The Musings of a Wandering Soul

--> Saturday morning, went to a 'how to but your first house' workshop. I enjoyed most of it, learned a lot, got really excited about finding and buying a house(a new concept for me) and walked away with a $10 giftcaard

--> Saturday afternoon: went to a volunteer training for Adaptive Aquatics at the rec center. (swimming lessons for adults and children with physical and/or mental diabilities) The classroom discussion was very interesting, the water session was 2 instructors trying to teach a bunch of non instructors to teach basic skills. (as a 10 year veteran of teaching swimming, lifeguarding and water safety I was not amused.)

--> Saturday night: Board games at Saxby's coffee

--> Sunday: BBQ and fire spinning and general fun at blushing_grace and arashinomoui's. Fire, food and new faces, could I ask for more?

So a wholely fun, busy, lovely weekend. Today I sew, clean and nap. Quietly. :)

Got the burning bug back. Partially fueled by arashinomoui's desire to be corrupted recruited into my fiery games/toys. Also though I have just been jonesing to light up since Fire Drums. It's an addiction I know, but a pretty one.
So, much spinning goodness will be happening Sunday. If you are interested let me know, I can maybe able swing an invite.

Burn baby burn

Busy busy lots of stress, but some happy happenings sprinkled in.
The biggest in both these categories is studying for, the heinous stress part, and passing my LEED A.P. exam. This the US Green Build Council's professional certification. ( www.usgbc.org ) This is the national organization that defines and certifies 'green buildings'. Although the term 'green building' is currently in an ambiguous state similar to where organic was 15 years ago. It has meaning, definitions and criteria. All of which are interpreted and defined differently by many groups. The USGBC is striving to change that.

This was a big deal for 2 reasons. One the test is difficult and involves at lot of memorization. Not my strong suit. More importantly though, it was a big step in my professional development. Failing it would have been pretty devastating, and expensive. Whereas passing it has given me a lot of confidence in aggressively pursuing the 10 exams required for my Architect's license. I didn't realize until after the LEED exam, how overwhelmingly intimidated I have been by all of them. So here's to personal and professional growth.

More good stuff.
This week I have been reminded how much I truly enjoy object manipulation. I now have 2 sets of fans, 2 batons, a 5' staff and a boken. And have spent enough time with each that they are starting to feel like an extension of my body. Especially the staff. Both contact (body rolls and other manipulations not using the hands) and spinning have a flow and a rhythm in tune with my body. I did competitive baton for 10 years when I was younger (8-18), but haven't done much since. Though sometimes my body could feel the movements and want to do them. whether I had something in my hand or not. I went to a fan workshop on Saturday up in LA. It was amazing. I was the only person in a class taught by one of the best fan spinners in the US. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtbWjHKdU-E she's a bit more polished now, this was about 9 months ago) Mainly we concentrated on tosses, hand placement and transitions and advance plain positions (behind the back etc). Much much fun and well worth the drive.

Headed to NoVA this weekend for a wedding reception and catching up with people. Waffles with julesk and wahyagar Saturday. Brunch gathering at kaelikat's on Sunday. And afternoon coffee (mmm...coffee) with drlori and sometimerose(and baby!). Maybe even some baby goats.

Hopefully more later.

Probably the coolest fire breathing performance I have ever seen. Too often breathing is all technique and testosterone, These guys have class and style. And are damn good at it!

http://www.2guysinsuits.com/demoReel.htm

As a note: Lou Genise succumbed to a long fight with cancer last week and will be greatly missed by the fire community.

burn happy

Stupid should hurt.
Chronic stupid should be a prosecutable offense.
Chronic stupid that causes anguish to 2 or more parties should be a felony.

OK burners I need some guidance. Until recently I was not overly concerned about being able to find a chunk of land to sleep on on Thursday afternoon at Burning Man. Should I be? There are only 4 of us. 3 regular sized tents and ~6' shade thing off the front of mine. Tell what you think. Be honest if you think we're nuts.

Saturday-- Dark Twisty and ugly as hell. More on that later.

Sunday -- Productive, mellow, had pleasant social interaction (too bad it costs me $14 in gas)

We had fire practice last night. After 1/2 the troupe finally got there it wasn't too bad. (6pm start time schedule. 7pm start achieved. Three no shows. damn hippie chicks. Buy a watch and answer the damn cell)A little disorganized. But moderately productive.

Much cleaning achieved in AM.

laptop has pretty much died. Picked up a new external hard drive (320GB $100, nice) Hopefully I can get one last boot out of it.There isn't anything irreplacable on it but, I HATE reloading music by hand.
So new laptop in the works, most likely from here, http://www.xoticpc.com/ And yes I will be replacing it with XP. Vista looks interesting but, the current version seems to be about the development status of Millennium. Mmm wasn't that fun.