secretaries of style

with all the fuss about sarah palin's recent wardrobe costs, i thought i'd mention michelle obama's abominable dress from election night. as a family, the obama's looked lovely together, but i really didnt like her choice of designer dress. its a modified rodriguez narciso dress from the spring 2009 collection (aka. not cheap).


i enjoy that michelle actively makes a statement with her fashion, and generally i like her sophisticated fashion sense. but this dress made my jaw drop, in a negative way. i was unpleasantly distracted by the frock-induced shock that interrupted the smile-glued-to-my-face moment. maybe her point was exactly to be as bold and unmistakable as the moment in history, in which case, she succeeded grandly. but still, i just didnt like it. it felt awkward. so i'd like to officially nominate a dynamic duo for the potential new positions of secretaries of style ;) haha!

george bush is pants!

for most of you, the title of this post probably doesnt make any sense at all! i was quite confused the first time i saw this type of phrase. in fact, i took a picture so i would remember to ask someone about it later:


i sat there on the bus wondering if i read the writing wrong on the back of the bus in front of me. no... "parking is pants." i assumed it implied something negative, because who likes parking? but "pants" in england means "underwear" to me and equating parking to undergarments didnt make sense either. i figured the phrase was popular enough to be printed on the back of a metro bus, so it shouldnt be hard to figure out.

indeed, something that "is pants" is something that sucks. someone told me that a particular person (a comedian?) popularized the phrase, but i cant remember the popularizers name. i'm left with hearing the phrase all over and seeing it a lot!


the challenge is to use the phrase smoothly in conversation, but i'm pretty sure i'll just laugh if i try. we'll see...

electoral aftermath

congratulations Barack Hussein Obama for being elected the 44th president of the USA!

(wow)

i'm pleased. so pleased that i slept in after staying up rather late to watch the results (with a keen eye on ohio). i didnt make it late enough to see the speeches, but thought they were both appropriate and inspirational when i watched them this morning.

looking at ohio's results county by county, i'm still amazed at how distinctly separated the cities and rural areas are. nearly all the blue democrat counties harbor major cities or universities. cleveland went strongly democratic, and i'm pleasantly surprised that cincinnati didnt go republican (or all of ohio, for that matter!).


this seems to represent the majority of the country: urban voters choose democrat while rural areas vote republican.

i was also thoroughly impressed by the accurate results predicted by the fellas at http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/. their statistical methods are/were quite impressive! scientifically motivated statistical analysis - it works, bitches!


now i get to go about being one of the few americans that i know around these parts, so i'm constantly (and pleasantly) bombarded by everyone's opinions and questions about how the complicated US electoral system works. i must say i'm feeling more relieved and positive on this side of the elections!

one question that i dont know the answer to - what is the origin of republican states as red states and democratic states as blue? i thought i'd ask my personal blog-i-verse before reverting to the googlipedia ;) yippee!

blue texas?

this is why we should be very skeptical about "projections"...

don't look directly into the sun

watch steel melt with simple sunlight! they concentrate sunlight with many mirrors by focusing the photons all on one spot. the melting scene is not sped up footage... it's real time! cool!

never take a choice for granted

election haikus

we have stolen much
from future generations
with "freedom" our guise

the world sits in wait
wondering what we will do
let's not disappoint

voted absentee
inconvenience was worth it
time to sit and wait

hope is a good thing
time to think positively
about the future

read election haikus by others here and here.

election eve

is anyone else's stomach all a flutter this election eve? i'm trying to prepare a talk i have to give tomorrow, but i cant stop reading news articles, op-ed's cartoons and general reports of fervor. i voted absentee. nothing left to do but ... wait... and maybe stay up all night tomorrow watching the results come in.

relocating, again

this weekend i'm moving to a new flat right in city center! its raining and cold... no surprise really, but it makes the already tedious task of physically moving even less pleasant. i've managed to accumulate a few more things than i arrived with, but i still dont have that much stuff, happily!