Reading Slashdot during lunch and found an article on writing for games. Now this sounds like fun! A way to combine hobbies of writing fiction, technical writing, and playing games.

Interview with game writer

The best way to quell pre-performance jitters is to go to the barn. While horses make some people nervous, they are my sanity. If I’m upset, just touching Isis is usually enough to calm me down.

I dragged my dance instructor today to the barn. She didn’t mind because she also has horses. (In fact, her mare is my mare’s aunt.) We had about two hours before we had to head back to prepare for the performance.

We brought the girls in to the paddock next to the ring. I pulled Isis out first. Of the two of them, Isis needs more conditioning. She is in good weight overall, but is out of shape. I groomed her and free lunged her.

My instructor came into the ring with me. I showed her how Isis free lunges. Rajiyyah, not to be outdone, curled her tail over her back and strutted. If I told Isis to trott, Rajiyyah would trot with her tail over her back. Snort, bounce, bolt — she would take off at a gallop and then slide to astop on the other side of the paddock. I had to get Isis to walk for a while until Rajiyyah calmed down again. Silly, silly kids.

Isis such a joy to work with. All I have to do is think something and she does it. It is fun showing people how Isis thinks. Not only thinks, but you can see her calculating. My old gelding would follow me when I walked around the arena. He stayed right next to me, or immediately behind me. Always close. Isis watches me as I walk around. She look at me, looks at where I’m headed, and then takes the shortest route to that spot. She is a thinking partner.

The chiropractic treatments are definitely helping. When she trotted, her back and hips swayed. She had good reach and motion while she was moving. She looked relaxed and not stiff. All in all, excellent. Poor kid was really out of breath after a 30 minute work out. Before the surgery, she could gor for three times that without breaking into a sweat.

Isis also had a cut on her foreleg. Cleaned that off. Nothing major. A ding that is healing. Isis always takes longer than anyone else because you find things that have to be cleaned or doctored. (Put her in a rubber room and she would injure herself.) I didn’t have enough time to work Rajiyyah so we curried her. She was in heaven.

Yay sanity before madness. So happy to see them today.

One lady from my class met me at my house to practise the choreography for Saturday. My instructor also came over. We had a nice evening with some snacks and a good grilling on the dance. We must have gone through it seven or eight times.

I’ve taken a variety of dance classes: folk, ballet, jazz, a little tap, ballroom, and belly dance. I took ballet, jazz, and tap when I was little. I used to rent records of folk dance steps from the public library and learn them. I enjoyed the precision in ballet and the way that top dancers made it look effortless. Jazz was a little too provocative for me in middle school. I was a little too repressed to really dance jazz the way it should be. Tap gave me headaches. (You think the racket from someone learning a band instrument is bad? Listen to a beginner tap class some time where the kids are just a touch off.)

It is interesting to compare ballet with belly dance. The moves are intrinsically different. Ballet is very precise; almost cold compared to belly dance, which is more sensual. I’ve become more comfortable with myself over the past years, and it’s easier to do belly dance. The costumes are also good motivation to get in to shape.

I’m feeling much better after going over things. Here’s hoping things go well tomorrow!

According to an article on The Register, Netflick’s copies of series 2 DVDs of Doctor Who have a major error. Viewers enjoying “New Earth,” the first episode in series 2, are periodically treated to scenes from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Apparently, only the DVDs from Netflicks are effected.

Yeehaw! I’ve gotta rent those from Netflick!

Off to dance class! We have only a few more days before the performance at Earth Fare. I’m a little nervous. I’ve missed two lessons because I was in Las Vegas visiting Mom last week. She kept me really busy, so not a lot of time to practise. I had the best intentions… but you know how that goes.

I may ask if my instructor is available to do an additional practise session on Friday evening at my house. Other people probably could use the practise too…

(Feeling slightly panicked.)

It is about 2:00 AM. I just heard the first gun shot in my otherwise quiet neighborhood. This is very surreal.

The last time I lived in an area where there were gun shots, they were from hunters tracking dear or other game. The time before that was when I lived in Durham. I rented an apartment one block off of Duke’s East Campus.

Onslow Street. The first place I rented after graduation. I worked for Duke at the time, so it was very convenient. It was a two bedroom apartment with gas heating, which I couldn’t afford to have turned on. Winter was warmed by electric heaters, which worked okay (unless you count getting mono that January).

At first I loved it: upstairs of a Victorian house. Half of the head room was from the dormers in each room. My bedroom had a full-size futon in the larger of two dormers. My saddles lived in the second dormer. There was a lovely old tree outside the window at the foot of my bed. I used to have nightmares of someone climbing up the tree and crawling into my bedroom in the middle of the night.

It took some work to get it into shape, but my roommate and I managed to paint the rooms (so they were all white instead of multi-colored) and repair the holes in the living room ceiling. It was just a neat, funky house. With some really strange stuff that happened there. That is another story — good for sitting around a fire on a foggy evening.

A house with ‘character,’ as one of my friends used to say. Character it had, all right–and ghosts. The house was in what looked like a reasonable neighborhood. One block off of campus should be safe, right? The problem was that 2-3 blocks off of campus was a bad part of town. Over the winter holidays when I first moved in, the sounds were only sporadic. Only enough to make you wonder if it was a car back firing or if it was a gun shot.

In spring, as things began warming up, the gun fights began. The gun fire became more common as the months wore on. Towards the end of the summer, sounds of several weapons could be heard, including the distinct sound of subautomatic weapons. In late summer, the apartment was robbed. I began sleeping with several swords and assorted weaponly next to the bed, just in case someone did climb in through the window. (Some times I think I’ve watched too many B movies.)

When the lease was up in the fall, my roommate and I moved to another neighborhood. We lived there two years. Again, a quiet neighborhood in what we thought was a good part of town. When we moved out, we were hearing gun fire again.

It’s strange to think about the gun shots and stuff that happened when I lived in Durham. I drove by that old house this past December. Maybe five years or so since my last drive by of the property. Some one had obviously bought the house from the land lady I rented from. The three apartments were gone. It was a single residence now. One mail box on the front porch. Such a neat house. I hope the current people there are happier. I hope the neighborhood has been cleaned up.

Here’s hoping this single gun-shot noise doesn’t portend the same kind of neighborhood downfall I’ve experienced before.

Today we had an extra practise for dance class. Three hours! This has been one of those amazingly full days. Knitting group in the morning from 10-2, dance from 3-7, and then work at home from 8:00 until whenver I fall over.

We’re working on two choreographies: one that we’ve been learning over the holidays and a new one that only half of the troup knows. These are both fun dances. Even though the moves are much more complicated, they are a lot more fun for me to learn. I can’t seem to get the really simple dance right. The harder one I can learn and do well.

So it was a blast. We all danced and will be sore tomorrow. Bliss. =) Now if I could have just gone riding today it would have been perfect.

Finally! For the first time since I got sick, I worked Rajiyyah. She was full of herself but we made some major advances. We didn’t get to ride, but I did work her in light side reins and the bit.

Something spooked her during the workout and she bolted in an arc around the lunge line. She calmed down quickly, but it made me glad that I always lunge her before getting on. It was dark by the time we were finished. Silly kid.

Rajiyyah had two major improvements: she worked without (too much) griping even though the other horses were being brought in for dinner and she had a nice, round frame while working both directions. I was pleased.

As much as I enjoy Rajiyyah, I haven’t developed the kind of connection with her that I have with Isis. Placing my hands on Isis’ neck is enough to ground me out. She really is part of my sanity. When I don’t get out to the barn to see her, I feel disconnected some how. She knickers every time she seems me. Isis still isn’t quite up to being ridden, but she is getting stronger. The chiropractor is still working on Isis’ back and rear. She is stiff, but getting better. It is probably a good thing that I’ve held off from riding her.

Finally, after a month, I made it back to dance class tonight! Imagine my surprise to learn that our next recital is in two weeks!! EEP! We’re still learning a new choreography to Madura’s Isdes. Fun fusion song. We might also do another dance to Bakara (not sure who that song is by). It’s fun, though. I’m really enjoying it.

The people in the class are great, some times goofy but all having fun. It’s rare when you can dance in a group and not get into politics/competition. I hope it stays like this.

We’ve schedule an extra class for this coming Sunday, starting at 3:00 and going to whenever. It should be fun.

One of those weeks. Roof is still leaking. The kitties are going in places where they shouldn’t and leaving presents. I heard something running around in the attic. I was convinced it was a squirrel (luckily it was just a loud heating system kicking in).

Most nights I have been hearing something loud, like a door shutting, that vibrates the floor. It sounds like someone slamming a door. The kitties all jump up — but they don’t go investigate. I’ve seen too many B movies to go investigate. I know what happens to the heroine when she opens the door and asks ‘Who’s there?’

I haven’t been out to the barn except maybe once per week. It’s been nice but every time I step outside I start coughing.