Original, unidentified poses (taichi? Karate Kid? Modified tree pose in ashtanga?)

pose.PALM SPRINGS SUMMER VACATION AUG 2009

Photo by Myra Lambino-Ramos, Palm Springs Air Museum (fighter planes of WWII), August 2009 (children’s faces concealed by photos of their celebrity look-alike thru photoshop). Poses: Lemme see…one looks like some sort of crane pose in Karate Kid; another looks like a modified tree pose in ashtanga yoga; while another looks like a native American raindance.

Still my beating heart (w/apologies to Sting) gibberish today

(3 digits) will try to cure so-called “writer’s block”, i have a writing assignment but still couldn’t get down to it because i have nothing new to say; if you have nothing new to say, you don’t write. It should come out of your ears, you know. i’ll find it in a few days, don’t worry about it; i’ll find it when the person asking me to write it starts breathing down my neck.

and  so-called because, to call oneself a writer is to flatter oneself, and except for legal forms and formats that could be followed, i don’t do any real writing, by real writing, i mean : imagery, alliteration, rhythm, etc.; not that i could do that, maybe i never could. Imagery like:

“and i wriggle

like a fish

caught

on dryland…”

– Sting (i can’t make a music video or slide show right now, don’t have the time so i just quoted him)


Haven’t blogged anything since Friday. People who view the blog, though the numbers change, are the same everyday. So, it doesn’t matter.

you start by writing gibberish to cure your so-called “writer’s block”.

Right now. just woke, need to measure pulse so i can write this post. Real slow, no hurry, still early at 4:30am (early, because i only need one hour to download two files i might need for my 9:00 am meeting), no hurry. Without caffeine… not doing anything yet… and under all those conditions stated, i can hardly find my pulse. That one takes a long while. I’m trying to measure it.

I found the literature!

Remember i told you, i was curious and took up yoga lessons (haven’t practised in a week though; lazy! Or busy. Or both) because i sawan old James Bond movie (now, my gibberish starts, i’m picking up, aren’t i?) the lead character was in a North Korean prison and he practised yoga in prison (i wrote about this a couple of months ago) then he was retrieved by his government and detained in a hospital, and he stopped his heart from beating, etc etc, and i told myself, “must enlist in yoga at some point…”

and i said in that post: I’m guessing, you can’t really stop your heart from beating, you can just slow it down to make it so faint that it cannot be detected.

still too lazy to practise though, or busy.

I read a news clip in abs-cbnnews.com of a mini-marathon in U.P. yesterday (sponsored by MOVE), 10K, 5K, 2.2K, (the 2.2K is for small children); without training, i could have joined the 2.2K…. with the five-year-olds and toddlers.

Too lazy. Anyway, found it in my neck right below the jaw line, i used my digital clock with the seconds and“micro-seconds” (?). In a state of stupor, It’s 9 beats per ten seconds; or, if i use 60 seconds, it’s 55 beats per minute. I’m probably making a mistake in the counting. Stupor means: here it goes: once before,stumbled out of bed, didn’t have much time, headed straight for the door. Found out that your reflexes are real slow when you just got up; by “reflexes real slow” means: for example, there are humps on the road and those humps have been there since time immemorial but you fail to respond because you’re still asleep, so you get juggled up, bumped up inside. That’s when yourealize you’re still asleep. Do not do that. Repeat, do not do that again. I do not recommend it.

In other words, the pulse rate i get at this condition is, i’m guessing, from my non-scientific, non-expert point of view, below the pulse-rate-at-rest. I probably should take it at some point of the day and not upon waking up. But i’m trying to take it at it’s slowest kasi.

I found the literature! It’s Krishnamacharya, he was the teacher of the founder of ashtanga yoga (the founder was his student). The literature in the internet, which i haven’t verified, (you know how it is in the internet, you have to verify the literature)  says  “He is known not only as a most influential yoga teacher, but a scholar, and a healer. Krishnamacharya was known to be able to voluntarily stop his visible heart beat/ pulse for over two minutes, probably by drastically reducing venous return to the heart.” (haven’t verified the literature)

JC says: “There are reports on such feats by advanced yogis including Swami Rama. In his book Science of Breath (Swami Rama), it says there that his ability to stop his heart from beating was validated by medical scientists. I guess it’s more of being able to slow down the heartbeat to a point that one beat or the pause between beats is extended up to 2 minutes. XXXX etc.”

I have to download two files for my 9:00am. Be back in a bit.

Slowing your heartbeat to one beat per two minutes is really a feat. Maybe you could get it faint, to such faintness that it cannot be detected, but it’s still beating only a little slower than normal;  be back in a bit; but what do i know, i’m guessing, have to prep for my 9am, see you in a beat, este, er, a bit.

Flawed

Here it is… after not posting for four days during the work week,

a.two(not posting two days and gaps of one day, and another before that)

(Photo derived from an original photo by Kristine Quiray, filtered thru photoshop for graphics; original, clear photo follows)

and a four-day low (2 digits), i got three digits on a Sunday yesterday; thanks, thanks, whoever you guys are. (and i got my 3 digits early here.)

People like music, photos with striking colors, yoga poses, and when there is an upsurge, or a scandal, and i write about it, no matter how staid the post is ( i just put pertinent legal provisions, cut-and-dry), people view as long as i put the right tag words. So, that’s the formula: 1)music, 2)photos with big colors, 3)yoga poses,4) when people are “shocked” or “indignant” over sumthin’, and i manage to write about it no matter how flat the opinion is.


Didn’t want to publish this. it’s been in my file the longest. ran out of posts. Flawed execution. (KQ’s shot is perfect). Shoulder has to flatten out and sink to even out with the other.

If i don’t have to flatten out on the floor the “lotused” leg and thigh, and if i don’t have to make the lotused leg perpendicular to the straightened leg (in other words, if i keep that leg hanging like it’s resting on the other thigh and not flattened on the floor), (i’m boring you, aren’t i?), the “lotused” foot would be perched high up to my waist so the arm would circumference around the torso without raising the shoulder.

flawed.exec.two

brilliant photo by Kristine Quiray, very clear.

But somebody corrected the form, such that i have to flatten out the lotused leg and make it perpendicular etc. etc. etc. ; that pulls my lotused foot down, and therefore the distance that the circumferencing arm has to traverse is longer so as it goes around to reach the lotused foot it pulls my shoulder up. So it requires more effort to even out the shoulders, whine, whine. They’re all connected to each other, remember?! Lower this one a little, it lengthens the distance and pulls up the other. I’m not made of rubber, i’m made of flubber. (is there even such a word.) So, i have to stretch more to flatten out, why why why… [the benefits of the pose are (based on how they feel, didn’t read the literature: the binding part of the pose, where you half-lotus your leg and foot (i’ve actually transformed “lotus” into a verb; in earlier paragraphs i even conjugated it, can you believe that, am taking too much license) and circumference your arm to bind it —  actually moves your pelvic bones around (i’ve written about this before) so they get to migrate to places, the flattening -out feels like it’s stretching the ligaments behind your knees and also your spine, so it’s all good for you, i know; just whining.]