What makes me excited?

In a massive change of heart I have decided to take a laptop travelling with me!

It all started off with Claire mentioning that she had just got a new laptop to go travelling with...

- "I'm not going to take one" I breezily typed "far too bulky"

-"Not this one" she replied "its tiny, its called an eee, look it up"

Well, apart from the name instantly reminding me of my childhood friend, who I'm afraid will never be able to use one of these computers without bursting out laughing (eeeeeeeeee), I was kinda intrigued. So I looked it up!

Ever since then I have been in a kind of frenzy of excitement that only a guy that has discovered a new gadget can achieve. I started off thinking "Oh, I'll just get the cheapest one...". This is the Eee 700. And at £220 it is hard to say no to. But once I'd decided I couldn't say no to that... well... I may as well get the Eee900, with a whole 1024x600 (instead of the 700s 800x480) allowing most pages to be viewed without horizontal scrolling...

Then imagine my excitement.... A whole new Eee machine coming out in 8 days time! Woooo! This is the Eee901. All of the advantages of the 900, but with twice an much battery life, and some extra features...

So I think I'm going to get one of those. At £320 it is about £100 more then I was originally envisaging, and I am going to have to buy a 2.5 inch external hard drive to store all of my files, and maybe a new mp3 player (the eee runs linux, so iTunes is a no-no)... Of course there are a slew of similar micro-laptops coming out as well, but I've read the reviews, and I think I'll stick with this for now...

Of course a lot can change in 8 days...

How to fall in love...

Something strange has been happening recently. In fact I suspect it has always been happening, but I have just never spotted it before...

In fact I think this could explain a lot of very strange things in life,. Phenomenon that I have been puzzled by in the past, all of a sudden seem to make sense...

So, what am I talking about I hear you ask? Well, it is to do with falling in love with someone, and why we always seem to fall for the wrong people. It especially applies to women, though i suspect that it applies to guys as well, just I am more likely to observe it in women. Bearing this in mind, the tale I will tell is from the female perspective...

It goes like this. Girl meets guy. He clearly isn't right for her. She knows this right from the start. The reason for this unsuitability can be one of many reasons. Maybe the guy is taken. Maybe he is gay. Maybe is the wrong culture, colour...... it could be almost anything. The important point at this stage is that it renders the guy utterly incompatible for a long term relationship.

The logical part of the womans mind knows this to be true, so it allows the woman to flirt with the guy. She does this knowing full well that she won't fall for him, because he is totally incompatible. She thinks it is just some harmless flirting and fun. However, the human is a complex beast. And the emotional side seems to operate on a completely different level from the logical side, often without the logical side knowing or suspecting what is going on...

So what happens is that the logical part of the brain knows that she isn't interested. However the emotional side doesn't listen. It responds to the flirting as it has been programmed to through millions of years of evolution; and proceeds to fall in love...

Love may be a strong word, lets say that the emotional side forms an attachment. The logical side often doesn't realise this, and certainly won't admit it, at least that is until there is the chance that the guy could be taken away...

And so heartbreak is born.

I think that this explains why women always (ok, not always) fall for the asshole, why it is easier to fall for someone on the other side of the world, then someone down the road. And why nice guys have such a hard time. After all, if a guy is "logically" ideal for a relationship, then all of a sudden there is tension (on both sides) and the naturalness of the interaction is suddenly ruined. Wheras if there is no expectation, everyone can relax, and everything "just happens" (how many times have I heard that?).

Black and white "Cash for Kids" Charity Salsa event

I went to a charity salsa event in Leeds the other day (on Tuesday the 17th of June 2008). Seeing that there was a theme to the event I of course dressed for the part. As shown in the picture on the right. ;^)

There was loads of advertising blurb about the event, so to save me repeating all of that I'm just going to copy and paste it...

"Black and White Salsa Charity Night

We would like to invite you, and as many guests as you wish to bring, to a charity salsa event at Quid Pro Quo, Greek Street, in the heart of Leeds city centre.

The night will begin with a fun salsa class designed for absolute beginners starting at 7.30pm. Followed by an intermediate class at 8.30pm and then music and dancing for everyone until late.

Each class is only £5.00 and all proceeds from the salsa classes will be donated to Cash for Kids.

The theme for the night is ‘black and white,’ so have fun and get dressed up!"


The night went very well. And you'll be glad to hear that I got my mojo back, salsawise! I think just having a few days off, between friday night and tuesday night, helped me to integrate some of the things i have learned. I seemed to pick up moves quickly, do them (more or less) correctly, and most imporantly when it came to the free dancing, I was having lots of fun again! Ok, so maybe a lot of the moves i was doing weren't strictly speaking salsa, or any good, but I was having fun, I was reacting to the music, and my partners were having fun. And I think that is the most important thing!

I might restrict myself to 2 salsa events a week from now on... which is going to be tricky I think. But it will be worth it to keep me motivated. (plus it will allow me to do other things, that don't involve dancing!!!)

My after video.... honest ;^)

Salsa, after!

This is the real after salsa video. Not quite as exciting, but on the plus side, I'm in it!

The one above was Lee and Shelly. London, 2007 champions & voted UK’s top dance act. There is no way I can do the splits like that!

Overdoing the salsa...

I just got back from The Engine Shed. There I saw some amazing dancers, and did a bit of dancing of my own...

But I think I might have overdone it...

I heard tales of people plateauing in their salsa experience. They say that you get to a level, and then you can't learn any more. I think I was reaching that level anyway, but the last week of dancing really pushed me over the edge.

There was the Salsamatazz Masquerade Ball on Saturday, followed by Viva Cuba. About 7 hours of salsa (and a bit of tango and some bachata)...

Then the usual 2 hours of Bachata, and 1 of La Rueda on Sunday...

2 hours of salsa, and one more of free dancing on Tuesday...

An hour and a half in Guiseley on Wednesday...

The usual 2 hours of salsa (plus some free dancing) on Thursday.

Then this salsa night at the Engine Shed tonight. About 5 hours...

Which by my calculations equals about 21 hours of salsa (or similar dances) in the last 7 days....


That is enough for anyone! I am giving up for at least a week I think... or I would, but I have the Black and White Charity salsa event on Tuesday, which i definitely have to go to...
And a salsa Ball next Saturday, which I will also have to go to....

But apart from that I'm putting it on the back burner.... We'll see how I feel after that!

Friendship...

You're going to have to wait for the after video, at least until I can figure out a way to shrink down a video to less then 100 Mb.

In the meantime I read an article in New Scientist last night that touched my heart! It goes a little something like this...

"Making It Less Of An Uphill Struggle

Having a friend at your side can turn a mountain into a molehill.

Simone Schnall at the University of Plumoth, UK, and her colleagues asked students to estimate the steepness of a hill by tilting a board to match its slope.

Students with a friend nearby assessed the hill at 10 to 15 per cent less steep compared with those who were alone during the test. The longer the friends had known each other and the warmer their relationship, the less steep the hill appeared.


Schnails team also found thatjust thinking about a close friend or family member - as opposed to a neutral person, or someone you dislike - made the hill appear up to 20 per cent gentler (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, DOI:10.1016/j.esp.2008.04.011)."(New Scientist 14th June 2008, pg 15)

This seemed like a simple yet elegant proof that it is good to have friends, they make life seem that little bit easier! So everyone, take care of your friends, be there if they need you, and one day they will be there for you, ready to make your life that little bit easier...

:^)