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?

Well we've been blessed with a gorgeous autumn so far. I've never seen a sunnier September and October in Vancouver. But I knew it couldn't last. The rain started yesterday and today its pouring. My heart goes out to all those little kiddies out there with their awesome, well-planned Halloween costumes that are about to be covered up by parkas and rain-jackets. I join in the communal whine of "Awe Mum!".

Luckily our Halloween plans are not too affected by the weather. As going out drinking and dancing isn't in the flight plan these days, a trip to the one of the awesome local club gigs is out. However, our good friends Rena and Elwood have invited us over to watch B-movies and play Rock Band 2. And they live in a house so I can totally give candy to the trick or treaters who brave the elements.

And using this photo to segue from Halloween, I am happy to announce that I have culled and edited through most of my photos from our European Holiday this past spring. Part One includes Paris and Dusseldorf. Promise to have the UK shots up shortly.

I just found out: oatmeal. Liquidy enough to really get in there fast and solidy enough to really make a sticky mess.

This is probably not news to the viewing several out there, but I'm excited to announce our foray into the world of parenthood. I'm just on the cusp of my 20th week of pregnancy, hence my relatively limited posting over the past few months. Making a baby is exhausting; a full day of work just drains me to the point where eating dinner and sitting on the couch are barely manageable when I get home. And nausea and dizziness have firmly hung on to be dragged into my second trimester as well. Still, we couldn't be happier.

This morning we had our second ultrasound. Little baby looks good and far more baby-like than he/she did on the 13 week ultrasound. I'm already getting little kicks, punches and pokes in my belly. Even daddy got a to feel one last week.

I'm trying not to worry too much about all the upcoming trials and tribulations. As we live in a tiny one bedroom, we'll have to move either before or shortly after the bub arrives. Also, a year of reduced income.

Ironically, this little bub will be a Canadian citizen before Jai or I. Dual-citizen at birth; nice one.

Anyway, expect this blog to be slightly more baby-focused in the next little while. Still, I will keep the geek quotient up with stuff like this.

I've always thought my ability to judge measurements by eye has always been pretty good. Turns out, I was right. The eyeballing game is awesome in its simplicity. Though I have always considered myself math inept, I've always had an aptitude for guessing measurements that are real. My best score for one run through is 1.91, but the game has you run through three times and then averages your score, so my best so far is 2.59 (which got me into the top 10 out of the last 500 games). Maybe I should have been an architect?

Try it!

The xbox 360 owners out there know what we're talking about.

I hate microsoft.

Nyac, the Vancouver Aquarium youtube star and 20 year-old survivor of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill passed away today. I'm very sad. Who will Milo hold hands with now?

So I have finally been bitten by the knitting bug. I resisted it for so long; trying to stick to my resolve of not picking it up simple because it's cool again. But after some of the great gals I work with organised a "loopy lunch" to sit and knit or train n00bs like me, I thought I'd give it a go. So Nicole patiently taught me how to cast on and now I'm knitting. So far its not actually anything than a serious of uneven rows with the odd dropped stitch, but soon I'll be knitting real things. I'm looking forward to buying my first pair of bamboo needles and picking some brightly coloured yarns.

Haven't posted in a while, lots of mostly ups and few downs happening in RL at the moment. However, I just had to post this. One of my favourite blogs is passiveaggresivenotes.com , and today they features this beautiful sample:


The only thing that could top this off is if this cake makes it onto another one of my favourite blogs, cakewrecks.blogspot.com.

Today is the first day of the school year. As I battle with the hordes of students to catch a bus to my on-campus job, I am once again shocked to see how young first-years are these days. I swear they must be 12 years-old. The campus is full of wide-eyed yungin's looking lost and confused. The frats are busy attempting to recruit impressionable young men outside the Student Union Building.

And while there is technically 19 days of summer left, autumn is definitely in the air and the leaves are already turning.

This post is a little viral in that I stole the idea from Jen, who stole the idea from pinsandthimbles . A writing exercise where you write 25 things you love in specific details. It reminds me of the opening moments of the film Amelie, where the narrator outlines what Amelie and her family "aime".

My list:

1. I love cuddling with Jaime.
2. I love listening to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees.
3. I love eating eggs benedict on a lazy Sunday morning.
4. I love listening to the sound of crisp, red leaves swishing around my feet on a cold, sunny autumn morning.
5. I love the smell of a fresh Christmas tree.
6. I love listening to crunch of snow beneath my feet in a world blanketed with snow.
7. I love sitting in a big comfy chair with a good book on a rainy day.
8. I love the infectious sound of Jaime giggling.
9. I love arriving off a flight to be met at the arrivals hall by the smiling faces of friends and family.
10. I love watching cats chase laser pointers.
11. I love the sound of rain landing on our tent when we're safe and warm inside.
12. I love pulling the caps off all the jars in our spice rack and smelling the rich spices.
13. I love sitting round a campfire chatting with good friends.
14. I love that in French my husband's name means "I Love".
15. I love walking on a white, powdery-sand beach in the sun.
16. I love the satisfying "click-thunk" noise SLR cameras make when you take a photo.
17. I love warm toast with butter and Vegemite.
18. I love my mum's roast chicken dinners.
19. I love floating on water.
20. I love the smell of bergamot in a really good cuppa earl grey tea.
21. I love watching the scenery go by when travelling by train.
22. I love when something makes me have a really good belly laugh.
23. I love the sound of a well-played cello echoing through my heart.
24. I love the costumed children, the smell of firecrackers, and the pure cold and dark of Halloween night.
25. I love being caught up in the moment.

I came across this artist's blog a few months ago. I love the simplicity of her pencil drawings. And the recurrent bee theme is awesome.


Link: Renee French

I'm testing out some polling applications. There is no write in vote, so if you choose "other", you can always vote in the comments.