The car was filthy (though Car said that since we can still see what colour it was, it can’t be considered bad). I love sitting inside the car when it goes through the car wash. And judging by the number of youtube videos, plenty of people feel the same way. It’s just like watching the washing machine, which I never tire of.

This one’s gakked from shoey. I haven’t done a meme since early September, seems like a good time for one. I’m glad I have a blog so I can look up what I did on a particular day.

1. Where did you begin 2009?
   At home, getting ready to fly to Chicago. And posting about how i lost 15 pounds


2. What was your status by Valentines Day?
   no change, my status won’t ever change I think


3. Were you in school anytime this year?
   nope


4. Did you have to go to the hospital?
   not for myself, but far too many times as a visitor


5. Did you have any encounters with the police?
   none, unless I count meeting Trish and VK


6. Where did you go on vacation?
   gcls and ptown; none with mm, but we’re planning a short trip during my home leave next year


7. What did you purchase that was over £100?
   oh lots, because of the move — my car, iphone, small tv, netbook, ereader, sofa bed, kitchen bar table, weights and bench


8. Did you know anybody who got married?
   shoey, the aforementioned Trish, and Kelly from work


9. Did you know anybody who passed away?
   yes


10. Did you move anywhere?
    yep, to Chicago


11. What sporting events did you attend?
    none


12. What concerts/shows did you go to?
    the only ones I can think of are the two drag shows at ptown


13. Describe your birthday.
    a non event


14. What is the ONE thing you thought you would not do, but did, in 2009?
    buy a pc


15. What have been your favourite moments?
    running in 6 races


16. Any new additions to your family?
    nope


17. What was your best month?
    dunno, they all blend into each other


18. Who has been your best drinking buddy?
    postie, Chef, Ruth


19. Made new friends?
    between the book signings, gcls, ptown and facebook, I am ending 2009 with a phenomenal increase in the number of friends as the beginning of the year


20. Favorite Night out?
    in april, when i was staying with mm after my stuff got packed. not a special date per se, just being home


21. Other than home, where did you spend most of your time?
    work, which is a relief because in 2008 the answer would have been “on the plane” or “travelling”


22. Have you lost any friends this year?
    I don’t keep in touch with people, so i’m not as close to people from the ml-alumni anymore


23. Change your hairstyle?
    for a couple of days, then it got uncomfortable and i switched back


24. Have any car accidents?
    *knock on wood* no


25. How old did you turn this year?
    [redacted]


26. Do you have a New Year’s resolution?
    they’re all running and exercise related


27. Did anything embarrassing?
    apparently I was a bit friendly with the Karin Kallmaker while drunk, but I don’t remember it. what’s more, i didn’t have a hangover the next day, but Car did even though she didn’t drink


28. Buy anything new from eBay?
    nope


29. Get married or divorced?
    nope


30. Get hit on?
    me? who’d be that desperate?


31. Been snowboarding?
    only on the wii fit


32. Did you get sick this year?
    a couple of bad coughs, and that pesky cape cod crud that truly did the rounds


33. Are you happy to see 2009 go?
    yes and no. it was a year of change, of having to cope with a change of location and all the stresses that are associated with it. Add to it change in reporting line at work, and work itself getting very busy and intense. Missing mm more than I expected. On the good side, health was genrally good; running was good. 2010 will be a year of consolidation, i hope


34. Been naughty or nice?
    i don’t think I know how to do naughty

I HATE DOGS. I HATE DOG OWNERS MORE.

If you are walking your dog in a public place, ie a park or on the pavement, it is NOT OKAY to let your dog off the leash. It is NOT OKAY regardless of leash status, to let your dog go up to another person with its stupid tongue hanging out and sniffing the other person and generally invading the other person’s personal space. This person is sharing that public space with you.

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE PETRIFIED OF DOGS.

It’s NOT OKAY to say things like, “he’s harmless” or “he doesn’t bite” because clearly you do not understand my fear. It’s not about how harmless or cute your darling Fido is, it’s about how I do not want him near me and it’s your responsibility to control him.

Substitute “dog” with “tarantula” or “snake” and try to understand. I’m actually okay about holding snakes, imagine if I were holding one and you walk past me and I let the snake wrap itself around you. Get it now? Keep you stupid dog OUT OF MY WAY, I have as much right to enjoy the road as you do, and I don’t understand how my 30 minute run can be spoiled by three of you not controlling your dogs in public. That’s right. 30 minutes and I get harassed by 3 separate dogs.

Yes, all you dog owners can die and go to hell. I’m sure some of you are considerate but most of you do not understand. I am not going to apologise for my stance.

Here’s me in my new special edition darth maul hoodie by Marc Ecko, which came out just before ptown. I was brandishing the double-bladed lightsabre I made at disney. Cool, eh? (Thanks to Trin for the pic.)



I did debate long and hard over whether to get the darth maul or the boba fett hoodie, part of me is very tempted to get the boba fett one too. It’s been around since 2007 and was out of stock at one point. Hmm, may be for Christmas.

I added a new personal page. In case you don’t make it a habit of checking the about page, the personal pages are sporadic updates of 25 things in my life. Since I’ve kinda neglected to update them much this year, i figured that posting about a new page here will remind me to not let a whole year go by without updating. Here’s the list in, um, list format.

1. flickr 5,401 photos, 7,483 views
2. to do list buy stuff, organise move, try not to panic before moving
3. in my backpack e-ticket, moving notebook, environmentally friendly shopping bag, iPod, camera
4. gadget earbuds for ipod, crazy taxi game for PSP
5. new on iTunes kanye, ne-yo, britney and jd’s band
6. stress level i’m the human rms, i’m flying on sunday, i haven’t started moving … what stress lol
7. running i can do 6, 8, 10k easy now. 8.8km/hr — need to work on speed
8. city chicago
9. last vacation hokkaido, seems so long ago
10. love of my life what to do, i’m leaving again
11. food turkey leftovers
12. drink hot coke with lemon and ginger
13. transport walking
14. books sci-fi, fantasy disguised as regular romances
15. film whatever was on the plane
16. kit i can get into my old 501s again, woot
17. net citizen omg i’m on facebook
18. color black
19. covet time to organise my life
20. obsession the move
21. freesquare met a fb friend who likes katherine kerr *and* ivy
22. like getting into the running routine
23. hate the uncertainty of our future
24. daydreaming we both end up with jobs in london
25. smell cold weather

OMG, why has it taken me so long to find it. I so have to start doing this!! via bb, over at quantified self, Alexandra Carmichael explains how she keeps a record of 40 different things in her life every day, and what she’s learned about herself from studying the data.

I track these things about my health and personal patterns every day:

- sleep (bed time, wake time, sleep quality, naps)
- morning weight
- daily caloric intake (each meal, total calculated at end of day)
- mealtimes

• mood (average of 3 positive and 3 negative factors on 0-5 scale)
  
• day of menstrual cycle
  
• sex (quantity, quality)
  

• exercise (duration, type)
  
  

• supplements I take (time, dosage)
  

• treatments for vulvodynia (a chronic pain condition)
  
• pain of administering the vulvodynia treatment I take (0-5)
  
• vulvodynia-related pain (0-5)
  

• headache,nausea (0-5)
  
  

• time spent working, time with kids
  

• number of nursings and night wakings (I’m a mom)
  
• weather
  
• unusual events (text)
  
  

The mood factors I measure every day are:
1. Happiness
2. Irritability
3. Calmness
4. Sadness
5. Feeling beautiful / self-love
6. Feeling fat / ate too much

She used google spreadsheets initially, and this came out of a project of setting up cure together, a platform for open source health research.

I don’t think it’s difficult to set up a spreadsheet for this, and in a way I’m kinda sorta tracking some stuff in different places. I can see myself tracking things like:

• time I wake up, leave for work, arrive at work, arrive back home
• meal times and what i ate
• calorie intake and expenditure (something that daily plate does well)
• exercise — daily plate again, plus I now record my runs on both nike plus and twitter
• weight
• blog posts made
• google reader posts read
• books read
• words written
• IM convos
• emails read and answered (home and work)
• number of facebook requests received

Alexandra analysed her data by looking at correlation between moods and certain activities like exercise. I can’t quite see myself tracking moods, cos it’ll be “meh” almost all the time. My motivation for tracking will be for the sake of getting data and putting them into pretty graphs.

And no, I won’t be tracking
- sex (quantity, quality)

I can’t help but laugh. I think my clothes are too sub-standard for the hotel. At least their laundry.

Normally I baulk at sending clothes to the hotel laundry for washing, but I’ve been doing this for a month and a half and I can’t handwash everything. So I send my shirts and my pants for the laundry.

And even when I tick the box that says No to “do you want to be notified of defects in your clothing”, they still wrap them up in plastic with a note that either there’s a big hole or the colour’s faded, and I have to sign and send back to have it washed. It wastes a day.

Okay I admit it, my polo shirts are extremely faded and my cargo pants have a gigantic tear and hole at the bottom. But didn’t tick the box that says it’s ok?

It’s like, they’re trying to disqualify my stuff from going into the laundry, like amongst all the other nice shirts and all that presumably other hotel guests send in, my clothes simply don’t make the cut? Shouldn’t be seen in that company?

Like I said, gotta laugh.

Mum bought me another string of faery lights, it's 3 times more expensive than the ones I bought myself but when I opened the box you should see the grin on my face when I discovered it's at least 3 times longer than the previous ones, so no harm done. Now both sides of my living room is lit, plus there's an extension that goes into the corridor and over my gallery prints, it puts emphasis on the prints, yay! It goes on further, round the large mirror, behind the wines and over the main door.

I don't need normal lights, ever. Hmmmm.

I wonder if it's more expensive than just a regular table lamp, probably, but I don't care, it's beautiful.

Suitcase, backpack, spare bag, labels, lock

Shirt, T-shirt, Polo shirt
Jumper, sweatshirt
Jeans, shorts
Coat
Socks, underwear
Swimsuit, goggles, bag
Shoes, slippers

Toothbrush, toothpaste, towel
Brush, nailclippers
Face wash, face cream, eye cream, body lotion
Shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, shower cap
Panadol, triludan, ventolin, zantac, band-aid, chapstick
Spare glasses, box, cloth, sunglasses
Hairdryer , washing powder

Pen, paper, filofax
Camera, charger, lenses, tripod/cushion, spare film
iPod, charger, spare headphone sponge
Powerbook, charger, USB cable, modem cable, bag
Adaptor, alarm clock
Book

Teabags, chewing gum, sweets, snacks, water
Gifts

Money, coins, credit cards, watch, keys
Driving licence, insurance card
Phone, charger
Passport, tickets

sharps in check-in luggage

*****

Cancel newspaper
TV off
Set video timer
Computer off
Phone unplugged
Fridge, food
Taps
Windows
Curtains closed
Light timer
Rubbish
Fish tank, plants

haven't played in a while. This week we'll choose one or the other of the following:

1. bar soap or shower gel
   shower gel
2. cd's or cassettes
   cd's, but the real answer is mp3
3. television movies or documentaries
   tv movies
4. wall calendar or desk calendar
   both, wall for the wall and desk for the, um, desk
5. dsl, cable, or dial-up
   dsl
6. summer or winter
   winter, can't stand sticky icky hot weather
7. city or country
   city
8. camping or stay in a hotel
   hotel, as many stars as I can afford
9. gold or silver
   no preference, may be silver?
10. fiction or non-fiction books
    fiction, well [small voice]fan fiction[/small voice]
11. mashed potatoes or baked potatoes
    baked, with sour cream, a little butter, but then I'm partial to mash too, a bit chunky with lots of pepper
12. ranch, italian, or catalina dressing
    none, don't like dressing
13. solid or spray deodorant
    used to be solid, now it's liquid roll on

of course I'm ecstatic about going on vacation, why are you asking? Bags are packed. Hotel, cars are all booked. Dinners arranged. Friends to meet up with. Presents for all.

Just one teeny, weensy, mini angsty pang of ... not regret that's too strong, longing may be. I'm not taking the Powerbook, so it means no quiet thoughts, no pizzaorme, no writing, no fanfic. eeek. That's gonna be a test. No. Not really. Duh.

I discovered the geography olympics game on bloglines. Pick a country to represent and try to locate 10 random countries. Advance or bring back your country's score.

Not as easy as I thought, the best I did was 70%. The African countries and the Pacific islands are the hardest. Plus you can only play 3 times a day. A bit of fun for 10 minutes anyway.

It's completely unlike me, my watch strap broke on saturday and, being on a trip, I only brought one watch.

So watch strap broke, so?

I've been not wearing a watch for the last week or so, naturally I know what the time is in the office but other than that I haven't paid attention to what time it is. And it's a departure from the punctual, time-obsessed me. Not that I've been late, timekeeping has never been a problem.

I even passed by the swatch shop today and didn't even go in. I know eventually I'll have to get a replacement (actually I bought a couple of spare ones in Australia last time, so I'm actually well prepared).

More of the general "not caring" lethargy?

I never ever remember my dreams, except for general feelings. No, not even that. I know for a scientific fact that I dream when I sleep but I have total non-recollection.

So it's strange that I remember this recent one, of coming across an umbrella that provided rain (more like a shower) inside. So on a hot day, open up the brolly and you'd get protection against the sunlight and get a cool sprinking.

And that's it. The only other thing I remember is the umbrella was kinda orangey-red and was plain, with no logos.

What? It's such a rare occurrence that I'll take whatever form it comes in.

I have a large collection of those free postcards you get at bookstores and restaurants, I don't intentionally look out for them, gathering them as I find ones I like. May be one day I'll make a collage.

Saw this one yesterday.

Turn over the other side and it's about yoga videos. It's so easy to use sex to sell things, we're so easily manipulated.