1st Day Back !

My long awaited return to Ballet class has finally come to pass to today.

How sweet it is to be back in (e)motion !

Naturally, I could only do the physically easier 1/2 of the class warmups and exercises and could only 'mark' (step through and not really dance) the dance portions, but it is great to be back into the swing of things.

"Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder"

Truth in Rechargeable Battery Advertising

Like most of us, I use a number of battery powered devices in daily life. When I started saving spent cells for proper disposal and saw how many of them were being tossed I became concerned. I wanted to cut down on the waste.

In the past I had used Nickle Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries with a cheap charger. As the charge cycle is not 100% chemically reversible the batteries age. Eventually a battery goes bad and perhaps 1 of 4 batteries is no longer chargeable, but which one ? The charger that I had was really cheap and would only charge in pairs or quadruples. This made trying to find the bad battery(s) in a batch very time consuming.

Time for a new charger. After a bit of investigation I settled on the 'Maha MH-C9000' Charger Analyzer. This device has 4 independent charging circuits so each battery essentially has its own individual charger.
The real usefulness of the device is that has more functions that just charging: Charge, Refresh, Breakin, Discharge.

Charge:
allows you to set the input current, you can do a high current fast charge or a more battery life friendly slow charge.

Refresh:
does a voltage based charge-discharge-charge cycle in which you get to choose the charge and discharge currents. When finished the total capacity of the battery found during discharge is reported so that you know how much energy the battery will hold at that point in it's life cycle.

Breakin:
does a very slow time based charge discharge charge cycle recommended for new uncharged batteries.

Discharge:
will drain the battery (I haven't had cause to use this yet).

So with the MH-C9000 there is no more guessing about the state of your batteries. Doing periodic Refresh cycles you can see what each battery's capacity is over time and watch its decline (I do a Refresh about every 10 recharges and the slower Breakin about every 30 recharge cycles). When a battery has ceased to be useful, this charger will refuse to charge it and will indicate to you that it has refused.

I decided to measure the capacity of each battery to compare against the capacity stated on the label by the manufacturer. I've done that for a number of new batteries and the results are interesting.
See the graph above (hand drawn, the old fashioned way).

For a given set of new batteries, I averaged the measured capacity and graphed the percentage deviation from the labeled capacity with negative percentage on the Y axis thus the higher the bar the WORSE the battery. I arbitrarily picked -10% as the GOOD/BAD cutoff point. The GOOD green bars are less than 10% below labelled capacity, the BAD red bars exceed that.

Based on this small sample size, one interesting trend is shown:

The 'Name' Brands tended to be truer to advertised claims than the less well known names.

Most notably, the Radio Shack 700 (the green battery on the left in the graph picture) showed an average capacity of 726mAh which is HIGHER than the 700mAh on its label.

The biggest joke was the visually screaming red and black 'CTA 1200' (the red battery on the right in the graph picture) which yielded an average 389mAh, that's a whopping -68% less than what its label says !

Radio Shack is not known for premium quality electronics but what it does have is warranty support and deep pockets (the U.S. is, after all, a place in which if you were to order a Coke but instead are served a Pepsi, the place that mis-served you is seriously liable).

The next place 'truth in advertising' runners up are both 'Imedion' batteries from Maha. As Maha is the manufacturer of the MH-C9000 it's fitting that their batteries have trustworthy labels !

The Good

AAA Radio Shack 700 actual 726 + 3.8 %
AAA Imedion 800 actual 800 0.0 %
AA Imedion 2100 actual 2070 - 1.4 %
AA Kodak 2100 actual 2038 - 3.0 %
AAA Sanyo 1000 actual 962 - 3.8 %
AA Kodak 2500 actual 2332 - 6.7 %


The Bad and Pretty

AA Nexcell 2700 actual 2291 -15 %
AA Accupower 2900 actual 2281 -21 %
AAA Nexcell 1000 actual 623 -38 %
AAA CTA 1200 actual 389 -68 %

Paris Opera Ballet "La Danse"

Yesterday, I ventured out to my first public entertainment venue since the ACL surgery to catch the last screening of 'La Danse' at the Roxie Theatre in SF. After sitting to view the 2 1/2 hour documentary my knee was killing me and it was painful to walk the few blocks back to the train station but the movie was well worth the physical discomfort cost !

'La Danse' is a camera roaming the environment of the Paris Opera Ballet institution to give a view of the life that exists within its walls. For people like me who will never be professional dancers, it's a glimpse into a world only imagined. The camera looked at all facets of the Ballet: the dancers, the directors, the costume and makeup staff, the cafeteria staff, the custodial staff, the building repairs, even a nice sequence that started by gazing upward at the beautifully ornate ceiling of the performance hall proceeding all the way down to the Paris sewer beneath the building looking down showing the fish swimming in the sewer water !

The primary point of view of the movie though is (as I interpret it) from the point of view of a dancer in the company. Hence, the bulk of the footage concentrates on rehearsal. That's rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal. Thus, appropriately, there is comparatively way less footage of actual performance. It's right that it should be this way since most of the dancers time will be spent in rehearsal. Right after some performance footage, scenes cut straight to the next days rehearsal just as the dancer would experience life.

If you're not interested in dance, or watching professional dance rehearsals, this movie will be 2 1/2 hours of sheer boredom as there is no plot and there is no focusing in on any 'personal story'. It's the professional's life here. The quality of the dancing is superbe, bringing gasps from the movie audience myself included. The company was shown to have a balance of classical and modern dance. Indeed some of the energy looked like Michael Jackson Amplified (and with greater training and discipline !). Spectacular !

A few interesting non-dance moments from the movie stuck in my mind:

- cut to the executives (in a modest office BTW) planning what they were going to do for visiting American 'premium donors', those individuals that have donated more than $25000 US to the dance company. One of the donor groups ? People from Lehman Brothers..

- In countries like France, Germany.. there are Ballet/Dance companies that are state organizations. The Paris Opera Ballet is a state company so it's the 'same' as working for the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) here. You're a government employee with the same concerns as gov't employees everywhere. In particular a meeting was shown in which the Director explained that the Dancers in the company were recognized as having on average a 'different useful working life' as compared with other gov't workers therefore they didn't have to wait until 65 to be eligible for their gov't pension, instead they are eligible at age 40 for the same benefit. The director added that the high level of achievement of the company was key in that decision and that 'slackening of standards' might put the special consideration in jeopardy.

- In one rehearsal scene a dancer could not shake her habit of pausing her movement with her leg swung back behind her (in Arabesque). This undoubtedly coming from a lifetime of training that way. "She keeps thinking that there is an Arabesque there, when there is none" the choreographer and others keep saying...

- The artistic director describing dancers as being:
1/2 Nun and 1/2 Boxer
Being both the Jockey and the Horse
Being both the Driver and the Race Car

- A choreographer trying to describe the feeling that he wanted from a pair of dancers:
C: "It is like the XMen movies, they want to be in love but because of their dangerous powers they cannot and must stay apart"
D: "Like Edward Scissorhands !"
(editorial comment from me: Hollywood rules the entertainment world...)


A movie worth watching if you're interested in dance and one to avoid like the plague if you're not !

Back On 2 Wheels Again !

And going nowhere fast !

At the advice of Kelly, my Physical Therapist/Torturer, I've climbed back onto my road bike and magnetic trainer to start the next phase of getting my rebuilt knee into shape. The first few full crank revolutions were pretty painful but spiritually uplifting. It's great to be back on 2 wheels again, no matter that I'm not going anywhere !

This week I also gained back the use of my Bass Drum foot. Life being so short of time, I've had to shove drumming aside in order to make time for dancing. I figure that the body will give up on dancing before it gives up on drumming, so dancing has gotten first priority ('Better get it while you can'). Now that my knee is rebuilding and I can't dance, I might as well jump back over and work on my rhythm. Ummph, Pop, Umph Umph... I'm a rhythm and syncopation junkie. As killer drummer Virgil Donati remarked during his spot at the 1997 Modern Drummer Weekend (on DVD) "Drums, the greatest instrument there is !" :-)

Lastly, I took my Mom out to breakfast this morning and saw this cute doggie waiting outside the cafe. I couldn't resist a picture !

Nexus Support Complaints

To much fanfare Google has plunged into the consumer end of the phone market and started direct sales of their new 'Nexus' phone.

There have been complaints about the lack of customer support for the new phone users though. Some are saying that the idea of directly supporting living breathing people is something new for Google (at the time of writing of the article linked to above, there is no Nexus telephone support available !).


If they are pressured into offering phone support, here's what I imagine a typical support call might go like (names changed to protect the guilty):

G: Welcome to Giigle support how may I help you today ?

C: I'm having a problem with my new Nix-Us phone.

G: OK, first though, can you answer this question for me ?
How many basketballs can you fit in a school bus ?

C: What ? I'm not good at math, and anyway why are you asking me this ?

G: Well, I need to know if you're smart enough to be worth my time...
What were you, some kind of a Liberal Arts major ?
OK, well here's one without any scary numbers in it:
Why is a manhole cover round ?

C: I can't answer that, I just need some help with the new phone that I just bought from you !

G: Say, what University did you graduate from anyway ?

C: I didn't get a chance to go to college, I've been working 2 jobs since High School to support my seriously ill Mother, and...

G: That's a lame sounding excuse if I ever heard one..
OK, I've got 4 letters for you: R.T.F.M. (Read The 'Fine' Manual)
CLICK !

C: What ?



(disclaimer: I have a 'Google Android Powered' G-1 phone and love it. I also take advantage of a number of the free services that Google offers and my life has been better for it)


-----------------------
UPDATE: May 14, 2010

Google has announced that it will discontinue direct sales of the Nexus One phone

"...but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone..."

(We'd rather quit than have to deal with people.... )

Standing on my own 2 feet (at last !)

6 weeks non-weight bearing.

That was the prescription given to allow my repaired meniscus time to heal up.

I scribbled a calendar onto my board and marked off the non-weight bearing days as they went by counting down from week 6(+) to week zero. Lots of red check marks.

Now, finally after nearly 2 months of standing around on my left leg, I've got the go ahead to start putting weight onto my right.

Baby steps at first.

Partial-weight bearing walking with 2 crutches.
Scheduled time throughout the day standing and shifting partial weight on and off of the leg to get all the tissues and bones used to the stresses of use again so as to begin rebuilding themselves accordingly.

It's good to be back on 2 feet !

Maria Tallchief

I was looking around for DVDs of Ballerina Maria Tallchief. For someone that I'd heard so much about I was surprised that I only found 1 DVD devote to her: an anthology of NBC and Radio-Canada performances. Well OK, I'll take whatever I can get.

Beautiful artistry, that's what it is.

In the performance of 'Les Sylphides' (B&W photo above), the nuances of the music are breathed into the performance. Also striking to me was how the quality and size of the movements matched up with the changing dynamics (loud/soft) of the music. I've not seen that so brought out until now.

With a few exceptions, changing of dynamics/tempo is something that most popular music does not have. If you want a change of mood, you play a different song. Only in classical-based music are there shifts of mood/tempo/dyamic and that adds a another dimension that can be expressed in a dance choreographed for the piece.
So the dance can change from lilting and delicate one moment to forceful and sharp the next. She does it all with refined artistry.

If anyone knows of any more DVDs of her, let me know !

voice of dance page on Maria Tallchief with video (at the time of this writing)