Life/Science: Covid is still no joke, December 2023. Starting recovery efforts.

 I caught real covid (not vaccine side reaction) and stayed in bed for 10 days. Finally the antigen tests turned negative for this past 48 hours, which means I am no longer contagious, according to CDC. 

I am feeling better and getting up.

Today is 12/21/2023. Following is my Facebook post on 12/14/2023.

"Covid is no joke. Be careful.

I thought it was sore from the dance event. Then thought it was a cold. Next day I thought it was the flu, with covid test negative but sores everywhere. Then the test turned positive.

This one's rough. I appreciate vaccines I took. For now, got to stay in bed and wait for the test turns negative."

Covid felt similar to the flu, coming fast and rough with lots of sores. It also turned out to be very draining. I lost about 10lb in the past week, mostly because I was not eating much, although I had stockpile of food and medicine at home just in case like this. 

Now my weight is temporarily at the same as in my university days. Talk about successfully shedding extra pounds accumulated over many years.

For the 10 days I used sick leave from work. As my work site is going into winter break, I am going to use the winter break for my recovery time.

During the bed stay, I used some Traditional Chinese Medicine for respiratory infections that are purported to be anti-inflammatory and antipyretic.

This covid was very tiring. I am still feeling somewhat weak, similar to the time after I got a bad flu.

 

There is a concern for so called "long covid", which is lingering sense of fatigue and/or other lasting neuronal or inflammation-related symptoms that can occur in some of former covid patients. 

Surely I don't want long covid. There are a few hypotheses on cause(s) of long covid, including lasting inflammation, immuno-modulation, and increased senescent cells generated during the viral infection. 

For upcoming covid recovery, I'll use energy-restoring type of Chinese Medicine and test Senolytics supplements.

Senolytics are a type of chemicals that are said to cause targeted cell death in senescent  cells. On 2017 I wrote a review article on senescence and cancer relations, and have kept an eye of the aging research field. A lot of progress has been made in this past several years in the geroscience research field. 

A textbook view is that senescent cells can secrete various inflammatory cytokines and other molecules into neighboring tissue, and that works detrimental to the functions of the neighbor cells. And that "detrimental effect" is regarded as "aging" in molecular terms. 

As such, it was predicted that if you remove senescent cells, overall functions of the neighbor tissue can be restored.

In fact, some animal-based experiments support the scenario. And if long covid is really caused by senescent cells, senolytics should be able to prevent long covid as well.

Preventing and/or reversing some aspects of aging is no longer a fairly tale, but is a subject of testable scientific approach.

Some senolytics are sold as supplements. I'll take Fisetin, Quercetin and Taurine for a few weeks and see what happens on my dulled sense of smell and on sense of fatigue (you need parameters to measure in order to test something.). Another N=1 experiment with $80 investment. I might even come out "younger" from this covid, haha.

But overall, I am happy about and thankful for surviving this covid. 

I'll focus on recovery during this winter break.

[As of Dec 2023, the US government still sends out free covid test kits. I ordered two kits. Many thanks.]

Dance: 5th Holiday Tango Weekend 2023, Dallas (12/7-10/2023)

  I went to 5th Holiday Tango Weekend 2023 event in Dallas. Event Organizers were Hugo and Celina, inviting other professionals, many of whom are also event organizing dancers/teachers.

In a Hugo's speech, "maestros are who give". 

Tango world is supported by a lot of maestros/maestras who give a lot to the community, as well as dancers and volunteers who are willing. They put everything together and the event was great.

This year, they changed the venue to Hyatt Regency DFW International Airport. A nice hotel. Dance events at airport hotel can increase convenience for traveling/flying-in dancers. 

You can be busy at dance events. Classes, practice, private lessons, shows and milongas. Tango events usually do not have amateur competition components, but if they are there (as in West Coast Swing events), or if you are a part of team performance needing practice, you may not even have time for sightseeing or checking out nice restaurants in the town. Three days can just fly.

Well, we are there to dance. Let it be.

I drove from Oklahoma City on Friday afternoon, and attended Friday, Saturday and Sunday milongas and shows.

Stage Tango dancers and aspiring trainees are impressive dancers. (or by definition, they should be).

When they perform on stage, the Tango are usually choreographed pieces/routines, and moves are "compressed", so to speak. 

Fancy moves and patterns one after another, occurring flawlessly and fast enough to overwhelm audience's processing. That is certainly a surefire way to impress.

To be able to pull that off, stage dancers have internalized Tango basics, as well as adding embellishments to the basics done with the music. That is why we can tell "stage dancers" just by looking at how they move.

For dance auditions, they say "show us what you've got". 

We do not need long time to see the quality of motions, or strong presence as a dancer. For youtube videos, I would only need 15 seconds to know if they have it or not.

And, in Tango, "what you've got" is evident even at the first embrace.

I wrote this segment "Stage tango dancers...the first embrace" as a lengthy intro, because I was intrigued by a female stage pro at social dance in late Sunday night.

Usually, I can tell how my partner's body is moving. And, since I am leading, how her body should be moving. An analogy would be feeling gears (joints), power train (axes) and transmissions (her taking time for dancing and adding something to the dance, which would be her part of contribution to the dance). Stage pros are always smooth, but I can still tell how much time she is taking to rotate her hips, or how far she is stretching her stride, so that I can also step at the appropriate balance point. There is some anatomy involved and dance can feel with more substance, or less so.

She felt a lot lighter. Even among female pros, she was one of most airy ones, which is a sign of her holding herself exceptionally well. As the song was Vals, we could just use energy flow to travel fast, and it was a lot faster than usual dances.

Interesting.

My body resisters such interesting dances, and processes the experience. It would adopt to the lighter energy flow, and also I'd start watching dances that show similar energy flow, so that I may be able to offer a more interesting dance to her next time.

[Friday "Colors" night 12/9/2023, most in this photo are from Oklahoma]

There were many of such interesting times during the event, in some conversation and in practica. I'll write them down later.

Dance/Book: How do you analyze dance? "Anatomy of physical motions" by Daisuke Sato.

 I dance. I also watch dances. It is my hobby and I have no need to do it professionally (lucky me).

I developed my own system to analyze dances, so that I can appreciate dances more, dance better, as well as I can diagnose and compensate (in social or stage dances) partner if necessary.

I have not disclosed my system in a comprehensive manner, although, maybe in this blog some parts were mentioned here and there. 

But there is a book (in Japanese) by a sport coach/instructor who dared to publicize his system to analyze and judge sports motions for better performance.

The author is Daisuke Sato. He was an award-winning coach for Japan Rugby association, also coaching various other sports (running, soccer, baseball, basketball, etc). The book "Anatomy of physical motions" (in my translation) was published in 2023.

Here is my summary of his message.

[Nine parameters to analyze the 3 layers of performance pillar]

Systematic viewing has merits. Each parameter can be analyzed separately and can be judged as a strong point or a weak point. By adopting his system, it makes it easier to see why some dances are great, and where you/they can work to improve.

Also, skills, techniques, ability and foundation are poorly distinguished by most. 

His system can nicely explain away many confusions and questions.

Such as;

Q: Why dances by very muscular guy or fat/curvy people tend to have diminished appeal? 

A: Too much muscle/fat can obscure visible lines. 

Q: I work on embellishments as a follow, but can hardly use them. Why?

A: Two possibilities. Your lead may not be giving enough time or support for your embellishments (his skill issue), or you may not have the skill to identify when to use them (your skill issue).

Q: I have been dancing Tango for a long time, but my dance does not look as good as I want. 

A: Many possibilities and that is why dance coaching should be done in person. But, the "look" issue is usually tied with how you present your lines (posture) and your knowledge on Tango (technique demonstration). Only when you master and can show your techniques, the next level (i.e., skill issue) comes in to the picture.

.....

  (To be clear, these hypothetical Q & A are my writing, not his.)

His system is highly convincing to me. I am going to merge his sports performance-oriented system to my more dance-oriented system. There will be some modifications needed. As two people are involved in partner dancing, we need to run this performance analysis for two people at once, for example. 

In case of Tango dancing, a few days ago I wrote a comment on a video for adornos (embellishments).


"These adornos (embellishments) are techniques. Use these techniques at the appropriate time is a skill. Practicing techniques and improving skills so that you can dance Tango is passion."

When people use the word passion, it can cover and mean many different things. In my book, passion is most involved in why you are even doing all these.

In other words, passion is an element of foundation.

I almost added another line to the above comment; 

"And saying 'but, but, I am feeling so much. I measure Tango by how I feel!' without showing any sign of techniques or skills is emo."

I am a scientist. I tend to seek supporting evidence for a claim. As dancing is very visual, evidence is presented right here (or not). 

Perhaps, that is a reason I love dancing.

Dance/Life: Eyeglasses for masquerade. Halloween spirit continues.

 I was looking for prescription eyeglasses for Halloween that can also be used for masquerade or other parties.

Something that looks like a Venetian, Hero, or Bandit mask. Or with Rhinestones and bling.

[Examples of my "party glasses" pick.]

They have to "go all the way" for party purposes. They have to be signaling that they are for party and not for regular time. No way for business uses. Don't care if they are for male, female or unisex, but they have to be large/wide enough for my head. And I have to like them and approve the look with them.

Recently, a few online companies offer really inexpensive eyeglasses, like $119-129/3pairs, or BOGO (buy one get one) deal. Even with photochromic lenses made of MR high index thiourethane resin material, about $40 per eyeglasses.

They are coming from somewhere in China. I don't mind where they are made. These "Made in China" glasses are decent eyeglasses with good prescriptions and newer Mitsui Resin (MR) high index lens material (which is Japanese). I used to buy polycarbonate photochromic lenses, but I am picking MR photochromics now, as photochromic coating on polycarbonate tend to peel off after some time. Manufacturing and shipping take about 2 weeks, which is fine considering traveling time from China to US.

Why not trying something fun for holiday parties? 

I used to like inconspicuous rimless or half-rim. Now I like something bolder that add to face, change face, or "mask" face. Let's just blame lingering Halloween spirits.

I am getting the first of a few shipments. I'll test them in upcoming parties.

Also wondering if these eyeglasses companies step up and start making more outrageous costumes/masks with prescription lenses.