Are We Having Fun Yet?

The new laptop has worked pretty well on this latest business trip to Phoenix. All of the regular stuff continued to work well, including the VPN connectivity to the office over the hotel's wifi. I installed a couple of extra software packages such as WinRAR, VLC and LibreOffice, a free MS Office clone. All are working superbly.

I wish the laptop wasn't quite so bulky: it fits in my backpack but only just. My old netbook's best feature was its relatively small size and easy portability. Oh, well.

Thanks to all for the birthday well-wishes. Because of work commitments and mild case of the sniffles, I haven't exactly been in much of a celebratory mood but am looking forward to a birthday dinner with the guys tonight and/or tomorrow evening.

I'm now 46, which is turning out to be a pretty good age to be. Many kids I grew up with didn't reach voting age so I consider myself lucky. I've had a few health stumbles over the past few decades but they've been relatively minor and easily treated with current medical technology: we couldn't have said such a thing only a century ago.

I'm still happily employed in an industry which didn't exist 30 years ago. I've lived through two major recessions and a couple of minor ones but escaped largely unscathed. Since I reached the age of majority, the Berlin Wall and Soviet communism have vanished, the cold war ended but we've since been in two Middle East wars and a number of smaller clashes around the planet. The world has changed multiple times over, sometimes for the worse. 30 years ago, I wondered if my generation could survive the growing nuclear stockpiles, but I'm now vastly more worried about damage done to the world by corporate malfeasance.

30 years ago, we were awestruck by images from Voyager 1 & 2 but the launch of Galileo probe was delayed by the Challenger disaster. Now we eagerly await images from New Horizons of Pluto, have multiple satellites orbiting Mars and three on its surface, sent probes into comets and have counted hundred of extra-solar planets. 46 years ago, the year I was born, man wouldn't walk on the moon for another 2.5 years.

It's been a good run thus far but at 46 I'm looking more often towards preparation for my retirement at (hopefully) age 60. Well, that and wondering how I'm going to get done all the things I have on my calendar for the next few months.

Since the weather was unseasonably warm for Mid-Atlantic Leather this year, I was able to dress lighter than usual, thus leaving my leather shirt in the closet. On a whim this morning however, I tried it on again to see how it fits.

Thanks to a few months of work-outs, the shirt's chest is now pretty tight. I could close the second upper snap but it popped again when I resumed breathing. The arms are very tight too: the shirt fits but only if I don't try lifting anything over 5 lbs or raising my hands above shoulder height.

I'll probably buy a replacement at some point, but only when I've decided I'm closer to my weight/size goals, perhaps MAL 2014.

Last night, I taught the last class for Chesapeake Squares' latest Mainstream square dance course. It's been a long slog --we had a somewhat stumbling start as we had new people joining 2-3 weeks after the course formally began-- but we ended only two weeks later than originally planned.

As with many prior classes, I've been a bit surprised which calls cause heartburn and which ones are snapped up instantly. Yes, 'cast off 3/4' traditionally causes problems as new dancers frequently can't/won't trust their own ability count walls. 'Scoot back' is an issue because it causes dancers to repeat the use of hands, something which runs counter-intuitive to everything they've learned up to that point.

That said, this is the first class I've ever seen where 'partner trade' caused heartburn for a few dancers for weeks. Indeed, there's at least two dancers for whom I suspect they still don't quite get it. We workshop it, I give them extra help during breaks and yet it all vanishes from their synapses within seconds. But those same dancers can do 'spin the top' without a hitch.

This class had a wide variety of skills. At least three are solid dancers and with a little more floor time will likely be eager to absorb more. Three more seem to be a bit slower to pick things up (or at least their memory maxes out sooner) but they have determination which serves them well. A few others, well, it's too early to say. They seem to be strongly oriented to dance-by-feel rather than definition so perhaps their epiphany will happen after more floor time.

The official graduation is set for club night, Tuesday, January 22, 8-10pm.

In other news, I've been contacted by the San Francisco IAGSDC convention committee to see if I'd be interested in co-calling the leather tip with Barry Clasper. OMG, yes! To be asked to call any specialty tip is an honor; to be asked by a convention committee on another coast is a bigger honor; to be asked to call at either the bear or leather tip is an incredible honor and opportunity! Now to think about music...

The 2013 caller school continues to chug along in slow motion. I'd love to be able to market it a bit more extensively but I've been having a lot of difficulty getting the GCA web site updated. Emails and phone calls since August haven't been returned but we had a useful telephone call this week so I'm we can get the online stuff ready within the next week or so. Once we have that, I can finally market the hell out of this thing.

Looking ahead to the 2014 IAGSDC convention, I may have a problem. My parents 50th wedding anniversary lands on July 4, 2014, overlapping with the convention. I thought we had a plan to have the parents' anniversary celebrations on the weekend prior so it would be tight, but I'd be able to get from Ontario to Utah in time to fulfill my obligations to the caller school. It appears that the parental plans have changed however so I may not be able to get to Utah at all.

If that is indeed the case, I can at least set up the majority of the caller school for 2014 --booking the coaches, negotiating a curriculum, doing the marketing, etc.-- but we'd need someone else to sit & coordinate events on the ground for June 30-July 2, 2014. I hope for clarity on this before we get to the 2013 GCA membership & board meetings so we can plan appropriately.

Back to composing more C2 choreo for next Wednesday's workshop...

Just before xmas, I saw a good deal on a laptop on eBay. I especially love shopping on bidding sites where auction deadlines land on major holidays or weekends: there are many fewer competing bidders so I have a better chance to slip in at the last minute to grab a good deal.

Indeed, I won that auction: $330 for a new Asus X501A laptop. The listed delivery date was Dec 29 but I was sure that date would be missed because of the holiday. Sure enough, it finally arrived Jan 4, but we were already on the road to North Carolina so I didn't get to collect it until this morning.

It's the wrong machine. It's an X401U model with a CPU less than half the speed of the advertised model. It also has a different OS.

I've since been back in contact with the vendor who has issued the expected mea culpa and I'm shipping the machine back to him for the correct model. I'm a bit annoyed by the delay but if my existing netbook wasn't still running adequately, I wouldn't have gone the online route and would have sought immediate shopping satisfaction at a local store.

Exactly what kind of rating the vendor is going to get will determine on how quickly I get the correct machine.

Today is Friday. Despite being promoted by many as the date of the Mayan apocalypse, the worst thing to happen was a server reboot 8am this morning, an event I used as a convenient excuse to upgrade the machine from 24GB to 48GB of RAM. Take that, Mayans!

Tuesdays is xmas; the Monday prior is a company holiday. Taken with the weekend, I have four days of vacation time. Here's how I'm going to use it:

1. Shop for some new music to add to my square dance selections. I've finally broken open an iTunes gift card for $25 which has been sitting on my desk for damn near three years. It's time to put it to use.
   
2. Shop for a new laptop. I may not buy one, but there is a computer show & sale locally this weekend and I'm planning a visit on Sunday close to closing time when vendors are more willing to make a sale. My current netbook has been delightful for three years but it's showing its age and has already been expanded to its limit. I have a need for a faster machine with more RAM.
   
3. I'm going to read at least four books, one per day. I have a large inventory to choose from, but I've decided this weekend's focus will be business/financial.
   
4. I'm going to get off my ass and begin serious planning for a fast-track C1 square dance class. No dancer should have illusions about what they'll accomplish: I've been through enough boot camps to know that a single weekend can't do more than give a flavor of the program. Unless one has local follow-up workshops, it won't stick. I've also been around long enough to know that many dancers (esp. lapsed dancers who need a refresh) don't need a 50+ week long course for a program. I'm inclined to 3-4 six hour sessions on consecutive weekends. More planning & design is required, as well as a survey of the potential market.
   
5. I need to update my calendar for 2013.
   • I need to insert all of the 2013 office holidays.
     
   • I need to plan my San Francisco IAGSDC convention schedule along with work-related visits to the mothership in late June & July.
     
   • Our trailer weekends to Roseland Resort are already in the calendar but I need to update my team's vacation schedule to ensure I can get those vacation days.
     
   • I'm also planning to attend the LISA conference in DC next November. My office won't pay for it so I'll need to have some money saved, but they should at least give me the time off work if I request it early enough.
     
   • Our square dance calendar is largely filled in, but I do need to alert the office to my pending absence for the CALLERLAB convention in Raleigh, NC, in the spring.
   
   
6. I'm still working on a square dance demo team for DC Lambda Squares. This weekend, I should be able to do at least research calls & formations we're going to teach/incorporate, as well as check YouTube for ideas & research.
   
7. I need to check with the DC Lambda Squares and Chesapeake Squares boards to see if we have flyers going to the IAGSDC for distribution in their restored bimonthly mailings. The deadline is Jan 6.
   
8. I'm going to work on a web site for user. I've had some aborted attempts over the past number of months but since he's lining up business contacts in Europe as I write this, we need to get this component together and done asap.
   

That should do it for now. I may add more as time allows.

Today is payday. Well, it's actually tomorrow but since that's a Saturday, my pay was deposited today. TGIF indeed!

This pay was larger than usual since I've maxed out on all my deductions and a tonne of office expense reimbursements have come through. In a flurry of bill-paying, I'm delighted to report that all of my credit cards have a zero balance.

I had my cards wiped out about two years ago but that was shot the moment our furnace died. And just when I was within a hair of wiping out that balance, my car needed a lot of expensive work. And just when that was nearly paid off, we went to the IAGSDC convention. And just when that was almost zeroed, it was time for our trailer lot lease at the campground. And so on. Many times the balance has been less than $100 --nearly paid off but not quite-- and something nasty happened. Today, nothing nasty has happened.

I plan to keep my cards as clean as humanly possible --I will be using my debit card & cash more regularly-- so we can focus the extra spare cash to the credit balances of cuyahogarvr and kent4str.

In other character-building resolutions, I've opened a personal savings account. While we have a joint savings account for household expenses into which windfall sums have occasionally been deposited for emergencies, I thought it wise to open my own account and make automatic transfers from each paycheck against rainy days, toys and all things chocolate. For example, new laptop is in my near future, and possibly more weight-lifting equipment.

I do need to transfer more money to my Canadian bank account: if I increase my balance there, I'll qualify for no-fee checking, saving another $5/month in expenses.

Dear Lazywebz:

My Dear Employer has been using Atlassian's Jira system for bug tracking. What we really need however is a proper change management system, one that enforces & records an approval process for work tickets.

Any recommendations for a change control system? The powers-that-be don't want to give up Jira so something which can interact with it would be ideal, but I'm open to anything reasonably priced.

I've used Remedy at my prior employer so that's already on my list.

Tonight was the last class for DC Lambda Squares' newest mainstream square dance class. kent4str and I began teaching it July 9, Mondays 7:30-9pm. We've missed a few Mondays because of holidays and hurricanes, but we have indeed finished prior to our club's Harvest Festival Hoedown this coming weekend. Yay, new dancers!

This Thursday, I'm teaching Chesapeake Squares' Mainstream class, 7:30-9pm. We're still in the early weeks of this course; I currently anticipate it wrapping up some time in January.

On Friday, we head to York, PA, for the aforementioned Harvest Festival Hoedown. I have guest caller hosting duties on Friday and Saturday evenings, as well as an hour of Mainstream calling Saturday afternoon (kent4str is calling Mainstream and Advanced hours). We're also responsible for assembling & setting up the audio systems for three halls, among other things.

Next week, I'm calling:

• Challenge-1 for the Ettseteras on Monday;
  
• Challenge-2 for our workshop group on Wednesday;
  
• class-level Mainstream for the Chesapeake Squares on Thursday; and,
  
• Advanced for the Zig Zaggers on Friday.

The past couple of months have been the busiest calling schedule I've had for some time. It's a Good Thing^TM!

The rain started yesterday evening, around 9pm. It was relatively light but constant until the early morning when the wind picked up and the rain became heavier.

By the late afternoon, the wind was gusting very strongly and the rain was coming down in buckets. I expected the power to fail at any moment, but now, at 9:25pm, it's still on. We were prepared for an outage in any case: all our toys are charged, food is stocked, batteries & candles are on hand, etc.. Our electric utility is so incredibly unreliable, we've had this drill many times in the past few years.

Schools and gov't offices --federal, state & local-- were closed today and will be again tomorrow. Needless to say, there's no square dancing for us until Thursday now.

My data center is still up and running so I haven't needed to leave my basement computer cave. Indeed, if kent4str wasn't upstairs (his office tracks the US Patent office), today would be a work day like any other.

The heavy rains and winds will continue until about 6am tomorrow morning. At that point, the rains will continue but the wind should die back considerably.

It's going to take a while for everything to catch up again to normal. With all of the major airports in the north-east and mid-atlantic areas closed, the network of flights is an utter mess. Friends in Europe are trapped at various cities there for the next few days until they can get flights back to the US. I have no clue which intersections don't have working traffic lights or which roads may have been flooded out and/or closed because of debris.

Fortunately, we have Facebook, Twitter, the TV and various web sites to update our friends & family who aren't in the immediate splash zone: that's saved me making a tonne of extra telephone calls. With a little luck, all will be well again by Thursday for most of us in the greater DC area.