Taomeow

What is the wind singing about inside my empty heart? It's singing about the fire that has burned down everything in my heart. What is the wind singing about inside my empty heart? It's singing about the ice that has frozen everything in my heart. What is the wind singing about inside my empty heart? It's singing about fire and ice together at last in my heart. -- Max Frei

In our part of town the Coaster train runs on the edge of a long stretch of bluffs over the ocean -- the lower bluffs is where the rail tacks are located, with the houses on the upper ones over it. Both occasionally lose good chunks of California and move closer to the ocean, albeit involuntarily. I have often used the trail going parallel to the tracks for my walking qigong. In many respects it's a perfect spot with a perfect view. In spring I'm occasionally walking parallel to flocks of pelicans flying along the same route, showing up now overhead, now underfoot, pretty neat. But in some spots the tracks just keep moving closer and closer to the edge while the trail gets narrower. In one spot (not in the picture, a bit worse than what's in the picture) it just straight out disappears, so if the train happens to show up just as I'm traversing that spot on the ocean side, that leaves just a few inches to clear it, and on the upper bluff side it's also a bit too narrow for comfort, and occasionally muddy/slippery after a heavy rain. I sometimes zigzag left of tracks then right of tracks then left again looking for the least nerve-wracking way around that spot, but it breaks my walking qigong concentration -- in addition to having destroyed many a sneaker, since those maneuvers force me to walk on the railroad gravel, which happens to be very rough and sharp here. Due to San Andreas Gavin's fault all projects proposed over the years of building a protective fence, a tunnel, or doing whatsoever else to prevent this ticking time bomb from exploding have been meticulously struck down. (Don't read this as a detour into politics -- just mentioning it in passing.) So far it's only an occasional pedestrian who gets struck and killed roughly once a year, and sometimes an unlucky beach goer (or three, not far from here a few years ago) when part of the bluff collapses on them.

I think a few cultures that still didn't get all the anti-filial-attachment memos propagated in the currently dominant one aren't as ashamed of expressing those attachments. And people aren't necessarily embarrassed to mention their mothers as authorities in their lives... wild as it might sound to many a modern Western ear. Mothers in those cultures are often a peculiar mix of dominating/pushy and nurturing/self-sacrificing, in various proportions. And a greater percentage of their children, pushed and nurtured continuously, learn to grab opportunities and become successful. Not that I think "success" is the ultimate prize -- can be the ultimate curse too... but the non-destruction of the bond is definitely a bonus, whenever it's possible to preserve. Balance is tricky... when the pushy part is stronger than the nurturing part, the bond is bound to get destroyed. And when the nurturing part is not balanced by the kid's responsibilities one might wind up raising a loser.

The hurricane/tropical storm is a couple hours away from us per latest predictions, but some fire hydrants in downtown decided to help it along ahead of schedule. Video: https://packaged-media.redd.it/k703vjwl1bjb1/pb/m2-res_1280p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1692572400&s=6d053c7ae8deeab4e038fffffacb9f5afa090978#t=0

I had an Indian dentist at one point, and he did talk about his mother. According to him, in order to prove to her that his wasn't a useless profession (she wanted a plastic surgeon for a son), he reshaped all her teeth with crowns and veneers, and gave her Hollywood style shiny white porcelain china cups strike that toilet bowls strike that -- well, a brand new Hollywood (Bollywood?) set. And she was impressed. "She used to never smile, just not the type of woman who smiles in public. But now she does, all the time! To show off her son's work!"

The first time I heard about the scientific breakthrough growing them, whether in the lab or even in one's own mouth, was at the turn of this century. Since then they announced that breakthrough at least a dozen times. The last time it was Japanese scientists, a couple of months ago. My guess is, before they bankrupt a $600 billion global dental industry the breakthrough will keep happening and the natural replacement teeth will always be just around the corner. Just as the cancer industry, projected to globally reach a number that is way too pretty to mess with -- $25 trillion by 2050 -- is guaranteed to produce every breakthrough under the sun. Man, I love scientific breakthroughs.

Planet Earth isn't going anywhere in the next 5 billion years, give or take. And it can develop life from scratch faster than that -- the last time it took about 3 billion years. So even in the unlikely worst case scenario of absolutely all current life on Earth going extinct, there's a good chance it will start anew and have a good run of 2 billion years ahead of it before the sun goes poof. But what we would like to save is life on Earth we know and love today, right? Well, I don't think terminators share the same sentiment. Not the prime candidates for saviors I'm afraid. What would really save life on earth would be a reversal of the rule of the criminally insane monstrosity commonly known as "civilization," the only force that's destroying it. That monstrosity, however, has only been around for a geological nanosecond of some 8--12 thousand years. Methinks it would be worth it getting rid of civilization before we get rid of humanity in order to save the planet that is in no need of saving to begin with -- it's life on the planet that is. And if we could go back to being part of that, why get rid of us. Terminators, however, might reason very differently. As well as their next-of-kin -- depopulators, transhumansits, all that archon spawn.

Depends on what you do with it, but yes, there's several ways to preserve it for a whole year without a fridge... and, importantly, without canning and without vinegar that kills not only the taste but also all the microbiome-friendly critterts. (Maybe longer, but no one has the power to stop eating it while it lasts, while no one has the power to make a batch large enough to be eaten continuously and still last into the next year. Into the next week maybe ) I don't have a cellar, alas, so mine will go to the fridge once ready -- while there's still electricity.

I started by one of my favorite methods -- counteracting the excessive energies of the year with the vibe of their edible opposites. Specifically, I revisited my skill of making fermented foods. Known to "extinguish toxic Fire" in classical medicine. Sauerkraut, homemade cottage cheese, kvass, and now this. I renamed this masterpiece, known as the Guria Cabbage (of Georgia the country) Millefiori. I'm using an Italian millefiori paper weight on top (the weight is used to keep the contents fully submerged while fermenting) and the contents of the jar look somewhat similar to that. Behold the Millefiori fermented vegetables!

Jesus in China is rather orthodox, aside from being Chinese. But Andean Jesus and his apostles drink ayahuasca at the Last Supper, and His angels carry muskets.

Himalayan Lynx ( (Lynx lynx isabellinus) Photo Credit: CGNP, Camera trap clicks. Chitral Gol National Park, Pakistan

Modern "civilized" society and lifestyles drastically limit free will. There's too many things they force me to do whether I want to or not. Whatever it is, from bureaucratic quagmires every step of the way, to obligatory consumerism -- being forced to own certain things whether I want to or not (like a car, a phone, insurance-registration-permit-license-certificate-three forms of ID-proof of this and that and snowballing every year) to a mountain of things I am forced to do whether I want to or not (where do I begin?) to endless do this don't do thats I'm forced to learn, remember, pay attention to, keep my awareness on, and on and on -- whatever it is that my life is about, no one forces me to practice anything. Which is exactly why I choose to. There's other things in my life no one forces me to do -- which is, I suspect, the main reason I do them. There's some anti-coercion instinct built into my very being, and everything that is done out of this or that kind of superimposed unnatural necessity rather than a natural biological human necessity, has always felt alien, damaging, eroding, destructive to my humanity. The only thing I can do to counteract that endless assault is divert my attention away from it whenever and wherever possible, and invest it into something no ghouls mandate and no zombies obey.

Had a conversation with someone's lawyer once, about a person who was to stand trial where they would decide whether to send that person to jail or, alternatively, to a mental health facility. A drug addiction wasn't involved, it was textbook schizophrenia, and the person wound up serving time. The lawyer told me that it was a pity drugs weren't involved, because otherwise a treatment program would be available instead of jail, but if someone's just crazy without being an addict, they're shit out of luck. Doesn't mean a treatment program would be efficient for drugs, but just imagine the irony... "it's a pity they're not on drugs, that would at least give them a chance someone would try to do something to help."

And don't forget Deep Purple's Strangeways. Early in the morning in the early 1990s I had it in my ears, coming from my Sony Walkman player, en route to my job in New York. The stranger who rode off into the sunset on the New Jersey Transit bus is that version of me.

.

Progressive rock rules have changed: Instead of quiet desperation, twerk.

@Nungali That's awful. I wonder if things are as bad in Australia with mental health "handling" by the system as here. Probably not... Here they "do something" pretty much only after the mentally ill person kills someone, otherwise -- even if they keep committing crimes -- they are just let loose, no help for them and no safety for their potential victims. There used to be 550,000 mental institutions in the US in the 1950s -- then they just shut down the whole thing, only about 600 remain today. One would think the need just disappeared overnight... and that's so very the other way around.

Sorry to hear about his passing. It so happened that one of his books was among the first things that got me interested in taiji and qigong. I credit it with drilling in my mind, in advance of actual practice, the idea that the holy grail of gaining benefits from it all safely is the knees. I never forgot that part and the overall impression of clear to-the-point explanations, which were very valuable for a not-even-beginner-yet getting ready to embark on that journey. RIP, master Wong.

Same here. Loading very slowly most of the time of late -- this site only, so it's not something on my end.

I was aiming for three messages (although a longer post could aim for more.) 1) Any practice falls on the foundation of who you are. If you are a person with a sense of responsibility to yourself, aka self discipline, you are likely to transfer this attitude onto how you go about practicing qigong. That's the message I derive from Person A's experience. 2) You don't have to "believe" in it -- just give it a fair trial period and your results (or lack thereof) will speak louder than any pre-conceived ideas. Positive ones are likely to keep you coming back. Like Person B. 3) Different strokes. Some like rock, some can't stand it and only want opera, which rock aficionados might find extremely annoying. Many people have to watch their diet because they want to lose weight -- but I, for instance, have to watch my diet so as to avoid losing weight. Qigong can be "metabolized" (or not) in a similar vein -- individual preferences (ideally reasonable and sensible rather than whimsical) are allowed a say in what we seek and what we avoid. Person C in my example practices taiji neigong, which makes qigong very optional, and not wanting to practice it, quite reasonable.

I see. Sounds are fine I think. But movements, the way I was taught, are very controlled. Of course there's a great temptation to get creative with this set, especially if you practice with others and a general playful mood takes over. The Monkey in particular makes such faces sometimes ...but control is harder and more beneficial than creativity, strangely enough. After all, the set does address the health of various organs, and one doesn't want creative organs, the ideal is precisely (and predictably) functioning ones.

They do relate to specific organ systems, but have nothing to do with spontaneous qigong. On the contrary, they are high-precision moves with much attention to detail.

It's not wrong, although AI is always excessively verbose (unless prompted not to be). A more to the point answer would be, Brocades suit beginners, Animals are considerably more challenging for beginners.