I’ve seen other complaints as I’ve read through many blogs about the same thing. I got an email today from Adsense that I had invalid clicks. Funny, I had looked at my account this afternoon. I was finally getting close to being paid. I don’t have anyone clicking ads for me to generate extra money. They have a one-time appeal policy, but of course they stick to disabling the account. Once it has been disabled, you can’t ever get another account. I certainly didn’t click the ads on my own site. I know better than that. I can’t understand why they punish the site owner for clicks that you have no control over. So, Google–your policies suck! They don’t even really review. Once disabled, permanently disabled. The review is a joke. I didn’t violate their stupid policies!

Technorati: Google sucks

The Based On Experience podcast episode 17 is up. It can be downloaded from iTunes or from the website.

I’m off this morning to an interview for most of the day.

Technorati: Based on Experience, podcast

I had one heck of a workout last night. This hula and Tahitian dancing is kicking my butt. Finally after 2 months, I was shown all the arm movements to one dance. I had a few down, but not all. We have a test coming up. Yes, you heard that right a test—like school. I have to know the chanting dance in Hawaiian, translate it to English and be able to describe the movements for each verse.

In Tahitian class, we worked on basics and the dance routine. Then we worked on one movement. I had one of the advanced dancers working with me—which is great. You can’t beat one-on-one help. But, boy was I sweating. It was dripping down my face. I was sore all night long. So I have lots to practice with both hula and Tahitian. I still have at least 2 more pieces of a costume to sew. We have to have bloomers under the skirts. I guess it’s tradition when wearing the skirt outside the halau or home. For practice, I wear shorts underneath. I do the same for Tahitian under the pareo. I always worry that the pareo will come untied.

So I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with what I need to learn and get done is a short time. I’ll be practicing an entire hula dance this week and one basic Tahitian movement. The shirts I have seen that say “eat, sleep, hula” aren’t far from the truth. I once had someone ask if I did anything else. I don’t have time to do any other kind of exercise or have many other hobbies outside of dancing.

Technorati: hula, Tahitian, dance

The two and half hours I spent sewing a hula costume last night didn’t get me very far. I managed to get the material into the right size pieces. I found out that I bought double of what I needed. I also found out that the brown material I bought is much too heavy, so I need to go back to the fabric store to get new fabric. Yuck.

My neighbors have fully decorated their house for Halloween. It’s all lit up like you see at Christmas, except for the spider webs and strange monsters in the bushes. Even I don’t have that kind of enthusiasm for Halloween. Hardly any kids go trick-or-treating anymore. Last year I think a dozen kids came by and that included the neighbor’s two kids who won’t be in the neighborhood this year. One of those divorced families sharing kid time. Something I’m very familiar with, except since mine lives so far away, it isn’t as often.

Podcasting got moved to today. I still don’t have news about the last podcast being ready for download. I would imagine that there are still some problems with uploading it to the host site. After this long, I’d be ripping my hair out. I don’t have a lot of patience with these computer and Internet issues—particularly website issues that I can’t do anything about. Depending on the website, it can take forever to get a response back from service and even longer to get the website back up. Lately, Blogger has been giving me a headache. Several mornings in a row, it has not been able to publish immediately. Then I get anywhere from two to eight posts of the same post. Apparently every attempt at publishing somehow puts it on your blog—even if you don’t see it immediately.

Technorati: halloween, blog, podcast, hula

I looked at my calendar for this week yesterday. I have a very busy week coming up. My biggest concern is making a costume for hula before the end of the month. I’m not the best at sewing, and it’s something I will put off if I can. I bought the material yesterday. It’s a huge amount. It takes four to five yards of material to make a skirt. I have that to do tonight. Someone is going to show the group how to make the different pieces.

I’m recording another podcast this afternoon. I will be letting you know here when the first one I did is ready to download.

I’m a little concerned about a friend of mine who went to Kona, Hawaii yesterday. Yes, although there was an earthquake, it didn’t stop him from going. He’s not the type to want anyone to be concerned about him, but I am anyway, and I would guess his parents are too. On the news, things looked a bit crazy with all the lines to the stores and blocked roads.

I just got back from he one-on-one seesion about tahitian dance tryouts. I didn’t make it. I wish I had, but I know their comments are valid. When you’re nervous it’s hard to do your best, and it was the first tryout I’ve had. While I have a lot to work on, I have come a long way as well. The next tryouts are about six months from now. They want their best dancers for competition, so I can fully understand. Tryouts were tough and nerve-racking. I practiced a lot for the tryouts, which helped me a lot. Now I have a better idea of what they are looking for and what I need to work on. Overall, it was a good experience.

So I am a bit disappointed, but considering their remarks, I wouldn’t have chosen me either–a bit too green.

Technorati: dance

The Based On Experience podcast is up–almost. It can be downloaded from iTunes or from the website soon. There was a small glitch. Kelly heard some coughing, so she has been triying to post a new version and hasn’t been able to do so. I heard the old one. I am happy to hear that my voice sounds much less nasal on the podcast than it does to me. It sounds like my sister is doing the podcast–our voices are very similar.

Kelly will be happy to know after listening to just a portion of the podcast that I decided to find a headset with a microphone for my Mac. It’s not as easy as it sounds to find a good headset or the right headset. My old microphone doesn’t work, so I had to find a USB headset. I think it will sound less like I’m talking from across the room to the microphone.

We had fun doing the podcast, so you will hear more podcasts with me. I can’t wait to do more. Thanks Kelly for giving a girl a chance on your podcast!

Technorati: Based on Experience, podcast

Oh, Friday the 13th. I forgot until I began to type this post. Other than remarking on that, I have little to say about it. I’m not superstitious.

I finally heard about the contract I had been waiting on. I have to wait some more. The guy hasn’t decided whom he’s going to choose. How fun. More waiting, until sometime next week. In the meantime, I got a call right away about a resume I submitted for a fulltime job. It’s with a company I had been trying to get into for years.

I have a busy upcoming week. Sunday I find out if I made the dance troupe for competition. I have another podcast coming up, and more hula practice. Then there’s one of those marathon interviews. I really hate them.

I have some people working on making contacts for me with writing projects where you also need some sort of science or technical background. I really should have worked on all this months ago, but I just wasn’t ready. I hadn’t even defined what I wanted to do. A day after the project meeting for the possible contract I remember feeling like I was finally doing what I should be doing. It just felt right.

Technorati: work

I finally found out why I couldn’t call my mother for almost a week. I called my sister to see if she had heard from her. She found the same thing I did: the phone rings and rings, but no one answers and the answering machine doesn’t pick up. She made a few phone calls, which I suppose I could have done, but generally the time difference means that I’m calling too late. I even talked to my sister for a few minutes, which I almost never do. We generally talk once a year at whatever holiday when we are both at our mother’s. I don’t think I saw her last year. She wasn’t able to make Thanksgiving, and that’s the only time I visited. We had a good laugh about mom’s inability to use cell phones. She has one, but never uses it. Neither one of us had the number. I lost it somehow with computer problems. Even if we had the number, our mother would have had to hear the phone to answer it and be able to get to it in time.

I got a call last night from my mother on her cell phone. It had been in her car for almost two weeks, which was when she went to visit my sister. My sister lives within driving distance. I don’t. So I found out first hand that her home phone has been out. I think it took her awhile to figure it out because she didn’t lose a dial tone until a few days after it didn’t ring through. Like I told my sister, she probably didn’t figure it out right away and was enjoying the silence. The phone still isn’t fixed. And even though she used her cell phone to call me, the call got dropped, and I wasn’t able to call her back. Her service is terrible, but then my service is terrible when I go there as well. When you live near nothing, cell phone signals don’t get there either.

My mother could have used her computer—it’s not tied to the phone line. But it never occurred to her. I have no idea how you can go a day without checking the computer for email—even if it is just to clean out the junk. My mother will go weeks or even a month between logins. My sister still sends email to her. I can’t see the point.

Hula and Tahitian dance certainly worked me over last night. I could barely move an hour later. I didn’t even feel like I worked that hard. My muscles were tight, so it felt like I was hardly moving. We are getting ready for a luau and “recital.” It sounds so silly to call it a recital for adults. I have a costume to make here very soon. I do own a sewing machine, and I know how to sew simple stuff. I hardly ever use it though. The skirts require sewing a straight line for over 4 yards and then doing that four or five times. How fun.

Some of the other gals were asking me about the Sunday meetings at the halau. I guess some are getting nervous. I am a bit nervous, too. Instead of just letting you know if you made it, they are doing a 15 minutes sit-down with each dancer. I’m just hoping they don’t show me on video. I really don’t want to see it. I’m fine with just being told what I need to improve. It’s plenty.

Yesterday I had hoped to hear about the contract job, but I didn’t. It’s supposed to start on Monday, and while it hasn’t been that long, it seems like forever. This afternoon I will do the podcast, so I will be occupied for a few hours. September seemed full of possible jobs, but October seems dry.

It’s probably never time to panic, but I have so much on my mind. I doubt I will panic–never have before–but it is all getting worrisome. In my experience, even worrying doesn’t do any good. I stopped that a few years ago, but this hunting for work isn’t helping right now.

Technorati: hula, tahitian dance