Halloween Time

I bought big pumpkins to carve instead of re-painting the old ones. I just used kitchen and butter knives. Jonah chose to do a regular jack o' lantern. (Thank you Jonah) and Noah chose to do Daniel tiger. The thing is after I drew on Daniel tiger, when I started scraping and bracing the pumpkin with wet pumpkin juice hands, the face rubbed off. Plus I didn't feel comfortable just letting the kids carve with the butter knife. They had the most fun just playing with the wet seeds and indulging in their yucky gooiness. Yucky I suppose ina good way.
I stuck the pulp in the microwave. I added water so it wouldn't be too dry. In retrospect I shouldn't have added water at all. Just sugar. We'll eat that later.

As for trick or treating later, It will be a logistical problem since I have my Kung Fu and lion dance classes to teach. Grace will probably pick them up and take them trick or treating for a bit, and I will go and find them later.

If you are wondering why I don't just make my classes a Halloween party the answer is because I can't. It's not allowed. Probably for good reason. Maybe fake blood and fake weapons are not good in school. Also, having the costumes but having rules about them is probably to difficult.So I guess that's why instead of ALL it is nothing. But we will have fun trick or treating at any rate. Noah's friend parents have a little party and we will probably head over there.

Fiction versus Truth

I am almost finished with my book and I have recently taken a strange turn. Though it reads like a Self help Book it is actually a work of fiction. I just found that I had a lot more freedom were I to be able to just make up stuff. I had planned future books like this, that read like manuals but were works of fiction. But I think what really hammered it through was reading a book about a boy going to Jedi School for middle school with Noah.
I have also been writing some kids books. The first one had to match my Kung Fu and the drawings were just so difficult. So I decided to practice by just doodling I ended up making a pretty decent book with pictures and words about a planet with Chocolate cake spaceships and ginger bread people. I think I'll have Noah color it (Jonah just scribbles but maybe that is okay too.) and then I'll post it on my story blog.

Besides Grace doesn't really want to write a book with me and our lives are a little to boring, so instead of embellishing why not just make stuff up. With that my book will definitely be out by Thanksgiving.

 By the way, Gong Gong is coming up to see his grand kids for that holiday. Lol.
But no Amah for some reason. Grace asked me if this was a problem.

"Ain't got nothing to do with me." I said. "Your dad, your house, your kids. I have no say."
She resented that but hey it's the truth. Why should she resent it.

What do I have of my own? To tell the truth your kids are not really ever yours. They are their own people.

What's the Dhamapada say? Fools say Sons are mine, wealth is mine, Kingdoms are mine, but there is not even a Self of your own.

Well the house and the land really belong to the government, and your kids belong to themselves.

I like to think I have my book, my drawings and my blogs.

Hi Past

Recently I've been seeing Jonah pop out from behind a corner and at that first glance, I see myself as a child. It is like looking at my own past, except cuter and usually happier. "Hi Past!" I will say jokingly, as Grace was the first one to mention how Jonah looked exactly the way I used to in my pictures.

When we actually look at those pictures, I guess Jonah actually looks cuter than I did. But that sensation of looking back into myself from another time, is still there. Maybe that is one of the reasons why we have children at all.

Well, mommy is sicker than we thought she was, but luckily thanks to anti-biotics she will get better. So even though Noah had nothing to worry about, I suppose there is a future when getting sick can indeed be that serious as antibiotics are no longer effective (well the ones we have anyway.)

Good thing she went to the doctor right away. Now she had to rest though.

Sick day Sunday

No trick or treating at the zoo today. With some vomiting last night from Noah and Mommy even having to see the doctor today, when the children should no particular interest in going out to the playground necessarily, I officially call a family sick day. It is Sunday, the day of rest after all. So there is no harm in resting I suppose. Luckily we made two little cardboard houses which they seem to be enjoying.
When mommy said she had to go to the doctor and that we wouldn't be trick or treating Noah nervously asked, "Is mommy going to die?" No she is not we explained. She just has to get some antibiotics. And it's better to rest than to make wear yourself out when your body is trying to heal itself.
I think Halloween decorations have gotten Noah wondering more about death or something.

Well it was a good day for reading some books and watching some TV. Nothing wrong with it. If we were all healthy I would be stomping around demanding we go somewhere and work out. But we're not. So let's just stay inside all day like. Besides, it's only sunny in spurts, and it kind of looks windy too.

Ginger water and cooling tea can only take you so far. Besides there will be plenty of running around during the week.

Running in place

The other day I was so sick of staying inside from the "Nor' eastah" we had, that I decided I would run in place. Of course it was a Kung Fu sort of running in place, and the added bonus of cultivating Chi as well as pushing and tightening my muscles and my finger was there. But basically it was running in place, mindfully, in a meditative state. I guess I got the idea because we have been moving a ton of stuff around and redoing the house, so I had to move the "gazelle" which has only been used a few times. Well anyway, I didn't use the gazelle, I ran in place, and I got a sweat working up and then after 20 minutes or so I was summoned to do something for the children.
The technique that I used happens to be in the first Kung Fu form I learned and it gave me the idea of doing a more "in place" version of the form for the children at the after school.
 We did. Some kids really liked it. But some of the kids said they didn't. (I have a section of the class where I get feedback.) Then again, there were a lot of children that didn't provide feedback that had opted for the  form over Lion Head making.

Maybe I just had too much form. It had become to difficult to follow. So this morning, I did the form for Noah. He liked it of course. But I think part of that, is he is further along in Kung Fu fluency because of being in more classes and also training at home.

At the end of class I had the parents follow me in a more repetitive and smaller section of the form. Adults tend to lose me quicker than children. I think it has to do with the fact that children are used to being lost, more or less, and accept that they will memorize or pick up whatever they are doing at some point.

In any case we did a small section of the form. But what is good about it (as opposed to basics) is that we worked more muscle groups and it wasn't as "boring" as basics might have been. It was more dynamic, like a fitness or cardio class, as opposed to a traditional Karate/ Kung Fu type of class. But it wasn't quite Cardio kickboxing either. We still did grounded moves. And unlike the fitness classes I used to teach, there weren't say, pushups in the middle. We really were doing a traditional Kung Fu form.

Trumpet Cough

Noah had a trumpet cough all night. I'm sure if I sent him to school, he would still love to go. School i fun when all you do is play. But I want him to get better faster so I'm keeping him home. I also have two Kung fu classes to teach, and I need him reasonably better for those, even if all he has to do is sit there, or possibly sleep in a stroller. That would mean I need two strollers. I guess I could pull that off, bringing stroller just for the sake of sleeping, which means I would need to carry them.
Really he probably just needs some sleep. And some ginger water, which of course he won't be drinking because well. he just wont do it.

Washed Away

Grace had bought a back full od small pumpkins at Costco which we promptly painted and put on our doorstep. This morning, me and the children saw that the storm had washed the paint away.
"Hey that's cool now we can paint them again." I thought and said because I thought it was the act of painting that was fun. It's not like we worked that hard on them.

The children stared silently and not too happily.

"Baba next time you have to bring the pumpkins in when it rains." said Noah.

"I don't like it to be all gone." said Jonah.

Okay. I mean eventually we were going to cut into them and cook them or else compost them if they rotted. They know that right? I guess not. I guess impermanence is okay as long as they don't have to witness it. I thought about teaching something about impermanence, about how it isn't necessarily sad. You know some sort of quote from Buddhism. But then realized the words would be meaningless when the pumpkins in the rain clearly spoke for themselves.

Women Warriors

I just watched this piece on PBS about women in the military. I guess it was pretty educational, because I found that I still have hidden biases within me even though I thought I didn't. Like in a fantasy novel I am writing, I realized that even though I have women and girls fighting and I even have them transforming into giant dragon like creatures and going off to war, the main characters that I chose to go through the magical portal were both boys. Why? Maybe I should change that.


It also touched on Valerie Plame Wilson and women in the CIA and all that. And also how women have improved our military because female soldiers could talk to women in the middle east in rural areas. Something male soldiers simply could not do.. The reason why I was thinking about these two points was my mother traveled through the middle east. She hitch hiked in fact, down through Africa back up and through Iraq and was in Afghanistan (before the Taliban) and went through Nepal and Tibet and India and even went into Laos during the Vietnam war. She did this for fun or for travel, to see the world, that sort of thing. And she ran into quite a few hairy situation with people with guns and her quick thinking and luck and sometimes swimming skills (she dove off a cliff in Iraq, and later found that it would have been safer to jump, at someone else died there diving.) anyway I digress.

She mentioned that one time in some middle eastern country, she saw a helicopter fly where there were no helicopters usually and this guy lapels down dressed just like he was in the CIA (ie dressed for a prep school debate team or sit down dinner) and then walk off somewhere, supposedly incognito even though everyone just saw this happen. How could you not see it. My mother was there too wearing local clothes blending in. It wasn't that hard. A turban covers your face. Her skin became darker because of nearby copper mines.
When she wanted to go to a museum that women weren't allowed in she dressed as a man, and got a few looks, but nobody challenged her. WTF? A helicopter? Suit and tie? Who does that kind of stuff. Are you trying to look cool or get something done?

Let's not even look at stupidity. Let's just look at the money. How much did that helicopter ride cost? Who was he meeting with? How secret was the meeting supposed to be? Would there have been a more cost effective way? Probably.

Anyway the show was hi-lighting people's attitudes about women in the CIA during Bush Jr.'s administration. It seems like the men are arguing that having women improves the military. They listed other reasons besides the ones I was thinking about. But that little helicopter pimp my ride sort of nonsense does kind of seem like a boyish thing to do.
You look at all the famous women spies in history (there are a lot of them) and you don't see that kind of thing.
You look at a general like John Burgoyne (British General during the American Revolution.) and you see them demanding crazy expenses for Champagne and other ridiculousness.

There is the example of the Empress Dowager who didn't spend money on a Navy spent it on luxury instead. And usually this tends to be explained by "that 's how women are." But that's really just how she was as an individual. Was Mulan like that? No.

Anyway why would you deny half the population when you are really looking for the best people for the job, to get it done. It's not about fairness. It's just about being better or... haha.. "Being all that you can be." And how can you be all that you can be if you tie one hand behind your back. Because that's what that type of discrimination is doing, limiting yourself.

Some people think that because I am the stay at home dad that maybe I think differently than a traditional male. That I don't mind this or that. No. I am the same as a traditional male only of course I see common sense. If Grace makes more money of course I am the one to stay home. duh. But do you think I would take a hyphenated name or let my kids have their family name spelled one letter differently? No.
In a lot of ways I'm pretty close minded with many notions from the past governing my decision making. Perhaps something I should work on. But even I can see reason. So yeah power to the women, because ultimately it benefits everyone.

Festive Nights

We had the two Lantern festivals over the weekend, where children and parents make lanterns and dress up in their Halloween costumes and walk around the pond. Then yesterday we went to the Hispanic Heritage Month party at the library. Food and music. It was a Columbian band that mixed traditional Columbian Music and Jazz. I expected them to be good but was still surprised at how good they were. The sound was pretty cool. But we had to leave early.

The Children have been waking up exactly at 8am or rather, I have. This means it is difficult to get to school by 8:15. Since technically we don't have to be there until 8:30 that's okay, but I liked going to the playground early and running around a little bit first.

Because of Jonah's later nap schedule I also haven't been picking Noah up from after school until almost the closing time. Noah had no complaints. In fact he told me, "CASP is my favorite. I like CASP better than Halloween, better than a race car, better than chocolate cake, and better than everything."

Really? I sort of thought after school was going to be something he just tolerated. I didn't realize he was going to like it better than everything. Why does he like it so much. They do have activities but mostly it's coloring, waiting in line to go to the bathroom, going to dance class, playing with toys. I guess that's what we all want right? Some sort of simple activity where we all go and can sort of do what we want for a lot of the time right?

I mean what's a party. A bunch of friends your age, doing.. whatever. Dancing, playing, some food. I guess after school is just one bog party day after day.

Fall Fling

It was Fall Fling at Noah's school yesterday. Food and dancing. Basically a big party for children.
"Yo imagine if you were at a party this big like for older kids?" said one older student as we walked outside. I intended to go home but instead we played in the dark, running through the garden following other children at their games. I just trailed Noah and observed.

I did notice a bunch of stuff that is sort of okay when you are a child but becomes against the law when you get bigger.

Kids were basically just play fighting to the music. I actually had to put a stop to this when these bigger older kids were getting out of hand. They could have crushed smaller children or knocked over the speakers on themselves. But nobody wanted to step in and be that parent and the teachers were all at other stations I guess and probably didn't see it. The kids were big but young, and they sort of thought that they just weren't allowed to do that stuff near me.
So eventually I took one of the bigger kids aside and explained in more detail why he could hurt small kids or himself, with much gesturing. (The music was loud.) After that somehow it finally stopped. Sort of.
Noah was crying because he didn't like what I said.

Also this one girl had her shirt off. By girl I mean k-1 or first grade or something like that. I'm all for the free spirit element in JP. But it would have been weird for boys to have their shirts off too in this scenario I think. Maybe she spilled something. But with the "dance" atmosphere and us being in school... I don't know I just wanted to leave before the inevitable  something happened between the fighting or the creaking of something or the lecturing of someone. I guess I'm pretty conservative in my notions about gender and propriety after all. But you would think that I'm not since I am in a gender reversal role myself as a stay at home dad.

But anyway, it's interesting what is okay at a kids party and what would be considered wild and drunken behavior a few years later. The truth is when the really little kids were fighting nobody cared. It was when the kids that were slightly bigger and weighing more started knocking over kids and moving closer to the sound equipment that it became an issue.

Nothing bad actually happened and I became the only person to lecture the WWE participants (Noah included) about how this wasn't a Kung Fu school or a fight club but a dance floor with small children running around with no peripheral vision.

Later on another organizer stepped in on another group but then for some reason stepped back to allow me to regulate. I actually suggested she do it. Maybe she thought I was their parent or something. But I don't care about "rules" or enforcing them. I just don't want heavy equipment to fall on them or the fight to go worse. (they were pulling each others hair.) I think even in a sporting fight in the appropriate environment that behavior would be discouraged.

Well I had had enough but then we went outside to play and stayed until the raffle was drawn. Noah actually won something! A baking set. And Grace is making us pancakes this morning.

On the way home I thought I heard fireworks. It was actually nighttime construction. Proving Noah's story book, "Goodnight, goodnight, construction sight." utterly wrong. This operation was Starting at night. We watched this for about 15 minutes. It was pretty cool.

The Book with no pictures, by B.J. Novak

Novak (Ryan from The Office) might be the next Dr. Seus because my kids not only love his new children's book, but the silly words help them concentrate on the words themselves. It is easier for me to get them to sound out the "words" instead of memorizing them when the words aren't actual words but sounds.
Plus it's funny.
It's so simple of an idea, to make a funny book without pictures that makes fun of the whole concept, that I can't believe nobody has done it before. I mean it's so easy, and books have been around forever. At first I thought he was just being lazy and turning out a bool that was easy to make and easy to write. It was probably easy.
But nobody has done it before. It's not the type of thing you can do twice. I can't imagine another book without pictures. But maybe that's just I can't imagine it and maybe he will come up with it.

I guess you could do another book without pictures that tops this on if it was somehow interactive. But it would have to be way cooler than all the work book type books already out there and funny too.

Anyway, it's funny, and it is good. The kids want to keep reading it over and over and if you analyze it you could right a whole book on why it's good for helping kids read because of the colors and fonts catching there eyes and also the fact that there aren't any pictures.

Grace bought his book of short stories too. The first one was funny as hell. I guess I just have to read that now too.

Disappearing act.

You think you have your kids all figured out. And then they start these phases. Noah never did this in the woods. But Jonah will just take off full speed and then hide. And then not say anything. I mean I can spot him. He does have his boundary and comfort zone of distance away from me. It's just that his boundary is several feet further than Noah's was. Or am I remembering that incorrectly? Maybe it's because I pretty much am always attached to Jonah. I'm always carrying him or shouldering him because I don't trust him not to bolt, that when I put him down in  a place I think is safe, because it is away from cars, he doesn't just take off immediately. I'm just saying when he does... it's a little more than the older one would do.

A veil of autumn leaves.

Today Jonah went a little off path in the woods. Not so much as to get lost. It's just that we hung out there longer than usual where we usually walk by. There were these huge sections of tree that had been cut down and were rotting and had mushroom growing on them. Jonah spent some time climbing on them and wanted me to join him. At first I wanted to complain that I didn't feel well, or that I would have to bend over. But then I just did it realizing it was sort of like a work out. And then instead of bending over I got down into low stances. I realized that I usually can't wait to get Jonah in the fenced off playground so I can do Kung Fu of some sort. And in all the time I ever spent time doing Kung Fu in the woods I rarely went off path. This is because it's hard to do a form or something. There is sort of no space while at the same time there is a lot of space. But actually this is perfect for Low stance Kung Fu. And maybe even more robust Kung Fu. Sprinting is just harder. Honestly you will just have to go slower. But since I am not feeling well, that is great. I spent some time hitting the dead tree, whose bark was thick but soft because of decay, and I thought, not for the first time, how foolish it is to make a wooden man, or a punching back, even if you make a cheap one yourself, when there are plenty of things to hit in the woods. Yeah you can't hit it as hard or this or that. But unless you are a professional boxer or training for some sort of combat sport in the ring with rules, you really don't need it.
But more than all that, it is nice to be some what hidden by the leaves and the trees. Not because you don't want people watching you. There is just something calming about hiding in a place. Like a child hiding under the blankets or a lion head, or a special cupboard or tree house. But at the same time, since it isn't walls but leaves, you are able to move freely in your Kung Fu exercise.
I suppose there is something freeing about being veiled or even restricted slightly.

The fact that it is beautiful, with bright reds and yellows, and there is a crunch of leaves under foot makes the whole experience even more wonderful.

Real life Self Defense

I have been thinking for a while about the easiest and most realistic Self Defense techniques. Washing your hands, and avoiding crowds. I mean with stuff like Entero virus and Ebola, who really is afraid of a mugging, or a "real fight in the street" other than the fact that if you do fight someone in the street, chances are you will somehow exchange bodily fluids and now you may have contracted something.
I've had a cough/allergy like symptoms for about a week now. It makes it difficult to sleep. Grace was actually really sick to the point of losing her voice.
But we all accept that occasionally we will get a little sick. But in the modern world, for a while I had assumed that you know, stuff like Ebola wouldn't reach us. That we wouldn't have something like the plague. I mean there was the SARS scare and all that. But that has never stopped me going into a crowd.
But I mean we haven't changed our behavior in the states. I mean we haven't stopped flights. People aren't walking around with masks.

The most annoying part is Jonah won't listen about washing hands and not putting his fingers in his mouth. I'm considering not taking him on the subway anymore, even if it means quitting one of the gigs I have in Chinatown. Is this paranoid considering Noah has school anyway?

I don't know I feel like they make them wash their hand at school. But Jonah deliberately does things I don't like to get a rise out of me. Which means flopping around and coughing on the subway. I mean I guess I wouldn't pull Noah out of school for the rest of his life. That would be crazy. Unless there is an actual outbreak here. Then I don't care, I would pull him out. But as of now that would be a crazy decision.
But I really am seriously thinking about discontinuing my traveling on the subway altogether with Jonah. When I am by myself I can go during off peak hours and I don't touch everything and then put my hands in my mouth.

On that note it would be nice if we just took some of the precautions they take for the common cold in asian countries.


I remember walking around with this mask years ago that Grace gave me. It was a a flu type mask from Taiwan. It turned out that I actually just had allergies not the flu. But people actually called security at my work. Because people are afraid of things that are unlikely to hurt them. But they are not afraid of things that can even kill them and their whole family and that has no human emotion whatsoever. A virus.

Maybe we are not afraid of things we can't see or can't imagine. Even if you have seen a picture of a virus or seen the actual virus under the microscope....well I guess it's just the people who have first hand experience with the virus, doctors and nurses, that sort of thing, who really understand it in that way.

I hope I never understand it.

Tradition or new stuff?

Last after school class I brought the basics out for the kids. They could do them but I could sense them losing interest even more quickly than the kids at little panda. I'm in a smaller room which is good for control, but bad for really getting the kids moving around physically. The running around in the circle was more fun for the kids, but it was hard to control them or get them to do specific moves. I had even though of teaching them a traditional form. But realized that space would be an issue.

I was thinking this morning (because I was too sick or cold or whatever to sleep, that I would have to make some cuts in my class. I might have to do, warm up stances, while singing lion dance beats and holding pretend heads. Then maybe we'll parade in the hallway and com back to our place to do a combo beat.

Then I'm going to bring out something I had taught the kids who are now teenagers. I'm going to teach the choreographed story as a form. And I'm going to break the kids into groups. I thought of a way they can just to stage combat without it being dangerous. It will be all about posing and interacting far away from each other. And then maybe one slow motion technique (also maybe later on in the year), which they will talk about first and then I will observe them showing me. This will actually look good on stage. (It's what the theater people who aren't martial artists tend to do. Just saw it in the Lion King) Plus they will feel like they are creating moves. But at the same time it won't be all crazy. Crazy would be good for outside. And maybe even later in the year. But right now they don't have structured movements yet.

The Lion King

Last night we went to see the Lion King on stage. First of all, we all loved it. Jonah started yelling, "It's just what I wanted!" And luckily the mics and all that drowned him out. So I didn't worry about him disturbing others. Even though two older kids were looking back at him all the time. They were often looking back when he wasn't doing anything so whatever.

There were some parts where I was wondering if one day in the future, people may look back on this play and even the movie, the same way we look back at Show Boat, or minstrel shows. There was one particular part where Rafiki is shaking her butt acting like a clown and speaking more or less gibberish that is supposed to sound like an African language, and maybe some of the words were real, but still as the audience laughed I felt a bit of a cringe.

But ultimately as far as today standards go, it may be considered positive. A black king rules a black kingdom, Rafiki is ultimately something like Arthur's Merlin (who was also funny sometimes) and the displaced scar is "whiter" and the clowns Pumba and Timon are whitish, and Zazu who is advisor and goofy, is whitish as well. So in that way it is role reversal of many stereotypes.

Or is it?

Even the movie, the whole premise buys into a notion that Africa is somehow completely wild with no humans. Name another animated movie with no human characters. Even Ice Age has a human baby. But Lion King, set in Africa, where humans come from, where Cro Magnon man comes from, and where after some sort of global catastrophe that almost wiped our species out (we know this because of a bottle neck in the genetic code) our version of modern humans emerged from a specific village in Africa (we know this because people there differ more genetically more than people anywhere else on earth, even if taken from opposite sides.) Anyway, blah blah blah, the point is a lot of stuff about Lion King is sort of racist and culturally biased. But I think the only way we would look back at it like that would be if Africa became as powerful and dominant, or more powerful and more dominant than Europe or "The West" or China, or basically if Africa became the continent that had the countries that ruled the world, the 1% ers, That sort of thing.

This does not seem likely to happen soon.

Anyway, I still loved lion king. I loved the mvie more than the play though, It's hard to beat the movie. The actors are top notch Shakesperean actors (the lion king is pretty much Hamlet after all. Set in Africa. With Lions. And some references to Communism. And the Hyenas are sort of ghetto dwellers. Man there is no getting around it, it is pretty racist and classist. And promotes hereditary monarchy and a caste system.)

But the story is so good. The idea is so cool. The father son relationship is so sad and touching. Jonah kept hugging me during the scenes with Mufasa telling Simba about the stars. "I love you so much." he said.

The songs are so good. The costumes and scenery is so cool.

One part that I missed from the movie was the Shamanic trance part where Simba follows Rafiki to a reflection pool. This was simply done with a song, instead of a chase through vines with African drumming. That is my favorite part of the movie because to me it represents a Shamanic journey into the subconscious, and is entering that altered state that enables Simba to see a vision of his father in the heavens. I'm into that. But I guess it would be difficult to do on stage.

Anyway, a lot of the puppetry was really cool, and might help me for thinking about what my lion dance and Kung Fu class is going to do. The main thing I saw was keep it simple and focus on the ability of each kid to be able to move well on his or her own, even if that means that we all stay in the same place on their little dot on the floor.

Math and Candy

Since Noah started school I have eased up on drilling him on various addition and subtraction problems. First of all I noticed that he was really just memorizing stuff but didn't really understand what it meant. Like 9+9=18 but then 8+9 he has no clue, even though it's the same as 18-1 right? or 18-1 he would just flip out and yell at me. So what's the point? I was talking to Grace about this and then I brought him over to use some shapes from a puzzle as a tool "Each side has a candy on it," I said, "so how many candies are there?"

This with one square then two and three and four and then with triangles. At first he was counting but then, when faced with the idea of candy, abstractly not even getting real candy but just talking about it, I saw him reach back in there and pull out those times tables. Grace started laughing.

I recalled that our little drills on the train, back when Noah was going to acorn, would also go better when I phrased it in terms of apples, pretzels, or twizzlers that we were dividing or subtracting (eating) or adding or multiplying or whatever. He couldn't get something as an equation but could easily do it as a word problem. This was weird to me because I specifically remember being taught in school how to pull out the equation from a word problem, because the words were somehow supposed to have made it harder. It wasn't just me, it was the class that was being taught this.
But for Noah the equation is difficult and the word problem is easier. Maybe it's more difficult when you have to read the words instead of someone talking to you conversationally.

Double Ten

Yesterday was a nice sunny day for a Double ten parade. Lion heads, drums and musket fire. I noticed a few Italian American groups that were part of the procession. A marching band, playing "Descendants of Dragons" and of course my favorite, revolutionary war re-enactors of Alepo. Whatever. Muskets are cool.
I didn't bring my kids because I knew Jonah would be too much, and I knew that Noah was sort of getting sick. Not sick sick, but weakish. So it was better for him to rest. Today is a school day after all.
So I didn't stay long after the flag raising ceremony. But actually,  our group stayed the longest of the lion teams so it's not like we took off earlier than anyone else, except the Taiwanese groups.
Last year I actually stayed for the whole thing even though tit was raining. But because it was raining me and Noah could get up real close and watch the performers. But I've seen this sort of stuff all the time. So I'm not going to stay and watch. But if Noah had been there I suppose I would have

The turn out seemed much bigger than the 5 star China flag. But then when the parade was over and we were standing there, the crowd kind of thinned out, and it ended up being about the same.

Next year I think both of my children will be well behaved enough to stay longer. And if they are both healthy that day, maybe we'll make it more of a family event. My kids are Taiwanese after all. But they don't really do anything Taiwanese. It's funny that it's me, the part of the family that isn't at all Taiwanese, is the one who actually seems concerned about this.

Rainy but good

I had cancelled today's class, just in case the parade for 10/10 was today. But it wasn't. So I went to my "class" with Noah. And guess what? Despite the drizzle some other people also showed up, and we had a better than average class. Noah and I sort of played tennis. But when other people cam we did some stances, and then some basics and running basics and then freestyle fighting around the track. Then the boys went on their own little adventure. I guess the key is to keep it simple and keep it short and then let them go wreak havoc.
I also got the opportunity to speak with another martial artist. He had learned martial arts through theater, and talking to him opened my eyes to an aspect of the martial arts that I knew was there, but that I haven't considered pursuing for a while. He guided me in the way I should approach it and how it could help me in the long run to get students.
It was a good class and good conversation.

Adapting to a class

Today my class was more chaotic than last class I think. The older kids had a few individuals with too much energy. The Younger kids seemed to be tired. Also the room echoes a lot which makes complicated instructions difficult to correct. Well "Don't run" is pretty simple. But everyone was doing it. So I ended up making a good portion of our Kung Fu class a "sitting down" activity. I actually noticed that most martial arts seem to do this too. Where a bunch of kids are sitting and then you make each kid go one at a time.
There are benefits to this. You can actually correct some technique. But there are drawbacks too. Everyone else is just sitting there. Most of the kids will not watch the performer and learn. Well maybe the first couple of times.
I usually save the drawing on the lion heads for the end. But when I do this, all the kids actually listen really well. There are the coloring kids. Then a few kids want to do instruments. And then last week, some kids actually continued to do lion dance the entire time. Maybe I should just start with coloring the heads and then pull kids aside. I could break them into groups too. But ultimately  that leaves my attention off one group.
If one of my teacher helper students (that only seem slightly older than the students) can somehow learn the lion dance beats, or an approximation of it, I can have a group play instruments, a group learn lion dance, and a group do coloring, and then rotate.

The only reason why this would work is if the kids actually were getting tired, or bored with doing something. Ironically they are requesting more "kung fu in a circle" I guess they were having fun. but they weren't reacting to the change in the drum beat, and following it. which is why I had to stop them.

I guess they didn't necessarily do worse today. It might have been that my expectations were higher.

One kid mentioned while doing the animal moves. "But I know this already." I guess my problem is the same. I expect them to look like they know it already. But knowing something as an individual and being able to perform in as an individual or a group are to different things.

Some kids got excited for the "freestyle Kung Fu," I.e. picking whatever animals they wanted. Maybe I'll just introduce the Kung Fu and allow them to dance around freestyle. To tell the truth, it's what most of the boys are doing anyway. There are some girls that actually enjoy following directions though.

Book, Career, Excitement

I have written a book with Grace, well a rough draft at any rate. While writing it I gained a strong sense of excitement and purpose. Why? Because I was trained to do this. It was something that high school, that Groton had prepared me to do. The book is non-fiction, and I plan to sell it online after I self publish it. I have a lot to learn in that regard. There is internet marketing. I've been told I should start my own company. There are some business things that I need to get done and a great deal of internet language and practices that I need to learn, as I am virtually illiterate in that regard as of now. But we wrote the book.

And while writing the book, an outline for a fiction book came out of me as well. It is still in the outline stage. But I am even more excited about that because I worked on it with Noah. The outline is not yet at the stage where I can simply hammer out the book the way I did with the nonfiction one.
The nonfiction book is a self help sort of book and I was surprised at how it just came out of me and even opened my eyes to so many other ideas. I hope it is a success online. But even if it is not, I plan to pedal it door to door.
Moreover I plan to pedal it under my pen name which will be a minor character in my little novel storybook, "Aravel." I suppose I was so excited because not only did my education prepare me for what I am about to do, but so did my Kung Fu, because..... surprise surprise... the nonfiction and the fictional books have a lot to do with Kung Fu. Specifically they have a lot to do with the Kung Fu I am now teaching. In essence, not only have I created a system of martial arts, but a universe where said martial art comes from. Fictional? Yes. Practical? Definitely. Fun and Imaginative? I would like to think so. Everything from the cardboard lion heads I am now using to the way I am teaching basics in a circle, to even stuff I haven't really had a chance to show in a kids class yet because they aren't ready... yes. My ambition is to be a cross between Tolkein and Bruce Lee.

Wild Kratt Kung Fu

Noah ran me threw a working out of his own today. We had to change into various animals and race around the house. We fought each other using Kangaroo kickboxing techniques, modified of course to the human body. It came out looking a lot like some Mein lay jum techniques. We slithered on the ground like snakes, galloped like horses and ran like cheetahs. It was all quite a work out. At the end Noah requested that we do some traditional basics.