A combination of being under the weather and being busy has prevented me from posting for a while, but here's a short recap of the past month.
From the 14th to 21st, Anna stayed at my house on a visit during her fall break. She got in to town in time for the Chester Whitmore workshop, we did some vintage clothes shopping in Toronto, shoe shopping (which I bought a pair of sexy vintage Fluevogs). Sunday was swing club and curling where Anna pointed out that curling is the most Canadian sport ever, ha. Monday was the weekly dance with a jam for Anna (went on forever, poor Anna). The rest of the week we found stuff to do, including shopping for baking supplies at Ayres, winter boot shopping, and similar touristy things. I had a bunch of fun, and it felt like I had a sister for week. Definitely missed her around the next week.
Chester Whitmore workshop in Toronto - Having worked with the Nicholas brothers, Chester is known for his tap and jazz experience. He was a really fun instructor, you could definitely pick up on the older black-style of swing in his dancing, plus he was always joking and smiling. His beginner and intermediate lindy workshops were good, and the solo jazz one was awesome. I definitely listed the moves on a txt file in the car with Anna later.
After much banging the head on the desk (literally), I've made great progress in my OpenSees model of the Essex county bridge. I have been focusing on this one since there has been interest from the MTO to obtain results. It'll be really exciting to visit the bridge this month and install the sensor (accelerometers) that was built in Sriram's lab to get and analyze real vibration data. Essentially, the framework is there, I just have to debug it, the annoying part. I really want it to work. While I was sick 2 weeks ago, I stayed at home as to prevent my officemates from getting sick. I got the most work done in weeks, hah. Looking forward to having it correctly spit out the correct mode shapes in Matlab. Also, I found out halfway through debugging my own Matlab code that the node, element, and mass generation is eons easier in Matlab than in OpenSees. So I just need to pass files between my mbp and HP (where I can run the Windows based remote desktop). I should be getting back to the Abaqus, though it's been crashing my programs of beams on a cube of soil, which is very annoying.
So two big student teams for next term are GNCTR (concrete toboggan), and Troitsy. Both have made progress by leaps and bounds in the past month. Despite issues about trying to organize a team via electronic communication now that it's established that there is a race, I just submitted initial registration for 8 people, where the minimum for racing qualifications is 6. IRS is on the same day as the race, so none of the 4th years want to go to concrete toboggan. It's great that we're getting support from the 2014 graduates because then they'll have experience and prepare their team. I'm happy that we have a theme, a name, and Liz from chem eng has been very good at designing costumes, swag, and ideas for the tech exhibit. Sponsorship stuff is hard work to contact lots of people and politely ask them for money.
As for Troitsky, Tim and I had a build session where I made a parallel strand block and he did an orthogonal pattern popsicle stick block. My block was clamped dry, Tim's air dried. Both were machineable two weeks later by Tim, Griff and myself. The parallel strand block also did very well in the lathe to make a dowel, which should become an integration part of our construction. I am really looking forward to this event because I enjoyed it last term. As a benefit, we're going to be well prepared and contenders for placing.
On Friday, I went with John to the Boathouse by Victoria Lake to listened Douglas Watson, a well-known Canadian blues musician from Kitchener. Liz, Jay, Vanessa and Brooke joined in from Toronto and Nigel from swing club came around. Though the floor was kinda tiny to dance and often filled with other dancers, it was really fun to see them play. I hadn't seen that band for 2 years and I was quite new to dancing at the time.
Last night was Swing Out to Victory at the Hamilton Heritage Warplane Museum. Dean ran it for the past 10 years, but this year Mandi took up the reigns so that Dean could relax and enjoy the event. Featuring the Toronto All Star Big Band, it was a bunch of fun to dance with so many Toronto, Hamilton, and Waterloo dancers all in one night. Everyone looked spectacular, Erika being very well dressed, Dean in his New Orleans hat (and he noticed my New Orleans shoes), and many people in vintage Canadian uniform as part of the living history enactment group. I wasn't sure if I was going to go after my meh experience last year, but this year was way better for me. More than just a few reasons, since I've now lived in Toronto and know these dancers a lot better, the event felt so natural and comfortable. The performances went all together well, and the flow of the evening was much like when Dean did it, minus a big theatrical thing where Dean's in a cardboard tank that he built.
Upcoming swing events include the Naomi Uyama and Gordon Webster night in a week and the Waterloo Holiday Christmas dance.
Gordon Webster, Toronto based now New York based pianist will be acoompanying Naomi Uyama, who will be giving a 1 hour workshop before the dance. This is unfortunately the shortest workshop that I've seen, also because I know she's good from the time I was in Vancouver. It will be a really fun night though it's a shame that it's on a Monday and Toronto people can't make it out for a work day. Also, I really want there to be more workshops in Waterloo, so I hope this one is well attended.
The Holiday dance is a joint project between the Hep Cat Hoppers and the UW Swing Club and it'll be featuring Jordan Klapman and the All Stars. Typically the UW Swing Club will host the dance, but David was able to help raise funds to pay for a bigger and better band than in past times. I just had a meeting with the exec today, and stuff like volunteer lists, decorations and DJs are quickly being settled. It's great having co-operative and energetic people in your club executive :D.
As for this week, it's relatively quiet. Monday is the weekly dance with Sandy McDonald, so New Orleans-y type guitar stuff so it should be fun and fast. On Wednesday, I'm contemplating going to the Hamilton dance since there's a few people there that I'd like to see more of since I didn't get to talk to them as much at SOTV. On Thursday, I have a ballroom social with Giulio, Arianne and Dan on Thursday. Saturday is the Christmas dinner with Sriram and the team, same day as a blues worksbop in Toronto that'd be well regarded, but I'd need to make it back by 6 pm. I don't think I have anything Tuesday or Friday, unless I'm forgetting something, which is entirely possible. I've been enjoying the crazy amount of dancing, but it does tucker you out faster.
Alright, that's it for me, time to sleep!
