I need a new laptop computer

I currently use a small Toshiba Protege 7020CT. I bought it used about six years ago, largely because it was the smallest, lightest machine I could get cheaply which had a USB port; at the time, I was scanning vast quantities of the out-laws' decades-old collection of slides and I wanted to do in the living room or dining room rather than isolated in the cold basement (our computer room wasn't built then).

The wee beastie has a 233 MHz Pentium II, 128 MB of RAM and a 6 GB hard drive. It currently runs Windows XP and MS Office 98 well enough; with the addition of a PCMCIA card, wireless internet access has been good too. It's small profile makes it ideal for travel so it goes with me to exotic travel destinations --like Denver. And for only $275 six years ago, it's also practically disposable if some airline crushed it under the wheels of a 747.

Alas, the sheer overhead of switching between windows and general sluggishness is making me ponder spending money on a newer laptop. This little machine has been a good soldier but I'm spending too much of my life watching it boot.

Being a cheap bastard inherently frugal, I'm likely to get another used model: I'm more than happy to let someone else burn in a new machine and discover its failings 91 days into a 90 day warranty. I'm also more than happy to let someone else absorb the early depreciation, like a new car driven off the lot.

When I return home again, I'll start sniffing through the pawn shops, Craig's List and local computer shows to see what I can find. It won't be a top-of-the-line model but it will at least have 512 MB of RAM, a 40 GB hard drive, a much faster CPU and built-in modem & network ports and wireless capability, as well as leaning to the small side.

More news as it develops.

I need a new laptop computer

I currently use a small Toshiba Protege 7020CT. I bought it used about six years ago, largely because it was the smallest, lightest machine I could get cheaply which had a USB port; at the time, I was scanning vast quantities of the out-laws' decades-old collection of slides and I wanted to do in the living room or dining room rather than isolated in the cold basement (our computer room wasn't built then).

The wee beastie has a 233 MHz Pentium II, 128 MB of RAM and a 6 GB hard drive. It currently runs Windows XP and MS Office 98 well enough; with the addition of a PCMCIA card, wireless internet access has been good too. It's small profile makes it ideal for travel so it goes with me to exotic travel destinations --like Denver. And for only $275 six years ago, it's also practically disposable if some airline crushed it under the wheels of a 747.

Alas, the sheer overhead of switching between windows and general sluggishness is making me ponder spending money on a newer laptop. This little machine has been a good soldier but I'm spending too much of my life watching it boot.

Being a cheap bastard inherently frugal, I'm likely to get another used model: I'm more than happy to let someone else burn in a new machine and discover its failings 91 days into a 90 day warranty. I'm also more than happy to let someone else absorb the early depreciation, like a new car driven off the lot.

When I return home again, I'll start sniffing through the pawn shops, Craig's List and local computer shows to see what I can find. It won't be a top-of-the-line model but it will at least have 512 MB of RAM, a 40 GB hard drive, a much faster CPU and built-in modem & network ports and wireless capability, as well as leaning to the small side.

More news as it develops.

Denver, Day 5, Part I

All of us had the best of intentions in getting up early this morning and possibly joining the other GCA caller school attendees for breakfast, but things didn't work out.

I think I got perhaps five hours of sleep last night. The problem with attending a working function like the caller school is that my head is loaded with lots of interesting ideas which keep my brain running well past bedtime (and long after I had written most of it to LJ). I'm still not sleeping overly well in this new bed anyway.

Though we didn't join the others for breakfast, we did get a large meal at "The Delectable Egg," a nice family restaurant between our hotel and the convention hotel.

This morning's caller school session was on showmanship, by Deborah Carroll-Jones. I took fewer notes in this session, not that there wasn't a lot of material but because there was a lot of overlap with prior discussions on career advancement, professionalism, music usage/selection and such.

One good piece of advice: select a favoured non-square dancer entertainer and study their techniques for connecting with an audience. In particular, note their timing, delivery, register, vocal technique, movement and the like, including any particular idiosyncratic flairs.

Deborah also outlined three broad methods for a caller to connect with the dance floor:

1. theatrical: props, costuming, particular actions or turns of phrase. While these can be memorable and draw an audience, one must be careful not to become typecast, becoming captive of one's own gimmicks.
   
2. choreography. Never hide behind clever choreo. Stay in control of the choreography, not the other way around.
   
3. music. The majority of our calling time is in patter, especially for the A2 and higher levels: it's critical to select good music. Know the music intimately and use its quirks --rests, drum solos, odd intros-- to your advantage. Always stay dominant over the music, but let the music take center stage for a phrase or two if there's a catchy bridge.

Deborah also spent a few minutes describing three different caller voice modes:

1. talking mode: giving calls in a regular speaking voice, timed to the dominant beat of the music.
   
2. singing mode: singing the calls, following the music's melody and harmony as is comfortable.
   
3. chant mode: adjusting the talking mode to deliver calls in a music-matching rhythm, somewhat staccato, modifying the pitch for emphasis and variety.

After demonstrating different voice modes and particular sample of music to illustrate her points, we took a break. The latter portion of the session was to be spent on practice and calling but exhaustion was catching up with me so I opted to quietly slip back to our hotel.

I also planned to blow off the last session of the day: advancing one's calling career. I've attended similar sessions at the three prior GCA caller schools so I'm anticipating 95% of the material will be a repeat, and most of it relatively obvious: promoting oneself with a web presence, business cards and advertising, making contacts with established callers and local caller association, taking guest spots when they are available, attending caller networking events, engaging club leaders at festivals & dances, etc..

At this point in my particular career path, I have a large number of personal calling improvements which must be made before venturing too far from home base. One must crawl before one walks, walk before one runs, run before one sprints, and sprint before one flies. I'm still painfully aware of my current transition from crawl to walk: when I get closer to the running stage, I'll work more aggressively on blatant self-promotion. :-)

Alas, housekeeping had not been to our room yet so I powered up the laptop to catch up on LJ and e-mail, did some laundry in the facilities in the hotel's basement and have generally shopped around for square dance music using the information collected over the past few days.

Have I mentioned lately how glad I am the hotel has free wireless internet?

Denver, Day 5, Part I

All of us had the best of intentions in getting up early this morning and possibly joining the other GCA caller school attendees for breakfast, but things didn't work out.

I think I got perhaps five hours of sleep last night. The problem with attending a working function like the caller school is that my head is loaded with lots of interesting ideas which keep my brain running well past bedtime (and long after I had written most of it to LJ). I'm still not sleeping overly well in this new bed anyway.

Though we didn't join the others for breakfast, we did get a large meal at "The Delectable Egg," a nice family restaurant between our hotel and the convention hotel.

This morning's caller school session was on showmanship, by Deborah Carroll-Jones. I took fewer notes in this session, not that there wasn't a lot of material but because there was a lot of overlap with prior discussions on career advancement, professionalism, music usage/selection and such.

One good piece of advice: select a favoured non-square dancer entertainer and study their techniques for connecting with an audience. In particular, note their timing, delivery, register, vocal technique, movement and the like, including any particular idiosyncratic flairs.

Deborah also outlined three broad methods for a caller to connect with the dance floor:

1. theatrical: props, costuming, particular actions or turns of phrase. While these can be memorable and draw an audience, one must be careful not to become typecast, becoming captive of one's own gimmicks.
   
2. choreography. Never hide behind clever choreo. Stay in control of the choreography, not the other way around.
   
3. music. The majority of our calling time is in patter, especially for the A2 and higher levels: it's critical to select good music. Know the music intimately and use its quirks --rests, drum solos, odd intros-- to your advantage. Always stay dominant over the music, but let the music take center stage for a phrase or two if there's a catchy bridge.

Deborah also spent a few minutes describing three different caller voice modes:

1. talking mode: giving calls in a regular speaking voice, timed to the dominant beat of the music.
   
2. singing mode: singing the calls, following the music's melody and harmony as is comfortable.
   
3. chant mode: adjusting the talking mode to deliver calls in a music-matching rhythm, somewhat staccato, modifying the pitch for emphasis and variety.

After demonstrating different voice modes and particular sample of music to illustrate her points, we took a break. The latter portion of the session was to be spent on practice and calling but exhaustion was catching up with me so I opted to quietly slip back to our hotel.

I also planned to blow off the last session of the day: advancing one's calling career. I've attended similar sessions at the three prior GCA caller schools so I'm anticipating 95% of the material will be a repeat, and most of it relatively obvious: promoting oneself with a web presence, business cards and advertising, making contacts with established callers and local caller association, taking guest spots when they are available, attending caller networking events, engaging club leaders at festivals & dances, etc..

At this point in my particular career path, I have a large number of personal calling improvements which must be made before venturing too far from home base. One must crawl before one walks, walk before one runs, run before one sprints, and sprint before one flies. I'm still painfully aware of my current transition from crawl to walk: when I get closer to the running stage, I'll work more aggressively on blatant self-promotion. :-)

Alas, housekeeping had not been to our room yet so I powered up the laptop to catch up on LJ and e-mail, did some laundry in the facilities in the hotel's basement and have generally shopped around for square dance music using the information collected over the past few days.

Have I mentioned lately how glad I am the hotel has free wireless internet?

Denver, Day 5, Part II

Alas, leaving the GCA caller school early on Wednesday made me miss a very interesting session: Deborah Carroll-Jones discussed CRaMS, a square dance sight-resolution methodology. I've read the materials but that's no substitute for having it presented by a live human being with the opportunity to ask questions. Doh!

I did spend the afternoon productively though: From the list of music which was discussed over the past several days, I purchased six online. A few I couldn't locate in any sales database; others I suspect I can buy from another DC area caller who is rumoured to have spare copies.

cuyahogarvr arrived shortly after 3 PM, followed shortly by housekeeping. After giving him a quick tour of the facilities, we scooted through the rain over to Hyatt to rendez-vous with kent4str, rlegters and tdjohnsn. The boys just finished their course evaluations and had collected our tickets to see "Wicked" later in the evening.

The rain was down to a light drizzle by the time we headed out into the city for dinner. Alas, the wait time at our first choice of restaurant would have been too long so we settled for "Sam's No. 3" as it was next door and in the vicinity of the theater.

"Wicked" was great fun. I haven't read the book --who has the time?-- and I am assured by others it barely tracks the intent of the novel so great is the disconnect. Still, it was a great cast, well performed and a great space in which to see it. BTW, we had fantasic seats: orchestra, row P, dead center... go me! :-)

After the show, we drifted back to our room and loitered quietly, unwinding for almost 2 hours before heading to bed.

Denver, Day 5, Part II

Alas, leaving the GCA caller school early on Wednesday made me miss a very interesting session: Deborah Carroll-Jones discussed CRaMS, a square dance sight-resolution methodology. I've read the materials but that's no substitute for having it presented by a live human being with the opportunity to ask questions. Doh!

I did spend the afternoon productively though: From the list of music which was discussed over the past several days, I purchased six online. A few I couldn't locate in any sales database; others I suspect I can buy from another DC area caller who is rumoured to have spare copies.

cuyahogarvr arrived shortly after 3 PM, followed shortly by housekeeping. After giving him a quick tour of the facilities, we scooted through the rain over to Hyatt to rendez-vous with kent4str, rlegters and tdjohnsn. The boys just finished their course evaluations and had collected our tickets to see "Wicked" later in the evening.

The rain was down to a light drizzle by the time we headed out into the city for dinner. Alas, the wait time at our first choice of restaurant would have been too long so we settled for "Sam's No. 3" as it was next door and in the vicinity of the theater.

"Wicked" was great fun. I haven't read the book --who has the time?-- and I am assured by others it barely tracks the intent of the novel so great is the disconnect. Still, it was a great cast, well performed and a great space in which to see it. BTW, we had fantasic seats: orchestra, row P, dead center... go me! :-)

After the show, we drifted back to our room and loitered quietly, unwinding for almost 2 hours before heading to bed.

Denver, Day 6

We slept in Thursday morning and enjoyed every minute of it. Ideally, I would have liked to have attended the GCA dance but we really needed the sleep.

The big activities of the day were largely centered around meetings. I attended the IAGSDC delegates meeting on behalf of the GCA, my last time in this particular role. For the most part, reports were all positive: the IAGSDC is healthy financially, we lost some clubs but gained some new ones, the elections of officers to various boards went smoothly, etc.. Atlanta is now our confirmed convention destination for 2011; Tucson & Phoenix put their hat in the ring with a joint bid to host in 2012, as did Vancouver.

I found it interesting that no club expressed any interest in 2013 or beyond. I suspect it's too far into the future for most, but a major reason has to be the increasing complexity and expense of this enterprise, year after year. No small club can put this show on anymore; indeed, it's a struggle for even the largest clubs. A four day long dance event plus three days' prior caller school, a $250,000 budget, an army of volunteers and a number of constituencies with their own sacred cows which dramatically increase the cost... it's become a logistical pain in the ass. At three different points through the delegates meeting, the problem of the complexity and expense were brought up: we have to find a way to restructure this beast very quickly or it will be killed by it's own particular flavour of success.

Personally, I want to convert the honky tonk queen contest into a self-funded entity like the fun badge tours. It costs money to allocate space, room set up, hotel audio/visual systems and such and it has a relatively poor audience attendance: those who want it should be funding it rather than taking it out of the convention base budget. We already do this for the fun badge tour.

I also would prefer to dump the grand march. It nearly doubles our hotel space requirements as we have to have enough space for all clubs in a staging area and then space for their moment in the spotlight with an audience. Since the audience is largely ourselves, it just seems silly. It also means that the floor space requirements written into the IAGSDC convention contract restrict us to premier hotels in first tier cities: if you want to know why a registration is $200+, look no further.

After a short break at the end of the delegates meeting, I was back in the room again for the GCA membership meeting, again my last time in this particular role as my board term expires.

For the most part, this meeting was routine: the GCA's finances are solid, we had 25 attendees at our recent caller school, including 9 newbies. Membership is approximately 100.

The big news item was well known in advance: Nick Martellacci (president), Alan Hirsch (treasurer) and myself (IAGSDC rep) were stepping off the board at the end of our terms. John Oldfield was nominated for president, Michael Maltenfort as treasurer and I nominated rlegters for the IAGSDC rep position; all were acclaimed.

After the meeting and a quick dinner, we were back at the Hyatt for the trail-in dance. I hardly spent more than a few minutes in the hall... as billeyler already reported, the acoustics were atrocious: nearly all music and calling sounded muddy and indistinct. Combined with some astonishingly poor scheduling choices and surprise last minute schedule changes, this convention isn't shaping up quite the way I had wished. I hope things improve dramatically Friday.

Denver, Day 6

We slept in Thursday morning and enjoyed every minute of it. Ideally, I would have liked to have attended the GCA dance but we really needed the sleep.

The big activities of the day were largely centered around meetings. I attended the IAGSDC delegates meeting on behalf of the GCA, my last time in this particular role. For the most part, reports were all positive: the IAGSDC is healthy financially, we lost some clubs but gained some new ones, the elections of officers to various boards went smoothly, etc.. Atlanta is now our confirmed convention destination for 2011; Tucson & Phoenix put their hat in the ring with a joint bid to host in 2012, as did Vancouver.

I found it interesting that no club expressed any interest in 2013 or beyond. I suspect it's too far into the future for most, but a major reason has to be the increasing complexity and expense of this enterprise, year after year. No small club can put this show on anymore; indeed, it's a struggle for even the largest clubs. A four day long dance event plus three days' prior caller school, a $250,000 budget, an army of volunteers and a number of constituencies with their own sacred cows which dramatically increase the cost... it's become a logistical pain in the ass. At three different points through the delegates meeting, the problem of the complexity and expense were brought up: we have to find a way to restructure this beast very quickly or it will be killed by it's own particular flavour of success.

Personally, I want to convert the honky tonk queen contest into a self-funded entity like the fun badge tours. It costs money to allocate space, room set up, hotel audio/visual systems and such and it has a relatively poor audience attendance: those who want it should be funding it rather than taking it out of the convention base budget. We already do this for the fun badge tour.

I also would prefer to dump the grand march. It nearly doubles our hotel space requirements as we have to have enough space for all clubs in a staging area and then space for their moment in the spotlight with an audience. Since the audience is largely ourselves, it just seems silly. It also means that the floor space requirements written into the IAGSDC convention contract restrict us to premier hotels in first tier cities: if you want to know why a registration is $200+, look no further.

After a short break at the end of the delegates meeting, I was back in the room again for the GCA membership meeting, again my last time in this particular role as my board term expires.

For the most part, this meeting was routine: the GCA's finances are solid, we had 25 attendees at our recent caller school, including 9 newbies. Membership is approximately 100.

The big news item was well known in advance: Nick Martellacci (president), Alan Hirsch (treasurer) and myself (IAGSDC rep) were stepping off the board at the end of our terms. John Oldfield was nominated for president, Michael Maltenfort as treasurer and I nominated rlegters for the IAGSDC rep position; all were acclaimed.

After the meeting and a quick dinner, we were back at the Hyatt for the trail-in dance. I hardly spent more than a few minutes in the hall... as billeyler already reported, the acoustics were atrocious: nearly all music and calling sounded muddy and indistinct. Combined with some astonishingly poor scheduling choices and surprise last minute schedule changes, this convention isn't shaping up quite the way I had wished. I hope things improve dramatically Friday.