1.6 - Three Down

Well, Harry and the gang survived another adventure, but I almost didn't make it this time...woo! Tense.

Loving the books. On to The (gargantuan) Goblet of Fire.

3.1 - All the Beautiful People

I've been making headway on my 6 Degrees card game. Basically that means compiling a huge list of Actors and Actresses that I think would be fun to play the game with. My goal is to get 200 really good names, where 'really good' means that a fairly knowledgeable movie buff could look at any card and name at least two movies the person had been in and at least one co-star from each movie.

I've spent two long evenings on the IMDB, and have a list of 201 names, but I'm not happy with about 40 of them, so here's where y'all come in.

Do me a favor, and post the first ten names of actors/actresses that you can think of, off the top of your head. Hopefully you'll think of some obvious ones that I don't have yet...

Thanks!

Welcome Lu!

Yet another citizen expatriates to 5thingsistan!

Behold, Lu!

Welcome Lu, to our simple, yet sinister secret society. It's so satisfying to have you join us. Such a small sector of the social scene we still seem, say some, yet soon such nay-sayers shall succumb to our sweet sophistries. Thanks, in part, to you!

With you in our ranks, nothing will stop our total, global domination. Now that you have joined us, we are, at the very least, more literate!

In honor of your arrival to our mental land, and in honor of your 5th thing, I toast you with a glass of Centlivre!

Happy 5thingsing!

Ohio Conquered in the Name of 5thingsing

So, the Ohio campaign has gone well.

We hereby open-armedly welcome my friend and fellow thespian Bradley to our hallowed ranks, and initiate him into our mysteries as the very latest 5things blogger. And a worthy addition he is.

Welcome Bradley! Our mysteries are all the more mysterious because of you! You do us great honor!

In honor of your first thing, I dedicate this picture to you:


Go forth and Thing!

1.4 - Two Down

The Chamber of Secrets is closed again and Hogwarts appears safe.

For now......!

Two down, 5 to go. On to book three, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Welcome Joel!

My friend Joel, Master of Pianos, Master of Set (the card game, not the Egyptian god) and recent Masters grad of UC Berkeley started a 5things blog of his very own!

Congratulations on being an early adopter, Joel! You were here at the beginning!

To celebrate your new 5things blog, and in double honor of graduating, and performing thing #4 (which will take place in California), I give you this picture of Oski!



Have fun 5thingsing!

p.s. - please click the Egyptian god link....

Sweeping The Nation

I'd like to welcome my sister Lindsey to the 5things network!

In honor of her third thing, I have posted this picture.


So, welcome Lindsey. We all are especially looking forward to your first round of golf.

If anyone else out there in the blogosphere starts a 5things blog, be sure to let me know. I'll write you up here, and hook you up with a fun picture (100% stolen from the internet) that is somehow connected to your 5things.

Have fun!

Thing #1: Innuendo of The Week 2

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, page 193.

(The students are attending a 'dueling' class, taught by Lockhart and Snape.)

"Now Harry," said Lockhart. "When Draco points his wand at you, you do this."

He raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action, and dropped it. Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying, "Whoops - my wand is a little over-excited-"

Oh man!

Thing #3: Kevin Bacon

I don't remember the first time I heard of the movie nerd game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. (If you've never heard of it, check out the above-linked Wikipedia article for a nice overview.) It didn't take long, however, for my sister Lindsey and I to change the game to something simpler and more stream-lined that we simply called Six Degrees.

It works like this:

Two players each silently choose an actor or an actress. Then they say them out loud. The goal is to connect Actor A to Actor B, through their costars, in six degrees or less.
In other words: A was in movie 1 with C, who was in 2 with D, who was in 3 with E, who starred in 4 with F, who was terrible in 5 with G, who made me cry in 6 with B.

Make sense? The rules are very flexible. The point is just to have fun, and if you are a big movie nerd, it's hard to have more fun than this. My wife Petra loves the game, and frequently kicks my ass.

So...

Thing #3: Design a card game based on the Six Degrees concept.

Here are a couple of links you might enjoy if you get a kick out of the whole Six Degrees thing.

The IMDB - The ultimate movie nerd resource.
The Oracle of Bacon - This site is awesome, but kind of ruins Six Degrees

World Domination

I have a very exciting announcement to make, regarding my desire to conquer the entire world.

My wife, Petra, has started her own 5things blog.

Stop by and check her out.

Err. Stop by and check her blog out...

I've added a bar on the left where you can find a link to Petra's Five. Also, if you get inspired and start a 5things blog, drop me a note so I can link to it.

Thing #1: One Down

I finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone last night while waiting for Petra at our acupuncturist.

I immediately carved a lightning bolt shaped scar into my forehead.

Then we went to Auntie's Bookstore and grabbed books two and three.

Thing #2: 8

I talked to Tim briefly on my way home from work today. (He's good, by the way.) Besides a lightning fast discussion about the impact of the internet on socio-cultural evolution (really...), we came to a decision on which poem from the Tao Te Ching to translate.

Poem 8.

The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.

Translated by S. Mitchell

This is a very good place to start, as it's one of the first poems that really jumped out at me. Water imagery is very prominent throughout the work, and is something that has significantly influenced how I understand the Tao.

You should check out the Mitchell translation, (which I hope is posted legally). It's a nice translation, particularly if you've never encountered Taoism before.

1.1-Innuendo of The Week

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Page 83.

(Hagrid and Harry are in Ollivander's, discussing the lengths of peoples 'wands'.)

(Mr. Ollivander) shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.

"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again...Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"

"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.

Oh man!

Thing #2: That was Zen, This is Tao

My first copy of Tao Te Ching was a Shambhala pocket edition, translated by John C. H. Wu. For almost three years that very copy never left my pocket. The picture to the left is what it looks like now.

Nice, huh? Much loved, much read, much beat up.

It wasn't long after I first got interested in Taoism that my friend Tim became interested as well, spawning years of great conversation between the two of us.

Almost since the beginning we've talked about doing our own translation of the Tao Te Ching. Now, 'translation' is a pretty loose term here, as neither of us are Chinese scholars. Rather this would be more of a 'poetic interpretation'. (Oooh. Fancy.) Our pipe dream has always been to create a version of the Tao Te Ching that was accessible without being fluffy and mystical without being abstruse. (12 points for using the word abstruse.)

But, translating the entire Tao Te Ching seems a bit daunting. As Lao Tzu himself said, "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."

So...

Thing #2: Pick a poem from the Tao Te Ching to 'translate' with Tim, and see if the bigger project is doable.

Now all we have to do is decide on a poem. Easier said than done...

Thing #1: Harry Who?

In June of 1997 I had just graduated from high school, and was preparing to start college in the fall. Meanwhile, across the pond in the good 'ol U. of K., a little book by the name of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was being published by Bloomsbury.

For nearly ten years now I've encountered Master Potter everywhere I've turned. Everything from fiery, anti-Potter sermons to college friends completely absorbed in the tales and raving about them with child-like glee. I've bumped into Harry everywhere except my own library.

This July, a decade and a month since the release of book one, the seventh and final Harry Potter novel hits shelves. Harry turns 18 and hordes of salivating teens and 30-year-old pimpled men in capes are sure to descend on every bookstore in the world.

I hope to be one of them.

Thing #1: read all seven Harry Potter novels, and figure out what the hell I've been missing for 10 years.

I started today. (And already like Dumbledore a whole lot...)

My First Five Things

The first five things on my whim-list are as follows:

1. Read all 7 Harry Potter novels.
2. Translate a poem from the Tao Te Ching.
3. Design a card game.
4. Learn to make a killer omelet.
5. Memorize the words to Weezer's blue album.

In the future I'll be adding things one at a time, as I finish whims already on the list. I'll also keep a sidebar of my current Five Things.

And I'll be keep this site updated on my progress!

My Next Five Things

I had a very big realization the other day.

For most of my life I've operated under the assumption that, if I wanted to be Happy-with-a-capital-H, I had to be something. I had to have an occupation or a hobby that defined who I was. (I am an actor, I am a carpenter, I am a hopeless sci-fi geek.)

Looking back over my life, I realized that the things that had brought me the most long-term fulfillment were not the big, goal-oriented, ego-driven things, but rather the small things. The chance encounter, the unexpected relationship, the time I locked myself in my room and didn't come out until I knew how to juggle.

So I've decided to run a little experiment on myself. What if, for the next little while, I stopped putting pressure on myself to achieve "big things", to "be somebody" and instead concentrated on following my little impulses. What if I chased down my whims and found out what was on the other side of them?

What if I stopped trying to "be somebody" and instead started fully being what I already am, right this minute?

So here it is. For the next few months, I'm going to pick five of my current whims and follow them through. Each time I'm done with one, I'll replace it with another.

These won't be the big things in my life, like "build an eco-friendly home" or "travel around the world", at least not right away. Instead these will just be the next things in my life.

My Next Five Things, if you will.

I hope you enjoy!