| Friends-locked posts |
[Nov. 13th, 2008|12:38 am] |
I just signed in to LJ today, and my RSS reader was suddenly full of posts that I didn't recognise, dating back for ages.
Essentially, if you have made a friends-locked post since about May 2007 (possibly earlier), and are wondering why I have acted insensitively (ie as if I'd not read it) then there's a good chance this is because I *hadn't* read it.
There's also a chance that I had read it, but most likely at least a month after you wrote it. I expect this situation to continue, so if there's a post you think I should be reading, either prod me on MSN, or point it out to me via facebook/gmail.
Also, if anyone else has migrated to wordpress or whatever, please prod me, so I can update my feeds again.
David. |
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| Clarification |
[Nov. 11th, 2007|07:59 pm] |
This journal has been discontinued. I have also disabled commenting as anon, to avoid spam.
Go to http://alsuren.blogspot.com or http://alsuren.wordpress.com for all new posts. I've not decided which site to go with yet, so add me on facebook (David Laban, Cambridge), and read my imported notes. I will make sure that I import all posts from whichever site I pick in the end. |
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| clarification |
[May. 6th, 2007|07:58 pm] |
With the arrival of a credit card advert, my faith in livejournal has finally departed.
I was expecting it to happen a lot sooner after the take-over, but maybe I just didn't notice how it was going downhill, because I never really used LJ in internet explorer until recently.
A few items of book-keeping need to be done before I really migrate which I need some help with.
1) Could someone with a paid account, please get http://alsuren.blogspot.com/atom.xml added as a livejournal feed, and tell me about it so that I tell people about it. That way, people can still get updates on their friends list when I post.
2) If anyone knows anything about blogspot, could they please tell me what they use as a friends-page equivalent? I will still check my LJ friends page, but getting all my friends in one list would certainly be nice. |
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| Live[journal] on hold |
[May. 6th, 2007|07:51 pm] |
While I avoid turning my computer on, I will be stuck without a decent web browser(see previous post). As a result, I need a blog with post-via-email functionality. This presents itself in the form of http://alsuren.blogspot.com
For those of you who use aKregator to read my LJ, please update your feeds list to include http://alsuren.blogspot.com/atom.xml
The post which caused this mess will be re-posted to blogspot in due time.
That is all.
David. |
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| FUUUUUUUCK! |
[May. 6th, 2007|03:58 pm] |
So guess who just lost 5 hours of typing thanks to internet explorer mobile.
There is a reason why I decided to avoid internet explorer mobile like the fucking plague: It's SHIT! It crashed my entire phone first time I went on LJ to post, and when I managed to get a post mostly finished, it fucked up and I couldn't even cut-paste out of IE in order to save. The only place I could save was splitting into chunks, and saving in the titles of favourites, wich were then sorted by title rather than date, so it would take me longer to unscramble them than to type the whole lot out again.
What's worst is that it took me longer than normal to type the thing out ad dit it than normal, because the up/down arrows are broken in IE, and the phone keyboard is about a third of the speed of a normal keyboard.
It makes me want to hurt things!
Is there an email-or-whatever-based lj-posting method that anyone knows about that would work on my phone? |
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| Lindy Hop primer |
[Apr. 22nd, 2007|11:39 am] |
I posted something on Jared's blog about what you need to start lindy hop (he said he has a problem with coordination, which stops him doing certain things). Unfortunately, it turned into a bit of an essay, so I'll post it on here. This version has been heavily modified so that it applies to people in england rather than america. It remains guy-centric though.
The level of co-ordination you need to go to a beginner class is pretty basic*. Look for a class with a social dance afterwards, and go along to that. Things to google for are:
"lindy hop" (best dance in the world),
"jitterbug" (another name for lindy hop. Seems to be used by people who like to dress up in period costume for it)
"balboa" (for lindy hoppers that want to get intimate :P )
"swing dancing" (a general term for the family of dances. People are sometimes careful about using the word "swing", for obvious reasons)
www.yehoodi.com (has a forum where you can probably find a class with a good social dance after)
Ask me (or any lindy hopper) about "Judy's list". You can't google it, but you can get someone to forward it to you.
* Many dances have a simple "basic step" (set of steps less than 5 seconds long), and your feet do that same thing (or simple variations on it) for a whole song. Eventually, it stops being about coordination, because you don't have to think about your feet. If you're not very co-ordinated, it's not a problem: it just means that you'll need a bit more time learning the basic step.
* Triple-steps are sometimes quite tricky to do at first, but most good teachers will wait until their whole class can do them before moving on (or leave them out entirely in some beginner (East Coast Swing) classes). Triple steps are useful because a follow can use a single triple step to move a good metre or get most of the way around a turn (basically, they're good for flash-gits).
* If you can hop four times without having to put your other foot down, you're balanced enough to learn the charleston basic. You can't really avoid the charleston in england (certainly not Cambridge) because it's what everyone knows. The charleston is marginally harder than the triple step based 6-count basic, but it's easy to improvise with. It's possible to dance a whole dance with simple variations on the charleston basic without worrying about your partner getting bored.
Notes on social dancing:
Most places have more girls than guys, so you don't have to keep a boring conversation going for too long before some girl will ask *you* for a dance. As long as you say "sorry, I've forgotten your name..." before every dance, and "thank you" afterwards, you'll have a great time and meet lots of really nice people. "hey: can you remember how to do that thing they taught the other week?" is a good way to start a conversation with anyone (guy or girl).
Don't get too worried if you think someone's flirting with you: They're not. It's just a dance. Guys/girls who *repeatedly* try to get off with other lindy hoppers at regular events quickly get a reputation, so generally they don't (or if they do, they don't do it *on* the dance floor, and especially not at regular weekly events).
For people who know another form of dance: Note also that Lindy Hop is different to things like ballroom in that lessons are always very closely associated with the social scene, and there is almost always a social dance immediately after lessons. This leads to some quite interesting differences between social dancefloors of the two styles. For example, there are certain phrases that are acceptable on a ballroom dance floor that are less popular in lindy socials.
For example:
"Sorry, I can't dance the [type of dance]"
becomes "*sweats and catches breath* tell you what: give me a dance to cool down, and I promise I'll dance with you next time"
or "*bounces for a few seconds to get the beat* Bloody hell. It's a bit fast/slow isn't it? What are they [the DJs] trying to do to us? [I reckon we could dance half time/double time/( or tango/samba/waltz if you really don't like the DJ) to this? Let's do it!]"
"No: I think you're doing that wrong"
becomes "*changes to a different basic*"(for guys)
or "that's an interesting variation *attempts to follow*"(for girls)
or "*confused look* You'll have to teach me that step later"(for both)
"*following/back-leading something that wasn't led*"
becomes "*hesitation*...*improvised break/jazz step*"
or "*waits until the lead actually leads her somewhere*". This means that you can dance with beginners/intermediate follows from another part of the country, and it tends to go by with only a few surprises.
"*Taking a girl and doing loads of moves that she doesn't know, expecting her to follow*" sometimes happens, but that can't be helped sometimes. If you mess up and lead something that can't be followed, most people either do a break, or default back into charleston basic (which almost everyone can follow and is always fun). |
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| Bottled water |
[Apr. 19th, 2007|11:20 pm] |
Why is Volvic so disgusting?
More to the point: why did I buy a litre and a half of it? |
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| London Lindy Exchange |
[Apr. 17th, 2007|10:13 pm] |
Okay, so I promised Liz that I'd post about LLX, and I keep getting distracted by Alex's fucking VB problems, and other stuff
From the thursday to the sunday, I totalled a decent amount of dancing:
thursday was 8:00-11:30 (swing thing: a weekly event at the Thames Boat Club)
friday was 9:00-1:00 (LLX welcome party)
saturday was 3-5 then 9-12 (theoretically 3:00, but I couldn't be arsed with the night bus after Friday's not getting in until 4 or 5 in the morning),
sunday was pub from 2 then dancing 7-9 (Could have been 11, but I had a headache, and I got tired of Lotte's friends appearing out of nowhere to dance with me in an obviously conscripted manner)
That's well over 12 hours of dancing in 4 days, which I say is pretty good going.
I initially attributed my headache to the annoying disco lights (which should be banned from all Swing events, as they are evil and tacky), but I am coming to suspect that it may have been the obligatory LLX plague that you get from dancing with people from all over the world, with their various interesting diseases.
Friday was the best dance night I've ever had. I arrived quite early, so I got to dance with loads of random people on a spacious floor, even before the cambridge guys arrived. Water was £1/bottle, but apples/oranges were free, so they provided the bulk of my refreshment. I narrowly avoided blisters, but my feet hurt the following morning, after walking home from chingford mount's night bus stop. Honourable mentions include: Jen[ny, but only with a british accent], Mandy, Natalie (with a T), tall-bald-guy-who-sat-next-to-me-on-the-coach-whose-name-escapes-me.
Saturday afternoon was good and chilled, but the floor was all sticky and yuk, which was less good. Jen and Natalie revealed themselves (and a canadian guy, whose name escapes me) to be sex-obsessed, of the explicit, american school. Honourable mentions include: "girl with duck taped shoes", Poppy, Monica (textile designer). Caption for the event was "Don't move, I'm getting my bag [from between your legs]"
Sunday was a live band, and it was a great display of dancing if you wanted to get people interested in Lindy Hop, because there was plenty of space at the beginning, so there were lots of swing-outs and variations thereof. There was also a jam session towards the end of the band's set, which was great to watch. I was still tired from friday night
Sunday afternoon was good, if a little overpriced (£4/magners or £3/lemonade). I heard lots of cool stories, and saw lots of funny dancing on the mini dance area set aside in the pub.
Sunday evening had lots of interesting girls-leading-guys, which was fun to watch, but I wasn't in much of a dancing mood, and they had disco lights (!), which didn't agree with me.
There is much else that happened, but my mind is not capable of noting it all down in one go. Can I go now? |
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| Improvements in Facebook and Skype |
[Apr. 11th, 2007|01:00 pm] |
Couple of things I've noticed recently, regarding changes to facebook
1) The adverts have gone (though I suspect not for long)
2) Pokes work under konqueror
3) RSS feeds have been added to notes etc.
4) They're open-sourcing some of their technology
If they keep going this way, it'll end up being less evil than LiveJournal, and I won't be able to hate it.
That's not good!
In other news, I now have skype on my phone, and it works better than MSN. If skype publish a telepathy based client (which they look like they're going to) I might start expanding my skype contact list beyond the current total of 5. |
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| Simplified D-Bus interface |
[Apr. 4th, 2007|12:42 am] |
I hacked together a little bit of python to help anyone who wants to control dbus from a command line, or from python. If anyone wants to submit patches, they're more than welcome. Check my userinfo for contact details, or just post a comment to this entry (it will automatically get forwarded to my email address)
http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/dl325/media/code/thebus.py
Hope you enjoy it. It's supposed to be the D-Bus equivalent of the command line dcop program for KDE3's DCOP, but (it being python) it also doubles as a module that you can use in your code. |
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