Tuesday, August 6, 2013

RST, Brought To You By Bedsores

Before we start: I wanted to double-check proper title capitalization, and apparently everything I thought I knew (by which I mean capitalizing "principal" words) is wrong. According to this random website, the only two consistent rules are a) capitalizing the first word, and b) capitalizing all proper nouns. Another method is to capitalize every word in the title. I have opted for this for simplicity's sake. My world has been shattered.

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For the first time in my life, I'm experiencing a double-dip sickness; just when I thought I was in the clear, I got knocked right down again. My body likes to live on the edge. Fortunately, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and I think I'll rejoin society tomorrow.

Apart from basic dog duties, I've largely been confined to my bed since last Friday. Four days is a lot of time to spend in a bed. I wish I could say that I've used this time to expand my mind, make glamorous plans, and think about the future, but in reality I've spent most of my time watching Orange is the New Black (raunchy but SO GOOD) and West Wing (one of those shows people have bugged me about for years to whom I've always responded, "Yeah, yeah, I'll watch it someday, lay off me." Well, someday is NOW, and it's bad).

This post, the result of four days confined to a bed, is going to be randomly shitastic, so let's slap a RST label on it and get to work:

  • I'm back on THE CORE train. This is the one weight workout I can tolerate, although I'm not sure why. Maybe the free weights make me feel like a 'roided Soviet Olympian? Which, let's face it, is every woman's dream, amirite? THE CORE isn't the most interesting workout (in fact, another name for it could be "do 200 squats") and fails to target a lot of the muscles I use for running (most importantly, calves), but I do feel like it must be beneficial in some way. I managed to cough through an entire set this morning, albeit with 5-pound weights (HOTR uses 10 pounds, that beast!).
  • Speaking of 'roided Soviet Olympians, I'm reading "The Sports Gene" on GCA's recommendation, and it's pretty awesome. In one chapter, the author talks about the huge progress female athletes made in the 1970s and 1980s and how the rate of convergence of male/female records suggested that women would surpass men (athletically) sometime in the 22nd century. Well, the author dug through the available evidence and concluded that much of the huge gains made during those years was due primarily to widespread testosterone injection. In fact, many of the female world records in sprint and "power events" (I assume this means shot put and the like) were set in the 1980s. Bummer. Another cool tidbit: in whatever year studied, half the players on the Dodgers had 20/11 vision, and about 2% dipped below 20/9, "flirting with the theoretical limit of the human eye." Oh, and apparently ALL fetuses are female during the first six weeks of life. I feel like this is common knowledge but I had no idea. So much knowledge in one little book.
  • I continue to search for housing in Eugene and it's really stressing me out. You mean people actually want to MEET me before letting me move in with them? That's whack. In the past, I've already had a roommate(s) and we searched for a vacant place together. Now, I'm trying to latch onto strangers already living in an apartment and it's proving to be tougher than I had envisioned. It doesn't help that I won't have a chance to fly down there before I move (22 days and counting!).
  • The Civil Wars have a new album out!!! The band broke up but now, magically, there's a new album, recorded while everything was going to hell. Hurrah! I've only listened to the first single off the album, but I think it's gonna be pretty awesome.
  • I recently became aware of the website "Get Off My Internets" (GOMI to the uninitiated). It's insanely mean-spirited, but in fact there's a lot of legitimate (and entertaining) criticism on there. Plus, those ladies write better than most bloggers. New life goal: get a thread on GOMI! I kid. Also, they just managed to unearth something that I'm pretty sure is going to make the internet explode, so I guess it's also a (trashy) detective agency?
  • I watched a delightful documentary about Tetris last night. "Delightful" if you spent half your childhood playing Tetris. "A study on extreme nerddom" if you didn't. You're welcome for that link.
I can't tolerate a post without a picture, so here's one of a horrifying, mutant baby Jeano my mom recently sent me (I'm the fivehead in the middle). This is unassailable PROOF that babies can, in fact, be ugly.


Questions
  • Thoughts on GOMI? Disgusting or fun?
  • How have you found housing in the past? I've always used Craigslist, but Craig's failing me at the moment.
  • Learn any cool new facts recently?

14 comments:

  1. Hahaha to your eloquent description of your baby picture. Personally, I think you were pretty squish-able AND you by far have the best baby hair of the three. You have spikes!

    I'm pretty curious about that workout. Plus, I love that there's "real" pictures of people doing the workouts. I don't know why that makes me think I can do the exercises, but it does.

    I hope you feel better AND find an apartment. That sounds crazy stressful. Just send prospective roommates your blog address and they'll think you're cool and won't need to "meet" you in person. Just don't get desperate and move in with some middle aged guy that likes video equipment, his basement, guns and toy action figures. That never turns out well.

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    1. You are TOO kind. And so obviously a mother. There there is a freak baby.

      I like the pictures too! Although not because it makes them look like real people, but because I'd have no idea what the hell I was doing if I tried to do it just based on the description. Plus, whenever I don't do it for a while and then go back to it, I can look at the pictures and easily remember what I'm supposed to do.

      Ahahaha, if I have my way this blog will never, ever be seen by any people I meet in real life (although I reserve the right to meet blog people in real life). I'm pretty sure it would rule me OUT for most people. Like, "why the f-ck does this totally average athlete spend so much of her life thinking about running?! Get a life!" I DID see an ad called "I WANT TO LIVE WITH A OLDER WOMAN" today. I can totally see myself ending up with that person, because I'm an idiot.

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  2. I'm of the belief that most babies are actually quite ugly and it's only their parents that think they are cute...at least for like a month or so. That being said, your forehead is outrageously large (as a baby). If it makes you feel any better, when I was born, my sister could hold me even with her head and my legs went past her knees (she was 5). I was like a noodle.

    That roommate stuff sounds rough!! I roomed with "strangers" my first year of grad school by choosing other people who were in my program. Since I was the only one who lived in the area, I was actually the one responsible for choosing the house, which I found incredibly stressful.

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    1. Yes!! They are! I can't tell you how many kids have been shoved in my face and whose parents have pretty much forced me to lie about their beautiful kid. No way, babies look like gremlins until at least a few months in. I've always had a huge forehead, but seeing that photo was a bit traumatic. I always thought I was a cutie!

      This whole thing would be a LOT easier if I were actually in Eugene. But having to scope out apartments that everyone has to like would be super stressful!

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  3. Hope you feel better soon! It's your immune system going 'Oh, she doesn't have to train for a marathon any more. I can go on holiday.'

    What about student housing for the first semester? Then as you make like-minded friends, you can all move off-campus together...

    When I moved to Boston from NH I had to do it pretty much sight unseen (I was home in Singapore for the summer) - fortunately my landlord specialised in student housing and was fine with renting rooms to grad students who came with a credit check.

    And now I really, really HAVE to read that book. Heh. :)

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    1. PS: I've caved and got the book (on Kindle cloud reader, along with Sheryl Sandberg's 'Lean In'.)

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    2. Unfortunately, the student housing for grads is really, really limited and I started thinking about it WAY too late to go for something like that. Plus, I'm so over living in an apartment complex. I want to live in a stand-alone house, which fortunately shouldn't be hard to find in Eugene. What I really wish the school had was a HOUSING website to connect students. I know a lot of schools have that and it would be way easier to find roommates first (grad student roommates) and then look for a place together. Oh well!

      Way to go on the book! I'm really enjoying it so far. I can't say I'm a huge fan of Sheryl Sandberg (I get her "lean in" message but I've seen so many interviews of her shilling it that it's really started to annoy me. Plus, she likes to play the "sexism isn't a problem, women do it to themselves!" card way too often for my liking), but I know people who have read her book and really enjoyed it.

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    3. See, the problem with the Lean In interviews and reviews is that they WAY oversimplify the book - it's a whole lot more complex than that, but a ten-minute TED talk can make only so many points. I thought I'd be much more annoyed by Lean In than I was.

      I'm also enjoying the Epstein book so far - it has both good research and good stories. Even if I am one of the hopelessly untrainable unlucky few. :)

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  4. Have you watched King of Kong: A fistful of quarters?

    The people in the core need to look miserable and dirty like the rest of us!

    And for cool facts: http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/

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    1. Ahaha, no, I have no idea what King of Kong is. That sounds like.. a porno? I'll have to Google it.

      I know reddit has a lot of cool stuff but the format always overwhelms me! That's why I depend on people like YOU to dig up the good stuff.

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  5. I, too, think that most babies are pretty ugly for about a month or so. Someone recently used the word "aliens". Not too far from what I think...

    Although I think you're past the 1 month mark in that photo. Seriously, though - it looks like someone took you - and only you - in that photo and stretched your head vertically. You have almost a mile of forehead.

    Ummm...adorable Jeano forehead, of course.

    *foot in mouth*

    Later!

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    1. Ahaha, very accurate description. I take solace in the fact that I ended up with all the brains, though (literally and figuratively!). But I WAS horrified when I saw it. All these years I thought I was adorable!

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  6. I hope your immune system gets off it's arse soon and gives you a break! Try taking elderberry syrup... I swear that stuff really helps. And astragalus.
    That is quite a forehead you had there, but ugly, no way! I've seen some ugly little critters (think hairy faces, lots of wrinkles and sort of old man features) and ugly you were not :)
    Sorry, can't help you on the roommate sitch. I always lived with friends then moved in with the hubs. I'm crossing my fingers for you though!

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    1. I've never even HEARD of astragalus! Fortunately, the immune system finally seems to have kicked into gear and I managed to stumble my way through work today. I think we're on the upswing now!

      It's interesting that the moms have been supportive of my freak forehead... you guys must have "baby goggles" or something because that there is an ugly tyke.

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