Divine and divalicious

Found Two Against One on a Best (Under-rated) Songs of 2011 list.  Perfect music+video.

I've also derived great pleasure recently from my Carla Bruni, Rufus Wainwright, and Miloš Karadaglić.  Yep, just like I planned, been playing Quelqu'un m'a dit (Carla), Out of the Game, Songs for Lulu (Rufus's last two albums), and Mediterraneo (Miloš) over and over.
The best things in life are free. 

50 odd weeks ago, besides cheesy telenovellas, this was the other cheesy viewing that helped me recuperate: Kathryn and Jakob on Season Six of So You Think You Can Dance.  Divine.

Yep, happy one year anniversary of being very sick to me.
November 2011 (recuperation season) was horrid, with all the medicine and feeling strange and nauseous and feverish and all.  But that was also when I first heard Miloš.  Boy did I play this one over and over. 

Impressions, August 2001

What I thought grad school would be - Tosin Otitoju

The sketch shows my impressions six weeks before starting at Caltech in September '01, having visited in March/April: 
Lower left:
the professors in my department - Richard Murray, Jerry Marsden, and John Doyle.
Panning right: 
some quantum spin thingie.
The new kids - me, Shawn (the Texan) Shadden, Lun Li, and Lijun Chen.
The letters CDS.
A DNA double helix.
Me and some hottie.  A 20-year old girl could dream.
Above: 
I'd heard grad school was all about pizza (but I got to 'Caltech and changed that culture, so we started getting healthy and quality free food).
Money - I was going to get some.
A ducted fan I had seen in a basement lab.
A differential equation.
A computer.
The Saguaros and breathtaking landscape I had seen out West.
Twin single cells (amoeba?) eating. A book. 

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Events at Lagos Lawn Tennis Club this month

One, Venus and Serena are scheduled to tour Nigeria, giving tennis clinics, an exhibition match, and such, from October 30.
Two, Nigeria is hosting a few low-level international tennis tournaments. 

No Top Nigerian Tennis Pros
Currently, all Africa has in the top 100 ATP/WTA rankings are 1 South African man (Kevin Anderson) and 1 South African woman.
All the Africans in the top 1000 (13 men / 6 women) are from South Africa (and Zimbabwe) or North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco).   There are however many unranked Nigerian players on the pro-circuit.  I'll make an excuse for them: tennis is expensive.

Few Top Nigerian Juniors
The Africans have a bigger and more diverse presence on the JUNIOR rankings table of the International Tennis Federation(ITF).  First of all, there are 3 boys and 4 girls from Africa in their top 100, with 53 boys and 42 girls in the top 1000.

Nigerian boys Emmanuel Udoko and Umaru Balami, and a girl Sarah Adegoke are in the respective top 1000 rankings for juniors.

Umaru Balami of Nigeria

Emmanuel Idoko of Nigeria

I used to read about them in NEXT, and became colleagues and friends with Tolu Asaolu and the other sports reporters - Jide Alaka, Tunde Eludini, Ifeanyi Ibeh, Nnamdi Okosieme.  Few paid attention to the junior sports stories, being so carried away with millionaire football stars.

Sarah Adegoke, click for photo source

Sarah Adegoke, Governors Cup Lagos Tennis

  But surely with good exposure and match play, some Nigerian players may break into the top 1,000 and even the top ranks of tennis.

Cool tourneys in Lagos
I can't wait to finally watch some live, courtside tennis, my first time ever.

Tafawa Balewa Square and Lagos Lawn Tennis Club (photo:ITF)

Besides the Chevron Junior Masters tennis championships currently on at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, there is the Lagos Governor's Cup coming up in the second half of October.
Follow the tournaments
web: governorscuplagostennis.com  fb: GovernorsCupLagosTennis , twitter @governorscuplag

Lagos Nigeria aerial view (photo: ITF)