Taomeow

I'm afraid it's against the law to gut them.

Yes, possibly -- maybe for another one. My main practice jian is (nearly) of the Water phase, Metal-to-Water flowing and flexible, her name is Dragon Well, and if I slap rubber (Fire phase) on her face, she will disown me.

Prime Minister of Sakha Republic, Russia, taking a plunge in -63C (-81F) And this is the brave American ambassador going native in Moscow:

"Double weighted" has nothing to do with equal weight distribution, and is not useful in anything. It is an English translation of a term that refers to a very specific (and common) type of mistakes of execution in internal MA and some moving qigongs, and the ubiquitous misunderstanding of it as a reference to equal weight distribution between two legs is partially terminological (people think that's what "double weighted" means but it does not) and partially empirical (what it really means is learned through practice and the term is just a pointer, not an explanation. The explanation is in actual execution and would take too many words otherwise and still not be useful unless understood by the body. Equal weight distribution between two legs in qigong is neither wrong nor makes one "double weighted."

Exactly. No, not 3D printer, just InstaMorph -- a very useful thing to have. I wouldn't make the whole sword out of it, of course. I have a general aversion to plastic, polyester, etc. used instead of natural materials in everything that existed before plastics, but I don't mind plastic in stuff that came later than plastic. A plastic smartphone is OK, a plastic computer is fine, but plastic underwear, not so much. But if it's just a guard, I don't think it's a big deal. I've run out of InstaMorph (I've made a bunch of weird stuff out of the batch I had, my crowning accomplishment being an electronic car key, believe it or not -- mine got dropped and fell apart, and I managed to repair it for pennies instead of replacing it for hundreds. Very proud of myself.) Once I've bought some more, I'll see what I can do for the guard.

His Dark Materials has a continuation now? Cool! I got this one as a gift from someone who asked me to explain to her how the I Ching works, I did my best (she knew nothing about it beyond the fact that it exists), and next she gives me Pullman's trilogy, "it's a children's book but you might like it, because of the I Ching." Not entirely a children's book of course... depends on how you read it. The mixing in of all the Christian lore was a bit annoying, but much of it was great fun, and much of it was a great concern, too close to home despite a fantastic premise. I wonder where it all went in the next installment... hoping for more of the imaginative direction of the best of it, less of the one I don't care much for. Will have to check it out, thanks! Yes, I haven't read much fiction in some time either, but it comes and goes in waves for me now (used to be a steady tsunami for years, and then a very low tide, but now... in waves.) Kindle has changed the game a bit. I still prefer physical books, but people from several countries send me books in e-format now when they have read something they found of interest, in two languages. My Kindle is charged with enough fiction I haven't read yet to last me for several tsunamis. It's a good thing there's been no tsunami warning in a long while...

Yes, I've finished it, and am reading the second one in the trilogy, "The Dark Forest." Will be curious to find out how you like it if you give it a go. I loved it.

Hi Limahong, thank you for the early greeting! I'm sure your Mandarin is better than mine, even without Google translate. Yes, it's a great thing to preserve the family tradition, especially the kind worth preserving. This one definitely is.

Ah, got it, thanks! I think we are allowed to advertise here, by the way... unless I'm confused again.

And this is the local kids going home from school

Could you elaborate?

I practice with a partner, and the park is the only place where there's enough room for our form. Obviously we don't wave the swords around in a threatening manner -- every Chen jian move is designed to kill, not threaten. But we stay well away from whoever might be disturbed, miles away -- and yet some people will spot you from a distance and complain to the park "authorities"-- that's the only explanation I can think of... Training places sell bad ones, alas. I almost made one myself, way better than what they're selling (though not exactly pretty, a bit crude...), but I'm stuck at the level of the guard, I'm no woodworker and have no equipment. Might experiment with moldable plastic for that.

You daobums are confusing me today. You hope to buy a little raven soon? I vaguely recall trying to use a little raven instead of a jian once... maybe in a dream, maybe in confusion, not sure... One thing I'm certain about is, NEVERMORE!

You carry a sword when you go out to check for mail? What kind of a neighborhood is that? I have to use a wooden sword when practicing in the park, they don't allow metal ones in the open in public, and they don't care that it's not sharpened -- if it's steel, you can't draw it. Which is a bummer, because a jian is like a whip, you vibrate with its flexible movement -- but a wooden one does nothing of the kind. And the balance is off and the weight is too insubstantial. Maybe you as a sword specialist could recommend a source for a really good balanced wooden practice jian?

The Great Depression...

Holy guacamole.

Ah, yes, cool and breezy... unless of course you are one of those... you know... the other half...

stiff upper lip

From Livia Kohn's blog, published January 8, 2018 (...) A much less pleasant dimension of increased prosperity and economic freedom is the rise in fraudulent businesses and investment scams. China is full of both, some—such as the tinkering with baby formula—making worldwide headlines. Less well known are the actual numbers. For example, in 2014, financial scams conned people out of $24 billion, while more recently police arrested 21 people involved in a Ponzi scheme centered on Ezubao, the country’s largest online financing platform, that netted them $7 billion. (...) Daoism, too, is not exempt from this trend, as the well-publicized case of Li Yi 李一(b. 1969) documents, the one “not of the constant way,” as the headline puts it. An initiated Daoist master, Li Yi served as abbot of the Shaolong guan 绍龙观 (Summoning Dragons Temple), located in the Jinyun shan 缙云山nature preserve near the mega-city of Chongqing in southwest China. Claiming to have started Daoist practice at age 3 and attained academic recognition by major universities—both entirely fictional—he styled himself a living god in possession of supernatural healing powers. To prove these, he regularly faked miracles and soon attracted over 60,000 followers, including some well-known pop stars and internet giants like Jack Ma. In the process, he made himself rich by charging thousands of dollars for spa treatments and courses in magical powers. Coming to the attention of the authorities, the Bureau of Religious Affairs started an investigation into his claims and practices in 2010, leading to a formal trial and sentencing to several years in prison. The case has highlighted the potential dangers of miracle healers and thrown a rather unfavorable light on the Daoist Association, which allowed him not only to practice unchallenged but also to rise to the status of abbot within its ranks. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFtc6VPfDaw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLOpLMHplJg Read: Schmitz, Rob. 2016. Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams along a Shanghai Road. New York: Crown Publishers, chs. 9, 11.

Great book as I recall! And before that one, Dancing Wu Li Masters. And after both, DNA and the I Ching. But that was zen then, this is tao now... Now it's time to re-read The End of Time: The New Revolution in Physics. I looked back just now and realized that I'd be intellectually at an impasse in the past couple of years without certain ideas shaped in part by this book. I wouldn't know what to make of some glitches in reality. Or understand how the quantum computer works, or have an explanation as to how (I still don't know why) a certain person got erased from my memory. I mean, completely. I know there was a period where this person had to exist, no way around it. Know this feeling when you wake up from a dream sometimes with a memory of interacting with "someone" but not the foggiest who that someone was? Like that, only not in a dream but in this-here life (if it's the same life, of course, of which I have certain doubts.) Time is fishy.

Psst... Lookie here... One point=zero dimensions. Two points=one dimension. Modern physics is discovering taoism little by little...

Voynich Manuscript

That wouldn't help if I went climbing the mountain that spawned me in winter -- I've lived in the city with the mildest climate on the planet for too long. But in July the temperature in Altai comes up to 68 F, and that's just like our January here in SoCal. This, I can handle.