Immanentize the Empathy
After being up for 40 hours, I slept for twelve. I was initially, as the song says, too tired to sleep, but Daredevil put me out like a light.
So: Alaska. Amazing place. We had, apparently, unusually good weather for this time of year; 60s and sunny in Fairbanks and Denali, 70s and partly cloudy in Anchorage.
Thunderstorm’s a’brewin, so I need to unplug. I will continue after the weather clears. In the meantime, look at this:
And Boy, are my arms tired!
I’m off for ten days in a cabin in the Denali National Park in Alaska. See ya when I see ya!
Yesterday Master Lee and his students celebrated Sifu Day. Sifu is the Chinese translation of “teacher”, in the sense of one who imparts knowledge and/or wisdom. Sifu day is a national holiday in China (and possibly else where) which takes place on the anniversary of the birthday of Guan Gong .
Guan Gong was honored for his integrity and sense of justice – admirable traits to be had in a teacher. He was a warrior, and any teaching he did was more by example than by rote. When he died he was deified.
We held a simple celebration, everyone lit incense for Guan Gong, and Master Lee said a brief Buddhist prayer. Then we had food, then (my favorite part) the picture-taking.
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Hunter!!!!
Happy Birthday to you!
I have finally, and only a month and a half after the event, posted pictures of the martial arts demo at Festival. Flash 6 plug-in required.
Scott is on vacation this week, so I am handling all of the development work at the studio . Rick and Behnje are on their honeymoon so I am teaching all of his tai chi classes, in addition to being the only full-time instructor (other than Master Lee) in Master Lee’s class .
In other words, I am freakin’ busy this week.
And of course this happens just when I spin off a subdomain for the flash adventure game. I can spend hours figuring out data models, noting and then discarding objects and sprites and tile engines and pathfinding algorithms, and never have time to write out a single line of code. It has been like this for a couple of weeks. At this rate I will have completed the game in my head, played it until it bored me, and given it up for something new – all before compiling a single Flash file.
I need a vacation.
I have a friend named Rick who I met the day I started studying with Master Lee . Rick is Master Lee’s senior instructor and has helped teach me most everything I know about martial arts. He is one of the hardest working, most diligent people I have ever met, and everything he does, he does with an air of grace and humility. He is one of the world’s truly brilliant souls.
Today Rick married his longtime girlfriend/fiance Behnje. It was a small ceremony, full of poetry and teachings from the faiths of the world. Perhaps twenty friends, and 150 immediate family members (they both come from BIG families). Potato Moon , whose muse shines like the sun, provided the music.
Now Rick and Behnje are off to Hawaii for a couple of weeks; the honeymoon is the first vacation they have had in many years.
Rick, Behnje… being your friend is the greatest of gifts.
Congratulations.
Just returned from watching Pirates of the CARRRRRibbean and I have to say, I very much enjoyed it. Good story, great acting, lots of action, and best of all (and most unexpected), it is an INTELLIGENT Disney movie. I didn’t feel talked down to.
It is also good to see that ARRRlando Bloom can play characters that aren’t elves.
I haven’t seen a good pirate movie in a long time. There was Yellowbeard , yea many years ago…pretty good Monty Python – ish flick. The Pirate Movie which was awful, Cutthroat Island , which was okay but not paticularly memorable. Yeah, this one is right up at the top of the genre.
Final rating: 4 out of 5 ARRRRRRs.