In conjunction I've founded the LineDanceAlliance.
Dance,
like music,
is counting,
in patterns.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
pk line dance teaching
I'm teaching line dancing at the Y in Sebring now, Mondays @ 5:30.
In conjunction I've founded the LineDanceAlliance.
Dance,
In conjunction I've founded the LineDanceAlliance.
Dance,
Thursday, September 30, 2010
HSC notes
I'm going to volunteer a detail or two about things that annoyed me at HSC, posting the note first, developing those notes into more mature posts, dedicated to this or that theme, afterwards.
1) Patriotic Ritual
I am not a patriot. I keep running into patriots, but I have never been a patriot. In grade school I eventually realized what "pledge allegiance to the flag" meant: but of course we all had to recite it long before we could be expected to understand 10% of the implications. No, it's wasn't pledging the legions of the flag, it was "allegiance": a hard concept even for an adult. Still, I put up with the HSC's quorum of ritual, having been free of it since I got out of the army, because I wanted to get back on my dancing feet and wanted to continue to grow some of the erotic friendships I was fast making.
(I "loved" Ahn from the start, that love grew before it soured, but it was alwatys clear: Ahn was married, Ahn was married to Bob. I flirted with her, I danced with her, I was courtly to her ... Then I went away and left her alone.)
Still, it's a bit much to arrest a guy, me, for what he wrote, in violation of the Bill of Rights, and then to group recite secular boiler plate about "liberty and justice for all." It rankles a bit. And behind me, I'd hear people, who knew I was no patriot and had been jailed as a federal felon (freedom of speech = federal felony (in pk's case) (as in others')) would growl behind me during the rituals:
2) Secular Versions of Sacred Ritual: Christmas, for example:
Ahn routinely scheduled more activities for HSC than could fit into a day. Then a special occasion would come up and and scheduled events would be forgotten. My dance lessons would be shoved aside: so some lawyer could explain wills, for a fashion show, for reason after reason. But then my dance lessons, though verbally approved by CEO Ahn had never gotten recorded into any official notes. (Ahn keeps records such as emails by throwing them away!)
I say above that I am not a patriot. I say additionally that because I am a disciple of Jesus (Christ was behind my offer of a cheap internet in 1970: steal from me, you're stealling from God), that I am Not A Christian! I want nothing to do with people who identify themselves as saved, and only to do with people I see evidence Jesus has marked as saved. Therefore, I follow Ivan Illich: because I see his halo! Others have followed me because they see mine. (While others persecute me the moment they suspect that they might see mine: people who have no idea that the society is damned until proved otherwise; not saved until proved damned!) Anyway, though I squirmed for presents when I was a kid, I soon came puritanically to disapprove of Christmas, and especially it's made for the managed marketplace atmosphere. I tell Christians: Cromwell had celebrators of Christmas put in the stocks: Christmas is Pagan ritual masquerading behind Jesus' name. No avail, no understanding.
Do we really believe God is going to back the damned against Jesus' disciples?! (Jail is not a sane place, but among the damned, it's the least insane!) (When Emerson asked Thoreau what he was doing in jail, Thoreau asked Emerson what he was doing out of jail!)
Anyway: Ahn initiated a fund raising drive to give Christmas presents to children of poor families. Some poor children, black of course, were rounded up and paraded before these octogenarian consumers. I don't trust churches to administer charities. I don't trust secular charities to take over. HSC is legally a charity (however conspicuously it is run by and for Bob and Ahn McQueen) (I'll go into details about that elsewhere, soon); but what I would like to see as a charitable act would be for the octogenarians to scout around in neighborhoods they've never been in before, find some poor people, then see what they most need, then decided if they want to give them any part of it.
Does the kid need a doll? or a bicycle? or a candy? Might not the kid need a doctor's appointment? a bowl of soup? new shoes? a bandage? I hate the prescription of presents to people we don't know!
1) Patriotic Ritual
I am not a patriot. I keep running into patriots, but I have never been a patriot. In grade school I eventually realized what "pledge allegiance to the flag" meant: but of course we all had to recite it long before we could be expected to understand 10% of the implications. No, it's wasn't pledging the legions of the flag, it was "allegiance": a hard concept even for an adult. Still, I put up with the HSC's quorum of ritual, having been free of it since I got out of the army, because I wanted to get back on my dancing feet and wanted to continue to grow some of the erotic friendships I was fast making.
(I "loved" Ahn from the start, that love grew before it soured, but it was alwatys clear: Ahn was married, Ahn was married to Bob. I flirted with her, I danced with her, I was courtly to her ... Then I went away and left her alone.)
Still, it's a bit much to arrest a guy, me, for what he wrote, in violation of the Bill of Rights, and then to group recite secular boiler plate about "liberty and justice for all." It rankles a bit. And behind me, I'd hear people, who knew I was no patriot and had been jailed as a federal felon (freedom of speech = federal felony (in pk's case) (as in others')) would growl behind me during the rituals:
"America! Love it Or Leave it!"
2) Secular Versions of Sacred Ritual: Christmas, for example:
Ahn routinely scheduled more activities for HSC than could fit into a day. Then a special occasion would come up and and scheduled events would be forgotten. My dance lessons would be shoved aside: so some lawyer could explain wills, for a fashion show, for reason after reason. But then my dance lessons, though verbally approved by CEO Ahn had never gotten recorded into any official notes. (Ahn keeps records such as emails by throwing them away!)
I say above that I am not a patriot. I say additionally that because I am a disciple of Jesus (Christ was behind my offer of a cheap internet in 1970: steal from me, you're stealling from God), that I am Not A Christian! I want nothing to do with people who identify themselves as saved, and only to do with people I see evidence Jesus has marked as saved. Therefore, I follow Ivan Illich: because I see his halo! Others have followed me because they see mine. (While others persecute me the moment they suspect that they might see mine: people who have no idea that the society is damned until proved otherwise; not saved until proved damned!) Anyway, though I squirmed for presents when I was a kid, I soon came puritanically to disapprove of Christmas, and especially it's made for the managed marketplace atmosphere. I tell Christians: Cromwell had celebrators of Christmas put in the stocks: Christmas is Pagan ritual masquerading behind Jesus' name. No avail, no understanding.
Do we really believe God is going to back the damned against Jesus' disciples?! (Jail is not a sane place, but among the damned, it's the least insane!) (When Emerson asked Thoreau what he was doing in jail, Thoreau asked Emerson what he was doing out of jail!)
Anyway: Ahn initiated a fund raising drive to give Christmas presents to children of poor families. Some poor children, black of course, were rounded up and paraded before these octogenarian consumers. I don't trust churches to administer charities. I don't trust secular charities to take over. HSC is legally a charity (however conspicuously it is run by and for Bob and Ahn McQueen) (I'll go into details about that elsewhere, soon); but what I would like to see as a charitable act would be for the octogenarians to scout around in neighborhoods they've never been in before, find some poor people, then see what they most need, then decided if they want to give them any part of it.
Does the kid need a doll? or a bicycle? or a candy? Might not the kid need a doctor's appointment? a bowl of soup? new shoes? a bandage? I hate the prescription of presents to people we don't know!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Senior Safety
HSC / pk: Fact #4: Senior Safety
Through early 2010 HSC met at the Sebring Hills Clubhouse (though in 2010 the organization moved to the Lion's Club). It's laid out in a line, like a railway train: to get from car two to car four you have to pass through car three. At one end are the storage closets: closed to the public. What the public sees is the Entrance end (with the buffet, the kitchen), then the Dining table middle, then the Dance floor (with a side reserved for the band). From 9 to 10 I would lead the line dancing: on the dance floor (using a CD player). At 10 the morning band started, and ball room dancing would take place on the one dance floor. At noon we'd have patriotic and religious ceremonies, then from 1 till closing the afternoon band would play for more ballroom dancing (a few line dances regularly thrown in).
Fine. It ought to have worked, even without an architect or a traffic cop. Except: throughout the day the kitchen staff would need something extra from the storage room. They'd have to pass through the dancers.
That too ought to have been fine, except: Bob is a big guy. The line dancers were typically female, in the 80s and 90s! frail, none too well coordinated. Bob, 220 or so pounds, six foot plus something, would put his head down, and barge through. The other kitchen staff were also generally young, large, and self-occupied. They all put their heads down, and barged through.
Now, here's a wrinkle not everyone will think of: ballroom dancing couples can be like mosquitoes at the lake: you can move through them without knocking them flat, the couples improvise along the line of dance, orbiting the dance floor like the Zodiac moving around the night. Not so line dancing. Line dancing is choreographed. You move north for four counts, then south for four counts. Suddenly the whole line turns West, or East!
A dozen of twenty 80 year old ladies turning East on cue does not mix safely with GI-Joe with his eyes shut. I mentioned this safety issue to Ahn. She said she'd take care of it.
And for a couple of weeks I'd notice Bob, impatiently waiting for a clear line of penetration, glowering at me as he did so. But then the band would go out of its way to be in our way. They'd tune up while we were straining to hear our weak CD player.
The HSC was never on the same page with itself.
The HSC was never on the same page with its volunteers.
Ahn tries to be the universal traffic cop. But if her back in turned, if she's being carted off by the ambulance (I've seen her carried out of the HSC several times in less than a year), then there is no traffic cop.
When I was in the army any private to tell any general to drop dead if the general was trying to steal the post gas. But in a south American dictatorship, there's only one cop. And the HSC cop is asleep at the wheel, and never delegates.
Oh, she delegates tasks, but no authority.
Now some HSC martinets take the authority themselves: pushing people around on the lunch line; but HSC's gentleman pk wants to be told, specifically, You can ban the kitchen staff from the dance floor during the dance, and fine them, expel them, call the cops on them, if they trespass.
I told Ahn: it's dangerous. I warned members: If there's an accident, I'll testify for the victim against the HSC.
But Ahn and Bob see and hear only what they want.
I used to think Ahn's heart was in the right place (while Bob's heart was where the sun don't shine). Now I don't.
Through early 2010 HSC met at the Sebring Hills Clubhouse (though in 2010 the organization moved to the Lion's Club). It's laid out in a line, like a railway train: to get from car two to car four you have to pass through car three. At one end are the storage closets: closed to the public. What the public sees is the Entrance end (with the buffet, the kitchen), then the Dining table middle, then the Dance floor (with a side reserved for the band). From 9 to 10 I would lead the line dancing: on the dance floor (using a CD player). At 10 the morning band started, and ball room dancing would take place on the one dance floor. At noon we'd have patriotic and religious ceremonies, then from 1 till closing the afternoon band would play for more ballroom dancing (a few line dances regularly thrown in).
Fine. It ought to have worked, even without an architect or a traffic cop. Except: throughout the day the kitchen staff would need something extra from the storage room. They'd have to pass through the dancers.
That too ought to have been fine, except: Bob is a big guy. The line dancers were typically female, in the 80s and 90s! frail, none too well coordinated. Bob, 220 or so pounds, six foot plus something, would put his head down, and barge through. The other kitchen staff were also generally young, large, and self-occupied. They all put their heads down, and barged through.
Now, here's a wrinkle not everyone will think of: ballroom dancing couples can be like mosquitoes at the lake: you can move through them without knocking them flat, the couples improvise along the line of dance, orbiting the dance floor like the Zodiac moving around the night. Not so line dancing. Line dancing is choreographed. You move north for four counts, then south for four counts. Suddenly the whole line turns West, or East!
A dozen of twenty 80 year old ladies turning East on cue does not mix safely with GI-Joe with his eyes shut. I mentioned this safety issue to Ahn. She said she'd take care of it.
And for a couple of weeks I'd notice Bob, impatiently waiting for a clear line of penetration, glowering at me as he did so. But then the band would go out of its way to be in our way. They'd tune up while we were straining to hear our weak CD player.
The HSC was never on the same page with itself.
The HSC was never on the same page with its volunteers.
Ahn tries to be the universal traffic cop. But if her back in turned, if she's being carted off by the ambulance (I've seen her carried out of the HSC several times in less than a year), then there is no traffic cop.
When I was in the army any private to tell any general to drop dead if the general was trying to steal the post gas. But in a south American dictatorship, there's only one cop. And the HSC cop is asleep at the wheel, and never delegates.
Oh, she delegates tasks, but no authority.
Now some HSC martinets take the authority themselves: pushing people around on the lunch line; but HSC's gentleman pk wants to be told, specifically, You can ban the kitchen staff from the dance floor during the dance, and fine them, expel them, call the cops on them, if they trespass.
I told Ahn: it's dangerous. I warned members: If there's an accident, I'll testify for the victim against the HSC.
But Ahn and Bob see and hear only what they want.
I used to think Ahn's heart was in the right place (while Bob's heart was where the sun don't shine). Now I don't.
Blogs & Domains
HSC / pk Fact #3: Blogs & Domains
I started this blog midsummer 2009 as a model for Ahn to start an HSC blog: show her how easy it is. With me sharing the mouse with her, on her PC, in her office, we started what was to be her HSCSeniors blog. When hers matured, I'd delete this one.
Meantime, I recommended that she purchase a domain name: HSCSeniors.org was available. I'd be webmaster, she cold guide the content.
We rented storage space from ImHosted.com. Then it turned out that that service hadn't simultaneously bought us the domain name. And they weren't responding to our questions. So we bought HSCSeniors.org from GoDaddy.com. We weren't getting much better service from them.
I explained to Ahn that I needed her to get them to give her the FTP address to publish the material to. I'd already composed the site, had the graphics ready, all the code, all the text. Months passed. Ahn never did seem to understand what was required, no matter how many times I explained it. Finally, Bob came back from another trip to Texas. I told him what I needed.
That was September 2009. I still don't have the FTP address. (2015 02 22 still don't)
Bob got someone else to put my code, my text, my site up.
It seems that Ahn wants me to do these things, but doesn't know how to help. Bob wants to sabotage everything I do.
Ahn and Bob visibly hate each other.
Bob wins.
I left.
pk and money and a lawyer could close them down. But pk has no money and no lawyer.
I started this blog midsummer 2009 as a model for Ahn to start an HSC blog: show her how easy it is. With me sharing the mouse with her, on her PC, in her office, we started what was to be her HSCSeniors blog. When hers matured, I'd delete this one.
Meantime, I recommended that she purchase a domain name: HSCSeniors.org was available. I'd be webmaster, she cold guide the content.
We rented storage space from ImHosted.com. Then it turned out that that service hadn't simultaneously bought us the domain name. And they weren't responding to our questions. So we bought HSCSeniors.org from GoDaddy.com. We weren't getting much better service from them.
I explained to Ahn that I needed her to get them to give her the FTP address to publish the material to. I'd already composed the site, had the graphics ready, all the code, all the text. Months passed. Ahn never did seem to understand what was required, no matter how many times I explained it. Finally, Bob came back from another trip to Texas. I told him what I needed.
That was September 2009. I still don't have the FTP address. (2015 02 22 still don't)
Bob got someone else to put my code, my text, my site up.
It seems that Ahn wants me to do these things, but doesn't know how to help. Bob wants to sabotage everything I do.
Ahn and Bob visibly hate each other.
Bob wins.
I left.
pk and money and a lawyer could close them down. But pk has no money and no lawyer.
Member of the Board
HSC / pk Fact #2: Member of the Board
Also early 2009 Ahn asked me to become a member of the Board.
Merely attending the HSC I watched how Ahn solicited volunteer help, then overworked and bullied the help until the help refused to help any more. Many an HSC senior used to volunteer, used to be on the board. I watched Ahn ask Connie to do this, then that. When Connie finally said to Item N, I can't. Ahn said, You have to. And Connie never did another thing for Ahn.
I knew that. I saw that. Yet when Ahn asked me, I said Yes: vowing silently to myself to keep my eyes open. I figured the HSC, "owned" by its execs Ahn and Bob, to be a South American dictatorship. I figured the Board, to be a row of puppets. Still, I went along: I'd see for myself by experience as well as forecast by imagination mixed with skepticism.
I'll fill in details, but let me start with these two:
1) I have never had more than thirty second conversation with any other board member. I have never seen any two board members in even thirty seconds of conversation. No: a row of puppets.
2) Bob was going to Texas, Ahn asked me to make the drinks while he was away. I did. Bob came back. Bob clearly behaved as though it was established that I would make his drinks for him from then on. Ahn had it read into the BOD Minutes that it had been so established. The Board's "facts" are fictions. The Board's facts are false.
But who cares? Besides me?
Oh well: between schools and elections, we're accustomed to falsehoods parading as facts.
Also early 2009 Ahn asked me to become a member of the Board.
Merely attending the HSC I watched how Ahn solicited volunteer help, then overworked and bullied the help until the help refused to help any more. Many an HSC senior used to volunteer, used to be on the board. I watched Ahn ask Connie to do this, then that. When Connie finally said to Item N, I can't. Ahn said, You have to. And Connie never did another thing for Ahn.
I knew that. I saw that. Yet when Ahn asked me, I said Yes: vowing silently to myself to keep my eyes open. I figured the HSC, "owned" by its execs Ahn and Bob, to be a South American dictatorship. I figured the Board, to be a row of puppets. Still, I went along: I'd see for myself by experience as well as forecast by imagination mixed with skepticism.
I'll fill in details, but let me start with these two:
1) I have never had more than thirty second conversation with any other board member. I have never seen any two board members in even thirty seconds of conversation. No: a row of puppets.
2) Bob was going to Texas, Ahn asked me to make the drinks while he was away. I did. Bob came back. Bob clearly behaved as though it was established that I would make his drinks for him from then on. Ahn had it read into the BOD Minutes that it had been so established. The Board's "facts" are fictions. The Board's facts are false.
But who cares? Besides me?
Oh well: between schools and elections, we're accustomed to falsehoods parading as facts.
Dance Teacher
HSC / pk: Fact #1: Dance Teacher
Early 2009 Ahn hired me to teach the line dancing: my payment was free admission to the Social.
Background facts:
I started attending the Senior Center in August of 2008: to meet women: which required me, I believed, to begin dancing again: for the first time since I retired from the dance floor: in high school. (I was titled the Best Dancer in my school, but by people who hadn't seen me dance in years!) I met the women: a string of them. A little practice, and a lot of chutzpah, got a few of my steps back: the style returned very fast. That's me.
Ahn, our leader, was very nice, and very funny. She can be so uninhibited I won't repeat some of her best moments: she flashes them publicly: at friends, but they're not for publication.
After a couple of months, by autumn 2008, the HSC added some line dancing. The teacher was difficult, not terribly competent. Ahn asked me to help. I said sure. Ahn said, after I'd already agreed, that helping with the line dance teaching, I would not have to pay the $5 entrance fee. The fed broke my when they arrested me: the government is a past master at destroying its critics, those who would improve it.
Upshot:
By New Years 2009-turning-to-'10 Bob, our president, Ahn's GI-Joe husband, was sniping at me, saying that I had to pay admission: unless I washed his dishes during the lunch hour when I was scheduled to teach the ballroom dancing! Insane.
Ahn hired me: how could Bob fire me? He was president, but she was CEO.
Anyway, Ahn didn't defend her guy. She didn't say I had to pay, but she didn't make Bob back down. Her hiring me was clear only between the two of us; it was not clear to the world.
That's no way to run an organization. In protest, I stopped going.
I still love Ahn; but I don't believe that HSC is legitimate. If the public tolerates sloppy administration of its charities, I can't help that. For these nine months my protest has been silent: articulated only to individuals. Now I'll start telling key points here online.
Early 2009 Ahn hired me to teach the line dancing: my payment was free admission to the Social.
Background facts:
I started attending the Senior Center in August of 2008: to meet women: which required me, I believed, to begin dancing again: for the first time since I retired from the dance floor: in high school. (I was titled the Best Dancer in my school, but by people who hadn't seen me dance in years!) I met the women: a string of them. A little practice, and a lot of chutzpah, got a few of my steps back: the style returned very fast. That's me.
Ahn, our leader, was very nice, and very funny. She can be so uninhibited I won't repeat some of her best moments: she flashes them publicly: at friends, but they're not for publication.
After a couple of months, by autumn 2008, the HSC added some line dancing. The teacher was difficult, not terribly competent. Ahn asked me to help. I said sure. Ahn said, after I'd already agreed, that helping with the line dance teaching, I would not have to pay the $5 entrance fee. The fed broke my when they arrested me: the government is a past master at destroying its critics, those who would improve it.
Upshot:
By New Years 2009-turning-to-'10 Bob, our president, Ahn's GI-Joe husband, was sniping at me, saying that I had to pay admission: unless I washed his dishes during the lunch hour when I was scheduled to teach the ballroom dancing! Insane.
Ahn hired me: how could Bob fire me? He was president, but she was CEO.
Anyway, Ahn didn't defend her guy. She didn't say I had to pay, but she didn't make Bob back down. Her hiring me was clear only between the two of us; it was not clear to the world.
That's no way to run an organization. In protest, I stopped going.
I still love Ahn; but I don't believe that HSC is legitimate. If the public tolerates sloppy administration of its charities, I can't help that. For these nine months my protest has been silent: articulated only to individuals. Now I'll start telling key points here online.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
HSC pk Throat Clearing
Now that a few basic facts have been added, I'll be editing this forerunner.
I began this blog as a model for Ahn to make an HSC blog. I'd help, I'd even write it, maintain it, but I wanted her to take it in her hand and claim it. I'll link to the result a bit later.
The point was to encourage Ahn to let me initiate an HSC web site for the Center. After much bewildering difficulty my site was finally posted, but not by me: neither Ahn nor Bob would give me the FTP address: no data storage access, no web site. Maybe I failed to explain to them what an FTP address was, but not for lack of repetition, not for lack of clarity on my part. Essentially, they're neither of them very literate, or technical.
Bob got someone else to put it up, essentially stealing my work. Ahn has since turned responsibility over to someone else: though as far as I know, my design is still up, untouched. No one has emailed me about it.
But that's not the only incompetence on Ahn's part or ineptitude, rudeness, and sabotage on Bob's part. Together, they'll tare their club apart, and I have not attended since early 2010. I haven't taught the dancing, haven't helped with any of my thousand voluntary contributions.
I want to recreate my full site here, just so you can see what I did for Ahn and the HSC, un-interfered with. Then I want to tell detail by detail what's wrong with HSC: including some things that are a threat to the health of the aged, things possibly criminal. Note that they take place with the collusion of the municipality: and the public!
I still love Ahn, hold Bob in total contempt, but I won't work for them: unless a lot got fixed.
I began this blog as a model for Ahn to make an HSC blog. I'd help, I'd even write it, maintain it, but I wanted her to take it in her hand and claim it. I'll link to the result a bit later.
The point was to encourage Ahn to let me initiate an HSC web site for the Center. After much bewildering difficulty my site was finally posted, but not by me: neither Ahn nor Bob would give me the FTP address: no data storage access, no web site. Maybe I failed to explain to them what an FTP address was, but not for lack of repetition, not for lack of clarity on my part. Essentially, they're neither of them very literate, or technical.
Bob got someone else to put it up, essentially stealing my work. Ahn has since turned responsibility over to someone else: though as far as I know, my design is still up, untouched. No one has emailed me about it.
But that's not the only incompetence on Ahn's part or ineptitude, rudeness, and sabotage on Bob's part. Together, they'll tare their club apart, and I have not attended since early 2010. I haven't taught the dancing, haven't helped with any of my thousand voluntary contributions.
I want to recreate my full site here, just so you can see what I did for Ahn and the HSC, un-interfered with. Then I want to tell detail by detail what's wrong with HSC: including some things that are a threat to the health of the aged, things possibly criminal. Note that they take place with the collusion of the municipality: and the public!
I still love Ahn, hold Bob in total contempt, but I won't work for them: unless a lot got fixed.
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