spacekadet

After 6 weeks of training for the 10k, Sunday arrived with a big giant wheezy sigh of relief.

Tim and I went to Camden in the afternoon to acquire a run wallet at Runners Need. Big score: they gave us some retro wrist bands with zip-a-round pouches for holding useful stuff like keys and cash - FOR FREE. The £2.20 train ticket was officially worth it.

Camden is a pretty cool part of London. It is to London what Lincoln park is to Chicago: young, fresh, and somehow a little less gray. We grabbed lunch at "New Culture Revolution", an unpretentious little Chinese joint that served up cheap yummy food pleasantly lacking in the grease department unlike so many other Chinese restaurants I've visited. Yum - ginger!

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to fueling and waiting. For all our anticipation and planning, the journey to the run was a bit panicky. We jogged to a bus stop, took a bus to the Shordich tube station, which was closed, so we jogged back to the bus stop, sat in traffic, hopped off the bus and onto a tube, then onto another tube, and arrived at the Start just in time. We barely had time to stretch before we were off.

I don't think I could have asked for a better race - the weather was perfect, the crowd was electric, and the run over Tower Bridge was incredible (click here for a map of the course). About half-way through the race, my ankle pain started to kick in. Grrr. I decided to focus my energy on my breathing and technique. Around 31 minutes into it we hit the 5k mark. Tim and I had a short chat and decided to make a push for the sub-hour 10k.

Due to the 30,000 people in attendance, the streets of London were quite crowded with fluorescent yellow runners. I spent the last half of the race dodging people - this was really fun and encouraging! Pushing myself a little harder kept my mind off my ankle, and increasing my stride seemed to ease the pain. Thankfully, the pain never really progressed into anything terrible.

As we ran towards the finish, I heard Tim say "we can make it in under 60". So I picked up pace and sprinted towards the big yellow arc thing. As I ran through, almost out of steam, I heard people say "keep on running!" Oops, I guess that wasn't the finish after all.

The remaining last 400 meters were the longest of the race. In the end I finished in 60 minutes and 9 seconds. I'm feeling pretty psyched about my time and really proud of myself for keeping up with the training - it really paid off. I ran the Keep Austin Weird 5k in 33:52, and I'm profoundly encouraged by this huge improvement since the summer. (I'm sure that not running in 104 degree heat helped as well.)

It would have been cool to have finished in less than 60 minutes, and yeah, maybe I would have if I wasn't slowed down by the crowded bits of the run. But at the same time, I think it was the energy of the crowd that kept my pace up in the first place.

Congrats to Tim who finished in 59:55!

If you're at all interested, you can try to find me crossing the finish line in this video clip. I'm bobbing in and out of view in my blue Cubs hat. Go Cubbies!

What next? It's time to set some new goals and sort out my ankle - and find another race to run!

Other tales of 10k ass-whoopin:

Alex Hansford
bignoseduglyguy
Red Robin

Posted by monica at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tonight, at 9pm London time, Tim and I are running in the Run London 10k! It's rainy, wet, and cold as Christmas out there, but I think it's going to be great fun. About 30,000 people have registered for this thing, and we'll all be equipped with fluorescent yellow jerseys.

Fingers crossed that my ankle behaves and that I make it across the finish line! I think this will be my longest run EVAH, and I'm really curious to find out how I perform. My plan for the next few hours is to drink a protein shake, eat some carbs, and get totally freakin' psyched.

Posted by monica at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tim took me to see Hamlet last night at the Barbican. Having never read Hamlet, I'm sure I missed about half the play. This was especially noticeable during the intial 20 minute break-in period in which my mind adapted to Shakespeare-speak. Tim was wonderful and whispered the occasional synopsis into my ear throughout the show.

I definitely enoyed Hamlet - the acting was superb, the set was marvelous. It was directed by Yukio Ninagawa who is apparently quite famous. The set and costume design revealed obvious Japanese influences which worked very well with the themes. The most flare was exhibited during the play scene in which colorful masked figures dance and sway acting out the King's heinous deeds. I would have liked to have seen more of this, but Hamlet is a very dark play, after all. I can't really think of a place where he could have fit in more color. Perhaps in the final scene, which did not pack as much punch as I would have hoped.

Could this have been affected by the girl sitting in front of me with the giant afro?

We'll never know.

After Hamlet, we headed towards Farringdon area to check out Tinseltown, London's Hollywood-themed 24-hour diner. I generally avoid these types of ludicrous establishments, however, there is a severe shortage of late-night dining options in London, and Hamlet, which started at 7:30, was nearly 4 hours long. You get the picture. And since it was featured in TimeOut's Cheap Eats In London guide, we figured it couldn't be all bad.

The diner was located in a basement with a neat old brick ceiling. Beyond that, it's Hollywood "theme" amounted to photos of movie stars hung on the walls (un-autographed) and TV sets showing music videos. As advertised, Tinseltown had a decent list of milk shakes. Tim tried the Malteaser shake, which was good, but a far cry from the creations at Mickey's Dairy Bar (though it doesn't really seem fair to London to compare its milkshakes to that of dairyland Wisconsin). The food was average, the environment, dark and smokey. It's the kind of place you'd kill for after a long and late bender, after which greasy food is both delicious and essential. As such, Tinseltown's large booths seemed to anticipate the arrival of a late night posse of club kids coming down after a night of partying.

However, Tinseltown didn't really match our Shakespearean moods, and I'm not exactly jonesin' to return. It's good to know there's a 24 hour diner around. That's about where my fondness for Tinseltown ends.

As does this entry. Another weekend begins, and I have a travelcard!

Posted by monica at 08:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

assorted gourds
Originally uploaded by iamtonyang.

Posted by monica at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In comparison to London's week & feeble wi-fi, Taipei is looking pretty tempting...

Posted by monica at 07:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

'Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through.'

Last night, I finished reading The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. It was recommended to me (sort-of) by my workmate who saw me reading Raw Spirit by the same author. I say "sort-of" because my workmate prefaced his recommendation with: "read the reviews on the first couple of pages and then decide if you want to read it."

Apparently the book has stirred up a bit of controversy among poncy literary types due its gruesome nature. Does sick and twisted equate to brilliance in this case? Well I just had to read the book to find out.

The Wasp Factory is about 16-year old Frank Cauldhame who is, for lack of a greater vocabulary, a sick twisted fuck. His life is half fantasy, half morbid reality. At times, fantasy and reality are one in the same. In his world he's supreme and powerful but utterly disdainful towards the rest of humanity. This drives him to acts so evil that it made me wonder about the kind of mental state one would have to be in to write such a book (a-hem, that's you, Iain).

The tale surrounds the pending return of Frank's crazy brother Eric who has recently escaped from a mental institution. Animal cruelty, masogonism, murder of children, maggots, animal heads, bugs, bloody ears - this book is utterly disgusting and at times difficult to read. But there was something appealing about it, part of which I attribute to the poetic writing style of Iain Banks. The imaginative dialogue was difficult to resist. And there was an essense of humor to at all. But the ending - oh, it was so good I had to read it twice. Squirming my way through the guts of this book, the ending was like a bed of roses, so beautiful in contrast. And well worth the struggle.

But I won't give it away.

Posted by monica at 05:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How cool is this: Google Scholar, an engine for searching academic articles and literature.

Posted by monica at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday I went for the longest run I've been on in months: 60 minutes, slow and steady.

The most prominent aspect of the run was some ankle pain that cropped up about halfway through and persisted throughout. I've experienced similar pain on and off for the past couple weeks, ever since an interval run around Highbury Fields.

I'm more than a little concerned about the source of this pain, especially because it's still subtly present even today. So the ankle is getting the full-on tlc: ice and ibuprofen. I think I'll lay off the running in favor of low-impact cardio exercise until Friday and give the ankle a chance to heal. The 10k is this Sunday and I'd be devestated if I couldn't make it!

As for the run itself, it was pretty good. About 45 minutes into it, I realized that I'd been so focussed on the ankle that I hadn't given a thought to my lungs or muscles. So after giving these things a moment's attention to, I realized that my breathing was very easy and my muscles were fine and I became immediately irritated that my ankle was distracting me from running faster than I probably could.

The good news is: I'm feeling very confident in my capacity to run a 10k.

6 days to go!

Posted by monica at 05:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taken August 29th, 2004 at Jess & Stacey's.

Posted by monica at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tim just wrote "iQuit", his version of the quit smoking meter.

Assuming I quit on 5/21/2004 (I can't even remember anymore)...

It's been 183 days since I've been a smoker.
I've avoided 1828 cigarettes (I manually subtracted 2 for that drunken night at the Draughthouse).
I've saved $391.30!!

Damn, cigarettes really do add up to D-E-A-T-H. I am much happier now that I've quit smoking. Yay, it's nice to be reminded.

Posted by monica at 07:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First off, the attention I've been paying to Training for the Apocalpyse is inversely proptional to the actual training I've been doing. My reason for the lack of posting? It's just too damn time-consuming to keep up with two blogs at the same time. As a result, I end up doing no posting at all, which is such a shame really because I'd quite like to keep track of my workouts.

So in the coming weeks I'm going to incorporate Training for the Apocalpyse into spacekadet blog via the use of Movabletype's category system. When I think about it, being an athelete is a full-time job, and it's unnatural to keep that huge segment of my life separate from everything else. So here my sports reports will meld with tales of my Rock Star Party Lifestyle, and hopefully I shall emerge a beautiful butterfly!

I've probably mentioned that I'm running in Run London's Nike 10k. Take-off is at 9pm, November 28th - one week from Sunday. For the past 4 weeks and 5 days I've been following Run London's recommended 6-week 10k training schedule for intermediate level runners. Better late than never to start recording my progress...

Tuesday: 30 min easy run. Uneventful. I think I ran this one on the treadmill at the gym.

Wednesday: Fartlek. 3 mins hard running, 3 mins jog x 4 (plus 10 mins of warm up and 10 mins of recovery). This was my first successfully completed Fartlek session. I've tried this before, but I always poop out halfway through and end up skipping the intervals and easy jogging the rest of the way. Not on Wednesday! During the hard running, i felt like I was really pushing myself to some kind of fuzzily-defined limit. The last repetition was rough as hell, but the cool-down jog home was pleasant and relaxed once I recovered.

Thursday: Rest! Glorious rest!

Friday: 30 minutes easy run. This I did at the gym on the treadmill. I started off at 8.5 km / hr, and worked myself up to 10 km / hr once I warmed up, but had to kick it down to 9.5 km / hr for the greater part of the run. I wonder how my speed is affected by weather / hills / air quality / company / etc. I guess I'll have to buy a mad leet GPS watch at some point. Oh damn!

Posted by monica at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Out damn comment spam!

The comments are back in business thanks to a handy Movable type plugin called Scode!

The bad news: if you want to leave a comment, you have to verify that you're a human being by manually entering a number that appears as an image on the comment screen.

The good news: gone (i hope) are the 100s of comments per day advertising phentermine, texas holdem, online casinos, viagra, and more porn than you can shake a "stick" at.

Posted by monica at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I saw the Phantom of the Opera last night at Her Royal Majesty's Theater. It was so good - the set and set transitions were amazing. The leads were impeccable; some of the songs gave me chills. For years I've enjoyed the soundtrack, and it was so absolutely amazing to finally see the live production. I don't know who was playing the phantom, but he was absolutely amazing. The pain! The passion! Oy!

Here's something incredibly cool about London: you can see Broadway-quality theater for little more than the price of a movie and with about as much planning.

So the question is: What's on next?

Posted by monica at 04:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

it's another tuesday afternoon here in the big city. i've just returned from the Costa(TM) coffee stand, an occasional trip that pleasantly reminds me of my once ritual trips to RLM's coffee stand at UT. i don't do the coffee thing so much anymore. it could be that Rory's kick-yer-ass espressos put me off a bit ( fjear not, Rory, the new blend is much better! ); it could also be that i've fully embraced tea ... so much so that one of my work mates has accused (alright, teased) me of spending more time taking tea breaks than doing actual work.

today, however, my eyes are tired and i'm filled with a "neeeed coffeeee" kind of exhaustion that i probably haven't felt since finals. so i found me a skim milk latte, which isn't as strong as it is hot, but it's smooth enough and that pleases me. i'm already feeling better.

i adore indulgences; i adore them even more when i feel i've earned them. last week was definitely indulgence-earning -- i ran all of my scheduled runs and performed better than expected on the weights at the gym. by Friday i was pretty psyched to reward myself with a couple of drinks and some yummy food.

alas, my weekend turned out to be, as most weekends do, over-the-top indulgent. a few drinks became a few bottles, and so on and so forth. don't get me wrong, i had a really good weekend, aside from the 2 hours i wasted watching (to use Rachel's words) BJ2, revenge of the Cleaver (that's Bridge Jones's Diary 2, in case you don't get it). there was quality time. there was a weary yet powerful 50 minute run. there was yummy food. there was haircuts!

but there lacked a certain balance.

and i think this lack of balance has finally caught up with me and officially affected all kinds of aspects of my life.

anyway, i wrote all that yesterday afternoon.

last night, after a delicious dinner at Rasa, I went home and slept. i'm feeling a bit better today, but still at a bit of a loss for how to solve my whole balance problem.

one thing is for certain: my weariness results from a series of progressive problems:

1. an improper balance of weightlifting and running
2. overtraining as a result from 1.
3. not enough sleep
4. insufficient pre- and post-workout nutrition
5. extremely overindulgent weekends
6. as a result of 5., insufficient fuel for the physical stresses of the week
7. repeat steps 1.-6.

knowing this, it should be easy to get back on track. but i've known all of this for months, and i still continue to repeat the cycle. months? make that years - what do you think all those nights at the Crown were all about? is this a case of old habits being hard to break? or is there a deeper issue here that leads me to repeate list item number 5? Well, I don't know about that. (Cue Dismemberment Plan's "Ice of Boston".)

Mainly because knowing about that would involve knowing some pathetic, ridiculous, and absolutely true things about myself that I'd rather not admit to right now.

Had I known that quitting smoking would lead to my realizing all the other bad things I do to my body that I need to quit, I don't know if I would have ever stopped!

Sarcasm, of course.

So let's start again with a little more self-control and a little less self-loathing.

I just finished reading "Hey Nostradamus!" by Douglas Coupland. It's witty, dark and introspective: I loved it. The only parallel between this book and Microserfs is the cynical wit of its primary characters. Keep the Kleenex handy - this one tugs firmly on the ol' heartstrings. If you read it, and I do recommend you do, don't be put off by the Columbine-esque background story. It turns out to be a wonderful foundation for a beautiful dialogue about love, loss, and the painful search for greater meaning. Sad but wonderfully true.

Less sad things:

If all goes according to plan, I will be seeing Phantom of the Opera tomorrow night! I've enjoyed the soundtrack for years, but I've never seen it on stage - very exciting!

Rasa: I mentioned this place earlier. There's so much indian food in London that it's difficult to tell from the outside of any particular restaurant if it's really really good or just plain nasty (there are soooo many nasty eateries here!). Last night, Rory and Ruth introduced us to a really really good one called Rasa up in the Stoke Newington area. It's south Indian, and if it's Masala Dosa had anything to say about it, I shant be missing the Madras Pavilion any longer. Tim's mango Lassi was beautiful. The curries were deliciously fresh and not too greasy. Oh, and fuck the Brit's reluctance to take home leftovers - I was all over the takeaway and will be having yummy curry lunches for the rest of the week. That reminds me: when we asked if we could take the rest home, our lovely waitress said "Not only do we not mind but we encourage you do so!" Imagine - service in London, with a smile!!

Walking back from Rasa last night, we happened upon Rio Cinema, a venue for arthouse films located just steps away from our flat!

And to top it all off, one of my colleagues gave me a globe today. Geography retard no longer!!

Posted by monica at 07:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i'm about to have to me some fun.

but first, 8 hours of work to go.

as i journeyed to the gym this morning, my theme song was definitely "Bruised" by The Bens. I'm such a fan of Ben Folds anything. Yes, I know that's so 1996, but whatever. Like I care. It rocks my argyle socks off and makes me feel like I'm somewhere dreamy.

After I got off the bus and headed towards Fitness Boosh, I felt a light drizzle, and it made me think of the way Tim describes London rain: it rains all the time but never enough to actually get you wet. Or something like that. And then would you believe it? My iPod "randomly" played "London Rain" by Heather Nova, and so I stood outside of the gym and listened to the whole song before going in.

Posted by monica at 04:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's a building near my work that's being torn down from the top down. With the removal of each floor, my view of greater london has slowly improved. St. Paul's is visible now, along with the London Eye. The above is a (cropped and "Enhanced" version of the original) photo I took from my building last Tuesday.

To give you some perspective, here's a pic of the whole scene, Pizza Express and all. It's kind of cool to see cranes and bulldozers on top of a pint-size skyscraper, all covered and concealed in white tarp. The sun sets right over the London Eye, providing a spectacular view when the sky is actually clear.

iPhoto did a marvelous job of making a dark cloudy day look like a scene from 19th century London. (Aside from the huge crane and all.) I think it's quite Chaaaaahming!

But more importantly, there's something about this photo that says winter to me. I was in Urbana, Illinois the last time I felt the early onset of winter. I don't know how to describe it. Winter is so sudden. One morning I step outside and feel a breeze just cold enough to chill my nose. The air smells of dead leaves. And I think, "Is today the day I whip out the scarf?"

I look forward to winter and I hope there's snow and ice skating and a christmas tree in my living room (currently filled with boxes and miscellany). I look forward to hot soup, extra blankets, and pubs with fireplaces. I look forward to seeing my sister on Christmas day!

Posted by monica at 06:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Right, time to get my Sunday notes down before I forget them and before they seem completely out of place amongst my other wheezings and ramblings.

Let's start out by stating that Sunday was an absolutely fantastic day (you know, in the parlance of these English times).

Sure it was gray, but it was long, which is hard to find in a city where everything seems to take a few extra minutes and the sun sets at 4pm.

I started out with a run around Highbury Fields that I am now having trouble recollecting but I know it must have been trying because of how sore I felt later. My hearty trek justified a giant feast of a breakfast: eggs with grilled tomato and mushrooms and two whole pieces of toast. Delish!

After breakfast I booked it out to Hyde Park with my rollerblades. The Sunday prior had me pumped and I needed to skate again.

So there I was on the tube, me, my iPod and my Big Giant Dork Bag. I got off at Green Park and took in the scene. Orange leaves everywhere! First thing that came to mind: I wish I had a book to read and a whole afternoon to spare.

(Which reminds me - I must get a designated park blanket!)

I strapped on (heh) my skates, took off through Green Park, and DAMN my legs were tired. But I had to move quickly because as soon as I started, I saw the "No Skating" sign and had to quickly find my way to Hyde Park, were inline skater can roam free.

Hyde Park wasn't quite as scenic as Green Park. Fewer trees gave way to grayer skies. And there were god people about creating crowds and getting in my way. I found the stretch along the Serpentine where the other skaters seemed to do their thing. It was a nice stretch, smooth and flat, and I spent the rest of my time skating down the waterside until I had to bust a move back home for lunch with Tim.

The bottom line on the skate: the commute from Hackney to Hyde Park was a bit long for this short-lived skate, but over-all it was pleasant; would be more enjoyable with sunny skies, some company, followed by some downtime in Green Park under a blanket with a book and a bottle of wine.

Home for a delicious lunch: sea bass again with a bit of pasta. Splendid, but we had to save room for Diwali, the festival of lights, where we anticipated a plethora of delicious Indian fair.

So Tim, Rory, and I headed off to Trafalgar Square (with a brief stop-off for a Swift Pint). The festival was insanely crowded, but not much seemed to be happening. There was a stage. Some people said some stuff I couldn't understand. Some balloons were released. The food lines were insane. Where was all the light we were supposed to be celebrating?

So much for Diwali. We left for Soho and found an insanely cool bar called The French House. It was wall-to-wall crowded, but in a good way, 'cause no one seemed to mind having to squeeze through the crowd or stand at the bar. It made it all the more cozy. There were pictures all over the walls, some with autographs, some apparently quite old. The place definitely had an old feel to it, and even the portly red-lipsticked bartender seemed to be straight out of an old french film. We only stuck around for a glass of wine, but I definitely plan to plan a return for a longer stay.

Our tummies were feeling rather betrayed by the absence of curry, so Rory introduced Tim and I to Busaba Eathai, a very cool Thai restaurant in Soho. All I can say is that the food was delicious, but the chilled red wine wasn't as fun as I had hoped.

For a nightcap, we thought we'd try the Compton Arms in Islington, once in the Top 50 Pubs list on beerintheevening.com. It is no longer on the list thanks to Rory, who gave it a 3/10 after our visit. The pub was excessively smokey, and they were out of most of their draft beers. No Lagers?!!?! What is THAT all about!?

While we were out we spotted a huuuuge American monster truck! Upon closer inspection, we spied its original plates: Wyoming! Someone actually had their truck moved to England and converted from WYOMING!! I'm amazing they found space to park it!!

We also saw parts of a fox fight - frisky creatures they are!

Another weekend come and gone, with no call for the straight eye for the queer-looking guy. Success!

Posted by monica at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

it's been over two months since i've moved but the iPod has only just been brought out of the dark and plugged into my computer. with its battery fully charged, i headed off to work this morning with an extra hop in my step because i had Erasure keeping me company instead of the morning streets of London (which, by the way, had a serious case of the mondays!)

The iPod is as it was in Austin. It has the same musical propensities as it had on my porch at 304B: Elton & Mary J., Robbie Williams, even the remix to Ignition hot and fresh out the kitchen! All these things made me a little nostalgic, and even a little sad. This comes the day after my sister sent me this picture of Cheesehead Ivy, kickin it dairy style in Madison, Wisconsin. And my, he is looking very WHITE indeed!

So I am missing Austin a bit. It comes and goes. Here in London, the district sleeps alone tonight.

The word on the street is that some boxes were delivered today. When I get back to the 'flat' tonight, I look forward to unpacking some comforts of home. The first thing I'd like to find is the teapot. Then I'd like to have a couple mugs of tea. Then I think I should like to drink that tea whilst finding some new music to listen to. Music To Make a New Home By. It's time to find my London "move"!

Posted by monica at 07:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night was Guy Fawkes Night, otherwise known as Bonfire Night. On November 5th, 1605, Guy Fawkes conspired to blow up the House of Parliament, a scheme otherwise known as "The Gunpowder Plot".

This weekend, we celebrate his failure! (Come to think about it, I like to celebrate failure as many weekends as possible.)

This means that last night's London sky was awash in fireworks and crash boom bangs. This was the view out my bedroom.

Tomorrow I plan on heading to Trafalgar Square to check out Diwali, the festival of lights. According to londontown.com,

Diwali has religious significance for Hindus, Sikhs and Jains and is celebrated thoughout many of the Capital's South Asian communities. The Mayor's free event is becoming a major fixture in London's calendar and last year over 20,000 attended.

Lavish decorations include thousands of floating candles in the fountains. Cultural exhibitions will be accompanied by delicious Indian food, and brightly-coloured displays of contemporary and traditional Indian dance, including the energetic Garba and Dandia dances. People of all faiths are welcome at this celebration of the victory of light over darkness.

As for today, I oddly have no plans. I went for a very taxing run this morning. Interval training in London is extra special thanks to the quality of London air!

Posted by monica at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you saw the IQ chart, then you my also be interested in knowing that it's been debunked. Thanks for the link, Dennis!

And speaking of Dennis, he finished his first marathon on Oct 31st! Dennis - you are the man!

Posted by monica at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Braden points me out to an interesting demographic parallel between the state outcomes in the 2004 election and the state of our country during the Civil War.

Talk about a huge step backwards.

And how about these apples....

	State	Avg. IQ	2004
1	Connecticut	113	Kerry
2	Massachusetts	111	Kerry
3	New Jersey	111	Kerry
4	New York	109	Kerry
5	Rhode Island	107	Kerry
6	Hawaii	106	Kerry
7	Maryland	105	Kerry
8	New Hampshire	105	Kerry
9	Illinois	104	Kerry
10	Delaware	103	Kerry
11	Minnesota	102	Kerry
12	Vermont	102	Kerry
13	Washington	102	Kerry
14	California	101	Kerry
15	Pennsylvania	101	Kerry
16	Maine	100	Kerry
17	Virginia	100	Bush
18	Wisconsin	100	Kerry
19	Colorado	99	Bush
20	Iowa	99	Bush
21	Michigan	99	Kerry
22	Nevada	99	Bush
23	Ohio	99	Bush
24	Oregon	99	Kerry
25	Alaska	98	Bush
26	Florida	98	Bush
27	Missouri	98	Kerry
28	Kansas	96	Bush
29	Nebraska	95	Bush
30	Arizona	94	Bush
31	Indiana	94	Bush
32	Tennessee	94	Bush
33	North Carolina	93	Bush
34	West Virginia	93	Bush
35	Arkansas	92	Bush
36	Georgia	92	Bush
37	Kentucky	92	Bush
38	New Mexico	92	Bush
39	North Dakota	92	Bush
40	Texas	92	Bush
41	Alabama	90	Bush
42	Louisiana	90	Bush
43	Montana	90	Bush
44	Oklahoma	90	Bush
45	South Dakota	90	Bush
46	South Carolina	89	Bush
47	Wyoming	89	Bush
48	Idaho	87	Bush
49	Utah	87	Bush
50	Mississippi	85	Bush

Posted by monica at 05:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

just downloaded the few pics i took on the halloweeeen rollerstroll. i didn't take very many because i was worried about tripping and using my camera to break my fall.

here's a photo of rory and i midway through the skate....

it's funny because it's sad.

Posted by monica at 02:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Should one candidate win, those who opposed the Iraq war might hope to find refuge in France, where a very select few are allowed to "assimilate" each year. Assimilation is reserved for persons of non-French descent who are able to prove that they are more French than American, having mastered the language as well as the philosophy of the French way of life. Each case is determined on its own merit, and decisions are made by the Ministere de l'Emploi, du Travail, et de la Cohesion Social. When your name is published in the Journal Officiel de la Republique Francais, you are officially a citizen, and may thereafter heckle the United States with authentic Gallic zeal.

Posted by monica at 07:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night after work, I met up with Rory at Holborn and we headed down the Picadilly Line for Hammersmith to meet Tim at AOL for the much-coveted Pint After Work. You see, Tim works later than both Rory and I, and he also has an hour-long commute, so it's a rare treat for him to go out after work, unless it's with the AOL nerd-b0iz. So this trip out to Hammersmith was especially appreciated, by all of us I think. Hammertown seems like a lovely area, quieter than central London. It was a great escape from the City noise; I'm definitely looking forward to many more trips out to Tim's work bubble. I also think it would boost Tim's morale, which often seems a little dilapidated (like an old house) by the journey.

Tim took us to a nice pub near his work, where I had 2 half-pints of Hoegaarden. I can sense you're wondering: Why not order 1 regular pint? Let me explain. The half pint is a wonderful thing for one overwhelming reason: it prevents my ever-present tendency to get extremely drunk. The half-pint comes in such a little glass, and one tends to feel that the beer in that little glass is extremely precious and every mouthful must be savored to its fullest. So I take my time with the half-pints and can barely get through one before Tim finishes his full pint. (I remember a time when I first met Tim where I'd match him beer for beer at Lovejoy's, a pastime that guarunteed Rediculous Inebriation but also had its place in my Austin motif).

The Hoegaarden was mighty tasty, in both flavor and memory - it brought me back to nights of sipping the same beverage with Allison, Phil and Rommel at The Globe in Athens, GA. I've had a resurgent taste for Hoegaarden since the Halloweeen Skate last Sunday when I had a delicious thirst-quenching (full) pint right after the skate. I'm currently battling my 3rd germ-attack since London, and the wheaty beer was soothing nectar to my sore throat.

We had some good food and managed to avoid getting too depressed about the election. Slightly prompted by my sore throat, but more inspired by Raw Spirit, we thought we'd try some after-dinner scotch. We ordered a Glenfiddich, an Islay, and a Jameson's Irish whiskey because the bartender said it was good after desert (this made it extra disappointing when the panacotta came out frozen!). I've read that Islay whiskeys are an acquired taste, but once adapted to are among the finest scotches to drink! I, however, find all of this whiskey stuff to appeal to a taste I have not yet acquired. I could sense the differences, and see why some might call one scotch "smokey" and another "fruity". But to me, the end result is just "burninating".

I wonder if I need more practice?

So, back to work and getting on with the next four years. I wonder if I'll recognize the U.S. when I return.

Posted by monica at 04:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Sunday was Halloween, and since I couldn't make it to Brian and Eliz's Halloween kegger (tear), I decided to pick up my skates and hit the streets with Rory and about 100 other Londoners, most of whom were decked out in full-on Halloweeeen costume. It was the first time I've gone on a real skate in years. After about 60 seconds with wheels back on my feet, I felt right back at home in my K2's, and utterly ecstatic about skating again.

About 5 minutes before heading out to Hyde Park, Rory and I assembled our brilliant costumes: creeepy fleshless skeletons! The base of our costume consisted of whatever we had that was black, and the bones we "fashioned" out of masking tape. And huzzah: you have 2 skeletons on wheels!

The Rollerstroll people really have their shit together. They had a man with amazing calves on an incumbent bike pulling a giant stereo that pumped out some party beats with a Halloween twist. You could really feel the energy when Ghostbusters came on, and would you believe it, they even played Prince!

I still love skating more than any other sport I've tried. The skate was invigorating, partially because it was dark and my reflexes were on overdrive trying to avoid tripping on a storm grate or piling on top of the frankenstein in front of me who had no peripheral vision. But what made it truly marvelous was the feeling of movement. We passed by some amazing sites on the way: Buckingham Palace, Parliament, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, all lit up and brilliant under the dark sky.

And because it's London, and London is just cool like that, the skate ended approapriately: at the pub!

Posted by monica at 04:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

02vote.slide2
Originally uploaded by GothamOddISee.

Posted by monica at 09:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)