Not Naarmamo.

[whatho]

I've been meaning ever since the Olympics ending to post What I Thought About the Sport, but it seems a bit out of date now. I do a tremendous amount of meaning to post about stuff (stuff being swimming in public pools, redrafting, reading, how many Indiana Jones films ARE there?, Men of Harlech, the French National Anthem and The Waltons) and very little actual posting about stuff. Mostly I thought there was too much sailing (I like the thought of sailing, but not the watching people do it), too much cycling, diving's scary 'cause I keep thinking they're going to scalp themselves on the way down, gymnastics is my favourite one to watch but I don't really believe it obeys the laws of physics, the men's 4x100 relay team disappointed me by failing to contain anyone from the nineties but won my love by messing up the changeover like they always do, swimming is quite boring, my breaststroke technique is better than I thought but I move at the speed of the slow-motion replay, badminton cheating is not as interesting as formula one cheating, which isn't cheating anyway, it's winning, I don't understand handball, judo or any variant of cycling, especially the one where Mark Cavendish complained about the Australians' not making an effort to aid the UK team to victory, tennis, why, I loved everyone who adored their bronze medals unconditionally or scrabbled to dig up some adoration for their bronze from the very base of their being, and I don't think javelin judges get enough credit for courage in the face of javelins.

In disconnected news, I had my hair cut again yesterday. I think it's at its shortest yet, though only by a millimetre or something. The hairdresser said I had nice hair. I said thank you, 'cause that's how I've been trained. My first thought was that it's hard to know what to do about a random compliment on something you've put basically no effort into, but my second thought was that putting no effort into your hair is probably what's best for it, so, you know, go me. I really like my hair at the moment anyway (I could maybe do without the greying temples, but clearly I don't care enough to do anything about them). I've had it short for over two years now and I still catch sight of my reflection and think 'OH! I have short hair! That's grand'. I'd wanted it short for ages while somehow worrying it wouldn't suit me and I'd massively regret it, and I'd been telling myself for some years that I'd get it done when I turned thirty without believing I really would, and then a month after I turned thirty I actually did. And I'm glad I did.

I have no idea what I shall do for tomorrow's Naarmamo. I want to save my strips for an epic quilling at the end of the month. I would like to create a watercolour I'm happy with, but that seems unlikely. I don't actually have proper watercolours that lives in tubes: they're those little blocks that only leave a vague idea of a distant memory of an unspecified colour somewhere near but not actually on the paper. Watercolours vex me.

Comments

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I liked how proud the UK relay team were of each other after they'd messed it up.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

I love them very. Mostly I love that they've basically made messing up the changeover into a tradition, but they were very sweet about it.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Pish, I thank the dentist when he tells me I have nice teeth. And although I do brush them painstakingly, I suspect it's really all down to luck and genetics.

[jekesta]

Considering how few medals australia got they should have fucking helped Mark Cavendish and at least tried for gold and taken a silver. Wankers. (I don't love Mark Cavendish that much, but his BITTERNESS about LITERALLY EVERYTHING at the olympics made me really happy.)

Way too much sailing. Way too much tennis. I LOVED the badminton cheating, although only really because of how it gutted the commentator, and how . . . I just, no even attempt at subtlety. Like, no belief that people would find NOT TRYING unolympic.

I don't know how you think of something every day for naarmamo and I love all your pictures and don't say so. I've been failing at commenting literally everywhere because when I type things they turn into how much I love Franklin and Bash.

I HATE HANDBALL. Some of my twitter people got really into it and I DON'T KNOW HOW, I hate it. I would swap it for netball in a cold heartbeat. I'm happy about your hair.

I didn't mind the people being sad they'd got silver or bronze, because I'm pretty sure they were REALLY happy about it the next day probably maybe, possibly they were suicidal because their whole life had been for nothing, but whatever. But I hated when the awful meaningful man was really dismissive of things that weren't gold, and sometimes the presenters almost were and had to catch themselves. Because MEDALS ARE GREAT. They're MEDALS.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

OH GOD CYCLING. I have no idea how the cycling works and why or how Australia could help the UK, but Mark Cavendish seemed to think that was the rules, which was a bit great. Mark Cavendish didn't seem to enjoy his Olympics.

NAARMAMO IS HARD. These are all my current thoughts on naarmamo. I dreamt a friend of mine had developed an obsession with Franklin and Bash and I felt I ought to introduce you, but sadly I can't because it's a non-existent friend. Sorry about that.

I think I loved Rebecca Adlington on the subject of bronzes best, because there was a sense in which she really did adore her bronze and another in which maybe if she stopped talking about how much she adored her bronze intrusive thoughts might start creeping in. But she did very much get across the MEDALS, IT'S A MEDAL, DO YOU HAVE A MEDAL? NO. WELL. Thing.

[jekesta]

I don't really watch cycling, but I think it *is* sort of the SPIRIT of cycling rather than the rules that Australia should have helped us. He's not being entirely idiotic. It's not like when Damon Hill was confused about Michael Schumacher trying to kill him all the time. It's how their weird convoluted sport works. By helping us they would have helped themselves, that's the thing. There's an instant evolution thing in cycling where you have to find people and join them in a symbiotic group where you all feed off each other in order to all get to the front, and then just at the end you all turn on each other and it's every fish for themself. But Australia chose to die off rather than actually try. It wasn't *very* sporting.

Maybe the amount of cheating at this olympics was why all the nations didn't unite as one at the end, maybe there was too much hatred and fear of warfare breaking out and ruining the . . . awful fashion show/giant octopus/spice girl thing.

I LOVE YOUR DREAM FRIEND. Well done, dreaming.

[pebblerocker]

That's exactly how I mean to post about stuff and don't ever post any of it.

There was too much sailing. There was also too much hockey and tennis. There was heaps of gymnastics but I wouldn't really care if the Olympics was nothing but. There wasn't anywhere near enough under 48kg women's weightlifting. I forgot the Olympics was ending, I can probably find the closing ceremony to watch online so that I'll know it's really finished.

I'm glad you decided to get short hair. I did too and I'm happy about it, it looks good on a lot of people.