Mar 10th, 2010
Life update
Remembering: To say “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit” as soon as I woke up on 1 March.
Reading: Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed. This book is about naked mole rats, so even though it’s by an author whose other work I find fairly unimpressive, I was pretty sure I’d love this one before I even cracked the cover. In this tale, one naked mole rat who likes to wear clothes is criticized by other naked mole rats who think that clothes are weird and that everyone should be naked. In the end, they all agree that it’s okay to have different perspectives on clothing. The best part is that the book doesn’t fall back onto a trite ending in which everyone is wearing clothes. There are still plenty of naked naked mole rats around!
Watching: All of Red Dwarf (the original version, not the let’s-cut-some-material-to-make-room-for-more-special-effects version that came out a few years ago) from start to finish. I love this show.
Resisting: An urge to call people who annoy me “smeghead.”
Speaking of smegheads: I’ve noticed that whenever I send an e-mail to my senators and congressional representative, the only one who requires a “prove you’re not spam” test on the submission form is the one Republican in the bunch. I wonder if this party-line divide is true elsewhere or just in my district.
Not caring about: The Olympics. In short, the Olympics are now nothing more than a huge expression of nationalism and competitions that are more between technologies than between skilled humans. How many millions of dollars go into, say, getting the strap attachment on a helmet just so in order to cut down on wind drag by 0.00000005 percent? It just seems like such a waste of money and effort to me.
Chuckling: About this joke: “Two cats decided to have a swimming contest across the English Channel. One was an English cat called One Two Three. The other was a French cat called Un Deux Trois. One Two Three cat won the race. Un Deux Trois cat sank. “
5 Responses to “Life update”
This was the first month I remembered to say “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit”!
Even though I love the Olympics, you’re right about the technological aspect of it (swimsuits, skeleton helmets, bobsleds, etc.). I also think there is too much emphasis on the medals. Seventh place out of 6 billion people is pretty darn good too.
The Olympics are way too commercial, but I figure that at least it gives McDonalds and Coca Cola somewhere to sink their money besides Congress! :)
I love Red Dwarf. Have you seen the 3 part special they did a couple of years ago? I just watched it this weekend and it was all kinds of weird.
@Katie: I hope you wished for something good! Winning lottery tickets for all of your friends, perhaps? :)
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@Frank: You are right about the sense of perspective. I just read a study that revealed that Olympic bronze medalists (who are just happy to have a medal) tend to be much happier than Olympic silver medalists (who torture themselves with “If only I had…” thoughts).
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@Jen: I saw that shortly after it aired in the UK last spring. I like the use of the “missing season” to explain some gaps. Overall, I thought it was fairly clever. Thought it was weird to see how much everyone has aged (except Kryten, who’s been covered with makeup the entire time).
I used to be a HUGE follower of the Winter Olympics, particularly the figure skating. It seems like all real skill was removed from Olympic events about 20 years ago. The 1988 Winter Olympics was the last one where figure skaters were graded on the compulsory skate, which was the skater’s repetition (3-5 times, I think) of loopy, complex version of a figure 8. These had to be done on top of each other to gauge the skater’s level of control, skill, precision, and strength. It counted for 20% of the overall score. The tossed it after 1988. Dumb idea.
Plus, once they started with the alternating Summer/Winter thing every 2 years, it really cheapened the Olympics, I think. Now it’s all these cities/sponsors clamoring for a chance to be in the spotlight. Sigh.