Blog of Magic Cheese

If the line segment 'straightsword' intersects plane 'face' at point 'left nostril', prove that the sum of 4 years of jienshu practice = lose

I wonder if Mr. Musallam would be proud.

I've a friend who started a blog about good habits and improvements she's making in her daily life.

I'd always approached this blog as a place to put my random asides and strange fortune cookie fortunes, but I found my friend's blog so compelling (intelligent and informative has a lot to do with it) that I think I may try the more personal thing, too.

One of the things I was introduced to is a simple little online thingy called Joe's Goals. You can put goals in there that you want to regularly do, and tick off boxes for the days that you have done them.

So far I only have one, which is a short conditioning routine of double sword flowers & points. (for both arms, because what's the point of going through all of the torture, frustration and random face cuts to wield a sword with your off hand if you can't even flower with your dominant hand? stupid wushu.) If you have no idea what I'm talking about, the double flower can be seen here, at about 0:57.

It's desperately needed because what with general work stress and missing wushu for a few weeks, my straightsword practice stank a good one last week and after Zhang Hong Mei had me run through several sword basics (I hadn't learned those before, so it was really cool) my arm was shaking. Sucko!

We'll see how it goes. (=

After a mere two weeks of sword flowers (and I even took Friday-Monday off due to a Las Vegas trip for a bachelor/bachelorette party for two of my closest friends) I noticed quite a difference when I was at practice today. Whoosh! Whoosh! Bam! Hooray!

So now since I'm working from home again, I no longer get the mile walk in between home-bus stop and bus stop-office. I want working from home to be an opportunity to get more exercise and fitness, so I've added another goal: morning stretching and yoga. We have a Wii and WiiFit here, so while I find the UI less than ideal in a number of ways, it's darned convenient.

I'm no longer commuting, so I can sleep in another 45 minutes, get up at 9, stretch and do yoga, shower, grab some oatmeal for breakfast, and sit down to the computer to start work at the same time. Woo hoo!

So in this new 'personal' blog vein: I hate shaving.

I really do. I live in San Francisco where most days of the year it's too foggy and windy and cold to even contemplate wearing a tank top or shorts or a skirt.

But now and again, every ever-so-delicate now and rare again, the clammy blustery mists part... and a brief window of sunshine breaks through to the Richmond District, and it is then, when I am singing the happy sunshine song and reaching for my sad and lonely collection of tank tops that I have not worn since I moved out of Southern California, or for a soft pink skirt, that I have to recall whether I've shaved in the last day or two. Most often the answer is no, because really, why do what you don't have to when most days you're wrapped up in multiple layers of fleece and scarves? Then I swear loudly and have to don jeans and a sleeved shirt for yet another of the maybe 10 incredibly precious days of pretty weather we get a year in this city.

People tend to look at my legs when I wear shorts or a skirt, not because they're particularly attractive or shapely, but because they're unusually wide and muscled for my height/body size. So even though I don't have a lot of shin hair, it's black and somewhat noticeable, especially when people are staring at your calves/thighs and then asking you respectfully what on earth it is that you do.

Enter the "clean + easy" home electrolysis system. Screw this shaving and plucking business, I plan to go scorched earth on my skins and underarms by frying the hair follicles out of existence. The most negative reviews I've read about the product is that it's painful, but as I took a sword to the face last week, I'm feeling up to the challenge.

It's due to arrive today. I'm so excited. If it works, I'm recommending this to my brother and father, who also hate shaving.

The electrolysis thingy is more fun than it has any right to be.

The kit comes with a little pen that has a thin piece of flexible wire that sticks out from a tube much like a mechanical pencil. You moisten your fingers with saline and hold onto the metal part of the pen, and the wire is small enough to enter your hair follicle. When it hits the moisture of the root/sebum/whatever is in there, it completes the circuit.

It feels kind of like getting poked with a needle or that sharp tingling when you tug on a hair. A bit of fluid seeps out (I think it's the sebum) and after 15 seconds, if the hair comes out without resistance, the root is purportedly fried.

I've got a small patch on my right leg that I've tried it out on. So far so good; shortly after frying, the area around the follicle swells up a bit like an insect bite, and within a few hours all there is is a small dot. Right now it looks a little like razor burn. Time will tell if that will fade in the next day or two.

Definitely recommended for people with that compulsive personality, especially if you've gone over your shins with a pair of tweezers before. It's roughly the same level of discomfort, with a little extra time spent for the tradeoff of being FOREVER. (Time will also tell with this one, I suppose I'll report back in a few weeks.)

If people are wondering why I keep referring to these posts as chicken cooking, it's my Eastern astro year.

10 year high school reunion this last weekend. It sucked.

88 beans per person and no free drink tickets. The food was mediocre. The meat might have been cooked nicely, but too much time on the steam tables while I was sitting there with a plate waiting for the food to be opened up late made it eh.

I had friends in high school, I'm sure of it. They can't all have been imaginary. I remember late nights in the theatre, griping about cramming for finals, and playing cards at lunch a lot with nice folks. Not many people that I knew were there, though. It was really cool seeing the few folks there that I did know, but if I'd wanted an evening to remember how effortlessly beloved my friend Julia was by the people at my high school while I wandered around being bored, I could have opened one of my shrieking, self-esteemless, angst-ridden teenage journals. If I wanted an evening of shitty acoustics and shrieking without being able to hear myself or anything said to me, I could have stayed at home and jammed chopsticks through my eardrums for free.

I don't dig loud parties with people I don't know unless I'm drinking heavily, covered in glitter, and the music is electronic. As that was out because I drove there, at least I have the self-confidence at this age to just leave when I'm bored and my eardrums are ringing.

So if you went to my high school and graduated in 1998 and didn't show up, I blame you. Please send me $88.

My father is squicked out by gay guys. He admits that if he saw two men making out, it would make him very, very uncomfortable. Not so for two women making out, which he can't explain. He says that he's probably "too old-fashioned."

He is also completely in favor of equal rights and agrees with me utterly about Prop 8 being bullshit.

I'm so proud of him.