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I realise this has little signifigance to anyone except me, but...
Tomorrow I will be taking part in my first ever dance competition.
I don't mind telling you, I've only had a month to prepair for this, I'm
not really ready, and I have no idea what to expect. I seriously doubt
that my girlfriend and I will score highly. (She doesn't even *want* to
do this contest in the first place, and certainly doesn't want to
actually win. But I do...)
Hopefully I won't make a complete idiot of myself. So long as we don't
finish last, I'll be relatively happy. I'll let you know how it goes...
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On 30/04/2011 11:04 AM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> I'll let you know how it goes...
Break a leg. :-D
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 30/04/2011 12:44 PM, Stephen wrote:
> On 30/04/2011 11:04 AM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> I'll let you know how it goes...
>
> Break a leg. :-D
Just so you know, this is an entirely viable possibility. (!)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On 30/04/2011 12:47 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> On 30/04/2011 12:44 PM, Stephen wrote:
>> On 30/04/2011 11:04 AM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> I'll let you know how it goes...
>>
>> Break a leg. :-D
>
> Just so you know, this is an entirely viable possibility. (!)
>
;-) Okay, break a typing finger, then. (Some people are never
satisfied.) ;-)
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 04/30/2011 09:52 AM, Stephen wrote:
> On 30/04/2011 12:47 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> On 30/04/2011 12:44 PM, Stephen wrote:
>>> On 30/04/2011 11:04 AM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>>> I'll let you know how it goes...
>>>
>>> Break a leg. :-D
>>
>> Just so you know, this is an entirely viable possibility. (!)
>>
>
> ;-) Okay, break a typing finger, then. (Some people are never
> satisfied.) ;-)
>
Or heaven forbid ... break wind ;-)
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On 30/04/2011 04:38 PM, Jim Holsenback wrote:
> Or heaven forbid ... break wind ;-)
Now THAT is almost impossible. :-P
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On 4/30/2011 3:04, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> I will be taking part in my first ever dance competition.
Congrats!
> I'm not really ready,
There are professional sports teams whose only job is being really ready who
aren't really ready, ya know? :-)
Don't worry about it. Have fun.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Coding without comments is like
driving without turn signals."
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On Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:04:48 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> I realise this has little signifigance to anyone except me, but...
> Tomorrow I will be taking part in my first ever dance competition.
Break a leg! (Yeah, it's already been said, but I daren't say g*** l***
as that's bad luck. ;) )
Jim
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On 30/04/2011 11:04 AM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Tomorrow I will be taking part in my first ever dance competition.
Holy cow, that's *today*! O_O
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On 01/05/2011 7:50 AM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> On 30/04/2011 11:04 AM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> Tomorrow I will be taking part in my first ever dance competition.
>
> Holy cow, that's *today*! O_O
>
Do your best. :-D
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 01/05/2011 09:17 AM, Stephen wrote:
> Do your best. :-D
Thanks for the tip.
OK, that sounded wrong. I'm just a bag of nerves right now...
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On 01/05/2011 9:41 AM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> On 01/05/2011 09:17 AM, Stephen wrote:
>
>> Do your best. :-D
>
> Thanks for the tip.
>
> OK, that sounded wrong. I'm just a bag of nerves right now...
>
I know what you mean. You'll do well.
--
Regards
Stephen
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Le 2011/04/30 06:04, Orchid XP v8 a écrit :
> I realise this has little signifigance to anyone except me, but...
> Tomorrow I will be taking part in my first ever dance competition.
>
> I don't mind telling you, I've only had a month to prepair for this, I'm
> not really ready, and I have no idea what to expect. I seriously doubt
> that my girlfriend and I will score highly. (She doesn't even *want* to
> do this contest in the first place, and certainly doesn't want to
> actually win. But I do...)
>
> Hopefully I won't make a complete idiot of myself. So long as we don't
> finish last, I'll be relatively happy. I'll let you know how it goes...
>
Whatever you do to prepare yourself, almost nobody is EVER ready for the
first competition.
Just go for it, once you get on the floor, try to forget that you are in
a competition and lets dance!
Alain
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On 30/04/2011 11:04 AM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Tomorrow I will be taking part in my first ever dance competition.
>
> I don't mind telling you, I've only had a month to prepair for this, I'm
> not really ready, and I have no idea what to expect.
Well, perhaps predictably, it was NOTHING LIKE what I was expecting. In
fact, I'm left with the feeling that the whole thing was a totally
pointless waste of my time. I very much doubt that I'll ever do that again.
Going in, I was excited and my partner was reluctant. Coming out, I have
no desire to ever repeat this experience. It's something I would rather
forget than celebrate.
So how did we do?
You know what? I DON'T KNOW.
Yes, you read that correctly. I spent an entire day at a dance
competition, and as I stand here now, I still don't actually know what
events I competed in, or what results I got. WTF, people. Given that I
don't know how well I did, there's no real sense of achievement (or
failure).
As best as I can tell, this is a 2-day event which this year is being
shoehorned into 1 day, presumably so the organisers can cheap out on
hiring the hall for two days. The result is that everything is a hecktic
rush. They just steamroller through event after event after event. Even
the organisers don't seem to be completely sure what's happening. They
actually *missed out* the final round of one of the events by mistake,
and had to insert it back in later. (By which time some of the
contestants had gone home, some of them had changed out of their
costumes, etc.) It was a shambles.
I was expecting there to be a contest, and some results. But with the
organisers steamrollering through an endless succession of events, it
makes each one seem tiny and insignificant. And with no idea of what's
happening, where you're supposed to be, or what that dance you just did
actually counts towards, nor even what the eventual outcome was, it's
very hard to care about how well you did. It all seems so hollow and
pointless.
We arrived before they said our event would start. We stood around for
many hours, and then we were called to dance, and for 90 seconds you're
supposed to be flat-out dancing your arse off. Then you go stand around
for another hour, and they unexpectedly called us to dance again.
Another 90 seconds where you're suddenly supposed to be in full flow.
Then we waited about an hour, and got called out and given a trophy,
we're not sure why. 2 hours later, we get called to dance again,
alongside some guys from our class who we know can dance rings around
us. 3 hours after that, they call our names, and some guy shakes our
hands and said "well done". We don't know why.
My best guess on what happened:
- In event #32, we danced through round one, and get into round two,
where we came last. Everybody who made it to round two got an identical
blank trophy, except the top 3. So we were bottom of the finalists, but
better than all the people who didn't get to the final [and hence didn't
get a trophy].
- Event #130 [yes, the numbers go up that high] was the qualifier for
the national finals at Blackpool in November. You enter to be in your
region's qualifier round, and everybody who entered dances around a bit.
The 10 best couples qualify and get to dance in Blackpool. This year, 6
couples entered [one of which was us]. Ergo, every single couple that
entered will have qualified, regardless of talent or abject lack of it.
My classmate's elated cries of "well done!" ring a little hollow when we
actually qualified "by default", as such.
So there you have it. Unless we change our minds, it looks like we're
going to dance in Blackpool, in the world-famous Empress Ballroom. Which
is literally the only reason I'm bothering at this point; so that in
years to come, I can say "I danced at Blackpool once". I don't expect us
to score highly, and I almost don't care. My only hope is that Blackpool
will be organised better than the shambolic chaos I witnessed today.
Epic failure.
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On 5/1/2011 12:49, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> I don't expect us to score highly, and I almost don't care.
That's not a bad thing. Go to enjoy, not to win.
> Epic failure.
Sounds like you learned a lesson, tho. If you ever need to organize
something like this yourself, you'll know what not to do. :-)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Coding without comments is like
driving without turn signals."
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On 01/05/2011 8:49 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> My best guess on what happened:
Life's not fair but this time it was not fair to your advantage. :-D
Go for the Blackpool gig and tell your grandchildren about it. ;-)
--
Regards
Stephen
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"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] dev null> wrote in message
news:4dbdb940$1@news.povray.org...
> So there you have it. Unless we change our minds, it looks like we're
> going to dance in Blackpool, in the world-famous Empress Ballroom. Which
> is literally the only reason I'm bothering at this point; so that in years
> to come, I can say "I danced at Blackpool once". I don't expect us to
> score highly, and I almost don't care. My only hope is that Blackpool will
> be organised better than the shambolic chaos I witnessed today.
>
> Epic failure.
>
<sarcasm>Yeah, but the organizers had a blast! That's what's important,
right? </sarcasm>
But seriously, it sucks when you put so much effort into something that
turns out to be run so poorly. Been there.
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On 02/05/2011 10:10, Stephen wrote:
> Life's not fair but this time it was not fair to your advantage. :-D
If I actually wanted to go, I'd be excited at this point. After what
happened with the regional qualifier, I'm not sure I even *want* to go
to this.
> Go for the Blackpool gig and tell your grandchildren about it. ;-)
Yeah, that's about all that can be said really.
Apparently my girlfriend's first grandchild will be arriving the month
before this, so... o_O
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On 01/05/2011 22:02, Darren New wrote:
> On 5/1/2011 12:49, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> I don't expect us to score highly, and I almost don't care.
>
> That's not a bad thing. Go to enjoy, not to win.
Well, we certainly didn't enjoy this. An entire day of being in limbo,
being almost trampled by the massed hordes, and having no idea what's
happening. Talk about stress...
> Sounds like you learned a lesson, tho. If you ever need to organize
> something like this yourself, you'll know what not to do. :-)
I still can't believe that there were 3 people who's only purpose for
being there all day was to know what the running order is, and they
somehow didn't know what the running order was.
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On 02/05/2011 18:48, UncleHoot wrote:
> But seriously, it sucks when you put so much effort into something that
> turns out to be run so poorly. Been there.
It really sucks. :-( To think I was actually looking forward to this
thing... Never again.
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On 01/05/2011 20:49, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Epic failure.
There was really only one good thing about this whole day, and that was
watching some of the team events.
Most of the events involve either solos or pairs dancing against each
other. Nobody really takes much notice [other than the judges -
hopefully]. But for the team events, one bunch of a dozen or so people
has the whole floor to themselves, dancing big complicated coordinated
dance routines, and that gets a bit of attention from the crowd.
All of the teams got the obligatory reluctant applause when they arrived
and when they left. A few of them got some applause when they did
something unusual or impressive. But nobody got quite the reaction that
my school's adult dance team got.
They were all dressed as pirates, and they danced to [some club remix
of] the theme tune to Pirates of the Caribbean. It starts off quite
slow, but once it kicked up into top gear, the audience reaction was
phenomenal. And I don't just mean the rest of our school was cheering
them along; everybody got their own fans doing that. But when our guys
danced, the entire place went berserk. The atmosphere was electric. I
remember standing there and saying out loud "if we haven't won this, I
want to know why". Obviously, we did win. [Apparently we usually do.
We're that good.]
It was probably worth seeing that.
Some of our other teams were quite good too [although nobody from any
school got quite the same reaction as our pirates]. I felt kind of sorry
for the rather brilliant team of 4 year olds who danced completely
unsupervised in the middle of a big empty dance floor and made it look
fabulous. They danced so well, but they were the *only* team to enter
for that event, so they won by default. Which is a pity, because they
were so good, I'm sure they could have thrashed anybody else who dared
to challenge them.
There was also I team of teenage girls in red and black suits. I'm not
sure whether they were ours or not, but the crowd loved it when one of
them jumped up on top of the group and did some acrobatics across the
surface of their outstretched arms.
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On 5/3/2011 1:40, Invisible wrote:
> On 01/05/2011 22:02, Darren New wrote:
>> On 5/1/2011 12:49, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> I don't expect us to score highly, and I almost don't care.
>>
>> That's not a bad thing. Go to enjoy, not to win.
>
> Well, we certainly didn't enjoy this. An entire day of being in limbo, being
> almost trampled by the massed hordes, and having no idea what's happening.
You missed an opportunity to meet new friends, talk about other hobbies,
etc. Heck, sounds like you had enough time to explain monads to someone. ;-)
> Talk about stress...
I can see it being stressful, but just spending the day chilling works too.
It's a conscious thing - you have to decide that if it's this screwed up,
there isn't much you can do to improve it, so you just go with it and let it
crash.
>> Sounds like you learned a lesson, tho. If you ever need to organize
>> something like this yourself, you'll know what not to do. :-)
>
> I still can't believe that there were 3 people who's only purpose for being
> there all day was to know what the running order is, and they somehow didn't
> know what the running order was.
There ya go! :-)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Coding without comments is like
driving without turn signals."
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On 5/3/2011 4:22, Invisible wrote:
> On 02/05/2011 18:48, UncleHoot wrote:
>
>> But seriously, it sucks when you put so much effort into something that
>> turns out to be run so poorly. Been there.
>
> It really sucks. :-( To think I was actually looking forward to this
> thing... Never again.
Don't say "never again". Say "I hope it's not such a disaster next time."
Jeez, you give up the first time someone *else* messes up?
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Coding without comments is like
driving without turn signals."
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>> Well, we certainly didn't enjoy this. An entire day of being in limbo,
>> being
>> almost trampled by the massed hordes, and having no idea what's
>> happening.
>
> You missed an opportunity to meet new friends, talk about other hobbies,
> etc. Heck, sounds like you had enough time to explain monads to someone.
> ;-)
Are you kidding me? I was stood right next to a whole bunch of people I
know, and none of them would talk to me. They were all too busy trying
to keep in touch with what's going on. (Not that you can hear yourself
think over all the racket...)
>> Talk about stress...
>
> I can see it being stressful, but just spending the day chilling works
> too. It's a conscious thing - you have to decide that if it's this
> screwed up, there isn't much you can do to improve it, so you just go
> with it and let it crash.
When they call your name, and you don't actually know where you're
supposed to go or what you're supposed to do, and 350 people are
watching you... yeah, kinda stressful.
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> Don't say "never again". Say "I hope it's not such a disaster next
> time." Jeez, you give up the first time someone *else* messes up?
Why keep doing something you don't actually enjoy?
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On 5/3/2011 8:46, Invisible wrote:
>> Don't say "never again". Say "I hope it's not such a disaster next
>> time." Jeez, you give up the first time someone *else* messes up?
>
> Why keep doing something you don't actually enjoy?
You enjoy dancing. You looked forward to the event. The event organizers
screwed up. At least give it a second chance to see whether it was screwed
up as a fluke or whether that's apparently normal for this sort of thing.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Coding without comments is like
driving without turn signals."
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>> Why keep doing something you don't actually enjoy?
>
> You enjoy dancing. You looked forward to the event. The event organizers
> screwed up. At least give it a second chance to see whether it was
> screwed up as a fluke or whether that's apparently normal for this sort
> of thing.
Given the way everybody else reacted, this is apparently typical.
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On Wed, 04 May 2011 09:01:23 +0100, Invisible wrote:
>>> Why keep doing something you don't actually enjoy?
>>
>> You enjoy dancing. You looked forward to the event. The event
>> organizers screwed up. At least give it a second chance to see whether
>> it was screwed up as a fluke or whether that's apparently normal for
>> this sort of thing.
>
> Given the way everybody else reacted, this is apparently typical.
A sample size of one is insufficient data. You need to form your own
impressions, not go by those of others, because it's about YOUR enjoyment
and not theirs.
Jim
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On 5/4/2011 2:01 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>> Why keep doing something you don't actually enjoy?
>>
>> You enjoy dancing. You looked forward to the event. The event organizers
>> screwed up. At least give it a second chance to see whether it was
>> screwed up as a fluke or whether that's apparently normal for this sort
>> of thing.
>
> Given the way everybody else reacted, this is apparently typical.
I'm late to this thread and the beginning is gone now, so I have make
some assumptions. I'm guessing your and your GF went to a dance
showcase/comp and it did not go well. We started Ballroom dancing a
couple of years ago at a non competitive school and we have had a blast.
Dancing is supposed to be fun.
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> I'm late to this thread and the beginning is gone now, so I have make
> some assumptions. I'm guessing your and your GF went to a dance
> showcase/comp and it did not go well. We started Ballroom dancing a
> couple of years ago at a non competitive school and we have had a blast.
> Dancing is supposed to be fun.
It's not that we did badly. It's that we went home still not *knowing*
whether we did good, bad, or whatever. And let's face it, that's about
the most basic thing you could want to know about a competition.
Basically, we both hated the whole experience, so we won't be bothering
again. But hey, I guess you have to try these things...
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