About this site

Prana is a Sanskrit word that has multiple meanings. It literally means "to breathe forth." It can also mean "breath of life, breath, respiration, vitality, vigor, energy, power and spirit." It is the all-pervading vital energy or life force of the universe. I am merely repurposing the Sanskrit research done by Richard Rosen in his The Yoga of Breath. But it is an evocative term that should be borrowed into English.

Prana Journal is about my learning process in yoga, pranayama, meditation and other related disciplines. I don't write as an expert, but rather as an engaged student who gains better understanding by sharing what he has learned. I keep a running account of my yoga activities and what else I learn from reading books, magazines or web articles. I also have resource pages that are condensations of blogging and thinking. One of my main interest is the Art of Living Foundation and its spiritual leader, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Web Stuff

For the time being, this site uses the Blogger.com online application to update. I have preferred static pages as simple HTML pages, rather than fancy stuff. The format is taken off one of the standard templates for Blogger.com weblogs. I liked its clean simplicity and typography.

The signature logo is a Japanese version of my first name. The phonetic equivalent means Kick and Dance in Japanaese. Back in the early days of the Internet (1996), a guy was making these for free for anyone who asked. I have long lost the guy's name and references as I migrated through at least four computers since then so my apologies to him wherever he is now.

I make heavy use of the acronym tag to add clarity to some of the esoteric terms that predominate in yoga speak. Sanskrit is the source of most yoga terminology so lots of names are not familiar to the ear. Just float your cursor over the underscored text. I may also use an inline icon to draw attention to additional information.

I mainly use HTMLKit and TopStyle Pro to produce the non-blog content. I use Jasc's Paintshop Pro for graphics editing.

For those that would like to see more other sides of my web presence, I have two other web sites: Peruvian Graffiti and BackdoorTech.com. I also design sites for friends and colleagues.

I host my sites with Interland on an Apache 1.3.22 server.