Here we are again

So I’ve decided to move my content back to the free site here at WordPress. I apologize for the inconvenience but change is the one constant in the universe. I’m moving in new directions and hope that you guys can bear with me.

So please feel free to enjoy the archives and I’ll be posting relevant material as it comes up.

In the meantime, please feel free to keep up with my daily fitness ramblings over at Formosa Fitness:

http://formosafitness.pixnet.net/blog

New Chen Pan-ling system clips

I can’t say anything these days without it sounding like a rant. So here’s some good recent clips to watch instead. Must study……must study…….

Star Trek finally done right

I’m brain dead and will likely be for a while. My head is swimming with muscle names and their origin and insertion points. With rep and set counts for a variety of client goals. I’m preparing for the NASM personal trainer cert plus a second more physical cert while teaching classes, etc. So expect some off-topic posts while I unwind.

I’ve been an anti-trekkie for a while now. I read all the books and loved the TV show as a kid. I watched the Next Gen in high school and university like everyone else. But let’s be honest — trek has been mediocre for a very, very long time.

The next gen and the other recent shows had almost done it in. I didn’t like any of them with the sole exception of Deep Space Nine, which I consider the height of the entire franchise or whatever you want to call it. I got so sick of “look, something is taking over the ship” week after week. Yawn. “Oh no. Something is wrong with Data.” Snooze.

Deep Space Nine was almost Shakespearean with the plots and long-term story line. It was the only one that took chances with the material and tried to do something new.

Many may not remember this, but the covers of the books that covered the original TV series had a bigger theme than recent material. Check this out:

And this:

Now look at this:

All the other next gen and recent books have been like this. The originals had a bigger feel to them. Something was happening on a much bigger scale. In the next gen, trek became about this little group of people. We started getting scenes of people yakking around tables. Very Clinton era, if you don’t mind me saying so.

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As ‘Fun, Watchable’

This video from the Onion sums it up perfectly. Trek had become an in-bred snoozefest about a small group of people that was enjoyed by a small group of people.

Thank goodness the new movie killed all of that off. I loved it.

No more hippie planets that heal you and allow you to bore people for the rest of your artificially extended life. No more of Data trying to become the whitest white man in the universe.

This trek movie throws all that away and starts anew. Like Admiral Pike says in the new movie, Starfleet had lost a certain quality and the new movie/crew bring that back.

Well done, guys.

Kungfu long DVDs for sale

I’m clearing out some of my video collection to make way for other things. So my entire collection of Kungfu Long DVDs are up for sale.

Here’s the list of forms and techniques covered.

There are 25 DVD sets with many of the forms on 2-3 DVDs.

Two of these are in English and the rest are in Chinese. Actually the two that are in English are also in Chinese — I have two copies of them with one in each language.

These are some of the best, clearest DVDs I’ve ever seen. Zhou laoshi used to work in movie and TV production and he has a keen sense of how people can learn from video. He shot these DVDs to be super clear so that you could see and then replicate every movement shown. For example, he shows every move first in a fast format, then a slow format, then he breaks it down into upper body movement (slow), and then lower body movement (slow), and finally another slow view of the move as a whole to see how it ties together. He shows closeups of small details that you might miss, as well.

Every five moves or so, he has a review section that takes you through the form up to that point so you can put the movements all together. At that stage, he also talks about applications of the moves in that sequence.

Basically, these DVDs set the bar for clarity of movement and ease of learning the material off of the DVD. They are so clear that you could easily learn these forms right off the video. I personally used them to review the material he taught me in class.

Here are several clips to show you his excellent material:

This is the Taizu long fist form one. this clip is more of a trailer for the DVD. The sound effects are part of Zhou laoshi’s training in movie production. He used to make kungfu movies and TV shows in Hong Kong and Taiwan. BTW he was the sound guy.

This is an instructional clip from the Taizu long fist DVD. Here you can see how he breaks it down.

White ape exits cave. His mantis and long fist are very good. Two of the DVD sets cover just mantis fighting techniques. He gives away a LOT of secrets behind how to apply both mantis and CMA in general on those sets.

This is an explanation of long fist applications.

Internal practice via Chen style taiji. I loved practicing this form. Loads of good stuff in here. This form of Chen is very rare, even in Taiwan but it’s very practical.

Three of the DVDs cover his version of the Muscle tendon change classic.

This is his mizongquan — lost track boxing. I loved this form but never got a chance to learn it from him. I thought this was some of his best movement.

25 DVD sets (1-3 DVDs in each set) in all and I will through in his Chinese book on the muscle tendon changing classic for free.

Price: US$400 plus US$50 for shipping. For local folks, NT$14,000 and you can come get them.

This is quite a bargain considering they run about US$100 each on his website.

I will only sell them as a set, so please don’t ask to break up the set. First one gets it.

Contact me through email if you want to buy them: chessman71 “at” gmail.com

Formosa Neijia 3rd anniversary

This month marks the third anniversary of the Formosa Neijia blog. We’ve covered a lot of territory in the past three years, had a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but we’re still here and doing our thing.

Just want to say thanks to all the readers.

Curious: what was your favorite post over the past three years?