...is what I've become - not that I'm complaining. Who doesn't want a furry feline master who has deigned to make you her resting place?
I wake up at 6am to the pressure of paws kneading my boobies, non-stop. I don't want to disturb her while she's showering me with such affection so I hold still while I try to fall back asleep. What makes it difficult is the weight of her hind legs digging into my bare stomach, a constant reminder of the claws that may unsheathe at any moment.
If I lie on the couch to watch tv, she trots over with a rare single-minded purpose. After kneading my boobies, tummy, then boobies again, she'll slowly curl up on my torso as she blocks the tv I'm trying to watch. I pet her and scratch her behind the ears. The way she closes her eyes makes me smile, until I remember that she may suddenly decide with a quick bite of my hand that she's had enough petting.
If I sit at my computer desk, she'll hop on over and settle into my lap. This can be dangerous because if my thighs are too far apart and she starts to slip, she could bring out those hind claws for support. Once she has fallen asleep, a gentle nudge will not be enough to convince her to get off. I must gently but quickly swoop my hands under her and lift her to the desk before she decides I need a nip of discouragement.
Thus I am Muffin's mobile kitty bed.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Chaos is contagious
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2008/11/the_spread_of_disorder_can_graffiti_promote_littering_and_th.php
This blog entry is about an experiment conducted by Kees Keizer and his colleagues from the University of Groningen. They set up various pairs of situations - one where rules were not being broken, and one where rules were obviously being broken. The first example is of an alley where bikes were parked. The wall had a prominent No Grafitti sign. Flyers for a fictional sportswear shop were attached to each bike. With no grafitti on the wall, 33% littered. When they repeated the situation but with grafitti on the wall, 69% dumped their flyers on the street.
Anecdotally, I'm sure we can recall situations where we've seen this to be true in our daily lives. If either me or Lawrence starts to leave things lying around the apartment, the other has much less incentive to keep things clean.
This blog entry is about an experiment conducted by Kees Keizer and his colleagues from the University of Groningen. They set up various pairs of situations - one where rules were not being broken, and one where rules were obviously being broken. The first example is of an alley where bikes were parked. The wall had a prominent No Grafitti sign. Flyers for a fictional sportswear shop were attached to each bike. With no grafitti on the wall, 33% littered. When they repeated the situation but with grafitti on the wall, 69% dumped their flyers on the street.
Anecdotally, I'm sure we can recall situations where we've seen this to be true in our daily lives. If either me or Lawrence starts to leave things lying around the apartment, the other has much less incentive to keep things clean.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Big Bang Theory
I LOVE this show. I spent some time yesterday looking for the season 2 episodes. For some reason the only place I could find ep 1 was on isohunt. I seriously laughed my way through the entire episode! I never realized I was such a geek until I realized Lawrence didn't find the humor as hilariously funny as I did. :< I love that they're in Pasadena too.
Friday, November 7, 2008
The Story of a White House Butler
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110603948.html?sub=AR&sid=ST2008110604101
This story just about made me cry at the end. :'<
This story just about made me cry at the end. :'<
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
High hopes!
I'm in my third week of seeing Melody (personal trainer) every Monday and Thursday. Last Monday, my 2nd time with kettlebells, we stopped before the last exercise because I was feeling nauseous and light-headed. My vision got all weird and blurry too. It was rather trippy. Since then I've tried to make sure I get some food at least an hour before sessions.
Last Thursday I used sandbags! Melody likes training with the sandbags because they're non-rigid, like a lot of the things we have to carry in life. How often do you have to lift dumbbell-shaped objects on a regular basis? Sandbags, on the other hand, are floppy and their weight shifts so you need to get a good grip on them - like bags of groceries or little kids. This is good because my grip sucks. It was also very satisfying to be able to just drop the sandbag after each exercise. One of the last exercises Melody had me do was a pushup where I was propped up on the sandbags and after pushing myself up I had to lift a small sandbag with one hand. I was soooo weak, she had to switch out the sandbag for a small kettlebell. Even then, I could barely do a few.
I think that was a big indicator of how weak my chest muscles and my core are so Monday this week, she had me do a few pushup-like exercises. One was with 2 barbells laid parallel, where I did a pushup with my hands rested on each barbell. By having my hands on the barbells, I had to work harder at making sure the barbells didn't roll around each time I went up & down. Then I had to do an exercise where I leaned with both hands on a barbell, rolling it out, and then rolling it back. It's difficult because you have to go as low as you can, but be able to stop at the right point so you can roll yourself back up. Then there were situps while holding up a barbell. The most fun was the last exercise with the balance trainer (like an exercise ball cut in half, with a flat base that it rests on) where I hop on with one foot, switch feet, and then hop off the other side.
I can really feel it in my abs after Monday's workout, which is great! I love feeling sore after workouts because that indicates to me that I put effort into exercising. It may hurt, but it hurts SO good. I feel so optimistic about my body now, like I know I can finally lose weight and get fit. The other day I was thinking about taking up a form of martial arts. I've always wanted to do that, but there were a lot of things that held me back. I'm not into contact sports. My brother and my cousins did judo, and that's full on body contact with all the throws and grabs. I didn't have enough self confidence to pursue it because I was afraid I wouldn't be any good at it. The thought of competitions and sparring scared the shit out of me - what if I fail, screw up, or get my ass whooped? How would I be able to think quick enough and respond fast enough to spar with someone?
I think I would much prefer weapon fighting. I always wanted to learn archery (but not of the modern high-tech sort). Sword fighting would be awesome too (but not fencing, and probably not kendo). I'm also interested in staff fighting...I learned a little when I was in junior high actually. It wasn't real fighting, unfortunately. Because my dad knows the Chinese opera crowd, he knew this lady who was opening up a chinese opera/dance school. This lady gave me lessons in certain Chinese opera techniques - which can include acrobatics and choreographed fighting. I learned how to hold my hands in the position that ladies in Chinese opera do, how you're supposed to move gracefully and position your arms in a graceful way, how to maintain all of that while you walk/run in these quick, graceful little steps.
I also learned how to twirl a staff. I could twirl one staff, two staves (one in each hand at the same time), I could twirl one around switching between hands, and I also learned this method of twirling where you hold the staff closer to one end so the uneven weight balance helps you spin it around. The best part was the choreographed staff fighting routine we learned. "We" consisted of me and this other girl who was the daughter of one of the ladies who sang Chinese opera with my dad. We would attack, block, do sweeps, jump, spin around, it was awesome! Well, that sounds more crazy than it actually was...I don't think we were so energetic, but still...there was potential. :D
I wish I could find some place to learn weapon fighting, but I think you need to learn basic martial arts first.
Last Thursday I used sandbags! Melody likes training with the sandbags because they're non-rigid, like a lot of the things we have to carry in life. How often do you have to lift dumbbell-shaped objects on a regular basis? Sandbags, on the other hand, are floppy and their weight shifts so you need to get a good grip on them - like bags of groceries or little kids. This is good because my grip sucks. It was also very satisfying to be able to just drop the sandbag after each exercise. One of the last exercises Melody had me do was a pushup where I was propped up on the sandbags and after pushing myself up I had to lift a small sandbag with one hand. I was soooo weak, she had to switch out the sandbag for a small kettlebell. Even then, I could barely do a few.
I think that was a big indicator of how weak my chest muscles and my core are so Monday this week, she had me do a few pushup-like exercises. One was with 2 barbells laid parallel, where I did a pushup with my hands rested on each barbell. By having my hands on the barbells, I had to work harder at making sure the barbells didn't roll around each time I went up & down. Then I had to do an exercise where I leaned with both hands on a barbell, rolling it out, and then rolling it back. It's difficult because you have to go as low as you can, but be able to stop at the right point so you can roll yourself back up. Then there were situps while holding up a barbell. The most fun was the last exercise with the balance trainer (like an exercise ball cut in half, with a flat base that it rests on) where I hop on with one foot, switch feet, and then hop off the other side.
I can really feel it in my abs after Monday's workout, which is great! I love feeling sore after workouts because that indicates to me that I put effort into exercising. It may hurt, but it hurts SO good. I feel so optimistic about my body now, like I know I can finally lose weight and get fit. The other day I was thinking about taking up a form of martial arts. I've always wanted to do that, but there were a lot of things that held me back. I'm not into contact sports. My brother and my cousins did judo, and that's full on body contact with all the throws and grabs. I didn't have enough self confidence to pursue it because I was afraid I wouldn't be any good at it. The thought of competitions and sparring scared the shit out of me - what if I fail, screw up, or get my ass whooped? How would I be able to think quick enough and respond fast enough to spar with someone?
I think I would much prefer weapon fighting. I always wanted to learn archery (but not of the modern high-tech sort). Sword fighting would be awesome too (but not fencing, and probably not kendo). I'm also interested in staff fighting...I learned a little when I was in junior high actually. It wasn't real fighting, unfortunately. Because my dad knows the Chinese opera crowd, he knew this lady who was opening up a chinese opera/dance school. This lady gave me lessons in certain Chinese opera techniques - which can include acrobatics and choreographed fighting. I learned how to hold my hands in the position that ladies in Chinese opera do, how you're supposed to move gracefully and position your arms in a graceful way, how to maintain all of that while you walk/run in these quick, graceful little steps.
I also learned how to twirl a staff. I could twirl one staff, two staves (one in each hand at the same time), I could twirl one around switching between hands, and I also learned this method of twirling where you hold the staff closer to one end so the uneven weight balance helps you spin it around. The best part was the choreographed staff fighting routine we learned. "We" consisted of me and this other girl who was the daughter of one of the ladies who sang Chinese opera with my dad. We would attack, block, do sweeps, jump, spin around, it was awesome! Well, that sounds more crazy than it actually was...I don't think we were so energetic, but still...there was potential. :D
I wish I could find some place to learn weapon fighting, but I think you need to learn basic martial arts first.
Friday, October 24, 2008
No on Prop 8
The latest polls are discouraging. I donated $100 to Equality for All today. NO on Prop 8!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Kettlebells
I used kettlebells for the first time yesterday. It took a little bit a coordination effort, but they're pretty fun! Haha, I say that now but I know I'm going to complain about them eventually. I used the 18 lb. weights and mostly swung them around. My forearm is majorly sore today, and I can feel my thighs a bit, but I just tell myself this is nothing compared to that first day of Track & Field practice in my high school freshman year. Now, that was killer. Next session will be Monday at the gym. I feel like I should do some running on my non-training days but so far I've been preoccupied with other things - Tuesday night was knitting night, Wednesday night was dinner with my parents. Perhaps this weekend? It would be good to do something since I don't particularly feel like completely changing my diet right now.
In other news, Lawrence bought me shoes off of Zappos. We finally went to DSW last night to return these 2 shoes I bought that turned out to not fit me. I got store credit for them but we couldn't find anything decent to buy because I've got wide hobbit feet. At home, he wanted me to look at Zappos for shoes but apparently my taste sucks. He decided on this one and promptly ordered it. We'll see how it turns out.
After that I kind of wanted to get cool earrings. I looked for stuff on etsy today. I haven't found something that I really wanted, but I did find some very interesting looking pieces. I'll post them when I get home.
In other news, Lawrence bought me shoes off of Zappos. We finally went to DSW last night to return these 2 shoes I bought that turned out to not fit me. I got store credit for them but we couldn't find anything decent to buy because I've got wide hobbit feet. At home, he wanted me to look at Zappos for shoes but apparently my taste sucks. He decided on this one and promptly ordered it. We'll see how it turns out.
After that I kind of wanted to get cool earrings. I looked for stuff on etsy today. I haven't found something that I really wanted, but I did find some very interesting looking pieces. I'll post them when I get home.
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