|
|
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006
|
1:50p - Birdshot: Cupid's new ammo
Today is Valentine's Day, the day of the year that spotlights love and relationships. The other 364? Not quite as important. What better way to stimulate the economy than to make people buy candy, flowers and other cutie-pie things all in honor of St. Valentine. That makes perfect sense.
Valentine's Day has about as much to do with love as Burger King has to do with a legitimate cookout.
Happy Valentine's Day.
I've been watching the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italia. I'm kind of wondering why in some American publications we're calling it "Turin, Italy." This is another reason America kind of sucks. What gives us the idea that we can change the name of a city to make it appear more American, when in fact the city is both Italian and easy to pronounce. In fact, why do we change the names of all foreign lands that we are too lazy to pronounce?
Spain is not "Spain" at all, it's Espan~a (forgive the inaccurately placed tilde). What is so hard about saying "Torino?"
I can somewhat understand the country thing. Italy as opposed to Italia, even though it's pointless to have changed the name. Some might argue that Spanish-speaking countries refer to us as "Los Estados Unidos", but that's different. That legitimately translates to "The United States." All of those three words, the, united and states are not made up words... they are legitimately independant words. Italy, aside from being a country is not a word at all.
Quit fucking changing the names of foreign cities, it's fucking lazy. Did the 1996 games take place in Atlantatia? No, it was Atlanta, so deal.
In more upbeat Olympic news, the games themselves are one of my favorite things. For the most part, the competitors are amateurs competing merely for the pursuit of the game as opposed to carrying a football around for millions of dollars.
Take a look at the women's halfpipe. The US won the gold medal with Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler took the silver. Along with Salt Lake City gold medal winner Kelly Clark, these three really advanced the sport. Typically, the men's programs have always been more aerobatic and the females haven't had as much air. But a few runs in the Torino games showed, really the whole world that: 1) Women can level that playing field, and 2) Extreme Sports are huge.
I've heard some complaints about how America recommended sports like snowboarding because typically we don't fare well in the winter games. These are "our sports" and no one else really in the world has a vast interest in the. This argument is wrong on so many levels.
First of all, much of the winter games are indeed "extreme." Flying down a huge ramp at 80 miles per hour with little protection down a mountain is probably "extreme." Launching yourself down a tube of ice in three possible ways at speeds in excess of 80 miles per hour is probably "extreme." Downhill skiing? Yep. Hell, even jumping and dancing with a metal blade on ice qualifies for that matter.
Secondly, there's a global movement toward these "extreme sports", witness by competitors from perennial winter pwowerhouse Norway, France, Australia and many others. All of the winter olympic sports originated in one country or another, before being adopted by the International Olympic Committee.
The middle of February is a terrible time to live in Ohio. It's unbelievably cold, the days are short and it's been cold for a long time. Everyone is bored from doing the same thing over and over again everyday; but you can't do much about it because that's all there is to do. Eat, watch TV... wait around for summer.
Life doubly kicks up some shit when you're broke, and I happen to be the brokest of broke right now. It's safe to say that I will remember college as a terrible, terrible time. I can't wait to pay off all these loans. Fucking bastards.
So, Cupid is taking his infant naked ass around and shooting people with arrows in much the same manner that Dick Cheney is shooting 78-year old lawyers. Only, let's hope that Dick Cheney is not naked.
Today's entry is the 86th officially, though as I have backtracked it is only the 84th. One entry was mysteriously published three times a while back, but I chose not to delete the two imposters merely to maintain integrity. Officially, the two faux entries will indeed count.
As today marks our 86th meeting, I would like to call upon an old joke that I am somehow reminded of:
Why was six afraid of seven?
Because seven "ate" nine.
Funny? No. But then who cares; today is about getting shot in the ass with love arrows.
I'd also like to give a quick shout out to Jen, my English 1550 teacher. You made this possible. When I win a Webby for "most cynical blog", you'll be the first I thank. Hope all is well and I appreciate that you still check up on my journals here.
(comment on this)
|
|
|
|