Halloween Part II

So as I was saying, the other day, I have a halloween party to go to.

Well as the events of that day played out, I ended up going to a different Halloween party. In fact it was a Latin Halloween Dance Party.

Now as you would know if you religiously read my blog, I am fairly new to the whole Salsa thing. So I danced a little bit. I do stress a *little*.

But can you imagine 60 or so lil devils and witches and zombies and what not doin some Meringue and dancing their tails and pitch forks into the night?

Quite a fun sight it was.

We then went off to the Valley to check out the clubs for the rest of the night/early morning.

I don't have time to recall my activities in great detail... just for my own benefit I'll jot them down for future reference.

• Went to Comedy
• Saw Arj Barker
• Went to Training Course
• Went to Halloween thing

Halloween

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Originally uploaded by telljoolz.

So it aint Halloween any more. I don't care I'm still going to a Halloween party tonight.

Every year an old school friend of mine hosts a Halloween party.
Every year it gets bigger and bigger.
Every year I get the pleasure of seeing old faces with the added bonus of to meeting new ones.
Every year.... it rains on halloween, or at the party anyway.
Oh some unexpected guests have popped in. I'll Blog you later.
Stay Tuned !

No Mondayitis!

I thought I'd have Mondayitis today. I don't usually dread Mondays but the weekend was fullon as many weekends have been of late so I thought I'd end up at work a little drained. But no. All systems go. I feel alert to bust through the first day of the week.

Day off work

The day is almost over since my last post and although this morning's incident still bothers me slightly, I did not let that stop me having a productive and fulfilling day.

• Met a couple of friends for lunch. That was nice.
• Got my friend to test and format a hard drive thats been giving me problems.
• Bought a new USB case for the hard drive and now problems are gone.
• Bought Madagasgar the animated movie.

So a bit of retail therapy and a social component.

Now to watch that movie and play with my new USB hard drive :)
Who knows I might still have time to go out tonight as well.

Playin the Blues

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Originally uploaded by telljoolz.

I'm feeling a bit down today. I don't really wanna talk about it suffice to say that I had planned something today and it didn't work out. So now I'm feeling a little bit 'meh'.

Not that it worries me. It's ok to feel down sometimes. My strategies for combatting the blues include the following:

Firstly if you got something bothering you or pulling you down be sure that you avoid dwelling on it. Self analysis can be a killer that spirals you back or further into a low.

Cover your body's basic needs like good food, be well rested and freshen up.

Psyche yourself back up in preparation for something to do. Even if you don't have anything to do that day, get outta those PJ's and put on some going out clothes and be ready to greet the world. Part of psyching up is music.

Play some angsty tunes, some melancholic tunes and then some good vibes to raise your energy levels so you can enjoy the day on a high.

Finally DO SOMETHING! Something social is best but it doesn't have to be. If you set your self a goal or task and you accomplish it. You can feel good about your achievement.

Ok have a nice day! I know I will :)

Momentum

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Originally uploaded by telljoolz.

The last week and a bit has been busy for me. Let's see. It went something along the lines of:

Friday: Salsa at Southbank
Saturday: 1degree Cafe
Sunday: Livewire comedy
Monday: Latin
Tuesday:Latin
Wednesday:Nacho Libre
Thursday: Fearless
Friday: Valley Fiesta
Saturday: Tim and Craig visited
Sunday: Livewire Comedy
Monday: Latin


Ever since Latin started and Comedy, the momentum of activities building up has been really consistent. This weekend will prove to be fully booked as well.

So why the snowboarding picture I hear you ask... Well I guess life's like snowboarding in a way... the more you do the more you try the faster it all goes and it just builds up momentum.

But the less you do the less further you travel and you dont get very far or do very much.

The trick is to find the edge of the board so you can control it a lil better and make sure it doesnt get outta hand or stop completely and guide it where you want before it goes too fast and you got no time to take a break. Otherwise you might stack it.

Will expand/refine on this metaphor later. As you can see I'm big on the metaphors.

Taking the Lead

Hey there.
I've been meaning to tell you that I've started attending latin dance classes. I've also been meaning to slip in somewhere on this blog part of Julian ethos. I believe that everything in life is a lesson. That annoying guy who thinks your're his friend that just shives you the gits; he is a lesson. That time a mate or girl treated you bad; that was a lesson. Maybe it was a situation you put your self into, or maybe you had no control over the forces that be. All of these, IMHO is a lesson. The good times are also lessons but we tend to notice the bad stuff more. Whether you choose to take the lesson or even see it as a lesson is up to you.

I also think that these 'lessons' are things that once you learn, hopefully can be applied to various contexts that may be totally remote from the original source or experience of the lesson.
This is where I bring my rant (for those still listening) back to latin dancing.

So yeah, at dance class, apart from some of the obvious benefits such as fun, social, learning new skill and meeting new people theres that lesson thing I was talking about. The first class was great, I learnt the basic steps and then danced with a partner and rotated partners to get used to dancing with different people. The challenge at this point being such a newbie, is remembering your steps PLUS (being male) learning to lead. Well I found that even though I learnt my steps and was executing them correctly, if my parter doubted or stumbled with the steps I was put off and lost my count.

Being in a leading role, you cannot afford to do lose your count. You have to be confident that what you are doing is right. You have to be so confident that you can even signal with your arm, hand, head or simply eyes so that you can effectively communicate to your partner what you are about to do next and what you want her to do also.

Like any emotion, or state of mind, this confidence can be felt and transferred into those around you. In the context of dance, she will trust that you know what you are doing and harmonise with you much more smoothly.

But its not just about confidence either. Its about knowing what you want in life and knowing where you are going. If you know these things or at least confident that you have a rough idea, people will be more interested in sharing that journey with you.

Also if you or your friends lose their way, you have the confidence and knowledge from within, to help lead them back on the right track without unwanted force. So I gained a lot from my first latin dance class. Met new people, learnt some basic steps and a life lesson. It is a life lesson because you can apply this to other situations. Its ok to know what you are on about, but you have to show it in how you talk, how you move, how you lead.

Melbourne

I just came back from a trip to Melbourne. Boss said I had too much holiday leave accumulated and that I had to use some up.

So Melbourne it was. Actually I was born in Melbourne but I don't remember anything since I moved to Brizzie with my family when I was 4.

This time round, I met up with a friend of mine who happened to be studying there for the week.

Melbourne is rich in culture and beauty. There is plenty of interesting things to see and and plenty of delicious food to be et. Getting around is very easy thanks to their quaint trams and excellent city layout.

Self Massage

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Originally uploaded by telljoolz.

As sus as the title sounds, its not as dodgy as you might think. Get your mind outta the gutter. Pfffff.

You are probably sick of hearing about neck pains.

But after I said it was gone it came back a little the next day.

This site helped me get through these tough times.
http://www.coolnurse.com/massage.htm

Work in progress

jhgb
Originally uploaded by telljoolz.

Do you know the USA is having a little competition within their scientific labs to produce next generation Nuclear Bombs?

Don't believe me? here is the article.
So whos got WMD's now?

The picture shown is a little cartoon I'm workingon. At the moment its neither humorous nor witty, but it conveys a message I want to get across.

On a related note here is my favourite Bushism.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Watch video)

For more bushisms, http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushdumbquotes2.htm

Neck Pains continued

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Originally uploaded by telljoolz.

Usually on a wednesday I go to Hip Hop class with a few of my female friends. Kirstin (shown in picture), her sister Nadine and another uni friend, Cindy.

Well Cindy is in San Francisco and Kirstin and Nadine didn't bring casual hip hop friendly clothes today.

Coincidentally Kirstin too fell victim to neck pains. So Hip Hop was really not meant to be this Wednesday for either of us. Instead Kirstin, Nadine and I had a few drinks and some dinner at a near by pub/club/restaurant called the Brewhouse.

All in all a pleasant evening but what made it that much more pleasant is that as I walked to the train at the end of the evening, I realised my neck pain had gone.

So relieved I called Kirstin to share the good news and discovered that her pains had gone too. So there ya go, a painful morning turned into a pleasant evening.

Neck Pains

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Originally uploaded by telljoolz.

My blog is tiny and I doubt anyone reads this so I don't expect a response from my cry of help. If anyone is out there and knows a great solution for a sore neck/back, please help. You know that pain if you sleep wrong and then you wake up and it hurts to turn your head?

Well I'm at work now and I got that neck pain thing and its shiving me the gits. I'll add to this blog entry later when I get home. Oh the pain.

World Cup Soccer

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Originally uploaded by telljoolz.

It was about 1Am. I was just about to turn off the wretched television in disgust at Australia's sad loss. There was a mere 6 minutes to go before the end of the Australia Vs Japan match and Japan had scored 1 goal. I grabbed the remote. I pointed the remote at the TV. The finger tip of my index finger applied pressure on the off button, but before enough downward force was applied to that little red button to shut down the tube, it happened. Australia scored. Australia scored again and a third time before the jaw dropping match was over and I could crawl into bed with some patriotic pride salvaged.

Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year . I wanted to wish everyone Happy New Year again and the fact the Chinese calendar follows the moon instead of the sun allows me to do that. 2006 is year of the dog. Gong Xi Fat Choi! No thats not the name of a green vegetable you'd expect to see in your local chinese takeaway stir fry. Its how you say happy new year in chinese. Yeah see, I am in touch with my Asian roots. I have spiky hair and like Yum Cha. ;) If you don't know what Yum Cha is, then shame on you. You are missing out.

Back to work

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Today was also the first day back to work for 2006. Surprisingly, I started off the fresh day with eager enthusiasm, but as the minutes clicked over, the novelty of cubicle office living, soon wore as thin as an American Pie film plot. The mystical database administrators had to do some load testing which meant that code monkey developers such as myself had to stop being code monkeys for a while. The next logical step was to go home. Which I did.

So here I am, recalling that they have this thing called blogging for the Internet now. It is amazing. Back in my day, we had to walk ten thousand shoe destroying miles through blood, sweat and bones, jagged rocks and mind numbing boredom before we could reach a blog site.

Oh I think I better go have dinner. Happy New Year + 2.

A Lot Like Love

Right now, I'm watching a sweet film called "A Lot Like Love". It is one of my favourite romance comedy flicks. For a guy to watch a romance, the film needs to have sufficient comedy to keep it interesting. "A Lot Like Love" has just the right amount. I recommend it, especially if looking for a movie to watch with your lady friend.