i n • p u r s u i t

You know what really helped me finish my papers and study for exams? SelfControl . Not my own, though, because I get too distracted.  There's a downloadable application called SelfControl . You put a list of sites on the blacklist (twitter, facebook, youtube, etc) and then set the timer. I set the time for an hour so I would study and write my paper, then I would get a study break to check my email and for a few minutes. After my little break, I would set the timer again.  I promise this isn't a paid advertisement! Ha-ha. SelfControl was just really helpful for me and I wanted to recommend it to any of your procrastinators out there. It's FREE but, um, it's for OS X. Sorry, PC.

Free snacks, candy and drinks for students? Epic Computer lab closed during exam week? Epic FAIL

Notice a trend?  Yoga pants , dance tee, and  keds . The end. My dance uniform used to be a pink top and black skirt that I wore almost every week. Now I've got a new dance uniform. I'm a rut kind of person and I'm comfortable that way.  However, I do have a new pursuit. I'd like to figure out how to dance in jeans and survive. Lots of gals do it an look so cute, but I can't stand dancing in my jeans! I sweat glisten and the jeans get very uncomfortable. I'm thinking I just need to try different jeans. It just looks so cute! Any tips from lindy hoppers that may come across this blog post? p.s. each screen shot is linked to the corresponding video.

This past weekend, I went to a swing workshop here in town with some great instructors and fun lindy hoppers. Here's a video from the Friday night dance of my friend Nathan and I dancing partner charleston. So much fun!

This morning, was listening to a very christian radio station which my friend says she will listen to and hear anything from kids singing to Dr. Bob preaching hellfire and brimstone. There was no hellfire and brimstone preaching on my way to school, there was some classical and some a cappella music. But I remembered what my friend had said and I wondered for perhaps the first time in my life what on Earth brimstone was--other than a threat to heathens. So, I asked my smart roommate . Brimstone has a very short entry with only one sentence followed by many links to other pages or sources. As it turns out, brimstone is just another word for  sulfur . The page for fire and brimstone , however, is considerably longer. Smart roommate? Yeah. My film teacher will reference wikipedia every now and again. He says that it's a source of knowledge--just not one you can cite. Wikipedia is like your smart roommate. When you want to know something, you just lean over and say, "Hey, smart...

If any of you are on Facebook, you need to check out a video I just watched about the physics of lindy hop . It's a really cool video with two amazing dancers: Nick Williams & Carla Heiney. In this video they do some really smooth dances moves and cool aerials which are then played back in slow motion to and analyzed. This was on the Discovery Channel show "Time Warp." I tried to find it on YouTube so that I could embed it here, but no such luck.  Oooh, also found a video on the "Time Warp" website: the Lindy Spin in slow motion . Will I be thinking about any of this next time I go dancing? Umm...probably not, but it's very interesting to learn. :)

Another photo from my visit to see my brother last month. This one is from the dock at Childsbury Towne Heritage Preserve on the Cooper River where we took some great pictures. Unfortunately, I lost most of these with the demise of my old computer. The only ones I have left are those that I uploaded to Facebook which means they all have a lowered quality. But oh well, still nice enough for a blog post! :)

About three years ago today, I was sitting on the couch with this ridiculously good looking guy. My mind was absolutely reeling with my self-consciousness. Am I sitting too close? Does he know that our knees are touching? Did I just say something stupid? Does he care that our knees are touching? Should I pretend like I understand the baseball stuff that he's talking about? Does he like that our knees are touching as much as I like it? Three years later (fourteen months of which were spent as "just friends") and, thankfully, I no longer overanalyze my every move. And while Mike and I have both changed over the years, we are still very much the same. [May 2006 and January 2009] p.s. the "kindred spirits" quote that is the title is from a poem I wrote.

Alex is turning six tomorrow and I cannot believe he was only sixteen months when I started taking care of him! Well, in preparation for tomorrow (which includes an abundance of birthday parties) Lauren and I have been shopping, sorting, wrapping, and, oh yeah, we remembered to eat lunch sometime in there! She has been such a great helper that it makes up for her taking fourty-five minutes and fifteen yes-i'm-certain-this-is-what-i-want-oh-wait-look-at-that 's to pick out a present for her friend. After lunch, Lauren, Davis and I put together the goody bags for Alex's birthday party. Lauren and I each took some bags, I would dump the candy out on the floor, determine how much of each piece went in the bag, and the we'd get to it. Davis was a great helper for almost the whole time. It's fun and easy when you're starting out with granola bites and fun-sized M&Ms. But the smaller and smaller the candy got, the more candy there was out there (18 packs of M...

When people find out that I am an avid swing dancer, many ask if I watch Dancing With The Stars . Sure, I'll tune in from time to time--I'd rather be out dancing than watching it on the television, of course! This week on Dancing With The Stars, the two dances were the Argentinean tango and the lindy hop. Other than it being a very sexy dance, I don't know a dang thing about the tango. I do, however, know a thing or two about lindy hop! I did not catch this week's episode, but after finding out that some couples did the lindy hop, I went online and looked them up (and you can see them all here ) and--Wow! What great aerials and fun energy in those dances! High kicks, cute outfits--I love all of that. But...um...I'm so confused! Where was the, you know, lindy hop ? Why is it with ballroom dances, the judges are very nitpicky about footwork but with lindy (not a ballroom dance) the judges apparently turn a blind eye to the very absence of any lindy footwork? Lindy ho...