LYNX THOUGHTS

The Chinese have done it

Quote: "The hotel didn't have an elevator ... which made it a bit of a pain when we arrived, as we had to carry our luggage up ... in which we had two cast-iron pots."

So, there's all set to be a biiiig announcement of 'the return to spaaaaace!' -- or, more correctly, to the space race -- by this administration. Never mind the fact that the ISS isn't funded worth anything already, and that the country is on a massive deficit budget and that the Apollo missions, as grand and amazing as they were, involved a huge amount of luck. Woah, you say, Mr Lynx, I thought you were a huge fan and supporter of NASA??! And I am. Before the Columbia accident, I would watch the live feeds from the ISS as they were building it. I watch ever launch I can. I have read countless books. I love the space programmes. But coming from an administration where information has just surfaced about pre-pre-emptive strike discussions, I am worried about exactly what will come out of it. Will the ISS be thrown to the space wolves? Will the planetary explorer probes be curtailed? Will engineering research (such as on the ion engine) be kaiboshed, all in a great 'patriotic' push?

All because the Chinese became the third space faring nation (the election year doesn't hurt either). But, given the right Push Hands master, they wouldn't even need a booster. (how's THAT for a segue) I started learning push hands tonight, and like most soft internal styles, the movements are easy, doing them right isn't. Ever try to unlearn using your muscles? I'm sure, like everything, there are people out there who grasp it w/o problem, but while I think I did a job of not overdoing it, I could feel the tension where there should not have been. Sifu says it takes 2 years of 2h practise every day to become a push hands 'master', so I don't feel too bad. I'm really looking forward to learning how to relax and flow more, hopefully it will carry over into my climbing (if I actually start climbing more regularly again, grrr) and into my shaolin sets.

Over the xmas break I read Tad William's latest novel, The War of the Flowers. Tad read us a chapter during a book signing when his previous novel (the end of the Otherland trilogy) came out, and it was very cool and very exciting and sounded very fascinating -- he is an excellent reader. The book was interesting, but unfortunately I (and other friends who have read it) found it was not as gripping as Tad's reading was. I can't quite place my finger on why -- it wasn't a bad book, nor was it devoid of action or twists, and it avoided the pitfall that made the end of Otherland drag a bit. A fun read without the ohmygodIcan'tputthisdown pull.