I just launched www.BellyDancingDiva.com, which is my second attempt at a belly dance site targeted at belly dancers in Orange County. Just a couple hours ago we launched our beautiful products page where you can find eye-catching bags for belly dancers, key chains, business cards with belly dance designs and more. Hope you enjoy the site!

So, my mom had my camera for two months and I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of my new stuff. For those of you who come to my site to check out my pottery (which really is just me), below are some new pics.

That first green bowl is probably my favorite piece ever. You can’t see it on the picture, but the bowl is pretty thin and the thin-ness is very even. The glaze colors also contrast one another very well. The last part - the white crackle - happened accidentally, but I love the texture that it adds.

These bottles were pretty difficult to make. I created 6 different slabs first and let them dry for a while. Then I used slick to add one piece together at a time. I cut out the opening before I added the final slab on the top and then created a neck. My biggest struggle after that was to ensure that the walls remained straight and didn’t fall inward. Unlike my first piece on this blog, these two pieces are pretty heavy.

I get mixed reviews about the following piece. I’m not sure I’m all that fond of this piece, but others seem to appreciate it a bit more. This was done by hand, not on the wheel.

I’m really proud of the next piece. I threw this piece on the wheel. The handle was attached once the cup portion turned leather dry. If you’ve done pottery before, you know handles are a challenge. So, kudos to me for making the handle stick. I love how the shiny the glaze turned out. Again, that wasn’t intended - with glaze you just never know. I’m all for shiny pieces.

For kicks and giggles, I created a Zazzle page and am selling a couple of mugs, tank tops, and key chains. The following are a couple of my products. If you’d like to see more, go to my zazzle page at:

http:www.zazzle.com/sgazeri4444. You can purchase any of the following and more…

ID-10-T (”IDIOT”)

The following is best suited for the computer scientists of the world, who like to send hidden messages to the consultants, marketing folks, and possibly even to one another.

Dancer’s Keychain

This keychain is suited for all those who spend the majority of their time at a dance studio.

Things You Can’t Have at Work

Beer. Nuf said.

You know how how some steal your credit card information thinking you have some kind of limitless credit? This is kind of like that. Apparently someone on the web thinks I’m a great source for personal finance kind of tips and tricks and wrote an entire post (spam) claiming I wrote it. I’ve already sent a note to the website owner, asking for it to be removed. Funny stuff going on in the web. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, indeed.

See it here.

That’s what happens when two friends get together who are passionate about something!! After a very intensive week, Amy and I finally completed www.BellyDanceInfo.com! It’s a site designed for women in the SoCal area who are curious about belly dancing and want a one-stop-shop to learn all they need to know to get started. We tell you about the instructors (organized by city), provide you with several choices for costumes and accessories, and present you with a couple of recommended CDs to practice with at home. To give you that extra kick, we’re showing our favorite belly dancing videos via YouTube and presenting all of the health benefits of belly dancing!

Check it out and send us your feedback! We have a lot of plans about future updates to the site, so check back in soon for updates.

And I hope you dance!

- Sepi

I never really understood why MSFT wanted to invest in a sinking business. Granted “Live Search” never really became part of our day-to-day vocabulary the way “Google It” did, but “Yahoo It” never really hit the spot either. The decision to merge with Yahoo! came about 5 years too late. Five years ago it would have made sense to compete against Google with Yahoo!’s support. But even then, the only audience to benefit from that competition would have been online advertisers. We were hoping for less expensive real estate and a greater return for ad clicks than Google currently offers. I’m convinced that MSFT can put the 48ish billion dollars into R&D that will deem a higher return than Yahoo! ever could. This is a good day for MSFT.

Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Offer
After Attempt to Bridge Gap in Price

By KEVIN J. DELANEY, MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG and ROBERT A. GUTH
May 4, 2008 6:02 p.m.

Microsoft Corp. said it abandoned its offer for Yahoo Inc., as the two companies failed to bridge a gap between them on price.

Microsoft Saturday released a letter from Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang saying that Microsoft had said it was willing to raise its offer to $33 a share for Yahoo, but Yahoo demanded at least $4 per share more.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo has not moved toward accepting our offer,” Mr. Ballmer said in a Microsoft press release. “After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” he added.

Read more: Wall Street Journal Article

I go to a really great studio here in Irvine. The studio is located in the Irvine Fine Arts Center (on Walnut and Yale). You can walk-into the open studio 4 days a week or you can register for one of their many, wonderful classes. Classes range from sculpture to wheel throwing.

You can buy a 25-lb bag of clay when you’re there for approx $7.50. Day long passes to use the open studio are approx $9. If you buy 10 a ten-day pass, it comes out a bit cheaper.

If Ceramics isn’t your thing, you may be interested in the other studios and classes offered at the Irvine Fine Arts Center - including:

• Photography
• Jewelry and Glass
• Drawing and Painting
• Culinary Arts, and a lot more…

Here’s a link to their website and schedules. http://www.cityofirvine.org/depts/cs/finearts/

These are some of my new favorite ceramics creations. I’m enjoying the ceramics studio more and more. Guess what everyone is getting for christmas this year? Yep, that’s right.

It’s a little scary, I know I know.

A couple of you expressed interest in Belly Dance classes, so I thought I’d just publish a note with the relevant info.

I’m currently taking classes with Lilla and Serena. Both of them have been dancing all their life and have been trained in belly dancing for over a decade. They are great teachers and offer a lot of performance opportunities at the advanced stage. (Performances are never required.)

About Lilla’s Classes:

Lilla’s classes: http://www.lilladance.com

Lilla’s classes are typically 6 week sessions. If you have never belly danced before, I recommend taking Lilla’s beginner class at least 3 times before you start at the intermediate stage. At the intermediate stage, she includes props in the class… so you’ll be working with Finger Symbols, Veils, and Canes.

About Serena’s Classes:

Serena’s classes: http://www.prodancecenter.com

Serena’s classes are 8 week sessions. The classes are not as big as Lilla’s, so she has more opportunity to help you get to the next stage (if you express interest). Serena does not introduce props until the advanced stage. Performances are organized by the dance studio.

Classes for UCI Students

Campus Rec Classes: http://www.campusrec.uci.edu/classes

If you’re a UCI student, I recommend taking classes with Miriam Moghaddam. I stated out with her a couple years ago. She adds a touch of hip hop to belly dancing. Her classes can be found under ‘Urban Shimmies’. Classes at UCI tend to be larger, but more affordeable. Miriam is a great teacher, so if you sign up with her class, get there early to make sure you get a good spot in front of the mirror and close to her.

Other Classes

There are MANY, MANY opportunities in Orange County (and LA) to get started with belly dancing. These are the ones I have been involved with. Let me know if you have other recommendations.

Can I skip the gym?

Belly Dancing can be a great workout, if you take classes at least three times a week. It helps to tone your arms and obliques. It’s a lot more fun than sitting on a bike at the gym and staring at a wall.

Weekend Workshops

If you’d like to get an introduction to Belly Dancing, you may be interested in a weekend workshop May 17 - 18. See http://www.raqsla.com. The Belly Dance superstars will be performing (and auditioning) that weekend. That said, I expect the workshops to be more for dancers at the intermediate and advanced stage.

Belly Dance Superstars:

Watch the Belly Dance Superstars on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=-_bBiKOi9ak

Happy Dancing!
- Sepi

My younger cousin and I set up her first site/blog, which she’ll use mainly for distributing myspace layouts. After a tedious process of installing an ftp client, setting up her domain, and installing wordpress on her server, I asked her what I would get for helping her out. She responded “50%”. A split second later she lowered it to “30%”. Considering she’s incredibly intelligent and signs her name with a dollar symbol most of the time, I decided to make sure I could squeeze her for all her future endeavors. What you see below is our contract.

She’ll be updating her site during her summer break… but check her out in the process: http://www.beautyvaccine.com.

I love you $adaf, but don’t let the fame get to your head.

- Sepi