Prehistory: From the days of yore...

June 29, 1999: First attempt at putting some stuff on the web. Watch it grow! Wish I knew what I was doing.

July 1, 1999: Preparing to leave Beijing, on my way to the Shaolin Temple, for yet another rough and joyous visit. It might take a while to get new web pages up from there, as the phone lines are not the most cooperative.

July 7, 1999: Made it to Shaolin Temple. Disgruntled web site viewer emails me with:

    "This website sucks. More naked chicks less talk. sincerely, a concerned viewer"  

So, for my "concerned" brother, I'll look for naked chicks. In a monastery....Good god.

July 3, 1999: Naked Chick page added. Danny, I hope you're happy.

July 4, 1999: Fourth of July. Didn't blow anything up. Damn. Did expand the web site though.

July 10, 1999: After a tough workout week, a much needed trip to Zengzhou, and an upload of the web site. No more disconcerted viewers. Guess Danny is happy.

July 28, 1999: Got cheap, well, no, just got, internet access. Uploaded more updated web site stuff. Still looking for Naked Chicks.

Auguust 1, 1999: No more Naked Chick page. Just haven't found any suitable material that would make my concerned viewers happy. Sorry Danny. Not sure you would want to see these chicks naked anyway....

September 9, 1999: I'm back. The trip is over, and it was very worthwhile. More web page updates to come, after I get all my shit together. And, I have puppies for sale. Check out the home page.

September 24, 1999: More updates on the way, most probably within a week or two. Pictures and stories from Thailand and Vietnam, also more stuff from Tibet. Discussion sub web added for those of you who have artistic tendencies. Also, finally fixed the links so that you really can download the slide show of the Chinese Stairmaster, at, Chinese Stairmaster

October 17, 1999: More stuff added to Tibet finally. Also, Huangshan and Guilin.

October 31, 1999: Took out the Chinese Stairmaster files to make more space, and decided to just put a bunch of those photos on the web site instead. The five megabyte files took far too long for most of you to download anyway. More updates to Tibet, Huangshan, Guilin, and the Monks.

November 11, 1999: Finally figured out that the pictures were too large, and the site was not viewed well at 800 x 600. Hopefully, it's all been fixed. More to come.

November 16, 1999: OK, so a hard drive failure in my laptop kept me away for a while. More updates on Tibet coming, and a newly revised Discussion page.

November 22, 1999: More stuff on Tibet, including secret illicit photos taken inside the Potala Palace. They're coming soon.

January 9, 2000: New stuff on various other martial arts, and how they compare to, and evolved from, Shaolin gong fu. Go to Seidokan Karate

January 16, 2000: More on Seidokan Karate, and also news that Shi Xing Hong might just be visiting here in the US for a while, starting sometime next month. Time will tell....

February 14, 2000: The Shaolin Temple monks visit here in Las Vegas, more updates on their visits, and some more monk biographies and thoughts to come. Still no word from Shi Xing Hong, but rumor has it that he is coming....

February 27, 2000: A new page, Shaolin FAQ, has been added to address certain issues and questions which have been forwarded to me.

February 28, 2000: Another biography added, this time, Shi Xing Xi, and the story of the Shaolin monks coming to Vegas.

March 13, 2000: Shi Xing Hong just finished a visit here to Las Vegas (thankfully, maybe I can sleep past 6AM now), and some more news on the latest on the Shaolin Temple's abbot, Shi Yong Xin, in Shaolin FAQ. Also, we've been added to the Yahoo!, Northern Lights, and Google search engines. OK mom, you don't have to visit my web site every day no more....

March 20, 2000: More on Shi Xing Hong's visit to America, and more on qi gong.

March 25, 2000: Information on Shi Heng Jun, also, got the discussion web up and running.

March 27, 2000: A new section, Shaolin Temple News, to present various news articles, predominantly from China, to help further our understanding of the "inner aspects" of the temple.  

April 7, 2000: Make sure you check out TC Media's Kung Fu Qi Gong magazine's special edition on the Shaolin Temple. It's out now, or, well, soon. It has some really great articles on various aspects of Shaolin Temple history, politics, and monks; along with an article by me (with a particularly entertaining and unflattering picture). Definitely worth it. Even just for the picture! So, what are you waiting for? Stop reading this crap and go get it!

April 13, 2000: A new section, entitled Resources, which includes scrollable and zoom able maps, and time zone calculators, due to popular demand. Now if I can get Shi Xing Hong to use it, he won't call me at 5AM anymore....

April 19, 2000: An excellent discussion on the real meaning of belts and ranks, in the Seidokan section, by Sensei Eddy Schumacher. Make sure you read the discourse on "What is rank" in that section, as it pertains not only to Seidokan, but to most if not all martial arts in general, including the Shaolin arts.  

April 20, 2000: Dr. Robert Sawicki has had the luxury of studying with some very well known martial artists, and the luxury of teaching some very well known martial artists, and has submitted an excellent discourse on the "Way of the Martial Arts". Make sure that you take a look at it. It's better than anything I could write. Oh, and ask him about the strawberries.   

April 24, 2000. The battle rages on, concerning which monks are real and which ones aren't, the "truth" about martial arts magazine publishing, and, yes, even penile lengths. Our contributors let it all hang out. Check it out in Discussion. It just doesn't get any better than this.

May 1, 2000: The feedback is getting to be a little overwhelming, and, pretty damn good. In an effort to better share it with all of you, I've started a new section, Topics, where the best of the best gets posted for all to see and respond to. Have a go at it, and let us know what you think. (And while you're at it, try to let me know what they were thinking....)

May 17, 2000: More and more questions, and tons of emails. You're definitely keeping me off the streets at night and out of jail in the mornings. But there seems to be one recurrent theme running throughout most of the requests, and that has to do with the issue of discipleship. So, enough droolings from me; stop by a new forum called Discipleship, and see what our resident experts have to say about the issue.

May 18, 2000: The discussion gets better all the time, as we search deeper and deeper for the truth about Shaolin. And it seems that the deeper we get, the, well, deeper we get. I'm not sure I can get out of this hole I've dug for myself. But other's have come to my rescue, and finally, the much awaited, and highly anticipated, though abbreviated, story of Shi Yan Chang has finally arrived. You can find it on the Topics page, and talk about it in the Discussion forum. Get to it. This whole thing is bound to get even more interesting, and informative, as time goes on.   

May 19, 2000: Is your karma out of whack? Is your "middle way" kind of droopy? Do you tend to roll underneath that cosmic circle of life instead of around with it? Get your shit together, and get a deeper understanding of Eastern Oriental Thought, in our new section, entitled, Foundations. Our resident experts present various discourses on all sorts of great stuff. And it will all further your understanding of the Shaolin martial arts. Promise. Would I lie to you? Oops, gotta go, here comes that circle again....

May 21, 2000: Dr. Bob finds his Tao along the Way, Dr. Rich finds the forbidden photos of Guanyin hall stumbling along his way, Bjorn Javefors discusses discipleship in the Discipleship section (ask him how he gets those little dots over the "o" in his name), and Shi De Cheng has more photos of himself in his section. But make sure you get over to Foundations. It will make you a better person. Dr. Bob and I didn't, and look what happened to us....