Carlos' old team vs Carlos' new team

Caught a glimpse of the Texas Rangers vs Houston Astros game yesterday. It was one-out, bases-loaded in the bottom of the inning. Carlos Gomez made an incredible catch in the center field which turned a base-hit into just a sac-fly. Wait a minute: I thought Gomez played for Astros but he actually was traded from the Astros to the Rangers last season! Then I saw another Carlos, Beltran, came up to bat. Wait a minute: I thought the days of Beltran playing for the Astros were way way back (Yep, that's 2004. BTW, I also remember his very brief stint with the Giants after the 2011 trade deadline but did nothing to save that season.) Well, he re-joined the Astros after playing for the Rangers in 2016.

Yeah, it's confusing.

(Side note: If I could have done it all over again, I would have become a Red Sox fan 'coz not just ESPN but also MLB Network is trying to show every Red Sox game live. I am pretty sure they have the most national coverage among all teams.

And this is the 1000th post of this blog! Congrat to self :)

Building Pharaoh’s Chariot

Netflix "knows" I love watching documentary about history, especially Europe, Egypt or Biblical ones. So it recommended this one from NOVA (I watched quite a few NOVA/PBS documentary when I was taking the art history courses and knew they are GOOD) Most history buffs know that Egyptian civilization had its glorious days (their written language, their sculptures and their architecture which utilized their scientific knowledge) However, between the kingdoms/dynasties, there were times that the country was threatened by their neighbors. With their strong army, the Egyptian Pharaohs were able to defeat these enemies and further expand their territories. The creator of this documentary argued that what made the Egyptian army so powerful was their secret weapon: the chariot! To prove this theory, the team reconstructed a chariot based on careful researches combining info from various historical sources (excavated artifacts like the harness), sites (cave with drawings) and also engineering knowledge, from our UW Madison Engineering Physics Professor Bela Sandor (who is really a multi-talented Renaissance man) The result is a vehicle that is easy to maneuver, fast yet providing a well-suspended platform for the "driver" and the archer such that the latter could hit their target/enemy and get away quickly, as proven by the weaponry experts who tried it out.

太極拳及MMA

少時候的我最討厭隨波逐流，所以要到大學時代才聽The Beatles及看李小龍電影（多得老友樂迷戲迷周輝介紹），其實我也不是好勇鬥狠之徒，所以廿幾歲才因好奇習武，那次九陽神功及少林傳人示範如何練功，例如用鐵掃把打手手腳腳，又免費教了我們十二式復興拳，是來自台灣的國術。後來又在公司參加由練楊式太極多年的資深同事教授的太極班，再加上《武論金庸》作者潘國森的講述，總算對太極有點認識及感情。見識過一些以太極招式自衛的示範，深信太極除了是適合老人家的運動，也有實戰用途。

十年前左右，因為YouTube興起及電視開始轉播MMA賽事，我又有點改觀。從前者可看到「史上最出名」的中國功夫擂台戰：五十年代太極吳公儀vs白鶴陳克夫（即啟發金庸創作武俠小說一戰）陳被打至流鼻血，但裁判判打和，其實也無所謂吧，我最失望的是兩人根本沒有使用任何中國功手招式，出的不外乎直拳勾拳，這些打法看電視播的現代MMA也有，不過防守嚴密得多了，再加上當年比武沒有的腿戰及地戰。

上星期發生了一件震動中國武術界的大事：中國一位不滿傳統國術門派自吹自擂的MMA教練徐曉冬，出來挑戰各方高手，而自創雷式太極的魏雷憤然應戰，卻極速被打倒地上，抱頭捱打，當然被裁判判TKO！老老實實，以我相當皮毛的認識，也看得出這個擂擂完全不懂格鬥，不要說出拳對打，連步法也完全不行，又缺防守意識，對手一推即跌，我想他懂的只是演演太極拳招式吧。

到底太極拳vsMMA，是否如此不濟？網民當然議論紛紛，莫衷一是，我較有興趣聽聽媒體對武術有真正認識人士的看法，這篇提出幾點均有說服力：

• 練MMA者集各家所長，出拳肘腿膝，再加地戰攻防；相反地，練太極者一般只練太極拳，又怎有對抗前者多樣化的打法呢？（不過作者有點矛盾地引用李小龍說：「我不懼怕對手識一萬種腿法，但懼怕對手只懂一種腿法，而練了一萬次。」）所以此戰後，中國陳式太極拳第十二代傳人、太極拳世界冠軍王占海，據報導打算派出師門六十五徒弟陳前挑戰徐曉冬，這位陳前其實不只跟王練太極，後來更成為散打冠軍，散打即中國式綜合格鬥技也。
• 太極拳是「以柔制剛」、「以弱勝強」嗎？這都是真的，包括以弱勝強，但我們看得武俠小說太多，便覺得以弱勝強等於「以最弱勝最強」，這是不可能的，因為這違反物理定律。
• 太極拳當然有技擊，但多年經驗顯示，很多理論上可行的技法，在實際上是非常難用。很簡單，太極拳講求鬆沉，因為只有這樣才能以柔制剛，但能保持鬆沉的狀態，是與心理有關的。自己練功時，練套路時，要練到鬆沉當然較容易，但上了擂台，要保持這種狀態很難
• 練太極拳，你會學到巧勁，不用拙力，用巧力，在日常生活中非常有用。咁即係唔打得？也不然，因為你可以將當中的運力原則，放進其他武術。就如上述那位散打冠軍可能也受惠於太極㡳子。

同一網媒也有發表撐太極的文章，指有日本空手道高手坦承敗於太極老人手㡳，可信程度見人見智。

再看看YouTube一些近代太極格鬥影片：

• 看慣慢吞吞出拳轉手踼腿的太極，可能對本片中的類似摔跤的打法不以為然，不過我當年練過少許推手，知道推手比賽就是如此起手的。第一位紅衫參賽者王戰海就是上述陳前的師父王占海的本名。
• 這場2011年由中央電視台舉辦的所謂太極拳武林大會，打得也像摔跤或柔道多過傳統太極，勝出者就是王戰海的兄弟，名氣有過之而無不及的王戰軍。

如有太極拳手戰勝徐曉冬之類MMA專家，想來也是運用類似打法吧，據報導格鬥賽事《勇士的榮耀》創辦人郭晨冬，將拿出120萬作獎金舉行比武賽事。規則是徐需於一個晚上，連續戰勝2-3位武林掌門人才可獲勝，比賽不戴任何護具，可踢襠插眼，限10分鐘內分勝負。希望真的成事。

特別的週末

放完假一星期，生活大致返回正常軌道，星期六早上和好久沒有出動的行山友去了Rancho San Antonio，夏令時間又加上開始熱，所有行山客皆勁早出動，6:50am停車場已爆滿，泊得老遠，反正也是幫助消脂:) 行完8.2miles，行山友各自歸家，行程緊湊的我飲完咖啡食完lunch就去坐Caltrain，再踩單車去Fort Mason的ART MARKET SF藝術展，渡過很是充實的三個小時，再起程踩去Laughing Monk Brewery和家人會合，之前我上地圖check過路線，也不太遠，基本上沿海皮去球場，在China Basin沿著3rd street往南面走，經過的地方其實我全部均未去過， China Basin原來很多舊船塢，再踩多陣就見到Oracle Team USA的名字，我想那是service America Cup船的地方。 那天是該Brewery anniversary，又適逢Southside Festival，雖然鄰近地區出名不太太平，當日人山人海一片熱鬧氣氛，飲杯Coffee and Cream Ale就十分啱feel了。

星期日唯一scheduled activity是Flag football，繼上一個季打Cowboys，我兒子今季「效力」Packers,原本打算在賽前放低兒子和上星期教練（其實都是義工家長）給我的一袋器材(flags and footballs!)就去嘆咖啡，不過賽前練習只有兩個Packers隊友在等，事前教練說聯盟會安排人代替當日不能出席的他，卻不見踪影，作為唯一一個家長，總不成即走，硬著頭皮coordinate一下賽前練習，讓他們熱熱身再練幾個plays，那位10號仔和我兒子都是有比賽經驗的，也不用我input。到比賽開始也不見代教練，我唯有「A貨」Mike Holmgren上身，不過也沒有能力call甚麼plays，都由得隊員自由發揮，充其量只是一個跟著跑的啦啦隊吧。真.教練，我們熱切期待你回歸呀！

Fyre Festival

Like it or not, when a music festival makes the news, it's usually not good news. The Fyre festival is yet another example. (If a music festival ever become a "real" cultural/seminal events, it will only be talked about in many years after, IMO) When my friend told me about it (during a hike!), he first showed me the promotional video of the festival, i.e, the now "infamous" one with lots of pretty hot ladies in swim suits hanging out at a luxurious-looking island (think Hawaii) Well, well, well. The reality was nothing like that. When the guests arrived in the Bahamas island, they saw a bunch of tents, some with mattresses soaked wet, because of the rain/storm a night before the festival started. Another famous pic from the event was the supposed-to-be-high-quality food: a Styrofoam box with some bread, salad and cheese. The big name musical acts did not show up either. The whole thing ended up "postponed." The ticket price was reported to be from close to $1000 to way-way above that. It's understandable that several lawsuits were filed about the organizer. The festival was co-founded by a "tech" guy Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. McFarland apologized and admitted that they were "a little naive" while others thought it's more like a money-grabbing scheme. I'm interested to see how the organizer would follow up: will people get their money back? Will there really be a "replacement" festival down the road for those who bought tix? To be honest, if this happens 20 years ago and it featured metal or jazz, I might have been one of them :P