This is Omar’s blog

Went to circuits today for the first time in 7 weeks. It would appear I’m not too out of shape. Today was legs and abs and involved lots of lunges (approximately 300 now that I think about it).

It was crunches, get ups (kneel down and then stand up), plank, lunges, weighted squats, single leg squat, up and over a step box, bike, lunges, sit ups, a rolling ab exercise, dead lifts, dead bugs (lie on back with exercise ball between hands and legs, lower and raise opposite hand/leg), squats with weights over head, sit ups, one-legged stand up, lunges > repeat.

It was awesome. If I could do that class three times a week, I’d be quite happy with that. It’s just a shame that no one goes, even if it is a Sunday. Next week is upper body and will involve lots of running! Sweet.

Though I did eat the skin off the chicken I had for tea, oops.

Edit: it’s the next day and my legs hurt, plus the one time I have difficulty getting out of bed is the last day of the holiday!

Well, to start with. All the music on my iPod I don’t listen too. Shuffle has been a revelation.

Hypemachine - it aggregates music blogs. Still working it out but their radio, plays random songs and is nice for a change. Glass Candy - Candy Castle

My new radio. I mean it’s just different to listening to it on the computer (not really a fan). Golden Silver - Arrows of Eros

Bonus - http://hypem.com/track/623174/MGMT-Kids+(Soulwax+Nite+Version)+(256k) - which is amazing. Please give it 45 seconds of your time.

Currently have Does it Offend You Yeah? - Dawn of the Dead on repeat. It was played on 6Music this morning.

Quite awesome.

The adverts are awful, the Orange adverts got old a long time ago - I’m suprised they still run them. Where they were interesting, funny, ‘fresh’ now they’re banal, boring, cliched. Which is shame because now when I think about them, I think ‘jeeeeeez’ and not ‘yeah they were cool’.
We got there early, got some nice seats right in the middle. Then everyone sat around us. It’s the first time I’ve been to the cinema in the evening in a long while. Can’t say i’m a fan. It annoys me when people laugh at different things - well yes, they’re allowed and we’re taking different things but, well, I’m being snob. Plus, there’ inevitably more noise from food and conversations(!) and people using their phones - you get that brief flash of bright light (don’t think I didn’t see you doing it too Jenn). The whole ‘it’s the experience that matters’ is just plain silly, we’re not like that as a nation. I don’t think we do the shared experience thing.

Give me a weekend morning anytime, it’s quiet, it’s cheap and there’s no disturbances.

The Dark Knight was awesome. I know this, because I was leaning forward. I lean forward when the film grabs me, when I need to be closer to the screen to absorb what’s going on. Heath Ledger inhabits the role. The level of threat in the film is constant, you feel it as you wonder at what point will it all turn out alright.

Based on my experience, I can’t but disagree with the BBFC 12A rating. There are things they pick up on, the interrogation for example, that I didn’t consider one of the ’stronger scenes’. There are scenes in the film while don’t come under ‘violence must not dwell on detail’ and that ‘there should be no emphasis on injuries or blood’, are just vicious. Never the less, it’s the whole of the film, it’s dark and horrible and it really grabs you, unnerves you. It’s not your average superhero film - but what a 12 year old would make of it, I don’t know.

1. Manchester Orchestra - Now that you’re home
2. Tokyo Police Club - Tessellate
3. Katy Perry - Fingerprints (Ha)
4. MJ Cole - Crazy Love
5. Kate Havnevik - Sleepless
6. Vampire Weekend - I stand corrected
7. The National - Brainy
8. The Refused - New noise
9. Finch - Letters to you
10. In Flames - Dead end

There was one British tourist in the group. Paul (also not his real name) was traveling with three friends who had passed through customs soon after their plane landed and were waiting for him on the other side of the metal barrier; he suspected he had been detained because of his dark skin. When he asked if he could go to the bathroom, one of the guards said, “I wouldn’t.” “What if someone has to?” I asked. “They will just have to hold it,” the guard responded with a smile. Paul began to cry. I watched as he, over the course of four hours, went from feeling exuberant about his trip to New York to despising the entire country. “I speak the Queen’s English,” he said to me. “I’m third-generation British. I came to America because I’ve always wanted to come here, and now they’ve got me so scared that all I want to do is go home.

I really do want to see the country but I read things like this (http://www.alternet.org) and it scares me.

Via Boingboing

Tour of the house from Omar on Vimeo.