oscilloscope eyes

Today is the last day that I will be in Seattle. I have had a really great time.

On Monday, I spent all of the day with Adam. We went downtown to the Seattle Public Library to attend Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Adults. The librarian emceeing the event, David Wright, was very good at making the story come alive.

We were treated to the story “The Moment of Decision” by Stanley Ellin. It was a terrific story indeed. If I lived in Seattle, I would definitely come again. It looks like the story in two weeks has already been chosen: “After You’ve Gone” by John Peyton Cooke. Since I won’t be in Seattle, maybe I’ll try to find it. I think David ought to do a regular podcast.

After the trip to the library, we wandered to the International District. I didn’t really spend all that much time there when I was going to school at U-Dub, but I do have fond memories of the restaurants there. Okay, that’s exactly a glowing review.

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So today was my third day in Seattle and I ended up spending most of my time in Ballard. In the morning, I went to the restaurant known as “The Dish” with my friends Michel and Magda. It is known for its breakfast and brunch options. They were basically the same as when I last met them, but they did have some news to share. Guess they will have a new member in their family in December.

I spent the better part of the morning hanging out with them at Golden Gardens Park in Ballard. It was hot, it was sandy, and there was plenty of sun. And there were plenty of sunbathers out on the beach too. I just wish I could be spending that time with my honey.

After the beach, we all went to Costco. Yes, Costco! Apparently, Michel and Magda don’t go there as often as they used to, but you know a visit with Michel and Magda is not complete without a trip to Costco.

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Today, Adam and I went to Lake 22 at the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Normally, you have to pay $5 to get a park pass, but it was our lucky day. Today, the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest was celebrating the 15th Annual National Trails Day. So now fee.

The hike itself was 2.7 miles up an incline. Along the way, we say some waterfalls and some pretty flowers. At the end of the journey, we were greeted with a beautiful view of Lake 22. We sat down, had our cheese, lettuce, and tomato lunch and just enjoyed the summer heat. It was good to hang out with Adam in the outdoors.

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Today, I’m back in Seattle after 1.5 years.  I was last here in December 2005. June is a much nicer time to be in Seattle or maybe I’m just lucky.  The next few days, the weather is going to be lovely.

I happy to be back in the city where I went to college. Yes, UW is one of those huge public state universities, but it really has a lovely campus. Apparently though, many of the green spaces have been filled by new buildings. I’ll be there to meet an old professor of mine and I’ll check things out then.

While I’m at it, I’ll take a peek at the U-District and see how it has changed. Over the years, various restaurants and shops have come and gone.  I’m curious to see what it is like today. And of course, I’ll check out the bookstore.

I’m also happy to back to see all my friends who unlike me never left their home. While I’m here, I hope to catch with them and revisit old memories and make new ones.

206… rock rock on.

So it has been awhile since I’ve made any posting to this salsa blog. Mostly, it is because I haven’t had the chance to compress the videos I recorded. Two weeks ago, Chris introduced us to a few other latin dances, namely Cha-cha, Merengue, and the Bachata. The steps for the Merengue are pretty straightforward. Essentially, you shift your weight back and forth on each beat. On 1, you’re on one foot and on 2, you’re on the other foot. You might throw your hip or waist into it to make it look good and of course, keep your head and hands up. Posture means everything. Chris taught us a pretty nifty Merengue combination. Instead of describing what goes on, I’ve just included the video here:

The cha-cha step is similar to a salsa step. Except a) you break on 2 and b) on the 3 and 4 counts, you do a little stutter step (”cha-cha-cha”). Here’s a demonstration of the basic step and a basic step with a right turn.



Here’s a little short combination that you can do with the cha-cha.

So, last week, I attended three useful workshops teaching TAs how to be better teachers. Some interesting scenarios were presented in the handout. I’d like to learn how to be a better teacher, so these workshops really help. While I’m not sure that I want to become a professor, I think learning teaching strategies relates well to learning how to communicate effectively.

Day One: Managing the TA Duty
I was able to extract the following useful points from the workshop:

1. Set boundaries with your students and let them know that there is a limit early on in the semester. “Students are like gas, they will fill up as much time as you give them.”
2. When you have an easy week, do more research then. Don’t slack off.
3. Be buddies with your fellow TAs.
4. Start off with a strong tutorial to hook them at the beginning. Be fully prepared with a lesson plan. Be punctual and have a script. Students hate lack of structure. A rule of thumb is take 2.5 hours to 3 hours to prepare for your tutorial.
5. Help the students who have put in the effort to understand the material the most. Students who are not prepared do not deserve your time.
6. Read the book! (Oh man, I don’t like the sound of this one… the Principles of Computer Systems by Saltzer and Kaashoek looks seriously intimidating.)
7. Be fair to all your students, do not give preference. This will look bad on you.
8. Keep track of participation and attendance. Tell them that participation matters.

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I recently finished reading Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis. The book is essentially a commentary on the state of baseball and the closed nature of the people who are in the game.

I found it fascinating that baseball scouts and general managers do not necessarily evaluate talent based on past performance but rather on future potential. And future potential is judged by observing how a player looks in a uniform. Hmm… sounds like a beauty pageant to me and not a competitive sport.

Another funny thing about baseball is that the powers-that-be seem to care far too much about statistics that don’t really matter. One glaring example in baseball is fielding statistics. Errors in baseball are declared when an umpire makes a subjective decision about whether or not some player could have made a fielding play. To avoid errors, one can simply try not to field that ball.

Baseball pundits should be concerned with statistics that directly contribute to the scoring of runs. More runs in a game will increase the likelihood that you will win a game. Simple as that. In this sense, walks and on-base percentage are far more important than batting average and home runs.

One thing that occurred to me while reading the book was that if we can find a set of statistics that accurately represents how much a player may contribute to a team’s chance of winning under different conditions. For example, if a certain left-handed pitcher is pitching, how much does Barry Bonds contribute to the team’s chance of winning? Given the right set of statistic, we can predict with a low level of uncertainty whether a team will win or not. Given such a program, one could make millions in Vegas. Also, given enough data, one could also imagine using such a tool to evaluate players. This sounds cool, but honestly, I think it might take way too much work. It is fun to think about however.

Anyway I enjoyed the book and at the same time, acquired a slight distaste for the game. Not only are games taking forever, but it seems as though luck plays a big role in deciding the outcomes of games.

Of course, we don’t pay anyway, but that title sounds so much better. So, let’s begin.

Combination #1:

1. Start with a cross-body lead.
2. Then, on the 1, 2, 3, do a half right turn, leading with the left food 1. On 2, turn facing away from the lady and then put your left arm over your head and switch hands. So now, you should be holding the lady’s right hand in your right hand. Ideally, your hand is in her palm.
3. On the 5, 6, 7, you turn the lady right while she is behind you. On 7, leave the lady’s hand on your right shoulder. Then, on the next 1, beat, catch her right hand with your right hand at waist level. Be sure to step forward on 1 with your left foot. On 2, step back with your right foot behind the lady. At the same time, raise your arm over her head and extend out behind her. Put your left arm out in front. The lady should pick it up on 3 with her left hand.
4. On the 5, 6, 7, you make the lady to 1.5 inside turns. You’ll be in a right to right connection. Try not to fling the lady out too far.
5. On the next few beats, you can then do a hair comb. Bring the ladies right arm over your head and let it slide down. Pick it up with your left arm, and you are done.

Combination #2: In this combination, a method of picking up the lady after an open shine is demonstrated. Pretend you are doing an open shine.

1. Now, instead of stepping forward with your left foot on 1. What you do is on 1, lunge forward with your right foot, keep your left foot back. Slide your right arm behind the lady onto her shoulder blades. On 2, step back with your left foot, straighten your body and then plant with your right foot on 3.
2. Now, on the 5, 6, 7, finish the normal cross body lead.
3. Pick up the lady’s right hand with your left arm. Leave the other hand unconnected. Again do a cross body lead, but this time on 3, raise your arm high and pull the lady through (on beats 5, 6, 7). She should do an outside turn to face you on beat 7.
4. Then do a right hand turn for the lady. The man also does a half right turn and throws the lady’s hand down towards his ribs… This causes the lady to do a half turn. The idea is to catch the lady’s left hand in your right, but you are facing away from each other.
5. Then on the 1 beat, throw the lady’s arm back to the other side. She’ll basically do a half turn. On 3, grab her hand or wrist and then push back again the other way. This time, the lady should do 1.5 turns on 5, 6, 7. At the same time, you make a half left turn until you face your partner.

Both of these are simple and fun combinations.

Video for combination #2 is here. It’s embarrassing because I really mess up.

Well, on Friday, I went to the Havana Club with a bunch of my friends and learned a couple of new moves. I still haven’t perfect them yet. The idea is simple. Basically, you start with a right-to-right connection (or get into one using a cross-body lead of some kind). Then, you do a right turn and then you to a comb brush over the lady and then you kind of do a cross-body lead. However, you grab onto the lady’s left hand with your left and pull her through and then make her spin. I believe you want to do an outside turn.

This can be accomplished with two hands, right over left. At the end on beats, 1 and 2, you do comb brushes over both heads and then go into a cross body lead.

On Monday, Chris, our fearless teacher, showed us some techniques to follow when spinning. For the right hand turn, you turn on the 1, 2, 3, beat. On 1, you step forward with your left foot, putting it slightly in front of the right. You want to also raise your arms to help you spin. Hold them up about chest level, arms bent at the elbow. Cock your arms back to your left to help you spin and keep your balance. Look at a spot on the wall and use that to center yourself so you don’t get dizzy. (Easier said than done.). On the 2 beat, you kind of turn half way. Try to keep looking at the spot until it is no longer physically possible. On the 3 beat, you complete the turn until you face the spot again.

The hook turn is a very nice turn to learn for the leader. In this turn, you spin to the right, but you use hook your right foot behind your left. This turn is done on the 5, 6, 7. On the 5 beat, you hook your right foot behind your left. Remember to use arms to balance yourself. Again, keep your arms at chest level. Also, use the spotting technique to avoid getting dizzy. One tricky thing that you need to do is to change the position of your feet. On 6, you unwind your legs and do a half turn. If you’re spotting correctly, you should try to look at your spot until you can’t possibly look at it.

The next task is to spin around till you face the way you started. The idea now is to transfer weight. When you started the spin, the left heel is down and the right toe is down. After you’ve done the half turn, you’ll want to put your right heel down and your left toe down. This is the concept anyway. When you actually spin, it is not clear that this is what actually happens. You don’t need to push off very hard in order to do multiple spins. Be sure to keep your posture looking good.