Golden Boy
August 18th, 2008. Published under General. 6 Comments.
You know, I was so damn excited watching Michael Phelps win his 8th gold medal of the Beijing Olympic games. Just ask Tim: I was jumping up and down screaming like I was his mom.
Yeah, that’s pretty much how I looked, but with more jumping up and down.
People don’t view him as an underdog, but if you look back in his personal history he was most definitely the underdog. The quiet, skinny, full of energy kid that got picked on in school and in swim meets because he was quiet, skinny and full of energy. He overcame a lot to get where he is today.
But what impresses me more than anything is his grace in winning. Other people in the media are trying to downplay the monumental achievement by saying that “oh, it’s easy to win so many gold medals in swimming” - if that were the case, why had Mark Spitz’s record stand for 36 friggin’ years?
There was relatively no drama (aside from the 4×100 freestyle relay taunting from the French) in any of his races, he didn’t blow everyone out of the water (the 0.01 margin of victory in the 100m butterfly), he had problems (he swam virtually blind with water-filled goggles the last 1/2 of the 200m butterfly) and he relied on his friends and teammates to get him to that goal. He has been gracious and humble after every victory, despite the fact that he wanted to win so much.
I don’t know why people are getting their panties in a bunch over the whole story. He is one of the greatest Olympians of all time - period. To split hairs over the fact just makes one look petty.
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Keeping with the Olympics theme, I just cracked up at the reaction to Usain Bolt’s 100m sprint win. You know, the one where he slowed down and started celebrating with 20m to go and not only did he still win the race, but also broke the world and Olympic records? The post-race interview was equally as priceless. When asked why he slowed down and what would his time had been if he hadn’t, Bolt said simply that all he wanted to do was break the Olympic record and win the gold medal, and he had done both. What’s the big deal?
Of course now the accusations are flying that he’s doping, etc. What I think they forget is that he’s 6′5″ tall. If you get the sprinter’s physiology and speed on a 6 foot 5 frame, you’re going to have someone that runs faster than a 5 foot 10 sprinter. It’s just basic physics.
Can you see how long his damn legs are?
It’s also funny that the sports media can’t fathom an athlete with such a laissez faire attitude about the whole thing. It’s refreshing.
Can’t wait to see how he does in the 200m, the distance he’s “better” at.
* * * * *
I discovered last night that Tim has never seen “Animal House.”
This will be rectified tonight.
What a difference a day makes.
August 7th, 2008. Published under General. No Comments.
I’m not as surly and pointy as I was yesterday. This is a good thing.
Today is going to be a day of not much work.
Every Thursday, I attend a Business Writing class, which is the first of a number of classes I’m going to take in the firm’s professional development program.
But on top of that, our group is going out to lunch at 2021, the Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the Walker Art Center. After lunch, we’re going mini-golfing in the Walker Sculpture Garden.
Should be a blast.
What a difference one day can make in a person’s outlook.
Crabby Pants!
August 6th, 2008. Published under General. No Comments.
I’m so surly today.
I moved from “tired and eat everything” to “fuck off and DIE” overnight! It’s a 2-for-1 special this month! Yee haw!
So, in the best interests of your safety and my sanity, I shall post this nice picture of a nice kitty to try and calm me down:
Awww…nice kitty.
T-Rex Arms!
August 5th, 2008. Published under General. 2 Comments.
It seems that this summer is slipping away. And what have I done lately? Not much.
Haven’t done any races, just did that one bike ride for breast cancer with Jennifer. I’m just in a *blah* state of mind right now. Tim’s getting ready to go back to college in a few weeks, settling into his “school job” and tinkering with computer parts (and being quite enthused by them) - but what have I been doing or looking forward to?
Nothing.
I’m taking some time off around Labor Day (because why not?), but I won’t be going anywhere or doing anything spectacular - just hanging around the house. Tim will be working anyway. We have his brother’s wedding in NY in mid-September and I know it’ll be fun, but I’m not stoked by it either.
It’s also possible that I’m not only noticing that the days are getting shorter again, but that I seem to have the “I want to lay around, do nothing and eat everything in sight and out of sight” PMS this month. It’s like spinning a wheel sometimes. Sometimes it’s the “why don’t you just fucking DIE” PMS or “I’m going to blow up like a puffer fish and retain water like a camel” PMS or “nothing whatsoever”. It’s like a game show, but horrible, food-filled and angry.
But I digress.
I have friends in varying stages of turmoil right now and I feel like a heel because I don’t feel like I’m doing enough for them as a friend. On the other hand, I want to do nothing but stay home like a hermit. It’s not a big sign of any malcontent that I have right now - it’s more of a combination of “everything’s pretty even” and “I’m a cheap miser”. There’s no “dear god I want to die” feelings, but there aren’t any “HOLY CRAP WOOOOO!” feelings either. But, that’s not a bad thing - is it?
I’m also being a hermit because of the aforementioned PMS and, as of right now, after 7pm on Friday my weekend has officially been commandeered. Friday night is Tech Snark. Saturday I work at Ye Olde Part Tyme Jobbe, then I head straight down to my sister’s house where I’ll be helping her with some home improvement stuff (to pay her back for all the help she gave me) and head back home by 4pm on Sunday to record the PownceCast.
So no time off for this kitten this weekend!
* * * * *
Also, since I focus way too much on running in my fitness, my arms resemble a T-Rex: small, wimpy and nearly useless. So I’m going to do the One Hundred Push Ups Challenge. I’m pretty stoked. My upper body is going to look smokin’!
I Want To Believe…
July 25th, 2008. Published under General. 1 Comment.
The more I find out about the new X-Files movie, the less I want to see it. Also, the reviews that are coming out are not too glowing. Rotten Tomatoes gives it [as of today] a 29%. Granted, it’s no “Catwoman” [which is a 8%], but what is?
So I may wait for it to come out on Netflix. I still need to see the “Sex in the City” movie, though.
* * * * *
But speaking of Netflix, I absolutely cannot wait for the fall when the XBox 360 adds Netflix streaming support so I can watch any “play it now” movie/video through the 360 on my TV. How awesome is that? Especially since Netflix never developed support for the Mac, however, who watches movies at their computer?
Also, after the Microsoft E3 keynote [yes, I know I'm over a week behind], I have absolutely no reason to buy a PS3 now that Final Fantasy 13 is coming to the 360 in the US and Europe in addition to the PS3. It will still be PS3 only in Japan, but nobody in Japan gives a crap about the 360.
I think it’s interesting that SquareSoft is taking this move to offering their previously “exclusive” cash cow franchise to more than one console. I think by the success of 360 games like Lost Odyssey [which I need to finish] and Blue Dragon, SquareSoft saw the niche of the 360 RPG-er not being fully represented.
The cheapskate in me is so happy that they made that decision. I would’ve eventually bought a PS3 [when they got cheaper] just to play FF13. But now, I only have to buy the game!
* * * * *
Also, this site cracked me the hell up: ZombieHarmony
“Because the apocalypse doesn’t have to be lonely…”
*dies laughing*
PSA
July 24th, 2008. Published under General. No Comments.
If you’re going to bad mouth a person who is out there trying to make a fucking difference in this world, I’d rather not have you as a friend.
Try And Get THIS Song Out Of Your Head
July 24th, 2008. Published under General. 2 Comments.
I <3 I Can Has Cheezburger.
Stolen from Sarah
July 13th, 2008. Published under General. No Comments.
Oh What A Night
July 12th, 2008. Published under General. 1 Comment.
Had an eventful night last night.
We had some severe weather last night [like 60+mph straight line winds] and as the storm was rolling in, I said to Tim “we’d better put the potted plants in the garage.” Since we had pulled my car into the garage [because of the threat of hail] I was going to walk them through the front door the short distance to the garage. So I just opened the interior steel door, walked out and just left it open and went out the screen door. Tim followed and for some reason, pulled the interior door shut behind him [despite the fact we were going to go right back in].
A second after that he said “oh shit.”
I turned to him [as the dark green wall cloud was bearing down on us] and said “did you just lock us out of the goddamn house?”
He said “yeah.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I replied.
I don’t remember much else I said after that [was a stream of obscenities that would make a truck driver blush], but we ended up weathering the storm at our neighbors house, then calling a locksmith to get us back into the house. We were out of the house for probably 2.5 hours.
We’re going to install a keypad entry for the garage door very, very soon. Either that or teach the cats to unlock the door on command. :-)
The thing that kills me out of the whole situation was that 99.99% of the time, Tim has his car/house keys in his pocket. Except for last night.
After finally getting into the house shortly after 10pm - Tara and Jennifer showed up around 10:40pm to record Tech Snark [Tim DID have his cell phone in his pocket so after asking me around 9:20 if I still wanted to do a show tonight, I left it up to them with my answer of "I really don't care"]. We abandoned our carefully crafted show prep and just bitched about our respective evenings and drank a lot.
Jen also got in some quality kitty time with Pixel and Chester [which, I suspect was because she is kitty-less right now - completely understandable] before they left around 1am.
What a crazy night!
* * * * *
We did discover yesterday on our beer run that there’s another location of Fat Nat’s Eggs in Brooklyn Park just a few miles down the road. This place has the BEST breakfasts and whenever we felt the need to drive down to New Hope [and torment Tim with the Hot Comics and Collectibles store next door] for Sunday breakfast before the church rush - we were so there. This could be a good thing or a bad thing that there’s a Fat Nat’s so close now. I fear for the stability of my waistline!
So I returned two of the three dresses I bought for Tim’s brother’s wedding in September, dropped off a bunch of old clothes to Value Village and took all this junk that was in the garage to the county dump. And it’s not even 4pm yet!
For tonight: grilling steaks and veggies, beer (or wine) and movies at home. Sounds good to me!
Hope your weekends are going well!
Not Much Else To Say
July 7th, 2008. Published under General. 1 Comment.
I’ve been super-busy in both work and personal lives lately and everything is just piling up. As soon as Jennifer gets that video finished of the bike ride, I’ll post a link to it here.
This just cracked me the hell up today and I had to share:
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