Goodness Gracious Me

• The school library had it on DVD

• The DVD is playing on my laptop

• It is Hi-larious! Even after a complete 29 minute episode and half of a second episode.
  

• I wonder if it will fit on my harddrive if I try to copy it. Probably copyright protected or something anyway.
  

- posted by k @ 6:47 PM

 
Holy crap
I was just chatting with the woman who comes to clean the office here; we've exchanged pleasantries before since I'm often here when she comes in. Apparently she is a marathon runner. She's over 65 and put her 3 kids through college (2 are artists/entrepreneurs living in the US now) and ran the New York marathon with her son a few years ago. And she's going to run a marathon in Ireland, where she's from, but next year, not this year.
- posted by k @ 3:22 PM

 
Two Things I Know, or What You Can Tell the NHS Receptionist
So, on Friday afternoon at the scanner someone asked me if I was Hindu. I said "um...hmm...that's complicated. I'm vegetarian?" The reason it came up was because our scanner's tech is Sri Lankan and he described himself as Hindu and was surprised to learn that the other person there grew up with Shinto, not Buddhism.

Usually if I am pushed to give myself a religious label and I want to be accurate, I would have to say "I'm an agnostic-Humanist with Buddhist leanings who sometimes attends a Unitarian Universalist church but is not a member (and I'm culturally Hindu and try to keep the major holidays if I can)." I'm pretty happy with that, but it's not something I put on forms or mention to casual acquaintances, you know?

Then Friday night I was at the ER (well, they call it "A&E" here for Accident and Emergency) with a friend, and because she was, um, indisposed I was answering questions for the receptionist. One of the questions was ethnic group, which must have been for tracking purposes/official NHS stats, and the other one was religion, which must be for in case you die while at the hospital. My friend is clearly Christian, so I told the receptionist that.

Later I was thinking what I would have said if it was me being checked in and not my friend? The agnostic-Humanist thing is a bit wordy and I'm sure they don't have a check box for it. And if they're asking about what to do with your body if you die, then that answer doesn't really help them very much. So if Hindu means you want to be cremated and strongly prefer vegetarian food, then that is what you can tell the NHS receptionist if I am ever being checked into the hospital. Those are two things I am sure about, anyway.
- posted by k @ 6:59 AM

 
Victory for vegetarians
(excerpt from Guardian UK) Mars has abandoned its plan to use animal products in chocolate, apologising to vegetarians who organised a campaign against the change.

The company announced last week it was changing the whey used in some chocolate and ice cream from a vegetarian source to one with traces of rennet, an animal enzyme.

The Vegetarian Society protested on behalf of three million vegetarians in the UK and asked people to "express their concern" to Masterfoods, which produces the Mars, Snickers, Maltesers and Galaxy brands affected by the change.


The other thing that everyone should know is that there are non-animal sources of chymosin, the enzyme derived from rennet. Amazingly, I learned this while tutoring biology here. There is a lot more vegetarian cheese easily available here than in the US.
- posted by k @ 6:07 AM

 
1. Dear Radio 2: Please stop playing Michael Buble. Please. It's just not right.


2. I have decided that whichever candidate has the most feasible universal health care plan is the one I will vote for. You can complain about the NHS, but I have seen it in action. Plus, a national health can exist alongside private systems, like it does here.
- posted by k @ 3:11 AM

 
Wow, that was fast.

I forgot #3 from the list below:

3. I noticed a fun fair/carnival being set up on campus, and my first thought was "oh dear, loud drunken rowdy undergraduates on the loose!" But I think today was their last day of exams, so I can't begrudge them. And I can't hear the noise from my room.
- posted by k @ 2:15 PM

 
More signs of aging
1. I think I am starting to strongly prefer fresh pizza to day-old pizza, and heated-up pizza to cold pizza. Bizarre. Someone pass the denture paste.

2. I have figured out how to avoid rowdy teens on the bus! Just sit on the bottom of the bus. The teens naturally migrate to the top because of course the bus driver is on the bottom and could see their shenanigans. I used to always sit up top because the view is better from there so I could make sure I saw my stop coming and not miss it, but now that I'm better acquainted with the route (and also since it's usually light out when I get home now) this is not so much a concern. Of course, many of the seats on the bottom are reserved for the old/infirm, but not all of them are. The only problem is when I get back to the states and the busses only have a bottom, no top. Really, we should have tops on our busses because then each bus could carry so many more people! Think about it. It's brilliant!

Perhaps I have also assimilated.
- posted by k @ 8:40 AM

 
Speaking of the weather...

1. I'm not really clear on why they have Spring here if what comes after it is just like what came before. It's 40degF and raining, and we haven't had a day without rain/overcast since maybe last Wednesday, and we have rain/overcast predicted 3 out of 5 days this week. How exactly is this different from Oct/Nov? Eh?
2. To make matters worse, the room/lab/office where I will be spending most of my time now is having some kind of problem with its forced air (not air conditioning, forced air, I was informed) so basically it's 40degF indoors here. The good news is the friendly tech guys came and took a look and reported it to maintenance.
3. What was #3 again? I don't remember.

- posted by k @ 5:07 AM

 
Humor in Real Life!
Scene: I am making copies of a worksheet at the place where I tutor; the son of my boss at this place, 10 years old, chubby, generally eager to please, is doing his homework or something nearby.

Boss's son: ....Spider-man t-shirt from my uncle in Canada.

Me: Oh yeah, the new movie, Spiderman 3 is out. Are you planning to see it?

Boss's son: [hesitates] Well...no, not really.

Me: [surprised] No? Why not?

Boss's son: Well...I heard at school it was kind of gay.

Me: [sinking feeling] Oh? What did you hear about it?

Boss's son: Well, you know how the posters show a Spiderman in a, like, just a grey costume? But usually Spiderman is in, you know, a blue and red costume like this? [indicates t-shirt]

Me: [no idea where this is going] nodding

Boss's son: Well, in Spiderman 3 they kiss. Anyway, since they already made Spiderman 2, and you know when they keep making...you know, more movies after the first one...

Me: Sequels?

Boss's son: [oblivious] anyway they're not as good and they should have stopped after 2.



Doesn't look very romantic to me.
- posted by k @ 12:53 PM

 
Words of Wisdom


The sooner you learn it, the sooner you can figure out how to cope.
- posted by k @ 3:02 AM

 
Proper bra fit is important (woo hoo!)

- posted by k @ 8:44 AM

 
This one's even better

- posted by k @ 3:14 PM