What I Listen To At The Office
- Hearts of Space
New age mellow, for those times when you just want to lay back in your chair and imagine what the clouds look like or when you're laying in bed restless and needing to sleep; this will calm you mind. (unfortunately it's by paid subscription only) - Newark Public Radio
Straight ahead jazz, much of it by artists you've likely never heard of. - Dr. Horner's Classic Jazz Corner
Hard bop & fusion jazz, some old & some new. This is for the serious listener as he many times plays deep album cuts that you likely would not hear on the radio. - Radio Paradise
Eclectic streaming web feed by a fellow in Paradise, Calilfornia (ergo, Radio Paradise). He has links to Amazon MP3 download and iPod so if you hear something you like then downloading quick is really easy.
What I'm Currently Studying for Self-Improvement
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Intense study of how we program ourselves for failure and means by which we can re-focus and move our lives forward in a creatively positive and productive fashion; applies to BOTH business and personal aspects.
What I'm Currently Reading For Fun
Nick Jamilla: Shimmering Sword: Samurai, Western, and Star Wars Sword Fighting
A study of various martial arts and warrior cultures and how Lucas drew upon them in creating the Star Wars universe. The author is a fencer/Kendo player/Aikido player and uses his extensive martial arts background to explain such groups as the Samurai, the Jannissaries, the Jesuits, Zen and other groups.
Contact
- Email Address:
- Website: http://www.aikibudo-aikido.com
- Location: United States
One-Line Bio
After a lifetime of thinking about it I've finally become a Zen-Objectivist; Zen for the intuitive side, and Objectivism for the logical side.
Biography
I started my martial arts career in high school in the late 1960's in Tae Kwon Do and went on to briefly fight in kumite and later in Judo shiai before stopping all competitive venues (it was boring, didn't fit my personality, and didn't suit my original reasons for entering martial arts anyway). I got lucky beyond all belief and found some really good Aikido teachers and began to focus on Aikido and other classic Budo.
I stayed with my primary Sensei for almost 20 years before leaving in 1998 and opening my own dojo, which is now one of the largest in Texas. If I believe the email from former students who work internationally, we're now known to people in Japan (who would'a guessed it?) even tho' to me it's just a part time thing I do for fun and the enjoyment of the challenge, not to mention the interesting life-changes it brings to the serious practitioner in mass quantities.
They say that the "Real World" is the world in the dojo as lived on the tatami, and that the world outside the dojo is just a "Theme Park" where people play dress up, act silly and do some serious posing; so I guess that the "Real World Me" is an Aikido Sensei and that the "Theme Park Me" is a business man working for his clients. To semi-paraphrase an old hoary phrase; "I do my best to NOT become an empty suit going no-where in a hurry".
Interests
philosophy ... the occasional retro-visit to 60's and 70's r&r with some depressing 80's thrown in for balance ... throwing people around on the mat ... decent science fiction (tough to find since muadib' got himself lost in the desert) ... jazz music (lite & upbeat with some classic hard bop & fusion ... dedicated life-long martial artists & aikido players who prefer the right way over the wrong way or the easy way ... really smooth frozen luxury vodka ... getting lost in kata and humming out loud in the middle of a fast, sweaty randori session ... good cask-strength scotch that flows over the tongue like sexy peat flavored oil ... full bodied cigars (preferably torpedos since a torpedo roller is considered the most advanced) ... sushi (of course!) but only if it's really fresh (i found a sushi bar that serves it so fresh it flinches when you rub the wasabi on it and no don't ask where 'cause I don't want them spoiled by success ... really good men's perfume strength cologne made the old fashioned way with ambergris (gives it interesting character) that causes strange women ask me ... watching my kids and grand kids discover life and how uniquely different their parental genetics are (if you were a kid would you want your mom and dad to be a pair of precision minded perfectionist professional level executives, zennists and avid libertarian-objectivist acolytes of Ayn Rand who rarely take no for an answer and who would rather lose a client if keeping them meant compromising honesty and ethics?
