Rhythm and Gravy

Online Defamation Law establishes that the elements of libel (when the plaintiff is not a public figure) are

1. a publication to one other that the person defamed;
2. a false statement of fact, which is understood to be both (a) being of and concerning the plaintiff, and (b) tending to harm the reputation of the plaintiff.

Unfortunately, while provable truth is a valid defense, a statement is considered libelous if is possible to be taken as an assertion of fact; i.e. it doesn’t have to be provably false. So, all I can say here is that the past few weeks I’ve been frustrated, sad, and angry, and I’ll save my words regarding the plaintiff (my sister’s ex-husband) for a non-publishable medium (”Feeling too chipper? Want vitrol?” Dial 1-800-ASK-JAKE).

It being tough to go out and be social, I’ve been trying to distract myself with the media — books (Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, Cryptonomicon and Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson, The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck), and Netflix (Bottle Rocket, Cashback, Heroes, Delicatessen, This is Spinal Tap). But a wise character in a movie once said, “if you don’t make it yourself, it isn’t fun. It’s entertainment.” So, yesterday, I took Uncle Synapse up on his offer to run around in the woods and shoot my coworkers with paintballs. Running around the woods like a chipmunk on acid screaming and yelling and getting all muddy: nice. Shooting coworkers: meh. Welts: not so nice. Props to Dylan for wearing his drum major costume to play.

I’ve been putting my new Netflix subscription to good use. I think that watching Heroes on “real” TV would have driven me nuts; it keeps you constantly fired up to see what happens next. It’s bad enough when an episode ends, or worse, when you finish a DVD and have to wait for the next one to arrive.

I just made it through season one, all too quickly. The ending was unfortunately anticlimactic, given how much it was built up, but with the strength of the characters and the general feel of the show, it didn’t matter too much. Heroes manages to bring together most of what I’ve ever liked about comics. They do a great job of with settings which have the surreal feel, but retain their realism, as if they hired set designers from both Sin City and Driving Miss Daisy. They avoid the traditional “underwear pervert” superhero. Instead, their heroes are conflicted, confused, disillusioned, or (in the case of Masi Oka’s Hiro) inspired by their powers.

Of late, graphic novels are starting to make printed comics hip (as opposed to “popular”) for the non-nerds. This show seems to be doing that for TV.

For a sci-fi novel, there’s not much sci-fi in this book (one ambiguously immortal character named root being the exception). Cryptonomicon could be better classified as nerd-fi. It speaks to Neal Stephenson’s talent that my decidedly un-nerdy, quasi hipster cousin is loving it — it’s just a really good yarn, in which the nerdy characters are in touch with their bad-ass sides, the bad-ass characters are in touch with their nerdy sides, and the protagonist gets the girl.

I re-read it for what must be at least the fifth time last month, and it’s managed to stay engaging, which places it way up there with my all-time favorites.

…in which our hero’s life has been crazy lately.

September has been hectic with life’s hijinks, and correspondingly low in posts, for reasons which abound, not the least of which is that the Top Pot Donuts by my place started closing at 9pm, and when have I been home before 9pm lately?

The early part of this month was consumed by a major project at work, which found me up nights and weekends. I’m sorry that details can’t be posted here, but the client is paying the big bucks…

This past week was invested towards our company’s entry in the Red Bull Soapbox Race which was held in Fremont this last weekend. Our car, Din and Tonic was designed to be a gravity-powered noisemaking machine. In the words of my officemate Jed, “most teams build their cars to look like something, like ‘check us out, our car looks like a chicken!’ Well, our car doesn’t look like a chicken, but it does a lot of stuff, and that’s what sets us apart.” We had a belt, chain, and pulley system which powered a kick drum, a pair of 100Db air-raid sirens, and a cymbal-clapping monkey. Dope.

We sweated nights and weekends welding, forming, gluing, painting, and decorating. We tested it up to 25mph. Then, we pushed the thing down Fremont Ave, the chain fell off, we hit 30mph, all four tires came off, and we crashed at full speed into the chicane. Dope!

In the end, fun was had by all, and we’re looking forward to flugtag.

Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice, my shoulder rehab is going well, and I can raise my hand in class again. Still not cleared for riding the bike. I want to ride my bicycle.