Monday, March 31, 2008

random things that happened to me today

1. I was in a meeting at work this afternoon where someone was presenting a new website that will be "a suppository where people can store all their information." That's right, a suppository. Methinks it might be a bit difficult to shove a website up one's ass, but what do I know?

2. I went to the pool at my gym this evening to do some laps, as I do now and then. A couple of months ago, my gym switched from chlorination to salination. I have been swimming a whack of times since, but still, when I jumped in this evening, I was hit with the intense surprise of salt in my mouth and eyes. How many more billion times do you think I need to jump in to reverse the ingrained expectation of chlorine built up from every indoor swim of my life up until two months ago? Or do you think it will never happen?

3. I bought a box of wine for someone as a birthday gift today. It was a joke gift, but still.

4. I learned today from one of my audiobooks (no, I haven't gotten over the geek factor) that every year the country of Spain translates as many books into Spanish as the entire Arabic world has into Arabic since the 9th century. What's going on there? I have always thought of the Arabic world as somewhat insular, but that insular? Have been thinking about this all day.

5. I am cursing Sunny for introducing me to email Scrabulous and thereby subjecting me to a constant whipping at the hands of my sibling. Said sibling watches a lot of tv while I read a lot of books. Am beginning to wonder if she is paying someone handsomely to administer this ongoing humiliation.

Rainy

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re: 4. (translating books into Arabic). Given the amount of crap that the rest of the world generates, maybe the Arabs are just more selective about what they translate. Unfortunately, I've managed to read a few too many books that I wouldn't bother to translate into another language, either. The good news is that as I get older, I'm getting more selective and don't bother to finish said crap books. "Eh. That's crap. Toss it."

Anonymous said...

Where is the gym with the salt-water pool?? I can't stand chlorine any more, so have hung up my bathing suit. Would love to give the salt water a try!

complain away said...

Innkeeper, Your comment led me to this thought: I find it sad when I go back to re-read a book I treasured when I was younger and I have the reaction you have just described. That seems to be happening more and more. Am I getting old and crotchety?

FG, I highly recommend it, even if just because it doesn't ruin your hair, but my gym's got a closed membership (that sounds so elitist!). Still, I know lots of people who are switching to salination for their private pool, and I think it's catching on. I'd call/ write in to whatever pool you want to hit-they're probably already considering it.