Blog posts
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Dance Practice Log – December 09, 2024
When: Monday, December 09, 2024 6:30pm until 8:00pmWhere: Morden home living room Summary Yesterday I trained for about 1.5 hours. Up until last couple training sessions, I felt so much resistance, so much procrastination. And every time I get myself to to practice — not force — I feel emotionally better, lifted with higher spirits, and…
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Wow, you have good memory
To me, I like to think I’m somewhat self-aware (who doesn’t think that about themselves but according to one study, only 10-15% are actually self-aware). But from my own perspective, it does not seem abnormal — to me — to remember little details of conversations. That being said, about at least 3 times in the…
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Dance practice log – reflection
Starting a couple weeks ago, I changed the way I approach dance training, particular when training by myself. December 04, 2024 What did I work on? What are my areas of growth? December 06, 2024 What did I work on? I started uploading my entire dance trainings onto YouTube (as unlisted, since they are primary…
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Weekly Review – November 25th to December 02
Normally, I conduct my weekly reviews on Sunday, on a weekend where I am less pressed for time, a period of time that I can sit down and reflect. However, I had Elliott this past weekend — at the moment, alternating weekends — and by the end of Sunday evening, at 5:00pm, when her mother…
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Reflection on attending a parenting workshop on boundaries
I signed up for a parenting workshop hosted by my daughter’s (Steiner based) school, a workshop on setting and applying boundaries. Though I have an aversion to authority in general — I value and have a high need for independence — I showed up in the space with an open mind and open heart and…
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Hallelujah: Officially divorced
I’m trying to contain my excitement. I feel a profound sense of joy, liberated: I am officially divorced. I’m officially financial broke more details below) but my spirits are very high. Though I have some regrets throughout this process, mainly on my lack of assertiveness, I am very happy with now and what the universe…
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Musicality Exercise – Dancing on the high hat
Below is a YouTube tutorial I made for some house dance friends, showing them an exercise on how to not only dance on the high hat, but to transition between the kick, the high hat, and back to the kick. I learned the core exercise from Walid, who taught a group of us the exercise…
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Gold nuggets on developing self confidence
Developing confidence is an area that I naturally find myself gravitating towards. I find the whole topic fascinating and ironic because I feel confident in some areas in my life while feeling insecure in others. What’s up with that? Confidence: A non transferable skill and domain specific I recently finished a book titled “Mastery: The…
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Vibing with Xinobi’s “Searching for” song
I’ve been listening — on repeat – to the song “Xinobi – Searching for”, one that was suggested by Spotify. It’s not only the melody and harmony but it’s the lyrics, the lyrics cause me to turn inwards, to introspect. Just so many beautiful lines including: Another reason I love this song is that this…
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On experiencing joy and love when watching my own recap videos
On the days I don’t see Elliott (my beautiful 5 year old daughter), I often find myself (re)watching recap videos of us on my iPhone, short little clips that I stitch together to capture a moment in time, a snapshot aimed to honor our relationship (as well as share with some friends and family). Right…
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Human limits and the 40% rule
I was on the phone yesterday with my sister and during our chat, she shared one of her beliefs: that we (as humans) can achieve whatever we set our mind to — that we were “limitless.” It’s a growth mind set, one that I myself subscribe to. Generally speaking, I agree with the spirit of…
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Photography patience
I was gifted a Canon DSLR when I was about 16. I remember being so eager to take “beautiful photos”. I remember purchasing a couple DVDs, my hope then was that after an hour or two I could begin taking photos that were similar to the ones that I admired. But quickly I found out…
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Daily Review – November 6th, 2024
I’m winding down for the night, in the bed with my Macbook Pro, and just before drafting up this blog post, I snapped a few photos with my DSLR to practice my photography skills. I was really looking forward to taking this 5 week photography course. I was looking forward to it and disappointed that…
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Stretch Log
Day 173 of stretching and flexibility journey Date: November 5th, 2024 Target muscles: hamstrings During the hamstring (lunge) exercise, I hold and prop myself with my arms, my tummy constantly making contact with my (target) thigh. I notice that when I try to deliberately relax my upper body and arms, the intensity of the hamstring…
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Conveying one’s dance musicality ability with gestures
Like many others, I watch and study lots of house dance videos. I’m still very much a beginner when it comes to the craft — at the time of this writing, about 14 months into the journey — however I’m noticing an increased ability within myself to tease out what highly skilled dancers are trying…
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A little bit of grief, a dose of sadness
Elliott is and continues to blossom into a beautiful little girl. Today, the two of us spent the afternoon playing with slime, drawing characters from the movie “Inside Out 2”, then I wrapped up the evening with reading her two children’s books that I had purchased for her, books that happen to revolve around a…
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Stretching and Flexibility Log
I’m still feeling a little under the weather, my throat feeling a bit when swallowing, the discomfort starting Sunday evening when I got home from an event. I programmed my current block 6 weeks ago and today I’m on the second day, which focuses on hamstrings and quadriceps. I’m definitely pushing myself a bit with…
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Created my first YouTube playlist for House Dance Class Recap videos
Creating YouTube Playlist on my channel serves multiple purposes. First, doing so in a way for me to practice my organization skills. Second, a playlist enables me to chronologically view my dance journey. Third, playlists help viewers (subscribers and non-subscribers) paint a better picture of what dance classes in studios look and feel like. Now,…
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I ran out of iPhone storage … or so I thought
In the middle of recording a video during yesterday evening’s dance class, my iPhone popped up an alert, a message notifying me that I ran out of disk space and that the current video recording was halted. After seeing the notification, I had mentally prepared myself to visit the Apple store to trade in my…
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On being liked: Being yourself vs betraying yourself. A four quadrant analysis
All the time, we all hear the following: “Just be yourself.” On the whole, I concede that these words form sage and sound advice. In fact, as someone who historically shaped shifted throughout his life in order to conform to social expectations, I mindfully practice being myself every day. The act of being oneself is…
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Daily Review (Tuesday) October 15, 2024
Best part of my day yesterday was when Elliott handed me over a little drawing (see featured image above) that she drew with a pen and 8×11 printer paper that was folded in half. I felt joy wash over me and had asked her to what drawings on the card were: “That’s you. That’s me.…
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The motivation to reflect and my 1:1 dance private reflection
Throughout my life, I’ve been described by others as a “go-getter”, someone who “gets things done”. While I appreciate both the positive feedback and while I am grateful in my ability to get shit done, one other area I’d like to devote more time and attention to is the act of reviewing — reflecting. Sometimes…
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Dance week in review: Reflections
I am returning to the practice of writing up reviews and reflections. Sometimes daily. Sometimes weekly. The review itself is not the goal. In fact, the act of reflecting (for me) provides the most value. It’s a practice. Overview Bounce technique modification Seems like such a simple move: the bounce. However, because I tend to…
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October 02, 2024 – Daily Review
Yesterday Highlights of the day Connected with some friends over phone calls Talking with friends over the phone almost always lifts my spirits. Over the years, through some tough life lessons (including divorce, burning out working at Amazon) that I no longer place all my eggs in one basket. I follow this mantra for multiple…