Kung Fu and Love

Kung Fu and Love
A great gift for Valentine's day or Chinese New Year

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

One dollar vegetables

Just Finished Aang Avatar series

It took a while, But I finished watching Avatar the last airbender with Shao. (Dai Dai only watched with us on occasion). I was reminded of the many TVB series my dad would watch. I was like Dai Dai. I was only semi interested in them. But me and Shao were totally addicted. And now it's over... Which is why I just placed a hold on the Legend of Korra season 3.

If you haven't watched any of these shows yet, I suggest starting at the beginning with Aang's series. If it feels too Saturday Morning cartoony, don't worry it gets better and better. And there's also a lot fo jokes in the second series that refer to stuff that happened in the first one. Of course you will still find it funny even if you watch one Korra's series first like I did. But I suggest everything in order and right after each other to allow the story to unfold as it is supposed to.

Why am I getting all excited about a children's cartoon?

I realized something a long time ago. I like stories and not sports. So when I watch TV or read a book I would much rather watch a cartoon or some sort of drama rather than watch a football game or baseball game or the news.

So this made me thing of Kung Fu. Shao's Gong Gong asked me, "Are you going to teach Shao sports?"
And my answer was that I would teach him Kung Fu but sports were not my forte. Of course Now I do play soccer and that kind of thing with him. But eventually he will have to ask others for that type of advice because even though I played on teams when it was required. I could care less about following the sport at all. I can watch a movie about sports. Because there is a plot, a story. I can enjoy feats of athleticism. But the score does not hold my attention.


So I guess in Kung Fu that is also what I am attracted to. I like the stories and the spiritual side of it. I don't care about tournaments or stuff like that. I care about Chinese New Year as a whole day because there is a story element to it, and the pain or work out aspect of Kung Fu is sort of like an enhancement to the story, to make it more real.

Because The paragraph above might take you by surprise if you've seen me perform. There are people who only want to talk about Kung Fu and not practice it. But it's pretty obvious if you see my form that I practiced a lot. But again why?

Part of it was for health. But it was really living the story and therefore connecting with the story in a deeper way.

What does this have to do with Avatar?

Because as good as a lot of those real Kung Fu stories are, I think that Avatar has upped the anti. By drawing from a ton of great stories (mostly from the West) they have created some kick ass story telling.

The series doesn't fall flat, just being a cool idea but not grasping my attention, the way say, Twilight was. Vampires and Werewolves. It seems so promising, it made so much money.... but ultimately  those movies really stink. Maybe the book are better.

And Star Wars. The originals were great for their time. The new ones. Meh. And ultimately the spirituality of those stories falls flat. The Disney verions are getting there.

But Avatar starts off with magical Kung Fu where you bend elements. Four elements based of Greek Philosophy more than Chinese. Uncle Iro's character is awesome. Zuko's character is the one I identify with most, and just the whole thing is great. I can't believe I didn't open up to this series sooner.

ANd by the time you get to Korra, it's at another level again.

The episodes about past avatars and trips into the spirit world are so trippy. I suggest all College students engaged in recreational use of say, some legal or less harmful substance (depending on your state) should have a party with those spirit episodes.

Well. Can't wait to get that DVD and make Shao do some sort of Kung Fu or Violin practice so I have an excuse to reward him with watching the series. And after that I guess there are comic books.

I'm coming back to this subject later in a different post because the series really has me hooked, and adults without kids should watch it too. Especially if you are into meditation.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Physical and Spiritual

I was thinking the other day how every religious idea, except maybe a few lines in the Baghivat Gita, reinterpreted through a modern lens is kinda wrong.
In Han culture you start off as human and then you can become a god through people worshiping you or whatever. In fact, the Moon lady, who is kind of a Moon Goddess has a rather unspiritual and disappointing story. In fact most Gods in most holidays kind of fall flat in their story when you compare it with the wonder of science.
But even though Science can be mysterious on certain levels, the eclipse and how you feel during say the blood moon eclipse or just when the moon is bright, might feel more powerful and emotionally visceral than the explanation of two balls of rock passing  each other as they go around a ball that gives off light.

We don't know what God or gods really are or if they exist. But we do know that the God and gods were associated with celestial bodies. The Moon. The Stars.

And there is this idea (and you still see this in films) that if you were good or powerful enough you join this celestial pantheon in the sky and that type of existence is a better place or more special, or more pleasurable. That existence is heaven.

Even in Buddhism and Hinduism life is Samsara, some sort of punishment, and enlightenment is the exceptional state, outside of this cycle of life and death.

But the thing is, in the beginning (or closer to the beginning than now, anyway a long time ago) there was just Hydrogen and Helium. Not only was there not life. There were the elements that life (our life) is made of. So in the beginning everything is just a celestial being. In other words. Everything was heavenly and god like from our old perspective. And then all this stuff like Star formation and Supernovas and then the complicated way earth formed with Jupiter near it to draw away the falling rocks that could destroy life and all that had to happen to have Our life. So actually our notions are backwards. We are all gods and then we strive to be life. Not just human, but even worm existence is what is exceptional and amazing. And then when we go back to being not life, basically immortal we don't know if our spirit necessarily lives on. But the atoms and what makes up those atoms do not go away. They just change. So it is our physical beings that actually do not fade. Our spiritual beings (which we don't know much about or if it even exists) are definitely somehow missing. I mean You cannot dream when you're body has ceased to function.

Even in the most New Age modern type spirituality, we seem to have it backward.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Oak Street Fair

Red Harvest Moon Weekend

This weekend was pretty busy for us. The Shao and Dai  performed at the Oak Street Fair (video to follow) then went home to quickly rest before going to a wedding. I stayed on in Chinatown to do the Lantern Festival performance. While I was there I decided to go on the Chinese Progressive Associations tour of the artwork that is supposed to draw attention to the housing crisis in Chinatown.

And I just used the words, "Housing crisis in Chinatown."

When I use these words. I sort of know what I am talking about. And maybe people who read what I am writing vaguely know what I am talking about. But ultimately when you just start repeating big words and other people repeat them and nod or shake their heads and shrug there shoulders you get the feeling that  nobody REALLY knows what their talking about, for or against the issue, because nobody really even knows what the issue is.

"Can you explain the housing crisis in small words?" I asked Lydia Lowe, who was leading the tour. Now this may sound antagonistic, and it was. But hey you can't just preach to the choir. I mean Grace just wanted to leave after the first three big words. But that doesn't mean she doesn't care about Chinatown.

Some examples of real people were given.

Like a family may have rent that is $900.00 one month, and then the next month it is $2,000.00 or their property isn't fixed up because ultimately the developer or owner (who may be Chinese btw) wants to knock the place down and build condos.

We need ONE of these stories to be the rallying cry, a personal story. Because everyone likes a story, with pictures instead of big words.


Now, I didn't really know Lydia Lowe but I had heard about her. What I had heard was usually not flattering. But I will say that she was no where near as radical and to the left as people make her out to be, and she was actually really nice. A lot of the other student types in the crowd were the glasses wearing protester types that have been around since the 60's and tended to block the way or workmen carting vegetables in and out of the restaurants. I think I really pissed one of them off when he was talking about the Tufts park as being "technically public but it feels like we're not allowed."
"I taught Kung Fu there everyday for Kwong Kow." I said.

He nodded with a face that darkened like an 11 year old Irish American Catholic die hard Dropkick Murphy's fan learning about Theobald Wolfe Tone for the first time.

I could see him bringing a mental cursor over to my image and comment and right clicked and then scrolled down to delete.  

In the alley by Oxford place I asked Lydia about the family associations and she talked more about the Chinatown land trust (which I think doesn't have much land at all right now) and different strategies for keeping parts of Chinatown in the Community.

One of them was the fact that some of the buildings are historical, here since the 1850's

The other is the buildings owned by the family associations.


Without getting all left and right and communist or socialist or republican or free market let's just back pedal and say what the R Visions artwork is about.


We don't want Chinatown to disappear completely.

That's all. All the rest is just about how to do it.


Lydia, like her or not, is the only one working full time on the project.
Their trying to get laws passed with the city.


Here's where I pushed for how we can get involved.
"I grew up here. I know a lot of people who grew up here. They don't live here anymore but their parents do. They have moved out into the suburbs, they are big shots (and also some no career types like me) but a lot are big shots and have money and are brilliant. But their not going to join the CPA. They usually come in and out of Chinatown. But that doesn't mean they don't care."

Gears turned in Lydia's mind as she formed an answer that mostly re-affirmed that what I said was true but which ended with, "But how do you tap into that? The answer is I don't know."

Damn it! I was hoping, like her or not, that she had an answer. A meeting. A date. A rally.

"That's a lot like Egypt." said one of the crowd, who, I am guessing, is Egyptian. "You have all these brilliant people who left because the economy was bad but then that brain drain further affects the economy."

"But these people are around." I said. "They can come back. They do come back, they just don't get so directly involved."


We went over to the lantern festival and I had already been getting a lot of what felt like, "What the F are you doing following that Lady with a flag" from people I knew. And I had to stop and talked to people I knew. You can't just walk by people. And I also didn't want some people to see me on this tour.

In any event, I lost sight of Lydia and her flag. I stayed to watch 6 year old Mason from Hung Ching perform his lion dance and I wished that Shao had got to see that. Maybe these kids should hang out.

Then I went to Moh Goon where I stared out the window at One Greenway and talked to Jing about the tour I had just been on.

"You and me can't see the future." he said, "But we know the past."

A lot of the property around Chinatown had belonged to On Leurng or you could say, Ping On. A ton. And a lot of that property had been well... at any rate in no longer belongs to Chinatown. One can only assume the same trend will continue.

 One Green way is great I think. Because what was there before. Nothing. Yeah it sucks that Chinese can't afford to live there. It would be great if part of it is section 8 so that some Chinese could live there.
But One Greenway is technically the Financial District. The city building up is great compared to it utterly collapsing and looking like a third world country the way a lot of Philadelphia does.

It would be great if at least the CCBA building could stay.

I thought of that Polish American Citizens club in Dorchester where we went to a festival.

Just try to hold onto what you can in the form of nonprofit organizations so everyone will still have a base to go to and socialize.

Well went over to the Lantern Festival and waited for a while to perform. I posted the video already actually.

Waiting, I tried to socialize with other Kung Fu guys and Sifus and stuff. Mainly to try and sell my book and to become more of a Chinatown Blogger journalist type. I explained that not a ton of people read my blog or watch my channel. But hopefully they will. I just didn't want to pretend like I had become a big shot when I hadn't.... yet. More than Kung Fu applications and that type of stuff I was interested in stories and lore. Just look at my Kung Fu books. There's not a whole lot of "Now turn your front foot 45 degrees step into sei ping ma and chop." There's some. But that isn't my focus.

I talked about a lout of Chinatown disappearing.

Larry Wong, who runs Nam Pai and has lived in Chinatown longer than I've lived, mentioned "You know if we're not careful our Chinatown might disappear.

I sounded out Bob Rosen who had run Wah Lum longer than I've lived probably. "I'm always around. Just call me or come find me."

I talked to Tim Lavallee a white man in a Kung Fu uniform from Chiu Moh Goon just to test something, a hunch, "I know I don't know you, but what do you think about gentrification in Chinatwon. Knee jerk reaction."


He took a deep breath. "Well there's always the problem of people being priced out of their homes. As good as it is that a community develops and is cleaned up and all that you still want to leave room and give consideration to the people who are living there, the immigrant population that makes it what it is. That makes it Chinatown."

He went on to talk about his Uncle who lived in Lake George and had to move out because the community became more for rich people who vacationed there and the actual community simply had to leave.

"This is the same problem that is happening everywhere. And a lot of it has to come top down with legislation from the city to prevent it from happening." He had to go because his team was going back to their Moh Goon. But I was heartened by what he said. Not only did everyone at the festival, Chinese or not, have an interest in Chinatown staying but there was also a way to connect to other communities across the country about this issue. The CPA, Chinese Immigrants getting priced out, and even the Chinatown Community was not alone in wanting Chinatown to stay. I knew that. But there was even more heart in that answer than I had expected.

And,

like her or not, Lydia's strategies are some of the most obvious ones.

We have to all work together somehow to appeal to the city, or to vote a certain way, and get as many people as possible involved and working together despite other differences rivalries and competition to preserve Chinatown. At least a part of it.

After that it was off to a wedding at Chau Chau City in Dorchester. Which Grace said was the best wedding she ever went to. And maybe my next post will be about the Chinese Communities popping up outside of Chinatown.

Lantern Festival

Friday, September 25, 2015

Preschool Mid Autumn Festival

Lyrics to Red Haired Mary

Should I teach this song to my kids? Kind of violent. But funny at the same time.
I'm sure the responsible answer is no... but still.




While going to the fair of Dingle One fine morning last July While going up the road before me A red haired girl I chanced to spy I went up to her, says I "Young lady My donkey he will carry two But seeing as how you have a donkey To the Dingle fair I'll ride with you" Now, when we reached the town of Dingle I took her hand to say goodbye When a tinker man stepped up beside me And he belted me in my left eye Chorus: Keep your hands off red haired Mary Her and I will soon be wed We'll see the priest this very morning And tonight we'll lie in a married bed Now, I was feeling kind of peevish And my poor old eye was sad and sore So I tapped him gently with my hobnail And he fell back through Murphy's door A policeman came around the corner And he told me I had broke the law Then, the donkey kicked him in the kneecap And he fell down and broke his jaw Then he went off to find his brother The hot biggest man you ever did meet And he gently tapped me with his knuckles And I was minus two front teeth The red haired girl, she kept on smiling "I'll go with you young man" she said "We'll forget the priest this very morning And tonight we'll lie in Murphy's shed" (last two lines of chorus): We'll forget the priest this very morning And tonight we'll lie in Murphy's shed Now, through the town we rode together My black eye and her red hair Smiling gaily at the tinkers And by God, we were a handsome pair (last two lines of chorus): We'll forget the priest this very morning And tonight we'll lie in Murphy's shed

Prep for Lion Dance

Preparing for Lion Dance parties galore.

Today we have a lion dance where my kids will be doing most of the heavy lifting. I could have had them do two lion dances tomorrow, but I'm worried it will burn them out, so they'll just do one. I think it's good for them to do about one performance a month if possible. At least go to one once a month if not perform. Next month October 10th will be something. Then November? Have to think about that one.

I have been on Shao about parcticing his stick form but I didn't hound him about Lion Dance. I'm not overly worried. At the worst he will look a little rough tomorrow. I'm actually more worried about Dai Dai staying in the tail or the fact that Dai dai might mes up Shao by pulling on him. But in a way today's performance will be a warm up for tomorrow.

By drilling over and over, I could have been more confident, but they just won't do it without arguing and fighting and then you've spent an hour arguing and fighting when all I wanted was 10 minutes of practice... and then 10 more minutes of stick, and ten more minutes of sup ji, and ten more minutes of basics.

So I have actually let things go down to 0 almost. Just go play and get your violin done (which I am now in charge of administering too) and then go we'll do stories and sleep.

I realize as I make them drill the form and they Shao drills it kind of crappily that it would be better to go back to just letting him play with the stick. But once he learns the form, I don't want him to forget it. Which means he at least has to go through it once a day or every other day right?

But he may not even perform the forms this weekend. So I should have drilled lion dance, but it is important for the two brothers to play and use their imagination with each other too. Well, we'll see how it goes. They'll be able to pull something off. This isn't their first time performing.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Free time

I have bumped into people and they ask me, "what have you been doing with yourself? You must feel like you have a ton of free time." The reason why I should have a lot of free time is that both of my children are in school. So I drop them off and then I don't have to get them until 2:30.
Amazingly I feel much busier than I did when I was just taking care of Dai Dai. The time would pass so slowly because it's not like I could get much done or go anywhere. But now I almost feel... stressed. Why? There are things that I "have" to do or "should" do that I now have time to do. Isn't that weird? In a way taking care of a child gave me freedom from myself.

Well I should figure out how to use my Go Pro and start with video making and all that. I should be doing a lot of things. What I am going to do is add a few chapters to Kung Fu and Cooking.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Flags Festival And Kites. Part Two:Fishing for Dragons

From Chinatown it was on to Dorchester at thePope John Paul II park for the annual East meets West Kite and Cultural Festival. Walking over I saw the father of my childhood best friends, my Uncle (though no blood relation), and just a really incredible man, Hing Yee. He looked part Cowboy part Airbender and the quintessential image of a romanticized of what would be the Norman Rockwell version of the Chinese American man. In a wide horse stance he swung his fishing pole attached to an eagle kite. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of that because my camera was in the car. I had to settle for this picture of him coming back from his magical performance. 




My boys ate their Shrimp Lo mein lunch and String beans with beef slices lunch and then went at it with playing kites and frolicking in the fields with the other children. I talked with friends. and the subject came to Chinatown.




"It's a shame that Chinatown is disappearing. It's a shame that Chinese businesses are closing down and Chinese People are having to move out. But you know what, you can do something."

This was the paraphrased gist of the inspiring words my friend gave me.

"You and Al and Theo and all his friends. You guys can get together and maybe go to those CPA meetings. And a lot of those guys are big in the Corporate world now. And don't let the fact that you're not make you think that means that you can't make a difference. You know people. And you grew up there right?"

I let his words sink in and it become clear that maybe I could do something more than I have been. After all, my kids are in school now and I do have the time.

A Sampan reporter came over to interview the organizer of the Kite Festival, Tony Chung.

"The idea of the Festival is to get people of all colors together to enjoy the magic of kite flying." was what he said.

Maybe the beginnings of a lot of the solutions our community, our extended community, of all colors, all looking for, are somewhere in that statement. 


Monday, September 21, 2015

Flags Festivals and Kites Part one: A visit to CPA

Whether you are far right or far left, withhold Judgement just for a bit.


Sunday was our Chinatown day. Swim class at the Y and Lo Mein from Chinatown Cafe. We had to forego our Moh Goon time because we wanted to catch the East Meets West Kite and Cultural Festival at Pope John Paul II Park in Dorchester. Coming into Chinatown there were a ton of colorful flags along Oak Terrace. I figured it was a festival, or something to do with Falun Gung. When I lived in Chinatown, I would have walked right passed it and slowly maybe asked around. As a tourist or weekend Chinatown guy I would walk by and not even ask. But since I now consider myself some sort of Blogger Journalist I decided to investigate. I saw similar flags in the Chinese Progressive Associations window. So after picking up the Shrimp Lo mein and Fu yu dao jai ngau yuk fahn fermented bean curd sauce over string beans and beef slices on rice (I ordered just like that because believe it or not I didn't know how to say Ha Lo mein in Chinese until yesterday) I made it a point to investigate for a few minutes.

It turns out the flags are about this.



http://cpaboston.org/en/event/rvisions2015

It's a protest or movement to draw attention to the fact that Chinatown is disappearing especially in the area of affordable housing.  In other words low income Chinese people cannot afford to live in Chinatown.

In other words it is against Gentrification. The G word.

Where have I heard that word before recently? JP. Oh yeah, I guess in that neighborhood I am the gentrifier. The boogey man who has come to steal your neighborhood away.

Now when I grew up in Section 8 housing in the South End (right outside Chinatown) we heard this word for a bit and a lot of people were against colleges like Suffolk moving in and taking over and all that. The Roxbury where I went to middle school, the building across the street from Ruggles, that whole area is unn recognizable. When I started at Nativity the whole area was distinctly black and I stuck out. Then the police station was built and Northeastern moved in. I biked by their the other day and I did not see one black person. Okay I think I saw one or two, but the area was yuppified.

Am I against this?

The area looks nicer. It's safer too.

Back to Chinatown.




You would assume that I am against Chinatown disappearing since I grew up there.

Well I am.

But I also think rich people moving in can benefit the community as well.

Also in everything I've read about busing or other community activism, or the protests I went to as a child,
 I have always admired the CPA and what they accomplished and fought for.

But I have kept my distance from teens to young adulthood.
In fact yesterday was the first day I went in there, Why?

Well a lot of Chinese Americans will keep their distance too, Chinese Americans who are against seeing Chinatown disappear. Because when you get to far to the left and too activist the lingo can sound a lot like something familiar, a memory of pushes for social justice that ended in some pretty bad situations, namely, the Cultural Revolution.  And a lot of Chinese Americans are here in America because of those types of movements.

A lot of times after hearing CPA you will hear in the same sentence, "Gong Chanh dong ge see serng." Communist Ideology. My white side would have hopped right in with the CPA from the get go. It's actually my traditional Chinese influences, that cautioned me to work with them when it benefited the community, but to keep a distance for political reasons.


But visiting yesterday I realized that now that I am no longer living in Chinatown, as an outsider, I should be working more with the CPA somehow and take MORE of an interest in the Chinatown master plan. Chinese Americans who are successful and do not agree with everything the CPA says, should still not be a stranger to the CPA. There is that perception of the CPA and I'm sure there is the perception within the CPA of other groups, gentrifiers, or Chinese Americans who seem not to care, or non Chinese people who just come to Chinatown for food, Kung Fu, or Teet Da. Or non Chinese people who are rich but still have kids in the school system. Guess what? all of these people don't really want to see Chinatown disappear altogether.

And had I not taken an active interest in finding out what those flags were about I would have no idea. In other words. even though the Visions and art installments are to bring attention to gentrification and the affordable housing crisis and there were a lot of the same people who showed up to support, that doesn't mean that it was effective as it could have been.


How many people walked by the flags and just kept walking?

Not just "outsiders."  How many people who are represented in that mural,
and who know where that building was and even were inside of it for part of their life would have kept walking when they saw those flags?


(Look forward to part Two where I will tel the story of the East Meets West Kite Festival. )



Friday, September 18, 2015

Noah's Cake

To Serve is to Rule

I did a little School service today... sort of. Another parent recruited me to help move some stuff with her. She said she wanted four men to help with lifting and possibly disassembling something and then re-assembling it. I said sure but I had to admit both that I am not handy and that I don't drive.

Today I felt kind of excited because we I was getting a ride to an unknown location. For all I knew we were going to rob a house. Of course we weren't, we were just taking things that people didn't want but at first there was that sort of excitement. Then I thought I should use that in a story. A group of moms who went around, maybe with babies in tow, and robbed like something more interesting than houses. Jewelry stores or whatever. No something less obvious. Because if you think about it, it's a pretty good cover.

Oh yeah it ended up being all moms, but the mom with the truck, who I knew from school and playgroup and community, was awesome at loading stuff and ratchet tying things and all this stuff, way better than any guys I know and have seen do stuff like that. I may have friends that I haven't seen in action but she is the best that I have seen.

At one point one of the other moms wanted to make a suggestion of perhaps how to do it better. "Let's just see what she wants to do." because it was pretty obvious who was the leader and the most skilled at that type of thing. She was several levels above us at this. More then ten levels even. I don't have to be good at everything, but it is important to recognize who is good at certain stuff and defer to their expertise.

Super mom also gave me a plastic sword for Shao.

It was fun, but I think I will avoid such activities as much as possible in the future. There was a lot of standing around and thinking and wondering where stuff would go. I remember helping Kwong Kow move across the street and I ended up being the leader of that endeavor while I was there. "Move like we're stealing it." Otherwise nothing gets done.

But this was not bad at all. But again, I will avoid from now on I think. I felt like I was sort of an extra wheel at times.

Plus when we actually brought the stuff to the school there was almost some resistance about accepting stuff, mostly because bureaucracy that sort of thing.

But in all the examples of my life when I helped out, really helped someone in need, even if they were asking, in the end they hated me for it. That's why I was not surprised by any resistance because someone coming into help you, often feels like someone coming in to conquer you.

Now that's not what "To serve is to rule" means (at least that's not how it was described at my High school where it was the school motto.) But I have noticed that when I really tried to help and stick my neck out for someone, they start blaming me for their problems, as if I am a Tyrant to overthrow.  

Now doing stuff for your school is great. But ultimately school's , admins, offices, don't like their world invaded, whether you come bearing gifts or not. In fact they automatically become suspicious and often it means they have to do more work than they would have had to. And then they don't get anything out of it personally.

In other words, to serving is often more like the negative side of ruling than you think.

That's why the most important thing is to try and take care of yourself first. If by doing something for yourself, you happen to help someone else or you trade or barter, that's actually better. Because some serving with nothing in return is often suspected, resented, and despised even if they truly are just trying to make the world better.

Now because I was just helping someone else help, I didn't really get that feeling but I noticed the mom that organized it was feeling it a little. For me, today was less about service and more about just helping out.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Noodle soup without noodles

I hate Trump. But I'm considering voting for him.

I'm not sure I should keep watching all these debates. Their really throwing off my schedule. Plus it's obvious my guy Kasich ain't gonna make it. He's still the most reasonable I think. But he made some comments about how he would fight Extremists that might have got him into trouble with say, Republican Muslims. I got what he was trying to say. The best way to fight that type of ideology is to make sure that the West is great for everyone, Black, White Christian, Muslim,... Asian (everyone seems to like throwing Asians under the bus recently by the way have you noticed that? Probably because we are a minority here but on the Global scale everyone associates Asia with China, Japan, South Korea, lumped into a general fear of Yellow Peril type Asian domination of the world, except hip and with cool robots.)

Except Kasich phrased it was something like, "make our Christian Jewish ideology" and then the moderator tried to cut him out.

Rand Paul, while pretty reasonable, is fun to pick on for Trump because, he's just not going to win. I like him, I don't agree with him, I'm glad he's part of the conversation, but it's not happening.




Everyone else who stood out, from Bush to Rubio to Christie to Carly Fiorina was a politician. Carly stepped up to show she can debate military stuff with stats and to not overlook her just because she's a woman.




And Rubio and Bush really stepped up at times. Christie came out with his visceral response on why we needed to go to war after  9/11 and attacked Carson. Bush may have damaged Trump with his "my brother kept us safe."



The short version of what I thought about that is while they all shined in their own way, the cancel each other out. They made the debate start to sound like the debates that we're use to which are, to the majority of people, boring. The long version is that as a liberal leaning guy, I felt like most of what was said was bullshit anyway. And ultimately even though viscerally what Christie said about needing a response after 9/11 for emotional reasons was true, it's not what you want in a leader. He tried to make Carson look weak, by saying that the country needed a Strong leader. Christie is like Santino (yeah am I being racist by comparing him to a mob movie? Sure I guess but it's his style.)


They hit us so we hit them back. But  there is difference between strong and stupid. Yeah we all want to go f*** some shit up. But what's that get us?




Exactly.
You need smart responses. Not just what feels good. You need Michael's strong leadership and Tom Hagen's calculation about what is good for business. But nobody like Vito or Michael is running for office. However we do have the real world version of somewhat who knows that it's just business.

Which brings me to these guys.
                                 

I hate Trump. People ask me why. I hated him before he ran for President. I hated him as a child. And frankly my mother hated him. My great Aunt Dotsy and my Grandmother sucked their teeth and moaned in a kitchen in Philadelphia, a place that has become my Golden Age, when a Credit Card commercial he starred in came on, "Unghhhh  Donald Trump." I just don't like this guy and I don't like 90% of the stuff he says. I think he's mildly racist, and he threw rich Asians under the bus last night by lumping them with poor ones (and the lower class ones, me what I come from, everyone one in my community who I like and hang out with) he will kick out ins second if he was dictator, born here or not, and have us all take a test to see if we're allowed back in or not.

That is except the ones that own businesses and have successful high status jobs and are educated. Wait which Asians is he worried about again? In any case, he wants to send them all back and have them take a test to see if they can come in again.

He sucks.

He says stupid shit.

A lot of that stupid shit is misinformation.


But in his general sense of things. He's right.

Basically America is big business. More than you even think. Our power over the world is buying and selling stuff, back room business deals, negotiations, and Trump is good at that stuff. The number crunching and all that, he will delegate. And when that guy burns out or screws up, he'll fire him and hire someone new.

Nothing personal, it's just business.

Look at how he debated tonight. He must have already approached Carson with, "Look nobody watches these debate really. Not the majority of people. I'm leading in the polls, and your right behind me. Trump/ Carson will be the ticket. We support each other and we'll win. You get to President next time around in 8 years when you run as former VP."

Everyone plays the game politics style. But Trump will play business style. He'll use the military where it will make us money. The truth is, China's whole success is that they run everything like a business.

Now I don't agree that America is losing. It just looks like that sometimes. I think America is great right now. I love Obama. I voted for him twice. But the Trump type might very well be the future, and frankly it's what the founding father's had in mind. Running it like a business is what got the British Empire ahead and it's what made America powerful. I hate all that, "America could be great again." crap because looking back it always seems for me that it is getting better. The Reagan era sucked for me. You see these little clips about how we "used to make and strike down laws for moral reasons" going viral on You tube. Oh yeah? When was that?

But when people say "Trump can't do anything about immigration." I say, "Good." because he recalls to an era that produced the Chinese Exclusion Act and that type of thinking. heavy handed, racist (or at least Xenophobic) and dumb. But he'll let all the rich and smart Chinese in, no doubt. In fact, we would probably just take the top 300 million from China right now and leave that country in a brain drain except for the Ultra Communist Patriotic types. And even still, their kids would be U.S. citizens. But that's only if he had ultimate power. Which he won't.

I watch and I listen and the more I hear not only do I understand that he will probably win, and do well as President, but he might ultimately be what I want as a President (with Checks and Balances and all that to keep the really crazy bullshit from happening.) Does that mean I should vote for him?

But what if the crazy stuff he wants to do happens? I could never forgive myself.

That stuff about sending everyone back. What if that really happens. But part of me knows there is even some truth in what he is saying about that. A lot of elderly Chinese come over, they don't speak English, they don't work, the collect social security even though they didn't really pay into it.... but shit, a lot of their kids and their grand kids kick ass. Why can't they stay? What if they were just supported by their children alone? Would he have a problem with that?

But he just wants to blindly send everyone back. Even citizens....but damnit if there isn't some truth to what he is saying. He's got the phrasing wrong and he's looking in the wrong places, but I know what he means. But those people he's talking about, a lot of them are MY people. I know them.

I can't vote for Trump. A vote for him is like voting against what I come from. It's voting against myself. What's the point of Democracy if you do that? I'm not the judge, I'm one vote and I'm supposed to vote in my interest and my community's interest. Does he want to send all these guys back?


How about this? Maybe he'll just speed up the process and have this little section of the city demolished
 How about these vegetables. Should they be in our country? Do we have a country if it has other communities in it that don't fully assimilate to the Anglo way of life? Is absolute assimilation necessary?

On these issues the way he says is messed up. But he still has followers in the Asian community because I'm sure he will say, "Oh no, if you add something to our country you can stay. But you have to learn English."

Seen in that way he might be what's right for the country.

But who decides who gets to stay and how this process will be carried out. Remember our history! Honolulu's Chinatown was burned to the ground in 1900, BY THE CITY!



https://sites.google.com/a/hawaii.edu/ndnp-hawaii/Home/subject-and-topic-guides/the-chinatown-fires

You don't have to say "what if" to see what could go wrong. You only have to look into our recent past. Chinese Entrepreneurs couldn't own land, couldn't invest. There's a way to say what he's trying to say to win my vote. But he keeps throwing the minority groups under the bus. They won't win him the election.

It's nothing personal.







 It's just business.

Okay maybe he doesn't want to do these things exactly like I have framed them, but he sure sounds like he does when he wants to send even birthright citizens back and have them retest to get in.

He says, "Send them back." Not cut Welfare benefits and see who leaves.

His vagueness leaves room for doubt that can be filled with the type of policies of rounding up random people and sending them over the border that we have seen in America's past.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

dollar vegetables

Tai Tung Park

I went in to Chinatown to teach the class at Little Panda. We had to do Kung Fu in a different area because of construction of a new park. (not Tai Tung Park which I will be talking about today.) After wards I had the time to walk around Chinatown a bit. I had already bought my $1 Veggies. Hmm (maybe I should do  Chinatown "haul" the way those moms do the dollar tree hall.) Except I already cooked and cut up everything. Oh Well.

I passed by Moh Goon, empty, and passed by Tai Tung Park several times. This is the one we should really call Dinosaur park because most people think of Tai Tung Park as the Park inside Tai Tung village.

Here are some pictures of what it used to look like.

Now instead of the mural of Northern Chinese looking children there is a mural of Koi fish. Apparently $10,000 was allocated to clean up the park. The truth is the park looked great in terms of structure and painting before. And it looks great in terms of structure and decoration now.
So why did it need $10,000.00 to clean it up? Because it did and still does look like crap. In fact today was one of the crappiest I've ever seen it and it was just cleaned up this summer.

I've brought my sons there to play and eat plenty of times. Before I had kids I recall some of our students playing in there after an August moon only to discover that the homeless man lying there was not asleep, but dead.

And at times I have let my children play there while a homeless man slept. I have no problem with homeless people cohabiting the playground. I understand that the rubber ground is softer and often drier than other brick and concrete that can really let the feng seep into your bones. But there is a difference between crashing somewhere like moving in.

Even if you have a bunch of stuff, a back pack, blankets, why not clean up afterward? In fact it isn't really the problem of sleeping, it's all the glass bottles and other nasty paraphernalia left behind that I don't want my kids touching. It's the garbage that people leave there. It's not the Chinese people with kids who live in the area that do that. Why would they do that if their kids are going to play there? Notice the BCNC playground doesn't get like that.

And the Asian homeless guys don't hang out at this park. They hang out in Chinatown proper, adult area, or the park where all the old men and women are playing cards and smoking anyway. Granted the ground there is hard, but still some dry and warm areas to crash.

There was like three people sleeping there at 11:00 am with full gear and bed covers and everything and trash everywhere. Now gentrification is hard to fight. That's another blog post. But something like this pissed me off. Why does this park have to be so nasty?
Again I'm not fond of picking on the homeless people. But why can't they get kicked out of there? The rich people use this park too. And frankly most of the Chinese kids you see playing in Chinatown are part of some program, a school or daycare and they aren't really from Chinatown. You can't say they aren't bothering anyone because the day cares use this park. And again, it's midday already. Time to move somewhere else. I mean, there are a lot of fields that have fancy astro turf. But you only see someone sleeping at this particular park. Probably because Chinese will never call police unless there is some sort of action. And technically sleeping isn't an emergency.

I also realize I should have taken a picture. In fact I need to bring my Camera around with me (that's right I don't have a new phone) because I realize more than ever that what I see is not what most people. So I need some kind of proof don't I? I mean if you are imagining three people with back packs, that is not what it was. It was like you took the inside of a crack house and put it in our playground.




Photo Credits: Ling-Mei Wong, Sampan Newspaper


Update:
Here's a picture of the park I took today. It's pretty nice right now. The problem, again is in the mornings if people have camped overnight. But then again, I suppose it will look nicer as the weather gets colder. But then you can use it can you if it's covered in snow.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

V.A. - Phases of the Moon - Traditional Chinese Music (1981) (Full Album)

A bike trip into the past

I traveled into Chinatown today for a dental cleaning and on the way back I wasn't sure which way to go. I stopped into Moh Goon but nobody was there, and then I biked over to Castle Court.
I was raised in the high rises. They now look quite fancy. I suppose they are still projects, but now the gardens are well tended. You can hardly tell.



I went over to Castle Court. No wonder I felt comfortable biking around there as a child. The side walks are quite wide. In fact it is quite a nice place for children to play. Probably even more so now. It was never a very heavy gun shot area. Just some. Now maybe there is none... or at least less.
It was interesting travelling back there because I hadn't been back except in some strange dreams. And honestly, things have changed so much that my surreal vision of what they were is probably more accurate. It was interesting to spy on the apartment where I spent my adolescence. I have seen people spying at the house where I live now and taking pictures. When I approached them (in a friendly way.. actually I just happened to be walking that way, lots of people like taking pictures of our house. It's pretty.) They said that they grew up in that house.
I think I understood that guy a little more looking up at a changed window at the kitchen light. Then it was time to move on.
My little bike pass was more dream like than the dreams I had had in many ways.
 Looking at pictures other people took I almost want to go back and take my own and bring out some of the ones my mom took, if only because things have changed. I never valued what it used to look like until I realized that that place is gone.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Business

I'm starting to build a website. But I keep second guessing myself. I have three blogs with three different names. But I need to have one Good name. Should that be Kung Fu Dad? Or Kung Fu and Love? Should I focus on selling my book? Yes. I guess I should focus on selling my book and any sort of event of lecture or even Kung fu lesson i guve should also focus on selling my book. I should do my little videos too. But those videos, something which people can watch for free, should be something to get people excited about buying my book. The title of my book is Kung Fu and love. Yeah I have other books. But if I can't sell my first book then what is the point. Plus Kung Fu and Love is a good name. I thought of other stuff. Cheung Fu. Chung Fu. Cheung Fam Fu. Kung Fu and______ Kung Fu and Stuff. (like the Karate Kid smovies Golf and STuff, PIzza and stuff.) Kung Fu Dad. Kung Fu Kids. Kung Fu Baba. The issue with those is that I don't want my audience to be only kids.

Kung Fu and Love. Is that too many syllables?
 Love Fu. When I sell Kung Fu and Cooking I don't feel like that would be a big jump right?

Chinatown Love?

Well Kung Fu and Love is what I put out there.

Cheung Family Kung Fu: Side Stance

Cheung Family Kung Fu: Side Stance: This technique can be done fast for cardio, low for strength training, and if done slowly can be used as moving meditation. This is the fi...

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Three Kingdoms poem.




On and on the Great River rolls, racing east.
Of proud and gallant heroes its white-tops leave not trace,
As right and wrong, pride and fall turn all at once unreal.
Yet ever the green hills stay
To blaze in the west-waning day.


Fishers and woodsmen comb the river isles.
White-crowned, they've seen enough of spring and autumn tide
To make good company over the wine jar,
Where many a famed event
Provides their merriment

Friday, September 11, 2015

Right in the eye

I bought this 99 cent cane for Noah. It has a dragon's head on it and  the wood is treated. It's his new favorite toy. The other day we were working out in the park but he really wanted to fight me or do something more interactive. Some how when I threw a kick the can hit my sneaker and he dropped it. So now I had the cane. So I started doing moves with it coming slowly towards Noah. Noah was pissed that he lost the cane but decided to circle and throw things. Then a stick he threw went right into my eye. Pain anger and, "shit I'm injured." all came out at once. I took a knee. "You win." I said.

And he had won. But I was pissed because maybe I would be blind in one eye now. Of course it wasn't that serious but that's what it felt like. "Am I bleeding?" I asked Noah.
"No just water." he said.

But I was so pissed I could have unleashed all my Kung Fu on him. Why? Because shit, I am already moving towards doing more internal stuff so I don't get injured. I'm out here for my health. But I am a nice enough Baba to play with you and even allow you to throw things. I even will pretend to crumple for your pleasure if you get me in the leg or chest with an acorn. But the eye?

Of course it was by accident. And as far as Noah's skill, by luck. It's not like he is now safe to roam the streets by himself because of his expertise at "ngum hei" And if he had been an expert and had hit my eye on purpose, then my eye would be gone.

"I'm not playing with you any more."
"okay."
"Do you throw things like that at Dai Dai."
"No just other things! ANd I only did that because! you have my CANE!"

"Whatever you fight your own bad guys. I'm just going to finish my workout."

Another thought that went through my mind though was that it was important to admit defeat. Noah might have hit me by luck. But Napoleon chose "lucky" generals over "good" ones any day.

So I praised Noah too. And we did end up doing some more work outs together. He followed along with what I did. Weaving and circle walking.
"What's that for?" he asked.

"Well if I had been doing that maybe I would have avoided the stick in my eye."
"What if I threw a bunch of sticks?"
"That's a good strategy too."
We finished up and went back home.

Today it rained so I worked out on my own after dropping off the kids. Tomorrow maybe we will renew our early morning work out schedule.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

First day of school

I have been training Noah to get ready for school. Of course today all that training was washed away because Mommy wanted to do the ritual of the first day of School. The hair. The pictures, the uniform. All that sort of thing. I suppose I should add pictures later to this post.
We weren't to worried about Noah, but this is Jonah's first day of school ever. He never even went to preschool.
"I'm a little bit scared." he told his teacher. "And I think today I'm going to be shy."
His teacher didn't know how to respond to that. "I think you're doing great." is what she said, according to Grace.
Well we'll see how that works out. At least he wasn't crying, as many children were. The truth is, school is probably going to be easier than Baba's home school, where Lam Yi dong ji kerng was recited, followed by Kung Fu...
Actually my structure broke down.. but still it's not like they make you do a whole lot in K1.
And Noah seemed like he was ready to go, hanging out with the boys.

Tomorrow we're going to get there an hour early and do Kung Fu, just like we've been training. But I'm not fighting Noah anymore. Yesterday, I actually lost to him. Legit lost. Like I crumbled to the ground going down on one knee in pain and said, "you win."
I'm not saying I wasn't pissed. Not because I lost, but because I could have lost an eye. But more on that tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Dragon Stick

Dim Sum today. Since it is a Tuesday Grace felt t was like a real dim sum. I.e. unrushed, lazily drinking tea ordering one dish per hour. I thought that Grace hated that? well at least she used to. But now she wanted to savor her Chrysanthemum tea. But guess what? the kids still get bored. I was determined to get some pictures about Chinatown because I decided I want them decorating my blog. Problem is a picture of the gate that is owned by someone else could give me some issues. I think today was the first time I took a picture of the gate for myself. I felt like a tourist. So I started doing touristy stuff. Like buying stupid shit.
We saw a Dragon Cane for .99. If it was in a martial arts store it would be 6 dollars I think. So I bought it. It's cheap wood and we have no shortage of sticks at home for free. But it looks pretty and Noah likes it. It's cheaper than a light saber.
Plus, have you ever seen that Triad movie "the Election." In Chinese it's just called Hak se wui. But the plot revolves around a Dragon stick, a wah si gwun. Whoever holds the stick is in charge, like some sort of caveman thing except with organized crime claiming lineage to Shaolin.
Since in Boston these organizations are legit, I thought it would be cool to somehow incorporate a Dragon stick or cane, maybe like a gift to the Mayor. The Irish understand that kind of thing. Like a sacred Shilelagh.

There was a spoof on all the HK gangster movies that had a ton of these Dragon Canes, the true one being one with a label, "Made in Hong Kong." Since it was originally carved out of a chair.

In any case, maybe I can use this cane somehow with my little Kung Fu group in JP. A talking stick. Something.

Monday, September 7, 2015

Beach.

We've been enjoying the water a lot lately. Perhaps sensing that fall and school will soon be upon us. Swimming at Wollaston's was great today. You would think that I wouldn't be able to swim in such shallow water when the rocky and sharp shelled bottom was difficult to walk on. But actually this meant that it was also shallow for my kids, and that they wouldn't move around too fast. I basically did the breast stroke and was satisfied with that. I even kept my hat on. I just needed to move around to keep warm. It wasn't until I got out that I noticed how hot it was. Without breeze it was unbearably so.
You wouldn't think of Quincy or New England in general as a place to lounge in the ocean, but it was quite nice. Tony's Clam House (or something like that) was pretty good too.
Grace mentioned that a third of the people in there were Chinese. I'm beginning to think that if you want to find good food, any type of good food not just Chinese food, you have to follow the Chinese people. The reason is Chinese people really care about what they eat. It has to be good or they wouldn't go there. The more Chinese the better. In fact if they are Mainlanders that don't speak English and you still see them eating fried clams... then the place has to be good.

We set up our little tent and ate our meal with our view of the water. A Seagull looked at us. Noah aimed a pebble at him and completely missed, but he got the point. Two hours of that and we were ready to go home. The beaches here aren't touristy with sand dumped on them, but parking is accessible and free.

I love New England. And believe it or not, I will still love New England because I like the winter's here too.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Where's Baba

Yesterday I went to the Kung Fu Federation August Moon Banquet. There was cool Kung Fu performances and one of the highlights was a gift from a Silat and Escrima school from Salem. A knife with a handle made of Buffalo horn. Very cool.
I hung out with friends that I rarely get to hang out with, and despite having injured my self, I did my Fu Hok Song Ying Kuen form. I was going to cop out and do an easier one but Chairman Yee kept talking about how great the Kung Fu performance was going to be and all that so I figured I would try and do my best form.

Meanwhile Noah was like, "Where's Baba?" Not just asking, but yelling out the window down the street, "BaaaaaBaaaa!!!!!!"

"Shao," Grace said, "When you miss Baba, just look at Dai Dai." So Dai Dai put his finger on his upper lip and started cracking up. Basically Dai Dai's face is my face, except that I have a birthmark on my upper lip. But if he puts his finger there, you can't see if he has a dot or not.

"Your the only Baba in the world now." said Noah.

"It's okay Shao." said Jonah, pretending to be Baba. And I guess they walked around the house holding hands.

Later on after I did Kung Fu I ended up drinking, which I haven't done in at least two years. I'm not sure if I drank too much. Maybe I drank a little too much, but that is inevitable.

This morning the children were excited to see I was home and began yelling and galloping around the house at 6 am.

 Time to go! Put on your sneakers!

We went across the street for apples and then to the park where I did my internal Kung Fu stuff. I think I'm going to be sticking to that type of exercise because I can do it hung over and injured. Plus people do it when they are old and it seems to keep them living longer so that's what I'll be sticking too.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Showa's Obon Festival

Yesterday we went to Noah and Jonah's open house for school and then rushed over to Showa's Obon festival. Grace had been calling it the Obi festival, which is the belt for  Geisha Kimono, so I was going around calling it that too. Basically I have become one of those people that throws out mispronunciations or Asian words. But I also mixed up Manatee with Manta Ray yesterday describing someone catching one in Florida much to the horror of those listening to my story, until I realized I had somehow mixed up the two animals. Is my brain soft from summer?

Anyway, The Showa festival really was nice. It felt like being at someone's barbecue, except with Bento boxes, and then they actually sang and danced this song at the end. The kids got to play the Taiko... which was a really expensive one I think. It wasn't till all the kids were banging on it that I really looked and noticed that the body was all one piece. I.e. from one tree. I guess I'm the only one who cared because of my background in the Lion Dance drumming. Then again, compared to tuition at SHOWA, or some other maintenance or administrative cost of the school, or a shuttle bus, or something like that, the drum isn't that expensive. I guess it's all relative.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

My Theme song



I was introduced to this song, part of a suite called the planets.. at Band Camp. The song that the orchestra was going to play was Mars.. which I vaguely now remembering be presented to me as part of my education through school but I have no context.



But it was this song, Jupiter which captured me.



My orchestra teacher in High school started talking about it, not knowing the name and I answered all the questions because it was one of the only CD's I had ever bought and listened to constantly, pressing repeat for the small theme which was turned into a British Nationalist Hymn during WW2 (I think.) My country to thee I pledge or something. Mr. Borg, (My orchestra teacher) had mentioned that as part of his story. All teh Brits in his orchestra had stood up hands over heart when they played the Jupiter song.



I later heard again in Japan as a pop song,



And then again at Stonehill College for commencement. They had taken the tune and made it into the school song, which in college you don't often hear.



Today, my neighbor is playing it on the violin, or viola. Not sure which. Not sure which child was playing it either.



But I take it as a sign. or one of many signs.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms Theme

Well The kids learned the Wong Fei Hung Song and a Taiwanese Song. 
Up next is this.

滚滚长江东逝水 
浪花淘尽英雄 
是非成败转头空 
青山依旧在 
几度夕阳红 
白发渔樵江楮上 
惯看秋月春风 
一壶浊酒喜相逢 
古今多少事 
都付笑谈中 
一壶浊酒喜相逢 

古今多少事 
都付笑谈中 

and here is the google Translate.
Rolling in the Yangtze River East PASSING
Spray depleted hero
Success or failure turned empty
Aoyama is still in
Many Suns
Chu river fishing Qiao hair on
Used to look at the moon spring
Pot liquor Happy Encounter
Number of things past
We have to pay jokes
Pot liquor Happy Encounter
Number of things past
We have to pay jokes
 **** Obviously I'll have to work on this or find something better

Then again the seven step poem is just more fittinghttps://gintai.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/the-seven-step-verse-%E4%B8%83%E6%AD%A5%E8%AF%97/

Sh*tty Meditation

I fasted yesterday. I also road my bike in to Chinatown to teach my Kung Fu class, and I think I forgot to drink enough water. I still had a great day yesterday. I ran into a friend, I got some exercise in, but long story short, I skipped a poo day and today I had what is known in our household as rabbit poo.

Each poo by my child is examined by me and my children. In fact, Jonah gets pretty pissed if I flush before he can look at it. So I am used to seeing Rabbit poos, which means I need to give the kids laxative. But I'm not use to seeing my poo be rabbit poo.



                            
Basically i was constipated.

Taking so long to poo I thought about a lot of things. I realized that pooing is not anything like giving birth but still you are a living thing and something is coming out of you. We tend to think of this as gross, but if you close your eyes and meditate and think about the waste products of a star, which turns out to be the elements other than Hydrogen and Helium, because at first that's all we had, and that these "waste" products are what allow us to have planets like earth, with life.... well that's not so gross. And our poo is pretty amazing too. It can be fertilizer and be the fuel for new life as well.

When Pooing, there is no need to keep your eyes open. You really can meditate. And if you don't have time to meditate, that is like saying you don't have time to poo, which even if you don't, you still have to find the time too other wise you will shit your pants.

So shitty meditation is actually a useful way to get meditation in once a day.

Unless you fasted and skipped a day.

Has anyone ever gained enlightenment with Shitty Meditation?

A fellow student of mine who was so smart he dropped out of High school to go to Harvard instead told me he did some of his best thinking while shitting.

Also a story comes to mind of a Japanese Zen monk who had to shit in the middle of the night. Somehow in the story one of the poos misses it's mark and he is disgusted by the fact that he has to wipe it off of the seat (they have squat toilets so I'm not sure of the design of said toilet and where the poo is) In any case he begins looking for something to wipe the poo into the hole with.

Then he thinks, "How can I be so grossed out by this when my mother birthed me along with shit and that was the beginning of my life. To be so grossed out is disrespectful to my mother."
He then wipes the poo with his hand, which he cleans later. But in that moment of understanding that the sacred and the profane are one in the same, he has a Zen moment of enlightenment.

It's a real Zen story. I'm not sure where it is from. I was paging through books in the library more then ten years ago when I read it and replaced the book on the shelf and still I remember it, not word for word, but the essence is there.

So Shitty Meditation is a real thing. Perhaps my name is not so good though.

Perhaps Poodhist Meditation is better.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Making "weapons"

Noah is constantly making "weapons" now, which usually consist of duct tape and plastic and basically garbage. It's not that tape is that expensive. But in annoys me to watch him wrap take around sticks and plastic wrappers and paper and sure he has fun with the invention but what the hell is it? Yeah it's creative and imaginative, but then the whole house is full of these strange make believe tools that don't really do anything and look like trash. Plus the tape was more useful before hand, and instead of recycling we're really creating more landfill. It's better if we were outside or actually in a junk yard and you could just leave the stuff around.

Not to mention, if the toy is some sort of rubber band whip, that means inevitably it will hit Jonah or me in the face. Plus Jonah usually grabs something that really can be used as a weapon, a stick, a baseball, a heavy plastic truck, and the battle ensues.

I guess I started it.

But why can't he just practice with the sticks and whips and ball and chains that I made for him? How many do we have to make?

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Preparing for school

Noah and I have been waking up early to do Kung Fu before breakfast. So now I started bring Jonah as well and I relocated our Kung Fu training area to the school. Why? I plan to have them do this when school starts too. BPS gets free breakfast, so I'm not dealing with running to school sort of one time sort of not this year. We're getting there early, like and hour early. And I'm going to do my little workout and honestly they can play or whatever. Today Jonah brought chalk and Noah and I did sup ji and stick forms. I'm not sure bringing sticks to school will work once school starts. But if we get there early enough and go to the back, I think it will. Then I'll throw the sticks in a bush while I shuffle the children in and then bring the sticks back home. A broom stick for Noah shouldn't be a problem.
It would be good if Noah can do 3 sup ji's and 3 stick forms. But I know it's not going to happen. It didn't happen today. But he did get his practice in.

Yesterday we didn't go out because of the supposed allergies. But you know what? I'm not falling for that again. Being outside ofr 20 minutes is not going to kill them even if the nettle count is high. Plus I feel like if it's early enough, maybe it won't matter.