Thoughts on trying new things

Yesterday I had a wonderful but accidental first while trying to get photos for another of my firsts: I successfully took some pictures with my new xoom tablet, then uploaded them to our server — all by myself! This might not sound like much to the heavily geekified, but it is for me. The xoom arrives with absolutely no help documents worthy of the name, which is an appalling lack if you ask me. As one of my sweeties is fond of saying, “If the user can’t find it — it doesn’t exist!”

So (with a small growl of irritation) I checked out the Xoom for Dummies book from the library. However, despite the stupid title the book has proven its worth for me. Today I used it to help me take some photos with the xoom, troubleshoot an issue with the Camera right afterward, beam happily at the Gallery, then figure out how to download the photos onto the house’s server. Once that was done I uploaded them here, so readers can also see and admire my (*cough*) totally rad awesumsauce l33t skillz! Madly going overboard, there. :)

While doing this I had an interesting side-thought regarding a very nice possible and unwitting byproduct of endeavoring to fulfill this “new things” list. Ordinarily I’d go get someone else to do the research on the xoom for me, then show me how… and I’d get them to upload the photos for me too. This time I decided why not just try it myself?

It hit me later, as I was happily making this happen: will my 50 New Things List start gently nudging me to have more confidence and reliance on my own abilities? If so… I should have done this decades ago. So all this is a sort of round-about way of saying I have new photos up on the 50 New Things list. Enjoy!

An amused side-note on doing things myself, however: when trying to photograph the back of your head, ask for help! Struggling with catching sight of the back of your head in the big bathroom mirror, as reflected by a small hand-held mirror and then perceived in the xoom? Uh, no. Not so good. :)

More ATS belly dancing thoughts

I was really pleased to see the class consisted of both women who looked like real people, as well as one or two of the very slender, young-and-pretty type. I got the feeling Natalia, the instructor, remembered what it was to be a beginner too. I was impressed that she both made the effort to help us feel comfortable, and was very patient at explaining the motions. I’ve been in other classes of differing types where the teachers were very, very good at what they did — but had utterly no idea how to actually teach. Those are not easy classes to learn in; I always get the feeling those instructors are almost embarrassed to be near beginners, which sort of defeats the purpose, surely? I was relieved to see this was not the case with Natalia.

I can tell already I’m going to have to find some barter, or make some purchases, in order to have the clothing basics, too. I wonder if I can make some of it myself? The big, black, wide skirts shouldn’t be too difficult? I think I’m going to have to buy a choli — the particular top they use — though, as my beginning sewing skills are likely not yet up to that. :)