Saturday, August 30, 2014

Reflections: August, 2014.

Seriously, three months without a blog post?

On my way to Burning Man, I wrote out this wonderful, lengthy, summary post of what had been going on in my life.

Then my computer went fritzy before I had a chance to backup / sync / post the entry. Just figured this out now. Bummer. It was a good one, too. Rather than be paralyzed by the lost work, I'll endeavor to recreate it here, but hopelessly abbreviated because it's further back in my memory.

Winnipeg

Taught 13 hours(ish) in Winnipeg over three days with Ruby. A wonderful time: great community, lovely organizers, all around a great time. Spending time with her was a real treat, and we even explored the beaches of NYC before heading out there.

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(This sign makes my inner 12-year-old boy giggle.)

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As does this…

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Traveling

I find myself on planes a lot. Several of my recent trips have yielded some splendid photos.

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(This last one is now the home screen for my phone.)

Time in Portland

Carbon Lighthouse continues to be excellent and allow me to work remotely. This has allowed me to get up to some shenanigans in Portland.

- Watching The Princess Bride in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Everyone quoting lines, applauding at the introduction of beloved characters, and generally being good spirited and Portland-y. 

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- Underwear shopping! Now I have wonderful sexy-boy underwear. Who knew it could be so much fun?!

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Recess Massive

One of the most inspiring, nourishing dance events I've ever been a part of. Great people, great classes, great environment, great music. Massive refilled my well of creativity, giving me a whole new set of ways to love and experience dance. I fully offered myself as a person, a teacher, and a DJ. It felt incredible. I was so much more in tune with my Self than in a long time. And I felt cherished and loved by the whole community, supported by them to be vulnerable and genuine.

Highlights:

Jumping off a 40' cliff every day.

- Introducing my new hat, Mr. Mistoffelees. A source of much hilarity and goofing.

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This is the sound he makes: "Meeeeeeaarrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmm."

- Mind-blowing dances with so many people. Exploring weight-sharing, partnered modern dance styling, lifts, and playing with all the rhythms. So. much. amazing.

- Nourishing outdoor environment.

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- Discovering that I can rock women's clothing, thereby doubling my range of costume choices. (Those red pants pictured earlier are actually women's. Sometimes they just get all the fun.)

- The little things. Like two of my favorite people setting up their van as a camping space.

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To which someone responded by leaving this little pack on their car.

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- Teaching great classes that inspired, freed, or otherwise expanded the experience of students. Also, this. What a treat, to give people the freedom to be themselves and play.

- Being around beautiful people with their hearts exposed.

- Affirmation that I am a worthy human being, full of love, and with so much to contribute. I felt like I really gave a lot of myself at this event, and people appreciated it.

It wasn't all fun and games -- there were certainly many challenges here as well -- but on the whole it was a wonderful experience, and I don't particularly feel like delving into the challenges right now.

Burning Man

So much happened here…

- Deliberately sleep-depriving myself (i.e. choosing to adventure into the playa at 3am instead of going to sleep) and all the magic that would result from it.

- Serendipity, almost constantly, the playa delivering to me exactly what I needed in the moment.

- Totally losing my shit, crying hard and unabashedly, in a space filled with so many people, and feeling their support and care.

- Processing the loss of a relationship very dear to me.

- Being inspired by the creativity of so many. This time, not feeling inadequate by comparison, but simply cherishing what they have to offer and trust that I have something as well, albeit different.

- Meeting random, lovely human beings. Feeling connected to strangers.

- Spending a lot of quality time with people whom are really important to me, and affirming who those people are and why they matter to me.

- Dancing dancing dancing so hard, so free and so joyful and so expressive.

 

 

Carbon Lighthouse

Work here continues to go fabulously. I will probably expand upon this in a subsequent post(s?). But the short version is this: in the course of two months, I will have built for them in two months, with no prior experience in web development, a functional webapp that addresses a core problem in their work flow, including features such as barcode scanning, offline functionality, database syncing, and taking photos. It feels like I'm learning an insane amount, delivering a huge value (probably worth $125,000 - $250,000 for it to be developed externally), and making a real difference to the company.

Here's to hoping that work continues with them…

 

 

Phew!

Enough for now. How hard it is to do recaps like these! At least I haven't been blogging because I've been too busy with so many other things in life… certainly a good reason. Perhaps I'll be able to build a momentum and pick up a more regular posting.

 

 

 

 

 

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