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Friday, May 9, 2008
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"Want to be happy? Don't have kids." Of the trifecta of being married, having money, and having kids, a Harvard academic says being married makes the biggest difference to your personal level of happiness. He's pretty harsh about parenting: "Parents tell me all the time that: 'My child is my greatest source of joy'... My reply is that: 'Yes, when you have one source of joy, it's bound to be your greatest'." Yowch.
RunningBlog: I've given this blasted cold four days of rest, with no running or swimming in that time. Thursday I started to feel a lot better though, so today I decided enough was enough. I put on my new shoes, zipped up a hoodie for extra warmth, and headed out for a slow, easy run through the neighborhood. I did 25 minutes of jogging without stopping, and though it didn't feel as easy as some of my recent runs, it wasn't too difficult either. I didn't start hacking or coughing or anything. And the burgeoning sinus headache I'd felt when I woke up? Completely disappeared. (If you'd told me six months ago that running could actually make me feel better, I'd never have believed you.) I'm still planning to do the Mother's Day 8K on Sunday, but I'm not going to kill myself trying to get a PB or anything. It's all about Sunday the 18th, and my goal right now is just to hold it together for nine more days and give myself the best chance to finish the half-marathon.
Oh. And my race pack came in the mail last night. I've got my official race number (#508, baby! I must have gotten in early) and my timing chip. Seeing them on the dining room table suddenly made it all seem very real. Nine more days.
"Ask a Korean" tackles the issue of South Korean citizenship. Check out the section on "simplified naturalization":1. If one of your parents was a Korean citizen. (Emphasis on “was”. It’s ok if your parent renounced Korean citizenship.) Hey, I think that includes me! My mom was born in Korea to a Korean woman, so she would've been a citizen, right? (She would've renounced it as a child when they moved to America.) That's pretty neat.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
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I LOVE WII FIT.
I headed to EB Games tonight to pick up my pre-ordered Wii Fit kit, and I was so excited. I tried to get the guy to price match Kmart, but he informed me that Kmart sold out of 'em way earlier today. (They don't match a price if there's no stock.) Oh well. I wanted the thing NOW. So I carried it home and set it up. Snookums walked in while I was doing my first fitness test, so we quickly got his character set up on it too.
Okay, first off, this thing is ADORABLE. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to anthropomorphize a heavy (and it is heavy) plastic platform, but the Japanese are geniuses. It speaks in this fun squeaky voice - "Initializing!" - that kept cracking me up. Of course, I stopped laughing as soon as Mr Balance Board calculated my weight and BMI, and my cute little Mii suddenly grew quite stout around the middle. Bugger. (For the record, Snookums is smack dab in the middle of his ideal weight. Bastard.) It also told us that our "fitness ages" are in the mid-forties, and it somehow correctly predicted that I trip a lot. (I wish I were joking.) We set our fitness goals and then started playing.
There are four types of games (Yoga, Balance, Muscle, and Aerobic), and we started with Balance since we're lazy. Heading the soccer balls was surprisingly difficult... but so fun too. The board is very sensitive. I had to keep reminding myself that moving my actual head didn't do anything; it's all about shifting your weight. Incidentally, I love that Wii games always use the Miis from your machine, which meant that the people firing soccer balls (and shoes, and panda heads) at me included Miss Fee, Steph and Eva, Andrew and Kathleen, and basically anybody who's ever played Wii at our house. I found the slalom skiing pretty hard until I worked out that I needed to bend my knees and shift my weight forward. That helped move me down the mountain faster. I think the funniest moment of the night, though, was when Snookums sped down the ski jump and stood up too late, resulting in his Mii doing a crazy header down the mountain (and turning into a giant snowball).
After Snookums retired to cook dinner, I tried out some of the yoga games. I chose the female trainer (she sounds like a Pom!) and started each exercise with a tutorial. They were surprisingly well done and effective! Even the simplest "game" - deep yoga breathing - takes on a new level of difficulty when you're trying to keep a dot representing your center of gravity in the middle of a circle onscreen. I was actually pretty good at the yoga stuff, and I managed to unlock an extra level already. I can't wait to try it out properly (like, when I'm not just about to each dinner).
So overall, I'm loving this thing. I did a good 20 minutes of varied, fun exercises tonight without even realizing it. While that doesn't sound like a lot, I'm sure that there are millions of people who don't get that much exercise in a day. This thing is gonna be revolutionary. I'm already looking forward to my next workout!
Via the Snook: The Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis Explained. It involves stick figures and the F-word. Very enlightening.
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I don't suppose any of you have a Myer One discount voucher booklet (including a $40 off coupon for the Wii Fit) that you won't be using? Because that would, like, rock.
Wait, WHAT? Ebert has a blog? That's awesome!
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Wow! Hillary only won Indiana by two percentage points? That's much, much closer than I imagined it to be. Awesome. (Sorry Grandma. I voted for the black guy.)
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Role Reversal. It's not often you see the media scrutinizing a man's belly...
Still sick. I felt so crappy last night that we decided to skip the Neil Gaiman talk. I just couldn't face the thought of standing in a crowded bookstore coughing and hacking all over everyone. Luckily, I can vicariously squee over Neil through crumpet, who saw him twice in 24 hours. What a fangirl. :)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Vodaphone announces it's got the iPhone. As Snook just put it, "Tomorrow's news: Vodafone no longer able to sell iPhone due to leaking info to the press."
Remember our discussion about women taking their husband's surnames? In the US, a couple just successfully sued the state of California on the basis that it should be just as easy for a man to take his wife's surname upon marriage as it is for her to take his. And they won! Nice one.
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The Knitting Fame-Whore strikes again!
This past Friday I went to Newtown after work to join Bex and the goth knitters for a stitch and bitch. We were waiting for a journalist from JJJ Magazine to show up to photograph and interview us. He turned up over an hour late, by which time all the real goths had gone home (leaving only me and a couple other not-so-goth Ravelers). He took a ton of photos, so you may see yours truly in the magazine next month wielding a pair of needles menacingly. Anyway, before all the real goths left, Fin took a couple photos of us all. Yes, I realize that the Argyle Kitty Kat Cardigan hardly qualifies as goth...
Bacon Candy
Remember the Maple-Bacon Lollipops? Thanks to the amazing Mr. Barker, I actually got to try one last night. (I also inflicted it upon my co-workers Kunaal and Tim.) It was... bacon-y. I'm not sure I enjoyed it. I feel like there was some sort of "uncanny bacon valley" happening, where the taste was so similar to eating normal breakfast bacon that my brain got creeped out and refused to accept it.
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Wow. I know I'm supposed to be annoyed at the additional tax, but I can't help but think that this new federal parental leave proposal is a Good Thing. Six months paid maternity leave at full salary? Sweet. And four weeks paternity leave? Hey, it's more than you get in America. (Right, Sis?) Actually, I wonder if it would be possible to switch it, like if the father intended to stay home and the mother go back to work. Could he have six months leave? (She ponders thoughtfully...)
Monday, May 5, 2008
Holy crap! I don't feel so bad about not getting that job at SBS anymore...
World's Longest Foosball Table. The guys at work are going to love this... (Thanks Bex!)
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RunningBlog: Good and Bad News
The good - actually GREAT - news is that I know I can run a half-marathon. I know this because I successfully ran 18.4km yesterday afternoon! (That's nearly 11.5 miles.) And at the end, I honestly felt like I could've easily gone all the way to 21km, were it not for my sore back. I ran the distance pretty slowly (you'll see why in a minute), taking frequent walk breaks and not pushing too hard. Still, I wasn't far off the pace I need to finish in 2:30. I was well-hydrated and carried a water bottle with me, which I sipped on frequently. I also had my first trial of using an energy supplement. At the 6km mark, I had half a chocolate PowerBar gel and then finished it off at the 12km mark. It tasted like medicated chocolate toothpaste. The biggest effect it seemed to have was mental. At the end of the run, I just felt a lot more clear-headed than I had at the same point last week. I never realized how fuzzy and muddled my brain gets after 90 minutes of running. This time I just felt way more energetic and aware. With regards to my body, I didn't notice any immediate jolt or anything, but I definitely had more energy in the tank at the end of this run. Like I said, I was honestly toying with going the whole distance. I was still tired and sore, but I didn't feel like I was falling apart. (I'm also happy to report that the gel didn't give me any stomach problems, as some people seem to have. I did get a bad stitch at the 7km mark, which I attributed to gulping down too much water to help digest the gel.) So all in all, this was a massive confidence boost before the race in two weeks.
And now the bad news. I've caught a cold. I'd been coughing a bit at night last week, but I assumed it was just irritation from the endoscopy. Sunday morning I woke up with the trifecta of headache, sore throat, and stuffy nose. Great. I spent the whole day sucking down water and trying to decide whether I should go for the run or not. I knew that the timing wasn't that bad, because I've got two weeks to shake this thing before the actual race. But this was pretty much my last chance for a really long run, and I felt like I really needed that to mentally prepare. So would running make it worse? Since all my symptoms were "above the neck" (classic runner's justification), I decided to go for it. So I dosed up on paracetamol and headed out. I took it easy on the run but I was happy to find that I still felt pretty good. My stomach got a little acidic but it was manageable. I even braved a few minutes in an ice bath when I got home to help out my legs. I feel pretty awful today, but I'm still glad I did it. Now I just have to concentrate on getting well as soon as possible. Anybody got any good home remedies for a cold?
Sunday, May 4, 2008
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 Twisted Flower Socks
These socks nearly killed me. After cruising along all summer averaging better than one pair of socks per month, these suckers took me more than two months to finally finish. The pattern is by Cookie A. (designer of the ubiquitous Monkey Socks and instigator of the hated "socks and high heels" photo fad), and the yarn is the Knittery's Merino Cashmere Sock in the special breast cancer pink colourway. I started off using two 2.75mm circular needles to knit both legs at the same time. I cheerfully dived into the first chart (of three!) and within a fortnight had them up to the heels. Then I switched to chart #2 and polished off the heel flaps. Suddenly... I noticed that they didn't seem very stretchy. I tried them on and the damn things wouldn't fit over my ankles! So I frogged them back completely all the way to the start. Eventually i started over on 3.25mm needles, which seemed to work a lot better. I think a big part of that is just that this lace-and-cable pattern has very little stretch. (I kinda wish I'd put more ribbing at the top, because I fear they may sag a little.) One reason for my slow speed was the intricacy of this pattern, and the fact that every single row was different from the last. I found it impossible to memorize, especially as the patterns and charts shift every so often. Another impediment was the yarn itself. I have to say, I wasn't very impressed. Oh it was definitely soft, but it was also very, very splitty. The spin was such that it actually UNTWISTED as you knitted it (and no, it didn't matter which end of the skein you used). So I'm not sure how robust they're going to be in the long run. I'm also a little annoyed with how the color striped and pooled (considering how pretty it was in the hank). It competes with the pattern a lot, don't you think? They're definitely soft and cozy though, and judging by my own foot, they're going to be a perfect fit. Hopefully Mom won't receive them too long after Mother's Day... (More details on Ravelry.)
Jamerica the Beautiful.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
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Political Slacktivism Well, it's a quarter to 11 and I'm still sitting here in my pajamas... which means I don't have enough time to get to the Obama photo thingy. *sigh* Although, really, I think I could do more net good for his campaign simply by trying to get my Grandpa to stop forwarding emails bagging him out...
Friday, May 2, 2008
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I fast-forwarded through most of last night's Biggest Loser finale, but I'm really happy that Sam won. He, Alison, and Kerstin did a great job. For me, though, my favourite transformation was definitely Sheridan. Great dress, great hair, great makeup; she looked like a million bucks. I was really pulling for her to win the eliminated contestants' prize, but Sean had that one in the bag. Did anyone notice of AJ asked Sheridan or Michael about their romance? If she did, I certainly missed it.
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RunningBlog: I feel great. I wanted to skip my swimming lesson last night, but the Snook urged me to go. I'm glad I listened to him. It felt good to get back to my training and stop letting my stomach dictate my life. This morning I headed out for my first run of the week, an easy 5K around the neighbourhood before work. Along the way I listened to the most recent episode of Phedippidations, which Steve recorded during this past Monday's Boston Marathon. How hard-core is that?! He was running on an injured ankle (which he himself admits wasn't very smart), but he persevered and finished in less than five hours. It was really inspiring to listen to his updates every mile and to marvel at how far he was pushing himself. Yes, his podcasts get a little cheesy and self-important at times with all the affirmations and cosmic hoo-ha, but when I'm out running, that really appeals to me. And dude, if/when I ever finish my first marathon, I'm sure I'll hear the Carmina Burana playing in my head too...
Anyway, at the end of the podcast Steve mentioned the World Wide Half Marathon. The idea is that people around the world sign up to run a half-marathon (or a 5K) sometime around the weekend of October 11-12. I was checking the Cool Running calendar to see what's on that month... and I discovered that the Melbourne Marathon (and half marathon) is that weekend. Sounds like a plan right? I can't wait to do a lap inside the MCG!
CSS Homer Simpson. Holy crap, that's cool! (Link courtesy of Daring Fireball.)
Created and maintained by Kristine Howard ©
2000-2008.
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