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A worker may be the hammer's master, but the hammer still prevails. A tool knows exactly how it is meant to be handled, while the user of the tool can only have an approximate idea. |
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Wednesday, January 7, 1998
I had sponsored an event for the singles public folder (like an internal newsgroup) at work for tonight, so even though I had no confirmations, I had to go. I was walking down Pine when I saw my friend Tom across the stree, walking up the hill. He had been to the Century Ballroom (through my endless nagging) and had taken the Beginning Swing class which started at six o'clock tonight.
So I dragooned him into coming and eating dinner with me at the appointed place (The Capitol Club, as good as last month). We ate upstairs at the bar, and exchanged holiday stories. Tom would like to find a place in Seattle to live, after being on the Eastside for a year or so. (Tom is the one in the tan jacket on this page. The picture, even the larger version, doesn't do him justice, though.)
It was good to be back at the ballroom after an absence of a few weeks. We watched the last part of the Intermediate Lindy Hop class. There were lots of familiar faces, both in class and at the dance later. That's one of the big benefits of signing up for class; even shy folks like me can get acquainted with the regular crowd, thus improving our chances to dance.
Tom had danced a few times before at Cacophony events, and came to the ballroom with me back in October, but he did really well tonight for only one class. I was able to teach him a few more of the basic steps, and he was able to combine them smoothly and go from one to the next in a logical manner, while moving to the music with good frame and keeping his footwork going! Very impressive!
During the lindy lesson at intermission, he caught on to the Charleston variation quickly! It wasn't just the simple Charleston step; it involved switching from an eight-beat pattern to a six-beat pattern, turning your partner to face you and kicking to the side, then in between her legs[!], then, after a while, switching back to the regular Charleston. But the combination of his musical sense and the developer type of mind meant that he mastered this.
Wally showed up at the beginning of the dance, but weaseled out of staying and dancing or even listening to the band, which he says is one of his favorites. I'll keep nagging at him suggesting, anyway.
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Do you read Robert Seidman? I like his biweekly column for news on the online services. I also enjoy his Insider Talk discussion area, though I don't post too often.
Another daily (work-related) web visit: the New Software page at Windows95.com. I'm often surprised to see a question on the webgrrls mailing list or elsewhere on the order of "Where can I get a tool to do X?" Windows95.com is definitely my favorite tools resource for external tools. I guess it's the same phenomenon, that not enough people internal to Microsoft know about the good internal tool sources there.
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