Mark's Notebook

We're all just a little mixed up here

I renewed the mixed-up.com domain name today for another nine years. We'll be happily dancing, computing and blowing smoke until at least February 2014.

We've had this domain name since 1998. It has always been hosted at Raw Bandwidth Communications, although in 1998 they were known as Tsoft. Thanks to Chris Songer for telling me about them (among many other things I owe him thanks for).

Why mixed-up.com? Well, the name goes back to way before the internet. Around 1989, I had the late Milt Strong make me square dance badges that said "Mixed-Up Squares." The name comes from the old C2 square dance call "Mixed-Up Square Thru," which you can look up on the square dance dictionary page.

The name is also a commentary on the skills of the square dancers I have workshopped with over the years. :-) I've enjoyed "inducting" dancers into the Mixed-Up Squares when I see them flailing in a C2 workshop, unable to remember how to do "Fan the Top" (a mainstream call).

The mixed-up phenomenon is a little less noticable among round dancers. It may be that in round dancing one has to work with only one other dancer (the partner) in order to complete a routine. Thus the chances of working with a mixed-up person is 86% lower when round dancing (there is only one other person) than when square dancing (there are seven other people).

This of course doesn't take into account that the person doing the calculating is the one who is mixed up ... in that case, the chances of having a mixed-up person in your couple or or square go up to near 100%.

Articles