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enismirdalI more or less stayed off LJ yesterday (partly cos our DNS went down shortly after I stopped working and started playing so I couldn't get on LJ, partly cos I hit a point where I wanted numbers and statistics rather than reasons and protests, whatever). Today there seems to be a lot of bouncing everywhere. I only stayed up till 3am our time, which was the point at which both Ohio and Pennsylvania were declared, and then decided sleep was wise since the outcome was pretty much a given at that stage. It kind of reminds me of watching the Olympics - there's a bookies' favourite, and everyone had their own favoured competitor, and then you all watch, biting your nails, wincing as the other guy pulls a bit ahead, cheering as your own guy comes ahead... I bet both candidates felt about as knackered afterwards as they would have after Olympic rowing too!
The trouble was, our DNS was still on the fritz. This seems to be a peculiar problem with our ISP - you get evenings when some sites will load and others won't. So CNN was not working. Neither was Fox. Neither was the BBC. The Guardian, however, loaded fine, as did Yahoo, so I got to watch their interactive map, which was cute. Sky News loaded, so I had that too. And I discovered that putting the BBC site through Google Translate (Vietnamese -> English) loaded it slowly but functionally since then it wasn't Be's DNS doing the work. The BBC were quite fun as they seemed to declare states pretty much based on rumours whereas Yahoo and the Guardian were being more cautious and waiting for formal announcements and stuff. It was such fun watching the states light up in a slow wave generally spreading westwards.
Set alarm for 9am today, but unfortunately snooze decided not to cooperate, so slept in till 9:45. Ooops. Got into the lab by 11am, at least, so not outrageous. Giggled at the world leaders all falling over themselves to make friends with Obama.
There are some local elections going on in Tower Hamlets soon, but not my ward. Tower Hamlets is funny because it's so culturally diverse, traditionally very Labour, I think, cos of the working-class Cockney influence, but with a vague swing towards Respect and a good dose of LibDem. There's also a worrying undercurrent of BNP, but I think that's a very sad, unfortunate symptom of any multicultural community with a lot of poverty - some groups start to blame the problems on race. In any case, it means elections are fairly interesting as you can get such a mixture of results rather than just Tory or Labour. I think it's the kind of place where a surprising number of raving left-wingers turn up!
Anyway, other stuff...
Discovered we got whacked for bank charges because flatmate whose account we pay bills from didn't check the balance and our gas and electricity were declined cos there wasn't enough money in there. Thought about having a bitchy poll about who is financially responsible for that but decided it's not worth the effort.
Did I mention I started yoga a couple of months back? Been doing that every Wednesday evening for a while now. Turns out I'm weird. I can squat comfortably for any length of time with my feet flat, and when kneeling I'm actually more comfortable with my toes curled under than with my feet flat against the floor (I never did understand when doing Aikido why some people hated knee-walking so much). Yet my hamstrings are USELESS. So tight that anything involving hamstring tension just no worky for me. My Downwards Dog looks more like Arthritic Dog With Hip Dysplasia And Two Broken Legs. Although I can just about touch my toes without bending my knees, it HURTS. And the only way I can lie on my back with my feet in the air and the soles of my feet parallel with the ceiling is to bend my knees almost to 90 degrees.
I would love to know if these things are developmental and determined when you're about 8, i.e. whether I'll never be able to do Downwards Dog with straight legs, or whether you can get there with lots of practice. Our yoga teacher seems to have super elastic hamstrings and will hold conversations in seemingly impossible positions. Did she start out like me? Or was she unnaturally flexible from the outset?
Flatmate is back from Czech Republic for a few days as of tomorrow, for some meetings in the lab. It will be nice to see her again, so I am looking forward to it. I'm going to see her in the Czech Republic for a long weekend in a few weeks from now - the plan is to day trip to Vienna, where I really really really really want to see the Spanish Riding School perform. I have idolised the Spanish Riding School since I was about 12.
At the weekend, some friends had a Pirate/Ninja-themed Halloween Party. I figured ninja would be more popular since it was easier, but it turned out not to be the case at all! There were, in fact, only 3 ninjas, one of whom was yours truly. I managed to get hold of a fabulous foam ninja sword, awesome for posing, and followed the online instructions to make myself a T-shirt ninja mask. I thought I looked pretty awesome, actually. <- fuzzy cameraphone photo taken by flatmate.
I recently ordered some new stuff from my favourite online shop, Namaste UK. I love their stuff so very much. My Kathmandu Woolly Hoodie won't get here till December, but my cardigan/jacket thing arrived on Monday. It's amazing - big and red and chunky with pretty patterndy bits. Very snugglywarm. Also makes me look like a complete hippy. Which I suspect I am, so it's all good. :D
The trouble was, our DNS was still on the fritz. This seems to be a peculiar problem with our ISP - you get evenings when some sites will load and others won't. So CNN was not working. Neither was Fox. Neither was the BBC. The Guardian, however, loaded fine, as did Yahoo, so I got to watch their interactive map, which was cute. Sky News loaded, so I had that too. And I discovered that putting the BBC site through Google Translate (Vietnamese -> English) loaded it slowly but functionally since then it wasn't Be's DNS doing the work. The BBC were quite fun as they seemed to declare states pretty much based on rumours whereas Yahoo and the Guardian were being more cautious and waiting for formal announcements and stuff. It was such fun watching the states light up in a slow wave generally spreading westwards.
Set alarm for 9am today, but unfortunately snooze decided not to cooperate, so slept in till 9:45. Ooops. Got into the lab by 11am, at least, so not outrageous. Giggled at the world leaders all falling over themselves to make friends with Obama.
There are some local elections going on in Tower Hamlets soon, but not my ward. Tower Hamlets is funny because it's so culturally diverse, traditionally very Labour, I think, cos of the working-class Cockney influence, but with a vague swing towards Respect and a good dose of LibDem. There's also a worrying undercurrent of BNP, but I think that's a very sad, unfortunate symptom of any multicultural community with a lot of poverty - some groups start to blame the problems on race. In any case, it means elections are fairly interesting as you can get such a mixture of results rather than just Tory or Labour. I think it's the kind of place where a surprising number of raving left-wingers turn up!
Anyway, other stuff...
Discovered we got whacked for bank charges because flatmate whose account we pay bills from didn't check the balance and our gas and electricity were declined cos there wasn't enough money in there. Thought about having a bitchy poll about who is financially responsible for that but decided it's not worth the effort.
Did I mention I started yoga a couple of months back? Been doing that every Wednesday evening for a while now. Turns out I'm weird. I can squat comfortably for any length of time with my feet flat, and when kneeling I'm actually more comfortable with my toes curled under than with my feet flat against the floor (I never did understand when doing Aikido why some people hated knee-walking so much). Yet my hamstrings are USELESS. So tight that anything involving hamstring tension just no worky for me. My Downwards Dog looks more like Arthritic Dog With Hip Dysplasia And Two Broken Legs. Although I can just about touch my toes without bending my knees, it HURTS. And the only way I can lie on my back with my feet in the air and the soles of my feet parallel with the ceiling is to bend my knees almost to 90 degrees.
I would love to know if these things are developmental and determined when you're about 8, i.e. whether I'll never be able to do Downwards Dog with straight legs, or whether you can get there with lots of practice. Our yoga teacher seems to have super elastic hamstrings and will hold conversations in seemingly impossible positions. Did she start out like me? Or was she unnaturally flexible from the outset?
Flatmate is back from Czech Republic for a few days as of tomorrow, for some meetings in the lab. It will be nice to see her again, so I am looking forward to it. I'm going to see her in the Czech Republic for a long weekend in a few weeks from now - the plan is to day trip to Vienna, where I really really really really want to see the Spanish Riding School perform. I have idolised the Spanish Riding School since I was about 12.
At the weekend, some friends had a Pirate/Ninja-themed Halloween Party. I figured ninja would be more popular since it was easier, but it turned out not to be the case at all! There were, in fact, only 3 ninjas, one of whom was yours truly. I managed to get hold of a fabulous foam ninja sword, awesome for posing, and followed the online instructions to make myself a T-shirt ninja mask. I thought I looked pretty awesome, actually. <- fuzzy cameraphone photo taken by flatmate.
I recently ordered some new stuff from my favourite online shop, Namaste UK. I love their stuff so very much. My Kathmandu Woolly Hoodie won't get here till December, but my cardigan/jacket thing arrived on Monday. It's amazing - big and red and chunky with pretty patterndy bits. Very snugglywarm. Also makes me look like a complete hippy. Which I suspect I am, so it's all good. :D
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no subject
Date: 6 Nov 2008 02:41 (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 Nov 2008 20:33 (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 Nov 2008 20:38 (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 Nov 2008 07:47 (UTC)http://www.pyramidcollection.com/
Watching the election results was an absolute gas! We all cheered and cheered and then I couldn't sleep... so glad!
Cool ninja, but where's your faaaace? *pouts*
no subject
Date: 6 Nov 2008 20:31 (UTC)Of course, I had to pull down the face cover to eat and drink, and with the face bit pulled down I looked kind of like a Muslim girl wearing a hijab - I'm sure the neighbours were kind of confused to see me sipping wine! ;)
no subject
Date: 6 Nov 2008 20:51 (UTC)*droolslurpdroolslurp*
no subject
Date: 6 Nov 2008 09:31 (UTC)Possibly the slight hyperextendable-ness means this process was slightly faster, but I've seen other people at yoga get much better remarkably quickly.
I miss yoga :( I can't get to the classes anymore, and I keep failing to run through it on my own...
no subject
Date: 6 Nov 2008 20:25 (UTC)