![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oiranThat Michael Phelps looks like someone drawn by Shiuko Kano. Little, pointy-chinned head on a broad-shouldered, elongated (sexy) body. She's far from my favorite mangaka - one of the reasons being that I was under the impression that her renditions of the male form were particularly distanced from reality. Apparently, she's been watching a lot more swim meets than I have...
I have Olympic fever. Sort of. I especially love the summer Olympics, as the sports tend to be even more body-specific than the winter games. I am not necessarily cheering for the U.S., though. My choice of favorites is most definitely based on their attitude as well as their performance.
I love watching gymnastics, both male and female. The men are actually more interesting overall to me these days, since their routines are free of clumsy "dance" flourishes. Do they even use music with their floor routines? I don't recall hearing it in the recent telecasts. When I was very young, i.e., the 1970s, female gymnasts were much more graceful than the latest bunch--although their acrobatic/strength skills were nowhere near what you see now. I was good friends with a world-class gymnast and her twin sister (also a gymast) for a couple of years, and I was fascinated with their grace and strength. That godawful Mary Lou Retton with her fireplug figure and Hulk-like muscling through every routine as if it were a battle seemed to turn the tides of women's gymnastics such that it remains a fight instead of a flow.
Except for the Chinese team. Damn, those girls are cute! And talented! And graceful! Also, they are the only women smiling and having fun. The US and Roumanian teams are dour and tense. The Chinese are giggly and gleaming. So, yeah, I guess I'm kind of rooting for the Chinese here post-prelims. But I like the US men's gymnastics team, so I'm not totally unpatriotic.
I was happy the US men's basketball team lost. What a bunch of pouty thugs! And Puerto Rico kicked their not-really-entitled asses. It was beautiful to see.
Looking forward to women's track & field and seeing Amy Acuff in action. I'd never heard of her until a NYTimes article about all the Olympians posing for Playboy...and she has what I think is the perfect body. Long, lean, but still girl-shaped. I want to see her in motion now.
~~~
New toys [to keep my head expanding]: Mr. Glove decided we needed new stuff, and who am I to disagree? I now have a new desk chair, to replace the 12-year-old number with the foam-spitting seat cushion. This is a drafting chair, very tall, with a footrest, since my "desk" is of a non-standard height. Also, a special treat: digitizing tablet!!!! The pen is a bit strange to get used to, but I think it will be a hell of a lot of fun and, of course, a big help with actual drawing vs. "collage" work in Photoshop. Up until now, I've done all my digital artwork with a trackball (!!), so I'm expecting great things from myself.
~~~
I wrote! Only about four paragraphs, and only via a sort of stealth not-noticing-what-I'm-doing technique, but I wrote!
~~~
I spoke to my mother and father for the first time in...eight months. They are still exactly who they've always been, and they still have no understanding of why I am upset with the way they handle (or, rather, avoid handling) things. Mr. Glove thinks that I seem less depressed after talking to them, though I don't know that I'd agree that what I'm less of is depressed. I feel less of...something else. I can't quite identify the feeling, but it's not depression that seems lifted to me. Anyway. And now I finally know: my mother isn't dying. She just had several weird/gross health issues that she is blaming on "heat," though I'd blame them on smoking and malnutrition.
I am too old to care so much about the way my parents treat me, or so I try to convince myself. I mean, I'm old enough that I could theoretically have my own teenage child who hates me and thinks I've ruined their life. I need to stop being one, yes?
I have Olympic fever. Sort of. I especially love the summer Olympics, as the sports tend to be even more body-specific than the winter games. I am not necessarily cheering for the U.S., though. My choice of favorites is most definitely based on their attitude as well as their performance.
I love watching gymnastics, both male and female. The men are actually more interesting overall to me these days, since their routines are free of clumsy "dance" flourishes. Do they even use music with their floor routines? I don't recall hearing it in the recent telecasts. When I was very young, i.e., the 1970s, female gymnasts were much more graceful than the latest bunch--although their acrobatic/strength skills were nowhere near what you see now. I was good friends with a world-class gymnast and her twin sister (also a gymast) for a couple of years, and I was fascinated with their grace and strength. That godawful Mary Lou Retton with her fireplug figure and Hulk-like muscling through every routine as if it were a battle seemed to turn the tides of women's gymnastics such that it remains a fight instead of a flow.
Except for the Chinese team. Damn, those girls are cute! And talented! And graceful! Also, they are the only women smiling and having fun. The US and Roumanian teams are dour and tense. The Chinese are giggly and gleaming. So, yeah, I guess I'm kind of rooting for the Chinese here post-prelims. But I like the US men's gymnastics team, so I'm not totally unpatriotic.
I was happy the US men's basketball team lost. What a bunch of pouty thugs! And Puerto Rico kicked their not-really-entitled asses. It was beautiful to see.
Looking forward to women's track & field and seeing Amy Acuff in action. I'd never heard of her until a NYTimes article about all the Olympians posing for Playboy...and she has what I think is the perfect body. Long, lean, but still girl-shaped. I want to see her in motion now.
~~~
New toys [to keep my head expanding]: Mr. Glove decided we needed new stuff, and who am I to disagree? I now have a new desk chair, to replace the 12-year-old number with the foam-spitting seat cushion. This is a drafting chair, very tall, with a footrest, since my "desk" is of a non-standard height. Also, a special treat: digitizing tablet!!!! The pen is a bit strange to get used to, but I think it will be a hell of a lot of fun and, of course, a big help with actual drawing vs. "collage" work in Photoshop. Up until now, I've done all my digital artwork with a trackball (!!), so I'm expecting great things from myself.
~~~
I wrote! Only about four paragraphs, and only via a sort of stealth not-noticing-what-I'm-doing technique, but I wrote!
~~~
I spoke to my mother and father for the first time in...eight months. They are still exactly who they've always been, and they still have no understanding of why I am upset with the way they handle (or, rather, avoid handling) things. Mr. Glove thinks that I seem less depressed after talking to them, though I don't know that I'd agree that what I'm less of is depressed. I feel less of...something else. I can't quite identify the feeling, but it's not depression that seems lifted to me. Anyway. And now I finally know: my mother isn't dying. She just had several weird/gross health issues that she is blaming on "heat," though I'd blame them on smoking and malnutrition.
I am too old to care so much about the way my parents treat me, or so I try to convince myself. I mean, I'm old enough that I could theoretically have my own teenage child who hates me and thinks I've ruined their life. I need to stop being one, yes?
