I discovered this video on a very special blog that highlights musical gems from around the world, Worldmusic, which is amazingly compiled by a 17 year old, Xandi, and some of his friends.  Certainly worth a visit.

The song in the video, “Somebody that I used to know“, is originally by Goyte.  But this Canadian indie band,”Walk off the Earth”, made a cover version which was placed on Youtube early this year and has garnered more than 40 million views in just 23 days (according to Wikipedia).  This band with their quirky humour and interesting musical stylings is making quite a splash with entertaining covers of other people’s songs.  I think I have become a fan.

Well, now it is the Year of the Dragon.  Now what kind of year is a year run by dragons?  My mother-in-law is a dragon and my wife reads this blog, so what is a squirrel under duress to say?  It will be a GREAT year!

While by now most regular readers will know from the posts on this blog that rabbits are evil, most of you probably think that dragons are mythical creatures and don’t exist and that’s exactly what those sneaky, crafty dragons want you to think.

In Chinese tradition, the dragon is a symbol of potent and auspicious power.  Hence  many Chinese Emperors used a dragon as their personal emblem.  For example, both the Qin and Zhou dynasty emperors were always represented as 5-clawed dragons.  More recently, the famed martial arts exponent, Bruce Lee, was also compared with the dragon.  Hence his big breakthrough movie in 1973 was called “Enter the Dragon“.

So dragons typically are big movers and shakers but they like to carry out their activities and plans covertly and out of sight.  So expect big things to happen in 2012.  But unlike evil rabbits, dragons can be both good or bad.  If they are good, they do great good but unfortunately, if they are bad then they are bad to the bone.  So we can expect the two extremes this year.  Get ready for a roller-coaster year.

Now while many of us are unaware that dragons exist and walk amongst us in disguise, there are ways of spotting them.  Bosses that breathe fire are probably dragons.  Cold blooded reptilian-like dowagers are another giveaway.  Take your time and you can begin to see through the mystical veil and see the dragons in their true form.

Take a close look at politicians.  They share many characteristics with dragons; they have a lot of hot air, thick hides which are impervious to barbs thrown at them and they speak with forked-tongues.  Finally, many dragons tend to keep names that have an association with their reptilian nature.  I’m not implying anything  but I have always thought that U.S. Republican presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, has a rather odd name!  Newts are a type of aquatic salamander and in folklore, salamanders are believed to be born from fire and there is even a species called a fire salamander.  Coincidence?  I think not!

Spot the Power-crazed Dragons in Our Midst*

*in case dear reader, you are not familiar to what the picture is referring to, Newt Gingrich made a proposal to sack all inner city school janitors and to pay school children to replace them.

For this reason alone, vote Obama. Or at the very least…….don’t vote Newt!  Please!

“Ladies and Gentlemen,

May I present to you, Inti Illimani, a group of Chilean engineering students and part-time musicians who became their country’s de facto musical ambassadors and spokespersons when their country entered a dark period of its history. The group was established in 1967, consisting of students from Universidad Técnica del Estado in Santiago, Chile and will celebrate 40 amazing years in 2007. They were on tour in Europe in 1973 when President Allende was deposed by General Pinochet. In the subsequent chaos, many of the members had friends and relatives who were arrested and some were never seen again including their friend and national musical icon Victor Jara. (It is reported that Victor Jara was executed in the stadium that today bears his name. He was machine-gunned and had over 70 bullets in his body).

In fear of their own lives, they lived in exile in Italy but continued to develop their music and to rally for a return to democracy in Chile. They rapidly gained recognition for both. To this end, Horacio Salinas was the group’s musical director while the political compass was provided by Jorge Coulon. Sadly, after all these years, the group split in 2001, Salinas and two others left and started another band while the two Coulon brothers remained and rebuild their band. Unfortunately, both continue to call themselves Inti Illimani but most fans recognise Salinas’ band as the historical band.

The name means “Sun of the Mountain” or “Sun God” and is actually a Bolivian name. This was an early indication that they musically were not going to be bound by Chilean music traditions only. Indeed these engineer-musicians, have combined their different disciplines and experimented with the physics of sound and were even awarded honorary degrees in music for their efforts. They also sought to combine instruments from different traditions to create new sounds. For example, in one of their pieces, they combine a Persian instrument with the African colimba and an antique Andean flute. They were the forerunners of World Music before it became fashionable.

I was first exposed to the group when they recorded the soundtrack for a BBC documentary entitled the “Flight of the Condor” way back in 1982. That was the first time I had listened to the use of Andean pan flutes in an haunting and evocative orchestral arrangement. Over the years, I occasionally got to hear one or other of their projects but for the most part, I had little access to their music.

Then in 1992, they came to Ottawa while I was a student there. I was ecstatic. Future wife and I went to see them in concert. It was a cold winter’s night and the journey to the venue was far but it was entirely worth it. Seeing them in person made me realize that they were more than musicians but musical scholars. We were treated not just to a concert but a laboratory of sound. There was one song performed entirely out of the beating of ordinary packing crates. There was another in which the band faded off by a deliberate and measured drop in sound level carried out in unison. Sure, fade outs are done all the time with the help of electronic equipment but when you hear it done manually, you know you are in the presence of extraordinary musicians. They also dazzled us with an array of over 30 wind, string and percussion instruments from around the world.

Once again, I have used too many words when I should let the music speak for itself. Enjoy the videos and the music tracks. Illi Intimani, congratulations on 40 years and may your tradition of music scholarship continue to another generation.”

M8XQFUHRJPKG

My role was to be the storyteller.  I made the mistake of volunteering to be the storyteller for a group of older children a couple of Christmases ago and I guess parents talk.  Anyway, I was pressed to help out again.  It was a lot of fun, of course.  Kids that age make a very receptive audience.  A few funny faces and funny voices as you read the story and you are a star.

Anyway, I was asked to read the traditional folklore story about the origins of the Chinese New Year celebration and I thought that I would share it with you.

“A long, long time ago, there was a monstrous mystical creature called Nian which means year.  This is because the Nian appears once a year on the eve of the New Year and causes all kinds of trouble and eating people.  This caused the people to live in fear and always run to the mountains to hide whenever New Year’s eve came around.

Then one year, an old beggar comes into Peach Blossom Village and the villagers treated him kindly, giving him shelter and food.  But when New Year’s Eve came round, the villagers fled to the mountains and warned the beggar to do the same.  However, the beggar stayed, promising the villagers that he would get rid of Nian as a way of thanking the villagers for their hospitality to him.  The villagers thought that he was mad and left him behind to face Nian alone.

But the old beggar had a plan. When Nian appeared, first the old beggar waved and twirled red banners.  Nian was mesmerised by the twirling red banners until it got dizzy from watching the circular movement.  In that way, Nian was unable to walk straight and kept stumbling around.  In this way, Nian was no longer able to effectively chase anyone.

However, Nian was still able to bite and eat anyone which was too close to it.  The old beggar then fed Nian some sticky cakes made from rice flour called Nian gao which means cakes for Nian.  Nian ate the cakes but it made his mouth stick together  so that it was not able to open it and bite anyone.

Although dizzy and unable to bite, Nian was so big that it could still do a lot of damage just stumbling around,  So the old beggar took some fire crackers and thew it exploding on the back of Nian.  Nian was so frightened by the exploding fire crackers that it ran away and was never heard from again.

That is why, even today, people celebrate New Year by placing red banners on either side of the front door, preparing sticky rice cakes and by setting off fire crackers.“

Red Banners on Both Sides of the Door

The Sticky Rice Cake - "Nian Gao"

Firecrackers

I snore.  Really bad.  My wife is either long suffering, a deep sleeper or slightly deaf.  And the snoring is a sign of something more sinister.  For awhile now, my wife has mentioned that I sometimes splutter at night when I am asleep as if I was struggling for breath.  I now know that I have been suffering from sleep apnea; a condition where due to some obstruction of the airway while I  sleep, I actually have lapses when I stop breathing and then re-start with a splutter.  In the long term this leads to all sorts of health issues.  The most immediately observable symptom is dropping off to sleep during the day at the drop of a hat; sometimes even when I am having a conversation.  I used to call these episodes “Panda-ing” cause pandas have that ability of dropping off immediately.  However, it really is not a laughing matter.

Anyway for the last month, I have been using a device called the Somnoguard. It looks like a gum guard that a boxer or an athlete would use and worn over the teeth.  But it also had a screw that can be turned like a medieval torture device which causes the lower jaw to move forward relative to the upper jaw.

Diagrams for you scientific types

The theory is that the apnea is caused by the soft palate or tongue closing off the airway at the back of the throat.  However, the obstruction is relieved when the lower jaw is moved forward and the chin is raised.  This is similar to the maneuver that is taught in first aid where, when  dealing with an unconscious person, the chin is moved forward and up to clear the airways.

Well, I can tell you that this works very well.  It takes a few days to get used to the discomfort of wearing Somnaguard but now I hardly realise it is there when I wear it at night.  More importantly, within a week, I stopped snoring; I feel much more alert during the day and my blood pressure has even been lowered.   So I fully recommend this procedure.

Now, “are there side effects?”; I hear you ask.  Well, the teeth and gums hurt a little at the beginning and the lips may crack.  The former goes away and the latter can be solved by using lip chap.  But did I tell you about the unexpected additional good benefits?  For one, you have a built in excuse for not taking part in long conversations at night cause you can do nothing  but grunt when you have the device in your mouth.

However, the main additional advantage is that it trains your jaw so that your chin sticks out.  I am told that this protruding chin look is quite the hit with the ladies.

I was hoping that it would help me look more like heart-throb Kirk Douglas.

The Protruding Chin and Cute Dimple Look

Unfortunately, my wife tells me that I now look like ………..

I am a Jay Leno fan ....... really but the chin ........ not so much.

I think Miriam may be a man. Don’t cha think?

“Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ‘em,

And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.”

This has inspired this poet squirrel to mimic a famous rhyme………

“Some creatures are plagued by mimics that mimic them,

But these mimics have their own pesky mimics and so ad infinitum.“

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 22,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 8 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

So with that in mind, I returned to the gym after an absence of one and a half years to do battle with the bulge.  Fortunately, a gym has opened up very near my home which makes it a lot easier for me.

At the gym, I always like to use either the stationary bicycle or the rowing machine.  These are my favorites because when I was in Ottawa, Canada for a few years, I took advantage of their many hundred kilometers of cycling trails and also learned to kayak there.  I would not say that I excel at either but I can hold my own in cycling and because not many people in Malaysia do rowing, I guess I am ahead of the curve in knowing the right technique.  The right technique incidentally is to pull the handle by first pushing off with your legs and then as you are about to reach the furthest point, to then pull the handle towards your chest.

Anyway, on my very first day at the new gym, I decided to go on the rowing machine.  My target was to row 5 km in 25 minutes and was doing better than I expected considering the long layoff from regular exercise.  While I was doing the exercise, there was this guy (let’s call him Gymmie) who was doing a rather intense workout on the treadmill.   When I was about reaching my 4 km mark, Gymmie got off the treadmill and after toweling off the sweat and taking a swig of water, walked over and decided to give me a pep talk.

He asked, “Hi! Are you new here? I come most days but don’t think I have seen you here.”

I replied that it was in first my first day here and that I was trying to lose 15 kg.

He laughed and said, ” Well, don’t give up.  I have been coming here for about 10 months now and I have loss about 10 kg.  If I can do it, so can you.  Maybe for you it will take at least a year to lose the same amount.  But don’t give up.  Why, when I first started, I was like you – shaped like a watermelon!”

Now I doubt if any of us like to be described as shaped like a watermelon and although being a polite squirrel, I kept a civil conversation going but secretly, I was already plotting to bring in some itching powder and shove it into his shorts the next time we meet.

Having exhausted every avenue of conversation on the topic of exercising fruits, Gymmie decided to try out the rowing machine next to me.  I am not sure what his motivation was but I suspected that he wanted to demonstrate his 10 month gym seniority over the newbie.  However, though he may be very good on the treadmill (which I am not), it was clear from the start that he did not know the right rowing techniques.  He was committing one of the most common errors which was to pull using his arms right from the beginning of the rowing stroke instead of using the legs to push first.   This is very tiring and no one can sustain that for long.  Yet he tried to match or even better my stroke rate.  Well, he did not even last 3 minutes.  After that, he very quietly got off the machine and walked off in the opposite direction without so much as a “goodbye”.

That made me a very sweaty but happy squirrel.

To help all readers to learn how to row properly, the Lone Grey Squirrel has brought to you the video below which shows a man using the rowing machine improperly.  Notice that the handle in his hands doesn’t really move at all.  The only thing moving is his butt moving back and forth.  He’s not rowing at all.  He’s just butt sliding.  To row properly, just do everything different from what you see on the video or see how to do it correctly here.  In the meantime, enjoy.