Zen(or Ch’an if you prefer), in China, was started by Bodhidarma, a cool dude from India. Bodhidarma’s writings are interesting, mystic, and straight forward. And yet, after reading them I don’t feel like I understand Zen any better than I did before reading them. But, I guess that is the point. Read the rest of this entry »
I went fencing again last night.
I fence epee, which is lucky for me because most of the people in the club do as well. Last semester, I tried looking for fencing practice, but I was still too worried about my Japanese skills. I started going to the Osaka Fencing club meetings 3 weekends ago on the off chance it would be fun. And, unsurprisingly, I enjoying myself.
The club is free, though it is a bit far from where I live.
I don’t have any of my fencing gear here, but I had my parents send it to my host families house. So, I have been using other people’s equipment. The club doesn’t really have any(it is free). But they do have some masks. The loaner masks are too small for my head and glasses, which made the first week a little difficult. But yesterday I wore my contacts and avoided that problem.
The other problem is that they are old masks and so the bib is really small. A proper mask should have enough bib to cover the neck effectively. I got hit in the throat last night and that hurt, probably more than it would have if I had a better mask. I wanna buy one, because my mask at home is getting old too and it would be nice to have a new one.
So, there is a fencing shop in Kyoto that I plan on visiting in the future.
Today in Zen, before Kenney kicked me out because she was covering material she covered in Religion in Japan, we talked about Non-Self, one of the most important ideas in Buddhism. As you know, after the Buddha came up with all that about suffering and how it was escapable, he became a selfless teacher. But selfless means more than altruistic. In this case, Non-Self.
I used the word abstraction in the title because I am a student of computer science and abstraction is what we do, more or less. Self is an abstraction, it takes a complex system, say the brain( reptile, and the other later bits), the body, and mind(the patterns in the brain) and makes it seem like it is one entity. I think that this is a useful thing. Thinking and being aware of all the connections of those subsystems takes a lot of time and energy, so it is simpler just to roll it into one idea.
The same is true of many things like cars, computers, skyscrapers, etc. Read the rest of this entry »
So there I was, reading about this presentation I went to by one of the business profs on his design and presentation blog(presentation zen), when I noticed I am in a photo of the presentation audience. It was a kinda weird sensation.
The presentation focused on design and presentation and zen. I know, big surprise for having a blog called ‘Presentation Zen.’ It highlighted problems people often have with presenting, especially with slides. You see, many people, when they make slides, use bullet points and lots of text and complex diagrams. Gar(the Professor)’s argues that is boring and not necessary anyway.
Another day of Zen.
I didn’t go to the last two classes because the teacher told me I should leave. I took Religion in Japan last semester and we covered basic Buddhism fairly well in that class. そして I already know a lot of what we are covering now for background in Zen.
Arguably, I could have skipped this lecture as well, but it was interesting. We went over the four noble truths(paraphrased):
Buddhism sounds pretty bleak. But, it always seems that Buddhists like the Dali Lama are always smiling. And Thich Naht Han said be happy with the now, with the world. How does this jive with the idea of all is terrible and disgusting? Read the rest of this entry »
I know that this isn’t a new idea, but itsallinyourhands.com is a really neat implementation of the viewer decided plot line. It is sort of a choose your own story. Viewers vote on which way each plot point will go, will he skip the date and go for the sex bunny or will he go on the date with the shy girl. The viewer decide.
It looks to me like the shows on the site are very well put together. The editing is pretty good and the acting is not bad. This could turn into an interesting way of building an audience.
My friend Marcus has a blog. In it he talks about his experiences in Spain. He is cool, so I added him to my friends list.
Also, him, Grant Nelson and I have gone to the ACM Programmers Competition a few times.
Roger Koopman, a representative in the Montana State Legislature, introduced a bill this session entitled “AN ACT ENCOURAGING INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM; URGING UNITS OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM TO PROVIDE AN ANNUAL REPORT; PROVIDING A ROLE FOR THE EDUCATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT INTERIM COMMITTEE; AMENDING SECTION 5-5-224, MCA; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.” I read the bill and I think that it is not a good idea. It is too vague and adds another unnecessary burden on the system. It is a mostly symbolic gesture and does not have any meat to it. Read the rest of this entry »
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
This was on my quotation list today. I thought that it was a rather Zen thing to say. It follows from the idea that knowledge is an impediment to understanding. If you got a plan, you might be inclined to view it as a true thing, when in reality, it is just an idea. Clinging to it, you lose flexibility.
And, as anyone who has lost a game of chess can tell you, when you are out of choices, the game is over.
This weekend I read a 1/4 of harry potter in Japanese. Last semester, I had bought Eragon in Japanese, but that turned out to be a foolish endeavor. It was too hard, too many kanji, too little furigana(the small characters above kanji that tell the unenlightened how to read it). Harry is much much easier.
On the other hand, I still don’t understand about, oh, a third of the words the first time I see them. But, I can read the japanese because most of the kanji have furigana. And I have learned a few new words like mono-oki(物置) which means closet, more or less. Read the rest of this entry »