Kyoto Observer’s Neighborhood

For the past couple of weeks, I have been working my way through The Lost Regiment series, and I was able to finish the second novel last week.  I have read them all before, of course, but it has been several years since my last read through, and I was feeling nostalgic.  So I thought, why not, eh?

In the second novel, the Yankees and Rus had already shattered the Tugar Horde in the first novel, which allowed the Roum - decendents of the old Romans to the east of Rus - to drive away what little remained of the Tugars.  Sparing the Roum from having to give the Tugars two out of every ten of their citizens as food.

The Merki - the larger Horde of the same species as the Tugars to the South - learn that their ancient foe, the Tugars, had been defeated by the lowly cattle of the North.  And the leader of the Merki Horde, Jubadi, has decided it is up to him and his Horde to put down the cattle that dared to rise up against the "Chosen Race".

Jubadi then summons Mutza - the Tugar Leader - to come before him to talk of what to do next.  Jubadi now considers the leader of the broken horde to the north as his puppet.  With most of the Tugar warriors dead, and the rest busy hunting to provide for the civilian population, Mutza is a leader with few choices.  And Jubadi knows this, using it to force Mutza to do his bidding.  With little choice in the matter, Mutza promises his two remaining Umens - equal to division size combat unit in the United States Army - to Jubadi in return for food.

There are plans within plans for both Mutza and Jubadi.  Each wanting to protect his own, and see the other smashed.

However, for now, they are on the same side, and Jubadi shows Mutza what his cattle have been building for him.  Two of the Yankees deserted and are now helping the Merki arm the Cartha - descendents of Carthage - with Civil War era weapons - cannon, ironclad ships, muskets, all the tools they believe they will need to wipe out those to the north.

Once armed, the Cartha sends a fleet of armed cattle to attack the city of Roum.  No one is to know that it isn't the Cartha behind the attack, but the Merki.  Things go according to plan at first.  Cartha attacks Roum.  Roum calls upon the Rus to send aid as per their military pact.  Rus sends much of its army to Roum upon the recently built railroad.

Admiral Tobias Cromwell, the Yankee who deserted the previous year from Rus, leads the Cartha against Roum.  Besieging the city of Roum for days, as the Rus Army force marches the rest of the way to Roum.  When Cromwell learns that the Rus Army and his nemesis Colonel Keane are almost to the city, he pulls his forces out and proves how fragile an Army dependent upon a rail line truly is.

Cromwell sends a small force of a thousand men to tear up track and to turn rail into Sherman pins - that's where you heat the rail until it is white hot in the center, then rap it around telegraph poll.  General Sherman did it on his campaign during the American Civil War.

Anyway, once the line was cut, the army was trapped 500 miles away from home with no way to get back as Admiral Cromwell and the Cartha move to take Rus by sea.  Checkmate.

To find out what happens, you'll have to read the book. =P  But, I highly recommend this series of novels for those who love a good yarn, military history, the American Civil War and its tactics, alternate history, and fiction.  I don't think you'll regret reading these novels.

Until next time...

-Wil

New to the Tekken universe?  My friend Darnell over at SRK linked these highly informative and easy to understand videos that discusses the basics of combat for the uninitiated.  Level Up Your Game along with iamtekken.com have partnered up, featuring notable players like MYK a.k.a. Michael Kwon, a moderator over at tekkenzaibatsu.com.

Episode one is split into five different videos, each of which you can catch for free over at youtube.  For seasoned veterans, you may want to skip to part three to catch a refresher course on combos and wall techniques.  Lots of good info abound here folks -- check it out!

Level Up Your Game part one
Level Up Your Game part two
Level Up Your Game part three
Level Up Your Game part four
Level Up Your Game part five

Layers Of the World- Subjective / Objective Mind Way

 

There’s a “PUFFin” on your belly.

A wash of colors form the “clue.”

A mystical bird survives,

in the youthful “zeal” of you.

Darrwin tells a story with biological determinization,

upon  different levels of thought.

One can take the higher train running, on calmer levels,

of relating existence to the spirit sought.

 

There is a passion in the wind

That washes all through U

My horizons merge together to center

ones attention of the vital sea of blue

 

Flow with the manna; the Mind metaphor sent by a thought vortex “whine.”

Then … Manna-manna flows as a body wave sent to ones higher spiritual mind,

that is your guardian to the grave …

That “vital spark” ascends up to the energy of manna Loa … that energy so kind

 

Astral body blue that your etheric doth shine

It floats through cycles of a never-ending wine-laced path

That vortex of love shall pull you back through time

To see the outcome that you’ve written on your staff

 

Metal flashes, in and out, of this place of rent

That, this day, has meshed with the “light”

To attain the right to govern this energy you’ve spent,

A circle of light surrounds your cell of sovereign “right”

 

The mind metaphor becomes so true

That you live-in-it to flow into

Upon that momentary  “rest” in the balance of U

 

Simplistic love of a divine repertoire

That one has sent their amasser to agglomerate this “Kiss”

That is there before your birth, having formed in the trinity of bliss

 

 When vibrations of your song flow with the freedom of youth

Heaven then, always evident, has placed a

“Hole” in your “roof”

 

Divine Wisdom shall grace your love with mine

Together … then the journey is complete

And the Love attained shall …

 

Mend the holes in our feet

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… It was a long trail that we had transgressed. The path that this earlier animal –“mountain sheep” I believe; had formed, allowed us to gain some height quickly. It was snowing on the path that we had left behind for the Wild Gang Group to bring our remaining extra supplies to … to our tired and exhausted "discovery party." There was no-way-now to complete that  for the fast mountain weather changes had sharply eroded any lingering hope that we could retain about this perilous task,  we had set out to do.

The waves of the lower conscious streams had crept far, far down the rabbit hole on the edge of disappearance of our collective thought, a few memories that we had built into the subconscious field of Ascention Harmonization. The group was tired, but “hope” still allowed us to discretion the slight fingerings of sound that we could hear in the neutrinic plasma bubble that existed in our etheric envelope that fit tightly around our physical body.

The light support system, of our interacting minds, of the trinity of our consciousness.

Others could sense my thoughts in this state of elapsed congruence. The sound of “snapping” twigs behind me, made me spin around rather abruptly …

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I was even more surprised to see the fall was due to a glass lamp that Cindee had stumbled over in her stuttering mind. A mind that was stuttering for she no longer had the ability to focus on more intercepting levels of dimensional interaction. She could no longer distinguish the difference in these realities. I could feel my thoughts be dissolved into the matrix that existed around us. The thoughts, once so clear, full and distinct would no longer remain in the grasp of my intellectual prosperity that it once was. However … I thought to myself, this is so hard to keep the “multitracking”  of my mind alive. Perhaps, the other “WRITERS  (Authors),” many of which are in contact with me, on some level. Then away my mind went, when the “writer” took grasp of my scattered thoughts when I sat down to type this whatever-it-is. This what-ever-it-is to whom-ever shall-read-it, when-ever-its-time-to-be.

 

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… So as usual the snapping twig was just a note from the living mind to suggest that there was someone following us. The trees would tend to bow over, as the wind flowed as a more extensive “intensifier” force, with the hardening feelings I felt grow inside me over the distrust of the situation. Intensive forces often kept me quite “tingly,” however it generally was with a state of “excited enthusiasm.” At these times it was always beneficial for me to sit down with nature. Contemplation was indeed needed now. Soon!  Find a selective perch on which to gather my force, letting nature provide me with the needed power. I could in fact feel so connected to her that I needed nothing more but her feminine understanding ways to enter into my field… Our at least amplify those highlighted understanding of that feminine side of myself… Or should I say Me, myself and I.

 

This feminine spirit of Soultaw (Spirit of universal LOVE, TRUTH and WISDOM) was the shin of the tetragrammation.  We then did the usual exercises that would allow the conscious and subconscious fields to move together, winding and flowing, like sinusoidal wave forms that never stay together in one ray. This would not become a solid force of light until we had centered all the notes of our frequency together… together to form a natural song that flowed with the emotional clearness of the music-maker. The noise was enharmonic now, with flashes of discordant rays. However, the more I sat and combined the two layers of self, then she was there…. “THERE” to bring me the understanding “HERE.” At times with unscattered thought, thereby intensifying the ability to “will” myself into that reality, sometimes happened with little effort.  Move from “here to there” and” there to here.” However was it in this place – In this same “world.” In this dimensional segment of “time” or in this fractal of the “ever", or in this ripple –in-the-pond, wave in the Ocean? They simply all were ways of describing that which we are. For we are the mind. However-we-work with these conscious flows, depends on the personality involved. Some create great things, but their egos still govern what they say and do. To these ones I say … JUST LET GO!  The oppressive, hatefull energy has more or less been worked out of all channels, programs, plays, segments, bubbles etc. of what-ever-it-is,  that you need to pull yourself through the veils of containment. Its acting up again because we need to feel much more calm. You yourself are contained in an energy shield of light. Your corpusle, your cocoon, your field of yourself. Your ball of energy that you are … You conscious moving agglomerate of U. Your cluster of beauty. You’re an amorphous blob of pure love. You rise like the droplets of water that are lifted up a plane of glass, by sharp warm blasts of wind. Rain simply IS. You Simply Are.

 

R What?

 

Escape these endless cycles of repetitive thinking and living, to become the extending lower left limb of the R, that extends at a 90 degree angle into the paper ... And beyound.

 

The music extremely helped calm my emotional body now. From "there" to "here" in the same dimension, thus doing the “bilocating thing.” Or are we like the visiting members (which there are a lot of) of our conscious Earth field. For many have been added to the skies of our mother, to loose their memory of what was before. They fall down the conscious ladder of existence. They are that ladder. This ladder is us. We simply develop ways to remember ourselves back to that conscious state of freedom. Like the pounding beats of the noises of this arena. Of this play. Of this life. But therefore, where did /do we become?

What becomes of “THIS” that is “THAT”?

 

"TH(h)" is the carrier?

The carrier of IS’s and “At’s”

R U a carrier?

 

Is and at’s are the passengers. We R carriers and We  R

Passengers

 

Our consciousness is everything!

Like nature it simply flows with the conscious flows of the higher minds that we are.

Peace …. We Want peace

Then

We simply R PEACE

 

B what U R

U R PEACE

 

U R CC

 

U Have CC

U H CC

UHC squared

 

You Have Canadian Comfort

 

Yes the calmness of a Canadian Winter. Calmness in the mountains. Like a soft enveloping  field of covering warmth.

-Enveloping begins with Inveloping-

 For those who have been tentless, or  spent a night sleeping in the snow, then know that snow is in fact like a warm blanket  of covering to keep the cold wind from attacking your stillness. Outside in the middle of winter … Have you done that?  Have you been there?  Well … Sorry, I regressed, I do not want to bring that there “HERE”

 

So, I sat on that particular ledge that I often frequented. My Secret Place In the Mountains.

 

And the story goes that the native leaders of this part of Western Canada and the Northern United States would all meet every few years to define the outlay of things to come. Each tribe had it’s own way of doing things. The tentposts of this community had to often pull their shit together. To help awaken the outgoing flow of their fellow awakeners.

Then I …

… closed my eyes. Took deep breaths and began to center myself. The energy rose up from my tailbone through the cells in my body, up the spine, moving into each cell and neutrino of my physical body, knees cock, ass, tummy, heart, neck, throat, ears, face eyes, brow and crown. My heart tingled with excitement when I made the connection to the masculine and feminine Earth & Sky -Christ energies. My "Here" and "There" were connected. I shone with the love of "nature" connected to the "source" that it came from. I felt the large flakes of snow drop into the quietness of this space that I now inhabited. A space where the obstructions had been removed. When there are no obstructions, then one has a clear undisturbed field of communication with the source.

And in this unobstructed space I would often hear a distinct sound of the wood chopper cutting his wood.

 

This is a sign from the “Living Mind” that I have been given - bringing “There” Here. And yet I bounce back and forth between segments of these co-existing lives.

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I noticed that, like me, she had more problems keeping the memories of her existence in an ordered fashion in her head. The multiple dimensional combining had set their outlays for her to follow. The outlays that her comforter or guardian spirit had lined up for her to decide upon, so that the present would exist as that (a Present). She was daily receiving “presents”, or gifts, that her thoughts had allowed her to experience. The hermetic helpers that she had grown use too, gave way to the power of the “comforter.” And each choice she made, brought those future events into her realm of commitment.

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And the “sounds” in my field began to grow. I could hear the vortexs of the Tibetan bells circling a new opening from which to pass me through.  Yet another time traveling event to the [life as an “explorer”] opening up a new passage for the fur trade to find a fast route to the western shores [in this time of beginning the trading markets "thing"] in this place of the "VILLAGE."

Yes, I remember the energy of this place. The place that the local Indians had guided me too, based on their communicative spirit of the land … Yaweh Wichastabi … “Wizatabe” … Or something like that spelling!?  Every spot has its governing connected energy of the area. This energy that

I had grown to know while I was one such guide in the area (guide to myself – For I often simply followed myself around.) Content with the moment. Or at least now I continually live in that peace. Live in that space. If, I took time to get back to U on something,  It's simply because now I’m on "Indian time" … Which to me means "abstract time." Abstract time. Time of the right side of your mind for all us Hermetitic-like thinkers. However, one day I was reading  this: “While walking through the forest the goddess or energy of this place had stopped the local “chief” and said: You shall no longer follow me … For the new man (pastor) coming to this land has a more powerfull god that will now lead you.” A close native brother stopped and asked him “Why do you stop?” The chief replied because a voice just spoke to me. “And what did it say?, his brother asked him.  Read above!. The natives accepted and took on a new force that combined with their more abstract ways of working with the source, their ancestory, and their way of life with nature. Yes, on the combined aboriginal energy of “no time” (natural time) and the objective reality that the white man brought, the natives of western Canada and myself had covered some new territory. All the old ways are being grouped together so we have a common understanding of a "NEW WAY." There were many places where the local inhabitants of this area would meet in a secret place in the mountains to discuss their directions of the many different tribes. They would meet and solve problems of the day …. Of the moment. This … Here that I now currently speak from. I come from my

Secret Place In the Mountains.

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Yes, I been placing a few more “tunes” together to add to my ways of expressing how consciousness works. The book that I started in the 1980’s I shall soon start to amass together. One is offered many “strings” that exist to take them down many roads of “understanding processes.” Understanding” so thast they have the wisdom to choose rightly in their experience. But alas sometimes for the true adventurer the experience happens before one has the understanding of that which is to happen. Then, then …

                                                                   ………… then,

 

One Must go on FAITH

 

Cindee, don’t you think we should combine our energies through meditation and picture what “we want” to a field that manifestation techniques would start to form in this reality …. Or at least into a reality somewhere where the electromagnetic frequencies are definitely more akin to our frequencies. We need to find that fathom or horizon where we can combine ourselves into the vibe of the surrounding electromagnetics where we can live out our potential … Or not! 

OUR CHOICE!

Is this not heaven? A few years back we lived … I lived in the more subjective part of my mind. I swam  with that reality that existed above the man-made Laws of physics and particle determination of how things were suppose to act (yet I learned those scientific aspects that aided me in my "understanding"). Yes we were changlings. Not the useual “bullshit” that the more aggressive-taking-side of our consciousness wishes to push us back to ... to remain in this isolated field of nil imagination. Yes we should travel on the road today to get to that place of great natural beauty and wonderment … To that Secret Place In the Mountains.

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Now … in the future I remember having seen drawings of this place in the mountains (that the local city newspaper had once shown) … say around late 1990’s or so. The drawings or pictures (can’t recall) were drawings of these  metal structures  (well it shone like metal) that I now call "Home". They exist as solitary shining statues around the large Mountain Meadow where the Elk tend to frequent. “Elk” - the animal metaphor of stamina.

One Needs "Elk Energy" to get their subconscious & conscious minds working together.

So I lowered myself, from my house, on a beam of antimatter onto this clear, solitary, open field to go to that Secret Place In the Mountains

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Upon being THERE. I listened to the music that immediately came to my ears.

It was how nature sounds to me. Each entity playing …

… playing in a field of unobstructed space. In that space you are consciousness. Everything has a consciousness.

Your layers of self react to layers of this world ... Of this current reality.

 

I could envision the “players” of self, of each conscious level. The sounds were unique. Unigue to me. I was simply told ... cause I felt it.She had gifted me with the truth of "knowing".  I was to listen … To meditate to the vibrations that nature created. My third eye opened up and I was

INNER & OUTER EXPERIENCE.

The music playing was done by us. The "us" in "me."

I know that my subconscious mind had matured for he said “goodbuy” before he walked through the door of this Secret Place.

 

Nothing mattered because everything mattered.

And
I felt great joy as I just simply became.

 

... 4 We Always Become What We Became

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... And the Snow continued to fall …

It's been a week since Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion has been in my hands, and the wait has been somewhat worth it.  10 long months after T6:BR debuted in arcades all across Japan (and small pockets in North America), we finally get our localized version for the PS3 and Xbox60 consoles and it's wonderfully inept, pun intended.

The question I have right now is, "was it rushed?"  Most certainly not one would believe, but after playing Scenario Campaign mode and the much-anticipated Online mode, I was dismayed and bewildered.  Granted I don't play fighting games for the story so I didn't have any absurdedly high expectations for Scenario mode but Online mode?  What the hell happened here?

Nothing beats playing someone in person but I was hoping to at least be able to play some old Tekken friends over the online mode.  Unfortunately I couldn't even play my friend who lives in the same city as me due to horrible synching problems.  If I can handle playing Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV worldwide, why can't I enjoy Tekken in my own region?

You'd think Namco would have the capacity to at least incorporate some simple mechanics from the Nina Williams "Death by Degrees" spinoff for the Scenario Campaign mode, but noooo, lets keep that horribly awkward mechanic of confusing the analog stick inputs with the rocker pad, yeah!  No Namco, we don't need every single attack in the movelist; just one or two work just fine.  Oh hey, a targeting system.  Woot, thanks.

At least a patch is on the way.

Modes aside, Tekken 6 is the best incarnation of the franchise yet.  With a slew of new moves and gameplay tweaks abound, Tekken remains the undisputed king of balanced fighting.  Even the joke characters can stand their ground with a slew of much-needed attacks that round out their already impressive repetoire of shenanigans.  Namco probably also heard the fans decries of previous versions, and super nerfed the typically strongest characters in the game: the Mishima family.  They're just terrible to play now, albeit still unquestionably solid.

In short, tl;dr, buy the game if you're a hardcore Tekken fan.  Buy it if you enjoy 3D games and have a reasonable amount of friends to butt heads with.  Just don't buy it expecting anything too terribly philosophic.  Remember, masher and master are only a single letter apart.