[d3vo: lifeblog]

Internet Radio

2012-01-04T00:14:00.002+13:00

I've been enjoying some internet radio these hols.

Deep House (plays in a pop up window)

Blues/ Jazz/ Jug (opens a media player)

Books

2011-11-19T19:52:00.001+13:00

I finished Pushing Ice by Alastair Renolds on Thusday night on the couch. A good read with great use of lots of real physics and plenty of long term end point thinking.

Finishing at 9pm, I wanted another book to read so I went out and got one.

I'm a fast chooser and it only took me ten minutes to buy one including
-lacing my shoes
-getting to the book store
-by foot
-and getting home again

It is handy living 100 metres from a late night book store :)

Translations from MEL to WLG

2011-11-19T12:23:00.001+13:00

Some translations of words.

Pint -> a UK sized pint glass of about 560 ml.
Pot -> a much smaller glass
Thong -> jandal
Chewy -> chewing gum
Dink -> to double someone on a bicycle
Blowy -> a blowfly or a blowjob.
Wristy -> a wrist job
Old mate -> used a placeholder when you've forgotten somebodies name, or when you don't want to mention them by name
Parma -> a dish served at pubs that might once have been related to the Italian dish chicken parmiagani, a creamy pasta dish flavoured with taragon, but is now crumbed deep fried chicken with tomatoe relish and cheese served with fries.
Swimmers -> togs
Runners -> running shoes
000 -> 111
sidy -> city
cd -> city
hache t m l -> html

Better at Relationships with Women Part 2

2011-10-18T02:20:00.002+13:00

--
So I'm better at women in a relationship context. What do I mean exactly?

So things are working out much better, and I can see what is and isn't happening, and these relationships have clarity, and I can steer them to some extent and negotiate them and size them and communicate about them with some comfort. I'm really pretty happy about this as you would expect.

My modest set of experience means that I think I can see patterns in dating, shagging, being friends, having meaningful relationships and getting close to women. I think these are western patterns. Some part of these feels cultural, but a lot of it feels like a good computer program for trust construction over a lossy channel.

So I was very intolerant about not knowing about what things meant when I was dating. I had trouble not knowing answers to questions like 'Does she like me and which way?'. I was kind of nervous about it and I'm sure it showed and steered things badly.

Data points let me get some idea of what things meant, by figuring it out in retrospect, and this comparison stuff has let me build a tolerance for these questions through realising things about communication, specifically about what you are dealing with in terms of the communication medium, which I have not heard or seen a satisfactory explanation of. Mine looks like this:

"The communication channel for dating starts small, is lossy, garbles messages and breaks if any message is too much bigger than the last one."

There is a lot of depth about what I mean here, that you have to understand that capacities and limitations of the channel in order to ever have a tolerance for it that is necessary for a composure and a competency.

There are some ways specifically that you need to parse information from this channel that mean that you can't really reasonably be very upset or pleased about signals that you get right away, you can't often parse the last few signals you got, you can only parse early ones in the chain.

I think the parsing of this information is specifically a Type 1 Context Sensitive grammar in the Chomsky heirachy. These are the ones that are hard to parse because you need to keep a kind of state in your parser.

Better at Relationships with Women Part 1

2011-10-17T02:44:00.002+13:00

--
I realised tonight while talking with a buddy that I seem to have been luckier in the past year or so than prior with women. Much luckier. Much better. He asked me what that was about and I replied that I'd think about it and get back to him.

It isn't that I've been working out lots at the gym, I haven't, I'm not in good shape for me. It isn't a new haircut. My wardrobe has been pretty good this last year, but not markedly different than prior. No new car. My home has been in pretty good shape however, a tiny help.

Part of things is slowly accumulating some mass of 'emotional skills', abilities to pick apart specific feelings, actions, reactions. This has happened basically because enough experiences, including being crushed, have happened to me.

I'm a guy that needs a lot of data to work things out and I certainly got that with a share of crushings, bad chasing, poor calls and an actually crazy woman with Boarderline Personality Disorder. About 5 or 6 years worth of data is how long it took me to get somewhere towards my self perceived competency.

Most people get this stuff earlier, but being a geek and having a great long early relationship, starting relationships late, being an introvert, learning finer points of social skills later; these meant that I didn't get 5 years of random dating done till about a year ago, roughly.

I've had plenty of support though, here and in other places, that has helped a lot, so thanks :)

I think things needn't take this long if you have a good guide. I certainly had people to talk to, but to at a level of specificy that worked for me. In extreme detail when things don't work, breaking that down to some fundamental thing, some fundamental contradiction, that is how I learn.

For general unguided mish mash experience, it took me a lot of data points.

But I have found people really good at relationships, kind of at the wrong end of the process, but these people do exist and so that is good to know and talk about.

Firefox 7 Fixes

2011-10-06T20:00:00.000+13:00

Somewhere along the road from Firefox 3 to Firefox 7 that we have seen this year a couple of features have fallen from it that I want back.

The first is a status bar thingy at the bottom so that you can see the URL of links before you click them. If you download actual files or do various kinds of web development then this feature is pretty useful. This plugin puts these features back:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/status-4-evar/

The second feature is removing the "http://" bit from your address bar. For developers this looks weird and for anybody who copies and pastes this is a pain. You can turn it back on by faffing with a setting, it takes about 20 seconds to do, see instructions here:

http://peter.upfold.org.uk/blog/2011/09/28/un-hide-the-http-in-firefox-7/

Happy browsing :)

Checklist for new couples

2011-09-29T19:25:00.000+13:00

--
It occurs to me to write a checklist for new couples. My starters for 10:
- how should you wake her up in the morning? How much sleep does she need?
- morning person or night time person?
- what is her tea/ coffee order?
- is she fast in the shower or slow in the shower, how many minutes?
- wheat, vegan/ vege, chicken, fish, bacon, beef, basic dietary considerations?
- does she get grump if she eats meals late? How grumpy?
- does she suffer in the warth/ cold. How warm or cold?
- does she text with multiple sentences (gen X) or single sentences gen (Y)?
- how contracted does she like her text messages?
- does she want you to leave voice mail, call back or send a text.
- should you return her missed calls? By calling? By text?
- email, yes or no?
- facebook, yes or no?
- twitter, yes or no?
- What musical genre's will she not enjoy at a bar?
- Does she find fine dining weird?
- multinational junk food such as McDonalds? Yes/ no.

Jesi adds
- favorite colour pieces in Settlers of Catan?
- current library card? yes, no, where?
- ascended in nethack yes, no, really, really close!
- prepared for the zombie apocalypse, yes or no?
- cats, yes or no?

Sydney vs Melbourne

2011-09-28T00:56:00.000+13:00

One upon a time lots of kiwis went to Sydney to live and work. This time was about 1990s. A small handful of friends went went there and spent a happy New Years eve there in 2000. I went back for two months work in late 2000 also. A couple of my London acquantences didn't go there, they went through Melbourne and then on to London.

Sometime between now and then the default Australian city for kiwi's I run into has changed to Melbourne. This works for me but I don't know why Melbourne works for other people too.

So I am slowly putting my life together here. I've got a place, although it isn't empty yet, and I have caught up with all my friends here. This is all pleasing.

Finding a job that I like takes time here, but I have made progress and people want to interview, so I just have to be patient. I've got two second interviews, one which I turned down because I didn't like the job description and another that only happened on Friday and might not have finished deciding about.

I'm sure I'll have more news soon!

New Shows To Sample

2011-07-06T15:30:00.001+12:00

Lisa Kudrow of friends fame had trip shows that I should sample while waiting for new Doctor Who to turn up.

Who do you think you are?, the US versuon of the UK show.

Web Therapy is a web series of three minute shows.

Games to Play

2011-07-03T01:05:00.004+12:00

--
I'm looking forward to playing these indie games when I'm through with my current games and projects.

Hawken: Kind of Mechwarrior deathmatch with epic cityscapes that are future degro.

Stacking: Russian dolls adventure, beautiful textures, music and text but no speech.

Marian: Errie hand drawn 2d scroller thingy.

Subversive: ROBBERY!

F1 2010: like it says on the box, by Codemasters :)

Burnable Wintery Things

2011-07-03T00:40:00.002+12:00

--
I bought my winters firewood from Wholesale Firewood Supplies who have a website http://www.firewoodsupplies.co.nz. I asked for short lengths, which helps it fit into my diminutive fireplace, which is not a normal consideration.

I've been using at my various dark night time dancing gatherings tea light candles that last for ages, they are called Plant Wax Tealights. They last about twice as long as normal ones, about 6 hours!

Google +

2011-06-29T22:49:00.003+12:00

--
Google is about to get into the social space with google plus. It looks like a spruced up and cleaned up version of Facebook.

Facebook is too naff to live forever, a bit too open, annoying, walled and untrustworthy. It will die like AOL before it and Compuserve before that. These things are just medium term trends before the next incarnation pops up.

I'm not sure if Disporia will be good enough fast enough to matter. I'm not sure if I trust Google more or less than Disporia. The export data option though has got me thinking, it is a feature I don't have to write when I want to leave.

Facebook has a huge advantage, but the cool kids always want to try the new thing, so I'll be trying Google + too.

Heroes

2011-06-29T22:45:00.002+12:00

--
Finished season four of Heroes, which was the last season. I liked it but it didn't end like the last episode of a show ever, the writers thought they would get another.

It was a good show, had lots of good acting effects and originality. The Hero parts where my favourite, and I liked the love interests.

Ultimately I think the show struggle to build multi seasonal arcs the way that Lost did, Doctor Who does or even the X files from a long time ago. That might have cost it the fifth season.

Disfunctional European Union

2011-05-30T17:49:00.004+12:00

--
This is funny because it is accurate. It is not clear exactly what the European union is going to look like in a couple of years time.

Sore Feet Happy Mind

2011-05-24T22:54:00.002+12:00

On a bus with two sore feet and one happy mind.
Tuesday night dancing was big and people are starting to get it, that dancing is about social dancing and not classes for their own sake.

I'm steadily extracting myself from my contract in Manila, about a week of post contract support to go, i'll be pretty happy when it is over.

With my spare time I'm hacking up ideas that been in
idling in brain, which makes me happy too!

Contract Completion

2011-05-18T18:54:00.002+12:00

--
Ok, I've just about extracted myself from the end of my contract to Manila. The work has almost entirely taken over my life for the last 9.5 weeks. Ahh, day rates.

I was so happy when I got off the phone to the guy who is taking over from me that I clapped to myself for about ten seconds solid. I've got a half hour tonight and an hour tomorrow of email work, then up to 14 hours of phone and email support over the next two weeks and then I'm done.

It was a rough engagement hard deadlines, and lots of undescovered scope. I was working by myself for much of the time. The company wanted me to avoid taking weekdays as travel so I travelled in weekends and worked all the week days.

There was a lot of undiscovered scope which was hard to manage and make me look bad. I was building software from screenshots and sparse documentation and 55,000 lines of source code which means that you get it wrong and have to fix it in a hurry.

It was lonely being in Manila for 4 weeks. I saw my sister for a day and a half in the middle which helped a lot, but 4 weeks is a while to be away from all your friends in person.

So I get my life back tomorrow, surfacing after about a fifth of a year. People have had babies, I should meet them!

Manila, Phillipines

2011-03-16T03:06:00.003+13:00

--
I'm in Manilla. Got an interesting and probably challenging contract here for an American company that just bought an ecommerce site.

Oddly the company had sold this ecommerce site 5 years ago, but have bought it back for less money. I don't understand global commerce even when it pays my wages!

Art Deco Napier 2011

2011-03-08T23:48:00.003+13:00

--
Stayed in a backpackers full of swing dancers again, so much fun. We got announced Jam circles from the Navy Big Band, which was cool, they rate our dancing and play swing friendly tunes.

This picture kind of sums it all up, I'm dressed vintage, photographing my reflected image in a vintage car hub cap in front of vintage buildings.

Consultants Out Of Work Checklist

2011-03-07T20:34:00.003+13:00

--
I'm looking for work, but not broke, and won't be any time soon. Here are eleven reasons why.

0 Meet Everybody for Coffee
Drink coffee like you have a bad addiction with all your former colleagues, project managers, reports, university friends and tell them you are looking for work. Take notes, follow up, offer suggestions, send helpful emails about their work problems. These leads take a while to gestate, get started right away.

1 Get Square
Pay all your bills, send out all your outstanding invoices, file all the things. You are better to do this first before you incur any penalties on late bills.

2 Tax Work
If you haven't done your last year tax filing with your accountant, go do it now. This will sort out your owing taxes, which may be your biggest business liability.

3 Shrink Your Provisional Tax Payments
Get your accountant to shrink your provisional tax payments based on you not working some portion of the year that you worked previously. In conjunction with the usual year on year growth factor in Provisional Tax calculations used by accountants, you may have already paid for some breathing room.

4 Pause your Retirement Savings
If you have a private voluntary retirement savings scheme, pause it for a quarter while you take a holiday and find interesting work again.

5 Shuffle All the Money
Shuffle all your money so that your revolving credit account is full, if you can manage it. This will likely chew up some of your biggest cost of living, mortgage payments.

6 House Renovations
If you have painting, shelving or other handyman work that are on the property or chattels, do some of this. It may help with a rental evaluation if you get super desperate later.

7 Get a Flatmate
Get a flatmate to help cover costs. This may be incompatible with number 6 temporarily, or a precursor.

8 Fire the Cleaners
If you had cleaners to help deal with your busy lifestyle, fire them now that you are unemployed.

9 Land Line, Ditch It!
If you have a land line, consider ditching it for a cheaper bill. It used to be that a land line might get called by a recruiter, but they now only call cell phones. The land line is not a business too for an independent consultant any more.

You probably don't want to shrink your internet however as you may use this a lot to find work, or keep entertained.

If you are making or receiving a lot of calls on your cell, increase your minutes package to avoid paying penalty rates on business day minutes.

10 Flog Your Old Business Tools
If you are an IT consultant, you probably have a couple of old laptops and a couple of old desktops to sell. I do! List them on an auction site and hoard that money.

Old graphics cards? Flog! Old audio gear, flog! That pile of ten weird computer keyboards, list that crap!

Old suits or ties you never wear? Take them to one of those stores that sells and takes a commission.

Siimilar Words To Confuse Me

2011-03-04T11:46:00.002+13:00

--
Ok, here are a bunch of similar words that I will disambiguate.

Nagle (Computing)
Nagle's Algorithm is a low level TCP/ IP algorithm about when you should buffer outgoing data. It is designed to avoid congestion.

Nagle (Dancing)
In the Balboa dance from the Swing family of dances, Nagles and Nagle Sweeps are optional, unlead footwork variations in the basic steps.

Nargle (Fiction)
In the fictional universe of the Rowling Harry Potter books, Nargle's are mythical creatures of mischief.

Half Remebered Dream: Blood Investigator

2011-03-03T00:35:00.002+13:00

--
Ok, so I have half remembered dreams from this morning/ last night.

In my third person dream, I was me but didn't look like me. I looked like a generic investigator going under cover in an American TV show.

So the first scene is me at the edge of a fresh water ice lake, with snow on the ice. I am feeling trepedation at going under the water. It looks cold.

Then I am underwater in a flawless suit getting patted down by a bouncer. He is checking that I am in fact some sort of supernatural by making sure I exhale the air from my lungs. This isn't a bar you are allowed to breath in, apparently.

Then I'm at a bar buying some blood to ingest, in my cover.

I'm looking flawless and fabulous, but everything is a little bit green because we are underwater.

Then I get made and my cover gets blown. My hair undulates in the bars underwater currents.

--

Not sure what the show might have been.

Contract Race?

2011-02-24T22:50:00.001+13:00

--
I saw a recruiter today who does IT Contractor recruiting, Julie. She was nice.

Now I get to race her to see if she can find fun work for me before I do. For the last 8 years when I've done this I've won, oddly, beating the professional recruiters.

Game on.

Webstock, Merlin Mann Workshop

2011-02-15T21:41:00.003+13:00

--
I went to a Webstock 2011 workshop today with Merlin Mann who is best known to me as the inbox zero guy and the 43folders guy.

I felt like his talk was aimed at post 7 habits, post getting things done people who want to get better at getting to creative work.

He talked about detailed descriptions of task by task change without using that word by instead talking a lot about prioritisation and where that stuff comes from. We kind of nanny and tolerate junk items on our 'priority list' when in fact it is just some kind of baggage that we likely don't actually care about.

He emphasised conscious thinking about what you are doing, checking in with yourself and trying to incorporate zen like detachment into your work organisation process at lots of levels or 'altitudes' of your life.

Points I wish to remember:
- When you have junk priority you are meant to be working on that isn't important to you and you don't care about, this will cause you to procrastinate.
- Expect change in yourself only at a rate similar to rates of change you have had in the past.
- Don't expect discontinuous change in your habits, this is why new years resolutions are junk.
- Your life gets better when you start shedding fake priorities.
- Conscious consequence trading.

You can get an overview of his half day workshop in this video, he gets to it about half way through.

Geeks At Lunch

2011-02-09T15:04:00.001+13:00

Caught up with an old friend back from the UK for a visit over lunch, a group of university classmate geeks. Also his much more normal partner.

I noticed some weird stuff that happened as our dishes were turning up. As the waitress bought each dish, the five of us knew who had ordered each one and gestured so.

Further, where a dish turned up that more than one person had ordered we resolved the decision using a FIFO algorithm.

This wasn't any effort or special habit, this is just geek minds at work.

An HTML 5 Ditty

2011-02-08T19:46:00.002+13:00

--
I've written an HTML ditty, kind of a 'resume-ware' website, to play with the HTML5 canvas element.

It is a clock, in 24 hour time, enjoy.

www.radialclock.com

Things I'm not at terms with today

2011-02-04T17:02:00.002+13:00

--
When I try to kiss a girl for the first time, there are three outcomes; she kisses you back, she allows you to kiss her but doesn't really kiss back or she pulls away and you kiss air.

It is a blink test, you are asking a question with your actions and she doesn't have much time to think about it she just has to react. I like blink tests because I think they can give good hints about what people actually think on a subconscious level.

So I tried to kiss a girl last month and she pulled away, and I'm not really at terms with this, today.

--
The lindy hop teachers calendar is up for the first part of the year. There are teacher workshops for the teachers on the schedule this year, but I'm not invited, which means that I'm not going to be on the teaching calendar.

I assisted a bit last year, and also a bit the year before, but this year I'm not even on the list of people to fill in the gaps as cover, as far as I can tell.

There lots of better dancers, better and more established teachers, and other more experienced dancers who will fill in this year. The scheduling is entirely rational and it is good scheduling.

However, just for today, I'm feeling overlooked because it feels like a demotion.

--
I'm a contractor which give you a flexible and erratic, semi planned work life; I like this a lot.

When the company you work for does a good job of communicating contract extensions or finishing requirements, this is a good thing, it means they like your work.

If they don't talk about renewing a contract or much about it finishing, it means your work is not on their mind, which is usually bad. If you get overlapped with another contractor then it means they don't like your work output and are replacing you.

In NZ culture, if you decide what someone is doing and is capable of doing is not good, what you do is end their contract early by giving then the minimum notice period.

In mid December I got given the minimum notice period at ANZ National after consultting there for a very long term. I'd just finished delivering some really excellent once in 5 year infrastructure work.

I got axed because of bean counter reasons, not because of my work, but just for today I am grumpy that the thing in the world that I am best at is not more important than some ill conceived strategy.

Ian (M) Banks Interview

2011-02-02T15:09:00.002+13:00

--
An interesting and long interview with Ian Banks.

Mirrors Edge

2011-01-22T17:42:00.006+13:00

--

Mirrors Edge is a great but greatly floored game featuring free running. Kind of like Tombraider without any old stuff, your do running, jumping and vaulting around cityspaces and inside big buildings.

Check it:

The game managed to get me to feel things I haven't felt before in a game; a little vertigo, the feeling of being cramped, a sense of free running across building tops. First person cutscene hugs with your in game sister, that was a first.

The music and visual appeal of the game are a great draw, and the running mechanics are pretty fun. After playing the game you can do time trials on parts of it.

You pretty much have to shoot people. It says you don't have to do this but it I found some levels too hard without resorting to guns. I got through about 2/3 rds o the game without shooting people though.

Totally worth playing if you can mostly ignore the poorly written story; these guys needed a proper storysmith. Rumours exist of a follow up game.

I'm off to hunt down the excellent soundtrack from the internet, also a first.

[game purchased digitally and downloaded using Steam, in a holiday say for about $10.]
[wikipedia entry here]

Lost

2011-01-22T17:15:00.004+13:00

--

I finished season 6 of Lost recently; I liked it a lot. It was consistent in its own genre jumping way and asked lots of valid questions about identity and reason. If you got transplanted to a jungle, what would be important in your existance?

Lost is a crazy ride. It appears that the writers drive off a cliff with crazy ideas somewhere in season 2 then continue into accelerating freefall all the way up to the end of season 5. As mad and rediculous as it all is a great deal of sense and 'placement' is created in season 6 which pretty much flies a straight course.

There is plenty of clever stuff across the seasons. Seasons one, two and three have flashbacks to fill in character backstory, which is about creating more story threads. Season four and five have flashforwards, which kind of borrow against the present to create tension in the future. Season 6 has flashes 'sideways' which gets you trying to figure out what is real and why.

The crazy numbers get explained, as does the whole deal with the island, Richards longevity, the nature of the smoke monster and host of other pleasing details.

I think Lost ended with a sort of two way duality ending, where the plane both did and didn't crash, with a post life afterlife meetup of the main characters.

I liked the acting and the long mornful looks of lost love and love never to be. For me they are the trademark of Lost, a long and perpetuating note in the score of the story.

Kayaking: Must pack now

2010-12-30T19:15:00.004+13:00

--
Due to the complexity of the friend's highly rostered holiday arrangements, I should really be packing right now for 3 potentially glorious days of kayaking in the Able Tasman national park.

Meal Plan
Meals that work for my vegetarian dancing friend and myself, that are one pot meals, preferable.

Saturday - travel day
Buy all day, buy dinner in Marahau or close by as available.

Sunday - kayak day
breakfast - Maria toast & Marmite?, Damon east chocolate porridge
lunch - crackers, Maria with hummus, Damon with plastic cheese and
dinner - chilli noodles with egg and green beans
snacks - high fat assorted muesli bars, dried apricots, cashew nuts, raisins packets, chippies, assortment of chocolates, beer sticks,

Monday - kayak day
breakfast - as for Sunday
lunch - boiled egg sandwhiches, pears, bananas
dinner - rice with coconut green curried vegetables

Tuesday - kayak day
breakfast - as for Sunday
lunch - as for monday
dinner (not needed but counts as emergency rations) - mashed potato from flakes, kidney beans, hollandaise sauce, dried peas and carrots

Wednesday - travel day
Buy as needed.

To buy
- toast vogels grainy
- vegemite
- eggs, 6
- pears, bananas
- broccolli, potato, carrot, kumara
- UHT milk, light soy
- coconut cream
- profilactics?
- dried apricots, cashew nuts, raisins packets, dried kidney beans
- chippies, assortment of chocolates, beer sticks,
- plastic cheese
- salami
- do I have green curry?

Chemist
- triangle bandage
- squidgy earplugs

Camping
- merino underwear
- water bags
- sun hat with string
- frypan thingy, non stick??

Cafe
- coffee beans

2010-12-28T23:27:00.002+13:00

Android phone code snippets for me to play with.

- Sudoku example code from I book I need to buy

- source code for bluetooth chat

Contract Axed but Win

2010-12-10T00:46:00.002+13:00

--
I'm out of work from the end of December, officially. I have a letter even, on letterhead. My time at the bank helping to build an awesome Institutional Banking product or two is over, the bean counters have had their day.

I'm ok with this, things have changed at the top of the bank at it doesn't look like fun there for a little while.

There are downsides, I loose working with my awesome colleagues. At 12 years of IT experience I am still kind of the junior by weight of years, which is kind of fun. Also my colleagues are very smart, and don't have egos.

They are very very good at solving problems under utterly intense pressure. The pinches where we have had to problem solve with this job are very tight, and bad things happen not just to the workplace but potentially to the entire country if our software didn't work really really well.

At times it didn't and we fixed it really fast.

I also loose what I'd call my coffee buddy, but what the Americans might call a 'workplace spouse'. It is a good friend who is a confidant and also a colleague, where you have crossed over boundaries normal in workplace relationships.

I'm 32 hours in with this knowledge and I've got 7 leads for new work to chase. I've had to write them down because at 7 leads I need to work the opportunities like a salesman with a big client base.

My plan is to take Jan off and then work again in Feb. I would have mostly done this anyway if my current contract hadn't been trimmed.

I'm not sure to do more of the same but in a bigger, even more awesome team, to do some really really short term consulting, or to do something quite different.

I can filter opportunities by start date and project type, and favour them by language, this should make the process pretty easy. Hope my obscure skill set can be matching to a position, life is good for me when this happens.

Stealing Moves From Children

2010-11-10T23:28:00.000+13:00

--
This guys has a pile of unusual super cute lindy moves that I must steal sometime.

Big Spider Cube Thingy

2010-11-07T20:48:00.000+13:00

Less Things

2010-11-07T20:31:00.000+13:00

Overview

2010-11-07T19:44:00.000+13:00

Dnd Images

2010-11-07T19:43:00.000+13:00

Stephen Fry is Awesome

2010-10-27T23:43:00.001+13:00

Stephen Fry talks about language with great sense, language, delivery and animation :)

Frankie Manning

2010-10-24T19:10:00.000+13:00

--
A huge figure in Lindy Hop, this is a heart warming video.

War Games

2010-10-22T19:10:00.000+13:00

--
I've happily and wasted a bunch of time very very engaged in this WarLight, a flash based Axis and Allies type game. Different rules make it a bit trickier. I'm not through all the missions yet, it does a nice job of ramping up.

WarLight

Can We Date

2010-10-21T19:10:00.000+13:00

--
This is very funny and not a bad rule of thumb either :)

Click to follow and view the big one.

Auckland vs Melbourne

2010-10-20T22:13:00.000+13:00

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As a Wellingtonian, Auckland kind of feels like a mess.

It does have better sports events for me to participate in, and more Lindy Hop for me to participate in, but it is missing some essential things to make me love it:
- it needs to be denser
- it needs enough public transport that you can do your activities without a car
- it needs to feel easier
- it needs some more streets that cars aren't allowed down in the central city

Oddly, it seems like I'm in agreement with John Key, see this stuff article.

Fixing Auckland is a key cultural and economic concern for NZ in my opinion. We need to make Auckland like a smaller Sydney.

With Wellington, Melbourne people say that the feel like Wellington is a mini-Melbourne, and Auckland needs working on until Sydney people say the same thing about Auckland.

Except for the biggotry, racism and lack of egalatarianism that NZers feel about Australians when they go to Australia. Also would prefer better coffee.

I guess we have started by electing one big council. This seems inevitable in order to sort things out. I also hear promising things about new trains which is also essential.

The next thing is that we need to borrow a stupendious amout of money on an 80 year lone to build some long term rail infrastructure. This is what London has been doing for 150 years, it does work mightily but you have to stick at it.

Borrowing billions for city infrastructure doesn't feel very kiwi, but kiwi's prefer big Australian cities to their own, so I guess we are a little scared of being great?

A Map of the Internet

2010-10-19T19:11:00.000+13:00

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A cultural and popularity map of the internet by xkcd is here. Great viewing.

Startup Stuff

2010-10-18T19:10:00.001+13:00

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A good link of both positive and negative startup stories, really frank and great reading for me.

25 Best Startup Post Mortems

Primer, must see

2010-10-17T22:08:00.001+13:00

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I keep running into cultural references for the move Primer, like this one from XKCD about movie narrative charts. Must buy, must view, I'm missing some essential geek here.

Yoga to Try

2010-09-27T23:36:00.002+13:00

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I've received Yoga recommendations from facebook friends for a slow non-hot class.

Ange: Yoga in Daily Life, on Jessie St. Ace classes. Minimal chanting.

Jase: City fitness in thorndon, they are perfect for what you describe.

L: Yoga Unlimited (on Tory St, opposite Moore Wilson's/Harvey Norman)

I should be able to find some time next week to try one of these :)

2010-09-26T21:03:00.001+13:00

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French dinner :)

test

2010-09-22T19:30:00.001+12:00

test w image

Android Development

2010-09-21T18:39:00.002+12:00

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What do I want out of my Android development scratchings?

Public Work
I've got an itch to scratch about my professional work not being in the public eye. It kind of bugs me that so little of my work is flat out hidden, encrypted, password secured and for specialised use.

It would be personallly and professionally gratifying to have a piece of work that is unencumbered by non-disclosure agreements, professional confidentially and restraint of trade clauses.

Internet You Can Touch
Internet you can touch might be the next big thing. With iPhones, Google phones, the iPad etc you have a touch interface.

I'm not sure what it means to have an information tool where you literally touch the information with your fingers to manipulate this. It appears be have very wide appeal.

Internet in Your Pocket
Another aspect is the internet in your pocket aspect. Having a small but usefull internet anywhere windows in your pocket is new and interesting.

Still Mostly Under Control

2010-09-14T23:26:00.002+12:00

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This week is a juggling act. A tricky aspect is that my dance partner is working nights this week while I'm working days. She is organised and talented however and found us a fab inner city practice hall next to the Wesley hall, right around the corner from my work.

We practiced today during my lunch time so that we could overcome our clashing work schedules. We ran through our routine including the lifts and throws, with my partner in heels!

Work is mildly under control, we did some web server testing today and proved that our web servers won't melt under projected load. This is a good start.

I've half tidied my house before guests start pouring in on Friday. I now have milk, pillow and flower suggestions for the house. Off now to tidy some more :)

idle time; mobile

2010-09-01T19:36:00.001+12:00

So im sitting in a cafe, idle time before dance class, i dont have much time energy to help out at the class before mine.

So my google phone has a big enough screen to type idly on, which is nice. not like tyling on a proper keyboard, but two thumbs typing is a mile away from texting on a keypad.

texting will be one of those input methods i can forget. it joins Graffitti which was with a stylus on a palmpilot. it was fast and i could take notes in dark conference halls.

still figuring out the internet in your pocket thing, an update of android will help with that, youll be attracted to cheap android phones at christmss.

we have available the devices from billies first book, just. not yet the critical mass to have what comes next.

i can see people trying to use the internet how i want to use it, but tweets or facebook updates pleading for a coffee now now dont yet work, text message is the king of that request.

Scifi films to catch up on

2010-08-31T20:42:00.002+12:00

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Reading talula's post about 25 great scifi films, here are the ones I need to catch up on. I'm 19 of 25, although I'm pretty sketchy on a few of them!
- Planet Of The Apes: I've seen lots of bits of this, but not the whole thing!
- Primer: This has come up a lot lately in my circles, I love love loved the trailer.
- Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind: I thought it was a soppy tear jerker and avoided it in the cinema.
- Children Of Men: as above
- Moon: Lots of great reviews
- Inception: Mixed reviews, but I like momento so why not

You're Awesome!

2010-08-28T02:31:00.002+12:00

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I'm seriously thinking about the Awesomereminders service, which calls you up every day to tell you you are awesome. What not choose to couch yourself in positive framing? Would the cynic in my make it break?

The Great Gatsby

2010-08-15T23:43:00.002+12:00

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Saw the Great Gatsby at Circa late this afternoon. A great story, well performed. Solid all round performances, highly recommended. Extra points of Art Deco era setting, costumes and music.

Art Deco Linky

2010-08-08T21:27:00.002+12:00

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Alphonse Mucha was a magnificent artist who made pictures before and during the art deco period. He may have done more but I just like the guys work.

Available for purchase here, totally worth a look. His work evokes strongly in me; Lord of the Rings, fantasy or art deco, work by work!

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For jazz lovers, here are portraits;
Ella Fitzgerald
Cab Calloway
Duke Ellington
Lou Armstrong

From the collection Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz.

Business Ideas Jottery

2010-08-08T13:28:00.005+12:00

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Notes for me for later about business ideas for apps

unified grocery shopping list that mr_flash would like
time keeping idea
banking apps
pizza/video ordering
auction lister with integrated photo
mr_flashes gaydar idea
online photo app, whitelabel an existing service??

Apple iPhone vs Google Android

2010-08-06T23:56:00.004+12:00

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Google used to be friends with Apple, a Google guy was on Apples board of directors. Then they found that they both wanted to do phone stuff and that they were actually frenemies. At this point the Google guy on the Apple board of directors got asked to step down. Now they are just competitors with overlapping search and mapping interests.

This is due to Google efforts of the increasingly impressive Android platform for making 'smartphones'. Basically it is like a more open version of Apples iPhone, but with different hardware that I like better.

I got my hands on a hot Android phone this week, thanks to an early tip-off from my friend at Telecom.

Although it is a fine thing, it lacks the fine polish of much of the iPhone eco system. All the core stuff is there though, GPS maps, fast proper internet browser with zoom, music playing, movie playing, flight mode etc.

It is open enough to support Open Source software that gave us Firefox and Open Office, which tickles my political geek the right way.

I can make new software for the thing in the Java programming language, using the Eclipse editor, a combination I've used professionally for 9 years, I'm scratching away at something today even.

The cute device is Linux based, has enough weetbix to power my large and wonderful DJ headphones, is meant to have better battery life than an iPhone 4G, is lighter and has a bigger screen.

Five Experiences Keeping Me

2010-08-05T21:33:00.003+12:00

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There are five experiences keeping my in Welly, in NZ. I'm not sure what happens when I've done these five experiences but I expect it will give me a strong urge to leave for the less charted waters of Melbourne.

There are three women I want to date, one of whom may not be either in the country or single. Two blondes and a brunette, by last known hair colour.

A new opportunity to make a piece of software has turned up that I wish to pursue.

I'd like to complete another piece of software so that I can turn third piece of software off.

Thats it. Everything else in my life has turned into window dressing. Sorry.

d.

Mostly Under Control

2010-08-02T22:55:00.003+12:00

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In in the position of enjoying the illusion that all the things in my life are under control. It is a pleasant illusion, and possibly it is the illuision of an illusion and is actually real.

Have memorised bits and pieces of my routine for September, although we haven't finished the choreography of it. Attempting to finish the choreography tomorrow night with my partner in dance crime Clarissa. We are totalitarian deconstructonists and appear to play well together.

Work is OK, on track as far as I'm concerned although not necessarily so for everybody else. My bits are reasonably fine and dandy and I'm helping others as I can. I haven't had to yell at anybody for a while which is nice.

I've got some ideas for my next DJ set due on the 13th. I've got an opening and a middle, and an enourmous pile eighty (80) songs at BeatPort that will enable me to finish the set to my satisfaction. Much experimentation to get things to 'sit' nicely together.

My electric desk has turned up and is partly constructed. I'll be using a door as a benchtop for a bit, long story.

I've got some dancing in Christchurch this month, I'm looking forward to hanging with my Christchurch homegirls a lot.

old blogs, new blogs

2010-07-26T20:19:00.004+12:00

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For the moment I'm retiring the fishbowl from my right hand links. I'm sure Fishy will want to do creative and expressing writing there in the future; I like reading things from people with Mathematical brains :)

New blog is the baby bump, a friends wife's baby blog. Haven't read it much, but I expect I'll find it funny :)

Changed blog is the dreamstress, who started blogging about her part time seamstress historical recreation, but is now doing that full time. Worth a read of you like dresses, history, art or fabric.

Why Online Dating Sucks

2010-07-20T21:01:00.003+12:00

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I've said that online dating tries to force wonderful and complex whole people into little boxes and that it felt like I didn't fit well into little boxes. This guys says a lot more and has done the research to prove it.

Dan Ariely on online dating.

It isn't easy being green

2010-07-15T11:15:00.005+12:00

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It isn't easy being green; 3 weeks with no hot water and counting.

When I replaced my hot water cylinder at the end of its usable life I went for a partly solar powered one. The cylinder in the house was installed in 1976 and was due to expire irreparably at any time.

I replace this with a Chromagen hot water cylinder which is from Israel and is fancy and expensive. It has solar panels on the roof that heat up liquid which gets pumped to the cylinder to a heat exchanger that heats up the water. This avoids impurities in tap water clogging up the solar panels.

The cylinder has a thermostat in it that controls heating, and there is some computer control of these systems.

The installer of this system was Negawatt who do 'green' type work on water heating, home heating and insulation. The guy a dealt with was competent but I didn't love him because I didn't get good engineering vibes from the guy.

Their product recommendation has been sound and the installation was good, you can find them here.

For my regular plumbing work I have been using a guy called Karen (pronounced Kareen) who is an engineer and gives me good engineering vibes. He has a team of people who do plumbing, roofing, kitchens and bathrooms.

Karen did great work on renovations in my water closet, laundry and kitchen so when my hot water stopped working I called him to get him to fix it. He has also installed Chromagen hot water systems in the past.

If your hot water stops working you shouldn't get upset because the element and thermostat components only work for so many years and then need replacing. If your shoes wear out then you can buy new ones yourself, but you need a plumber to fix your hot water system.

He looked at it and found the thermostat needed replacing. Simple diagnosis.

The solar part is also broken through a simpler problem, a pipe connecting the Solar panel to the water cylinder has become disconnected.

With hot water systems what you hope you are buying is both the original parts and the supply chain to provide replacement parts for the life of the system. This might be 30 years of replacement parts, possibly.

A complexity of solar hot water systems is that this is a relatively new market and the technology is rapidly evolving. A further problem is that a relatively small number of each manufacturers cylinder type is installed in New Zealand as we are not a populous country.

I knew this would be a factor when I bought my hot water cylinder because this is equivalent to a set of problems you run into with software.

Where it gets tricky for me is in finding a replacement part. The New Zealand supplier cannot supply an exact replacement part.

I speculate that it might be possible that they can get one from Israel where they are manufactured via sea freight and that they don't wish to engage in this as a supply strategy and haven't told me about it.

So the parts supplier has supplied a part that they believe a repair can be made with that is more locally available than the parts from Israel.

Now it gets tricky. The original part was an arm length thing that sat in the hot water system. The new part is a fist sized thing that sits on top of the tank.

The old part was manufactured by Chromagen who made the cylinder, but the new part is not.

This new part looks through the outside of the cylinder, through the insulation and into the tank to find out he temperature of the water.

The old part was in the water and took a more direct reading.

A pertinent questions is whether Chromagen in Israel consider this a good part substitution. I haven't got an answer to that yet.

My plumber Karen isn't comfortable with replacing the old part with the new part, because he doesn't know that it is compatible with the computer of the hot water cylinder. This is reasonable given that the two parts use different measurement mechanisms.

The imported and distributor are Infinergy who you can find here. I've had some contact about what to do next but I'm hoping their guy in Wellington to make this repair instead of my plumber.

I will also contact the original installer to see if they do repairs. A second option. They are located in Petone also, I'll drop by today and have a chat to them.

A third option is for Chromagen in Israel to say that they approve this part substitution because this would convince Karen that the work is sensible to do.

A forth option is to flog my dead system on Trademe, and install another.

Stephen Fry on Life

2010-07-10T23:35:00.001+12:00

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Stephen Fry talking about what he wished he'd know when he was 18. Works for all ages :)

STEPHEN FRY: WHAT I WISH I'D KNOWN WHEN I WAS 18 from Peter Samuelson on Vimeo.

Difficult Times in My Subconscious

2010-07-02T22:41:00.002+12:00

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I've been having this persistent and modestly discomforting idea stream percolating into my conscious from my subconscious; a feeling that I'm forgetting to date somebody that I really like.

A bit like the feeling you have when you can picture someone but can't remember their name, I get the feeling of this person that I should be trying to date without remember them at all.

My reaction is equal parts romantic mystery, assurance and dismay, this has been going on daily for a few months.

I'm pretty open to ideas from my subconscious but this is kind of odd and new. I haven't been at open war with my subconscious for a long time, this might be trouble brewing on an unexpected front?

Perhaps my subconscious can fulfil its memory part of the bargain by coffing up some memories of people to which it is referring.

Camp NZX 2010

2010-06-21T20:18:00.006+12:00

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I'm just back this evening from Camp NZX 2010, a swing dancing camp that featured Lindy Hop, Balboa and Blues dancing workshops and social dancing.

Again it was held in the Chosen Valley Christian Camp out of Manukau. This year James and I wanted to get better bunks which meant getting there a bit earlier than last year.

I went up on Thursday to see my aunt and cousins on Waiheke Island. It was cool hanging out over dinner. I got to massage my aunt's Epicondreitous (Tennis Elbow) which was fun, lots of related tissue density to play with.

I met James and Sarin on Friday and we took a hire car to the camp.

Camp was super fun again this year. I did more dancing than ever and had even less sleep.

With two class streams of bal and two of lindy there were lots of classes to choose from. The optional classes from previous years were ditched and the idea of being assigned to a stream was also ditched, it was free for all, do whatever you thought was appropriate.

I did Josh's intermediate bal class where he explained what makes bal bal instead of making it look like blues, also talking about infinity symbols, motions and lilts, which was awesome.

Claudia and Dave where over, which was a surprise after seeing them only last week at the Melbourne Swing Festival. We are very lucky to have them come to NZ, they are such fabulous teachers in general, especially of bal.

They taught a cool class with tricksy pure bal variatons for ultra slow 80-100bpm songs, which previously I had considered blues territory. The 'corners' variation with tripple and lots of closing action is a keeper.

Shob and Andy's class about follows leading in lindy also stood out. The idea that lindy is a converstation isn't much fleshed out on the social floor, so it is good to see somebody teaching and encouraging both dancers to participate in the shape of the music.

There was a move where the follow takes the lead in the second part of a swingout and changes the axis of it. This is pretty fun. If the lead responds back then you get an extra half turn. I had good fun in class practicing this with both Rachel and Melita, although to be honest Melita has a pretty rubbish poker face ;)

For the first time I got invited to invitation only advanced class. There is attrition in any sport and party due to other earlier events keeping other more senior dancers away I got a chance.

Josh was teaching a short and wonderfully little routine. What made it wonderful was not the moves, but the musicality of the variations. In order to produce these variations you needed to follow the jazz timing of the melody instruments, not the percussion instruments.

In jazz this varies from bar to bar and phrase to phrase as musicians pull and push, stretch and shrink their timing away from the regular rhythms of the precussion. This produces all sorts of syncopation effects that I like in jazz because they are stupendously complex.

Dancing to the meandering rhythms of the melody is well hard however.

Scheduling of these weekends always puts the advanced class as the last class, on a Sunday. So after 10 hours sleep in two days and about 25 hours dancing, you get to the advanced class.

This class was also very small, which was awesome, only four of us, two follows and two leads. Barry was the other follow, a tremendously solid fellow for his Auckland scene, the two follows where Melinda and Lotus from Christchurch, also stalwarts of their scene.

Oddly, Melinda, Lotus and myself had been the bunnies at this event three years ago in our first year at the camp, and it was a point of reflection that we had made it into the invite only class.

Up a bit, I said that having four people in an advanced class was awesome. Josh was paid to come from Melbourne for three days to only teach 7 or 8 classes, and this was one of them. Sharing one of these classes with only three other people was pretty fantastic, this is a teacher you need to book about a year in advance and he is not cheap.

I'm using the word awesome, but I'm not being colloquial. The word isn't coloured with only positive connotations, the word isn't about good or bad, it is about the feeling of awe.

Josh danced 7 bars of this awesome routine with Michelle and then schooled us in how to lead and follow this routine. Like any good teacher for senior students, he didn't give any praise when it wasn't deserved. This is good, but Barry and I didn't get a lot of praise.

Josh was attempting to school us from being good dancers into a new level of musicality into being awesome dancers. This process isn't comfortable or easy, it just is.

He was trying to pull us up from one level to a higher one. In some ways I think about this as Josh working the process to try and create some piers one day, but I'm many many years from that.

We got schooled and drilled, went on small learning side bars, scatted rhythms and practiced. There was a tricky jazz step part that went kick-ball-change step scootch step stomp stomp that I had a lot of trouble with.

The leading was very difficult. The song was quiet and you needed to pull and slow, redirect and release this quiet energy from melody-beat to melody-beat whilst dancing your figures.

We had been working away for 45 minutes in the class and I got to a point where I was extremely wound up. At this point we where kind of doing the routine but we were doing it all wrong. We had progressed and where doing the routine less wrong than at the start of the class, but when you don't have it and you are working away at it is a difficult time.

I felt very inside myself in an unhappy and frustrated way.

Gravity based whole body syncopated leading and following takes an immense amount of concentration. There isn't any way to fake it, either you are landing it or you are not.

Slowly you get pulled more and more out of the room and into yourself as your focus pulls to the music and getting your body to do elaborate things. It is slow but it turns out that there is a lot of into that can happen.

My kindly follow Melinda spotted this, took a few seconds and consoled me with a few shushing sounds and a pat on the back. In retrospect I think this was an essential element for me in getting through the class without bursting into tears or some other uncontrolled emotional release.

It was an awesome class, and you have to take awesome classes if you want to be an awesome dancer.

I stayed up super late with the people catching the early shuttle. I inherited the late dj slot and we danced blues till 5am then chatted till 6am.

We were having so much fun we didn't want to stop. It is difficult to get such good dancers together in one place and the experienced dancers recognise this; we wring every last bit out the experience :)

Melbourne Thoughts

2010-06-07T19:00:00.001+12:00

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Melbourne is clearly a bigger city than I'm used to. Comprised of a gem of a city centre, called the city, that glistens rather than sparkles. It is surrounded by seemingly endless suburbs, many of which have cutesy appeal of their own, with clusters of cute shops catering to the sensibilities of well heeled workers.

The language used is what struck me first this time. The use of superlatives, or rather the subset of superlatives employed; aggressive, unsurpassable claims are bandied about to describe stage shows for example.

The look people give you, the big city blank face. That is quicker here than Wellington. What does that do to you day in and day out? Do you start to feel how your face looks? Do you build over your feelings like last years road surface, with hot ash and a steamroller?

The coffee though is good, and the customer service a clear notch up on Wellington. Got me some fancy red sneakers, good for walking and driving but not much else.

Good customer service in the street shoe store, she spotted me as a kiwi right away, but brought it up slowly. Apparently I have a flat accent, or perhaps I morph on demand, a deep subconscious effort to be accepted?

The card systems are changing, Melbourne is going to a 'snapper' style system to replace Metcard. It has a very stupid name that glistens and drips of committee design and politics. Myki is the name. Retarded.

Different verbs in play, 'touch on', 'touch off'. The Metcard system uses 'validate', so I guess this committee learned something over the last guys.

I'm in a restaurant/ cafe, tapping away, some young guys at an outside table on my left with a few brews, perhaps there are some school holidays? I've got a mocha, trying to compensate for my red-eye flight before dinner with Sean.

There is a glistening political film that I can see coating the city. The billboards that talk about rebuilding projects, stimulus package stuff. It is thin politicing, unsophisticated and at odds with a city trying to have a culture. It is the politics of old men that don't know what it means to try and synergise.

Hard to find internet for sale in a cafe in Elwood, but there are plenty of Organic options, so that is a fair trade in my book.

iPhones are everywhere, but I can't see anybody else tapping away, trying to scratch up some work and bleed over the lines between recreation and a career you want. Wrong suburb, probably too artsy. I'm not yet sold on productivity on these post PC devices.

Had a brief play with an iPad whilst on an errand to purchase forgotten cabling, that binding cartilage between our electrical devices. It was fine, but I'm a touch typist, so I feel like it is half meant for somebody else. A bit heavier than I was expected, but that fancy class screen must weigh a bunch.

The iPad is meant for somebody else, the ungeeked masses, electronic mooks. About time somebody paid them some attention.

I'll have a lazy start to the day tomorrow, a simple start in a month where I have had so much to take in, very stimulating it has been.

Melbourne Things

2010-05-31T23:53:00.002+12:00

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Sunday, fly in really late.
Monday night, meet Sean
Tuesday night, meet Oli
Wednesday night, classes with Emmylou
Thursday night, ??
Friday night, lindy
Saturday, Melbourne Swing Festival
Sunday night, Melbourne Swing Festival
Monday get to airport by 7am.

Gangbusters

2010-05-29T15:55:00.002+12:00

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Had great fun djing at Gangbusters at Watusi. Danced like crazy with Francis to Kansas City Riffs, had a great dance with Amy late in the night, had fun stealing to Minor Swing and danced manically with Emmylou to E Flat Boogie.

I have tired abs today.

Djing at Gangbusters on Friday

2010-05-24T00:00:00.004+12:00

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I'm DJing at Gangbusters, the next of our bi-monthly lindy hop takeover of The Watisu in Edward St. I'll be on the late shift djing from about 10:30 until probably 1pm, lindy, then slow lindy then blues :-)

Looks like there will be a big turnout at this one, so if you have been curious about my vintage dancing activities then come and take a look, gawkers welcome.

DJing at Speed of Sound

2010-05-17T21:19:00.009+12:00

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I'm opening the djing at Speed of Sound III with a jazzy, goovy, housy downbeat set*, sqwee! Come hear me play in a club.

* Note there will not be a Rumpus this year, I'm playing here instead.

Sing Sing Sing Routine

2010-04-29T22:24:00.006+12:00

A Sing Sing Sing routine to the song as arrange by the Air Force Band.

Tentatively left to right from audience of Andrew and Lauren, Peter and Beccy, Phil and Rachel, Jason and Sally-ann, Damon and Grace.

Moves spanning bars are marked ending with an X. Think I've got the tricky counting with the 4 count move sorted out.

bar | move
-- | wierd 7 count off tempo 'intro'
01 | hold
02 | Swing out forward from close
03 | Hollywood style swingout forward
04 | Hollywood style swingout forward
05 | 007 move, a lindy turn with the lead landing on count 7 with stomp hold
06 | kick the dog travelling forward
07 | 6 count turnout to the 10:30 position, kicks instead of tripples
0X | 6 count change of place to the 4:30 position, kicks instead of tripples
0X | 6 count lindy circle to close, kicks instead of tripples
09 | 6count swing shot with outward right hand and inward knee wiggles on the 5 and 6
10 | 4 count (2 * 2 count slides) big slides into close, guys start with left foot
1X | 6 count frog variation, early lift on 3 instead of 5
11 | 6 count turnout to the 9:00 position, kicks instead of tripples
12 | 8 count behind the back shoulder roll, guys rock step straight back then step to the right, presenting their back to the path that the follows will travel. Leads keep your arm tucked in a bit to aid the turning. (rock step run run jump land hold hold.)
13 | swing out with crouch on 4 and jump on 5.
14 | slip slops, do three start by going to the leads right, hold 7 and stomp off on 8
15 | lead Charlestons with a left 90 degree turn, follow does unled rock step kick kick kick in front, both now facing the audience again
16 | Tandem Charleston
17 | Russian kick follow
18 | Tandem Charleston
19 | Lead tandem in front
20 | Lead Russian kick
21 | Tandem Charleston
22 | Lead pimp walk
23 | Lead half johnnies drop, half Charletston slide
24 | Lead taps left foot for 8
25 | Lead taps left foot for 8
26 | Lead stomps start right foot
27 | Lead stomps
28 | Pimp walks lead start right foot
29 | Pimp walks with collect to close
30 | Charleston
31 | Charleston
32 | Charleston
33 | Kick the dog
34 | Turning charleston
35 | Turning charleston
36-39 | couple spotlight, Lauren & Andrew, cute tandem & hand to hand variations
40-43 | couple spotlight, Grace & Damon, a flowery tango lift
44-47 | couple spotlight, Sally-ann & Jason, flashy pancake!
48-51 | couple spotlight, Rachel & Phil, the lindy flip!
52-55 | couple spotlight, Beccy & Peter, super couplesy jazz steps
56 | half charleston then kick run run run (one and a half turns)
57 | kick and kick step half charleston slide
58 | Swing out forward from close
59 | Hollywood style swingout forward
60 | Hollywood style swingout forward
61 | 007 move, a lindy turn with the lead landing on count 7 with stomp hold
62 | kick the dog travelling forward
63 | 6 count turnout to the 10:30 position, kicks instead of tripples
6X | 6 count change of place to the 4:30 position, kicks instead of tripples
6X | 6 count lindy circle to close, kicks instead of tripples
65 | 6 count sling shot with outward right hand and inward knee wiggles on the 5 and 6
66 | 4 count (2 * 2 count slides) big slides into close, guys start with left foot
6X | 6 count frog variation, early lift on 3 instead of 5
67 | 6 count turnout to the 9:00 position, kicks instead of tripples
68 | 8 count behind the back shoulder roll, guys rock step straight back then step to the right, presenting their back to the path that the follows will travel. Leads keep your arm tucked in a bit to aid the turning. (rock step run run jump land hold hold.)
69 | swing out with crouch on 4 and jump on 5.
70 | slip slops, do three start by going to the leads right, hold 7 and stomp off on 8
71| lead Charlestons with a left 90 degree turn, follow does unled rock step kick kick kick in front, both now facing the audience again
72 | Tandem Charleston
73 | Aeroplane into drop catch on 8
74 | Hair drier into finishing poses

Party This Saturday

2010-04-29T19:28:00.003+12:00

--
Party this Saturday at my place, a bit like a Rumpus for partner dancers, cheese and rum lovers.

--
Lets make a fire in the fireplace, toast marshmallows, cheese and each other, then dance late blues.

Drinks and nibbles from 7 to 11, then blues dancing till late.
--
There will be rum tasting including Pyrat and Matusalem. If you are a rum fan you are welcome to bring one to taste as well!

For wine drinkers I've got a case to share of the delicious The Doctors Riesling 2009, my new favorite. Also an aged mixed case of red, from my wardrobe 5 years ago.

I'll have lots of marshmallows on hand and Halloumi cheese for toasting by the fireplace.

There will likely be a vintage hand wound gramophone to be used for some vintage blues shallac recordings later in the evening, amplified with a microphone.

This setup produces a warm, rich, scratchy sound that might be of interest to modern djs.

For lindy, balboa and blues dancers I'll wax up my lounge dance floor. My kitchen has newly laid lacquered cork tiles that will be waxed as well.

Cleanternet.org

2010-04-27T21:23:00.003+12:00

--
You guys will get this easily, I'm sure. Very very funny, and immaculately done. Also a good reminder of the potential for tyranny using internet.

The site is here.

Five Years of Mt Lowry

2010-04-12T20:44:00.003+12:00

--
This year I ran Mt Lowry again, my 5th in 6 years. Last year I was out due to a date clash. Still my favourite running event, a kiwi-as in the bush experience, rugged, outrageous, beautiful, dangerous to race on and impossible to traverse any way except on foot.

No posing or grandstanding from the winners with their fabulously fast times; this is a tough course and I have only ever felt encouragement and generosity from the other competitors.

A fast finisher from the long course offer me a hot chip claiming they were sauce covered vitamins. People chatting with the strangers next to them a little, nobody fussing much over personal space.

I was presented with a five year medal, which not very many people have. Note that two of us got dressed out of our running gear and into something warm. No idea who these people are, we just assembled for this photo.

Unexpectedly I ran my best time 1:34:18. This wasn't as good as Colin's smashing time, a good 6 minutes faster, very impressive. I lay low for about 10 days to recover.

To a large extent the five year medal is a sign of durability. My friend Kats couldn't make her 3rd year because of injury, a pulled Achilles heel.

Moutain Biking

2010-04-11T21:33:00.002+12:00

--
Got back on the mountain bike today, felt really good. Thanks James for finding good routes again through the maze of tracks available.

We went slowly, but for a long time. It was Andrews first time out, and he is already better down the hills than I am!

Computing Fashions

2010-04-05T22:07:00.003+12:00

--
Developer geeks the globe over seem to be thinking like this:

wired: iphone apps, ipad apps, android apps, mac desktop apps
tired: web apps
expired: windows apps

Quirky, new, interesting and innovative apps are probably going to land on somewhere other than Windows for the next, ah, decade. Windows isn't trendy, and hasn't been for a long time.

Worse than that, what I need to sharpen my CV at this point is a nice little iPhone app. If I made a nice little Windows app, my peers would be like, that is odd, haven't you been keeping up?

Ommwriter for example, one of a small segment of apps to help writers write.

Ommwriter from herraizsoto&co on Vimeo.

Do Little April

2010-04-04T12:10:00.004+12:00

--
After a very busy 5 months I'm starting my month of do nothing. Don't get me wrong, my months of being busy are mostly self inflicted, I wouldn't trade them for the missed sleep.

With daylight savings and the long weekend, it feels nice to follow my plan of being pretty idle and letting my body and my brain have a bit of rest.

My motto for the month isn't about doing nothing exactly, it is about being relaxed and staying unbusy without weekends away or running events.

I've got a small number of tidying and changing tasks:
- get my domain UDAIs and shift them to another DNS host
- switch email to google mail
- switch my dead biggeek blog to one of the paid hosts and resuscitate it
- tax bits
- new internet router with printer support
- new electric table
- new little couch

Fliters and Experiences

2010-01-26T21:22:00.003+13:00

--
Certain activities are great filters. On Monday I was mountain biking with a coupe of friends from dancing, and we stopped for a few moments.

We were at the intersection of tracks and a bunch of people whizzed this way while cooled off. That spot defined by that activity was a filter that meant all the woman had hot bodies and probably all the men too, if I knew how to figure that out.

This weekend I am heading to my first KiwiBurn with only a rough idea what to expect. The people I have asked about it have not been able to describe the experience. I don't mean that they have not described the experience well, but that they have demurred to describe the experience at all.

In lue of explanation I have received jubilant endorsement of the event. So my guesses about what it might be go like this:

a camping experience; lots of people camping by a lake
for organised people; you have to bring your own everything, including drinking water, only toilets are provided
who like theme camps; there are various theme camps. Ours is called the Illuminati and will feature a large enclosed structure of scaffolding, large PA gear, lots of djs and visuals.
and are hedonists; the dj slots that apparently are 'best' are the ones between 12pm and 6am. These are times for hedonistic people, in my opinion :-)

I expect there will be some nakedness in the lake, plenty of legal and illegal stimulant use and lots of unregulated behaviour that I might find a bit challenging, which is kind of the point.

That said, what kind of people am I likely to meet there, people like me?

2010 Self Improvement

2010-01-15T23:49:00.003+13:00

--
This year I will work on the real.

I will expressing my feelings in real time in real life; this will cause conflict that I will take on the chin.

I am naturally an introvert, a-scoial, not great at empathy off the cuff. These are defensive mechanisms that are getting in the way of what I want.

My emotions are polarising and blunt. I will use them a lot more in order to work out the rough edges.

Attending Events for 2010

2010-01-01T15:41:00.012+13:00

--
I've got a bunch of fun things for this year. I'm writing them down here so that you can attend and enjoy these things with me, and as calendaring work.

KiwiBurn | Jan 29th to Feb 1st
I'll attend this well recommended event with my three friends who are going. I'm lending some DJ gear and doing a little DJing as well.

My expectations are that this will be an electronica event crossed with a hippy festival. Who knows?

Round the Bays | Feb 21st of Feb
Can't do this, it clashes with Art Deco weekend. Sorry running buddies!

Art Deco Napier Weekend | Feb 19th to 21st
I can't describe easily how much I enjoy this weekend. It is full little moments of wonder and magic, as we dance and frollic, eat, show, dress up a lot, drink a little, catch up and make new friends.

I'm wondering which spirit should be imbibed straight in order to encourage frank discussion about 'dancing crushes', a difficult and fraught topic.

Helen and Josh get married | Feb 27th
I'm alumni with Hels and met Josh on the Unisys Grad program a long time ago, where Hels met Josh also.

Most of the grads from that time, and a few from later, will be at this large wedding. Will be fab.

Andrew and Jazz get married | March 6th
I get to be groomsman and wedding dance tutor. We got the suits made in Thailand recently.

Mount Lowry Challenge | March 28th
My favourite running event that luckily this year does not clash with either a wedding or dancing things. Overheating is a serious consideration in this event. The move from Feb to March will help.

This will be my 5th time doing this event. That qualifies me for a special medal.

ANZAC Weekend Dancing | speculated as 25th April
Will there be more ANZAC weekend dancing in Christchurch this year? I hope so but I don't know if the date has been gazumped by a bigger event.

The Food Show Wellington 2010 | May 14th to 16
I keep missing this, but I would really like to go. If you go on the Friday, that is the least busy day, so I will go then.

Camp NZX10 | 18th June
There will be a fabulous lindy camp in Auckland again, probably just a bit bigger than last year. There will be great costumes, dancing crushes, dashing to and from airports and no observable consumption of alcohol.

I'll be a deleriuosly happy sleep deprived monkey by monday morning, again :)

Harbour City Half Marathon | June 27th
I didn't do a half marathon last year. This means I didn't do many long endurance runs that make your heart bigger and teach your body to directly metabolise fat and live longer. I'll do this event this year mostly for those reasons.

Windy Lindy | speculated late August
I want to defend my title as Showcase champion. Whether this is with or against my the partner that I won it with is yet to be decided!

Big Band Festival in Christchurch | speculated as Labour Weekend, 25th October
I really this event, lots of classy people, classy accomodation and a good group of people who don't want to go to bed early when they are on holiday.

No Announced Date
Barista Afernoon
There are lots of barista courses that you can do with friends. I'm considering doing the Mojo course, although I haven't explored options for others. Perhaps if Ripe do one, that would be good, but I think what I really want to do is a Fuel course because they seem to have the most consistently trained baristas.

No Announced Date
Cocktail Afternoon
There are cocktails afternoons that you can do. The Southern Cross run them, but other places might do so. I think if Motel or Hawthorn do one then I'd be keen for that too.

No Announced Date
Andrews S. Away Weekend
Andrew S is having an away weekend, with a Lindy focus, at I think Riversdale or Castle point. Heavily amplified good times!

2009 Redux

2009-12-26T10:08:00.003+13:00

--
You've been patient with my lack of blogging. I said about a hear ago I was going to do less blogging and more living; here is what I've been up to.

Work
Had a good but very stressful year at work, for the most part. Delivered a particularly tricky release with five system integration points to three systems, with a fourth middle-ware system in front of two of them. Getting that in on time was difficult.

There are always things to be healthily afraid of in software development, but I'm at a point where I've done most of those things that relate to the web software.

Dating
I started off the year heartbroken over somebody I'll never see again. I did get over that thankfully.

I was 0 from 5 for dating that I wanted to go somewhere but didn't. A great deal of other less meaningful flirting activity too. I was a difficult match this year.

Massage
Completed a relaxation and deep tissue massage course. Pretty fun, chewed up almost all of my winter, or felt like it did. It was 67 hours of class time and about 20 hours of homework, all in weekends and evenings.

I'll get a certificate for it in the new year.

Running
Didn't do much running this year, no events! All the running stuff this year clashed.

Dancing
I did a ton of dancing this year, apparently in lue of running. A bunch of dancing weekends. Each of these contained more than 20 hours of super fun dancing.
- Art Deco weekend in Feb in Napier
- ANZAC weekend in Christchurch
- Camp NZX09 in Auckland
- Big Band Festival in Christchurch
- Windy Lindy in Welly

Also I had three TV appearances, all with other couples
- ANZAC day Good Morning Show, dancing to the Beat Girls singing Boogy Woogy Bugle Boy
- TV3 Telethon 2009, dancing to the Rodger Fox Jazz Band
- Good Morning Show end of year special show, we opened the show dancing to Sing Sing Sing.

Also won the Showcase competition at Windy Lindy.

Travel
Made it to Thailand for a couple of weeks.

Sports
No netball but a little Ultimate, a sport in which I don't know how to throw!

House Renovation
Got box corners put on the house. Much tricky scribing for the builder to do, a once every 30 years kind of activity.

Menus

2009-12-24T11:52:00.002+13:00

--
For mr_storysmith and the alligator, here is linky to an article about the use of language in menu design. I think we have seen all of this stuff in NZ for some time though.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/dining/23menus.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Thailand

2009-12-13T23:14:00.002+13:00

Thailand was fun. We got suits made for Andrew and Jazz's March wedding, and I got some work cloths and dance clothes too. Jazz got some work things, and Tim got some work things and some play things.

Mostly we hung out in Phuket at Kata beach, and a little at Karon beach.

Fancy Jazz resteraunt called Jazzteraunt. No swing or upbeat Jazz is every played here, and dancing is not encouraged except by private function, which cost something like NZD$5000 for the place.

A view from Kata beach in Phuket. I was on a sun lounger under an umbrella.

Andrews feet getting cleaned by some sort of cleaner fish. This is a ticklish process!

At the big Buddha this artist is making a sculpture of what the final site is meant to look like. At the time we saw it non of the outter wall was complete, but most of the big Buddha in the middle was and the golden thing to the left. Should be very very nice when it is all finished.

In Bangkok I got sick, called in a Doctor for a room visit, to which he prescribed this drugs that I hadn't had before. No side effects or reactions noticable, apart from minor bumps on my forearms
- Cifloxin
- Imodium
- Dramamine

Only saw my hotel room in Bangkok.

Koop Island Blues Routine

2009-12-04T20:58:00.007+13:00

--
Windy Lindy routine notes, as performed.

intro
0 hold (lead faces away from audience, follow facing audience and right from lead some distance in a line)
1 hold
2 hold

phrase 1
3 toe swivels travel towards each other
4 sames and collect lead left to follow left
5 toe swivels 180
6 charleston to tandem
7 sidewalk charleston
8 unsidewalk
9 swingout from cross hand
10 texas tommy into
11 modern chase with stationary kicks, end open
12 she goes he goes travels
13 sailor step entry
14 sailor jigs
15 sailor exit for 8 with the follow right arm turn variation
16 swing out
17 swing out to hang with lead left holding follow right

phrase 2
18 hold 4 counts then sweep to open
19 swingout jump
20 swingout with lead under arm variation
21 high block double turn
22 french 8 count under leads left arm change of place
23 noodle (similar to sailor step entry)
24 noodle and 4 count quick turn
25 swingout outside turn
26 pull through turn
27 8 count turn and sit move
28 'the shane' lead follow behind leads back then to close with hand changea
29 double turn out
30 swing out with cross hand change
31 into blues circle
32 Skye and Frida hops
33 outside turn to close
34 charleston dip

phrase 3
35 hold 4 counts then unwind spin follow into solo
36 follow solo steps
37 follow solo steps
38 follow solo steps
39 half breaks
40 charletston 540
41 charleston with horse step
42 spin and hold and hold hat

phrase 4
43 sideways charleston lead to left follow to right
44 sideways charleston, cross each other to open
45 texas tommy into
46 crossovers
47 crossovers with triples instead of singles
48 uncross to open
49 swingout with outside turn
50 reverse swingout with inside turn
51 she goes he goes traveling to open
52 sugar push turn to close (backs to audience)
53 reverse promenade with outside turn
54 half swingout with push to open
55 reverse jerk
56 swingout with change to areals hold
57 lamp post
58 left hand 'side lean' dip

End of Year Good Morning Routine

2009-12-04T20:58:00.005+13:00

--
The first part of the Lindy routine I am learning goes like this, it is a California variation.
01 Swing out forward from close
02 Hollywood style swingout forward
03 Hollywood style swingout forward
04 007 move, a lindy turn with the lead landing on count 7 and holding, over rotating the follow into a protective position while making a gun with the left hand
05 kick the dog travelling forward
06 6 count turnout to the 10:30 position, kicks instead of tripples
07 6 count change of place to the 4:30 position, kicks instead of tripples
08 6 count lindy circle to close, kicks instead of tripples
09 6 count swing shot with outward right hand and inward knee wiggles on the 5 and 6
10 6 count (3 * 2 count slides) big slides into close, guys start with left foot
11 6 count frog variation, early lift on 3 instead of 5
12 6 count turnout to the 9:00 position, kicks instead of tripples
13 6 count behind the back shoulder roll, guys rock step straight back then step to the right, presenting their back to the path that the follows will travel. Leads keep your arm tucked in a bit to aid the turning.
14 swing out with crouch on 4 and jump on 5.
15 slip slops, do three start by going to the leads right, hold 7 and 8
16 lead Charlestons with a left 90 degree turn, follow does unled rock step kick kick kick in front, both now facing the audience again
17 Tandem Charleston
18 Russian kick
19 Tandem Charleston
20 Easy half circle tandem Charleston exit
Repeat once more.

Bumper Weekend

2009-11-13T00:27:00.002+13:00

--
I've got a monster weekend coming up.

Bracketed around my elder sisters wedding in the Wairarapa is Windy Lindy, the big Wellington lindy hop showdown for the year.

Friday day I work and buy wedding gifts. Friday night I'm doing sound and dancing. Saturday is big sisters wedding which will I'll enjoy until I get back around 6pm.

That is when the Saturday night dancing starts, for which I am also providing sound.

At the ball I'll be competing in the open choreographed section to a song by Koop called Koop Island Blues. The song is very lush, but we have made a trimmed version that is a bit tighter. We have good choreography, but aren't very good at dancing it in new environments yet. Much practice still to do. (click here to listen/ watch the video)

Late late late on Saturday night there will be late late late blues dancing at my place with whomever i can drag from the ball.

All blog readers here welcome to join me on the Saturday night/ Sunday morning, from midnight at my place. It will be very dark and there will be people dancing very close in the lounge.

Sunday there is a morning lesson, which I expect I'll skip, a lunch I hope to also sleep through followed by dancing under the sails, weather permitting, at 2pm at Queens Warf.

Monday I need to sort out my tax bits and bobs for last FYE and pack for 2 weeks of vaguely wedding related shenanigans in Thailand.

See you on the flipside.

Routine Prep Clips

2009-10-05T22:20:00.003+13:00

--
Bluesy Lindy Clip

French Couple 1 Clip

French Couple 2 Clip

Aerials Clip

Skye and Feida Move

1-4 rock step triple to stop

5-8 crouch hold, jump and step

Frenchy Move

1 – 8 Standard swing out

1 – 4 Half turn follow CCW and both bend forward, lead half turn CW

5 – 8 both step backwards to open under leads’ left arm

Blues Move

1-8 stationary sugar pushes syncopated one hand

Simple Version

1-4 half swingout to crouch

5-8 side steps rising travels

See bluesy couple pink skirt ends 2:40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r44XcUG4J7c

Random Moves

1 -4 half closed lindy circle, but turning follow early

5-8 shuffle shuffle shuffle shuffle backwards

1-4 half Charleston

5-8 crouch, hold, up, and step

1 -2 forward press

3-4 follow turn ccw, lead block and catch in half position with lead no triples

5-6 lead rise up and draw follow in

7-8 lead sink down and draw follow to close, then hold

Candidate Songs

2009-09-30T23:01:00.007+13:00

--
I have a partner to do a lindy hop routine with for Windy Lindy in November. She has been away and will be rusty but is naturally strong enough to endure the rigors of learning a routine and dead keen.

Frank Sinatra, I Wish I Was In Love Again. 122 bpm.

The sleepless nights - the daily fights
The quick toboggan - when you reach the heights
I miss the kisses - and I miss the bites
I wish I were in love again

The broken dates - the endless waits
The lovely loving - and the hateful hates
The conversation - with the flying plates
I wish I were in love again

No more pain - no more strain
Now I'm sane - but I would rather be Ga-Ga

The pulled out fur - of cat and cur
The fine mismating - of a him and her
I've learned my lesson - but I wish I were
In love again

The furtive sigh - the blackened eye
The words: "I love you - 'til the day I die"
The self-deception - that believes the lie
I wish I were in love again

When love congeals - it soon reveals
The faint aroma - of performing seals
The double-crossing - of a pair of heels
I wish I were in love again

No more care - no despair
I'm all there now - but I'd rather be punch-drunk

Believe me sir - I much prefer
The classic battle - between a him and her
I don't like quiet - and I wish I were
In love again

Estelle, American Boy, 117 bpm.

Kanye West:

This a number one champion sound
yeah Estelle we ’bout to get down
who the hottest in the world right now.
Just touched down in London town.
Bet they give me a pound.
Tell them put the money in my hand right now.
Tell the promoter we need more seats,
we just sold out all the floor seats

Estelle:
Chorus
Take me on a trip, I’d like to go some day.
Take me to New York, I’d love to see LA.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You’ll be my American Boy.

He said Hey Sister.
It’s really really nice to meet ya.
I just met this 5 foot 7 guy who’s just my type.
I like the way he’s speaking his confidence is peaking.
Don’t like his baggy jeans but Ima like what’s underneath them.
And no I ain’t been to MIA
I heard that Cali never rains and New York’s heart awaits. First let’s see the west end.
I’ll show you to my Bredrin.
I’m liking this American Boy. American Boy

Chorus
Take me on a trip, I’d like to go some day
Take me to New York, I’d love to see LA.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You’ll be my American Boy, American Boy.

Can we get away this weekend.
Take me to Broadway.
Let’s go shopping baby then we’ll go to a Café.
Let’s go on the subway.
Take me to your hood.
I neva been to Brooklyn and I’d like to see what’s good.
Dressed in all your fancy clothes.
Sneaker’s looking Fresh to Death I’m lovin those Shell Toes.
Walkin that walk.
Talk that slick talk.
I’m likin this American Boy. American Boy.

Chorus
Take me on a trip, I’d like to go some day.
Take me to New York, I’d love to see LA.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You’ll be my American Boy

Tell ‘em wagwaan blood
Kanye West:
Who killin em in the UK.
Everybody gonna say you K,
reluctantly, because most of this press don’t f**k wit me.
Estelle once said to me, cool down down
don’t act a fool now now.
I always act a fool oww oww.
Aint nothing new now now.
He crazy, I know what ya thinkin.
Ribena I know what you’re drinkin.
Rap singer. Chain Blinger. Holla at the next chick soon as you’re blinkin.
What’s you’re persona.
About this Americana rhymer
Am I shallow cuz all my clothes designer.
Dressed smart like a London Bloke.
Before he speak his suit bespoke.
And you thought he was cute before.
Look at this Pea Coat, Tell me he’s broke.
And I know you ain’t into all that. I heard your lyrics I feel your spirit.
And there’s something about Gladys Knight and the Pips in there, can’t quite hear it…
But I still talk that CAAASH.
Cuz a lot WAGs want to hear it.
And I’m feelin like Mike at his Baddest.
The Pimps at their Gladist.
And I know they love it.
so to hell with all that rubbish

Estelle:
Would you be my love, my love.
could be mine would you be my love my love, could be mine
Could you be my love, my love.
Would you be my American Boy. American Boy

Chorus
Take me on a trip, I’d like to go some day
Take me to Chicago, San Francisco Bay.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You’ll be my American Boy, American Boy.

Koop, Island Blues, 158 bpm.

Hello my love, it's getting cold on this island.
I sat alone, I'm so sad on my own.
The truth is...we were much too young.
Now I'm looking for you, or anyone like you.
We said goodbye with a smile on our faces.
Now you're alone
You're so sad on your own.
The truth is we ran out of time.
Now you're looking for me, or anyone like me.
Nah nah nah...
Nah nah nah nah...
La la la laa la la.
Hello my love, it's getting cold on this island.
I sat alone, I'm so sad on my own.
The truth is...we were much too young.
Now I'm looking for you, or anyone like you

--

Also, completely unrelated Permablitz.

Music Snippets

2009-09-20T22:50:00.001+12:00

House:
Cascade
Little boot

Dub: casper & rosco

Experiences Under Planning

2009-09-20T21:46:00.001+12:00

Call me greedy, but I'll chase these experiences over the next couple of couple of years.

Massage
Got my bookwork to do, a video to watch, some practice and a supplementary practical.

Eating and Drinking
Try almond butter.
Try cashew butter.
Try unpasturised NZ milk.
Take a Barista course with friends, hopefully.
Take the 5 people or more cocktail making course at the Southern Cross..
Thai cooking classes, in Thailand.

Lindy Hop
Swing dancing in Hobart, a small cute and approachable camp.
A second routine at this years Windy Lindy. Got to start this soon!

Forms of Locomotion
Balooning with Michelle & friends.
Paragliding.
Cross country skiing.

DJing
Play 'out' in 2010.

OK Cupid Online Dating Advice

2009-09-19T18:44:00.001+12:00

--
Probably good advice from the OK Cupid people. These guys are smart and their lexical analysis seems hard to refute.

Thursday Holiday Things

2009-08-26T23:56:00.004+12:00

--
It is Thursday and I'm on holiday, my first holiday not during end of year shut down time or public holidays since about this time last year, keeping to my plan :-)

My list of tasks for tomorrow is short but fun:
- sleep in mildly
- text someone about their lindy hop inquiries
- go to mall for next three items
- trade in yen wad instead of using it as a coaster
- buy an ice breaker tshirt to practice dancing in, less smell than cotton
- attempt to buy little monkeys to stick on me
- attempt to buy toy bananas
- print itinerary
- pretty print short flapper dictionary
- pack
- meet someone for lunch
- drop off car to get it fixed
- pick up finincial times
- drop past work to do my timesheet
- buy pack of fuel coffee beans at the airport
- buy black sambucca
- flirt by text

Monday Goodbyes

2009-08-24T22:34:00.002+12:00

--
Dishwashers, racing in plural. Every dish and bowl in the house used, and a good portion of the glassware.

Pre-guest vacuuming, assemblage of foodage.

Big sister, new nephew, brother in law farewelled for Europe, journeys planned.

A modest bevy of cousins, aunties, uncles, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, their presence fading like the coals in the fireplace.

The cat returning to a room of quiet jazz.

Marshmellows

2009-08-15T16:27:00.002+12:00

--
Really good however short speech on marshmallows, self discipline and success. Note this may take ages to stream. I suggest pausing it and surfing elsewhere a bit.

Feeling Very Good, Late Thursday

2009-07-17T00:12:00.001+12:00

--
I'm feeling really good this evening, after a weekend of massage class, and a Tuesday and Thursday too.

After getting a thoughtful, contemplative, probing, slow but difficult and deep leg massage, I'm feeling really good and relaxed. I am thinking that leg massage might be a sort of short term elixure of youth, but we'll have to see about that. Years of dancing and running I've never really managed to stretch out, pent up, holding back some part of my mind.

I started rearranging my lounge, I think only the fourth arrangement in the near decade in the domicile. I am manoeuvring my new, unfinished, unchristened dance floor into place.

My dj kit is moved, and through some twist of physics that I can't explain, is sounding seriously fabulous. It is really crisp, clean, even and unusually bright. I appear to breaking general rules of where to put speakers, but I think I just the right height to make it work.

So this late evening is a pleasant evening of blogging, sharp-smart-jazz that makes me feel good and late eating. Dinner comprised of chilli beans, an organic fried egg and half a cauliflower smothered with a mild cheese sauce.

I've also cued up massage practice for Friday, Saturday, Sunday x 2, and Monday night. This is good, I'm 59 hours in and enjoying it a lot.

Post By Email

2009-07-13T20:48:00.001+12:00

On this slow news day where I read all my interweb in about 4 minutes, I am trying blogger blogging by email. I hope that it makes photo uploading less tedious and that I get to control formatting more easily.

At work I've got my end of several complex features going, and am helping with the configuration, debugging and politicing to get the other ends to work.

I'm about half way through my extensive massage course. After yesterdays abdominal massage work I understand the meaning of visceral. I should really share this feeling with my writer friends so that they know how to use the word appropriately.

Soon I'll be teaching some Lindy in Upper Hutt. I'll be taught more about teaching later in the year when I get to teach. Should be the funzor, definitely getting me out of my comfort zone.

My dance floor has arrived, but needs more work. It is still drying, but I think I need to sand it a little and give it another coat of polyurethane. Come summer I should paint the underside to match my wall too.

A new dancefloor means rearranging my lounge in undetermined ways.

Other stuff is afoot, but still waiting for some traction.

~~I hope at last I can do strikethrough easily on my blog.~~

Woozy but Good

2009-06-28T20:03:00.002+12:00

--
This 500th post is about things I've being doing instead of blogging, ironic no?

There were two specific goals on my list this year and some activities that did not fit in if I did lots of blogging. Running of almost any kind has been trading for others this year too.

The first goal was to take a good massage course. I'm taking one from the Wellington School of Massage. It is teaching me some anatomy, relaxation and deep tissue massage techniques.

Giving massage is work, but less work than running so no shakes there. Receiving, oddly causes your muscles aged garbage to be released and collected by your blood, and this makes you woozy and headachey.

This is a demanding and well rounded course. It is 67 hours of class time and I am required to do 15 hours of homework, which is about 15 to 20 massages.

I am ten days into the course, which is a nice place to be. It started last weeked, on the Friday, with Friday night 6:30 to 9:30 followed by 9am to 6pm both days last weekend and both days this weekend. I've also crammed 2 hours of practice into the week past. Busy.

Many thanks to judge-jury for lending me his massage table.

Another unrelated goal was to try to start to try to teach lindy. I'm now on the teachers roster as the newest teacher. I'm due to start some teaching to a relatively captive audience at the Cosmplitan Club in Upper Hutt which has a long, long history of teaching a variety of dances. They get various ballroom, salsa and rock and roll teachers in a regular Wednesday slot, then they have generous practice time aftewards.

I'll be teaching with one of my former teachers who I have danced with socially a lot in the past year. She is an experienced teacher and we should have a blast.

Logs vs Fire

2009-05-25T23:47:00.002+12:00

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I ran out of firewood about an hour ago. In an flash of inspiration I found myself well rugged up and combing the beach for the least wet looking wood, hefting small logs to judge their relative density.

So far the wet logs washed up from the sea, gathered in the rain, are loosing against my fireplace. They are hissing, defiantly, but they are burning.

It is a marval of 1940s fireplace engineering that I have been running on wet wood for about 40 minutes.

It is kind of like a game of defense towers. That last link is addictive for obsessive people, warning.

Small Electrical Beginings

2009-04-20T22:20:00.002+12:00

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If you look here you can see the most modest beginnings of a machine that can print one of its own circuit boards.

It does this in a dirty fashion using plain solder, and it is kind of lumpy. However this is a huge technical milestone.

Why should you notice? This is kind of like the point in 1991 when Linus Torvalds got the GCC compiler ported to Linux which caused the thing to start to take shape.

Much as Linux has helped Google to be Google, in about 10 years this will start to transform society and start to become a kind of non self aware digital life form that alters societies thoughts about real world objects.

Context Free Art

2009-04-13T13:24:00.006+12:00

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I've been playing with an algorithmic art generator called Context Fee Art. You make a little program like this:


startshape circle

background { b -0.35 } 

rule circle {
  60 * { r 6 }  circlet { y 10 s 1.1b 0.7 }
}

// solid circle bit
rule circlet 10 { ss { } }

// skip bit
rule circlet {  }

// oversized
rule circlet { CIRCLE { s 1.5 } }

// undersized
rule circlet { ss { s 0.75 } }

// stemming
rule circlet 0.5 {
 ss { s 1.5 }
 ss { s 0.3 10 y 5 }
 circle { s 0.5 y 15 }
}


rule ss { SQUARE {  }  }

and it makes a variety of pictures like this (click to biggify):

For more information see the Context Free Art site.