11.28.2012

At the movies: Skyfall

Skyfall: 2

I was really hoping my wife was wrong (she'd already seen it) and that it wasn't just an homage to the past 50 years of Bond movies.  But, she was right.  I was disappointed.

Several things threw me out of the movie: the Komodo dragons, the fight at the top of the skyscraper, and the subway train.  I think the main thing was that MI6 was on the receiving end of things, they were not proactive and doing things unto others.  They were having things done unto them.

The change of personnel was not unexpected.  I just wish it had happened in a better movie.  I n my opinion this is, by far, the worst of the Craig movies.  I'd have to do some research to determine how far it falls in the rest of the Bond franchise.

There was the good Adele theme song.

Volleyball, 0-3, 0-3

Ugh.  the games were all close, we just failed to finish them properly.  I was not playing terribly well, but I got a couple of kills in.  Those were more than offset by my goofs.

Weekend update - Thanksgiving 2012

Wednesday

Baked two pies - a regular Pumpkin and a Rum/Orange Pumpkin.  I let the pie crust dough chill too long and it was tough to work

Thursday

Up at 6 a.m. to start working on the rolls for the meal  Everything ended up being done right on schedule at 11:45 for us to leave at 12:15 after things had cooled enough for us to handle easily.
Off to my sister's for the meal
Football

Friday

I don't remember the morning, possibly worked on matting some art work
Skyfall - the new Bond movie in the evening

Saturday

No blueberry muffins
Aikido
Froberg's for an exploratory pecan shopping expedition
Joe's Bar-B-Cue for dinner
A&M football game on TV

Sunday

More mat work
Football

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/24/2012

Aikido players: Trey, Troy, and Brad

Ukemi:

Full set

The Walk:

Once, pretty high speed.

Releases:

With Brad

Techniques:

Brad and I worked on 6-10 of Ju Nana Hon Kata.  With a few minutes left at the end, we worked on Gedan-ate some more.  Overall, he did really well.

Troy and Trey worked on 14-17 of Ju Nana Hon Kata and then a little bit on Kubi-guruma.

Aftermath:

None of note.

11.20.2012

Weekend update

Friday

Lunch at El Centinela
Aikido

Saturday

Blueberry muffins
Aikido
Football
Dinner at El Tucan with K and K

Sunday

LoneStarCon3 work
Football
Work on matting some pictures - figuring out the colors and sizes

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/17/2012

Aikido players: Tim,Troy, Liz, Charles and Hussein

Ukemi:

Partial set, watched over Liz

The Walk:

Twice, as usual.  With some individualized comments and work on specific steps.

Releases:

I spent most of the afternoon with Hussein on his releases

Techniques:

I did a little work with Hussein on Shomen-ate

Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Friday Night - 11/16/2012

Aikido players: Tim, Troy, Brad, Marvin,  Liz, and Charles

Ukemi:

Full warm-up set

The Walk:

Twice, as usual.

Releases:

I worked with Liz on her releases

Techniques:

I worked with Liz on Shomen-ate the rest of the evening.  There was some trouble adjusting to my height, but she did ok.  She needs to work on finishing the technique in a solid posture.

Aftermath:

None of note.

11.16.2012

Volleyball, 2-1, 3-0

we started a new season this week.  It's a short league, and every night is a double-header in order to get all of the matches in.  It looks like most of our matches will be at the 8 p.m./9 p.m. pairing (boo! hiss!)

It looks like there are a number of new teams in this league, so it's tough to judge how we'll do.  This week's results show promise, though.

Aikido Thursday Night - 11/15/2012

Aikido players: Troy

Ukemi:

None tonight.

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays

Releases:

Not tonight

Techniques:

We worked through the first six of Ju Nana Han Kata.  We only managed the right side for Oshi-taoshi.  Progress in knocking the rust off on all of them proceded apace and without any real unexpected issues.

Aftermath:

A number of bruises from the entry for Ushiro-ate.

11.13.2012

ExtJS, formpanel, and new windows on submit

I struggled a bit trying to figure out how to, when submitting a form from a formpanel in ExtJS, have the destination page open in a new window.  I found the answer in a post on the Sencha forums, but it took me several hours to find for some reason.

The key is in the submit button on the form.  You need to add an extra parameter.

This way of doing it gets you a new tab in Chrome

this.up('form').getForm().submit({target:'_blank',params:{selEmpId:empidArray}});


This way of doing it gets you a new window in Chrome

Ext.getCmp('tsDatesRangeMaster').getForm().submit({target:'_blank',params:{selEmpId:empidArray}});

Weekend update - IlluxCon 2012

K and I flew up to Altoona, Pa this past weekend to attend IlluxCon 2012.  Well, we flew to Pittsburgh and then drove the rest of the way to Altoona.  IlluxCon is an amazing convention for fantasy art and artists and is a feast for the eyes.  My main goal for the weekend was to press the flesh and try to not spend any more money on art for the year.

We got up at 5 a.m. Friday morning, left the house around 5:40 and made it to our gate in plenty of time for our 7:25 departure.  Off to Baltimore, change planes, and then to Pittsburgh.  Landing around 2:30.  Grabbed a rental car and drove the 2+ hours to Altoona.  We made it to Altoona around 5:50 or so, too late to check in to the convention, so we headed straight to the hotel.

As were were walking into the hotel, we ran into Jannie, Andrea , and the Zipsers who were heading out to dinner.  We told them we would join them at the restaurant after we checked in.  We did that, eating at Aldo's on Chestnut.  Good Italian food.

Back at the hotel, the evening's Showcase was in full swing, so I started talking up next year's WorldCon.  I handed out some business cards and *may* have attracted some folks to the con.

Saturday morning the con did not start until noon, so K and I went wandering about the countryside south of Altoona, after grabbing breakfast at the hotel.  I think we got lost once or twice, but we got to see some nice countryside.  Nice farms and a fair number of dairy cows.

We made it back to the convention and wandered around the main gallery.  I talked to a number of artists and handed out a few cards, but lost my mojo after talking to someone who made me think it was a futile effort.

K and I then sat through a critique panel and kept track of the A&M Alabama game on my phone.

Dinner Saturday was at Friendly's across from the hotel.  The waitress was bringing out my chicken/sauerkraut/bacon sandwich and lost control of it just before she was going to hand it to me.  So, I had to wait another twenty minutes or so to get my meal (which they nicely comped).

Back to the hotel for the Illies and the Artist Jams.  I did not manage to stay awake for them, unfortunately.

Up at a reasonable hour and off to Tom and Joe's diner downtown.  Great food, great prices.

Back to the con to wander around and, *sigh*, buy art.  I bought four small pieces: two by Todd Lockwood and two by Omar Rayyan.  My checkbook wants these to be the last pieces until next year's WorldCon.

Out of Altoona and on our way back to Pittsburgh.  Caught a flight to Chicago where we ran into some weather delays.  Then back home, with the pilot making up the lost time.

Aikido Thursday Night - 11/8/2012

Aikido players: Troy and Brad

Ukemi:

None tonight.

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays

Releases:

Not tonight

Techniques:

We spent about 30 minutes working on Gedan-ate with Troy providing some much needed external input.

Brad and Troy then worked their way through 1-5 of Ju Nana Han Kata left and right side, skipping Gedan-ate.

Aftermath:

Right knee complained again.

11.06.2012

At the movies: Argo

Argo: 4

I really enjoyed this film.  I actually got caught up in some of the suspense, even though I knew it turned out ok in the end.  Ben Affleck, John Goodman, Alan Arkin all turned in nice jobs with their roles.

I was interested in this movie for a couple of reasons.  Back during the hostage crisis, I was in D.C. on the day of Reagan's inauguration and the freeing of the hostages. 

Supposedly, the film used in the actual escape plan was Roger Zelazny's "Lord of Light".

Weekend update

Friday

Lunch at Rivera's Mex Sal
Aikido

Saturday

Blueberry muffins
Aikido
Football

Sunday

Lunch and a movie with my mom and sisters
Football

Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 11/3/2012

Aikido players: Tim,and Hussein

Ukemi:

Partial set, watched over Hussein

The Walk:

Twice, as usual.  With some individualized comments and work on specific steps.

Releases:

We spent a lot of time on the releases today

Techniques:

None today

Aftermath:

My right knee made me stop just a little bit early.

Aikido Friday Night - 11/2/2012

Aikido players: Tim, Trey, Marvin, Gail, Liz, and Charles

Ukemi:

Full warm-up set

The Walk:

Twice, as usual.

Releases:

Not tonight

Techniques:

We played with some double-hand grab stuff covered in the seminar.  It was an interesting evening


Aftermath:

None of note.

Aikido Thursday Night - 11/1/2012

Aikido players: Sal

Ukemi:

None tonight.

The Walk:

Not on Thursdays

Releases:

Not tonight

Techniques:

Sal and I worked on 1, 2, 3, and 5 of Ju Nana Han Kata.  He'd missed class for about a month, so we needed to review and work off the rust.  He did pretty well.

We stopped a little bit early, as my right leg was telling me to quit.

Maybe it'll stick.

Aftermath:

Right knee complained.