Drunken Monkey

"The only time i know of him 'battling' on a rooftop, was when he worked out with William Cheung on the rooftop of the building Yip Man's school was situated in" i know of one fight that both william cheung and wong shun leung have mentioned separately about young bruce lee and rooftop fights. basically, on this occasion, he was being shown how bad he was until he got a lucky shot in. so while he did win that fight, it wasn't because of superior skill. all other accounts of other such fights point to him not doing well. (unlike the accounts of wong shun leung, that do, on all sides, point to him being undefeated) "And his jkd was all about what was most effecient in real fights" um, no. "The reason why he began gung fu, was because of being beaten by a gang. I mean its also because of him getting into fights often, that he was sendt to the US" from accounts by william cheung. bruce lee used to hang out with a bunch of gang wannabes (remember, this was in hk when the NEW triad gangs were coming into power). his dad introduced him to yip man as a means to control him. "What he 'did' do was introduce full-contact sparring within Chinese styles being taught in the U.S., although i understand that full-contact sparring did exist in in mainland China, prior to the Boxer rebellion, so even that is not his flagship to claim" don't forget that his wing chun seniors, especially wong shun leung were forever beating him black and blue (he had full contact shown to him after he was being a bit of an *...alledgedly.....) hk at that time was a bit of a mess. the new gangs that were hiding/using the kowloon wall city as a fort adopted the old rebellion/triad systems and motifs. they also began to actively hire 'beat-boys' from martial arts schools. as a result, many martial arts schools became nothing more than a triad outpost. the many real, life threatening fights were between these schools and not between the other 'legit' schools. (although, they did organise the famous rooftop fights, although bruce hardly ever took part due to him not being good enough) you could argue that this was why bruce lee was introduced to yip man; to prevent him from further mixing with the wrong sort of crowd. learning kung fu was not really the main point.

it's a kind of bamboo. it's light, springy and a pain to look after if you intend to give it heavy use. hard clashing causes it to 'splinter' easily and you need to sand it to save your hands. unless i got a duff one that is..... and it doesn't behave quite like regular wood when you clash weapons. and errr..... i've only ever seen a 'short' chinese staff made from rattan. what else is there?

heck seven, you should know me by now and where i stand regarding traditional/modern/useless etc etc...... i kinda wanted to see how he would answer. anyway. y'know, here in the uk, a lot of the tradition of muay thai is still practiced (but not 'forced').

"Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman" never heard of that before.

....but you are aware that 'kung fu' is a very wide spectrum, right? not all styles have jumping moves. if 'kung fu' is so useless then why do the hk and taiwan police use it as part of their core training? why did the u.s marines employ a kung fu instructor to instruct one of their units? why does the met police have a kung fu instructor listed as a recognised authority on self defence? LOTS of uselss crap? i know one that has about 40 'moves' that are basically combinations of about 5 blocks and 4 different ways of hitting, trained against different attacks from various angles and from different heights. hardly useless and hardly crap. heck. even muay thai has a lot of useless tradition in it. tell me that in your opinion, the bowing, dancing around the ring, stomping to each side etc etc isn't 'useless crap'..... and i'm pretty sure i've asked you for a name before but you i seem to have missed it. what's the name of the style you trained in? i mean, hardly any chinese style of merit teaches under the umbrella title of 'kung fu'. surely you know the name.

"oh, my experience with kung fu styles didnt have jumping (was referring to tkd) but it did have a LOT of useless crap" but what was it? and what was the useless crap? going back to my kung fu, what from the list i presented is useless crap?

wait a minute..... you were here last year, and was 17 then (march 2003) and you're here now (november 2004) and you're still 17? hmmm.........

one of the other kung fu styles i have trained in treats balance in a very tai chi way. it has as it's main principle, stillness (you) around which everything happens. when you meet an opponent you aim to not move and instead have them move around you. i.e the aim is to break balance before anything. this was taught from day one before any striking was shown. in fact, i would say that this is treated as the core of the style and is the thing that is practiced more than anything else.

yes. but then so what? can't a martial art be an athletic activity? aren't there any sports that are martial arts? how about tai chi? traditonally, it is a martial art but today there are far more people just learning the slow forms without practice of it's use. i don't see what they do as a martial art even though the same moves can be used for fighting purposes.

ugh... don't get me started. "i personally have yet to come across such a thing" funny you should say that. it's why most guys buy their records/magazines/music dvds; so that they can co...... ahem...... there's ony three reasons why people but j-pop/canto-pop. i) girls ii) short skirts iii) skimpy tops it's just all seriously dodgy too, esp. in hk. it's very well known that most of the young girls who get record deals took a horizontal interview. if you're really interested, type in 'twins cantopop' into google. that should get you something. they're one of the biggest publicised cash cows for the last few years. they can't act. they can't sing. they're not that cute and yet they got themselves a record deal and film roles.

well, according to my cuz, one of the better smart phones is still the ericsson (900? i'm not too clued up on the model numbers...). he says the basic model for the o/s used in the nokia phones is a bit mickey mouse cos they have a short market life. the ericsson on the other hand is aimed at a different market. his opinion. the nokia 6200 (the direct rival for the ericsson at the time) is a phone that tries to be a pda as well. the ericsson is a pda that is also a phone. then again this was last year. things change. i have no idea if he's still on the phone softeware or if he's been put on the big texas instruments project..... um sorry for hi-jacking your thread. i'm going now......

ugh. j-pop, the only thing worse than canto-pop.....

that's the difference. you qualified your statement. he didn't. he made an incorrect general remark. i gave him a specific counterpoint.

so? hit someone with a karate move. hit someone with a wrestling move. hit someone with a tennis move. result=someone is hit. does that make tennis a martial art because it improved the guy's hitting/swinging technique?

i have no spinning jump kicks or reverse punches in my kung fu. i practice use of punching, kicking, stamping, elbows, knees, standing arm locks/breaks, tripping, throwing, use of angles, use of lines, how to close gaps; generally different ways to hit someone. i think technically, muay thai has more jumping moves than my kung fu does, which has none by the way. tell us again what experience of chinese martial arts do you have?

road driving race driving. both involve cars. both involve driving. they are not the same.

"How can a non-American state that a American whom does not vote has no reason to complain? In that case, THEY should have no reason to complain. But foreigners do complain about American politics." this line demonstrates that you have not understood the original point. either that or you are choosing to ignore it and argue over the words used. this is old ground but i really do wonder, is my presentation of things really that bad? but then again, why are you always the only one who misunderstands?

"Because any form of method, from WWE, that can be used in a fight, can be considered a martial art" so if a tennis player picks up a stick and uses his backhand to defend himself in a fight, does that make tennis a martial art?

dlopez.... forget about it. he's just arguing for the sake of arguing again. in this case he seems to be arguing over "the right to complain" without seeing the issue at hand. yes, everyone has the right to complain whether or not they vote. but people have said that words are useless without actions. if you can make an action and you don't, then your words are worthless. proverbial hot air. my opinion. not worth much as i talk in reference to my political system here but it shouldn't be that foreign as to make my point incomprehensible (is that the correct word???)

did you vote?

um, that's kinda it. it isn't a 'no vote' option, (i think that would be quite good but i'm not sure if the politicians would actually like presenting that option to people.....) if you mark more than one choice, it is technically void. but in the grand scheme of things, your vote is still counted a being cast. it is counted and is in the system. not many people do it and that's the problem. if all those that say they don't believe in any of the parties go and make a void vote then when it's all counted, the politicians and media people have to ask why 30% (or whatever it is...) of cast votes were not countable. that is a question that needs to be asked. don't use your vote and they will never have to face that question.

....i wouldn't. my cousin works for symbian and does programming for the nokia phones among others. (he was also one of the first people in the uk to use 3G to make a video call to japan....) they're not worth a twinkie. if you want a pda get a pda but then again, before you get one, are you actually going to use it? i'm always tempted to but then i think i would do more and use more with a simple notebook and pen.

but then you're not counted for. sure, you'd be exercising your right not to vote and in a way demonstrating your complaint but i don't think that actually does/mean anything to them. they (the parties involved) don't care that you don't vote because that simply means his opposition doesn't get a vote either. what they do care about, is that if you do go and vote, it is for them. like i said before, i'm not sure if you guys have this, but here if you mark down more than one choice, your vote is taken down as a no vote (void). at the end of the day when the results come up it'll be: X% Mr A, X% Mr B, X% Mr C, X% no vote. that 'no vote' count does mean something and would, if everyone who 'complains' goes and does this, speak a much louder message than simply not going to vote. it has been said; to change the institution you have to be part of the institution.

...but that's the point. i think it would send quite a clear message if let's say 50% of the votes balloted/counted were actually for 'none of the above' as it were. i mean, for a start, it would give a better idea of who prefers which candidate and how many people actually don't like either of them. you say you freak out when you hear someone say 'no vote, no complaint'. fair enough. i freak out when people have the power to vote and don't exercise that power. granted i don't know if you can actually make a non-vote over there or if you can, is it counted but here it does and is. it makes a difference. this is probably the only time i would advocate being a statistic.

um, the cross roads, four doors is something like a form. it deals with the older ideas of face (which i mentioned.....five animals guys would know what i'm talking about...). gates IS just a way if dividing the body for visual purposes. in chinese, the term 'bridge' (kiu) is short form of the two word term 'bridge arm' (kiu sau). hence, bridge=arm (in a martial art sense). the base is always considered a separate entity, in this case called 'horse' (even if the stance has a different name i.e 'cat') as such everthing to do with entering and making contact with, is spoken with regards to 'horse' (ma) i.e bik ma, tui ma, gung ma (force, retreat, attack) etc etc. in other words. bridge = arm horse = legs/stance/base this can be added the thre previous bit.... e.g i could tell you to attack his base as you bridge then collapse his base by retreating while you sink his bridge on your outside to switch/hit with free hand...... wing chun and kempo guys could probably now list various ways of doing what i just said.