2006

Impending Recital

It’s now barely four days until the recital. I feel like I know the steps well enough, but I don’t feel like I’m really dancing it. There is a fluidity when you watch other dancers. I don’t have the transitions between steps down to where they look flawless and easy. I still look like I’m having to think and struggle with the steps at times. (Which is annoying, because I remember dancing in...

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Near to fainting…

Microsoft has released a version of the Firefox browser. Yup, you heard me correctly. I read it, reread it, and still keep checking to see whether it’s April 1st. There is something innately wrong about Microsoft releasing a version of Firefox and calling it Microsoft Firefox 2007 Professional. It is just wrong. It has to be a spoof site. It just has to be. Related Images:

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Seamstresses are your friends

For the past week or more I’ve been faced with a sewing project. Sewing really isn’t my cup of tea. I’m more apt to do cross stitch or sculpture than I am sewing. With a pattern, I am reasonable. Nothing fancy, no-frills, and I definitely loose patience if the project takes more than a few hours. The skirt I ordered for the upcoming recital finally arrived. Instead of being a reasonable length, it...

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Headaches

It’s that time of year again. Whether it’s leaf mold or some other allergen or a weather front, it’s sinus headache time. Thursday night I woke up with a nasty headache: the type that sits behind your eyes and pounds. It was aggrevated by sleeping at a funky angle. The headache lingered into this morning and worsened as the day went on. Some sinus headaches have migraine-like symptoms, including light and sound sensitivity....

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Finally…

After several years, the W3C announced on November 6th that CSS 2.1 is finally in the Last Call stage. From the W3C home page: “The CSS Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 revision 1 (CSS 2.1). Comments are welcome through 7 December.” It is good to hear that CSS2.1 is finally making it towards Recommendation instead of Draft. Now maybe the rest of the...

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Photos of the Kids

Here are some photos of the kids taken with the new camera. It seems to do pretty well with action shots. These pictures were taken at dusk, so please forgive some of the grainyness and blur. It is amazing to see Isis like this, after just two months ago she was so different. Related Images:

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New Camera

I got a new digital camera: Fujifilm S9100. It’s a 9 MP, 10.7x optical zoom wanna-be DSLR. My old camera, Sony Cybershot F707, is still a good camera, but it couldn’t take action shots, like pictures of the horses running, without a lot of work. I also ran into trouble when I wanted to zoom in. The 5x optical just wasn’t enough. The Fujifilm has a nice lens with a 28-300mm telephoto lens....

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Belly Dance Class Part 2

Today was my second belly dance class. It’s been a lot of fun (and a lot of work) to attend the class. It’s usually a small class with any where from 2-6 people attending. The instructor is good at breaking steps down and then showing how to use them. I got to play with Isis wings! That was a blast. We discussed choreographies and the upcoming perfomance. I was invited to help with...

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Pentagon Launches “Media War” Unit

In what could be a move towards greater media outlet monitoring and control, the Pentagon has announced that it will “set up a new unit to better promote its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet.” (Source: BBC) This new unit has a “mandate” to develop messages and aims to “correct the record.” The responses across Slashdot have been flying this morning. It makes for interesting reading. Because of...

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Grey Wonder Mare, part 2

Today was a busy day. I went to the barn early to work Rajiyyah and then bathe both horses. Rajiyyah was awesome. I lunged her first with the saddle and bride. The horses in the adjacent paddock took off a few times because of a dog barking at the back of the field. Rajiyyah snorted and curled her tail over her back. She bolted half way around the lunging circle and then calmed...

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Amazon and shipping times

Okay, I’m pissed. On October 20, I ordered five DVDs on belly dance from Amazon.com. All of the titles said they were in stock at the time of ordering. None of them listed “this items takes 2-3 days to ship.” Nothing like that. Everything said in stock and ready to go. Initially, I chose standard shipping. When I saw that the arrival date was going to be November 11(!!), I changed the shipping...

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Silly Blog Tests

Your English Skills: Grammar: 100% Punctuation: 100% Spelling: 80% Vocabulary: 80% Does Your English Cut the Mustard? You Are 50% Left Brained, 50% Right Brained The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.If you’re left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your...

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Costumes

One of the fun things for belly dance is that you get to go shopping for things you would normally only get to wear to a fancy dress ball. I’ve been enjoying shopping for full-crcle skirts, fancy tops, and belts that make a lovely sound when you walk. It’s been a hoot. I can see why people might get addicted to eBay. My packages have mostly arrived. I found a lovely beaded top...

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