Jonah's puns and dreams of Noah.

Jonah is very punny lately. He will say I want to eat a whole meal and tires. "You mean a whole entire meal?" I will ask.
"No a whole meal and tires. That's what I want. That's what I like to eat."
We also have a book called "Fruit Cake" which is full of different puns on words. He likes to call it, "Vegetable Cake" and asks, "Is that funny?"
And cracks himself up.

On another note,

I dreamt last night of Noah and me. We were in a Chinese restaurant was closed except for special inside people who were gambling. The game was some version of bingo except it was like heads or tails, you had a 50/50 chance of winning, and the cards were actually dim sum  cards. I think I dreamed this because I having been writing a new book and have been recounting memories I had of going into a real gambling house with my father.

 In my dream, Noah got his concentration face on as he chose what his bet was on the dim dum card. He gets this face when doing work sheets. I thought this was a cute little version of gambling for one dollar, but I quickly realized that I didn't understand the game and that Noah could lose more than he was betting and lose in multiples. I stopped him from playing another round as an old man next to him told him to play a $40 bet on the next round.

"Nope, you lost and we're leaving." I said. I was afraid I didn't have enough money to pay.
"I diiiiidddd goooood!!!!???" Noah cried. literally crying the way he does when he loses, not understanding that gambling has nothing to do with drawing your bets well or finishing your worksheet. It's all chance. As he bawled I realized thankfully that I had the $45 he had already lost. In fact, I had thought I only had $100 but I had stacks of $500.00 bill sin my wallet. At this point I sort of realized I was dreaming and thought maybe we should have bet after all, since it was fake anyway. But then I decided enough was enough and we left the restaraunt. The door was unlocked and relocked as we left. The interesting part was nobody there was shady. It was all normal looking restaurant people. Which is why I couldn't believe they were betting such high amounts. It was snowing like crazy outside and it seemed like it was some sort of festival. But now white people were around. That should have tipped me off that I was dreaming too. It was some sort of dream world Chinatown. It wasn't bad either, it's just that the gambling was not to my taste.

I felt pretty sad that Noah was so into the gambling in my dream. In fact I wanted him to play the card to understand at a young age that gambling was bad. But his crying still made me sad. When I told this dream to Grace she said, "It's in his blood." as if my dream were something that was simply true.

Chan Hak Fu fight.

You always can learn something new watching this fight. The more I watch it, I don't care if you don't know martial arts at all. You don't see fights like this nowadays where the stances are so strong and they are hacking at each other so fiercely and for charity! I see all these negative comments but people seem not to realize that this is the fight that even created the interest in Kung Fu to produce the Wuxia novels that were turned into movies that created the Kung Fu cinema. The people watching had no illusions from a diet of wirework and CGI. I suppose people expect to see the sort of demonstrations or sports fighting that you see between two guys that do the same system. But Noah loves watching this and every technique in this video is a gem that could devend you even if you learn nothing else but that one move.

Looking back at 2008

Haven't seen Vincent, who is at the beginning in this video, in ages. In any case, watching myself at the end, I realize that there is a big difference between how I move before Noah was born, and now. I was actually starting to be less in shape at this point too due to starting to date Grace. In any case, I look forward to regaining some of this energy this spring. Now that Noah is more interested in doing Kung Fu drills with me I can actually consider practicing like that again. This morning we did all this stick drills. Soon it will be me and him doing the fighting form in this video.

Oldie but goodie

Okay I guess this video isn't that old. But let me look at some of the things I can see that are different between that me and me now.  I guess Noah was one year old. How the hell did I get away with going to this event? I was just reviewing my forms today I realized I forgot most of Gwan Gung Do. Plus I am pretty sure the pants I am wearing in that uniform are complete tatters. I now wear some golden pants Grace bought online and tie red cloth at the bottom. Plus the kids in this video look closer to being adults now, but they are still kids I guess. I just got to watch a ton of videos on youtube, something I haven't been doing until recently since the kids fall asleep easier now and I have to say this one is a gem worth sharing. Before I wouldn't hgave thought anything of it. But now that I rarely perform any forms, or even go to a banquet like event, I think it's a big deal.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Jonah

I've never seen this movie. Maybe I saw part of it at Red Oak after school and frankly it did not catch my eye. However, today at playgroup another mother started holding up a car and said, "Have you ever seen..."

"Back to the Future?" I said because it was the only movie I could think of with a flying car.

"No." she said and then started singing this song. Immediately Jonah's eyes brightened and he started flying his car close to hers and laughing. I tried to reproduce the joy in his eyes at home and it wasn't the same. We talked about it and I asked him why he liked it. Of course we have our own moments of joy mostly in volving riding on my back or hiding under the covers like it is our special cave. But this was a different kind of joy I hadn't seen in his face before. I think I will have to look into this movie.

Moh Goon Lifestyle

I was going to go to Church today, but then watching my kids play together seemed so much more cute... until it became not cute. "You best get out of here." Grace said, implying, truthfully that the children would behave better if I were not here. So I did Kung Fu in the woods. I refused to believe how cold it was outside. I came back and pretended I wasn't home until Noah caught me. Then it was pretty much Lunchtime and then time to go to the movie playing at the Library. The theater at Back Bay is gone, but they have a function room with a screen that is smaller and more suited for children watching movies It was Mr. Peabody and Sherman traveling through time in the way back. It was cute. U recognized some of the parents and kids that usually go to church.
Then we got baos and went to Moh Goon. At first Noah was shy about practicing there. He sort of did some stick stuff and played. But then some of the newer guys (I guess they've actually been there for a couple years now, but I just haven't been around) came in and a round of forms started. I jumped in and then Noah jumped in. I also tried to run through all the weapons form I know, because I refuse to end up being one of those guys who can't remember any of his forms. Of course It was hard for me to do some of the two man forms especially the parts of my partner ( the parts I never really learned) and much of that was thinking and looking like an idiot. But that is an important mental struggle.
Well hours later Grace called and told me to come home. Indeed it was 6pm by then. But Hey Noah was enjoying it. We got Chicken wings, realized we had left our baos and trekked back to get them before going home.

Divine Intervention: A Miracle of Francis

I've been reading a Tai Chi book. This sentence, if you know me, will either seem ordinary or strange to you. Like, "Oh you're into Kung Fu so it is natural that you would read a Kung fu book."
Or.
"Why the hell are you reading a book about Kung Fu when you are already a master at Kung Fu?"
It was my Kung Fu side that was attracted to glance through it, just to look at what other people do and encourage myself to practice what I know. In fact, usually whatever exercise they do is some variation of something I have done, but have left to the side. And so it usually does teach me something.
However it was my writer's side that decided to actually bring the book home.

The section that stood out most to me was the formulaic story about how the author defeats an attacker on the street easily. At least this author is honest about the fact that just because it turned out that way, doesn't mean it will always turn out that way.

Well I'm going to tell a story about how I was defeated... by Noah who is currently five. I don't think that Noah's Kung Fu skills are better than mine. And even if they were the size difference between us is too great to make a real difference. Noah defeated me because I defeated myself and because I believe he was protected by an unseen hand.

One night, getting ready for bed, Noah was being so misbehaved in terms of not brushing his teeth, not taking a bath, not getting dressed that it was now 10:00, an hour past bed time and we had started getting ready at 7:00pm. This was ridiculous and it hadn't been a school day so I had been dealing with similar issues all day. I had had it. I was sick. Mommy was sick in bed and couldn't even move.

I shook with rage and moved to grab Noah in anger. Miraculously, my thumb somehow jammed on him so that he was tickled and was laughing whereas my thumb was sprained and I was injured enough that I had to calm down.

Who saved him?

I attribute the miracle to my Uncle Francis who had recently passed away. Most people would scoff at the idea that my Uncle Francis was a Saint. But if you really look at a lot of the Saints, there are some that were hardly Saints/ And I also believe that you kind bind two spirits together. In other words, my Uncle Francis, automatically gets the powers of Francis of Assisi (whom Jonah is baptized after but the rascally behavior that Noah was exhibiting was up to my Uncle Francis's speed. That's why I think it was him.) Plus the Pope is Francis and a ton of kids being confirmed are being named Francis so in the spiritual word of thoughts prayers, affirmations and vows, Francis is very powerful and popular right now.
What's that have to do with my Uncle?

Well Santa Clause is a pretty big deal right? But he is really two different St. Nicholas's (Nicholai?) Odin, and Father Christmas all in one. It doesn't have to be that one is the reincarnation of the other and all that, though that is how the Asia would justify putting these different people together as one.

But Religion and story telling isn't a Science.

I'm just saying, my Uncle Francis reached over and protected Noah from my anger and maybe some of his power is attributed to a ton of people praying and affirming their belief system in the name of Francis. Just like I believe if you burn money to you ancestors, a wandering spirit can pick some up too, and that doesn't necessarily mean that your ancestor doesn't get his or her money too. I mean, it's all pretend anyway, and in another way, all real.

Anyway, so here I am, a Kung Fu master and I was defeated by my five year old son, physically. He laughed and was having a good time about it. I told him he was lucky as hell and that indeed he had been protected in this instance by Uncle Francis. I could see that this mischievious behavior was the rebirth of my Uncle's personality in him.

"Who is Uncle Francis?" he said

"He took you into the ocean in Florida and held you when you fell asleep and kept holding you even though he really had to go to the bathroom. He held you for two whole hours until you woke up."

My thumb is still slightly injured.

Make way for ducklings

Today Noah performed in a grand production of make way for ducklings. I was surprised that the house was packed. I figured I would go because I don't have a job and what not. I didn't realize that parents would actually take off from work to see it. I felt like I was masquerading as an enthusiastic parent showing hardcore support for their child and being really excited that he was on stage for two seconds sort of flapping sort of wandering. The truth was that I was only mildly interested and the only thing I had to compare this to was Harprer Lee's too Kill a Mockingbird when scout dressed up like a ham, and then I suppose all these representations in commercials and movies of these school recitals. Somehow I didn't actually believe that people did these things in real life, in Boston anyway. I started to analyze why I didn't actually care. Why I was just getting a picture for Grace and then mildly amusing myself. The pictures and video I got were horrible and I actually hadn't even considered bringing a camera until Grace mentioned. So what's wrong with me?

Oh right, unlike other parents, performing on stage is actually a common thing in our household. In fact I sort of cheated because just two weeks ago I created a show JUST for Noah which was like 40 minutes of Noah performing and Gong Gong made a movie out of it AND my Kung Fu school got paid AND Montclair not only enjoyed and appreciated it, but we contributed to their cultural education. Now Make Way for Ducklings did this too of course. It was cool. Jonah kept climbing under the seats and didn't want to be there. The show was controlled chaos. But I assume Noah enjoyed himself. But I saw a little bit of the work that went into this. And it was a lot. I guess far more work goes into our Kung Fuing and lion dancing since for us it is a way of life. But I suddenly realized that not everyone has the benefit of so many stages to perform on all the time. Instead of getting paid to do something like that, they actually have to pay. In other words, Lion Dance and Kung Fu kids are kind of lucky in this sense. We never realized how good we had it. I only just realize now at 31 after going to this school recital that was packed at 9am.

Noah's first Suzuki Festival Twinkle age 5

Mommy's Belly

"But Baba, I don't remember when I came out of Mommy's belly!" says Jonah as we were heading out the door today. I was trying to put on his shoes.
"I just can't remember when I came out of Mommy's womb!"
"That's okay most people don't remember."
"But Why?"
"Well I think some people believe you can access that memory through hypnosis or meditation but for the most part most people can't remember it, now let's go."
And off we raced to school. Noah got there right on time. Then we went to little Panda pretty early. Then we went to the library where there was a dance party which ended with Let it Go. Jonah was actually not interested. Jonah tried to grab a book from a baby, this caused some issues when I reprimanded him. And eventually we were at Back Bay station waiting for the bus, and eating a sausage egg and cheese sandwich because the egg and cheese sandwiches were gone.
Jonah swallowed some egg.
"But Baba, I don't want to go back into mommy's belly!" As if the conversation that started hours ago had not stopped and we had been talking about this the whole time.
"uhh well that's okay because you won't."
"But how do I get in there?"
"You don't. Unless you count that your seed will go into another woman and combine with her egg and then a new person that is part you will grow and come out of that Mommy, who will be that child's mommy but not yours. But that's not really you is it? So other than that, you only come out once."

I thought about how the story of the stork is such a bad thing for society. I mean, Freud talked about how all any man wanted to do was somehow get back into the womb, but obviously, this child who happens to know a little bit about the real story seems to be completely horrified by the concept of being trapped in the womb or having to be back in it. I mean, when you are an adult and someone tells you you just want to get back in the womb you either say nonsense, or okay, or I don't know. But Jonah is three, so he is closer to the event. So knowing what he thinks about it is actually kind of important right?

As I right this he says, "Baba when I was in mommy's belly I was very quiet. I couldn't talk to shao. I just had to be very quiet inside." Anyway, suddenly today, it has become an issue of importance for him.

Sick on St. Patrick's day

Noah threw up last night so no Irish Concert for him. And this morning, well he seemed out of it enough to keep him home. At 9am I regretted keeping him home because he seemed to be playing with Jonah fine. Perhaps I had protected my feeling and Grace's bedridden state on Sunday onto Noah. But then 10 minutes later his playing was very subdued and consisted of just hiding and not moving under the lion head with Jonah. Then he just crawled onto the couch and lay down under blankets staring out at the world in a daze. Okay it was good I kept him home then. He watch me do some stances. I was attempting to sweat. After all I felt really good when I did that lion dance with Noah in Quincy, mainly because I was wearing so many clothes and indoors and sweat so much. I believe the sickness hit me hardest then and then just got sweat out.
Plus I discovered that my main problem is probably stance. I have been neglecting it and found that holding horse stance for two minutes was actually painful. On a good note that means to improve it will not take a two hour horse stance session everyday. In fact a two minute session now and then will improve me greatly.

"Now even though you're sick we are going to do Kung Fu later. We'll just do it in slow motion. Okay?"
blank stare.
"I'll show you how. You can do Kung Fu when you are sick you just practice differently. In fact even when you are not sick you should practice in slow motion sometimes, like mein lay jum."

"Like this?" Noah said still laying down throwing a very slow motion punch."

"That's right! We'll do that a little later okay."

Blank staring nod.

Of course now he is watching TV in the dining room (Jonah requested an early lunch so I made them a sort of Jook of leftovers) But even simulation is not too good. Soon I think we'll head up to read stories and try to actually nap.

Classroom and Society

Today I was a classroom volunteer. I should have done it earlier because I got to see a side of everyone's personality that is much different from what I see at the playground. I also see some things I need Noah to work on to defend himself. For instance, he knows how to take care of himself on the playground, where it is all physical. But if someone is physically bothering you in a classroom you need to be able to tell the teacher. Instead he just cried and couldn't even say what happened. One of the teacher's helpers told me he was having some problems like this for a while. He is unable to speak up for himself. But then I think I may have had this problem too.

Here is another thing, I like the way things are handled in the classroom, with feelings corners and calming breaths. However, I also realize now that certain people, perhaps Asians especially, do better in a Legalist environment. For instance, all the Chinese rebellions had to do with Justice being corrupt, or unfair. But in China nobody rebels simply because justice is swift and harsh.

I think back to all the friends Noah had and the parents talking softly to their child when a fight broke out. But the thing is, their child started the fight, and then Noah wouldn't be able to gather himself until a while after he was hit to retaliate. Then the other child would be able to make excuses and twist words and lie. But Noah can't do that. He's not good at it.


The same thing happened today, years later, in the classroom. But I saw the whole thing. I only recounted what I saw when the teacher asked me and she got the child to admit what actually happened. Maybe the kid would not have admitted anything if he didn't know that I saw the whole thing and that lying would be futile. Maybe he would have. I'm not sure.
But then I saw the same child challenge other kids throughout the time I was there. I had seen him in the playground but nothing ever came up there and in fact Noah is buddies with him. That is just how he is. He is testing his strength. But this is not the time or place. There is indeed a time or place. But I'm not sure they have that section in school. Even in my Kung Fu class, the sword fighting section has rules and is more about fun, than a true test of skill or strength. Come to think of it. I may have a pushing/push hands contest with the boys on Friday.

 I will be using some of Miss Shea's tricks at home. I will have to watch more Daniel Tiger to get used to parenting like that again.

2015 3 13 Noah performing lion dance at Montclair elementary School wp3

Here is Gong Gong's video of Noah's performance. It's pretty cool to see a Moh Goon event through the lens of Gong Gong.

Suzuki Day

Noah went to a Suzuki event with Mommy and Gong Gong. From what I hear the other families there were mostly Asian of the Japanese, Korean and proper Tiger Mom variety and one white girl, (so a Tiger mom convert). Everyone took out their notebooks to copy down what the teacher said, an old white lady in a walker who had studied with Shinichi Suzuki himself.
"So What's a King?" Gong Gong said.
"3 points." said Noah.
"What's a Jack?" Gong Gong asked next
"Umm 1 point."
The other members of the crowd were staring at our family (again this is what I hear as I was not there myself.)
Finally Gong Gong wrapped up the lesson with, "and those are the points for bridge. We will continue this later."

As the Sensei in a walker came out and asked everyone to perform Twinkle twinkle together like a Kata, Noah got into position. He started to play as did everyone.

"Dedededede. dededede" to twinle twinle. But then Noah started to hop from leg to leg doing high knees. A clear sign of Tinkle Tinkle coming. Grace pulled him out to the hall and the bathroom. They returned just in time to hear everyone go "dedededed deeeeeee."

"Good." said walker sensei. "Now let's do that again."

Then each child had an individual quick lesson. The numbers on the teachers fingers were shown to the parents so that there would not be a Tiger mom riot over preference.

The number was seven.

"And what number would you like to pick?"

"Five" Noah said.

"And you?"

"Five" said the white girl.

"You can't pick five. Can you pick another number?"

"But I have to pick five because five plus five is ten and ten minus five is five so I have to pick five."

"You can't pick five. You can choose another number like one, two, three, Four-"

"I choose four."

"And you?" Sensei continued.

"Six."

"And you?"

"Six."

"You can't choose six."

Well eventually Noah got his little lesson. Apparently it was quite effective because the tweaking of finger positioning enables him to have much better pitch than he had before. Pitch? well whatever it is when you get the note closer to the actual note you are supposed to play. Video of that to follow.

"Who is coming tomorrow for our all day Suzuki event." Sensei asked.
 All the tiger moms raised their hands except Grace. In fact, I am not sure Grace would really qualify as a Tiger Mom per se. Not in the Suzuki sense.

"That was probably God awful boring." Grace said of the Sunday all day Suzuki event. I guess Grace is just half Tiger mom. Which works for us.

Dragon Qilin thingy on a stick

I spent the time while Noah was at Suzuki fest (and some time afterward making this Qilin on a stick....which basically just looks like a dragon. I was thinking Noah would actually just do Kung Fu moves with it like it was a pole arm. But I guess you could stick a lion type tail on it and it would be a Qilin guraffe like dance. Obviously it's not done, it still has to be paper mached. Of course the second I showed it Noah it became part of his dragon boat that can shoot fire etc.

Grace had a funny story about Noah's Suzuki experience. But I need to formulate that story better. I think we have pictures of that too.

Older video

I'm going to write mainly about my Tiger fork form again. This was three years ago. But the most striking thing about this video is seeing how the children in this video are huge teens in this years video.

In any case I can see that my Tiger Fork for this older video is better and I know why. I took some time to prepare for this before the new year. I put some thought into it and trained the moves that I was going to do a few days before. Just a little, but it made a difference, as there was a whole opening section that I just didn't even do this year, and of course it wasn't as smooth. The lesson? Take some time to prepare even if you don't plan on doing Kung Fu.

Chinese New Year Boston 2012 during Evening - Harrison Ave

Tiger Fork

This is a video of our team on Chinese New Year. But since this is my blog I'm going to write primarily about myself. I am the guy with the red back pack. Mostly I'm drumming and I come in at the end and do a tiger fork form, my Lion Dancing got edited out. I'm just going to recount some conversation that I heard second hand.

Z: I like the white guys Tiger Fork.

M: He used to be better. Before he was more sut jiang.



I think Sut Jiang means stronger, tighter technique. Watching this form, I do notice that it look somewhat feeble compared to a video of me from a previous year. I would like to think that the back pack and the oranges in my pockets are a reason for this. But actually I know that it has to do with lack of practice. I still practice, but how often to I practice a form and how often do I do so with a weapon. I used to spend a certain amount of time  a day (even after having kids) freestyling in a martial environment, often with weapons. This was possible with Noah. But with Jonah, not so much

The Noah Show

Gong Gong got pretty great footage of Noah performing, and the kids really enjoyed it. Jonah, unfortunately tore off his uniform and would not play the cymbals. Perhaps he sensed that he was not in a starring role. But if he would cooperate he could have been. I was so proud of Noah for doing his Lion dance and Kung Fu on the stage all by himself. He did three forms. All of them were freestyle, more or less but they looked good. There was an empty hand (kuen) as staff (gwan) and then a sword (do). Except the sword was really a stick which we painted neon yellow, to look like a light saber. I did my little freestyle for each of those weapons first because if I didn't, he refused to go up. But after he saw me do it one more time, he felt that he could. They really weren't bad as forms. The moves were simple, but at least it looked real. Every move had practical and clear application and his eyes followed the strike. I figure he doesn't really have to learn a form (a sequence that someone else made up) for a while, and even then maybe only for reference to improve his free style.

 Normally I would have ended the performance earlier but the truth is the main purpose for this performance for me, was to force experience on Noah. We had a fun little adventure. Tomorrow Jing has another performance at Josiah Quincy. Noah could have done that one too. But he will miss it because he is going to perform violin at a Suzuki festival. I guess that is important too. I can't wait till I can post Gong Gong's video.

Or maybe we can get the originals and Grace can put one of our own out on Youtube.

I've been sick for like a month and I felt a lot better after doing lion dance and Kung Fu indoors and wearing way too many clothes. The sweat made me feel almost as if I had been cured. Maybe I should try and do Kung Fu in the house with too many layers more often. I might get better faster.

Friday Performance

Well, a gig came in which me and Noah are going to do on Friday morning. I'll pull him out of school to see what a big deal they make of Chinese New Year at another elementary school where there are more Chinese students. It is eye opening. Who knows that memory could be a big deal. Plus me and Noah had something to work toward. We will be doing two small heads (our tails will be tucked in our belts.) and Gong Gong will come to take pictures. After that Noah will do three Kung Fu forms (if everything goes to plan.) He has never performed Kung Fu before. We just do hand, stick and then "sword" which is a stick painted to look like a light saber. Me and Jing and possibly Moi Sifu will do forms in between to allow Noah to rest. It's good because Gong Gong can get some footage of Noah in action. In fact the focus of this performance really is Noah. At the same time, it is in a real performance setting.

舞麒麟 CWB style Qilin Dance

Two heads vs. One head

After Church I caught Jing on the way back. I went and sat with some friends for dim sum. I didn't eat because I was fasting that day. So actually I didn't even drink tea. Jing told me about a lion dance at 5pm at mission park and I said I might come with Noah and his small head.
I did come. I had forgotten how at these events 5pm could turn into 5:45 pm. but because of day light savings it was okay for us. Noah did his little dance and I held the tail. Noah started following along in Lion dance before he started working on his solo stuff. But now I noticed he does much better when he simply does the routine that we practice every day. When he is the second head, he gets confused and when he gets confused he often stops moving the head. This makes it look like he's not as good as he is and can only do a lion dance with me as the tail.
 Which is not true.

I think we will start working on what to do with two heads. He just has to get the ideas of spacing etc. We can't do a routine because any time he does two or more heads, he will be joining either Fu's team at Mission Park, or Jing's team in Chinatown. So he will have to free style it. He did okay. I'm just saying he can do better with some training focused on two heads.

He got so excited that he wanted to do another lion dance immediately. I guess I'll have to find more events that are appropriate for him. And maybe I'll remember to bring a belt so that he can tuck the tail into it. He might want me to be his tail, but it looks silly. That's another thing, maybe I should lengthen his tail, because the way it is now, I think Jonah won't go under because it is to easy to fall out of it. And if I mad ethe tail long enough, I guess I really could get in the tail. I'll look into that now.

Money for the Church.

Yesterday I went to Church. Mainly because when people that mater to me die, I tend to go to church. Even before I was a Christian, my mother would send me to get a prayer card at the church downtown for her when someone was sick or dying. So I formed the habit early. I suppose I was actually always a Christian, I just didn't believe in organized religion.

Well Church yesterday was an appeal for fundraising. Fr. Shen said something like, "You may not be putting your money in the bank, but you are putting your money in the bank of heaven for God and to help the poor. Your name will be recorded in God's Book and will be remembered."
I like Fr. Shen. But I laughed out loud. This sort of appeal sounded almost like indulgences, something I read about when going to Nativity. I would have just said, "This is your Church, and the Church needs money." and then list the stuff that you do. But either way you wouldn't get a large amount of money from me. But I did start thinking of ways to raise money that would also make St. James more cool.

For instance instead of the Bingo night that is popular in a lot of other Churches, have a Mah Jong Night. I can imagine the immediate push back but hear me out. Fist of all. I am against gambling. But if what you win and lose both go to the Church, it ain't gambling. And if you are up front about that, it's not a fixed game. It's called fundraising.

Instead of winning cash you can win points or St. James dollar basically play money that some kids will draw in Crayon (I got this idea from a segment in Curious George.)  On another day people can bring in stuff that they don't want anymore and you can use your points to buy this stuff. Haggle and bargain. Have the kids run the buying and selling. Cause it's a game. If you never won any points, you can buy points with real cash at the door.

Ahhh you may bring up Jesus turning over money tables in the table. Well guess what. That would be part of it too. At the end. The kids come and turn over the money tables. (the fake money) Like seriously kick it over. Then whatever is left over and nobody wants, just goes straight on a van to Catholic Charities, which has a store a ways down the street in the South End.  Why not just jump to the end? Because people (especially Chinese people) like Mah Jong and they like Haggling. So they do that, and then at the end there is a lesson that all of that is useless in the end. Because you can't bring any money with you when you die. BTW I don't believe God uses money or books. We made that stuff. Just like we made Churches.

And to beat an old drum, we should have a lion dance and Kung Fu team. I'm going to be buying a drum soon, so I might approach them again about that.

And finally to "help the poor" why not just do pot luck in conjunction with Mah Jong night. All the other Mah Jong places do it There is a big ass rice cooker with Salted Fish and other food so that when you need to take a break to eat, you don't even have to leave. And don't tell me you have to buy Mah Jong tables. Somebody has one that they should probably give up or at least lend.

And another idea. An informal Chinese school or play group or conversation group. Have some Chinese people and kids, and non Chinese speakers and kids, give them some crayons and paper and say "1 hour in Chinese" and then do it and then "1 hour in English" and then do that. Do that everyday and you have yourself a Chinese School. You know how much people will pay for Chinese school? Especially one that is less formal and you don't sit in rows with stupid text books? A lot. Plus you don't have to pay the teachers. The teachers will be people trying to learn English and vice versa.

Well I guess I should actually go to one of the meetings with these ideas otherwise I am a hypocrite.

Aravel.

I've been writing a novel that I was about to ask for help with, to have someone edit, because I had reached my limit. But recently I realized a few things that I will put into it. The most pressing thing that has changed is that my Uncle Francis passed away, and so I saw that I will put him into one of the characters that was kind of flat. In fact, maybe that character was flat for a reason, because he was meant to be my Uncle. 

I am surprised that I am having similar feelings to when my mom died, in that I will wake up and forget that my Uncle is no longer among the living. I mean, it would have been pretty easy not to know. I rarely talked to him let alone saw him. Our phone conversations were years in between. If I had not called him when I did, if I had waited a day or two I wouldn't have had a chance to talk to him. That makes me feel like my mother made me call him somehow. 

One could say that now maybe my mother and her brother are in heaven together. But I have a feeling that that they will see each other, but they will mostly do their own thing too. 

Anyway I realized that my novel, which takes place in a magical fairy land type of place, sort of always was, a version of the otherworld, or heaven if you must. So was Neverland. Yeah some kids travel there and come back, but really it's a place where the author decided to put the kids that were abandoned in London. That they didn't really die, they went to Never land. And of course my world is just a fiction. And that was the weakness of my novel. That this land wasn't real enough, or it was too real. In other words, it wasn't that dream world where I have gone in sleep. It didn't resemble that world where sometimes I would see people who have passed along with people who are still here. And that should be a part of they story. And it wasn't.

Discipline

I guess I'm starting to get all traditional on my kids. Noah and I do Kung Fu everyday now and the class, though not necessarily physically intense, went over an hour today. Actually the most physically intense part is choice time, and it is the only part that Jonah really participates in. Basically each person gets to choose some drill we will do. Usually the kids drills involving running around a circuit in the house. Today Noah actually did punches for the first time so technically that is the most traditional thing out of our training.
I was doing free style forms but I noticed that Noah's forms are better when he has a set out technique to do. Some of the ones he makes up are good, but some lack power. I guess the first time he did this I was amazed at how he looked like he could have been an old generation herng ha Kung Fu guy. But somehow fancier moves crept in... which is okay. But the thing his those moves are fancy and higher level because it is hard to put power in them. Anyway there's another reason why I've gotten all traditional on them. Jonah walked by while I was showing Noah a stick technique, basically lecture style and got hit in the head. So now he MUST participate or play cumbals to the side or something, no going off by himself during that class time.

Plus he ran into the street on purpose today and I had to yell at him real hard. It was right after Noah ran into the street because he was somehow confused about which way we were going. But he failed to follow my instruction when I told him to stop. He took a second and then was able to listen. But a yelled into them that a second is too long in that sort of situation. You can be confused and take as long as you want learning times tables, or history. But this kind of stuff has to be immediate. And so part of my Kung Fu class is seeing how well you can obey orders. And I guess I'm getting tired of bending over backward for kids doing songs and dances. I'll do it. But I want to to teach real Kung Fu. It's hard to do that, when most of the class is trying to make sure the kids have fun. And some kids at Noah's school are good. They have physical talent. Others don't have talent but they listen. But as a group, it is difficult to progress, beyond the simplest stuff unless the GROUP can pay attention. They pay attention fine when we do what we have been doing and are rewarded with sword fighting. But they lose interest when learning a form. Or at the most they can copy a form, but will not hold interest enough to memorize it.
Next year in addition to these small children's classes  I'm going to see if I can have a club of some sort with older kids so that those older kids can then help with my younger kids classes and I can actually split  the kids into groups, so that we can have a real lion dance and Kung Fu team at Noah's school. But what I hear from teachers talking it seems like for some reason the older kids are even more difficult to teach, and that the 8th graders are somehow the worst. Well we'll see.

Boston's Chinatown Lunar New Year Celebration Lion Dance

At some point us adults took the small head over from the kids. Haha

Kung Fu on New year

This has become sort of a tradition every year in front of local legend and David Chin's business. He comes out to show his awesome skills for us and our friends and students do some Kung Fu too. It might mean we have a longer day but I think it's worth it. It's kind of like a family reunion of sorts. The Tiger Fork I do at the end, has ritual significance in that it is supposed to "pik chei" chase away evil, and it has to come at the end. Luckily someone from the audience posted this. Even if we don't do Kung Fu, it is carried with two swords and daggers hung on it, at the front of the Lion Procession. My Si Hing says that in China it was often used indoors at a house warming to clean away bad spirits.

My last phone conversation with Uncle Francis

A few days ago I called up my Uncle Francis. I had actually intended to call him last week or maybe even as long as a month ago because my Uncle Rich had called me telling he was asking for my address because my Aunt Dot was looking to send me something. Anyway I didn't get back to Uncle Francis a couple days ago. He had already gotten my address but I wanted to talk to him for some reason. So I guess my call was kind of random. At any rate it's a good thing I called because as it turned out, he died today.

What did we talk about?

I think I mentioned the snow and he, being from Florida, told me a story which I had heard him relate before. Actually first he started in with the, "Oh yeah it's cold down here too you know I think it went down to 40 the other day. You know last week I was getting worried because the air conditioning broke. I'm standing outside right now with my shorts on and yeah I feel a bit of a breeze."

You know that kind of thing.

Actually no, first he started with, "Oh yeah we gotta lot a snow down here in Florida too.... except it's cocaine."

Then came the teasing about the weather.

 Then came the story, "When I was 10 years old, I was getting off of the elevated train in Philly and I stepped into an icy puddle. Frozen on top but not enough to stop the water from soaking right through to my shoe. I swore. And I knew, at that moment, when I was only ten years old, that I was going to live my adult life in a warm climate." he had told me this story shortly after I went down to Florida for a Christmas Visit after my mother had died. Apparently he continued to talk to my mom after she had died. He went on with his story though.
"What I didn't know when I was 10 was that the first warm climate that I would live in....would be Vietnam. There's always an asterix to everything."

I told the story about how a couple miles from the house there was a little Chinese Community and how strange that was to me, and how the restaurant Grace went to beat the hell out of anything in Boston. We talked about when I took him to Chinatown Cage up here and got 6 dollar duck and the food court (DPD) which is gone. And then he told me he went to some place with his wife out in California and how they

"They had the thing where they come out the kitchen with the stuff in the carts. I don't know what the hell they call it."

"Oh Dim sum?"

"Yeah yeah! Thats' it.. Anyway that was pretty good."

Mostly we talked about our kids, which was new for us because it was only the last three times that I talked with him that I had children.

"You still doing the Kung Fu thing?" he asked
"Yeah but mostly I just teach my kids."
"Well that's cool. At least you don't have to worry they come home with a bloody nose. You know my youngest Danny, he didn't need Kung Fu though." and he related some other stories I had even heard as a child and ended with, "Now he's 27 though. Can you believe that? Can you imagine having your youngest child be 27?"

I said that I couldn't.

"Neither can I but here I am and he is."

A mechanic that had to show up to do some work or other did and so we had to go. We said goodbye. I could always call later to talk. I always enjoyed the story telling. I just never seemed to call as often any more. But as I said goodbye it was like I would call more often, maybe next week.

Every time I come away from talking to my Aunts and Uncles, the brothers and sisters of my mother, well first of all I guess they are all different people, but I get a renewed sense of who I am, which is completely different than who I am as a person usually. Ehhh but that's for another blog post. The only thing is that now that Uncle Francis is dead it's like yet another part of myself isn't gone so much, but it's like that side of me is not a living person anymore, but a part of me. Or I acknowledge that it has to be a part of me. I don't  really know. But when my mom died I started to get more in touch with that side of me. Is that what I'm trying to say? Yeah well the same is true of Uncle Francis.

Well everyone likes to say rest in peace. But I don't know if I believe that. I plan on talking to Uncle Francis more often now that he's dead. After all my mom is too. Go and raise hell. I imagine that will be more fun in that other plane. And I imagine I'd have more a chance of feeling a presence that way. Well in any case, whatever a soul does, if there is a soul, and I believe there is, enjoy yourself.

2015 Gund Kwok Boston Chinatown CNY Lion & Dragaon Dance Parade

2015 Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Lion Dance

2015 Lion Dance (Boston Lunar New Year) Gund Kwok

Chinese New Year 2015 -- Boston Chinatown [II of IV]

Noah's first lost tooth.

Despite a slight cough yesterday, probably from a weakened immune system due to Lion Dancing in the snow, followed by over stimulation and a lot of chow mein and fried rice I sent Noah off to school, protesting or not. Then he lost his tooth. Unfortunately he literally lost it after taking it from his mouth. Shoot! If I had kept him home we would have that tooth. Did he eat it? Did he just throw it away because he had others? Mommy was pretty upset because she definitely wanted it as a souvenir.
It turned out Noah's teacher, Ms. Shea, was also sick that day, and so the normal protocol might not have been the same.

But then today, somehow, miraculously, Miss Shea found the tooth! In fact it was put in a plastic bag and placed in Noah's folder. Upon arriving home (again after much protest because despite having stayed out longer than any of the other children they hadn't had enough) I tooth the sacred relic, which was placed in a clear plastic bag and taped to the folder (not just with any old scotch tape find you, but strong packing tape) well I took this treasure of treasures away from Jonah who wanted to play with it, and taped it to the door.

"Nobody touches this until Mommy gets home." I said. I do not put my foot down with many things. But here I did.

Noah's Lion Dance Chinatown adventure

This year was easier for me. Our team isn't necessarily bigger in terms of number of people. It's more like the young kids are now teens and are not only willing but eager to do Lion Head, drum, and pretty much anything. Some kids who came earlier got tired real fast so i was glad I didn't bring Noah in the morning. Those kids went back to the school with the baby head about half way through and then as we were almost finished I began to get worried about finishing before Noah came out and had a turn at lion dancing. With creeping horror I imagined his wrath. Well, Grace and Noah drove out as it began to snow and I ran back to the school to get the lion head and to get Noah and Jonah and Grace. The only problem now was I had misplaced my team. For some reason I saw everyone else besides our team. I even started asking friends I knew in the other teams, which would usually be a no-no but hey, the rules change when you have to deal with tantrums.
Noah was pretty mad when he heard the parade was almost over. But almost over is a relative term. We caught up with Jing and the team at the C-Mart near Hei La Moon. Basically we still had an hour left of lion dancing. Passing our school to hit some of the stores by Tai Tung that we had missed in the morning, Jonah was dropped off with Grace at the school. The other teens were basically watching Noah and holding his tail, then I realized I could just go under the little tail and stick Noah on my shoulders for the walking parts. That would save his energy for the actual lion dancing. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that earlier. Of course I think my shoulders became more sore from this section of the day than the entirety of the lion dancing activity that preceded it. But Noah had his Chinatown adventure and we had our Chinese New Year reunion. I really like this little tradition of meeting everyone in the streets of Chinatown, and it has gotten better every year as the teams become closer and closer to each other. It's like a giant family reunion that takes place on the street. It really must be something for a child.
Hopefully next year there won't be snow, so we can actually bring a wagon or something that I could pull Noah and Jonah  in.