Big Dance 2024, Viennese Ball 2024, etc etc

"When we dance, we are all follows, if you think about it.  Just interpreting what we think is best based on what the music gives to us" <- random thought fragment that I had lying around as a draft.

It's not really that I haven't had anything to write about, more that I'm not exactly sure what I'd like to say.

I guess we can start with Big Dance 2024, I might as well keep the continuity going and at the very least link to last year's post so I can follow the chain more easily.  Heck, I may as well stick a snippet about Viennese Ball 2024 (last year's long and significant post on that), since I never really wrote about that in detail.

On Viennese Ball, I did write a little bit about it in passing, mostly about how my expectations and plans for the event were wrecked from the get-go as I discovered I needed to drive back home and then to the event again -- this after having driven across the bay for hours due to needing to chauffeur somebody from the the south bay (definitely not on my way at all).  It was a terrible amount of driving, kinda stressful, but honestly, not too stressful at the same time.  I kept on laughing to myself inside about how at least it wasn't as bad as I had it in Japan.

Anyways, I don't think I care to recount exactly how that night went, I think it mattered in a way, but also didn't matter in a way.  I could write some grand treatise on how I need to be more open-minded, and about how there is still value in doing things that I've already written off, or how sometimes people can just really surprise you, but at the end of it all, it was just another year.

Big Dance 2024, you could argue by the same token, was no different.  Looking at last year's post, I guess I had quite a nice time at Big Dance 2023.  I think my experience this year was a little more subdued.  Still positive, overall, but much more subdued.  But there wasn't really anything wrong with that.  I mean, sure.  The dance floor was too crowded and there was just too much, too many people for me to feel like butting my way into that social space.  But that was fine, I just found some quiet time, thought about some things, did some speedcubing here and there.  I'm proud to report that I did not have any foot cramps this big dance (hah!), probably thanks to making sure to properly stretch and hydrate / etc.

Big Dance alternatively filled me with feelings that I DO want to host a JaSmix event (social dance is cool!  Man, I really miss just being able to play and have people appreciate a truly great social dance even experience!), and feelings that I don't want to after all (do I really care that much / is this the crowd of people that I want to invest a significant amount of time on).  =Perhaps= there is some sort of compromise possible, a mini event or something, but eh, it's also hard for me to imagine myself not wanting to just make sure what I do is the best that it can be.  I really ought to be focusing on other things, I think -- you know, Rhythm Quest and all -- so, we'll see, really.  It HAS been like, a year since I really brought my music out.  But do I really feel the need to spend time on this?

Anyways, at Big Dance I managed to grab a few really nice dances!  I danced with Kiki #2 a few times, that was really nice, and then had some very nice dances with an old-timer as well.  It is quite nice, having some people that you can really count on when you need someone to express and move to a song properly.  It's rare for me to find, but they are out there!

I've been playing follow less and less, I've realized.  Maybe it's fine.  It's a weird feeling.  All of my dance idols are follows, and I always watch them when I am idly thinking about how I would like to improve.  Perhaps there are just less leaders that I feel connected to right now, and that's okay.

 

That's all that I'll write on that, I guess.  In other news, I took this week off from work, mostly ostensibly to work on Rhythm Quest (making up for the week-long work trip that I had earlier in the year).  So far that's been relatively successful!  I have a couple of "higher anxiety" items that have been lingering for Rhythm Quest -- mod.io publishing flow, and trying to finish the rest of the main campaign levels -- so I wanted to try my best to take some strides toward at least one of them if not both.  I've managed to make some notable progress in both aspects, and we've still got a weekend ahead of us as well, so that's gone pretty well so far!

Life-wise, I'm at a really odd sort of crossroads.  Objectively speaking I guess things are better, but at the same time I feel like there are some unsorted aspects that my heart is still trying to figure out how to digest and wrestle with.  It's almost as if you suddenly got the news that you won the lottery or something.  Like yes, sure, it's a good thing, but then you have to figure out how you're supposed to pay taxes on it, or what you're going to do with the money and how to handle it, etc etc etc.  Now, my situation isn't really exactly like that, but there's a similar feeling of like "well, things are better than before, but this also bring about some new things to deal with".

Like I said, I made some progress toward Rhythm Quest, so any time I manage that it's a good thing.  I've been a little less excited about some of my hobbies in general lately though -- I guess I've been taking a short break from ALTTPR, for instance.  I don't think it's a bad thing, but it's something I'm noticing, that right now I don't seem to have that "thing that excites me every day".  I'm assuming it's just a temporary phase.  Hopefully.