I've been meaning to research Hackintosh for a while now, but the lack of wireless Internet access at Festival has been preventing me from doing much. I'm currently sitting in a cafe, using the free wireless of the business across the street. While it's nice in here, I can't sit long - I have to be back in half an hour. Definitely missing my freedom right about now.
I've run into technical difficulties at Festival, too - one of my external hard drives conked out. Operating on just a 40 gB hard drive is HARD. I deleted my Morcheeba and Beirut albums and burned some files onto CD-R. A temporary solution.
Dropped Cornelius the other day. Now there's a crack down its (his?) side. Poor thing! Still works fine, though.
Well I'm going squeeze some research into my remaining minutes. If I open a bunch of related tabs now, I can read them later.
Other than that, I'm enjoying my time at Festival. Watching cute kiddies dance... who wouldn't smile! Of course, there are the disturbing parts. See my previous post.
Showing posts with label festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label festival. Show all posts
Monday, May 19, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Five down...
... and eight to go. That's right, it's been five days since Manitoba Dance Festival started, and I've had no life since then.
It's been pretty fun so far. The adjudicators are all awesome, very different people, and I'm glad that I get the chance to hang out with them. And I've found a renewed love for ballet and a fresh interest in modern. In short, I'm antsy to get in the studio and choreograph, teach, etc... And that's basically what's going to happen this summer.
There are a few things that have really disturbed me so far in Festival, though. First off, on day one or two I witnessed a girl struggle to smile on stage. It was adjudication time, when dancers no longer have to perform and merely stand politely on stage while their dances are commented on. This particular girl continued to perform in this casual setting, and it freaked me out. She would smile the biggest, falsest smile in the world and stare relentlessly at the adjudicator in a sort of contrived admiration. Every few seconds, she would stop smiling to lick her lips, readjust her facial expression, and start again. It was like clockwork, and it looked EXHAUSTING and FAKE and altogether very very wrong.
Another bizarre thing I saw was a girl who could not control her head on stage. She would dance and her head would just flop around on her shoulders, but it seemed that she thought that this looked good, and she would milk it by doing it with a smile. Where she got this idea from, I don't want to know. But it was frustrating to see a very clean group look messy because one member decided to emulate a bobble-head doll.
There were also the usual "amateur" mistakes that stuck out to me. One girl stopped dancing a few times to fix a costume piece on her hand, and struggled to get back on track. The thing is, this girl was 10 or 11 years old, and not in a novice category! Did their teacher never say anything about costumes? Then there were the dancers who chewed gum on stage. These people were noobs, for sure.
I need to get some sleep now - early morning tomorrow. Hooray.
It's been pretty fun so far. The adjudicators are all awesome, very different people, and I'm glad that I get the chance to hang out with them. And I've found a renewed love for ballet and a fresh interest in modern. In short, I'm antsy to get in the studio and choreograph, teach, etc... And that's basically what's going to happen this summer.
There are a few things that have really disturbed me so far in Festival, though. First off, on day one or two I witnessed a girl struggle to smile on stage. It was adjudication time, when dancers no longer have to perform and merely stand politely on stage while their dances are commented on. This particular girl continued to perform in this casual setting, and it freaked me out. She would smile the biggest, falsest smile in the world and stare relentlessly at the adjudicator in a sort of contrived admiration. Every few seconds, she would stop smiling to lick her lips, readjust her facial expression, and start again. It was like clockwork, and it looked EXHAUSTING and FAKE and altogether very very wrong.
Another bizarre thing I saw was a girl who could not control her head on stage. She would dance and her head would just flop around on her shoulders, but it seemed that she thought that this looked good, and she would milk it by doing it with a smile. Where she got this idea from, I don't want to know. But it was frustrating to see a very clean group look messy because one member decided to emulate a bobble-head doll.
There were also the usual "amateur" mistakes that stuck out to me. One girl stopped dancing a few times to fix a costume piece on her hand, and struggled to get back on track. The thing is, this girl was 10 or 11 years old, and not in a novice category! Did their teacher never say anything about costumes? Then there were the dancers who chewed gum on stage. These people were noobs, for sure.
I need to get some sleep now - early morning tomorrow. Hooray.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Dotty
I made a trip to Computer Avenue yesterday. Excellent service there - I recommend it to anyone. The following combination would cost about $1000, including installation.
What I'd be paying for:
- Asus P5E-VM DO motherboard
- Seagate 500GB (7200/32MB) SATA hard drive
- basic DVD reader/writer
- USB2 cardreader
- Antec Sonata 3 ATX Tower 500W
- Logitech keyboard and mouse
- Logitech 5.1 speakers
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 processor
- OCZ 2x2GB PC2-6400 Platinum RAM
- hardware assembly
I plan to remove the keyboard and mouse ($24), find a cheaper hard drive (I like this one) and change the tower case (I have to look into that more). Other than that, the most important specs (mobo, processor, ram) seem okay. I have to check the OSx86 forums to make sure everything will work out.
After that, all that's left is a monitor (for about $200-250) and software (still determining the best way to do this part).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While I'm dealing with this, I also have to deal with mother's day (which is fast approaching), finalizing the music for Manitoba Dance Festival (which is also fast approaching), a couple of new video projects that have fallen into my lap, and (strangely) an exchange that may actually be a scam.
It's not too bad, though. I've been trying to eke the last drops of freedom before I start my two-week 14-hours-per-day job. I've gone through at least three seasons of Penn and Teller's Bullshit! If that's not a worthwhile way to spend my time, I don't know what is.
What I'd be paying for:
- Asus P5E-VM DO motherboard
- Seagate 500GB (7200/32MB) SATA hard drive
- basic DVD reader/writer
- USB2 cardreader
- Antec Sonata 3 ATX Tower 500W
- Logitech keyboard and mouse
- Logitech 5.1 speakers
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 processor
- OCZ 2x2GB PC2-6400 Platinum RAM
- hardware assembly
I plan to remove the keyboard and mouse ($24), find a cheaper hard drive (I like this one) and change the tower case (I have to look into that more). Other than that, the most important specs (mobo, processor, ram) seem okay. I have to check the OSx86 forums to make sure everything will work out.
After that, all that's left is a monitor (for about $200-250) and software (still determining the best way to do this part).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While I'm dealing with this, I also have to deal with mother's day (which is fast approaching), finalizing the music for Manitoba Dance Festival (which is also fast approaching), a couple of new video projects that have fallen into my lap, and (strangely) an exchange that may actually be a scam.
It's not too bad, though. I've been trying to eke the last drops of freedom before I start my two-week 14-hours-per-day job. I've gone through at least three seasons of Penn and Teller's Bullshit! If that's not a worthwhile way to spend my time, I don't know what is.
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