h Sophisticated Hobo sc
Sunday, August 31, 2008
What Not To Do On The Dance Floor
I was dancing between competitions today in Dallas and had what can only best be described as a dumbfoundingly disapponting experience while dancing with a gentleman whom I'd known for a number of years but hadn't seen for a while. He asked me to dance and took me out to the edge of the floor in front of about 30 people sitting down. After about half of a song where he repeatedly tried moves on me that forced me to choose between allowing my arm to be ripped out of its socket or quicky letting go and working it out until the next move, the following conversation (if you can call it that) ensued:

Him: "Why don't you just start following me??"
Me: "I am, aren't I?"
Him: "All you keep doing is letting go of my hand. You won't follow anything and you never have. You're not even trying!"
Me: "I'm sorry but you're being kind of rough."
Him: "I'm not rough. You just won't follow. We've never clicked; I don't even know why I am dancing with you in the first place."

And just like that, the dance was over. He angrily stomped off the floor and there I was trying to figure out if that had really happened. I can't remember the last time I was so shocked, embarrassed, or hurt. What I do know is that I've never been treated like that, and that it was pretty traumatizing.

.asshole.

I'm not THAT bad of a dancer!!! I'm no Pro, either, but I still would like to be treated nicely...
 
posted by isadanceaholic at Sunday, August 31, 2008 | Permalink | 5 comments
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Sexy Time on the Company Dime
Let's take a little lesson from the "Things Not To Do While Working" scrapbook:

1. Surf sites that cause trojans and viruses to infect your company-owned computer.
2. Claim that you personally ran your Symantec virus scan on your company-owned computer when all you did was type an email to the company tech and myself SAYING that you did so while sitting on your butt and NOT running the scan. Which probably would have eradicated the virus and saved you from the following embarrassments:
3. Pack your laptop in a shipping box using empty file folder boxes as padding when shipping the laptop back from Florida to California for repair.
4. Forget to delete your porn collection before sending said company-owned laptop in for repair.
5. Conveniently name your porn collection folder "SEX" for easy identification.
 
posted by isadanceaholic at Wednesday, August 27, 2008 | Permalink | 4 comments
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Liar, Liar, Leotards on Fire
Update from "Sugar and Spice"

FINALLY!

The IOC is finally jumping on the worldwide bandwagon concerning the underage issue of the Chinese Gymnastic team!

On August 2nd, the IOC had announced that they would not be investigating the team members.

On August 21st (today), the IOC announced that they WOULD be investigating He Kexin and Yang Yilin after new evidence surfaced. Better late than never, I guess.

It turns out that a hacker was able to unearth some pretty convincing documents:

The widely publicized blog site by hacker “stryde.hax” has detailed documents found in search engine caches that suggest He Kexin's real birth year to be 1994. All of the links to the documents have been rapidly disappearing from live sites, sparking concerns of internet censorship.

-The Epoch Times


Heck, investigate them all. I bet they're all 13 or 14!


More information from DJ Technocrat's site:

A determined U.S. computer expert has delved into cached pages on the Internet to unearth Chinese official documents showing a gymnast who took gold in the uneven bars competition, edging the U.S.'s Nastia Liukin, may indeed be underage.

Controversy over whether He Kexin is under the minimum age of 16 has surrounded her participation in the Beijing Olympics. The latest challenge over the age of the tiny Olympian comes from the discovery through a cyberspace maze of Chinese official documents listing her date of birth.

She may not look as if she has reached the minimum competing age of 16, but China said her passport, issued in February, gives her birthday as Jan. 1, 1992. The International Olympic Committee said proof from her passport is good enough.

The latest unofficial investigation was carried out by computer security expert for the Intrepidus Group, whose site, Stryde Hax, revealed a detailed forensic search for He’s age.

First he simply tried Google, only to find that an official listing by the Chinese sports administration that had given her age could no longer be accessed. Then he tried the Google cache, only to find that He’s name had been removed.

Finally, he tried the cache of Chinese search engine Baidu. There, he found that Baidu lists two spreadsheets in He's name, both giving her date of birth as January 1, 1994 — making her 14 years and 220 days old and too young to compete at the Beijing games.

The lists were compiled by the General Administration of Sport of China.


After that tiebreaker snafu with Liukin and Kexin, this just tops the cake. I hope the IOC strips the Chinese Gymnastics Team of their medals.
 
posted by isadanceaholic at Thursday, August 21, 2008 | Permalink | 5 comments
Friday, August 15, 2008
Advanced Dancers: Amateurs On the Edge
Change is good, but is too much change causing more harm than good?

At an upcoming WCS Event, Bridgetown Swing, dancers could look forward to dancing in their respective Novice [or] Intermediate [or] Advanced [or] All-Star/Champion Jack & Jill division as well as either the Lower [or] Upper Strictly Swing division. Lower Strictly was defined as Novice/Intermediate/Advanced level and Upper Strictly was defined as All-Star/Champion level.

This arrangement made it possible for Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced dancers to earn points (based on their placements) in the Jack & Jill Divisions and the Lower Strictly division towards being awarded with a Top Female Amateur Dancer Award and a Top Male Amateur Dancer Award.

Recently, a change was made in the Strictly Swing divisions so that "Lower Strictly" is now defined as Novice/Intermediate and "Upper Strictly" is defined as Advanced/All-Star/Champion.

How is that decision going to affect the Top Amateur Awards? If a dancer is Advanced and competed in the Upper Strictly and in the Advanced Jack & Jill, winning the Jack & Jill would be a moot point since they "likely" wouldn't be winning the Upper Strictly against the Professionals (I use the term "Professionals" here loosely to encompass not only the true Pros in the WCS world but also the rest of the dancers who would be considered not Amateur because of their All-Star status).

Overall, the decision brings up a few issues:
  • The aforementioned Top Amateur Award Qualification issue - last I checked, Advanced level dancers are not considered Professional so they should get a fair chance to qualify for an "Amateur" award.

  • Most Advanced dancers I know don't feel ready to compete against the Professionals, and won't be happy being forced to. I wouldn't be surprised if a number of Advanced dancers chose to not compete in a Strictly Swing at all.

  • I know of a few instructors who frequent the event who will be pretty unhappy having to compete against their own students in what should be considered a Professional, or at least semi-Professional competition division. Whether or not anyone feels it is politically correct for an instructor to feel this way is beside the point and not part of the issue at hand.

  • It is possible now that the event could lose competition money (in conjunction with Point #2) from the dancers who would possibly have paid up if they qualified for the Lower Strictly (citing many possible reasons here why any given dancer may not want to dance in a higher division) but now choose to hold onto their money.


Just my 3 cents. Anyone have change for a dollar?
 
posted by isadanceaholic at Friday, August 15, 2008 | Permalink | 11 comments
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
Observation.

I find it very hard to believe China's insistence that their suspiciously underage gymnasts are all at least 16 years of age when they've already proven themselves to be deceiving to the world with lip-syncing little girls and digitally inserted fireworks footprints into supposedly live television.

I have a tiny bit of understanding for the footprints - it certainly would be difficult to film all 29 of those footprints (to give China Officials credit the fireworks really were going off outside of the stadium) for live TV. However, it would have been nice to know that. My momentary awe in an amazing live spectacle (laced with propaganda) is now forever marred by CGI brilliance.

But the singer? 9 year-old Lin Miaoke was a "visually-appealing" stand-in for 7 year-old Yang Peiyi. Are you serious? She wasn't CUTE enough? I'm sorry, but singing makes any child infinitely cuter.

As a side note, 9 year-old Lin Miaoke's teeth are eerily similar in development to purportedly "16 year-old" Deng LinLin's teeth:



They mystery of the Deng LinLin Tooth? Or, lack thereof? Either Lin Maoke is really 16, or Deng LinLin is closer to 12 or 13. I'm going with the latter on this one. Geez, China! At least train your girls NOT to grin so much in case people notice the evidence!

So, how are we supposed to believe China on the issue of the gymnasts when their falsehoods have been exposed on two other issues? I know we don't want to offend the host country by calling them out and embarrassing them on anything, but seriously?? There is a difference between striving for some interpretation of "perfection" and pretending to be perfect by lying.

Five bucks says that anyone in China who tries to read this gets blocked .^_^.
 
posted by isadanceaholic at Wednesday, August 13, 2008 | Permalink | 6 comments
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
O Ye Who Look The Other Way
At a dance event this weekend, I experienced a phenomenon that I've witnessed before. I don't understand why it is happening, but even worse, I don't understand why most of the time nothing is being done about it.

Contained within the pages of the Official Competition Rules at most WCS dance events is a paragraph that goes something along the lines of:

"BEHAVIOR (RESPONSIBILITIES AS A COMPETITOR) - All Competitors must demonstrate courteous and professional behavior at all times, both on and off the competition floor. This includes treating your partners, other competitors, competition officials, spectators, and the event itself with respect. Demonstrating a poor attitude by behaving in ways that judges deem inappropriate or disrespectful in any way may result in a violation, penalty, or disqualification."

Now can someone please shed some light on why there seems to be an increase in occurrences where both competitors choose to ignore the aforementioned rule and judges seem to overlook those behaviors which are labeled as a no-no according to event rules?

At the event this past weekend I saw a competitor deliberately crumple up some of the other competitors' numbers while giving a "good luck" pat on the back during the pre-dance lineup. He even did it to *my* partner's number. He went on to win the competition with his partner.

During a different competition's pre-dance lineup, one of the finalists grabbed the microphone away from the emcee and made an attempt to rile up the crowd by shouting "Are you guys excited???" They ended up placing. I can't even imagine what was going through the minds of the shocked audience members. Even worse, what the emcee was thinking when he was wondering where his mic went...

After the event was over, another dancer asked me over dinner what I would have done if I was judging the competition(s).

I don't fully believe that a person should be judged on anything other than their dancing when in a dance competition - to a point. On the other hand, when the rules so blatantly outline what is acceptable and what is not, why is enforcement not exercised when things like what I just mentioned happen? The music may not have started, but the competitors are on the dance floor and the entire audience (along with all those judges) is watching them.

There is a fine line between jovial behavior meant to lighten the mood and rude behavior that can really hurt people's feelings and shed a negative light on higher-level (and some lower-level) dancers. As time goes by, why does the line seem to be crossed more frequently? More importantly, why isn't more being done to curb the behavior? More people are noticing, and I believe that other people are participating in it too because they think it might be accepted/cool/whatever.

Why is it still being tolerated?

For sanity's sake, please don't get me started on the US Open "toilet paper" incident...
 
posted by isadanceaholic at Tuesday, August 05, 2008 | Permalink | 1 comments