shanmonster | Sergeant ShanMonster (Reply)

Tonight ended up as belly dance boot camp. I've begun to really crack the whip at my more senior students, pushing them to fight their dance transgressions (dansgressions?). I focused on one student per song. I sounded like a broken record with my accusations of "Dead bird arms!" and orders to "Float those arms up! Shoulders down and dropped! Raise up through that chest! Think tall, tall, tall!"

And do you know what? It paid off. Every single one of them improved dramatically during the course of the song. Woohoo for them! I'm going to turn this into a regular feature of the advanced class.

To top it off, at the beginning of the beginner class, I had two stone-cold newbies who were doing perfect snake arms in about ten minutes of work. I think I'm really improving with my explanations. Woohoo for me!

And in other awesome news, my sore hand is almost completely healed. I'm only occasionally feeling a quiet throb. For the vast majority of the day, I didn't notice any pain at all, and even when it does hurt a little, it isn't enough to effect my movement or dexterity. I spent the day working on a hollowform ring. It's a real bitch to get into the right shape. I'm using brute strength with the half-round pliers plus hammering to get it in shape. I keep having to anneal it. It's slowly coming to the right shape, but I fear I'll have to make some inserts for gaps that simply won't close. This ring will (if it works!) have a turquoise set in it. But the bezel is causing me grief. Mucho grief.

In other news, the Magic cards are selling pretty steadily. This is excellent. f00dave and I may pay for our tuitions yet! Up on the block now are some really big cards, including Mox Diamonds (not ours) and a whole bushel of dual lands. Plenty of booster packs from Stronghold, Ice Age, and Weatherlight are also to be had. Here's your chance to help me pay for my education while also feeding your CCG addiction.