China, I thought, preferred to keep visitors out; many Southeast Asian countries invited foreigners in, with ambiguous wink and smile; Japan smilingly greeted visitors at the door and appeared to admit them without ever really doing so. India, by contrast, took in all the hordes and simply swept them up in the undifferentiated tide.

-Pico Iyer, Video Night in Kathmandu, p 281

He explained that to be defeated was a condition of life which was unavoidable. Men were either victorious or defeated and, depending on that, they became persecutors or victims.

-Carlos Castaneda, A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan (1971)

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

‘How old are you?’
‘I’m four and a half!’

You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key.

You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

‘How old are you?’
‘I’m gonna be 16!’

You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. “YOU BECOME 21.” Yesss!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He turned; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?

You become 21, you turn 30, then you’re pushing 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before you know it, you reach 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You make it to 60. You didn’t think you would!

So you become 21, turn 30, push 40, reach 50 and make it to 60.

You’ve built up so much speed that you hit 70! After that it’s a day-by-day thing; you hit Wednesday!

You get into your 80′s and every day is a complete cycle; you hit lunch; you turn 4:30 ; you reach bedtime. And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; ‘I Was just 92.’

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again.

‘I’m 100 and a half!’

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

The much touted, 10-years in the making Guns ‘N Roses record Chinese Democracy appears to have 9 songs leaked. The project by front man Axel Rose is infamous for the amount of time taken to create the album, which is not currently scheduled for release. Dr. Pepper even took a swing at some free publicity offering a free can of soda to “everyone in America”* if it is released this year.

Well, I had a listen and the songs generally rock. They more than rock actually, and Axel could make a lot of people eat their words… including Dr. Pepper.

One small thing struck me though. In the title track, he start consists of background noise and people talking. The problem is there a bit that is in Japanese! From about :34 – :37 you can hear a man say what sounds like, “Eto… Sumimasen, honto?” Which in English is, “Ummm… excuse me, really?”

** Clip coming soon… need to update the audio player.
[See post to listen to audio]

* Offer void if you are Slash or Buckethead.

This essay was written in 2001 for a competition sponsored by the National Collegiate Taekwondo Association. I was a three-time member for Iowa State University’s Taekwondo Team and this essay won first prize. I was handed the cash prize in an unmarked envelope and it felt very Korean mafia-esque. The theme related to your philosophy of fighting and specific methods used.

“The weather means the seasons.”

-Master Sun Tzu

There once was a young student who became very proficient in the skills of archery. After winning several archery competitions, the young man became rather boastful and proud of his accomplishments and challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an archer. On his first try, the youth hit a distant bull’s eye. On the second, he split the first arrow right down the middle. It was obvious that he possessed great technical proficiency but the master, undisturbed, did not draw his bow. Instead he motioned for the young man to follow him up a mountain. Curious about this surprise, the champion followed up the mountain until they reached a deep chasm spanned by a rather flimsy log. The Zen master stepped upon the shaky bridge, picked a far away tree as a target, and fired a clean direct hit. “Now it is your turn,” he said as he nimbly returned to more stable ground. The young champion stared with horror into the seemingly bottomless pit. He could not force himself to advance on the perilous log, much less attempt to shoot a bow. Sensing the situation the master said, “You have much skill with your bow, but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot.”

On the eve of important occasions, whether it be a martial arts tournament or some other event, it is important to remind oneself of one thing: readiness is not just physical preparedness. Without a suitable mental state, sheer physical power is not enough to guarantee a victory. The path to victory is instead paved with unification, harmony, and coherence.

In previous experiences, I have encountered many individuals like the young archer in the opening parable. These are competitors who posses great speed, strength, and flexibility, but lack that all important harmony between the mind and body. Sometimes this is enough for them to win. Even so, the win is less certain than one achieved through intelligent thought processes; and the entire situation is hit or miss. Undoubtedly, people like the archer have talent; but the real talent lies in being able to apply your skills in even the most adverse situations without fear or hesitation.

In the waning 24 hours before a tournament, I begin to slowly prepare my mind for the task ahead. I do not become obsessed with it; at first I occasionally bring the competition to consciousness. Just like the philosophy behind the Tae Guek symbol featured on the Korean flag, the body must be brought into balance. School work and social activities can bring about much stress, which can lead to disharmony. The Tae Guek shows perfect balance between opposites that are contained in the same circle. Like the mind and body, this represents both opposites as powers in one cycle. Instead of working antagonistically, they are mutually interdependent of each other.

Concerning sparring, I stress the importance of knowing when to act and when not to act. Existence is contrived of fluctuating currents of human thought and action. These two must flow together into actions that are dictated by intelligent thought and executed with power and confidence. Again, unity is the key. If I let my emotions, such as anger, become too strong I will surely be defeated. To me sparring is less a physical trial and more a mental game.

In Poomse competition, I use a technique that I also use in sparring, but that is best exemplified in forms: visualization. There are two sides to this. The first is commonly overlooked and is not so much what you do visualize but what you do not visualize. I do not visualize getting beat. I do not visualize forgetting my forms. The second side is a focus on the positive; I visualize the outcome I desire. I first create a clear image of what I want. I imagine myself moving with speed and snap, power and precision. Next I combine this with a strong emotion. I think about the pride I will feel helping my team capture the team trophy. I think about the personal satisfaction involved. More specifically, I focus on certain moves in my form that are more difficult for me; I see myself executing a sidekick with great flexibility and snap or a spin move with precision. Visualization is a powerful tool of the conscious.

As the hours dwindle before competition, I tend to draw into myself using the techniques described above. As the time for competition closes in I add physical preparation: stretching, limbering up, and running through forms. I begin to feel like the bowstring stretched tightly on the master’s bow. By the time my name is called to enter the ring, I am ready. Mind and body act with a seamless unity.

At the beginning I quoted Master Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War. He said, “The weather means the seasons.” When I first read this, it did not make immediate sense. I took it literally. But then I related it to the idea of mind and body. In the summer the sun shines hotly and in the winter snow falls. This is always the case. The weather patterns determine the overall situation. The mind is like the weather; if I think negatively or space off, my body will behave accordingly. I have the ability to control my mind, my weather, effectively. Once I control my psychological dimensions, my physical ones follow; and with both in harmony, I cannot be defeated.

Alan Watts strikes again, this time with musings on life and music.

If you like this post, check out Prickles and Goo.

Heaven is a where the lovers are Italian, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the police are English, and everything is organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where the lovers are Swiss, the cooks are English, the mechanics are French, the police are German, and everything is organized by the Italians.

Anyway, it just so happened I stumbled upon this picture of Kerouac at the center of attention. It’s reminiscent of a speaking gig he did in December 1958 at New York’s Village Vanguard that I was reading about when I found this pic.

This picture really has a strong sense of place for me; a smoky room, idle chatter and clinking-glass background noise… and Jack slightly slurring his words in a drunk tirade.

Kerouac, in his Belief and Technique for Modern Prose, set down the following 30 essentials regarding his free-flowing spontaneous prose method:

1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
2. Submissive to everything, open, listening
3. Try never get drunk outside your own house
4. Be in love with your life
5. Something that you feel will find its own form
6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
7. Blow as deep as you want to blow
8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
9. The unspeakable visions of the individual
10. No time for poetry but exactly what is
11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest
12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time
15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
17. Write in recollection and amazement for yrself
18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
19. Accept loss forever
20. Believe in the holy contour of life
21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
22. Don’t think of words when you stop but to see picture better
23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning
24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
29. You’re a Genius all the time
30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven

“Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”

- Edsgar W. Dijkstra