The Traceless Warrior

Why Anthony Wiener needs to retire from politics

2011-06-07T11:01:00.000-04:00

Surprised I think that? You shouldn't be.

Right now as I follow the story I see people on the right calling for Wiener's head, and people on the left trying to excuse his behavior.

The Right's argument seems to boil down to "his actions prove that he is an immoral scumbag, so he should resign." I can buy that argument, but the problem is that, as far as I can tell, everyone in office is pretty much an immoral scumbag, so if you take that tack, everyone needs to resign (which is maybe not such a bad idea)

The argument on the Left is that Wiener broke no laws. This is correct as far as we can tell. Phone sex and sexting are not illegal acts per se. It does not seem to be the case the Wiener has even broken his wedding vows, at least technically. So this is not a case like that of Elliot Spitzer or David Vitter who actually broke the law.

So why should Wiener resign then? It's simple, his actions demonstrate a profound lack of emotional maturity, coupled with an inability to project the consequences of his actions into the future and act accordingly. He also shows a lack of conscience, which is to say he shows no connection to understanding that his actions will hurt a great many people.

I accept the fact that to get elected and hold office in this country you need to be a borderline sociopath, but it matters to me which side of that line someone lands.

Weiner's emotional underdevelopment, in my opinion, makes him unfit for office and the right thing for him to do is to retire from political life and get himself some psychological help and some marriage counseling.

We need people in office who are both intellectually and emotionally mature, and Wiener as shown himself to be neither.

Life is unfair

2011-04-16T17:42:00.000-04:00

But sometimes it's unfair in your favor.

I have again been the guest on the Diamond Hour with my friend Steve Barnes. This is the first cast of the show since Steve made his move from the West Coast to the East coast. As usual we had great fun talking about all manner of things. Check it out.

More for the Exercise Nerd in all of us

2011-04-16T10:18:00.000-04:00

Two More Core Exercises

The first I call "Double Poling". I use it to help keep in shape over the warm months for winter XC skiing. All you need are enough resistance bands to give you a challenge, and a hook at about shoulder level.

Here is my student Laura demonstrating the exercise.

As you can see, the whole body works together, but the focus is on the core contraction, just as if you were propelling yourself forward on XC skis. There is also a serious cardio component to this one.

Here is a pretty good tutorial on actual double poling, so you can see how the two relate.

Today's second exercise, demonstrated by Joe, is called the "rope pull".

It is also done with resistance bands and a hook, but this one is designed to address the obliques and build strength, stability and endurance along the diagonal line of the torso.

This one also has a nice cardio component to it.

We usually do both of these exercises as Tabata sets, 20 seconds at fast speed, 10 second rest period for 8 rounds.

Exercise Nerd

2011-04-01T17:43:00.000-04:00

A new hash-tag is born!

My friend Carey Rockland has coined a new hash-tag for the twitterverse, #ExerciseNerd. This allows those of us who get all geeked over tinkering with exercise to be able to easily aggregate our conversations on witty new ways to create happy muscle soreness.

In honer of this most momentous event, I would like to start introducing some of the exercises I use with my students to help them with their conditioning. I'm also planning on some do-it-yourself exercise posts in the near future that may be of interest.

So here is the first of what may be an ongoing series for your edification.

All that is required for this exercise is something to give you resistance like a thera-band or dyna-band, some way to anchor it, and a bit of room to move. (For more resistance you can use two or three bands at the same time).

The idea is to stand facing the anchor point holding an end of the band in each hand. You then swing out for a leg or hip throw motion, making sure to focus on good form, with careful attention to core activation throughout the throw. Your obliques will thank you.

Here is my student Adam demonstrating the exercise, which will do more to pass it on to you than reading about it. Enjoy!

I think Dennis Kucinich is the last politician I have any respect at all for.

2011-03-13T14:42:00.000-04:00

Here's the sort of thing any decent public servant should be saying.

(I hope Obama is paying attention).

Rule #1 applies

2011-03-10T20:31:00.000-05:00

Someone (Named Timothy, Thanks Dewd) Mentioned that my last post referenced "Sword of Truth".

I have to allow that I didn't know what he was talking about, so I did a bit of quick research (I love Wikipedia!) and discovered that "Sword Of Truth" is a series of books by Terry Goodkind the first of which is called "Wizard's First Rule". I had not in fact read these books, having come to the realization of Rule #1 all on my own by the simple expedient of watching my fellow humans for quite a long time, as well as examining my own inner workings. But I have to say, Goodkind's take on Rule #1 is pretty good, and more to the point, perfectly explains the situation in America today (on ALL sides).

So here is Terry Goodkind's read on Rule #1, taken from the book "Wizard's First Rule".

"Wizard's First Rule: people are stupid." Richard and Kahlan frowned even more. "People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."

Pity the poor human. The main quality that makes us human is not speech, or tool making, it is the near infinite capacity for self delusion. Understand this and you will understand the greater part of history, politics and religion.

Rule #1 Applies!

Say goodby to the State of Michigan

2011-03-09T18:49:00.001-05:00

Say hello to the new corporate Territories.

I try to not feel too bad about it, people here were gullible enough to elect someone like Snyder, even knowing what happened to Gateway Computers. So when they get what they ~~deserve~~ asked for, we should remember Rule #1.*

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

But I hate to see this happening. We have given up any semblance of a democracy, and when Snyder starts giving the State over to his buddies I hope the Tea Baggers are happy with their new corporate overlords. (Bunch of F^*@#*G idiots)

(Rule #1: People are Stupid)

Flow

2011-03-07T10:20:00.000-05:00

I am becoming quite the media personality (HA!)

I was invited back on the Diamond Hour to discuss the idea of flow, what it is and how to find it with my friend Steve Barnes. We were having so much fun we ran overtime. Take a listen.

The Latist Political Meme

2011-03-01T10:09:00.002-05:00

"A public union employee, a tea party activist and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, "Watch out for that union guy he wants a piece of your cookie."

Scott Sonnon's Interview by TACTICAL Magazine

2011-02-23T12:33:00.000-05:00

I would like to recommend this to all my many fives of fans.

Scott just did a rather informitive interview with Tactical Magazine on the subject of Tacfit, it's well worth the read,

Check it out

Thought for the day

2011-02-22T11:05:00.000-05:00

The thing I find most interesting about predictions of the end of the world is that so far they have been 100% wrong.

In any other field, that kind of failure would drive people away in droves. Can you imagine a stock broker staying in business if he were to be 100% wrong about his stock choices? How about a farmer who was 100% wrong about when to plant his crops?

Yet many people, when confronted by this failure, rather than avoiding the people who make these sorts of prognostications in the future, instead rationalize as to why the prediction was incorrect.

Now this is different from the usual "prophecy" pattern, where someone says something obscure which is then pointed to after some event as "proof" that the prophecy was correct (The prophet Brutha said "angels weep rivers of tears for man's loss of faith in Om" and that year the river Ankh flooded so the prophecy was true.) That's just an old stage mentalist trick.

This is of a much higher order of craziness. Various power hungry (or completely insane) "prophets" predict the end of the world, then make excuses for why said end failed to come and their followers buy it.

Of course "normal" people do this all the time. Every time a belief is proven to be untrue people don't abandon it, they rationalize as to why the belief is still valid even though the evidence shows it to be false.

Truly I say unto you, "Belief is the enemy of faith".

I was invited back on The Diamond Hour again today

2011-02-19T19:26:00.000-05:00

The topic was on changing life patterns using hypnosis and NLP.

I always hanging out with me amigo Steve Barnes and talking about strange and esoteric things. For those interested (and who wouldn't be) here is the program.

The Android Sisters

2011-02-14T00:54:00.000-05:00

Frank Talk with a Frankie

Your thought for the day.

Thought of the Day

2011-02-11T09:41:00.000-05:00

“Many forms of spirituality try to get rid of thoughts, feelings, and memories-to make the mind blank, as if that were a desirable or spiritual state. But to have the mind blank is not necessarily wise. Instead, it is more helpful to see through thoughts and to recognize that a thought is just a thought, a memory. Then we can stop binding consciousness of spirit to our thoughts and mental states.”
~Adyashanti

Seven mile cross country ski run

2011-02-05T22:50:00.000-05:00

Groomed trails are nice, but sometimes ya just gotta get away from the crowd.

It was a very nice day today, though a bit overcast and in the single digits for a good part of it. Rather than heading out to the fancy park with the groomed trails, as nice as they are, we decided to go brush popping today.

There's nothing quite like being the first person to explore a world covered with three to four feet of fresh snow.

Here's an example of what the day looked like at one of the ponds along the trails.

And here's the snow gnome getting ready to make her getaway.

Off the beaten track.....

and up the hill in fresh snow.

Me, being the brains of the outfit, I stayed back and let her break trail :-)

There were points where we were half way to our knees in snow even on the skis.

After a good hour and a half of running around the woods we finally made it back down to the Grand River.

Which, as usual, just gorgeous with all the snow and ice.

Life doesn't get much better.

Every day I say a thank you to the first crazy guy who figured out how to tie a couple of sticks to his feet.

Subversive Musicians?

2011-02-04T15:01:00.000-05:00

Back in the day in Anatolia, this would have most likely been a group of Bektashi families.

Ya gotta watch those sufi types, who knows what trouble they might cause.

Be Happy, it's an order!

With a hat tip to David.

Scott Sonnon Interview on TacFit

2011-02-04T10:33:00.000-05:00

The most comprehensive interview on the subject to date.

Here is an interview of Scott Sonnon, conducted by John Sifferman on the subject of TacFit, the revolutionary training and workout paradigm that is changing the face of exercise.

Of all the training methodologies I have experienced in my life, so far Tacfit has been consistently the most useful. I am in the process of writing up a review of TacFit Warrior at the moment, but this will take a few days, in the meantime check out this interview, drop by the Tacfit website and check out the full entry on John Sifferman's Blog.

So Sad, So True

2011-02-04T09:43:00.000-05:00

Sonw Day, Michigan style

With a hat tip to Fenna!

A little NSFW

The Blizzard of 2011

2011-02-02T15:19:00.000-05:00

Such as it was.

We got some snow last night, enough to shut down most of the streets around the house.

The best way to get around the neighborhood was on snowshoes

Getting out of the driveway was a little difficult.

Taht was the accumulation since 11:00 PM last night (when I went out and shoveled, knowing I would regret it if I didn't)

We had to dig out in shifts.

Then I took a walk around to see how thing were.

The streets were buried and impassable for the most part.

The plows had opened up the main thoroughfares,

But haven't even begun to address the residential streets.

Which, to tell you the truth, is just fine by me. I am looking forward to a few days of skiing and snowshoeing.

Yay Winter!

For the first time in my life I'm actually looking for followers

2011-01-29T10:59:00.001-05:00

For my twitter account that is.

Yes, I have been co-opted into the world of social networking (sigh) and am going to make an attempt to use it for good rather than evil.

You can follow my ramblings and adventures here if you are so inclined.

Pop Quiz: it's 7 degrees f and there's a snow storm, what do you do?

2011-01-25T18:20:00.000-05:00

Go skiing!!!

I do love going out when it is storming, there is never anyone else on the trails for some reason.

This winter has been a bit disappointing in that all the really good snow storms just passed us by, it's one of the drawbacks of living in Michigan's sun belt. This Saturday though, we got a fairly decent snowstorm.

Of course you do have to put on some protective clothing. (he win chill factor made it as if -10 f)

But it is sure worth it to be able to experience the world under such conditions.

The section of the Grand River that I was able to make it out to was only just beginning to ice over.

You just gotta love the quiet of a snow storm in the woods.

Sunday was even colder than Saturday. The temperature was -20 f at sun-up and -6 f at 10:00am but the sun was out, so...... More Skiing!

I grabbed the Snow Gnome and we took off for Pigeon Creek park where they have about 10 miles of groomed trail for XC skiing.

It was quite a treat because for the last couple of years we have just gone off trail back country brush poppin. Which, while lots of fun, requires more attention to the technical side of skiing than does well groomed trail.

It was a perfect day for just gliding through the woods and enjoying the sunlight.

I do love winter.

The Passing of an American Icon

2011-01-24T09:48:00.000-05:00

Jack LaLanne died yesterday at the age of 96

He was one of my personal heroes. I used to love tuning in his half hour show when I was young and follow along with his workouts. It was a lot cheaper than trying to acquire weights or sending money to Charles Atlas. It was probably LaLanne who launched my interest in athletics and fitness.

He was the original minimalist, doing his workouts with body-weight a towel and a chair. He was also decades ahead of his time in his thinking about health.

Rather than going on about him, I'll just leave you with a few video clips of a great man.

Meeting Stevan Plinck - Part 1

2011-01-14T11:52:00.000-05:00

Over the years there have been a few inquiries about how I have found the people I have studied with.

So pull up a chair and take a load off, and let me tell you about meeting a couple of the best martial artists I have had the pleasure of studying with.

It was back it the first year of the last decade of the twentieth century (It's so odd to be able to say that), I was living the life of a dojo bum in Southern California. I was making my living mostly as a bouncer, and by the occasional pick-up job as event security.

If your needs are small you can make sufficient money doing this sort of thing to support a martial arts habit, while getting the opportunity to test your art in interesting and unexpected ways.

I had come to LA from the South West, where I had spent a year studying a new martial art a guy had come up with that was based in Aikido. It was interesting for the guy's take on flow, but a bit too esoteric for long term study.

I was hoping to find something a bit more.... energetic to train in while in SoCal.

One evening, a week or so after arriving in town I bumped into an old friend at a social gathering. It turned out that he had been studying Pukulan Pentjak Silat Bukti Nagara with Pendekar Paul de Thouars.

Paul de Thouars was a person who I had been interested in for a few years. Back in the '80s I had run across a couple of videos while buying some equipment at the I&I Sports outlet. they were a two VHS tape set on Pentjak Silat Serak-Tonkat by another member of the de Thouars family. I had been practicing Silat for something like 10 years at the time, but had not been exposed to this particular art.

To tell the truth, the videos were not all that impressive, except for one thing. There was an interlude in the middle of each tape of a person (it turned out to be Paul de Thouars) working with Dan Inosanto. Even though the clip was only a couple minutes, it was by far the most interesting part of the tape. the man's movement was smooth, elegant, and decisive. It was pure combat efficiency. I wanted me some of that!

In the intervening years I had seen a few articles about Paul de Thouars in the martial arts rags, I remember on in particular where Mr. Inosanto referred to him as "the deadliest man I have ever met", but I never had occasion to run across him.

And here I was, talking to a friend who was attending classes with him. I asked for an introduction.

There were a couple of phone calls, and an invitation to drop by the PDT Academy.

Within the week I found myself at a strip mall in Arcadia (people can make fun of strip mall dojos as much as they like, but you never know what you might find until you sample the wares) watching a class.

I was impressed. At the risk of sounding more arrogant than I actually am, I had become used to going to a school and being able to come out favorably against a good number of the students in a sparring match. At the PDT Academy this was not the case. There were some serious people at the PDT academy. They were skilled and were game to mix it up on a regular basis. It was sort of like being surrounded by wolves. it was an invigorating experience to say the least.

The first thing I did when I got home from my first class was to call my friend Steve Barnes. I basically told him that I was pretty sure that I had just found the real world equivalent of The 97 Steps, or perhaps Sinanju, and that if he'd never forgive me if I didn't insist that he get down to the School tomorrow, check out the art and sign up.

Steve did that very thing, and so I ended up with someone with whom I could discuss the finer points of what we were learning. Steve and I spent a good deal of time at his home in Canyon Country, going over, and deconstructing everything we were learning in hopes of understanding it better. It was also very nice to have someone I knew and trusted to work out with at the school.

Studying at the PDT Academy had both its delights and its challenges. I got to work with some really talented people, and I got to learn from someone who had some pretty rarefied skills. Pendekar Paul had amazing movement and could do things I had never seen. At the same time, he was hard to understand, his English was not fluent, and so I felt as if I was often missing some of the finer points on his teaching. One if the more puzzling things at the time was that he would occasionally teach something one way, but when he demonstrated in he would do it just a little differently.

The most interesting thing to me was that I was learning the "stripped down" outer art, and the people in the school were better than much of what could be found publicly. It made me really wonder what the "mother art" was like.

About two months into my training at the academy this guy showed up for class.

Now I'm a student of body language, and have been for many years. If I do say so myself I'm pretty good at reading what people are saying when they aren't using words.

In some of the professions I have adopted it's a pretty essential skill, and paying attention to what people's bodies are saying can mean the difference between going home and going to hospital.

So when a ripple of readjustment goes through all the senior students in the room it's going to catch my attention. I surreptitiously checked the room. The epicenter of the disturbance was a fellow chatting quietly with Pendekar Paul. He was about average hight, short hair, fit but not in a body builder way, more like someone who did a lot of hard physical work.

I found the reactions of the senior students in class to be very interesting. If the students at the PDT Academy were a pack of wolves, it was very much as if a Bengal tiger just walked into the room. It was really clear just who was at the top of the food chain.

This is something that happens any time you deal with a group of social mammals, be it wolves, horses, apes or humans. the group responds in various unconscious ways to the presence of the dominant members. Most of the time, the members of a group don't even know that they are doing this, especially if there are no overt dominance or threat displays.

So my interest was piqued by the reaction of the group.

As fate would have it, in the course of the class I ended up working with this new person.

He introduced himself as "Steve" in a quiet, friendly voice and shook my hand. He had interesting calluses on that hand.

In the next half hour I think I learned as much about this particular method of Silat as I had in the previous month. Steve was an excellent teacher, able to explain principles and technique very clearly.

After that, any time that he showed up to class I made a point of working with him if I could manage it.

I learned that his full name was Stevan Plinck, and that he had been studying with Pendekar Paul "for a while". I also understood that he was active duty military, though I wasn't until a couple months later, when he came straight from the base to class that I realized that he was with the Army Special Forces.

That was one of the interesting things about Stevan, he was really self effacing. He tended to direct attention away from himself, but at the same time was unfailingly friendly to everyone. The other interesting thing was that he was a really good teacher. He was able to translate the most obtuse things Pendekar Paul said into something both understandable and usable (like the phrase the Pendekar used a lot "move along the di-angle")

He was also unfailingly patient when he was working with someone. Most of the senior students were pretty good at instructing us newer students. As with any group of this sort you had a spectrum of skills when it came to teaching. Stevan was undoubtedly the best of the group, at least for my money. I would look forward to the times he attended class just so that I could get him to help me understand some difficult point of movement.

There was one point in my training at the Academy that was pivotal. It was about six months into my time there. One day Pendekar Paul announced that there was to be an event in a couple of weeks, and that attendance was mandatory for all students of the Academy. He was graduating his first group of Guru Muda (lit. new or young teacher) in Bukti Nagara.

When the day arrived pretty much everyone was there. The Pendekar's brother had flown out from Colorado with his senior student, and most of Pendekar Paul's more rarefied students, like Cliff Stewart were also in attendance.

It was a long and very ceremonial day. The event started out with a couple of speeches and everyone present offering a set of ritual gifts to the Pendekar. The next part of the day was to be all of the students, in order of rank performing kimbangan (sort of like kata but more flowing and free form. The word means "flower dance"). First up was the Pendekar's brother, who was at the time the inheritor of the art. The second person up was Stevan Plinck. I knew that he was an advanced student, but I had not realized that he was THAT advanced.

Stevan began to move, and it was a thing of beauty. He was attacking and defending on multiple levels and directions with superb skill. He was doing a sequence called Juru Sepok, which was not (at that time at least) a part of the Bukti Nagara Curriculum. I remember quite clearly, it was at that moment that I decided I had to learn directly from this man.

After watching the whole group going through their kimbangan it was obvious to me who had the most skill. I have had the honer of judging at a good number of tournaments over the years, I have trained with some of the best people in the world (whether or not I have managed to learn anything is another story) and I have coached three world champions. I know good when I see it, I know great when I encounter it, and I can recognize when someone is approaching mastery.

One of the things that was most interesting to me was that Stevan was obviously considerably better than the Pendekar's brother, who was the guy who Pendekar Paul had picked as his successor. I just sort of chalked that up to nepotism.

This is not to say that there were not a number of really good players performing at the event. In particular, I remember Steve Barnes leaning over to me just after Cliff Stewart's performance and saying "That guy looks like a Rino on roller-skates, nobody that big should be able to move that smooth."

My training continued at the Academy after that, but I was going there mostly in hopes of being able to work with Stevan. You have to understand, good teachers are fairly rare. There are a lot of people who can "do", but maybe only 1 in 10 can teach, and of those maybe 1 in 100 can teach well, and Stevan could teach well indeed. To be a great teacher means you have to get your own ego out of the way, to make what you do about your students and not about yourself, that seems to be a hard thing for a lot of people.

I continued training at the PDT Academy until Stevan transfered to the Pacific North-West. After that the school was just not quite the same for me. I had great fondness for Pendekar Paul and loved hanging out with him and listening to his stories as well as learning from him, but I could feel the old wanderlust taking hold again. It was time to move on.

The story doesn't end here though, there's more to come in part two.

Found and Improvised Weapons

2011-01-05T15:20:00.000-05:00

A simple method of classification.

A few days ago a friend gave me a call and said "I ran across someone who credited you in an article about improvised weapons". I got the name of the guy from my friend, did a little digging, and discovered something fairly kewl.

Many years ago there was a discussion on improvised weapons on one of the mailing lists I used to frequent. I made a suggestion as to how one might organize different weapons in a sort of continuum (1) to one of the participants in that discussion.

The person who I was conversing with on this subject, a fellow by the name of Michael Johnson, ended up writing a very thoughtful essay on the subject, a copy of which can be found here. It brings together a number of different ideas for how to think about found objects as potential weapons. The essay offers a good starting point for exploring the use of found and improvised weapons, so do take a look.

An image grabbed from the website Improvised Weapons

The conversation that I referenced took place somewhat over ten years ago if my memory serves me, and I do believe I have refined my model a bit since then, so it occurred to me that it might be fun to talk a little about the model as I use it today.

This is a graphic representation of how I classify objects for use as weapons. I don't, as a rule, use an axis for projectiles, basically because anything that you can pick up you can throw. I also don't address incendiary/explosive devices like Molotov cocktails or cans of hair spray even though under the right circumstances they can make useful weapons.

The map is designed to allow you, with some practice, to index (2) anything you pick up very quickly. Assessing each quality will be somewhat subjective, and the numbering system is perforce arbitrary. Point 5 represents 100% of a given quality, and point 0 represents a perfect balance between two polarities.

For an example of the last, take a well made sword, which must have a precise balance between flexibility and rigidity. Take a look at this video. At about one minute, seven seconds in you will see the sword removing the head from a pig carcass, both at speed and in slow motion. You will see the typical flex that is needed for a sword to shed impact energy without breaking.

You could say that the sword blade sits at zero on the flexible/rigid axis.

If you grab up a five foot digging bar

you have something that could be indexed as slow, long, double handed, heavy, rigid, and blunt. On the other hand, a weighted jump rope

could be considered flexible, blunt, heavy, about halfway to quick, single or double handed, and long.

This model works best if you have a principle (3) based martial practice. This is because a technique (4) based skill set requires too great of a learning curve, with the need to memorize way too many discreet actions for any given weapon.

For learning, this can be a bit problematic. In my experience, while a good many people give lip service to the idea of a principle based practice, the reality is occasionally a bit different.

If you find that when you train you are doing a series of discreet actions against a a specific attack, that would be technique based practice. A common example of this is the "scenario" training so popular in some self defense courses these days.

Do please understand that I am not saying that there is anything wrong per se with technique based training. It is a good way to pick up some easy to learn basic skills that might give you an edge in a bad situation. It's just that there is a real difference qualitatively between that and sustained, principle based training.

The way I recommend that one practice so as to integrate this model is to find objects that have the least number of qualities and explore using them. Make note of the primary principles you discover for each axis and then see how you can effective apply these principles.

For example, one of the principles for a heavy object is that of follow-through. If you move while using a heavy object for offense and defense, you will quickly begin to learn how to address that principle.

You will find that a given principle will likely apply to more than one axis. For instance follow-through applies to both heavy and flexible objects.

If you adopt a learning program like this one, as you discover the various principles involved with each axis, you will want to practice until using each principle until you have them embodied at the level of muscle memory. The idea is to be able to pick up anything, let your neuro-muscular system index it at an unconscious level, and use it in alignment with the appropriate principles without conscious thought.

Further Study

There are two people who I can recommend as being able to teach from the level of fundamental principles. (There are undoubtedly others, but these are people I have direct experience of and can vouch for unreservedly) The first is Mahaguru Stevan Plinck, the foremost practitioner of Pukulan Pentjak Silat Sera in the USA. Sera, as he teaches it, is one of the finest examples of principle based, positional martial practice. A chance to study with him, even in a seminar setting is something not to be passed up.

The other person who has a profound understand of how to extract the principles from any movement system is Scott Sonnon. Scott is a genius when it comes to understanding movement and he has the ability to articulate and teach basic principles in a way that can be applied to any delivery system.

Applying the knowledge of either of these two teachers will go a long way toward helping you discover the basic principles of movement, both with and without weapons.

(1) continuum: A coherent whole characterized as a collection, sequence, or progression of values or elements varying by minute degrees

(2) Index: Something that directs attention to some fact, condition, etc.

(3) Principle: a fundamental, primary, or general law or truth from which others are derived.

(4) technique: The body of specialized procedures and methods used in any specific field .

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T00:00:00.005-05:00

And all the best to all my many fives of readers!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T10:16:00.000-05:00

to everyone who celebrates it!

And HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all of you who have to inclination to read this blog.

Here's a slection of Christmas music for your listening enjoyment.

See you next year!

.

Air powered car update

2010-12-23T13:17:00.000-05:00

A couple of years ago, I wrote about a car powered by compressed air.

(you can read the original articles here and here)

Well it seems that the idea is still going strong, and the French company that developed the technology was just in the news again. Here's a video from CNN.

And here's a link to the English version of the MDI Website for more information on what they are developing.

It would sure be nice to be able to get one of those cars here. Given a few solar panels, an inverter and compressor it would make running around town a whole lot cheaper.

Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict

2010-12-22T12:07:00.000-05:00

The Best Pink Floyd Song Ever?

I always thought so.
Of course that might have something to do with the circumstances under which I first heard the song. (1969, in a camp in the redwoods, after a day of wildcrafting some of the local mushrooms)

From their Ummagumma album

The same album gave us the more conventionally popular "Careful with that ax, Eugene".

Gluten Free January

2010-12-18T11:30:00.000-05:00

Here's something to try if you want to do something to improve your health.

I found notice of this on Rob Wolf's blog (along with the groovy picture above).

There's a movement afoot to get people to spend a month gluten free, just to see if it makes a positive difference in their overall health and well-being.

There is a website devoted to getting people to participate in the event, located here.

For a good number of people there's some real benefit to this, even if they don't show overt symptoms of gluten intolerance or celiac disease. If you have metabolic syndrome or diabetes, it could change your life in a big way.

It's also a great way to drop weight, since gluten containing foods are also some of the most high carb.

Give it a try for a month and see if it makes a difference in how you feel and how much energy our have.

You can find lists of gluten containing foods here and here.

Folkmusikgruppen Irmelin

2010-12-16T12:32:00.000-05:00

Or, The folk music group Irmelin

This is an A Cappella folk group singing a rather lovely song called Förglöm mig ej, or forget me not

It's good winter music.

St Lucia Day

2010-12-13T09:18:00.006-05:00

It's easy to miss here

But December 13th is St Lucia's feast day. It's one of the events that makes a Swedish winter a bit more bearable.

St Lucy

I've always liked it anyway, and it has an interesting echo of the Pagan past. If you're not familiar with St Lucia day you can read the Wiki entry here

Here's the most rational discussion I have found about Wikileaks

2010-12-09T11:26:00.000-05:00

It's been interesting watching the fabric our our society unravel over the last two years.

I have to admit, I thought it would be the tea baggers that brought down the country, but I may have been wrong about that.

The dust up over wikileaks may just shake the foundations of civilization a bit more. We seem to be at the start of something right out of a scifi novel. A cyber-war that may just have more and more lasting impact than all the Muslim and Christian terrorists combined.

Here is one of the more reasonable discussions I have seen on the problem of wikileaks.

and here is one of the more honest takes on it.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Il Communication

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>

The Daily Show on Facebook

Music For A Cold Morning

2010-11-14T17:01:00.000-05:00

It has come to my attention that there are some people who do not know of Yasmin Levy.

Winter is coming on and I have been listening to music from Al-Andalus.

Lots of people are familiar with Flamenco, and some are familiar with the Moorish tradition in Spanish music but fewer have encountered the Judaeo-Spanish Ladino tradition. Ladino is a language based in old Castilian, with elements of Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Turkish and even a touch of Greek, spoken by the Spanish Jews. This Musical tradition is as rich as any found in Spain.

So allow me to offer you a piece by Yasmin Levy one of the young musicians helping to keep this tradition alive and vital.

My latest 15 minutes of fame

2010-11-07T08:38:00.000-05:00

On the Diamond Hour Internet radio show.

My buddy Steve Barnes invited me on his show to talk about intermittent fasting and other such such things yesterday.

You can listen to it here on this page

Ore you can go to the Diamond Hour Page and listen to all of his broadcasts there.

The best political speech I've heard in a long time.

2010-10-31T14:52:00.001-04:00

Of course it's given by a comedian.

It's a sad state of affairs when the only person making any sense runes a fake news show on Comedy Central.

But the Republicans have spent most of the last 40 years destroying this country. Almost everything that is going wrong today in America has it's roots in Right Wing ideology (Or perhaps I should say fantasy), They should not be allowed to administer the affairs of this country for us.

The Democrats have proven themselves to be incompetent and corrupt by turns. Even when given more power than any political party deserves they have managed to fail miserably at raining in the excesses of Republican power grabbing. They Don't deserve to administer this country for us either.

And the militant arm of the Republican party the Tea Baggers, what to turn this country into a Religious Moronocracy.*

So let's hope that this video goes viral.

*(Moronocracy: rule by the stupid)

Something on Gun Control

2010-10-28T10:21:00.000-04:00

and a new way to carve a pumpkin.

The best "get out the Vote" video I've ever seen

2010-10-26T12:18:00.000-04:00

Done by MoveOn as it seems

Go Here and check it out

Walking Your Talk

2010-10-09T16:43:00.000-04:00

And other rare occurrences

Those of you who are regular readers know that I have the privilege of being a friend of Scott Sonnon, and that I write about him from time to time.
(Quick disclaimer, While Scott is my friend, I am not a part of his organization, RMAX, nor am I certified to teach any of his programs. I do not receive any financial consideration for saying nice things about him, or from using his material. In other words, I ain't got no reason to be foolin' with you about this)

Here's the thing, if Albert Einstein had gone into martial arts and athletics instead of physics, he would have been Scott Sonnon.

This isn't hyperbole, I'm dead serious. Scott isn't just a genius when it comes physical movement and training, he has discovered something I consider equivalent to the theory of relativity for athletic endeavor.

What Scott has found is something very much like the Platonic Ideal of training. I've been watching him work on this for some years now, and it looks to me as if he has gotten his theorem polished.

Recently, Scott has been giving out a series of training programs under his Tacfit umbrella.
There are several Tacfit programs now including:
Tacfit the original. A great program for when you have a gym handy.
TacFit Commando, which is a program that requires no equipment at all.
TacFit Mass Assault, uses a simple set of dumbbells to do wonders.
Tacfit R.O.P.E., for pulling movements. This is basically a whole gym hidden in a rope.
and his latest in the series Tacfit Kettlebell Spetsnaz,which takes kettlebell work to a whole new level.

While all these programs are amazing in their usefulness and effectiveness, they are not what I find most interesting.

What Scott has done is create a matrix into which he can input any sport or movement discipline and output the perfect set of exercises and protocols to maximize your performance.

So someone could say "give me something for badminton" or "I need something to help me perfect my bowling" or even "How about a Tacfit Cheetah for barefoot/minimalist runners?" (not that I am suggesting that Scott should develop a Tacfit program that would help people to maximize their speed, power and endurance as runners while minimizing the chance of injury, just that the world would be a better place if he did :-) ) and within just a little while you would have a set of exercises with progressions and the protocols for executing them that would allow you to reach you full potential in that sport.

And that, my friends, is worth it's weight in gold, to have such a deep understanding of exercise at the Meta level that you can produce a high level training regime for anything involving movement. (I will postulate that this matrix can be used for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual movement, but explaining that will take another full post).

So what does all this have to do with walking your talk?

Well, perhaps you have noticed that while there are all manner of people who offer programs in martial art or exercise, there is perhaps less objective evidence than one might like as to the effectiveness of these programs.

This is especially true in martial arts. There is all manner of stuff out there, but the time to discover whether or not you made the right choice in training is NOT when you really need it.

But how to tell the value of any given material?

For me, there are two criteria. "Can he do?" and "Can he teach?". Now "Do" doesn't mean "do with your students", anyone can look like the baddest dude on the planet when working with the people who they have trained. And "teach" doesn't mean your students demonstrating in your class. "Do" means demonstrating that your stuff works against someone who has skill and is doing everything possible to make your art fail. "Teach" means your students can do the same.

Here's the rub. The only place to test out your stuff and show that you know what you're talking about (besides the battlefield) is in competition, and big name teachers mostly just don't compete.

I can't really blame them. If you get on the mat and lose, people might not think you know what you're talking about, and if your income is based on being an expert, that could be devastating. (Of course, the only people who have never lost in competition are the ones who have never competed, but many people don't understand that) So you don't see the big name teachers taking risks. (There are a few notable exceptions though).
When was the last time you saw (fill in the name of your favorite self-defense guru here) get on the mat with someone of real skill who was fully committed to beating him?

So some people were a little surprised when Scott put everything on the line and agreed to compete in the 2010 World Martial Arts Games.

He was anteing up his reputation, his company, his health and well being for this tournament. If he lost his detractors would have trumpeted it all over the Internet and it would have no doubt seriously hurt him financially.

And this was not some "do some demos and a form" sort of competition. This was full contact, submission/knockout play.

It's not like Scott has anything to prove. He has a whole list of wins from when he was a Sambo player, and then back in '05 he went to a San Shou Tournament and showed the world that he knew exactly what he was talking about. (read about it here and here).

Scott uses his methodology to train himself for the competition, which is pretty much a "put up or shut up" action. With that, the whole world gets to see exactly how good his stuff is.

So what happens? He goes to this Tournament and fights nine full contact matches in 24 hours against a field with no weight classes or age divisions (Scott just turned 40) and came home with four gold medals, two silver, and one bronze.

There you have it. A person that has proven that their methods are effective using their own body and reputation (and actually risking everything to do so) in open competition, an event almost unheard of in this day of Internet wonders and seminar warriors.

Here's a highlight reel of Scott's competition.

My personal favorite part is just about 2:45 in where Scott's opponent tries to get him in a triangle choke and Scott pretty much dives through his own navel, comes out the other side and gets him right into an ankle lock. Too Kewl.

You can listen to this Interview Of Scott by Steven Barnes for The Diamond Hour Show (right click to download) on the tournament, the training that lead up to it and such. It's well worth it.

Just when I think Scott Sonnon couldn't impress me more he does this. Respect!

Warm San Franciscian Nights

2010-10-06T14:02:00.000-04:00

And slightly cooler mornings....

I have recently returned from a two week stay in San Francisco, one of my all-time favorite cities.

I was invited there to teach a series of workshops on a few different subjects. I did three clinics on barefoot running as a method of transitioning to a forefoot strike, a day long seminar on Miyamoto Musashi's "Book of Five Rings", and a rather experimental workshop called "Think, Sweat, Feel".

The events were organized by two of San Francisco's best trainers and coaches Cody Fielding and Carey Rockland.

The first two running classes were put on for Workout On The Hill, This is an organization that offers outdoor training in the Bernal Heights district of SF. (My kind of people. "Gym? We don't gotta show you no stinkin' gym!")

So on Tuesday I found myself standing on the top of Bernal hill at sunrise with a group of really dedicated people.

We started with posture exercises to introduce the idea of "runner's stance" and teach people how to find it and keep it active.

We also went through some of my favorite core strengthening exercises.

As well as the drills I use to help people find the right lean for efficient running.

And of course we did a lot of running practice with our toes exposed to nature in all her early morning glory. There is something quite peaceful about running at dawn, even more so with friends.

After two mornings of training the group was doing quite well, so I left them in Carey's competent hands and went on to a more challenging group.

Carey had set up a running tutorial with a group which was comprised mostly of personal trainers, coaches and teachers.

So on one those perfect San Francisco afternoons, I find myself in a park full of people lounging about on grass.

I am surrounded by some extremely fit people half my age or less, it's my job to suggest that there might be some virtue in returning to a style of running that had fallen from favor before they were born, and to demonstrate that I know what I'm talking about.

It took very little time to get them out of there shoes and going through my basic set of drills. While doing this I also taught some of my methods for working on a more subtle level. One skill I think they will find useful is how to teach a person's "non-dominant" side a skill that they have learned on their "dominant" side.

In very little time I had the group running about the park, bare feet flashing, to the puzzled looks of the other park goers.

At the end of the class I took the group through a short meditative process to help them connect to their "ancestral runner", then we went off for a last run. The group was having so much fun I had to sort of coax them back in for the wrap up.

Of special note for the afternoon, I got a chance to meet a couple of people with whom I have had an Internet acquaintance for a while. First is Heron Saline, a fine hypnotherapist who I have had some pleasant conversation with from time to time. I was particularly geeked to have him attend because he could become a resource for the trainers there who developed an interest in the sort of mental processes I was using to enhance learning. I'm happy to say that he was as kewl as I expected.

The other person I had been looking forward to meeting was T. Thorn Coyle. I have corresponded with Thorn a few times and have several friends who know her and think very well of her. We actually got a chance to spend a little time together before the class, but it is going to take a full blog entry to tell you about that.

There is one thing of note that I will mention here. As I watched her take her last run across the park I remarked to myself how good her form was. She had that long straight runner's stance as she moved, and the gazelle like grace you see in the best "primal" runners. I sort of assumed that she must have some sort of running background. As it turns out I was misapprehended. Check out Thorn's Blog entry for a more accurate account of what was going on.

The Book of Five Rings

The first weekend I was in SF I did a day long seminar on Miyamoto Musashi's "Book of Five Rings".

The philosophical part of the day was fairly easy to address, but as I don't have much of a background in Japanese fencing I knew we were not going to be waving katanas around, and needed to find some way to address the more physical aspects of Musashi's work.

My solution was to have everyone bring rattans and address what Musashi called "sword fencing" through the lens of Filipino martial art.

We spent considerable time on the nine principals outlined at the end of the "Earth Book"

Do not think dishonestly.
The Way is in training.
Become acquainted with every art.
Know the Ways of all professions.
Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything.
Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
Pay attention even to trifles.
Do nothing which is of no use.

as I consider them to be a really useful condensation of the entire text. The nine principals act as mnemonics for the entirety of Musashi's method of strategic thinking.

The best way to understand Musashi though, is in contesting with with an opponent. The free flow of combat allows one to experience Musashi's strategy in real time and to get it into the body.

Interestingly, most of the participants were not martial artists, though all were athletes from various disciplines. Those who did have a martial background were mostly not weapon based.

So I was fortunate indeed to have, as one of the attendees Sharon Sanghera, Editor in Chief of Vincit Magazine and JKD/Kali black belt. Sharon is a proven fighter of no little skill who has fought in some interesting venues.

I had wanted to ask her before the seminar if she would be wiling to help out with the weapons work, but I was not able to, so I just sort of drafted her.

I'm happy to say she was quite game for some impromptu sparring. To tell the truth, I could have stopped the seminar right there and spent the rest of the day fencing her. She had great flow and a strong spirit.

With her able assistance I was able to get the room moving with sticks and having some direct experience of Musashi's strategy in action.

The day was both quite fun and a success in laying a foundation for further study of Musashi's philosophy.

There is one other event of note for the seminar. I finally got a chance to meet Vince Brown, which I had been looking forward to for quite a while. I am going to have to dedicate a full entry to this meeting as it was quite information rich, and I think it may be of interest to a wide audience.

The last event I led before returning home was an experimental work-group called "Think-Sweat-Feel".

It is my attempt to counteract, in some small way, the epidemic of spiritual neotony that has infected humanity like some vile mind parasite.

One thing I have learned over many years of teaching is that if the whole person is not engaged in the development process bad thing may happen.

In designing this seminar I pulled a lot of information from Dr. John Medina's "Brain Rules" to help create the matrix that contained the information.

I will no doubt write more about this later, but I think the seminar was a very good start and came away feeling quite happy about the day and the people.

Here is a bit of theme music for the post. a song that came out in 1967, the first year I ever visited San Francisco.

Music for Fall

2010-09-14T16:03:00.000-04:00

By three women from Nevada City

Nevada City is a small sleepy town in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. I have whiled away many an afternoon there coming back from trips into the mountains and have always found it it a pleasant place.

It is something of an art community, and it produces more good musicians that is the average for such a small community.

Let me introduce you to three young women who all come from this little town, all of whom are quite fine musicians. Enjoy some interesting tunes for a fall afternoon.

Alela Diane - "White As Diamonds"

Mariee Sioux - "Wild Eyes"

Joanna Newsom - "Ribbon Bows"

A lesson in how to deal with bigots

2010-08-25T09:18:00.000-04:00

Brick Stone Versus The Westboro Baptist Church

Ya gotta love it!

Old Hippies Rawk

2010-08-11T13:58:00.000-04:00

I had not seen anything from Mick "The Barefoot Sensei" Dodge for a while and had been wondering what he was up to.

It seems that he is still going strong. There are a good number of people now who have embraced the minimalist/barefoot/nature oriented approach to fitness but Mick Dodge was one of the first.

He was the guy who turned me on to the idea of using an old tow strap as a portable gym. I have come to value that piece of equipment a great deal over the last couple of years.

So enjoy (and perhaps grab a little inspiration from) the adventures of the Barefoot Sensei.

One hundred and one years after his death

2010-08-11T00:34:00.000-04:00

Geronimo is still a prisoner of the United States Government.

You would think that by now the man could have some peace, but I guess it's more important for the preppies at Yale to have their little trophy.
You can read the story here.

The Arizona Immigration Law and The Six Hundred Pound Gorilla in the Room

2010-07-29T11:49:00.000-04:00

Papers Please?

One thing that I have not heard mentioned about Arizona's new ~~Anti-Latino~~ immigration law is the fact that anyone stopped by the police can be required to prove that they are in this country legally, and if they can't produce proof, they can be detained for several days.

Now I would like you to take a moment to reflect on this and ask yourself

"If I were required at this moment to prove that I was in this country legally, could I?"

As I understand it, a drivers license is not proof, nor is a social security card. That means anyone could be picked up and detained for weeks just because you don't have papers. The law reads in such a way that it could end up being used to detain anyone on the pretext of lack of proof of "immigration" status.

Of course it will be first used against people of darker skin tone, who have Latino surnames, and perhaps accents that are not the "American standard".

Now I know that there are people dumb enough to to think that just because you have a Latino surname you wet-backed across the border last week, but that just isn't the case. Do you think that all the Latino families who live in the States west of the Rockys were born in Mexico ?

Well I grew up with people with Latino surnames and who spoke Spanish at home who's families had lived in New Mexico since before America was a country. Should they have to prove their citizenship just because some bigots in Arizona don't like Latinos?

And of course there will come a time when Sheriff Joe Arpaio, his Spiritual Brothers, and the thugs that work for them decide that they don't like your politics, or religion, or looks, there will come a time when you get asked for your papers, and if you can't prove you're in this country legally, well I just hope you enjoy jail food.

Now the use of this law against American citizens who aren't carrying proof of citizenship on the day they're stopped by the police is a separate issue from dealing with people who are in this country illegally.

The problem of illegal aliens in the States is so easy to solve I'm surprised that no one has thought of it yet.

All you have to do is remove the reason for them to come here.

So all you unemployed Tea Baggers can get off the public dole and do something good for the country by heading out to California and getting the grape and Strawberry, lettuce and asparagus, garlic, brussels sprout and artichoke crops in this year. You can also start you own landscaping services, child care and maid services and a hundred other jobs that are done mostly by Latinos. I'd love to see all those jobs done by American citizens (the image of tea baggers getting in the strawberry crop would be priceless) So if you want to drastically reduce the illegal population without resorting to draconian legal measures, just go do the jobs that they are presently doing, they will all go away to find work elsewhere.

The Tea Baggers will be happy to know that they have an ally in their quest to get rid of all those pesky illegals, The United Farm Workers say "Take Our Jobs"

Summer Sundays

2010-07-11T20:20:00.016-04:00

And Tomahawk Tameshigiri

Sundays are the day that I usually reserve for myself. I get together with my close friends and train most Sunday mornings. This is a lot different than working with people during the week because I'm not teaching. On Sundays I get to experiment with new and interesting things with people who are teachers in their own right, which allows me to further my own training.

This last Sunday we got out the sharp, pointy things and attacked a bunch of helpless plastic bottles yet again.

It was pretty much par for the course, with flayed plastic flying all over the yard. But I did try one thing new. I have never test cut with a tomahawk before, so I tried it out.

It actually turned out to be quite instructive, and it has given me some new ideas for tomahawk training.

Sunday is also a day for bike riding, running, walking and other fun outdoor pursuits.

I have long said that Michigan has only one real flaw, it's vertically challenged. That is to say flat as a pancake, level, without significant elevation.

So Michiganders have started turning old silos into climbing walls.

This Sunday I grabbed my sidekick Janet (one of the few people willing to do all the crazy things I like doing) and among our afternoon wanderings we hit one of the local climbing walls.

It is not very high, but great for practicing your horizontal traverse.

and loads of fun.

A Great "barefoot" style running video

2010-07-10T18:10:00.006-04:00

I have been meaning to post this video for a while

and just got reminded of it by the Barefoot Runners NYC blog.

Even though this was put out by a shoe company,Terra Plana (Extremely good if very expensive shoes) it uses the "barefoot" methodology to teach proper running form.

If you are interested in exploring a more natural stride and one that seems to have a lot less injury associated with it, this is a very good instructional video.

Learning the Skill of Barefoot Running from Terra Plana on Vimeo.

With or without shoes, the fore foot strike is, for me, the very best way to run.

So kick off your shoes and give it a try.

Thought for the Day

2010-07-07T08:17:00.002-04:00

Nuke Your Life

From the writings of Jed McKenna

Thought for the Day

2010-07-06T11:58:00.002-04:00

"Most illness and pathology in the body results from training our bodies to be really, really good at the wrong things."
.......Ryan Hurst

I don't know if it is actually "most illness and pathology" or not, but I suspect that if one were to take this idea seriously and train accordingly, the effects would be profound.

Putting things in the proper perspective.

2010-07-01T12:18:00.002-04:00

I ran across this yesterday.

It is a site that takes the words of our ~~home-grown Taliban~~ Christian "conservative" tea-baggers and puts them in the mouth of Jesus of Nazareth.

It's rather reveling.

Go take a look at

Tea Party Jesus

Let me know if it makes you laugh or cry.

An Interesting Lecture

2010-07-01T10:53:00.003-04:00

On the use of livestock to help reclaim land.

I ran across this on one of the Paleo blogs I read. (this one)

It offers some interesting food for thought, and though I would need to see some hard data before I accepted some of his premises, the talk is interesting enough to make me think there might be something useful here.

Allan Savory - Keeping Cattle: cause or cure for climate crisis? from Feasta on Vimeo.

If there is anything to this (and I have to allow that there may be) then one of the pleasant side effects would likely be an abundance of pastured meat, which I consider to be better in every way than the factory farmed feed lot animals that provide so much of what we find in the stores today.

What the President should have said last night

2010-06-17T09:23:00.002-04:00

OK, I've been very caught up in the actual living of live and enjoying of good weather, and have let the blog lie fallow for too long.

But I am back (more or less) and am going to have a few things to say.

First, I am rather disappointed in Obama's response to the Gulf spill, though it is, I think, still better than what The Shrub would have done.

This is the speech he should have given, though I don't think there is a politician alive today with the cojones to stand up to the multinationals (more's the pity).

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Today's Zen Koan

2010-03-29T22:20:00.002-04:00

Be Afraid

2010-02-27T10:22:00.001-05:00

Be Very Afraid

Energy in a Box

2010-02-24T12:17:00.001-05:00

Now this is interesting...

Watch CBS News Videos Online
I suspect that there will need to be a lot more research to be done before we can get really excited, but it seems hopeful to me.

Playing Hooky

2010-02-14T08:58:00.004-05:00

What can I say.

We have enough snow that I can be out skiing at every opportunity,

The Winter Olympics are going on

And I have several projects in the works.

So the blog has suffered a bit. I'll be back soon though (but today I'm out on the trails)

Quote of the day

2010-02-13T10:27:00.002-05:00

and words to live by from my friend Scott Sonnon

Scott said:
"HE won't do that." - CST Head Coach Mike Locke screaming at me today after two solid hours of anguish in the midst of my 3rd round of BW+50lbs dips, referring to my opponent.

"Do daily what your opponent is unwilling to do ever."

Got to be some of the best advice I've heard in a long time.

Advances in running

2010-02-02T09:56:00.002-05:00

By going back to the days of yore

Here we have Bernard Lagat (USA) winning a one mile race (at the Melrose games).

Interestingly, everyone running is using a forefoot strike and everyone is using racing flats that are a throwback to the thin leather slippers runners used back before Nike came along.

When the Olympic class athletes start going back to the "barefoot" style of running we can be assured that there is something useful going on.
...

...

The Tragedy in Haiti

2010-01-15T13:11:00.003-05:00

And the Spin put on it.

I have been appalled to see the usual suspects using the death and destruction to try and garner political points. While the thugs on the Right have been most egregious, the Left hasn't been all that far behind.

I am pretty sure there will be a special place in Hell for people like Pat Robertson, who used the suffering and misery to manipulate his minions into giving him more money.

As usual, Jon Stewart sums it up more honestly than any "real" newscast.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Haiti Earthquake Reactions

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

In honer of this latest foray into new depths of slime, I have started a poll to examine the one thing that I think should be on everyone's mind just now, do please vote.

And do please feel free to mention the people of Haiti to the deity of your choice, or the universe, or the clockwork mechanism that keeps everything running, or the small quiet place in your own heart. It won't hurt and ya never know, it just might help.

Three days of snow......

2010-01-11T12:37:00.004-05:00

Then the sun comes out.

It Doesn't get much better than this.

The temperature on Saturday morning was around 10 degreed F, and the snow was just about perfect.

So I grabbed my skis and hit the trail for the best day of gliding over the snow yet this season.

Once we were off the main trail the snow was mostly completely fresh. There were remarkably few skiers out for some reason, I think we saw only three other people on the trails all day.

We did however share the trail with all manner of wildlife, most notably ducks who didn't bother going south for the winter. (I guess they heard about the temperatures in Florida)

While the Grand River is still flowing, all the ponds and small lakes in the area are frozen over.

Making for the spectacular winter scenery you get here in West Michigan.

The rare Michigan Snow Gnome

After about two and a half hours of skiing we still didn't want to come in from the cold

Me, not wanting to stop for the day, even though I know I am going to pay for it tomorrow

I'm already hoping for the next snowstorm, though the law of perversity seems to be holding sway and all the really fun weather is going elsewhere. With any luck, there will be more snow soon, and what we have will stay for a while.

The Christian Taliban rears its ugly head again

2010-01-08T16:01:00.002-05:00

With death threats against cartoonists no less.

It turns out that Mark Fiore, a political cartoonist and animator has been getting death threats from the Tea Baggers over a little piece he did a little while back.

Here it is...
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As you can see, it does (deservedly) treat the tea baggers a bit ~~honestly~~ unkindly.

The tea baggers and other Right wing extremists respond in true form, with death threats, just like the Right Wing Muslim extremists who wanted to kill the cartoonist who did the caricature of the Prophet Muhammad (saws).

As I have said before, the only difference between Christian Right wingers and Muslim right wingers (and Hindu, Buddhist, and Atheist right wingers) is the team they are playing for, it's still the same league and the same game.

So check out Fiore's blog, and his Youtube channel.

And remember the Right Wingers, whatever their "team affiliation" are a bunch of murderous morons.

Boring jump rope?

2010-01-05T13:51:00.007-05:00

Perhaps not.

Sabi Honom mentioned jump rope as a way to keep in shape over the winter, so this post is for her and others who might want something by way of exercise that takes up small space but gives good result.

Back in the last century, when I was young, I, like so many of the boys where I grew up, studied some boxing. Of course, along with the speed bag, heavy bag, road work and sparring, we had to jump rope.

We all wanted to master the speed bag, as it had the greatest kewl factor (Think Joe Palooka, opening titles) and I think we all hated jumping rope (it was viewed as being just a bit "girlie". Hey I was about 10 at the time, wadaya expect)

Over the years I had kept up with my rope jumping somewhat intermittently, but it would tend to get a little on the boring side for me.

This all changed about three years ago when I got a call from my friend Steve Barnes. Steve keeps an eye out for anything interesting in the area of fitness and he often finds some real gems.

He asked me if I had ever heard of Buddy Lee. I hadn't.

Lee was an Olympic wrestler who had developed an interesting approach to his conditioning based on jumping rope, after retiring from competition he began teaching his method.

I was intrigued enough by Steve's description that I looked into what Lee was doing.

Here's a taste.
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...

I got hold of his book and video and began incorporating some of his material into both my workouts and those of my students, with very good effect.

One of my favorite things to do is to use the rope with Tabata sets, that'll give you a quick burn.

Check out Buddy Lee's website.

There have been others who have built on Mr. Lee's work, this being a case in point.
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So enjoy your jumping!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2010-01-04T22:22:00.003-05:00

But we could use some more snow.

Temperatures have been down in the single digits, but the sun has been out and there has been very little snow.

The trails are quite rough.

There's lots of lumpy ice just under the surface, as well as ruts and such.

But the river is quite lovely.

And the sunset is as well.

So the only thing to do is grab the skis and get outside.

So with my friend Janet, who is one of the few people crazy enough to be out int this weather with me, we tackled the trail.

It was worth the effort, and we pretty much had the trail to ourselves.

Personally, I think cross country skiing is the best winter exercise to keep you in shape for running in the other three seasons. So here's hoping for more snow.

For today's theme music here's one of the very best renditions of "Baby it's cold outside" done by Margaret Whiting & Johnny Mercer in 1949

Seems to be the New Year's Theme

2010-01-04T12:54:00.002-05:00

With a tip of the hat to Janet

Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper's
"I Hate Banks"

Something to look forward to

2010-01-03T09:35:00.002-05:00

This would be funny if it weren't true.
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...

Makes ya wonder why all the "no tax tea baggers" are sitting on their hands as the banks and credit card companies take everything they have.

Best New Year's Idea I've seen in a long time

2009-12-31T10:03:00.005-05:00

Move Your Money!

While the ~~corporate dupes~~ TeaBaggers do their best to make sure Americans remain the helpless victims of corporate parasitism, there is an actual grass roots movement that will have a positive impact on the lives of our citizens.

There is a Movement afoot to move your money from the large mega-banks to local community based banks. What could be more conservative than that?

Of course the real problem with today's so called "conservationism" is that it isn't. William F. Buckley Jr wouldn't even recognize the morons who claim to be "conservative" today.

They are though, exactly what our would-be corporate overlords want. People too stupid to pull the leaches from their throats, who in fact think that the parasites that feed off them are their friends.

If you are tired of people trying to make you into their serf, here's something you can do right now. Take your money out of the huge mega-banks, (you know the ones who are directly responsible for our present financial difficulties, the ones who have enough political clout to get the government to give them your tax money to save their asses when their greed and ineptitude caught up with them) and put it in local banks that actually serve your community.

They won't be "too big to fail" if your wealth is distributed more evenly among many small banks, savings & loans, and credit unions. Then B of A and Citi can go die a dog's death without (supposedly) taking the country with them.

We still have the power to vote with our wallets and our feet, either we begin to use it, or we might just as well get fitted for collars.

There is an organization called "Move Your Money" which will help you find local community banks in your area. They made this video to help people understand the need to do this.

Here's the beginning of one woman's chronicle of getting herself out form under B of A.

If you are interested in Credit Unions you can get information and ratings on your local establishments here.

There's nothing like actually doing something to change your circumstances.

God Jul, Feliz Navidad

2009-12-25T00:57:00.004-05:00

And Merry Christmas as well!

Here is a bit of Christmas Music for you, hree of my favorite pieces. First is from Handel's Messiah,

One of the finest pieces of Christmas music ever written. Everyone (including me) does the "Hallelujah", but the rest of the piece is just as good.

And then on the other end of the spectrum, we have "White Trash Christmas"

And to finish off the set, here is Bing Crosby doing the original

School'n the kids on how it's done

2009-12-23T11:04:00.002-05:00

John Lee Hooker plays with the Stones and Clapton in Atlantic City 1989.

So Good!

From Crochet to General Relativity

2009-12-19T12:13:00.003-05:00

Sometimes you run across an idea that is so simple but so profound that you just have to sit back in wonder.

I have been working a lot with chain and plat sinnets the last week or so, playing with various ideas to see what I can come up with that could be used in "survival' situations, (or just for fun) so when I saw a video over at TED on someone who had been crocheting models of coral reefs, I had to check it out. (crochet is a special application of different chain sinnet knotting techniques) What I found was brilliant!

So I give you Margaret Wertheim on the beautiful math of coral.

WARNING: Watching this will probably make you smarter

Killer core workout

2009-12-14T08:52:00.002-05:00

For when just skiing is not enough for you.

I was quite happy to discover that my legs are in good condition after Saturday's ski day with no soreness Sunday or Monday. My triceps and abs were a bit sore however. This is from doing one of my very favorite "workout" routines for cross country skiing, called double poling, or more accurately "short arm double poling".

I was able to find a clip of a guy with good form to show you how it's done.
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You will notice that most of the work of moving you forward is done with the contraction of the core, the arms adding to forward momentum only at the end.

When you get the breathing coordinated with the movement you have a very powerful, explosive movement that works your whole body. This can be carries over into any number of other sports.

First Ski Day!

2009-12-12T17:52:00.002-05:00

And it was just about perfect.

It was 20 degrees and sunny, so myself and three friends, Janet, Dave and Fenna, grabbed our gear and took off on the trail nearest to us.

You really can't beat a winter day like this one.

There was a bit more Ice under the snow that one might wish for.

And the snow could be a bit deeper for my taste.

but those are small things compared to the fun of just getting outside and playing.

I'm not planning to be spending a lot of time indoors this winter. There's just too much to be doing outside. Between skiing, snowshoeing and running (ya gotta love yak traks!) I think I can spend almost as much time outside as I do in the summer.

Music for Blizzard Conditions

2009-12-10T10:08:00.002-05:00

After a couple days of false starts, the big blizzard is finally here!

It's a balmy 16F (-9C) outside. There's not a lot of snow yet, but at least it's not turning to slush on arrival anymore. With any luck, by Saturday I'll be able to seriously play in the snow!

Until then here is some music to set the mood for skiing snowshoeing and snowball tossing.

Karoliina Kantelinen, the brilliant Finnish ethnomusicologist, performing "Ellös huolta huomisesta".

Solveig Andersson of Norway, Yoiking "bjiejjie"

The group Jarŋŋa from Northern Sweden performing "Jåvna vuolle"

Tactical Macramé - Project 1

2009-12-08T13:25:00.009-05:00

In which I reveal, at great personal risk, the ancient hidden secret, known only to Muslims for thousands of years, kept within the innermost circles of certain Sufi Orders, of how to make a Solomon (Suliyman) bar at a speed guaranteed to confound the uninitiated.

I have been thinking about several small projects involving paracord and traditional knot-work, so this may become a regular, or at least semi-regular feature of the blog.

Making a survival bracelet

You will need about 14 to 16 inches of paracord for the bracelet core and about 6 and a half feet for the outer wrap. You will also want to have a good pair of scissors, a lighter, a pair of forceps, a clip board or other method of anchoring your work, and a hook and cord or some other method of keeping tension on your work.

You are going to need to learn four knots for this first foray into tactical macramé.

The two strand stopper knot

You will use this knot to make the button for the button and loop closure in the core of the bracelet

The constrictor knot

The constrictor knot will be used to start and finish the project. It is also just a really useful knot to know. If you ever needed to tie a bag shut, or to tie several strands of cord together, this is the knot you would want.

The reef (square) knot

The Reef knot is also very useful to know. It is a moderately secure knot that is easy to untie.

The cow hitch (also called ring hitch and lark's head).

The cow hitch is a handy way to attach a line to something, but that's not why you see it here. There is a secret about the cow hitch that allows you to complete the project with a minimum of hassle.

So let's start, Grab some cord and we will practice the various knots.

Tying the two strand stopper knot

You will want to practice this knot several times to get the hang of shaping it correctly. Take your time and work the knot closed a bit at a time until it is solid and has the shape of a button.

Once you feel happy with the knot, it's time to make the core for the bracelet.

Measuring the core cord

When You have your core cord measured, tie a stopper knot at the end just above where you clamped it off. Now you're ready to learn the constrictor knot.

Tying the constrictor knot

The constrictor knot give you a way to attach the cord that will form the Solomon bar that is a bit more pleasing than just starting a reef knot. It also keeps the two sides of the cord even.

Tying the cow hitch

The cow hitch is given here as a separate knot so that you can get a feel for it on its own.

Tying the Reef knot

The reef knot is shown here for the same reason. Also, there may be a few projects in the future that will use reef knots without a core to tie them around.

Tying the Solomon bar

Here is the meat of the lesson. By using a cow hitch, then passing the opposite line through the two loops you form a full reef knot in one pass. When you are comfortable with this technique you will be able to cover a core with a Solomon bar is short order.

One of the main reasons I am doing the tutorial is that it seems that this method of making the Solomon bar has almost been lost. I couldn't find a single reference to it anywhere. (Of course I do also get to tease the Right Wing "survivalist" crowd about helping to preserve a traditional Islamic art and a fine old American Hippy tradition, that's also worth something).

Making the bracelet

Here is where you put your new knotting skills to the test and make your very own tactical macramé survival bracelet.

Finishing the bracelet

This is the method I use to finish the bracelet. I find it more pleasing than just cutting the cords off short and melting them.

This is the first time I have ever done a tutorial like this, so please help me make the next one better by giving me feedback on what I can do to make the instructions clearer.

Good luck and do feel free to send pictures of your finished work.

For the next project, I will be showing you what I think will be a much more effective survival bracelet made from a double loop chain sinnet.

Special Thanks to Janet for her fine camera work!

And today's theme music.....

2009-12-07T15:44:00.002-05:00

Does in fact ROCK!

Thought of the day

2009-12-07T13:47:00.002-05:00

While you are waiting breathlessly for me to do my post on tactical macramé.

There was a little glitch with the camera, which I hope will be taken care of soon, until then, enjoy a couple of little clips of the writer George Leonard.

Mr. Leonard, today in his 80's, still gets on the mat and teaches Aikido weekly at his dojo.

Scorch!

2009-12-05T11:56:00.002-05:00

Again Jon Stewart, with the able help of John Oliver, put things in perspective.

Here is the most interesting take on the banning of minarets by the Swiss. John Oliver is particularly fun as he moves from British comedian to a British citizen, who remembers just a bit more about WW2 than is comfortable for the Swiss.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Oliver's Travels - Switzerland

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

Again, I have to wonder why we get closer to the truth on the fake news than on the ~~corporate~~ real news.

A square knot by any other name.....

2009-12-04T09:50:00.004-05:00

Is still Macramé!

I keep an eye on the various "wilderness survival" sites and blogs. It's a subject of interest to me, and I often find useful information on these sites. A few of them are quite good as a matter of fact.

Of late, I have noticed a new fad in gear, the "survival bracelet". This has been described as a bit of "tactical wear" that allows you to conveniently carry an extra six feet or so of para-cord. Most of the bracelets I was reading about were described as being done in "cobra weave". I have to allow as I had never heard of "cobra weave" and I have a life-long interest in such things. So I found a picture of a survival bracelet made with "cobra weave" (also being called cobra stitch) that was clear enough that I could see what they were doing.

It was macramé.

I guess the "soldier of fortune" crowd just couldn't bring themselves to admit they were wearing a macramé bracelet and so made up a really macho name for the thing (ummm...... I know, lets call it Cobra Weave, that sounds like something Steven Seagal would wear)

Now I'm not saying that this bracelet isn't a good idea, it is to my thinking. And I'm not making fun of the wilderness survival people, most of whom are thoughtful folk who are following a passion that I share with them, some of whom I count as friends. I just find the "cobra weave" thing a bit funny.

As I have mentioned before, I'm an old hippy. Back in the day, if you didn't know how to make macramé jewelry and such, you were at a bit of a disadvantage. (it was a great way to impress the girls and to pick up a bit of extra cash) As it happens I was quite good at it. Mostly because I have had a lifelong interest in working with cord, rope and other sorts of fiber. I also had the opportunity to learn knotting and such from some very knowledgeable people when I was young.

So I sat down last night and made myself a survival bracelet out of a bit of paracord I had laying about. This is the finished product.

I used a button and loop closure rather than a buckle or shackle for the same reason I don't put the strap of a boonie hat under my chin.

Now here's the fun part. A little history on the subject of macramé, (it'll drive the Islamophobic right wingers nutz)

The word macramé comes from the Arabic migramah (مقرمة) which relates to the fringe on a scarf. It is an art that was developed in the Arabian Peninsula which spread across North Africa, up into Spain and then, like so much science, art and culture from the Muslim world, into Europe.

The art was quickly adopted by sailors, who called it "square knotting". The whole art of macramé is built on the foundation of just two knots, the half knot (think of how you tie your shoe, the half knot is what you make before the bow) and the half hitch. a series of knots is known as a bar in macramé speak. The bracelet you see here is a simple "Salomon's bar" which you make by doing half knots in one direction, then the other (right over left then left over right) forming a series of square knots. (aka reef knots) The reason they are known as square, I was told, is because they lay "square" when done this way. When you do the half knot all in the same direction it makes a double spiral down the core cords.

So the people who are making these bracelets are helping to preserve a bit of traditional Islamic AND traditional Hippy culture. How kewl is that?

I did a bit of looking online, youtube and such, and discovered that while there are a few tutorials on how to do tactical macramé, all of them I could find do it the hard way.

There is a trick to making the Solomon's bar quickly (it takes a quarter of the time or less than the way it is being shown around) known only to Muslims.

At great personal risk, I will reveal this secret technique to all the ~~uncircumcised infidel dogs~~ non-Muslims who might want to experiment with making survival bracelets using this traditional Islamic art as soon as I can get someone over here to operate the camera. (I do hope that you all realize that my tongue is planted firmly in my cheek here, but then again, there will be a few Islamophobes reading this, so maybe not) So stay tuned for my next installment.

First real snow of the season

2009-12-04T09:23:00.003-05:00

We got about six inches last night.

It's not quite enough for skiing or snowshoeing just yet, but soon I think.

(can't hardly wait)

Tracking Runners

2009-11-29T08:49:00.008-05:00

Tales written in sand

When I was a kid I learned how to track as a matter of course. Most everyone had at least the basic skills where I grew up, some were better, some were worse, I was somewhere in the middle. (still am as best as I can tell)

The track and sign left by an animal or a person can allow you to read their condition, their level of fatigue, how quickly they are traveling as well as a number of other things.

Looking at my own tracks is something I often do for myself, being as it is one of the few ways to get feedback on my own running technique without someone coaching me. There is nothing like looking at your own tracks to tell you if you are running as well as you think you are.

I also do this with the people I work with. I take them to a convenient sand lot and have them walk and/or run across the sand. This allows me to study the tracks they leave and gain much more information about their walking/running technique than I can tell just from watching them run. I have to admit, it can get me some interesting looks from time to time. To really study a track you often need to get down on your belly and move around the track in a 360 degree circle in order to see all the nuances.

One of my newest students, a young lady who has decided to take her health into her own hands, and I, running across the sand.

Reading someone's tracks can be a really valuable tool for learning how they are doing things that may be contributing to various problems. If someone comes to me complaining of back, hip or knee pain, whatever is causing this will be reflected in their tracks. Often it's the easiest way to discover how they are doing their discomfort and to see the changes that will help correct the problem.

The key is what's called pressure releases. A pressure release happens as the foot pushes off against the ground. Pressure releases will tell you where and how hard a person is pushing off with each foot.

Here is an example from one of my own tracks.

We see a good forefoot strike, with the leading edge of the heel just touching the ground (I'm wearing my trail running shows so I can make a good impression, no pun intended) only the first two lugs on the heel are visible. This means that the only heel contact was from absorption as the Achilles tendon stretched from the energy of the foot strike. There is a slight pressure release in the area of the third, fourth and fifth toes (upper left corner of the track) This indicates that I took off with more weight on the outside of my foot. I suspect tension in the foot as the cause, giving me a slight twist at take-off, or not allowing full pronation on landing. The latter seems the most likely as the track is not as deep at the big toe. I need to pay attention to this.

Here's another track from one of my students. Notice the deep pressure release at the outside forefoot. What would be a possible cause for such a movement of the foot?

The trick is, of course, to imagine how a foot would have to move to make that release, and under what circumstances it would do so.

There are some good resources to learn the rudiments of reading tracks out there. What you want is something beyond just identifying a track. A good place to start might be with the book "Tracking: a blueprint for learning how" by Jack Kearney

A little Thanksgiving (and Eid) music for you

2009-11-26T13:41:00.002-05:00

With thanks to the Muppets.

Happy Thanksgiving and

2009-11-26T10:13:00.002-05:00

Eid Mubarak!

Whatever holiday you celebrate today (or tomorrow) I hope it's a good one!

Ya know how dumb the "average guy" is?

2009-11-24T08:40:00.002-05:00

Well, by definition, half the people out there are even dumber than that, and they all seem to be voting Republican these days. (with thanks to Robert Anton Wilson)

Here is a very interesting group of interviews from outside a book signing in Ohio.
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..

Come on people! "Conservative" doesn't mean saving those brain cells for a rainy day. William F. Buckley must be turning in his grave.

I think you'd have to add everyone's numbers together just to get the IQ points out of double digits.

Seeing things like this always brings me back to the question "Have Americans become too stupid to survive?"

Bowling Ball On A Stick

2009-11-21T09:39:00.025-05:00

And other fun ways to get a workout.

Some time ago Mo'in asked about my workout routine, well, appearances aside, I didn't forget. The question was:

"At your convenience, could you elaborate on what your experience has shown to you as serious exercise? I am admittedly highly critical of much of modern exercise advice. In the last few years, I have embraced a very different, and far more intense, form of exercising popular in many combat athletic circles."

OK, well first, I want to be clear about goals, which will determine what "serious" is for each of us. For me, first and foremost its health, above all else. So if an exercise doesn't promote my overall health I just drop it and never look back.

Second is general fitness, which is, for me, the ability to "move in the world". That would mean walk, run, jump, swing, climb, lift, throw, etc. with ease.

Third is sport specific fitness. I want to be as fit as possible for the activities that I love. This would be martial arts, specifically Silat and full contact stick fighting, biking, running, XC skiing, snowshoeing and walking.

Everything I do fits into this hierarchy. If something might be good for martial arts, but does not contribute to my overall health, or takes away from it, (and a lot of exercise sure does give you short term benefit at the expense of long term health) I stay away from whatever that is.

The keystone of my practice is sustained aerobic exercise. I know that these days a lot of "fitness gurus" look down on this, but my glucose meter doesn't lie. Nothing keeps me at proper blood glucose levels like sustained (an hour or more, I like a lot more) work in the "aerobic zone". It also keeps me as healthy (or healthier to tell the truth) as most 30 year olds here in the US.

I use a simple test to make sure I'm working in the aerobic zone. If I am working hard enough that I can't sing, but can still talk, then I'm right where I want to be. I also use a heart rate monitor, but this test works just fine as an overall indicator.

I'm pretty convinced that the human body craves aerobic work. I certainly seem to thrive when I get enough and suffer for it when I don't. Running and biking are the two things I do to get most of my aerobic work in. During good weather I usually manage around 100 + miles a week on my bike and 20-30 miles running.

But we also need to work the muscles against resistance.

For this I use a combination of bodyweight exercise, strange devices, and weighted objects.

One think I am not interested in is "muscular hypertrophy", that is to say "bulking up" or having "massive muscles", as the ads in the back of the comic books offer. These days I am right around 175 at 6'2" and 12 % body fat. which is just about where I want to be. (I'm shooting for 10% body fat at the same weight, it should take me no more than 2 months to get there) For me, lean is healthy, so I' don't lift really heavy weight (in boring mechanical linear repetition) to "bulk up".

Most of the bodyweight stuff I do is either yoga, drawn from the Zurkhaneh of Iran, or taken from Scott Sonnon. If you're looking for good bodyweight based programs, check out Scott's material, it's second to none.

Then there's weights of one sort or another.

Clubbells are one of my very favorites. I have used them since Scott first made them available and consider them essential for every thinking person's gym.

I also like sandbags. You can pay a premium for the commercially made ones, or you can make your own for next to nothing.

I keep an eye out at yard sales for duffles and stuff sacks I cam pick up for cheap, then fill them with sand myself. in the photo above you see 50, 30 and 20 lb bags, which together cost me around US $10 to make.

At some point I'll do a post on how to make your own modular sandbags, ones that you can change the weight of in seconds, for next to nothing. But for now.....

One of my very favorite home made toys is the Bowling ball on a stick.

This is just a modern cheap version of the Indian Gada, or mace. This tool has been used by Indian yogis, wrestlers and warriors for centuries, perhaps even millennia, for overall strength and endurance. The one you see here is made from a bowling ball I picked up at Goodwill for a couple bucks and a broken hoe handle. It weighs just 17 lbs, but don't let that fool you, moving it around is a challenge. If I want a greater challenge, I use the 35 lb gada with the 4 foot shaft you see in the photo of my equipment.

One thing to keep in mind, a gada is not a clubbell. If you try to use them interchangeably you will hurt yourself. The gada has its own rules of use and it's own exercises.

Here are a couple.

The first is the most common single exercise done with a gada. Here in the States its known as the "Gama cast", after The Great Gama, one of India's most famous wrestlers.

And then we have a curl and flag. The eccentric nature of the weight really forces recruitment of the core stabilizer muscles in movements like this one.

Then we come to strange devices. I use several, enough that I will have to devote a separate post to them one day. let me just tell you about three of them here.

I am lucky enough to be friends with Vince Brown out in the Bay area. Vince, besides being a great coach and instructor, is something of a mad genus when it comes to home made ~~torture devices~~ exercise equipment.

This is a little something that Vince whipped up in his lab, brought to me by my friend Carey the last time she came out to visit.

It's a simple pulley and strap device with all manner of uses, here are just two, both for working core strength.

The first moves from the upper body.

and the second moves from the lower.

This is a lot harder than it looks.

Ten of these and you will have found all sorts of muscles you didn't even know you had.

You may remember that a while back I wrote about using a strap and a tree as exercise equipment, well I am still quite happy with that simple device.

I've found many different things to do with a simple strap, you are limited only by your imagination and sense of adventure.

Another toy I love playing with is the "power rope". One of my favorite exercises involves a lighter rope used to work both speed and endurance for the upper body.

Again, you can spend a lot of money on ropes, but with a little hunting at yard sales and salvage yards you can outfit yourself for very little (hint: used fire hose is great for a heavy power rope).

I also use bands and tubing of all sorts, and large rocks and heavy tree branches, but I think I'll save that for another time.

Gotta Love It

2009-11-20T11:02:00.001-05:00

A little theme music.

And so to the point.

Jon Stewart is yet again

2009-11-20T10:15:00.003-05:00

My hero!

Some of you may have heard about the 10 year old kid that decided not to say the pledge of allegiance until there actually was "liberty and justice for all". Well, as you can imagine, he has been getting hassled quite a bit at school for taking such a stand. (not to mention being raked over the coals by so called conservatives, who only believe in liberty and justice for themselves)

Well, Stewart has the solution!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Gaywatch - Peter Vadala & William Phillips

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

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Born to Run Barefoot?

2009-11-20T09:40:00.001-05:00

An interview with Chris McDougall, Author of "Born To Run"

Done by ABC News.

Ya never know, there just may be something to this barefoot stuff. There certainly is to running.

Born to Run Barefoot?

Gimme that ol' time religion

2009-11-16T00:23:00.002-05:00

Since Religion seems to be a subject that's up a lot these days,

what with the Catholic church flexing its political muscle, Fred Phelps and his nut jobs standing around with their signs, all the hate coming from all quarters, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, and all (I even heard of a Jain that sharpens the bristles of the broom he uses to sweep insects from his path) I thought some inspirational church music might be in order. (Warning: Not Safe For Work)

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Fun Music

2009-11-12T08:33:00.006-05:00

With a fun name

Meet Pomplamoose, an Indi Group from the Bay Area. I just discovered them last night, and I have to say I find them quite charming and engaging. (If it weren't for YouTube I'd be so far behind the times....)

The group consists of Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte, two very talented musicians. Ms. Dawn sings (with a very sweet voice, a little reminiscent of Feist, but with her own character) and plays the bass guitar. Mr. Conte plays everything but the kitchen sink (and I wouldn't be surprised to see him work that in on some tune or another) and does backup vocals.

They are using a medium that I was not familiar with called a "VideoSong". They describe it (from their YouTube site) as:

A VideoSong is a new Medium with two rules:

1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).

This turns out to be a pretty fun format, and it puts music videos back in the hands of musicians, even if they don't have million dollar budgets.

I really got a kick out of their music. They cover a lot of songs, and do their own material. They even manage to make a tune from a TV commercial sound good.

I am a little envious of my friends in SF. The next time I'm out that way I will be hoping they will be playing live somewhere near.

I am going to exert what little influence I have with WYCE (one of the world's best stations) to see if I can't get their music a little air time. With any luck they might just get really popular here in West Michigan and end up playing here one day.

Here are a couple of videos by Pomplamoose for your enjoyment. You can find a lot more on their YouTube Channel. You can also find their music on itunes.

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Applying the Brakes

2009-11-10T15:10:00.007-05:00

Without busting the shins.

I have been noticing this interesting thing when I watch people run.

Someone will be moving along with near perfect form, feet landing directly under center mass, proper heel flick, good turnover, the whole nine yards. Then the go to stop. The throw their body back. dorsiflex the lead foot, lock their lead leg at the knee and heel strike to stop themselves.

¿Cómo se dice ‘OUCH’ en español?

Then they wonder why they are still getting shin splints, sore knee and hip joints and other such pains.

Slamming the weight and momentum of your body into a rigid lead leg with all the force focused on the heel bone, to decelerate from 8 to 0 mph in one or two steps, is not what I would think of as a long term survival strategy.

This is one of those areas where barefoot training can be a real help. The only reason a person can repeatedly perform this maneuver is because the padding in modern running shoes will keep you from feeling the immediate pain of impact (while doing nothing to lessen the shock of the landing).

You can test this (though I DON'T recommend that you do) by taking off your shoes and running a few yards, then stopping in this manner.

A saner way to come to a halt, or a walk, is to land on the forefoot and allow the knee and hip joints to absorb the forward motion by converting it into downward motion. This gives your stride a little dip for a step or two, but it does not put unneeded impact on the leg. With a little practice you can go from a run to a walk in one step, without slapping your foot on the ground or striking your heel into the path.

Here is a video clip of a field hockey player with a good stride, but bad breaking. You will notice that with the slow motion shot, you can see the shock-wave going up his shin from the heel strikes.

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Autumn Leaves as a Training Tool

2009-11-09T22:05:00.004-05:00

Or, "How to run better and play like a kid at the same time"

I was out working with a client today. This of course means different things with different people. In this case we were working on his running.

It was a fine autumn day here in West Michigan with the parks and most of the streets and sidewalks covered in leaves. As it happens, a leaf covered running trail is a wonderful thing for improving one's stride. All you have to do is run through them and listen. You will be able to hear if you are dragging your feet, or any number of things that will mess with good stride.

Then all you have to do is try to run more quietly. The quietest stride will be the one where you pick up your feet and land them directly under your center of mass. So when you are running (or walking for that matter) with just the light crunching sound of compressing directly down on the leaves without any of the scuffing sounds, your stride will be very good.

Also, it's just fun to run through autumn leaves.

Give it a try next time you're out.

Here's a little running music, "The Hunt" from Azam Ali and Niyaz.

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A Paleolithic Athletic Drink

2009-11-08T09:56:00.018-05:00

And all around great food that most people have never heard of.

There is a food that at one time was prized from central California to Texas, from Colorado to Central Mexico. It was a staple of the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe from the Palos Verdes area of southern California, The Chumash collected it as far north as San Louis Obispo County. The Hopi and Zuni used it as a travel food, the Apache collected it wherever they found it.

Amongst the Native peoples of Mexico it was considered so valuable that the Aztecs paid their taxes with it.

The Gabrielinos called it "Pashi", the Chumash knew it as "Ilepesh", I'm told the Mayan name for the plant meant "that which gives strength", the Aztecs adopted it as "Chian" which meant "oily". The Latin names for the plant are Salvia columbariae and Salvia Hispanica.

Until recently we knew of this plant only through late night commercials and the jokes about them. I am of course talking about the Chia Plant and chia seeds, the original Native American super food.

When I started doing research on foods that supported healthy blood sugar levels I found many references to it as as one of the most promising, and I was reminded of having had it as a treat when I was a child.

Until the book "Born to Run" was published, it was likely that most people didn't even know the chia seed was edible, let alone good for you unless they were close to South Western Native or Mexican cultures.

As it turns out, the humble chia seed can help normalize your blood sugar, lower your cholesterol and blood pressure, help prevent heart disease, as well as help you lose significant weight. It will also most likely make you smarter. The seed is very high in Omega-3 fatty acids especially alpha-Linolenic acid. It is also quite high in antioxidants as well, and has complete protein.

Here is a breakdown of chia as a nutrient. This is calculated for one ounce of chia seeds, which is about two tablespoons worth.

An ounce of chia has a glycemic load of "1" and is mildly anti-inflammatory.

You can get a pretty in depth nutritional analysis here. This is a good article on chia seed for diabetics.

Back in the day, Apache warriors would keep a bag of chia seeds on their belt when on the trail. This was preferred over any other food because it was light, compact, and could be eaten right out of the bag with no cooking at all. It doesn't taste like much, but chia and water can keep you going for weeks if need be.

There are many ways to use chia as a food, and I will go over a few of them here.

First though, for those people who have sisters who like to drink pancake batter-like substances when they run, we have Chia Fresca.

Chia Fresca is my answer to Gatorade and all the other so called "energy drinks" out there. (All of which are not fit for human consumption as far as I am concerned).

Here is my recipe.

In a one liter bottle:

fill half way with good water

add three tablespoons of dry chia seeds and stir (or shake, with the lid on of course) until the seeds are mixed well with the water.

Add the fresh juice of two limes, (with the pulpy bits from making the juice).

Add one packet of Alacer Electro-Mix.

Add one level teaspoon of MSM powder.

fill the bottle the rest of the way with water.

Sweeten to taste.

Put the lid and and shake like crazy, then let it sit in the fridge for a half hour or so.

When I make this and I know I'm having a light workout day I use stevia as a sweetener. If I will be working out hard enough to need serious calorie replacement I will sweeten the mix with agave syrup. (very low glycemic index for a sweetener)

The MSM helps support joint health and also seems to convince your body's cells to be a bit more permeable (and thus fight insulin resistance).

The chia seeds will absorb about nine times their weight in water as they sit in the bottle. After a half hour or so the will form a gel around themselves and you will have what looks a bit like a liter bottle full of frog's eggs in swamp water.

This stuff will rehydrate you very quickly and give you calories from real food rather than from "high fructose corn syrup", and it won't spike your blood sugar. I have found nothing better for long runs or bike rides. (it also tastes good and is fun to drink)

Now that athletes have found out about chia fresca you can find all manner of articles on the web about how great it is.

Here's another recipe that uses chia.

Ilaká'its'éé Sélt'sé (Apache Sunflower Cakes)

2 cups of raw, shelled sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon of salt
1 rounded tablespoon of chia seeds
4 tablespoons of blue corn meal (or other heritage corn)
1/2 cup of water
a little cooking oil

Stir the chia seeds into 1/2 cup of water and set aside for about a half hour so that the seeds form a gel.

Place the sunflower seeds in a pan with the teaspoon of salt and just cover with water. Cook at a low boil for six minutes then take the pan off the stove and let it cool.

Place the seeds along with any water left from the cooking in a good blender or food processor and grind them into a paste.

Place the paste in a bowl and add the corn meal, stir well. Now add the chia gel and mix it into the batter. Chia gel will bind ingredients as well as gluten or egg, so it is a great substitute for anyone who is vegetarian and wheat intolerant.

Bring a lightly oiled cast iron skillet to a medium heat.

Scoop out a rounded tablespoon of the batter, form it into a patty and place it on the skillet, use your spatula to flatten the patty a bit more. Repeat until your skillet it full.

Cook until both sides are golden brown.

Serve warm or cool.

If people have an interest I'll post some other recipes that involve chia as time allows.

Meatless Pemmican

2009-11-05T22:11:00.008-05:00

Making your own trail/workout food

One of the problems I have run into as an "endurance" athlete is that most of what is used to fuel oneself on the trail might as well be poison for what it does to my blood glucose.

The modern gels, goos and power bars are designed to dump a lot of calories into your system VERY quickly. This is hard enough on your metabolism if it is "normal" but for a diabetic, It's way too much.

So I have taken to making my own trail/running foods and drinks and testing them to make sure that I get sustained calories that are released at a sane pace and real nutrients to boot.

One of my favorite running foods is "meatless pemmican". Pemmican is a traditional Native American food that contains fat, protein, and carbohydrates. It has been used since forever as a travel ration and as a food that can be easily stored for months. As a ration it can keep you going for weeks. Along with a little pinole and beans, people have walked from one side of America to the other with pemmican as their main food source.

Traditionally, the protein in pemmican comes from dried meat, and the fat is rendered from bone marrow. Being as the quality of commercial meat is more than a little dubious, and I am not set up to properly dry the wild meat I get, I have developed this recipe that is vegetarian, (vegan even)

You will need

Piñones (pine nuts) 1/2 cup
Pepitas (pumpkin seeds, hulled) 1/2 cup
Almonds 1/2 cup
Pecans 1/4 cup
Dried Cherry 1/2 cup
Dried Blueberry 1/4 cup
Dried Apricot 1/2 cup
Dried Apple 1/2 cup
Salt 1 tsp
Coconut Oil 1 tsp

Note: the best pine nuts are from the "Pinus Edulis" (Colorado Pinion Pine) and are harvested mostly in New Mexico. A quick Google search will turn up several sources. Any of the other pine nuts will do in a pinch though. CostCo sells a large bag for a very good price.

The first thing you will need to do is dry roast the Piñones and Pepitas. I use a wok, but a cast iron frying pan works as well, or an oven for that matter, though it is a bit harder to get the right roast in my experience.

I roast the seeds very lightly, just enough to improve the flavor. If you want an all raw food you can eliminate this step, But I don't think it tastes as good.

At the end of the roasting, when the seeds have taken on a light golden color, I add one rounded teaspoon of coconut oil to the pan and stir it until the seeds are covered in the oil.

Next, add the seeds, as well as any other nuts you are using (almonds etc) and the salt to a food processor.. (one of the great inventions of the 20th century)

And grind them into a fine meal.

Then add your dried fruit.
Note on dried fruit: Be sure to read the labels when you get your dried fruit. Much of the commercial stuff has sugar added, which is really unnecessary (and potentially harmful). I get my fruit from the local healthfood store which sells certified organic with no sugar added.

Grind everything together. You may need to stop and use a spoon to get the mis off the side of the processor as it tends to be a bit sticky at this point.

Cut sheets of wax paper into appropriate size take a couple of spoons of the mix and shape it into a bar.

Wrap the bar tightly. When you have enough, seal them in an air tight bag or other container. If you keep them in a freezer they will stay fresh like this pretty much forever.

You can experiment with different seeds and nuts to develop a flavor that pleases you. I will sometimes add sunflower seeds, chia seeds or ground flax seed to the mix with good result.

Note: If you are diabetic avoid using dates. Date sugar has a higher glycemic index than glucose (date sugar is 103 to 106, glucose is 100) Dates will always spike my blood sugar.

There you have it, a trail food that will keep you going all day, that tastes good and that most children think is great.

If you try this do let me know what you think.

DC Green Muslims

2009-11-02T20:51:00.002-05:00

How Kewl Is That?

Visit Their Blog

Musical Interlude

2009-11-02T16:38:00.000-05:00

Yo Yo Ma and the honkers (for the child in everyone)

Getting Fit (For Sabi Honom and the Ladies of the Ummah)

2009-10-31T16:03:00.011-04:00

I've had a house guest These last few days.

It's my dear friend Carey Rockland. Carey is one of the more successful fitness coaches and personal trainers in the Bay Area (a place with fierce competition, there's a personal trainer under every rock in SF) She is one of the people that I go to for advice on how to improve and refine my own fitness program. Over the years she has never steered me wrong.

One area that she is particularly good at is helping people reclaim the health and fitness that they have lost, so when Sabiwabi made her post on reclaiming her own health and fitness, it occurred to me that I had an interesting opportunity to do something useful.

So I pointed Carey at the various posts by Sabi and the other ladies of the Ummah and asked her to put together some useful advice for women who want to reclaim their health. (and Carey is a much better coach than Jillian Michaels)

What you see below is the result. If there are questions, you can direct them to Carey either here or on her blog.

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Hello There! Mushtaq has been raving about how wonderful it is that you are all getting together to get fit! I am a fitness trainer from San Francisco, and he has asked me to write a guest blog with you in mind.

Exercise has many benefits, and the one that comes to the front of my mind as it relates to you, is the benefit of increased self-care. The simple act of making time for yourselves to get into shape does wonders for how you feel about yourself in every aspect of your lives. Being mothers, it likely often seems counterintuitive to choose to prioritize yourself any activity.

The choice to make time for your fitness will help you show up for those you love with more presence and efficacy. As your self-esteem grows alongside your increasing level of fitness, you will start to connect with yourself at this stage in your life.

In reading over your blog posts, I see an element of surprise at losing connection with yourselves while being overwhelmed with the demands of parenting. This is a completely normal occurrence. Recognizing the need to care for your health and fitness offers you the possibility of slowing down the pace of your life, refocusing on who you are right now, and can ultimately allow you to be fully present during these wonderful years of child rearing.

Your commitment to yourself and your family is the ultimate incentive to exercise. Knowing that you are preserving your health so you can be there for your children, and live long enough to see theirs, is a powerful motivator. Our minds get in our way more than almost any scheduling obstacle, because they are wired to resist physical discomfort.

Getting back into good physical condition typically includes some degree of discomfort. When the worry about discomfort arises, keep moving, and focus on the ways you are empowering yourself. Rather than engaging with inertia, move right past it. As long as you are committed to putting the time into physical movement, and you do so on a regular basis, everything else will fall into place, you will also find greater appreciation for what you see in the mirror.

One solution to finding time for fitness within a parenting schedule is to take 2 or 3 breaks during the day for 10 minutes of exercise. There are plenty of exercises you can do at home, that can be incorporated into kid time. Here's a sample schedule:

8:00-8:10 AM - March around your home carrying your child for 5 minutes alternating between 20 normal steps and 20 high knee steps. Then complete 10 squats holding your smallest child, then bend over, keeping your spine long, bend you knees and carefully pick your child up 10 times (pay close attention to your form), then lift your child as high as you can 10 times. Repeat x 2. If your child is too heavy, use two 1 gallon milk or water jugs.

12 - 12:10 PM - 5 plank walk-out push-ups (from a standing position, bring your hands to the floor (this is often taught with straight legs, I don't mind if you bend your knees), hand walk out until you are in a plank position, if you need to, drop to your knees, do one push-up, and walk yourself back up to standing. Next, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and step your left leg out to your side, perform a lateral squat step, then step back to standing where you began. Repeat on the right. Perform 20 repetitions per leg. Lastly, use the edge of a sturdy chair to perform 10 triceps dips, you may bend your knees to make these more manageable. Repeat this sequence twice.

4-4:10 PM - 25 jumping jacks, 10 one gallon jug biceps curls (or baby curls), 10 forward hops, 10 backward hops. Repeat x 3 Stand with feet shoulder width, holding gallon jug or baby, keep arms relatively straight, turn and pivot your body to the left and then right x 20 reps, one time through. Lastly, lie down on the floor on your back with knees bent, elbows under your head, eyes up, perform 25 upper ab crunches (upper abs and shoulders come off the floor) then release your head and perform 25 reaches toward your feet with your arms just above the floor, then flip onto your stomach and reach your hands and feet off the floor simultaneously for a 2 x 10 count. Repeat this ab sequence twice.

When squatting and lifting, keep your spine neutral and long - avoid any sort of rounding of the back. Keep your knees behind your toes, approximately over your ankles. When rotating, keep your spine upright, resist the urge to lean forward or back! Proper form is vital, if you are in doubt search Google and Youtube for more detailed instructions. Lastly, it is important to change your program every 4-6 weeks to avoid a plateau. If you do this program, search online for something to do once you have spent an adequate amount of time on it.

The most important thing to remember is: move! Three ten minute walk breaks during the day will serve you well if you cannot accommodate resistance exercise. If you fall out of your routine for some reason, jump right back in as soon as possible. It is better to accept short term set backs and move on quickly, rather than dwell on them. Your cumulative work over the long term will pay off.

Community is a tremendous asset. Use your network to create accountability and support for each other's exercise participation. You might try having a buddy system within the group in which you let your buddy know you have completed your daily workout.

Keep up the good work, keep communicating with each other, and do let me know if there is anything I can do to keep you moving!

Best wishes,
Carey Rockland

A Must Read

2009-10-29T00:27:00.002-04:00

Our own Sabiwabi Honom gives a brutally honest account of what it takes to get your health back.

This is a "must read" for anyone interested in reclaiming their health and fitness,

Check It Out

Articles On Running From The New York Times

2009-10-28T18:40:00.002-04:00

With a tip of the hat to M.M for pointing them out.

The Human Body Is Built for Distance

The Roving Runner Goes Barefoot

Barefoot Running video
An interview with Christopher McDougall

Then there are my own favorites

2009-10-28T12:01:00.003-04:00

Along with the ones that people read the most, here are the things I have written that I rather like.

Slicing Time and Slicing Ego
I wrote this as an answer to a question from a friend, it's part of my "slicing time series".

Martial Arts and Self Defense
This is an essay on the false dichotomy that some people make (usually in order to promote the thing that they think will make them some money) between the two.

The Fine Print
Being a short story with a slightly Lovecraftian flavor.

Training and Recovery
This was some of my thoughts on how to train in such a way as to stay healthy.

Getting Behind the knife
Some of my thoughts on effective knife combat training.

The Dance of the New Moon
A Sufi story designed as either a test, or a conundrum.

The Real Origins of George Bush's Power
Another short tale drawing from the traditions of Lovecraft, Gurdjieff and Sufism.

I just got back from the 12th annual Sufism Symposium
There is a bit of mental nourishment found here.

The Descent of Inanna
A translation of a very old and interesting poem.

Did Someone Say Sex?
This one really pissed off the stuffed shirts (or stuffed djellabas as the case may be) making one of my favorites.

Enjoy.

Turning a solar power garden light into a cheap battery charger

2009-10-28T11:43:00.004-04:00

I have always liked the idea of a solar battery charger....

But they are pricey. Most of them are between $50 and $90, but......

I just ran across this article. I am going to have to try this, being as I only use rechargeable batteries, and I hate giving money to the electric company.

Speaking as an Old Hippy

2009-10-27T09:33:00.002-04:00

I found this rather interesting.

Looking inside the brain of someone who is tripping, from the National Geographic Channel.

Got tagged

2009-10-25T16:43:00.005-04:00

Boy, it's been a while since that's happened.

Tagging is a game bloggers used to play back in the early ages of writing these things. These things often took the form of a series of interview questions, or just asked for a list of things.

Well Sabiwabi Honom (for the person asked why I always add that word to her name, it's a term of respect, a little like the English Ma'am) tagged me with

“5 (Random) Things That I Love.”

OK, let's see....... There's my cat

This is Wingnut. I'm not really a cat person but he wouldn't take no for an answer. He was originally a kitten brought home by one of my old house-mates, but he decided that I was his human, and spent most of his time hanging out with me. I have to admit, he is a pretty amusing critter.

Then there's Frybread!

today I cooked Indian Tacos (Buffalo chili served on frybread) for my friend Steve. He is going to have surgery done on his shoulder this week, so we had a little dinner party for him after training. Yeah Frybread!

Dune, by Frank Herbert.

It's one of my all time favorite books. His whole series of Dune books was some of the best fiction I have read.

I read Dune for the first time in '65 or '66. It was the first book I read over again the moment I finished it.
Herbert created one of the most compelling universes I have ever read in and I have found the stories of Dune to be at the level of modern mythology.

Here is the song "Inama Nushif" written in the Chaksobsa language of the Fremen, sung by the incomparable Azam Ali

Inama nushif
Inama nushif (She is eternal)
Al asir hiy ayish (No malice can touch)

Lia-anni (Singular and ageless)
Zaratha zarati (Perpetually bound)

Hatt al-hudad (Through the tempest)
Al-maahn al-baiid (be it deluge or sand)
Ay-yah idare (A singular voice)
Adamm malum (speaks through the torrent)

Hatt al-hudad (Through the tempest)
Al-maahn al-baiid (be it deluge or sand)
Ay-yah idare (A singular voice)
Adamm malum (speaks through the torrent)

Inama nishuf al a sadarr (Forever her voice sings)
Eann zaratha zarati (through the ages eternally bound)

Kali bakka a tishuf ahatt (Sacrifice is her gift)
Al hudad alman dali (one that cannot be equaled)

Inama nishuf al a sadarr (Forever her voice sings)
Eann zaratha zarati (through the ages eternally bound)

Kali bakka a tishuf ahatt (Sacrifice is her gift)
Al hudad alman dali alia (that Alia will one day equal)

Inama nushif (She is eternal)
Al asir hiy ayish (No malice can touch)

Lia-anni (Singular and ageless)
Zaratha zarati (Perpetually bound)

Playing with sharp pointy things.

What can I say?

and finally there's Tanzanian Hip Hop

Largely unknown outside of East Africa The Hip Hop movement of Tanzania is gritty, down to earth, socially conscious music (unlike its competitor "Bongo Flava") Some of the very best comes from Arusha.

so there's my list.

To pass it on I tag
Janet
Tiel
(both of whom I challenge to do their lists as poetry)
Steve Van Harn
(who will need to be doing something while he recovers)
And Steve Perry
(because he will come up with an interesting list)