Friday, July 01, 2005

Insensitive!

Radley Balko flaunts his insensitivity here. Heavens, any half-wit should realize that use of terms like "Brainstorming" would be offensive to those with brain disorders.

There seems to be one brain disorder that is universal nowadays - Trivial Complaint Syndrome. Having so few *real* problems, we come up with nonsense like the above. You know it's really bad when you start blogging.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Coming soon to a game near you

Interesting animation which might not be work-safe in some places. It's not smutty, it's just....check it out.

From that St. Louis based Pabst-lover who goes through websites faster than Liz Taylor did with husbands. Hurry up and you might catch him yet at With Cheese!

We're from the govt and we're here to help...

...and we think you'll be safer if we charge you close to $100 just to put in a few permanent electrical features in your home. Thus spake Lynne Kiesling here.

This is about the revenue of course, because it's contrary to safety. Why? Because people will avoid this outrageous fee. They'll do it by using inferior contractors such as themselves, or will instead rely on nonpermanent measures like dropcords and power strips.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Requiescat in pacem, Ipse Dixit

Senator Christopher Dodd is still around and as obstructive as ever. But The Dodd - Dodd Harris - is shutting down his blog.

This is a true loss to the blog world. Come on back anytime, Dodd. And if you need a place to vent sometime, you're welcome to do that here or probably at dozens of other sites as well.

Monday, June 27, 2005

You missed it...

The Maryland Dancesport event happened this past weekend, and what a show it was. It's not the biggest, and it doesn't host any "world championships", but there was plenty of talent. If you like "Dancing with the Stars", a competition like this will blow you away.

After the competition Saturday night there was a show by Andrei Gavriline and Katya Kryuchkova. Mr. Gavrilene makes Jim Carrey look downright arthritic, and both he and his partner know how to put on a show. It was based on Latin dances, but on the high end it becomes all but indistinguishable from show dancing.

Some of it is hard to appreciate unless you've tried it yourself, but everyone ought to be able to notice athleticism. They could move very quickly, and very precisely, totally in sync with one another while covering the floor from one end to the other. The sheer energy alone was about enough to make your eyes sweat just watching. And that's from some old t-square and compass left-brained engineer - most of the crowd was "artier", and they were at least as impressed.

Want to see stamina? There was Slava Sergiev, from here in Baltimore. He danced with enough students well enough and often enough to come in second as Top Teacher, then competed himself with his wife as a professional and finished second. In between did at least one show dance number, and that's just what I saw.

A few nights back I was dancing with a couple of the local professionals (dancers, wise guy). On Sunday I got to watch them compete for the first time. Ya know, they've been holding out on me. I seem to recall them dressing more conservatively then too.

Anyway, you'd think they'd have to be bored out of their skulls with someone at my level. Then again, they have some idea what a professional partner might do, and they know he'll do it well - with me they really have to be on their toes. And it can even risk injury - there are elbows flying around, I'm a lot bigger, and duffers have poor balance and don't know when or how hard to hold or let go.

So don't just sit there - go to your local competitions! There's one at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge this weekend, the Manhattan DanceSport Championships, and if I get a wild enough hair I might even show up there myself.