Bring On The Simians!

[dr_pretentious]

It took me over a year to do it, but I've finally unlearned the mistake I ingrained in muscle memory the first time I learned a Tai Chi move called Repel the Monkey. Kinesthetic learning comes very hard to me--all I have to substitute for kinesthetic intelligence is persistence. Fortunately, I've got a lot of that. Once I figured out how to pivot on a weighted foot, several other moves I'd really sucked at suddenly sucked way less.

So bring on the tamarins and tarsiers,the macaques and mandrills, the gibbons and the great apes. I can repel them all!

Comments

Tai Chi Mario!

[red-haired-girl.livejournal.com]

I've figured out how you can put your skills to use, AND learn new moves - This is CRYING OUT to be a video game, one of those that uses the camear and senses your motions. You could practice for hours, 'till you have to face King Koopa (or whoever the baddy is - Johnny from The Karate Kid?)

Re: Tai Chi Mario!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

That video is...wow. What a decade that was.

The Wii could work really well with the sword, saber, and staff forms.

[jasminewind.livejournal.com]

Can we do tai chi together at FSG? I need to see a live person do it like one or two times to get myself through the memory block of a move transition that is badly demonstrated on my Tai Chi dvd. FYI, I have had personal instruction, we've discussed how your instructor feels about learning Tai Chi from videos, but I'm just trying to refresh a memory from the past. My muscle memory is quite good so once I see it, I think I'll be able to grasp it quite well.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

If I know the transition, I'll be happy to show it to you. Just remember that I'm barely beyond being a beginner. Our teacher's style is to concentrate on biomechanics first and passing on the forms second, so there are a lot of moves in the longer forms that I don't know yet.

If jr0124 and/or shaminin makes it to festival this year, they'd be better people to ask. The most I can hope to do is offer a vague, impressionistic refresher to your memory. I don't know if either one is still doing Tai Chi actively, but they studied with my teacher for way longer than I have. jr0124 would actually be able to explain the moves I don't know yet.

Monkeys Aside...

[kistha.livejournal.com]

I took you up on that book rec.

The trilogy was awesome. I hope she does more with the characters, I'd love to see how it goes from there, and yet at the same time - it's fairly obvious.

I can totally see why you love them - Tremaine kind of reminds me of you, actually. I'm not sure if it's you, or one of your characters. But I can definitely see where you click.

Thanks again. Any hints on which of the others should come next?

Re: Monkeys Aside...

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

What I like about the ending of the trilogy is that, even though the life beyond the ending is pretty easy to guess at, it's also pretty complex, so you can imagine it for yourself with confidence and yet not be bored at what you come up with.

Tremaine enjoys annoying people way more than I do. Her snarkiness and total willingness to lie did remind me a little of Haldur, though.

After I finished the trilogy, I picked up Wheel of the Infinite, a stand-alone in an entirely different world, which was fun, but not quite as good. It would have benefited from being about a hundred pages longer. The worldbuilding had loads of cool things going on, but the whole book felt artificially rushed. I'm a couple of chapters into City of Bones right now, which is off to a more promising start.

The Death of the Necromancer is about Nicholas Valiarde, so I'm saving it for last. At some point I want to track down the issues of Black Gate that have stories of Ilias and Giliead's adventures hunding wizards. There are few things I love reading more than I love a good sibling dynamic.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Hurray! You are on the road to becoming totally repellent!









... did I say that it my out-loud voice?!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

That nearly made me snort my soymilk.

Miss you.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Miss you, too. Need pictures!

That nearly made me snort my soymilk.

Only nearly? I am clearly losing my touch. Especially galling that your description of the tai chi move caused me some involuntary nasal irrigation.