Blog Entries from Iain Aschendale

  1. High Fidelity

    I just re-watched High Fidelity, starring John Cusack. First, what a wonderful movie. It's got a good story, and even though I don't generally like Jack Black, the casting was brilliant. After watching it this time I read the Wikipedia article on it, and saw that the author approved of the setting change from London to Chicago, a change that made it very relatable for me, since that's more or less where I grew up. When I read the book, it did amuse me that they'd traded in a black woman...
  2. Action Stations

    Captain: Attention all hands, we’re going to be heading out for a quick shakedown cruise this morning. Status checks to follow. Navigation? Navigation: Suggesting a medium loop, sir, navigation is go. Captain: Acknowledged, Navigation. Engine room? Engine room: Engine room advises no more than three-quarters throttle, and concurs with Navigation’s recommendation of a medium loop. Engine room is go. Captain: Acknowledged, Engine room. Torpedo room? Torpedo room: Torpedo room is clear,...
  3. It Is Done

    The room had low benches set into the walls and big doors at either end. They'd been let in through the first set, and arranged themselves along the waist-high, U-shaped wall in the center of the room. From down the hall, through the other doors, he could hear the soft whine of the electric motors that powered the... What, he wondered, would you call it? He'd worked in a warehouse, decades ago, running the powered pallet-jacks of boxes up the ramps into the cargo compartments of the...
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  4. Surrealism, or, get translations first

    So at the funeral today... During the service, there were three hymns. I was familiar with two of them, the second was "Jesus Loves Me (This I Know), although I hope the lyrics in the Japanese version aren't quite so infantile. Can't, off the top of my head, remember what the first one was, but I knew it when I was much younger, and the third was new to me. The minister lead the singing, and he had a very nice voice. But, on the other hand, however, comma, the music before and after the...
  5. Syncretism (a fragment)

    The service was Christian, as was she. I learned how to pick the bones when the little dog died, ten years ago. How far does the syncretism go here? I guess I'll know soon enough.
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  6. The Queen

    There are hierarchies in everything. In Asia, the children's game “King of the Hill” is referred to as “Monkey Mountain.” Dante had his circles of Hell, and, prior to the invention of the elevator, the best rooms in a building were not in the penthouse, but on the ground floor. Everyone else had to trudge up the stairs to get to their office, to their home, to the third-floor, rear apartment with a greasy cot and grimy windows that let in a little light, but no view. Hospitals have...
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  7. No clever metaphors today

    Mrs. A's mom is not doing well. She was moved last week from the hospital she'd been in to one closer to home. The first hospital specialized in surgery and treatment, but they've done what they can for her. I went to see her the other day, and she was sleeping, but when she came to for a bit, there was no recognition in her eyes. Basically, there hasn't been a point anywhere in this last year where a treatment has made her "better". To the eyes of a layman; they've simply managed to slow...
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  8. The Office at the End of the Hall

    There's a certain office at the end of the hallway. I'm an American, or at least, I used to be. Nowadays I'm just a gaijin wherever I go, but the Secretary of State has requested that all whom it may concern permit me to pass without delay or hindrance, and in case of need, to give all lawful aid and protection. Rex Tillerson's a good guy, having my back like that. So my first day at my new job, years ago, was a Saturday. I work for, among others, a large, multinational consumer goods...
  9. Harry Potter?

    So (I assume) to promote the new live-action Beauty and the Beast movie, my local cable company ran all the Harry Potter movies over the weekend. Now, I'm not a big fan of Harry Potter, but that's not a crack against them, I'm just way outside of the target demographic, but I decided to give the movies another watch because why not? Missed the first one or two, but I definitely saw Goblet of Fire from the start, and man are those stories messed up. I'm going on the assumption that they...
  10. Kong: Skull Island questions (possible minor spoilers)

    Some spoilers will follow, but I'll try to keep them minor and not hitting any key plot points. A Broomhandle? Really? Computers? Maybe. Wait, what's that captain's rank? Wrong boots. Well, the Army changes uniforms faster and more frequently than a Japanese bride changes her dresses, but that hat don't look right to me. A pay phone? How did four Hueys and a Chinook just change into twelve Hueys, a Chinook, and a Sea Stallion? Does the Army even have Sea Stallions? They set up quick....
  11. Everybody's Heroes

    "The Last Emperor" was on the TV again. I've been there. Mrs A and I visited Beijing five or seven years ago, my first visit to a... strategic competitor (?) country. Ages ago, in another life, the Army of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea serenaded me to sleep at night. It was cool, there were three strands of concertina wire and a couple of miles of mountains between me and the most heavily guarded frontier in the world. Plus, I kept one of the two loaded magazines we were...
  12. Schwarzschild Radius

    It's been nearly a year, and at the time, they said it could be as little as three months. Nearly a year? Around a year, let's leave it at that, because at no point beyond her initial hospitalization has she actually gotten better. The outlook has improved, but her condition has not. She was aphasic, but she'd always been a little aphasic; I put it down to a personality quirk. What did the Rev. Spooner have growing in his head? She had seizures though, which she'd never had before, and...
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  13. Missed Connections

    So there was that guy that you killed. You wanted to say that there were a bunch of people alive today who wouldn't have been, but for you, but then you realized you put down that headset twenty-odd years ago. Long enough ago that you not only don't remember the day, but you're not even sure of the year. And some of them might be, probably are, dead by now. So there were a bunch of people whose lives lasted longer than they might have because of you, and the one guy that you kind of killed....
  14. xXx: Return of Xander Cage Reviewed (no spoilers)

    Just got back from xXx: Return of Xander Cage. No spoilers, but it was a lot of fun. If you see it on the big screen. Like most action flicks, I don't think it would translate well to my living room. Oh, also, I saw it in MX4D, which is the Japanese variant of the 3d theater with seats that tilt, bump, poke you in the kidneys and buttocks, spray blasts of air, water, and scents at your face, and tickle your ankles. So, kind of like that uncle that doesn't get invited by for Thanksgiving...
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  15. Bad Diet

    So yeah. I know fad diets, crash diets, are unhealthy, but hey, I'm bored. Very little in the way of work for the next month or so, and Mrs. A is spending most of her time helping out her dad or visiting the hospital, so it's just me at home. That means I've got complete control over my food consumption. During the semesters, breakfast is a breakfast bar because time, and I usually eat lunch in the faculty cafeteria. Bland, nutritious (?), lots of rice. Dinners with the missus, could be...
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