Plagiarism of my web site

As you can tell from my recent messages about updating my teacher & performer directory, I put many, many hours of work into expanding it and keeping it up to date.

So imagine how dismayed I was today to discover that someone else has stolen the entire directory and put it on her web site:

www.missbellydance.com/BellyD...ry.aspx

It's pretty obvious that this was stolen from my web site a couple of years ago. The structure used for entry formatting is identical. Words such as "Middle Eastern Dance Involvement" to describe whether someone is a teacher or performer are identical. Words such as "Westernized Nightclub" and "Romany (Gypsy)" are obviously the precise words I used a couple of years ago (which I've since replaced with other words).

My Poor Foot!

The final week of June, was I was in Egypt, I tripped and fell SPLAT in front of the Mena House hotel and injured my foot. I thought it was a sprain, so I took care of it accordingly - icing it for the first 12 hours, etc. After 3 days, I could walk on it carefully. After 5 days, I could run across the street, which is important when you're crossing the street against Cairo traffic. It steadily got better. I went on a Nile cruise, toured the temples along the way, went to Turkey, went to Liverpool and walked around the city, and returned to the U.S.

But something wasn't right. Last Sunday, I taught a 2-hour belly dance class. When I got home from that, my husband and I went for a one-hour walk in the wooded park that's a block from our house. My foot protested the uneven footing quite a bit. The next day, there was swelling on the top of the foot. On Tuesday, the swelling was starting to go down, but it had worried me. So I called my doctor to make an appointment. The earliest I could get was Friday (2 days ago) at the end of the day.

My doctor was alarmed. She wants me to go get it X-rayed tomorrow morning. She ordered me to stay off it as much as possible - no more walks in the park. until she has X-ray results. She gave me a rigid-soled shoe to wear. She fears I have a stress fracture. She might be right - there's a surprising amount of pain remaining in it for 7 weeks after the initial injury.

We'll see what the X-ray shows tomorrow...

My new Hanan costume came today!

When i was in Egypt at the end of June, I ordered a new custom-made costume from Hanan. She estimated it would take "about a month".

It came today!!!! Yippee! It's a dress. The primary fabric is a burgundy-colored knit with kind of a twinkly effect. The accent colors are rose and silver. I haven't tried it on yet because I'm getting ready to go out the door to an appointment. But I can't wait to try it on and strut around in it!

I'll post pictures as soon as I can arrange for some to be taken. A friend of mine is interested in going professional with her photography hobby, and has offered to take pictures of me in my costumes for her portfolio. I just need to play calendar wars with her to schedule it!

Where my love for cats comes from

This is a photo of one of my great-great grandfathers. He died in 1912, so this photo must have been taken about 100 years ago! And as you can see, it shows him holding a couple of cats. Interestingly, he was born in Ontario, Canada, so I have a bit of Canadian ancestry that I was previously not aware of!

Walking My Cat

In the past I've blogged about how my cats like to go for walks with me. They usually join me for a half-mile walk around the block, generally trotting along a few feet behind me. Here is a photo taken a few nights ago, when my large fluffy black animal decided to join me for a walk.

Alexandria, Egypt

I took this picture when I was in Alexandria, Egypt on July 1, 2008. Saqra and I went to Alexandria to see the Mahmoud Reda show. Through a misunderstanding, we arrived 2 hours early, so we passed the extra time at the beach. Oh, the sea breeze felt so wonderful! And it was magically beautiful.

Updating Teacher/Performer Directory on my Web Site

I have recently started to focus on cleaning up quite a big backlog of updates to the teacher/performer directory on shira.net. So far, I have made about 110 updates to the directory. I have 196 changes to existing entries still waiting to be made. Once I finish those, I'll run a check of my web site's links and clean all that up. And after that, I'll start processing the l-o-n-g list of people who have been patiently waiting to be added as new entries.

If you are waiting for either an update to your existing entry or being added as a new entry, please do *not* submit another request unless the information in your earlier request is no longer valid. Doing so will cause me to delete your original request, which means you'll lose your place in line.

It's not for sale!

I received the following email today:



Hello Shira!

I love your site and have been looking to create my own like it. I was wondering if you might be at all interested in selling it to me. I'd be prepared to make you an attractive offer to reward you for your efforts on the site.



Don't worry, it's not for sale!

What a show! (Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival)

I saw a really enjoyable dance show last night at the Arabic Arts Festival in Liverpool, England. It was called Shifting Sands, and its theme was exploring new territories in Middle Eastern dance. Performers included Raksan, Wendy Buonaventura, and Venus Saleh. Wow! I really enjoyed it! Wendy was the only one of the three that I'd heard of before, though I'd never seen her dance until now. All three had created exciting theater pieces.

In Cairo

At the moment, I'm in Cairo, Egypt, at the Victoria hotel. I just got back to Cairo yesterday after doing a Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor in temperatures ranging from 108 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit - whew! Cairo's temperatures in the mid-90's seem almost cool in comparison! Last night I went with some friends to see Hassan's show at the Ramses Hilton. I saw his show on my first trip to Egypt in 1999, which he discontinued a few months after I saw it. He has just recently resumed having a show again, so it was fun to see what his newest edition is like. The 1999 show was primarily in the format of folkloric dance. The new show is more of a comedy act that uses a little dance, but is more focused on the humor aspect - but it was still quite entertaining, and I had fun.

I have two more nights in Cairo, and then it's off to Liverpool, England for the Arabic Arts Festival where I'll be the keynote speaker for the dance day on July 19.