Last post of the year

Just going to fire off a short post before going out to do the obligatory countdown. ^_^

Don't normally disclose more personal thoughts but, anyway, thoughts for the past year. Hmm. Most important thing learnt: I am my own worst enemy. Resolutions. Be a better person, really try to do something constructive and useful and don't be another rotting leech. I know it's hard, but that's why we have words like "try".

Also learnt the profound greed and evil of mankind. Crude oil, it just really seem to boil down to this - who has it, who doesn't, and what we do with it. Climate change, destruction of the environment, wide-scale extinction of other species, corruption and poverty. The next time you go to the gas station, ponder where it comes from. Go google 'Nigeria delta human rights abuse' and see what a wonderful job Shell is doing in that area. Basically, they are just dumping the posionous residues into the waterways, leaving behind huge stinking tarry scars across the land, and killing the native people there because they have no other water to drink but from the tainted sources. And all this is done in the name of cutting costs. Go google 'Ken Saro-wiwa'. A man died for speaking out against Shell. They may as well have murdered him. And it is still going on today, right this very moment. Think about that.

Sometimes, it is all so despairing. It does seem that the very nature of man is evil and base.

And then, youtube brings up something that is slightly...different. I know this is old, but I only recently came upon this.

Paul Potts. A man with no belief in himself, who showed up in a cheap suit, world-weary and beaten, to...sing opera.

And sing, he does. He is no Pavarotti, but still, it gives me the shivers to hear him sing.

And even though it may not seem like much, it gives me hope that maybe there is something good and beautiful in us after all.

Good bye 2007. Hello 2008.

Happy new year. ^^

Heavy Metal Guy - Ep. 2 - Big Money

gotta love the hair and voice!

Thai food prank

bang bang boogie~~ ^^ this is really old, but you gotta love "bang bang boogie and don't stop the boogie"!

Indian Horse Stunt

This has got to be the best stunt ever. God-like. The intense look on his face, priceless. ^____^

牛仔很忙 - Jay Chou - 周杰伦 - 我很忙

Just love the opening. Oh la la~ haha. enjoy. ^^

hyperglo, this one's for you.

Cat on two feet

This is just not right. No matter how cute you look, it's just wrong for a cat to be on two feet.

Evolution Of Dance

Lol. Very funny, very clever. Ice, ice baby and MC hammer, anyone? ^^

It's Christmas!

Since it's Decemeber, here's something a little Christmasy. This left me speechless the first time I saw it. ^^

post 50. Xing Yi Quan 形意拳

Ah. For post 50, let's try to make it slightly more interesting and relevant, to me at least. ^^

So, a few of you may have recently heard me getting all excited and blabbing non-stop about "xing yi", and you all thought it was over a girl. Hmmmm. What does that say about me? Lol.

No, no, no. "Xing yi" is most definately not a girl. It's a form of Chinese internal martial arts (IMA), with the three most commonly-known being taiji quan, bagua zhang and xingyi quan. Although it's hard to ascertain, xingyi is most commonly acknowledged to be the oldest, yet also the simplest. It is said to be based on spear fighting, and is hence characterised by linear movements and explosive power.

So what makes xingyi different from karate or shaolin, two other commonly-known schools of martial arts that seem to share the same characteristics? Let me try my inadequate best to enlighten you, little grasshopper. ^^

Xingyi is a Chinese martial arts, and at the core of Chinese martial arts, is the concept of adhering, or sticking to your oppenent to control and neutralise his attacks. This can also be seen in the Indonesian fighting arts as trapping, which is not that surprising, as the Chinese and Indonesians clashed a lot when they first encountered each other. It's not surprising that they will learn from each other's systems, although the native Indonesians seem to have assilmated the Chinese concept of adhering better than their counterparts, who seem to have failed to pick up the concept of angles and timing of stick-fighting from the Indonesians. (It seems that way to me at least. I could be entirely wrong. I have woefully inadequate experience so take everything I say with a pinch of salt. ^^)

Hence, the main difference between xingyi and karate would seem to be the concept of adhering, which requires a degree of sensitivity. Karate seems to have gone off on another tangent to focus more on developing power, whereas although xingyi also stresses power, at higher levels, it requires sensitivity. That is why xingyi also incorporates push-hands to develop the required sensitivity to react to and control your opponent's movements. Yes, it is like taiji, in that sense. I was quite surprised to hear of xingyi students pushing hands with taiji students at first, but it makes sense in the end, if you think about it.

Another difference, that differentiates xingyi from both shaolin and karate would be the method of power generation. Here, I am going to borrow some terms from Chiron, who explained it quite well. The below is an abridged version of his explaination.

There are only so many ways to produce power, namely power generation, power stealing, and power conservation. Power generation relays on muscular power, and incorporates hip action for powerful punches or fast whipping of the hands. Power stealing is making use of other forces that you yourself do not produce to increase the strenght of your punch. This would involve the use of weight shifting and gravity, such as the drop step in boxing, as well as good use of timing and distance - swinging a punch such that your oppenent runs into it is a good way to increase the wham factor ^^. Power conservation involves the use of good structure. Rigid structures (bone) transmit forces better floppy structures (muscles). Here we have a bit of physics involved now. For every force, there is an equal and opposite reaction force. Every time you strike, an equal force goes into the ground. If there is good structure between the striker and the ground, power conservation approaches perfection. Ergo, try swinging a punch underwater, it's like hitting with straws. Poor structure also explains why huge men can punch so weakly, as energy bleeds away through poorly aligned joints and muscles.

Chiron then goes on to give an awesome example which I think makes a lot of sense. Remember those palm strikes where you see this guy place his hand on another, and without any discernable movement suddenly throw the guy out? Well, Chiron gives a pretty logical explaination: "What is going on physically is a slight rise in your center of gravity that is allowed to fall (the distance can be so small as to be almost imperceptible). The weight, the energy is allowed to fall and bounce up through the contact with the ground (which must be the heels) down the bones into the contact hand. It is essentially stealing a very small amount of power and then transmitting it through very good structure. With bad structure, you get nothing at all and wind up pushing with muscle. Different feel."

And that is the main difference between xingyi and other IMA, and karate and shaolin. Now you know why they always emphasise relaxing in traditional IMA? ^^ There's another reason, but that's another day.

Anyway, some video clips to pretty up the post.

Here is a very good explaination of the principles of xingyi. Attacking the center line, just like wing chun. Also, note what he says about structure and the spirals within the linear movements -"seeking the curve within the straight" as they frequently say in the taiji classics starting to make some sense now? ^^ Don't be surprised that the man is black. Rudy Curry Junior is a good teacher. And these days, the ones who are willing to put in the hard work are the foreigners, and not the Chinese.

A clip of the five element fists, which is the basic core of xingyi. Each fist gives rise to another, and at the same time is the counter to a certain fist. Note the power generation. I especially like the pi and the zuan.

A clip of the linking form of the five element fists.

So why am I so excited about xingyi? It's the entire reason for my going back to Singspore for two months. How else am I going to endure two months there? ^^

random note

Why don't they make movies like Gattaca anymore?

The proliferation of my blog-writing is inversely related to my happiness level. Most of the time. ^^

Sigh. Supp-ing all the way to year 4. >_<

Anyone figured out why I number some posts and leave others unnumbered? There is a reason behind the madness, i promise you. Hehehe...

currently reading

been gorging myself on books. finshed 4 books in 2 days, and felt a bit sick after that. must be because i forgot to eat and drink. lol.

Pact of the Fathers, Ramsey Campbell

billed as a psychological horror story, found this book a sleeper. yawn. something to do with secret soceities and the naughty deals the almost exclusively-male members made with each other in their youth. seemed promising. but found it hardly thrilling. characters and motivation were not really believable. like i said, a dozer.

The Kaisho, Eric Van Lustbader

ah. a lustbader book always offers the promise of sex, violence and more sex. why did i borrow it? was craving a trashy read, and this book did not fail to deliver. was not as twisted as the guy who wrote LA Confidential, but still, hmmmm, some parts were quite disturbing. what is it about the twisted things we do to each other that is so replusive and yet compelling?

the equivalent of the B-grade horror movie, The Kaisho follows the adventures of Nicholas Linnear, a half-Japanese, half-American ninja, who also happens to be the last of a mystical tribe with super psychic powers. told you it was trashy ^^. character developement is almost non-existent, or at least, I feel nothing for any of the main characters. borrowed it because of the lure of martial arts, but japanese martial arts is quite laughable to me nowadays. too stiff. i mean, yes, hands as tough as stone sound really cool, but, hmmm, i dunno, the martial arts just seemed bad. even the martial arts in Dune was better. more fluid and deadly. this just seemed to play on the mystical hype of japanese martial arts, which in reality, may not really live up to the hype. i mean really, how effective is a sword-strike (whatever that is) with the side of the hand to an enemy's pelvis? apparently, it is! cos your enemy will go crashing down, writhing in agony. hmmmmm. not for me to judge, but really, hmmmm.

oh well, at least it delivered, unlike Pact of the Fathers.

Four Days to VeraCruz, Owen West

Now we are talking. This book is an adventure chase, with an endurance hike thrown in. Picked it up and couldn't put it down. It is quite exciting, and the short tense chapters work quite well to help build momentum. This was written by a former Marine who took part in a number of Eco-challenges and the knowledge really added a sense of realism to the story.

What is Ec0-challenge? Just the most gruelling and challenging endurance sports in the world, you know, working at sustained physical exertion with no food or sleep at high altitudes for days on end, and pushing yourself until your body starts to cannibalise itself for lack of nutrition. These people really love to suffer, and there is not even a prize money at the end. Just a belt buckle to say, "I been there." Wow.

But this is really quite an exciting book, about a couple who are inadvently caught up in the middle of a drug chase in Mexico. Drugs, government conspiracies, guns and explosions, fun and excitement all around! Let's not forget the death-march. Read the title: four days to vera cruz give you any hint. ^^ i just love sporty people. They come up with the weirdest stories and make it believable. Yes. I think I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

The Last Confession, Morris West

The Last Confession is the story of Giordano Bruno, a Dominican monk and rationlist philosopher, who was burnt at the stake by the Catholic Church on Feb 17 1600. His questions about God and religion were considered dangerous and heretical, and he was incarerated for seven years in Rome's worst prison, where he underwent interrogation, harsh penal treatment and occasional torture. In the end, he was given the chance to recant but he choose instead to die for his beliefs.

The authour, Morris West, was not unlike Bruno. Morris West joined the Order of Christian Brothers after completing high school, took his first vows and spent eight years as a teaching monk. When he was twenty-six, he decided against taking his final vows and left the order and joined the Australian Army, where he started writing and published his first book under a pseudonym. Morris, by all accounts, has on numerous occassions found himself uneasy with the teachings of the church which claimed his allegiance, and like Bruno, he spent his life trying to get to truth by examining all ideas, even if they lay beyond the boundary of dogmatic teachings that most people consider the essence of faith. This was his last, uncompleted, work. He died at his desk, at the end of a particularly good paragraph.

The story takes the form of a diary, written by Giordano Bruno, in his final days. I think this book resonates with me because of this sentence, which really sums up my problem with Christianity: "This is the nature of the madness they propagate: to make a man confess a loving God, you burn him!" Yes, I too, do not understand why to bring to man to the mercy of God, you have to first threaten his soul with an eternity of damnation and torment.

Lest I turn others away from this book with my own personal beliefs, still, in the end, this is a book about a man of faith written by a man of faith. It is worth reading, and maybe it will highlight some valuable lessons.

running record

time to run ~2.8km: 11 min 35 secs
time to run ~5.68km: 26 min 34 secs

ran faster than usual for the first half, then took it easy for the 2nd half. still, quite pleased that there doesn't seem to be much regression during 2 week long hiatus.

hmmm. it takes me 11 min odd to run to school and 7 mins to cover the same distance by bus, and 6 min on my bike if i really gun it. wow. i don't know what to say.

Jay Chou - Romantic Handphone(Lang Man Shou Ji)

the starting of this video always cracks me up, when the girl starts brawling in cantonese and all he can say bemusedly is: "i don't understand...(._.")". for some reason, i find that highly amusing.