| Ending starting strenght |
[Nov. 20th, 2009|02:15 pm] |
I finished my first round of starting strenght last week. My results were pretty impressive, I'd say. It must be mentioned that due to a neck injury I hadn't been doing any weightlifting for over two months, so I started every exercise as if 20kg was my max. If it had been, the results would have been staggering, but they're still pretty impressive.
Results:
From 47,5kg 5x3 reps of squats to 65kg 5x3 reps
From 60kg 5 reps of deadlifts to 80kg 5 reps
From 40kg 5x3 reps of bench press to 41kg 5x3 reps (very disappointed about that, but I'll do it again in a few months).
And here's a picture of my deadlifts:
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| Wrong side of the road |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|06:01 pm] |
You know those days where you get up on the wrong foot and everything seems to be slightly off for the rest of the day? Last night I woke up in three times during the night, the result of which was that I overslept this morning and showed up an hour late for the study group. I was all tired and foggy and had to read this poor girl who'd been waiting for me for an hour's very short text 4 times before I could make sense of it. Trust me, that's not because she's a bad writer, it's all on my head. Afterwards, I dragged my ass over to the study hall to get some writing done and forced myself to sit quietly and work for an hour before heading over to the gym to do metcon.
( cut for rant of the rest of my awful day ) |
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| Chapter handed in |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|04:02 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | thesis | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | desk | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
It's 8 pages long, and some of those pages cannot be described as good, but since I've been struggling more with this chapter than anything I've written before, I can't wait to get input on it from my tutors and peers. Hopefully that'll help me improve it radically. |
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| Another update |
[Nov. 17th, 2009|12:52 am] |
Sleeping half the day meant that I'm surprisingly awake if not productive now. I've gotten lots of thinking done today and written about a page of text. At least it's something.
I also finished watching the Girl from Tomorrow, an Australian sci-fi show from the early nineties. I miss the 90s. The characters in this show were great: the insecure boy from the year 2500, the hot, purple-haired drummer chick from 1990 and the tough yet serene girl from the year 3000. The show taught us that if we don't stop thinking only of ourselves and start taking care of the environment and eachother, the planet will die. Actually meeting the future generations made it that much more real for the characters and for the viewers. Good morals: No nuclear arms and no pollution. Why isn't this show being remade? |
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| Procrastrination |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|07:33 pm] |
And by "more time to sit and write on my thesis" I mean more time to slack around watching tv, apparently.
I finally caved and went out and bought instant coffee. I feel I should be able to fix my own coffee maker, but so far, I just look at it and then go back to the couch to watch another episode of something. Thus, I'm enabling myself by drinking bad instant coffee. At least I'm at my desk and on the computer now. So far, I've produced half a page. Much better than nothing, but not great.
See you on the other side! |
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| Suprise: sickness |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|03:15 pm] |
Today, I was up at 7am to go to a manuel therapy session. In keeping with my new and improved life (I started today) I chose to ignore my swollen, blue toe and walked home from it, buying coffee on the way. In general, I felt fine. Quite tired, slightly irritable and my foot was hurting, but nothing that would explain why, right after breakfast, I would get so tired I'd have to crawl into bed and stay there until now. I think I have a fever and I feel like crap (soft, warm, well-rested crap, but still). I think I might be sick? I'm definitely skipping training today. Too bad, since I was really looking forward to my new training program, but good since it gives me more time to actually sit and write since I wasted half a day sleeping. Sigh! |
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| Up before dawn |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|07:59 am] |
I got up really early today to have breakfast with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) 3ff3ct3r before he left for Montreal for 8 days. It sounded like such a good idea last night when he asked me if I wanted to get up with him. Today, not so much. (That not really true. It was really nice to get up with him, he made breakfast and coffee and we had more than enough time to say goodbye, but) I have to sit here and hang out on the internet while the sun rises and the archives open.
Oh, who am I kidding? I love hanging out on the internet, I'm snuggling more coffee and I'm firmly planted on my beloved couch. Today is pretty awesome. Hope the rest of the day matches up.
Plans for the day:
- finishing up at the parliament (I'll miss the cafeteria)
- last day of Starting Strenght (hopefully I'll manage 67,5kg squats, 41kg bench and 80kg deadlifts)
- writing the intro of my chapter that's due Monday (this will not be a relaxing weekend)
- watching Supernatural and ANTM with aj_stalin
*get's cracking* |
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| Running in high heels |
[Nov. 10th, 2009|05:11 pm] |
I was super efficient for a very short period of time today. I got up, had breakfast, went to the doctor (didn't learn anything new, still have weird sympthomes with no apparent cause and no cure) set the date for yet another doctor's appointment, stole a cup of coffee because I didn't have time to wait for the cafeteria lady to come back from the restroom, wrote a rough draft of my new chapter, experienced a short computer crisis, fixed the computer crisis, met a fellow student to look at her draft and have her look at mine, consolidated my notes, paid for the coffee I stole while the cafeteria lady glared at me and then walked home instead of taking the bus.
I was going to keep writing as I got here. Instead I watched Castle, Californication and How I met your mother. Still, it's been a pretty productive day. I feel ready to get cracking on that chapter this weekend (it's due Monday, last minute writing ftw.). Now, safely tucked in my pj's (thanks again abigor60 and chesire_monkey), I feel ready to do the dishes at least.
(On a related note, this has been the nicest doctor's visit I've had in years. It doesn't say much, of course. Basically, as long as noone accuses me of being a sexual freak, makes me wait for more than an hour or refuses to treat me, I feel it's been a success. Still, today the nurse asked me what kind of shop I was no longer employed at, and when I told her it was Oslo's largest sex shop she got really interested and asked for the address with a smile. Then, I didn't have to wait to get my blood work done and they only had to poke me with the needle once to get it done. Good day!) |
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| Training |
[Oct. 29th, 2009|10:32 am] |
Training takes up a big part of my spare time these days, so I figured I should mention it to you guys. Right now, I'm doing starting strength (for info, see: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki).
It is great for several reasons. First of all, lifting really heavy weights is good for you. It builds muscle, it fixes your back problems by making your stabilizing muscles stronger and by pushing your body and actually putting demands on it, makes it heal itself (or, at least that's my experience. I've been dealing with back trouble my whole life and my lower back has never been this good.) In addition, it's fun, it's social (I go with 3 other people) and it means that 3 times a week, I get confirmation that I'm getting better at something.
Yesterday, both me and 3ff3ct3r broke our records on squatting. Here's me lifting 60kg (132 lb):
and here's 3ff3ct3r lifting 150kg (330lbs):
That's right, my boyfriend is a badass. And I'm becoming a badass too.
(The reason why there're no pics of Peter and Marthe, our training buddies, is because they had to take yesterday off, not because they're not badasses, because they are.) |
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| Dear LJ |
[Oct. 27th, 2009|10:33 am] |
I have to admit something to you, and it's quite hard for me to say. Even so, I know it'll be much harder for you to hear. So, here goes: I've been seeing someone else. Her name is Twitter, and I've fallen in love with her. She's just so easy to deal with, so new and so full of interesting tidbits. The 140 charater limit is enticing.
Please forgive me, but I think it's time for me to share my attentions equally between the two of you. I love you both, and I thought maybe we could all come together and share that love? How 'bout I quote you on my twitter and try to post here a bit more often?
You find that acceptable?
You're the best, lj! |
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| The use of paper |
[Oct. 22nd, 2009|11:25 am] |
I'm not particularly environmentally friendly. I recycle at home, but aside from that, I'm not great at the whole "saving the environment"-thing. It's the effort it takes that makes me bad at it. It's a lot more effort to take the tram down to the central station, buy a ticket, wait for the train, take the train to my parents' home town, wait for the bus and take the bus to my parents' place than taking the car over there (and it's cheaper to drive there too).
What I do try to avoid, however, is creating a paper trail around me. I avoid making copies of texts I really only need to read once, I take all my notes electronically and I write stuff down on my iphone rather than on post-its. I know it probably doesn't add up in the grand scheme of things compared to me driving, but at least I try.
And that's why I feel there needs to be a change in the society around me. Every time I go to a class at my gym, they insist that I take a small slip of paper, bring it upstairs to the class and hand it in to the instructor. For no reason I can see except it makes sure that noone forgets to register for the class (is that really so important? and couldn't that be avoided by reminding people that they should register?). Then, every time I'm at the parliament, they print out a one-day pass that I have to wear that gets thrown away at the end of the day. Every time I want to go on the internet, there's a printer that prints a whole A4 page with the password for it, and every time I ask for something, people write it down on post-its for me and give it to me, even when I tell them I can remember it and don't want the extra trash.
Today I asked if it wasn't possible to change this routine somehow to avoid making a lot of extra garbage, because it's the parliament and they should be the best at being aware of the damage of their policies. But no, apparently it's impossible to have me wear a day-pass with the wrong date, or let me walk in without one, or to make a change in routine that makes it possible to register people in for a week at a time rather than a day. I think it's the effort thing again: it takes more effort for everyone involved to change the routine, or even make a phone call to see if it's possible than to just say no and keep going the way we're used to. Screw the environment, apparently. |
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| Up! |
[Oct. 17th, 2009|10:34 pm] |
Me, my brother and my boyfriend went and saw Up tonight.* I was expecting a relatively good quality movie since it's made by Pixar and they're usually okay, but I've seen the trailer and it was pretty unimpressive so I was not too excited about it. Boy, was I in for a surprise.
The start of the movie was truly touching. The movie set the stage in a nearly conversation-free, 10 minutes, beautifully shot intro that made me love the main character and actually made me cry. After that I was sold on everything the movie had to show me. Not once during the movie was I pulled out of the drama thinking "Why would he do that?" or "That was a stupid scene" or "Insert feminist aggression over stupid Michael Bayish female characters or plotlines".
The story was a bit strange, but in that good not-too-clichéd-childrens-movie way. The moral was good and not too heavy-handed and several hours later I still have the score stuck in my head in a cozy way. All in all I walked out of the cinema feeling like this was definitely worth my time and money. Two thumbs up Pixar!
*Not in 3D because 3D is a suckers game. It costs more to watch it in Norwegian cinemas and it always makes me feel dirty afterwards, as if I've been cheated because it's obvious that they make the films in 3D to avoid people making cams of the movies, not to make the movies better. Not that I'd ever download a cammed version of a film, but avoiding piracy is not a good reason to make something in 3D. It's low-quality and annoying and the stupid glasses always make my face hurt. |
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| Annoying self-involved rant about lack of adequate breakfast-foods |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|10:24 am] |
Stupid tummy. I was not hungry at all so I figured I would wait until I was hungry to make breakfast. It made sense to me at the time. But when I got hungry, I realized that my 3ff3ct3r had eaten everything proteinbased in our fridge so my choices for breakfast were: lentils and/or eggs and/or slightly old cucumber. This would not be annoying if I wasn't dreadfully hungry, the stores are open after all. But since I waited until I was starving; I'm unfocused, frustrated, hungry and not-at-all happy with my breakfast plans of lentils with frozen spinach. It'll be dull as hell and have too much carbs and not nearly enough fat to sustain my new-and-better-life which I was supposed to start today (again).
Now don't get me wrong. Lentils have a lot of proteins in them, and spinach is great for just about anything, but lentils also have a lot of carbs and although I'll survive the blandness of it fine, just one portion of it will be more carbs than I was planning on eating all day. In fairness though, even though it's a lot of carbs, it still counts as a healthy meal compared to yesterdays feast of everything-in-sight. |
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| Nightmares |
[Oct. 14th, 2009|12:50 pm] |
I've been troubled by nightmares lately. Mostly, it's just bad dreams about being inadequate in all areas of my life brought on by stress, but every so often, I get a real fully-digital-surround-sound nightmare where I wake up all drenched in sweat, so terrified that common logic no longer applies and even the thought of opening a window seems too terrifying to contemplate. That happened last night.
I dreamt that I was on campus, and that people were jealous of my iphone (naturally, it is a lovely phone after all). I went to get some papers at the office for master students of history and I suddenly noticed that people looked at me funny. I touched the back of my head and felt something bumpy that moved. I looked in a mirror and saw that all my hair was gone and had been replaced with a live monsterface growing out the back of my head.
Panicking, I asked the student councellor for help, figuring that if everyone could see this, it would have to be fixable and not just me going insane. He checked out my head, nodded to me and told me he knew what to do. Then he gave me an extra showel and brought me out to the cemetery located next to the university (there's no cemetery there in real life). He then started beating on an old tree in the middle of the cemetery. The tree became a door into a scary world where other two-faced humanoid monsters lived and they came out of the tree to surround us. Realizing that we were grossly outnumbered, I would have assumed that the student advisor would try to flee, but he only told the monsters in a stern voice to give me back the back of my head.
"Ah," the old wrinkled lady monster who was clearly the leader said. "But she's just ahead of the curve. Soon everyone will be like us. Even you..." and then she laughed and struck out her hand and the student advisor became one of them and turned on me with the rest. I tried fighting them off, but since I figured only the faces on the back of the heads were the bad guys, I shouldn't kill them, and they had no such trouble with me, I was quickly overwhelmed by them.
Any takers on figuring out what this means? |
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| Countdown to extinction |
[Oct. 8th, 2009|12:42 pm] |
Only a few hours left till I'm handing in a draft of the introduction to the thesis. I was supposed to hand in more, but I haven't had time to do it. I feel burned out so even though I have a lot more to do with this draft, right now, it seems impossible to get through.
(I know, sulk sulk, whine whine, but it's very frustrating).
Edit: It is now handed in. 31 beautiful pages with 135 spiffy footnotes. I'm proud and exhausted and I look like a cancer victim. It's a testament to my mental state that I just remembered that I forgot to shower today. Thank god noone's seen me yet. Now off to an early weekend. Life is good! |
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| Ball of goo |
[Oct. 6th, 2009|10:34 am] |
I have 2 more days before my chapters (that's right, plural) are due. Because I had a writers block all of last week, I haven't written nearly enough and now, I've gotten sick again. Since my tutors are very busy people who're only occationally in the country, I can't really posphone the meeting without having to wait about 2 weeks extra, so I'm still trying to write. But it's going slowly and I'm freezing my ass off in a room that's over 20 degrees celsius. I think this might call for cookies, but I'm not sure I'm up for making them (mostly because it includes a trip to the store to buy ingredients). |
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| The blank page |
[Sep. 30th, 2009|01:11 pm] |
Last day of reading background material. Tomorrow I start writing my thesis. No more checking and double-checking facts, no more short notes to myself about what I should write later, tomorrow is the day when I toast the blank page and get down to it. I expect angst, caffein addiction and mucho posting on this blog.
It's also exciting though. My head is full of ideas and I have a lot of snippets of text and parts of chapters done. Now, I'm going to put them all in order.
The thesis is probably going to look like this:
A world in our image
The reasons for the growth of the private sector in Norwegian foreign aid discussed
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Historical background and the growth in the private sector during the 1970s
Chapter 3: Lessening administrative costs
Chapter 4: Building support for foreign aid in the general public
Chapter 5: The organisations' efficiency: Goal orientation
Chapter 6: The organisations' efficiency: Flexibility
Chapter 7: Discussions and conclusions
(I'm not sure about the title, it might be unfitting or too harsh, feedback would be nice. The different chapters will probably also get spiffy names, but at least I've sorted my thesis into a semi-professional shape.)
What do you guys think? |
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| Priorities are like arms; if you have more than two, things get confusing |
[Sep. 27th, 2009|12:30 am] |
I'm stuck at home on a Saturday night working on my thesis. Which isn't really supposed to be done before May, but since I'm moving away and all, my tutors are pushing me pretty hard to hand in as much as possible before November. Which means I'm expected to hand in two chapters every two weeks. (The only other student I talked to is handing in one chapter each month.) There's a lot for me to do.
Trouble is, I'm moving away and therefore I'd like to spend as much time as possible with my friends before I leave. And I really love having weekends off from work, which doesn't seem to be happening anymore. And this causes stress in my system. Add to that the fact that I hurt my neck during training today (again) and you have a monster with dry hair and skin, and new wrinkles popping out by the minute.
On the plus side, I really like reading background material (which is what I'm doing this weekend). I feel like a geek and I keep squeeing over the stuff I learn and ideas for my thesis are bubbling around in my head (I write them all down). On the downside, I think I might have forgotten how to relax because every time I take a break from studying (like now, past midnight on a Saturday night) I tense up and feel like I should try a bit harder. School is hard, people. |
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| Do you recognize this? |
[Sep. 19th, 2009|11:34 am] |
I consider myself a feminist. Often, I feel like I bore my friends with talk of how every single movie we watch depict sterotypes of women (or, in some later films like Transformers 2 and No Country for Old Men, women are completely unnecessary), of how society in general and women and men in general perpetuate stereotypes of who you are allowed to be. But when I read this post:
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/08/terrible-bargain-we-have-regretfully.html
I was a little thrown. I trust men. I don't feel like I'm oppressed the way this woman tells it. Sure, I'd love it if everyone noticed the stuff I notice about society around us, but I don't feel like I can't trust men and I don't feel like I want people to change the way they talk and the jokes they make.
And I definitely think it's about time that we feminists realize that this thing goes both ways. It is not okay to assume that men won't feel sexually harrassed when we pinch their butts or stare at them on the street, assume they're stupid because they're buff or manipulate them into having sex with us when they don't want to. Men get sexually harrassed too. Men have a hard time fitting into this society that push people into boxes that are very confining. And the only way that we're going to achieve equality is if we all realize this: the bargains we strike to be part of this society are too constricting and both men and women have to work together to strike a new one.
If we feminists aren't willing to do that, we're not going to achieve our goal of equality. Ever.
(And I do objectify men. All the time.) |
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restless
accomplished
annoyed
listless
happy
bouncy
good
ditzy
uncomfortable
sick
tired
determined