April 2018 - You Write

How Careless Am I

April 30, 2018 FLAI40 Leave a comment

I have to resign from this chess game this morning after just twelve moves. I am writing this article to warn other chess players, particularly new players like my grandchildren, not to be tempted to repeat the bad moves I did. The starting game was as it should be done normally. I was playing black. Yes, the first two moves were those of Sicilian Defense but at move # 3, White changed from the tradition variations to Bc4 from which I replied with Be6, aiming to drive B at c4 away. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 […]

Learning to draw caricatures

April 21, 2018 FLAI40 Leave a comment

A caricature is not a drawing of the physical appearance of a person. It is a drawing representing a person’s personality. I have always been interested in drawing portraits since young but was discouraged to do so by my mother. “There is no money in drawing,” she said every time she saw me doodling with my pencil on any paper that happened to be near. “It’s better to spend your time reading your books and be educated,” she added. Now retired, you can image my delight when I saw this book “Learning to Draw Caricatures” by Alex Hughes, from the […]

A Visit to Mount Koya, Japan

April 10, 2018 FLAI40 Leave a comment

Yesterday we visited the famous Mt. Koya, a world heritage site with more than a thousand years history of Buddhist meditation teachings. We visited the Kongobuji Temple and the Okunoin Mausoleum. We travelled by Jumbo Taxi from Osaka, a two-hour trip. The entire tour took us all day, starting at 9:30am and returning to our Imperial Hotel at 5:00 pm. There were five of us, Lin, Molly, Yin, me and our English-speaking tour guide, Hiroake Tanaka. The Kongoburi Temple is the headquarters of the Koyasan Shingon-shu Buddhism, founded by Kobo Daishi, who in the year 804 AD, crossed the sea […]