Date:	2008-07-18 16:21
Subject:	Exercise Log for July 18
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

Whoops, I missed last week's exercise log. Mea culpa! I worked with Sean on Friday, got in 30 minutes of vigorous cardio and then a really good workout session. I felt vigorous and accomplished. But that was last week...)

( Exercise Log )

Date:	2008-07-09 16:59
Subject:	Why I love Uwe Schmidt
Security:	Public
Mood:	giggly

Taking a dose of my own advice to yuki_onna (about the joys of college and independent radio), I was wandering the WFMU website, found their list of whacko MP3s and found this gem by 386 DX, aka Senor Coconut, aka Lassigue Bendthaus, aka Atom Heart, aka Lisa Carbon...

I nearly blew tea out my nose laughing.

Date:	2008-07-09 10:28
Subject:	Whining, a little
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

I ran through a monsoon to the get to the radio station, after discovering that I didn't have a functional umbrella. My raincoat saved most of me, but not all, leaving me damp from the neck up and knees down...

But this wasn't entirely bad because the air studio was 95 degrees this morning, a situation not improved by the previous programmer(s) turning off the fans. By using one to draw air out and one to blow air in, I got the temperature down to about 90 by the time I left...

Only to go outside and find that it was 99% humidity and warm outside. My clothes were sticking to me by the time I got to work.

And our DA just told me that I have HUGE bags under my eyes, accompanying the statement with hand gestures to convey their enormity. *sigh*

I am not at my best this morning, but most of this amuses me now. I think that's the tea and Arabica muffin bolstering my spirits.

Another session with my ass-kicking personal trainer today.

( Read more... )

Thanks to a dental appointment this morning, I couldn't go to the gym either before work or during lunch. Feeling both guilty and annoyed about this - I was scheduled to lift weights - I decided to do a little bit at home after work. Thanks to leaving work late and stopping at the grocery store on my way home, I didn't get started until 7:45. Boo. Must work on that!

( Exercise Log )

(I'm back-dating this, to put it in the proper place)

( Exercise Log )

Date:	2008-06-11 08:13
Subject:	The joys of college radio
Security:	Public
Mood:	hot
Music:	Ekova - Temoine

Ah, summertime. It's jungle weather season at the radio station.

At least I was forewarned: yesterday our GM sent out this link as helpful advice to the staff. I took this as a cue to dress lightly and bring lots of water.

Which is why I'm wearing shorts, sandals and a tank top, the first of three outfits I'll be wearing today. It's also why I'm being a little lazy and playing multiple tracks from a lot of CDs - I don't want to run around looking for things just now!

Date:	2008-05-31 23:56
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

I am making darlox watch part of Timecop with me.
(I confess: I actually saw this movie in the theater. Yes. Yes, I did. Go Jean Claude's mullet!)

Date:	2008-05-30 14:38
Subject:	Exercise Log for May 30
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

Hey look everyone! It's an exercise log! I do need to write another one for May 16, but otherwise my exercise log silence has been due to utter slackitude rather than laziness about posting. As in, I haven't been going to the gym and am turning into a couch potato!

Still, I did get to the gym today. That's a step.

( Exercise Log )

Date:	2008-05-30 11:02
Subject:	Quick hits
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased - it's Friday!

• On my way into work this morning, an orchestra member - I think one of the oboeists - parked next to me and randomly and effusively complimented both me and my car. The parting words, "It's a beautiful car and you look good in it" were both pleasing and confusing. I think I'll just take the warm fuzzies and move on. :-)



• Thanks to a planned network outage on campus this weekend, I - and anybody else who uses their university email address as their primary address - will have NO email access through the normal channels. (Anything sent to me will bounce.) (While my email may not bounce, I won't get anything delivered between this afternoon and Monday morning. Be warned!) I'm afraid that this means that any communication attempts must be made via phone. Shocking, I know!



• My manager just asked if I'd like to go see the Arms and Armour exhibition at lunchtime with him today. I said I'd love to. "You're asking me to play hooky with you? Of course I'll go!!"

After several days of being cooped up at home (with a stomach bug of some sort) or in the office, it was impossible to resist the temptation of the sunny afternoon.

( exercise log )

Date:	2008-05-04 03:51
Subject:	Party animal
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

Well, this is the second of two nights that I've been up and about past 3am celebrating a birthday. The only thing that worries me about all of this is the price I'm going to pay Monday morning, when I drag my sorry self to work.

Still, it's been a heck of a fun weekend, punctuated with lots of good conversation, delicious cake, bad movies, alcohol and laughter. (Also, large dogs, small cats, good friends, a sleepover, Rock Band and the Snakes on a Plane drinking game.) Good times, and happy birthday to the birthday girls: sparklie_lady and yuki_onna!

Date:	2008-04-11 17:44
Subject:	Exercise Log for April 11
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

If I have time this afternoon, this will be the first of three posts today!** I know, you're thinking just how lucky you are right now...

( Exercise Log )


**And of course, today was batshit insane at work and I didn't get to finish this post that I started at 10:15 this morning, until just now. Grah! Maybe there will be only one post today, and two more tomorrow.

Date:	2008-04-08 15:16
Subject:	Health, fitness, and peer pressure all rolled into one!
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

Okay. Spurred by the good example of eirias, I've decided to start making exercise log posts to document my efforts at fitness. I'll be putting them all behind LJ cuts for two reasons: first, they won't be even remotely interesting to most of you, and second, they won't be impressive for those of you who are fit. Even if I'm the only one who ever reads them, this is another form of accountability.

These posts may also spur me to make more posts about non-exercise, else this journal become so naval-gazing that even I can't stand it. ;-)

( Exercise log, for the curious )

Date:	2008-03-27 16:37
Subject:	I am Kali, destroyer of...
Security:	Public
Mood:	distressed

Cameras.

In the last three weeks (and actually, within the span of one week), I have managed to drop and break not one but two cameras. I am resigned to being clumsy most of the time, but this was extraordinary even for me.

First, I dropped our Sony DSC-T100 on a cement floor in the Burton log cabin after a Sunday pancake breakfast. The damage was subtle at first, but it became clear that there was something funky in the focus and gyroscope: every time we moved the camera, it groaned and vibrated in an attempt to refocus. After filling out some support information, off the camera went to Sony!

Then, the following Friday, I dropped our beloved Nikon D70 on cobblestones in Bruges. The UV filter blew out like bombed glass, the manual focus ring on the lens shattered, and I almost passed out in horror. The camera body may actually be fine, but the lens is almost certainly beyond repair. The Nikon is now being cleaned and inspected by Dodd; we must wait for their verdict.

Today darlox spent hours on the phone wrestling with Sony's repair shop, who have escalated the extent of the damage to include not just the lens assembly but also the entire body (which, in our recall, was fine.) This in turn, escalated the repair estimates to the level of the ridiculous (75% of original purchase price.) In disgust, darlox has refused the repairs and the camera is returning to us, still broken. We'll have to decide what to do next.

In the meantime, I clearly need to investigate accidental damage camera insurance.

Date:	2008-02-20 16:56
Subject:	Public Service Announcement
Security:	Public
Mood:	excited

I was going to make a quick post about tonight's lunar eclipse, only to see that indy_was_here beat me to it... but then decided that I'd make the post anyway.

So! For those of you reading this from Europe or the Americas, if you have clear skies tonight, you can see the last total lunar eclipse until 2010! The eclipse will start at 8:43PM EST (01:43 GMT - Sorry, butterandjelly!), peak at 10:26PM (03:26 GMT) and end at 12:09AM (6:16 GMT).




(There's a nice animation here.)

If you get the chance, look up tonight and see the spooky red moon for yourself!

Date:	2008-02-18 22:39
Subject:	Comments on a commute
Security:	Public
Mood:	vaguely motivated

1. On my way to work this morning, I found myself keeping pace with a Dodge Charger and I think I fell in love. I'm not much of a muscle car girl, but I have to say that even I could go for a Charger, as long as it's PURPLE (Or, Plum Crazy, as Dodge dubs it.) That was one pretty car.
   


2. Also on my way to work, I decided - foolishly, as it turns out - to cut over to Euclid one intersection early. This brought me face to face with the Martian landscape that is Euclid in the process of the Euclid Corridor project. Hideous! I was fortunately following a police car whose driver clearly knew the road; the car slowed to a stop several times, in order to navigate the tire-width squiggles of road that remained amidst the sea of potholes. I made it to work in one piece, but I think that's the last time I consider any part of Euclid as a "short-cut." I was lucky not to lose my undergarriage!!
   


3. On the way home, there was nothing exciting, until I got to my freeway exit. Then, I felt a frisson of horror when I saw what looked absolutely like a body lying in the road. It wasn't; it turned out to be a pillow, a partially shredded comforter and a well-placed box, but still. For a second I had the ghastly thought that it was somebody in the road and I was going to have to call the police.

Date:	2008-02-08 12:27
Subject:	Inconsequentials
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

• Aw, Bob Seger cares! ...The Onion continues to amuse!
  
  
• I have to admit that I never thought I'd give thanks for Boy Scout caramel corn (with peanuts!), but today, on a day when I managed to forget my soup, bring a long-expired yogurt as a snack and have no cash in my wallet, the stale caramel corn in the staff lounge tasted like the best thing EVER.**
  
  
• I really want to go here sometime: The City Museum of St. Louis

** We will be grocery shopping today.

Date:	2008-02-06 17:29
Subject:	Quickie update
Security:	Public
Mood:	random
Music:	Johnny Cash - American IV

(These are things I thought/typed up throughout the day today and then didn't post until now...)

• I had a total science fangirl moment this morning: After learning that it was commissioned by the Michelson-Morley Centennial Celebration to commemorate the famed experiment, I just had to play Philip Glass's The Light on my show. I think I may also be a not-so-secrit Philip Glass fangirl, too, because I thought it was just great.
  
  
• When I eat canned soup these days, I find myself picking out the lumps of meat and eating around them. I like the flavor of meat-based soups, but I really can't deal with the weird flavor and texture of reconstituted soup meat. Does anybody else do this? Or is it just me?
  
  
• I've been reading criticisms of The Omnivore's Dilemma over the last couple of days in preparation for a second attempt at book discussion of it, and am now seriously debating whether to read Peter Singer's The Way We Eat. I think Animal Liberation might be too much for me to wrestle with at the moment, but I'm curious about Singer's views and would like to see them in a form outside of the even-handed (I think) summary they get in Pollan. I should also re-read The Machine in the Garden and probably On Food and Cooking too, but those will be much less challenging.
  
  
• Johnny Cash's Hurt is goosebump-inducing. Good lord.

Date:	2008-02-01 13:42
Subject:	Bibliophile (2007)
Security:	Public
Mood:	only moderately accomplished

Well, it's only a month late, but it's time for me to make my annual "reading year in review post." As I did last year and the year before, I kept track (for the most part) of the books I read throughout 2007. Last January, I stated that I hoped to read at least 100 new books, a goal which again proved to be ridiculously over-ambitious. I didn't even reach 3/4 of that number in total: at the end of the year, I managed to read a total of 74 (and only 36 of those were new, non-school books.) I totally, utterly and completely blame my thesis for this.

Since I am now, at least for the moment, done with school, I think that it's a little more realistic to restate that goal: I hope to read at least 100 books this year. If I can hit 100 that are new to me, that'll be great. But I'll just be happy getting the chance to read for fun again, whatever form that takes!

And here, for the interested, is the list of books that I read in 2007:

The breakdown: