Name Meme

My Monday has been rather boring thus far so to pass time, I present:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 155 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

The info generator helpfully says there are another 1,105,275 people named Brian in the US, as well with 41,991 people named Jarvis. The former doesn't surprise me but I never would have guessed the latter.

Name Meme

My Monday has been rather boring thus far so to pass time, I present:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 155 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

The info generator helpfully says there are another 1,105,275 people named Brian in the US, as well with 41,991 people named Jarvis. The former doesn't surprise me but I never would have guessed the latter.

Empires Come, Empires Go

A friend send me this link, a graphical demonstration of empires in the middle east waxing & waning over the course of 5,000 years.

I would love to see a more global map, something demonstrating the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, the British Empire and the American Empire, as well as possibly the Japanese Empire and perhaps the Aztec, Mayan and Incan empires. It's useful to be reminded that nothing lasts for ever (thank god).

Empires Come, Empires Go

A friend send me this link, a graphical demonstration of empires in the middle east waxing & waning over the course of 5,000 years.

I would love to see a more global map, something demonstrating the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, the British Empire and the American Empire, as well as possibly the Japanese Empire and perhaps the Aztec, Mayan and Incan empires. It's useful to be reminded that nothing lasts for ever (thank god).

DC Mainstream class #4

Our square dance class tonight went relatively smoothly. One of our new dancers had missed last week because of a schedule conflict so our review at the start of the class was slower and more detailed than in prior sessions. Still, Alex is pretty bright and got it all very quickly.

After a couple of warm-up tips, we gradually introduced them to the new calls of the week:

• california twirl
  
• circle to a line
  
• square thru
  
• dive thru

California twirl they grasped immediately and flawlessly, much like they did with grand square two weeks ago. Circle to a line took a little time but about what we expected: it takes some practice to figure out which couples are releasing hands and rolling out into a line.

Square thru took a lot more time & effort, but we anticipated that; newbies sometimes have difficulty remembering to turn in after each pull-by and then not turning in on the final pull-by. What I didn't anticipate were the problems inadvertently caused by some angels: they were rushing thru the call at light speed rather than pacing themselves to the newbies or to the music, and they were moving in a loose formation rather than doing a clean pull-by and turn. I fixed this by forcing synchronization on the squares: right pull-by and turn in --stop!-- left pull-by and turn --stop!-- right pull-by and turn --stop!-- left pull-by. Once we drilled a few times at super-slow speed, we added music at a slow tempo and rehearsed multiple times, gradually increasing the speed.

I also anticipated more problems with fractions of square thru --expecting dancers to turn on the final pull-by-- but that didn't happen. There was minor angst about sometimes being left facing out of the square but with a little reassurance they were all soon dancing confidently.

Dive thru posed no problem at all, with the trivial exception that the occasional shorter arching couple were trying hard to preserve the complete arch, thus nearly decapitating the diving couples. That will iron itself out with practice.

We also introduced singing calls this week, using it to close the session. These will now be a regular part of all future class tips.

DC Mainstream class #4

Our square dance class tonight went relatively smoothly. One of our new dancers had missed last week because of a schedule conflict so our review at the start of the class was slower and more detailed than in prior sessions. Still, Alex is pretty bright and got it all very quickly.

After a couple of warm-up tips, we gradually introduced them to the new calls of the week:

• california twirl
  
• circle to a line
  
• square thru
  
• dive thru

California twirl they grasped immediately and flawlessly, much like they did with grand square two weeks ago. Circle to a line took a little time but about what we expected: it takes some practice to figure out which couples are releasing hands and rolling out into a line.

Square thru took a lot more time & effort, but we anticipated that; newbies sometimes have difficulty remembering to turn in after each pull-by and then not turning in on the final pull-by. What I didn't anticipate were the problems inadvertently caused by some angels: they were rushing thru the call at light speed rather than pacing themselves to the newbies or to the music, and they were moving in a loose formation rather than doing a clean pull-by and turn. I fixed this by forcing synchronization on the squares: right pull-by and turn in --stop!-- left pull-by and turn --stop!-- right pull-by and turn --stop!-- left pull-by. Once we drilled a few times at super-slow speed, we added music at a slow tempo and rehearsed multiple times, gradually increasing the speed.

I also anticipated more problems with fractions of square thru --expecting dancers to turn on the final pull-by-- but that didn't happen. There was minor angst about sometimes being left facing out of the square but with a little reassurance they were all soon dancing confidently.

Dive thru posed no problem at all, with the trivial exception that the occasional shorter arching couple were trying hard to preserve the complete arch, thus nearly decapitating the diving couples. That will iron itself out with practice.

We also introduced singing calls this week, using it to close the session. These will now be a regular part of all future class tips.

Busy, Busy

Every evening for the 10 days or so is now booked with square dance activities:

• Monday: Teaching mainstream square dance class in DC
  
• Tuesday: Attending John Marshall's A2 dance in Virginia
  
• Wednesday: Attending Doran McBroom's C1 workshop in Virginia
  
• Thursday: Fly to Cleveland for their square dance fly-in, "Load The Boat": help decorate dance hall
  
• Friday, Saturday, Sunday: Square dancing in Cleveland
  
• Monday: Teaching mainstream square dance class in DC
  
• Tuesday: Calling square dancing in Baltimore
  
• Wednesday: Attending Doran McBroom's C1 workshop in Virginia
  

Shoot me now.

Busy, Busy

Every evening for the 10 days or so is now booked with square dance activities:

• Monday: Teaching mainstream square dance class in DC
  
• Tuesday: Attending John Marshall's A2 dance in Virginia
  
• Wednesday: Attending Doran McBroom's C1 workshop in Virginia
  
• Thursday: Fly to Cleveland for their square dance fly-in, "Load The Boat": help decorate dance hall
  
• Friday, Saturday, Sunday: Square dancing in Cleveland
  
• Monday: Teaching mainstream square dance class in DC
  
• Tuesday: Calling square dancing in Baltimore
  
• Wednesday: Attending Doran McBroom's C1 workshop in Virginia
  

Shoot me now.