Cuba/China

[robinturner]

I just saw a call for papers from a linguistics conference in Cuba. Sounded interesting (computational linguistics, second language learning - right up my street) and of course there's the big pull that it's in Cuba (like I could get the university to fund me to go that far - hah!). Then scrolling down I saw this:

1. The paper will not exceed 5 pages
including graphics, footnotes and bibliography.

2. It should be written using Word 6.0 or
Word 7.0 for Windows

What?! I mean we're talking Cuba here, last bastion of Socialism and all that, and they don't just use MS products, they want to make me use them as well! On the other hand, I wonder how Microsoft Word got past the US embargo.

On the other side of the world, as I may have mentioned before, a Chinese youth newspaper likened the Free Software / Open Source / Linux movement to the peasant revolt that overthrew the, er, Qin ? dynasty. Tongzhemen! Zhanxilai!

And by the way, best wishes to all for the year of the horse.

Comments

[solri.livejournal.com]

You mean nobody's thrown you yet? You must have a very nice teacher - I was thrown around like a rag doll on my first day, and that was before we had a gym to paractice in, so no mats, just grass.

The trick to falling is relaxation. If you try and force yourself to fall, your body tenses up and you get hurt. It's best to start from the triangle position (from a long stance put the hand you're not going to fall with on the floor). The other important point, for front rolls, is to make sure you're rolling diagonally across your back, not down your spine - you can ensure this by pointing the hand you're using to fall with between your legs, as though you're going to chop yourself in the groin.

Once you get over the original fear, falling can be fun. We've just started doing this cool exercise where you do an an-doligi turn, step through, roll, and stand up facing the opposite way. Cartwheels and handsprings are fun, too (even though I'm really bad at them).

[ex-fauxpas266.livejournal.com]

Nope, we haven't been thrown yet (pushed, yes, but not thrown). We're taking it slowly, I guess. Though the rest of the class is probably moving a bit too fast for me. *sigh* My difficulty in imitating movement, which I never before realized was so extreme, seems to be a real handicap for me.

We started from the triangle position, but my teacher told me to squat down and start from there. Actually I don't have a problem with the roll, apparently, just the position of my legs when I'm standing up. Much to the consternation of my teacher.