Jun. 23rd, 2008

bjarvis: (Chesapeake Squares)
Sunday was a very, very long day.

[livejournal.com profile] kent4str and I were calling for the Chesapeake Squares in the park's picnic pavilion, our fourth year of doing so. The snag this year is that all vehicles had to be off the grounds by 9 AM, an hour earlier than last year's. This meant the alarm clocks sounding off at 6:30 AM. Oy.

We were there on time and were witness to the usual confusion and difficulty of vendors & community groups getting their materials onto the grounds and their vehicles off of the grounds. The volunteer managers/coordinators were doing their best but the roads are narrow and too many vendors were either late or simply impatient. One must have the patience of a saint to keep from going insane.

We were indeed set up at the pavilion by the deadline but then had to wait nearly three additional hours for any significant number of pride attendees to actually begin filtering through the park. Yeah, that was time well spent. :-^

This year, we had a demo square with simple choreo dancing at 15 minutes before each hour, then we opened the floor to teach newbies a handful of very simple calls for about five minutes. At every opportunity, we talked on the mic about upcoming open houses, the fun of dancing, how no one needs prior dance experience or a partner, socializing with others, etc.. By intent, no mention was made of classes or lessons. Lots of bookmarks, business cards and brochures were distributed at the pavilion; there was also a table on the other side of the park with the community groups but I have no idea how effective they were at either distribution or collecting of contacts.

In all, we did five presentations. It doesn't sound like much but it was somewhat draining. Fortunately, the pavilion offered shade from the sun and a fairly constant breeze kept the humidity and heat tolerable.

Shortly after 6 PM, vehicles were allowed back in to clear out the park. Being relatively close to the edge of the park, we were able to pack up our stuff and run for the hills in short order.

Our pride season is done for another year. It seems to take more energy and effort every time even as aspects of it get easier. Right now, I need a good night's sleep.
bjarvis: (Chesapeake Squares)
Sunday was a very, very long day.

[livejournal.com profile] kent4str and I were calling for the Chesapeake Squares in the park's picnic pavilion, our fourth year of doing so. The snag this year is that all vehicles had to be off the grounds by 9 AM, an hour earlier than last year's. This meant the alarm clocks sounding off at 6:30 AM. Oy.

We were there on time and were witness to the usual confusion and difficulty of vendors & community groups getting their materials onto the grounds and their vehicles off of the grounds. The volunteer managers/coordinators were doing their best but the roads are narrow and too many vendors were either late or simply impatient. One must have the patience of a saint to keep from going insane.

We were indeed set up at the pavilion by the deadline but then had to wait nearly three additional hours for any significant number of pride attendees to actually begin filtering through the park. Yeah, that was time well spent. :-^

This year, we had a demo square with simple choreo dancing at 15 minutes before each hour, then we opened the floor to teach newbies a handful of very simple calls for about five minutes. At every opportunity, we talked on the mic about upcoming open houses, the fun of dancing, how no one needs prior dance experience or a partner, socializing with others, etc.. By intent, no mention was made of classes or lessons. Lots of bookmarks, business cards and brochures were distributed at the pavilion; there was also a table on the other side of the park with the community groups but I have no idea how effective they were at either distribution or collecting of contacts.

In all, we did five presentations. It doesn't sound like much but it was somewhat draining. Fortunately, the pavilion offered shade from the sun and a fairly constant breeze kept the humidity and heat tolerable.

Shortly after 6 PM, vehicles were allowed back in to clear out the park. Being relatively close to the edge of the park, we were able to pack up our stuff and run for the hills in short order.

Our pride season is done for another year. It seems to take more energy and effort every time even as aspects of it get easier. Right now, I need a good night's sleep.
bjarvis: (Motorola e815)
My Motorola e815, now three years old, seems to be having issues.

I noticed in the past couple of weeks that the battery seems to be dying very quickly. yesterday, I found the camera is no longer functioning: activating it causes the error message "Busy. Try again." This makes me think the camera is on all the time via some software error, draining the battery faster than normal.

Power cycling the beast doesn't help. Reseating the battery didn't help. A quick visit to the local Verizon Wireless store didn't yield any insights either except that it's a software problem.

I'm going to try running a reset on it later, once I'm sure I have a current backup of all of the photos, telephone numbers and such. I have a serial cable and editing software used years ago to restore the Bluetooth operations disabled by Verizon Wireless; I'll try taking a look with that to see if there are any possibilities.

If nothing else works, I could either obtain a functioning e815 to replace my ailing model or I'll have to upgrade. Upgrading isn't especially desirable: I have enough money already invested in hip holsters, battery chargers, serial cables and such... I don't fancy buying all the accessories all over again.
bjarvis: (Motorola e815)
My Motorola e815, now three years old, seems to be having issues.

I noticed in the past couple of weeks that the battery seems to be dying very quickly. yesterday, I found the camera is no longer functioning: activating it causes the error message "Busy. Try again." This makes me think the camera is on all the time via some software error, draining the battery faster than normal.

Power cycling the beast doesn't help. Reseating the battery didn't help. A quick visit to the local Verizon Wireless store didn't yield any insights either except that it's a software problem.

I'm going to try running a reset on it later, once I'm sure I have a current backup of all of the photos, telephone numbers and such. I have a serial cable and editing software used years ago to restore the Bluetooth operations disabled by Verizon Wireless; I'll try taking a look with that to see if there are any possibilities.

If nothing else works, I could either obtain a functioning e815 to replace my ailing model or I'll have to upgrade. Upgrading isn't especially desirable: I have enough money already invested in hip holsters, battery chargers, serial cables and such... I don't fancy buying all the accessories all over again.
bjarvis: (ettseteras)
Thanks to a plethora of schedule conflicts, we had precisely seven dancers for tonight's Ettseteras C1 dance. I was subbing for [livejournal.com profile] justetthon so I was hopeful for a full square but we didn't quite make it.

Some phone calls were made to track down an eighth body but with none available, we simply danced with a single phantom. It was an odd but very fun evening.

The math is a little unfortunate: Hall rental $50 - (7 x $7) = $-1 But hey, that's life.

We picked up a dozen club shirts to take to the IAGSDC convention in Cleveland and a stack of Zip Coder magazines & subscription forms for distribution. Now if it would only stop raining, we could get this stuff out of the car...
bjarvis: (ettseteras)
Thanks to a plethora of schedule conflicts, we had precisely seven dancers for tonight's Ettseteras C1 dance. I was subbing for [livejournal.com profile] justetthon so I was hopeful for a full square but we didn't quite make it.

Some phone calls were made to track down an eighth body but with none available, we simply danced with a single phantom. It was an odd but very fun evening.

The math is a little unfortunate: Hall rental $50 - (7 x $7) = $-1 But hey, that's life.

We picked up a dozen club shirts to take to the IAGSDC convention in Cleveland and a stack of Zip Coder magazines & subscription forms for distribution. Now if it would only stop raining, we could get this stuff out of the car...

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