Fucking brilliant

Some changes

Apparently I've been bitten by the 'mess around with blog' bug.

Must've got it from Dave.



(anyone know how i can make the orange stripe go all the way over to the left?)

Not another rowing post

or, Living in My Body Again

I'm just beginning to realize/accept that my back will never be the same again. I will, for the rest of my life, have to make small adjustments to my lifestyle. That said, it's not so bad.

Of all the things I love most about rowing, it's the feeling of really loving living in my body that gives me the biggest high. I feel comfortable inside myself. Not in a vain "oh don't i look great" kind of way, but in that way you felt as a kid, when you ran around and jumped off things and climbed things and didn't actually think about your body. You just did what you wanted and expected your body to keep up, and 999 times out of a1000 it did.

That's what rowing does to me, and that's just how i'm starting to feel again for the first time since my injury. My body is beginning to feel like mine again. I tell it to do something, and it does it. The constant fear of pain and injury is starting to dissipate. It's not gone completely, i still hesitate when I do things like put my pants on in the morning (if you've ever had a lower back injury with sciatic pain you know that bending over to put your knickers on and lifting one foot off the floor is one of the most impossible small tasks and usually comes with a side order of searing agony), but by and large I am just going about my life. In my body, which I can almost stop thinking about.

It's nice.

Ostrich strategy

I can't contemplate the inhumanity and profound evilness of the Burmese junta, standing by while scores of thousands of Burmese people starve to death or die of dehydration, exposure, and disease. I don't understand it, I just don't understand. I can't begin to wrap my brain around it.

So instead I'm going to tell you my favorite uses for peanut butter.

Things on which I put Peanut Butter:

• Toast, then sprinkled with cinamon and sugar
• Apples
• Sandwiches, with sliced banana inside
• Sandwiches, with strawberry or grape jam
• Sandwiches, with honey
• NOT sandwiches with mayonaise. That's just gross. Ew ew ew ew ew ew.
• Celery, with raisins
• Ritz crakers
• Rich tea biscuits
• Animal crakers
• Graham crakers
• Chocolate
• Cinamon raisin bagels. Seriously, try it sometime.
• Dogs' noses. (No, I don't eat dogs' noses. I said 'Things on which I put peanut butter', not 'Things on which I eat peanut butter.' Ha ha! Did I catch you?)

I LOVE THIS MAN.*

I love him.

Why isn't the rest of America saying these things? Why is Keith Olberman the only voice I hear (on TV) expressing this outrage? The only thing that confuses me more than Bush is the apathy and indeed admiration that many still hold.




*Look for the clip titled "Olberman: Bush Interview Unforgivable" if it doesn't come straight up.

I do not like the letter 'B'

It looks too much like a 1 and 3 mushed together, even when people write relatively neatly. If they have sloppy handwriting it leads to inevitable tragedy.

This wasn't such a big issue for me in America, where one could usually discern letters/numerals through context. But here in the UK where postcodes are a mix of numbers and letters it's all too confusing.

I'd like to send an e-petition to Downing Street to be made the government's top priority for Things Next To Be Ignored, but as I'm not a citizen yet I can't even do that. I'll have to sit here being ignored unofficially and attempting to decipher people's Bs, 1s, and 3s.

Like beans on toast, only without the beans

Here's a neat little recipe for those of you in search of more interesting things to do for lunch. I got this from the Good Flatmate. Lovely Welsh bloke.

Rosemary Mushroom Thing

Mushrooms, in chunks
Cherry tomatoes, in half (or regular tomatoes in chunks)
rosemary (fresh or dried)
cream cheese
substrate*

Splash a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a small pan, and heat it up.
Throw in the 'shrooms, 'maters, and rosemary. Sizzle until everything is a bit soft and sloppy.
Add a couple teaspoons of cream cheese, and mix until smooth and melted.
Pour over substrate and enjoy.

*I use rye toast, which is lovely. Good Housemate uses pasta. Rice and baked potato would also work well I expect.