Justicle

I’ve created a new blog: http://monkeystylegames.com

I’m going to keep all game related stuff there from now on, and try to blog here (and somehow tell facebook because thats where all the cool kids hang now).

See you there!

Also the average age of a gamer is 28 years old, with 41% female, and 8% seniors.

I wonder when the government will start giving the same tax breaks to Game developers as the Film industry. Probably never, as games aren’t “Culture” according to the federal fuddy-duddies.

Here are the figures from the Sydney Morning Herald:

• Box Office Revenues = AUS 0.86 Billion
• Games hardware/software = AUS 1.03 Billion
• DVDs = AUS 1.29 Billion
• Books = AUS 1.86 Billion

I guess its  kind of cheating that they included hardware (thats like including DVD players with DVD sales). But its an important milestone none-the-less.

Ken Kutaragi, the “father” of the PlayStation3, commits corporate seppuku. As predicted, no consumers want Pu-Ray, Wii is teh ownage, and those folks at Redmond are continuing to not screw up.

“Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.”

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a BBC documentary on the subject must be worth billions.

This was filmed in 1983, and features one of the great masters of the age, Hung I Hsiang. Due to YouTube’s restrictions, its broken into four 10 minute parts (search YouTube for the rest).

I’m pretty sure that an incorrect response to a wailing child in the middle of Broadway Target is:

Will you please stop crying, I’m sick of you. This was supposed to be a nice day out and you’ve ruined it.

This was calmly delivered from a well-dressed Mother to an 5-6 year old boy. I tell ya, it didn’t make the kid feel any better, at all.

I’ll follow up this post in a few years and we’ll see how I coped.

The other weekend lil’ Freya Lily figured out another way to make Mum and Dad lavish her with cuddles and attention:

Hello, Freya!

I’m too old to understand the appeal of myspace however, so we’re stuck in “old” media for now.

Quick summary of news:
-  I finally renewed my flickr.com subscription, so theres about 3 months worth of photos to go up.

- Didn’t get a Wii, but got one of these: http://www.apple.com/imac/

- Started work at: http://bigworldtech.com

Due to poor financial planning on my part, I can’t afford a Nintendo Wii until I file my Tax return for 05/06. The agony! Everyone else has one except me. At this rate they’ll be sold out of the Christmas allocation.

Worst thing is, it’s all my fault for being lazy.

As you know I’ve been studying internal martial arts (part-time) for a few years now. It’s obviously a passion of mine - or I wouldn’t have devoted so much time to them - and I’ve kind of explained bits of it to various people over the years.

So due to circumstances explained in the previous post I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about the subject in more depth. This will by no means be complete, as volumes of work have been written on the subject. Also keep in mind that the concepts described - especially the more esoteric ones - are experiential by nature. They may embody interesting philosophical concepts, but merely reading about or imagining them is a pale shadow of direct experience. Why write about them, then? Well, because they are just so darn cool.

What is an internal martial art?

All martial arts across the world can generally be divided into two types - external martial arts, the most common, include Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and Western Boxing. Internal martial arts are far less common, and include Tai Chi Chuan and Aikido. Note that this is not a strong distinction, as many arts contain techniques and training methods from both, and arts that claim to be purely one can often have techniques based on the other.

So what’s the difference? Most martial arts that you see on TV or at the movies are of the external style. They tend to emphasize generation of power by muscular strength, bursts of tension, and emotional aggression. Shouting, screaming “Hiii-ya!” Bruce Lee sounds or even growling can be common.

Internal martial arts generates power through physical and mental relaxation, emotional calmness, and deep, steady breathing. There is a huge emphasis on sensitivity and awareness - both your opponent’s and your own physical state. Therefore they are often practised very slowly and softly, and often it’s hard for the lay-person to tell that the practioner is even performing a martial art. This is further complicated by the lack of outward signs of hierarchy in an internal martial arts class. Generally there are no uniforms, grades or belts, and often no bowing between the teacher and students. The teacher/student relationship is less rigidly defined. Teachers are generally acknowledged to be “further along the path” than their students, and most are constantly learning and refining their skills - and given that internal arts can be practised well into old age - they will do so for the rest of their lives.

The Concept of Chi

The most fundamental point about internal arts is the concept of chi. Analagous to “ki” in Japanese arts or “Prana” in Yoga. Its where George Lucas got the idea for “The Force” in the Star Wars universe.

Chi is commonly misunderstood, particularly in the west and is prone to great exaggeration in movies and TV. It is often maligned as mystical superstition, but practitioners of internal martial arts have a direct experience of this in their own and their opponent’s bodies.

Next time : What is Chi?

Many of you dear readers know by now - I’m heading for greener pastures at bigworldtech.com.

However, in a stroke of good fortune my old employer has decided to cut short my notice period, with a payment in lieu. While this was quite sudden and somewhat unexpected, it does mean I’ve got paid free time until January 9th, 2007.

Here are the top 5 activities that will probably fill the vast expanse of leisure at my disposal:

1. Blogging.
2. Playing WoW.
3. Blogging about WoW.
4. Changing nappies.
5. Miscellaneous - christmas, sleeping in, avoiding chores like filing tax return, taking photos of cats, blogging about cats.