Mating Robins

Walking to school today I saw two Robins encircling each other as they quickly flew up and down.

"I think those two Robin's are mating." Commented Noah.

Remembering pigeons mating in the spring at Castle Square I remembered how the male would mount the female from the back. A very unique coupling that you would not see unless they were doing that specific act.

"I think they would be on top of each other both facing the same direction." I said. But as it turns out I think Noah was right and that he must have seen them earlier than I did doing just that.

I suppose the male was for it and the female not so much. But of course I am just jumping to conclusions. I only heard what Noah said and assumed what he saw.

It is spring despite the snow on the ground and the arctic blast soon to come tomorrow and that pull of nature to begin to reproduce is strong.

Just Basics

I'm gonna do a class in the park. April May and June. Three months. Also $60 on Sunday mornings. The class will be JUST BASICS.
And when I say Just basics... I mean that we will do the basics form too, which is luk lik,

Here is what we will do every class.

Horse Stance Meditation (for three breaths, than three breaths each side.) Then we will hold horse stance while singing Nam Yi Dong ji Kerng. (Should we just do horse stance? Or should we do this litle routine I made up for kids? You know what? We will do the little routine I made up for kids.


Btw you should bring water to this and stake out your little territory.

We will then do the standing basics. We won't be counting. Or rather I will be counting in my head. Part of the purpose of this class is to force me to get my horse stance back... so tis will be painful.


Then we will do walking basics.


Then we will do Luk Lik slowly. The reason why we will do it slowly is because I noticed beginners always tend to injure their shoulder when they try to do some of the strikes. So this form will be done more as a way to hold poses and develop strength.

Then that's it. After that people can break off and do calisthenics or work with the lion heads or weapons I will bring. What time should it be? 9:00am? Too early?I almost want to do it at 8:00 am and pack breakfast for the kids. I suspect all the stuff I just mentioned can be done in 20 minutes. Maybe 30. And then 15 minutes of teaching people their individual forms or lion head stuff or correcting their basics.

Hit in the head

So I still have headaches from my fall doing stunt work. Honestly its kind of embarrassing because it was such an easy move and there was lot sof pads, but yo, I never really did that sort of thing. And when we roll on the floor on concrete I don;t hit my head. I never tried to fall and look like I hurt myself on purpose.

But anyway, I don't have insurance. And I had been to the ER before for a concussion that felt more serious and they were like "Yeah you have a mild concussion. You shouldn't have gone to sleep but your still alive so I think your good."

I've been napping a lot.

Maybe I should drink more water.

I read online I should ice it?

So What I did instead after taking Advil is... I fire cupped it. And I video taped myself doing it for your entertainment.

Hell while I did that I did some other treatment for my feet with apple cider vinegar.. and o top it off I did a Tarot reading for myself.

I mean I guess this is me coming out as a closet witch doctor.

Ok. So I am actually 50% atheist. That means, yes I believe in the stuff I do, but I always try to rationalize it as if there is no such thing as hocus pocus. The first two things have nothing to do with hocus pocus, but fire cupping could quite possible be a bad idea right now I don't know. But I did it anyway. I suspect I am more prone to concussions due to something in my genetic make up.

But Tarot, yes it is hocus pocus.. or if you believe in it, it is spiritual. But I still use it from the atheistic perspective as an exercise that just helps you look at your own thoughts through random cards. However. If you are going to do the exercise, why not believe in it while you are doing it?  And yes, eerily the cards always seem to know something. But again. Even if that is all in my head... who cares? I mean asking someone else's advice is good too but biased opnions may not be better than random cards necessarily right?

Well my excuse is I was hit in the head.

Lions and Dragons and Drums

I wrote this book, Lions and Dragons and Drums...and I don't know what to do with it. It is actually the reincarnation of another book of mine that I also did not know what to do with... The Nian, Lion Dance, and the Chinatown Gate.


Just glancing through some of the chapter titles fills me with a sense of dread, because ultimately these books are about the experiences seared into my brain from the first four years of my life, most notably, my father's death and the feelings of being alone with my mother.

They are not BAD memories at all. They are actually quite magical bt at times depressing and melancholy.

Seeing my second son, and to look at him is like looking in the mirror, I recognize the same melancholy and simultaneously joyful disposition even as he is in THIS environment with Both parents and much sunshine and a house made of wood in a suburban like setting that is still within the City of Boston's borders.

Mostly I looked these books up again because I plan on writing yet another book that I will also not know what to do with about Cheung Bo Tsai's lover/adopted mother in law, Ching Shih. And as it turns out many have written about her, namely Jorge Luis Borges.

My book, I thought at first, might be extremely violent and pornographic. Why not? but then as I read Paulo Coelho' s fictional account of Matta Hari's life, I see that perhaps it can be more like that. Alluding and telling things without going into explicit detail.

All of these books along with this one called Yoga Fu, were part of this idea to start a Pirate Kung Fu School. or Pirate Buddhism. And with Grace bringing another idea to these ideas she had scoffed when I first started making the Pirate Kung Fu Songs

Which admittedly may have been brought on by heat stroke... well of these books were meant to complement Kung Fu training that was pirate themed. 

Why Pirate? 

The uniform of a pirate is easy to create. It is one of the most childish forms of dress up/cosplay. 

Also Pirates imply that you stole the Kung Fu.. which means that you can use whatever you want. It is also a fun shortcut to enlightenment. Like you could steal it somehow. 

It also doesn't require a brick and mortar school. Yes you can have locations that are bases, but if you are in, you can just meet there. And the locations can move. You can use secret codes. And when someone says, "Hey you guys aren't legitimate, you are not licensed, your lineage is made up."

Dude we're pirates. 

And my goal was to be like that and simultaneously be MORE helpful to society and more legitimate in my transmission of my ideas of the eight fold path than many of the more "legitimate" religions... which are actually more like cults when examined, despite all the money and nice retreats in the Poconos. My whole idea was Enlightenment for the common person in THIS reality. 

Well please read my books. Maybe at some point I will touch them up and publish them and sell them. But for now there they are for free in those links. 

And I plan on writing another soon. About Ching Shih.

Class vs group. Fee vs. free

Grace is really working towards making some sort of community group here in JP a more tangible thing. Basically I tried with the whole teaching kids and parents for free thing and when people didn't show up, I just got sick of it, which is why  I started charging or teaching at places where the kids will be there and can't leave (Nativity). With Kung Fu, it's not all about the money. But even if you get paid and you don't feel you are paid enough, you start to feel like, "Why am I doing this?"

It's also not all about people following everything you do. For instance yesterday I let the Nativity kids make up their own forms... and some of the routines were actually really good. The only thing to do to fix it would be to make the techniques clearer etc... and some of that has to come from training basics and if not forms.... then at least the techniques that they chose to do in their made up form.


But one could argue.. "What do you need me for? Why do I have to be there?"


For Grace's group, which would be focusing on adults, I originally thought of a whole series of basics and calisthenics etc.  that I like to do for myself. But I have been thinking maybe I should modify the stretches. Maybe just do the five Tibetan rites instead. And then maybe not all the basics, and maybe so two person drills as well. I am thinking of all this and meanwhile, it is doubtful whether anyone will even come to this group in our minds. a very "JP" group of people, parents and kids etc. And what the point of the group would be.

And then you have to think, if it is going to be free, like so many of my other groups have been, and if people don't take it seriously... what will be the point? What will I get out of it?

I think ultimately I will have to charge and also have a start and end point, similar to my three month class I am starting next week for $60.

Reign- Mary Queen of Scots

I have been obsessed with this show. I thought it was going to be like Vikings, but when it ended up being a little more like Dawson's Creek, I didn't stop watching. I kept getting a fan crush on the actress that plays Mary, Adelaide Kane. My history of the time and country is not that good besides Braveheart, but I remember my mother reading a book about Mary Queen of Scots and talking about how eventually, the cut off her head. So basically it wasn't a question of what happens in the end... but how it is to happen.

Now the last episode I saw... Mary remains with her head in tact. I'm not sure if they are choosing to end the series like that or if there will actually be one more season. I could understand if they choose not to have her head cut off on camera.

But the series could even run after she is executed because after all the series is called "Reign."

There is a lot of tie ins with the modern politics. "Radical Protestant Terrorism" And Catholic Terrorism, and pagan's in the woods. The Plague. And if not women's rights, than the rights of female Monarch's.

Nostradamus is in the series and I never knew what time period he was in. In fact, it may just be that they added him in, who knows. I guess I could research that pretty easily.

There is a lot of sword fighting and magic too. I think its tame enough that Noah could probably watch it with me. However, he has his own shows he is into now.

To get over my withdrawal I have been watching "Medici: Masters of Florence"


Why would this have anything to do with "Reign" Well as it turns out Mary's Mother in law was Catherine De Medici. So I figured this show might be similar. It is... but better. Hell they have Dustin Hoffman in this Netflix series.