Minions

 This Christmas my cousin actually hand knitted two minions for Noah and Jonah. At first I didn't even realize they were handmade. But when I did I was pretty psyched about them. Not only could these stuffed plus toys be loved and cherished by being played with, thereby by gaining some power (see my Toy story posts) but they were created by a blood relative, by hand. Also they are the type of toy that can last all through growing up. When Andy (from Toy Story) is packing for College and actually considers bringing Woody, well, it's true. College is no place for that type of toy. It is obviously a child's toy. Other plush toys that can double as pillows are just too.. well girly or childish or what have you. But the thing is, minions (from Despicable Me) are cuddly but also funny enough, enough of a joke, cool enough, that in a way, they could function in a college dorm. Indeed they could even function on an office desk. That's right, if you think about it, many people have toys all through adulthood... especially executives. They are called models or other sorts of things, but they are toys.
When I mentioned this my cousin pointed out that these particular minions were actually made in a college dorm because that's where she knit them.
The kids were really into them. Throwing them around saying "fly the minion!" and cuddling them in the hotel rooms. They even designated whose was whose, and at first I didn't even know there was a difference. Noah did though. They were into those and also these knew cars my Uncle got for them. In fact Noah had to bring that to school. But I just thought it was cool that they now had toys that unlike Buzz Light Year and Woody, were not mass produced. But at the same time, they are characters from a popular movie specific to their childhood. Pretty Cool.

Sign of the Bunny

Christmas eve night at around 12am .. so I guess technically Christmas day I lay awake in the hotel room. I could hear Noah breathing. He had woken me up so he could pee and gone back to sleep but I had no such luck. The weather had been in the 70's the day before but the temperature had been dropping. Nonetheless I put on my sandals and a coat and went outside to do some Kung Fu. It was cold. I should have worn some socks. I did some Mein Lay jum, some basics, and some Sup Ji. I was stil recovering from having drank way too much Port with my cousin either one or two nights ago. It was enough to make someone who was relatively tolerant of alcohol drunk and I have no tolerance whatsoever.
I finished up my little work out, all the while thinking of a conversation I was meaning to have with another cousin of mine, who was going through some tough times. I decided at the time that it would be a good idea to just write a note (and later decided that was equally as stupid) But at the time, thinking it was a good idea I walked on the path back to the hotel, and a Bunny came up to me and looked at me and then scurried away.


Later on Grace would say she used to be freaked out when I told her about Bunnies (though she said nothing in the past) until she started watching "Long Island Medium" and how on some episode the medium tells these ladies that there departed loved one is sending signs to them. Either a flower, or whatever. A bunny.
I asked Grace what the hell she was talking about and she said the the Bunnies were my mom. I thought she was crazy until she clarified that it wasn't that the bunnies were my mom, but that maybe my mother's spirit was allowing me to see bunnies as a sign that her spirit was close by.

I hadn't thought about that but I had thought that it was significant that I saw a bunny or hare at probably exactly midnight on Christmas which is significant in European  pagan cultures where bunnies are also significant. Then Grace shot my idea down and mentioned all the times I kept talking about bunnies. Bunnies that I would see and that nobody else would see. Not that those bunnies weren't physically there. Just that they would be gone by the time anyone else would come to look, or that nobody else would quite see them quickly enough whereas they were in my full view for a long period of time.

I would see them all the time when I first brought Noah home from the Hospital and also when we first brought Jonah home. And then, slowly, Grace learned about my connection with bunnies with my mother. First of all, at the Family Philadelphia House, My grandmother's house, we would all watch bunnies from the back living room window. It was something fun to do. But slowly as we got older, there were less and less bunnies and more and more squirrels. And it was something we all lamented about.
Secondly, my favorite toy was a stuffed Bunny and pretty much every Easter for some reason, my mother would buy a stuffed Bunny for me. They wouldn't necessarily become my favorite, I'm just saying the stuffed animals from her were usually Bunnies, plus we read a lot of bunny stories over and over, and even one easter bunny story involving a green egg resulted in a polished green egg of stone as a gift too. (I guess I had to toss all these out)

Last Christmas at the Nutcracker, a woman came up to me and Jonah and, as if she had been looking for us (she had obviously been looking for a small child) gave us a stuffed bunny as a gift. They had had a bunny as one of the characters for that particular production of the Nutcracker. In any case, all of these bunny stories, in which I had not seen any significance or relationship had been freaking Grace out. She had taken them as signs but not known whether they were good or bad... until she saw that Long Island Medium episode. Like the stiffed bunnies which I had thrown away when my mother died I had enjoyed the signs, but not seen anything significant. In other words I had sort of thrown them away. At first I had felt guilty for not being more reverential during these bunny signs. The last one I knew for sure was significant, but at first the Bunny had startled me as I thought it might be a rat, and then I kind of kept plowing forward instead of stopping to enjoy its presence. The more I thought about it, the more I saw what Grace saw. Well I guess that stuffed Nutcracker bunny can be Jonah's favorite toy. Indeed when we brought it out as an ornament he began snuggling it to go to sleep, surprisingly lovingly. Noah never did anything like that. He prefers cars and just doesn't hold things like that. Well I have to find that bunny now and treat it with a little more respect I think. Now where did I last see it?

Cheung Family Christmas

Well it's been a while since I blogged because we had a a little Family Roadtrip adventure to go down and visit my side of the family. The white side that I always visited on Christmas. There really is so much to blog about I don't know where to start, so probably these memories will have to present themselves as stories later on. Grace made a fantastic trip plan where we got to stop in New York Chinatown along the way for a yummy meal of Peking Duck and jieu yeem Frog legs.

The first family stop was in Philadelphia to visit my aunt at the House that belonged to my Granfather and then my Grandmother. The house where my mother grew up for the latter end of her Childhood, and where for years the whole extended family would gather fro Christmas and for Summer vacations. I have a lot of childhood memories in that house as do many of my relatives. And for me it was the one time when Family became more than just my mom and me. That house was always a mansion to me and meant a lot in my Psyche. Still does. And it was great to see Noah and Jonah running around in it with extended family too. At one point Noah said, "Baba I don't want to go home I want to live here." And pretty much that was how I always felt when I was a small child too. It was like being part of the America Dream. The America that was on tv. White. Middle Class, many family members, a strong American Patriarch, a big Christmas Tree, manly tools in the basement used for who knows what. Medals and military pictures from WWII. That kind of thing. The America that people in foreign countries think about when they hear America from the good old days. (Well I don't know what the think now but you get my meaning.) 

The kids were being taken care of I got really drunk and that's a story too.

Then we went to Lancaster to my Uncle's House out where the Amish live. Another story.

And then on the way back we went to Flushing and met up with one of Grace's friends who is Aunty to my children as well. Another story.

Finally we are back home and it is Definitely good to be home. And I really Love Boston. But I also like the little differences different parts of America have to offer. And now to finish unpacking and all that.

The Jackie Chan Underwear and socks challenge

For whatever reason I was watching Jackie Chan interviews. Actually it was because I was watching "I'll make a man out of you" and they had a vid with Donny Osmond singing and I wanted to see a "live" version of Jackie singing, hence talk show interviews.
In any case, as on many interviews with Jackie he was asked to talk about broken bones, fears, and his washing on his underwear and socks in the shower.
Now I tried this when I was living at a Kung Fu school and it didn't work for me. A) I didn't have a shower B) we didn't really have heat.
But when I tried it yesterday it really was as easy as Jackie said. Basically because I just rinsed that stuff out and put in on top of a heater. It's dry in the house anyway. I think I'm going to try this method for a while. I'm not going to bring my kids in to my craziness, so I will still be doing many loads of laundry. But I figure anything I can do to cut down is good. I think I'm going to try this method for a while though. I had also tried it with T-shirts before, but again you have to dry it in a dry place otherwise the cloth will rot and start to smell terrible. But T-shirts are probably the biggest part of the laundry loads. I think I hadn't done this in a while because I figured, well I have to do Noah's and Jonah's laundry anyway right? But again if I can cut down on laundry this way it would make life better.
Most talk show hosts always give Jackie crap about this, saying he is too cheap or some such thing. Of course he is also cutting down on water usage and the truth is it is just a convenient way to go about being on the road. Just cause they couldn't imagine doing such a thing doesn't mean they should knock him for doing it. Wringing out the cloth also strengthens the wrists. In fact I remember a Western physical therapist telling me to wet a towel and wring it out to strengthen my wrist when I had an injury. ( I was away at school and so I had to visit them in order to prove my wrist was even injured) In any case, If you can wet cloth to wring it out for that purpose, why not get that same thing done while doing a bit of laundry?

A lunar Rainbow

Last night while bringing my kids home I saw what I think was a full moon with a rainbow circle around it. I had heard of a lunar rainbow on an anime about wolves once, but I thought it was sort of something just to be seen in an anime. And granted it was a a circle with the rainbow colors not a rainbow. But I think that the circle is even cooler. It would definitely be a sign in olden times. I told my kids to look at it and they seemed unimpressed. I called for Grace to get the camera. She couldn't find it. I brought the kids in undressed them and went looking for the camera. I was sure it didn't really matter. Someone, somewhere was taking a picture of this with a much better Camera and with much better skills than my own. But then might as well try and take my own too right?
By the time I got outside to look, all I saw was a full moon. The very light clouds that created enough mist fro the moonlight to pass through and be refracted into that spectrum were gone. It was odd that for some reason, when I looked at that rainbow circle I saw it as a permanent thing. Nothing is permanent of course but I saw it as a permanent sight for the night. As permanent as the full moon, it seemed that way, the clouds weren't moving.
The sight would not have shown up well on camera, and it's not like it would have been the most beautiful photograph ever. I have seen plenty of photographs of things that I haven't seen in real life. Those photos would have been better photos than mine. So the real beauty of what I had seen was that I had seen it myself. I got a look at it. It was enough not to regret. But it is interesting that I automatically wanted to take a picture, to capture the moment that would not have been captured anyway, instead of just looking at it myself for longer. But then with two kids you can't just go staring off into the sky. One of them might run off into the street or hurt himself on the stairs. I had a moment, a breath, of a beautiful night sky vision. I could have done without the camera hunting.

Adult toys.

When children play with their toys I feel like that interaction is many cosmically more powerful prayer to an idol. It's as if those inanimate things really have gained a soul. Now our idol worshiping ancestors, or even modern day altar bowers would be pretty angry if you broke their "toys". Can you imagine pulling an Abraham on the Maximus character from Gladiator. Like going up and knocking his little idols to the ground, so small they can literally all fit in his palm. You could see that sort of thing happening to a young boy playing with toys. But try that on Maximus and I'm pretty sure he would make a blood sacrifice to his gods right than and there to the toys you just stepped on.

I suppose the reason why I didn't play with toys as long as Andy did in Toy story is because I encountered more adult toys. Like lion heads. 

I remember finishing up a performance workshop for 2nd graders. We let the kids play with  the head. And one of my students commented how of course the kids liked playing with the head because it wasn't just a toy. I used to think that too. But now I think that the head is a toy. It's just a serious toy with ritual significance that is usually in the hands of adults. In fact, in old time China children would be beaten for even touching the heads or drums. And by old time I mean like 30 years ago. 

Now a lot of people focus on various tricks to do with the head but the essence of it is to make the head look like it is alive. In other words even though everyone knows it is two guys in a giant puppet, that you do it so well that even the adults on some level accept it as a physical manifestation of a spiritual creature. Indeed, with the drums and the firecrackers, even the practitioner, in a tranced focus dance, in some way, is a lion. Not easy. Well no it is easy a child could do it.... but not everyone does it like that.

So in another way it is not easy. The same way a lot of artists paint the way a child could paint.... but adults have trouble painting like that often times.

So children playing with toys may not be as "serious" as ritualized play backed up by thousands of years of tradition.... but then children playing with toys have that essence and imaginative power backed up by millions of years of children seeing the world in that imaginative way and creating souls, worlds and magic.

Pagan Christmas

I'm reading a book of that title that talks all about the Pagan origins and ethnobiology of many Christmas customs. I knew some of the stuff, from reading about Germanic cultures and happening to stumble upon stuff that looked like it was brought into the Christmas tradition.
Surprisingly by learning about the Pagan influences I'm learning a lot more about the Christian religion and gaining a lot more respect for what the Christian religion is.
Basically the Church was against a lot of the "heathen" cultures but they couldn't get the people to stop so eventually they realized that they had to go with it and try to just change the meaning slightly to have it relate to Christ.
Despite the violent oppression of the Church or churches, or just some people writing nasty things about local cultures, the end result can be seen as a pretty awesome religion. I mean who defines a religion, the church or the people who practice it? Now of course there is a lot of people killing other people because of religion, or just using religion as an excuse. But basically the good side of the Christmas spirit is traditions that include a wide variety of traditions and cultures from around the world with the general feeling  of "Peace on Earth" and in general Jesus represents a Westernized Buddha type thinking where we will have a "Kingdom of God" on Earth, or a hope for the sun, wealth, and goodness in general.
That's a pretty good mindset, and a pretty good religion. Now is there some nasty parts of history around all these traditions? Of course. Is it good to learn about these? I say definitely. But when we celebrate  just know focus on the fact that our traditions come from all over the world and so maybe we should be open to newer and more diverse traditions coming in.
Most of the traditions have Shamanic roots, from the World Tree, to the color schemes of red and white, to flying reindeer. If all of these things can now be considered Christian. Then anything can be.
Santa has roots in St. Nicholas in the 4th century middle east, but most representations of him in Germany looked more like Odin/Wotan and apparently the Christmas holiday spread to Tibet, where they depict him as A Buddhist Shaman (still with the same outfit and beard and face.
Jesus took on meanings and roles of older Sun deities. And why not?
A lot of stuff will go around facebook showing these pagan origins in a negative light.
Why not just enjoy the celebration and learn about the pagan origins, and we have developed enough as a society where we can filter good from bad. Worshiping trees I think is good. Human sacrifice on those trees.. obviously bad. Decorating them with lights... I would say good right?

Toys and idols

Continuing from the last post...
I realized that it would be nice to have something, a toy, to pass on from generation to generation. Like, this was your great great great grandfather's toy. People do this sort of thing with family statues and pictures they pray to. In fact, the statues of Guan Yin and the Happy Buddha that we lit incense too, I could not even think of throwing away, like you just can't do that. But those were just social pressures, and honestly your not supposed to neglect those statues in the attic either, which is what I have done. But nor are you supposedly supposed to set up an altar, and a position of an altar has to be changed, and even the Feng Shui people will suggest a way to avoid being cursed is to simply never set up an altar.
It would also be inconceivable to take those statues and play with them like Buzz Light Year and Woody.
Though if you had statues that weren't supposed to be "real" statues I guess at least those statues could work as dolls. And when you think about it, when kids are playing tea, is that so much different than adults putting food on the altar (or if you want to go back really far, sacrificing people to certain gods?) I mean not in morality. I mean that essentially you are playing at a game of imaginary feeding. Even if you believe in those gods you have to admit that the statues do not "eat" the food, nor do your dead ancestors come out of the grave like zombies and chow down on some Fay yuk with you. If that did happen, I bet the most pious pagan/folk religion practitioners would shit there pants. Not only is that not expected, it's just not supposed to happen. There is a belief that because something has happened in the physical world, that we translate into something being received in the spiritual world. And what is the spiritual world made of? Souls, spirits, thoughts, pretend?

In a way though, my Rabbit was more real to me than the statues. The statues were over there, while I actually slept with my Bunny. And the amount that Andy played with his toys and for how long and until how old... in a way they became real. You could say things take on some sort of spirit from being used.

This isn't just me making this up. In Japan, they have temples to Kitchen gods where chefs will place their unusable knives. Because they don't believe that they can simply discard a knife they have used for so long.

So toys, in a way gain souls because they have been played with. Again you may think I'm crazy but can you prove that anyone has a soul?

Still not done on this subject.

Toy Story and Religion

Yesterday there was a Marathon of the toy story movies. I noticed that when we got to 3 the movie was really more for me than the kids. In fact it was a little too scary for them. We had to go upstairs before the ending, which though I had seen before, I really wanted to watch again.
When I was a kid I did have one favorite stuffed Rabbit. But I don't recall playing with said rabbit when I was as old as Andy was in the first movie. Not that I didn't still like cute stuffed animals etc. I just realized it wasn't accepted that I liked them and something so big would not be able to be hidden in a bag or a pocket or something like that. When my mother died I think I threw my favorite rabbit in the garbage. So if I were to really think of the toys as they were in Toy story, as having souls, I would be one guilty man. Accept that I didn't, and I guess I don't. But it got me think of how Toy Story's ideas work vs. other notions of idolatry.

First of all let's explain why we shouldn't just say "it's just a kids movie."
For instance if a cheap plastic Toy made in Taiwan (as Buzz lightyear is) or the U.S. (as I assume Woody is, shouldn't be mourned, if it is incinerated let's think about other things we would get up in arms over if we destroyed them. Various statues like the Lincoln Memorial, the Statue of Liberty, other monuments. We would definitely go to war and take a lot of lives for those things made of metal and stone, if they were destroyed or defaced right? Some people would say these are forms of idolatry (and I am not at all against idolatry btw) but let's look at the Abrahamic religions that are supposedly against idolatry too. They would also get up in arms about a Holy Book, or place being destroyed or defaced, and those books are ultimately just paper, often times printed by machine. But even if it was copied by hand, is it more important than a life?

Do things have souls?

Well the truth is you can't really prove that people even have souls. A soul is something that we culturally attribute to flesh and bone, which might as well be a type or organic robot. (a complicated robot but still)
And so things can have souls as much as people have souls because in the end, a soul may very well be an imaginary thing. (And just because something is imaginary doesn't make it unimportant or even in some way "real")

Well more on this later.

Shopping at the mall

I bought something at one of those kiosk type things at the mall today, and I filled out some info for a warranty and then realized what the hell do I need a warranty for? and Why am I giving all my info out like address e-mail date of birth. Shit I probably am just getting scammed right here. Worse part about it is I paid with my credit card too. But then I didn't feel like just taking that little slip of paper with me and crumpling it up. There is a feeling like, oh this is the mall everyone else is doing it. It's legit. But that's the perfect scam right there. Get people to buy your stupid shit and in return, rob them blind by stealing their identity.
Well, I hope that didn't just happen to me. Cause then it will end up being the most expensive thing I ever bought. I should have just paid for the damn thing in cash, but I don't like to carry cash around like that... ironically, because I don't want to lose it.

I mean I gave the same info to the Dentists office but, I guess I trust them. They are Tufts and all. Once you trust someone to cut you open and rip things out of you, I guess some personal information is really not a big deal.

Sock hands

Today it's pretty cold. Cold enough that I have to wear gloves. And if I wear gloves, I guess I have to put gloves or mittens on my kids too. Grace has bought lots of great looking gloves and mittens for the kids. They look great, they are well insulated etc. But not only do they get misplaced, they have a tendency to come off. Even the mittens that are too big for Jonah but more for Noah, will come off Jonahs arms, even though you can zip it so tight that it can't fall off by accident, because a child doesn't like to the feeling that their hands have disappeared or become less there hands and more these clumpy things. Now you would thing the same would be true of wearing a sock. Not so. Although you can't see your hand, wearing an adult sock a child can still feel all of their fingers, even against each other, and they understand that their hands are basically just wearing some blankets, or a sleeping bag. As it turns out I had a bunch of socks that had holes in the heel and were no longer functional as socks. So today, my kids had sock hands on the way to school. At school... well their not going to go out today I'm pretty sure, and when they do go out, it's warm enough or for a short enough period of time that he'll be okay. Of course even with sock hands it was pretty cold. I was thinking of doubling them up, but as I'm writing this I realize I have woolen socks that can serve the same puropse. Why not mittens? Because the sock can go all the way up the forearm over the coat. Why not little strappy things to go inside the jacket so they don't loose the mittens?
That's not going to work in the morning. And the beauty of using the worn out socks, is if they get lost, they get lost. No bog deal. That's way different then special mittens.
When they are old enough to put on their own mittens, and to put those mittens in their pocket, and keep track of them and all that. Then we put on the fancy mittens (that will still probably end up lost somewhere on the ground, wet dirty and lonely.)
For now it's sock hands to the rescue.

What's a book worth.

I passed by a whole collection of Agatha Christie's books on the street by Tufts Medical Center, just laying there like garbage. There were other Handy man books and such too and at first it looked like all the books were the same book because they were all bound with black leather like hymn books or something. I actually wanted to read the Agatha Christie Novels, but even at first I was just going to leave them there because I know that if I ever wanted to read such I book I could borrow it from the library, and where I might have taken one book, who wants a whole series? Too heavy, it takes up too much space. And if I were to stereotype, in Chinatown there are probably mainly two types of readers. There are the type of readers that read books on a fancy new electronic device, and the type that would jump at free books on the street, probably do not read English. Maybe there are some Lo wah kew who are both cheap and like to read Agatha Christie, but just at first glance the books don't look inviting. Plus, just like me, they know that if ever you wanted a book, you can just borrow it from the library. But if it were say Louis Cha's collection, in Chinese, leather bound, probably it would not have ended up on the street.

Basically a book is worthless. If I was homeless I suppose I could take the books down the street and sell them for 50 cents each in a manner that would be half begging half selling. Like "Spare change for a book."
and then in that context people may stop and look at the books and decide that it is worth 50 cents, or that it's not worth anything but I'll give this guy a dollar since I am actually getting something out f it too. But then I bet they may just make more money begging alone, without the work of lugging the books up to downtown or Boston Common.
So I was going to take just one, but then as I thought of it, I thought f the waste and how I could at least donate them to the library where they would then sell them for 50 cents (that is after I've read them) And so I felt obligated to take what I could. I walked away with half of them. I'll go back for the second half this afternoon. And if someone else took them, great. I only really took them because I don't think anybody else will, and they will end up turning to mush in the rain and snow.

Making your own chess board

I started teaching Noah how to play chess. Not for the usual parental reasons. I'm actually not that great a player myself. I just noticed he has started to take an interest in games like candy land and pieces that move, and chess is really cool because it has a bunch of pieces that move in different ways etc etc.
But I didn't have a board. So first I made one out of paper, but I had forgotten the dimensions of a chess board. This was last night and we were done with computers for the day. Either that or Noah was using it for PBS kids or whatever. And I can't believe this but I forgot that the board was a square, so I made an 8 x 12 board and the pieces were made from folded pieces of paper with the figures drawn on it roughly. The night was just horse in Chinese, because why create a pictograph when one has been around for so long.
Well today I made a real board with Chinese ink on a box (instead of crayon on paper) the box being nice because it can hold the pieces. Also I started making the base out of wet molded paper for some fancier chess pieces. But I noticed today, while playing with Noah, that I really like my little rough pieces, more than I would like a cheap chess set mainly because I made them. The molding of bases took much longer than I thought it would, but even that wasn't a waste of time because Jonah had fun playing with the wet paper in water. It was a very stimulating and sensory activity.
Tonight when I let Noah win he didn't like it though. He wanted a game where we could both win. For instance even when he wins at Candy Land, he can then come and bring me into the Castle. So we both win. In Chess there is clearly a loser. I mean, one guy dies basically or surrenders or is captured. I noticed that I just used the Chinese "eat" instead of captured though when playing with Noah.
I was thinking I'd make another board where the two of us can travel through a world of other bad guys and obstacles, like a video game, and I could just make a few pieces of paper that I pick up and reuse as we continue to move along. And that way, he will learn how the different pieces move, but we will both be able to win. Kind of like a two player version of Mario Bros.  (wait they didn't have the two characters on the same screen did they? But you know what I mean.) Well that instead of say a Street Fighter where one guy is defeated and twitching on the ground. Which is what chess really is.

Honoring Santa

Yesterday after Jonah was taking his nap I suddenly heard really loud Christmas music from what sounded like a large vehicle. I glanced outside to see a train of trolleys going down the street and I knew it was Menino's and Macy's Santa Trolley tour going down to Hyde Square.
"Noah do you want to go see Santa Claus?"
We quickly got dressed and decided together to use the stroller, so as to get there faster, and I actually ran, despite the stitches in my gums pulsing, all the way there.
While getting dressed Noah had some questions.
"How old is Santa?"
"Very old, thousands of years old."
Why do they call him Santa?"
"That's just what they call him recently."
"What did they call him before?"
"Odin.... but Santa's way better than Odin anyway, Santa is always good. Odin wasn't. Put your shoes on."

 I parked the stroller, they had blocked off the street and there were police there to enforce that (thank God) and we got in line to see some guy in a beard.
No.
The truth is, anytime someone dresses up as Santa, they really do become Santa. Because what is Santa or any god or Saint or religion but a collection of thoughts prayers and belief. And anyone wearing the costume is an embodiment of all of that belief. So that's why we waited there in a "line" which was a crowd of pushing people at first, to quickly give Santa a hi five. Some people took pictures, and honestly there were a lot of adults taking pictures with Santa too. We got a candy cane and a goft bag. And then there was a line for another toy. But Santa was packing up.
One kid got there with his family (which looked just like older brothers and sisters) just in tie to see Santa pack up and take off. He started bawling. I felt so sad. And the road blocks were coming up and he almost walked into the street. I almost gave him our toy, but then there was a "line" for another toy. There was much shouting in Spanish about getting in line and if adults could be helpful etc. You could hear the irritation in the voice. (I understand enough Spanish to hear clear and slow directions) That family made their way over there and the child seemed appeased.
We did not line up for the extra toy. We already had plenty of toys so the real point is to say hi to Santa, and we even got something already anyway, so we headed back to the house and I told Noah he had to share his loot with Jonah. Luckily Noah doesn't understand Spanish so he didn't even know what was going on with that other crowd. Or maybe, like me, he wouldn't have cared anyway.

Pool Noodle Sparring

Today we did pool noodle sparring, and I was out of breath at the end of one of the sessions with  a seven or eight year old boy. So that means I am out of shape, and also that again. working with the noodles is good for me as a way to get in shape. What is also good is that it is extremely fun for the kids too.
Of course just because it is foam does not mean that it is completely safe. If you brought in more of the close fighting elements where hands and feet became a factor, then it would be as dangerous as regular hand and feet sparring, but also kind of unrealistic because you might continue to charge in with a foot or hand even after your foot or hand was hit. It wouldn't hurt with foam, but if it were wood or sharpened steel, that would be the end of you limb.
There were a good five times or so when the 8 year old student got me on the leg. A few times I was able to jump it, but obviously it is something I need to work on more.

Now, from the Martial Arts literature I have read, they usually talk about honing in ones aggression or trying to focus someone in on a drill, or learning through pain, by being hit with a kendo stick in the arm or whatever. I think that makes sense for an adult who has already fought a lot, and needs to be brought in or broken down and built back up. But there is absolutely no reason I can see for breaking a child down. They should only be built up. I can imagine someone lecturing me about false sense of confidence and all that. But what child doesn't have a false sense of confidence? And in fact, from what I see, all the successful people are the ones that seem to have never lost that false sense of confidence. If you get hit with a pool noddle you know it. One of the three year old students got hit in the face by the eight year old and was upset about it. It does hurt a little bit but it doesn't injure. I think his feelings were hurt more than anything, but what has to come next is learning how to not get hit in the face (as often) or if it is not for you, not to do that particular drill with someone who is that much better than you. But these things are difficult to explain to a three year old.

As for the eight year old, the base way to improve I suppose would be focusing on the moves that worked for him. I.e. the hit to the leg that he got me with really clearly. Working on speed and power, and then follow up. He was open to attacks a bunch of times, but I think in a real situation, it will just be who gets there first and so the best is to focus on getting there first and hard and with his best move... being a one trick pony is not bad in these situations. There was a famous pirate who used a move and strategy similar to the one I was hit with today, and he was successful for a long time (until he was defeated.)

I think some of the parents were looking for fancy disarms and that sort of thing. Not that I couldn't do that to an eight year old with a foam stick. But it wouldn't be good for him I don't think, or me for that matter. Because just because you can overpower an eight year old with a foam stick, does not mean you can do that to an adult, or even a large twelve year old, with a stick, or a machete. Frankly the way we worked out today was more realistic than drills. And it was also more natural. Lions and wolves train their young in a similar way. I think some lectures or explanation would go along well with the playtime, but then lions and wolves seem to do fine without lectures don't they? And if a kid wanted a lecture, I think they would ask a question. And if they don't want a lecture, it will go in one ear and out the other.

Remembering Mandela

I've just been skimming through the Wikipedia article on Mandela. Mainly because I don't know all that much about him. I saw a few documentaries about him, I remember when he cam to Boston and My mom took me into the crowd near the Charles river and we actually had to get out of there because a crowd that big is no place for a child.
I wanted to write a poem about him or something but I've decided it's better that someone else do that.
Mainly I just saw that most of the television snippets I watched show him as an old man, and I figured, now that he has passed, that wouldn't it be nice to show more pictures of him as a young man? Yes he didn't become President and basically a world leader until he was an old man, but if he wasn't the young man that he was, he wouldn't have become the old man that he was.
He is one of the only people who was a young man like he was, a leader like he was, and who did not end up shot, or being forgotten. Instead, after being freed from prison, he went on to rule South Africa.
The more I glanced at the article (I don't have the attention to actually read everything. There's just too much) The crazier it seems that he was able to do what he did. Glance through it yourself.

I guess as Americans we are afraid of Young Mandela, and comfortable with honoring Old Mandela. Young Mandela was about violent revolution. He was a real warrior, preparing for guerilla warfare getting money from China, from the Communists. Americans are uncomfortable not only with that, but with the fact that doing those things was the right thing to do in his situation. That things could be so bad that a man in his position (well educated from pretty good family background) would choose that path. Which makes us, as Americans, uncomfortable with who we are, and what we have done in our own country.
When you think of Mandela to South Africa, the quickest American equivalent is perhaps Paul Robeson. A man who Americans are so uncomfortable with, that he has very nearly been edited out of our history books except for that he was a singer and sang "Ol' Man River" Of course Paul Robeson never became President (though if there was not a Red Scare or there were no such thing as a Soviet Union he was popular enough with white people during his time that it is conceivable that he could have been elected.

Some people might think of Martin Luther King. Except most Northern whites were very comfortable with what he said.... until he started talking about Vietnam... and that is when Martin Luther King died and was turned into a god/prophet/cultural icon.. most of the last part of his message, the part we as a country were uncomfortable with, being edited out of our nations meta-narrative.

But Nelson Mandela was perhaps to important to mysteriously die in prison, and able to really bring that nation together as President. And perhaps that is when other White Nations breathed a sigh of relief and became comfortable with having Nelson Mandela as an international leader and I guess that's why the news stations are focusing on that part. The Morgan Freeman with Matt Damon sort of story. Heart warming. Comfortable. Safe.

But apparently there is a movie out with Idris Elba playing Mandela, and I will definitely have to check that out. Perhaps something everyone should check out.

Swords with pool noodles

I cut a pool noodle in half and have started adding this sword play into my kung fu classes for children. It worked out pretty good with Noah and some of the other Saturday kids. They really went at it with each other. But At the Kung Fu Panda group, even even the stronger kids treat the noodles like the foam that they are, instead of using them like swords or sticks. What I mean by that is they kind of just wriggle them around and poke each other instead of really hacking or thrusting. It's like when being allowed to actually commit violence to each other in a safe way, they suddenly decide they don't want to. But that doesn't stop them from tripping each other or doing Kung Fu moves too close to each other's faces when they should be all facing the same direction. I've noticed that children are far more interested in hurting each other by accident than on purpose.
Anyway, this past Saturday the class was just me and my kids, which meant that I worked on some of my own stuff. I had the dragon stick with me and the pool noodles. I chose to do some of my sword forms with the pool noodles on the off chance that my children ran next to me and I didn't see them, even though there is only two of them.
I have done sword forms with sticks and swords of various weight. Obviously there is something to be said for using something very heavy. It really builds up strength. But just to make sure you don't injure yourself you should probably go slow.

But it is also interesting that even with something like a foam pool noodle, you can still get a workout. In other words, you can still really work that technique and deep stance and put a ton of energy into that foam noodle as if it were made of steel, and really get something out of it. You could say you might as well just pretend you were holding a sword and hold nothing. I have done that before too, especially indoors, but it's not as easy as you think. It's nice to know where that sword would be, so the foam noodle is a good tool. Plus you are much less likely to injure yourself because the weight hyper-extended something, or by hitting yourself. You would think then that it is a good tool for a beginner. But like I said earlier, it seems that someone who has never held a real sword or heavier stick, will not even get down or treat the foam as if it were a real stick. So in order to really get what you need out of the foam stick, it's almost like you have to be somewhat advanced mentally, if not physically, or at least exposed to metal swords and heavier sticks.

Tooth Fairies and Vicodin

So my oral surgery hurts a lot more than I thought it would. Maybe I'm just a wuss but the pitying looks from the dental students and the warning of "You are going to feel sore." tells me I'm not that much of a wuss. I thought I wasn't going to take the vicodin and just stick with the ibuprofin but once the novacane starting wearing off I was like, "sore" and "slight discomfort" my ass. This shit hurts. Drug me up. I guess it was that they had to shave off a small part of my jaw in order to pull out my tooth. There was much drilling involved (which of course I didn't feel) but as for yanking it out, I did feel part of that.

I figure my tooth is a pretty big gift for the Tooth Fairy, I didn't get to keep it. I kind of forgot to ask. But I went and bought two lottery tickets.

I jhad some interesting dreams on vicodin. I dreamt we went to a Kung Fu School in China (only China looked remarkably like Tai Tung) and the Sifu's whole deal was that the school was filled with all sorts of equipment he made out of plie wood and tires, so the school looked more like Home Depot. And all the equipment was hooked up to pulleys and playground like a equipment, so that everyone was practicing Kung Fu more like it was a playground. And the teacher also babied each student, so that even out of shape middle age women were able to get the feel of doing a flying spin kick, in slow motion thanks to the equipment she hung onto and the teacher kind of guiding the motion. Pretty much all of the students never progressed because the class was more about playing and doing each move for fun, slowly and taking rests, rather than working out. Of course there were two students that were all about fighting and anger and the teacher had to tell those guys to calm down so that they wouldn't hurt themselves too badly while hitting tires.

Then Bo Sim Mark had like three schools in the area too and me and Jing were drinking tea there talking about it. Her schools had various people following along to a video of her when she was younger doing Tai Chi sword.

Then somehow I ended up in an American Mix Martial Arts gym and then I was just watching various fight nights which were semi-real semi-contrived.

Then I woke up thinking it was morning and noting that the pain was not that bad. Then it starting getting worse. It turned out I only woke up because it was 6 hours from when I had taken the vicodin and right on the dot it was starting to wear off. So at 1am I took another pill, and I woke up again at 6:45 for the same reason. Thank you Vicodin. I would hate to have this experience without you.

Movie and a vote

Yesterday me and Noah went to watch Toy Story at the Library. I guess that Wreck it Ralph is still Noah's favorite of all the movies that we have seen there. But I'm sure he liked this one too. I mean, he didn't ask many questions or make much noise. I watched Toy Story in the Theaters too, probably after I was "too old" to watch such a movie, with my Aunt Dotsy. Who is actually my Great Aunt and godmother.
I thought of how a lot of the stiff that I wanted to did as a kid, I have been able to do for my children for way cheaper, if not completely free.Thank Boston Public Library.

After that little adventure we went to Chinatown where I went to vote for neighborhood council. I ran into a little resistance at first. You are supposed to be a Chinatown Resident or Asian in order to vote. So the first question was "Where do you live?" Luckily Felix Liu was there and assisting with running the election I think and vouched for my Asianess. Though in retrospect my I.D. has my name (last name Cheung) and still has the old address when I used to live in Chinatown (the Kung Fu school) But I'm not going to lie just to vote for such a thing. I mean, if I wasn't Asian I really wouldn't give a crap about such an election. And irocincally I am pretty sure almost everyone on the ballot were not Chinatown residents. But I understand why the rules are the way they are. Chinatown is disappearing and I'm pretty sure most non Asians still want a Chinatown to exist, whether or not you want to live there. Just the same way I want the North End to exist, or frankly wished there were more neighborhoods that, upon walking through them, you are able to see a culture other than your own. Why would you want everywhere to be the same and completely bland?

Well today I'm going to get to see  dentist hopefully thanks to Tufts Dental School. I don't have insurance until January, but I'm not sure I can hold out until then with this tooth. I guess I'm just a wuss. What I've relearned from this little experience that anyone in any kind of pain, however minor, or major (like most old people) have a short temper and probably have very little problem inflicting pain on others, since they are already in pain.  That's why you shouldn't mess with the elderly. Not just because it isn't right, but because if this organ or that joint is giving them constant pain they will shoot you and have no moral qualms about it. Just another reason to respect your elders.