Are We Human or Are We Dancer?

I saw The Killers live for the first time on Saturday. They played at the Shoreline and I had such an amazing time with the usual suspects. We rocked out to every single song and danced like a crazed teenager. It was 2 hours of pure bliss!

It's been a while since I was at Shorline last but boy did they tighten up their security! I got carded 3 times in a matter of 1/2 hour. I was even wearing a drinking band.

The Killers at Shoreline

So we were trying to make our way to the lawn area when a group of drunk but funny Danes asked us to take a picture of them. In return, they also took a picture of us with them in it too!

Crazy Dane trying to bite my arm off!

Then on Sunday, Lianne was in town for a visit and of course we went to Japantown and had hours of pure fun. She introduced me to the wonderful, crazy world of Japanese Purikura!

- In Japanese pop culture, Purikura is either a photo sticker booth or the product of such a photo booth. It is jointly developed by Atlus and Sega, the first purikura were sold in July 1995.

It was so fun picking out the back grounds, posing silly and then pimping out the pictures. I think we were in there for a total of 2 hours. These photo machines are so cool! I want one! Yes, I know it's the size of my apartment but the booth is big enough to fit my bed at least :)

How close can we get?

Aren't my eyes crazy big! One of the fun things you can do is to photoshop your eyes to any color you want and make it look bigger like those Super Kawaii Japanese models.

Rubber Ducky, you're the one.

You make bath time lots of fun

Rubber Ducky, I'm awfully fond of you.

Rubber Ducky, joys of joys

When I squeeze you, you make noise

Rubber Ducky, you're my very best friend, it's true

They sell a similar headband at the Lolita store "Baby, The Stars Shine Bright" for $50!

Yes, I want it, super kyoot!

My Precious

Wow! Now that's talent!

Look at the cute pandas

We even managed to find ourselves in jungle land where elephant poop come in soft pink :)

Kawaii!

Month wrap up

Wow! August turned out to be the busiest birthday month for me. I was celebrating birthdays every weekend. I am partied out. Dehydrated and am now nursing a badly bruised leg - long story of which I don't remember :(

The month started with the dance show, then it was Vannessa birthday, followed by Erik's then my niece and finally the lovely Tanya's. Each celebration of life was so much fun. Drinks were consumed, dance moves were busted and plenty of pictures were taken as evidence :)

This weekend will be my sister Joan's birthday celebration. Thank goodness she is the only one I know of this month who is having a birthday.

August went by so fast. I feel like I really didn't get the relaxation I had hoped for but I had so much fun spending time with all my beloved friends, family and beau.

September 1st - We only have one-third of the year left. Have you been good as far as keeping the silent promises you had given yourself before the clock struck twelve on New Year's eve?

Yeah, me neither :)

Actually, I did better than I thought I would. As I have mentioned before, I didn't have a resolution. I wanted everything and nothing all at once. So instead of making a daunting list of things to do for the year, I just made it up along the way and I have been pleasantly surprised by the outcome of it all.

I managed to get out of my own way and things have worked out and continue to work out just as it's supposed to. Sometimes I find it really difficult to sit and wait for answers to come or events to occur but the "want-not" approach that I have adopted of late is really cultivating the virtue that I so needed to work on - Patience.

So if you haven't yet, its still not too late to start or end what you have been putting off. End the year on a high note. You will thank yourself for it.

The month in review...

Vannessa's

Erik's

Tanya's

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0IbsXDlw0cMnYA

Enjoy,

Jakey

WTF!!! Of The Day

You must click here...

http://www.eventbee.com/view/richgosse/event?eventid=60598

Now I've definitely seen it all. HIGHlarious!!!

Just the other day, I was talking about wisdom this and wisdom that. Well, the tooth fairy god's are having a field day at my expense right about now.

I went to my dentist yesterday for consultation and you guessed it, I have to get my "Wisdom" teeth removed. All 4 of them.

Wisdom teeth normally appear between the ages of 17 and 25. They are called wisdom teeth because usually they come in when a person is between age 17 and 25 or older—old enough to have supposedly gained some wisdom. Most adults have four wisdom teeth, but it is possible to have more or fewer.

I was first approached by my dentist about my wisdom teeth in my early 20's but it didn't bother me at the time so I let it go and thought to myself that I'll deal with it later on when it starts becoming a problem. It's still not a issue but after seeing this Panoramic X-ray of my teeth, I made the appointment for the surgery straight away.

Holy Tooth Fairy! Look at the one to the right, grown all crazy sideways!

I've come to a conclusion that Wisdom teeth are not really smart at all. I mean they spring out at such a late age only to be extracted! Does not make sense at all. Sigh...

Do you still have yours? Got any words of wisdom for me? hee hee...

Jakey

Lefties Do It Right

Aside from my birthday which by the way I think should be a National Holiday -

Hey if George Dubya made June 10th The National Jesus day and a Michael Jackson moonbat fanatic Senator, Sheila Jackson-Lee proposed a resolution to CONGRESS mind you! to have him commemorated for his contribution to the world...(now I've seen it all!) why can't I have my own holiday along with million others who shares their big day with me?

Now, where was I? Oh yes, aside from my birthday, another day worth celebrating for me is the

National Left Hander's Day

That's right bloggies. Us lefties have our day too.

All year round, we fit in with home and office layouts designed for right-handers’ comfort – put up with doors, cookers, sinks, computer mice, keyboards and desks that are efficient for right-handers to work at, and hundreds of times every day we contort ourselves using back-to-front tools and gadgets that make us look clumsy and awkward in our efforts to make them to work…

BUT NOT TODAY! It doesn't matter that you get 364 1/2 days to yourself. That's all fine and dandy. Today, I celebrate my Right to be Left :)

No one has come up with a definitive reason as to why some become left-handers. We are but a small percentage of the world population, 13% to be exact. Researchers have said that it's genetic. So if no one in your family is left handed then chances are you do not have the gene for it. And if you do then it will be passed down through generations. Pretty neat huh!

You always hear people say that Left-handers are in their right minds. That is because our brain is "cross-wired" so that the left hemisphere control the right and vice-versa. So the dominant hand controls that side of the brain. Here's a cool illustration I found that'll give you a better visual of what I'm babbling about.

Nevermind the fact that I'm in the mortgage industry and that I deal with numbers day in and day out. What I do is my resource for the things that I enjoy outside of work like music, dance, arts and culture. That's definitely the right brain talking!

It's not always peachy-keen for lefties though. There were a lot of Folklore and Superstitions about left-handers being the bad ones. Joan of Arc (burned at the stake in 1431 for being a heretic and a witch) was not necessarily left-handed, she was only depicted in this way to make her seem evil.

The devil is nearly always portrayed as left-handed and evil spirits lurk over the left shoulder (which is why you throw spilled salt over your left shoulder to ward them off).

Getting out of bed with the left foot first means that you will have a bad day and be bad tempered . i.e. getting out of bed the wrong side.

Left-handers have done quite badly over the years and many old superstitions still survive today.

Wow, that's sucky huh! I'm not the one to end on a bad note so here's some fun factoids:

• Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater
• Left-handers excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing
• Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers
• 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed (Bill Gates)
• 1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed - 250% more than the normal level (Buzz Aldrin).

And a list of famous lefties:

• Leonardo Da Vinci
• Fred Astaire, Pierce Brosnan, Cary Grant
• Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie
• Hans Christian Anderson
• Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Wynton Marsalis
• Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Ravel. Schumann
• Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great
• Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche
• Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Obama
• Bruce Jenner, Lou Gehrig, Rocky Balboa, Oscar de la Hoya, Rafael Nadal
• Chewbacca the Wookie (co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon - Star Wars)

How far left am I? See for youself...

My niece is the only other lefty in my family

Enjoy what's LEFT of your day :)

Jakey

500 Days of Summer

I finally saw the movie, (500) Days of Summer on Friday night.

I absolutely enjoyed this movie. If you haven't seen it yet, GO! You won't be sorry, I promise. But just a word of caution, it isn't a love story.

There were bits and pieces of the movie that I found relating to so much. Parts when I laughed a little louder than the person next to me (Snowball) and bits where I had to hold back the tears because it was too close to home. This one part talked about how sometimes you hold on to a person a little longer than you should because you only remember the good stuff and forget why you had to let go in the first place. Isn't that SO true! Towards the end of any relationship, you only see the ugliness of it all but in due time you look back and somehow remember the person almost in good light.

Every relationship, every person you meet, experiences good or bad, is a lesson waiting to be realized. I truly believe that we are all teachers and students at one point or another. Sometimes you teach someone the value of compassion, love, trust and honesty and then there are other times when you get schooled about lies, deceit, indifference, mistrust and false hopes. And vice-versa.

I once had a relationship that ended on such a bitter note that I did not want anything to do with him. I was so angry and resentful that I was not able to see the bigger picture - the "everything happens for a reason" line was not cutting it for me. I was so wrapped up in my dismay that I remained angry for a while.

Take a quarter and hold it up in front of the moon,

What do you see?

You see the quarter and the beautiful moon behind it.

Move the quarter closer to your eye and farther away from the moon,

What do you see?

Your vision shifts and your focus is now the quarter

until such a time that it's the only thing you see.

The SMALL quarter inhibits you from seeing the BIG moon .

That's where I was - blinded by hate, fear and resentment that I was not able to see the reason behind it all. The bigger picture. I had to go through what I did to realize that what I went through was but a small event that eventually lead me to bigger and better days ahead.

So the next time you feel as if life is conspiring to bring you down, love is hopeless, your job sucks or you'll never be truly happy until you land the next best ___(fill in the blank), just take a moment and think about moving the quarter a little farther away to make room for the moon. If at first you only see slivers or glimpse of what could be, keep trying. The moon WILL always be bigger than the quarter. Meaning, what you tell yourself and the made up stories you've created is limited to what you know while the bigger picture is boundless and full of amazing possibilities.

So with time, combined with the resilience of the heart and the drive to become better than I once was, I found myself on the other side. I was no longer angry. In fact I didn't even remember what I was so worked up about. There was a point when I can actually talk about him without cupping my mouth as if I'm about to vomit :)

Wisdom comes from experiences that we have had, from the lessons that we have learned and from the mistakes that we have made. I am grateful for the opportunity of growth that came with it no matter how painful and hard it was at times.

Mistake > Lesson > Experience = Wisdom

So being the student of life and an affinity for perpetual beginning, I guess that there'll be plenty more of mistakes to be made, lessons to be learned, experiences to be had and ultimately have the bragging rights of Wisdom.

When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

his holiness, The Dalai Lama

Connection accomplished:



Dee's apartment hallway has this hilarious wall paper. We couldn't resist...









Tanya moonlights as a bartender. So we hung out with her all of Saturday night and hogged the juke box with "girl power" music while she "took advantage" of our vulnerable drinking nature ;)



She repeatedly twisted our arms by crafting yummy drinks that kept coming like it's going out of style...hee hee



One Tequila



Two Tequila



Three Tequila



Floor!



3:00 am

Hungry girls, a bag of frozen hash browns, Sriracha hot sauce, Malaysian instant noodles = Hilariously funny, I'm too drunk to care what I'm eating meal :)




In Joy and In Spirit,
Jakey

Measure of a woman

This morning I woke up to the pitter-pattering of rain outside my window.

What happened? Did I sleep-walk through the rest of summer and found myself waking up to my favorite season - Winter?

I love the smell of the air after it rains - that musky, earthy scent...mmm

The show is over. The muscles are well on it's way to recovery. The bruises are almost gone and the twitching is down to 30% at night but the dreams are still there.

Things are looking up, or I should say things are looking different.

Sunday, the morning after the longest day of my life, I slept in passed Church time. I finally got out of bed to start my day and had brunch at California Cafe and basked in the moment of not having to put on any type of dancing shoes at all.

The day before, I had on my Character shoes for a total of 8 hours. Character shoes are the most uncomfortable dancing shoes that's ever been created. I hate them! But it does give you definition in your lines while dancing. In the future though, I will pick my dances knowing ahead of time that I will not have to wear these damn things ever again!






I have done so many things in the past where I've always looked back and thought that I could have done better or I could have done more. I didn't push myself enough or I didn't give it my best. I always knew that I only gave it 75% of my capacity.

When I committed to this show I had no idea what I was in for. It started off as a trial basis to see if I would like the classes or not. I started with 2 classes on Saturdays which was the gateway for the rest of the pieces. I was open on Monday so I took 2 more classes. Tuesday was pretty clear too, so I took a couple more. Wednesday is Hula but wait, Thursday is open so I decided to take Tap. The next thing I knew, I was knee deep in choreography and committed to being in 8 pieces. I was at the studio everday from 6-9 pm and some nights until 11:00 pm. As we got closer to the show, I was at the studio even on God's day - all day! Dance was the only thing I did. Gone were the days of 80's Night at the Cat Club or an impromptu dinner/drinks with girlfriends. Friendships fell on the wayside and patience were tested on the relationship forefront.

The week of the show, I kept my emotions in check, making sure that I did not let any doubts, fears or worries creep in. I did pretty well during the day but the little demons manifested itself in my dreams. I woke up tired and often found myself in a quiet disposition.

The day of the show, I awoke with a feeling of complete resolute. The day of fruition. The last day of a new day to come.

I got to the theatre a little late that morning and missed a little bit of the pep talk but I might as well have not been there for that since my mind was already having its own inner dialogue of self assurance and psyching up.

By 10:45 am. I was clad in my first costume which happened to be the opening piece as well. We had 2 tech shows prior to the actual show. Just to give you an idea, here's what the day looked like.

2 tech shows (11:00 - 5:45) - We ran each piece twice for the tech guys to get the lighting and sound ready for the show. I was in 8 pieces which meant that after my last dance which happened to be the closing piece, I was running back in the dressing room to put on the first costume again.

2 shows (6:00 - 10:30) - So from 10:45 am until show time, I was dancing, changing and running on and off stage non-stop. My longest idle time was 4 dances in between mine (12 mins). Which meant that I was able to go to the bathroom, get a drink and change in time for the next piece. Otherwise, I was literally peeling clothes on and off like a mad woman.

The first show went off without a hitch. I still had a lot of energy. I had a great time and did not get any of the nervous jitters. I think only because I had no room or time to think about being nervous. I was constantly thinking of what moves to do next. It was SO intense! The show ended at 8:45 which ran through the second showing which was supposed to start at 8:30pm . I only had enough time to go to the bathroom, get water and say a walk-by thank you's to friends and family.

The second show was rough. I messed up a couple of times on my first piece. I couldn't do a couple of the pirouettes that I've worked so hard on for the past several months. It was as if my brain stopped functioning and it refused to turn at all! My body knew the choreography by heart yet somehow, it couldn't remember this one part. It was so frustrating! Thank goodness that my face could not be seen clearly since the lighting was dark and we had designs projected on us but sheer horror was the facial expression I was sporting.

The show went on for 2 hours and I was running on empty by the time I got to the last 3 dances. I had nothing else left to give. My foot kept cramping and my legs started giving out while I was walking back stage. I felt sick to my stomach and all I can think of was that I didn't want to do this anymore. I didn't want to dance the last 3 pieces. I'm done. No one would know if I'm not there. It wouldn't matter. But you know what they say - The show must go on.

And so I danced the last pieces and shed some tears after the last dance. I did it. I finished without breaking any body parts or breaking down in general. I breathed out a huge sigh of relief as I put on my regular clothes. I performed each piece 4 times multiplied into 8 equates to 32 times total just that day alone.

I gave this show more than I knew I had the capacity for. In fact, I was in deficit by the time it was over. Year's from now, I'll look back to that day fondly and know that I gave it my all. No regrets.

I have a new found respect for professional dancers who does this day in and day out. The amount of discipline, time, mental and physical strenght that it takes to do a performance is so taxing. I only touched the tip of the iceberg and I'm quite content with it.

Thank you my beloveds for coming out to see the show. I hope that you found it worthy of your time and money. If not, I'll hook you up in your next Hawaiian theme party. I'll be your private Hula girl :)

For those who couldn't make it due to distance or just life happening in general here's a youtube of half of my dances taken during tech rehearsals. It's totally amateur filming. The professional videos are still in the works.

Lyrical Hip Hop - Not Another Love Song - (far right, front, in black and pink socks)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc7AGPzBMjs

Tap - I Love the 90's - (one of the Nirvana's Anarchy cheerleader)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSunxm6a_Ag

Latin Jazz - Rhythm Factor - (far right in orange wig)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md4KBX2yJS8

Funk Jazz - Circus - (far right in corset and pink micro tutu)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjBn3D0L2Dk


Would I do it again?

Yes, but I will not push myself beyond my limits and compromise on other things. Our next big show is not until Spring of 2010. I haven't decided when to go back to the studio. I am once again enjoying the openess of my schedule. It's only been a few days so we'll see how long I can keep up with not doing any activity :)

I do have a couple of things lined up - fencing, pottery and maybe a lesson or two of surfing - weather permitting.

Why fencing?

Why not!

I've always wanted to learn the Western form of Martial Arts that is Fencing. Should be really fun!




Surfing?

Because I've always been curious to know what it feels like to catch a wave. I've always admired surfers and I also want to smell like summer.

Summer has a smell?

To me it's a combination of being out in the sun all day, a couple applications of sunblock, add salt water to the mix and that's heaven scent for me :)


A beginners mind is a wonderful place to be. A clean canvas. Open to new interpretations. I think beginners have more fun anyway because they don't know any better. They don't know the difference whether or not it was a good "advance" or bad "ballestra" (fencing terms). Or know well enough to say whether it's a good or bad day for waves.

Therefore, one can say that beginners love regardless of condition or Begginers love UNCONDITIONALLY.

I enjoy being the perpetual beginner. Experiencing new things while I still have my youth. I'm okay if I don't look as cool as everyone else stabbing each other with such exact precision with their Epee or catch every wave, and if I did, it wasn't going to be graceful.

In time I’ll find my grace in parrying and serious face in the water, but until then, I’ll be the humble beginner just happy to be wet :)


Sunday night
A heavy smile
Don't be dismayed
I'm as grateful as ever
My feet planted
Strengthening the foundation
Adding another branch
In time it will grow
I'm built to look up
To reach the sky without flight
Shaping the clouds with my imagination
The stars an explosion of light
Enjoying this moment of accomplishment
Letting go to make room for more




Begginer,
Jakey