It’s unpopular Olympics opinion time!
If your competitive event is determined by judges, then I probably won’t be able to watch it comfortably.
There. I said it.
It isn’t that I dislike, to use the most obvious example, figure skating. I respect figure skating; I do not respect the way it is measured, and that is the crux of the problem for me. I personally require events to be determined by measured outcomes: score, distance, time. It’s the only fair way to judge competitors. It’s the only way to respect their great athleticism, and I think we can all agree that skaters are great athletes.
I don’t know how you can fairly judge an event like figure skating using precise measurements, but I do know that the judging system creates all sorts of unnecessary drama that is inherently unfair to the athletes.
So I will gladly watch curling, obsessively watch it if I am honest, but I will avoid figure skating almost entirely because I can’t get past the feeling that if the outcome is the correct one, it may only be so accidentally.
Clearing
Good news: The snow has stopped and it is clearing off.
Bad news: Because it is clearing off, it will be as cold as a brass monkey’s balls tonight.
Snowmageddon
It’s also being called Snomgasm around here, although the complaints are many about that particular name, mostly because it is too convoluted.
As I type this, the snow hasn’t started falling but it will soon, and when it does I will start the slow descent into madness.
The snow in December, while impressive and crippling, was a colder, lighter, and fluffier snow much like the powdered sugar that fell at the end of January. The snow this weekend will be a much heavier and wetter snow, and this is worrisome because it does this:
And nobody wants that when we’re talking about 18-28 inches of snow (specifically 3-5 inches today, 10-15 inches tonight, and 5-8 inches on Saturday). If I still have power when this storm is over, I’ll be amazed and grateful. If I still have my sanity, everyone else will be grateful.
I hate winter, and I suspect the feeling is mutual.
Then put your little hand in mine.
Go take a look at this really shitty commercial.
I’ll wait here.
Hi. Welcome back.
I’d like to point some things out that I cannot help but notice:
- He skated into this commercial straight out of the 1970s.
- I don’t actually hate that song but in this circumstance, I kinda do.
- He’s going to die of pneumonia because he is under-dressed.
- That is a really ugly piece of jewelry.
And there was something else…what was it…oh yeah: Who in the hell is this commercial for? Because it’s not for actual living, breathing grown-ass women who have brains.
I feel like jewelry commercials cause us to regress about 500 years.
Facebook revelations
One of the people who friended me on Facebook is a guy I used to work with. He was exasperating and pompous, but he was also oddly likable, and ultimately I don’t actively dislike people without a good solid reason. It’s just too much work.
However.
His Facebook page is a revelation. I try to hide all the various polls and games and whatnot but you usually can’t hide something until it makes at least one appearance, which is how I got to see the following. As some of you know, I am unable to look away from this sort of thing so I scrolled through his wall, and good grief. (Enjoy the misspellings and weird syntax.)
- Is being gay a choice? Choice.
- Do you believe in Creation or Evolution? Creation.
- Should we put God back in schools? Yes.
- IF YOUR CONSTUTION IS THREATENED WOULD YOU STAND UP FOR IT , EVEN IF IT MEANT YOUR LIFE? DAMN RIGHT I WOULD (which made me think of this immediately.)
- Should people be allowed to have abortion? No.
Awesome. Why did he friend me? I’m having a difficult time figure this one out unless he is just collecting people.
Sure, okay. Because doing more of what isn’t working will surely work somehow.
(Alternate title: The beatings will continue until the morale improves.)
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
“Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,” the president said earlier this year. “Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.”
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
[via]
I don’t have a problem with kids having a safe place to go, but the rest of it makes me insane. More insane. Insaner. More Insanerer.
Group rules
Oh, Flickr Groups.
I like Flickr. I’ve got a few photos over there. I’ve met some neat people through Flickr and seen some wonderful photographs. I’ve joined a few groups and moderate some as well. These particular groups have all inevitably emerged from conversations among friends and are very specific. The ones I have joined are similarly straightforward and low maintenance. Ultimately, I am not in that many because there is nothing low maintenance about most Flickr groups. Let us consider some rules I found just this morning in a handful of different groups:
- This is a family group. You know what that means. Artistic nudity is allowed.
- There is a special area for sharing thoughts and feeling, and help each other to raise our souls to be noble. No one is perfect, God only is perfect, but the perfect human is who keeps trying to be perfect and then noble spirit, a place to raise our souls for a better life and better community.
- Please Comment on 3 for every picture you post.
- Do not give awards to your own photos.
- This Group is also about ARTISTIC Presentation of NATURE!! Therefore, our talented painters and illustrators are mostly welcome, too!! And, GOOD-TASTE processed (“photoshoped”) NATURE-images are also mostly welcome!! But COLLAGE or STILL- LIFE images are not allowed!!
- If you get three or more comments at one of your photos in this group you can be promoted to “Creative Master”
- IMPORTANT: WE DON’T ACCEPT MEMBERS WITHOUT AN ICON
- No verbally attacking other members
- If you’re looking for extra awards, reposting is allowed! However, please make sure that you remove your photo to repost ONLY if it has made it to page 5 or beyond! You are only allowed to repost an image ONCE! If a 2nd repost shows up, it will be deleted!
- No PEOPLE, HUMANS, PERSONS, etc.
- Please only nominate pictures that you feel are worthy of our Group
- To keep the view of the * POOL * very special…I am having to sweep the group daily, so this means that….**shots that simply do not gel to the pool will be removed**, it is nothing personal, I just want to KEEP THE LOOK *MAGIC* Remember only *YOUR BEST*. This is not a dumping ground!
- Your photos must show reflections on water, glass, sea, lakes, rivers or any other shining surfaces. The reflection must cover at least 20% of your photo.(Please avoid posting common sunset photos, without visible reflection. They may not been accepted)
All of these groups–ALL OF THEM–have a profoundly garish and usually animated award badge. In fact, I have noticed that the more a group considers itself an arbiter of good taste and quality photography, the more likely it is to have the most breathtakingly garish and animated logo. And this logo is something you are supposed to litter across the Flickr landscape as a condition of your membership (the standard ratio seems to be three awards/comments for every one photo added to the group). Because it means something? Because it has some sort of magical power? I don’t know.
If you’re like me, you read these invites and find yourself annoyed that so much is demanded of voluntary membership. Okay, that anything is demanded. I think the reason it bothers me is the tacit assumption that what I want more than anything is to belong, to join, to be a part of this random meaningless group of people and bathe in their over-punctuated praise of my photo. It makes me as uncomfortable as it makes me angry. If you are dispensing that much exuberant praise, then I have a difficult time taking it seriously or even caring. If you expect me to dispense that much exuberant praise (or, indeed, any exuberant praise), then you are quite simply mad.
While I’m at it, I also hate it when people say “my friend!” There’s a lot of that at Flickr as well.
Nature is red in whiskers and fluffy tail
Since I am now not even remotely Twitter famous, let me quote myself from there this weekend:
“Bruised and scraped the hell out of my knee yesterday scrambling to get away from a bear. Yeah, okay, I tripped over a rabbit. A RABBIT.”
I tripped over a rabbit Saturday afternoon, folks. I was out walking, minding my own business, when some sort of kerfuffle took place in the adjacent shrubbery and all manner of small and heretofore non-vicious animals spilled out in all directions including a cottontail rabbit that plowed right straight into my foot and brought me down to the ground on my left knee.
The rabbit is fine. Well, besides almost certainly needing counseling.
My knee is a scraped, bruised, and bloody mess, and the best part of this is that I was far enough from home to just say to hell with it and walk to Walgreens for some large knee-friendly bandages.
I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I only collided with a rabbit since A HAWK FLEW OUT OF SOMEONE’S BACK YARD ACROSS THE STREET FROM WALGREENS. Hello. A hawk. In Arlington. A half block from Crate & Barrel. I half expected to see a bear cruise up to Whole Foods with a couple of tote bags slung over its shoulder. What? I’m sure bears care deeply about the environment too.
The best part of this story is that everyone eventually concedes that I must be telling the truth because not even I could make this up. No, actually, I take that back. The best part is what some folks have said including “Was it carrying a pocket watch?” and “You’re the Jimmy Carter of our generation.”
At any rate, I’m thinking I might have to dress like this from now on when I go out.
