Some Addictions Are Good For You

Usually when we hear the word 'Addiction', we think of things bad for you: drugs, alcohol, sex, television.....chewing nails (ahem!). I think I might have found something good for me, and even fun!

While in Mexico this year on our annual retreat (of which I will blog more at a later date), Billie handed me his set of spinning Poi to play with on the beach one day. For those of you who don't know what poi spinning is, if you have ever seen people spin little balls of fire at the end of a chain around their bodies, this would be what I am talking about.

Around the circle, I have seen people spin fire poi, fire staff, fire fans, flag poi, etc for quite some time. The Poi in particular always seemed like something that I would totally LOVE, and I do! Once in my hands, spinning poi was like a fish to water for me. I now have my own set of LED poi and practice at least an hour if not more a day!

So, yes, this addiction takes some of my precious time away from doing things I should be doing (like working), however it is getting me off the couch, on my feet, moving my body and working out my upper body every day. What could be better?! (Well, okay, don't answer that :) )

Below is a video from YouTube of someone spinning LED poi like the ones I got. I can only hope I spin this well some day. Judging by the black and blue spots on my body...I'll need more time, but a girl can dream!

Make Your Dreams Come True

Enjoy this moving video:

The Masks We Wear

Masks are things I put on the outside
To show other people,
Or maybe to show to myself when I look in the mirror.

Heh, mirrors are interesting, too aren't they?
For another time, though.

Sometimes I become the mask.
Or, does the mask become me?

What if,
Each mask was already an inherent part of myself
that I choose to let out now and again?

All the faces are one.
The One has many face-ts.

Inspiring Poetry

In the end, only kindness matters, in the end

If I could tell the world just one thing
It would be that we're all OK
And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful
And useless in times like these
I won't be made useless
I won't be idle with despair
I will gather myself around my faith
For light does the darkness most fear

My hands are small, I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken

Poverty stole your golden shoes
But it didn't steal your laughter
And heartache came to visit me
But I knew it wasn't ever after

We'll fight, not out of spite
For someone must stand up for what's right
'Cause where there's a man who has no voice
There ours shall go singing

My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken

In the end only kindness matters

I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray

My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
We are never broken

We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's mind
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's heart
We are God's eyes

~Jewel, "Hands"

Living A Life of Purpose

I recently have caught on to the iPod craze and consequently, via iTunes, I started downloading podcasts. One particular set of video and audio podcasts that were reccommended to me were the TED Talks. These talks are actually truly fascinating and inspiring. I stumbled on the below video by Pastor Rick Warren.

I had no idea what I was about to listen to, but it moved me deeply.

What have you been given? How are you going to use those gifts to change the world?



In case you can't view this video, CLICK HERE.

On The Road - Part 4: Taiwan Longshan Temple

The last day in Taiwan, our flights left quite late in the day. ‘The girls’ (Rae, Nitta, & Sandy) took Jordan and I on a little morning adventure in Taipei before our flight.

First, we went to the Longshan temple. As you can see this is quite a beautiful temple in the city and besides being well known in and of itself, it is also known as the temple near to the snake alley night market I mentioned in one of my earlier posts.

I am so glad that the girls went with us to Longshan because they knew all of the rituals and traditions for visiting the temple. The temple really wakes up and feeds all of the senses. For starters, in the entrance courtyard, there was a spectacular koi pond with waterfalls. This beautiful view created a sense of peacefulness when you walk in as well as forming a sonic container from the business and noise of the street right on the other side of the gateway. I truly love water gardens and Koi ponds! There were quite some magnificent and large koi, just relaxing under the rushing of the waterfalls above.

Past the courtyard, we entered into the next layer of the temple to be assaulted with the thick smoke and smell of burning incense offerings. All around the temple were offering bowls with sticks upon sticks upon sticks of the burning incense. In the center of the temple, was a shrine with the main Buddha statue surrounded by handful of smaller shrines on the perimeter. The girls had us each get a handful of large incense sticks that we would then use for our offerings at each shrine. There apparently was an order in which to make our offerings. I never quite found out or knew how the girls knew which way to go but we followed their knowing lead.

Different shrines were dedicated to different purposes and the girls instructed us as to what kinds of wishes and prayers to offer at each location. Once we made our wishes we were to leave a stick of incense at the burner in front of that shrine. One Buddha we were told is where all the mothers and students go to ask for passing marks before big exams and tests. Another one was to ask for abundance of children and fertility (we passed that one quickly, simply offering our incense with no wishes!) One of the last ones was for asking for the partner you wish to marry. I was instructed to whisper my name, birthday, and a very detailed description of what I wanted. In that case, of course, should my wish come true, I was told I would have to come back and thank the goddess. We’ll see what happens…..!

Each shrine was so intricately detailed with gold, carvings, paintings, offerings and lights. There was so much for the eyes to take in, I felt quite overwhelmed with it all. The smell of the incense ever present and the sounds of people whispering prayers and clacking ‘question blocks’ (for lack of a better term). These blocks were two little wooden pieces that you us to ask a specific question to the Buddha. Basically you pose your question, and toss the blocks. Depending on how they land, the answer is ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘undecided’. Along one wall were fortune tellers offering to read your numbers or your palms for a small fee.

Besides the massive input to the senses, I found my heart very moved as I offered my prayers. I spent some time considering the question of what exactly I wish to pray for and the answer always came back the same:

Om Lokaha Somastaha Sukhinu Bhavantu
Om Lokaha Somastaha Sukhinu Bhavantu
Om Lokaha Somastaha Sukhinu Bhavantu
May all beings in all times and all places be free from suffering and know deep deep peace.

I recall feeling tears in my eyes at one point as I felt the depth of that prayer in my heart. Why should I ask the universe for just me? What I want of life, don’t we all want?

It was hard to walk away from the temple. I felt like I could have sat there all day praying and wishing…..but alas, we moved on!

Next the girls took us for a quick bite of lunch. Here we are enjoying our meal, which was the Wa Guei I mentioned in one of my earlier posts about food. Say hi to the camera!!

After a quick lunch, we went into one of the markets, this one being a food market. Talk about a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT attach of the senses!! There were so many smells, fish and meats and fruits, and people, fried foods, grilled foods, etc. The sites were also something to behold. Any part of a fish or pig or foul that you could imagine can be found in the markets like this. As we walked down the narrow alleyway, there would be giant fish and pig heads watching us. Full pork legs with the hoof and all laid out on the butcher counters. Of course, like visiting Chinatown in any major city, there were many many ducks and chickens hanging in the shop windows. One shop even provided some helpful education as to the various types of chicken one might find around the world!

Finally, to end this adventure and head back to the hotel and finally to the airport, we took a brief walk to the subway. Here, like NYC and probably many cities, there was the excitement generated by spectators watching the men play games on the benches near the station. I climbed up on a bench to get a view.

And now, we take our subway ride back to the hotel. Rae, don’t lose your subway token being silly!

All in all, our trip to Taiwan was a good example of the old saying; Work Hard, Play Hard. I really treasure the opportunity to experience different parts of the world. For the full selection of photos I took on this trip, go to my Photobucket Album.

Stay tuned for future “On The Road” blog installments…..next stop…Hainan, China!

On The Road - Part 3: The Show

Of course, the purpose of our trip to Taiwan was to perform. Our schedule was pretty standard for a tour schedule, pretty brutal for a normal human being's schedule.

We had 4 shows ... in 4 days ... each in a different city in Taiwan.

The first day was of course the most treacherous. Our Magic road cases with all the props and equipment were slow to arrive at the theatre and it was the first day with the technical crew, who only spoke Chinese. Thank goodness for Jack who was Taiwanese and had very good English. He was our sound crew and often technical translator to lighting crew, spotlight operators, curtain operators, and the volunteer setup/breakdown crews each day. We had less time that first day to do the most work.

Of course, we had a few bumps in the road along the way. They started early with our first tech meeting the night I arrived in Taiwan (after over 14 hours of air travel). "We don't have Rosco colors, only Lee and those are limited. We don't have the colors you said. What colors do you want? Those? We don't have those either." We had multiple instances of lights with no frames to hold the color, and basically had to entirely redesign the show daily rather than load in the same show each place and go. The day we loaded into an analog run theatre with our digital equipment was fun. I ran the two-scene preset board(like in the old high school days) while our tech ran the little bit of moving lights and par cans we had on the digital board. Getting the levitation unit and road cases in out of schools and libraries always had its challenges and finding out what curtains, borders, etc were available to us was always an interesting adventure.

I worked mostly with this guy, he was our wonderful head lighting technician. He led the crew each day with our hang and focus in addition to running the lights each night. There are certain things that are universal no matter the language and from what I experienced, when you work with professionals in your field, we all think the same. There were many times when I would give instruction to our translator (who was not a technician, per say), she would relay the information and he would then start to say why it was impossible to do. Before she could translate back, I usually had a good idea of what he was saying and was starting to give instructions for an alternate. Needless to say, words like "Tieng" which meant "STOP!" were useful, and I think that as much as I learned to say "Red, Blue and Pink" in Chinese, they learned the english version. Apparently the concepts of a "Standby" versus a "Go" don't translate so well. I spent a good bit of energy spewing commands like "no, i didn't say go....wait, don't go back now that you went there...wait, but...go! go! hurry! go! you missed it!" However, by the last show, everyone understood what "standby" and "go" meant.

Our schedule was basically show up to the theatre early AM, load in, hang lights, focus, setup everything, do a technical run-through, take a short dinner break (mostly while audience was already starting to arrive), perform, breakdown, drive anywhere from 2-5 hours to the next city that same night, land at the hotel, sleep and do it all over again! And again, and again, and one more time! This kind of schedule works best when we all chip in and help with everything. I really enjoyed learning where the magic props all stored and quickly had my 'roadcase' that I was responsible for. Jordan was awesome with pictures of each case and how it packs. Much like sailboats, everything has a place and it does not work right if that map isn't followed exactly.

As they say, "Practice makes perfect" and by the time we hit the last show in Taipei, we had a mostly well-oiled machine. That theatre was in the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Hall and is the second largest theatre in all of Taiwan. It was a boggling space considering we had started in smaller school theatres and such. The view from the control area is shown here. Jeff, Abbi and Jordan looked like tiny little ants on the stage from that vantage point, but luckily for the audience there was live video feed projected with zoomed in closeups. That show was loads of fun because we could really stretch our legs with effects, rock n'roll and the subtler cueing rather than just trying desperately to get the show plugged in.
















Not only did Jeff, Abbi and Jordan perform onstage, but they also did strolling closeup before the show as well as greeting audience members in the lobby.





Part of each show was the time before, after and during intermission that we were selling merchandise. This was also a time that Jeff would sign autographs and take pictures. I really enjoyed watching the excitement on the audience members' faces to get to meet Jeff, Abbi and Jordan and take pictures with them. Although it's tiring after a two-hour performance, I think Jeff enjoys it too, as evident in this picture taken in Hsin-Chu. After the show, there was usually a madhouse scene with people clambering over each other to get to Jeff. Without a doubt, every show had at least one local magic club group who all had their very own decks of cards and memorbilia for signatures. Our last performance, in Taipei, had a particularly impressive crowd, who formed an organized line all around the HUGE lobby of the building to get autographs. Jeff and I were also amused by the 'paparazzi' of people crowding in to take pictures that night, as you can see in my picture of their pictures.
Jordan also looked like he had fun meeting fans, signing autographs and taking pictures.
Overall, after all that, the ups the downs, the challenges and the adrenaline rush's, I can't wait to do it all again! There is nothing more satisfying than watching the audience light up at a surprise or reveal , or being in the groove of the rock and roll at the end of a show.

On the Road- Part 2: Eat Eat, Make You Strong

Each day we are in a different city around Taiwan and pretty much in the theatre all day long, so lunch and dinner are brought to us. These lunch and dinner boxes (Bien Dang) come in little cardboard and balsa wood boxes, half with rice and half with other goodies. We usually get a piece of fried chicken or some soup on the side along with our box.

Yesterday, in Taichung, I open my dinnerbox and begin to quietly eat my dinner before I run back to the tech table to review cues (only moments before the house opens). Some yummy bok choy, some rice, and then suddenly, I look at the next bite on my chopsticks to realize there is the eye of a tiny guppy-like fish head looking up at me! (kind of like those shown in this picture I took in a market)

um.......Vegetarian Please??

In Taipei, we missed the night market that is known for having food stalls of snake items, such as snake soup. "Oh, good for you. Make you strong." Says Jack, our sound guy, who's relative owns one of these stands. He said to just drink the soup and not eat the meat, but you get to see his cousin cut the snakes open.....oh great!

There were certainly some fun and interesting food experiences as well and although I definitely need a break from chinese food, I still love it, especially now that I know about the traditional ways things are prepared.

After our performance in Kao-Shiung, we were all starving hungry and had a 4 hour drive to the next city and our hotel. It was voted to stop at a Taiwan McDonalds, or McCafe. Most things are the same, although they have more chicken options and less burger options than the American version and they had somehting called a Rice-Burger. This was basically a burger on a bun made out of rice patties rather than bread. I didn't try it as I was not up for risking a burger over chicken. I wouldn't even risk having a burger at a Micky D's in the US, for that matter! They were also really nice at the McDonald's and gave us all green tea iced tea to drink while we waited for our order to be completed. Jeff, finish the sentence....Quarter...... ;)

Our last night in Taiwan, after the very successful Taipei performance, our hosts took us out to Hong Kong style Cantonese dinner. What a delicious meal! I had Kiwi Juice for the first time, yummy! They also had some yummy vegetarian lettuce wraps, dumplings and spring rolls, soup, etc. Lots of joking around and laughing, a little magic at the table, it was definitely a fun and good time had by all and wonderful to sample some really delicious chinese food too!


The last lunchbox that I had, there was a completely delicious green vegetable that I had to ask what it was. You know, asking what something is can be a daring question, often answered with just "eat it, its good for you!". This, however, I was told were flower buds called Jin Zhen. Some research later told me that these were young green lily buds. The girls took us to the market on our last day in Taipei and there I got some dried Jin Zhen (which are yellow or orange). You can actually find these dried lily buds in your local asian markets and I have found out that they are often put into hot & sour soup or moo shu pork (muxiu pork). I can't wait to try out the recipe Nitta gave me for lily bud soup. Yummy! While at the market, we saw many shocking food stalls with all shape and form of animal parts - pig hoofs, whole ducks and chickens, LARGE fish heads, etc. The girls had us taste sugar cane juice, which was cool and refreshing (I have actually had this in Hawaii as well, with just a touch of lime juice add -- soo good!) I also picked up this powder that is made from dried plum, sugar and salt used to dip your fruit in. So yummy!

The girls also took us for a lunch of Wa-Guei, which I don't really know how to explain. This was basically a thick pudding pressed into a bowl with a delicious sauce on top. The pudding had bits of shrimp and meat in it and was so thick a fork would stand up straight in it. Made me think a little bit of bread pudding. The Wa-Geui was served with a yummy soup reminisceint in flavor of vietnamese pho soup with the cilantro and bean sprouts. In the soup were fish meat balls which were ok, but I only had a couple.

This entire trip has certainly re-inspired me to have my dim-sum party at the Chinese New Year that I have dreamed about for a number of years. Now that I have some taiwanese friends to ask for recipes and advice and I have tasted some delicious sticky rice, chicken soup dumplings, cha siu bao, siu mai, etc I have great ideas for the party!

I think eating these things makes you strong. Strong of will for how daring and adventuresome you can be! I certainly feel stronger for having tried some of these various dishes and more willing to 'risk it', to a certain degree, in the future. It was certainly worth every moment of the adventure!