Azuquita Salsa (dance lessons in Perth)

A friend of mine is branching out to teach his own salsa lessons (he’s previously been working as a teacher for someone else). I know that he’s going to do well because he’s so into it and very talented.

Azuquita Salsa

The fact that he’s a salsa instructor gives hope to every geek who has ever dreamed of becoming a well-rounded person. Years ago, he found the magic of dance through Dance Dance Revolution which he played religiously until be completely dominated it. Then he needed more! He started going to dance classes and watching Flashdance over and over again (okay, I made up the bit about Flashdance).

He puts everything he has into whatever he is focussing on at the time and what he’s been focussing on for the last 5 years is salsa dancing. He was asked to teach at the place he was going to for lessons at after only a year (that’s some sort of dance prodigy right there!) and last year he was the 2005 WA State Professional Salsa Champion.

Azuquita Salsa equation

When I saw the above graphics (from his website) it was a little too celebrial for me. I thought “sugar and spice is all things nice?… wait that’s not right…” Then I looked up “Azuquita” on Google Translate and it all made sense. “Azuquita” is the Spanish word for “sugar”. From there, even my fairly rudimentary maths skills were able to determine that “Azuquita Salsa” equals some sort of explosive dancing experience! I’m sure it is. Good Luck Hean-son!

Note: For details (times, dates, costs) on enrolling in Hean-son’s salsa classes see his classes webpage. He also has pages on special events and social nights. The opening night is in two weeks (Saturday 4 November) so for those beginners interested, it would be a good time to start.

Links to videos after the jump.

Continue reading “Azuquita Salsa (dance lessons in Perth)”

Pure Pwnage pwns ABC website

For at least 2 hours around midnight last night, this was what you would have seen if trying to visit any ABC website :

ABC website pwned

Why? From the Good Game forums:

ABC pwned on Good Game forums

LOL! It’s a while between episodes and I guess Pure Pwnage fans are really hanging out for anything with the Pure Pwnage guys in it!

Update: In case anyone hadn’t heard, Jeremy from Pure Pwnage was interviewed on Good Game last night and there is a web-exclusive extended interview (with Kyle’s voice in it).

Affiliates

Some of you may have noticed the new “Affiliates” link at the top of the page. I figured that I have a number of places that I usually recommend (genuinely) so I may as well sign up to their affiliate programs in case anyone actually buys stuff from them after reading about them on my site.

I don’t want advertising all over this blog, so I decided to isolate all the links on one page (that people can easily ignore). Any money I make from these affiliate programs will be fed back into this site, OneTwenty, and various other non-profit projects I’m working on. That’s not selling out… right?

What part of “ding ding” don’t you understand?

A while ago, Danno told me about CafePress. It’s a site that lets you design prints for basic clothing and novelty items which they sell for you (giving you a cut of the profit). He used them to make some t-shirts featuring the lovable slimes from his slime volleyball games. I thought about making some designs, but never really got around to it because I never thought of anything suitably lame or cool enough to put on merchandise.

Then it struck me. When cycling around the river I sometimes come across pedestrians who walk side-by-side on the dual-use (walking and cycling) path. That irritates me a little, but they usually get out of the way when you ding your bell or yell out “bike!”. However, sometimes they just stay there and completely ignore you. It’s a dual-use, two-way path! At least move to one side so that cyclists can overtake you!

What part of "ding ding" don't you understand?

I wanted some way to vent my anger without having to resort to flipping the bird. So I came up with the above t-shirt design and created a store called Angry Cyclist on CafePress. Let’s hope these babies sell like hotcakes. Even if I only sell one or two, I’d be happy just thinking about the looks on some stubborn pedestrians’ faces as someone rides past wearing one of these!

Perth IGDA Chapter meeting next Monday

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is “a non-profit professional society that is committed to advancing the careers and enhancing the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community.”

A local (Perth) chapter was started a few months ago and it looks to be a great way for games industry people to meet. The first meeting had quite a good turn-out and the organisers seem to be doing a great job of engaging the industry and getting sponsors involved. There were a number of prizes from sponsors including a new LCD monitor.

Here are the details for the upcoming meeting:

  • Description: “This event will feature a wrap-up of the Tokyo Game Show 2006 as well as hand-ons new release Xbox 360 games on the big screen, courtesy of GameTraders.” (taken from the IGDA Perth Chapter website)
  • Time/Date: 7:00pm, Monday 23 October 2006
  • Location: The Velvet Lounge, Mt Lawley
  • Cost: Free entry (pay for your own drinks)

Just a few final thoughts. There were booth babes at the last event to promote the upcoming GO3 Expo. To me it seemed very incongruous for them to be there (as I mention in my my writeup of the event). Negative reactions were vented by others on the PIGMI mailing list with a number of people saying that it would affect their attendance at future events.

I’m sure that the board is aware of the mixed reaction, and I would be surprised to see booth babes at this event. (So if you were opposed, don’t let that stop you!) Make up your own mind, by reading about the previous event. As well as my my writeup, be sure to read the official meeting report (with photos) of the last event. My strong recommendation is for anyone involved in the games industry to attend. We need to work together to get things off the ground!

Waking up and not knowing who you are

You ever have one of those days when you wake up disoriented, and for a little while you don’t really know where you are? Sometimes in really bad cases (usually after a long night and a weird dream) you might not even know who you are?

This happened to me around a week ago. I got out of bed and went the wrong direction to leave the room. I hit the vanity and looked forward into what I thought was a long corridor. I reached out, and when I touched glass I realised that it was the mirror. So I woke up a bit at that point. For some reason, the next thing that came into my head was:

Man, this would really suck if I were Medusa

I mean, if I made it to the mirror not remembering that I was Medusa… well, I could have looked in the mirror and turned to stone. That said, if I were a Medusa I probably wouldn’t have a mirror in my bedroom. Seriously, that would be pretty stupid.

Even without the mirror, being an early-morning-disoriented Gorgon would also suck. Picture this: You wake up wondering what that hissing noise is. Your eyes slowly focus on snakes, lots of snakes right in front of your face! You try to back away slowly, but they follow you wherever you go! (Being stuck to your head and all that…)

Note: For those that don’t know, a vanity is a dressing table (low table with drawers and a mirror).

“Don’t look in my direction again, mate.”

Pool was cancelled for this weekend, so I made an on-the-spot decision to play pool tonight to ensure that the weekly quota is met. Fortunately, other people came along (even on such short notice) so that I wouldn’t have to play against myself. We were playing pool at Rosemount Pot Black (North Perth) when some guy from another table walked up to me, got right in my face, jabbed a finger towards me and said:

Don’t look in my direction again, mate.

He then walked back to his table. I and the friend that I was talking to looked at each other with puzzled expressions on our faces. It was just… odd. I hadn’t even noticed the guy before. When I told my other mate, he got pretty upset and made a point of facing the guy, arms crossed and with a firm stare. When he got the next round of drinks he told the woman at the counter that there might be trouble.

After a while, the guy walked back over to the table while I was away and apologised to my two mates. I was on the phone at the time and went back to the table to see what was going on. I initially didn’t know he was apologising and was concerned that he was harrassing my friends. Then he said something like:

Sorry about earlier… I’ve got a lot of stress.

and motioned to shake my hand (which I accepted). I wonder what prompted his about face. I wouldn’t completely rule out a change of heart, but I wonder if it was due to the stare-down, his mates having more sense than him, or him seeing us on the phone a lot (maybe assuming we were calling some of our mates).

Slight site redesign

I made a few very small changes to the site. I hope everyone likes it. At some point I’ll give the site a bit more of an overhaul to make it a bit less… “deep” (or “angsty” depending on your point of view).