Journaling on estrip is free and easy. get started today

Last Visit 2021-12-26 23:55:06 |Start Date 2007-04-01 15:09:25 |Comments 9,863 |Entries 1,011 |Images 1,430 |Sounds 30 |SWF 1 |Videos 219 |Mobl 27 |Theme |

Category: linux

04/28/11 12:29 - ID#54163

Natty Party

It's Natty release day.

That's Ubuntu 11.04 with Unity - a new desktop environment with a shady and rocky past fraught with disagreement and warfare between Canonical (the Keepers of Ubuntu) and GNOME - the erstwhile desktop of older *buntu flavours.

Regardless of all this strife-torn history, millions around the planet will be celebrating with Natty parties. Including dear neighbouring cities, Ithaca and Rochester.

However, there is no such Natty install-party in Buffalo. In fact, the Ubuntu mirror at UB has not even updated to 11.04 final-release YET. Charles Profitt , lead contact of the New York State Ubuntu Local Community (LoCo) Team asked me if I would be interested in organizing one.

If only I had the time.

If only...

I don't.

That's not very Natty at all.
print add/read comments

Permalink: Natty_Party.html
Words: 136
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/28/11 05:29


Category: music

04/21/11 01:23 - ID#54106

Barack Obama



I really like Sonora Carruseles, but LOL!
print addComment

Permalink: Barack_Obama.html
Words: 10
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/21/11 01:25


Category: dance

04/19/11 02:15 - ID#54092

Ballet Class

If I were to use just two words to describe my ballet class with Kolleen Fischer today, I would say, simply magical. I seriously felt as if time had stopped and frozen into a spectrum of snowflakes as we danced and dissolved every single muscle into the music.

We started with a brilliant Rudy Apffel piano adaptation of the Pavane originally written by Gabriel Fauré back in 1887.
and continued to many Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn classics.

I don't know how Kolleen picks exactly the right piece for every single exercise... but she does. I think they must have carefully tailored the sound system at the studio to bring out the best in piano music. I also met Joe Cipolla - co-founder of the Configuration School of Ballet.

My back muscles are so sore now but I am far from being tired. I am energized! It seemed odd to me at first that dancing would make my back muscles ache so much but it makes perfect sense now. Ballet is so much about posture. I slump at my desk all day so no wonder my muscles feel like they have met their maker on judgment day!

I feel like I have finally found a dance form that challenges every part of my body and awes me completely at the same time. I don't think I am doing justice describing just how beautiful that hour of ballet was to me. Sometimes words are just not enough...

If you have always been fascinated with ballet and share a passion for classical music, come and dance with me next Monday! You will be completely and utterly sore afterwards but then who isn't after a delightful session of time travel?!
print add/read comments

Permalink: Ballet_Class.html
Words: 288
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/19/11 02:15


Category: music

04/16/11 05:38 - ID#54061

Music

I wonder how this will look like a year from now...
image
image

print add/read comments

Permalink: Music.html
Words: 17
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/16/11 05:38


Category: dance

04/15/11 12:33 - ID#54054

Conflicted.

I went to my favourite salsa class after several weeks today and I am so very conflicted about whether I like the nature of the dance. I really like going to the class simply because I love dancing with Sarah and Sean and the music is so very addictive. I am incredibly happy when I am dancing by myself, learning fancy footwork and just picking up new moves.



And that's when all the unhappiness starts. I just can't feel any connections when I am dancing with a partner. In fact, I find myself resenting the fact that all the complicated and intricate moves are done by the lead and my role feels rather passive. In a class situation, everything is rosy because all the steps are worked out for me and I am dancing just as I have been told to. But I am absolutely clueless about how people manage to anticipate moves in the context of social dancing.

I am sure tons of practice has something to do with this, but I don't know if I am up to all the mental stubbing that practice outside class involves. And of course, I just can't get good at following without practice outside class. There doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the salsa tunnel. It seems like I am wandering about lost in that tunnel having endless bad hair days.

I always start off the class feeling euphoric. It's just me and Sarah and Sean dancing in the spring. And then things slowly go downhill once partner-work starts in the intermediate class and hits the absolute nadir at the end of class when I wonder why I put myself through hoops for dancing in some vague future with some vague partner who won't like dancing with me anyway. Why?! And what the hell am I doing in class that is geared mainly towards partner dancing?!

Honestly, I don't know.
print add/read comments

Permalink: Conflicted_.html
Words: 324
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/15/11 01:04


Category: dance

04/12/11 09:55 - ID#54042

Who knew...

How fascinating!


I am starting to be infatuated with ballet and ballet music. The sheer focus on individual strength and pushing the limits of my body through muscle control is incredibly appealing... And the music is gorgeous and timeless.

Maybe this should be my first sewing project when I finally get that sewing machine...


I would like to wear ballet shoes made of a deep venous-red satin. However, the colour I am thinking of seems to be only available for special made-to-order pointe shoes. Regular red ballet shoes are usually canvas and are a bland bright red. Nothing beats having a pair of satin/silk shoes the colour of dark blood with black undertones...

print addComment

Permalink: Who_knew_.html
Words: 120
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/12/11 10:14


Category: science

04/11/11 07:27 - ID#54030

Marathon craziness

I am sure you know of people who have been couch potatoes for decades suddenly taking up running as a sport and competing in the next big marathon in town. I know too many to fit on my fingers and toes. Every time someone gets the marathon bug, they try and get me to join in the craziness (no doubt as a reciprocal move to my getting them to come to my numerous dance classes).

I dislike running. A LOT. I can walk *really* fast and probably match the pace of all 6+ footers out there with little effort but I cannot run for long. To be precise, I can run for 15 seconds before my lungs liquefy and start pouring out my nostrils... Well, they don't, actually, but that's what it feels like. It's almost as bad as trying to get used to spectacles and have the ground tilt and be all wobbly for a couple weeks. I can't take that feeling! As a result, I don't run, or wear spectacles. Usually, people try to show me the merits of joining the band of brothers^ runners and the bespectacled. However, my dislike is so intense that I refuse point blank.

And now I have scientific proof to wave in their faces (atleast for the runners... I am sure, one of these days, I will find something against spectacles as well.)

I spotted this editorial that gives an overview of studies that show that if you just run because your friends have suddenly started running or you feel like running can make up for your decades of binging on chicken wings or smoking your lungs to a nice ebony black, it doesn't help. ::READ PDF::

In fact, you end up with an increased risk of coronary atherosclerosis or myocardial scar formation due to mini-infarctions (that's a heart attack and things leading up to heart attacks). Running, for people who have not slowly conditioned their muscles over a long period of time, is injurious to their heart.

Instead, come to dance class with me! ;-)


^NB: Have you ever noticed that 95% of male actors that you look up in imdb has usually played a role in that HBO series? When they made the series, did they recruit everyone from every acting school across the planet?!
print add/read comments

Permalink: Marathon_craziness.html
Words: 385
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/11/11 10:19


Category: buffalo

04/10/11 12:30 - ID#54017

Dear Snow,

Please DON'T come back. Ever. We have had quite enough.
image

print add/read comments

Permalink: Dear_Snow_.html
Words: 12
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/10/11 12:30


Category: eating in

04/10/11 12:26 - ID#54016

How to make an edible rainbow...

A pictorial guide...
image
image
print addComment

Permalink: How_to_make_an_edible_rainbow_.html
Words: 7
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/10/11 12:26


Category: e:strip

04/10/11 12:16 - ID#54015

E:Strip: In the light and in the dark!

Finally home?
image
image

~30 mb of compressed text
~2 gigs of compressed pictures
~8 years of words, thoughts and perspectives.
print add/read comments

Permalink: E_Strip_In_the_light_and_in_the_dark_.html
Words: 20
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/10/11 12:38


Search

Chatter

New Site Wide Comments

sina said to sina
yes thank you!
Well, since 2018 I am living in France, I have finished my second master of science,...

paul said to sina
Nice to hear from you!! Hope everything is going great....

paul said to twisted
Hello from the east coast! It took me so long to see this, it might as well have arrived in a lette...

joe said to Ronqualityglas
I really don't think people should worry about how their eyelids work. Don't you?...