Curse of the Day:
¤ May your beloved's mother become janky out of overly-friendly motives.

Word of the Moment:
¤ Word: Janky (adj)
¤ Usage: "That movie sucked.  It was hella-janky."
¤ Synonyms: Crappy, inadequate, lame, or to a lesser degree, just different than how you want something.
¤ Deviations: Jankalicious, jankitude. Fequently paired with "hella".
¤ Origin: Unknown/pop culture.  Malaya was using it regularly when I moved up here in mid-July and I'd heard it before, but hadn't really incorporated it into my vocabulary until hearing her use it frequently.
¤ Notes: Currently in heavy rotation, frequently used for comedic effect. Can be made to fit virtually all situations. -- August 5, 2003

Thursday night was something new.  Malaya and I stopped by a friend's Kali class, hoping to get a look at what was going on there.  Kali is a form of martial arts popular in the Philippines, and while I don't know enough about various forms of martial arts to explain it clearly in comparison to other forms, it's pretty likely none of you know enough about them to benefit much from such a comparison, if I were even capable of making it. Basically Kali is a weapon-oriented form, one with very smooth and flowing movements, and not much foo foo flim flam type posing or rules or ceremony.  People in the classes don't wear those cute little Karate Kid type uniforms, and you don't all stand in rows and punch imaginary objects while shouting in Japanese or Chinese.  It's a much more practical and flowing form, and Malaya's friend is very young for an instructor, but she's very skilled in it, and she makes it fun. I had fun, anyway.

I haven't observed her class before, but she only teaches a few people, and on this night they were in a new location and the turnout was smaller than usual.  As a result Malaya and I participated in the class and got to see just how it would go for new students.  One of the regular students had brought three sticks, so we all used those for some basic drills and techniques, and went from learning to just twirl them around in our hands while moving our arms in the correct way to applying the techniques we'd been using to learn to strike powerfully, as well as adapt some defensive techniques for bare-handed fighting.

We're not under any illusions that we could not kick ass in a street brawl or anything like that, but it was some exercise and interesting and a reasonable way to spend a couple of hours.  The teacher spent a lot of time talking about theory and concepts, in terms of defending, allowing the other person to pick the target and then evading their strike, turning an attack aside, but we were also spending a lot of time just working on the physical techniques with the sticks and then with bare hands, combining it with footwork, etc.

It was sort of an impromptu session, since we'd just dropped by to watch and only joined in since we were invited and the class was very small that night, so it wasn't like "Introduction to Kali 101" or anything like that, but I found it informative enough.  I have no idea what a full on beginning Kali class would be like, and what sort of thing we'd start off doing, but the teacher is not hung up on rules and slow learning curves, so it's not at all unusual for brand new students to be handling live knives or sticks or engaging in careful sparring their very first class.

That sort of thing is what Malaya and I like, since we both want to just jump into something, and don't have patience for endless regimented drills and training practices.  We just need to find an art and a teacher that we like enough to stick with, in a discipline that uses a lot of weapons and tools, since we're really attracted to that aspect of things, rather than just hand to hand combat.  Malaya's friend yesterday night would be a good option, but since she's been Malaya's close friend for so many years it wouldn't work real well, with the whole master/student relationship not meshing with the friend/friend dynamic.

But I feel better able to figure that sort of thing I want to train in, having spent a session checking out Kali.  Kali isn't a very popular/well-known style, so it's not like I'm/we're going to try out everything once and then pick one, but previously it was like trying to pick a car when never having actually been to an auto dealer.  We know what sort of martial art we like, and several of the better-known ones are already ruled out for various reasons (Judo and Karate are way too chop chop and non-flowing and regimented and repetitive for our tastes), so we'll be looking to find something we're comfortable spending some years learning more about.

Earlier in the day, I finally got all of my change of address letters sent away, and paid my last few pre-move bills, and sorted all the letters and other junk I had lying around for the last few weeks.  As long-time readers will probably remember, I've long (forever) had issues with procrastination, especially when it comes to paying bills and filing away crap that I need to file away.  It always seems much easier to just let it stack up and deal with it... later.  Malaya was not pestering me about the unopened, address-forwarded mails I had sitting on my desk, but I knew she wasn't real happy about them either.  And neither was I, and living in this condo with here I don't have room to let crap pile up for months, so I was going to deal with them sooner rather than later, or at least later rather than never.

And I did, and I feel better for having done it.

Another thing pushing me to deal with it was the fact that I practically never have to again.  Malaya enjoys keeping on top of paying the bills and dealing with the paperwork, and since the condo is in her name and I moved in with her, all of the bills come to her.  She pays them and keeps a record of how much everything costs, and then after a month I write her a check for my half, and that's that.  No more moments of panic on the night of the 4th when I realize I've not yet paid the rent and I'm about to get hit with a $75 late fee, no more annoying past due bills or late penalties/interest from the power or phone or cable company.  Halleluiah!

It's never quite that simple, since some of our purchases I pay for at the time and she then owes me half of that later, and lots of times we'll just split something at the time if we've both got cash, or I'll buy lunch and she buys the movie tickets, etc.  I have no idea what sort of system other people use with their partners in life, but this one is working pretty well for us thus far.  If we stay together for years, and get married and all the other stuff we're planning on, I'm sure that eventually we'll just have joint accounts for most things and there won't be any worries about who paid for what and who owes who 50% at the end of the month.  It's just that at this point we're new to this stuff, and our incomes are very different now: currently she's making good money and I'm making nothing, and they'll probably/hopefully be different later when I'll be making a fortune from novels/movies/etc.

My overall expenses are far lower also, since I've gone from paying $900 a month rent to paying zero rent since she owns the condo. I suppose you could say the $250 monthly association fees are "rent", but obviously half of that is far less than my old rent was.  And even with us eating out regularly, going to see movies, buying DVDs, buying furniture, etc, I'm spending less a month now to live here than I did to live alone back in San Diego. And having a far better time living here as well.

This isn't intended to be some sort of referendum on my first almost a month living with Malaya, but I'm happy and content thus far, and we're getting along well and starting to get into a more productive routine.  We just need to cut down on the D2 and movies and increase the work time, and all will be well.  I can't entirely speak for Malaya, but as far as I know she's pretty happy with how things are going, though she agrees with me on the need to do more work and less play.  Even though the play is such fun...

In a belated effort to attempt to rectify that situation, here are some better photos of things.

These first couple show the main tank, and the metal tube leading up the left side of the bookshelf.  The larger shot to the right features Janky (the white rat) and her sister Bo (the black one on top of the cage lid) in the main tank/cage/terrarium.  Janky is perched atop the metal mesh step that leads up to the trap door, and a few inches above her squats her sister.  When the tunnel was first in and functional the rodents spent most of their time in it, especially in the connecting part where Bo is here, or else they were up in the top mini cage.  They're still very fond of it, and sleep up there most nights, but are spending more time down in the bottom portion.

As you can (sort of) see, the wheel is fixed into place and usable now, and we put a nifty desert-themed background on, as well as more silk flowers below their cage.  The rats probably don't appreciate the greenery one way or the other, but Malaya and I much prefer it to the blue metal of the bookshelf.  Actually the rodents do like the silk creeping vines, since they have a few dozen leaves that they've torn/gnawed loose up in their top cage, as bedding.

The shot to the left shows the tube up, peeking past the silk greenery.  Bo is in the middle of the stovepipe-like climb, behind a green leaf to the far left, while Janky is not visible. She's probably in the top out of sight.  This tall shot shows about four feet of the tube, with the lowest foot out of sight off the bottom of the picture.  It's a damn long way, as I said before.  The initial plan was to make the climb pretty much perpendicular, but construction realities set it to a slight angle, and then further construction realities (namely, me wanting the top to match up pretty nearly straight across from the opening in the top cage) necessitated modifications and bending of the upper few feet.

This is probably a good thing, since it gives the rats an easier climb down with it being other than a chimney-like drop.  Going up they don't much care if it's straight or not, since they can get a good grip on things and clamber up like little spider monkeys. And clamber they do, in relatively amusing fashion. Especially when it comes time to eat, since they are always served in the lower cage, and yet often want to grab a bite of pasta or anything large enough to bother transporting, and carry it up to the top perch to eat there. It would be a bit like you running down six flights of stairs to get a bite of burger and fries, and then carrying those back upstairs to eat, before heading back down for your next mouthful.  But hey, no one said rats were all that bright.

Here are a couple of more views, with a better look at the connecting portions, lower and upper.

To the left you see the lower tank, with Janky climbing up from the step through the trap door.  Bo is down below by the neon-orange food dish, looking out at nothing in particular.

I'm not at all convinced they can see anything, or process it.  I mean they look and see, it's not like they're blind, but they don't react to what they see very appropriately.  Neither rat cares at all when Dusty is standing six inches away, staring at them, when in theory they should be in full on flight for their lives mode, with their archetypal predator in easy striking range.  They also don't react much to seeing things that they like, such as tasty morsels of food or a human hand coming to pick them up.

Basically they see things, but I think their vision paints the world in shapes and movements, but not really clearly enough to do much info processing from. They are much more turned on by what they can smell and touch and hear, and they'll freak out far more at a scary scent than they ever will from anything they can see.

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