A few memes for fun…
Scarlett O’Hara Was Here
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Martial Monday Bonus: A.I. Bruce Lee on Life’s Pain
I found this on a YouTube channel that we’ve become quite fond of here. It’s called The Fathers We Needed, and it’s various fictional characters talking on dealing with life. The voices are A.I. generated, and maybe the pictures are also. The wisdom comes from numerous schools of thought, and is generally very good. The only one we found worthless was the one of Vegita from Dragonball Z talking about pride and determination.
Here though, the A.I. Bruce Lee gives us some very simple yet profound truth about the pain life will bring all of us. Mostly Buddhist in origin I think, but other schools of thought have expressed very similar ideas:
Transcript:
Despite the many methods men use to escape, avoid or numb their pain, what they achieve in practice amounts to little more than the exchange of one form of pain for another.
They exchange the pain of progress for the final category of pain; the pain of stagnation. The pain of regret over wasted years and wasted talent. The pain of self-loathing, of poor health and a troubled mind.
What you must learn, my student, is that pain itself is inevitable. Either a man will accept the pain associated with the effort to grow himself; a pain which is necessary to achieve happiness, health and prosperity… OR he will experience the pain associated with the slow death of his potential and the regret of a wasted existence.
There are no other options, no man can truly avoid pain, but he can choose which pain he experiences. So my students, you must choose wisely.
AI Bruce Lee – The Fathers We Needed YouTube Channel
My Own Thoughts:
The casual listener will understand this on one level, such as working hard for material wealth. A wise listener will understand this truth applies in ALL areas of life; mental and emotional challenges, relationship challenges, physical training, earning a living, you name it.
This is a universal truth. Doesn’t matter if we’re talking Buddhism or Christianity (or any other philosophy or religion). LIFE… all of it… is meant to be a learning and growing process. By it’s very nature, that process is painful. Accepting that, and learning the lessons is FAR less painful than fighting it and prolonging your suffering.
FAR too often nowadays, people expect God and the universe to be there to serve them and prevent them from feeling any discomfort in life, OR they curse God for the lack of that comfort. They blame their fellow man for their misery and waste time on fear and loathing instead of moving forward in life.
Instead, embrace what life throws at you, learn from it and grow as a person. You’ll be happier and healthier in the long run.
Master Chief’s video on getting through a crisis is also worth a look if you have the time.
Martial Monday: Learning Martial Arts from a Book (or Video)?
Anybody remember the scene from the first Karate Kid movie where after Daniel finds out that Johnny and his buddies know karate, he checks out a book from the library and is found by Miyagi practicing kicks from the book?
“No can learn karate from book”
With a fairly long background in martial arts, I thought I’d throw a little light on the topic. The people publishing these books (and videos) make a killing on them, and would have you believe you’re just a read and some practice away from becoming Bruce Lee.
If only life were so simple…
The SHORT answer is that anybody of any level can get SOMETHING out of karate books and videos. How much depends upon what you already know.
What if You’re a Beginner?
Your typical books written for beginners can teach you the basics of fundamental kicks, strikes and blocks. None of it will do you any good without a ton of practice however.
The reason Miyagi said what he did in the movie (and instructors will tell you the same thing in real life) is that there are other critical aspects of self-defense that you’re not going to learn from a book:
Basic footwork and Body mechanics to get the most power out of a strike.
When a particular block, strike or kick is appropriate vs using another technique
Target selection for a particular strike or kick
Potential counters for what you may try, and EVERYTHING has a counter.
Timing and set up for techniques
The “secret” (advanced level) tricks that make techniques more effective
And countless other things from not freezing when you take a strike to when it’s better to walk away in the first place.
What a Beginner CAN Get From a Book:
First, there’s the obvious. ANY knowledge is better than none, so long as you understand the limitations of what you know. That last part is the key factor.
Beginners should approach books as a gateway to understanding a martial art, and to see if it piques their interest enough to merit looking into study at an actual dojo. Most books that cover the basics of a style or art will also include information about the style’s history and philosophy. That information can be just as handy as the technique illustrations in feeling out a particular type of martial arts and if it’s right for you.
If You’re More Advanced In Your Knowledge:
The vast majority of martial arts books are truly intended for intermediate to advanced students. “Advanced” meaning 1st degree black belt or above in this case. Many of the early books available in the West were written by Asian masters who wanted to pass on key points of their style to students studying far away from them; students of students, etc… Hyping their style or school to attract new students to it and spread it’s fame is always a secondary goal as well.
Even at this level, a book can’t show every subtle shift of weight, or the ideal movement to transition from one picture or drawing in a book to the next one. It’s expected that the student is familiar enough with the process that the book serves as a reminder more than a teacher.
So Can You Pick Up a New Style From A Book or Video?
Having trained in six arts and done seminars or had a few lessons in just as many others, I feel fairly qualified to answer this one. It really depends upon how similar the style is to what you already know, and if you’re open minded enough to realize some of what your old or current school taught you might not be fully accurate.
“Similar” is an easy enough concept to understand. Kenpo is similar enough to Japanese Karate that the concepts are easy to grasp. Having also studied Wing Chun briefly however, I can tell you that there are numerous subtleties to the art which make it extremely difficult to become competent in as an outsider. Being designed for very close range fighting, and part of it’s defense being “sticking” or maintaining contact with an opponent to more easily sense and deflect their strikes, it’s quite a different experience. An elbow out of position by an inch can mean the difference between safety and having your guard crushed.
The “fully accurate” thing takes a bit more explaining. An easy example is the varying opinions among different styles of the “X-Block” or cross block:
Filipino marital arts (which specialize in bladed weapon combat) teach to pull backwards and slash downward as a counter to this, likely slicing both wrists. Likewise, if used against an overhead club or bottle swing, the length of the club may allow it to still hit the head as it pivots pivots downward. Because of this, quite a few schools now frown on this particular block.
HOWEVER, one has to understand the original intent of this block. It can be used correctly two ways:
The first is to immediately transition into a two handed wrist grab and circle the opponent’s arm into a lock or control technique. Same if it’s used low against a kick, transitioning into an ankle grab.
Second is where most schools have truly forgotten original intent. This, more than most other blocks is meant to be a POWER block. That means it’s executed as hard as the user can. This can literally shatter both of the major bones in the forearm if properly executed. In one book I have, the author details how that happened to him while working with a student and his arm flopped over like a hinge at the break point.
Gruesome, but it illustrates the point about always seeking deeper understanding of how a technique might be used. An open mind is important at every level of learning.
So, to bottom line it, keep an open mind, remember your training, and be prepared to seek other sources of knowledge to supplement what you’re trying to learn. YouTube has a ton of martial arts training videos for example. The vast majority are mediocre quality, but may still be enough to fill in a piece of insight you’re missing.
Keep in mind that you’ll still have your work cut out for you vs real hands on instruction however. At least assuming you’ve found a good instructor.
One Other Note: Caveat Emptor
Quality of martial arts books can vary widely, as with every other topic out there. Some are put together by otherwise decent instructors who don’t know how to illustrate or describe things in a book so that a novice or outsider will grasp them. They assume knowledge the reader may not have.
Other books, as with every other subject, are just snake oil written by people looking to capitalize on a reader’s desire to feel safe or to be a “badass”. Here’s a case and point:
The cover of this ebook alone should be enough to send up red flags for a potential buyer. First and foremost is the bottom line; “The KGB Special Forces system.”
First of all, the KGB was an Intelligence (spy) Agency. It had no “special forces”. Russian special forces are “Spetsnaz”. While they were under the control of Russian military intelligence, that agency (the GRU) was NOT the KGB. The GRU was disbanded in 1992, and the KGB was replaced by the FSB in 1995. So right away the claims of the author become suspect.
Googling the author gets no results for anyone with a background in any kind of martial arts, intelligence or special operations background either.
A less obvious red flag is that any experienced fighter will tell you that knife and gun defense are the LAST thing you ever want to try to learn from a book, especially as a novice.
So while I normally despise Google’s privacy violations, it and Facebook can be valuable research tools in determining if an author is credible. Do your homework before you buy. Investigate the author, check reviews of the book as well. Search for reviews that seem to be written by somebody who knows what they’re talking about too, not just “it’s great” or “it sucks”. If you can only find an ebook version, Amazon’s “Peek Inside” feature can give you an idea if you can make sense of the instructions in there also, or if they’re workable in real life for the average person.
That last bit makes a difference. There’s a ton of SEAL Team related books out there for example. Most of the hand to hand books are written with the idea that you have the superior strength, reflexes and conditioning of a highly trained SEAL Team member though. The best example I can offer here is actually in one of Bruce Lee’s own early books; “Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method: Self Defense Techniques”. In it, he advocates kicking the knife out of an attacker’s hand with a snap kick to the lower wrist.
Bruce Lee can get away with this. The man was clocked hitting 14 times per second. The average person is not going to be that capable and is likely to get a slashed ankle or knife in the leg for trying that. Most of the book is actually very good, but that one technique… ouch.
Let’s Talk Videos Specifically
I’ve spent a great deal of time on books. Videos can be a better option depending upon how detail oriented the instructor is. More advanced details of techniques often get left out of videos because they’re set up to teach beginners. Let me give you a good example:
This is a Kenpo Karate self defense technique against somebody grabbing you by the shirt. Classic bully move that you don’t see that much anymore because attackers realize it leaves them exposed.
There’s a nearly fatal flaw in the technique as 99% of current Kenpo schools teach it though, and it’s visible right in the first 30 seconds. Did you spot it? Don’t feel bad. 🙂
The flaw is that the instructor just throws his arm across the opponent’s hands and steps back to “trap” and extend the arms. In reality, it’s not that hard to just release the lapels and pull away. Kenpo, as it was taught to Ed Parker, was a style that included grappling techniques as well as stand up fighting. It even used to be called Kenpo Juijitsu.
Fixing the technique is fairly easy. First, do NOT just loop your arm over in a big circle to pin the attacker’s hands. It telegraphs big time and an alert opponent will let go to avoid being trapped, and maybe counter with a punch. Keeping your movement small and tight, and similar to a wing chun fook sau (hooking parry) technique is much cleaner.
Second, and most importantly, if you want to keep the opponent pinned and controlled, once you make the grab, roll your pinning hand and forearm downward. This will buckle the wrists and keep them trapped. It will also cause the opponent to move forward at the waist, so that step back and upward strike to the elbows becomes important to avoid a potential headbutt.
So you can learn alot more from a video than a book, BUT sometimes things are left out due to the the viewer’s knowledge level, honest oversight on the instructor’s part, OR because the instructor themself forgot the detail. There are 12 videos on YouTube detailing this technique. I haven’t watched the others, but I’d bet at least 11 of them don’t detail rolling the grab into a sort of double wrist lock.
Even with that said, I still think videos are a better option overall than books just because you can see the entire action, stop it, slow motion it, etc…
I plan on dissecting at least a few other Kenpo videos in the future to show what viewers are missing out in terms of the small details. As for books, do I still think they have value? Judge for yourself:
And that’s only my physical books. 🙂 I’ve learned quite a bit from them but primarily because I keep an open mind and keep digging.
A final note for you authors out there also.
Those books and videos can be a great tool for helping to write a realistic fight scene. I can tell you first hand that nothing thrills somebody with even a basic martial arts background than reading a story where the author actually understands the difference between Tai Chi and Tae Kwon Do in execution.
Abilities…
I’m WAY the hell past time to get to bed so I’ll keep this short.
DO have: Empathic ability
Wish I had: Telekinesis.
Why? It’s control over the physical world, and covert also, with options for things like this:
and this:
And you thought Vader was hardcore there, LOL
and lets not forget things like this:
It’s Over 6000!
Just a running tally of how fast our email’s trash folder is filling up:
All this from all the notifications I get from WP for this blog. 
Blog Changes & Related News
Time to announce some changes here, and at my other blogs.
The recent drama has made me realize I’ve spent too much energy worrying about making others happy instead of letting my creativity run free. I’ve go 6 different blogs, and 4 of them exist just to compartmentalize topics for fear of offending somebody. That’s insanity elevated to an artform. All to try to keep people happy who never will be. Go figure.
For what it’s worth, the last two blogs are just story archives for OLD Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game stories and character bios. They’re a way to provide proof of ownership IF I ever find my concepts filched.
More on that specific issue in a little bit.
Closing Soon:
My “Talking Spirituality” and “Silk’s Erotica” blogs are both going to be shut down completely in the not so distant future. I’m discussing spiritual topics here on Saturdays, and the erotica has a better platform on my self-hosted WordPress site. There are less restrictions there. Silk’s Erotica is nothing but an older, neglected mirror of the Silk’s Writing Corner site anyway.
Once I move the appropriate content where it needs to go, those two sites are gone.
The other sites will remain intact. The City of Heroes and Champions Online sites may go private at some point. I’d like to rewrite everything from there to make that content more friendly (easier to follow) to those who never played the games. I still want to have some proof that the original work is mine though.
Ironically, City of Heroes‘ TOS had hidden in it’s small print that the development company retained ownership of everything players created within the game. I have no idea what the legal status of that TOS would be after the game closed and a decade later re-opened on private servers. I still want to be recognized as the creator of my content though, regardless.
This Site:
The creation of Silk’s Writing Corner gave me some great organizational ideas for this site, particularly in regards to compartmentalizing content via page use and the use of menu pages. I’m going to try to copy that here as much as I can. The WP Reader only pays attention to the blog roll, so I can’t do everything here EXACTLY the same.
The reorganization should eventually make it easier to find specific content, such as our food posts without knowing an exact title. For those who are curious, the NSFW content there is completely isolated from the “normal” material and you won’t see that content unless you look for it specifically.
Private Posts: There’s also one LARGE issue hanging over this site. When I’d previously shut down this site, needing a break, I made everything up till that point into private content. Currently there are still 557 posts that are private. Some are trash quality; bitching about life, etc… and aren’t worth bringing “back to life” Many are worth it though.
We have to figure out the best way to bring them back. WordPress’s tendency to announce even private posts being made public means an all at once approach means followers would eat a tremendous amount of notifications. If I do them a few at a time, we’re literally looking at a year before everything is available to read again.
Likes, Follows, Fakes and Toxicity
This merits a special mention as well. We’ve gone out of our way to network the last month or so, and it’s added almost 30 bloggers to our subscribers. We’ve added over twice that many to our follows though.
As with the last few times we’ve made these kinds of efforts, the results have been a real mixed bag. Some folks have been great. Some are fake followers who like and never read; only interested in “buying” likes for themselves. A few people have turned out to be utterly toxic, in more than one case claiming to be quite enlightened and positive too, LOL.
So, here’s our policy:
To keep it simple, we will give back what we get, and perhaps a bit more where we can.
On the negative side, that means if you’re somebody who never comments, leaves fake, generic comments occasionally and / runs through the reader hitting “like” several times a minute, you’re going to get minimal or no interaction from us.
We save our efforts for sincere, active members of the community who are genuinely interested in supporting each other.
If you’re negative and are going to go on toxic political rants or other venomous diatribes multiple times a day, you’re going to get dropped. We’re both redheads and even we can limit our rants largely to a single post each Tuesday.
If you don’t have a translator widget installed on your blog like we do, we can’t in good faith give a like to content that we can’t read. You have EVERY right to create in your own language, but if you want people from elsewhere to read that content, add the translator widget!
Artwork, Pictures and Graphics:
OK, part of the flap that went down a couple days ago involved us getting accused of plagiarism. There hasn’t been ANY plagiarism here at all. However, there’s ALOT of pictures and other graphics used from the internet. We try to give credit where we can find an actual source, but GIFs in particular are a pain in that regard.
With that in mind, appreciating that artists have rights to their content, etc… and that just about any other option is financially costly, we’re very reluctantly going to be switching to A.I. generated images here. That will include (over time) replacing all existing images that we don’t own, to A.I. generated images as well.
We HATE resorting to A.I. but we feel the recent drama has forced us to move to protect ourselves legally.
Plagiarism!
Now this we want to address more directly. No name calling. We don’t know if our accuser was lying or legitimately saw something that at least resembled our writings from one of our blogs. All we will say there is that IF something was legitimately seen, the issue should have been discussed with us. Period.
That said, let’s set the record straight. Both of us pride ourselves on original content and expressing our own beliefs. We have NEVER plagiarized anything on any of our blogs.
The closest we’ve knowingly come is in the Jedi Leia story. Some scenes where events remain the same use the exact same lines from the movies. This SHOULD be painfully obvious. Most fans can recite the entire script of “A New Hope” as if it was a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. There’s no attempt to steal work there, only tie the alternate reality fan fiction to the original work.
A few pieces of our erotica had their first online exposure almost 2 decades ago. We’ve been told that one story was seen on Literotica.com under somebody else’s name. We were never able to locate it though. Point being, that between stories like that AND reports of stolen content around WordPress itself, it’s possible that IF there was any plagiarism, it was on the other end.
IF anybody sees similar content, LET US KNOW. We want to investigate and hit the perps with a DMCA lawsuit.
Likewise, if you can show us where we unintentionally quoted material without reference, etc… bring it on. We’ll fix it. We doubt you’ll find it though.
Lastly here, if anybody knows of a reliable site for checking against your work being posted somewhere online without permission, please let us know. We want to go on a hunt of our own here. The occasional rumors have been out there too long.
Spirituality Saturday: Life as an Empath
This one is getting written largely due to the blowup Thursday and Friday. It’s not a continuation, THAT is over and done with. We’re not playing her game anymore. The goal here is to get people to understand what it’s like to like with Empathic ability and how that screws with an Empath’s own emotional wellbeing.
Before I start, we need to establish definitions. Empathy is the ability to understand the emotions of others. That means you’re still alive inside and can understand that a situation would make a person sad, angry, etc… You’re aware that there are reasons for a person’s mood or actions and actually care about that cause and effect.
Being an empath, on the other hand, means that you can literally pick up and FEEL the emotions of other people as if you’re going through the exact same thing they are. The insidious thing is that unless you’re really trained, it’s often hard to tell if your emotions are your own or somebody else’s.
The Past; A Wall of Silence
Spiritual gifts are something that, up till recently, I rarely discussed. When I did, it was only in the most general of terms. Why? Society has been rejecting them since time immemorial. If you DO talk about them, you’re crazy, or some sort of devil worshiper.
If I’m honest, I bear a good deal of resentment towards organized religion because of that last accusation. I was the most religious member of my immediate family when I was little, unprompted also. Yet as I got older and made sense of my gifts, every church I tried to connect with condemned such gifts as coming from satanic influences. Hell, even here at WordPress, there are too many good “Christians” willing to condemn and hide in echo chambers. Never mind the New Testament says hate the sin, not the sinner. That of course, would assume that empathic ability was some sort of sin.
Let me expand upon that point. Does ANYBODY here actually believe that there’s ANY form of evil “lower power” that wants people to have the ability to comprehend others’ pain and suffering? Evil is built on a complete lack of empathy for others.
Just so we’re also clear, my problem is with churches, NOT God.
Imagine a world instead where empaths were treated like Counsellor Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Instead of being condemned, churches and other groups used empaths to assist the priests in getting people through troubled times.
I had my own father try to have me committed when I was about 20 when he found a letter to a friend discussing empathy and that I was seeing alot of odd shadows out of the corner of my eye at the time. That with no communication beforehand, just an arbitrary one-sided judgment and condemnation.
Anybody starting to see why authenticity and integrity are valued here and the opposite provokes a strong negative reaction?
Back to the Present:
So what’s driving me to open up today? First, I’ve been really trying to get back in touch with my spiritual side after shutting it down for years. There’s also a slowly growing acceptance of the idea of empathic ability anymore. This article in The Atlantic for example:
It explores the researched idea that some people seem to project emotions. There are also writers like Dr Judith Orloff, a UCLA Psychiatrist that has been writing on Empathy for decades. Other writers are following suite.
The other half of it is all the toxicity in the air anymore is driving me crazy with it’s steady stream of toxic bullshit. Political hate, divisive social issues with no effort to compromise, unbridled, wanton greed from people and corporations who already have money than they could spend in multiple lifetimes… and yes, petty internet drama started due to insecurities and mistrust as well… When somebody puts something as strong as blind hate into something on the internet, that hate becomes tangible to somebody like me. It creeps into our system and poisons our own mood.
Imagine literally absorbing and feeling the hate of every single “the other side needs to go die in a fire” article, social media post, and comment you see. It’s an utterly miserable experience. It makes you feel like THIS:
So when I say in my “Be the Light” post that people addicted to outrage are making the world a darker place, I’m speaking as a person who is very familiar with emotional energy and energetic vibration. Hate, no matter how righteous you THINK it is, lowers the vibration of the spiritual energy in the people and areas exposed to it.
Look at it this way: All these useful idiots think their hate is righteous and use it to fuel their attacks on their opponents. Like emotional energies don’t cancel each other out though, they just add to the total energy. It’s like trying to fight a burst dam by pushing water against the current. All you ultimately get is MORE water, not less. Hate + Hate = more hate, NOT a better situation.
Nobody has ever truly had their mind changed by bullying either.
And On A Personal Note…
How strong an empath am I personally? When I lived in Georgia decades ago, I had a friend that lived in Perth Australia. I could tell when she was having a bad day or was sick and knew before I even hopped online to talk to her. Literally half a world away, and I knew every bad moment she endured while we were friends. Imagine not only being empathic, but having the range to sense every ill intention on the planet at once.
All that was before the incident mentioned in the “Superstitious” post a little while back.
Regardless of strength of empathic ability, it’s intrinsic to want to help others as an empath to the very nature of our awareness. Empathy has one of two effects on people afflicted with it. You either learn compassion, or you suffer to the point of losing your sanity.
Friends are important too. A drop of positive energy can wipe out a 55 gallon drum of negative energy.
I’d wish empathy on the entire population as a learning experience, but I know that would do even more harm than the screwed up society we have now. Too few people are willing to set aside their ego driven need to feel superior or play the victim.
I may not be what I was, but I still feel the overall energy of the world getting darker. Greed, narcissism, cruelty, a complete lack of compassion… If humanity doesn’t change it’s ways SOON, we’re heading for a new dark ages, IF we survive at all.
Ginger Gets A Proper Introduction
OK, we’ve posted a pic or two here and there, but now that there’s been a bit of disclosure here, maybe it’s time to properly meet our near show quality 1967 Mustang; Ginger.
And here’s the engine compartment
Yes, she’s clean and rebuilt from the ground up.
289 CID High Output V8 engine
Roller Rocker Cams conversion
4 Barrel Carburetor
Chrome tubular headers and straight dual exhaust
3 Row Stainless Steel Radiator
Electric Cooling Fan
True Ram Air / Functional Hood Scoop
Complete Polyurethane Suspension Bushings (brutally stiff ride)
The Interior, You Say?
1969 High Back Seats with custom upholstery.
She still needs a little work here and there to get her truly show ready, but she’s close.
Favorite Weather…
Actually, THAT would be a toss-up. If I’m inside with nowhere to go, and it’s not a constant thing, it would have to be thunderstorms.
They’re energizing. California was absolutely boring in terms of weather also. Ever seen Jimmy Kimmel’s mocking the news when LA people freak out over it sprinkling? NorCal wasn’t near that bad but there’s still nothing like a good old fashioned Southern thunderstorm there.
Barring that, or as a change of pace, you can give me Honolulu’s everyday weather of 72 degrees with sunshine and a light breeze on a tropical beach.
Food Friday: Just Desserts. 😈
The title is a pun, both a reflection of my anger (see last post) and the fact that going back through my earlier posts looking for food related ones to re-activate, I realized that there were apparently next to nothing showcasing desserts.
BBQ is a specialty of the house, as are Tex-Mex and Italian, BUT… Well, Cheesecake Factory has nothing on us. 😁
That’s a Cinnamon Caramel cheesecake, one of the few we’ve had crack too.
And this one is a triple chocolate cheesecake that we made for her cousin’s son’s birthday. Same cousin who continually took advantage of of good natures until we cut him off completely.
How about a chocolate espresso cheesecake?
We’ve also done Kahlua Mudslide Cheesecake, Standard New York, Pumpkin Spice, and several other flavors of cheesecake. Hopefully more pictures turn up than just these.
Apple Pies and other treats abound as well.
Oh and how about homemade chocolate mini bundt cakes topped with ice cream and chocolate?
Silk Chatters 