I have been practicing Shaolin Kung Fu for a year now at www.katykungfu.com.  I have come to the general understanding that Shaolin style kung fu is a lot of low stances almost a full squat.  This builds up power over time in your legs for those amazing leaps you see in the movies (the ones without wires).  A lot of the forms we warm up with and perform are very obscure and sometimes require questioning to how it would apply in a fight.  Once the master clarifies with me on the application it usually makes it a little easier to perform because I can picture a combatant as I do these warm ups.  The warm up are continuous along a straight line with various squats and turns or kicks.  During these first 20 minutes I am absolutely drenched in sweat from the exertion...sometimes I just sweat trying to hold the best splits I can hold as our instructor comes by and pulls my leg out some more. This process has been repeated at every practice.  The official warm ups have 18 different "line" forms...I think we are close to finally knowing all of them.  Once we have a break (for water) we either practice our "Chi Na" (as it sounds to me).  This is grabs and take downs.  Or we practice our "Sanda" (as it sounds to me). This is your basic kickboxing (kicks, punches and a bit of hopping around).  The other thing we focus on is our long form.  This is a routine that eventually we are tested on.  Currently I am level 1 which simply means I passed the first test.  The first test required my two basic forms, 4 types of Chi Na's (had 2 seconds to take someone down who grabs you), and a 2 minute horse stance.  What is a horse stance? only one of the most painful exhausting non moving things I have ever done.  It requires one to step wide (passed both shoulders) and go into a sitting position (at least 90 degrees) but your back should be straight and your weight is on your heals.  The most I can do (rested) is 1:30 (that is a minute and a half).  The next test requires a 3 minute horse stance.  We dont have colorful belts at our school that distinguish our levels.  The Houston school uses different shirts but they have a lot of students. Our school in Katy is still small enough to not require a distinction as of yet.  By the way here is a video of one of our students practicing his basic staff form in his backyard.  Staff Form from a Katy student

About 4 months ago I accidently found a new Shaolin Kung Fu training center in Katy.   My daughter and I were waiting for a Pizza to finish being made and so we went for a walk around the complex.  I looked down an unused corridor and saw a banner for ...<< MORE >>

My nephew Johnson Thomasson is about to release the 2nd installment to his Blackest Dawn Chronicles movies.  This one is title Dust to Dust and you can buy a poster at The Blackest Dawn store.  Support the cause. ...<< MORE >>

I went Saturday night to go see The Incredible Hulk with some neighborhood friends.  The movie actually attempts to pick up from the TV Series.  I believe they are trying to forget the movie that came out about 5 years ago with Eric Bana.  As hulk movies go this ...<< MORE >>

Snow flurries, freezing weather, and mountains all around...that is what I woke up to this morning.  One day I am trying not to sweat in the humid heat of Houston and then the next I am waist deep in snow.   I am in Idaho along the border of Montana (near West Yellowstone).  The mountains surround this area and a lake  (Henrys Lake) is formed from the glaciers that melt into it.  Right now the lake is frozen for the most part except for a spring along the banks. The first thing I did this morning was shovel snow.  Not the soft fluffy snow but snow that has compressed over the long winter season and it has a layer of ice covering it on the top and for some reason a layer of ice at the bottom.  Usually this time of year the area is already cleared of snow and grass is growing.  I dont know what is going on with the weather but it looks like more of the stuff this weekend.  We plan on fly fishing the Madison this Saturday.  The Madison is the same river from the movie "A River Runs Through It".   I stood out by the lake today smoking a cigar and taking in the serenity.  Geese migrating back and landing in the back yard.  Swans with their graceful beauty gliding just inches off the icy lake in the most quiet way.  I have seen several Coyotes running alone through the snow.  In fact I had a visitor show up at my patio door last night or this morning.  His fresh tracks led right to my door.

For a view out my window click this link.  Its a webcam I setup recently.

http:\\69.20.165.6

login is guest, password friends

Lately I have been watching a lot of Charlton Heston movies thanks to NetFlix Instant Movies.  I started with Soylent Green, and then Omega Man and started in on PLanet of the Apes.  Saturday the man himself passed away.  He lived a strong outspoken life.  One of the most amazing things for a Hollywood type is to stay married for more than a year.  His wife survives him after 64 years of marriage. WOW! That is character.  Even Michael Moore posted an entry on his site especially after making the man look bad in one of his interviews. www.michaelmoore.com

It was a beautiful afternoon to launch and forget our rockets.  Lets calculate the total loss.  We started with 12 rockets and we took home 5.  Two of the five were completely damaged and unable to fly.  One of them had the chute melted which actually saved it from total annihalation on Westheimer Parkway (somehow it landed on the median).  My wifes rockets survived two launches.  The 5th rocket was never launched and came home completely in one piece.  My daughter after seeing what the odds were for the rocket surviving a launch forced me to keep her rocket hidden.  She told me later she wanted to save it for decoration in her room.  The seven rockets that were lost: some floated away never to be seen again.  Some were launched straight into the woods which was impossible to get through because of the thick thorny brush.  Some of the smaller rockets which launched the highest we believe simply disintegrated upon reentry. 

I asked my kids questions about what they learned from launching rockets and they wisely said that "the heavier rockets seemed to survive."  That statement is completely true.   Although the lighter rockets are easier to build they tend to fly so high you cant even see them to track their descent.  The heavier harder rockets to build seem to launch slower and at a lower altitude and with their chute deployed you cant miss it.  I will be posting photos soon.

I think everyone had a good time just hanging out.  If you calculate the total amount of money spent launching rockets with failed recovery (engine cost, rocket cost, etc), I think it would total around $75 - $100.  It might be more fun if we just strap a $20 bill onto a helium ballon and let it go.  Thats basically what we did: launched our money into space.

We had several kites as well and the most unlikely kite to fly was in the shape of a pirate ship but it actually flew more stable than any others.  Steve showed up with his balsa plane which looked awesome but it glided like a rock.

Overall I think we should do something like this again in about a year.  My goal now is to build a larger complex rocket and a balsa plane with a wing span greater than 20" (maybe it will actually glide).

Here is a picture of our faithful recovery team about to tear one of the rockets in two.


This is the team.

Just in case we never see them again after this weekend.  Here are some pictures of the rockets we made in our family.  The two little ones were made by my girls.  The large rocket was simply part of the launch kit and only required snaping together some parts.  The ...<< MORE >>

With a Rocket Launch date coming up for my family and friends I have been inspired to search for more rocket kits.  Growing up we assumed that Estes was the only company that made model rockets that actually flew (using solid fuel).  I have just found another company that makes rockets kits that are on a much more experienced professional level.  Meet the newest company -- QModeling.  Here is an example of a remake of a classic.  This model is actually about 70'' in height.  The recovery system they use is some serious long lasting chute with nomex lining so you dont need wadding to protect it.  Our old chutes are these little plastic circle sheets that can get burned if you dont have wadding.  I have to get this. 


My goal for the rocket launch is to not just have fun building rockets with my kids but to hopefully put some inspiration into them to study physics or science as they grow up.  For now I will simply have them figure out the wind direction and see if they can aim the rocket properly so that it will fall back to our landing area.

Remember Shadowrun?  The RPG that allowed you to create a futuristic world set in the year 2050 where you could be a Street Samurai loaded with Cyberware or a weakling that uses a datajack in your head to dock into the MATRIX (tm)?  The Matrix?  Wasn't that a movie?  Yes it was but back in 1989 FASA games first coined the word the MATRIX and they trademarked it to refer to the inner workings of a collection of telecom systems that were connected globally.  I person in the RPG game Shadowrun could be what is called a CyberDecker and go into the Matrix virtually as if being there.  The actions in that world would affect him in his external physical body if he was not careful. So the question still remains "What is the MATRIX?"

The funny thing about old cyber punk worlds written before the Internet took off uses Modems and telephone systems to explain all the connections.  Each system had a phone number.  We all know that the Internet or once referred to the World Wide Web (thats where we got our www for our hosted domains), does use telecom switches and fiber lines to get around but the data network uses TCPIP protocols.  Each Network Card (NIC) has its unique MAC (like a social securuty number) but that NIC using TCPIP requests an IP address on the internet.  Hackers will scan the internet for IP address that respond and then the hacker will search over 60000 ports on that IP address to find what ports are open.  Once they find a few open ports they see if they can take advantage of them with their hack tools.  Once a system is compromised the hacker will decide either to just get information or use the system as a hijacked device for processing whatever criminal activity they wish to use it for.

Knowing how this all works makes it hard to even think about playing a futuristic game that still relies on telephone numbers for hacking.  However the concept of the virtual cyber world is easier to follow now that I know a bit about levels of firewalls and ICE(intrusion counter measures). 

Now there is a Shadowrun game for the PC (VISTA) and XBOX 360. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun_(2007_video_game)