"Throw it a book! They like books."

We saw Mirrormask last night. I would have probably liked it better if I hadn't already had a lot of exposure to Dave McKean's artwork (showcased nicely here, I admit) and Neil Gaiman's theme of the "other mother" (he did it better in Coraline). And the main characters spend a lot of time being surrounded by circles of strange creatures. None of which is meant to say it wasn't a fine thing to watch on a Monday night.

I have officially started my Christmas shopping, and also bought a CD alarm clock... I have an ongoing hate affair with my current, fairly new alarm clock since its snooze button is much harder to press than its off switch (can you say wrong, wrong, wrong?), and have decided to bite the bullet and get a good clock. What I want is to make a CD that will replicate my friend's Zen alarm clock... it chimes nicely, then chimes 10 minutes later, then 5 minutes later, then 2 minutes later, and so forth. HLM has said he'll help me make the CD. And unlike my friend's Zen alarm clock, it will not have a striker that can occasionally miss the bell. I am excited about all this. Oversleeping every day for the last few weeks* has kind of sucked.

Oh, and by the way, I've largely cracked the code of my evil multithreading bug. It's all about minimizing memory allocation. Whew. From here on it's solvable. That only took 7 work days... :b

*This doesn't necessarily mean I've been late to work, but it does mean my mornings are no fun.

Yoga and cities... yes indeed, it is a happy post.

I had a good yoga class today. I think I succeeded in doing high crane -- if I did, it was the first time ever. It was all very zenlike since I had no particular hope of success as I went into it (I always try...), but felt no particular surprise at being in the pose until the teacher looked over and said "Hey flexy, that looks great!" Then I realized that perhaps I was in high crane. And fell over. :)

We also did a very cool thing with a strap in which we tried to bring one foot up behind us and to our hands, theoretically in preparation for king pigeon pose, which is pose of the month. We just did this balancing on one foot, rather than on the floor like the picture shows. Couldn't do it, but I sure loved trying. I really haven't worked on backbends lately since I've been so focused on other things (inversions, which are more fun, and hip openers, which are more frustrating).

Earlier today I expressed my intention to never move to NYC, since (as I said) I would never be able to move out again. Those I was talking to didn't understand this reasoning, but I didn't express it very well... really, it comes back to hedonic adaptation. I would get used to New York, and losing the feeling it gives me right now would be heartbreaking. Plus, I would be disappointed with the rest of the world forever. Perhaps it's just fear that the infatuation wouldn't deepen into true love, or maybe (speaking of true love) I just don't want to leave Boston. But either way, I think there could be an essay in this topic, if I ever feel like writing such a thing. And if I do I'll start with this quote by Cavafy:

You will find no new lands, you will find no other seas. 
The city will follow you. You will roam the same 
streets. And you will age in the same neighbourhoods; 
and you will grow grey in these same houses. 
Always you will arrive in this city. Do not hope for any other...

It's a depressing quote, but only in context. Out of context I find it rather comforting, and I hope that it's true.

Clicky...

Horrton hears a Heart by Edgar Allen Seuss.