2010 Reflections. A Year of Pushing Boundaries! So I guess I finished off 2009 with a bang by quitting my desk job, winning gold at worlds, and then taking off to live in Taiwan for 2.5 months. I finally broke free of this...
One - It all starts with taking the first step.
So I've been out in Beijing for a little over 2 weeks now. Why did I move out here? I got an offer to work for Jet Li / The One Foundation and in less than 24 hours I...
A moment of reflection on 2009 - A recap on the past... Taipei 101 New Years Eve moments before the countdown I would summarize 2009 as the year of taking the leap and the year of pushing limits. It was a year filled with incredible...
My Life's To Do List My To Do List: An updated evolving list of accomplishments I want to achieve in the next 3 years:
Start an automated 6 figure business ($3k/mo cash flow) that is self-sustaining...
A Day in the Life of Alfred Hsing – July 24th, 2010
Recently over dinner I met someone who mentioned a project called “Life in a Day“. I saw a short clip of it a few days ago.. and then lo and behold I log in to YouTube today and see it boldly blasting all over the place. Today is “YouTube Filming Day” for the project of Life in a Day.
Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create a user-generated documentary film shot in a single day. This experimental documentary will be executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald. The film will premier at the Sundance Film Festival Jan 2011.
It also just so happens that July 24th and 25th (which is still the 24th in the US) are the only days I will have YouTube access because I’ll be back in China tomorrow (where YouTube is blocked). Thus I felt some calling to document my life on this day… and plus I had been meaning to create a video on “A Day in the Life of Alfred Hsing“.
Let me know what you guys thing because I plan to submit this tomorrow.
I’ve always had the domain alfredrocks.com, but before it simply linked to a blogspot page. Now that I am getting more involved in production and acting, I felt it was only right to have a clean simple page with my head shot, demo reel, and resume – all of which are on the site. =)
There are still a few minor changes I might make to both the “Life in a Day” short and my new alfredrocks.com site. Overall they were both fun to work on. Feel free to leave feedback!
So I go to wushu this week and LO AND BEHOLD… it’s my arch-nemesis from Jackie Chan’s “The Karate Kid“! I had to get revenge for him breaking Jaden’s leg so we fought for a little bit..
The Karate Kid / Kung Fu Dream
…and after we fought it out, we became friends just like in the end of Karate Kid (sorry if I spoiled the ending for some of you!) But yeah, he is actually a really cool kid. We trained wushu a couple times and he always wears that Y-3 shirt. Wushu-wise I am tying to squeeze in as much training as possible, but working 24/7 definitely does take it’s toll. Nevertheless! I will train as much as I can for the Sport Accord Combat Games. Jet miiiight watch. This is just a maybe… but either way I need to stay sharp and in shape.
Ryans Last Day
So it was Ryan’s last day on Sunday. He is moving on to getting an MBA. Congrats to him. However, it was a sad sad day in some ways..
For 3 weeks I was on this crazy crash course of Jet-ology. It was like I was on The Real World or Road Rules where every week you get crazy ridiculous challenges while staying in baller suite hotels.. but if you mess up the challenges you go home! Well 3 weeks have gone by and I guess the show has ended, cuz the “host” Ryan has had to part ways. Now it’s just my every day life and there’s one less person to say “haha remember when Jet and I did this and this… haha… good times..” Now I just talk to the hotel attendants or the people that clean my room… haha!
In all semi-seriousness the job is super cool, but the schedule is demanding so (for now at least) there’s not much time to go out or meet new people so it was nice that there was someone that was working with me. =) In any case, in August we’ll be getting someone else on board so I just gotta take the helms and run both ships for another month or so. As Ryan would say “You da man now!”
In pimp news, I went to my first movie premier in China.
aftershock red carpet movie premier
Jet and I were invited to this movie called “Aftershock” – In Chinese it literally translates to “Tangshan Big Earthquake“. The movie is a Huayi Brothers production and I compare Huayi to the Warner Bros of Asia. They are one of the leading production companies out here in Asia.
The movie is about a disastrous earthquake that occurred in Tangshan in 1976. The movie follows the lives of a few people that managed to survive the earthquake. It was a very emotional movie, but I think overall it was well shot and well produced.
aftershock premier invitation
aftershock inside ticket
The above 2 pictures are the invitation card they give to the guests. It’s a very sturdy-feeling card with a ticket inside. In Asia they also always assign seats in the theater unlike the US where you walk in and pick your own seat. I think this is more organized and fair. Say you get to the theater early, you can just pick a seat from the ticket counter. The theater itself knows which seats are available and you also know that you won’t have to scramble for seats if you have 3 people and one friend ends up sitting 8 seats away from you.
aftershock cast and crew
After the movie, a singer came out to sing and then the main cast came out and said a few words. It was great to get to watch the movie and then see the actual actors come out to talk. I am still learning about the Asia entertainment industry so I don’t know that many of the actors and actresses. Even when we were in the VIP guest room a lot of people were coming to greet Jet and I am sure they were baller Asian celebs, but I didn’t know most of the people in there except for the Huayi brothers and Jet. I’m sure over the course of a few months I will learn who most people are. Anyways, great performance by the cast of Tangshan Da Di Zhen.
Last but not least, I gotta put at least one picture of food up in here.
delicious salmon
A hotel staff member introduced me to an all you can eat Japanese food restaurant the other day and it was delicious! Under $20 for ALL YOU CAN EAT SALMON! This is what I love about China. They have all you can eat Japanese food and it’s not buffet style. You order what you want from a menu – including bbq beefsteak, chicken, unagi, sashimi, sake, beer, fried rice, etc.. and it’s unlimited for about $20. I could go back to this place every day! Alas, I have no time or cash to be going there all the time. =P
Anyways, I’ll be on the move again flying out tomorrow at 6am. Macau/HK/Shanghai bound. Feel free to write or mail me postcards people! :)
So I’ve been out in Beijing for a little over 2 weeks now. Why did I move out here? I got an offer to work for Jet Li / The One Foundation and in less than 24 hours I had decided I would relocate everything to Beijing. A frequent slogan of the one foundation is that with “one” it symbolizes a beginning to something. Without 1 there can not be a 2 and subsequent growth.
People ask me what do I do? This is such a difficult question because there’s just so much. As much as the previous assistant explained and prepared me for what was in store when I got off that plane, actually diving into it head on was a completely different sensation. I remember 3 days in RW constructively told me “stop sighing… I know it’s a lot to take in. I sighed a lot when I first got here too, but I know you can handle it.” ..and since then I do feel a better grasp on things of course, but I just wanted to use that quote to exemplify how much was going on.
One Foundation Research Institute Ceremony
So a quick recap of some of the things that happened in the life of Alfred Hsing upon first arriving. I feel like I barely drop off my 2 huge luggage bags and before I know it I am on a plane again. We essentially traveled to Shanghai, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Macau, and back to Beijing in 7 days or so. We had meetings, lunches, interviews, dinners, red carpet events, philanthropy discussions, and press conferences to attend throughout the day. The first first day on the job for me was the announcement of the One Foundation Research Institute at Beijing Normal University. After that it all blends together, but a few notable events include meeting the CEO of Alibaba.com, fighting our way out through a mob of fans, seeing Jet promote his “WuJi” Adidas line, first hand tour of part of the Shanghai Expo, and attending press events for his latest movie “Ocean Heaven”.
Ocean Heaven
I had the opportunity to watch Ocean Heaven with the One Foundation team. Let me cue you all in on both real quick in case you don’t know. Ocean Heaven is a non-action film starring Jet where he is the father of an autistic child. One of the reasons he did this film was to support various causes and create awareness for people out there. This sort of ties in with the One Foundation in terms of his aims to help others. The One Foundation was created in 2007 and the simple message is that everyone should do a little every month because the world is one big family. He says that above all.. before we get into races and genders and who owns what and who does what.. we are all humans and we share one earth.. so we should all do our part to help out. That is a very high level explanation, but day to day there is a LOT more going on. He and the team are always striving to develop and grow the foundation so that it can do more in cases of natural disasters, poverty, education, health, and environmental protection.
Ocean Heaven Red Carpet Event
Wushu
I think it’s cool that Jet was one of the first that broke through and brought wushu to the world and a couple of wushu generations later I am still practicing wushu and working alongside him. We had a brief chat about who I trained with and it was cool that he knew most of the people and they were people that competed in his era and or trained with him. We had a meeting with some wushu federation members and it came up that I would be attending the Sport Accord Combat Games which they are helping to host.
For the Sport Accord Combat Games I will be competing in changquan only. Some friends in China asked to see my longfist form and some videos since youtube is BLOCKED in China.. I’ve uploaded my videos on youku.com! Here are two clips:
Social Life
I haven’t had much time to go out since I’ve just started working, but I was able to hang out with some friends at Shi Cha Hai and train once or twice with the Beijing Wushu Team. Although I’m working a lot and learning a ton, I need to remind myself to stay in shape still… on top of that, I need to keep in shape for this last tournament in August at least. I also have interacted with Jet’s previous assistants and they have all been very talented and very cool people.
Food
One thing about this job is that food and hotels are never shabby. I have had some really delicious food the past few weeks. The other half of the time when we are not out at a restaurant room service becomes your friend.
Thank You Room Service
Thoughts
I am definitely learning a lot out here. I do not for a second regret this decision although to be honest at times I do think to myself “I could be in LA with family and friends. I could be in an environment where I know all the places; I know the people around me; the language, roads, etc are more familiar” but then I do consider that this is a very rare opportunity to take in as much as possible from the movers and shakers of the world. We’ve met UN officials, real estate moguls, and the largest web entrepreneur in Asia. I am very passionate about the work we do and it just so happens that the things my boss is involved in happens to be “business, entertainment, and martial arts.”
This is essentially re-posted from wushukicks.com but there are some good pictures and videos so I thought I’d share on my blog as well.
CMAT 18 Gold Medalists
The results of the all-around championship. The all-around champions of CMAT18 are:
Adult Contemporary Wushu (Female) — Ngan-Ha Ta
Adult Contemporary Wushu (Male) — Phillip Dang
Adult Traditional Wushu (Female) — Priscilla Herrera
Adult Traditional Wushu (Male) — Randall Tran
Internal Wushu (Female) — Sing May Chen
Internal Wushu (Male) — Michael Ng and Larry Rothman
13-17 Year Old Contemporary Wushu (Female) — Chrystina Yu
13-17 Year Old Contemporary Wushu (Male) — Michael Yu
13-17 Year Old Traditional Wushu (Female) — Whitney Vuong
13-17 Year Old Traditional Wushu (Male) — Richard Lee
8-12 Year Old Contemporary Wushu (Combined Gender) — Robert Yu
8-12 Year Old Traditional Wushu (Combined Gender) — Drake Wong
Senior Wushu (Combined Gender) — Mayumi Yoshida
Here are some exclusive wushukicks.com pictures from our CMAT event coverage! Click picture to see larger image. Scroll down to the bottom to see videos of some US Wushu Team members and the men and women’s adult all-around champions performances.
Last Thursday I had the privilege and honor to chat with former US Wushu Team member, former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, and current actor/action star CUNG LE.
Cung might not know it yet, but he is actually the perfect spokesman for the theme of my blog “business, entertainment, and martial arts”. Those are the 3 areas that I strive to reach the next level on and Cung has achieved it. In business – he started his own martial arts school and brand (USH!). In martial arts – he was a medalist at the world wushu championships, he won the middleweight champion title in strikeforce, and he has won countless tournaments in various styles of martial arts. In entertainment – he has worked with action star Donnie Yen and is going to be in the upcoming Hollywood film “Tekken”.
To see Cung in action check out this highlight reel.
So to sum it up- Cung has been an inspiration in more ways than one. To top it off he has helped promote Asian Americans in a positive light AND he is an EXTREMELY humble guy. For a guy that could throw you upside down on top of your head, he is super calm and super chill. Much respect!
Now to the interview! He was in town in LA to promote his recent movie “Bodyguards and Assassins”. This is a movie that was released in Asia, but it was playing at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. I interviewed him for the Pacific Rim Video Channel. In our interview he talks about what it was like working with Donnie Yen, his thoughts on wushu/sanshou in MMA, and his strategy on his rematch with opponent Scott Smith scheduled to fight June 26, 2010!
Without further ado, here is the interview.
For the martial artists, what are your thoughts on his upcoming fight with Scott Smith and do you guys think its possible to juggle a competitive martial arts career with filming and making movies?
Also thoughts on Cung Le and the UFC? Dana White has mentioned that he would like to see Cung in the UFC. Anyways, just food for thought. Feel free to leave comments.
To check out more about Cung, the man, check out www.cungle.com!
This video interview was brought to you in part by Pac Rim Video and WushuKicks.com.
I had a lunch meeting with Chris Yen, Donnie Yen’s sister, last week… and it was a very productive meeting! Read on!
Chris Yen Inside Kung-Fu
For those of you who don’t know – Chris Yen is an awesome martial artist and entrepreneur. Early in her martial arts film career she worked with acclaimed action director Yuen Wo-Ping in 1986 on a project shot in Taiwan. Later in her career she went on to work with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson helping her brother out on the set of Shanghai Knights. Soon after she went to Hong Kong to film a stylish female assassin role in “Black Rose.” Chris Yen’s performance in Black Rose led to a profile in the South China Morning Post, which in turn led to a featured appearance with Matt Lauer on NBC’s The Today Show, broadcast live from Hong Kong to millions of viewers. Invited to LA for auditions by a top casting director from Columbia Pictures, she has been featured in several commercials and was cast as the lead in the youth market action film Adventures of Johnny Tao, as well as in a supporting role in A Good Day to be Black and Sexy, an official 2008 Sundance Selection. She continues to work hard and develop projects with her writing partners.
Her brother Donnie Yen has appeared in more than 40 films and TV shows, including: “Ip Man”(2008), “Flash Point” (2007), “Saat Po Long aka SPL” (2005), “Shanghai Knights” (2003), “Hero” (2002), “Blade II” (2002), “Highlander: Endgame” (2000), and “Iron Monkey ” (1993).
Enough with the talk. If you haven’t seen her demo reel… check it out. I particularly like the wheel kick at 1:12.
We got in touch through a mutual friend and originally met up to get some feedback on her thoughts on Martial Arts Complete and some sponsorship. If you’ll notice in the picture at the top that pink and white “M” is a Mooto hoodie courtesy of MOOTO USA. Much thanks Mooto! and of course we got love for WushuKicks.com up in there as well.
Chris Yen and Martial Arts Complete
This ad isn’t the FINAL version yet, but it’s pretty close. I must say I’m pretty proud of this because I took this picture on my Nikon D60 at a boba cafe, edited it, and did the design as well. And to do Chris justice I must say that it was not a planned out photo shoot or anything and she just came in her casual attire, but she came out looking great. After clearing out the background and putting in our martial arts complete background I think the whole thing looks pretty cool!
Business aside, we had a lot to talk about regarding wushu, martial arts training, movies, productions, refinancing, and the tasty ham and corn on french bread appetizers. Chris mentioned that she will be back and forth between Asia and the states and we talked a lot about her personal project Kore8Films and what it takes to get things off the ground. It was a really great meeting and I am honored to be able to sit down with such an accomplished yet humble martial artist. Definitely look out for her in some big projects ahead!
Am I getting better at manifesting my dreams or was this coincidence? I was thinking about Fort Minor’s song and the next day I wake up and meet the guy behind it. Let’s not forget the time I had a dream I met Jackie Chan while I was in Taiwan and the next day I get an email from Robbie saying we are demo-ing for Jackie Chan. Here is the Mike Shinoda manifestation story:
I went to the East West Players Visionary Awards yesterday to do some interviews for Pacific Rim. There were a lot of great people there and talented Asian artists. =)
The strange thing was this: 4am the night before I was writing song lyrics for my business fraternity’s 10 year reunion event…
Past present blending through the ages
Destiny scripted on your manuals pages
From E-xi till DnI we cry and laugh
That sig on the back you can keep my autograph
A fraction inspiration, the rest is sweat
Building boats and memories we’ll never forget
In you and I got u.n.i.t.y.
Reach for those dreams the limit is the sky!
…and that line “a fraction inspiration, the rest is sweat” was inspired by Mike Shinoda or Fort Minor’s song “Remember the name”.
So at 4am I fell asleep thinking about Fort Minor’s lyrics:
This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!
and the next morning (same day) I wake up to a text from Pacific Rim saying “hey I know its kind of last minute but can you help cover the East West Players Awards at 6:30pm today?” So I said yes.. and BAM! I’m covering the event and then get to meet and interview Mike Shinoda! It was awesome because I really like his music and style and he seemed like a very cool person.
If you guys don’t know, Mike Shinoda is an Asian American artist best known for his vocal and musical endeavors with two-time Grammy-winning, multi-platinum rock band Linkin Park who also has his own project Fort Minor. He also is an awesome graphic designer that graduated from The Art Center — and I happened to have just come back from The Art Center that day watching a screening for a grad program short film I worked on.
Other actors/performers were at the event as well. Here are a few other pics:
Joan Almedilla Miss Saigon
Kaba Modern was there too!
kaba modern and mike shinoda
I had a good time at the event for sure. I also was hanging out with a fellow volunteer, Michi, and she taught me some improv games. There’s one where you pick a random letter of the alphabet like.. “G” for example so then I would say “Go get me some apples” and then the next person would have to start with the next letter of the alphabet “H” and they would say “Hellll no I’m not getting apples for you”.. etc / There’s another game where you can only ask questions.. and that was fun too. I think I might try to check out some improv groups when I have more time. I heard about OPM (opening people’s minds) and a few other improv groups. It would be cool to work with some really good improv people.
In summary- it may have been a coincidence or it may be that I have my hands in so many things that I’m bound to “accidentally” meet people that I am inspired by, but part of me thinks that the universe definitely does work in such a way that if you go about it the right way, paths will cross and dreams can manifest.
Martial Arts:
Mooto Backpack
Got a sick white backpack from my sponsor – MOOTO! They are sponsoring me with gear that I shall be sporting at my next competitions such as at the 2010 Sport Accord Combat Games! Mooto is known for being a high end korean taekwondo focused brand. They are expanding and are already based in many countries like the US, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, throughout Asia, etc. Anyways, I can’t repeat enough times how cool that backpack is.. it has pockets and zippers everywhere and a mesh lining that keeps your back separate from the actual bag to prevent your back from sweating. More details at wushukicks.com
As far as training.. I have been consistently working out of course, but not as much as I’d like. I’ve been trying to nail down a lot of work and projects so I had my competition focus diverted. With taxes filed, 2009 year wushukicks finances done, and site upgrades completed I should be able to go complete focus the next 2 weeks.
On Saturday we also had a crazy photo shoot for Martial Arts Complete. A lot of good buddies came out to help including Adam, Robbie, Tamiko, Greta, Kim, and Travis. Much thanks to our 2 professional photographers that drove all the way out from Fresno – Shaun and Boone! I’ll post some picture after we sort through all of them.
Here is one just taken on Boone’s iPhone for fun. It still came out dope though!
kung fu sidekick block
In website news… I contracted a web programmer to clean up and make wushukicks.com even more secure. We got the ssl encryption working flawlessly. Made a few other cosmetic changes as well and I am a happy camper. This took me a grueling 3 days of ocd style managing because I really wanted to get this locked down.
Misc:
Got new dryer installed – had to ghetto rig the exhaust in the back. Might have to fix that in time. – Shin sen gumi with Ant.
Dinner and sake with Ryan – Ryan learns the meaning of “unfiltered”
In the process of helping Audrey purchase her first home! =) Putting my real estate license to good use!
To my excitement I landed my first non martial arts related audition recently. Well to be honest, I don’t think I’ve really gone out to many auditions that require acting. The project is a grad student short called “Green Tea”. I saw a breakdown for an Asian male to play a teenager and the audition was in Pasadena which is not too far from where I live so I submitted for it just to give it a shot.
The Audition
As usual parking is always a nightmare. I pull up to this faculty parking gate to ask someone where I could park and then the guy (I’m assuming he’s a teacher) asks me all these questions in an incriminating voice.. “who are you? why are you here?” I tell him I’m here to audition for some project. Then he continues to lecture me saying “so you thought you would creep in the faculty parking lot and park here??” It was pretty annoying; I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, but I had no time for that. I had to park and get to the audition. Eventually I park in the student parking lot without a parking permit. Hey what can I say – gotta take risks in this game. haha
I get inside and lo and behold I see a ton of Asian males ranging from 15-30 all sitting with a script in hand. Not that I have anything against these guys or auditions, but I sorta hate the feeling of sitting in this ROW of chairs lined up with guys that all sorta look alike (especially when you glance at everyone to just check out whats going on). Anyways, there’s nowhere to sit except for this lone chair a couple doors down.. so I drag it over amongst the silence. I felt like Will Smith in Men in Black when he drags that squeaky table closer while taking that entrance exam. So then I get a script and meet the guys next to me. They seem pretty cool. One by one they file in.
So before I go on.. let me give you the background of this short film. Li is adopted from China by a Caucasian American named Jack. Jack was in the military and when he was fighting in Asia he knew Li’s father. I auditioned for 17 year old Li and then there is also a version of Li that is grown up who is around 40. In my scene I just came to America and am at a cafe with Jack. I ask for green tea, but the cafe only has coffee. Knowing that Li just came from China, I wanted to speak with a Chinese accent. Fortunately, I worked on another project that required an accent so I had some practice in that.
In order to stand out, I had to be different. I told myself.. Li is from China. I happen to have just come back from a trip to Asia so I just imagined I was still in Asia. I told myself to think in Chinese only. Auditioning can be a scary thing. Also speaking with an accent can be uncomfortable/ make you self-conscious.. so I let those feelings amplify because Li just came to America, he’s young, he has a poor grasp of the English language, and he is in an unfamiliar place. The director told me “Just read from the top” and then I nervously splurted out “ni shuo shen me?” He looked confused at first, but then realized what I had said and then told me to read from the top in Chinese.
All of that helped me get into the scene better and later that day I got a call back telling me I got the part of young Li!
Me and My Older Self
The Shoot
I got to work with some cool people including: Bo, the director, Hidekun, older Li, and Ed, who played Jack the war veteran that adopted me. In my opinion everyone there had a certain acting level where you could feel that it was like an instrument that they sharpened through practice. Although acting doesn’t require working out your muscles like in sports per se, it still is something that gets better with training and honing – you can find your feelings quicker, you can react to lines naturally, you can find a strong reason for your character, while letting yourself go creatively, and staying under certain requirements of the director. I had a good time at the shoot. My mind did start getting numb after 20 takes, but that was good practice too – always finding a reason to stay fresh and respond naturally. I will post the finished project when its available!
2010 Sport Accord Combat Games
Martial Arts / Wushu
I’ve been teaching 3 private lessons a week still. A lot of people are preparing for CMAT.. as am I. Did I announce that I’ll be going back to CHINA? Because if not.. just letting yall know, I’ll be going to China for the 2010 Sport Accord Combat Games in Aug/Sept. Honestly, I had planned to “retire” from competitive wushu and focus on stunts and action films, but apparently I qualified for this big tournament in Beijing. Only top 6 place at worlds qualify and only 1 male and 1 female from each country are invited. Flight and accommodations are covered for us so I couldn’t turn it down. I will be competing in Chang Quan aka Long Fist.
In other words I am getting back to training. I have been staying in shape, but the things I have been practicing were different. I was training more kickboxing and acrobatics, but now I’ll need to focus on wushu rules, nandu, speed, rhythm, cleanliness of movements, and etc. I feel like this tournament is fate talking to me because it gives me a hard date and specific reason to draw me back to Asia. I don’t know what else it can bring, but I am a strong believer in going with the flow and doing what feels right.
Business
Here I give myself a little pat on the back. Not a big pat on the back, but just a little one. Looking back at all the things I “planned” to get done after returning from Taiwan.. it seems I have done a large portion. I recently just finished the martialartscomplete.com website. I cleaned up the WushuKicks blog along with the main page (which by the way just got a pr4! yay!). I didn’t do the full redesign I had in mind, but I was able to adjust 75% of the things that were bothering me. I reached out to sponsor athletes that will endorse our products and got bank accounts and finances set up with partners.
My Goals before going to Asia are:
Fully have set up 3 more websites.
Clean up https on cart page.
Get product pictures and sponsor pictures uploaded.
Meet up with 3 distributors.
I got a lot to do before my trip and I really hope I get everything squared away before I go. Alrighty, back to work!
So I flew over Santa Monica yesterday in an SR20 plane. It was an awesome experience as I pulled the controls and pushed the throttle which lifted us off the ground to a gradual ascent. I climbed higher and higher white I released on the power. As we headed towards the ocean, I banked right and banked left guiding the plane as I trailed the coast of the beach. Then I flew to the right of the mountains to bring us into the path of the airport landing strip.
Checking the controls
control tower
night sky view from the plane
On Thursday I went to check out an SR20 and talk to some flight instructors regarding pilot lessons. It ended up being busy that day and pretty windy as well so I ended up coming back the following Monday (yesterday) to take my first flight lessons. It was pretty exciting learning the whole process of how easy it is to lift off the ground just by picking up a little speed and getting a little lift in the wings. I learned about taxi-ing, banking, the controls, and how to keep the plane level and all that.
In part I took flying lessons for my own education and also in part to get over my anxiety of turbulence. I fly all the time for various tournaments or events and understanding the plane helps me feel more comfortable with what’s going on behind the pilot seats.
Anyways, that was a highlight of my week.. but I’ve been doing other things as well.
I went to the griffith observatory and got to look at the moon close up with my own eyes (well with the help of a telescope). They also had a bunch of interesting space facts and exhibits inside. I love thinking about space and the universe because it makes us realize that there is more out there and that little insignificant annoyances shouldn’t matter when compared to how vast world/space/universe is. There’s all these interesting things out there that I won’t really go into.. but they touched on things like dark matter, the expansions of the universe, solar systems which make up galaxies and that we once thought our galaxy was immense until we discovered we were merely a galaxy among millions of other galaxies.
I also got more super powers from this meteor.
That was an actual meteor. It was pretty heavy for its size.
Here’s the view from the griffith observatory looking out at LA.
Back on land…. that same day I also test drove an Audi TT because I think they look cool.
and now… to business.
Workwise I spent the past week cleaning up and improving the ecommerce. I added extra layers of security such as SSL security, moved the site to a dedicated IP, added an authorize.net safety seal, cleaned up the logo, modified the CSS so that fonts were easier to read and the footer looked more professional.
I also went to visit my friend marc and richi’s office where they work on online business as well. They had this cool photo booth device that helped me take some awesome product pictures. Here is one of the many pictures I took with my SLR camera.
I also put together some more pictures that I’ve been meaning to get up. You might recognize this guy.. he’s a China National Wushu Champion and World Wushu Champion many times over.
If you know wushu you know who he is. If you don’t you really should. He is Zhao Qingjian – gold medalist in changquan, broadsword, and staff.
I will leave you with this ultimate ZQJ compilation video.
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