iYogaLife

My favorite Yogini, Tara Stiles, has a new gig writing for IYogaLife. So I'm starting this post to add thoughts about the website itself, as different from talking about Tara or Yoga.

Overall, I love the concept of IYogaLife! They are bringing Yoga forward so that a mass audience can see it on the web.

How are they designed? How do they distribute their info? How good is their info, instructors, quality of video production, etc? That is what I hope to discuss in this blog.

First impressions, the good:
1) are easy to find.
2) put videos on YouTube (UTube to save characters)
3) have a nice visual presentation (light blue background, black letters, icons and vids)
4) Tara links her pages to their "encyclopedia" of poses
5) they have icons of basic poses for quick reference
6) they have movie stars (I saw Molly Sims) to attract attention on UTube
7)


First impressions, the not so good:
1) page and site navigation is awkward (no "next page" for long articles, signup form repeats)
2) the "encyclopedia" of poses is silent vids next to text you need to read as you watch - awkward.
3) Unfortunately, there are very few people that BOTH look good and sound good. Tara is one! Using actresses to suppliment Yoga instructors really helps also (see 6 above).
4)

quantcast (@08-0228)

Quick Stats (paraphased):

15k monthly uniques, recent 3-mth 50% spurt with Tara
Mostly regulars, but lots of passers-By

40/60 % men/women
older audience - few <25, similar 25-65+ with peak 45-55
flatish income levels, weighted poorer
mostly Cauc, but many other ethnic
mostly higher educated
about 1/2 have kids

Magazines:
Prevention
Shape
O, Oprah
Parent & Child

Health News & Info:
Prevention
Discovery Health Channel
realage.com
healthline.com

Diet & Fitness:
About.com Exercise
shape.com

Similar Audience:
yogasite.com
womenshealthmag.com
yogajournal.com
chopra.com
yogafinder.com
yogabasics.com
healthylivingonline.com
choosers.ivillage.com
sitelife.com
pevention.com
biggestloserclub.com
fpmvendors.com
yoga.about.com
yoga.com
exercise.about.com
findyourdetour.com
rodale.com
forums.prevention.com
slideshow.ivillage.com
earnmydegree.com



I've started this blog 08-0228. This is the "first impressions" version. I think I'll end up adding a lot to it over the years, updateing this blog rather than makeing threads, to keep it in one place. We'll see.

Song History List

Way below is my mySpace Music History List.

Man!! I started this mySpace thing to see a few pretty pictures of my favorite super model and it exploded in my face!

A few weeks ago (it just seems like a very long time!) I had a couple of mS friends. I'm not sure how I found Tara. On UTube I think. Then a couple of her beautiful friends from the Ford agency. Desiree had the Grateful Dead as her profile song. I would click on her to have the Dead playing in the background as I fussed making meals. Then I discovered the Song History button on the mS music control. Voila! I was hooked! Desiree had more music I liked. Tara didn't have many songs but had a great group lal meri. Weird soulful singing and haunting music. I think the Yoga influence softened me up to listen to Kermit. If I need some energy there is an abundance of total wackos following the Guns 'N Roses link. And moody bad girls tend to link to Fiona Apple. So a great variety of tastes can be satisfied.

mySpace Music seemed to taken over my soul. I searched friends of friends and found lots of things I liked. One that had many great South American songs was Alejandre Alverti. She is a interviewer and personality in Venezuela. And Sugarland, Keith Urban and Dixie Chicks cover the CMT scene. mySpace Tom recommended Kate Voegele and I love him for that. Kate has great music and a super voice, but her recording vocals are so "forward" I have to be careful to keep the treble down or I'll fry my eardrums. Taylor Swift is one of the highly returned to people. Such a sweet voice to listen to, and a little bratty to boot! BS&T was a song I played over and over dancing/lying around the living room in my college days. Legs = 1980s MTV! 'nuff said! Got some Ella and the Rat Pack. Arlo isn't the original but a fairly good more recent recording.

Several of my friends are off label or just starting out in the business. Cass, BC Jean, Charity Daw, Stephani Krise are all newbs, but well worth the listen. Scott is the smoothest jazz guy out there. He produces Katrin and I connected with her to actually hear her voice,which is great, as Scott's website version were all him. Karuna was one of those I tripped over. On her songs I was going pass, then click the D&C cover, and was blown away! A diamond in the rough!

So I just wanted to mention a few things about my music list. It is longer and more maintained than most. I love that I can click on the list and keep playing from this selection as I view other pages.

Two months anniversary on mySpace, end of first actually active month.

Pete's song history 08-0228

Jessie’s GirlFrom Working Class DogBy Rick Springfield
Current profile song
Let Love ThroughBy BC Jean
LatelyBy Charity Daw
Song for YouBy Stephani Krise
Knock em outFrom Alright still By Lily Allen
Mi amigo en el banoFrom Cualquier DíaBy Kany García
Pienso En TiFrom Pies DescalzosBy Shakira
PeregrinoFrom Live And Raw SeriesBy Galeano
mujer de taconesFrom cualquier diaBy kany garcia
Nunca mas te vFrom OCHOBy Gian Marco
PARA QUEFrom Alejandra AlbertiBy ALEJANDRA ALBERTI - Myspace Oficial!
IronicFrom Jagged Little PillBy Alanis Morissette
The Way I AmFrom Girls and BoysBy ingrid michaelson
amores que matanBy AREPA,TACO BURRITO Y UN CEVICHE.
Kiss meFrom The best of:Sixpence none the richerBy SixPence None The Richer
glockenspielFrom circus contraptionBy vince
cannibol kidFrom ella fitzgeraldBy vince
Our SongFrom Taylor Swift Limited Edition Deluxe CD/DVDBy Taylor Swift
Picture To BurnFrom Taylor SwiftBy Taylor Swift
The Rainbow ConnectionBy Kermit the Frog
SantoriniBy India Dupré
Ive Got You Under My SkinFrom Greatest HitsBy The Rat Pack
God Bless The ChildBy Blood Sweat and Tears
LegsFrom EliminatorBy ZZ Top
City of New OrleansFrom In Times Like TheseBy Arlo Guthrie
I Want A New DrugBy Huey Lewis & The News
Your Precious Love duetFrom Til TomorrowBy Cassandre McKinley
Let Love ThroughBy BC Jean
Bad ThingsBy lal meri
Get Him BackFrom Extraordinary MachineBy Fiona Apple
Night LifeFrom Til Tomorrow - Remembering Marvin GayeBy Cassandre McKinley
You Sure Can Run Through MineFrom 2007 DemoBy Eric Neznik
Wide Open SpacesFrom Wide Open SpacesBy Dixie Chicks
Sweet Child O MineFrom Appetite For DestructionBy Guns N Roses
You’ll Think Of MeFrom Golden RoadBy Keith Urban
Only Fooling MyselfFrom Don’t Look AwayBy Kate Voegele
DreamsFrom Out of NothingBy Katrin
New Untitled SongFrom Live July 2007By Scott Tarulli
Dazed and ConfusedFrom Live! Temple Bar 6_16By KARUNA - New Music!!!
Settlin’From Enjoy The Ride - In Stores NOW!By SUGARLAND
StayFrom Enjoy The RideBy SUGARLAND
Kindly UnspokenFrom Don’t Look AwayBy Kate Voegele
Want ToFrom Enjoy The Ride in Stores NOW!By SUGARLAND

watermelon

I was doing my Reading in Bed stretches (spending several hours a day lightly stretching the front of the thigh muscles), when I yawned. My belly expanded greatly, like a watermelon, and I rose up on it like a great whale. It felt good, similar to a breathing exercise I used to do for singing. So I kept the belly expanded and shifted from side to side. Lightly at first, because a few belches left a bad taste in my mouth, but then with increasing speed. With my weight on a tripod of belly, and both elbows, it was lots of fun. Then chuckled as I thought of the old joke of a man on a French nude beach doing pushups. A Frenchman came up to him, and with a very concerned look on his face, softly pointed out, "Monsieur? Your woman? She is gone!!!"

plate

Had some beautiful dreams last night. Mostly I remember they were in the style of Beowulf, the movie I watched yesterday. Among the images in the dream were an inverted look, while stretching on the back, under tables, where several pieces of "clothlike" on fire pieces merged into one image to display a fire in a fire place at the other end of the room. Several images of faces used the sunset turning golden theme, one face in particular was Penelope Cruz. Perhaps because she looked particularly stunning in her at the Oscars pix yesterday.

When I woke up, just as I was arising, I did a few stretches to see which muscles were tight. I particularly test for tension in the jaw, neck, back, sides of hip, hamstrings, knees, abs, throat, forearms, hands and fingers, ankles and feet, and toes. The hamstrings were the tightest, needing attention. Perhaps because yesterday I had done weights till tired, then walked up my favorite hill a few times. The legs were well used.

The stretching that felt the best today could best be described as rotating the hips over one leg, such as a plate being balanced on a stick. One side goes up, the other down. I found that I liked to kneel in a lunge on a soft pad and rock the standing (on knee) leg to and fro. Paying particular attention to the "softness" of the interaction of the hamstrings to each other. As the weight shifts around the hams flex softly. Rather than just a normal lunge, I added leaning forward and back into ham stretches. And letting the "free" knee go sideways, to also lightly rock the "plate" around, lean into stretches, then when the hams are soft, to feel some body weight, of varied amounts, applied to the free leg as if about to give it full weight to stand up.

The rotation of the hip complemented the "reading on the floor" front of the hip stretch I've described elsewhere. But particular care to do rotations of the hip, AND to flex the hamstrings within the hip, ASIF the hip were a hinge rather than a rotator joint. This helps to feel the hams "make a muscle" under me. They FEEL like squirrels fighting in a bag.

After walking up the hill yesterday, equal to walking up about a dozen flights of stairs, the "fire down below" was HOT. The legs were smoldering hot coals, flexing, pushing. I thinking that it is because of the week or so of front of the thigh Yoga stretching I've done down there, that there was absolutely no pain in my knees! The only part that had any "tired" or used feeling when I got done was the small of my back, on the left side, which is normally the first to go.

So I've added "cardio" to my weights and stretches. A complete package once again. I'm Ba-a-a-a-a-a-c-c-c-k!!!!

Reading in Bed

I've blogged my adventures into Yoga recently. It's been quite a ride. I kind of look at it as the avalanche breaking loose and I'm riding it where it leads! Of all the stretches that have benefited me, so far, my favorite one hits the front of the thigh. It's a basic ballet barre stretch but I haven't been on a ballet barre in several years! So I had to adjust it make it a floor stretch.

The easiest way to think of it is looking at a lying on your belly reading in bed position. Raise up on your elbows, make a slight rotation to place the weight on the thigh, Voila! There are lots of variations on this theme. The skydiver being pretty advanced. It's easier to start by just lying on your belly and pushing your hamstring down with a slight rotation of the hip. Feels like "making a muscle" with the hamstring. It POPS! By slowing continuing the rotation of the hip (the thigh stays pressed against the floor) one can feel the muscles around and within the hip bone flexing the hamstrings in series. Each angle brings some new muscle fiber on board. A little extra push into and just below the hip really hits the top connector tissues. I think it's important to get the hamstring "pop" feel from the hip end before bending the knee. Turning the hands toward the face, pulling the elbows together under the belly, and placing the body weight on the forearms is, for me, an easy way to control the weight and rotation.

I've only been doing this less than a week so it's still very much a work in progress. On the third day I didn't recognize my legs. Going up steps my foot would raise up and seem to float above toward the next one. I thought I was going one stair at a time but my legs wanted two. I had to consciously push it down. The next day my hamstrings felt like balloons. Or rather, my whole body felt like the Eiffel tower on pontoons! Kind of rubbery but stronger than before. Craving movement...

During my stretches today by gluts kicked in. Felt like beach balls! But that story is for another day...

Masks

Over the last few weeks I've started this myspace thing. I just joined myspace so that I could view Rie Rasmussen's photographs. She is such a chameleon I wondered if she put pix on her site that wouldn't be elsewhere. And there were a few personal photos along with the mostly pix of her career. But there were also small things about herself, her interests, her ambitions, her creativity. I commented on a few of her pictures. I feel kind of weird because I've never developed the "social skills" necessary to be able to make cliché comments. I actually sound more like a "review" commentary, or how I sound to myself critiquing my own pix. As I go about this web world I'm trying to get more bland and indistinct while still sounding like I actually looked at that particular picture. One music guy I made a "friend request" to could tell I actually listened to the (HIS) music! He sounded surprised.

Anyway, originally, after being on myspace for more than a month I got an email from a photographer asking why I only had one friend? Well, I had looked at Rie's site and I was done, I thought. But his question made me curious, so I started looking around. I saw other model sites and ran into a yoga site by Tara Stiles. In my learning curve, of social etiquette I was as awkward as ever. Made "friends" with a couple of models and tried to not be too dorky or direct(and so offensive). Not an easy task for me! Going forward when I talk or write to anyone I'm trying to imagine that right behind my shoulder is her Daddy, with a baseball bat. I think it might help!

As far as my site, I was developing the concept of what I wanted, changing every time I saw something I liked on the hundreds of sites I visited. Along the way I found MUSIC! Holy S#%$#%$t! Musicians everywhere! CMT even did their awards show as myspace video cams. Hosted my Taylor Swift no less! Gosh, she sings purdy! So now, a couple of weeks later, I've got more music friends than models. I can click on any of my friends and spend some time in music heaven. Of course, with all the garage bands out there I had to be selective... And with models doing "in and out of re-hab" photo albums when they are still teenagers, well, that is a bad scene... (except perhaps Fiona Apple, but she's a bad, bad girl!).

Anyway, a few days ago I watched the 60's Japanese movie, Face of Another. It's all about putting on a mask (literal & figurative) and thus protecting oneself from society and one's inner emotions. Very depressing! let me tell you. As I returned it to the video store I asked for "jolly" flicks, even girly! I picked out The Jane Austen Book Club and they suggested Paris, Je T'aime. Both were on my list. Good choices! Easy watching. Fun. But thought provoking in a way I wasn't expecting. PJT was made up of a dozen 5 minute shorts about people in relationships in Paris. Most were very nice, a couple disturbing. But JABC was way more thoughtful than I had even imagined. The girls (& one guy) talk about the relationships of women trying to find husbands in the early 1800's. They couldn't work or make money so they fully depended on marriage to "support them in the manner in which they had become accustomed". Modern women aren't mostly like that! And many recent movies aren't even boy/girl. JABC sparked my interest in the discussion of relationships in general. And specifically reminded me to develop "public" social skills in this new myspace world. So perhaps I'll read some Jane and get a few pointers on my social "mask", or maybe even ideas about that strange gender. Who knows?

P#25, Re-Create Yourself

Power, Law #25. Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions--your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.

It seems this is a Tara Stiles week for me. I apologize to my other muses for the neglect.

After fully embracing the down-homey farm girl persona of Tara teaching Yoga, I've watched her wonderful stretches and contortions and never tire of it. This is very rare for me, as the ADD usually kicks in quickly. But Tara has that magic combination for me of being visually stunning but also, and possibly even more important, her VOICE! OMG how PLEASING. Old style writers would describe it as dulcet tones with a girlish giggle, and just enough command to keep you moving on track. Any variation you may produce is "perfectly alright". Any stretch too far can be easily backed off on. Just perfect!

Perhaps because of the influence of my own years of running around with ballet dancers (in my youth), or the theatre "weirdness as normal" I've known, I (mostly!) watch her in spandex twisting and turning as "just" a person. Only occasionally will the libido kick itself into center stage with OMG, she's gorgeous! Look at that!

Well along with being a Yogini (wiki it) Goddess, Tara is also an actress. You can check her out on IMDB. Her latest movie, "Friends, with Benefits", has an adult theme. From this influence, I expect, pictures of a more alluring nature are showing up on her MySpace page. Just for the viewing of her 1,000+ closest friends so far. Nothing too explicit, one leaning toward Victoria's Secret or perhaps Maxim's style of revealing. Very beautiful and tasteful. But commenters, besides just myself, are wondering how to make tasteful expressions of friendly enjoyment and not sound like a stalker in the making, when grunts seem to over power the wordy side of the brain. Quite the struggle...

So, Tara looks to be in the process of coming off the farm into the big city. Re-creating herself, or perhaps just showing the steamier "adult" side to the world occasionally (for big $$). I will watch and wonder how she will manage the dichotomy. But I, for one, hope that the warm & fuzzy Tara stays around a long time.

Fab Faces

I've started to get a few friends on my mySpace page. About a month ago I joined MySpace so that I could view Rie Rasmussen's pictures. Somewhere I remember reading that she was channeling the face of Faye Dunaway while shooting Angel-A, so was building a collection of her images. Being the chameleon she is I didn't find too much Faye elsewhere, but that did get me started thinking about how models and actresses share aspects of other famous faces and copy poses.

The "classic" poses, made famous by displays in paintings (mostly now in posters) throughout history influence me when I try to bring out the best in a photoshoot. Often, I think of the Re-Dos by current actresses, or how models have features that channel movie stars. Lindsey Lohan did some great Ann Margaret. I'll build this list when I have time...

Here's a quick list of my MySpace friends faces:
Rie Rasmussen -> Faye Dunaway
Tara Stiles -> Minnie Driver
Leah Kelley -> Charlize Theron
Desiree -> Megan Fox/Alexis Bledel/Cybill Shepard

That's all for today. Send me, or add comments, of your favorite channelings!

Do Something Useful!

Power, 48 Laws

Power, the 48 Laws. List #4.

Had to struggle with myself before putting this forward as a topic, as I feel sometimes that these Laws have been used against me more than they have helped me (See #10). Perhaps I'll get better...

The 48 Laws of Power ISBN 0670881465;
1. Never Outshine The Master
2. Never Put Too Much Trust In Friends, Learn How To Use Enemies.
3. Conceal Your Intentions.
4. Always Say Less Than Necessary.
5. So Much Depends On Reputation-Guard It With Your Life.
6. Court Attention At All Cost
7. Get Others To Do The Work For You, But Always Take the Credit.
8. Make Other People Come To You-Use Bait If Necessary.
9. Win Through Your Actions, Never Through Argument.
10. Infection: Avoid the Unhappy And Unlucky.
11. Learn To Keep People Dependent On You.
12. Use Selective Honesty and Generosity To Disarm Your Victim.
13. When Asking For Help, Appeal To People's Self-Interest, Never To Their Mercy Or Gratitude.
14. Pose As A Friend, Work As A Spy.
15. Crush Your Enemy Totally
16. Use Absence To Increase Respect and Honor.
17. Keep Others In Suspended Terror: Cultivate An Air Of Unpredictability.
18. Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself-Isolation Is Dangerous.
19. Know Who You're Dealing With-Do Not Offend the Wrong Person.
20. Do Not Commit To Anyone.
21. Play A Sucker To Catch A Sucker-Seem Dumber Than Your Mark.
22. Use The Surrender Tactic: Transfor Weakness Into Power.
23. Concentrate Your Forces.
24. Play the Perfect Courtier.
25. Re-Create Yourself.
26. Keep Your Hands Clean.
27. Play On People's Need To Believe To Create A Cultlike Following.
28. Enter Action With Boldness.
29. Plan All The Way To The End.
30. Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless.
31. Control The Options: Get Others To Play With The Cards You Deal.
32. Play To People's Fantasies.
33. Discover Each Man's Thumbscrew.
34. Be Royal In Your Own Fashion: Act Like A King To Be Treated Like One.
35. Master The Art Of Timing.
36. Distain Things You Cannot Have: Ignoring Them Is The Best Revenge.
37. Create Compelling Spectacles.
38. Think As You Like, But Behave Like Others.
39. Stir Up Waters To Catch Fish.
40. Despise The Free Lunch.
41. Avoid Stepping Into A Great Man's Shoes.
42. Strike The Shepherd And The Sheep Will Scatter.
43. Work On The Hearts And Minds Of Others.
44. Disarm And Infuriate With The Mirror Effect.
45. Preach The Need For Change, But Never Reform Too Much At Once.
46. Never Appear Too Perfect.
47. Do Not Go Past The Mark You Aimed For; In Victory, Learn When To Stop.
48. Assume Formlessness.

There it is. For shorthand I guess I'll refer to these a p1, p2, etc in the same style as the other lists.

Do Something Useful

Movie Reviews

Movie Reviews. List #3. This is a tough one to handle due to the quantity. I think I'll start by listing the main sources already online. Then for each movie I'll add my own opinion or perhaps point to others of like mind (those poor souls!).

In a class my itself:
Thomas Video
We've been waiting for you.www.thomasvideo.com/

And the normal suspects...
1. ROTTEN TOMATOES: Movies - New Movie Reviews and Previews!
Movie Trailers, Movie Reviews and New Movie Previews from Rotten Tomatoes - The Ultimate Movie Reaction Site!

2. MRQE - Movie Review Query Engine
Online directory of movie reviews.www.mrqe.com

3. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Features plot summaries, reviews, cast lists, and theatre schedules.www.imdb.com

4. Christian Spotlight on Entertainment - ChristianSpotlight.com ...
Entertainment portal for movie, television and game reviews, news, music, links, broadcasts, articles, and more.www.christiananswers.net

5. Filmcritic.com Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews for the Film Fanatic
Over 7000 movie and DVD reviews for the obsessive film fanatic. Reviews, contest giveaways, celebrity interviews -- we've got it all at Filmcritic.com!www.filmcritic.com/

6. Yahoo! Movies: Read Movie Reviews, Find Showtimes and View Trailers
Showtimes, trailers, reviews, articles, interviews, news, and gossip.movies.yahoo.com

7. :: rogerebert.com :: FRONTPAGE (xhtml)
The movie even drags in a Catholic priest, who seems bewilderingly ignorant ... Bardem, Ledger and the truth about movie acting ... One-minute movie reviews ...rogerebert.suntimes.com/

8. US Conference of Catholic Bishops - Movie Reviews
Movies evaluated according to artistic merit and moral suitability. Reviews include the conference's ratings, the MPAA ratings, and brief synopses.www.usccb.org/movies/

9. NY1: Movie Reviews
Movie Reviews. Movie Reviews: February. February 01, 2008 NY1 reviews some of the films that made their debut in February. ...ny1.com/Living/movie_reviews.html

10. Plugged In Online
eNewsletter Sign Up Get Plugged In Online's weekly eNewsletter. LEARN MORE · Cell Phone Sign Up Get Plugged In Online's movie reviews on your mobile phone ...www.pluggedinonline.com/

11. Movie ReviewsMoviefone.com Find Showtimes, Buy Tickets, DVD & Movie Reviews and More!

12. NPR: Movie reviewswww.NPR.org Movie Reviews, Interviews for Indy films, blockbusters, and art films.

13. Movie Reviews - Movies - New York Times
Archive of this newspaper's film reviews, including all reviews since 1983 and other selected reviews going back to 1929, including all Academy Award "Best ...movies.nytimes.com/ref/movies/reviews/index.html

14. DVD Movie Reviews
Movie reviews, information, cast, and awards. Search thousands of movie reviews ... Bad Boys 2 (2003) i love this movie so funny and the actors are awesome ...www.movierevie.ws/


And to find/buy movies:

15. DVD Movies: Huge Selection of DVDs & Videos @ DVD Empire
DVD Empire - International Retailer of DVD Movies and Accessories.

16. Buy Movies at Movies Unlimited - The Movie Collector’s Site
Movies Unlimited is the online store for movie collectors looking for hard to find videos, both new and classic, on VHS, DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray.www.moviesunlimited.com/

That's enough. You get the idea.

Do Something Useful

Shakespeare

Shakespearean Plays. List #2. A bit easier to produce as a direct cut/paste from Wiki (@Feb 12, 2008). I added numbers for future reference.

Comedies
1. All's Well That Ends Well‡
2. As You Like It
3 . The Comedy of Errors
4. Cymbeline*
5. Love's Labour's Lost
6. Measure for Measure‡
7. The Merchant of Venice
8. The Merry Wives of Windsor
9. A Midsummer Night's Dream
10. Much Ado About Nothing
11. Pericles, Prince of Tyre*†[d]
12. The Taming of the Shrew
13. The Tempest*
14. Twelfth Night, or What You Will
15. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
16. The Two Noble Kinsmen*†[e]
17. The Winter's Tale*

Tragedies
18. Romeo and Juliet
19. Coriolanus
20. Titus Andronicus†[h]
21. Timon of Athens†[i]
22. Julius Caesar
23. Macbeth† [j]
24. Hamlet
25. Troilus and Cressida‡
26. King Lear
27. Othello
28. Antony and Cleopatra

Histories
29. King John
30. Richard II
31. Henry IV, part 1
32. Henry IV, part 2
33. Henry V
34. Henry VI, part 1† [f]
35. Henry VI, part 2
36. Henry VI, part 3
37. Richard III
38. Henry VIII†[g]

Lost Plays
39. Love's Labour's Won
40. Cardenio†[l]

Poems
41. Shakespeare's Sonnets
42. Venus and Adonis
43. The Rape of Lucrece
44. The Passionate Pilgrim[k]
45. The Phoenix and the Turtle
46. A Lover's Complaint

Apocrypha
47. Arden of Faversham
48. The Birth of Merlin
49. Locrine
50. The London Prodigal
51. The Puritan
52. The Second Maiden's Tragedy
53. Sir John Oldcastle
54. Thomas Lord Cromwell
55. A Yorkshire Tragedy
56. Edward III
57. Sir Thomas More

So that should get us started! When you're done reading those...

Do Something Useful

Thirty-Six Strategies

What to do? What to do?

So I guess I'll start my blog by listing topics I'll detail later. Perhaps organize based on Wiki? OK. Works for me.

One interest I have is the "Thirty-Six Strategies" as listed in Wiki (from The Book of Stratagems by Harro von Senger, ISBN 0-14-016954-7 ). Here's the list from the book, actual words on Wiki may vary slightly.

1. Fool the Emperor and Cross the Sea.
2. Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao.
3. Kill with a Borrowed Knife.
4. Await the Exhausted Enemy at Your Ease.
5. Loot a Burning House.
6. Clamor in the East, Attack in the West.
7. Create Something from Nothing.
8. Openly Repair the Walkway, Secretly March to Chencang.
9. Observe the Fire on the Opposite Shore.
10. Hide Your Dagger Behind a Smile.
11. Let the Plum Tree Wither in Place of the Peach.
12. Sieze the Opportunity to Lead the Sheep Away.
13. Beat the Grass to Startle the Snake.
14. Borrow a Corpse for the Soul's Return.
15. Lure the Tiger Down from the Mountain.
16. To Catch Something, First Let It Go.
17. Toss Out a Brick to Attract Jade.
18. To Catch the Bandits, First Capture Their Leader.
19. Steal the Firewood from Under the Pot.
20. Trouble the Water to Catch the Fish.
21. Shed Your Skin Like the Golden Cicada.
22. Shut the Door to Catch the Thief.
23. Befriend a Distant Enemy to Attack One Nearby.
24. Borrow the Road to Conquer Guo.
25. Replace the Beams with Rotten Timbers.
26. Point at the Mulberry, But Curse the Locust Tree.
27. Feign Madness But Keep Your Balance,
28. Lure the Enemy onto the Roof, Then Take Away the Ladder.
29. Deck the Dead Tree with Bogus Blossoms.
30. Exchange the Role of Guest for That of Host.
31. The Stratagem of the Beautiful Woman.
32. The Stratagem of the Open City Gates.
33. The Stratagem of Sowing Discord.
34. The Stratagem of Injuring Yourself.
35. The Stratagem of Linking Stratagems.
36. [When the Situation is Growing Hopeless] Running Away Is the Best Stratagem.

[Translator's note: In the original Chinese, the phrases depicting the 36 Stratagems are not couched in the imperative form used here for most of the English renditions...


Well, that's it. I'll need some shorthand way to refer to them while blogging. At this point s1, s2, etc. seems reasonable.

I think I'll post my "Lists" separately so I don't get to awfully confused in trying to refer back to them. I'll try to do a list on Shakespeare's plays next.

Have a great day!

Do Something Useful!

~PetePixxx

Hello World...

Hello World! Those are the words that computer programmers have started with since time began. I think the first recorded event is just above those bison pix scratched into a cave wall in a country whose name I can't pronounce.

My name is PetePixxx. The Pix part probably rightly makes you think: picture. I'm a photographer in MI, USA. I mostly do weddings. But I'll put up some pix of my pets, activities, boating, and other things that happen to end up in front of my camera.

I also like movies a lot. A couple projects related to movies are: 1) Shakespeare Plays (actual play or modern adaption), and 2) genres (noir, etc).

I've been renting DVDs and getting movie recommendations from ThomasVideo.com. They have the greatest selection anywhere! Check out their Santa recomendations! OMG! Santa as a 300 lb. WWF dude with an ax! Yes, it's that bad, which is GOOD!

Hope that this blog may be of some interest to folks. But mostly it is just a diary for me.