Being Anal Retentive is a Good Thing!

Last night at our C1 dance session, I was asked if I knew what the day rates would be for the upcoming Harper's Ferry Hoedown. I didn't off hand, but I carry a USB flash drive with all of my working files on it so I was able to look up last year's rates.

This morning, I was asked by a square dance caller if I had recordings of him on mic. Yes, indeed I do, a directory of WMA digital files... which dates would you like e-mailed to you?

We're doing annual performance evaluations at the office. I keep a log book of all of my activities, builds, decommissions, meetings, conference calls, training sessions, and awards. Creating a what-I-did-this-year report is a trivial exercise. Providing personal evaluations of my peers is relatively easy too.

Today is off to a good start.

Being Anal Retentive is a Good Thing!

Last night at our C1 dance session, I was asked if I knew what the day rates would be for the upcoming Harper's Ferry Hoedown. I didn't off hand, but I carry a USB flash drive with all of my working files on it so I was able to look up last year's rates.

This morning, I was asked by a square dance caller if I had recordings of him on mic. Yes, indeed I do, a directory of WMA digital files... which dates would you like e-mailed to you?

We're doing annual performance evaluations at the office. I keep a log book of all of my activities, builds, decommissions, meetings, conference calls, training sessions, and awards. Creating a what-I-did-this-year report is a trivial exercise. Providing personal evaluations of my peers is relatively easy too.

Today is off to a good start.

Last Night's C1 Dance

Our biweekly C1 dance session last night went very well, I think.

Most of the figures I wrote went very smoothly, although a couple could be edited slightly for clarification. A handful turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated to dance, but not catastrophically so: most of those figures will be moved from my "easy" stack to the "medium" stack and two will move from "medium" to "hard."

There were also a couple figures which crashed severely and I couldn't see why at that moment; I'll have to re-examine them carefully to see if it was my cuing, my choreo or our square messing up a call in some subtle way.

I hope my self-critique above doesn't give the impression the evening was a disaster: I tend to be my own harshest critic. Despite these little hiccups, the vast majority of the figures danced very well and there were even a few cheers for some clever bits here & there.

When the dancers leave the hall smiling and laughing at the end of the evening, it's a successful dance. Last night, we succeeded.

Next gig: Tonight, calling class-level Mainstream, full Mainstream and Plus for the DC Lambda Squares.

Last Night's C1 Dance

Our biweekly C1 dance session last night went very well, I think.

Most of the figures I wrote went very smoothly, although a couple could be edited slightly for clarification. A handful turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated to dance, but not catastrophically so: most of those figures will be moved from my "easy" stack to the "medium" stack and two will move from "medium" to "hard."

There were also a couple figures which crashed severely and I couldn't see why at that moment; I'll have to re-examine them carefully to see if it was my cuing, my choreo or our square messing up a call in some subtle way.

I hope my self-critique above doesn't give the impression the evening was a disaster: I tend to be my own harshest critic. Despite these little hiccups, the vast majority of the figures danced very well and there were even a few cheers for some clever bits here & there.

When the dancers leave the hall smiling and laughing at the end of the evening, it's a successful dance. Last night, we succeeded.

Next gig: Tonight, calling class-level Mainstream, full Mainstream and Plus for the DC Lambda Squares.

Yes!

My replacement green card arrived in the mail today!

I'm amazed how quickly my application for replacement was processed. I applied online for the replacement on August 28; my interview & re-fingerprinting was September 22. At that time, I was told the card might be arrive by early December so you can imagine my surprise at it taking only one month instead of three.

I can leave the US once again! And I can change jobs if I want to! Yay!

BTW, the new card design is hideous. The older style was much nicer. :-)

Yes!

My replacement green card arrived in the mail today!

I'm amazed how quickly my application for replacement was processed. I applied online for the replacement on August 28; my interview & re-fingerprinting was September 22. At that time, I was told the card might be arrive by early December so you can imagine my surprise at it taking only one month instead of three.

I can leave the US once again! And I can change jobs if I want to! Yay!

BTW, the new card design is hideous. The older style was much nicer. :-)

Calling DC Club Night

I was calling class-level Mainstream and Plus for DC's club night tonight. And I was in great form!

The calls were smoothly delivered, I was 99% right about the handedness of each call --I'd give myself 100% except I screwed up asking the boys to run around the girls when they were boy-boy-girl-girl waves... I mentally thought about having the centers trade first but the words didn't make it to my lips-- and we were hopping all night long.

I even premiered four singing call selections from Tuesday night's work; one I pitch-shifted too low but the others were great. The 5th and 6th singers were old standards 'cause I wanted to ensure the evening closed on as close to a flawless note as possible.

I am well pleased with tonight's work. I will celebrate with a late night snack of chicken fingers.

Calling DC Club Night

I was calling class-level Mainstream and Plus for DC's club night tonight. And I was in great form!

The calls were smoothly delivered, I was 99% right about the handedness of each call --I'd give myself 100% except I screwed up asking the boys to run around the girls when they were boy-boy-girl-girl waves... I mentally thought about having the centers trade first but the words didn't make it to my lips-- and we were hopping all night long.

I even premiered four singing call selections from Tuesday night's work; one I pitch-shifted too low but the others were great. The 5th and 6th singers were old standards 'cause I wanted to ensure the evening closed on as close to a flawless note as possible.

I am well pleased with tonight's work. I will celebrate with a late night snack of chicken fingers.