My First Tai Chi Article

will be something of a cop-out as I feel that I cannot write a proper article on it and I have been unable to convince anyone else who knows Tai Chi better than I do to write one.  Instead of explaining it, I will give a link to a good reference and tell you of my experience (very positive -- readers in hurry can stop here!).

Thus, I send you off to Wikipedia, which actually does a pretty good job:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_chi_chuan

I will expound on this other important part of my life and how it meshes into my life.  Some of you already know (occasional comments at Zero Hedge, family members and friends) that I have been doing Tai Chi for over seven years.  That makes me JUST above a rank beginner, a "Private First Class" for those of you familiar with military ranks here in the USA.  It takes a LONG TIME to get good at Tai Chi, the forms are best done exactly right...  Many, many details.  Patience and humility are required.  That humility part comes in handy, as our instructor is very demanding and not shy about correcting posture and movement.

I took up Tai Chi after I injured myself a little over eight years ago, a herniated disc in my neck that required spinal fusion surgery.  I now have in my neck a titanium plate (approx. 18 mm long), 4 titanium screws, a DEAD GUY'S piece of cadaver bone and "cement matrix".  Fortunately the surgery worked out just fine.  Some four months after my surgery I was at my doctor's office for a check up on how I was doing.  He then told me that I needed to do "something for internal strength", he tossed out the idea of doing yoga...  I told him to forget about that "as I was NOT a yoga kind of guy".  (author's O/T note: SINGLE guys of any age should consider taking yoga classes...)  But recognizing what he said about internal strength I then told him that I had read good things about Tai Chi.

THAT got a response!  He told me that he was taking Tai Chi from right then.  He said he LOVED Tai Chi...

Soon after I went to my first class.  It is my hunch that all you need is ONE class to know if you will like it or not.  It will be clear if it is for you or no.  For me, I was hooked right away, that first night.

Being the "new person" in a continuing class of students is often hard, and it was for me.  The movements are not intuitive or easy.  I was behind everyone, and learning was slow.  But, I stayed with it.  Eventually another "new student" came along, then others.

So what has Tai Chi done for me?  I am convinced that my life is better since taking it up.  I get sick much less (from one to two colds per year to just 3 (total) in the seven years I have been doing it.  I have confidence that scrawny Robert might actually have a chance in an ugly street encounter.  I get lots of gentle exercise of a sort I never had done before.  It has helped my joints from deteriorating...  My sense of balance is much better.

As we do not have a video camera here in the house, I will send links to various videos of people who are VERY GOOD at Tai Chi.  (I also have no fear from embarrassing myself by showing how beginner-like my forms are).

Now that this article has gone up, those of you who have read my two articles on our Peruvian business and now this article on Tai Chi now know something about two important parts of my life.

NOTE BENE!  The below videos are long (two of them are 10 minutes long, maybe more).

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This first video shows the "Yang Style 24 Posture Form", the most commonly performed form worldwide (the Chinese government in the 1950s, I believe, forced their Tai Chi groups to make this "short form" so that it would not take YEARS for beginners to learn).  It took me 9 - 12 months before I was reasonably happy with my ability to do this form.  There are minor stylistic differences that the same form as practiced in our class.  Such minor stylistic differences are very common in the Tai Chi world.  NOTE to self-styled badasses: Don't mess with a girl who can do this, she will kick your ass so hard your digestion process will go COMPLETELY into reverse if you catch my drift...

4:38

Tai Chi 24-form

Tai Chi 24-form... It's a great martial art style. You should try it.

The below video is Part 3 (of 3) of the Yang Long (108) Form.  I could not find a clean, acceptable and complete Yang 108 Form there at Youtube (perhaps because it takes too long, Youtube does impose time limits on videos).  This guy is very good.  Again, there are slight stylistic differences than in the Form the way our class practices it.  The Yang 108 is my FAVORITE form.

6:49

The below video is very old (1970s) and shows Chen Xiao-Wang performing the Chen Xia Jia (New Frame) Form.  Mr. Chen continues to teach up to the present day.  Watch what happens when he stomps his feet, and listen for the echo in the gym...  He has immense strength.  Our instructor has studied under him as well as others in the Chen family.  I myself have been to three seminars with Grandmaster Chen (there were always lots of people there).  Master Chen's version is the "classic" (clean) version (his family invented Chen style Tai Chi), this is essentially what he has taught us.

Chen Tai Chi Chuan Xin Jia First Form

Here is another version of the Chen Style Xin Jia, performed by an amazing older guy.  This is NOT what we have been taught, he as added a lot of smaller, quicker moves.  We have been told that when we are "good" (twenty years?) that we can do this too, modify the forms as long as Tai Chi principles are adhered to.

Ma Hong Chen Style Taijiquan (Xin Jia Yi Lu)‏ - YouTube

My grief has overwhelmed me tonight...

My "new" friend Serge (died one year ago) and my the recent loss of my long time ago college roommate Dave Thompson have me left in a state of grief tonight, very hard...  At least this has eliminated some toxic salt from me.

Nothing like for their immediate families, Naydu and whomever of David Thompson's loved ones, please accept my prayers and best wishes for God's comfort for you in the days and months to come...  Please spread the word that I cared...

Death is part of life, but is so hard to accept sometimes...

(::...>...(...:   That loss is so hard to take, even though I have lost FEW of my closest loved ones.  What awaits me when the closest of my loved ones go...  Oh...  Will be very hard, I only hope that births will compensate...

Please excuse the excess sentiment from your host, I just cannot write anymore through my tears...  Perhaps I am just weak at heart......   I sign off as a fractured heart, yet knowing that many of you have suffered FAR WORSE...  Go with God my friends.......

"Don't Bet on a Plunge in Gold"

Says Tatyana Shumsky in the "Commodities Corner" in this weekend's edition of Barron's.  Before I get to the main points of her article, it is important to understand that Barron's is owned by Dow Jones (owned by News Corp.) so is about as mainstream Wall Street as they come.

Update: 6:30 PM ET Sunday, sure enough gold just dove $15.00 in Asian trading, hahaha!  I guess they like our Debt Ceiling Deal, LOL...

High points of the article:

-- Gold is up almost 15% this year, she sees a fall back to $1500 where it will stay in orbit, but will not likely go lower.
-- Chinese investors are buying gold to shield themselves against food inflation, Germans are buying gold to shield themselves form the European debt crisis and many Americans are buying because of the slow growing economy and the corrosive impact of monetary easing.
-- She goes on to say that last year gold was up 28%, and that we are half way there this year, and that if the US$ gets weaker up we go.
-- A FOFOA style remark I quote in full: "Market wisdom says record prices should undermine investor enthusiasm for gold, but there is little evidence of this so far.  Even emerging-market buyers, who are typically more price-sensitive than their wealthier Western counterparts, remain committed to buying more gold."
-- Chinese buyers have eclipsed Indians as the top buyers of gold (25% vs. 23%, acording to the World Gold Council.
-- "A commodity-market Cassandra, Goldman Sachs (ed. note: ?), expects gold to reach $1,730 in the next 12 months, but the firm believes prices will peak next year as U.S. growth picks up and leads to tighter monetary policy and higher interest rates."
-- "But for many analysts, higher rates are unlikely until the end of 2013, almost a year later than initially expected."


So, there you have it.  Wall Street's take on gold.


But, wait there's more!  


On the same page (your edition may vary), there is a snippet of an article ("Silver Linings and Debt Ceilings" (from  Gold/Silver Weekly by International Strategy) with a bullish plug on silver, namely that gold price leads silver up.  Writer Ashraf Laidi says this is GOOD for silver.

My Nephew Got A Tattoo

My nephew Jim P, who plays college football, got a tattoo recently.  My wife just saw it in on Facebook.

When I was that age, tattoos were kind of rare.  Mostly renegades and bilkers for the most part.  Not even the hippies (who I hung around with briefly)!  My wife and I shared a brief "WTF Now" moment...

Nowadays "everybody and his mother" is getting "tatted".  My wife brought me in to see a picture there at Facebook of his tattoo.  With a design of an angel holding a man (or something like that) there was written across that design:

Isaiah 1:7

To save you the trouble:

  7  Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.  (KJV)

Wow Jim!  If you are going to get a tattoo, THAT is a damn good choice!  Looks like Jim gets it...

Borders, In Pace Recquiescat

Continuing my somber theme this weekend, yesterday and the day before I went to Borders (the big box bookstore chain) that is now going bankrupt.

And I don't mean Chapter 11, where they can reorganize and become viable again.  These guys are GONE!  Yesterday and the day before I went to two different ones, EVERYTHING is 20% - 40% off (I went to buy books for cheap).  Yesterday I heard employees talking...  They were not Borders employees, they were LIQUIDATORS.  Even the fixtures are for sale.  There will be nothing left.

I always liked Borders better than Barnes & Noble (close though).  Borders, back in the crazy .com days, had a better selection of computer books...

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Anyone telling you that the economy is getting better is wrong.  New revisions of data were released yesterday, all marked DOWNWARD.  Read Alan Abelson (Barron's) today: Main St. is not getting better.  Alan Abelson's article is titled: "Dire Omen".  He is the first guy you read when starting in on Barrons.

I hope Barnes & Noble can hang in there.  Lounging for hours at a bookstore is one of my favorite things.

Death Of An Amigo From Long Ago

I was advised by a Facebook group who are friends with each other that an old friend, and for a semester my college roommate had just died.

Over the past couple of years I have had a fair number of people I know who have died, now a second one who was roughly my age.  Some of these deaths have really stung...

David Thompson was starting his first year at Rice U., and that first semester we were roommates.  David and I would on occasion have conversations, after we had agreed to go to bed and turned the lights out, there in the dark.  Many of these conversations would be about religion and related topics.  Dave was from Tennessee, had not gotten out much before coming to Rice (Houston, TX) and was trying to integrate his views with the wider ranging reality he came to see in the big city, away from home.  He was in many ways a perfect gentleman.  He was enthusiastic and participated in many things (most of which I did not).

Dave had a tougher life after I lost touch with him.  Pretty bad.  He was unable to finish getting a degree or being able to hold down a steady job, through no fault of his own.  He died while being cared for in a special home...

After Ron C there at Facebook (whom I do not know) confirmed that it was indeed "our" David Thompson, I shared my thoughts with the group.  Lately, I have taken up a new way to remember people, and to help others remember or better know that person by sharing anecdotes about my friend(s) that no one else knows...  I shared the below (snippet, my anecdote is the second paragraph) with the Facebook group:

He was, in essence, a perfect gentleman.  I regret hearing about his difficult and challenging life later on.  But, while I knew him, his enthusiasm and good heart made me happy in his company.  "Happiness in someone's company" is the best definition of a friend I have encountered.

Let me share an anecdote.  Some of you may know I was terrible at winning the the affection of any girls there at Rice, "I couldn't even get a girl to break my heart" (stolen from Sean Hannity).  Well, one evening down in the Pub, I was talking with two Rice girls.  The three of us happened to like Pink Floyd, and I had most of their records and had a cheapie stereo there at our room.  I invited them to come up and "listen to Pink Floyd in the dark."  They accepted, and we went to my room.  I opened the door, and there was Dave, studying...  I sort-of pulled rank on him and asked if he would like to abandon whatever it was he was doing and join us in listening to Pink Floyd, which I imagine he was familiar with as I played their music often.  He said OK, and so for maybe an hour or so we, the four of us, listened to Pink Floyd.  The Rice ladies then went along their way, and not much became of that (a little, at a later time, but not much).

I once told my friend Mike Connell (also not graduated from Rice, would have been 1978, Will Rice) that story.  He laughed and LOVED it!  He thought that was a great line: "Hey, baby, want to come up to my room and listen to Pink Floyd in the dark?"

David Thompson!  In pace recquiescat.  Those of us who knew you will always remember you with fondness.  RIP, my old friend, and to apparently many of us as well.

R A Mix

Indeed Dave, although it has been a long time, I am remembering you today...  Indeed In Pace Recquiescat...  I use the Latin, not to be a snob, but because Latin is OLD, old ideas are the ones that endure...  "There is nothing new under the sun." -- Ecclesiastes

Below song is sung by Amber Rae, it is Jerry Jeff Walker's song.  Some of you saw J.J.W. at the plantation there in SC when my brother brought him in for that charity event several years ago.  "Little Bird" is probably my favorite of his songs...

"Picture of my face on the window pane,

Is it tears I see or is it rain?"

3:01

Little Bird ~ by Amber Rae

Originally performed by Jerry Jeff Walker. This one's for daddy.

$1626 And $14 Trillion Plus And a New FOFOA Article

I have been following with dismay that the Tea Party Republicans were not able to stop what looks like will result in a BAD DEAL for the American people re extending the Debt Ceiling and not making any spending cuts.  I am unable to comment on the machinations in Washington, but I doubt that many of us are going to like what we see perhaps on Monday

There is a nice image three articles down on what $15 trillion in $100 bills looks like.

The debt widget above shows we are soon to crack the debt per taxpayer to $119,000.

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So, gold continues up a bit, to $1626 now.

As you all know, I do not see an easy way out of our mess.  The main question is how the pain will come down on us, and who will suffer the most.

I would also like to know Cui bene (Who benefits)...

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FOFOA has a new article up at his blog:

fofoa.blogspot.com

News So Popping Fast and Furious Now

that I will have to deal with it very soon.

I am wondering if Boehner's failure to pass HIS bill might be a GOOD thing.

Tricky and scary times ahead.  Your congenial host will try to keep on top of things, FWIW.

GOLD still looks good in this kind of really uncertain environment.  Do not worry if Au comes down in price over the next few days or weeks...  They cannot print more of gold.

Even buying bearings for Peru looks better than leaving US$ hostage to the vagaries of DC politicians and NYC banksters...  My in-laws said that Obama (excuse me, Ollanta) Humala said nothing scary today as new President of Peru.  Well, we will see re that...