Kanab, Utah, April 22, 2008 — Adrienne has gone to the dogs, and it’s just great for her. Over the last several years, she took on volunteer work. First she found a ‘shelter’ for dogs which was actually kind of a collector’s nightmare, with scores of dogs kept in small pens, all day, every day. There were ups and downs, but in the end the place was shut down and Adrienne placed 96 of the dogs in homes and in other shelters. A better life for all those jailed puppies.

She’s been studying the Secret, and she made a vision board. She was living in a little apartment in Mount Shasta, and not really finding work that touched her heart, and then one day she woke up, and she thought …

“Call Best Friends.”

Best Friends, in Kanab Utah, is perhaps the best animal shelter in the United States. They shelter thousands of dogs, but they also rescue horses, cats, pigs, goats, and all animals.

She called them.

When they heard of her experience, they were interested, but their process is to have the prospect come and volunteer for two weeks. So she and I worked together and got her to Utah, where she loved the place. Located in Angel Canyon, the rear of the sanctuary overlooks the Grand Canyon. Everyone can take their own dogs to work with them. There’s a vegetarian cafe on the premises. She made friends right away.

Then, guarding her gasoline like gold, she made the trip back to Northern California. A few weeks, some more telephone interviews, and they said, “You’re hired.”

Off she’s gone, moved to Utah she has, and Lizzie the dog has gone with her. Quite possibly I will never see Lizzie the dog again. I miss my best friends.

Weed, California, April 14, 2008: This weekend my brother David and his new wife Annie came to visit me. My little brother is now 48 and is working on a larger project in Silicon Valley that involves General Dynamics and the gubbamint. So they kindly drove up to the mountains to say howdy, and I discover that I’m awfully proud of the fine man my brother has become and Annie is just a delightful woman, whose company I enjoyed.

We mostly just talked about happenings in our lives (moves and kinfolks), what we’re studying (Tolle, the Secret), and we ate delicious meals and drove around to scenic vistas.

And they showed me the Amazing Fork Trick.

The dust has mostly settled from moving into the new factory shop that we built, and I’ve been focussing on losing weight and having more energy. So I’ve been getting back to my Vegistentialist way of eating, and following my 3HourCycle/3MinuteGym method of exercise.

Now, all my life I’ve tended to have the gobbles. That is, I eat (they say) too fast, and I have an automatic tendency to eat everything on my plate. And I’m at least a hundred pounds heavier than I was at one time in my life. Having been both thin and fat, I can report that being thin is not only more fun, and not only can you wear nicer-looking clothes, but the nervous system seems to work faster and better when thin.

But back to the Amazing Fork Trick.

I’ve noticed that, if I eat a largely-vegetable diet, then my tendency to eat a large volume of food doesn’t matter much. My weight stays the same or maybe drops, but it won’t increase. And when I stay away from eating animal products — meat, fish, milk, cheese — my weight drops as well. But still I have a tendency to eat a large volume of food.

The Amazing Fork Trick seems to help that.

I’ve read, as perhaps we all have read, that we should sit at table, and have no TV on, and we should focus on our food. Though I’ve read this, I pretty much rarely remember to do it. But the Amazing Fork Trick is a simple exercise that causes this to happen.

It’s just this …

(1) You take a bite of food.

(2) You put your fork down, and take your hand away from it.

(3) Now you chew and enjoy your food.

(4) Only when that’s gone do you pick up your fork again.

David and Annie were doing the Fork Trick, and so I tried it too. During dinner at the Mexican Restaurant (even with the Patron shot and the Margharita!), and at the big breakfast at the HiLo, and at lunch and dinner yesterday.

For some reason, putting the fork down makes it easy to enjoy and focus on the food, and it also slows down the process. In each case, I’ve eaten much less, sometimes half as much as usual, and noticed that I was feeling content (shift in blood sugar), and my stomach felt comfortable (enough food). Of course, I’m also *trying* to notice when I feel the blood sugar shift and the change in stomach feeling.

I think I’ve found a workable way to eat less food.

Maybe one of these days I’ll be back down to my fighting weight.

There you are.

The Amazing Fork Trick.

Mount Shasta, CA, September 25, 2007: In years past, Mobius Megatar published the **MegaTapper News** over several years, and it was very popular, containing articles, lessons, interviews, and news bits of interest to two-handed tappers around the world.

But in the press of moving to the mountains, setting up the shop all over again, installing and programming our new CNC machinery, and getting back into making touch-style basses, the newsletter fell to the wayside.

Well ….

It’s baack!

And better than ever. Delivered by email, in an easy to read format, the first issue of the MegaTapper News carries —

** An article on ‘motors,’ which are simple, repeating left-hand patterns so you can chug along while playing melody or improvising with the right hand.

I remember talking with Frank Jolliffe years ago — he was once well-known in the two-handed touch-style field, and he’s a great improviser — and he told me that, although it appeared that he was improvising with both hands, in actual fact he was switching his attention quickly back and forth, and he had a lot of left hand ‘motors’ to keep going while his right hand improvised.

So I made a study of ‘motors’ and discovered seven different kinds of motors, and breaking it down simply like this, it made it easier to learn one at a time.

I’ve actually written lessons about these motors, and it just so happens that the first one is being published in the new Mobius Megatar newsletter, first issue going out this week.

** Plus you’ll discover an intriguing series called (Easy Touch-Style) ‘Chordology’, which will make chords, and chord substitution and re-harmonization clear and easy, using a simple and new way of looking at chords and harmony.

** Plus … Tappy Tips … and more!

So if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to sign up for the free MegaTapper News here!

Here’s to speedy learning, music, and fun. It makes life more enjoyable.

San Francisco, April 15, 2007: Bing Pon passed away at age 94.

Born in Canton, China in 1913, he immigrated to San Francisco at age 11, attending St. Mary’s School in Chinatown, and in 1932 he returned to China where he married a young woman named Thoat Lon.

In 1941, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and during World War II he served on the Destroyer USS Kirkland. He and his crewmates survived many battles at sea, and at the end of the war he returned to San Francisco to begin the long process of bringing his family to America.

It took years.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was still law in the United States, the first U.S. immigration law targeted at a specific ethnic group. It had been passed many years earlier as a reaction to the large number of Chinese immigrants who had traveled to the western states as a result of wars in China, availability of railroad jobs in the US, and the gold rush in California.

Although the gold rush was over, and the railroad jobs hijacked by the unions, the Chinese Exclusion Act was still law, and it took Bing until 1953 to bring his bride, and they moved to Dunsmuir, a railroad and fishing town nestled in a deep, wooded mountain gorge in northern California. There they raised four children, and ran a 24-hour restaurant business called Motto’s Cafe.

For 28 years, they ran the restaurant. Their children grew and departed for families of their own, and the customers served themselves while Bing and Thoat Lon cooked. The customers called Thoat Lon “Mama.” Mama was in the kitchen.

Finally, older now, they closed the restaurant, and moved to San Francisco to live close to the children and grandchildren. His wife passed away in 2003, and Bing lived with his son’s family. He continued to eat the Chinese traditional foods, and sometimes visited Dunsmuir, the scene of many happy days.

He died today. “His mind was always sharp,” his son said. “He always made us laugh. Our hearts ache for missing him. We will never forget his never-ending sense of humor, and his sense of duty.”

That was a good man.