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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/1101898-The-Dharma-Force/sort_by/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/page/6
Rated: 13+ · Book · Opinion · #1101898
For every dark cloud, there is a silver lining. Does anyone has change for mine?
We are the BORG. Resistance is Futile!
Excuse me.
We are the BLOG, read, comment or be assimilated.

(If that joke is old, please drop me a line. Thank you very much!)

I never took myself seriously. Why should you? But at least I have some good qualities.
I am a good listener even though I am not that good of a writer.
I don't like to talk about myself that much, so please comment on your thoughts.
I am satisfied with my life, which makes me a very unbalanced person.
I do not get bored easily, but please feel free to try.
I do not have much free time, so that makes me a Dad.
Oh, and because of the previous three items, I can only write in Fantasy Genre. I fantasize about the time the kids will move out.
(I will delete and deny ever wrote the above sentences when the time comes that either my wife or my kids found out about my blog.)

OK. Let's pull up a chair!

No, wait! Where are you going?
Please come back! Please!
(A bit too much? Tune down a little bit? )

** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
That's my new picture.
No, not the toilet.
Didn't you see me wave in the tank?
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May 6, 2006 at 3:51am
May 6, 2006 at 3:51am
#423832
You are all writers here. So what I am going to say today is going to be plainly obvious.

But that is one of my quality, (bad habit actually), I like to state the obvious.

When I am writing, it is not my hand that is writing. It is not me that is writing. It is just my mind that is vomiting. (Too graphic *Sick*)

Gibberish at first, just in a twisted, multi-threaded way, with multiple personalities, for the most part.

Then it became clearer. A thread will dominate, and it will expand. It will absorb all others and make them all its own. At that point, it can be put down onto the paper.

But the task is not done. The thread is still expanding, evolving, twisting. It will take on other gibberish, and it will suck in new information.
That is the time the story starts to evolve. But that is good. I will take my time with it.

I will edit it, then shelf it. Then come back and read it again, and maybe edit it a little bit more.

At one point, when I read what I had written, I would be depressed. Because it is not as good as the last draft.

As a matter fact, it is not as good as the first draft. Then I got out the first draft. I looked at it, read with a different point of view. It was pretty good. Simple, straight, green as a new bamboo shoot in the spring. It was not polished, but it had the attraction of its innocence.

After I changed it, it evolved, more polished, with a new shining gleam to it. And yet, I did not like it anymore. It was tainted, it was ugly, it was a hybrid monster.

Then I realized that I did not like what I have written just because I did not like myself. The piece stayed true to itself. The pen, (or the keyboard in this matter) stayed true to itself. My mind evolved into layers of sophistication that I did not like.

I think that is the reason we like children. Their innocence, their guileless straightness. But we can not return to that state. It is like you cannot make the paint off the canvass. All you can do is make the paint more pleasant looking.

Stay true to myself is what I am looking for, what I am searching for. It is a never ending search, luckily, I have the weapon exactly fitting for the quest.

My mighty keyboard! (Weird sound! mighty pen ... mighty keyboard .. mighty pen ... oh well!)

Keep writing, keep modifying, keep reading.

Luckily, the mind influences writing, but the writing is also influencing the mind.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "If you repeat a lie long enough, it becomes truth." ?

Well, how about turn it on its own head.

If you know you are a depressed, confused individual, write something positive and inspirational. Keep at it, and one of these days, you will find that you have changed.

Well, in my belief, you have not changed. You have just added another layer. But it is a good layer. It is a layer with big holes that drills straight down to your inner core. The spark of life that your creator has put it there, your true self.

Like me, I know myself in the real world as a silent, reserved, hypocritical person. (very good material for a politician by the way. ) So I am going to be an open, straight, wacky, honest (Ok, that would be go too far. Honey that jean definitely make your butt looks smaller. Hey, I still want to sleep in a nice bed once or twice!) simpleton.

Does that work? I don't know. Shall we try and find out?

May 5, 2006 at 1:47pm
May 5, 2006 at 1:47pm
#423699
When I was in college a few years back, I found an interesting book in the main library one day.
It was a translation of an ancient Chinese book. The book was full of weird stories.
Ghost stories, Fox spirit stories, demon stories.
It was like "Ghost Hunter" meets "X-files" and Steve King.

The author, the ancient Chinese one, opened a tea salon in his hometown. The tea and the service was free, if you could give him an original story.

The book was very famous. I read it in my youth. It was one of a kind. And at that time, I did not like it that much. It just felt weird to me.

When I read the English translation in the library, I was stunned. It actually felt right and made more sense ... in English. Weird, Huh? It was like the author was out of date and out of place with his time period.

I will include a short story here from memory. Judge it for yourself. You have to keep in mind. China was a very structured society at that time. Everyone was polite, all social protocol needed to be observed. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, otherwise like the White Queen said, "Off with his head!" (Or was it the Black Queen, Red Queen? Tahoe Blue Queen? )

"The Painted Skin"
One day, a young scholar found a young pretty girl crying alone on a desolated road. When he inquired, he was told that she had just escaped from some bandits. The bandits killed all of her parents, and robbed her clean.

The young scholar took pity on her, and brought her home. He told his wife of her story and she was invited to stay.
Soon, the young man fell for the girl. He took her as a concubine. (This is ancient China, mind you.)

One day, the wife went to the market, and she was stopped by a Taoist. She gave him alms, but he did not leave. He looked at her and said, "There is great evil in your house." The wife thought him as a mad man or a fraud. So she left.

When she returned to her house, she found her husband was taking a nap. She wanted to talk to someone about this Taoist, so she went to the concubine's room. The room was quiet. The wife looked through the window and saw a horrible Demon stood by the dressing table. She was so scared that she froze. Then she saw that the Demon was drawing something on the dressing table. When he was done, he picked it up, and the wife saw that it was a complete set of human skin (Remember the movie "Jeeper Creeper". I always wondered where the idea was from) The Demon was applying makeup to the skin. When he was satisfied, He put on the skin and transformed himself into the beautiful concubine.

The wife gathered her courage and left quietly. She went back to the market to find the Taoist. She bowed to him and begged him to expel that demon. The Taoist shook his head and said he had just calculated the future. (use the look of "I Ching" you can calculate your future too. How about I save that for next entry) If he interfered, chances are her husband would die. The wife said that if the Taoist did not interfere, her husband would die anyway.

So the Taoist gave her a box, and told her to throw at the Demon. But she had to be careful that her husband was not at home when she did it. Also he told her in time of emergency, call his name, and he would be there.

When the wife got home, she found that the concubine was alone in her room, and her husband was not there. So she went to the concubine's room and threw the box at her. A burst of flame appeared, and the concubine was on fire. The wife ran out of the room and locked it behind her.

The concubine was screaming inside, and she was banging on the door. Just at that moment, the husband returned. He heard the concubine's cry and he ran to her rescue. He broke down the door and threw a pail of water at the concubine. Water put out the fire, but it also dissolved the makeup on the skin.

The husband screamed in fright. The Demon pulled off the skin and cut open the husband's chest. He pulled out his heart and ate it. Then he got out of the room and went for the wife.

When her husband appeared, the wife knew the fate could not be avoided. She called the Taoist's name.

A clap of thunder and the Taoist appeared. He spit out a bright flying sword from his mouth and cut the demon in half. the demon dissolved into black smoke. The Taoist took out a vase and murmured some words. The vase sucked in all the smoke.

The wife began to cry as her husband was dead. She begged the Taoist to save her husband. The Taoist shook his head and said that he could not do it.

However, the Taoist said that there was one person could bring her husband back.
The wife begged the Taoist to tell her. The Taoist said that as he walked through the market today, he saw a beggar, a leper sat by the town square. He could save her husband's life.

The wife asked what she could do to convince him. The Taoist told her to go to that leper and bowed to him. Do not say a word, just keep bowing to him until he said something. Then whatever he said, she must said yes. And whatever he asked her to do, she must do it, no doubts, no hesitation, then he could save her husband.

So the wife went to the town square and found the leper. She knelt down and started to bow to him, without a word. At first, the leper did not even open his eyes. Then the town's people started to gather. They started to ask the wife what was going on, but the wife did not say a word. She just kept bowing to the leper.

The town's people were all curious. They kept asking the wife questions, but the wife remembered what the Taoist had said. She just kept bowing to the leper.

Then the town's people was angry at the leper. They said they had never seen such a pompous leper.

At the angry words, the leper could not keep his composure. So he opened his eyes and asked the wife, "Why are you here?"

That was not a question that the wife could say yes to, so she kept bowing to him.

The leper frowned, "Why are you doing that?" He asked again. Still no answer.

Finally the leper said, "Do you like me?" The wife remembered what the Taoist said, and she said yes.

The town people started to laugh.

The leper asked again, "Do you love me? Do you want to be with me?" The wife said yes to both.

Then the leper scratched his deformed feet and rubbed some of the gunk off. He said to the wife, "Here, hold my treasure in your left hand."

Even though disgusted, the wife took the smelly gunk from him. The town people started to boo at that point.

Then the leper coughed and spit onto the ground, "Lick up my spit and swallow it."

The town people was stunned. The wife was trembling, but she obeyed. She licked up his foul smelling spit and swallowed.

The leper suddenly laughed hysterically and said, "She loves me! She loves me!"

The town people got angry and they wanted to stone the leper.

Before the wife could beg the leper to save her husband, the leper ran away, chased off by the angry mod.

Shocked and despaired, the wife could not say a word. What she had swallowed, burned in her throat and she wanted to vomit. After searching for the leper for some time, she finally gave up and returned home. The Taoist had put her husband's body on the bed and left.

The wife went to her dead husband, and saw his empty chest was still open. She started to weep, and suddenly she felt nauseated. Before she could turn away, she vomited. The leper's spit came out and dropped into the husband's chest.

It transformed into a new beating heart immediately. The wife was shocked, but she closed his chest wound with her hands. Just when she was looking for some needle and strings to patch him up. The gunk in her left hand melted and dripped onto his chest. The gunk turned liquid and sealed up his wound.

Only a red scar remained. Her husband opened his eyes.

And they lived happily after. Well, that is, the husband did all the house chores while listening to his wife scorn him for picking up strange woman off road.

The only victim in the story was the leper. He was last seen on some desolate road leaving town, murmuring something about, "'Crazy B****, ... Desperate Housewife, ... Had to leave my sunny spot in the square ... " (Ok, fine, I added this part. )
The end.

Pretty interesting, huh? He had tons of these stuff in his book. This was just one story that I could not forget. Well the reason was that in the 50s or 60s, a filming company in Hong Kong made a movie out of it. When I watched the movie "Painting Skin" at the tender age of 7, I thought it was a documentary on body painting. It was all very nice but confusing until the Demon showed up peeling off the skin.

Needless to say, it scared the living daylight out of me. To this day, I have no recollection of the movie starting from the guy dropped the paintbrush.

And excuse me for a moment, when I curl up in a fetal position and scream my head off.

"MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!"

(Notice: Mr. Josh Cham was admitted to the local mental institution today for a psych eval. Please come back next time as we examine the possibility that Alice was abducted and brainwashed to think she was at the so called "Wonderland")

("Off with her head!")

May 4, 2006 at 4:28pm
May 4, 2006 at 4:28pm
#423545
I love tea. I like coffee, but I love tea.

I am not talking about those teas made from tea bags, but the original individual tea leaves that you have to grab a handful and put in a teapot.

Anyway, let's talk about tea and how to make tea and stuff, since I got nothing to do. And from the look of it, since you are here, you have nothing to do either.

Making tea and drinking tea can be an art.

First thing on our list is the water. Not the tea leaves yet, but the water. Tap water just won't do! Ancients have used spring water, rain, snow, snow from the flowers of a plum tree, etc ...
Let's go with a nice bottle of mountain spring water sold in any retail store.

Then it is the tea leaves. Hot to pick tea leaves? Most of the teas, especially the green tea, need to be as fresh as possible. Don't try anything older than a year for the green tea, you may grow mold in your stomach, *Wink*
The Oolong tea can last a little bit longer. Jasmine tea are considered part of the Oolong family.
Then there is the eccentric Pu-Erh Tea. That is like a bottle of fine wine, the older the better.

Ok! Now that I covered the water and the tea leaves, I can talk about teapot (clay is better than everything else), the boiling of water (Let it come to a boil, but never boil too long), and pouring of tea (With Oolong tea, do not drink the first round. That is for washing the cup. ) The key to drink a cup of nice tea was to drink it while it is hot, very hot!

A hot sip of tea need to be rolled in your mouth, burning your tongue, your throat and your stomach on its way down. Then, only then, the flavor, the heavenly aroma will rise and fill your body and quiet down your soul.

It is better then therapy and cheaper. And for your married folks, your spouse will think less about arguing with you, if you have a boiling teapot in your hand. *Bigsmile*

Anyway, here is a cool tip I found on one of the Chinese websites. For those of you that do not like the hassle of making tea, or if you do not have the patience to drink hot tea in summer, here is the best way to drink a cup of cold tea.

Get a pot, a jug, or a cup, (I use my trusty 52oz X-Treme Gulp Cup from 7-Eleven), put in some tea leaves (depending on your taste. Usually a thin layer covering the bottom. Oh, by the way, try jasmine tea with this technique), and put in COLD water. Put the whole cup in the fridge. Let it sit over night, and it is ready the next morning.

It is cool with a faint tea flavor and it really hits the spot. Do not let it sit for more than 12 hours, as the tea will start to get bitter. And I will not recommend put ice or lemon or sugar into it. It ruins the flavor in my mind.

All these talk make me thirsty. My Gulp Cup is waving at me. See you later!
May 4, 2006 at 4:09am
May 4, 2006 at 4:09am
#423430
I like blogging. I am very new at it. This is the first entry of my first blogging.

It reminds me of Homer. Not Homer Simpson, mind you, the original Homer. The person who can play a stringed instrument and sing/talk about stories of past.

I am sure what we have left with are not his entire collection. If he had to make a living, two sagas were just not enough.

The thing I love about is that, although the whole saga is a whole, each section or each little chapters in it has to be independent.

You cannot count on your audiance to sit through the whole thing, night after night.

So the story need to be simple, attractive, powerful, humorous and to the point.

That is unlike most of the novels I read nowadays. I think online novels can capture that again.

1. Each chapter needs to be kind of stand alone.
2. A cliff-hanger at the end of each chapter
3. Fast writing. An update in a couple days at most before the readers totally forget about the plot.
4. Careful with the story. Do not forget who is who and did what in the previous stories.
5. Never looks back. No update or change of previous entries because what was done was done. And the story can go on and on almost like date time opera. In the sense that the only limitation is your imagination, or the fact that you are sick of your creation.

Once you are done with the whole story, you are done! A successful online novel is not for paperback. You are selling your creative juice, not your skill in literature.

OK. Now, if I publish my first entry in my first blog, I'd like to include a portion of my new book here.

Actually, it was a bit of orphan in the story. I had not written anything above or below it.

But I'd like my first entry long and boring, so here it is, a future section in a future chapter of my novel,
 The Blue Pearl  [13+]
The journey to discover one's true self lies with NOT seeing the blue pearl.
by JoshCham


Master Woo was sparkling like a gem, "The pot was made from the clay dug from the World Tree on the World Lexioius, fired by the red hot amber from that pure mist volcano we just visited. It was formed after 49 days of enchanted prayers. Then it was dipped in the sub-zero water of Heaven Lake on the World Rotentan. It has its own soul I saved from a Yellow Vine Demon who was about to be crushed by a Rock Notac Native for a snack.

It would only take the top notch "Before the First Rain of Spring" tea leave from Wu Ye Province in China, and only the water no less purer than the snow on the branch of a plum tree after the last storm of the winter."

As Master Woo was talking, Little Dragon felt around a got a little pouch out. He felt around and put a little powder in his nose. He sniffed loudly, and grabbed the teapot from Master Woo's hand. Before anyone could do anything. He sneezed loudly and wetly into the pot.

Little Dragon gave the pot back to the dumbfound monk, and smiled with snot still on his face, "Now you have the spit of a 5000 year old dragon who was irritated until to put some snow leopard's leg bone powder in his nose. Now scram!"

Master Woo shook all over his body.
Billy thought he was going to have a seizure right there.

The old man suddenly gave out a loud wail, and ran off.

Billy looked at the boy, "You shouldn't do that." The little monk smiled back Billy with a wink in his eyes.

Before he could say anything. Master Woo ran back. He looked a little embarrassed, "It was not enough for a pot."

Billy could feel his jaw drop.

Little Dragon shrugged, "It was a seed! You were supposed to dilute it with snow flakes from the middle to top section of the World Tree. Then it would be enough."

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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/1101898-The-Dharma-Force/sort_by/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/page/6