The Wandering Monkey

Lately I've been feeling a lack of energy for the swing dancing movement.  We've lost a few students recently, and gained some, too, but I don't feel the momentum.  Plus, our Sunday venue, which I had spent a good deal of time and expense promoting, just cancelled us for the next three weeks because they are having corporate events there during our time.

I don't hold it against them.  We do not bring in much business, not yet anyhow, and this venue is a very, very nice posh place.  They said they wanted us to return again after the three weeks, but as much as I would like that to work, it won't.  We can't change venues like that.  And we can't have inconsitency.  Students have a lesson plan which we need to try to follow.  Sometimes I think it is obvious the reasons why we must have a regular place at a regular time, but a lot of people did not understand.  So...

The first reason is that our regular dancers must learn how to locate the venue, then determine the best way to get there, then figure out a good restaurant to get food at in the area, and so forth. 

Second, there is the advertising.  We printed ( when I say 'we' I mean 'I' ) a good amount of flyers for the event, which takes design time and printing costs.  Many handouts were given, and we have no way of contacting those people to tell them the event has moved. 

Third, just like advertising, the word-of-mouth will suffer with a venue change.  People may not remember everything about the event, but they will probably remember where it was and what time it was held.  Then they tell their friends at work, for instance.  When those people show up at the old venue, they will almost certainly not pursue it further if we are not there.

And last, there's my own personal stress.  I was notified on Tuesday that we would not be able to dance that Sunday.  Mind you, I don't hold anything against the venue.  I'd like to keep doing business with them in some other way.  From a business point of view I know this is true.  But I cannot deny that I am an emotional person and this is an emotional venture I am undertaking.  When I was told we were cancelled, I felt like I had just started dating someone I really liked and suddenly got dumped.

The success of this venture depends a great deal on my own personal level of enthusiasm. It's not computer work.  I can do fine programming even if I'm not happy or if I don't like the job.  But you can't get people excited about dance if you are feeling all defeated.

It's easy to say, "Don't get down about it", but that's not very helpful.  What it boils down to is that I will have to work for maybe 10-20 hours in the next weeks to replace the venue, losing time and energy I could have put to some other use.  Well, that's business, I suppose.

 

On the personal front, I am still looking for an apartment.  I had considered moving in with a Finish friend of mine, but he seems unmotivated to complete the move in the time frame I have.  Plus, he really doesn't have a job.  He's got money enough to pay the rent, but it's quite likely that he could decide to leave town and go back to Finland or take a job in Beijing or Hong Kong or something.  It's too much of a risk.  If he moved I'd have to do another roommate search again, and I don't want to spend my time that way.

 

On the other side of the personal front, I have been stuggling lately with an addiction.  I think all types of addiction have a common nature; you are trying to avoid thinking about something or dealing with some major problem in your life.  The type of problem is too big to ignore, but also for some reason the problem is also beyond your ability to control. 

Well, beyond my philosophy on what addiction is, the thing which I am addicted to is... computer games.

I don't have a computer of my own in China, which is not a problem because there are Internet cafes with public computers everywhere.  But on each of those computers is installed 20 or 30 games.  Every single computer, including the one I am sitting at now, has some of my favorite games installed.  I just have to close this window and click on the icon and I'm playing a game.

The problem is, once I begin, there's no telling how long I'll go for.  Maybe 2, 4, 6 hours.  All without breaks or food.  It's very unhealthy, and it takes up a great deal of my time.  Plus it's bad for the energy and diet intake, which both should be top priorities considering what I am trying to do with dancing.  But this it the problem.  I don't have a solution at the moment, but I think about it a lot.  More later.

 

Oh, so the Big Push.  Beginning later this month, I'm going to start holding a Friday evening dance event.  I have found a bar which willing to host our parties and share in the profit.  It's really, really hard to get a partner like this.  The place has a great atmosphere.  The location is second-best, though, and that really worries me.  But I have to take the chance.  I have to start making some regular profit or I will personally lose motivation to promote this effort.  Realisticly speaking.

 

All for now-

J