David A Ross

Sometimes the only way to find yourself is to leave behind everything you've ever known... and become a stranger.Abandoning a life filled with loss of family, love, and personal integrity, Doran Seeger is flying through a blinding storm on his way to a political awakening in Amsterdam, an unexpected affair in the Swiss Alps, a brush-by encounter on a train platform and the serendipitous discovery of a wadded up handbill that will lead him into a land where a gleefully absurd culture still embraces real civility: Greece.

This light-hearted, beautifully illustrated deck and guidebook brings the spiritual mysticism of sugar skulls to a fresh interpretation of each of the major and minor arcana to help you hone your intuition.Sugar skulls, or calaveras, are traditionally made by hand to celebrate the Mexican celebration of Day of the Dead, or Dia de Muertos. Colorful and lovingly crafted, they are offerings for loved ones who have passed into the spirit realm. The sugar skulls depicted throughout this deck are there to remind us of our spiritual journey and help us reach our full potential. Just as the Fool progresses throughout the entirety of the Major Arcana, we all have our own personal journeys that are represented through the tarot. Whether it’s the Magician shooting the sugar skull bullseye, the High Priestess seeing her reflection in the water (thus revealing her inner truth in the form of a sugar skull), or the Fool feeling confident that he will create and manifest the perfect sugar skull by the time he finishes his journey, we all have an unrealized version of our true potential. The Sugar Skull Tarot Deck and Guidebook offers a refreshing new take on a timeless tradition and is the perfect tool to recognize the inner potential inside each of us. Let the brightly colored illustrations offer you all the inspiration you need to be the best person you can truly be so you can present a more accurate representation of yourself—confident, magical, and ready to give and receive love—to the world.

Embrace the magic of tarot and perfectly match the cards with mixed drinks in this beautifully illustrated bar book.“Don’t take advice from tequila, that’s the tarot’s job.” Tarot & Tequila is a positive and spiritually uplifting guide that includes both basic and humorous tequila-inspired meanings of all 78 tarot cards that both beginners and experienced tarot card readers will relate to. Featuring 40 cocktail recipes—one for each Major Arcana card plus bonus Minor Arcana drinks, too—based on the attributes of the cards themselves, as well as a mystical pairing that explains why professional tarot card reader David Ross chose to pair each card to their respective drink, this magical mixology book can be used as both a guide and a recipe book. Try drinks like: -The High Priestess, an elixir of tequila, lemon juice, thyme, and seltzer -The Chariot, a tequila version of a Moscow Mule, with lemon, beet, and apple juices -The Four of Wands, a positive concoction of rum, homemade fennel liqueur, and more Perfect for fans of drinking, bartending, and tarot alike, this beautifully illustrated book makes both a perfect gift and a must-have addition to any home bar.

Did Buddhist monks and Daoist priests really practice martial arts? Is the practice of Chinese martial arts religious? What are the White Lotus Sect and the Heaven and Earth Society? Did martial artists really think they could resist bullets using their internal power? What is the "internal school" of martial arts? These and many more questions are addressed and potentially answered by the new volume "Chinese Martial Arts, A Historical Outline".This is the first work of its kind in the English language. Beginning with the earliest historical records regarding the practice of martial arts, it progressively outlines the development of martial arts within the larger context of Chinese society. In doing so, it presents the many important events, issues and challenges which have shaped the traditions we now practice. Particular attention is paid to the evolution of the concept of using "Qi" in the martial arts, the doomed Boxer Uprising, and developments during the Republican era.Designed to be an outline rather than an exhaustive work on any one particular issue, "Chinese Martial Arts" is 226 pages with over 340 footnotes and an extensive bibliography. Destined to change the way martial artists perceive and understand what they practice.Table of Contents includes"MILITARY METHODS""THE FOUR STAFF OCCUPATIONS""CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE""THE WHITE LOTUS SECT""THE HEAVEN AND EARTH SOCIETY""THE TAIPING CIVIL WAR""THE BOXER UPRISING""NEI JIA QUAN""NEW CULTURE MOVEMENT""NATIONAL ARTS" and "SHAOLIN LEGENDS".

Recently divorced and made redundant from his job, Julian Crosby needs a break from reality. That's why he's gone to Hawaii...If his personal circumstances had been different-if he were simply on a two-week vacation in Maui with his now former wife-then he surely would have laughed and said "no" to the outrageous offer from the funny-looking Hawaiian wearing a loud tropical shirt with an equally loud, not to mention obnoxious, blue and yellow parrot named Buenaventura perched upon his shoulder to buy a rundown boat called Scoundrel.But that was then and this is now... Or is it?Meanwhile, sixty years ago, Amelia Earhart is getting ready for her much publicized flight around the world. Is this daring adventure to be her final flight, her swan song? Or is she actually on a reconnaissance mission for President Roosevelt? And what does her ill-fated flight have to do with Julian, his innocent Hawaiian holiday and his newly-acquired boat? As Buenaventura reveals, "Only time will tell" as their two worlds unexpectedly and impossibly collide.In this award-winning novel a weekend sailor shipwrecked on an uncharted atoll in the South Seas eventually discovers the island's only other human inhabitant-a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to 1930s lost flying ace Amelia Earhart.

The Island of Corfu in Greece is known as the Emerald Isle. William Shakespeare's metaphorical play, "The Tempest", was derived from the island's thunderous autumnal storms. Henry Miller, as well as Gerald and Lawrence Durrell, once called Corfu home. It is an island of intense beauty with fertile green land, golden beaches, turquoise waters, a beautiful Venetian-built city, and one of the most gregarious - and sometimes one of the most treacherous - cultures in Europe. More than a million people from all over the world visit Corfu each year, and over 30,000 expatriates live year round on the island. GOOD MORNING CORFU: LIVING ABROAD AGAINST ALL ODDS chronicles the experiences and observations of an American expatriate living on this Mediterranean outpost of dizzying extremes. From wide-eyed wonder to cultural and personal confusion, from unbridled joy to deep despair, and from empathy to outright loathing, these short essays examine both local and expatriate lifestyles through the lens of one deeply immersed yet forever removed, fundamentally involved yet perpetually on the perimeter of a most curious culture. Even more than a journal of events and experiences, the essays consider many of life's more profound issues and concerns with insight, optimism and humor.

Meet Fizzy Oceans-archivist, researcher, environmentalist and adventurer. On her travels she witnesses The Exodus, the Battle of Gettysburg and Hurricane Katrina, as well as many other historical and real time events. She meets notable individuals including Gandhi, Mark Twain, Jacques Cousteau, The Dalai Lama, Saddam Hussein and even a new species called the Quinngen.Such unique experiences and encounters spanning the world and time as we know them would not be possible for a single individual-especially not for a woman named Amy Birkenstock who works as a medical clerk in Seattle, Washington-but Fizzy Oceans, Amy's digital alter ego, is not in Physical Life. She lives, works and travels in the virtual world where the dead are very much alive, places like ancient Babylon and Pompeii have been reconstructed, and with the click of a button-WHOOSH -one is transported throughout the Ages to events and destinations that make up our human history.Even as Amy's physical life existence is challenged by encroaching environmental disaster, economic instability, and societal breakdown, Fizzy's virtual world offers instant realization of vision and inspiration. The Virtual Life of Fizzy Oceans imagines the bridging of two worlds-the literal and the metaphorical-and questions what it is we have created, what has been lost, and what might be possible for us as individuals and for the Human Race.

The oceans cover about 72 percent of our planet (which is named for the remaining 28 percent). These oceans have fascinated and challenged the human race for centuries. In the past, the ocean had been used first as a source of food and later as a means of transportation. However, the oceans have recently become very important-they may offer a solution to many of our modern problems. For example, refuse from land is to be dumped into the ocean never to be seen again; fish and other biological resources are to be caught and used to meet the protein deficiency of the world; oil and gas from the continental shelf and perhaps deeper areas will eventually solve our energy problems. None ofthese examples is completely possible, and the at­ source offood and later as a means of transportation. However, the oceans social, and ecological problems in the marine environment. Countries are al­ ready planning how the oceans can be divided up, so that they will get their "fair share". Economists, politicians, and others are producing almost daily, optimistic or pessimistic views (depending upon your own viewpoint) about the ocean and its resources. Equally loud reports come from environ­ mentalists, conservationists, government sources, and oil companies con­ cerning the pollution and potential destruction of the ocean.

Cooperative research ventures between some new ones, such as a telemetering pin- oceanographic institutions and nations to- ger for getting a continuous temperature day frequently start with a series of official profile and a thermoprobe accurate to meetings, councils, and so forth, followed 0.005 DegreesC. by several years of research, and finally a When the R. V. CHAIN returned home, group of papers ernerging in various techni- there were requests from many laboratories cal journals. The study of the Red Sea is an around the world for sediment samples to exception to this procedure. It is a good analyze. These requests were filled insofar example of the kind of spontaneous cooper- as was possible without exhausting all avail- ation that can occur when individual scien- able sample. tists get excited about a unique problern and Although the hot brine and heavy metal work together exchanging samples and data deposits cover an area of less than 100 and publishing their final results in a single square miles, they are clearly part of a volume. The problern ofthe hot holes ofthe larger geological scheme. The world-wide Red Sea required real teamwork from scien- interest in rift valleys and sea floor spread- tists of many different disciplines as well as ing with their attendant hydrothermal and different nationalities.