Ever wondered how hard is it to get comfortable enough to sleep while pregnant? It's something like this:

Panda attacks man after he climbs into enclosure for a "cuddle"
Link courtesy BBC.

Malaysia's Muslims banned from Yoga
Link courtesy Sydney Morning Herald.

Redhead boy beaten on "Kick a Ginger Day".
Link courtesy of the Vancouver Province.

Stephen Fry once said, "Themes. What good are they?"

Well for me staring at a screen all day, themes are awesome. Especially in my email. Today google announced new design themes for Gmail. They're not available for all clients yet (myself included) but this preview looks pretty nifty.


LINK

While I do consider myself a connoisseur of Vampire Literature and Films, I am the first to admit that very few vampire films show originality and that the majority suck*. However, I was so very pleasantly surprised by the Swedish film Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In). Set in the bleakness of 80s socialist Sweden, the film tells the tale of a lonely, bullied, 12-year-old boy named Oskar who befriends a sickly-looking girl who, having recently moved into his dreary block of flats, only comes out at night.

The friendship between the two is both tender and disturbing. As people in the neighbourhood start to disappear, Oskar and the cutely-name Eli (perhaps a reference to the famous Elizabeth Bathory) grow closer together. She suggests Oskar fight back against the nasty bullies at school, and empowers the boy to embrace the violence he has only imaged so far.

Shot with tungsten-tinged film and using a very short depth-of-field photography style, the mood oozes off the screen and into your spine. A pre-pubescent love story mixed with terrifying horror, this film is one of the most original vampire tales in a long time.

4/5 Stars.

*Get it? Clever, eh?

Today my lunchtime knitting group went on a field trip to the yarn store to pick up supplies. I bought my first ever pattern, yarn, and circular needles. I figured with the baby coming I should make something for him/her. I spotted the perfect pattern; a little baby hat named "sprout". It looks just like May Gibb's Snugglepot and Cuddlepie characters.

This photo is how it's supposed to turn out. Check back in several months to see how a beginner knitter like me did. I've chosen a darker, more variegated green yarn, but hopefully it will still be recognisable.

I wonder if more posts like this will give the GenderAnalyzer a better hint that I'm a female?

And the world collectively sighs with relief...

So I've not posted about the upcoming US election so far just because so many other blogs have had so many good posts on the subject. But with today being election day I feel the need to post this political commentary:

But seriously, he's got to win. As a long-time lefty, I share the same fear that our dreams will be dashed again as they were in 2000 and 2004. But I will admit that for as much as I have admired Al Gore, he ran a poor campaign in 2000. And in 2004, the option was John Kerry, who while an obvious better choice than Bush, was not a great choice.

But Obama is something special. A young politician who has managed to get a position that no one expected two years ago. To have come this far from such humble beginnings is remarkable. He's African American (literally), raised by a single parent, and without political connections. He speaks with such diplomacy, not in polarised concepts but seeing the middle way. The thought that someone with such a sense of the big picture could run what is still the most powerful nation in the world is truly refreshing. There is no option other than Obama. So I'm going to go with a positive prediction:

Obama will win the election today and the world will look back at this moment as the point where the world shifted in a better direction.

But I fooled the GenderAnalyzer! Following a link from Boing Boing, this web tool is supposed to analyze blogs to predict whether they are written by a man or a woman. My blog was analyzed and "We think http://shanathalas.blogspot.com is written by a man". Wrong! I'm a girl and I have the baby in my tummy to prove it. In fact, considering I just posted about being pregnant, I wonder what more of a hint I could have given the genderanalyzer? According to the poll on their site, it seems to be right only 56% of the time. Random guessing would give us better odds I figure.

Anybody else out there try it? How'd it work for you?