Ryan Giordano in California

This should be preserved in a more permanent form than the ragged piece of paper I played off of during the last bell at School No. 3, and what are more permanent than the internets? So here is my translation of the new Kazakhstani national anthem, with guitar chords:


a min E a min
A golden sun in the sky, golden grain on the land

C G E
A verse of proud manliness -- this is my homeland!

a min e min d min
In ages long ago was honor born and strength was found

a min d min a min E a min
A nation proud, great, and strong -- this is my Kazakhstan.

a min d min G C F G C
My Kazakhstan, my Kazakhstan, I am like a flower planted in your land

a min F a min
I am like a song sung for you, my country.

G a min E a min
You are my homeland -- my Kazakhstan.

1. I got Yang's book (recommended by Tim Peterson Laoshi), Taijiquan, Art of Nurturing, Science of Power, in which I learned that:




• I have been thinking about qi breathing wrong all my life (I've suspected this for a couple months now).


• I need to practice wuji more.




2. The Mountain View library has a lot of great movies.


3. I am a fan of the MMA fighter Фëдор Владимирович Емельяненко, who is a badass in the classic Russian style.


4. For my second barefoot run, I stepped it up to 2.5 miles, resulting in sore calves and hurting soles but still no debilitating ankle or knee pain.


5. Leaving a bike in my yard, even under the eaves, will result in the chain rusting.


6. Eating a lot of beets one day might make you worry briefly that something is very wrong with you the next day.


7. If you make a tv show on ustream at 2am in which you do nothing but play an egg shaker while yellow text reading "AIN'T NO DAMN SHOW" scrolls over your face, nobody will watch you.


8. Visiting friends are an excellent, almost irresistible, excuse to drop a lot of change at the bike shop.