Topic of the day: Tai Chi or Christian?

Christians are not allowed to practice Tai Chi, according to this church. In fact, they have banned the Tai Chi class that used to take place at their church. My understanding of Tai Chi is quite limited but I thought it is more related to Taoism, the philosophy, rather than the religion with the same name. I had never worshipped any Tao deity while practicing Tai Chi! (Maybe that's why I was no good!?) Shaolin Kung Fu probably has more influenced from Budhism than Tai Chi from Taoism (the religion) Still, it's perfectly normal for non-Budhist to practice Shaolin Kung Fu. Once again it shows how ignorant and close minded these people could be.

Topic of the day: GoDaddy stop going in China

Another high-profile tech company (coincidentally, it also starts with a G!) is pulling out its business from China. GoDaddy is well-known for its racy commercials and hot spokeswomen (one of them is my idol, race car driver Danica Patrick) In case you don't notice, their main business is registering domain names (also sells cheap web hosting service)

I'm not sure how popular it is in China though. Maybe it does not hurt them that much by not offering .cn domain names? I don't know.

Musician of the day: John H. Clarke

I just came back from Pier 39 and saw Spanish/Classical guitarist John Clarke playing there. Very creative playing.

Even though it was just him and his guitar (a cool looking thinline nylon string acoustic guitar), it sounded like he has percussion backing him up. His trick was: in the beginning of each song, he will tap/scratch his guitar and "save" it to his Boss RC-50 looping station, which will play it back, controlled by the foot switches. He also used a Yamaha MagicStomp for acoustic guitar effect.

Musician of the day: Svend Asmussen

Mr. Asmussen is a 94 years old jazz violinist. During his long and still on-going career, he has played with the best of the best in jazz, including Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington! I have been listening to his albums (Still Fiddling, Makin' Whoopee!... and music!) and enjoyed them very much.

Joke of the day: What is a string quartet?

My teacher taught me today:

A good violinist, a bad violinist, a failed violinist, and someone who hates violinists.