changing weather

A friend on facebook commented to my update of "why do I always get sick when the hot weather hits?" and reminded me of how the body dislikes rapid change. My body does not take heat well. My body especially doesn't take rapid heat fluctuations well. I know this because I picked up another cold right when the heat hit. This cold is not so bad if it was regular weather, but it is dreadfully horrible in this heatwave.

Yesterday the wind kicked up all sorts of crap into the air, and in order to survive the office that is our "easy-bake oven" I took refuge in the air-conditioned bathroom that felt like a chilly 50 degrees, though I'm sure it was more in the 70s, splash some water on the face, arms and neck which dried by the time I hit the office just 20 ft away. Repeat. No, I'm sure that didn't help any either. In the evening I went to bowling which wasn't much cooler, yet threw one of my best series of league coming 9 pins short of bumping the top woman in the high scratch series category and 9 short of my ultimate league goal of a 600 series. (I'm so close I can taste it!).

Afterwards, I was going to go get gelato with my sister to celebrate the 218 game I rolled in the 3rd game, but as soon as I sat in the car, the body just started giving away. The nausea, the headache, the exhaustion. Hmm...feels like heat exhaustion. I had drank water all day and ate nachos during the game to try to get some salts back in the body. I went to bed and the slight itchy throat that had given me a bad but livable cough earlier in the week, got worse.

So rather than put my body through those extremes again, I decided to stay home. Grant it I don't have AC, but our place is predictable in temperature and there's a shower if I can't get my body cool enough with an electric fan and gatorade. That seemed to do the trick. While I still created a pile of used and blown tissues next to me, I am able to type this post without a sniffle nor cough. Home was warm but not dreadful and I jumped into the shower twice, once in the morning and once just before dinner, which we had outside in a restaurant patio, which was lovely.

And while my body dislikes the current heatwave, I can't imagine living someplace where the weather is even more extreme. Maybe my body will toughen itself out eventually if I did, but for now, I am still a California weather wimp.

nothing and everything

I had to repost the comment I left for Formosaneijia regarding his post on "traditional vs mixed" arts because it led me to an a-ha regarding the direction I am seeking:

I agree with the “third fork” that taijiquestion offers but in a different way.

The mixed MAs or “cherrypickers” as it were, if I may borrow from my basketball playing days, do pick and choose but I find they most often only pick and choose from another style that may be technically different but not necessarily different in terms of the energy. They are in essence picking the same things from different styles. I can’t explain it in any other way but that it “feels” the same. Even when I see hard stylists do taiji, few ever get the subtleness of the movement which even for a taiji practitioner takes years of practice and training. There is a lack of depth. And so they look like a hard stylist just faking on the surface tai ji movements. When we seek depth are we truly learning something “new”? not really, but we are seeing it in ways/directions/energies/styles that we didn’t see it before which make all the difference to that technique.

However, for the traditionalists, how far do we take “tradition”? When does it begin, what is this tradition and that is not tradition? Does the oldest thing win? I find traditionalists very arbitrary in what they deem tradition. And to retain tradition, can the next generation really do what the previous generation can do? Are there not subtle and even not so subtle differences in the technique and style based on what each new generation lays importance to? So even as traditionalists say that this is unchanged for X number of years, it truly has changed, in the same way English or any other language has changed.

So where is the universal language? I often think of learning martial arts as I learn languages. How fluent do I want to be? How does my base language block or enhance my ability to take on new languages? It’s one thing for me to take a couple of semesters of French to get by as I travel in Paris. And I find that my native English gives me some building blocks to learn French, but will I get the subtle nature of French humor. How do I get beyond the words and simple phrasing to really start to think in French? How long will it take for me to be able to switch easily into the different languages I know with ease and grace? What will it take for me to be able to do so?

I can see the importance of tradition in order to help tap into the “new” discoveries, but tradition is not the “whole” thing in the same way for all the ancient fossils we have of dinosaurs we can still only guess at what they might have looked like and sounded like and we will never really know. I think traditionalists lack the understanding of why this tradition is relevant now and they understand less of why it was important then. It’s like holding history in a sieve, each step forward, a little bit more is lost through no fault of our own. And no matter how much we try to “record” it visually, we cannot yet capture the feeling.

Because of these “holes” it is important to look at other styles for clues to the gaps. The difficulty in this, is letting go of your previous thing. It is so hard for me to really let go of English even as I become more and more versed in other languages. English is where I return to when I am doubtful. So going back to the language analogy, are we really speaking French or are we speaking English with French words? This becomes most visible when going from English to a non-Romance language where the thought processes to create it are completely different.

I believe there is a medium in which one truly can become fluent enough to really mix languages. I knew a friend who spoke English, Chinese, and Spanish, and when she spoke with her father and sister, they mixed all three. When I asked her how she chose what words, she said it was instinctive and more often than not, she chose what would make the most efficient sentence. For a native english speaker, I found how they spoke enchantingly beautiful and could not fathom how their minds worked to create that beauty. But I do realize now that, I did envy her and in learning languages, that was the end goal for me. Not to simply learn enough to get by, not necessarily learn a language so I can read the deep linguistic versions, but to be able to go in and out and merge them with such fluidity.

This is what I think is the true third fork. Not the bag of tricks of mixers and not the traditionalists with their texts plus addendum. This is where I think the passageways of knowledge lie to really bridge between worlds so one becomes both nothing and everything.

It struck me that to break out of the ideas of either/or, to transcend dichotomy, it's not about what you are as opposed to what you can become. As what you are is a temporary thing, while what you can become is well the moment we are always stepping into. Not to say it's not important to know who we have been (ala "know history, know self"), but this is no longer the end point. I cannot live in the past, and actually I cannot live in the present or the future either. It seems that we always live in the transition and interplay of these three things. We live in all of these moments in every given moment whether we are conscious of it or not. I am nothing, yet I am everything. Life just got alot more interesting (again).

stuff

Though I know I've been doing alot, at times it's almost like I've been doing nothing. And that nothing would include not putting the clothes away and the recyclables piling up.

Am working with someone to revamp our photography website to be flashier. I would go and learn the Flash program myself, but I took a stab at it and realized I couldn't be bothered nor did I really have the time/capacity/interest to really learn it, especially when I have a flash expert in my midst. Who says I'm not learning to delegate?

We have been having yummy food weekends. A pre-mom's day dinner at Sea Salt. Then this past weekend at Downtown (Berkeley), and a spontaneous invite from a soon-to-be-married couple who asked us out to Bay Wolf so they could check it out for their rehearsal dinner. We had never had dinner with them as a couple before, though in the times we had hung out, we got a sense that it would be interesting. And it was in a very positive easy going, close the restaurant down chit-chatting vibe.

What was nice about the dinner, as the bride-to-be put it, was that there was no need for either side to be "careful" as it became clear early on, that none of us were all that sensitive to any off-hand remark anyone put out there, as none of us were easily offended in any kind of way. The conversation was intriguing yet jovial and ran the gambit of all sorts of conversation. Of course about their wedding, but also families and those dynamics, all the way to what nerdy engineers build when they join a fraternity.

Spent mother's day babysitting the nieces while their parents went house hunting. They had been taking the kids with them previously. I'm not sure how they actually managed that. The twins now know the word, "out" and "going out". Funny moment from the weekend. It was time for the twin's naps. Apparently, the routine is that they get their "dede" or bottle of milk. N went to uncle and asked for her dede. Uncle had trouble finding the bottles, which of course made N very stressed. While N continued to ask for her dede, her sister C quietly pressed her finger into N's chest and said, "No dede" to which N would cry even louder. C did this several times, "No dede" with the pointed finger emphasis. Oh, how they learn to push each other's buttons early and often! Uncle finally found the bottles, but uncle was used to making formula and not warming up regular milk, so the twins got water. At this point, N wasn't going to argue about whether it was milk or water. I'm not sure she had the vocabulary to express concern over that, though I'm sure in her mind she was thinking, I need to be more specific about the dede. Afterwards they ended up taking a nap on the living room furniture along with auntie who was wiped out from the morning's kali class.

Work continues to be a learning experience as there is always something: staffing, budget, projects, etc, etc. It's really neverending. But I can't say I was bored yet. Spent today in training on a lecture about positive politics and influence. In the end, is that you're just trying to understand where the other person is coming from. Though, the lecture didn't say much on exactly how to find the patience and time to be more understanding. I guess that's the part we have to figure out.

The day ended well as our mentor enjoyed the case study presentation our group had worked on for 3 weeks. Oh yeah, the instructor reminds us before the presentation, don't stress, it doesn't really matter. Oh yeah, almost forgot, this is just practice. I still don't know if I want my career at Cal to head to upper echelons. Our mentor is rather high on the ladder. I watched how she most graciously made time to sit through our "doesn't really matter" presentation when really she could have occupied herself with many more pressing things happening on the campus today.

To celebrate we went to Jupiter's for a round of drinks. Always, always celebrate your accomplishments.

an inadvertent side effect to rising rice prices

With the world shortage of rice, you have Costco limiting the number of bags (from what I hear Filipinos have been hoarding bags to ship over to the Philippines). With Myanmar's paddies devastated by a cyclone, the rice prices may not come down any time soon.

However, I was reading in the Wall St Journal today, one effect of high rice prices is actually helping save one of the Philippine's wonders, the Ifugao Rice Terraces. The terraces have been in decline as the younger generation opts to live in the city and earn easier livings that way but also from giant 2 ft earthworms that they believe were introduced to the area in the 1940s from Malaysia through fertilizer. Many farmer's didn't have the resources to keep up with the worms which essentially make the mud swiss cheese and cause terrace collapse. It is said that 25% of the rice terraces were abandoned because of the inability to keep up with the land.

But with the price of rice tripling in the last year, farmers have additional resources to plug up the earthworm holes and find that the younger generation sees the climbing prices of rice and are postponing their moves to the city to help on the farm. Some farmers have even bought additional land to extend their rice producing acreage. They stay with the idea that if they farm, at least they themselves will never go hungry and they can sell off the extra.

Also with tourism on the rise, the younger generation finds it easier to stay on the farm while selling pictures while wearing the traditional garb overlooking the scenic view of the terraces.

They are also connecting with specialty sellers to market this aromatic regional varietal of rice as the niche market of specialized foods expands to a wider market worldwide.

Grant it there are the greater issues of world food production, but on another level, the crisis raises the status of what had always been seen as the lowly farmer and the importance of the farmer to the global economic systems.

jubilation

Have I mentioned how facebook has a way of sucking you in?

It's kind of crazy as I find myself adding people I haven't seen in ages, it's like looking through the roladex of your life. And even though you don't really hang out with most of them that often facebook is a place to poke them and send them other cordial, cute messages and play silly games like biting vampires or parking cars. For someone like me who loves little things that occupy less than a minute or two of attention span, facebook is a complete time sink where you can also peruse what people are up to.

Not so much for my generation who are in our 30s, but much more so for people in their 20s, you can find just about everyone you may have ever known. For me I can't really expect alot of people to be on facebook necessarily. My generation still knows what actual privacy is.

But one day while I was sick I decided to cruise through the searches and see if I could find people I knew from junior high and even elementary school. I found three people and two of them wrote me back.

One of them is Josh Staub creator of Jubilee Animation and the writer/producer/director/animator of the award winning animated short, The Mantis Parable. I've only known Josh from four square games and tag and I remember we worked on a project together in like 5th grade but I don't know exactly what that was about, but I do remember that even in 5th grade he had a drafting table like serious artists and wasn't just for doodling.

I hope to get a copy of The Mantis Parable soon with a review here soon.

hypermiling

I was reading an article about hypermiling. Essentially it's all the little things you can do to conserve gas while driving which mostly means trying not to step on the brake as little as possible. The smoother you're able to drive the more gas you save.

I already do alot of the hypermiling techniques like taking your foot off the gas to slow down before a red light and leaving a large braking gap between me and the next car on the freeway. I never thought of this because I was saving gas. I was mostly doing it because my car is 39 years old and lacks anti-lock brakes like all the newer cars. Slamming on the brakes on my car will make the wheels lock and can make the car skid. Also being that old, my car weighs a ton, so it doesn't really start up quickly nor brake quickly.

One of the hypermiling sites talks about how drivers got a lot better mileage in the 80s. I think part of that is because we all used to drive cars that weighed a ton and when you were driving they felt like you were driving a ton.

The most interesting part of the site is the link to a claim that by "surfing the traffic wave" you can actually destroy traffic by cruising at a speed so you time it so you don't hit the waves of traffic bumps. That can probably work in the bay area where my LA relatives tell me there's traffic for no reason. I'm not sure if this will work in LA where, well, that's real traffic.

If anything, the practice of hypermiling makes a person a more careful and thoughtful driver and I'm all for that!

end of the ornery

I've been not just ornery but ARnery the last five days or so, as my body tackled that nasty cold going around along with the braces finding an opportunity to yank my neck and back every which way all in time for the lovely weather weekend. It really is enough to make someone go from ornery to arnery.

I hate being sick. As much as I like sleeping in and relaxing, I hate being sick. Plus my body has a way of delaying sickness in time for the weekend where there are no excuses but be sick. I'm not much for sitting still.

Anyway, I got to Tuesday night and I just didn't want to go to class, still being sick and all, but I went anyway. I teach the class, so I can teach without actively contaminating the students. Being in the agitated state I was in, decided to explore the recent lessons of restriction and repression, how rules, objects, locations, words, both guide us as restriction but sometimes fight against us as repression. When and how does a weapon feel so awkward that you can't do what you want to do, how sometimes you give yourself alot of restrictions to force you in a different direction than you're used to, and how somewhere between being restrained and restricted there's an avenue of wondrous freedom.

It was an interesting exploration of what holds us back and how much weight we give to the context in which we learned something. For instance, all the students started out frustrated since they were stuck with the pair of weapons I asked them to use and really only learned a couple of really basic techniques to use them that didn't really work in a fighting situation. Then I gave them a different technique to use, but a technique they were used to doing in another context at another distance. This too was difficult for them to get their bodies to do and it took a while for them to adjust, but once one of them did he said the things that he thought held him back disappeared. They didn't matter.

I can see how sometimes being in the mode of studying can be the greatest restriction. When studying something we create in our minds alot of parameters about the way something should be done in order to create a repeatable event. The parameters let us study the affect of a certain trait, say speed or force. We do a form or repeat a technique over and over, changing speed, observing what happens. But to jump from this, the technique to actually using it and applying it, the parameters we set up for ourselves to execute the technique become a hindrance. In our minds we think the same rules should apply but they don't.

I came out of class lighter, the pain in my neck from my body resisting the adjustments had gone away, I had a surge of energy that I hadn't felt in a week. There is so much more to learn!

the wind turns up the soil 2

Turbulent winds break branches, swirl soil into dust storms
In a blue blue sky so clear, so still
Dreams filled with people known only to each other
In my memories, red stained rooms
Your touch reveals, a small crouched man atop the swings
A double-take in the corner of my eye
Extend through to create long lines, muscles unuse to expansion
Return to a sorrow the wind dries a mirror's reflection

the wind turns up the soil

Spent yesterday afternoon in Livermore winetasting that area. We ate at Garre. They are a restaurant/winery. Their spinach/crab dip appetizer was quite good. The duck confit was overly sauced for my sister's taste. The meatballs and linguine were more meatballs than anything else and slightly overpacked. But a decent meal overall, not great, but decent.

The wind kicked up outside and we walked by the Bocce Ball court where a group of friends popped open a couple of bottles of wine and aimed for the small white marker ball. Their tasting room was free. We tried their flight but weren't really impressed by any of them. I was sipping and spitting since I was driving afterwards. Maybe they needed more time, maybe more aeration and maybe we won't buy a bottle right now.

Next stop was Bodegas, where my sister loves the pinor noir or was that petite syrah. They carried a very tasty flight. I bought a bottle of the merlot. The wind whisked away any warmth between the doorway to the car. And my sister thought her tongue was done, but I convinced her, eh, let's try one more, a threesome, so we stopped by Steven Kent and LaRochelle which sit on the same lot. Steven Kent was packed with folks since it was in the middle of their winery row, called Tesla Road. They set aside large blocks of gruyere for you to carve and a table full of costume jewelry for sale. Lots of distractions. The wine was a bit better than Garre, but the price and the taste just didn't work for us.

Off the main building was nice cute building marked LaRochelle. It looked closed. But when we entered, there were tables and wine glasses lined up on each side of the tables. For $15, you could pick one of two flights and share a food pairing for the wines. Hmmm...ok...we could find room in our stomach for this one and we could sit in the car while I waited out the wine consumption. We had a great time here, nice leisurely sipping, with a full plate for various cheeses, olive and fig tapanade, and truffle mousse to mix and match. My sister got one flight and I got the Pinot Noir flight. We found the Pinot Gris just as the description noted, "assertively acidic". Fortunately the triple creme French cheese killed its assertiveness and really brought out the softer fruity side. I ended up buying a couple of bottles of an Oregon Pinot Noir that I thought was both good and at a decent price.

My sister tells me that they don't want to be like Napa. And even though they don't want to be like Napa, some of the places sure price like Napa! Alot of young wineries here many which cropped up only in the last couple of years, so it'll be interesting to see how they develop.

If you like Colma the Musical

received this today from the makers of Colma, the Musical:

CALL FOR EXTRAS!

We're seeking extras for our musical feature, Fruit
Fly, by the makers of Colma: the Musical.

We're shooting this Saturday and Sunday - doing a song called "Public Transit" appropriately enough on Muni one day and BART the other day. We're looking for extras to play commuters on their way to work in the city. However, the fun part is that our extras
actually get to be part of the performance - with some minor lip-syncing to the song and basic choreographed movement (not dance). So it's a chance to really perform in the film.

The shoot times are Saturday 4/19 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Muni downtown, or Sunday 4/20 from noon to 4 pm on BART.

Anyone interested can email our Associate Producer
Krystel at krystelgapasin@yahoo.com. If possible,
send a photo, contact number and day available.

Once you email Krystel more info will be emailed to you about the shoot.