I moved!

I am officially moved into my new place. Here's a walking tour of my new home. 

Trapeze !

So I was hoping that these videos would showcase my incredible trapeze talent and amaze you all. Instead they will be a comedy of errors and a "What not to do" should you ever feel compelled to try this yourself.

I'm currently working on a trick called a "Cut-Away"

So in the first video, after receiving some last-minute instructions on the board -my turn-around needs to be tighter (you can see my legs come apart and I don't finish in quite the correct position) -the main problem with this trick is that I release the bar too early and flip out of control. -I've got the rug burn from the net to prove it.

This was my best cut-away of the night. So a little compare and contrast -it's cleaner, I release at the right time, and the flip is much more controlled.

And in this video I am trying to learn how to catch to a "catch-bar" instead of the catcher's hands. (The catcher and I are facing the same direction so we can't catch hands-to-hands). It needs more work.

Overall it's frustrating but progressive.

New Posts

New posts coming soon --I promise.

Yes, it's been a long time but I've got excuses

So getting promoted is tough. 

It took me almost 4 years and lots up bumps to get but I go the promotion I’ve been looking for. 

So now the issue is that it’s A LOT of work! 

I know what I need to do -just my workload has quadrupled and I don’t know the subject area as well as I need to. So everything takes three times as long because I have to look it up on two different systems and then wikipedia the concepts I don’t know. I’m working harder and longer hours then I ever had to work before -I even brought home work this weekend. My to-do list never seems to get shorter -for every item I check off 3 more need to be entered on. 

But all my whining and complaining aside --I’m going to love or at least enjoy this job so much more in 3 months -the more familiar I get the easier it will be -so it’s just about holding on till then. 

And for now I have this pretty new paycheck that is allowing me to go to San Francisco in two weeks! Can’t wait for my first trip to the Bay Area. 

Gone with the Wind, the book

I finished reading Gone with the Wind this weekend. I loved it for the being sweeping epic it is. As a “Yankee” my knowledge of the Restoration after the Civil War was really, it happened, the states reunited, and let’s move on. And to be honest, I never thought about it from the South’s point of view, the hardships they faced, and how they viewed the Yankee ‘victors’ and newly freed slaves. 

I loved, hated, loved, hated Scarlett. At first I viewed her like Jane Austen’s Emma, she grew up very sheltered, very privileged and so she has this very limited world view and very selfish, self-involved outlook. Caring only for her 17-inch waist, her slippers, and the number of beauxs she had at any given time all while mooning incessantly over Ashley Wilkes. Through the war her outlook and character doesn’t change, it wasn’t until the war was over, and she’s faced with poverty and starvation, where she decides rather than slowly starve with my pride that she is going to work, take care of her family, save their home, and shoulder everyone’s burdens. While her methods were “unwomanly” and reckless I respected that. But then as soon as she has the money and  stability again it’s like nothing happened, all she can think of is her finery and one-upping her neighbors. That her post-war experiences had not changed her, and her character returned to what it likely would have been if the war had never happened. And always, always the mooning over Ashley.  But in the end she does realize her mistakes, finally sees her relationships for what they truly are and does attempt to right things with the people she was wronged, I couldn’t hate her then. 

The love-story broke my heart. That Rhett loved her for so long for who she really was and Scarlett just didn’t see that she loved him too. she couldn’t see past the veil of Ashley in her mind to who he really was and how she wasted her life wanting something that didn’t exist. Rhett wasn’t perfect, he was a cad and scallawag but he was honest about that, and he wasn’t so blinded by pride or prejudice to see the world and people for who and what they really were.  

And I think we would all be better off if we were more like Melanie Hamilton, all heart, able to see the best in everyone and to be genuinely kind, but also to stand firm in our convictions and standby the people we love no matter what family, friends, or society thinks of them. 

Snow Day 2010

So as kid, at every snowflake, hint of snowflake, rumor of snowflake, we would tune into local radio station WSUS for the much anticipated announcement of the closings/delayed openings. We even made up rituals, like you had to do your homework and wear your pajamas inside-out, or any other superstition that would help it to snow and close school for the day.


After college I thought snow-days were behind me, living in the city and riding public transportation really eliminated the possibility of closings. But thanks to “Snowmageddon” 2010 my work closed the day before and I was able to re-live those glorious snow days of yore. I am proud to say that I did our Snow Day correctly; slept in, lounged around the apartment, and then went to Prospect Park for a snowball fight and sledding. I haven’t sledded since middle school (? Maybe). The house I grew up in had this great slope in the front yard that was perfect for sledding. I had this orange toboggan sled that after we set up a couple of tracks whipped down the yard until you were thrown into the snow mound made by the plows. Sitting, kneeling, standing, on our stomachs, forwards, backwards; and then we got Snow Tubes (round, inflatable sleds) so that we could go down spinning. And while I’m not ancient at 25 or anything, it’s really nice to get that feeling back, the wind in your face, sliding, and then crashing spectacularly. I even had a passerby comment “I could hear that wop from here” after I tried to ski-sled down the little hill we were using in the park.

New Trapeze video

Ok, so as long promised. I asked a very nice fellow classmate in my last class to take a video of me working on my new trick. He had one of those fancy Flip video cameras so the picture is pretty good quality. Please follow the below link


http://sharing.theflip.com/session/9d83f6c5a5bd3a28ab836e1fcfba90d8/video/9742911

So this trick is called a Back-end Split off the 1st Rise.

Please pay attention to the following:

1. If you have watched any of my previous flying videos you will notice that my “Take-off” or how I jump off the board has changed. Not only am I now doing a one-handed take-off, where I start by holding the bar with my right hand and the riser with my left; bringing my left hand to the bar as I leave the board. But I am progressing in my skill enough that I am now doing a virtually un-supported take-off. Previously, the instructor on the board would hold me by the back of my safety harness to make sure that I left the board safely. Now his hand is poised in front of me just in case something should go horribly wrong. This is a big-deal because it’s a significant step towards becoming an intermediate flyer –right now I am still a beginner.

2. I am performing this trick off the 1st rise. In the video you can see that I am standing not flat on the board but on a bar in between the risers about 6 inches above the board. This gives me more height in my trick, which makes it prettier. Advanced students will go off the 4th or 5th rise and subsequently fly much higher.

3. This trick is called a back-end trick because on the “front” or when I first leave the board till I get to the apex I’m just swinging, I get into the trick (the split) on the back end, so when I swing backwards.
The trick still needs to work, you can hear my instructor yelling for me to “Big Hollow” –yeah I didn’t really hollow at all and the catch itself was a little sloppy. But as I keep saying it’s progressive.

2010 Catch-Up

I am such a bad blogger --it’s been so long. In an attempt to make it up to you --here’s a slew of posts about what I’ve been doing lately.

1. What I’ve been reading...

Thanks to my company’s work contributions to the Kindle, Amazon gave us a huge discount right before Christmas --and well it was too good to pass up. So thanks to my Grandparent’s generosity I got a Kindle. I love, love, love it. It’s easy to read, there’s no difficulty flipping pages while I hang on to a subway pole and drink my morning coffee, and I love having a bookstore at my fingertips so whatever I want to read, I can download it in 90 seconds.

So my first Kindle books were: Conan-Doyle’sThe Return of Sherlock Holmes, Steig Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and The Girl Who Played with Fire.

Sherlock Holmes is fun and brilliant --these stories follow his battle with Moriarity and show a more vengeful side of Holmes. After almost dying and hiding out for a long time he is bitter and spiteful as he goes after enemies, becomes a criminal himself breaking and entering (admittedly the culprit deserved it but still a departure from his norm), and deceiving Scotland Yard.

Steig Larsson’s books are amazing, and unfortunately since he has passed away there will only be three of them. I believe this is first time I’ve read a book set in Sweden, these books bring to light the nitty-gritty and worst side of the people --a definite change from the Noble prize and non-involvement.

Larsson is brilliant in building complex and unknowable characters so that every move they make is a surprise, and never dull. The story is complex but it bends together so well that the end brings everything together, I was surprised and satisfied by the endings for each.

And then in traditional book format I’ve been reading Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely and Audrey Niffeneger’s newest book Her Fearful Symmetry.

Chandler is the definition of noir, his writing style is smart and completely true to his protagonist and the period. The story, however, left several things to be desired, he weaves this tale of the tribulations of a private investigator yet at its conclusion so many of the plot points just fall out, that they were unimportant and the solution --well it just “came to him” --that’s just weak.

I was concerned when I first picked up Her Fearful Symmetry reviewers have not been kind. Niffeneger’s writing style remains elegant and direct and she is still one of my favorite writers of magical realism. In her writing I almost forgot the magical element, her style just makes be believe that time-travel and amorphous ghosts exist -or at least I would like them to.

1. Flying Trapeze

I’ve started going once a week, creating my own sort of workshop. It’s been really helpful to work with the same instructors each time, to have the same people critiquing and giving me tips on being a better flyer.

I’m getting better, and feeling stronger. Going once a week helps, before I would spend my first couple of turns making sure I remembered everything from my last class. I don’t have the same concerns now.

So I’m still working on my swing, learning back-end tricks which incorporate my swing so that I can build more power and finesse into each trick, and I starting to work on catching and returning to my original bar. Videos soon, I promise.

1. Linguistics Palooza in Baltimore

On my first business trip of 2010 I went to Baltimore for the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting. The meeting went very well, however, the main highlight of the trip happened outside the meeting. Normally I avoid the super-touristy aspects of the cities I visit when I have time off. However, my friend/colleague and I couldn’t pass up the aquarium after the meeting was finished on Sunday.

The Baltimore Aquarium is amazing! Since I don’t see fish on a daily basis I almost forgot that no matter how ugly or strange looking they may be, the way they move is so elegant and graceful. I wanted to be one of the little kids who runs up to the tank and presses their noses and all ten fingers against the glass just to get a better look.

1. Miscellaneous...

Work is going well

I’m starting to enjoy watching professional football --and while I still only watch with a group of friends, it’s more entertaining now that I have a better understanding as to what is going on

The holidays were a lovely whirlwind. Not exactly relaxing but I had a great time seeing family and friends. Santa was very generous too. New Year’s was more relaxed this year, friends and dancing, I had a great time.