Taomeow

Thank you, Aetherous! I hope someday I can discuss TCM with you as a student discusses something of great relevance to her with a master. I've seen you learn and grow over the years and I've been impressed! Please carry on, you are bound for glory!

Thank you, LL, your kindness and wisdom have often been a lesson and an example. Shine ON.

You hide my post and then interpret it for those who haven't read it?.. Way to go! Now that you've done your noble deed, can you please leave this thread alone? (Unless you wake up to the fact that you and ZYD owe me an apology -- not that I'm holding my breath.) It doesn't seem to require any moderation IMO.

~~~ SPLIT BY STAFF ~~~ Misogyny schmisogyny. Here's the deal: 1. I am a believer in traditional matriarchal societies that kept us safely alive and thriving and happy (sic) for a million years. I don't think we ever got anything right on this planet since the patriarchal takeover. As in, never, and nothing. As in, an ongoing disaster of a few thousand years with no end in sight. As in, I don't think there's a political system that can grow out of a patriarchal set-up that will ever bring anything but misery to the majority. I don't care what it's called. I call it zombie patriarchy. It can manifest as zombie capitalism, zombie socialism, or zombie feudalism. They're all the same to me. Dead on arrival. 2. One of the most devastating developments of the patriarchal rule is the transmogrification of women. A patriarchal template does not change when this or that slot happens to be occupied by a patriarchally trained woman. The fact that she is a woman is irrelevant if the slot in the patriarchal template of power remains unchanged. The woman who is not a patriarchal ruler can't fit in in a million years. 3. Hillary is a patriarchal overlord. Please do not ascribe misogyny to whoever dislikes her for her patriarchal overlordly ways. I don't dislike a woman. I dislike a patriarchal overlord exploiting its anatomical features toward a patriarchal power grab. Patriarchal power grabs exploit whatever is handy -- in this case, being a woman is used as one such exploitable feature the patriarchal overlord Hillary has in its possession. So please. Enough with the misogyny card. I am thinking of starting a matriarchal political party. But first I would have to write a manifesto and sharply delineate the difference between a woman of patriarchal functions and a woman of matriarchal functions in society. I submit there's no women in power today, period. None. Not one. If she has power, she has patriarchal power in a patriarchy. If she is a carrier of matriarchal power, no one has seen her or heard of her. She keeps the species alive, but she's fucking tired. Tired... She might let go and then watch it all turn into a rotten pumpkin it's always been behind the grandeur illusion.

Tell me I'm not the only one. Please tell me life tests your resolutions in a way as creative and unexpected and sneaky and cunning as it tests mine. Please tell me I'm not the only one who's prepared for those smooth, sly moves of the celestial exam commission (or whoever is behind those surprise tests of willpower) only half the time, at best. New year's resolution: Stay gluten free 100%, keep it up for 8 months, see what happens. Reality: Two months into that, I'm so proud of myself. Nothing can shake my resolve. In the meantime, someone goes to France, brings back a gift -- a tin of foie gras and, to go with it, a bag of Italian bruschetta toasts. The latter taking the piss out of anything gluten free, of course. The gift is not for me, so, no worries, right? Wrong. The recipient of the gift a] being Chinese, can't turn it down because it would be impolite and insensitive, but unbeknown to the gifter absolutely refuses to eat unfamiliar European foods, and b] is about to ask me for a small favor, and to give something in return right away seems to be the cultural norm, at least for this person. So he gives the tin and the bag to me. It is my cultural norm not to turn it down. I am bonkers about foie gras, which I think I only had twice before -- in general I have this unfortunate trait, I am crazy about foods not just me but no one outside the wealthiest 1% can afford, I've never met a luxury food Item I didn't like. So, I'm writing this while fishing out the last Bruschetta crumbs from the bag, the tin has been emptied in one fell swoop, and my gluten free countdown will have to be reset tomorrow. Two months of being true to my own resolution all for nothing. Please tell me I'm not the only one to whom things of this sort happen.

Because the right hand is the dominant hand of the left brain, and vice versa? Because the right wing and the left wing are the wings of the same bird? In any event, far from "every" woman in power has motherly/family instincts that in the course of our long matriarchal "prehistory" (which I view as the real history of our species in the wild, before the zoo caging commenced) safeguarded continuous use of this power toward blanket-protecting the tribe (male children, their fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers as much as female children, their mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers) rather than oppressing it. But while the left who have decided motherly/family instincts are completely obsolete, to be replaced by 97 new and improved genders and a set of behaviors with each that has nothing to do with nurturing, while the right still try to love their mothers, to the best of their curtailed ability and the actual contemporary mothers' loveability... maybe that's why? I don't know. I only know that Norwegians get very smug when you tell them, "boy, you got a good deal going over there..."

Norway has four women in four top government positions. Norway is rated as the happiest country in the world for the 12th consecutive year, consistently scoring the highest out of 200 countries in life expectancy, education, and standard of living, as well as in a number of other categories, such as the best healthcare, the highest per capita income, and preservation of the natural beauty of the land (despite an oil based economy). Now what are they doing wrong?..

I'll add a few points -- food can also be viewed in the social context, as part of cultural identity unifier divider a medium of self-expression (especially if you cook) art the way to someone's heart poison killer religion passion weapon of mass destruction path to salvation a boring chore eye-opener disappointment evolutionary dead-end the great deception a revelation consciousness manipulator/extinguisher and more... That might be part of the reason so many people swear by fasts. Fasting not only removes the physical food from the picture -- it removes millennia's worth of complexities from an individual unconscious intertwined with the collective unconscious and gives all those ontogenic and phylogenic memories a rest, thereby lightening not just the body but also the mind. Then again, the collective phylogenic memory of countless famines and chronic (lifelong) mass-scale under-eating throughout our agricultural history might be an unconscious fasting deterrent for many... even though "feast then fast" was the regular business-as-usual way we lived for countless ages before agriculture.

Have you been to that restaurant? My brother-in-law used to have a job that took him all over Europe, spending a few months in every country, and he asserted that Spain was the best place to be food-wise. (The worst was Sweden...)

A life unexamined should be terminated with extreme prejudice.

There was another thread where I described how I engineered my bed, with many other options discussed, but I seem to remember it had the same title, if that's possible. If not, I don't remember what it was called.

I would be grateful if you do. I'd love to be able to ask Miss Wen a few questions. Also, if you can share anything you know (in case you do) about her practical work and/or any anecdotal evidence of her expertise, I'd be very interested. Thanks for the offer.

genuine

They are served at Golden Gates, a Russian restaurant in the Bronx, NYC, and count among 10 most expensive dishes in the world. The Curtius Flame Fish, which is apparently the correct name for what I called the torch fish earlier, lives at great depths and is probably not easy to fish out. But imagine the yin-yang properties of a creature that lives in impenetrable darkness yet emits its own bright light -- yang within yin... yum within (almost) no one's price range. Sounds mighty fancy. I make something similar on occasion (usually for a potluck or guests, otherwise, too painstaking), but my tarts are numerous and tiny, since I stuff mushroom caps instead of a tart case, and it's not a sweet dish, so, no figs, syrup, or almond meal. Chopped mushroom legs, cheese (any cheese I have handy), mix in a spoonful of mayo, finely chopped parsley and/or dill and/or cilantro, some black pepper, stuff the caps, bake, and then sit back and enjoy watching people at the table take tremendous choking risks eating them as fast as they can because they know they have to be fast or others will eat them faster.

CH, I know how everything is done in modern agriculture. I have always maintained that people who choose to be oblivious to the extinction of hundreds of thousands of whole species of animals everywhere where intensive for-profit monoculture agriculture plants its lettuces and cucumbers, its apples and oranges, to say nothing of wheat and corn and soy which irreversibly kill by the billion, from microorganisms in the soil to insects to reptiles to rodents to large mammals to fishes in the rivers to birds in the sky, to say nothing of grasslands and forests steadily turned into ever-expanding fields of death, and think this is somehow superior to bad treatment of domesticated species, are voluntarily ignorant hypocrites. To avoid being that they would have to either grow their own food or else starve to death to be consistent. Currently my circumstances don't allow the former and I choose against the latter. But at least I don't eat hypocritically, unlike those who oh so morally choose to spare the cute and pettable animals while all the not-so-cute and not-so-pettable ones (too small to be noticed, or too predatory to be cute, or competing with us for food too successfully unless eliminated) can drop dead by the billion without the hypocrite batting an eyelid over his murderous tofu burger.

Excerpt from the article "Master Li Tian Ji and the Development of Simplified 24 Step Taijiquan" by Niu Sheng Xian "...The problem appears to have stemmed from the over-intellectualizing of Taijiquan theory that had no direct historical connection with the developed body of correct traditional knowledge, and that possessed no genuine understanding of Taijiquan as a subject. It was a disconnected intellectualism produced by individuals who were academics, and who often served as the referees and judges in modern martial arts tournaments. These people did not understand what they were watching, and so awarded points to practitioners whose forms looked ‘eye-catching’, but who had bad hip and chest position and alignment. This led to the situation of competition participants mimicking these errors in the hope that they would score high points and win the prize! The problem originated with the academic professors who had knowledge of the theory and practice of Long Fist (长拳 – Chang Quan) – that is the martial arts associated with the Shaolin Temple (少林拳 – Shao Lin Quan) – and who adequately understood its foundational principles. The theory and principle of Long Fist Style martial arts which are associated with Shaolin Temple Boxing, is that they are very different to those principles which govern the correct traditional teachings associated with the authentic and genuine practice of Taijiquan. These so-called ‘experts’ seemed to spring up overnight, and thought that they could ‘transfer’ the principles of Shaolin Temple Boxing onto the practice of Taijiquan – this is exactly why some modern students get confused about what is the ‘right’ way, and what is the ‘wrong’ way to practice Taijiquan. What gave these professors the moral right to do this?..."

Really? A golden opportunity to shoot yourself in the foot is a confidence builder? I wish I had your confidence.

...so I propose picking a new banner for the coming Year of the Dog in advance. There's still plenty of time -- the real Chinese New Year falls on February 16th this time around -- but based on our prior experience, we may want to start nagging nudging the party/parties in charge of the task in advance. I like this one but apparently it's Japanese... well, I like the calligraphy, so posting for that, not for the banner proposal (which will probably be a cool surprise from Sean, as usual):

LL, thank you. I have succeeded in the past by anticipating the temptations, maintaining a mental database of situations where they might arise. I want to learn how to handle the ones I didn't anticipate. I.e. how to conquer the unknown. Most of the time, I just surrender to it -- not in dietary terms, in terms of whatever. Some might call it spontaneity, "living in the moment," others might view it as lack of self-discipline. I'm somewhere in between I guess. But as a cultivator, I try to emphasize/replenish what's deficient rather than encourage what's excessive -- spontaneity I don't lack, born this way, while self-discipline is a learned skill, an uphill battle, a gongfu challenge...

Yup, I'm starting a better countdown today, the last day of Chinese New Year's celebration. The moon has been steadily growing up to this point, so any "decrease" endeavors were bound to be compromised, but now it will start waning, thereby shining on them. All fasts, cleanses, decreasing/minimizing endeavors (whether internal or external) are most effective starting now, and should be completed by the end of spring.

Thank you, you are too kind. I'll take three of red and six of black, please, unless you are also serving Almas from the albino beluga and it is properly packaged in a can of pure gold -- if you do, throw in a couple of those too. And for the main course, since we're on the Russian theme, I'll take those light-emitting pelmeni, you know, the ones they stuff with a mix of elk, veal, pork and the bioluminescent glands of the torch fish, they look very pretty when they glow with this otherworldly blue-green light on your plate, and once you've eaten them, you can distinctly feel inner illumination, which some call enlightenment, and even though they are $2000 per serving, many people spend a lot more than that on various gurus who essentially promise the same thing.

Yup. We're in the eleventh hour of the 12 animal clock. The Pig is number 12.

I usually do, but the resolution about gluten was specifically to go 100%, since it is capable of provoking an immune conflict whose effects last for up to 8 months after one ingestion (in those for whom it's relevant, which is usually hard to find out except in the most obvious symptomatic cases that constitute a small percentage of the overall affected population.) I've experimented like that many times to figure out which foods do what in my body. I did a 100% vegetarian year, e.g., 9 months on paleo in ketosis, and so on. Many of my dietary choices are the outcome of such testing over the years. So I would be shooting myself in the foot in this case... and did.

I also always go for butter pecan -- Haagen-Dazs. And, yes, that meal was absolutely divine.