DDR: Blow by Blow

Some of you know my tweets. Some of you don't. Well, now you will. Here's a rundown on yesterday's work-out, because you, my readers, demanded to know!

• Working out. DDR Ultramix2. Excuse me? B? on Jet World? I DON'T THINK SO. Bumped that puppy up to an A. Now, movin' on!


• You know, as much as I like to rag on it & it is ripped, there's nothing like Red Octane dance pads. Parallel Floaters on anything else? No.


• Diamond Jealousy: C? No: A! Guilty: B? No: A! Done. I guess I haven't played DDR Ultra2 in a (long) while.


• What is this, an old game save? Helpless C⇒A. Yes, please, and done.


• You know what I hate? I hate FCing a song in practice mode but not in score mode. Well, who is better? The song or me? Me. Waverer A⇒AA.


• Of course, they just have to put Real right next to R5: two 40+ kcal songs in a row. Like'm both, but I think Real is my favourite today.


• Well, that was the frist time I ever FCed Era ... in practice mode. Let's try score mode. And, yes, 'frist' is for realz, yo. A 'net meme.


• Oorah Kiruv Rechokim! (um: how do you spell that in Hebrew?) Yup: first time ... aced that Era in score mode.


• DDR done: 173#; ~600 kcal (recorded, more like more than 800 kcal). More leftovers eaten. Back to work.

(okay, seriously! Nobody has written Oorah Kiruv Rechokim in Hebrew on the 'net? But they've written Shemhamphorasch in Hebrew? The word itself (שם המפורש) and what the word actually is? All seventy-two words of it? But not the Oorah? What's with that?)

407 Arrows: Will and Want

Kayso, just in case you didn't get the hint and all? I rock at DDR.

What is it this time, geophf? you sigh exasperatedly.

Well, I'm glad you asked.

So, I was doing my DDR thing (Ultramix 3), and I aced "Dança de Yucca."

See, it's a tango, and the beat increases in speed along with the complexity of the steps so that in changes from a tango to a tango that a whirling dervish or the Tasmanian Devil might have trouble keeping up.

I've been dancing, and loving to dance, this song for years. Years. A tango? Me? geophf? Dance a tango in real life? That might be possible, but in the virtual DDR-world, I am dancing away like a madman or Michael Flatley in Riverdance ... wait: aren't they the same thing?

So I love to dance "Dança de Yucca," but ace it? Nevah! But I did last week.

Now there is no weapon formed against me that shall prosper. So, I put in DDR Ultramix (1) and danced "La Senorita Virtual." I FCed it. For the first time, ever.

How many arrows does "La Senorita Virtual" have? I couldn't answer that question until this Tuesday past, but now I can: 407 arrows. 407 arrows in a minute and a half, and I touched them all.

Latin songs. Latin songs are so hard for the stuffy "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" dancers with their off-beat lead-ins. But now, for this pasty-faced fella?

Yeah, the site is down, so I can't show you the numbers, but yes, it's true: in over twenty-thousand DDRers out there, geophf rings in at number 38.

Psssst! Hot! I'm hot!

So of course I tried doing "Paranoia Rebirth" ... didn't quite get it, but I came close. So I left it for now. After burning through 700 kcal during that workout I knew that now was time to take a break.

For I know this, after about ten years of DDR, a FCing or acing a song is simply will and want now. If I don't FC a song, it's now because I'm not concentrating enough on it or that I don't push myself all the way through it (Paranoia and La Senorita can get tiring three-quarters of the way through). If I don't have the skill to do a song now, like Waka Laka, it's now simply a matter of doing a song over and over and over again until I do, even if that means I must do that song for years to be able to complete it.

Perfect example: Dorset Perception. I aced that song a couple of months ago, but then I played it again the next week and my score, albeit higher, wasn't an ace, so I had a low grade staring at me from that song for two months as I played and played it to regain my ace, which I did, time and time again, but didn't earn the score to knock out that lower grade.

DDR is funny: it gives you points for style as well as precision, so may dance a song "well" but not well enough to merit a better grade: I've failed songs with higher scores where I previously had an 'A' grade.

So, what to do?

Will and want.

I kept doing that song until I FCed it, restoring my ace. Now anytime I dance it, there is nothing that will take down that peg: I can now only improve on that grade.

But isn't that what life is? You work at something because you have the will to work at it and the want for it. You don't get it because you really don't want it: your will isn't directed toward that thing. Or, you get it because your will and want is such that you will get it. You don't have something? You want it bad enough and eventually you will have it.

DDR Dad

Okay, everybody, take three steps back and clear the floor, DDR Dad (that's my new name) is in da House!

For Realz, yo.

So, what was not mentioned in the last post was the my girls sang DDR songs to me as their Father's Day present, and the first one entirely in American Sign Language:

Butterfly:

Why, why, why, I'm a little butterfly
Green, Black and Blue
Painting Colours in the sky.

Why, why, why, I'm a little butterfly,
Green, Black and Blue
Painting Colours in the sky.

Why, why, why, ... why, why, why
Where's my Samurai?

And then:

Hey, "Papa," dup-du-dup-pi-doop, yama-jama
La-la-la-la-la-la.

Yes, they are seven and five year old girls, and, no: they do not the lyrics of the above "Hey, 'Papa'" song. That's why they sing dup-pi-doop, because they do not know the lyrics of the original, and no: they haven't seen the music video, either.

But that's not my point.

geophf, there's a point to this blog post?

Of course there's a point, there's always a point to every thing I say, or else why would I say it?

Um, quit giving me that look.

My point is this: I have arrived. I've gone from being merely awesome at DDR to being expert at it.

Humble about it, too, aren't you, geophf?

Yes, why do you ask?

I've started to push the 'A' graded songs to 'AA', but I've also done that to my 'B' and 'C' graded songs. No big deal.

But now I get 'A's on 10-steppers ... like Bag (the poor girl, her mom called her to supper right in the middle of the song). Now I can Ace ("Double A") songs like 30 lives and can FC ("Full Combo") songs like Dorset Perceptions and Cosmic Hammer and Feels Just Like It Should ... take away my Ace from me? Well I'll just FC the song, then!

And now I can even complete songs like Cartoon Heroes and Waka Laka ... you know, songs I couldn't even complete before? But now get 'A's on? Those songs?

Yeah. That's right. Whoz yer (DDR) daddy?

Moi.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to do me some DDR UltraMix 3, please (Rock Lobster? Git me more o' dat! I have a question ... how come this particular DDR game has so many good songs, all in a row?)

Post Script

Yeah. Just aced Just Pretend. Didn't see that happening with all the quick twisting about and switching of dominant feet during a held note. Tough little song wrapped up in a "This is a simple beat" façade.

Love that song so much, even though it's so sad. Maybe because it's so sad ... it's like a story waiting to be written somewhere. It's opposite is only a few songs away on the wheel: Don't Don't Go Away, another wonderful, and wonderfully hard, song to dance to with beautiful music hiding the pain of the singer underneath.

Why do I like these kinds of songs?

But, then again, I do have Monkey Punk for my "defense."

Catz, Ninja and otherwise

I'm not really writing a blog entry, I'm doing my civic duty right now, filling out tax forms for the Man.

My cara spoza has me on a blog-writing diet, so I won't talk about the reason for my side trip to Amherst, and I won't talk about how my entire extended family magically knew about my Amherst visit, and how they asked how it went even before I got to say hello! And how they phoned in from California to have my Aunt [my regal Aunt] inquire into the matter.

No, this blog entry is not about that.

But, as you know, I've had this constant struggle between my piratey-self and my super-secret-ninja-assassin-self. I had thought that pirates had it all wrapped up in the debate.

But then I came across this:



That, folks, is a clear win for the ninjas this round.

Speaking about Brittany Murphy, the pussycat — yeah, don't gimme that look: for I was speaking about her, `pataphorically — I had no idea that besides being a Jane Austen actress, she is a singer, too! Amazing, the things one can learn while exercising!

Back to doing the taxen ... *sigh*

My perfect video game

... 'cause I think my steppin's pretty hawt, too. Oh, and when is it ever going to enter any rhythm game maker's head to create "Keyboard Hero"? Imagine all the whinings of pre-teens — "But I don't wanna take piano lessons anymore!" — being replaced by the queue: "Hey, it's my turn to play Freeze Pop!"

Bonus: learning French and the Moog all in one go!

Well, okay, maybe Freeze Pop is not to everyone's taste, but then one can include Chopin's Berceuse as one of the tracks. Image that: learning to play classical music becomes cred for k-radness with your B's!

Everyday exchange

My cara spoza, Diane walks timidly into my "office" (more like a French cave) and checks the mood. I slouch, sullenly, in my chair, fingers flying over the keyboard as my eyes bore into the screen. My usual posture.

But, since I'm not growling invectives, as usual when I'm working (actually, I just got comonadic streaming primes working, so I was rather well-pleased), she essays the breach in my concentration. She tapped her pencil to her notepad and did a half-twirl.

Do you notice anything? she asked.

There she stood, gorgeous, as always, in an ankle-length dark-blue skirt and a blouse that complimented her beauty. A heart-stopper, as always.

No. I responded, confused.

She gave up. Men! she probably thought.

I got dressed to go shopping at Costco ... she hinted, helpfully.

Me: Oh, ya. You look beautiful. as I returned to my work. But she wasn't to be deterred. As always. So she returned to tap-tap-tapping her notepad, which I discovered was her shopping list. She rattled off her items — it was she that was going shopping, not I, so the list had a rather domestic theme. We've agreed to give a go to making sandwiches for lunch, so she asked after my luncheon meat preferences.

Turkey, ... and ham, slipping the latter in wistfully. But her reaction took me aback:

Nitrates! Nitrates! Nitrates! she fumed as her pencil beat time with her accusations, and she stamped her foot with displeasure. God, I love this surprising woman! She's so beautiful when she's on one of her crusades. Good thing she's always on one; and good thing we're not in France, as they treated her sister Jeanne d'Arc rather badly. But then before I could entreat, she surprised me again:

We'll get honey baked ham, instead, and freeze the excess. She was pleased at her inventiveness, and she shouted out with laughter at her victory over the dreaded nitrates. She has the regal bearing, insight and intelligence always to be pleased with her pronouncements.

I couldn't have dreamed this turn of events (Diane is pleased that she's getting me honey-baked ham?) suiting me better, so I played the smart guy and kept my mouth shut. Yeah, that is possible for me to do, okay? Back off.

Well, she was on her way with the kiddies, and I wasn't going to get any more work done with all the requests for "huggies", and playing Olé as a charging bull with the tykes. The children must be appeased. But then, of course, as I set them in the Mommy van, Elena Marie got all dewy eyed:

Papa, please, please, please come with us shopping! Ugh, my heart absolutely melted and ended up limpid resting on my left kneecap. Diane could barely contain her delight at my torn expression.

No, sweetie, I've got to do work after I do DDR. As I replied, Diane's impish look froze into a mask of horror:

I thought you said you had work to do today! She accused, and little Isabel immediately dove-tailed her own question:

Papa, are you going to do DDR all day and all night? and my negative response of:

No, sweetie, I'm just going to do my regular workout had Diane snort derisively. Huh! I don't think my workouts will take that long, so I tried to reassure my cara spoza &mdash It's DDR3, I think, I soothed, so after I do my workout and Rock Lobster, I'll get right back to work ... unless it's DDR4, then I'm going to do Waka Laka. Her nonchalance was instantly replaced by tender concern:

Please, take care of yourself and take it easy. she requested. I guess my little show-n-tell was still a very present echo in her mind.

As soon as they were out of sight — Bye! the children shouted, Bye! Bye! — I turned back to the house thinking about how I could form a relation between enumerated types and transitive types using Gödel numbering.

Yup. Just an ordinary day.

Elena Marie says: "Hello?"

Originally posted November 14, 2004:

Today started out cold and blustery: fall is upon us, no joke. So, it made exercising this morning a more interesting affair, logistically. It doesn't help that it appears our heater is on the fritz (it provides a modicum of heat, but doesn't stay on the requested temperature, so blankets and mufflers are welcome additions to the modern lifestyle). So, I exercised. The bokken, being newly oiled as of yesterday, felt very good during practice.

Today was the slower side of Dance-dance Revolution exercises — the music selection is on a wheel, and going clockwise, one encounters the faster songs (after nine minutes I hit the target calorie burn and was quite ready to stop: only 31 more minutes to go), but today was the counterclockwise direction: I don't hit the target even after 40 minutes. So, this time, I added 5 more minutes, and decided to double the requirement — for each arrow, I would hit the pad twice.

Ouch. I think I understand better, viscerally, why basketball players so often require knee surgery. Even now, 12 hours later, I still feel the throbbing in my legs. Today, I worked out more, and harder, than I ever have since I've acquired this 'game'. One benefit: the 'tough' songs I couldn't fathom before (I would just stop and stare as 20 arrows passed in a matter of 3 seconds), I now did just fine.

Mother called after exercise, and she complained that my emails didn't talk about her grandchildren enough. So, for her, and for your enjoyment, I provide the following story.

I called Diane last night, as I do weekly, and we happily chatted the night away (Isabel squawked on occasion from Mama's lap, and Diane said she smiled when I addressed her -- she's now walking about, as easy as you please and has curly hair [see, Mother, it's about your grandchildren, okay?]). After I rung off, I called right back to say hello again one more time, but this time, I received a surprise.

*ring-ring*
Elena Marie: Hello?
Me: Ummmmmm, Hello, Elena Marie!
(here I panicked, because usually the conversation continues thus: I ask her health, she says she's fine and then says, "Bye!" and hangs up) (so, thinking quickly, I continued:)
Me: I need to speak to Mama, would you give her the phone?
Elena Marie: Okay ... and that's exactly what she did.
*Whew*

Diane told me that Elena Marie bolts to the phone whenever it rings, even though she's been asked not to pick up. I figure that since she just spoke with her papa a few moments before, she was expecting that it was I again. This time she was correct.

So, that's my story: my little girl's answering the phone now. What next? A driver's license? (choke!)

Another one bites the dust ...

Two dance pads destroyed; two days in a row.

That must be some kind of record. The first one was a Red Octane; supposedly indestructible for a year; so they last three months for me, on average. The second one was a metal dance pad. It died the same day I took it out to replace my Red Octane. Not sorry to see the metal pad go, as it had a rather distinct feel on my feet — the feeling that I was giving myself shin-splints by pounding with inhuman strength against the corrugated steel of deck-plating of a ship. Ugh!

So, we took a family trip to Best Buy (that whooshing sound is their quarterly hit of their stock prices when I visit their stores), and now I am the proud owner of a "professional series" React dance pad. The padding feels nice, but I think the profession it follows is that of teasing: "You really didn't mean to hit the up arrow just now, did you?"

*sigh!* I wonder how much money and I will part ways when I finally realize that only the industrial-strength arcade games will actually survive the beating I give this game on a daily basis. Not that I'm giving that any thought — it's just that the DDR series shines the brightest on the original XBox, and dance pads are becoming a rare commodity for that platform. I'm going to miss that series when I shred the last XBox dance pad in the world ...

Twirling Bambina (that is French)

As it was my my duty today to watch li'l Iz, as my cara spoza was ferrying EM around the town for chores today, I have three stories about her.

1. In my last post about shopping lists I wrote the fateful word nutella. When my darling daughter saw that word, she burst into her song, as she always does, rocking from foot to foot in a swaying dance as she sang:

   nutella! nutella!
   I love
   nutella!

   It is a blessing a $6 jar will please her so for three months. I shudder at the following thought: what if her delight food was sushi? So, remember everyone (*ahem* right, dear?), sometimes nutella-love is a small sacrifice to make.
2. Li'l Iz and I went out to check for the mail. She asked, plaintively, Anything for me? so I handed her a "ValPack" of coupons to the local pizzaria, etc. She was so happy that she grabbed my hand and twirled about in graceful waltz-like steps, forgetting the new treasure of coupons for the precious few minutes of twirling with her pashti.
3. I was doing DDR [Of course! What's a pater familias post without DDR?], and I crowed with victory when I posted a new grade for Jam On It (Newcleus) A → AA, Isabel looked up from "feeding" her "baby". A thoughtful look crossed her face and she asked: Papa, how long have your been doing DDR?
   
   This question took me aback. Oh, more than 10 years, sweetie was my reply. That got me to thinking. She asked a question about an activity that has been going on for twice the length of her life. For me, a (nearly) 5-year-old looking beyond what's affecting her now was nearly unfathomable. When was the last time I have thought about things of more than 100 years?

Of course, I also posted improvements to

• Tough Enough (Vanilla Ninja): A → AA
  
  A super cutesy-silly song with a "Tough Enough" grrl-band (get it?) that I finally aced today because I finally bore down hard enough to play through the entire song without bursting out in laughter; and
• Life is a Game (Arctic Blue): A → AA
  
  Another one of those simple songs that I aced by coming back to after more than a year of not playing it. There was gritting of teeth (so I wouldn't burst out "oh, please!" during the saccharin-y melodramatic turns of phrasings), and after a short while, the AA.

It's a good thing, actually, that this was an easy-going workout, because I've finally done it, again. I so thoroughly stomped my DDR pad that now the "Down" arrow no longer registers. So, not only did I manage to shred this dance pad (Li'l Iz interrupts my entry here, asking how is it possible that my feet could rip apart a dance pad. My explanation, including eagle's and hawk's talons, seemed not to give her much comfort, and she squeaked in feigned terror when I approached to give her a comforting huggy), but now I've gone all the way: it be busted.

Time for another dip in Best Buy's stock price.

Rock Lobsta!

Okay, this isn't supposed to be happening like this. None of it. I'm not supposed to be writing two entries about DDR in a row (but I am), I'm supposed to be cooing over my cara spoza (she is) and my cute kids (they are), but here I am, wringing out more digital ink onto the virtual pages fluttering out into the νούςσφαίρα. About what? Yes, about DDR ... again.

Actually, I'm flying a bit high, perhaps as high as a kite (how come John Cusack has so thoroughly invaded the American psyche?), because of what happened in today's session shouldn't have turned out the way it did, either (but it did). It goes against reasonable expectations that I could achieve the results I did with the songs I selected today, so either my body was substituted with something extra-human, or I must acknowledge another incident of Divine intervention. A miracle, as it were, like a spiderweb. All right, let's get on this this, I know you cannot wait for the results, and they are:

• Hit'n'Slap (Asletics): A → AA
  
  Harumph! This is DDR3 that I'm playing today. Must I improve my score on every DDR game I have for this song? I guess I must; I must!. Good thing that this song is so fun for me to dance.


• Spirit of the Hawk (chuji): A → AA
  
  This started the "oh, that's nice" phase: "oh, that's nice" I improved my grade. I wasn't expecting that improvement today, but I assumed it would come some day. I thought I had yang-ed out my string of successes, and, as before, I thought it would be another year or two before I could improve on the ensuing plateau. Apparently, this song was precipitous; apparently, I have yet to plateau.


• Imperial Carnival (kumiko): A → AA
  
  Slightly easier than Spirit of the Hawk, so I still lulled in Lullsville. But, then again, neither song was one that I could ace, even though I've had DDR for years. I should have seen this as the storm clouds on the horizon (but I didn't).


• Cat in the Moon (901(Clay)): A → AA
  
  Okay, this was the clarion call. There is no way, NO WAY! that a mortal can ace this song ... years of practice and patience and observation and super-high-intense training (Hi, there, Dennis!) all failed before this sinuous, spontaneous, frenetic, chaotic song.
  
  Do you know how cats have extra-sensory perception? Do you know what it is, this extra sense? It's the impossible ability to be in the exact space you maneuver yourself to avoid tripping over the thing. Even, and especially, when the cat, the very split second before-hand, was going in the completely opposite direction, ya know, away from where you tended, but NO in a flash you find yourself stepping on the thing, jumping up in fright as it screeches, and you end into a very sharp edge of some furniture.
  
  Well, the cat's sense is the embodied by this song. All your mighty plans of completing this song with any dignity are humbled before its complete unpredictability. But there I was, fully concentrating on the song, and there were my feet, blurring out of visibility in their speed, and there was my dance pad, literally being torn to shreds in my effort. My God-brother, Mike, always gets a kick of how I need to return a dance pad every three months for defective manufacturing ... the defect: they didn't use enough adamantium. Best Buy's stock takes a quarterly dip due to the Auclair Rebate Program. This dance pad, because of this song, didn't quite have the longevity of the others.
  
  Like I said, it wasn't I, unless I am Iron Man.


• Dança de Yuka (Big Idea): A → A
  
  Gosh, I love this song! When Big Idea misses with a song, it's "meh", but when they hit, look out. I didn't improve my score at all, but I only made one or two mistakes, and then it wasn't out of panic, as I have experience before. I was aware and in control throughout then entire song, ratcheting my effort in synch with the accelerating tempo.


• Bag (RevenG): B → B (std)
  
  Okay, I'm human. I saw someone play this in the arcades and hit every single arrow with a calm self-assuredness. One day, I'm sure, I'll be able to do that, too. But for now, I'm simply happy to listen to the Moorish tones and rhythms, and hitting the occasional arrow correctly.


• Mobo*Moga (Orange Lounge): A → AA
  
  Piece of cake. What took me so long to get the AA? I love dancing this song for its care-free French rhythms and accompaniment.


• SP - Trip Machine (Jungle Mix) (De-Sire): AA → AA
  
  Finally you get to see a k3wl guy in action at the arcade. Heh! Well, DDR4 is all about Waka Laka, and DDR3, for me, is all about SP-Trip Machine. A nice, tricky, song that I play every time I load this particular DDR set. No improvements on my grade in this song, but that's fine, because there's nothing I'd wish to improve — it's purely perfect enjoyment.


• Bath of Least Resistance (NOFX): A → AA
  
  Okay, so, you see those arrows fly for complete disregard for the fact that a human being must breathe every once in a while? How did I get the AA?


• Hey Mama (Blackeye Peas): A → AA
  
  This song is deceptive. Its slow undulations make it look easy, until one realizes that, actually, it is easy. To ace this song, one need merely to hit the arrow with the correct timing. Of course, this particular song eschews quarter and eighth notes (it has, like, third notes and 17th notes, or something), but that is all there is to it.
  
  I suppose that, even though I don't like dancing this song particularly, I always will: the kids hop about the house for days after singing...

  Hey, Mama! Eu-pi-du-pi-doop, yama jama!
  La, lala, la la!

  ...something not to be missed.


• Rock Lobster (B52s): A → AA
  
  Any DDR4 session that ends with me completing Rock Lobster is a good DDR4 session. A slightly frustrating one, however, because I know it's physically impossible to ace the song, so I knew my fate was to be consigned to the be the guy who could get the occasional A for the song. AA? Posh! Nevah!
  
  But, there it is: I danced every single arrow correctly, except for one toward the very end (skipping the second of two 32nd-note arrows in a set of 5 pairs). I winced in pain at that, knowing me it cost me perfection, but the game was feeling generous, I guess. Maybe I have this aura that scares away down-grading gremlins?
  
  I must say. The game's 2-minute version of the song is a vast improvement on everything else out there: the game reduced the song to pure essence. If I do regularly listen to a B52s song (and I do), then it's Shaque l'Amour which is perfectly balanced in fun, music and length.

So, at the end of the session I had burned 1031 KCal. Hm. Ouch, that hurt (my legs, 12 hours later, are still tender), but it's a good hurt.

Cleaned my clock — DDR-style

There are good days and there are bad days with DDR. Of course, the "game" is unchanging and uncaring, so, again, it's all me and what I'm expecting of myself. Yesterday was simply a fun time through the delightful song-set of my DDR2 favorites, but three days ago I challenged myself to improve my scores on some tougher DDR1 songs.

I had a few issues controlling my temper.

The previous turn, I just went along with the game, learning the songs better and not fretting myself over (the lack of) visible improvement in the score boards. I can feel I'm at a cusp on the DDR4 song set: I haven't improved my grades, but I'm beginning to understand the songs in an entirely new way.

• Music Revolution (Scum Frog): AA → A → AA
  
  I've held my AA on this song for a very long time, and I love dancing it, even with its tricky parts. Well, it finally happened that I messed up the sequence but still did better than I had done, stylistically, than my previous correct (but sloppy) attempt. My higher score "awarded" me with a lower grade! I went from AA to A on the score board. This has happened before, and it probably will happen again on another song. Of course, I would not let that stand, so I danced it again, careful re-earning my AA, then I danced it again well to improve the style.
  
  Then I danced it one more time to near perfection to cement the grade on the score board.


• These words (I love you; I love you) (Natasha Bedingfield): A → A
  
  What a simple, sweet, song! Why haven't I earned the AA on it yet? I've probably (marginally) danced this song on this set more than most of the others. The slow tempo does hide some frantic and dense patches, but, even though I didn't improve the grade this time, I did finally start to see how the arrangement of arrows flowed. I have hope of, one day soon (possibly years from now), earning that AA with ease.


• Giri Giri Daddy (Hirata Shoichiro): B → B
  
  This song, on the other hand, albeit much slower, is much meaner. You see the "easy" version being played; I play it at the expert level. I hoped simply to upgrade from a B to a A, not aiming for the lofty AA, but it wasn't descending to me from Mt. Olympus. However. However! I did see some order in the arrows so thick that they obscured the background movie entirely, and I did start to improve how I played this song (from the desperate "Stomp hard, stomp fast, stomp anywhere!" to a more measured "Oh, okay, this is the eighth-sixteenth-eighth patch" but flubbing the transitions between patches, still), so, who knows?


• Fire Dub (Asletics): B → A
  
  [Sorry for the bad audio transfer]. Did the song three times to earn the A. What was the problem? I've gotten AA's on this song in other DDR games. I suppose that I was pushing myself too hard today (more on that later). I does have a really simple ("simple" for expert settings, that is) and delightful arrow set, backed by a fun little rhythmic song, so eventually I worked my way up the grade scale.


• Cosmic Hammer (Jondi & Spesh): A → A
  
  Actually, I love dancing most anything by Jondi & Spesh. You name it: Cosmic Hammer, Edge of Control, Insander, their remixes, too: Balalaika. So whenever they have a song up I dance it. I've gotten AA's on this song in every other DDR game, but I didn't sweat the grade today. I must have been feeling really mellow.


• Waka Laka (Jenny Rom vs. Zippers): C → C
  
  Any exercise set I complete where I finish Waka Laka, is by definition good ("amazing" is the correct term). So I guess this set wasn't all that good, because, as the wife and kids watched curiously, I failed to complete even a third of the this song before failing out, twice ... pausing 45 seconds (after failing 30 seconds into the song) between attempts.
  
  My cara spoza eyed me carefully as I gasped for breath.

  cara spoza: You know, it's a good thing they stop the song; you should be able to talk.
  Me, panting: ...
  Me, panting: Okay.

  I think I earned her ire, showing how far (too far, my cara spoza was clearly thinking) I push myself, for when I looked at the workout recorder, I had expended over 900 kilocalories. Hm, a good workout is 400 KCal, a hard one is 600 KCal. I guess I did push myself a bit far today.

So, good DDR days and bad DDR days. Really bad DDR days, however, are days when I don't dance at all.

Like today.

Off to work.

*sigh* I guess I'll do my exercise this evening.

Cleaning house — DDR-style

So, yesterday, it was my turn to exercise with Dance Dance Revolution: Ultramix 2, aka DDR. I like this particular game, the song selections range from enjoyable to gasp! And a random spin of the song selection wheel usually pulls up a fun song to dance to. I did notice, however, that I've had this game for almost 4 years, and some of the grades I've received on the songs were an embarrassment to my 1337-skilzxorz, so I made it my mission to improve those grades from (what grade I've had for years → what grade I have today). Fruitful:

• Sleepwalker: B → A
  
  Abrupt changing tempos mid-phrase always bring out the beast in me; this time I got the better of the song, and not the other way around.


• Hit 'n' Slap (Asletics): A → AA
  
  This has got to be one of the baddest (in the sense of 'coolest') songs in the repetoire, and the very slow tempo should make this super-super easy. Nope: the density of the arrows demands constant attention, which, this time, I gave to it.


• Love Shine: A → AA
  
  This song is right up there with Waka Laka, not for difficulty, for Love Shine is merely very hard, not, well, Waka Laka hard ...
  
  

  EM, after I completed a Waka Laka run: Papa, why did you fall down on the futon?
  Me, gasping for breath, not responding for about 30 seconds: ...
  
  ... Waka Laka, by the way, is only a 2-minute song.

  
  
  ... but for its unapologetic exuberance. Getting the AA grade was sweet after 4 years of working at it.


• Monkey Punk (Big Idea): A → AA
  
  This has got to be one of my favorite songs in the entire DDR repetoire. Getting a AA after 4 years of playing just shows how hard it is ... a fast-fast tempo with some tricky transitions makes it fun, and hard!


• Mellow (Alien#Six13): A → AA
  
  It's too bad I haven't found a link for this song: the very smooth sound belies dense arrows during the show tempo, and the fast tempo is very much faster than the slow parts. I have no idea how I got the "AA" other than that I made it my mission to study every nuance (particularly during the tricky slow parts) for two runs before arriving at the AA in the third run. But I always do that; what made the difference today?


• Tittle Tattle (Zonk): B → A
  
  Mean, mean, mean song — it has a traditional build up, with the usual tricks in the transitions, and then in the wind-up takes a completely unexpected turn down La-la lane.


• Balle le Samba (Big Idea): A → AA !!
  
  Okay, I don't remember how I got to A (the first few times I tried this song on hard, I failed it within the first 10 seconds), and I have no idea how I was able to play this song flawlessly, but there I was, hitting every arrow, after arrow, after arrow, and then suddenly the song was over, and I had the AA. Huh? How did I do that?


• Skulk (echo !mage): A → AA
  
  Okay, this song was determined to keep me down — I did it three times in a row, earning a AA each time, but my technique was not as good as it needed to be to earn me the final grade of AA from my previous A ranking. Well, this was simple: I would earn the AA, with or without the compliance of the scoring system, so I danced it to near perfection one more time, and DDR finally capitulated, giving me my earned AA.
  
  This little conflict reminded of way back when I was in high school, I was watching Beki practice with Sport over a not too difficult jump. Sport flat out refused to jump it, balking at the jump each time she cantered him forward. Beki, in turn, flat out refused to accept anything other than Sport going over the jump. I watched as she cantered up to the jump, as he balked, and as she circled him around in a large loop back to the jump; he balked again. She did this 5 times, 6 times, 7 times. She wasn't angry at all: she just simply was having Sport take the jump, and she wasn't going to accept any other outcome.
  
  At the seventh attempt, he went over, smoothly and easily.
  
  You don't stop an Auclair from doing what they set out to do.


• Brick House: B → AA
  
  Ugh! I hated doing this one, with BPM at 117, I had to play the wait-wait-wait game for the arrow to arrive, then when it did, I needed to pounce with exact timing to get an above "Good" mark. It took me 3 attempts, all "A" efforts to for system to improve my grade, but when I had it, I had it — my next go rewarded me with the "AA" grade.

So, the above summarized yesterday's satisfying results. Today was just a normal workout with a new DDR game I have, DDR: Extreme.