Jay, My Hero

I spent a significant portion of fourth through sixth grade, which spanned 1985-1988, reading Marvel comic books. My main source for reading material was my classmate JJ, who had two or three much older brothers, which meant he had a library of comics that covered some of the 60’s, mostly what was available as reprints, and all of the 70’s and 80’s. I read them as often as possible during class, keeping them hidden beneath my desk and ready to slip into the storage area under the hinged top in case of an emergency. It is difficult to convey how steeped I was in the Marvel Universe without inciting incredulity, but among the comics I read included: some Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, Punisher, Captain America and Master of Kung Fu; a lot of Spider-Man, especially the Venom suit saga; the bulk of Thor, The Incredible Hulk and The (East Coast) Avengers (all of which were already long-running titles) and virtually the complete works of X-Men, both the “Classics” written by Stan Lee and the more familiar revamp mostly authored by Chris Claremont, Silver Surfer, Daredevil, West Coast Avengers, Iron Man, Moon Knight, The New Mutants, X-Factor, Excalibur and, of course, Wolverine. I asked the art teacher if she could teach me how to draw super heroes and she suggested I might be better suited at being a comic book writer. Chris Claremont was my favorite writer but it seemed obvious to me that the penciller had the superior job, and John Buscema and Frank Miller were my favorite artists. Bescema was a pioneer who had established the typical style of the time, but Miller did his own heavy, high-contrast inking that would set the tone for the future.

Something hard-wired into my nature, which would take me, oh, about 35 years to realize is not a trait ingrained in everyone, is a compulsion to be loyal. I am passionate, some would say to a fault, about the things and people I enjoy. I stand by my convictions, which fortunately prioritize the importance of conceding to logic and humility, and don’t do ambivalence well. Once I start on a course, I tend to see it through to its completion. I don’t jump ship and never make alternate plans. One thing that highly irritates me is when others start second-guessing or changing plans. I always try to keep my word, even when I know doing so will be detrimental to me, because from my perspective, my word is more important than myself. In my worldview, this is known as integrity, which, if I am to be frank, is a thing few others seem to understand.

Anyway, it should go without saying that I didn’t read DC comics… that is, until Frank Miller wrote and drew their Batman: The Dark Knight Returns saga. It was good; really good. This created not only a moral but practical dilemma, because the only person I knew who had DC comics was a junior high kid named Jay, whom I had never personally spoken to, although I often stood beside JJ while they quickly traded comics between backpacks. Jay had a quirk of being highly secretive about his comic book reading habits, which I found strange. Beyond that, discussing comics with him was complicated by the fact that I have always been and probably always will be uncomfortable engaging in conversations with people I don’t know well.

I went to a Kindergarten-12th grade school which had 100 students total, so we all ate lunch at the same time. One day during lunch, when I was in sixth grade, the cafeteria was disrupted by a kid in the table behind me loudly taunting another kid. The latter, I discovered when I turned around, was Jay. Suddenly, and without speaking a word, Jay slammed down his fist onto the other kid’s lunch tray and smashed the unopened milk carton with a loud pop that exploded white liquid all over everyone in the vicinity. Then, Jay stood up and walked straight into the principal’s office. This was a highly-unique and therefore memorable event. In other words, it was basically the coolest thing I had ever seen. Without ever knowing the full story, I egocentrically assumed Jay was being mocked for reading comic books and milk-smashing was his Marvel-esque way of defending his honor. I resolved to always defend my comic book-reading ways no matter how old I got.

I never did speak to Jay. After sixth grade we moved, and I found myself in a school where nobody read comics. I wouldn’t pick them up again until several years later, when I was 16 and armed with a driver’s license. There were three comic book shops in Des Moines, and I started a routine of driving from one to another, getting caught up on X-Men and Wolverine as well as discovering Frank Miller’s Sin City and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Along the way, I would also read the current issues of those same comics at Barnes & Noble. In this fashion, I could read 10-12 comics in a day while paying only for gasoline, although I did occasionally purchase Wolverine back-issues. I also began reading Shakespeare’s plays precisely because they had been a sub-plot in several Sandman issues. Even after college, Sandman and Frank Miller’s 300, as well as Howard Zinn, inspired an interest in world history that I had never had while in school.

When I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2000, I got a part-time job as a barista at Borders Books and began reading Japanese manga while there. Eventually, I once again started hanging out in comic book stores to discover more manga and even got into playing sanctioned Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments until the cards got too expensive and I sold my two decks for a profit. I still read manga occasionally today, religiously refusing any edition that doesn’t read right to left. A couple weeks ago, I found myself correcting a random lady in a thrift shop calling it “anime.” I watch a lot of anime, too, but it should go without saying that graphic novels and television shows are vastly different mediums. One advantage of comics is the pace of the story’s development is dependent upon the reader. Instead of passively watching the characters, you move alongside them, discovering as they do. Another difference is instead of viewing a rectangle of a fixed size, comic panels can change size, shape and location at will. This can be used to great effect in keeping the reader actively engaged in both focus and mood. During a chaotic climax, for example, a reader can find himself feverishly attempting to decipher the order in which the panels unfold.

Even with the exploding popularity of conventions like Comic-Con, comic books themselves have mostly remained a niche consumed by introverts. One difference is many characters that began their lives there are now popular mainstream successes. To say I have mixed feelings about this would be a lie; I flat out hate it. I’d like to smash the milk carton of every jock in America who thinks he’s a big Thor fan but doesn’t even know who Jack Kirby is. You have to be pretty pathetic to be too lazy to read a picture book. I can’t really explain why I find it so annoying, but it has something to do with loyalty and integrity.

A couple years ago I was dating a talented poet who, presumably for lack of anything better to do, attended a Neil Gaiman lecture at the university where she was attending grad school. She had never heard of him before, so was very confused as to why hundreds of students had shown up to see him talk. “He read a few excerpts and they weren’t very good,” she declared. I shrugged and said, “Yeah, his work is pretty popular but maybe he’s not that great of a writer.” I am ashamed to admit I had forgotten about Jay. In part, I knew any attempt to defend Gaiman’s work to this person in particular would be futile. But, to be honest, the first thought to cross my mind was, Well, he does just write comics.

And Shakespeare just wrote skits.

Classical Chinese Mahjong Rules (Redux)

Mahjong (or Mah-jong or Mah-jongg) is a 4 player game that originated in China in the 19th Century (contrary to popular claims that it is far older). It seems there are almost as many variations as there are players. Although many of the tiles have Chinese characters on them, you don’t have to be able to read any Chinese to play the game, with the exception of knowing the numbers 1-9 and West, South, East and North in the unlikely event you are using tiles that don’t have Western letters imprinted on them.

BASIC EQUIPMENT
A complete set of Mahjong consists of 144 tiles. Originally they were made from bone or ivory, often dovetailed with bamboo backsides, but modern sets are usually plastic. The tiles are comprised of:
• 36 Circle tiles in 4 sets of 9 tiles numbered 1- 9. These are often called Dots. The picture on each shows the appropriate number of circles.
• 36 Character tiles in 4 sets of 9 tiles numbered 1- 9. These are also called Craks for short, or Numbers. The picture on each shows the Chinese character for the number represented and the Chinese character for “Thousand,” and usually a translated Arabic number in the corner. Note that these are the only tiles that contain only numbers and Chinese characters.
• 36 Bamboo tiles in 4 sets of 9 tiles numbered 1- 9. The picture on each shows the appropriate number of bamboo sticks, which often look more like bones, except for One Bamboo which acts as a maker’s mark (similar to the Ace of Spades in cards) and is usually denoted by a sparrow (the English translation of “mah jong”) or a rice-bird instead of a bamboo.
• 16 Wind tiles - 4 tiles for each of the 4 winds. Each has a Chinese character for that direction and usually the first letter of the English word for the direction it represents (North, South, West or East) in the corner.
• 12 Dragon tiles - 4 Red Dragons (called Chung, meaning “center”) denoted by a red Chinese character or dragon, 4 Green Dragons (called Fa, meaning “prosperity”) denoted by a green Chinese character or dragon and 4 White Dragons which are traditionally denoted by a completely blank tile. However, some sets denote the White Dragon with a small “P” which stands for “Po,” meaning white or pure, and some players use a tile with a blue border for the White Dragon. Some players call these Colors instead of Dragons, which is actually more accurate.
• 4 Flower tiles - The Flowers are optional; they are not used for making sets but instead give bonus points when drawn. They each show a picture of a flower and usually numbered 1-4, and these numbers relate to the player’s seat placement. 1 is East Wind, 2 is South, 3 is West and 4 is North. The depiction of the flowers varies hugely between sets (and can get kind of abstract), but they represent, in order: plumb, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo. They don’t look like any of the other tiles except a beginner could possibly confuse them with One Bamboo.
• 4 Season tiles - The Seasons are also optional; they usually show a picture of something seemingly random and are usually numbered 1-4 and labeled, in order: “Spr”, “Sum”, “Aut” and “Win,” which are abbreviations for the four calendar seasons. Spring is the season of East Wind, Summer is South, Autumn is West and Winter is North. The Seasons are used the same as the Flower tiles and are only used if the Flower tiles are used. Some players choose not to use the Flower and Season tiles because they provide easy points.

Specific tiles are grouped together in scoring as follows:
• Suits: The Circle, Character and Bamboo tiles comprise the three Suits.
• Minors: The Suit tiles numbered 2 - 8.
• Terminals: The Suit tiles numbered 1 and 9.
• Honors: The Wind and Dragon tiles.
• Majors: The Terminals and Honors.
• Bonus: The Flower and Season tiles.

In addition to the tiles, two dice are required for determining where to break the Wall. (The 1 and 4 are red on traditional Chinese dice.) Some sets include a marker containing the Winds, called a Chuang-tzŭ, which is used to keep track of the Prevailing Wind. Tile trays are also often used to enable each player to balance their tiles on edge while concealed during play. Gambling sticks or chips are used if gambling. Many Mahjong games come with additional tiles used for similar games and variations.

PREPARATION
First, the seating positions of the four players must be randomly established. Then, which Wind each player begins as is randomly decided. For these tasks, one of each Wind tile, any Suit numbers one and two (or any other numbers as long as one is odd and the other even) and a pair of dice are required. Each player randomly chooses a temporary seat and the host rolls two dice. Beginning with himself, the host (either whoever’s home you are in or whose tiles are being used) counts counter-clockwise around the table the total of both dice and selects the location where East will be to begin the game.



The player in East’s seat then turns the Wind tiles upside-down, shuffles them and organizes them in a row between the even and odd numbered suit tiles. He then rolls the dice again and counts around the table as before to determine who will roll the dice a final time.



The third dice roll is counted the same as the other two, and decides which player will draw the first Wind tile. If the final roll totals an odd number, that player chooses the tile next to the odd numbered Suit, otherwise he chooses the tile next to the even numbered Suit. Then the remaining tiles are drawn as they are aligned by each player in counter-clockwise turn. Whoever draws East Wind sits in East’s seat. West sits across from East, North to his left and South to his right (NOT like a compass).



• Prevailing Wind: The designation given to the player that has the first turn. East begins the game as the Prevailing Wind.

For each subsequent round, the positions change in one of two ways:
1. If the Prevailing Wind completed Mahjong in the previous round, or the round ends in a stalemate, usually called a wash-out, then the positions stay the same.
2. If any of the other Winds went out in the previous round, all of the Wind positions rotate counter-clockwise so that the player who was South Wind in the previous round becomes East Wind, etc.

In a complete session of Mahjong, which might take a number of hours or even days to complete, the Prevailing Wind continues to be East until each player has lost as East. Then South becomes the Prevailing Wind. Once South is finished, the Prevailing Wind becomes West and finally, North. The session ends when each player has lost while as the Prevailing North Wind. Obviously, it isn't necessary to complete a session – playing only one or two complete Prevailing Wind cycles is common.

BUILDING THE WALL
Each round begins by scattering all the tiles face-down on the table. They are then shuffled thoroughly by all except the Prevailing Wind in a ritual that is called “the twittering of the sparrows.” The shuffling immediately ends when the Prevailing Wind utters, “Pow!” The tiles are then built into a square structure known as the Wall. If the Flowers and Seasons are used (for a total of 144 tiles), then each side will be eighteen tiles long; if you choose not to use them (for a total of 136 tiles), then each side will be seventeen tiles long. In either case, it is two tiles high and one tile deep. Each player builds one side of the Wall by placing the tiles face-down from right to left. A square is then formed from the sides. (The tile trays are usually sized so they can be used to push the sides together. Allowing cracks in the Wall is considered bad luck.)



BREAKING THE WALL
There are two accepted methods of breaking the Wall. To differentiate, I will refer to the chronologically earlier established method as the “Kong Box” and the more modern and familiar method as the “Dead Wall,” although in practice these terms are interchangeable. Both methods separate a part of the Wall from which replacement tiles are drawn after creating a Kong. They differ in a myriad of subtle ways, but, practically speaking, the main difference is that, with the Kong Box method, Season and Flower tiles are replaced from the Live Wall whereas with the Dead Wall method those tiles are replaced, like with Kongs, from the Dead Wall. Because it prevents Bonus tiles from being used for scoring Doublers and Special Hands utilizing Loose tiles, thereby rightfully increasing the value of Kongs, I prefer the Kong Box method, even though it is less frequently used.

The Kong Box Method
The current Prevailing Wind rolls both dice inside the Wall, and counts off the participants around the table counter-clockwise starting with himself to determine a player who must roll both dice again. (If a die lands on edge against the Wall or on top or outside of it, it must be re-rolled.) This player, after rolling, counts the number of tile stacks equal to the total of both rolls clockwise beginning at the right end of his section of Wall.



The two tiles in the stack at the last number are lifted by that player that made the second dice roll. The top tile is placed on top of the stack five places counter-clockwise and the other upon the stack three places counterclockwise from the initial location. These two tiles are called “Loose” tiles. Then, the section of the Wall that those tiles are centered upon, which totals seven stacks and sixteen tiles (including the Loose tiles), is physically separated from the rest of the Wall and called the Kong Box. (The remainder of the Wall is called the Live Wall or simply the Wall.)



Next, beginning with the Prevailing Wind and alternating turns counter-clockwise, two stacks are taken by each player from the Wall in a clockwise fashion beginning with the tiles after where the Loose tiles were taken until each player has taken three sets or twelve tiles.



Finally, the Prevailing Wind takes one more stack, or two tiles, and each other player takes one tile only, so the Prevailing Wind begins the game with fourteen tiles while the other players have thirteen.



During each round, whenever a Kong is revealed, the next Loose tile is immediately drawn as a replacement tile. Bonus tiles are instead replaced from the Live Wall so that they behave as a “draw again” tile. The Loose tile on the right is drawn first, and after the second Loose tile is drawn, the player who originally built the Kong Box immediately replaces both Loose tiles as at the beginning of the game by taking the stack from the far left of the Kong Box and centering those tiles on what remains of the Kong Box, with the top tile of the stack to the right of the other. The only way to use all of the tiles in the Kong Box would be in the highly unlikely event where all four players made four Kongs.





The Dead Wall Method
The current Prevailing Wind rolls both dice inside the Wall, and counts off the participants around the table counter-clockwise starting with himself to determine a player who must roll both dice again. (If a die lands on edge against the Wall or on top or outside of it, it must be re-rolled.) This player, after rolling, counts the number of tile stacks equal to the total of both rolls clockwise beginning at the right end of his section of Wall. The Prevailing Wind breaks the Wall to the left of the final tile counted by taking two stacks of tiles.



Then, moving counter-clockwise (so that in the first game South draws second), each player in turn takes four tiles at a time from the Wall, tearing it down in a clockwise fashion, repeating three times around the table so that everyone has twelve tiles.



Next, the Prevailing Wind takes the next tile from the top at the edge of the Wall, and also the top tile two stacks over. Each other player then takes only one tile, again in counter-clockwise order, leaving the tile under the last tile the Prevailing Wind took as the next tile to be drawn after play begins. The Prevailing Wind begins each hand with fourteen tiles while the other players start with thirteen.



Finally, the seventh stack of tiles counting counter-clockwise from the opposite end of the Wall are taken up by the player who made the second dice roll and become “Loose” tiles. The bottom tile of this stack is placed on top of the third stack (counting the same direction) and the other tile is placed on top of the first stack of the section of the Wall that has just become separated by removing the Loose tiles. These fourteen tiles separated from the rest of the Wall form the Dead Wall. (The remainder of the Wall is called the Live Wall or simply the Wall.)



Whenever a Kong or Bonus tile is revealed, the next Loose tile is immediately drawn as a replacement tile. The Loose tile on the end of the Dead Wall is drawn first, and after the second Loose tile is drawn, the player who built the Dead Wall immediately replaces both Loose tiles from the very end of the Live Wall in the same manner as was done after the original tiles were drawn. The 12 tiles in the Dead Wall under the Loose tiles are entirely out of play for the remainder of the round.



OBJECTIVE
A player generally tries to collect sets, called Melds, of tiles. The three Melds are:
• Pung (aka Pong): A set of 3 identical tiles.
• Kong: A set of all 4 identical tiles.
• Chow: A consecutively numbered run of 3 (and only 3) tiles in the same Suit, e.g. 5,6 and 7 of Bamboos. You cannot make Chows with Honors.

Melds can be formed in one of two ways:
1. Concealed: A Meld that uses only tiles drawn from the Wall.
2. Exposed: A Meld that incorporates one tile claimed from another player, either via their discard or by Robbing a Kong.

The primary goal of the game is to collect tiles that allow a player to complete "Mahjong,” often called “going” Mahjong.
• Mahjong: An arrangement of tiles that allows a player to win a hand in Mahjong. Except for (two) rare Special Hands, a Mahjong hand consists of four Melds and a pair. The pair is properly called an Eye.

The overall goal of the game is to amass a greater score than your opponents. It is theoretically possible to do this over a series of rounds without ever completing Mahjong, although completing Mahjong yields far more scoring opportunities.

PLAY
The players begin by looking at and organizing their tiles. All Bonus tiles should always be immediately revealed by laying them down and face-up on the table (or tile tray). Kongs must also be revealed in order to be scored as such, but this can be done at the start of play or on any of their turns before a player completes Mahjong. Not revealing a Kong right away can allow for Meld arrangement options, because until the tiles are shown to the opponents, they can be re-arranged at any time up until scoring the hand, but once a Meld is displayed, it becomes permanent and cannot be changed. For example, a player could have in his hand all four 6 Circles, but, if that Kong has not been revealed, separate one of those to form a Chow with 5 and 7 Circles.

If a player forms a Chow or a Pung using only tiles drawn from the Wall, he keeps it hidden in his hand during gameplay. (Not only is it worth more points this way, but it keeps the other players from knowing his tiles.)

Starting with the Prevailing Wind, a replacement tile must be drawn for each Bonus tile and revealed Kong. After the Prevailing Wind has replaced these tiles, including any further Bonus tiles or revealed Kongs formed because of replacement tiles, the player to the right of the Prevailing Wind does the same. After all four players have completed this task, the Prevailing Wind, assuming he doesn’t have the Special Hand of Heaven’s Blessing, discards one tile by announcing its name and placing it face-up inside the remainder of the Wall to end his turn.

If, at the time of their first discard, any player needs only one tile to complete Mahjong, he may alert the other players of this fact by announcing that he is “Fishing,” in order to attempt to score for “Original Call,” which is when a player declares Fishing with their first discard and then completes Mahjong using those same 13 tiles and the Last. (Forming Kongs and drawing Bonus tiles do not disqualify Original Call.) Fishing should NOT be declared aloud at any time after a player’s first turn.
• Fishing: A player that could theoretically complete Mahjong with any one tile.
• Last: The final tile drawn or claimed in order to complete Mahjong.

A player can be Fishing for more than one type of tile. This usually happens when a player has three Melds and two pairs, two consecutive numbers in a Suit and neither is a Terminal or four consecutive numbers in a Suit, but there are other examples. Trying to complete Mahjong with only one possible type of tile decreases the odds of doing so, but also scores points. For scoring purposes, Fishing for an Only Possible tile does not consider the current state of the discard pile. For example, if the Fishing hand contains two pairs, that hand is not Fishing for Only Possible even if the remaining tiles of one pair have been irretrievably discarded.
• Only Possible: Fishing hand that allows only one type of tile to complete Mahjong.

When a player is Fishing, he may claim the Last tile from any discard, whether it be to form a Pung, Kong, Chow or the Eye. Also, a player who is Fishing may claim a tile and get Mahjong by making a Chow or Special Hand with a tile that has just been drawn by another player and added to their Exposed (but not Concealed, unless it is to complete the Thirteen Orphans Special Hand) Pung. This is called “Robbing the Kong.” If multiple players could win with the same discard, then the one whose turn would come next in the normal counter-clockwise rotation gets to take it.
• Robbing Kong: Completing Mahjong by claiming a tile that was drawn and added to an Exposed Pung by another player.

After each discard, ANY player may claim that tile if they can use it to complete a Pung or Kong, even if it does not complete Mahjong. That player announces his intention, and if there is no objection (i.e. multiple claims), takes the discard and immediately displays the resulting Pung or Kong face-up on the table (or tile tray) in front of him. A claim for Mahjong always takes precedence over a non-Fishing claim. (Multiple claims for Pungs or Kongs are mathematically impossible as there are only four of every tile.) After a player has taken a discard but not for Mahjong, it is then that player’s turn to conclude with a discard; any players between him and the player that discarded are skipped.

If no other player wants the discarded tile (which should be decided almost immediately to keep the game moving), then the player to the right of the discarding player takes the next turn. This player may choose to claim the discard and use it to form a Chow, which he must immediately Expose. (No other players can claim the discarded tile to make a Chow except to complete Mahjong.) If no one takes the discarded tile, then it is out of play for the remainder of the round, and the next player simply draws the next tile (without showing it to the other players) from the front of the Wall.

A Concealed Kong that is not revealed before a player completes Mahjong is scored instead as a Concealed Pung. Also, when another player’s discard is added to a Concealed Pung and revealed as an Exposed Kong, that Meld can still be scored as a Concealed Pung for Doublers and Special Hands (only), as long as after all four tiles are displayed (and before that player has discarded), the fourth claimed tile is placed either lengthwise or face-down on the end of what had been a Concealed Pung. A Kong formed without using a claimed tile is considered Concealed for all scoring, as long as after showing all four tiles (and before that player has discarded), both ends of that row of tiles are placed either lengthwise (especially in the case of Po, the White Dragon) or face-down in front of the player to differentiate it from an Exposed Meld.

A player cannot declare Kong and Mahjong at the same time, as a replacement tile must always be drawn after revealing a Kong, with the unique exception of the Special Hand called Nine Gates. In addition, if a player previously Exposed a Pung because it incorporated another player's discard and later draws from the Wall the fourth of that tile, he may add it to the Exposed Pung (although this risks a Robbed Kong), turning it into an Exposed Kong. All four tiles of such a Kong remain face-up and can only be scored as an Exposed Meld. A discarded tile CANNOT be added to an Exposed Pung, and no Meld can ever consist of more than one discarded tile.



Each player must always finish a turn by discarding one tile, placing it face-up inside the remainder of the Wall and announcing which tile is being discard aloud, except when completing Mahjong, in which case that player cannot discard but simply reveals all tiles, keeping the Concealed tiles behind the tile rack to separate them from the Exposed tiles and demarking the Last tile by turning it length-wise (for scoring purposes). It is important not to forget to place the final Meld with the Exposed tiles if it was created by a discard or by Robbing the Kong.

If all the tiles from the Wall have been drawn with the exception of the Kong Box or Dead Wall, then the game is declared a wash-out and no scores are made. The tiles are shuffled again and game is restarted with the same player as Prevailing Wind. Just prior to that, scores can be made for completing Mahjong with the final tile possible if a player completes Mahjong with the last tile on the Wall, the discard that is made after the Wall is empty or with a Bonus tile drawn after the Wall is empty.

SPECIAL HANDS
Special Hands are unique ways of going Mahjong. In scoring, all Special Hands receive the maximum number of points allowed. Special Hands will vary depending on who you’re playing with, but the number allowed should be somewhat limited to prevent the game from becoming absurd. Following is a list of commonly accepted Special Hands, only two of which do not consist of four Melds and a pair:

• Thirteen Orphans (aka Thirteen Unique Wonders): One of each Major tile (Winds, Dragons, Ones and Nines); one of these paired. Uniquely, may Rob Concealed Kong for Last tile.
• Nine Gates (aka Nine United Sons, Nine Sacred Lamps of Lotus): Three Ones, three Nines and a run from 2-8 plus any Last tile, all in the same Suit; all but Last tile must be concealed. Uniquely, may get Mahjong by completing a Kong.

• Buried Treasure: Fully Concealed Pungs/Kongs and an Eye.
• Fourfold Plenty: All Kongs and an Eye.
• Heads and Tails: Only Terminals.
• All Symbols: Only Honors.
• Imperial Jade: Mahjong using only all-green tiles (which are the Green Dragons and 2, 3,4,6 and 8 of Bamboos.)
• Wriggling Snake: Pungs/Kongs of both Terminals, an Eye of either 2,5 or 8 and two Chows containing the six remaining numbers all in the same Suit. (There are other variants called Wriggling Snake, and since this is also the most convoluted Special Hand, I’d be heavily tempted to disregard it except that it’s so widely used.)
• Concealed Clear Suit: All one Suit, fully Concealed.
• Three Great Scholars: Melds of all 3 Dragons, any other Pung/Kong and any Eye.
• Four Blessings Hovering Over the Door: Melds of all 4 Winds and any Eye.
• Twofold Plenty (aka Kong on Kong) : In one turn, complete a Kong, draw a Loose tile which completes another Kong, draw another Loose tile with completes Mahjong.
• Gathering the Plum Blossom from the Roof: A Loose tile is Five Circles, which completes Mahjong for player that draws it.
• Plucking the Moon from the Bottom of the Sea: The Last tile on the Wall (not including Kong Box or Dead Wall) is One Circles, which completes Mahjong for player that draws it.
• Scratching a Carrying Pole: Rob Kong of Two Bamboo.
• Heaven's Blessing: Mahjong completed by Prevailing Wind before ever discarding.
• Earth's Blessing: Mahjong completed by another Wind after claiming the first discard made by Prevailing Wind and without ever discarding.
• East’s Thirteenth Consecutive Mahjong: The Prevailing Wind completes Mahjong for the 13th time in a row, not including wash-out rounds, after which Prevailing Wind is relinquished.

SCORING
When a player completes Mahjong, all players must show their hands, keeping concealed tiles below the tile rack. Sometimes concealed tiles can be arranged in different combinations to form different Melds, and all players have the freedom to do so before they are displayed, but once the Melds are chosen and displayed they cannot be rearranged during scoring.

Since a score can become ridiculously large, a maximum limit is agreed upon before play starts. The maximum is usually 1000, but can be as low as 500 and as high as 2000.

Scoring is the most complicated aspect of the game and differs widely among players, so you might have to barter an agreed upon method before gameplay begins. (There is lively debate, for example, as to whether completing Mahjong should be 10 or 20 points.) The classical method of scoring only uses even numbers. Confusion often stems from point totals being stated non-cumulatively. For example, a veteran player might state that a Last tile forming a Major Eye scores four points without bothering to explain that two of those four points come from the Last simply forming any Eye. Scoring greatly increases the level of strategy in making Melds, but it is sometimes prudent for first-time players to forego scoring altogether.

If a player creates a Special Hand, he receives the limit. Otherwise, the value of each hand is calculated by adding points and then counting “Doublers.” The entire score is doubled for each Doubler so that they affect the overall score exponentially. Some points and Doublers are available to all players while others are only available to the player that completed Mahjong.

First, each player adds points for each of the following:
Exposed Minor Pung= 2 points
Exposed Major Pung= 4 points
Exposed Minor Kong= 8 points
Exposed Major Kong= 16 points
Concealed Minor Pung= 4 points
Concealed Major Pung= 8 points
Concealed Minor Kong= 16 points
Concealed Major Kong= 32 points
(Chow= 0 points)

Pair of Dragons= 2 points
Pair of Prevailing Wind= 2 points
Pair of own Wind= 2 points
(A hand with none of the above points is called Worthless)
Each Flower= 4 points
Each Season= 4 points

Only the player that completed Mahjong also adds for:
Completing Mahjong= 10 points
Completing Mahjong with Only Possible Last tile= 2 points
Last tile forms Eye= 2 points
Last tile forms Major Eye= 2 points
Completing Mahjong by drawing Last tile from Wall= 2 points

Then, all players count Doublers for each:
Meld of Dragons= 1 Doubler
Meld of Prevailing Wind= 1 Doubler
Meld of player's own Wind= 1 Doubler
3 Concealed Pungs/Kongs= 1 Doubler
All 3 Dragons in 2 Melds and 1 pair= 1 Doubler
All 4 Winds in 3 Melds and 1 pair= 1 Doubler
3 Dragons in 3 Melds= 2 Doublers
4 Winds in 4 Melds= 2 Doublers
Own Flower and Own Season= 1 Doubler
All four Flowers= 2 Doublers
All four Seasons= 2 Doublers

Additional Doublers are applied only to the hand that went Mahjong:
Worthless Hand (Only Chows and an Eye that’s not Dragons or Prevailing or Own Wind)= 1 Doubler
No Chows= 1 Doubler
Fully Concealed= 1 Doubler
Only Majors= 1 Doubler
Only one Suit and Honors= 1 Doubler
All same Suit (called a Clear Suit)= 3 Doublers
Last is Loose tile (drawn from Kong Box/Dead Wall)= 1 Doubler
Last tile is final discard or draw possible (before a wash-out)= 1 Doubler
Robbing the Kong= 1 Doubler
Original Call= 1 Doubler

The total score is tallied by adding the points and then multiplying the entire score, including any previous Doublers, for each Doubler. This can be expressed as the equation A x 2n, where A represents the added score and n represents the Doublers. Two Doublers multiplies the added score fourfold, while three Doublers multiplies the added score eightfold, etc. Because of this exponential accumulation, having more than one Doubler is very advantageous.



As an example, forming two Exposed Major Kongs (16 points + 16 points), one Pair of Dragons (2 points) and completing Mahjong (10 points) yields an added score of 44 points. Scoring Doublers for Robbing a Kong (1 Doubler) and having all the same Suit (3 Doublers) yields 4 total Doublers, and the total score for that round would be calculated as 44x16, equaling 704 points.

GAMBLING
Mahjong is traditionally a gambling game, although it can be enjoyed without doing so. Counting sticks are traditionally used for this. There are four different sticks, with values of 2, 10, 100 and 500 points. I believe because they were usurped from another game; the markings determining the number values on these sticks is varied and seldom literal- for instance the stick with a value of 10 often has eight black dots.

Each player starts the game with 2000 points worth of sticks, which can be divided into ten 2 point sticks, eight 10 point sticks, nine 100 point sticks and two 500 point sticks. (Using this method, a full set contains 116 sticks.) Generally, if a player runs out of points, he simply continues to play until he earns some back without incurring negative debt.

The Prevailing Wind always pays and/or receives double the amount scored. The Prevailing Wind can pay up to double the maximum limit and receive the same, so if the Prevailing Wind wins with a Special Hand with a maximum limit of 1000, he will receive 2000 points from every other player (or all of their gambling sticks if they don’t have that much).

The player who went Mahjong is paid by the other players the amount scored by his hand, and does not pay out anything. This means that the player who gets Mahjong always wins the round, even if other players have scored greater amounts.

After the player that completes Mahjong is paid, each losing player also pays any other losing player with a greater value hand the difference between the two hands, with the Prevailing Wind paying and/or receiving double the difference.

INFRACTIONS
The following rules are intended as procedures for handling situations where players are confused or make mistakes. I don’t think they necessarily need to be strictly enforced with beginners, and in casual play less strict alternatives can be implemented as long as they are agreed upon by all players:

1. Short Hand: A player that is short on tiles at any time after the first discard must play out the hand and can score points even though completing Mahjong for that player is impossible. (After the first discard, replacement tiles can be taken any time during a turn until that player discards, although they should always be taken immediately after displaying a Kong or Bonus tile.)
2. Long Hand: A player which has seen a concealed tile that gives him too many in hand must accept that tile and play out the round but cannot score any points.
3. A tile drawn from the Wall the face of which has been felt or seen must be accepted by the drawing player.
4. If a tile from the Wall other than the next to be drawn is incorrectly drawn or otherwise exposed to any player, it must be shown to all players; then the side of the Wall with that tile must be shuffled and re-built.
5. A discarded tile can never be withdrawn. A tile discarded out of turn can be claimed by another player unless doing so would force a player whose turn it was to discard to have a Long Hand.
6. A player that announces a discard as the incorrect tile must forfeit his next draw and cannot participate in play until his next turn.
A. The discarded tile can be claimed for a Chow by the next player to the right on the forfeited turn.
B. If an incorrectly named discard results in an incorrectly declared Mahjong, the penalty for the incorrect Mahjong (listed below as rule #11) must be paid by the player that incorrectly named the discard.
7. A discarded tile cannot be claimed by another player after the next player has drawn unless the drawing player did not ensure all players were aware of the discard, in which case the offending player must keep the drawn tile and play with a Long Hand.
8. If a player fails to claim a tile which would have completed Mahjong, he may not go out on any identical discard until after his next turn.
9. A player that claims a tile but changes his mind before any tiles have been exposed can return it to the discard pile, but must pay 100 points to any other eventual winner.
10. Foul Hand: A player that incorrectly exposes any of his tiles is disqualified from winning the current hand.
A. Any claimed tile, after he has exposed tiles, must be accepted even if it creates a bogus Meld, unless it can be claimed by an eligible player or was an incorrectly named discard.
B. The player with the Foul Hand must play out the hand and can still score points.
11. If a player incorrectly declares Mahjong, he cannot go out until after his next turn.
A. If that hand is Long, Short, Foul or made fully exposed (for partial exposure, see Foul Hand penalty) or any part of another’s hand is consequently exposed, the offending player must pay half the limit to all players with dealer doubling applied, after which Prevailing Wind does not move unless that’s the player at fault.

INSURANCES
There are also rules that have been established to keep players from cheating or conspiring, which of course becomes more tempting when gambling is involved.

12. If a player calls attention to an error that is corrected and that correction adversely affects another player, the player that mentions the error must forfeit his next draw and cannot participate in play until his next turn (see also 6A).
13. A player who calls attention to any feature of another’s play, including his discards or apparent objective must forfeit his next draw and cannot participate in play until his next turn (see also 6A).
14. A player who scores too many points to his hand can be corrected by a player obliged to pay him until the last payment has been made, but a player who has shorted himself points cannot be helped by any other player. A player that does assist must pay the resulting difference in loss sustained by any other player. No corrections in score can be made after all payments have been settled.
15. Letting off a cannon: Playing an irresponsible, or “dangerous,” discard or allowing a Robbed Kong that helps enable another player to complete Mahjong on a big hand (not necessarily immediately). A player who lets off the cannon must pay the winner on behalf of all losers, that is, he must pay three times and the other losers do not pay, and there is no settlement among losers.
A. A player can be guilty of letting off a cannon only in the following situations:
1. If there are four or less tiles left in the Wall, and he discards any tile that does not appear in previous discards or Exposed Melds, helping another player complete any Mahjong.
2. If another player has Exposed three Melds of one Suit, and he discards or makes a Kong from an Exposed Pung of that Suit, helping that other player complete Mahjong with all same Suit.
3. If another player has Exposed three Melds of Terminals, and he discards or makes a Kong from an Exposed Pung of any Terminal, helping that other player complete Mahjong with Heads and Tails.
4. If another player has Exposed three Melds of Honors, and he discards or makes a Kong from an Exposed Pung of any Honor, helping that other player complete Mahjong with All Symbols.
5. If another player has Exposed three Melds of green tiles, and he discards or makes a Kong from an Exposed Pung of any green tile, helping that other player complete Mahjong with Imperial Jade.
6. If another player has Exposed two Melds of Dragons, and he discards or makes a Kong from an Exposed Pung of the third Dragon, helping that other player complete Mahjong with either all 3 Dragons in 2 Melds and 1 pair, 3 Dragons in 3 Melds or Three Great Scholars.
7. If another player has Exposed three Melds of Winds, and he discards or makes a Kong from an Exposed Pung of the fourth Wind, helping that other player complete Mahjong with either all 4 Winds in 3 Melds and 1 pair or Four Blessings Hovering Over the Door.
B. A player is exempted from letting off a cannon if:
1. A player claims no choice: If a player’s hand, after drawing from the Wall (but not after claiming a tile), consists only of dangerous tiles, he can briefly display his entire hand in order to be reprieved from any consequences of discarding or adding to an Exposed Pung.
2. Another player subsequently lets off another cannon affecting the same hand. (The other player becomes responsible.)
3. The discarded tile is used to form a Kong (since that does not help complete Mahjong).

SCORECARD
In order to assist in scoring, remembering terms and gambling payout procedures, I have developed a two-sided scorecard. (Its original size is 8.5”x11” landscape but I’m not sure how it will be formatted by blogspot.)




These rules rely heavily, but not exclusively, on the book The Complete Book of Mah-Jongg, by A.D. Millington. Paperback Ed. 1993.

Inspirations

The greatest gift life has to offer is the opportunity to be blindsided by sublimity. Perceptive people are confronted by inspirations compelling enough that they merge with overwhelming. The triggers for these passions are impossible to calculate or explain, so it is not surprising that frustration is passion’s frequent companion. Maybe that’s why some actively avoid risking confrontations with anything potentially stimulating. This can also be due to fear, prudence or laziness. Others somehow manage to obliviously navigate through existence content with an uninspired impression or incapable of anything other than torpidity. This definitively demonstrates a divergence in genetic brain chemistry between humans.

Skepticism surrounding inspiration is understandable, especially since inspiring things, such as phrases, are often used to disguise untruths. It is probably impossible to determine whether someone is skeptical of a thing that excites or that a thing can elicit excitement for them regardless of the experiences of others. For instance, many are incredulous that drumming can induce hallucinations despite the many cultures that have been using it for this purpose for millennia, but rather than explore the possibility they will dismiss these practices as witchcraft. It is indeed a common conclusion that the existence of things that can evoke such intense sensual phenomena are undeniable proof of supernatural consciousness. On the contrary, from my perspective, the extreme diversity in what can thrill us demonstrates subjective experiences exist independent of any universally objective reality, purpose, truth or ideal.

The novice artist’s response to something inspiring is to attempt to preserve, dissect, and/or replicate it. This compulsion stems from a desire to understand, relive and share these things which seem to make life worthwhile, and can result in everything from covering your bedroom walls with posters of your favorite sports team to moving to France to craft burgundy wine. Further, it is not absurd to assume that capturing an embodiment of some profound and relevant experience could bring relevance and import to oneself. Strong inspirations can re-manifest themselves as motivation and drive.

I tend to be suspicious of those that don’t obsess over whatever might intrigue them, assuming they either lack commitment or soul. I find flippancy preposterous. In truth, some simply aren’t that curious. Habit and routine are important for keeping us comfortable, productive and sane, but they don’t provide joy. The thing that probably best encapsulates that which brings us the most joy is experiencing magic. Learning the processes behind a trick risks despoiling the magic, but also opens up the opportunity of appreciating another, more profound magic contained in the process itself. Further, the wielder of magic possesses a certain power, which can be used to impress or make money.

The secret of an inspirational experience lies in confronting perceived uniqueness, and of course that cannot be replicated through imitation. A more mature artistic response to being inspired is to attempt to generate novel concepts, which usually includes a fresh take on an old idea. To this end, it is more constructive to absorb perspectives that do not resemble our own. That is not to suggest influences should be avoided for fear of replicating them. In fact, there is no reason to assume that being influenced by someone will turn oneself into a clone or that avoiding influences will prevent duplication. The best influences are those that spark and encourage your own creative juices regardless of the ease with which they can be replicated. It is not uncommon for me to watch a video of an influential drummer and continue to find it challenging to try to pick out how they’re approaching the instrument. At other times, I’ll witness a drummer I’ve never listened to before approach things very similar to myself. I have found both of these experiences inspiring. This reveals the importance of having exposure in order to develop novel ideas and avoid limiting the information from which expansion and growth can occur. I am extremely wary of those who claim to have no influences, because if they aren’t just liars trying to take undue credit, it is probable they are undeveloped, unintentional imitators.

Inspirations that inform and stimulate our pursuits intertwine themselves into our being, until any perceived slight of them seems a personal affront. It is easy to take another’s disinterest or disapproval of our interests as a personal rejection. Ironically, our willingness to defend our own influences does not prevent us from ridiculing those of others, and we do so without fathoming why another would take it personally. I suppose it’s unavoidable to not have strong opinions regarding the things we are passionate about, as it is easy to forget that our inspirations are subjectively relative to our experiences, expectations and interests. Nostalgia and context are non-transferable. Also, memory is unreliable, which is why I no childhood inspiration should be assumed to contain quality. Perhaps these are most useful in giving us experience to relate from and encouraging us to continue to explore.

I feel that having a solid foundation of relevant human history is the only way to have an adequate context for making judgments. It is useless to be provided book recommendations from someone who has never read the classics or listen to someone gushing about the architecture of a particular city if that’s the only one they’ve ever been in. A couple years ago, someone extolled a movie, enthralled by how it was filmed “just like they did it in the 20’s.” When I responded that that’s a pretty broad range of cinema and asked which particular movies, genres or directors it reminded him of, he fell silent. I wasn’t surprised upon watching the movie to find, outside of being a “silent” movie, it didn’t actually resemble early cinematography in the least.

There is usefulness in seeking out those with common interests. I keep a mental record of those with movie tastes similar to mine, and put a lot of stock in their recommendations. Far beyond that, there is something magical in harmonically shared tastes. A couple years ago, I was completely enthralled by an exhibit of these three-dimensional boxes covered with windows and collages of artifacts at an art museum in New Orleans and was gobsmacked upon discovering my companion knew everything about these “shadow boxes” and their creator, Joseph Cornell. A trivial connection such as this can create a genuinely strong bond. Our brain seeks linkages between various interests and pursuits, so that we are not only attracted to those with common interests, but we are compelled to introduce and encourage our loved ones to empathize with our delights. In fact, our human impulse to connect with others easily overwhelms any inclination to simply be silently content with our own amusements.

I read a study that claimed shared preferences are less important in creating attachments than mutual dislikes. Without knowing the specifics of this study, I’m willing to guess this is partly due to the fact that it is easier to find general dislikes than it is to connect with specific likes. It might not particularly matter if another appreciates Evan Parker or Tool, because what are the odds of that, so long as they don’t love smooth jazz or 1990’s era boy bands, for example. I am easily irritated by things others are interested in that I find plebian. For every Cornell shadow box there are 10,000 insipid craft ideas on Pinterest.

We can become unreasonably annoyed when confronted with the reality that our influences or irritants aren’t universally appreciated or shared. Perhaps we worry that if our passions aren’t validated, our pursuits are a waste of time. Although many (frighteningly) seem to desire a homogenous world in which everyone is attracted to the same thing, even those who don’t experience legitimate confusion as to how something that can inspire us so much affects others so little.

Growing up, I had a subscription to National Geographic, and one of my favorite articles was on the restoration of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings. I was mesmerized with the whimsically muscular caricatures cleverly intertwined to symbolically communicate stories and ideas. Years later, I met someone who had actually been there when she was twelve who described it as “dumb.” That effectively removed for me any legitimacy to her artistic palate. While that may be an extreme reaction, I found myself unable to excuse her adamant opinion. When I was around twelve, I thought to myself, I had been completely blown away by a gigantic canvas covered with layer upon layer of shades of white paint by Rauschenberg at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Our inclination is to paint everything surrounding something that we are keen on in the best possible light, which makes it difficult to place inspirations in proper context. It requires maturity to balance expectations with reality and maintain a sound perspective of vitality and relevance. While good or bad and right or wrong are not always subjective ideas, they usually are. Similarly, we easily forget the disparity between things that encourage us and their creators. It is important to maintain the perspective that having the ability to demonstrate talent or competence does not make one a decent human being, and that having unfavorable traits does not of necessity taint the entirety of one’s work.

Disc Golf Review, Part 3: Disc Dyeing

The first disc I bought on the internet was a DGA Rogue in clear sparkle plastic. It didn’t take long to realize I had made a flawed decision- the thing was so hard to find I quickly became gun-shy about throwing it. I replaced it with a bright pink Discraft Surge that I lost soon after in a blackberry thicket. Such is life.
I intended to continue to avoid clear plastics, but when I wanted to buy a Latitude 64 disc I could only find clear ones in the weights I wanted. I perused the Latitude 64 thread on the forum at www.discgolfreview.com (DGR) to see if this had been addressed. It had; the recommended solution was to simply dye the disc another color yourself.

One of the topics on the DGR forum is Disc Artwork. I don’t consider myself much of an artist, but I figured I’d peruse it to learn enough to make clear discs visible. The post entitled ACID’S DYE TUTORIAL is very useful. Turns out, all you have to do is dilute powdered RIT with water, slightly heat it in an old skillet that you never intend on cooking with again, float the disc on top until it’s the desired darkness and quickly rinse with cold water. My girlfriend gave me a packet of navy Blue RIT dye. I also asked her if she knew what contact paper was, and she reached into a closet and produced a roll.

I figured I might as well put a design on the disc, so while the diluted dye was warming, I cut a few random stripes out of the contact paper and stuck them to the disc, which reminded me of clouds, so I developed them into a scene of sky and water with a ship in the distance. Although it ended up more purple than blue, I thought it turned out pretty good:

(The double-image effect was caused by the shadow cast on the countertop it was sitting on when I took the photo.)

I have since dyed dozens of discs. It is very satisfying to personalize your discs, and not unlike giving them tattoos. When I dyed the San Francisco logo on an orange Z Avenger, I realized the disc became immediately more visible for the same reason why, in a crowd of people, a person displaying a shirt referencing your favorite team, hometown, etc. will stand out. Our eyes are wired to latch onto symbols with meaning.

A limitation on this endeavor is that baseline plastics, such as Innova DX or Pro, don’t hold dye. You can get them to change color, but I’ve not been able to get them dark or vibrant and subtle lines won’t work. The most serendipitous result of an effort to try to dye a plastic was soaking a Gateway Glow Wizard in black dye and having it come out a glorious bronze:


I dyed a couple other Wizards, and quite enjoy how gnarly the silhouette of Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out:


I am also partial to the depiction of Albert Ayler’s “Spiritual Unity” album cover:


The logo stamped on most discs when you purchase them is called a “hot stamp.” This can be blotted off with a cotton ball soaked in acetone, which can be found in the paint aisle of a hardware store. At first, I was using fingernail polish, which is diluted acetone, but it doesn’t work at all and I ended up with scratched up discs from trying to force the stamps off. You want to dab the stamp and not attempt to wipe it off, which will cause it to smear all over the disc. You also want to do this over a sink or something, so you don’t end up dripping acetone and stamp dye everywhere. Discraft’s stamps are imprinted deeper into the plastic than Innova’s, resulting in a permanent indentation even after the ink is removed, called a “ghost stamp.” Scratches and the ghost stamp can be seen on this Discraft Glow Stalker that I put Morpheus from Sandman comics onto:


Sometimes, I decide to leave part of the original logo, and put Scotch tape over the part to remain while using the acetone, but this is an imperfect method as the acetone can actually melt off the tape. Here’s one of my favorite discs, where I left “Teebird,” because for some reason seahorse-teebird is funny to me:


Designs are made by covering what you don’t want dyed with contact paper, which is thin vinyl with a sticky-side. It is mostly used on the inside of kitchen and bathroom drawers. In many stores, it is in the same aisle as large plastic storage bins. I recommend the clear kind, as you can see what’s going on underneath it during the process.

Upon removing the contact paper, some residual stickiness is often left behind that is difficult to remove. I’ve tried dish soap, Goo-Gone and WD-40, but have yet to find a solution better than time and obsessive thumb-rubbing.

When starting a new project, the first thing you need to do is decide whether you want the image itself or the remainder of the top of the disc to remain uncolored. It seems obvious, but I’ve messed up and pulled off the wrong half of the vinyl more than once, and now sharpie “keep” on whatever I don’t want dyed. If you want the image dyed, you will need to cover the entire face and wing of the disc with contact paper.

Next, put the design under the contact paper and trace it using sharpies. I use a fat one to fill in large areas to be cut out and a fine one for lines. I found an old light table that is very useful for this task. If more than one color or shade is going to be dyed into the disc, I note this with sharpie, because otherwise I tend to forget what I’m doing later. You are always going to want to dye the darkest color first, especially outlines. Here’s a somewhat complicated design, FC Barcelona’s logo, drawn and labeled:


There is a machine called a plotter that can cut out designs in contact paper, but I’ve never used one. I’ve always cut out the design using a regular X-acto knife, but my girlfriend got me a 360º swivel blade X-acto for Christmas, and I look forward to using it as it should make my life easier, especially when cutting acute curves. It’s sort of like carving a pumpkin, but more delicate: imagine creating shapes by carving only the peel off an apple. The most difficult shape I’ve cut out so far, which I didn’t anticipate, was a Klingon logo. I made the thin black lines by holding two blades together (the disc was originally red), but there’s surely a better method!


According to the rules established by the DGA, it is legal to infuse ink into the disc but illegal to alter a disc in any way using any cutting tool. This means you are technically supposed to cut out the design before sticking the contact paper to the disc. This severely limits the type of designs that can be done, or at least increases the labor involved, requiring any isolated shapes to be individually placed. The vinyl is very thin, and you don’t want to press very hard at all while cutting it, but it is impossible to not make minor scrapes into the disc. If you want to use a disc you’ve cut a design into in a tournament, you have to lie and say you cut it out before you stuck it to the disc.

Every little knife slip will be revealed by the dye. You can fix most mistakes by taping Scotch tape over them. The hardest mistake to fix is moving an edge slightly inward after removing the vinyl. You have to hold the disc at just the right angle under a desk lamp to see the cuts you’ve made, and Scotch tape adds glare and makes this task more difficult. For this reason, you want to lift your blade as infrequently as possible. Unfortunately, you have to lift the non-swiveling X-acto to make sharp turns, as doing otherwise will gouge into the disc. Also, if you slip and cut into vinyl not to be removed, lift the blade and tape over it immediately, and then continue by cutting from the opposite direction so the blade doesn’t follow the same groove.

I remove each section of vinyl using tweezers as soon as I get it cut, assuming of course that section is to be the first if a series of dyeing is to be done. Because the cut lines are so difficult to see, it is easy to forget to remove stuff that’s supposed to be removed. While removing, pull against any portions where edges meet to avoid lifting or ripping the vinyl. This is where bleed it most likely to occur. Double-check that every piece of vinyl has been removed, as sometimes the vinyl tears and leaves behind an unintended portion. I’ve also had removed pieces find their way stuck in some random location back onto the disc instead of in the trash. Here’s the Barca logo disc with the first portion to be dyed removed:


I mix powdered RIT in a glass Ball jar with water so that I can see the color. I made an early mistake of putting the lid on and shaking the mixture, which caused it to froth, and then I had a whole bunch of bubbles to get rid of before I could put the disc into it. I now stir it with a plastic knife. You can store the mixture into the jar after use, however, and it can be re-used indefinitely.

You don’t want the dye to get too hot before floating your disc onto it, as doing so will cause the contact paper to loosen at the edges allowing bleed will occur. I heat the mixture on low for several minutes (if it starts smoking, it’s too hot) then turn off the burner completely before sliding the disc in at a slight angle to provide an exit for any air bubbles, which will create little circles in the finished product. After letting it soak for 5 minutes, I quickly lift to check for loose contact paper, bleed, air bubbles and that the temperature is correct. An annoying problem with ghost stamps to look for is they can create a channel in which the dye can seep under the contact paper.

If there is bleed or lifting at this point the best solution is to abort the process by rinsing and letting the disc and contact paper cool and dry. Then, squirt Elmer’s school glue under the contact paper in the problem area, wipe off the excess and let it dry overnight before trying again. While putting the FC Barcelona logo on a Discraft Glow Buzzz, the dye bled into the ghost stamp where the bee was on the original design, which I was too lazy to fix until I’d dyed the outline for 20 minutes. Solid black usually takes 30 minutes. In this case, I tried to take advantage of the fact that the black was looking blue in its early stages and removed the section covering what are supposed to be blue stripes and did ten more minutes in black:


I have done several experiments taking advantage of using the same dye but removing portions of the vinyl at different times to create various shades. Again, I number the order in which each area is to be removed to avoid confusion during the process. The color of the disc in progress is hard to judge, because the vinyl covering darkens as well. Upon removing the vinyl at the end, the dyes tend to be darker than you thought. The color spread, from lightest to darkest, is typically 3 to 30 minutes, and you need to anticipate that the first colors in will continue to get darker during the process. I rinse the discs and reheat the dye while removing each level of contact paper. Here are some results:





Doing an outline in black and then removing the vinyl it is surrounding and filling it in with another color looks very nice. Comic books provide a great resource for utilizing this technique, as it is not dissimilar to the process they use of having one person ink and another fill in the color. You can actually make a thin outline simply by dyeing it after cutting but before removing any vinyl, but thicker, bolder outlines look better. Here’s the X-Men character Beast on a disc called Beast:


This is a perfect example of how hard it is to keep track of what stays and what gets removed. There is a glaring gaffe that probably most wouldn’t notice until pointed out. It’s supposed to look like this:


On the Barca logo disc, I could tell right away the stripes were not the color I'd wanted, being more purple than blue, but I worried about them getting black if I left it in too long. This was my first attempt at adding three different dye colors. I glued the vinyl back onto the blue stripes (I had simply saved the sections after removing them) and removed the sections to be dyed red:


For some strange reason, I decided to remove the covers I’d put back on the blue stripes before doing the yellow:


This did not help them look less purple. The most frustrating part, to me, is that upon cleaning the disc I discovered that the bleed from the beginning was exactly the blue I had wanted the stripes to be!


I’m realizing, especially given my level of talent, with disc art it’s prudent to incorporate the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principle. Speaking of which, this is more than enough disc golf discussion for awhile….

Disc Golf Review, Part 2: Technique

Sometime last year, shortly after being shown how to properly grip the disc, I sort of figured out that I could get more distance if I torqued my wrist so that my palm was facing up after the release. Pretty soon, I was throwing the discs so hard and fast that they were turning to the right… or so I thought. I started seeking out more stable discs. While it is true that giving the disc more speed will cause it to lose stability, I wasn’t throwing far enough for that to be the case. My discs were turning because I was giving them OAT (off-axis torque).

I found this out by trolling the forum at discgolfreview.com (DGR). They recommended working out OAT by learning to make your flippiest disc hyzer while throwing it flat. A few days prior, I had wrapped a paper plate in duct tape and thrown it across the room for awhile. It was so unstable, I could whip it across the room spiraling out a counter-clockwise corkscrew. Eventually, my girlfriend got ahold of it and aimed for a plant. Her throw gently hyzered into the pot. This is what I needed to figure out how to do.

Since then, I have graduated to using a large coffee can lid to practice this skill. Besides learning how to refrain from twisting your wrist, a major thing to learn with this exercise is how to reduce wobble, as doing so increases glide, the straightest part of the flight, tremendously. I remember watching my younger sister playing with a toy top as a kid, and she finessed the handle with her little fingers and got the thing to effortlessly spin for a long time. When it finally petered out, I said, “Oh yeah- watch this!” and torqued the top as hard as I could. It flopped around wildly for a few moments and then crashed onto its side.

I had several high speed drivers that all went around the same distance, maxing out at 300 feet. The opinion on the forum was that this was due to reliance on arm strength rather than leg, hip and shoulder whip. This was also extremely familiar. This exact premise is central to a method of drumming called the Moeller technique, which I spent years studying, practicing and teaching. To increase drum speed, you have to learn to relax and whip your limbs instead of counter-productively tensing muscles.

Some of the movements involved in throwing a disc are simply intended to get things in the correct position and alignment to enable maximum efficiency in generating power to the disc, reducing wobble and getting the nose down. As an example- if you pull the disc level across your chest, pointing your elbow at the target, you will not only have the disc aligned to propel it forward instead of up, but also arrive at a position near your right pec where it is actually impossible to use your arm muscles to throw it. This requires you to generate force using your hips, which are much more powerful. The crux of this task is to seamlessly weave these separate tasks into one fluid motion.

I started playing rounds while incorporating various theories and tips found on the “techniques” portion of the disc golf review forum. After about five rounds of this, I had increased my accuracy but my distance was the same. By ten rounds, my distance had potentially increased except the only times I managed to get the nose down were on throws that flew wildly to the right. Halfway through about 15 rounds, after several holes where every throw sailed wildly to the right, I was pretty much relegated to running up and down the concrete pad trying to remember how to let go of the disc.

Back to the drawing board, or in this case, forum. Like most things on the internet, there is more misinformation than anything else on the site. Members give all manner of analogies intended to help visualize the throw of the disc. Some equate it to throwing a hammer or snapping a towel, but I really didn’t find these concepts accurate or helpful. While watching one video, a comparison to dropping the bat head in baseball was made. As an avid baseball fan, I am very familiar with this term.

The plight of former first baseman for the San Francisco Giants J.T. Snow came to mind. He is probably the best fielding first baseman I’ve ever seen, and early in his career he was a decent hitter, too. Then, he lost his hitting mechanics, and the harder he worked at trying to get them back, the worse his hitting became. The Giants used to have a brilliant and knowledgeable hitting coach named Dusty Baker. Unfortunately, he wasn’t their hitting coach but their manager, and he wasn’t as good of a manager. After he left, taking Gene Clines, the Giants’ actual hitting coach, with him, the hitting mechanics of pretty much the entire team fell apart.

While I can’t hit a baseball worth a darn, I have watched enough baseball to knowledgeably critique a swing. It suddenly occurred to me a RHBH disc golf throw is very much like batting lefty. J.T. Snow is a lefty. If a lefty is fouling everything to right, what’s he doing wrong? Either he’s getting out on his front foot or he’s not keeping his hands back. Voila; problem solved.

Another baseball adage that applies to disc golf is to accelerate through the throw. I miss watching that fluid, easy swing of Barry Bonds culminating in the ball appearing to jump off the bat like it had a propulsion system. His swing looked like that television effect created by going from slow-motion to real time. On a drive, the disc should be traveling at its fastest upon release. Rushing the wind-up into the throw is counter-productive.

Much of the time at DGR is spent learning to recognize useless information. One of the few people who reliably knows what he’s talking about is named Blake Takkunen, and one of his helpful articles on the main page of DGR explains the role of the grip on the disc. The first time I skimmed it, I was thrown off by the nuances of two things: the line on the hand to keep the disc edge on and keeping the thumb in front of the forefinger.



This is Blake's illustration, showing to put the disc edge against a line running from between the index and middle finger and the terminus of the wrinkle at the base of the thumb pad. He cryptically remarks that the disc can be above this line. Looking at my grip, I was satisfied that the back edge was on his line and the front edge above it, as that seemed to satisfy his criteria. Also, it seemed impossible to place the disc on the part of the palm between those two fingers while having the forefinger gripped beneath it. I had neglected to consider the elasticity of skin. I now realize he was intending to allow for a higher but parallel line. Simply taking his advice and placing the disc exactly where he says to has been immeasurably useful.

Any discussion of disc grip notes to place the thumb in front of the knuckle of the forefinger. I was putting my thumb as far forward as I could, which was pulling the disc nose up- the exact opposite of what you want to do. All they’re trying to say is put the thumb flat on the disc pointing forward and the forefinger tight around the rim. This should naturally cause the tip of the thumb to be in front of the forefinger knuckle by a few centimeters. I put my thumb’s right side very close to the outside edge of the disc.

For maximum distance, it is crucial to clamp tight to the disc just prior to the release, but not earlier. If you tightly squeeze a fist, you can feel your finger muscles fatigue after barely a second. After that, your arm muscles begin to detrimentally stiffen instead.

As a memory exercise, I compiled a list of reminders to act as a sort of mental checklist, breaking down the major aspects and motions to consider during a drive:

Drive:
1. Grip:
a. palm/pad placement
b. fingers curled
c. thumb
2. Wrist down and cocked
3. On balls of feet, knees bent, spine aligned
4. Set height, nose, hyzer
5. Controlled X-Step through disc location
6. Start lawn mower into right pec
7. Shift hip weight
8. Tighten grip (SNAP)
9. Step through

(Please Note: “Throw as hard as you can” intentionally absent!)

It is excruciatingly difficult to remember all of these things in the second it takes to perform them.

Putting requires less body movement, making it seem simpler to figure out, but perhaps that perception is precisely what makes it difficult. It is tempting to get frustrated over missed putts, with the basket mocking before you, but losing confidence is a death knell. I have found a 5 minute video clinic on YouTube with Cameron Todd and David Feldberg to be most helpful. One day on the course, some random guy, after watching me putt, remarked, “Grab the pole.” This advice has helped reduce popping the disc up as if throwing a free-throw. I made a similar putting reminder list:

Putt:
1. Grip:
a. palm/pad placement
b. fingers fanned
c. thumb
2. Wrist down and cocked
3. On balls of feet, knees bent, spine aligned
4. Target pole
5. Arm straight (elbow not quite locked)
6. Push with legs
7. SNAP from waist
8. Back leg push according to distance

I suppose I may as well make a mid-range list as well:

Mid-Range:
1. Grip:
a. palm/pad placement
b. fingers birdie grip
c. thumb
2. Wrist down and cocked
3. On balls of feet, knees bent, spine aligned
4. Set height, nose, hyzer
5. Step front foot back, pull disc back
6. Step front foot forward, start lawn mower into right pec
7. Shift hip weight
8. Tighten grip (SNAP)
9. Step through

These lists might be too aimed at my strategies and struggles to be of much use for others. In the end, the only way to figure out how to throw a disc is by developing productive habits through repetition and practice, practice, practice.

Check back for Disc Golf Review, Part 3: Disc Dyeing.