Easy video

I knew my monkey-mind would come in useful!

I've borrowed a little DV camera from a friend and I've played with it a tiny bit. My sexy Manfrotto tripod came in useful. Using iMovie, it's as easy as picking fruit to set up a timeline of clips. I needed to scrabble around in the help to work out how to trim video and audio clips, but from then on it was easy. Transistions are a right pain though - they seem to adjust the length of the clips in unpredictable ways.

It's going to take me an hour or so to run through my forms from various angles, then another hour to put it together on a DVD (hello iDVD!). Don't wait to buy it from me though, I recommend Wang Hai Jun's Chen Style Tai Chi 18 Movement Form.

Just doing the camera test (web-quality Quicktime 8MB, about 4 min) with Start ... Pounding the mortar ... lazy tie coat, I've noticed loads of inadequacies already - so I'm confident that this techno-learning is going to be juicy fruitful!

Summer dreams

Baah! Classes are over. I'm probably not going to practice standing, silk reeling and forms every day. I'm looking forward to the push hands/applications workshop in Norfolk. In the meantime, I might grab a handycam and see what my forms look like from the outside.

Mandarin-wise (classes also over), I'm probably not going to practice reading and writing at all. But I've bought the next in the Practical Chinese Reader series, as if material acquisitions can do anything for my dedication. I really should be seeking out and chatting to 中国人 either in my department or who are in college improving their English.

I picked up the text book from Guanghwa in Newport Place (opposite the bandstand in Chinatown, London). If there's anyone from the class reading, you can see what books I have on Bookcrossing (look for Education or Reference titles).

Nice shop (website broken), with a decent learning section AND a selection of wushu and taijiquan books. Best title of the day: 12 Fatal leg-attacks.

Enough of this madness.