Triviality

-I love the Olympics. I have loved the Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta (where we lived at the time). I was on the neighborhood swim team and I'd go to swim practice and then come home and watch the swimming events and eat fruit. That's when I started loving the Olympics, and I can say with truth-ness that my eyes tear up when I hear the Olympic anthem, and when athletes who win gold celebrate with fists in the air and smiles on their faces. In fact, the last couple weeks have been emotional.

-I'm tired of watching TV. I don't really watch TV, normally. I watch "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" with my little brother if it's on sometimes, but, otherwise, I just watch a select couple of shows (mainly Arrested Development) on my computer. TV sucks.

-I'm tired of watching TV with my family. It's tough to watch TV with people asking questions/providing commentary constantly.

-I wish I could say that "I knew Canada was awesome the whole time", but, alas, I cannot. Now, I know. Americans give Canadians a lot of crap, but who the hell are we? I can't answer that question... In any case, while I am ever mindful of how insignificant this gesture is, I still say, with all my heart, "Nice job, Canada. Vancouver ruled. I am ridiculously happy for you all!" That sounds really corny, and I'm okay with that.

Changing gears,

-I miss the feeling of heat coming through the vents during the winter. I felt it this morning, but, as noted in an earlier post, I can't indulge in those feelings knowing that it's going to be 95 degrees outside in a couple of months.

-I may "miss the feeling of heat coming through the vents during the winter", but I suppose that plenty of people in the world don't have vents through which heated air could pass during the winter... I don't know what to write.

Another gear switch,

-I'm tired of war pictures, and I'm tired of war. Nothing political or anything else about it, I'm just tired of it. I'm tired of it and I'm not even in it...

Music: (as a reminder, these aren't songs or artists I've discovered recently necessarily, just songs and artists that I like. And I share them. Because everyone likes a good song list, yeah?)

Elliot Smith- Between the Bars

Paramore- The Only Exception

Gemma Hayes- Oliver

Muse- Knights of Cydonia

This was definitely a trivial post... I think/hope that my life is going to get a little bit more interesting in the next couple of months...

I'm 22 and I sometimes feel a little weird being friends with people who are more graduated in years (more than 45 years old) on Facebook. (And clearly I have no shame in saying so.)

Question: Am I the only one who feels this way?

What I Wanna Be When I Grows Up

This is gonna be "hella" random.

Why does Olympic coverage suck so badly? I know I was complaining about the 2008 Olympics in China, but holy crap!- events are starting at 9 in the morning in Vancouver and NBC doesn't start coverage until, like 18:30? Maybe they are starting earlier, and I'm just not around to see it? I'm sure it's tough covering the Olympics and broadcasting what the typical American wants to see, but really? I dunno, I guess I'm just feeling a little cheated here. Maybe I should just go to the Olympics, next time...

Despite the above paragraph, I truly am enjoying watching the Olympics, very much so!

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I don't care what you say, when I see pictures or commercials that involve a UFC fighter lying on the ground with another fighter straddling him, I think it looks like something I would definitely not want to be a part of.

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I got cycling shoes (finally) a couple weeks ago. I've only been out with them a couple of times, but I'm quite certain that using them instead of the mountain pedals shaved 3-5 minutes off of my commute, one way, immediately. Ace.

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My Existentialism professor giving us sound advice: "Don't let your brain make you it's bitch."

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I've realized that it's not so much Phoenix that I hate, nor is it the fact that there are only two seasons here, it's just the fact that there's not much change, and I like change. I need change.

Also, all of this talk about Phoenix weather that goes something like "6 months of the year are great, and 6 months are awful" is absolute bollocks. How about "8.5 months of the year, it's like you are being baked in an oven, and 3.5 months of the year, the weather is lukewarm/chilly". Enjoying winter time here is like being 8 years old and trying to enjoy an ice cream and cartoons after school when, earlier in the day, you got in trouble at school and know that you are going to be in deep shite when your father comes home from work... just not gonna happen.

Did I say that it's not so much Phoenix that I hate? Hmmmm...

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Something that rules:

Mario Kart on N64 with my little brother

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Something that does not rule:

People moving their mouths for 15 minutes without ever actually saying anything at all

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Some music:

Boys Noize - Let's Buy Happiness (Proxy Remix)

David Walker- Can You See

David Walker- Back to the Place

David Walker- Closer Than Angels

Feist- Brandy Alexander

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Regarding school, I believe that I am now successfully going through the motions. I look like a student and act like a student, but I feel it becoming less and less of who I am as I move into the next part of my life. I suppose it's somewhat likely that I'll be a student again after I graduate, and I'll always learn, but... well, isn't 17 years of student-hood enough? Yes... yes, indeed.

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I still have absolutely no idea how many people will read this.

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What do I want to be when I a grow up? A triathlete.

The fact remains that...

Triathlete Kirsten Sweetland tweeted about a week ago,

"You know you've bonked when you eat all the food in the house then resort to sticking your finger in peanut butter, jelly and nutella jars."

Indeed. I bonked on the ride home from school on Wednesday with about ten miles remaining. Let's just say that it's Thursday evening and I haven't not been hungry since Tuesday night. I ride my brother's BMX to and from home and bus stops and light rail trains and school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I even felt sluggish on the BMX today... I know exactly what I did wrong, though! Still, tomorrow on the bike is a question mark...

Back to triathlon: even if you don't have any interest in triathlons, check out the flying mount kid in this video at about 0:18.

Byah! That's right... kids in Kitzbühel, Austria (and many other parts of the world) are doing triathlons. Kids in America are... ?

I'm stoked for the Olympics! It seems like the Summer Olympics are a bigger deal to most people than the Winter Olympics, but I think I enjoy the Winters even more than Summers. I'm looking forward to watching it in not-China i.e. America, where I won't have to be extracting bits of information (and rare moments of unbiased truth) from Chinese newscasters. That was a downer, huh? Yeah, yeah it was and is...

118 days until FIFA World Cup 2010!

Exactly two months until ITU Triathlon World Championship 2010 begins in Sydney!

I've been saying the phrase, "The fact remains that..." often, recently. So, here is a "The-fact-remains-that list"-

The fact remains that...

...even an injection of "CARE" into my blood stream would not produce enough care within me to put distinctly great amounts of exertion into my studies. Except for Chinese. I care about Chinese.

..."a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us." - C.S. Lewis

...Kierkegaard is right. Faith is terrifying.

...my mind and my heart, or, less abstractly, my knowledge and my emotions, will forever be battling one another with regard to that thing called "faith", however horrifying it may, indeed, be. And I'm okay with that.

...alcohol is not a sufficient fuel source for endurance efforts. (This is not why I bonked on Wednesday, ha! It is, however, why Monday morning's ride suuuuucked.)

Senioritis has officially claimed me as it's home. I haven't possessed this diminished of a desire to do any of my homework since my fourth year of high school. I can literally feel the care seeping out of my pores. Take, for instance, this weekend. I have a Chinese resume to write, some 87 pages to read, and a small paper to write, it's Sunday night, and I've only done exactly none of that. Sure, it was a fairly busy weekend, but the fact remains that, not a year ago, I was toting the "I'm in college, full-time" excuse as my get-out-of-doing-(activity in which I was not interested) pass. Oh well, I'm glad I'm only taking 14 credit hours this semester and 12 in the fall... and, at the risk of sounding like I feel like I have to justify this carelessness, I've got plenty of other things that I'm doing with my time right now...

I've realized that lists are appealing. So, I will include lists in my posts.

Things I've learned recently:

-Lists are appealing.

-I'm only 22 and I'm already tired of watching Super Bowls. I think the 'every 4 year plan' is appealing- it works for the World Cup and the Olympics!

-Having a sibling who is 10 years younger than me... has its challenges.

-Everybody is getting engaged. Fortunately, I'm not. Not right now. Or in the very near future. Like, I definitely won't be engaged before I go to sleep tonight, for sure. Or tomorrow.

-It's challenging to buy stuff without money.

-Brokenness and humility are underrated to a great degree. A GREAT degree.

Here's another list:

Some favorite songs, currently:

Meant to Be- Late Night Alumni

4 AM (Adam K & Soha Radio Edit)- Kaskade (Live Version as well)

Love Me- JJ Heller

Inama Nushif (Montage)- Brian Tyler

Fingerbib- Aphex Twin

IZ-US- Aphex Twin

Photos are appealing, too, so here's a photo:

That's Christmas morning, but with the shutter only partially opened. Nice, dad.

And some lyrics:

The orphan clings to Your hand
Singing the song of how he was found
The widow rejoices
For her oppressors are silenced now

The runaway falls at Your feet
You are what he has searched for
The rich man is broken
When he stands beneath a sky full of stars

You sit at the table with the wounded and the poor
You laugh and share stories with the thief and the whore
When You could just be silent and leave us here to die
Still, You sent Your Son for us
You are on our side

Bethany Dillon, You Are On Our Side, lyrics rearranged

I've clearly made a fairly thorough attempt to make this post appealing.

A blog about a blog.

Hi.

I like the part in "Hoosiers" when Jimmy Chitwood says "I think it's about time I start playing some basketball." I'm not about to say I'm the Jimmy Chitwood of blogging, but I do think that it's about time for me to start writing.

I guess I'm in the mood for change because I also got on Twitter today, and I set my QQ (China's AIM) to "Available" instead of the usual "Invisible". Oh, well. Update: I just realized that "China's AIM" doesn't make any sense. China's America Online Instant Messenger? WTHell?

I think this is going to be the hardest post I'll ever write. How do I feel? I feel like no one's going to read this unless I post a link to it as my Facebook status, but then it will seem like I actually think that what I'm writing is important, and I don't even know how I feel about that. I suppose that's beside the point, though.

Ultimately, I figure that, given the fact that I'm probably(hopefully) not going to be in America at this time next year, a blog might be something useful to have with regard to keeping somewhat in touch with people. I should have and had planned to do this back before I left for China, what... more than two years ago, but that clearly didn't happen.

Now, here's about where, in the past, I'd normally erase everything I've written, log out, and vow never to attempt this again. Why? Because I'm writing a blog about writing a blog! Who "in tarnation" wants to read this? No one's reading this! Wait... Wait! I think I can feel myself breaking out of this shell... If no one can read this, than why should I care what I write? It doesn't matter!

Well, now that I've dealt with that, hello! Here's where I am in my life:

I have two semesters left at ASU until I graduate.

Taking 14 credit hours is a hell of a lot easier than taking 18, even though all 14 are upper division courses.

I am thinking about pursuing a career as a Mandarin Chinese Interpreter. I mentioned this to someone the other day and they said, "That's cool!" And I said, "Yes."

I am severely attracted to triathlon and the healthy lifestyle which potentially accompanies it. I follow the ITU World Cup Events like most Americans follow baskethoop or whatever that sport is with orange balls and baskets and net stuff (wah wah).

I like Liverpool FC.

I ran a marathon in January in 3h22m.

And the rest, thou shalt figure out.

If you have a blog on this blogger website thing, find me. Or follow me. Or whatever it is that you do. And on Twitter. And on QQ, which is apparently "China's America Online Instant Messenger". If that doesn't make sense, well...