devilpony7

Yet again

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:16:57 GMT

So, I decided to use this thing again.

The new idea is to keep track of the cool (who are you to argue with my status as an arbiter of cool?) things I do, since I don't get formal feedback in. . . any of them.

Also, I think I learn better when I write things down.

Aikido today: It's the beginning of the year, so there are tons of new people, and we're starting over again. Lots of girls, which is cool. Also, people shorter than me! Yes!

I have a theory that my tendency to lock into weird positions to keep my balance, instead of staying mobile and trying to continue attacks, is a learned instinct from riding. Mobility is not a major option on a bucking horse, really. I need a larger sample size, so my riding friends will hopefully drop by sometime.

My notes: Worked on kokyunage ikyo, omote and ura. "Breath throw." Rolling, leading hand is same as forward foot. Not sure that I actually get this wrong, but I should practice rolling with thought again. Maybe do some break falls, too.

However, racing across the mat and diving full speed into rolls after class is hella fun.

ETA: I made a bunch of old posts private. No particular reason, on most of them, I guess. Personal preference. I think what's left is fairly representative of the infrequent activity seen here since Dec 2006.

MECHANICAL PONY

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:27 GMT

This thing. This thing. WOW. It's an exercise machine. . . based on horseback riding. I didn't scan the whole brochure (10 pages!), but consider this the "good parts version."

It walks, it trots, it canters! Based on Professor Kimura of the Nippon Medical School's observations of hippotherapy in the US and Europe, now brought to you by Panasonic.

The text above the graph of "muscle strength improvement rate" says the thing is based on 20 reps of a 15 minute a day session. From that, "muscle strength of the back, abdomen and even the thighs, which are difficult to exercise, can increase between 20%-60%." Yes, horseback riding IS exercise. Can't argue with those graphics.

They sell them in the States, too, but this Japanese brochure is way cooler than a b&w ad I saw in the Tribune - I think they go for about US$1500.

ETA: The US website

NaNoWriMo

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 18:41:32 GMT

So, I'm doing it.

The long, narrative dreams are back - I've had two that I remember in the last week or so. I loose them when I'm not writing regularly, so this is pretty cool.

The last one totally character assassinated one of my favorite published characters, by way of inserting him into a riff on the Jaynestown episode of Firefly. My subconscious would like to submit that that particular character is all over the place on a trickster/order axis, which makes for more interesting reading (goal of order, trickster methodology, v.interesting). Also, that he is dead accurate with a shotgun. That was not anticipated by the waking brain bits, thank you.

Guess I'm not just following in Dad's footsteps.

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:51:45 GMT

Or just not? He's smarter than I am. Seriously. I will probably never end up in the lab of a Nobel laureate, but if I do, I hope I'll be half as unpretentious about it. And that said laureate is as good people as Temin was.

Anyway, organic chemestry had just about convinced me that I do not really want to be a bio major. And now I'm writing a bio paper, and I am *enjoying* myself.

So I like reading the humanities stuff, but when it comes time to sit down with a big pile of research and some results to make sense of, that keeps me out of the back alleys of the internet. Mostly (:-]). Major Asian Religions had me researching the erruption of Mt. Toba and human population bottlenecks and stuff until... four AM?

Yeah, I'm feeling better about this bio thing again. Now, to find an advisor...

I cook?!

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 01:41:31 GMT

I have learned three things today:

1) I suck at basketball now.
2) The reception of a puncture wound really does feel more like a blunt impact than anything.
3) I can make yummy food

I had a really good day, overall. I drove the boys to their day camps and home for lunch and out again, had a chance to shoot hoops with Noah for a little while - I was decent at basketball once, but honestly don't remember the last time I played - and walked to the library and farmer's market before picking the boys up at the end of the day.

I was all ready to ride around 4 pm... but it was in the 90s (F), so I decided to just hop on bareback, do some bendy stuff, and work on not clenching my back (I have realized I do this, badly, and it is throwing my equitation all to hell). I cavorted from my car towards the barn, since the horses in sight were all in pasture, and felt a stone on my flipflop as I landed from a nice, exuberant leap. See point 2 now.

I looked at my shoe, and something was sparkling in the center of it. A clear, triangular, blade-like piece of glass (so it proved on later examination) had punched straight through a solid rubber sole and about three quarters of an inch of good foam. My foot was dripping blood. I believe I entertained some thought about how it was a good thing the glass didn't stick in a horse's frog, since my foot really only felt bruised, and I was pretty coherant. I saw NO other glass whatsoever, and proceded to hop on my good foot through the barn until I reached the sink (normal height for a sink, let me add). I ran cold water over my foot for a while, and then put pressure on it. Yay for really basic first aid, good balance, and flexibility. Also, it's probably a good thing I hadn't put my boots on yet - the soles are only somewhat tougher, but MUCH thinner.

The cold water was pretty numbing, but this is when it actually started to feel like a cut, more than a bruise. I waited for a while, hoping it would stop bleeding, and being in pain. Then I hopped back to my car. I had to stop once on the way, which I hadn't before - I am really good at hopping on one foot, let it be known. I called Kim, who was in the indoor arena (I did not fancy hopping another twenty feet, and back). She was a bit puzzled by my call, since I'd seen her about three minutes before - but she hung up and came running as soon as I put "glass" and "foot" in the same sentence.

One thing about being at a barn owned by a veterinarian (besides getting to be present/helpful at a minor equine surgery, forgot to post about that, didn't I?) - they can deal with human injury pretty darn well, too. Kim poured Betadine on my foot, added a dollop of antibiotic cream and a bandaid, padded it with gauze (for more comfort walking), and topped it off with hot pink vet wrap (awesome). I have some Epsom salt to soak it in, too. Twice a day, vet's orders. :-) I feel like I have laminitis, or something. Actually, I feel like there's a bloody[,] painful hole in the bottom of my foot.

I waited until I was alone in my car driving home to swear loudly and pathetically.

I made myself comfort food - actually, I made what I had planned to make since the farmer's market, but it was excellent. I sautéed sweet onion, mushroom, and tomato in olive oil, and ate them with salty sheep's milk cheese on seven-grain bread from the market.

The most basic principles of cooking, as I absorbed them from my father, are:

1) Buy good ingredients.
2) Do as little as possible to make them taste even better.

To me, this means "sauté the vegetables." To him, it's more on the level of "slow cook the stuffed duck in the oven until it's not greasy anymore, but perfectly delectable." I love watching him cook - this post would have been all about cooking, if not for the damn glass incident. Dad's so relaxed about it, while my mom is a very... I have to say, resentful cooker. She doesn't seem to enjoy every step like Dad does. She also seems to follow recipes much more closely - or there's a quality of attention to the cookbook that he doesn't have. Dad is perfectly willing to shortcut to get rid of steps he doesn't enjoy - pizza crusts are spread in the pan, not tossed, and butter and sugar are microwaved to make them mix more easily - but he never shortcuts with his ingredients, and he pays careful attention to steps that have a disproportionate impact on the product (I know how to fold whipped egg whites into the batter for madeleines, and I want to learn how to cut fish properly for sushi).

As an aside, I find it interesting that I see a cultural disconnect in the idea of a life-long lab scientist with a Ph. D buying organic eggs and olive oil. Where did this idea of the techie/hippy dichotomy come from? Darn mass media. Darn dichotomies. I hates them, I does (though I seem to live in the wrong country for this). To further the aside - as a half-Japanese daughter of divorced parents, who loves history and Latin and writing, and biology and objectivity and scientific methodology, I would probably have to have some sort of multiple-personality disorder if I really believed in dichotomies. They're interesting to play with... but I'm finally starting to drop them from my writing, since the idea has mostly ceased to concern me. I am one person. I don't need to walk any damn line. This bit of ground I'm standing on? Is not a house divided. Ahem. (Aside^3 - post-stepmom, I've developed a new interest in triplicate variations on ideas and circumstances - bits of my brain like watching other bits of my brain work, they're all fascinating).

To go back to cooking - I've never been overly enamoured of processessed food - less so than the average teen, anyway. The discovery that I can kinda sorta cook an approximation of the really fresh, simple, delicious stuff Dad throws together is quite absorbing. I want to get better at this cooking stuff. I want to be the kind of person who only takes dietary advice from peer-reviewed scientific literature, and checks all kinds of little grocery stores for good produce. An empirical hippy, that's me. With vet wrap on my foot.

I'M SORRY!

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 04:26:43 GMT

I didn't realize my attempts to edit were creating multiple posts. I cannot figure out how to delete said posts. See: Serious formatting issues with this old browser. I apologize again for the spammed friends pages... sorry!!!

Wholely ghetto internet connection.

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 04:20:53 GMT

Oh, my word. My ancient Mac, and by ancient, I mean...five years old? Six? is connected to the Internetz for the first time in years. My browser options: Internet Explorer 5 and Netscape Communicator 4.7. I kid you not. Anyway, IE will let me read and post to LJ - albeit, with some drastic formating issues on the update page. I am typing in a box of the normal height, but about 1 cm wide, which may explain any disconnectedness in my style. "Disconnectedness" takes up three whole lines, you see. Netscape will let me see Facebook... IE brings up some "outdated browser" page, which I really can't argue with.

I've been trying to find a download of the old version of Firefox, which ran on Mac OS 9, but I haven't been having great luck. My acchievement thus far consists of realizing that I can actually READ the Firefox page in Netscape, while it crashes IE.

Also: Rudy managed to break his bridle. I was bringing the reins over his head to lead as we walked between the tack room and his stall, and I *think* they caught on the doorknob. Or something. All I know is that he threw his head back, and then his bit was dangling with the cheekpiece attached. Rudy was very calm about the whole thing, and didn't seem worried or pained. I got what was left of the bridle off of him, and shut him back in his stall while I figured out what was broken, which seemed to upset him more than anything. The part of the crownpiece that attaches to the cheekpiece broke right at the base. I JUST CLEANED that bridle, and I didn't notice anything wrong with that spot. I've been watching a small crack in my reins... never saw that coming. A little disturbing... I suppose it could have broken while I was riding, and I would have been left with no bit whatsoever. It's better that this happened... but I'm disturbed that I didn't realize the leather was so weak at that point. On the other hand, I don't know what caught on what. It could have been a strange angle, or something, that put stress on a small area of leather, and snapped it regardless of care. I just don't know. I do know that I need a new piece of a bridle... and I don't think I can find good English tack in the middle of IA. Not without driving for over an hour, anyway.

Also: I had gotten to the barn, and realized that my boots were not in the trunk as anticipated, leaving me in flipflops, with no bridle.

I grabbed a Western split-rein bridle with a sweet iron loose ring snaffle, and off to the arena we went. After two stupidity-related crises (throwing reins around near a doorknob, forgetting boots), I was questioning my competence to ride. Then I slammed my finger in the gate latch.

Yeah. That was the "big owie" I was worried about. Rudy was an angel. I love riding bareback, and the bridle was actually really fun. The reins are SO LONG! I crossed them over his neck, and used two hands, like normal. The crossed reins made it a lot harder to adjust them, so I couldn't really fuss with my hands - I think doing that more often would be good for me. We trotted circles, and reversed with pretty elementary turns on the forehand, which Rudy is starting to get the idea of. I had an excellent ride, and left the barn happy (as usual). The bridle situation will resolve itself eventually.

Also: this college has the most ridiculous alumni ever. During reunion, the Class of 90- something HOTWIRED A GOLF CART, and stole the Class of 70-something's beer. Heh.

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 16:55:46 GMT

Oh, boy. Ever since I discovered the "Graffiti" application on Facebook, I have been on a mouse-drawing spree. Observe my artisticness:

What does your drawing say about YOU?

That's a stream coming down off the near mountain peak, and a dotted path winding off the left edge of the screen to the stream, through scribblegrass(tm).

It says: Your friends and associates should generally find you a dependable and trustworthy person.
You are a thoughtful and cautious person. You like to think about your method, seeking to pursue your goal in the most effective way.
You like following the rules and being objective. You are precise and meticulous, and like to evaluate decisions before making them.
You have a sunny, cheerful disposition.

It's almost one in the morning, and I am discussing vaginas WAY too seriously.

Fri, 04 May 2007 05:44:50 GMT

Interestingly, given H. ducreyi’s infective habits, the pH of the vagina usually mimics skin pH, ranging between 4 and 7 (Omer et al, 1985). However, vaginal pH changes according to the menstrual cycle. Wagner and Ottesen (1982) observed that the mean vaginal pH in a study group fluctuated between 6.6 ±0.3 and 4.2±0.2, with acidity increasing as menstruation approached. Even vaginal secretions with pHs as low as 3.5 are not considered unusual (Castle et al, 2002). Some women are obviously on the low or high side of the given means at all times, which may affect their personal susceptibility to H. ducreyi infection. Conversely, existing infections can affect vaginal pH, possibly making it more hospitable to further infection. Das and Allan (2004) observed a correlation between Chalmydia trachomatis or Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections, and unusually alkaline vaginal pHs.

Some medications also alter vaginal pH, possibly helping to eliminate targeted infections, or abetting new ones (citation needed). The efficacy of pH regulation against infection can be seen in the use of acidic gel to prevent recurrences of bacterial vaginosis (Wilson et al, 2005). However, semen has a neutralizing effect on vaginal pH, which must be taken into account when considering heterosexual STD transmission (Tuyama et al, 2006).

Anyone know any good studies of ~~drugs~~ pharmaceuticals and vaginal pH?
ETA: GRRRR! Das and Allan established correlation, but causation, if anything, was shown to be in the other direction! NO! Now I need more research...

Typing test

Wed, 02 May 2007 22:19:41 GMT

I need to stop with the quiz-like things.
Typing speed/accuracy test

I hit 80 wpm, with two mistakes (mispelled answer and added a comma) typing the first paragraph of Rebecca (Last night I dremt I went to Manderley again...). Generally, I hover between 60 and 70 wpm.

Good to know.

How cute are the foals?

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:58:06 GMT

Cute enough to make me forget that one should not lean on an electric fence, that's how cute.

Ellie's boy

Chick's little filly.

Quiz!

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 09:20:17 GMT

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Artistic Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Social Nerd
Drama Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Musician
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Well, duh.

Also, I realized after driving ALMOST all the way home that my CD player is currently collecting dust in the indoor. I did not go back to retreive it- shucks, I guess I have to go to the barn tomorrow. :-) Rudy and I did some jumping yesterday for the first time in weeks (spring break and all), which he was quite excited about. After a quiet ride today, he practically fell asleep in the aisle with me rubbing behind his ears. It was wonderful, and peaceful, and life needs more moments like that.

I set up some poles to an X for Herbie, which definitely helped him get the idea of how he needs to carry himself in order to jump things. With pre-break chaos, and then spring break, I haven't ridden him for a while. I've sacrificed Sunday aikido to ride more this month, which doesn't exactly make me happy, but seems to work well. Herbster (why does he have such an amusing name?! Soon, he's going to have an entire Herbilicious theme song) was very focused, and seemed to be enjoying himself as well. I really dislike jumping horses with no enthusiasm for it- honestly, it's a remarkably pointless thing to ask a horse to do.

Ellie and Chick both foaled in the last week- Ellie was late, and Chick was a little early. Ellie has a little chestnut colt with one sock, and Chick has a bay filly- Chick has been making scary protective faces across the barn at us every time Rudy moves in her general direction (ie, out of his stall), but they're both OK with me standing around making unreasonable cute noises, which is good. I promise I'll get some decent photos soon (the ones I took of Ellie's boy do not do him justice)!

It's gorgeous out, what am I doing in Illinois?

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:06:43 GMT

I really, really want to go ride. The videos from the WEG finals Ben's friend linked to are not helping.

Andreas Helgstrand
Anky

Holiday Cleaning

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 21:49:25 GMT

I started this journal in December, 2003. I believe I was a freshman in highschool.

Needless to say, I wrote a lot of things over the last four years that the world absolutely does not need to see. So, since I'm on winter break now, I downloaded and deleted all my old posts, and redid the color scheme while I was at it.

Welcome to my journal, part two. I don't really know what I'll use it for, but at least I'll be able to post random stuff from the computer lab across the hall from my dorm room without having it link to the random stuff I posted from Dad's living room in 2004.

Cheers!