A new house, selling the old, a new job teaching taiko. Sounds so simple on paper, but wow, what a year.

I got some SMS spam (and later MMS spam) phoned t-mobile and asked them to help me stop it, since it costs me everytime I receive one. they offered to change my phone number, I explained, this was untargeted spam, that wouldn't help anything and would be a horrible pain for me. They offered to shut off my SMS service... um... no. eventually she gave me a number to report the spam with, but no credit, no indication that they or I could do anything. Really, I don't blame t-mobile that much. I'm with them because they're cheap and SMS isn't designed for spam. Really, you should pay when you send, not when you receive. It's horribly overpriced too, because it's grandfathered and hopefully, someday, I can go pay as you go email and stop using it.

I don't like dentists. I have dentist anxiety (likely related to the epinephrine they put in the Novocaine. I liked this dentist. about 30 minutes of work, no Novocaine (because of where the chip was.) You can't see where the patch is, it looks great, feels great and was $150. Yay for good dentists, yay for modern dentistry. Even the assistant was super cheery and calming.

I've been trying to get more exercise. nothing will replace the time I was completely addicted to DDR and dropped 50 lbs, but I still hope and search. First, DDR still gives a nice work out, but I just don't NEED to play it like I used to. So I'm still seeking that new addiction. Luckily the technology is marching forward.

A while back we got a kinect and an box 360 so I could try Dance central. Super fun, but not as much exercise as I would like. Hamonix got most of it dead on. The UI is great, the music selection is terrific and they track surprisingly subtle motions. But like DDR, you still feel like you're playing a video game and not dancing. The choreography, while good, is clearly limited by needing to track your skeleton the entire time. I got Dance Masters, konami's foray into the gerne. The UI is horrible, but I got used to it. The game play, however was good. Instead of tracking ever motion, they want key poses (many of which are dynamic), arm arc and hand positions. They also seem to some how track steps and use the mic to see if you're clapping. The result feels like a full body Elite Beat agents and ends up being a lot more dynamic. The choreography is a lot freer (though still clearly reined in by the game) to the point where there are a few dances that I want to learn as dances. The music is very DDR/parapara, but since I'm already a fan that's not a problem.

I've also been looking at the straight up work out games, but nothing seems to be that engaging. I think I was spoiled by eye toy Kinetic which, if it were on the kinect would be the best thing ever. It's too bad the eye toy let that game down.

I think I will still try to make myself play DDR for the full on cardio, but at least these other games get me up and moving and might teach me a few tricks for more dynamic taiko choreography.

EDIT: I have NO parapara instincts at all!

We had a tree fall in Irene. The tree guys showed up today, unannounced. They were $300 under the other quote we got. They were great, however. They climbed up two of our trees expertly. One guy, handing from one tree, used the broken branch to pull himself over to the tree that would not have held his weight, then climbed that to get the branches down from that. They kept getting a little suck, so we watched him navigate the smaller tree amazingly. Then he swung back to the original tree. I told them they didn't have to do anything past the tree line, but they made the tree fall that was past the tree line look much nicer. They were amazing.

so shout out to the crew at Carpenter Costin!

Taiko conference is, as always, a reminder of just how much my skills are lacking. There's nothing like being in a workshop and having some 10 year old in front of you pick up the rhythms instantly and play them with grace and panache and find yourself still not being able to play them by the end. But this conference to me was a good reminder of what I do have that does hold up to the rest of the community, and that's passion. I have enough skill to share that passion with other people and I think that's the most important thing. I want to share taiko. This is what makes me happy and I'm sure it makes the world a better place. So as I go forward, I know that I will never be a taiko star, but that taiko played and taught from the heart is as strong and as important as stuff fit for Carnegie hall. If I can give people happiness, power, spirit, community, connection and just make them see the world a little differently, then I am serving the taiko community.

It also made me come to realize that there are so many groups out there who are even more sheltered than us at ONE, and that maybe every excuse I've ever given needs to be turned around, so instead of saying, "oh, syncopation is hard for me" I should say, "how can I get better at syncopation?"

It also showed me that we need more foot work. You can windmill your arms until the cows come home, but a simple shuffle back and forth can change the whole staging of the group and the visual and add so much movement, especially as a group. So many groups had really nice footwork which added so much.

As always, I'm amazed at such big hearts the taiko community has. Especially the people who are the stars and the masters and all they want to do is share taiko too.

I'm a horrible lawn owner.

First, there was some weird miss communication and we didn't reprogram the sprinkler system soon enough, so the lawn went a long time with a lot of water and lots of weeds grew. I tried to mow but it was too mushy plus my mower was broken, shipped with a cracked wheel.

Then I got sick.

I mowed about 1/3 of the lawn a few days ago, once I was better, but since I didn't charge my mower before starting, it ran out of juice. The weeds have already grown mostly back.

Now we're in a heat wave and I'm still not fully recovered from being sick. Mowing in the heat is supposed to be bad for the grass anyway. So I hope to get a full mow tomorrow, but I'm likely driving my neighbors batty. She's already laughed at me mowing twice now.

I tried to phone an electrician to get a free estimate. The number forwarded to "servicemagic." I was stupid enough to hand over my phone, address and email. They said the place I was trying to contact was no longer with them. I said, "oh, ok, I'd like to do some more research then." They said, "too late, we've already given your information to three other local places." My call waiting went off while I was still talking with service magic. We got two voice messages and one live call, despite asking for "email contact only."

After doing some research it seems that servicemagic is a "not-quite-a-scam-but-close" that targets contractors. Each one of those people got CHARGED to get given my info even though I wasn't ready for them to have it. Servicemagic seems to have a practice of placing search entries for local places with a number that phones them. I can't find a non-service magic phone for the place that I was trying to contact. I feel very sorry for the poor contractors, but given the business model, I can't trust the reviews on the site and really don't want to deal with service magic at all.

So if you phone a contractor and get forwarded to service magic, HANG UP!

I don't normally plug my shows, but this one is 1) going to be T-accessible and in Harvard Square 2) going to feature all sorts of local artists doing their thing, including two new taiko groups playing together with my group on the same stage for the first time. This will actually be my first time getting to see them perform, which is very exciting.

Plus it's all to raise money to help Japanese Disaster Relief Fund and the Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support.

http://sites.google.com/site/artistsforjapanboston2011/

G is getting his own car, now that he's car dependent. We went to the dealer today knowing we were going to go play the car game. It's a lot easier game to play when you aren't under any time pressure.

Highlights include:

Us making him wait for us to talk outside.
G planning ahead of time to get an ice cream sandwich on the first "I'll go talk to my boss." (they have free ice cream in their waiting room.)
When he said, "it's just $200" me saying, "well that argument goes both ways."
Me giggling. Giggling a lot, as he played out the script (I'm not sure what he thought of all that.) I really couldn't help it when he did the melodramatic, "Really, you're going to walk out for $100, what if I put $50 of MY OWN MONEY down?" (G and I had already discussed if they'd come down another $50.)

It was actually kind of fun, because we didn't NEED a car right that day. Because cars are fungible. Because we didn't have any appointments and because we expected the game.

I feel little bad about all the giggling I did.

Once again I think we got an ok price. If we were experts at the game, I'm sure we could have gotten lower, but I'm not sure I ever want to be good at the game.

Now to wait for their swap, then we get to see the actual car we'll be buying. We're getting a subaru impreza.

I do a lot of gigs these days (which is wonderful) but I thought I'd let people know that I'll be playing at the arboretum during lilac sunday on Mother's day, which is a very lovely day at the arboretum. It's only day they allow picnics. In the past I've seen many of our friends performing morris dancing there as well. Plus since we'll be outside, we'll not be as loud as we can be inside.

We'll be playing at noon. I have no clue where we'll be, though.

I would also love for someone to operate my DSLR since the lighting and background should be lovely for pictures.

What is your favorite method/device for keeping hard floors grit free?

What about for washing them?

Be detailed. "mop" is a large category.

For the purpose of this poll, I'm assuming your neighbors were strangers when you moved in. If you have multiple neighbors, take an average.

Poll #1726541 Neighbors
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

What kind of relationship do you have with your neighbors?

This morning the house shook. Twice. I though something large had fallen somewhere in the house. After some searching inside, I searched outside and my neighbor was on the porch, she said about to phone me. Apparently it was the quarry blasting. She said the first time she heard it, she panicked and didn't want us to do the same. I was just afraid the house was doing something bad. All in all it wasn't that horrible a noise or feeling once you know what it is and apparently it doesn't happen very often, since this is the first time we've felt/heard it.

New houses always have surprises. Luckily as surprises go, that wasn't so bad.

DO NOT USE BUILDING 19 rug underpading it will react with some finishes and destroy your finish as I found out the hard way. Now to at least make them take it as a return.

EDIT: I emailed them a complaint, they sent the following:

I have made several phone calls to trusted people in the padding industry. I know that you are not supposed to put anything down on newly polyurethaned floors for at least 6 months to let them cure. Unfortunately, there is nothing written on the pads, and nothing written in any of the stores that sell these pads (not just Building #19, but Home Goods, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, etc) about that fact. All of the padding people say that the person who polyurethaned the floors should have told you. Even if you put a rug down, the color will change because of the difference between light and dark (under the rug). Maybe some policy should change in the padding industry. I'll see what I can stir up.
Of course, you can return the pads. If you have any problem, have the store call me.

I hope this house is "the one" because the costs are adding up. Moving is almost 3x-4x what I was expecting.

( A very long two days, but long story short, we've bought a house in North Reading. )

The first open house was January 29th. 20 days from first seeing the house to closing.

And now the real work begins.

Brand new house, close to a pond with swimming, boating and ice skating, just out of the 100 year FEMA flood zone, with in walking distance of bank, groceries and restaurants, not much traffic noise, a shared drive plowed by the neighbor, the right size, asking with in our budget, huge attic, his/hers walk-in in closets, 2nd floor laundry, a front hall closet AND a mudroom from the garage, 4 steps from the garage to the kitchen, eat in kitchen, forced air, gas, AC.

The Mayor is the neighbor. Not sure if this is a plus or a minus.

Septic, which is a bit of a minus.

And the biggest minus, it's in North Reading, 31 minute commute for G.

The pond might also cause noise issues with peepers or smell issues if the swamp is too swampy. No way we can really tell that, other than I guess the Mayor wouldn't live there if it smelled bad. Also might be mosquito issue, but there's fishing in the pond, so that likely keeps their numbers down.

I'm taking G to see it tomorrow.

I've not posted as much here lately because facebook seems to mostly fill that gap in announcing news, but I figure a longer post might be a good thing.

Still looking for the dream house. Still hopeful, even if the constraints get harder. I might have to relax my traffic noise restriction a little bit to find something. We'll see what the next season brings.

Taiko is going well. The next year promises to be interesting as Odaiko New England is undergoing some changes and the Boston area is looking at two new taiko groups forming. Taiko also continues to make me do woodworking and web maintenance.

I'm hoping to start up my koto lessons again soon. I still have so far to go on that.

I'm blessed to have a wonderful husband. Kitties are good too.

Still no job and no plans for one.

Still play World of Warcraft. Though I haven't had as much time for this as I used to. The cataclysm changes to old world are kind of awesome and I look forward to doing all the revamped zones again. I didn't like the level 80-85 section as much, but it wasn't bad. Also Stormwind is really pretty from the sky. I'm also happy that I'm continuing to raid with my completely awesome Wrath raid group.

I've been pining for a better DSRL after some nice taiko photos I took. I've also been dabbling in canon hacking to get an intervaolmeter for taking pictures of myself playing taiko.

Well that's all the update I can think of right now.

I just wanted to give a huge negative review of "posterprintfactory.com" Their communication was abysmal, their print quality was subpar and their 100% gaurentee is a joke. Not only did I have to pay shipping to return it and not get refunded the shipping they paid me, but this unspecified "fee" showed up on my refund. So I was out about $15 after my return.

Just a reminder that the Odaiko New England Winter Extravaganza is this weekend. Why is this interesting, you might ask. Well everyone taking classes has the opportunity to perform, which means a lot of the people you know will be up there on the stage. From what I've heard of the rec class's song, a Juni original composition, it's going to be really cool, especially seeing beginners play something to complicated and funky. The styles class will be performing senryu, which was new to everyone in the class and is a ton of fun to play. But the big reason the extravaganza is interesting is...

Mark H is leaving for Washington DC and this is his big send off. As well as being the artistic director, he's the reason that I DO taiko. He's been a very patient, fun and amazing teacher. Emotions will be running high as the reality of him leaving really sinks in.

There will also be a song where I play 3-4 different instruments (depending on how you count.)

It should be a very interesting show.

Went on an ice skating adventure today. I haven't been skating in about a decade. Started by me fishing out my old skates and finding out that the glue had aged out and all the velcro on the closures feel off. So then I discovered a pair of skates that I didn't even remember buying, but they stabled the top of my foot. So I fished out a third pair, and they still fit. We took the stabby pair to Goodwill on the way to the T.

Then we walked to this mysterious new rink near Kendall. jadia didn't actually know where it was and had to use her phone to find it. we finially did, walking past some art that we couldn't tell if it was building rubble or art (we later passed some actual building rubble that I thought was better art,) only to discover that not only was it closed, it seem to not quite have a thick enough layer of ice over it's cooling pipes.



So we walked back to the T and then went to Common to skate on the frog pond. They were at capacity, so we had a long, cold wait in the line, but we, and the people ahead of us, were all in good spirits. We eventually got in and I was very shaky at first, but it all came back. I even did a cross over, even if it wasn't a very effective one. (My skates were a little dull.) My feet quickly cramped, as they always do. I also went down twice, which I completely blame on other people, the quality of the ice and the toe picks. The falls didn't hurt at all, but my back was reminding me I was getting older. We couldn't skate that long before the pain won.

The wait in the line and us needing to change locals made me too late to attend my other evening plans, but it was a lot of fun to skate again after so long.

I'm considering going to an open house of a house I've already seen twice. The house basically meets our check list but it doesn't thrill me and the price is still kind of high. There is also a mild concern because the house is perched on the edge of a pond. The back of the house is only about 6ft from the retaining wall which is clearly no longer plumb. There are also multiple foundation cracks. Now, since I'm not an expert I have no clue how much or little to worry about these things, so the question I'm asking anyone reading is:

What things should I look for to try to become more or less worried with this problem?

One cool thing is that I first saw the house about 5 months ago, so if this is a fast moving thing, I'll be able to tell, but I'm betting it's not. The big question is this 13 years of ground movement or 5?

So if anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it, or if anyone is bored enough to come along and take a look and be a sounding board... unlikely, I know.

It's rumored that tomorrow in World of Warcraft the "shattering" will happen. Basically major areas of the world are going to change. Some will be destroyed, some will be given new life. Until tonight, that idea didn't really bother me. The game keeping new and interesting is the point, right? You get bored if it just stays the same. But tonight I realized that I've spent about 6 years in this world, and I'm realizing that I have nostalgia. That I'm mourning the towns and the people and the land marks that only exist in fiction. Now, I'm not unfamiliar with this feeling, since people can get awfully attached to their TV shows, books and other fandoms, but... I don't know, it almost hurts more than a main character dying off. It's like my childhood teddy bear set ablaze. (I never actually had a childhood teddy bear, but that sort of feeling.)

So now I'm going and visiting those places that I know will be destroy. Saying goodbye to artificial landscapes inside the computers. Kind of like a fair well episode of a TV show where one of the character tritely turns off the lights on the most common of the TV sets.

I think that I'm realizing that 6 years is just a long time to be living in a virtual world. It's amazing just how much fiction is part of being human and how much we can be immersed.

We had a gig in a lovely church. It had this giant cross hanging from the ceiling over the stage.

( It was a really nice space. )
We spent some time deciding if I would hit the cross while playing one of the pieces and eventually decided the best place for the drum would put the cross hanging directly over my head. People joked about the vibration of the drums making the cross fall, to which I commented that my gig nightmare from last night palled with what people were worried about actually happening.

Then when playing the piece, I realized that my hands very sweaty. There's a part in the song where we swing our hands up very quickly and I was worried with the sweatiness the stick would fly out of my hand and hit the cross, so I worked my hands up the sticks to a dry spot and played with very short sticks for that section.

I was also experimenting with the time-interval camera I had purchased. I had decided to get a inexpensive, used compact camera instead of getting an inverolometer for my DLSR so that I could leave the camera set up and taking pictures without worrying about it. Well good thing I decided that because during AP someone tripped over the tripod and the camera went boom to the floor. Someone set it back up, and it happily took pictures of the ceiling, but sadly when I went to view the images it started to report an lens error. The lens was visibly misaligned. I think a well placed twack make make it all better, but I didn't quite have the courage to do that. I might try it later if all other avenues don't pan out.

Before the gig, I got sliced by a metal brace retrofitted into one of our stands. Interestingly enough it was razor sharp, such that it really didn't hurt at all. It bled, a lot, but I played the whole gig without noticing that I'd done anything to my finger. It will also likely heal very quickly.

All in all it was a very good gig. We were very together, very comfortable and dealt with grace what few errors we did have. The audience was amazing. I think I will remember the cheer from Kashmir for a while. With my back to the audience, I couldn't see them, just hear it go from that moment of silence to the exuberant applause.

I was asked to give a reminder about my porter exchange taiko gig tonight. I figured I could also use this post to tell people about the other cool things happening there today.

1:00 & 3:00 pm - Live Koto and Shamisen music complimented with a dancing performance by Sumie Kaneko and Michiko Kurata
2:00 pm - Aikido show by Yasu Itoh
4:00 pm - Origami demonstration by Brian Chan
5:00 pm - Wadaiko - live Japanese Drum ensemble performance by Odaiko New England

With on-going festival events throughout the day, including:
- Water Balloon Fishing (Yo-yo Tsuri)
- Juggling (Otedama)
- Brush and Ink Calligraphy (Shuuji)
- Tea Tasting
- Fortune Telling
- Raffle Ticket event

I would be that wadaiko stuff at 5pm. Were playing 3 songs and audience participation. We are very loud, so if you are at least bit sound sensitive, I'd suggest bringing hearing protection.

I haven't been promoting most of my taiko shows, but this one is so close, I figured people might want to wander over. It will be a short set, but I'll be drumming in the porter exchange in front of tokai (I think) November 13th.

Also, our winter recitial will be December 11th at the dojo and will include all the students, many of which you all know.

I'm kind of behind the times when it comes to cell phones. I'm hoping to get a nice shiny new one in the near future, but the features I want seem to greatly limit my choices. I know that andriod is getting a lot of nice apps, but the service I use has no data. Do all andriod apps require data? or are there some cool tools that work off line? IE, is someone who has no data plan just not care about the andriod OS?

Comparing two laptops with 12.1 screens, but one is wide screen which, while nice for movies, isn't as nice for webviewing. Be warned, aspect ratio matters, not just size.