I got back from the laundromat at 11:30 pm last night. Two and a half hours and $13. Everything except what I actually wore is now washed. I brought them home wet.
I'm very unhappy with the way the loads in the smaller washing machines came out - I think there's a lot of soap still in them. I'm going to run them all through another cycle this evening, without soap. The lady who works at the laundromat said that their water is very soft, and I should have used half as much detergent as usual. Soft? Here? Our water is so hard it's off the scale. How can the water be soft two miles down the road?
I don't understand. (Well, I do, but I don't like it.)
Note to self - don't ever use the deep washers again. If there's no one else there, you can't get those last few pieces of underwear out of the bottom. (Or else take a stick so you can fish them out.)
*******************
Last time Daughter and I were together, she showed me something from her dance class that she was having trouble with. Her instructor wants the girls to sit on their dupas, and bounce and creep, using the cheek muscles. Daughter said that was necessary for a shimmy.
My immediate reaction was "Huh? You don't use those muscles for a shimmy." But then I backed off. This is her instructor, and she's happy with her, and I don't know what the instructor is aiming for, and it won't hurt Daughter (I hope), so I'll keep my mouth shut. I mean, it's not like I know everything, especially the way the dance is headed these days.
Well, I just found out that the big school on the west coast, the one that is now "certifying" instructors, has people sitting on their dupas and bouncing. Apparently Daughter's instructor is an adherent of the Suhalia method. All I can hope is that she got it straight from Suhalia, and isn't just teaching something she "heard about".
Which leads to the whole topic of certification. (This is for me. Blowing off steam. Casual readers can skip down to the bottom of this entry for a link to some great photos.)
A few years back, there was a move for state certification of paralegals.
A lot of people working as paralegals started out as legal secretaries and moved into paralegal work as the need developed. What training they get is from their bosses, the lawyers, and it's pretty much limited to the needs of that practice. They do a pretty good job at what they do, because their bosses wouldn't put them in that position if they couldn't handle it. But they are not "certified" or "certificated" (I hate that word, but that's the pair that's used to differentiate between state approved, and vetted by formal training....)
There are also schools (from correspondence schools through tech schools, to respected colleges) that offer training, resulting in a "certificate". Too many graduates of those schools know nothing when they get their certificate, even from the colleges. The schools will pass anyone who pays the tuition, especially if the tuition is being paid by some government program. I had a graduate of one of those programs say to me, "Living will? That's one you write while you're still alive, right?" (As opposed to one you write after you're dead. Seriously.)
The schools also try to cover everything, in the equivalent of two semesters, so nothing is covered in depth. Instead of learning anything about something, you end up learning next to nothing about everything. Their attorney bosses still have to train them.
So somebody, I'm not sure who, started pushing for state certification of paralegals.
It started out as just a test, like a licensing exam. But then the schools got involved, and it turned into constant continuing education required to keep the certificate, and then it turned into a fight, and malpractice insurance companies got involved, and ... I stopped paying attention.
Same thing happened with mediation. Local county-supported mediation centers trained volunteer mediators. They did a pretty good job (although in some cases supervision was a bit lax and the guidelines got distorted - I've got some horror stories, like mediators who thought they were judges, and didn't even correct the clients when they addressed them as "Your Honor"!) Where there was a big problem was that some people got the volunteer training, and then went off and set up a business, hung out a shingle, doing family and divorce mediation in their homes. And a few of them didn't know what they were doing. (Those who do know what they're doing require that a lawyer vet all agreements arrived at in divorce mediation.)
People with degrees in social services, and people with law degrees, were horrified. Good mediators were worried that these dabblers were destroying their good name. So there was a push to require state certification of mediators.
Again, it started out as a qualifying exam. Pretty soon, it expanded to require that all mediators, not just professional ones, must have a degree in either social services or law! In my experience, the best mediators I've seen have been grandmotherly/grandfatherly types, with the wisdom of age. Clients tend to be calmer and more reasonable with them. There is no degree that confers wisdom or life experience.
I also stopped paying attention to that battle. It just made me angry, and the other side had all the power, especially considering that the state legislature is loaded with turf-protecting attorneys.
In both cases, once they come up with criteria, and the state is involved, anyone who doesn't meet the criteria and continues to "do the job" will be breaking the law. Sigh.
So now we come to mid-eastern dance. There really are people who take a few lessons (or even, horrors, learn from a video!), think "ok, I've got it - this is easy", and start teaching. Their unfortunate students don't know any better.
There are also women who have been studying and dancing for years, who do know all aspects of the dance, and they begin teaching, and they hurt people. They forget that the moves they do so easily now must be approached slowly by a beginner. Muscles need building, ligaments and tendons need stretching and training, balance and weight shifts take time to become comfortable and stress-free. (By the way, in case certain people are reading this, I assure you it does not apply to anyone I have ever taken lessons from. I know what to look for.)
But the way it has always been, absolutely anyone can call themselves an instructor.
So, a move toward certification of mid-east dance instructors.
A school on the west coast is certifying instructors. They are taught how to teach the dance, by a particular method. I don't know who has decided this method is best, but there it is. I suppose another school could do the same thing using a different philosophy. The market will kill any that aren't any good, because it sure ain't cheap! This doesn't prevent bad instructors from "hanging out a shingle", and beginners aren't likely to know about it, but once they are in the community, they'll find out. So it's a start. And thank goodness it's not something the state is likely to get involved in!
By the way, dancers know who is good and who isn't. At Rakkasah East, there's a huge room with a gazillion vendors and their customers, and a stage where there's one dancer or group after another nonstop for two and a half days, and yet when certain dancers come out, the room goes suddenly silent. (Usually because they're good. Occasionally because everyone hopes they'll fall flat on their faces. Dancers can be awfully catty.)
That's the best test.
Pity we can't somehow do it for instructing. To "certify" this one or that one by acclamation. Pity an excellent instructor would have to pay a particular school, and subscribe to their philosophy, to get any kind of "certification".
~~Silk
Photos: For some great photos from Rakkasah West earlier this year, go to http://www.saqra.net/rakkasah/photos.html, and scroll to the links in the white bar. The links will take you to pages of thumbnails. (Note - there aren't any yet for Friday Cabaret, so skip that one for now.) Click on the thumbnails to enlarge. Super stuff!
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