Red Balloon
27 November 2008
Another photo from River’s birthday party.
No CommentsTwo
22 November 2008
River turned two today.
Big fun birthday gathering at Cedar Grove Park in Berkeley. Thoroughly delightful day. She had a fabulous time.
Here’s me explaining to her how to blow out candles, which she proceeded to do perfectly. Her godfather the Khan looks on.
More pictures and other updates coming soonish.
2 CommentsLittle Devil
1 November 2008
This year’s Halloween costume.
2 CommentsThe Art of Living
29 October 2008
3 Comments“It is creative apperception more than anything else that makes the individual feel that life is worth living. Contrasted with this is a relationship to external reality which is one of compliance, the world and its details being recognized but only as something to be fitted in with or demanding adaptation.
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In some way or other our theory includes a belief that living creatively is a healthy state, and that compliance is a sick basis for life.”- child psychology pioneer D.W. Winnicott
Aikidoka for Obama
23 October 2008
Here’s the official “Aikidoka for Obama” seminar video that a couple of enterprising Aikido of Berkeley students distilled from the hours of footage that were shot.
It’s just two minutes and twenty seconds long - it’s not designed to document all the excellent aikido that was demonstrated and practiced; it’s designed as a charming and novel political endorsement to be submitted to pro-Obama news blogs and such. It’s possible that sometime in the future I’ll work with Ryu or some other tech-savvy aikidoka to create a longer video from the seminar footage, more focused on the teaching and training. But for now, enjoy this very fun little taste! It does include part of the kokyu dosa demonstration I did with River in my lap, definitely one of the seminar’s highlights by all accounts.
That’s the fabulous and highly videogenic Wizard Azzia being interviewed in the purple/pinkish tank top. Other people in the video who’ve shown up in this blog before include Brandon (being thrown by Kayla right after Kayla’s interview segment) and Foxfire (my partner in the kokyu dosa demo). Oh, and that’s also me practicing ikkyo with a partner in the foreground in the 9-second segment of partner practice that starts at 0:16 (right after the first Azzia segment).
And yes, at the very beginning of the final interview segment with me and River, River does say “Obama!” She’s a huge Obama fan, and shrieks “Obama, Obama!” every time she sees his picture, sees him on television, or hears his name mentioned. If toddlers could vote, Obama would win by a landslide: his name is fun to say, he speaks and conducts himself with the same benevolent clarity as the adult human regulars on Sesame Street, and he just generally comes across as the kind of adult who’s nice to children (McCain, on the other hand, comes across as the kind of adult who eats children).
3 CommentsBy the Pool, in Purple Coat & Pigtails
17 October 2008
River, age twenty-two-and-a-half months. At Kayla & Sierra’s wedding reception, some really nice place somewhere north of here, 11 October 2008. Photo by Dragon Lady.
3 Comments