BOOKS: “Know Yourself and Your Enemy” by Qixia Yu

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Know Yourself and Your Enemy 知己知彼百战不殆 (Bilingual Chinese Idiom Stories)Know Yourself and Your Enemy 知己知彼百战不殆 by Qixia Yu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Author Amazon Site

This illustrated bilingual book tells a story out of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It’s a popular tale of strategy in which the renowned strategist (and then Prime Minister) Zhuge Liang outfoxed the (also) renowned General Sima Yi as the latter brought a large army to the walls of the capital where Zhuge Liang was residing. The city was only weakly guarded because the bulk of forces were on campaign and they could not be recalled in time to be of service. Were it not for Zhuge Liang’s insightful stratagem, the capital would have been lost.

This is a great book for those learning Chinese for a few reasons. First, it contains pinyin and English translation. Secondly, it’s illustrated in a way that is not only aesthetically pleasing but which also helps a learner follow events – despite gaps in language understanding. Third, it’s an interesting story, and a nice break from the usual (re: dreadfully boring) beginner level reading fare. Finally, it’s a nice bite-sized chunk of writing for someone who still has to think out words and sentences. I don’t know that the author restricted themselves to any particular HSK level. It seemed to have some language beyond what was in HSK 3 / 4 readers I’ve read but is still relatively simple and straightforward in its language. Restricting to a simple level might be an issue with any historical work because there are going to be terms that are important but certainly aren’t among the most common words today (e.g. halberd.)

If you’re learning Chinese and are interested in strategy, martial arts, history, or Chinese literary classics, I’d highly recommend reading this book.

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BOOKS: “The Bodyweight Blueprint” by Brad Kolowich Jr.

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The Bodyweight Blueprint: Over 70 Workouts to Achieve Your Training GoalsThe Bodyweight Blueprint: Over 70 Workouts to Achieve Your Training Goals by Brad Kolowich Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Human Kinetics

This book offers a collection of exercises (and workouts built on said exercises) that require no equipment (excepting the inescapable calisthenic necessity of a bar, bars, or a safe facsimile thereof upon which one can lift one’s bodyweight.) The book does a fine job, though in a saturated market of similar books.

I’ll, therefore, talk about just a couple of ideas in this book that stood out to me as unique among the calisthenics books I’ve read. First, in the first section of the book, which lays a conceptual background for the exercises and workouts presented in subsequent sections, Kolowich explores the importance of Time Under Tension (TUT) and how it is achieved. I found this explanation valuable. Second, this book presents a much greater number of “self-resisted” exercises than I’ve seen in other books. I will need to give them a try before I comment on whether I think that is a good thing, but it was novel.

If this is your first book on calisthenics or bodyweight workouts, it’s as good as any. If you’ve read others, I can’t claim that you’re likely to find any profound revelations.

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DAILY PHOTO: Golden Buddha Near Vang Vieng

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Photograph of a Golden Buddha with a backdrop of Karst mountains and blue sky that was taken on the "Blue Lagoon" loop to the west of Vang Vieng, Laos.

PROMPT: Healthy Boundaries

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Daily writing prompt
Write your guide to setting healthy boundaries in relationships.
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1.) Close the bathroom door when you poop. (Especially when your spouse is having company over… or is on a Zoom call.)

DAILY PHOTO: Miniature Taj, Kolkata

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Photograph of the scale-model Taj Mahal at 7 Wonders in the Eco Park of Kolkata, India.

PROMPT: Mars

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Daily writing prompt
Do you think humans will ever colonize Mars? What would life there actually look like?
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Probably, and life will probably be short and toilsome for quite a while. Short because there’ll be loads of unintended consequence and we will probably learn there are many more aspects of Earth that are consequential to our wellbeing than we ever understood. Toilsome because, as European explorers in Africa thought that everything was trying to kill them, Mars colonists will find that there is not one thing there that wants them alive. Every task involves pushing a boulder uphill.

DAILY PHOTO: Agartala Jaganath Mandir

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Photograph of a pink-topped temple in the Shri Jaganath Mandir Temple complex in Agartala, Tripura, India.

PROMPT: Meme

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Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite meme?
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I have meme-blindness. It’s like ad-blindness (which I also have) and is probably caused by the same state of mind. If you want my attention, pony up some dough or produce something worthwhile — vaguely clever regurgitation of pop culture references and cliched slang ain’t gonna cut it.

Monsoon Green [Haiku]

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Photograph taken atop Kaurava Kunda near Chikkaballapur, Karnataka, India.
what passed for desert
 before monsoon is now
  green and waterlogged.

BOOK: “A Thousand and One Limericks” Anthologized by Rosemary Gray

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A Thousand and One LimericksA Thousand and One Limericks by rosemary-gray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site

As the title suggests, this book consists of a thousand and one limericks (I didn’t count them, but at three a page, the math works -ish,) a few are well-known, most are groaners, but some are brilliant by virtue of being clever on multiple levels. I will offer two warnings by way of clarifying for whom this book is not. First, it ventures into all those corners of depravity with which the limerick is well-associated — i.e. it’s not a collection for prudes. Second, the collection shows the limerick’s unabashed joy in poking fun at the English language. There are many “misspellings” as poems use one spelling regime for all rhymes (i.e. highlighting English’s complete lack of phonetic consistency.) There are also a lot of slant rhymes and false rhymes… long story short, if you’re a grammar / spelling Nazi, this book will raise all the hackles.

Who is it for? Readers with a sense of humor who are not easily offended.

I have seen a few of these poems attributed to specific authors (e.g. Edward Lear or Ogden Nash) in other collections, but — oddly — this book offers no attribution or discussion thereof. The byline listed, Rosemary Gray, is actually in an anthologist / editor role. (She may have written some of the pieces, but I’m fairly sure I’ve seen a few published in earlier anthologies. Maybe these are all in the public domain, but — as I’ve said — I’ve seen some attributed (and I’m pretty sure some to individuals who died less than 70 years ago.) Long story short, if you can’t find a copy of this, it may be because there was a huge copyright infringement case or threat thereof.

I’d recommend this collection for limerick lovers.

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