Two milestones
Yesterday for the first time I went up to someone in the gym and told him he should fix his form. Normally I stay the hell away from doing that, but that person was a teenager, clearly a newbie, and he was doing deadlifts with his back bent so horribly I thought that standing and watching was tantamount to reckless non-assistance. The twenty-something guy who was with him could apparently not be bothered to help him. To my surprise, the teenager took it quite well and (mostly) fixed his form very quickly, although he did have something of a "wait, is a GIRL telling me how to lift weights?!" expression on his face.

Also for (probably) the first time I wore an unnecessary piece of clothing because I thought it was esthetically pleasing, and felt fine. Normally when I wear something that's just for show like a small neck scarf or whatever I feel very self-conscious and have to remove it. Yesterday I wore my new denim vest (I say new because the other day I cut off the ill-fitting arms of my denim jacket and I loved the results) when I didn't really need it. I justified it by telling myself it added pockets to the outfit, but still.

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I'm a huge dork


But this whole growing my hair thing is fun this time, now that I'm not treating the process like an all-cucumber crash diet!

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*sob*
I couldn't believe my eyes: the full CD version of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream", available for download, without any signup gimmickry. Took 3 tries to download, presumably due to being on a French server. I unzip it breathlessly (ha!), drag it to DOSBox, and...

"This program cannot be run in DOS mode".

*throws chair across room*

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Yay for DOSBox!
Last time I tried DOSBox on OS X it was not yet good enough to run old games. But the new version seems better! I can run DOS games without using Windows! Yaaaay!

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I hate computers, Apple, and Micr^H^H^H^HWindows
Apparently the last Windows update I installed on my Mac broke a bunch of Bootcamp drivers. I can't get network access because my wireless adapter is not configured anymore, my desktop looks all weird, and more importantly I can't run either of the 2 adventure games I bought for the trip because they both crash immediately upon loading. I also can't run the installed adventure games that I haven't finished yet, because I don't have the game CDs with me, but I'm sure that if I did I would find that they also crash. I also can't reinstall Bootcamp, because I don't have the CD with me and Bootcamp is now out of beta and so not available for download anymore. I used to have the ISO on my laptop, but I deleted it when I ran out of disk space.

SIGH.

I think there is a moral to this story, but I'm not sure what it is.

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Dept of before and after
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If I ever talk of growing my hair again, please slap me. I don't know how many times I have to go through months of hating my hair and wishing it were all cut off until I finally stop ever wanting to have long hair again.

Current Mood: relieved

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Just got back from a weekend in Carmel and Big Sur. For the first time I did most of the driving. It involved all the twists and turns of Highways 9 and 1. That was a lot of fun. I even got to drive through Santa Cruz, which gave me a real sense of closure over the place.

Now to take a shower.

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OMG
After 6 years I got my first "did this hurt" question about my tattoo.

Current Mood: amused

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2 down, 1 to go
Yesterday I squatted 150 lb, or more than my bodyweight, woo hoo! It was pretty easy, too. Now for the bench press.

Current Mood: accomplished

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In other other news
I saw Bon Jovi in concert yesterday at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. They were pretty awesome. Jon Bon Jovi is teh hottt. I now understand the concept of a groupie.

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The marks of non-grownuphood
Squirting whipped cream out of the profiterole I'm eating and getting chocolate sauce and cream all over my face.

:D

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The marks of grownuphood
- My mom hinting that she would sure like to get one or more grandchildren out of me.

- Making my own profiteroles. Profiteroles were my favorite dessert as a child, obtainable only at the Swissair restaurant in Cairo, and something I always thought of as an elaborate confection. In truth, they're really easy to make. Pity we ran out of whipped cream before I was done, although I found out that sour cream will do as a filling in a pinch.

In other news I've been reading this blog: http://www.garancedore.fr non-stop for the past few days. It's really quite funny and witty, if you know French.

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Mission accomplished
It seems I have successfully corrupted nwhitehe: he bought a Dior trenchcoat at Goodwill today :D

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Fuck this noise
Front page of news.google:

Natalie Portman’s NYC Winter Walk
The Gossip Girls - 2 hours ago
After a hectic promotional run which saw her latest film open in theaters on Friday, Natalie Portman took a break from the hustle-bustle by going for a stroll around Greenwich Village on Saturday (March 1).

I could chalk it up to algorithms gone bad, but really, I think the end of days is upon us.

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The 50% off sale at the consignment store strikes again
This time I got a YSL suit. Even the skirt fits!

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Current Mood: cheerful

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First successful sweater!
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Current Mood: accomplished

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Current Mood: sad

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Soul suckage
Last weekend I figured out that the key for me to wear skirts and dresses successfully is to pair them with Keds (or other sneakers, I guess). No, I did not own Keds as a teenager. Yes, I am becoming more and more Americanized. All but one of my skirts and dresses need to be taken in, so I thought I should bring them to an alterations place instead of buying a new wardrobe from scratch.

I find that trying to get clothes altered is really kind of stressful for me. In a way, it's a little like getting a haircut. I have to communicate my wishes to someone who may or may not be really paying attention (and in the case of hair, may or may not think I'm crazy), then I have to surrender my property and hope they don't fuck it up beyond repair.

At the first shop I went to, this place in Palo Alto I recently discovered, the owner was very ambivalent about everything and sounded less than certain she could do a decent job. I only left her one item, a dress nwhitehe made for me a year ago. The experience left me depressed for the day. Then this afternoon I went to my local shop, where the owner suggested the exact same changes to the clothes but sounded much more upbeat about it all. I don't think I'll be making the trek to the Palo Alto store again, really.

So now I'm waiting on 3 dresses to become available, and in the meantime I may go to the new H&M in San Jose this weekend to see if they have any colorful stuff. Last time I went to an H&M it seemed everything was either black, white, or gray. But if Vogue predicts florals for Spring (groundbreaking!), then maybe there's hope.

Current Mood: cold

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I AM HERE TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL
Take a bunch of green beans (frozen is fine). Put them in a roasting pan. Drizzle some olive oil on top, season with salt and pepper. Roast at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until they're nice and brown. DIE OF HAPPINESS. Thank me (and Cook's Illustrated) later.

Current Mood: giddy

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Help me make sense of this
According to an Economist/YouGov poll, more Americans:

• Think the bigger problem with health care is its high cost, rather than many people being uninsured.
  
• Think a national health care plan will increase or maintain (rather than decrease) the amount they personally have to spend on health care.
  
• Think a national health care plan will decrease the quality of health care they personally receive.
  
• Support a national health care plan.
  

Maybe there is a distinction between "a national health care plan" and "the government will guarantee health insurance for all citizens"? Or is it a case of Venn diagrams gone wild?

Current Mood: puzzled

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