As per the request of one of the DanceNet readers, here are copies of the past ramblings of the DanceNet Webmaster.
In this highly charged political atmosphere, it's hard to find someone who doesn't have an opinion about the 2004 Presidential campaign.
Since so many people are taking themselves very seriously, someone told me about a cute joke to play on these otherwise humorless people. If you know that the person is heavily leaning towards one candidate, let slip some random comment about their voting for the *other* candidate. For example, if your friend is voting for John Kerry...
YOU: So...who are you voting for?
HIM: Well, seeing all the things that have happened, I think....
YOU: Well, since you're voting for Bush, I hope you don't hold it against me, that I'm going for Kerry...
At this point, step back and watch as your friend starts sputtering and launching into an indignant speech about who they're really voting for and why. It'll take them a few seconds to figure out you were yanking their chain.
Would you believe I couldn't find a simple dehumidifier at a certain home improvement store whose favorite colors are orange? The selling season for them is over so most stores don't have them right now. I use mine year-round in my basement and it finally died after 7 years of constant use, but I can't seem to find them at several stores. I can't believe Home Depot won't even stock one on display all the time so people could at least start thinking about them before they need them. The people at the blue and yellow store didn't have them and neither did the store with the bull's-eye logo.
However, the story doesn't end there. The Home Depot website shows several Maytag-brand dehumidifiers. What? Where? Wait a second. There's a Maytag store a few minutes away in Allston.
The Maytag store, however, did not have any of those models seen on the Home Depot website. Huh? They did, however, have one *Whirlpool* model on display and I didn't like it (Whirlpool? What about *Maytag*?). This was not good.
Just as I was about to give up, I decided to check Sears over in the Cambridgeside Galleria. Not only did they have a model I wanted (think "big"), they had *a lot* of them...and they were *on sale*; the Sale gods were watching over me again. This was meant to be. It would have been perfect if I had gotten there earlier to buy the special returned unit at half off the regular price.
I was at a store dealing with a return. Some woman walked up with her computer cradled in her arms like a baby. Turns out she had just gotten cable broadband and wanted this store's new tech service to install an Ethernet card for her. The store charged $15 for the card and $40 for installing the card. I looked at her and laughed. Actually, I was pretty annoyed at all the money I didn't make doing just that for all my family and friends. I told her she should have found a friend who was good at computers to do it for her (she worked at a place where there were a lot of those kinds of experts around).
This woman then watched the technician slide the card in and close up the box. She said, and I quote, "That's it?!?!?!?". The card was installed and set up in less than 10 minutes. Damn, I would have charged her a lot less.
"For what?", you must be asking.
It's none of your business, but I did felt appreciative enough of her effort that I wanted to say it in public. :-) And I don't want anyone else doing the same thing just to copy her.
It was the start of the 2004/2005 dance season with the first Boston Swing Dance Network's first "IC dance" of the season, featuring Ron Sunshine. I could see how many people were anticipating this weekend as the numbers of visitors to this website had a large spike, at least 1000 more "unique" visitors than usual.
I normally mention this dance the week before to get people psyched up for it but it snuck up quickly on me and all of sudden it was Saturday. The band was great and played a wide variety of songs, all of which were enjoyable. I hope I get to see them again soon.