I don't wanna hear, I don't wanna know...

Happy Mardi Gras!

And I'm celebrating by working (woooo-hoooo--next best thing to being in n'awlins, really; hmmm, maybe I should give up doing work at night for Lent???).

Anyways, the weekend went well. Cirque was great--although there was a pesky Heat game next door; and the meet went rather well. Didn't get too burned or anything, although Casey did beat me in the 500 (although she had a great swim). Times were rather good, even a 16:53 in the mile.

And I ended the weekend by trying to stub my toe 5 or 6 times on Sunday--not fun. I escaped in the evening by watching the Big Lebowski.

Aight... back to D3--I'm on "TCNJ": THE College of New Jersey.


Je suis désolé
Lo siento
Ik ben droevig
Sono spiacente
Perdóname

I want to be the minority, I don't need your authority, Down with the moral majority

...cause I want to be the minority

Time flies when you aren't doing anything... other than working on President's Day, getting to see 2, count-em *2*, USA curling matches (the men on Sunday vs. Britain--or rather "Scotland" as the t.v. folks kept saying--and the women get trounced by Britain on Monday). And while I didn't get to see/hear the Canadian's men skip yelling like crazy, I did get a good share of "whoas", even from the Johnson sisters... And there was that way "rockin" Google logo yesterday. [stealing Erin's pun there]

Oh, and while the curling was on, I managed to clear a path to the front door --->

(the t.v.'s the bright thing just to the right of center--the U.S. men's match is actually on)




Hmmmm, what else? Oh, gearing up for a Masters meet at the Hall of Fame this weekend, and going to see Cirque du Soleil's Varekai down in Miami. And, monitoring Casey at the State meet this weekend (go! Casey! go!).

And I'll close out with 2 rants:
1) lack of religion does not mean lack of morality (in fact, it might mean more morals)
2) NBC needs to quit creating drama--Shani and Chad weren't ever super pissed off at each other; if anything, they were both mad at NBC media for making a ruckus where it didn't exist to begin with. Besides, they're competitors: they don't need to like each other all the time.

You can't always get what you want

Four Things
[tagged by jarret]


Four jobs I've had:
--Test grader
--Database Manager
--Sport event organizer
--Summer League swim coach


Four movies I can watch over and over:
--Contact
--Psycho Beach Party
--Red
--While You Were Sleeping


Four places I've lived:
--Laguna Beach, California ..[yes, that Laguna Beach]
--San Antonio, Texas
--Guatemala City, Guatemala
--Fort Lauderdale, Florida


Four places I've vacationed:
--Laguna Beach
--Laguna Beach
--Laguna Beach
--Laguna Beach
(hmmm, maybe I should try somewhere else...)


Four TV shows I love:
--Buffy the Vampire Slayer ..[almost Firefly here...]
--Wasteland
--Project Runway ..[at the moment]
--Oz


Four sites I visit daily:
--Google
--Yahoo
--Fina
--wiki wiki wiki


[tagging Court, now...]


But if you try sometimes
You just might find
You get what you need

Lost in an image, in a dream, but there's no one there to wake her up...

Man... it's quite annoying to have this song stuck in your head. And what's worse is that it's been there for over a week. My own fault, really; so I'll just suffer.

In other news, I've now been awake for over 12 hours today (I got up at 4:32 a.m. so I could swim this morning, beginning at 5 a.m.). As usual, the hardest part was getting out-of-bed.


Oh, and just because:

Instructional sites on curling can be found at either the BBC or the IOC (the latter has a nice little flash animation explanation linked on the right).


And just quite possibly the coolest wiki ever (tho sans swimming, stupidly!).


And the world is spinning
And she keeps on winning
But tell me, what happens when it stops?

Since this is the perfect spot to learn, teach me tonight...

Apparently, Joey Cheek--speedskating's 500m gold-medalist yesterday in Torino--wants to go to Harvard, 'cept it sounds like Harvard didn't want him...

Yahoo has a couple good Reuters photos of him as well, tho I like this one the best...
(I'd post 'em here, but who know what kind of havoc that would cause.)

Btw, the red ball is for Right to Play.


Starting with the ABC of it
Getting right down to the XYZ of it
Help me solve the mystery of it
Teach me tonight

I... just want to fly

A Lansing State Journal (Michigan) article on why to watch the Winter Olympics...
Winter Games are a sports fan's dream

Almost nearly as cool as today's Google special logo for the Olympics...


I... just want to fly
Put your arms around me baby,
Put your arms around me baby...

You don't have to put up a fight, you don't always have to be right

Well, I wish that I could say that I was ridiculously busy this week, and that's why I've not blogged since Monday. Actually, I could say that...

What have I been up to, you may wonder? Well, Monday I was writing until 3 a.m., so Tuesday night I went to bed at 8 p.m. to catch up on sleep (which worked). The rest of the week was fairly normal, and uneventful; save I got my new computer on Thursday!!!!

So Thursday night and last night I spent playing with my new Apple, installing programs and trying to figure out OS X (I was running OS 9 before). And this morning, I sub-coached a "Diving & Dolphin" practice for the Masters group I'm in (it went ok, I think?).

Such terrible excitement, I know. Oh, the Torino Olympics in Turin started last night, and actually, I had the notion earlier this week to post an explanation of why East of Eden falls on my 'List' (see previous entry). The notion was mostly because a reference to "Am I my brother's keeper" came up.

Oh, also, the Grammys were on, which I would love to have watched, but I'm still boycotting them due to the stupid recording association's (the folks who run the Grammys) practice of suing grandmothers/dead people for downloading music. (And not acknowledging that maybe people are buying less CDs because the product quality has decreased, and because people aren't exposed to as much stuff--but the latter would be a "broadcast" industry issue....)

Anyways, it's a shame they've cause me to not like them so, because I really like a lot of the songs that won this year ("Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" and "Restless", come to mind), and I used to get exposed to artist by watching the telecast. Maybe one day I won't need to be pissed off at them anymore and can watch again...

Still no rowing :(


And it's you when I look in the mirror
And it's you when I don't pick up the phone
...
Sometimes you can't make it
The best you can do is to fake it
Sometimes you can't make it on your own

It's no fun, but the damage is done...

<--I almost feel this way tonight. I probably would, but I'm way-less stressed now than 2 weeks ago, so I can't--now, I've just accepted that I'm overwhelmed, and don't let it get to me... at least too much. ;) The worse part is that I'm missing practice tonight (and it is long-course and distance! dagnabit!). My solace is that I swam yesterday, and the meet went ok (I even beat Casey in the 500 free--4:53 to her 4:59).

Anyways, I should get back to prep'ing an article to write for tomorrow or entering some data... it's gonna be a long night.

Oh! I got an out-of-office reply in Finnish today (at least I think it's Finnish--"Kiitos viestistäsi!").


No one's telling you how to live your life
But it's a set-up
Until you're fed up

Say it's only a paper moon, hanging over a cardboard sea...

The List--10 things that rock my world
[specially for 02/04/06]

• "Pac-Man Fever" (song), Buckner & Garcia; 1981
• "True Blue" (song), Madonna; 1986
• Pretty Woman (film), dir. Gary Marshall; 1990
• To Kill a Mockingbird (novel) by Harper Lee; 1960
• Unforgettable: with love (album), Natalie Cole; 1991
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV show), Joss Whedon; 1997-2003
• Contact (film) written by Carl Sagan, dir. Robert Zemeckis; 1997
• "Ojos Así" (song), Shakira; 1999
• East of Eden (film), dir. Elia Kazan; 1955
• The Fountainhead (novel) by Ayn Rand; 1943

[Note: This post is in response to an article in the current (Jan/Feb.2006) The Alcalde--the magazine of the Texas Exes. The idea is to list the 10 pieces of media which have "revolutionized" your life, in order of encounter (i.e. I saw East of Eden in about 2001, but didn't read The Fountainhead until 2002/3). Explanation may be forthcoming here; however, not initially.... Any questions, just ask.]


Say it's only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea,
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me

Babe. I've got you, babe...

Then put your little hand in mine,
There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb...

Happy Groundhog Day! Unfortunately, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow earlier today, so we'll be having six more weeks of winter.... Then again, winter's not really a terrible thing down here in Fort Lauderdale, so maybe it's not such a big deal.

As for the week, it's going alright. I've not managed to really unpack anything , due to doing some late work and trying to fix my computer. But luckily Oscar nominations came out earlier this week--now I just need to see about 15 movies, as I've not been very good a seeing what's been nominated. Of the 5 Best Pic nods, I've only managed to see one: Brokeback Mountain. I would like to catch Crash, and maybe Capote and Good Night, and Good Luck; but I'm not really all that interested in Munich (still tired of Spielberg, for some reason).

However, odds are I won't be seeing any of them this weekend, and not because of the Super Bowl. I've got a swimming clinic and am predicting work for Saturday, and then a Masters meet in Coral Springs on Sunday. Hmmm, maybe I'll squeeze one in...

Oh, and, yes, I was one of the apparently huge amount of the U.S. population that didn't watch the State of the Union address. Why, you may ask? Well, for one, I do not really like nor want to hear W speak: I don't believe most of what's coming out of his mouth, anyways. Second, I'm really not a fan of politicized mumbo-jumbo, with generalities that only mention important things without actually saying anything import. Third, I was working the night it was on. Fourth, the (web) media report about the damn thing before it happened--amazingly being able to see into the future. And lastly I realize where we are, or at least think I do.

Anyways, enough with the political rant... I've got crap to do. In some ways, the idea of living the day over and over has its appeal: it would give me more time to get things done (at least in my own twisted little brain), like read In Cold Blood.

Btw, did you know that without Truman Capote, we'd have no Holly Golightly? (He wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's.)