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LiveJournal for A Lover of Questions.
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| Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 |
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all night drive back from richmond last night. 25th event of the year. the shifting tides of fate have become tsunamis. |
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| Monday, November 23rd, 2009 |
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for those of you interested in the longer term results of the diet i did earlier this year; over the "phase 1" 30 day cycle i went from a soft 170 to a hard 155, over the "phase 2" period which lasted about another 60 days I went down to about 150, and I appear to have stabilized at that point after re-introducing basically all carbs during the "phase 3". The only lasting changes; I dont really use sugar in coffee anymore, and I still slip in a few lower-carb meals over the course of a week. I also indulge heedlessly with deserts and breakfasts a few times a week. and It appears to have no negative effect. Blood sugar issues are still essentially non-existent. Overall it seems like an effective metabolic tune-up. |
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monday nov 23rd. youmacon w/moy tung staying a week afterward and the denver trip constitute the 23rd and 24th special training events of this year. In denver I contracted what was probably a very mild case of swine flu. This caused me to cancel my Portland vacation with my family as I didnt wish to expose elderly relatives. Disappointing, certainly, but i did seem to have a really great time just hanging out in Detroit. 4 consecutive days off. Spent a lot of time around the house relaxing, reading, and going out to eat. very pleasant. This little in home sabbatical has given me the chance to reflect on the work of the last few years, and the new development cycle that things are heading in to. This last year has been pretty amazing because of the activity level. One thing; the activity level has been sustained, for an entire year. Another; I've lived in relative comfort the entire time. Previous cycles have had me eating questionably, sleeping on floors, having no money for periods of time, couch surfing, ect... At this point I can no longer claim to be a starving artist. |
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| Saturday, October 17th, 2009 |
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August - the final three weekend were each workshops with MT, and much of the intervening time was spent training. September - first weekend was spent in intensive training in Denver, one weekend off, then the next two weekends in Richmond for intensive seminars. October - first weekend was Kazuricon - a working weekend certainly, but no seminar. The following weekend was with Moy Tung in Detroit again for the final shooting weekend of Into the Current. That is now formally in post-production. Much of the following week was spent training with the grandmaster. Now: I'm on the road to Roanoke for another seminar, with Moy Tung, my Sibok Marcus; Moy Yee Tung, and my cousins in the "cannon fist clan". Next Weekend; a somewhat surreal seminar in DC on saturday that will lead into several days of training with my TiSigungBok - Moy Bing Wah. and After that; the explosively surreal adventure that is Youmacon, wherein I'll be coordinating a security group of 50 people at an anime convention. This one promises to be particlarly interesting, as it may entail over 7k attendees, Cosplay strippers, and a (very)well financed group of total haters that have promised to sabotage the event. Just to keep things crazy, its Halloween weekend; and Moy Tung will be involved in a zombie attack themed kung fu demo. In November I'm hoping to actually spend some time in Detroit, though the weekend of the 14th I'll be back in Denver for another workshop, and the week after that will be spent with family in Portland Or. I'm hoping to take it somewhat easier in December. we'll see i guess |
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| Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 |
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| breakthrough work accomplished with unceasing massive effort. thats the theme. | ||||
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| Monday, September 14th, 2009 |
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Our culture, therefore, must not omit the arming of the man. Let him hear in season, that he is born into the state of war, and that the commonwealth and his own well-being require that he should not go dancing in the weeds of peace, but warned, self-collected, and neither defying nor dreading the thunder, let him take both reputation and life in his hand, and, with perfect urbanity, dare the gibbet and the mob by the absolute truth of his speech, and the rectitude of his behaviour. Towards all this external evil, the man within the breast assumes a warlike attitude, and affirms his ability to cope single-handed with the infinite army of enemies. To this military attitude of the soul we give the name of Heroism. Its rudest form is the contempt for safety and ease, which makes the attractiveness of war. It is a self-trust which slights the restraints of prudence, in the plenitude of its energy and power to repair the harms it may suffer… Heroism works in contradiction to the voice of mankind, and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good. Heroism is an obedience to a secret impulse of an individual’s character. Now to no other man can its wisdom appear as it does to him, for every man must be supposed to see a little farther on his own proper path than any one else. Therefore, just and wise men take umbrage at his act, until after some little time be past: then they see it to be in unison with their acts. All prudent men see that the action is clean contrary to a sensual prosperity; for every heroic act measures itself by its contempt of some external good. But it finds its own success at last, and then the prudent also extol. Self-trust is the essence of heroism. [Ralph Waldo Emerson, Heroism] |
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| Friday, August 28th, 2009 |
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THE DEVIL. "what is the use of knowing?" DON JUAN. "Why, to be able to choose the line of greatest advantage instead of yielding in the direction of least resistance. Does a ship sail to its destination no better than a log drifts nowhither? The philosopher is Natures pilot. And there you have our difference: to be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer." -George Bernard Shaw I'm sitting here with Moy Tung this morning, I read him the above quote. He agrees that this is an excellent description of the goals of chi sao, and kung fu in life. |
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| Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 |
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Once, long ago, I was heavily involved in role playing. Now I just have a crazy enough life that i apparently have neither the sufficient time nor desire. anyway i figured out a few things, with hindsight, ways to address a lot of the problems that plauge the live action vampire gaming idea: 1. Atmosphere. This is a dramatic game, not a strategic one. The whole point of live action gaming is to make things seem very cool, in reality. so the major concerns of the game become -Setting -Costuming -Acting These are the foremost concerns fo the ST, and players are rewarded for their accomplishments in these realms, nothing else, no xp for accomplishing strategic goals, no xp for killing things, none. XP or other rewards are given for finding good locations, assisting with set building on the sites, costuming, and dramatically appropriate role playing. 2. Player Experience. The only value of the live action game is the experience the players have in participating in it. to that end -the ST should never play a PC or NPC role. Any role that would require the ST to do so would be pivotal to the plot, therefore a great role to have a player in, so they could have the experience of doing something realy cool, and relevant, in the game. -No NPCs at all. for the same reason as above, NPC roles are in the game to facilitate plotlines, and this is exactly what the players want to be doing, give these roles to plyers instead. find a way, its worth it. -The plotline of the game should be written into the background stories of the PCs, the ST and PLayer should cooperate heavily on the creation of every character. 3. Ecology. Many games find themselves struggling with issues of power balance that make the game implausible, even within its own fantasy context. to avoid these issues create an initial ecology, limited resources and a well defined environment within which players can compete for those resources. Also, STs shoudl envision a world in which players will suffer consequences if they violate traditions, or other domains, or fail to act with sufficient subtlety. The game reality has to have mechanisms for maintaining its inner consistency, these mechanisms are of course best when they are other players. -No house rules to mitigate lethality, PCs should be able to kill and punish each other if they are to serve as plausible checks and balances and maintain a reasonable ecology. -Its a lot more homework for an ST to conceptualize an entire local environment with all the elements a players would plausibly encounter, but the reward is well worth it. -Character creation should be restricted to what the environment you have defined can reasonably justify. 4. Duration. A game should be structured with a beginning and an end, and a defined story arc that will last a finite amount of time, announced by the ST at the beginning of the game. If the game is very successful and all players wish to continue, then another game can start again, after a break, and run for another pre-determined period of time. -This will foster a focus on players interacting with the plot, and cultivating the drama of the game, not slipping into a de-facto alternate lifestyle. these are the major points that stand out when I reflect on the best, and worst, elements of my Live Action Gaming experiences. |
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| Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 |
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http://dave-littler.livejournal.com/797 |
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| Friday, August 21st, 2009 |
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"Being, by its very nature, outside language, some of this stuff has to remain unsaid and unspoken . It's a very serious study for me." -Clive Barker on magic |
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email these people: philandsarah@clivebarker.info to join an internet petition to get a remastered version of nightbreed released with 50+ minutes of additional footage. If you've never seen nightbreed, i credit this as a seminal influence |
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| Thursday, August 6th, 2009 |
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I've probably posted this before, its worth reading again. Therefore it is necessary constantly to remain mindful of the end. If we permit ourselves to drift along, we come together and are parted again as the day may determine. If on the other hand a man fixes his mind on an end that endures, he will succeed in avoiding the reefs that confront the closer relationships of people. -Wilhelm |
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| Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 |
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periodically i document times of transition in the journal, truly significant thresholds. It feels to me that late may of this year was big. I think this september might be a lot bigger. The really large scale changes begin inside. I've spoken with several people who will talk about they can feel when things will go their way, before they've even begun a project. I know its a common feeling, very profound, very subtle, difficult to describe. This feeling of thresholds is somewhat different, realizing that everything is moving faster. As the major events I'm observing materialize, or dont, I'll document here, and we'll see. |
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| Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 |
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Necrophagist and Ensiferum last night at the irving plaza theater in manhattan. Necrphagist is shockingly good. You might not have thought so previously, but seeing them live makes a few things clear; they can really play this stuff, and, the music itself is excellent. an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DND8S_C awesome. Otherwise I'm here in NYC to do some training with kung fu brothers here until friday. Its the strange truth that these days I apparently need to fly across the country to train with people of a contemporary skill level. Theres a lot fo high level kung fu developing in this season, its worth it. And new york is nice anyway. |
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| Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 |
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The superior man sets his person at rest before he moves; he composes his mind before he speaks; he makes his relations firm before he asks for something. By attending to these three matters, the superior man gains complete security. But if a man is brusque in his movements, others will not cooperate. If he is agitated in his word, they awaken no echo in others. If he asks for something without having fist established relations, it will not be given to him. If no one is with him, those who would harm him draw near. |
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| Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 |
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Last wednesday night/thursday morning i slept from about 2am until about 5am before getting up and working out with Guy then proceeding with my day. I did get a nap thursday. Thursday night/friday morning I again only slept from about 2am until 5am, then drove the entire day before arriving at a brooklyn workout, pretty heavy chi sao/bill gee, that went until after midnight. After the workout we went out for food in williamsburg, and I had a great opportunity to observe myself in a state of sleep deprivation, starvation, and general trauma, while on the phase one of the diet. -While working out at times it seems my muscles would burn out to easily and I would feel short of breath. After a brief rest (a few minutes) however I would feel Fully recovered, no progressive exhaustion. As long as I kept cycling like this i could keep the energy up no problem. -At no point did i experience any mental crash from sleep deprivation, lack of food, or exhaustion. I was distantly aware of all of these feelings, but if i ignored them they just faded and I was left with a very intense, calm focus. After eating (a salad with steak, very good) and driving back to Mikes place I passed out pretty hard at about 2:30 am. Woke up the next day at noon and proceeded to Brooklyn. Ate a good breakfast (omelet with salad), and headed out to the Bayside Queens school for Micky Chans class. We worked out from about 3:30 till 6, heavy tsui ma/ chi sao, then a lecture until 7. -this was really grueling training, every ounce of strength crushed from the body, totally soaked in sweat. Some of our "training partners" had 20 years. its was intense. Afterward I was pleased to find I had no problem keeping total attention on the lecture, maintaining posture and breathing. we then headed to a carb-laden kung fu dinner at the flushing chinatown, which i was pleasantly surprised to find had plenty of asparagus and broccoli. didnt eat much. back to brooklyn by about 11:00pm, then it was heavy chi sao until 3:00am. -this was an excellent workout, following the concepts introduced earlier. i was definitely tuning in on the major ideas and taking it up at notch at points. I was still standing ready for more at 3am when we were wrapping up. My energy had leveled out and I was ready to keep going. -also at this point i was not having any of the brun out/shortness of breath feeling i was having friday noght, and the workout was much more intense, something had really come together. Sunday we met for Dim Sum in chinatown which i could eat very little of, and then proceeded to do cermonial things until about 9pm. The day consisted of a lot of intense NYC area driving, alternating with solemn attention to memorial processes. Normally this in itself would have been severaly draining after such a minimal breakfast, I was fine the entire day. We ended up then getting into intense lecture/discussion of major kung fu ideas with Lester Moy Yee, and Moy Tung (2 of the most senior kung fu masters of our age) until, seriously, 4am. I was fully aware and attentive the whole time, no problem. I crashed out at about 6. Monday i got up around noon, cleaned up, packed, and struggled through NYC traffic to meet Sigung in little Italy for "breakfast" at about 5pm. No eating beforehand. This would have been impossibly agonizing under normal circumstances; no problem. at this little sidewalk cafe i had chicken parmesan w/vegetables. This was technically a cheat because of the breading on the chicken, much of which i scraped away. Afterward i left, in the midst of rush hour traffic (it took me an hour just to get down to the holland tunnel), then drove all the way back to detroit, getting here just in time for the morning workout with guy at 6am. 12 hours on the road would have been an agonizing struggle, but i was able to smoothly ignore tiredness and hunger and do some very constructive thinking on the way back. basically, I feel like i'm on really great drugs. Like, drugs so good they dont have any side effects. its really amazing. i just thought i'd describe some of the extremes I'm working with, because people on this diet dont generally deal with the physical exhaustion, followed by intense mental challenges, followed by cross country driving, while sleep deprived. i do this kind of thing pretty regularly, and its normally much harder. as of today I'm in my final week of the detox phase, and I should begin re-introducing carbs. its probably worth noting that I've been up since 1:30pm, its about 4:30, I've not eaten and i'm not hungry or dazed at all. This is highly abnormal for me. Usually i'd be a basketcase if I had gone this long without eating after waking up. I think I'm going to do this again next year, strategically planning major training and travel phases while in Phase 1. I also think next time I'm going to do this for 6 weeks, and really make the best use of the last 4. in fact I'm tempted to extend it this time, but i think what i'm going to do is a soft transition to phase 2 over the course of the next 2-3 weeks, while seriously escalating the athletic training, possible introducing some cardio. should be interesting |
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| Monday, June 29th, 2009 |
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http://sfscope.com/2009/05/comics-artis |
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James Brown + Bruce Lee = Michael Jackson http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/ar |
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| Friday, June 26th, 2009 |
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| NYC this weekend. right now I'm heading out alone, anyone interested can come along. this is primarily a brooklyn workshop, and its pretty informal, and there is crashspace, this is as accessible as a NYC training trip is ever going to get. | ||
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| Thursday, June 25th, 2009 |
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This weekend: NYC/Boston Next weekend: iowa for paul/jeffery wedding and 4th of july party, stay until my sisters bday the weekend after that, return on the 13th. weekend of the 17th/18th, senior training workshop here in detroit, my birthday, then off to NYC for Metal on the 19/20th. Late july - 21st of August; final production for Into the Current. early Sept; possible Denver trip Late Sept; Richmond Kwan seminar, probably 1 week visit Oct; 2 anime con security gigs including youmacon over Halloween. November: possible 2 week trip to China December; nothing planned yet but trying to keep the later month clear for holidays with family. |
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LiveJournal for A Lover of Questions.
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