Lakshmi Amman's Journal

Currently we're all grouped together in a little room that's supposed to help with collaboration. It certainly does - as it's impossible to have any privacy at all... which forces collaboration much like being stranded on a desert island with no trees. However, the lack of privacy has a few small perks - sunlight - two big windows visible while seated at my desk. I can actually see the weather without standing up for the first time since 1998. No shit.

And we have a fridge, microwave, and coffee maker within 10 feet of my desk. This was posing some serious diet challenges until I went to Trader Joe's and got fresh fruit, lowfat yogurt (to avoid ice cream), and fat free creamer. Now I'm actually eating the fruit instead of letting it rot in a fridge I can't see easily. Also worth noting, the bathroom is the closest its been in 5 years, which is a significant bonus given the proximity of the coffee pot. :)

But at the moment I'm hiding and typing on our contraband PC to get a quick break from the endless cycle of reading stuff.

Couple things of note in Lakshmi Land:

• Dance Class for Carolingia - coming April 24th - it can be found here:
  
  http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=vm9o59gncu3bonf95qj7adtm5k@group.calendar.google.com&dates=20070401%2F20070501
  
  If you want to add it to your calendar. I'm still figuring out what I want to teach. It will be expressive dance (abhinaya) of some sort, rather than the overview which also includes more physically intense stuff. The reason is not so much that I'm a nice person, as that I just taught a general intro style class at KW Rapier in this area in the winter and I like to mix things up. It will be beginner-level, focused on the mechanisms of expression (particularly hand movements) and fairly historical. I highly encourage anyone interested to come - it's a free event on the MIT campus, and open to all SCAdians or SCAdianly inclined. This is a perfect thing for all you who said "gosh Lakshmi I'd like to learn (or learn more) Indian dance from you" to come by.



• Started classes with Aparna - she's really and truly back and classes have been up and going for a month or two now. I now do 3 hours - 1 of dance, 1 of singing, and 1 of assistant teaching a beginner class. It's very cool. High points have been - digging into my first varnam - one of the signature numbers of Bharata Natyam, it can last 20-40 minutes and mixes sung verses with abhinaya with jati that are nritta. This one happens to start with a verse that is (paraphrased and translated) - that woman is very smart and (thus) not for just anyone to be with (romatically). But you are also smart, and therefore this is a good match. If that isn't the right song for me... I don't know what is. :) Also - I've now learned 2 geetams - simple learning songs with actual melodies and verses.



• Come see our Paradise Show - April 22 at the Paradise Lounge - it's Babydolls go Hollywood. (http://www.bostonbabydolls.net/performances/dollhouse.php). I won't be dancing, but that means it will be a good chance to actually hang out with anyone I know who comes!



• Salome 101 - we're starting a new Burlesque class - how to dance Burlesque with Middle Eastern flair (http://www.bostonbabydolls.net/classes/burlesque-queen.php) - which I am developing for the first time. There won't be any Indian in this - it's strictly ME dance integrated with Burlesque. Also see Mina's Instant Burlesque Queen - I just took it this past weekend and it's FABULOUS. It's a dance class that is put together in a wonderfully planned and professional manner. It's WELL worth the cash if you are interested in Burlesque - whether at home or on stage.

Hip - better, but my whole butt seems to be a little sore. But symmetrically, so I'm thinking its the increase of dance recently (yay!)
Jaw - better, but not perfect. Get fitted for a bite plate tomorrow to help night grinding.

House - nice, keeping about even with the cleaning, and I just finished stripping and priming my banister, which has been a wreck for 2 years. I have now started painting and its really fun.

Babydolls - heating up for winter. We've got all sorts of stuff - check out our page (www.bostonbabydolls.net) - I'll be at Paradise this month, and at the Boston Burlesque Expo (www.burlesque-expo.com)

SCA - went to 12th Night. Lots of driving but was fun. Going to ME EKU 1st weekend in March. Sadly, probably not Al Hafla. Did not get shit together and have a dizzying about to do before BBE. Sorry guys. :(

Work - busy, sucky, but I didn't work this weekend because all MY shit was done

And now... some navel gazing:

( My Leadership Philosophy )


Now to bed, so I can do physical exercise in the morning and perhaps say goodbye to some of the holiday fat and hello to some new 2007 muscle. :)

Wonder what I'm doing when I'm not whining about being hurt?
Just haven't seen me or heard from me because the Evil Overlords took away my online access at work?

Well... come to the Babydolls Xmas show:

December 17
Paradise Lounge
Doors at 8:00, Show at 9:00
http://www.bostonbabydolls.net/performances/dollhouse.php

Not only will I be there, I'm in it. Yep, I have no common sense - but this is a peice that is cute, comic and not so very dance intensive. And since my hip is doing better, I'm not too worried about it.

FYI - lately I've been surfacing only long enough to post occasionally. I generally haven't kept up on anyone's journals. I'm sorry about that. If there's something you desperately want me to know, email me.

I'm sorry to inflict my commentary on you all w/out reading your narratives, but until I acheive a better work/life/other commitments/stress balance, the thing that will get the most ignored is my online communications. Sadly, I find that online stuff can expand to take up a near-infinite amount of time, which makes me watch it most carefully when the choice is sleep/rest vs. frolic online. :(

Or... in other words... miss you all...

I planned to get off the computer an hour ago - spending only half an hour dealing with the most vital email... I failed, clearly. Catchup from London travel is a killer.

But I figured "what's another 10 minutes?" and thought I'd write a rare post.

( Momento Thoughts of London )

Sorry for the long time, no typey.

Before we get to the content of my message:

COME SEE ME IN OUT FOR BLOOD!

C'mon, you know you want to and time is running out.  There's only two weeks left to the show, I know a ton of ya'll haven't come yet (I'm there every night, remember?)  and I guarantee that the last Fri/Sat will be PACKED, so come earlier than that when I still have some vim and vigour to hang out after the show!!!

http://www.bostonbabydolls.net/performances/halloween06.php


OK... now that that's out of the way.

( Actual Content )

My work just cut off access to Gmail, LiveJournal, Tribe and several of the game sites that I occasionally vistited. While I cannot disagree that none of these domains related to work - they where things I accessed in my downtime from work. Particularly with Gmail and LJ - it was a way of keeping in contact with kith and kin throughout the day on an hourly basis.

I'm incredibly pissed off, and have been unable to express my pissiness having no lines of communication available to me. This is incredibly obnoxious. And it's part of a creeping tide of limitations on employee behavior that is growing and growing.

I'm pretty much done with this bullshit.

I had been posting under a filter to a limited set of friends that I had been doing a "Zen job search". I wasn't sure that I wanted to move, I liked my company OK, I just wanted to test the waters.

Now I'm sure. This is it. I'm moving on.

I understand the need to control attacks on a network. Particularly for a network that can handle sensitive data flows (although we have entirely offline networks for that). But it's getting ridiculous.

And it points out that it's more important to my company to Absolutely Control Everything Employees Do - and less about letting people have the flexibility to do go work and lead pleasant lives. I don't stop thinking about work problems when I go home, and I don't expect to be cut off from my major communication mechanisms when I'm at work.

In fact, before they cut off all ways to access work from home, I used to DO work at home, just like I did home at work. That's been over for months, due to other insane and ineffective virtual lan policies.

Ah well... time to get over it. I did a nice second interview at Cigital today. It's still a big change from what I'm used to, but I'm interested, and I'm beginning to think I need a big change.

Practical thought: If you need to contact me on short notice, try my cell phone number. I'll be trying to be more diligent about keeping it charged and nearby.

I could change to another email service - I've thought about that... but the thing is - eventually they'll lock everything out. Switching email doesn't change anything, it just delays the inevitable.

Endianness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

In computing, endianness generally refers to sequencing methods used in a one-dimensional system (such as writing on computer memory). The two main types of endianness are known as big-endian (big units first) and little-endian (little units first). Systems which exhibit aspects of both conventions are often described as middle-endian. When specifically talking about bytes in computing, endianness is also referred to as byte order or byte sex.

It's not every day a release note makes you look up a word.

Did you know you can buy Curious George Underwear. Yes, yes, you can my friend. They are yellow with red piping. They are completely dorktastic.

Had a quick dinner at Masala Art in between a long, technical phone call, a call to my mother, and an hour online doing teacher stuff for the Boston Burlesque Expo (BBE). Thoughts:
Masala Art - not quite the magical place it was this time last year. Maybe I just didn't like the cauliflower o' the day. But I didn't enjoy the ambiance as much as I used to.
Tech Call - will process later, message and success of call was mixed.
Mother Call - with mom's scratchy voice, I find myself talking even more than usual (which is a lot). She was far more impressed with my raise & promotion than with my being on Comcast. :P I guess it figures. Such is the mom. Personally, the TV thing is more neato, because I've never been on TV before. Unless you count public access playing a crappy video of my high school play.
BBE - classes are starting to fly in. OK... maybe not fly, but it's more than a trickle. I had a bunch of teacher requests to deal with. While we need more - alot more - our class offerings are starting to make me feel hopeful. Particularly because I'm not done yet!!!

Last night's Babydolls practice also made me hopeful. I'm starting to see the visions become reality. They need more practice (and will get some tomorrow), but they are happening. They are not hopeless. I've got good, decidated fellow dancers and faith is growing.

Come see the show. It will rock.

Wow! A good but busy weekend. Not hectic, per se - there was thankfully little running about in a crazed fashion... just busy.

Before I forget - the first sneak peak of our Miss Exotic World footage has hit Comcast On Demand. (if you don't have Comcast, I'm sorry) To see my big head for like 1/2 a second:
- Go to the On Demand section (you digital Comcast for this) - Press Menu, go right one item - it will show "On Demand", and hit OK
- Go down 1 page, and select "Cutting Edge"
- Select "Something Wierd"
- Select "Miss Exotic World"
- Select "Exotic Overview" and choose to play it (it's free!)

It goes through a whole thing about what Miss Exotic World is. Just after Dixie Evans opens the show (she's wearing a black dress and a big silver feather head thing) - the video flashes quickly through a bunch of Miss Exotic World things - one of which is us (mostly me) raising my hat in a cartoonish "ooh that's amazing!" expression.

There you go. Me. On TV. I never thought I'd actually end up on TV. Thank you Babydolls.

Back to your regularly scheduled program. Stuff I did this weekend...

Friday - dinner with new_man and mermaidlady, and then early to bed. I was in bed and out cold by around 10:00. I was completely beat from the Best Practices Expo, fun as it was.

Saturday - Forewent the Greenwood Isles Picnic in favor of doing serious work prepping for Out for Blood. It is time for the costuming to come together, and come together it has.
[Bad username or site: OFB checklist minutae @ livejournal.com]

Mummy Trio Needs:
- 3 glitter dot edged bras - 1 done (Mina's), 1 in-hand (mine), Honey's needs to be given to me, or the edging given to her.
- new plan - underwear panels for everyone to pin to underware - it is much saner - need to measure dancers and make panels.
- found black panel skirt for Honey - needs repairs to snap.
- 3 pastie sets needed
- choreography basically done, but needs drilling and needs more intense solo work, slight replan for Honey skirt remove.

NOTE TO SELF - bring measuring tape and sequin fabric for Honey's bra tomorrow!!! Ask Mina for 6 tassels *or* help w/ pasties. Hmm.... black/gold sequin use?

Spider Needs:
- basic outfit done
- "corset" top refitted
- skirt made - requires finished hem and gathered front
- glove supplies ready, gloves need spidification
- Scratch is managing set peice
- need to figure out bra and undies and pasties - can easily reuse existing items if necessary, low priority

NOTE TO SELF - at lunch -> Jo Anne Fabrics -> get red ribbon for gathers. ponder hem edging on skirt. look for easy trim for Egyptian panels.

Sisters Needs:
- corset cover finishing work - optional
- bra and panties - DONE
- skirt - supplies purchased just needs assembly
- head feather - needs reattachment to barrette - use wire, not glue


It looks like a daunting list, but it's a bunch of little things. And there's lots of wishes on the list that are necessarily low priority. Most of all, every peices needs to be drilled and drilled and drilled. The Mummy is truly and ensemble peice, and it's compartively easy - it's with three strong dancers, working in their strengths and with a very individualized "script" - we have very little dancing that is synchronized, and the only hard part is the bra remove. I'm not overly worried, as long we practice enough.

The other two are really challenging. I'm excited for it, but the challenge is a sneaky one - rather than being hard tech stuff done on its own, the hard part is working as an ensemble when the other person is basically an accessory to me. And active accessory, that requires the other person to do some not-really-dance, stuff to help me be the star. It's a real trick. And it's not something I have lots of training in. I find myself deeply thankful that Scratch is at our rehearsals, because he understands much more about the physicality of theater than I do, and theater is really what we are doing here. No, I'm not being a prima donna here.



Also saw Chicago on TV twice, somewhat scamming for moves and costuming ideas. I think I like Chicago on film better than I liked it on Broadway. On film they do these nice flashes from imagined on stage dance to "real" life, while the theater show I saw had the dance numbers fused in with the on going dialogue. Obviously it would be hard to flash from in-a-theater to not-in-a-theater in a stage show - the presence of the actual theater is rather overwhelming... but it was a really neat thing on film.

Found myself envying the fact that it was a movie and they could do a million cuts of anything. We don't have that luxury on stage. :P Also wonder whether Richard Greer's tearaway pants are snaps or velcro.

Sunday was spent rehearsing, working with Honey on the Spider number, doing the Babydoll Hair Ritual, packing and going to our Birthday Bash. The Bash was very cool - I was so happy to get to see a whole bunch of friend there!! Thanks gang!!

I think the fact that this is our one year birthday is hitting me in many ways - some good some bad:
( Read more... )

The emotionally ambiguous call came in from my boss just after I posted my massive post.

I got a raise! It's raise time again!
And a promotion!

I got a promotion last year. And then we refactored our semi-confusing job code system into this new even-more-confusing job code system. And I thought I may have taken a title hit. But now I have at the very least recovered. If not hopped forward in the ranks.

I had the thought to ask "what does the promotion entail?" and the answer was - work you've already done... so that doesn't help much.

The money was substantial enough for me to take note, although I've not popped out of my tax bracket or anything.