Unexpected Treasure

I found a treasure trove tonight. I was cruising around Facebook and discovered a post on Jackie Chan's page, advertising his newly remodeled official web page. I have loved Jackie Chan for years since long before I studied Kung-Fu myself. I love the old classic Chan movies -- The ones with the 20 minute fight scenes and horribly dubbed voice-overs. I love seeing him with a young (and skinny) Sammo Hung and even his appearance as the crazy subaru driver in Canonball Run. I admire his skill as a martial artist, I am in awe of his self-deprecating sense of humor in the face of all his success. I dream of joining his troupe of expert martial arts stunt men.

I wandered over to his new site hoping to find pictures, video clips, perhaps a press release or two. What I found, though, was his online diary! This stuff is great. It's such a free, mostly unfiltered look into his daily experiences.

I laughed out loud (earning a disgruntled noise as I disrupted my oldest daughter's Manga book) as I read about his first time checking luggage with a laptop last week. I guess he is known among his friends as being as far from techie as possible, so they all doubled over laughing when he showed them the laptop.

He talks openly about the time he spends with his dogs and cats, the tedium of all day meetings, and the help his friends and staff give him to keep up with his hectic schedule. He discribed how often he gets pulled over by police so they can shake his hand and take a few pictures. (I should have been a police officer!) I must say I wrongly envisioned him spending most of his days in a gymn or preferably out in a pine grove practicing his Kung-Fu. This candid view of his thoughts and experiences is so refreshing, though.

It turns out he's in New Mexico filming a new movie for the next couple months. I dreamed of taking a road trip to visit my brother there and "accidentally" bumping into Jackie Chan.

Apparently Jackie has been doing this online journal for a very long time. I see entries dating back to June of 2005. I can't believe I didn't discover this long ago. In any case, I know what my spare time will be spent reading for the net few days.