50 Cent for President

I heard that Kanye wants to run for President now. I understand his logic. If Trump can do it, I can do. And while maybe Trump has done more and is more respected, think about it, they are the same person, sort of, and Kanye can get the black vote... maybe.

I like a lot of Kanye's songs and he's a good businessman. I have no idea about whose better, Kanye or Trump in terms of running the country, or business. I just assume Trump made more money but I don't really know that. I know nothing about business.

But I do know this, a good response to Trump is actually  50 Cent. Curtis James Jackson III. Actually that name even sounds presidential. I'm not saying his rapping makes him a good president. But he is a Shark just like Trump, except he sets up programs to feed starving children in Africa, and is trying to bring back Detroit.  He used to sell drugs, but JFK's grandfather was a bootlegger, and thing move faster in the digital world, so evolution from second generation drug dealer to United States President makes sense.

Also his time on the street means that he already has the skills to navigate geopolitics. He has been a politician since childhood. Street war and missile and drone war aren't all that different. One educates for the other. Just ask Colin Powell.

Buy is Curtis Jackson a Democrat or Republican? Not sure. I'm just assuming he would run as a Democrat. Kanye is probably a Republican, but the reason why I assume Curtis Jackson is a Democrat... I don't know I think he does believe in social services, because believing that everyone should just make it the way he did means he would believe that all children should sell drugs.

Probably he won't run this time. There's too much to attack him on. And he's too black for white democrats, but he actually is more qualified than Obama was in terms of Economy and Foreign policy. I'm serious. You would understand if you really think about it.
But to attack him, all you have to do is show his old rap videos. He looks ridiculous in those. But say his role in that knew boxing movie where he basically plays himself. That image works.

And when he looks older in Eight years. That image will work. Maybe he should just say he's thinking of running and say why then pull out and then plan his campaign for eight years, releasing a biography before he runs which talks about all the business deals and good he's done. Then he'll win. Maybe he should run for something like Mayor of Detroit, a job nobody wants. If he can turn that city around then he can definitely run the country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent

But then again maybe his criminal record prevents him from running. But those were misdemeanors not felonies so maybe he can run.

whips and chains

We have been making a bunch of whips out of duct tape. But they are sort of more dangerous and difficult to make strong than I thought. Then I found out that the Indiana Jones trick of swinging from something, is a Hollywood trick. Well we have them anyway.

But what I started working on instead of the rope dart/meteor chain. Mine isn't a chain. It's a string with a cloth ball at the end. I had made one a while ago with a tennis ball but I think I lost it at the playground. It was pretty useful because you could hang it up and use it as a target too.

In any case, since I really don't know much about this weapon myself, it has been sort of exciting for me. I'm actually learning something new. Plus it's fun for the kids to play with too. Plus I can easily two of them, heck six of them if I make that many, in my back pack if I wanted too.

The most memorable location where I first busted out with this was when we had a little picnic at  the park. Noah wanted to fight with something and I saw I had this in my back pack. Eventually the game turned into him throwing things at me and I was trying to get him with the cloth ball.

Later I actually just started practicing hitting the tree with my cloth ball on a string while circling and that sort of thing. Then Jonah and I played, how far can you throw the ball or sling the ball. Which is farther? etc.

Well, if you use a para cord I think you actually can swing from a branch with this weapon/toy and their a lof easier to make. So I think we'll be focusing on this for a while.

Sales

I used to suck at sales. Where little children would gladly go door to door selling raffle tickets or girl scout cookies or bars of chocolate for their school or Chinese school or whatever, I hated doing such a thing to the point where I just didn't do it, I bought all the raffle tickets myself.
Later working as a bank teller I couldn't bring myself to push products on people that I believed were designed to be fee traps. Or why try to get people to open an account when they didn't want one? Or even if they did have a product that was good, like a free checking or something like that, heck I felt like if they really wanted one they would ask.

But sales are the one thing that it always seems they are hiring people for. Especially the mostly commission type of sales.

Then I thought, "I might not be a salesman, but at one point a long time ago I did like acting on stage." In other words, I can play a part and say lines. Which means I can pretend to be a salesman.

Which means eventually I can learn to do sales.

Grace laughed at me.

"Yeah you can be the type of salesman that's real angry and mean and nasty."

I'm not sure what she means  by all that. Perhaps I can be shy and not naturally friendly.

But if I had a product I believed in, that people really needed, like Software of some sort, I could sell that. Because it's something people wanted anyway.

Then I though of all the things that people buy which they don't need. Even things that I buy that I don't need. I'm not just talking about Consumerism. But say, Religion. People bought that. I bought that. In fact, I would still buy it tomorrow if mu kids would come with me and I felt that over all it was good for me.

Then I realized just how bad at sales I had been.

I do have something that I believe in that I have dedicated my life to and dedicated my children's life too. Kung Fu.

Basically I had kids to teach them Kung Fu. In a way, I had kids because I was so bad at selling Kung Fu to other kids that weren't mine.

I have said on this blog and out loud that Kung Fu is not for everybody. But I don't believe that.

I really believe that everybody needs Kung Fu. They just need it for different reasons and to varying degrees.

Not only that, but I don't believe that everyone needs to find their own system and their own teacher.  I would like to believe that you can learn by yourself, or that you can learn anywhere. Especially because when I hear people talk about how doing Kung Fu somewhere else makes them feel or how great  there lives have improved, I believe them and I am really happy for them.

However, when I see people do their Kung Fu, basically I believe everyone would improve greatly if they had lessons from me. I actually believe that, But it is the most arrogant cocky thing to say.

Your a Wushu Champion? Yeah you would be better if I taught you.

You are an MMA Champion? Yeah you would be better if I taught you.

You are out of shape and can barely walk down the street? You are overweight and injured?

Guess what?

You would be better if I taught you.


If people heard this they would think "Who they hell is this guy and who the hell does he think he is?" But this is what I actually believe in my head. In fact it's more than what I believe. It's what I know.
But it sounds so crazy that I keep it to myself.

I couldn't even sell what I know to be good for the world.

I even believe that Kung Fu.. MY Kung Fu could change the world for the better. Maybe not the way renewable energy can change the world for the better or the way software can change the world or new cancer treatments or any new technology. But I do believe that socially, spiritually, and health wise, my Kung Fu lessons can change the world.

But I don't even attempt to sell it to everyone I know because I get embarrassed.

Well I'm going to change that, if not to change the world, than to change myself and make myself a better salesman. Of course I did the math and even if I became excellent at selling Kung Fu, there is only so much Kung Fu I can teach in a given time to a certain amount of people and there is a limit on what I can charge realistically. I still believe it's more important to make my kids really good at Kung Fu than to teach strangers so, even if I became successful in my plan, my income would not be that high. But it would be more than I make now right?

And hopefully, it can help me to learn to sell anything. And then I can make real money and teach Kung Fu to people I have time for.

I mean if I was a millionaire I would teach Kung Fu. So why not teach Kung Fu to try and become a millionaire?

Re-installing the Point system

Hours and hours of the Legend of Korra and other types of screen time have caused our family's discipline and harmony to degenerate. In fact it's as if we have had our own Harmonic convergence in our household. So I have re-installed the point system. Now, an episode of Avatar the last airbender costs 25 points. In fact this morning, breakfast costed 15 points. And Noah's Rubber band whip also costed 25 points.

But guess what, Noah earned it all today through Sup Ji's and stick forms. He's really picking it up. I'm not saying it's easy, and I'm not saying he doesn't argue with me. But suddenly at the end he got it. It was just a matter of getting low in his stance.

Poo way

On the way back from Grace's family reunion we picked peaches. Basically the children had a ton of peaches, watermelon all day long. So every 10 minutes one of them would have to pee and poo. Dai Dai didn't quite make it once, and Grace was reconsidering ever taking a road trip again ever. We got Pizza and Pasta from this awesome place called Camille's but it wasn't quite dinner time yet. The children ended up eating the pizza in the car anyway, so I guess we should have just eaten at the restaurant. Then again, it's nice to have them strapped in and immobilized sin't it? I ate as well. Grace would eat later.


Then it was time for Noah to pee and Poo again, except we weren't near any sort of rest stop. We ended up pulling over at a toll near some State Police type of parking thing. Noah jumped out and peed on the grass and Grace realized she might as well eat her pasta now.

Then Noah said something unintelligble.

"What?"

"I pooed in my pants!" he yelled.

"What!"

And I pulled him to the woods. It was okay. Because we would just pull down his pants and the poo, which was probably like a rock would roll out and the rest we would leave in the woods. Now this may be illegal in some way and we are next to the state police, but what am I going to do?

Then I pulled down his pants and saw that unfortunately, this was not rock poo. It was watermelon peach diarhea like business. I flashed back to my teen years when a student (about Shaos age now) left a present for me, in fact threw it as he ran home into his mother's car. On closer inspection it was an underwear full of poo which landed on my Si Hing's belt, which I had had to wash since Si Hing was in China. The Underwear went in the trash and I was seriously considering chucking Noah's underwear in the woods as well.
Luckily I had saved some of the paper towels Jonah and I had used to dry our hands at the bathroom at the restaurant. But it was all over. Squatting would not cut it for this type of wipe.

"Sei Ping Ma!" I said, because I needed Shao to get into a wide horse stance in order to wipe off all the poo.

Well there is more to this story but I will have to  tell it later.

Time's Black Lives Matter

I was waiting to pick up a prescription for Noah at CVS, (ear infection, and eye infection probably from swimming) I picked up Time magazine because it had some article on the police side of black lives matter. As I was looking through the magazine the first thing I felt was how strange the idea of a magazine even is nowadays. I mean you can get all this from your twitter or Facebook feed.
Anyway, there was a brief little article from the editor that was just complete nonsense. I  have seen some articles that are actually good responses from the police. But this one immediately said, "This goes beyond race, it's about jobs." What difference does it make what kind of job you have if the police shoot you dead? Plus the last shooting in the news was of a white kid. That's where I thought they were going with the this goes beyond race thing.
Then it goes on to say, "You can change everything about the police but it won't necessarily change the dynamic."

Well let's try changing all that first and then see.

I mean Japan has a big racial dynamic and a big class dynamic, but they don't have a police problem at all. Let's take a look at some of the things other countries do before saying, "oh you can do that but it won't change "the dynamic"" I think the protests are about people dying. Because getting roughed up by police is one thing. You can get over that. But when you are dead you are dead, there's no second chance.

Recently me and my kids have been making whips which reminds me of a famous cop from Hawaii. Apana Chang.
Apana Chang inspired the Charlie Chan books because he was a Chinese detective. But the personality of Charlie Chan is the author's Earl Derr Biggers himself. Apana Chang's image, the Panama hat with the bullwhip at his side, probably inspired Indian Jones.

Chang would actually whip kids. Because he did not carry a gun. His idea was that he would whip them when they were young, so he didn't have to arrest them or shoot them when they were older. This sounds crazy nowadays... except when you consider that now kids are being shot when they are young.

The Legend of Korra

Ten years ago, or however long it was, I thought that Avatar the last airbender was cute but somehow beneath me. Even when I started watching it more recently, I couldn't get into it as much. But this series, set in a 1920's-esque world, the  city looking like San Francisco, has got me hook. I watched the first season yesterday. Luckily Noah can watch with me and since we have been doing Kung Fu and this looks way mor like Kung Fu even than light sabers, let's just say it's another way to get Noah interested, especially in the meditation part.

Not only that, but I feel like it touches me personally. Even with air bending (which is much more powerful than real Kung Fu) the benders are able to be defeated by technology and industry and even regular Chi-blocking Kung Fu. Ultimately they win by regaining popular support, which ends up being the most powerful thing in the series, and real life.

Korra takes up Pro- bending, a sport and through it is able to learn traditional air bending concepts, or Bak Gwa moves, The funny thing is Noah and I do Light saber fighting and he gets to throw acorns at me. I tried dodging, but he always gets me in the thighs. So then I did those same Bak Gwa moves and he couldn't hit me anymore. I started laughing. Noah asked why.

"Because I just learned Kung Fu from a cartoon."

Problematic movies for children

The children and I went to see a movie at the library. It had famous actors like Dean Kane and Rob Lowe and the bad guy from Karate Kid. It made references to that movie, even though it was a movie about dogs. James Hong, who voiced Mr. Ping played the Chinese Master. But there were some moments when Noah was like, "Is that how Chinese people dance, or talk? Why do they sound so funny." So basically despite hours of the Wong Fei Hung series (with Ekin Cheng) and other Kung Fu movies, in one scene the damage is already done.
It made me feel like I had to have a long discussion at home. It was weird too because most of the audince and even the librarian was Chinese. It also bothered me that Noah probably didn't even understand the Cantonese that James Hong was spouting. And nobody laughed when he sang his love song because of it's cheesiness.

And nobody got the Indiana Jones and Karate Kid references.

But you know what I really realized?

There are some movies from my childhood that I have to show Noah. Indiana Jones, Karate kids. I have avoided them because they are problematic. Karate Kid not so much for racial reasons, but damn I'm tired of people referring to my martial art as Karate. But Why is that?

I mean I was happy when the New Karate kid came out and I was annoyed with Ralph Machio for not being for it. I mean Jackie Chan not good enough for you as a Master? He is the real deal. But ultimately, the classic is still a better movie and the Chinese Version nothing but a summer fad/Beijing propaganda. I do Kung Fu and I hate Ralph Machio and I love Jackie Chan, but even I have to admit that the original is just better.


Pat Morita is of course the man. He also speaks perfect English and doesn't know Japanese.

 1980's American propaganda that might be bad for you somehow but just tastes too good. Like McDonald's.

Indiana Jones, is sort of racist at times but their just so fun.

I have had black students who are an older generation who had a lot of bad things to say about Rocky. The whole concept of a white Champion that was a blockbuster when the white Champion Boxer is a complete fiction. But still it's a good movie.


Star Wars movies. Ironically the newer ones are the only racist ones. But the Disney Star wars rebels is awesome. If only there was an equivalent for the other things I listed.

Well ultimately all these movies are so wholesome though. Does that make them more dangerous? Well you know what, we already watched a bad movie with problems, we might as well watch the good ones.

Looking ate the performance video

This is the Video of the schools performance, which for various reasons, (less people, opportunity for Noah, etc.) the performance was sort of my chance to give Noah as much performance time as possible. Because Jonah simply would not be his tail on stage, I was the tail. I should have walked on my haunches the way I did for the CASP performance, because it's true, the baby head looks weird. In fact so old men complained about it but then some other people who probably knew me were like "That's the father! Hush!"
I actually hear dnone of this, others told me about this humorous conversation.
Regarding my Fu Hok song ying kuen, which I sort of warmed up on a little the week before, I realize I need to work on the opening. I tried to save power by not doing it as hard, since I knew I would have a lot of other stuff to do, but it doesn't look as good.

I think I even need to build up to this form again because since I had kids I had even started performing the forms below it more, Fu Hok Chuet san (Tiger Crane coming out of mountain) and Joy jong (chasing fist.)

I had been focusing more on basics in recent months and now I need to start focusing on forms again. Mostly in the mornings I have been doing Sup Ji and stick form with Noah. And then when i get the chance I think I need to build up power with Chuet san and Joi jong until a certain time, going through the form in the video until I again, start doing this form as a training exercise.

It got me thinking about the potential of teaching outside again, especially since Noah has been consistently practicing with me in the mornings. It started at 6am but the past few days we have slacked off started at 7am, but that's still pretty good.

But just because he will go with me in the morning doesn't mean he wants to be greeted with a crowd. But someday, maybe once a week I could have a class. I think I would charge by season.

Winter (December, January, February) is a time to teach Lion Dance and drumming.  Then do some sort of parade for Chinese New Year, is not the Parade in Chinatown.

Spring (March, April, May) Kuen. I.e. a hand form, or basics or basics and drills. Whatever.

Summer (June July August) Staff. Long Stick, Gwun. Basics, Drills a stick form.


Fall (September, October, November) Sword, or short stick or noodle.


I could rotate the forms I teach but not the drills, maybe even rotate the Lion Dance focus. Parading vs. trick performance, maybe even one year do a dragon or whatever if there enough people. You would pay by season and it would be a sign up type thing. And then if people wanted to learn private lessons they could. Just thinking it through now. I won't be able to do this until Noah is older. In fact, he will probably teach the class, and maybe Jonah too if he ever gets into Kung Fu.

Trapped on the porch .

We found a nectarine seed that had started to sprout. Would that take root? Would it have to be grown inside in the winter? In any case, me and Noah ended up on the porch. In fact, Jonah was out there with us for a while, but then suddenly disappeared. After some time I began to feel the allergues kick in, and besides were were supposed to leave for the Science Museum right about now. Technically, 20 minutes ago. But whatever, soon.
The door was locked. It only locks from the inside. Did it somehow just become locked accidentally? I mean, Jonah doesn't have that type of motor skills. I knock on the glass to get Grace's attention. Then Noah begins knocking as if he is going to break it. I try to make him understand why I am knocking on the glass and to not just copy what I do but harder. "What are you trying to do?" I ask him. But I am getting frustrated. "Don't just do things you are going to break the glass and that is not what we want."

I jiggle the handle and pull a little harder to see if that is the trouble but it is definitely locked. Again, Noah does what I just did except with less purpose and seemingly to try and break the thing open. We try to open the screen but I don't want to break that either.

Well no matter. Grace had to come down stairs at some point because we were leaving soon. After all how long does it take a woman to get ready....
crap.

Meanwhile, Grace put on make up and had a nice long discussion with Jonah about their dreams and their love for each other. "Nobody knows how much I love you." said Jonah, "Even more than infimily." which is his version of infinity.

"What is that banging sound Dai Dai."

"That's nothing mommy. It's only construction."

I swear to God the minutes became tens of minutes and perhaps even one hour. Okay no. Not one hour. But still.

I asked some woman passing by if she could ring the doorbell. I heard it ring and I thanked her.
Grace claimed she never heard it.

"Wait I have to check on something." Jonah would say every once in a while and go downstairs. Though we never saw him Until finally, we did.

"Dai Dai open the door!" yelled Shao.

"I can't!" yelled Dai Dai after trying.

"Go tell Mommy to do it." I said.

"But Mommy is putting on makeup." said Dai Dai.

WTF


"Go tell mommy to come open the door so we can go in the house."

Finally we were allowed back in and prepared our trip to the Science Museum.

Stick Fightin

Noah has been waking up pretty early every morning and we have been going to the park to do stick fighting and sometimes light saber fighting. The difference is mostly what type of sticks we are holding. For lightsaber fighting, Noah carried his "Ezra" lightsaber from Star Wars rebels that Mommy got him. I carry a pool noodle. That was not as successful because chances are he will eventually break the plastic toy.

Usually we bring the sticks we have collected and sometimes painted for that purpose.

Both activities are a pretty good workout in the morning and I realize that if I don't get a full cardio workout, it's just because I am being lazy. It's easier to jump around and do spinny moves with the pool noodle because I can be less cautious, whereas with a staff I could actually hurt Noah if I don't pay attention. We alternate pretending to shoot lasers too, which means running away, which means sprinting. Sometimes I pause in a dramatic stance which is good strength training and stretches me out as well.

Sometimes  Noah actually gets me now and I feel that even I am learning about how the Kung Fu moves are used just through playing. Of course I had to learn the forms first to know those moves and I had to practice by myself first to get them smooth, but I feel like Noah is just learning them just from watching and then immediately applying them. It's pretty cool.

Too bad Dai Dai is not into it. I wonder if we can continue this early morning play when the weather is colder and when school starts. It sounds pretty hard core to practice stick fighting at 6 am. But it also is obvious to people who see us when we have light sabers that it is a lot of fun for Noah. In fact it is really Noah that is waking me up to do this and not the other way around.

Simple Machines

While waiting for our second August Moon performance the children played with these Yoga like mats. Except they are slightly stiffer so you can make walls and castles out if them. While I was looking at something else, Noah placed two chairs and created a bridge with the mat.
"Now cross over Dai Dai." He said, thinking this would really work.

"Stop!" yelled Jing.
"Are you kidding me?" yelled Heen. The children froze before their attempt but it was unclear whether they would continue.
If Jonah walked across he would of course fall through.

In fact it was kind of comical if it weren't dangerous.

He could hurt himself by cutting his lip on the chairs if he fell wrong.

But actually, I sort of wanted him to do it. Noah and Dai Dai didn't understand that the mat wouldn't work. But how does one find these things out? It's not just because they are young, because as I think about it, adults have done things like that too. There are plenty of stories of Chinese villagers first coming n contact with firearms, trying to defend themselves by covering their ears, or opening an umbrella. If you don't know, you don't know.

But I suggested using something besides human life, especially Dai Dai's human life for the first test.

Noah got mad and started crying and said only human testing is a real test.

So I ended up placing Jonah in the middle of the bridge and allowing him to "fall" through, except I was still holding him.

This idea that kids have to learn, not the hard way, but through safe experimentation occurred to me again when the next day we went to the park to shoot bow and arrow. Noah could not find the middle of the bow, something that I could do fairly easily, or at least better than him, despite my not knowing much about archery either.

So I used the first basic stick form move, or that concept to help him find it by balance. Interestingly, he did not naturally understand which way to move his hand to balance the bow. Basically where to put the middle of the see saw, the fulcrum, the center balance point. He would find the wrong spot and then to correct it, he would go in the wrong direction, and then as a second try he would go in the wrong direction again so that it seemed obvious that there was much more stick on one side of his hand then the other. Then he got angry and would yell at me.

This was frustrating because it seemed like common sense. It made me question what I knew as a child. I have memories from childhood but they are through my adult lens. So I don't know how ignorant I was of the world around me. But I do have some memories as an adult, even recent ones, that seemed less obvious, but as I thought it through I realized what may now seem obvious.

In fact I could also see other adults struggling. To adults you can explain. But to children, perhaps sometimes it is best to stay out of the way or show them. Or maybe to adults you should just leave them in ignorance unless them knowing somehow benefits you, i.e. they are your student.

For the mat, I also showed them some other structures in the school that were made of harder board and reinforced by by 2X4's but they were still upset over the initial reaction. which came from a fear for their safety for a long time.

August Moon

6:00am
"Ahhh! August Moon time!" cried Noah, who was but a distant voice in the back of my dream. I opened my eyes. "Uhnnggg" which means it is not yet time for August Moon we have a few more hours Noah. But when it came out of my mouth that's all I could manage.

Jonah and Grace woke up much later and despite Noah's enthusiasm I didn't want to go into Chinatown for the whole day because I knew that Jonah would crash and Noah would just become a crazy person when he got too tired.

We did get to Chinatown after a lunch at home and Noah played chinese chess and then we got him dressed and for the bowing to the ancestors in Moh Goon Jonah actually ran into the tail and participated as the middle of the lion (I was the butt) Screaming in delight, Jonah had his August Moon memory.

We then prepared to perform. Noah got to do lion head and then also did his Sup Ji and Staff and instead of sword we brought our own stick we use as a sword which is more of a club or a pang. It is a branch which we painted, crayoned and glitter glued. But it still looks like a branch.

Noah wouldn't actually do Sup Ji by himself so I started with him (after having just done my form.) But I left him after the opening and he continued without realizing I had left. After that he was okay. He got some pictures in the Herald.

The other picture of our team makes it look like the lion head suddenly came a live and was flying away as it bade it's dancers goodbye. It's a really cool picture and looks like something out of the pages of the Monkey King comic books I read Noah.

We ran into many friends on the street on the way back to Moh Goon while belting out Nam Yi dong ji kerng.

Then we did another performance for the Federation. Usually this is done another teams too but yesterday because of the scheduling it was just us again, so we ended up doing the same thing, which was fine for me because I felt like Noah got double experience.  I did some different forms than I did the first time and I was glad that I had the chance to do so many forms.

A lot of the schools are really getting better in terms of presentation and numbers of students. They have a lot of contraptions for the lions to go on that are pretty cool. Grace mentioned that the school before us had a really loud drum. It was so loud people were covering their ears. But Dai Dai just passed out in Grace's arms at this point. I think when you are used to the drum, it has a calming effect on you and you can fall asleep more easily.
I guess if we had a lot of people, or if our family had a bunch of people and money, we would start buying more equipment and stuff too. But right now I am actually downsizing mentally on equipment. I mean, I like that Noah used a tree branch for his form, and for my stick form I picked the most tree branch- like stick that Moh Goon had. Next year I think Noah and I will spar on stage with our sticks. Not a set form, but just how we play in the park, and I think I will use tree branches too.

But when I am a grandfather and if the kids make a lot of money and we attract more students, maybe we will build more contraptions for the heads to play at, and maybe buy bigger drums.. or make them.. and buy more heads... or make them. But that is something for the future. Right now we are a small family that belongs to a small Moh Goon so I will focus on skill and the Kung Fu itself.

On disrupting rallies.

In the 60's a lot of activists disrupted rallies for the Democratic party. People thought the party could get it's stuff together and we ended up having very strong Republican rule as a result.
It looks like the same thing will happen now with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Disrupting rallies is one way to get your message out, but why not try the other party.
Also, here are some thoughts I have been having about possible solutions or strategies if I were one of these activists, which I am not.
First of all you need allies with money and you need greater numbers. Your advantage is that you have a lot of members i.e. potential votes, which is why Rand Paul has tried to get those votes by saying that the country should demilitarize police.
Also a visible change, which might not change things in terms of amounts of shootings would to have not just more black police, but possibly, ALL black police. The same thing for politicians and any kind of elected officials. Now people are probably black lives matter activists may be thinking "oh Carson won't help us." or "just because a politician is black doesn't mean that things will change necessarily."

But what if the goal was to get every office held by someone black. There are plenty of black people who could be police and elected officials who aren't of all sorts of ideologies. They aren't pushed forward because the assumption is whites won't vote for them and blacks won't necessarily vote for them or vote at all.
But what if all blacks consistently said, "We will only vote for a black candidate election after election until all positions are held by blacks, no matter what party or ideology." If you elect a black candidate that isn't good then for for another black candidate next time. Consistent voting like that in one direction will force all the parties to push forward a black candidate with their ideologies. Probably also black women in order to get the women's vote. Some people will cause this strategy racist. But, if the racism (or reverse racist or whatever) that is causing the deaths of young black  men is subconscious or a result of other factors then non blacks should have no problem voting for black candidates with ideologies they share, and so the parties and donors will be forced to push forward black candidates. If everyone is indeed consciously racist, then who cares?

Now about getting all black police or at least all police of color or a majority of police of color.

If you look at the security industry, i.e. the security guards who work on those tank like trucks filled with money or at banks or coast guard bases etc. how many of those type of uniformed enforcement are people of color? A great deal more than police. Also they are paid very little. If these private security companies did the majority of street policing it would save local governments a ton of money, and most of the security officers on the street would be people of color.


Real police would take a step back and simply oversee these police as managers. When one company begins to have too many incidents of police brutality that company is fired by the local government that hired them and a new company is hired. My mother worked with the tenants organization that hired security guards for the housing projects I grew up in. They displayed (not force) but jerkishness towards some teens. But the tenants had the power to simply fire these guys or get them fired and hire a different company. I.e. security would be forced to do their job well and for very little money because of competing companies. If one company gained a monopoly that would be a problem. In fact it would be the problem we have now. How hard is it to fire a cop? Apparently even killing someone doesn't mean you are let go. In what other job would that be true? If a bouncer or a security guard killed someone, the whole company could get in trouble.

So who would push for such a model except for black lives matter? The owners of said companies and there investors I.e. "the man" or a diverse version of the man. In other words by pushing for a model like this, instead of disrupting Bernie Sanders (who cares about him as a serious candidate?) you will have big money on your side.

Now after a majority of politicians are black and a majority of street security is done people of color, I'm sure there will still be issues. Probably not Michael Brown Eric Garner type of issues. Probably a lot of security officers (of color) will be killed by armed citizens and criminals or something. Or maybe there will be corruption or selling of drugs among the security officers but that happens now among police so that will not necessarily be a change for the worse.

Yes there will still be issues but you could try for that first. In fact the biggest beneficiary will be the owners of these companies and the government which can no longer get sued for police brutality, the private companies will be.

You could say the losers would be police but not necessarily. You will still need police to oversee the private security. Of course there will be major downsizing and these security jobs will not pay as well. But there will still be jobs if not more jobs for that police type.

You can change the world in this way, very quickly I think, but you will have to ally yourself with big business and go against unions. This means the rallies you should be interrupting, or at least pushing to speak at, are probably the rallies for the Republican party.

Super Shao and Daider Bunny

I've started writing another book while I take a break from "Kung Fu and cooking." This one is going to be a series similar to the Magic Tree House, except though it is written for children I will deal with awkward questions and the explanations won't be like a textbook either.
So the first adventure is about the Nuclear Bomb. What is it?
And I was thinking that the main thing we will talk about is Hiroshima and Nagasaki which means we also have to explore the atrocities in China and the Rape on Nanking. Again, this book is still for kids. Super Shao and Daider Bunny will see the horrors not so much of war, but of an army let loose on a civilian population.

Guiding them will be the Monkey King. I  think that at this point Super Shao and Daider Bunny will try to stop some atrocities but it will be like Scrooge going back to visit his past. Nobody will have any reaction to what they do. So Super Shao (who has a bat) will try to hit some soldiers raping and bayoneting a woman while a child that looks like Shao sits and watches and then is also bayoneted. But his bat will just touch thin air.

Here is another difficult thing to talk about. "What is rape?" In other words, what are they doing? Not in a scientific way, but why is it bad? Why are they doing it?

Children's stories like the Monkey King and the Grimm Fairy Tales solved this problem by having witches or demons simply eat children. "What will they do to me that is so bad?" They will eat you.

"Who will do this?"

Demons and monsters and witches. But Demons and monsters and witches can look like normal humans and can even look beautiful and handsome.

So my Fairy Tale will have to take it further.

Any normal human being from a normal civilized society is potentially a demon and a monster, is even a demon and a monster while they are in that society.

Conrad's Heart of Darkness argued that England could easily revert into a savage state.

But that was written before WWII when humanity saw on film that Civilization itself can be Savage.
The way people were killed was systematic calculated and civilized in its brutality. And then some stuff was just how people behave when there are no laws or when rape and looting is encouraged or at least not discouraged or not punished.


Then we will have to go to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My idea is that Super Shao will swing his bat at the same time the Nuclear Bomb explodes. Maybe for Nagasaki, since although there is an argument that Hiroshima was to stop further killing by stopping the war, Nagasaki really was just to see what would happen. Super Shao will see what kind of destruction Hiroshima did and had seen what the Japanese Army did and will swing his bat in anger or revenge, or something. But again, he will not have actually caused the bomb because essentially he swung at thin air. But the idea will be that it is those same types of feelings that cause these atrocities. I.e. children are capable of all the horrors adults are.

Plus the perpetrators of  this atrocity is America, whom we usually view as the Good Guys.

(Monkey King in the Journey to the West also goes around doing some morally questionable things even when he had the approval of Buddha. In fact, the Monkey King is a lot like a Nuclear Powered United States in terms of his ideals. He stands for Democracy (which ancient China thinks is monkeyish and ridiculous) saying that they should take turns being Emperor of Heaven and put it to a vote. )

(Barefoot Gen did a great job really describing the horrors of what happens after a bomb like that goes off. I'm not sure if I will go into all that detail though. Maybe I should read Barefoot Gen to Noah actually. )


Daiderbunny has the power to give gifts instead of smash things so throughout the story he will be trying to bribe people and then later hand out food.

Or maybe we can look at how Nuclear power can be helpful to society (as well as dangerous. Fukushima can be explored here. But so should France.)

For this first one, it will be the Scrooge idea where they can't effect the past I think.

Maybe after this we will travel to a fictional world where aliens have just discovered the nuclear bomb and explore some of the ideas of what having such a bomb means. Maybe there are blue people and pink people.
Or we could still do History stuff about India and Pakistan.

My idea would not be to list a bunch of facts and stuff but how would you describe say Fusion and Fission to a caveman? Right?

And then how do you explain the morality and ethics behind this knowledge?

Three Chinatown Adventures

Chapter One. The man at the gate.

I have been bringing Noah and Jonah to swim lessons at the Wang YMCA on the same day I do the little Panda class which means we have a long stretch in Chinatown. After Tai Tung Plyagorund and Moh Gooning, I bought some Ding Ho for the kids (which tastes so good now that I hardly ever eat Chinese food. I think it's actually not even that greasy as it was before and healthier is this only in my mind?) In any case, I was fasting that day so i didn't eat. I figured the best place to eat would be those tables at the Chinatown gate where old men play Chinese chess and gamble at Chau Dai Di with dimes and nickels. I think they play the chess for money too.
It's pretty cool because it's like a gambling house but the smoke dissipates because you are outside, and because it is a park, it is part of normal society, and dimes and nickels are worth more for the metal they are made with than the actual currency.

We brought our own Chinese Chess set and I played Noah. I figured he could play some old men there like he has been at the Northern Moh Goon (my name for the playground near our house which is technically in Brookline and is frequented by many Mandarin speaking Chinese. The parents of Doctors and post Docs etc.)
But nobody would play Noah. I wasn't sure if it was because they didn't know me or maybe they thought Noah might actually beat them in front of their friends. (At that point Noah wasn't that good. He still isn't... but today he managed to beat me twice in a row so maybe now a below average Chess player might actually have to fear losing. But who cares? It's chess, not Russian Roulette.)

There was a good crowd of Jook Sing types and young Chinese students too and they sat next to us. In fact I thought I might get them to play Noah but by the time we finished our food they were gone.

Suddenly out of nowhere this Fire truck pulls up into the park. That's weird, but also entertaining. It's like a plus for a kid because fire trucks are always cool, provided there isn't a fire. I wonder if someone had called because of smoking or some sort of violation of code. But the large fireman went two tables down and we were not asked to move. Noah was occupied with the chess game and I was feeding Jonah Lo Mein my fork to his mouth, and glancing at how long we had to the swim lesson.

"Does anyone speak English?" The fireman yelled.

I looked around. No Jook Sings. No young Chinese students. Just old Chinese Men, the type that grew up on the Mainland and came over too old to learn English.... and then there was me with my two kids.

I raised my hand, left all my Lo Mein trash on the table, "C'mon let's go kids follow Baba."


"You speak English?' He asked.

"yeah."

"And you speak..."

"Yeah I know Cantonese."

"Okay great. Can you ask if anyone knows his name and what happened? "

I did.

"He doesn't know how to talk now!" said one man.

"He just fainted here he doesn't even know how to move."

"We don't know what his name is."

I explained.

"Okay." the fireman said calmly. "Tell him to grab my two fingers as hard as he can.

"Okay, Can you...." shit Gum ji, is press down. What the hell his grab? Ja jiu? I closed my eyes trying to recall.

"I just want him to-"

"I know, hold on."

"Oh you can't think of the right word.. I understand."

But it was okay because the crowd could. I asked with explanation and hand motions.

"Grab his hand with strength!" they said.

"Ni siu lik ja jiu kui jek sau ah!" I repeated again in Taishanese. This could work. They couldn't speak English, I didn't have the precise vocab, but together it would work.

"It's pointless he can't do anything now he's barely conscious!" Another man said. I explained. The Fireman nodded.

"Does anyone know his name?" No body did. But one man said to get his ID card from his wallet.

Oh yeah. I guess I'm not really be useful here I thought.

Once they touched his wallet the man moved more furtively to protect that. I suppose that part of the brain is more instinct than consciousness even though your wallet isn't something our cave ancestors had.

I laughed.

"He's moving now!" the fireman said. This is not to say he was fully conscious. But it is interesting that now being able to follow simple instructions, you can still protect your wallet in a half coma.

The Id was obtained and the para-medics arrived. I looked around.

"Dai Dai!"

"He's over here." The fireman said pointing to Shao.

"No I had two."

"Oh crap."

"You can't leave!" Said another Chinese man thinking that I was, "Nobody here speaks English, only you can help us. If you leave we'll chase you to the CCBA and to Woo Ching."

"Yeah yeah okay." I said in Englsih actually and I spotted Dai Dai pointing at the wall shooting imaginary piggies with angry birds calling, "jiu jiu jiu jiuy jiu!!!!!!"

"Okay stay next to Baba."

Several side conversations picked up as I stood around being useless because at this point the Paramedics didn't need to ask questions, they just hooked the man up to things and laid him on a stretcher. Besides, he was as unresponsive to Chinese questions as to English ones.

"So that guy is part of a Kung Fu school?" they said about me.

"Yeah he's Woo Ching's disciple, and taught at Kwong Kow." and my whole resume was listed. Perhaps if certain other people had been there me and my father's and mother's resume would have been listed right there. So fast, all in one sentence. Some true, some just legend.

"Hey that was (blanks) husband." someone said of the man who fainted. "Someone should call her right?"

They tried to look at the ID in the fireman's hand.

"Relax!" said the fireman.

I didn't intervene there because the man would be taken to the hospital and they would get an interpreter and they would call his wife or family members in a proper procedural way.

"Thank You." said the Fireman as he shook my hand. I realized this had been taxing for him because although he was trained for this, it wasn't firefighting.


"Thank you." said a bunch of other people probably of no relation to the man who had fainted and who somehow thought that I had actually done something. I guess if anything, I made everyone feel a little more comfortable. Like if the guy was suddenly able to speak, his words would be known.

He hung around for a while longer, played a couple more games of Chinese Chess and then it was off to our swim lesson.


Chapter two: The bleeding Baby

Sunday August 2nd was a big convention for the Yee's Association of North America. The Federation (which is Wong Keurng and Woo Ching White Crane Combined) and Wah Lum (which is pretty big all by itself) were doing a total of two dragons and four lions. Pretty cool. I wanted the kids to see it. We got into Chinatown, played at the BCNC playground, played sword fighting with pool noodles I had brought for that purpose,  ate a packed lunch at the garden across from it. Then Jonah threw his lunch up because he would stop jumping around. This might have been because I was doing Kung Fu while they ate. Just slow freestyle internal type stuff. Well enough of that. Let's head to Moh Goon. It's hot and they have AC and we didn't bring Chinese Chess so we'll use there's.

Standing at the cross walk, having strapped Jonah into the stroller (he's old for that but he might get tired.) I was a woman carrying here child. He looked too old to be carried. He was crying and she was sort of jogging with sandals on. Now why is she doing that? She was across the street coming toward me and I was just waiting for the cross signal. She ran across the street and seemed to have a sort of desperate look on her face. As she got closer, I noticed the child was bleeding from his finger and not wearing shoes.

The woman looked at me with desperate eyes.

"Are you going to the hospital?" I asked in Chinese. Because otherwise she would not know.

"Yes can you help me go to the hospital?"

"It's this way."  I started too walk with  her pushing Dai Dai in the stroller because someone had to. There was an old Chinese man there and she asked him in ENGLISH, "Excuse me sir!"
and then turned to me, "Excuse me Sir!" and then she started crying and the boy was crying and I realized in a second that she had run here carrying him from far away and had used her breath and probably other parts of sanity to keep calm this whole way and now she was flipping out and losing strength.
"I'll help you." I said in Chinese and I took the boy in my arms. She tried to hand him to me but she was out of strength.
"You push my son!" I said nodding with my head in the direction of the stroller, "C'mon Shao you have to run on your own."

This all happen in less then a second it just takes longer to say it all.

It was just that up until then I had been slowly processing what seemed to be a strange scene and now I realized it was an emergency and she needed my help even though I had two kids with me.

The boy cried and I ran while patting him, "You don't need to cry, MM sai hahm." I said calmly. I ran in horse stance so it's not like I ran wildly and was bucking up and down. It was a smooth  ride for him. I used to do with while Noah slept as a work out, so actually something that was difficult for her because she was skinny, I had actually unknowingly trained for.

She spun Jonah around and pushed him running behind me. Noah was hopping up and down like he had to pee only of a more urgent type. "C'mon let's go!" he said to the woman or Dai Dai, or maybe nobody in particular. But I knew we were all on the same page following the same plan even though few words had been said. I ran into the Ambulance entrance cause that was closest. Everyone looked at me.

"uhhhhh. I have an ermergency here." I said as calm and steady as I could because I had run a little.
"Okay cal down." said the nurses and the officer got up to tell someone something.
"The mother is on her way."
And I looked back to see her and my family and they were there shortly after me.

"Okay stop. Relax." they said.

The mother came in and they told her to relax too. It's true, to them this was no big deal. But the boy definitely had to go to the hospital probably especially since it was so close and anyway that's what the mother had decided. Besides, when Dai Dai cut his foot I was freaked out too.

"So where should he go."

"Just lie him down on this gurney over there." a nurse said

"Thank you." said the mother. I think in English. I can't remember. She was still sort of crying.

Then a nurse started pushing Dai Dai in the stroller.

"Uhh no this one is actually mine."

"Oh you mean you're not all the same family?"

"No."

She started laughing.

A different nurse came up, "Okay and are you just a good Samaritan?"

Yeah. and we parted ways.

"Wow that was the scariest thing I ever saw." said Noah.

Jonah later told the story to Mommy as, "Mommy today we saw a bleeding baby and he was running..." and Dai Dai motioned with his hand through the air.

I'm glad that's the scariest thing Noah ever saw because that's a good sign.

We crossed the street and then crossed back to retrieve our pool noodles which we had strewn on the sidewalk, and I noticed there was blood all over my arm and my Kung Fu Federation Shirt.

Chapter 3. Fun Firecracker Lion Dance in the summer and  a Feast and Play time.

We made it to Moh Goon. people were looking at my bloody shirt and avoiding eye contact. Great. Making people think I just murdered someone. Should I clean just my arms or my shirt too? It's only a little blood. But then I got paranoid. What if there was a fight somewhere and then police saw blood on my shirt while chasing someone else. My story sounded far fetched. I better watch it off. It took more water than I would have thought. In other words, my shirt was soaked. But it was sunny so it would dry fast. The thing is I was shirtless at moh goon when the AC was blasting. I didn't think I would get sick, But I had to put my kids in the hallway and I was walking around and all these prepubescent dulcimer girls as well as mothers with their daughters going to Chinese Folk dance were around and looking at me like who is this creep with no shirt on. Actually they recognized me so it was like, "look at this creep that I know with no shirt on." So I hid in Moh Goon. I mean if there had been No AC I would have an excuse, but the AC was blasting.

At any rate the shirt had fallen down and didn't dry in time. I felt the feng sup go into my lungs. I should have just left the blood there.

Soon it was time to Lion Dance  for the Yee's Association, A's mother helped me watch Noah and Jonah. Interestingly, under her care, they were such good little children. We did Lion Dance and blew up Firecrackers outside. It was awesome, except that I had no earplugs. But to smell the gun powder and play while in the summer heat was a good feeling, like we were in China, or San Francisco, because when do we get to do this except in the bitter cold?

We took a group picture saying cheese an dthen someone clever said, "say YEE!"

"YEEEEEE!"

Then we paraded to the Hyatt. I carried Jonah for that and fed them oranges that had been discarded after the dance, having served their purpose as offerings given by the lion to the VIPs of the Yee's Association.

Mommy drove by and picked up Jonah but Noah wanted to stay.

We did another Lion Dance and then ate a feast at Jade Garden.

Scallops and Conch, Beef and Brocolli, Jiu yeem squid and pork, shrimp chips and chicken, sweet and sour pork, vegetables and mushrooms, and more. Fried rice too. Noah ate a normal amount. I stuffed my self. I haven't had good Chinese food like that in a while. I just couldn't stop. I even had a ton of rice so it wasn't like I was only eating soong, or dishes. Finished up with Tong siu. Grace would have liked this meal. But hey, she wasn't here and I wasn't going to feel guilty.

Back at Moh Goon, a newer  member, who brought his son and helped us drum during Chinese New Year, having learned as a child now taught his son how to drum as Noah played noodle fighting, then stick fighting, then noodle fighting with me. Then we started drumming too.

This newer member, who is about ten year's older than me, and I had befriended earlier (I think he is also a Cheung, though spelled Zhang.)

Mr. Zhang, I realized is really intense about his drumming. He always leaned way forward when he drummed. and I realized that immediately the second he starts drumming, the beats he plays are very personal. When he is playing it's as if he is unloading his soul into it and he physically looks like he is doing that leaning over the drum pouring his breath and blood into the sound of the drum. I tried to describe this to him in Chinese and he said, "Yup sun" or going into spirit and then "yup sum" going into the heart.

At some point I looked at the clock and it was 8:00pm. Almost bed time. We had to go We had been in Chinatown for almost ten hours. By folks. And we took the train to the 39. I actually left our lunch box and pool noodles by accident. I'll have to go get those.

Hyde Square Task Force performance.

Cheung Family Kung Fu did a performance for Hyde Square Task force yesterday. It was going to be a book reading too, but Grace suggested that I keep it all as a particpatory Lion Dance workshop since it was mostly children that showed up. Noah did his freestyle and lion dance and I taught a mini class. All in all it was a good time.
However, I want Noah to perform his Sup Ji for August Moon, which is a week away, so I think I will frce him to run through it 3 times a day from now until then. It would be nice if he could do his freestyle and stick and sword form as well, but I'm not sure about the time constraints for our performance that day. We'll have to see.

I am taking my time editing my new book, "Kung Fu and Cooking" which is in the perspective of Peter's son who is now 10-14 years old in the book.

I've got a long way to go for that.

I have also started a new series called Super Shao and Daiderbunny. This children's books will explore some of the questions that my kids ask me that are not just curious but also socially difficult and touchy in terms of political correctness... and yet they are legitimate children's questions.
The first question I will deal with is, "What is a Nuclear Bomb?" and the questions that surround it. How does it work? IS there nuclear power in nature? What happens when one goes off on a city? Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why did that happen? who bombed who? Who is the bad guy and who is the good guy?

See difficult questions.

Super Shao and Daiderbunny will be lead through the answers by my version of the Monkey King and Guan Yin. Except my Monkey King was not born from a stone. Instead he is an immortal primate that first picked up a  stick. And Guan Yin represents the Goddess in general in all cultures. But this back story will be told in snippets. Oh yeah, and in my version their married. Again, though this isn't that important to the plot of the first book.