Video Games 2: Software Experimentation

I find that the NBA 2K 18 on the Nintendo Switch is very difficult to play because of the rapid pace required in skilled passing and shooting.  The software has a practice option with 1on1 and 2on2, etc., so you can learn the basic movements possible in playing NBA level basketball.  Manual dexterity and quick reflexes are not my strong suit, so my progress is poor in this game.  I have, thus far, led the Golden State Warriors to four resounding 1st quarter defeats.

Using the Madden NFL 18 football video game on the X Box One is easier for me to play than NBA basketball because the pace is slower.  Lots of commands and selections to learn.  I think that using and learning this Madden software might make my NFL football television viewing experience this autumn more interesting.  Also, if I learn this software's command and movement controls, then I can use the Madden software upgrades in years to come, e.g., 2018-2019 season, Madden 19.  X Box One is a decent console for using NFL 18.  I've used NFL 14 before.

Cheat sheets for basic movements are not easy to find; Gamers seem to prefer figuring the controls out for themselves through experimentation, failures, and modest consistent successes in playing a new game.

I use Mario Brothers Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch.  I have also played older versions of Mario Brothers on the PS2, and NES, e.g., Super Mario Brothers 2, Super Mario Brothers 3, Super Mario World.  I even have some Mario Brothers art, toys, and ???? Cube.

I started purchasing computers (Commodore, Atari, IBM-DOS clones), and video game hardware and software in the 1980's.  I played lots of games on desktop computers, telephones, tablets, and video consoles for 40 years.  I have always been interested in computers, their uses in business applications, and in the potentials of artificial intelligence, networking, learning, programming languages, etc.  I earned good money, I worked till I was 70,  while being a leader in library automation, management, using computers for management information systems, website development, grant writing, and research.

Video Games

Lately, I have been playing games on an X Box One player console, and on a Sony Nintendo Switch player console.  I also use an NES and SNES player console, and a Sony PlayStation 2 player console.  I have a variety of software, old school retro to current high end video games.  Over the past four decades, I have probably spent over $4,000.00 on the hardware and software for PC and video games.

On my Samsung 4 Tablet  I play some free Android applications, e.g., for the card game Spades and for the game of Chess.  The Nintendo Switch is also a fine handheld gaming device.

I find plenty of good used and some new software titles for the PlayStation 2.  I have purchased titles with a nice box and booklet, at it worked fine on my PlayStation 2, for as low as $2.50 to $12.00.  And, I occasionally find old NES or SNES cartridges for under $5.00.

Of course, the newer the hardware, like my 2017 Nintendo Switch, the more powerful the processor and memory.  It has faster speed, outstanding screen, responsive controls, and more display options.  However, the Switch software is currently very expensive at $30.00 to $60.00 a title.

I am thinking of purchasing a new high end PlayStation 4 this coming winter. Seems like top of the line in both hardware and software.

What games am I playing now?  Mario Brothers Odyssey on the Switch, NBA 2K 18 Basketball on the Switch, Madden NFL 18 Football on the X Box One.

What games do I want to play?  1.  Off Road Vehicle, ATV, Jeep driving games for the PlayStation 2.  2.  "Okami" for the Switch coming out 8/18.  "Minecraft" on the Switch.  "Legend of Zelda II: Adventures of Link" for NES.

I hope Madden NBA 19 and NBA 2K 19 come out formatted for the Nintendo Switch.

In real life sports, I watched all of the NBA Golden State Warriors basketball games available on television, and many games of other NBA West Coast teams like the LA Lakers and Portland Trailblazers.  I also watched many college basketball games on the PAC 12 Sports network.  I watched both of my grandaughter's play on basketball, volleyball, and soccer teams in 2017 and 2018.   Since I enjoy watching basketball games, I also enjoy playing basketball video games like NBA 2K 18.  I played basketball till I was 40 years of age, and I understand the game after a lifetime of watching for over 65 years.

I watched the Seattle Seahawks on television last season along with other West Coast teams like the 49'ers, Rams, Raiders.  I watched all the USC football games last season on television, and many other West Coast college football teams on the PAC 12 Sports Network.  Since I enjoy watching football games, I also enjoy playing football video games like Madden NFL 18.  I played football till I was 25 years of age, and understand the game after a lifetime of watching over 65 years.

Red Bluff, CA Fires

Karen and I lived in Red Bluff, California, from 1998-2017.  

We are following news of a major fire (6/23) in the area.  High temperatures (105F+) and winds are increasing the dangers for destruction.  

We hope friends, neighbors, co-workers, and all folks threatened by the fire can 
find safety and suffer no losses.  

I used to think, as I stood at the western fence of my Red Bluff five acre property, of the serious danger of wildfires near our home.  The weeds in the summer heat are dry and brown.  Scary!!  

I Really Don't Care

On 6/20/18, Melania Trump, visited a detention center in Texas for young children separated from their deported illegal Mexican immigrant parents.  She questioned officials about the condition of the children; and was told it was very difficult and emotional for the children.  

I found it odd that Mrs. Trump wore a overcoat that day with the bold print text message: "I really don't care.  Do you?"  

I would prefer Michelle Obama or Laura Bush's style and skill when representing our country.  

I have had "some tolerance" for Donald Trump and his wife.  However, his tiresome "zero tolerance" rhetoric, and her insensitivity (in my opinion) have really lowered my already less that neutral tolerance for the two.  

Details are the Big Picture

"We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice, or kindness in general.  Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, and unique."
-  Benjamin Jowett

"Science and psychoanalysis apart, the most profound development in thought since Nietzsche, as far as we are concerned, is the phenomenological approach to the world.  Mallarmé sought "words without wrinkles," Baudelaire cherished his minutes heureuses and Valéry his "small worlds of order," as we have seen: Checkhov concentrated on the "concrete individual" and preferred "small scale and practical answers," Gide though the "systematizing is denaturing, distorting and impoverishing."  For Oliver Wendell Holmes, "all the pleasure of life is in general ideas, but all the use of life is in specific solutions."  Wallace Stevens considered that we are "better satisfied in particulars."  Thomas Nagel put it in this way: "Particulars things can have a noncompetitive completeness which is transparent to all aspects of the self.  This also helps to explain what the experience of great beauty tends to unify the self: the object engages us immediately and totally in a way that makes distinctions among points of view irrelevant."  Or, as Robert Nozick, who counseled us to make ourselves "vehicles" for beauty, said: "this is what poets and artists bring us―the immense and unsuspected reality of a small thing.  Everything has its own patient entityhood."  George Levine call for "a profound attention to the details of this world."  
-  Peter Watson, "The Age of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God," p.536

"The idea of one overbearing truth is exhausted."  
- Thomas Mann, translated by James Wood  

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
-  Albert Einstein

"To study the self is to forget the self.  To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things."
-  Zen Master Dogen

"The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God."
-  Benedict De Spinoza

"God is in the details."
-  Mies Van Der Rohe

"After appreciating and understanding thousands of the details, a common variety God is really superfluous."
-  Mike Garofalo

"Caress the detail, the divine detail." 
-  Vladimir Nabokov

"Details are all there are."
-  Maezumi Roshi

"We think in generalities, but we live in details."
-  W.H. Auden

Gardening and Spirituality

Gardening and Religion

A Philosopher's Notebooks

Art of Manliness

The blog, The Art of Manliness, has been online since 2008.  Semper Virilis covers topics such as relationships and family, dress and grooming, health and sports, money, lifestyle, and psychology.

Seven Letters to Write Before You Die

Warrior Mace Training

Creating a Positive Family Culture

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

Virtues

Questioning Pleasures

"No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety."
-  Publilius Syrus  

"The essence of pleasure is spontaneity."
-  Germaine Greer

"Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations."
-  Jane Austen

"Perhaps all pleasure is only relief."
- William Burroughs

"Man, Nietzsche contended, is a being that has leapt beyond the "bestial bounds of the mating season" and seeks pleasure not just at fixed intervals but perpetually.  Since, however, there are fewer sources of pleasure than his perpetual desire for pleasure demands, nature has forced man on the "path of pleasure contrivance."  Man, the creature of consciousness whose horizons extend to the past and the future, rarely attains complete fulfillment within the present, and for this reason experiences something most likely unknown to any animal, namely boredom.  This strange creature seeks a stimulus to release him from boredom.  If no such stimulus is readily available, it simply needs to be created.  Man becomes the animal that plays.  Play is an invention that engages the emotions; it is the art of stimulating the emotions.  Music is a prime example.  Thus, the anthropological and physiological formula for the secret of art: "The flight from boredom is the mother of all art." "
-  Rudiger Safranski, Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography, p. 23



Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness  By Willard Spiegelman.  The seven simple pleasures discussed are: dancing, reading, walking, looking, listening, swimming, and writing.  If you included Taijiquan as "dancing" then all of these can be solitary activities.  Picador, 2010.  208 pages.  ISBN: 9780312429676. 

Pleasure and the Good Life: Concerning the Nature, Varieties, and Plausibility of Hedonism.  By Fred Feldman.  Clarendon Press, 2006.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-0199297603.  VSCL. 

Pleasure and Enjoyment: Quotations, Sayings, Information

Hedonistic and Epircurean Philosophy

The Five Senses  

Play

Flaming Memories

Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk,
quickly poured the gasoline
over his head till it soaked to his feet.

He sat down calmly on a Saigon street,
straightened his robe, his purpose keen:
to Protest Injustice and the Horrors he'd Seen.

Lighting the match - he Exploded in Flames.

One image from 'Nam was burned in my brain.

- June 11, 1963


I dreamt I died.
Followed by


Cuttings - Short Poems

Poetry by Mike Garofalo

Reginald Horace Blyth (1898-1964)

Reginald Horace Blyth (1898-1964)   
Bibliography, Biography, Links, Resources, Quotations, Comments, Influence, Zen, Haiku
Hypertext Notebook by Michael P. Garofalo

Moving Towards Self-Improvement

"Correction of movements is the best means of self-improvement:
1.  The nervous system is occupied mainly with movement. 
2.  It is easier to distinguish the quality of movement.
3.  We have a richer experience of movement.
4.  The ability to move is important to self-value.
5.  All muscular activity is movement.
6.  Movements reflect the state of the nervous system.
7.  Movement is the basis of awareness.
8.  Breathing is movement.
9.  Hinges of habit."
-  Moshe Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement, pp. 33-39, 1972

Notes on Feldenkrais Methods

Learning Tai Chi from Instructional DVDs

Here is an blog post of mine from 2015.  It pertains to learning a particular Taijiquan Form (e.g., Chen 18, Yang 24) from instructional DVDs and books:


The most frequent question I am asked is "Where I live there are no Taijiquan teachers of the the Taijiquan style X that I want to learn.  How do I go about learning Taijiquan Style X?"

You always need to learn Tai Chi by observing someone doing the Taijiquan form you are studying, and listening carefully to their instructions.  Fortunately, in 2015, for most Taijiquan forms, you have from two to ten different choices of very knowledgeable instructors or Masters who teach the Taijiquan form that you are learning by means of good instructional DVDs or videos.  Also, for some popular Taijiquan forms there are excellent books or manuals available for the form you are learning, or very good online webpages on the form.  Sometimes there are VCDs that can be played on a home computer.  Finally, there are some online courses and UTube demonstrations of the form you are learning.  

You are learning the "basics" from a good live teacher and/or a good writer.  All Taijiquan is learned this way.  

My own webpages provide extensive bibliographies of these many learning resources.  I also provide many suggestions and remarks about learning specific forms using DVDs, videos, and books, e.g.,  Standard 24 Taijiquan Form.  

Instructional DVDs come in NTSC and PAL formats, with NTSC format being used on DVD players in the United States.  If you are purchasing your DVD from  outside the United States it is most likely in the PAL format and will not work properly on your DVD player.  Caveat Emptor.  

I use a small desktop DVD player.  My Vzon model, playing the NTSC format, has a hand held DVD controller and controls on the machine.  I no longer use instructional VHS videos, because you can't as easily cue as with DVDs. 

You want to purchase a DVD that teaches the Taijiquan form.  You want an instructional DVD, not a demonstration DVD.  Advanced Tai Chi students can sometimes learn from a demonstration DVD, but not without much difficulty.  All Tai Chi learners can benefit from a good instructional DVD that breaks the form down into discrete sections (lessons, blocks) and provides detailed verbal instructions on how to perform the movements in each section.  Sometimes a section is called a "lesson" and might include three or four movements of the form.  The best instructional DVDs feature frequent repetition of a movement, clear voice over narration, the use of different camera angles for showing a movement sequence, sectional performance demonstrations, and complete demonstrations of the form from a front and back view.  It is essential to get the narration in the language you use, because it is very hard to read subtitles and carefully study the the movements visually at the same time.   

Study each DVD lesson carefully, make notes, memorize the names of the movements in that lesson, then immediately practice each lesson until you can perform the movement sequence in the lesson on your own.  Repeat, repeat, repeat!!  Don't move on to the next lesson until you can perform the movements in the lesson you are studying on your own.  Give yourself a little slack and accept being just "satisfactory" at performing each lesson.  Over time you will refine and perfect your performance.   

After learning the first lesson, then proceed in the same manner to learn the second lesson.  Then combine the first and second lesson and practice them together until you can perform them on your own.  Don't move on to lesson three until you can easily and smoothly perform lessons one and two combined.  To "learn" means to me to be able to remember and easily, consistently, and smoothly perform a sequence of movements on your own.  Study Lesson 1, practice and learn Lesson 1; study Lesson 2, practice and learn Lessons 1 + 2; study Lesson 3, practice and learn Lessons 1 + 2 + 3; study Lesson 4, practice and learn Lessons 1 + 2 + 3 +4, etc. 

As with all learning the keys are: daily study, careful study, paying attention, remembering, daily practice, patience, repetition, visualization, verbal cues, making notes, and confidence.  Take your time, don't rush, be patient.  The process of learning might take months. 

Here are some suggestions from Robert Chuckrow: 

"Whereas a form-instruction video is no substitute for a qualified teacher, those who live far from any teacher are still better off learning from a video than if they had no instruction at all. For those who have a teacher, a video can augment and accelerate the learning process. Finally, those who have had prior instruction in internal arts should be able to attain a substantial benefit from a video.

One method of learning a form from a video is to repeatedly do the entire form or blocks of the form along with the video. However, this method is not efficient because there is insufficient opportunity to reinforce each movement. A better way is to refrain from doing movement while watching the video. Rather, it is good to choose a small block of material, watch it a few times. Then, without any major physical action, visualize the sequence of movements as clearly as possible. Next, go back to the beginning of that block of material, and view and visualize it again a few times. Only after clear and complete visualization is achieved should the movements be attempted physically.

At first it will seem extremely difficult to work this way. With persistence, however, it is possible to achieve a level of visualization so intense that the imagined movements are almost as vivid as those seen on a TV screen. The dividends of the process of visualization are twofold: (1) By subduing the physical aspects of movement (e.g., balance, coordination, kinetic sense, timing), you can completely focus the mind on the details of the movement. (2) By cultivating the ability to visualize and mentally encompass complex details, you become increasingly able to observe and learn new movements quickly, especially in situations where it is not feasible to move while observing (e.g., dreams, teacher showing movements while the class watches). Referring to the dimension of self-defense, the more you can observe and mentally encompass the movements of the opponent, the greater the advantage achieved." 
- Robert Chuckrow, The Tai Chi Book, YMAA Publication Center, Boston, MA, 1998, pp. 119–120

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 23

Daodejing, Laozi
Chapter 23


"To be always talking is against nature.
For the same reason a hurricane never lasts a whole morning,
Nor a rainstorm all day.
Who is it that makes the wind and rain?
It is Heaven-and Earth.
And if even Heaven-and Earth cannot blow or pour for long,
How much less in his utterance should man?
Truly, if one uses the Way as one's instrument,
The results will be like the Way;
If one uses the “power” as instrument,
The results will be like the “power”.
If one uses what is the reverse of the “power”,
The results will be the reverse of the “power”.
For to those who have conformed themselves to the Way,
The Way readily lends its power.
To those who have conformed themselves to the power,
The power readily, lends more power.
While to those who conform themselves to inefficacy,
Inefficacy readily lends its ineffectiveness.
“It is by not believing in people that you turn them into liars.”"
-  Translated by Arthur Waley, 1934, Chapter 23 


"Nature does not have to insist,
Can blow for only half a morning,
Rain for only half a day,
And what are these winds and these rains but natural?
If nature does not have to insist,
Why should man?
It is natural too
That whoever follows the way of life feels alive,
That whoever uses it properly feels well used,
Whereas he who loses the way of life feels lost,
That whoever keeps to the way of life
Feels at home,
Whoever uses it properly
Feels welcome,
Whereas he who uses it improperly
Feels improperly used:
'Fail to honor people,
They fail to honor you."
-  Translated by Witter Bynner, 1944, Chapter 23

"With few words affirm the Self.
A great wind does not blow all the morning,
A heavy wind does not continue all day.
Why is this so?
It is because of the inter-relations of Heaven and Earth.
If Heaven and Earth cannot make things last long.
How much less can man?
Therefore he who follows the service of Tao is one with Tao,
He who is virtuous is one with Teh,
He who fails is one with failure.
He who is one with Tao,
Tao shall also claim him.
He who is one with Teh
Teh shall also claim him.
He who is one with failure,
Failure shall also claim him.
Faith that is not complete is not faith."
-  Translated by Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 23

"To be sparing of words is natural.
A violent wind cannot last a whole morning; pelting rain cannot last a whole day.
Who have made these things but heaven and earth?
Inasmuch as heaven and earth cannot last forever, how can man?
He who engages himself in Tao is identified with Tao.
He who engages himself in virtue is identified with virtue.
He who engages himself in abandonment is identified with abandonment.
Identified by Tao, he will be well received by Tao.
Identified with virtue, he will be well received by virtue.
Identified with abandonment, he will be well received by abandonment."
-  Translated by Ch'u Ta-Kao, 1904, Chapter 23 

希言自然.
故飄風不終朝.
驟雨不終日.
孰為此者, 天地.
天地尚不能久.
而況於人乎.
故從事於道者.
道者同於道.
德者同於德.
失者同於失.
同於道者, 道亦樂得之.
同於德者, 德亦樂得之.
同於失者, 失亦樂得之.
信不足焉, 有不信焉. -  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 23

xi yan zi ran.
gu piao feng bu zhong zhao.
zhou yu bu zhong ri.
shu wei ci zhe, tian di.
tian di shang bu neng jiu.
er kuang yu ren hu.
gu cong shi yu dao zhe.
dao zhe tong yu dao.
de zhe tong yu de.
shi zhe tong yu shi.
tong yu dao zhe, dao yi le de zhi.
tong yu de zhe, de yi le de zhi.
tong yu shi zhe, shi yi le de zhi.
xin bu zu yan, you bu xin yan!
-  Pinyin Romanization, Daodejing, Chapter 23 

"Sparing indeed is the Nature of its Talk ...
Sparing indeed is nature of its talk:
The whirlwind will not last the morning out;
The cloudburst ends before the day is done.
What is it that behaves itself like this?
The earth and sky! And if it be that these
Cut short their speech, how much more yet should man!
If you work by the Way,
You will be of the Way;
If you work through its virtue
you will be given the virtue;
Abandon either one
And both abandon you.
Gladly then the Way receives
Those who choose to walk in it;
Gladly too its power upholds
Those who choose to use it well;
Gladly will abandon greet
Those who to abandon drift.
Little faith is put in them
Whose faith is small."
-  Translated by Raymond Blackney, 1955, Chapter 23

"Hablar poco es lo natural.
Un huracán no dura toda la mañana.
Un aguacero no dura todo el día.
¿Quién hace estas cosas?
El cielo y la tierra.
Sí las cosas del cielo y la tierra
no pueden durar eternamente,
¿cómo pretende el hombre que sus cosas sí lo hagan?
Así, quien acepta al Tao
se une al Tao.
Quien acepta la virtud,
se une a la virtud.
Quien acepta la pérdida,
se une a esa pérdida.
Quien se identifica con una de estas cosas,
por ella es acogido y podrá avanzar plenamente.
Ábrete al Tao,
después confía en tus respuestas naturales
y todo encajará en su sitio."
-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Capitulo 23  

"To speak little is natural.
Therefore a gale does not blow a whole morning
Nor does a downpour last a whole day.
Who does these things? Heaven and Earth.
If even Heaven and Earth cannot force perfect continuity
How can people expect to?
Therefore there is such a thing as aligning one's actions with the Tao.
If you accord with the Tao you become one with it.
If you accord with virtue you become one with it.
If you accord with loss you become one with it.
The Tao accepts this accordance gladly.
Virtue accepts this accordance gladly.
Loss also accepts accordance gladly.
If you are untrustworthy, people will not trust you."
-  Translated by Charles Muller, 1891, Chapter 23

A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes up to 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, research leads, translation sources, a Google Translate drop down menu, and other resources for that Chapter.   

Chapter 23, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

Beauty Draws Us Higher

"The first act of awe, when man was struck with the beauty or wonder of Nature, was the first spiritual experience."
- Henryk Skolimowski


“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful implanted in the human soul.”
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe


"Spirituality is meant to take us beyond our tribal identity into a domain of awareness that is more universal."
- Deepak Chopra


"Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,
I keep it staying at Home -
With a bobolink for a Chorister,
And an Orchard, for a Dome."
- Emily Dickinson, No. 324, St. 1, 1862 


"Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."
- Franz Kafka

Spirituality

Beauty

Taiji Characteristics

Characteristics of Yang Style Taijiquan

     "The distinctive characteristics of Yang Chengfu style Taijiquan are: the postures are relaxed and expansive, simple and clean, precise in composition; the body method is centered and aligned, not inclining or leaning; the movements are harmonious and agreeable, containing hard and soft, uniting lightness of spirit and heaviness of application.  In training, one attains softness from loosening/relaxing (song).  In accumulating softness one develops hardness; hardness and softness benefit one another [mutually interact].  

     The postures may be high, middle or low, so that one is able to make appropriate adjustments in the measure of the movements according to factors of age differences, sex, bodily strength, or differing demands of the student.  Because of this, it is as suitable for treating illness or protecting health as it is for increasing strength and fitness or increasing the artistic skill of one who is relatively strong to begin with.

     The postures of Yang style Taijiquan are expansive and open, light yet heavy, nature, centered and upright, rounded and even, simple, vigorous, and dignified,─because of this, one is able to quite naturally express and individual style that is grand and beautiful."

-  Introduction by Gu Liuxin, pp. 7-8.  Found in Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan.  Bu Fu Zhongwen (1903-1994).  Translated by Louis Swaim.  Berkeley, California, Blue Snake Books, North Atlantic Books, 1999, 2006.  Glossary, bibliography, 226 pages.  Translations of many Tai Chi classics are included.  A list of the 85 movement long form and detailed notes and descriptions of each movement are provided. 

Yang Taijiquan Quotations, Sayings, Lore, Classics, Principles

Chen Taijiquan Quotations, Sayings, Lore, Classics, Principles

T'ai Chi Ch'uan Classics: Bibliography, Links, Resources, Quotations

Cloud Hands Taijiquan

Thirteen Postures of Tai Chi Chuan

Sailing Through the Northwest Passage

I really enjoyed watching the documentary about people sailing the Northwest Passage in the Arctic realms of Northern Canada.  The documentary is now on Netflix and is titled "The Polar Sea."  

Because of global warming the ice is melting in this polar region with a dramatic effect on the landscape, animals, and humans. 







Stan Rogers (1949-1983) composed this song, "Northwest Passage."






"Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died
Seeking gold and glory, leaving broken weathered bones
And a long forgotten lonely cairn of stones

Ah for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea

Three centuries thereafer I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began
Watching cities rise before me, and behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer driving hard across the plain

Ah for just one time I would take the Northwest passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
To make a Northwest Passage to the sea

Through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts
and showed a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea

How then am I so different from the first men to this way
Like them I led a sheltered life and threw it all away
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again

Ah for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a northwest passage to the sea
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea."
-  Stan Rogers, 1981