Ironic? Hypocritical? Argh, darn English II is messing with my head!

Oh, and one last thing before I log off for good today, did you notice that people didn’t really care about the younger-aged Chinese gymnasts until Nastia lost the gold to He Kexin?  “Oh, let the Chinese gymnasts compete. We Americans are so much better anyway!” and then, ”WHAT?! Nastia tied and lost?! THOSE DARN UNDERAGED GYMNASTS! I DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION!” (Little late for that, eh?)

Ooooh, I got it now! It’s may be hypocritical/ironic, but it’s mostly AMERICA BEING A SORE LOSER. If they were so concerned with the advantage of underaged gymnasts, they should’ve brought it up before the competition, not when Nastia pouts at the judges for giving the Chinese an unfair boost. A more reasonable reaction would be, “Hell no! Nastia was definitely better on those squeaky bars than that tiny girl with the purple eyeshadow whose name I can hardly pronounce! I demand to know how the hell those judges found all those point deductions when she was clearly more perfect than Ha Ka… Ke… He Ke… THAT ASIAN GIRL!!!”

Which is mostly how I reacted. Except for the name stumble, because I can speak Chinese fluently and He Kexin’s name is not a problem for me.

 

I’M POSTING!!! YEAH!

Okay, I can’t make this too long, because not only do I have an online course to finish up and a whole lotta homework, the spacebar on this computer is busted and all I’m using right now is that tiny suction cup thingy anchored down with tape.

I’m not a very technical person. I don’t know what the heck the suction cup’s for.

I know I’ve neglected all my emails. But ever since I made a Facebook, all I’ve gotten is somewhere around twenty messages in my inbox, and people like Jess know that if I see a small army of email, I freak and log off immediately.

Which is probably why people try not to email me that often, thank goodness.

IB starts again. Boohoo. Mom’s giving me even more pressure to shapen up and get all set for Ivy League. I was Googling up people’s opinions on the Ivy colleges, wondering if it’s worth all my misery, and I came across an interesting section that said many Ivy League hopefuls/students (lucky ducks) didn’t have a plan beyond getting that big fat acceptance letter in the mail.

Which is TRUE TRUE SO VERY TRUE!!! I mean, I know I want to be a pediatrician or something (I gave up on the graphic design dream when my mom pressured me to stop wasting my time with street jobs like that), but I haven’t exactly planned out how to get there, besides show an office that I’m an Ivy League graduate and be handed my ticket to that prestigious career.

Which, turns out, won’t work because hospitals and offices don’t care if you went to Ivy League or not. The only field where you might get a golden ticket is if you go to Wall Street, and I’d probably escape to Antarctica if I do anything related to business.

See?! Why can’t my mom stop living in the 80’s and freakin’ see that Ivy Leagues aren’t all that jazz anymore?! I bet she doesn’t even know that the whole clique started not because of good education, but because of their ultra-amazing football teams.

Okay, fine, I didn’t even know that until I Wiki-ed Ivy League colleges yesterday, but at least I know NOW. My mom still insists on reading these stupid stories about how brilliant Asian kids make their way to the great colleges, not knowing that THOSE BRILLIANT ASIAN KIDS ALSO HAVE MISUNDERSTANDING PARENTS WHO WANT TO LIVE THEIR DREAM LIVES THROUGH THEIR POOR CHILDREN.

I mean, yesterday, my mom told me (and I quote, translated directly from her snippy Chinese), “I’m making you take piano lessons just so you can win an award and make it to a top college.“

She’s beyond blind. I’M NOT GOING TO WIN A PIANO AWARD BECAUSE I’M THROUGH WITH MY PIANO LESSONS. I want to be happy my whole damn life, woman. I could care less if I get into Cornell or Brown or whatever. I could care less if I make half a million dollars a year.

Ack. Okay, I’m ranting about mom again. Bad Zoey, you’ve spent enough blog space ranting about her.

So, the Olympics are over, Phelps finished his quest (Although with some debate over his win over Cavic), and Beijing is now going back to its hazy old habits with the jumbled traffic and mass construction. I hope Beijingers will realize that having less pollution is an awesome thing in life and push the government to keep things ‘Olympic-ized’.

I love how they named the main arena the Bird’s Nest. Teehee, and it looks like one, too. Wonder who’s the crazy architect who came up with that?

And now all the Asian American families here are rejoicing, because now they can return to their beloved families without worrying about being frisked, cuffed, and booted out at the airports or going to court over attempted Olympic sabotage (“All I did was order a Happy Meal! How was I suppose to know that the cashier was a Tibetan?”). Oh, and Beijingers are also rejoicing, because now they can open up their street shops again and chug out as much pollution they want on the streets. Wahoo! No more having to check if it’s odd or even license plate day!

Gaaah! Twelve-thirty already?! Must go do homework now!

 

More on Georgia + Morning Olympics

Holy shizznit. How the heck did I get 66 pageviews yesterday?

Oh, right. One of my fellow IBers somehow found my blog. Hey, Kyle! Er, doctorfabulous! Thanks for nearly scaring me out my pale yellow skin today! (Don’t worry, though. I like the attention my blog’s getting, haha.)

And thanks to Jessie for providing me with her wonderful worldly information on the Georgian war, because I was almost clueless. I had known about the Russians rolling in tanks and other giant pieces of metal because my mom turns the radio onto NPR all day. She turns it up so loud that it appeared as if she was rearing a deaf child who’s living in her own little world.

Okay, so I am living in my own little world. Well, I’m doing my best to catch up on international current events, okay?

Anyway, as I said yesterday, Russian intervened because they thought the Georgians were trying to create a genocide. I don’t blame them for assuming this, what with the war in Sudan. Their intervention was fine, but they REALLY could’ve done without the army of war machines. After all, Georgia is a tiny country. And it’s densely populated. Not a good position to be in if you’re being attacked by a country that has nuclear warheads (Not that they’re going to use them).

But even so, Russia shouldn’t be critisized this much. Intervening is good if you’re faced with the threat of a major war that could wipe out a nation and you have the power to prevent it. I guess all the world saw were Russian tanks and it was anti-Russia from there.

I won’t ramble for Russia’s case, though. If I do, I’m pretty sure I’ll start making things up, because I don’t know a lot about this war. And if I make things up, that’ll make me a politician. *Shudders*

Poor Alicia Sacramone. Fell on the balance beam and the floor exercise. She probably feels as if she cost her team the gold medal. Well, the Chinese team were pretty hard to beat. They had all those cushions from blind moves and more difficult things, and they had killer people, like He Kexin, who’s probably the best gymnast on the uneven bars in decades.

And she could be fourteen, too.

But I already discussed that, so moving on!

Michael Phelps won his fifth gold medal. Well, that isn’t a surprise. But the 4 x 200m men’s relay was HILARIOUS. By the time Lezak jumped into the water, everyone else was almost a full lap behind. The NBC commentator was like, “Wow, we have to pan [the camera] out just to fit everybody in.”

And when Lezak made it to the end, everyone watching had to wait about five seconds for the silver and bronze medalist to touch in. There was no race. It was, “Hey, everybody! Look how big the US made the leading gap!”

They finished the relay in under seven minutes. Their gold medals for the 4 x 200 m should’ve had their names engraved on it.

 

Blog Templates + Olympics + Dirty School

Played around with changing blog templates. Wasn’t successful. Most can say I’m not a computer person. They’re right.

I’ve also looked at other blogging sites to see if their templates are a little bit less, erm, difficult to change, because I have a thing about using other people’s templates. Sure, they’re free to the world and they could care less about who uses it, but even from my art you can see that I don’t like using other people’s work. For instance, I’m very, very picky about using references for drawing poses and stuff, because I’d much rather try to draw from a picture I have in my mind.

But I’m hopeless, because even though I took a Web Design class back in the seventh grade, I still don’t have a moderate understanding of HTML or CSS or this new Blogger thing, which happens to be XML.

*Bangs over-crammed head on keyboard*

And I really shouldn’t be updating my blog, because I’ve got a 3-minute French oral on French culture to compose, and I remember hardly anything from French I. But whatever, I’ll make this quick if I can.

Jessie pointed out that removing all politics from the Olympics is impossible, which I understand. And I didn’t think at the time of my post that the Olympics is the only chance some protesters have of gaining attention from the general public, although I was aware of that, too. So, I realize that having a pure Olympic event is not feasible, but I think it would be ideal. I’m already ecstatic that NBC, America’s main Olympic channel, isn’t reporting about protestors that may be lurking outside the stadium areas while they’re doing their all-day Olympic coverage.

Oh, and I just want to point out that with this thing about two Chinese gymnasts that could possibly be 14 (two years younger than the minimum age for competing in the gymnastics) when their Feb. 2008 passports said that they were definitely fifteen, I saw an online podium training of their team, and I must say, they looked really young. I mean, I probably look fifty years older than those gymnasts did, and they were wearing makeup.

And plus, from a country whose government tried to cover up Tiananmen and SARS, what do you really expect?

But I absolutely LOVED the opening ceremoney. LOVED LOVED HEART LOVED HEART HEART. My dad thought it sucked, especially the last torch-lighting bit, but my mom and I both thought that it rocked. My art teacher said that it was a bit much, that if it had been a little simpler, it would’ve been perfect, but he, too, loved it.

I was pretty impressed that the Chinese government spent three hundred million dollars on such an opening (See? Even more reason not to ruin the Olympics. Oh, but there’s probably people out there who are concerned that the entire thing was produced by sweatshop labor). Although, if I were to critisize it, I would say that the colors on the giant LED screen was a bit much, like when Lang Lang was playing the piano with that little girl. They were glowing green and purple and red and purple and green, and it was like the hallucination period of the 80’s or whatever.

Oh, and I really think they should’ve picked a better singer than Sarah Breckman. The Chinese guy they picked was excellent, because quite contrary to what my dad says (“He’s fat. And he’s ugly.”), he’s got a beautiful voice, probably the best one in China. But Sarah has a seriously high-pitched voice, and it took me several verses before I distinguished what language she was singing in (“Did she say you and me? I think she said you and me. Oh wait, now she’s singing Chinese again. Right?”). I was thinking of someone more along the lines of Kelly Clarkson, although I know that if we had put the pop idol up on that huge globe, it would’ve been a little degrading to the “China: From Ancient History to Modern Times” and “Save the Children and Their Future” themes they displayed.

I really like the raising of the blocks they did. You know, those hundreds of little blocks with the Chinese words on them that were pounding out waves and ripples and the Chinese word for peace and harmony? Especially in the end, when they revealed that the entire act was powered by people.

Oh, and I would so wear those Tang dynasty costumes to prom or whatever dance my school hosts. Although, I would probably ask myself many times whether or not such beautiful dresses belong in a local hotel, where most of our dances take place because my school is just too dirty.

Speaking of which, did you know that King High hasn’t been remodeled since the 1930’s or 40’s when it was first built? It looks like it hasn’t been cleaned since then, either. Going into the bathrooms is like going into a Level 3 Biohazard lab. And they almost always flood by the time the dismissal bell rings. It’s gross and ew and absolutely detestable, but if you really gotta go, you just have to suck it up. It’s not like you can sneak into the boy’s bathroom and hope that it’s better. Because they probably aren’t any better, what with students that’re secretly smoking pot in there.

And there was this whole toilet paper fiasco. It would’ve been like the bathrooms in China, if it weren’t for the paper towel dispensers next to the sinks. The bathrooms in China never have toilet paper or soap. Sometimes the bathrooms in king lack either as well. It’s horrid. When I was finally fed up with the school’s lack of supplies (Not the janitors’ laziness, because they’re already doing enough to keep the ancient school as tidy as it can be), I started toting around my own roll of toilet paper. I would’ve started carrying those little bottles of hand sanitizer as well, but I knew my mom would go berserk once she finds them in the bathroom (I can already imagine her — “ARE YOU CRAZY?! WHY DID YOU SPEND ALMOST TWENTY DOLLARS ON THESE STUPID THINGS?! IF YOUR SCHOOL IS THAT DIRTY, CARRY AROUND A BAR OF SOAP! BECAUSE SOAP IS CHEAP AND AFFORDABLE FOR OUR FAMILY, SINCE WE’RE ONLY ON A SIX-DIGIT SALARY!”).

But back to the Olympics, you wouldn’t believe how crazy I was when I saw Phelps at the 400m finals yesterday night. I was like, “GOLD BETTER COME OUT OF YOUR EYES, PHELPS!” and my friends were accusing me of having a secret crush on him. Uh-huh. Whatever. I only cheer him on once every four years, and particularly this year because he’s on a quest to become history’s greatest Olympian. Hey, maybe he’ll pull a Dara Torres and compete in the next four Olympics, too.

Okay. Back to my French oral. I don’t have any news to report, since I only read Times when I’m bored at the lab or at the library. Maybe I should get a magazine subscription or something.

 

Beijing 2008 + Obama + Other things

I’ve found the 2008 Beijing Olympics quite amusing. Everyone’s absolutely determined to turn it into a political arena, like former Olympian Joey Cheek who got thrown out of a Chinese visa because he wanted to rally up athletes to help the people in Darfur (See Time magazine news, Wed. Aug. 6, 2008, ‘China To Athlete Activist: Stay Out!’). And then President Bush, our nation’s beloved leader (Insert heavy sarcasm here), announced that he will not boycott the Olympic opening ceremony this year to raise awareness about China’s human rights violations.

And you know what? I think Bush has finally done something right this time. Gasp, gasp.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got very little Chinese pride left, especially since the government is so screwed up. But if people hadn’t noticed, the Olympics is a place where athletes from around the world get together to compete in sports, not where the entire western media relocates and pounces on stuff like Chinese border attacks:

“Chinese Border Attack Kills 16″ By SIMON ELEGANT / BEIJING

… Given that the entire province was under virtual lockdown, the scale and ferocity of an August 4 attack on police in the city of Kashgar that left at least 16 soldiers dead and an equal number wounded was particularly shocking. The incident will undoubtedly cast a pall over the beginning of the Games and has also underlined fears of further such events aimed at exploiting the media spotlight currently focused on China.

Or this picture of a Chinese Tibet activist:

Photo courtesy of www.time.com

or whatever. One of the people at the lab I’m volunteering at, Dr. Tsibris, also argued in favor of the Chinese. He reasoned that the government spent millions of dollars (Or billions of yuan, probably) beautifying Beijing and the one billion people that live in China want to show how proud they are of their country, yet all the media focuses on is humanitarian athletes or these stupid ‘Free Tibet’ protests.

(I’m not saying that the protests are stupid. I’m just saying that the timing and location of these protests make them unnecessary. I’m aware that China did illegally annexed Tibet back in the 1950s or the 60s, and the government does need to clean that mess up before those Dalai Lama monks tear up another city.)

Do you know what the original incentive for Olympians was? Wreaths. Yes, little twigs of leaves wrapped around their heads. I think we should go back to that time. This whole “gold medal honor” business is taking on a whole new meaning. No, I can’t just win a gold medal and be proud of it. I have to save hundreds of thousands of Darfur refugees first, then free the Chinese Falun Gong from detention/torture camps before I can show my face in the Olympics again. Forget athletic competition, which is WHAT THE OLYMPICS WERE ORGINALLY HELD FOR, I must be the perfect humanitarian and bring about awareness to all these other people who just want to escape the miseries of the world and see the freakin’ Olympics.

Which is nice, but don’t you think athletes should use their influence at another time and place?

And okay, half of Beijing’s inhabitants can’t wait until the Olympics are over, because it’s closing down their street shops and wrecking their homes, and the migrant workers that came to build the arenas have to leave even though they want to stay and see the Olympics. But the rest of China is pretty stoked. Besides those people in Sichuan that’re still feeling the effects of that earthquake.

But I must admit, these reports do entertain me while I’m at the lab doing nothing.

As for the 2008 election (Wow, what a year), I can honestly say that I’m not enthusiastic. McCain does seem like an extension of Bush’s presidency, which we DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT want. I don’t know about Obama, but there’s been some pretty interesting things going on with him, besides his European tour (Which I give a semi-thumbs up for because now we’ve got a presidential candidate that actually wants to BE FRIENDS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES! GASP GASP!).

Like McCain’s claim that Obama can be compared to Paris Hilton. That was hilarious.

“McCain’s Anti-celebrity Story Line” by MICHAEL SCHERER / WASHINGTON
Thursday, Jul. 31, 2008

The McCain campaign, under the direction of its new leader, Steve Schmidt, has settled on a story line that could last through the election. It is, at root, an experience argument, adjusted to undercut the enormous enthusiasm that Obama generates. It can be seen in the recent McCain campaign ad that compares Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, or the recent Republican Party ad that compares Obama to David Hasselhoff. It can be seen in the recent self-deprecating distribution of “junior varsity” press passes for reporters on the McCain campaign and in the daily discussion of Obama as “The One” by McCain aides.

It is an argument that amounts to this: Barack Obama is a huge phenomenon, but he does not have the experience, or the judgment, to lead the country. In fact, he is just another politician, an empty suit, who will do whatever he needs, and make as many vague but eloquent speeches as he has to, to get elected. John McCain, on the other hand, is a proven, principled leader you already know.

Which Paris countered with a commercial of her own. And contrary to her reputation, her response pointed out just how stupid that was for McCain’s campaign. Seriously, how did he suddenly make the connection between Obama and celebrities? What did he mean to accomplish? Sounds like he’s getting a little desperate.

And the tire gauge thing Obama did was genius.

“The Tire-Gauge Solution: No Joke” By MICHAEL GRUNWALD
Monday, Aug. 04, 2008

How out of touch is Barack Obama? He’s so out of touch that he suggested that if all Americans inflated their tires properly and took their cars for regular tune-ups, they could save as much oil as new offshore drilling would produce. Gleeful Republicans have made this their daily talking point; Rush Limbaugh is having a field day; and the Republican National Committee is sending tire gauges labeled “Barack Obama’s Energy Plan” to Washington reporters.

But who’s really out of touch? The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points. In other words: Obama is right.

I’m starting to like Obama a lot more. Muahahaha. Maybe the Democrats won’t be doomed this year (And possibly the next four years, if everything goes their way). Obama’s heading the polls right now, but only by a narrow margin. If McCain wants to win the race, then he’d better stop flubbing with celebrities and handing out Obama tire gauges.

Me? I don’t have a certain party I belong to, but I do find myself preferring Democrats over Republicans.

Olympic soccer game today. Brazil vs. Belgium. Brazil won, of course, but only with one goal. That’s kinda sad for Brazil, since they won the World Cup like, what, fifty times? Okay, they finished in the top eight last year, but still.

Haha! I can’t believe the US won against Japan. They’ve been in a bit of a soccer stupor for awhile, no? ‘Bout time they got back on track. Go Team USA!

Opening ceremony tomorrow! Too bad I’ll miss part of it because of my volunteering. But the scientist I’m volunteering for has an Olympic channel on his laptop, so I ca watch it during the hours and hours of nothingness we do in between experiments. Whee!

And the Chinese will finally have something to be satisfied with, too. It’s crazy over there, what with depriving Beijingers with more than half of their motor vehicles and ‘green’ing the entire place with energy-efficient appliances and closing down all of the construction sites to reduce air pollution. About time, too. I don’t remember ever seeing blue skies in Beijing whenever I visited the city for summer vacation. Blue skies are very cool. China should have more of them.

All articles and photos in this entry come from Time.com. Shut up, I’ll get more sources soon.