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Blues and Arisia
Jan. 17th, 2011 06:18 pmTwo intense weekends, two different crowds.
I just thought of a short explanation that feels mostly true.
Blues: these are people I share a fun awesome passion with.
Arisia: these are my people.
At dance events my connections with people often don't stray far outside of dancing. At Arisia I found people who I could dance with and do acro with and talk about favorite scifi with and talk about lame libertarianism in fiction with and a dozen other things. And while I know a few people who fit all of those things, there's also a great diversity of people who fit a few or several of those things. I get it all. It's great.
At the end of the dance workshop weekend, I noticed the demographic. Mostly young 20s-30s fit dancers. I expected and got a much wider set of shapes and sizes and ages of people at Arisia, and it was good! It was interesting! Of course, part of the variety was due to costuming. :-) I think I made someone happy by recognizing their semi-obscure costume as a Galifrean time lord.
This was my first year getting a room at the con hotel. It definitely improved my experience. Previously I had to subway or bicycle home around midnight or 1am every night, and back the next morning, always missing very late things or slightly early things. This time I was good and got to sleep around 1am Friday night and got up in time for 9am yoga in the morning. As I got dragged to more and more interesting nocturnal activities I wound up staying up till 4am and 6am.
Now I'm home and I can again eat food that is neither disgusting nor disgustingly priced. The best food all weekend was at the reception for my favorite vegan newlyweds. That was also a beautiful thing, but another story.
Yay megadose of geek culture and nifty new people (made some new local friends). If I am very good I'll find a way to sleep 10 hours tonight. Uf.
I just thought of a short explanation that feels mostly true.
Blues: these are people I share a fun awesome passion with.
Arisia: these are my people.
At dance events my connections with people often don't stray far outside of dancing. At Arisia I found people who I could dance with and do acro with and talk about favorite scifi with and talk about lame libertarianism in fiction with and a dozen other things. And while I know a few people who fit all of those things, there's also a great diversity of people who fit a few or several of those things. I get it all. It's great.
At the end of the dance workshop weekend, I noticed the demographic. Mostly young 20s-30s fit dancers. I expected and got a much wider set of shapes and sizes and ages of people at Arisia, and it was good! It was interesting! Of course, part of the variety was due to costuming. :-) I think I made someone happy by recognizing their semi-obscure costume as a Galifrean time lord.
This was my first year getting a room at the con hotel. It definitely improved my experience. Previously I had to subway or bicycle home around midnight or 1am every night, and back the next morning, always missing very late things or slightly early things. This time I was good and got to sleep around 1am Friday night and got up in time for 9am yoga in the morning. As I got dragged to more and more interesting nocturnal activities I wound up staying up till 4am and 6am.
Now I'm home and I can again eat food that is neither disgusting nor disgustingly priced. The best food all weekend was at the reception for my favorite vegan newlyweds. That was also a beautiful thing, but another story.
Yay megadose of geek culture and nifty new people (made some new local friends). If I am very good I'll find a way to sleep 10 hours tonight. Uf.
I'm a dance instructor now
Nov. 13th, 2009 01:22 amMonday night for the first time ever I taught a swing dance class and was paid for it. It's like I'm a real instructor now. The next time someone asks me if I teach (it happens every now and then) I can say yes.
All thanks go to![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
omegabeth who coordinated the whole thing, getting me a venue and participants. Also my wonderful girlfriend and dance partner was awesome and did at least as much talking as I and I think she really took to helping out the dancers, watching and giving tips.
What did we do? Week one of a six week course. Weeks 1 and 2 will be "East Coast" style. 3 and 4 Lindy Hop. 5 and 6 mixing it all up and adding more.
The only down side is the commute. It took us 1.5 hours to drive from Kendall Sq to Mosaic Commons. If anyone knows a better way other than Memorial Drive -> Western Ave -> 90 -> 495, I'd like to hear it.
All thanks go to
omegabeth who coordinated the whole thing, getting me a venue and participants. Also my wonderful girlfriend and dance partner was awesome and did at least as much talking as I and I think she really took to helping out the dancers, watching and giving tips.What did we do? Week one of a six week course. Weeks 1 and 2 will be "East Coast" style. 3 and 4 Lindy Hop. 5 and 6 mixing it all up and adding more.
The only down side is the commute. It took us 1.5 hours to drive from Kendall Sq to Mosaic Commons. If anyone knows a better way other than Memorial Drive -> Western Ave -> 90 -> 495, I'd like to hear it.
Culture Shock/Dating Fail/Lazy Saturday
May. 30th, 2009 09:22 am8 days ago friday night I was having an excellent time dancing with a beautiful-intelligent-sexy young woman, the kind of flirty dancing that I took to have intent to follow through, and so I suggested that I should take her out on a date some time and she said that sounded like a nice idea. I had given her my phone number and email address and she had texted me and I had texted her (I would have much rather emailed, more writing space, better UI, but I didn't have her email) and I think I was waiting for her to email me. Last night I discovered she was waiting for me to call her. It never occurred to me to use my phone to contact her at her phone number for voice communications. I just do do that. So I spent about the next two hours of the dance just kind of dumfounded in shock that my brain had not processed something so basic, that yet still felt so strange to me. She said she had something to do Saturday, so maybe I'll call Sunday and see about scheduling something for next week/weekend. ... if I'm not still too dumb and foolish feeling to be able to make a serious go of it.
Now I have a totally unscheduled Saturday, and even before last night's shock I was feeling a great ennui towards today. It probably means I need more rest after a hard work week, so I will try to really rest until I figure out if there's something I really want to do.
Now I have a totally unscheduled Saturday, and even before last night's shock I was feeling a great ennui towards today. It probably means I need more rest after a hard work week, so I will try to really rest until I figure out if there's something I really want to do.
Swing Dancing!
Apr. 8th, 2008 09:16 amI've been too busy dancing to blog about how much dancing I've been doing. Since starting into the local scene in January, I've usually been going Monday night and Wednesday night. Now it looks like a regular Friday night venue has started. Yow!
It's fun. If any of you out there are interested, there are cheap/free lessons just before each of these dances. There's also a proper series of classes Tuesdays in Central sq, but I haven't gone to those.
It's fun. If any of you out there are interested, there are cheap/free lessons just before each of these dances. There's also a proper series of classes Tuesdays in Central sq, but I haven't gone to those.
Oh yeah, I am back to dancing
Jan. 9th, 2008 11:34 pmTonight was the return to dancing I needed. I may have found my new dance home. I went for the beginner lesson, which despite being in the swing style that isn’t my strongest, was too basic. It was fun anyway. And in a way, my faith in humanity has been restored because there are still good people out there yet to be discovered and some of them are fun to dance with. :-)
On Fitness
Oct. 1st, 2007 11:15 pmWent to a swing dance tonight, dragged along ultimatepsi.
Oh yeah! Dancing is fun! [This had escaped my mind in the couple months since I've done it.]
I need to be in better shape so I can dance more. [Also not the first time I've thought this.]
I need to be in better shape so I can exercise more, I'm not in good enough shape to do real exercise. [ok ok, I know it's all relative and if walking 30 minutes* is a workout for me then that's what I should do and I should push myself for more until I can do more and on and on and I've trained up before and I can do it again. (* not actually my limit, but something I hear bandied about as the sort of thing the 'average American' might need, wow)]
Speaking of WoW,ultimatepsi encouraged me to think of exercise and fitness as leveling up. I then commented that my fitness is like a level 19 twink, I have all the equipment but I'm still casting tiny spells.
ultimatepsi.Oh yeah! Dancing is fun! [This had escaped my mind in the couple months since I've done it.]
I need to be in better shape so I can dance more. [Also not the first time I've thought this.]
I need to be in better shape so I can exercise more, I'm not in good enough shape to do real exercise. [ok ok, I know it's all relative and if walking 30 minutes* is a workout for me then that's what I should do and I should push myself for more until I can do more and on and on and I've trained up before and I can do it again. (* not actually my limit, but something I hear bandied about as the sort of thing the 'average American' might need, wow)]
Speaking of WoW,
ultimatepsi encouraged me to think of exercise and fitness as leveling up. I then commented that my fitness is like a level 19 twink, I have all the equipment but I'm still casting tiny spells.Why I Exercise
May. 19th, 2007 10:35 amMost of the last couple weeks I've been dismissive of going to the gym and getting the exercise I had almost gotten in the habit of getting. Just a lot of excuses about time and lethargy and donwanna. I think I had forgotten why I exercise. Last night at swing dancing I remembered. I need to be in better shape so I can do more and do better. I definitely didn't get the most out of the experience last night because I had to rest 2 out of 3 songs and I was embarrassingly sweaty and towards the end tired and knee-achy. Back to the gym with me, uh, tomorrow cuz I'm pretty sore today.
Dancing Success
Jul. 22nd, 2006 01:48 pmI stayed the whole three hours and I think on average I danced every third song. I had some trouble with the first dance and had to stop because my knee hurt. I did some stretches and a couple songs later I tried again and it was ok. So, on it went with taking breaks and sometimes stretching between songs.
I had some wonderful dances! I'm out of shape, a little sloppy and out of practice in the lead, but I still had some great dances. Definitely time to get back into swing dancing. :-)
I'm sore today, but not injured I think. It's too hot to do anything today anyway, so sitting around and recovering is entirely in order.
I had some wonderful dances! I'm out of shape, a little sloppy and out of practice in the lead, but I still had some great dances. Definitely time to get back into swing dancing. :-)
I'm sore today, but not injured I think. It's too hot to do anything today anyway, so sitting around and recovering is entirely in order.
