reinstalled computers

well, thats xp installed on my puter again.
seems to run pretty quick - can't tell if thats just the SATA-150 or the RAID-0 stripe.

Just watching a bit of Eliza Dushkus (imdb) new series - tru calling. Interesting premise - groundhog day meets sixth sense. Suffers a bit too much from gratuitous shots of eliza running around the city - she really needs a car or a cycle but beyond that it's look pretty cool.

Birthday today i've had. quiet thing and perhaps deliberately - an excuse for donuts tomorrow though so thats cool :D

I now have a hoard of DVDs to watch too - still collecting more than watching but i'll get there. for now, watching telly and playing too many games :)

currently playing unreal tournament 2004 too much.

also - distinct lack of practice over the past few weeks of t'ai chi free thursdays.

my word its been a while

Well, it certainly seems that distractions are happily keeping me from doing things I used to think were important. These things are still important but with less time due to time spent at work and an ever increasing desire to play and have fun, well, it seems sitting and writing a little about what I've been doing has gone out the window.

So what have i been doing?

Playing unreal tournament 2004 (see below). Been talking to my sis a lot since my nephew was born. Been going to t'ai chi though not last week and this week is my other halfs birthday. Got two SATA drives and RAID-0'd those, will be reinstalling my OS in the coming weekend.

What else? erm. oh, found an excellent tea site.

will write more soon....

I'm an uncle!!!!

My wee nephew was born today (well, friday 19th) at 2.43pm weighing in at 2lbs 6oz. Little fellas healthy but will be in hospital a while until he's big enough to go home. all cool. sis is well too.

sweet dude.

went to t'ai chi thursday night

ankle held up well but i seem to have removed a layer of skin while doing some of the punch pad drills - doh!

I think people are starting to wonder why i am following a hobby that injures me so much. Really must find out what I doing wrong there, clearly I am bad at punching!- punching? how hard can it be? ho hum.

still good class. i am really not very fit and have a long way to go before i am anything like good at freestyle pushing hands. Theres apparently a competition next month that i would like to see but its the 4th of april which is already double booked in my calendar :(

lots of other stuff i have to report but thats for another time i think.

chinese meal

as it turns out i went for a nice chinese meal last night, although woke up in the middle of the night with a migraine. These thankfully are rare now but I'm not sure what it was... likely the food I guess

ankles feeling better today though

nice

I find myself hesitant

After a morning wondering around London going to various meetings and an afternoon at my desk I find that my ankle is complaining. I think the outside tendon is currently lightly stretched and is displeased about it. I am hesitant about going to T'ai chi tonight and concerned that the hesitation is simply laziness masked as concern. I am tired though and my ankle is not great - a third week away from the class would seem advisable.

Is this 30% out of laziness or avoiding 120% with good reason? The latter I think.

Ho hum. Will rest my ankle this evening and practice this weekend.

Been a while huh?

So whats happening now?

Ankles much improved though not 100%. The arnica cream has most certainly helped. I am intending to go to T'ai chi tomorrow night although won't be taking part in the more martial drills. Some parts of the short form are at present beyond the scope of my ankle so I will selective even in the parts of the short form that I will be doing. Still, attending will help my ankle in my opinion - doing what I can do and no more will be as far as I should go.

I don't know if I have mentioned this before but apparently there is a Taoist saying that one should do 70% of what one can do, no more. To do more, to go to 90% or 100% means one risks going to 110% or 120% should an accident occur - such may cause injury. Another instance of this statement concerns eating. Eat until you are 70% full - when too full there is no room to digest ones meal. This one I have difficulty with, being English and inclined to clear my plate at any oppurtunity. Indeed finding the 70% level is difficult. often one doesn't want to do what one is doing so 70% becomes an excuse and becomes 30%. In the case where one wants to do something then 70% easily becomes more. Perhaps then this rule is really about finding a healthy balance. A useful indicator though.

On another note I am now contributing a very little amount to charity.

And now???

well, foot swelled up totally on friday. most impressive. difficult to walk since thursday evening.

the swelling diminished over the past few days to reveal some mean bruises! first appeared on the inside of my foot, then on the outside around monday. Finally some bruises appeared on my toes.

walking has become progressively easier and I'm currently walking at about toddler pace.

I have just popped some arnica cream on and an hour later have improved flexibility in the joint. COOL!

oddly a chap at the t'ai chi class offered me a tincture of arnica at the end of the class when I hurt myself and I turned him down, saying I had some - pride got in the way there. This could well have reduced the healing time had I taken him up on the offer but like many men I dislike being in debt to someone (except possibly faceless credit card companies, loan companies, banks, etc. )

Lessons to learn again.

In other news I now own an Xbox with project gotham 2 and battle engine aquila. My obsession with computer games continues.

Just sat watching jake 2.0 on the telly too - seems like it could be a good series.

so what happened?

well, we were doing a technique where person A punches, person B blocks and controls person A - then sweeps their legs from under them. Done it loads of times, this time I was person A, my right leg was swept - body twisted round as usual, foot didn't move as usual :(

loud crunching noise

not actually loud, sounded loud to me. like snapping celery. bleurgh.

warm feeling in ankle, 5 minutes later difficulty standing on it.

why did the foot not move? a few reasons, me tired, me unprepared a bit, lack of practice, lack of warming up joints. hmm...

many lessons to learn.
sleep. practice. warm up.

as I frequently say, the path is easy to see but its easy not to follow it.

lack of practice takes its toll

so, er, sprained my ankle at t'ai chi this evening.

bottom.

Sufism

I have in the past week grown a little curious about sufism. My first exposure was probably in the film "Romancing the stone". I recall a group of warriors for want of a better term, with a joy of life and a particular outlook.

The thing that brought this to mind was an entry in my "zen - page a day calendar". The specific saying was:
Love the pitcher less,
and the water more.

Cool huh? A very poetic was of saying don't judge a book by its cover and yet so much more. So often we look at the shell of things, yet it is its contents, its purpose, the ordinary thing that nourishes us. One could imagine this being used to describe choosing a partner, don't love the way someone looks, rather what is within, for it is that which support you and help you grow.

It occurred to me at that point I didn't know much about sufism. So, I have ordered a book on the subject (The Shambhala Guide to Sufism) and hunted around the internet a bit too...

from my limited perspective so far i find it interesting. An Islamic tradition that seeks to find purity of mind/spirit by becoming and accepting God, a death of self if you like and the acceptance of something without into oneself. An interesting theme and it seems to me there is much history of wisdom in this tradition.

went back to reading up on taoist practice...

I had in the past considered internal alchemy to be the path for me. I knew it to be a long drawn out process that starts out refining and strengthening ones body and then developing an er, energy body I guess you could call it. I have now finished one of the principal chapters on these techniques and find that they aren't what I thought. Thats not true, they are but to do these things, to become that person I would have to become something I don't want to be. At least not at this time.

Still the internal strength stuff sounds cool - absolutely have to get better at finding time to practice though by crikey! Finding? One makes time for important things. I must make time for this if it is indeed important.

Things to do though...

Lost its track

Reading back through this blog i think its obvious that its track, train of thought or path or whatever has become a little bit distracted for want of a better word. Clearly then, so have I.

I guess I have covered most of the topics discussed in my first post but I do feel I am spending more time on games and toys now than I was before Christmas. I note that in mid-December I would look into the whole give as you earn charitable donation thing - a simple first step to contributing to the world and being a bit of a better person. This I haven't done either. Better do that this week, it is important to me but I seem to be easily distracted by acquiring things and my responsibilities at work. Actually I have discussed before the Taoist view on acquisitiveness. It is harder to go and do the right thing if you are anchored down by belongings. Each thing I buy adds to my responsibilities, my commitment to maintain it and drains on my resources - I am aware of this. However some of these things give me a freedom - purchasing my house feels like it is in this camp. It is by far the largest anchor and commitment I have but it frees me from concerns about where I will live and what if the rent rises etc. Acquisitive I am though.

One thing I have been able to do is share my belongings of late. A friend has recently bought a DVD player and is going through our collection of DVD's, similarly I have lent a number of terry pratchett books out - which by the way are superb. I'll stick one of my ubiquitous ads at the bottom of the post.

I intend to practice my t'ai chi today. I'll post at the end of the day and let you know how I got on.

happy Chinese new year BTW!!!!

spellforce

just finished it!
was most fun

played all the way through as an elemental mage. now, could play again as a different type of character, try the internet or move on to war of the ring, the next game i had lined up.
Internet i tried, not fun. the simply gamespy interface just isn't enough - the way blizzard did it in warcraft three is just superb. not so here I'm afraid. no no.
playing again as another character sounds fun, might do that later but war of the ring beckons.

wierd blog this, now i have clearly let games and computer bits cloud my path. well, for today at least.

Got me a printer

so thats the techy gadgets bought for this quarter methinks.
Odd blog this - I should have called it the tao for computer techie nerd type folks

Its Friday!!!!

As usual - had many thoughts and I only have time for, er well none, gotta go to work.
T'ai chi was fun last night - still need to practice moving, breathing, watching my balance, listening to the opponent all at the same time. tricky..

ordered the printer

so er, there you go.

not practiced my t'ai chi though. maybe after star gate sg-1 has finished on the telly...

toys

just got a new toy! the logitech quickcam messenger.

Cost me 28.99 - sweet dude.
Next thing will be a printer me thinks. seen a nice hp one I have... might come up in the ad below:

thats another fine class you've gotten me into....

T'ai chi was good tonight. Did a variant of the single hand pushing hands which was interesting. Designed as a flexibility exercise I think - something I've lost some of as well as the strength in my legs.

must practice..

late

off to bed

done well-ish today. rabbits clean, up a bit too late, spent some quality time with my other half, now to bed - bit late but to bed with me. T'ai chi tomorrow - cool