Naming Species After Unrelated People

Most common animals have the luxury of being given common names such as "Least Weasel," "Red Fox," "Snowy Owl," or even "Giant Forest Hog." These names are related to how these animals look or where they live, and are thus easy to remember.

Unfortunately, a lot of rare animals discovered by science fairly late are given obscure and irrelevant names like "Przewalski's Horse," "Baird's Beaked Whale," and "Dice's Cottontail." Although it may seem that these animals were named after the scientists who discovered them, this is not the case - most often, they are named after famous people (often biologists) chosen by the discoverers. These names may be meaningful to the biologists who named them, but they aren't very descriptive of the animals that they describe. Even worse, this rather meaningless trend continues as scientists discover new animals and try to select appellations of a similar note.

Luckily, it seems that, at least in some groups, these sorts of names are falling out of favor; at any rate, sometimes we have other options to use when talking about these animals. For example, the Prezewalksi's Horse is sometimes called the "Asian Wild Horse" or "Mongolian Wild Horse;" in older days it was sometimes known as the "True Tarpan" or "Mongolian Tarpan." The Baird's Beaked Whale is sometimes grouped together with the very similar "Arnoux's Beaked Whale" and called the "Giant Beaked Whale." These latter names are much better and more interesting.

On another note, when including such animals in a CRPG (such as Dungeon Craft), these more descriptive common names can be useful, as it would make little or no sense to have your adventurers encounter a "Baird's Beaked Whale" or "Prezewalski's Horse."

Liang Style Baguazhang Seminars in NYC

Tom Bisio, a respected teacher and practitioner of Chinese martial arts and traditional medicine based in New York City, is holding a series of (mostly) Liang style baguazhang seminars in the Big Apple itself! Details can be found here: http://www.newyorkinternalarts.com/martial.htm

The seminars appear to be concentrating on Liang style as passed down through Guo Gumin's (郭古民) disciple Gao Ziying (高子英) and then his son Gao Jiwu (高繼武), taught in monthly chunks of material, from foundational calisthenics, walking circles, the old eight palms, basic palms, elbows, kicks, locks, and throws, linear palms, linked palms, and even weapons. At $150 per seminar, this looks like a great opportunity for New Yorkers to learn substantial parts of the Liang baguazhang system, which is in general somewhat conservative and closed-door. (A bit of material from other styles is mixed in, notably the Tiangan (天干) exercises which come from Gao Yisheng (高義盛) style, as well as a few exercises from other styles, like crane stepping, which comes from Yin style.) Of particular interest are the weapon seminars, like the Bagua 64 Saber (六十四刀), which is normally quite hard to get teachers to teach you...

If people are hesitant to sign up for ALL the seminars (there are 20 planned altogether), I would recommend at least the following six, which cover core Liang style material:

Seminar 2: Fixed Posture Palms (定式八掌) - circle walking, of primary importance in baguazhang.
Seminar 6 and 7: Old Eight Palms (老八掌) - technical basis of baguazhang
Seminar 17 and 18: Bagua 64 Saber (六十四刀) - oversized saber, one of the representative weapons of baguazhang
Seminar 19: Bagua Rooster Claw Yin Yang Knife (鷄爪陰陽鴛鴦鋭) - unique weapon of baguazhang, said to be Dong Haichuan's (董海川) favorite weapon

In addition, the following six would be very nice as well:

Seminar 10: Elbow Methods - various elbow forms
Seminar 11: Throwing Methods
Seminar 12 and 13: 64 Hands (六十四手) - linear forms created by Liu Dekuan (劉德寬)
Seminar 15 and 16: Linking Palms (連環掌) - linking form, advanced version of old 8 palms

Of course, all courses would be even better, but...

There is of course additional material in Liang style baguazhang (such as swordplay, additional techniques, training methods, forms, etc.) - perhaps one could join Tom's regular class for some of that...

Combating Hay Fever in Japan

Years ago, after World War II, the Japanese decided to plant hordes of cedar trees, since they would eventually hopefully become a useful source of lumber (and money). The combination of this rather foolish idea with the legendary Japanese work ethic resulted in cedar forests covering a whopping 12 percent of the Japanese archipelago today, a considerable (yet ultimately foolish) accomplishment. Today, Japan woefully does not make use of these anticipated lumber sources, using cheaper trees from Southeast Asia instead, resulting in these cedar forests becoming a source of not lumber, but vast (and sometimes visible) amounts of allergy-causing pollen.

As Japan is a rather clean country, Japan's population has steadily been succumbing to cedar allergies, while the government seems to do nothing about it at all. As a result, Japan's allergy sufferers have been quietly buying up antihistamines, surgical masks (to block the pollen), noseplugs, lozenges, and other products advertised as alleviating allergy symptoms. This is good for companies producing such products, but for most people, the cedar pollen season (from around Valentine's Day to May or so - not short by any standard!) is mostly a horrible time of running noses, difficulty sleeping (due to stuffed noses), and fatigue.

I personally have tried a number of methods to alleviate symptoms, while avoiding antihistamines (because I generally dislike medicine), and have found varying results:

1. Baguazhang Walking: the prime training method of baguazhang, i.e. walking in circles, seems to have a rather strong effect in alleviating allergy symptoms. Walking in circles for 20 minutes in the morning usually alleviates the majority of my symptoms for a whole day; walking 10 minutes or so is less effective, but is still much better than not walking at all. In general, I can also sleep quite normally (I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night), so it seems that the effect lasts for a rather long time.
2. Yogurt with Active Cultures: yogurt with active cultures seems to act as a mild antihistamine; imbibing the stuff works quickly with almost instant reduced symptoms (although they do not disappear). The effect seems to last for 5 hours or so, so it may be necessary to eat the stuff several times a day if one is depending on yogurt only. Yogurt substitutes that contain active cultures, such as Yakult drinks, seem to have a similar (if weaker) effect. This year, active culture yogurt with fruit added is being sold, which is nice; before, they only sold plain active culture yogurt, which is a bit too sour for my tastes.
3. Showers and Baths: taking a shower or bath after getting home wipes the body clean of pollens picked up while walking around outside, giving one a welcome respite from the sniffles at least until one has to go out again. This often helps one to sleep soundly as well (make sure that you change into clean, pollen-less clothes)! Some people additionally vacuum their clothes and hair when entering the house to enhance the effect, or buy air purifiers to use at home.
4. Lozenges: various lozenges purported to contain yogurt, pollen, and other ingredients that alleviate allergy symptoms are for sale in Japan, but they only seem to have a minor effect, if any. Mostly, I found that they seem to clear the nose (much like other minty lozenges), but only if one has but minor allergy symptoms.
5. Shiso and Shiso Drinks: shiso (a kind of leaf) is often purported as a good remedy for allergies in Japan, resulting in various shiso juice drinks being sold during the allergy season. Although they taste okay, they did not seem to have much of an effect on my allergies (I tried chewing on a shiso leaf as well, but that did not work, either; perhaps red shiso leaves work better, but they are not available during the cedar pollen season).

By far, solution #1 worked best for me with the longest duration of effect; nowadays I depend on it, with some of solution #2 as well for good measure (I like yogurt, anyway) or for when I wake up too late in the morning.

Hello Kitty, Child of the Netherlands?

Japan has had great success in marketing its characteristic and simply-drawn "characters" throughout the world, especially in Asia (such as Hong Kong and Taiwan). These characters are perhaps best epitomized by the arguably most famous of them all, Hello Kitty, who was created by the Sanrio company in 1974, leading way to even more characters of the same sort of aesthetic. It is this sort of aesthetic that is often seen as"Japanese" now, especially that other companies in Japan have also created similar characters (such as San-X's popular Rilakkuma, created in 2003).

However, it is important to note that Miffy, a rabbit character very similar to Hello Kitty, was created in 1955, 19 years before Hello Kitty, by Dick Bruna in the Netherlands (Miffy's Dutch name is Nijntje). Dick himself thinks that Hello Kitty is a clear copy of Miffy, as he noted in the July 31, 2008 edition of the British paper The Daily Telegraph:"'That,' he says darkly, 'is a copy [of Miffy], I think. I don't like that at all. I always think, "No, don't do that. Try to make something that you think of yourself'.'"

Perhaps it is important to give credit where it is due - Japan owes its current character aesthetic to Dick Bruna,whose Miffy is often mistakenly thought of as a Japanese creation today. (Japan has, however, characteristically worked very hard to mass-produce a huge number of characters based on this aesthetic, though, which has ironically ultimately resulted in the very misconception that that aesthetic is natively Japanese.)

Unwritten Rules for Casting Asians in Hollywood

I've already posted about how the (Chinese) main character of Dragonball Evolution (my title: Dragonball Retrogression) was given to a Caucasian actor, but apparently almost all of the main roles of another clearly East Asian-derived fantasy movie, The Last Airbender, have been given to Caucasian actors as well. This brings us to the Unwritten Rules for Casting East Asians in Hollywood, as follows:

1. (East) Asians may not be cast as leads in any movies, even specifically Asian ones, unless they are Jackie Chan or Jet Li (other Asians who happen to know kung fu unfortunately do not count). This is good because Caucasians with hair dyed black look exactly like Asians and can hardly be differentiated (pure genius!) - so basically, we don't need Asians in movies (except for Jackie and Jet).
2. Asian males are not allowed to have kiss scenes (or (gasp!) love scenes), ever, even if they are Jackie Chan or Jet Li, because that would be offensive. (Asian females are allowed to have kiss scenes with Caucasian males, however, because, you know, that's cool.)

Basically, this means that Asians may only be cast as:
1. Kung fu masters (but only Jackie Chan, Jet Li, or a few others. Being Asian (even Chinese) and learning kung fu does not give you this right. Females get it a bit easier here).
2. Yakuza/Triad members or otherwise shady characters
3. Dorky/horny/harmless buddy-type character

Now, I know that Hollywood is afraid that casting Asians in its main roles will make its movies automatic failures - this is understandable, as Asians are of course lacking in attractiveness and coolness and all that; I'm not blaming anyone. Heck, I've never even watched the Avatar TV show even once - although I am glad that they based the main character's martial art on my own favorite martial art, baguazhang. I do think that they could have at least given a few of the main characters' roles to Asians (heck, the usual rule is that Asian girls get roles while Asian guys don't) and helped a few starving actors break their fasts and get some roles for once.

These last 10 years or so, I do think there are slightly more Asian actors in movies now, but only a little - it would be nice to see more progress soon.

The Benefits of Dungeon Craft

I admit that I have never actually tried Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures (FRUA), which Dungeon Craft is based on (and emulates). In general, I have mostly avoided it because I do not want to work in DOSBox or use palettes. The low resolution of FRUA is both a strong and weak point, though, as although it seems a bit too retro for my tastes, it does mean that I would be able to finish the graphics for a game much faster than for Dungeon Craft.

Dungeon Craft, although as yet still incomplete, has quite a few things going for it, especially in terms of graphics creation - some of these points I will go through below:

1. Dungeon Craft allows any size of combat icons, as long as they are in some multiple of 48 pixels (i.e., the smallest icon will be 48 x 48 pixels, which is twice the size of the typical FRUA icon (24 x 24 pixels)). This means that I can draw all monsters (even huge ones like dragons) to a constant scale, which tickles both my amateur biologist tendencies (I can draw all sorts of existing and extinct animals to the same scale) as well as my RPG nerd tendencies (I can also draw dragons, trolls, and so on to the same scale for comparison). The size is also a fairly reusable one - I can use these same images as 2-frame animated gifs, or just line them up together to make a cetacean sizes chart (for example - this is one of my "secret" dreams) - the ability to reuse images is always nice.
2. Dungeon Craft allows various resolutions, but I use the 640 x 480 one. 640 x 480 is nice, because it is smooth and detailed enough that creatures look fairly realistic, but it is also easier to realistically achieve than higher resolutions such as 800 x 600 or greater. As I basically use pixel art as my method for creating graphics, higher resolutions means much more work, and so it is always nice to be able to find a good compromise between smoothness and workload.
3. Dungeon Craft does not use palettes, meaning that artists can freely create PNG files as they like (well, except for alpha transparency). Palettes are a headache to play with, and it is always nice to be able to ignore them (I have used them in other game maker engines and found them a headache in general).

On the downside, all of this means that I tend to spend more time drawing animals and such than working on my game... but hopefully it will culminate with my game being more detailed and interesting in the end.

Liu Dekuan (1826-1911)

Liu Dekuan (劉德寛), whose style name was Jingyuan (敬遠), was born in Cangzhou, Hebei Province (河北滄州). In Cangzhou, Liu Dekuan learned Six Combinations Boxing (六合拳) from Li Fengyan (李鳳崗); in Beijing, he learned Yue Family Free Fighting (岳氏散手), today known as Eagle Claw Overturning Boxing (鷹爪翻子拳), from Liu Shijun (劉士俊). In the south, he also learned six lines of halberd (方天劃戟) methods. In Beijing, he also learned Baguazhang (八卦掌) from Dong Haichuan (董海川) and Taijiquan from Yang Luchan (楊露禪) (via Yang's son-in-law Xia Guoxun (夏國勛)).

In addition, in the 20th year of Guangxu (光緒二十年) (1894), Liu Dekuan, Liu Weixiang (劉維祥) (Guo Yunshen's (郭雲深) disciple of the Xingyi school), Cheng Tinghua (程廷華) (Dong Haichuan's disciple), Geng Jishan (耿繼善) (Liu Qilan's (劉奇蘭) disciple of the Xingyi school), and Li Cunyi (李存義) (also Liu Qilan's disciple) met in Beijing to combine the three families of Taiji, Bagua, and Xingyi into a single family, removing stylistic boundaries to study together and improve the arts. Through these exchanges, Liu Dekuan was able to further his study of Baguazhang and learn Xingyiquan as well.

As Liu Dekuan was well-versed in many styles and methods, he is an enigma in that a great many schools of martial arts are connected to him.

Liu Dekuan taught his taijiquan, which in modern times has been called "baguataijiquan" (八卦太極拳), to Cheng Youlong (程有龍) (Cheng Tinghua's eldest son), Guo Gumin (郭古民) (Liang Zhenpu's (梁振浦) disciple), and Wu Junshan (吳俊山) (Shi Jidong's (史計棟) disciple). Cheng Youlong taught Li Cunyi's disciple Guo Zhushan (郭鑄山) in his father's name. Guo Gumin taught Wu Yue (吳岳). Wu Junshan taught Zhang Xiangwu (張驤伍) of the Baji school, Fu Shuyun (傅淑雲) who later emigrated to Taiwan, He Fusheng (何福生), and Zhang Wenguang (張文廣) of the Cha school.

Liu Dekuan taught Six Combinations Boxing to Liu Caichen (劉彩臣) and Zhao Xinzhou (趙鑫州)； Liu Caichen in turn taught Ma Yuqing (馬玉清), Wu Zizhen (吳子珍) who later founded the Simin Martial Arts Society (四民武術社), and Yin Ruchuan (尹如川) who later emigrated to the United States. Zhao Xinzhou taught Wan Laisheng (萬籟聲) who later learned the Natural Style (自然門) from Du Xinwu (杜心五) (who was famous as a bodyguard of Sun Yat-sen (孫中山)) and Liu Hongjie (劉洪傑) who later joined the Bagua school.

The Bagua school in particular benefited greatly from Liu Dekuan's efforts, absorbing Liu's qinna (擒拿) methods, spear skills, halberd skills, and the 64 hands (六十四手). The 64 hands are a linear Baguazhang set of 8 lines of 8 techniques, based on Liu's rich experience in baguazhang as well as his experience in the other arts outlined above. Another method that is often attributed to him is the fighting body spear (戰身槍), a well-known Bagua spear set. Liu Dekuan taught his baguazhang methods to Guo Gumin, Cheng Youlong, and others, who in turn passed them on to others in the Bagua school.