasing as we'd try to clean up mats from around/under them. (Tickling bare feet, that's my favorite.)

(Re gender differentiation of wearing hakama)
But it still seems strange, and a trifle condescending to me.

Likewise for me, despite my personal enchantment with the thought of wearing one. *wry face of self-deprication*

So to find someone has an interest which one shares, intimately, it makes one feel closer to the person.

Sometimes this is to the good, sometimes not.

Certainly it can lead to unwarranted assumptions about the other. A good thing to be on guard against, if nothing else for the sake of not burdening the other. Something to remind myself of, for sure.

Crazy(and re-lurking, now)Soph

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I might like it, but I wonder if it's at all toxic (buckwheat is, though the leaves are worse than the seeds).

TK

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Probably I saw or met you a few times when you were a kid (which includes "teen-ager") but not often, because we didn't move in the same circles, and not memorably, because there are a lot of unusually-intelligent and /o/b/n/o/x/i/u/s/ generally-amiable youngsters in and on the fringes of local s-f fandom. So I'm not about to say or think anything like "My, how you've grown!" or "How mature you've become!". Nor, for that matter say "How young you look!", though I might _think_ it. This is an area I try to avoid because, with many of my friends, it would be more a matter of "How old & decrepit you've become!", and, if said seriously, needs to be reserved for a very few very close friends.

But I'd suggest that the problem of being considered much younger than you are might stem largely from something entirely different. Some people -- including myself -- recognize & identify people not nearly so much by their faces as by their build and -- perhaps primarily -- by the way they move. (We can recognize someone across a large room by a gesture the person makes, or a block away on a city sidewalk, by walking-syle.) From a distance, you look and _move_ like an active person in his late teens.

In the personality sphere, you seem to project high levels of energy, enthusiasm, curiosity, interest in things that are new or strange, blunt honesty, and uncompromising idealism. These are common -- almost diagnostic -- qualities in members of science-fiction fandom, but in general American society they are, I think, considered characteristic of adolescents rather than of 40-somethings. (Do not take the absence, from this list, of (mildly) negative qualities as an indication that they aren't perceived; this just doesn't seem to be the proper place to mention them, but they fit in the same "much-younger-than-40" framework.)

Just be patient, /k/i/d/ Terry. In another ten or fifteen years, probably, your body (and maybe your mind) will decide that it wants to become Middle-Aged. I'd say that _then_ is when you'll need to get Really Serious (as opposed to ordinary & regular routine maintenance) about what you are and how others perceive you.