Information Overload

"What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it." - Herbert Simon

Good lord! Try figuring that out!

The reason I posted that quote is just to say that I really need to reign in my ideas. Desperately. I'm about to go crazy. My final for Dance and Tech has now changed. Unfortunately AND fortunately. More details to come.

Prayers are in order...

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving Break was great. I really felt like I got a lot done. I even slept!

David and I enjoyed a fabulous meal with Mair, Nicole, Abby and Sara. Mair and Nicole outdid themselves! It was truly amazing.

The next morning snow started to fall. It wasn't a lot, but it was still really pretty! Pai and I got our morning walk in before it disappeared.

I was able to get a lot of homework done - finished a small paper, started a mock proposal, and worked on my Dance and Tech final which involves Jennifer Micallef's website. I'm excited that her website will be a reality soon.

Besides school work, David and I were able to finish filming our animation experiment. Hopefully I'll have this puppy finished by Christmas!

One week of classes and then it's finals week and then a REAL break. I'm looking forward to it!

Some Images for Banners

Wireframe for Jennifer

Here's the extremely simple layout for Jennifer's site - no colors, just layout/shapes.

http://www.websmithsite.com/jennifermicallef/micallef.pdf

More to come....

Inversions and the end of a quarter

Tonight I decided to work on inversions with a little help from David. I wanted to make sure that I give myself the opportunity to feel verticality. I have always had a problem with inversions, mainly with getting my pelvis in the right alignment over my head. What I felt when I was finally vertical was a lengthened feeling in my abdominal wall. Well, actually, engagement AND length at the same time. It was great! Also, I think I might need to consider that my back will feel a little arched at first because normally I want to round my back when my head is going to the floor.

It was a liberating experience tonight and one of many experiences from this quarter's yoga class that I will happily carry with me into other areas of my life.

Tomorrow is technically when yoga journals are due (in my case, my yoga blog). I suppose this could be my last post as it would have fulfilled my class assignment. I will, however, continue to post findings, revelations, etc once a week as my yoga practice is never-ending and always developing.

So... Thank you Michael Morris for your guidance and inspiration!

Till next week...

Yoga Competition?

I know yoga competitions exist, but I really don't understand them. To me they are completely separate from yoga practice or the yoga discipline. I understand that proponents for yoga competitions say it is one way to get people into yoga studios to practice yoga and learn the deeper value of practice beyond asanas, but I think this is a superficial reason. If someone is interested in learning the value of yoga, he will find himself in a yoga studio. If he is introduced to yoga through watching a competition, he might be more interested in yoga competitions. In other words, I think yoga competitions will breed yoga competitors, not enlightened human beings.

That's just my two cents worth.

Revisiting

Today I popped in an old yoga DVD that I used to practice called Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga. It was wonderful to notice slight differences. Baptiste's language is different than Michael Morris's, however, I found myself translating Baptiste's words into what I have been exploring in Morris's class.

For example, when Baptiste would talk about breath, specifically "oceanic breathing," my ears heard ujjayi. When Baptiste spoke of drawing the belly in deep, I thought of muscle engagement and the Svadhistana Chakra.

The particular vinyasa yoga I practiced today was a thirty minute session that focused on core strength, so there were more "exercises" for the abdominal muscles, which I needed today. I found it interesting that it was next to impossible for me to maintain ujjayi breathing when I moved through more tradition abdominal exercises. It was if my mind kicked into "gym" mentality. The other thing I marveled at was how quickly 30 minutes passed. I have more patience and stamina in yoga then I did when I first bought that DVD. What a happy discovery!