Clear Water From The Mountain Peak

Parrot Update

2008-07-01T11:29:00.001-07:00

The babies are doing well, and already learning to comply with clear instructions such as 'Step Up', which is an instruction telling them to step onto your hand or finger.

Here are some current pics:

Baby Parrots!!

2008-06-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

We are very excited about bringing home our new parrots. We visited both of them yesterday for about two hours each. It is incredible how different they are in terms of behavior and development, even though they both hatched on the same day. Both are very sweet and attentive, although Quezal needed to be fed before he would stop with a very annoying begging sound that translates into "FEED ME I AM HUNGRY!" This should soon stop. We hope... :-)

almost a year

2008-06-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

Some things just won't die, no matter how much you try to kill them. Hence, after almost a year, I decided to post here again. Not much to say, but what the heck, blame it on Jeremy Lafreniere and Andy Ruffner.

As a side note, we will soon be welcoming two new additions to our family:

Quetzal, a Lilic-Crowned Amazon parrot, and Quoan, a Timneh African Gray parrot. Apparently, these parrots are very intelligent, which means they will be out-thinking me in about a week...

Jackie Greene: Touring With Phil Lesh & Friends

2007-08-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

Check it out:

R.I.P. Jerry Garcia 8/9/95

2007-08-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Don't know what else there is to say...

2007-07-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

Check out my latest multi-media project. A quick little movie. Hope you like it...

Gold Medal

2007-07-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

I won the first place Gold Medal in the Master's (over 31 years old) Men's Cruiserweight Division at the U.S. Grappling tournament in Richmond, Virginia on July 14, 2007.

What? Its Thursday?

2007-05-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

And I haven't posted anything since monday. Yep, I'm a slacker...

Off-Mat Conditioning: The Existential Side

2007-05-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

Here is a good post on supplemental training (off mat conditioning) for improving your BJJ game by Capital Jiu Jitsu's own, Jay Ferrari.

We Love When We Play...

2007-05-14T13:03:00.001-07:00

(excerpt from Ritual off of Tales From Topographic Oceans by Yes)

Hold me my love, hold me today, call me round
Travel we say, wander we choose, love tune
Lay upon me, hold me around lasting hours
We love when we play

We hear a sound and alter our returning
We drift the shadows and course our way on home
Flying home
Going home

Look me my love sentences move dancing away
We join we receive
As our song memories long hope in a way
Nous sommes du soleil
Hold me around lasting ours
We love when we play
Nous sommes du soleil

Nous Sommes Du Solei

2007-05-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

And who could resist Jon 'The God' Anderson, singing Nous Sommes Du Solei?

Clap!

2007-05-14T12:49:00.001-07:00

My favorite guitarist of all time at his finest:

Zen: Melting the Iron Wheel

2007-05-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

My wife and I study Zen and more specifically, Patriarchal Zen, with Zen Master Pohwa Sunim at the Potomac Zen Sangha in Alexandria, Virginia. Sunim, as we call him, is a South Korean monk who instructs us via dharma talk, and tests our understanding via koan interviews. He is also the founder of WorldZen.org.

I became interested in Zen through my martial arts practice, but nothing could prepare me for the challenges that it continues to present me.

Trying to explain what Zen is or what it is about would be futile, but I have to try. According to Zen, the world/reality as we experience it is delusion. As long as we see things according to duality (ie, us/them, good/evil, black/white, in/out, me/you) we are not seeing the Truth of our existence. Through meditation, and Koan practice, we attempt to understand the nature of our duality and the ultimate truth that lies beyond our delusion.

I think thats a reasonable attempt, for what its worth. Your mileage may vary! LOL!

Sunim can give a talk that makes it all seem so clear and so easy to understand. The only problem is that when the talk is over, and you go back to your daily life, that glimpse seems like a distant memory.

So, in the interim, we are given Koans to practice. Koans are examples of exchanges between past Zen Masters and their students, that have resulted in enlightenment for the student. These exchanges are recorded in a record called the Blue Cliff Record, and practiced by students in hopes of them also achieving enlightenment. Practice usually involves memorizing the Koan and attempting to answer why the Master in the Koan answered or spoke in the way he did. In this manner the Koan practitioner attempts to understand or catch a glimpse of understanding of what transpired between the Master and his student and why.

Each student is given a Koan to practice, and whenever possible, the student meets with Sunim for a Koan Interview, in which Sunim asks the student to explain his answer to the Koan, and to try to help the student if his or her answer isn't quite right.

Practice also consists of both sitting and walking meditation. A typical Friday Night Deep Meditation Class will consist of a Dharma Talk and Discussion, followed by 2-3 hours of 45 minutes sitting meditation, 15 minutes walking meditation, Koan interview and another session of sitting and walking meditation.

So, how is this so challenging?

First, lets examine meditation from the physical and mental aspects. I cannot speak for anyone else, but thanks to years of physical abuse to my body playing Rugby and my martial arts practice, I can seldom sit in a meditation posture much longer than 30 minutes before I start to experience physical agony of one kind or another. With each successive session, the pain usually only gets worse. Moreover, usually one leg or the other falls asleep, and dealing with trying to get the circulation flowing can be an agony of a different kind, all by itself.

Mentally, maintaining your focus on something for any extended period of time is very challenging and frustrating as well. My mind loves to wander and mull over a myriad of different things, and delights on going off on relational tangents and associations that very quickly diverge from anything related to Zen. I literally have to battle my mind, like some large, lumbering beast blood hound that wants to follow every scent it detects on a walk through the park. Constantly I have to come back to my Koan, or breathing, or mantra; whatever I have chosen as my meditation method that particular session. This is sometimes called 'monkey mind'.

So, I usually have to be very mentally prepared. Its definately not a 'oh, I am going to go relax and meditate and get into a nice peaceful state.' Its more like girding my loins for battle, preparing to face an enemy I know to be fierce, devious, challenging and wicked. I really have to work myself up to it, and prepare mentally for the challenge.

Fortunately, my martial arts training does help in these circumstances, and I often challenge myself to continue sitting without shifting when the pain starts in, or I force myself again and again to go back to my koan.

Someday maybe I'll move beyond the immediate into some transcendental phase, but for now, its a fight, pure and simple.

Second, is the challenge of the Koan itself. Its hard for me to talk about, but as an example, my last Koan, 'Iron Wheel', I worked on for over two years. Thats two years of trying to figure out something that seems so very simple, you just can't believe how utterly frustrating and humbling the experience can be.

So, with that, I leave you with 'Iron Wheel'. Think you know the answer? Go to WorldZen.org and email Sunim. He'll be more than willing to let you know how good your answer is!

IRON WHEEL

Venerable Master Song-Wol said to his students:
" Buddha-Dharma is so calmly fulfilled and powerfully omnipresent that it has never moved at all, yet it melts the iron wheel. Even though Buddha-Dharma has never moved at all, yet it melts the iron wheel. But why?"

Jimmy Herring

2007-05-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

Jimmy Herring is one of my new favorite guitar players of all time. This guy is technically proficient, tasteful, and can shred with the best of the 'gun slingers'.

His resume reads like a "who's who" list of my favorite bands including: Widespread Panic, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Other Ones (The Dead), The Allman Brothers Band, Jazz is Dead, Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit and others.

I was first turned on to him when I saw Phil Lesh & Friends back in 2002 at the Electric Factory in Philly. He sort of had to play second fiddle to Warren Haynes (another new favorite guitar player), but even then it was clear to me how talented this man was on the guitar.

He is currently touring with Widespread Panic, and honestly, I think his influence has totally taken them to a new level. They are HOT, HOT, HOT!!!

Here's an excerpt from the 2005 Phil Lesh & Friends show at Red Rocks in Colorado, from 'Terrapin Station', and focusing on Jimmy:

Peggy-O 6-26-94

2007-05-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

Aw heck, as long as we are on the subject, here is one of my favorite bands, playing one of my favorite songs.

A Grate(ful) Resource for Guitarists who admire Jerry Garcia

2007-05-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

Check out this guy on YouTube:JDarks He posts videos of different Grateful Dead/Jerry Garcia songs that he has figured out how to play on the guitar. Pretty cool, and a great resource for us aspiring musicians...

Here he is showing a lick from 'Cats Down Under The Stars'. Now if I could only get him to help me with the chord progressions...

I took it...

2007-05-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

More on martial arts...

2007-05-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

I could be getting myself into trouble by sharing some things with you... in the martial arts world, there are often political and social issues, just as in any other arena. By posting here, its quite possible that someone might read this whom might find issue with what I have to say, or what I may have done. But, I'll have to take that risk because I am no longer willing to hide my opinion of what I think to be the truth. The truth shall set you free! (or get you into a great deal of trouble!) LOL! There is always more to the story, so don't be surprised that there are a lot of omissions here that might come up later...

Generally speaking, in my opinion, there are two extremes when describing individual martial art styles, although most are a blend or somewhere in the middle. For our purposes, though, we'll speak as though the two are completely separate, and in very general terms.

Hard Style martial arts usually involve inflicting as much damage as possible on your opponent, whether attacking or defending. Striking (kicks, punches, elbows, knees, head butts, etc.) are prevalent, and even when blocking or defending, the techniques are intended to injure the opponent. Strength and power are emphasized, as well as focus and determination. Linear movement against your attacker is also emphasized. Muay Thai (kick boxing), Karate or Tae Kwon Do might be good examples of hard style martial arts, although there are many others as well.

Soft Style martial arts, on the other hand, usually involve an emphasis on controlling an opponent over hurting them. Through various different techniques such as throwing, joint locks, choke holds, and grappling, one can control an opponent and depending upon the situation, determine whether you actually need to physically injure the opponent or not. Circular motion is utilized, and flexibility, endurance and 'the Water principle' are emphasized. Kung Fu, T'ai Chi, and Jiu Jitsu might be examples of soft style martial arts, although there are also many others as well.

It is also difficult to talk about either one without bringing up the subject of external (physical) and internal (spiritual) techniques, but I don't know that I feel qualified or that it is necessary to discuss this aspect right now. Suffice to say that true martial arts practice works on many different levels. If you would like to read more about the internal stuff, I would suggest Qi or Ki or Qi Gong as good places to start.

We should also mention traditional vs. contemporary. Traditional martial arts are often very cult-like, and adhere strictly to rank-structure, much like the military. Respect, discipline and protocol are very important aspects of a traditional organization. Contemporary martial arts, on the other hand, while still very disciplined and effective, have looser structure. You are not required to address your instructor as 'Sir', or act as a servant for those of higher rank than yourself. It could be argued that both have their strengths and weaknesses; pros and cons. I may make some statements but by and large I think they both have their place.

Last but not least, there is another dichotomy we should speak of: stand up fighting versus ground fighting or grappling. Most people think of kicking and punching as what a martial art is about, and this is true of some 'sports' such as boxing. The practitioner wants to stay on his feet, and use his mobility to allow him to position himself so that he can strike his opponent, while also avoiding his opponent's strikes. In ground fighting, on the other hand, the practitioner wants to take his opponent to the ground which will often be an uncomfortable position for the opponent. Utilizing the ground, positioning and leverage, a grappler can often overcome a stronger opponent. Wrestling is a sport that also takes this into play.

Without digressing too much on my own experiences, as mentioned in an earlier post, Hap Ki Do is the first martial art that I ever studied, and I am still (at least for now) studying it after over 12 years. In 2002, I was awarded my 2nd Degree Black belt, although to this day I do not feel I was given a proper test, nor was I prepared enough to pass such a proper test; I will always feel like a 1st Dan is what I earned up to this point.

Hap Ki Do is a Korean martial art, and translated into English, means "The Art of Coordinated Power". (Or 'The Art of Coordinating Your Internal and External Power'). It is described as being Hard Style Offense and Soft Style Defense. Hap Ki Do is truly a well-rounded martial art that encompasses many, if not all the technical aspects that any other martial art utilizes. For instance, there are kicks, punches, joint locks, choke holds, throwing and some grappling. It also has a lot of different weapons. It doesn't cover everything extensively though...

For instance, take the subject of Grappling or Ground-Fighting. I learned what I though was quite a bit about ground-fighting in Hap Ki Do. I did very well competing against other Hap Ki Do students in ground fighting; although I would never say I was the best, I enjoyed a reasonable amount of success and respect in that area when we would get together and workout in what we called 'Free sparring' (almost 'anything goes', but with a reasonable amount of respect for your partner so as to not really injure them).

Once when we were competing at an open tournament (kick/punch point sparring) I noticed that there was a grappling competition going on. Wishing to test my ground skills, I requested ( you had to ask permission) permission to compete and it was granted. Over the course of three or four years, I tested my skills against various other arts and ground fighting/grappling at these venues. I never really won, but I never really lost so summarily. I always left thinking that with just a little more practice, I would be able to beat them. I went up against brown belts, purple belts and blue belts. None of them truly impressed me other than the fact that they weren't black belts. Their technique didn't really leave me thinking that they had much of an advantage.

Fast forward to about a year and a half ago. The practice of free sparring declined within the overall Hap Ki Do organization. I had fewer and fewer opportunities to practice, although I continued to go to the tournaments to compete. I was aching to take it to the next level, but I needed something more than what I had at the time. The Hap Ki Do focus was on standing combat: kick/punch, joint locks, throws, but don't follow it to the ground. I never felt that I was the best at kick/punch, but I felt competent; if I got into a self-defense situation and I could keep the fight standing, I would do alright. But what if the fight went to the ground? A wrestler or jiu jitsu guy might get me to the ground, and there I perceived a true weakness in my defenses.

How could I develop my ground fighting in this environment?

Things happen for a reason. This I truly believe. One day, I chanced upon the Capital Jiu Jitsu Academy in Alexandria, Virginia where I was living at the time. I played email tag with one of the instructors, Jeremy Lafreniere for about a year, basically asking him if I could come in and work out with them every once in a while. Jeremy was very open and encouraging; I was very hesitant and shy. When I finally did take him up on his generous invitation, it took a lot of courage on my part. I'll probably talk about this more later, but the Hap Ki Do organization I came from was VERY traditional and old school. Even talking to an instructor from another school could be construed as being disrespectful. Working out with them would be tantamount to be a traitor. I was taking a big chance, yet at the same time, I was stepping out of the box, away from the cult-like environment that at one time had been nurturing and open, but had lately become claustrophobic and constraining.

So, one fine saturday morning, I showed up at Capital Jiu Jitsu, a 2nd Degree Black belt thinking he would be working out with practitioners of a similar calibre to the ones he had met on the tournament mats up in Baltimore, Maryland years before. In other words, I was feeling confident and perhaps I might have even had an attitude.

Boy was I in for a rude awakening.

Jeremy had me show up for sparring class, which basically consists of pairing individuals up, and letting them spar or roll, for eight minutes. Since this was a jiu jitsu school, there were no strikes or kicks; everything was ground fighting and grappling.

My first opponent was a purple belt. "No problem" I said to myself, "I've done fine against several purple belts at the tournaments, this shouldn't be any different." What proceeded was a lesson in humility. I tried attacking. I tried defending. I tried going high, low, left, right, over, under, around. Each time, the purple belt calmly, confidently, and quickly bypassed anything I was doing and before I had a chance to realize it, I was tapping out to him, which is the signal that I was submitting to the technique he was applying, and that he had won.

This is an important point to note: tapping out/submission. Jiu Jitsu is a soft style martial art. A practitioner doesn't need to hurt his opponent unless he has to. He can utilize technique and knowledge of human anatomy to put his opponent in a situation where the opponent has a choice: cease and desist and acknowledge that you are in a bad situation, or be injured or killed.

So, the purple belt had bested me. About 20 times in eight minutes it seemed. My ego was bruised, but intact! Give me my next opponent! Oh, a white belt? OK, now its my turn!

Wrong.

The white belt might not have beat me 20 times in eight minutes, but he did well enough for me to start to realize that these guys were not on the same level as the opponents I had faced before. These guys had technique. They had skill. They had strategy. And they didn't need to exert much effort to use it either.

What to do?

Well, I came back a month later. And again a month after that. Somehow, I kept finding excuses to return until finally, during an after-workout conversation with Jeremy, I signed up.

That was a year ago, and I am still loving it. Before I came to Capital, I was playing Checkers; now I am learning to play Chess. Its a completely different game.

Musings On Music

2007-05-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

"God is Sound" is a quote I have seen on a tshirt worn by Mickey Hart, one of the drummers for the Grateful Dead. Indeed, I would take it a step further and say personally, that "Music is my church". I once remarked to my wife, during the intermission of a concert, that 'This is my church," as I gestured at the packed Nissan Pavilion crowd who had come to see The Dead back in 2004.

With this in mind, it should come as no surprise to you that I am an avid listener and musician.

Music is like food, however. Not everyone appreciates, nor savors the same music. So indeed, you may or may not agree with my taste in music, but I hope you will not allow some prejudice or distaste to prevent you from reading what I have to say on this subject.

I'll tell you a little bit about one of my favorite resources for recordings of live music. Ok, more than one resource, really. All wrapped up in one: the internet.

First off on our tour, we will stop at etree.org. Here you can find all sorts of information about bands that allow their live music to be recorded and distributed freely; these bands are considered TRADE FRIENDLY. The aforementioned Grateful Dead were pioneers of this movement, but there are now a lot of bands out there now who have also 'got on the bus'.

Etree is home base for both tapers and traders of live music. It expounds the virtues of 'lossless digital audio distribution'. "We are a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format." Just how many bands allow their music to be traded in this fashion? Too many to list here, but a who's who on the jamband scene is just a sample: The Grateful Dead, Phish, The String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's McGee, Gov't Mule etc. For a complete list, you might visit BTAT (Bands that allow taping).

At etree.org you can learn about file formats such as SHN or FLAC, that allow you to compress the often large audio files into something a bit more manageable so that you can download, transmit, copy, burn or otherwise share them with others. You can learn about free software such as xACT (which I use) or mkwcon or shntool and others that allow you to decompress these files into WAV or AIFF files suitable for burning your own CDs. Etree also hosts its own Wiki, which is a wealth of information about different subjects, a Trader's Database, a Discussion Forum and a BitTorrent Tracker (more on that later).

But this is only the beginning. Once you have the necessary software, how do you go about getting this free music? There are oh, so many ways, I will try to cover a few.

Our next stop is the LLAMA, or actually, the Live Music Archive. As an avid fan of the Grateful Dead, here I can download any one of thousands of audience recorded Grateful Dead concerts, or stream SOUNDBOARD recordings that were recorded by the Grateful Dead's engineers.

Don't really care for the Dead, or looking for something else? Try this list of over 500 other bands. You just might find someone you never heard of that will totally rock your world!

There are a lot of sites that allow you to download trade-friendly band music directly from them using an FTP client such as Filezilla or Fetch. GDLive is one, and if you poke around, I am sure you can find plenty of others.

The most convenient, powerful and amazing method of accessing this resource that I have found is using a BitTorrent client such as bittorrent, azureus, utorrent, etc. BitTorrent is both a software product and communications protocol used to share files across the internet. If you want to read up on the gory details, feel free, but what you really need to know is that this is the fastest, most efficient way to share this wonderful resource of FREE live music.

I use azureus on my Mac at home, along with a remote client on my PC at work. I can download or share music 24-7. In fact, I often have to force myself to pass on opportunities to download music because my hard-drive is TOO FULL. Thats a nice problem to have.

Hungry For Crawfish

2007-05-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we attended the 12th Annual Hungry For Crawfish feast hosted by Hungry For Music, a non-profit group that tries to share the gift of music with under-privileged children. It was a great time, although the weather did not cooperate. I think I must have eaten well over 500 crawfish myself, along with steamed red potatoes, corn on the cob, rolls and plenty of ice cold beer to wash it down. I spent an hour playing frisbee in the pouring rain, and then danced with my wife and daughter to the cajun sounds of the Junkyard Saints band. A good time was had by all and we will definately return for the next one.

Friday Night Takedown Class

2007-05-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

Its saturday morning, and I am sore! I have a partial black eye, my calves feel like they were carved out of stone and my body as a whole, aches. Just another friday night at Capital Jiu Jitsu's No-Gi Takedown Class & Sparring class taught by Garrett Bontempo.

Takedowns are an area I need a lot of work on, but I always leave that class (just like every other Capital class) feeling like I really learned something good that I can apply in my practice and any possible self-defense situation. A successful takedown gives you a psychological advantage over your opponent; your work isn't finished but you have a good start. More on that later.

Right now, I need some recovery time, so I'll post more later this weekend. For now, read what the Beast has to say about Head Control, and then check out this post on the CJJ Training Blog.

Who or what is BongSoo?

2007-05-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

BongSoo is my 'philosophical' name, and it means "Clear Water From The Mountain Peak". Based upon Chinese Five Element Theory, it was determined that I have a very strong Wood element, and that I needed to increase my Water element, and support my Water via the Metal element. Thus, my name BongSoo: "Clear Water From The Mountain Peak".

Click here to read more about Chinese Five Element Theory.

Since this is my first post, I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself. But where to begin? Do the labels I use to describe myself matter as much as the content that I try to share? Only you who read this can judge that, so I'll do my best to keep you engaged.

First, I am forty-one years old, married with children, and live in Northern Virginia, USA. Professionally I work in Web Development. My education consists of the usual, plus a Bachelor's degree from Salisbury State University. I am currently considering graduate school for a Master's, but haven't yet taken the plunge.

I am a martial arts student and practitioner, and have been for about 12 years +/-. I got started a little later in life, I guess, than a lot of the people whom I currently practice with. I'll most likely talk alot more on this subject later, but suffice to say that I earned a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Grandmaster JiMong Choe's Chung Mu Hap Ki Do in the fall of 2002. I also earned a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do from him, as well. I am currently enjoying cross-training in Royce Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as a White Belt at Capital Jiu Jitsu in Alexandria, Virginia.

I am an amateur musician, and play guitar. I once had aspirations of playing professionally, but too many bad experiences in bar bands playing in places that stunk of piss, stale beer and puke; drummers that got so drunk they fell off their stools while doing a roll on the toms; and generally, just not being disciplined enough for that life, I passed it on. I still jam though, and have been 'dusting off those rusty strings' in hopes of playing an open mic or party someday soon. These days I play only acoustic, but I still have my '69 Gibson Les Paul and hope that someday I can invest in nice amp and other various equipment I would need to get back plugged in. More on my musical tastes later.

My favorite sport is Rugby, which I played in college and several years afterwards. My favorite Rugby team is the New Zealand All Blacks, and although I had aspirations of going to see the 2007 Rugby World Cup this year, the tickets are just too damn expensive. Maybe in 2011...

Anyhow, thats a snap shot of me, abstracted, wrapped up and neatly packaged after processing. A nice start.

Now, what else do I have to say?