Friday, June 22, 2007
back back back. i want to do it again. i want something that i didn't see coming. i don't care what it is, i want to be sent off on a tangent and never return. so we are back again.
aerodynamics will be the starting topic. i used to dream about being able to move through the world, pretending i was letting the wind propel me. i wanted to be able to hold out my hands, and have unseen gusts of air direct my movements. sometimes i feel like i can do this, it is entertaining to me. i think the movement of air is something we don't quite understand, at least we don't understand all of the variables that cause the subtle shifts. i have always thought i could control it with my thoughts. i have always thought there is something of substance in my thoughts that can give the air around me a gentle nudge, shifting things just slightly enough. sitting in traffic on wednesday, i made my most successful attempt at turning this hope into a reality. i mean, i have no proof or anything, just my dream that such things are possible.
so, i was sitting in my car creeping down an onramp. the idiot in front of me was just spewing smoke out of his tail pipe. it was a huge cloud, it was going everywhere. i had my driver window down because it was hot out, but my passenger window up because there was no passenger. i could have just positioned myself directly behind him, or on his left edge and most of the smoke would have drifted away from my window, but that seemed like cheating. besides, this guy was almost straddling the line to the carpool lane. so i centered the nose of my car with his exhaust pipe. i don't know why exactly, but i know there is a reason. i guess if i had to think about it, it is because there is a line i draw down the center of my car when i am driving. it is more of a weight shifting thing, but sometimes i imagine that i can steer the car using just wind resistance on my front fenders. it is totally reasonable, and now that i am really thinking about it, i think i do, especially on the freeway. that is probably a big part of why i can steer one handed all of the time, and rarely move the steering wheel more than an inch or two at a time. it is probably a combination of the weight shift, my accelerator techniques, and using the aerodynamics of my car to link that imaginary line up to the ideal arc through a curve. but anyways, i used that line and put it right on the cloud of smoke, then concentrated on shifting that smoke to the right side of the line so it all went down the right side of my car.
and it worked. i don't know how, really, but it worked. it was just like playing with smoke when smoking weed, or shifting candles with my mind, or the other things i pretend i can do, but it worked. at first i thought it was just a breeze keeping the smoke swirling onto the side i wanted it to be on, but it worked for a full 270 degrees down the onramp, and the entire time. it wasn't just a sporadic random thing, i kept it constantly billowing onto the side of the line i wanted.
so real or not, how can i adapt this into something functional? oh, that is obvious to me. i am splitting my books into three series, and i have three main themes for how their power builds. first one is fire, second one is water, third one is wind. i have been developing simple wind-based sword techniques and rudimentary magic, and wednesday i saw how some of this would function first hand. the past few days my mind has been spinning, but instead of the line down my car splitting the air, it has been the line down the edge of the sword splitting the air, finding that perfect arc. it has been using that control over the subtle shifts in wind to direct someone else's sword where you want it too, and most of all, it has been using the wind to direct your movements naturally, so you are working in full concert with your surroundings without any resistance, letting the wind radiate away from your sword, and forcing your opponent to fight against it while you flit through the fight without even thinking, three steps ahead by letting wind guide you instinctually, letting that lack of resistance give you that extra speed, and letting the force of the wind add power to your attacks. i think i may have found the main tenet behind the first sword technique i am going to create, and all because i was playing around with keeping some douche's exhaust out of my face. feeling for that path that has the least resistance, and using that automatically to show you the ideal movements to make.
aerodynamics will be the starting topic. i used to dream about being able to move through the world, pretending i was letting the wind propel me. i wanted to be able to hold out my hands, and have unseen gusts of air direct my movements. sometimes i feel like i can do this, it is entertaining to me. i think the movement of air is something we don't quite understand, at least we don't understand all of the variables that cause the subtle shifts. i have always thought i could control it with my thoughts. i have always thought there is something of substance in my thoughts that can give the air around me a gentle nudge, shifting things just slightly enough. sitting in traffic on wednesday, i made my most successful attempt at turning this hope into a reality. i mean, i have no proof or anything, just my dream that such things are possible.
so, i was sitting in my car creeping down an onramp. the idiot in front of me was just spewing smoke out of his tail pipe. it was a huge cloud, it was going everywhere. i had my driver window down because it was hot out, but my passenger window up because there was no passenger. i could have just positioned myself directly behind him, or on his left edge and most of the smoke would have drifted away from my window, but that seemed like cheating. besides, this guy was almost straddling the line to the carpool lane. so i centered the nose of my car with his exhaust pipe. i don't know why exactly, but i know there is a reason. i guess if i had to think about it, it is because there is a line i draw down the center of my car when i am driving. it is more of a weight shifting thing, but sometimes i imagine that i can steer the car using just wind resistance on my front fenders. it is totally reasonable, and now that i am really thinking about it, i think i do, especially on the freeway. that is probably a big part of why i can steer one handed all of the time, and rarely move the steering wheel more than an inch or two at a time. it is probably a combination of the weight shift, my accelerator techniques, and using the aerodynamics of my car to link that imaginary line up to the ideal arc through a curve. but anyways, i used that line and put it right on the cloud of smoke, then concentrated on shifting that smoke to the right side of the line so it all went down the right side of my car.
and it worked. i don't know how, really, but it worked. it was just like playing with smoke when smoking weed, or shifting candles with my mind, or the other things i pretend i can do, but it worked. at first i thought it was just a breeze keeping the smoke swirling onto the side i wanted it to be on, but it worked for a full 270 degrees down the onramp, and the entire time. it wasn't just a sporadic random thing, i kept it constantly billowing onto the side of the line i wanted.
so real or not, how can i adapt this into something functional? oh, that is obvious to me. i am splitting my books into three series, and i have three main themes for how their power builds. first one is fire, second one is water, third one is wind. i have been developing simple wind-based sword techniques and rudimentary magic, and wednesday i saw how some of this would function first hand. the past few days my mind has been spinning, but instead of the line down my car splitting the air, it has been the line down the edge of the sword splitting the air, finding that perfect arc. it has been using that control over the subtle shifts in wind to direct someone else's sword where you want it too, and most of all, it has been using the wind to direct your movements naturally, so you are working in full concert with your surroundings without any resistance, letting the wind radiate away from your sword, and forcing your opponent to fight against it while you flit through the fight without even thinking, three steps ahead by letting wind guide you instinctually, letting that lack of resistance give you that extra speed, and letting the force of the wind add power to your attacks. i think i may have found the main tenet behind the first sword technique i am going to create, and all because i was playing around with keeping some douche's exhaust out of my face. feeling for that path that has the least resistance, and using that automatically to show you the ideal movements to make.
