AJ's Online Journal

Olympic arrogance?

So we have the whole Olympics mania thing wrapping up here shortly. It's been a lot of fun as it usually is. This actually got me thinking, "Why is it fun?" It's not like most of these athletes are well known or anything. It's all about the team I think. Everyone has a team to root for!! And for us Americans... we have always had a kick ass team USA. We may not know who someone is or where they came from or even if they are a nice person or not... we see the USA on their uniform and immediately jump out of our seats chanting, "U-S-A-U-S-A-U-S-A!" It doesn't matter if it's Sasha Cohen going for the Gold in ice skating or if it's the men's curling team. It's doesn't matter as long as we get that hardware so we can rub it into the worlds face and say, "Neh neh neh na na we are better than you." We are very arrogant... which has made me think a lot about the American mentality. When I saw snowboarder Lindsey Jacbellis on the verge of winning the gold medal only to try and showboat before the race had finished only to crash and ultimately finishing second it made me question our arrogance. Are we really that arrogant? We do have a government that seems to think it knows what is best for the rest of the world. We do play in the world series, when no other nation (other than Toronto, Canada) participates. We have so many things that are wrapped in a nice America knows Best package and people seem to buy into it. But alas when it comes to the Olympics I don't think that's why we are arrogant. I believe it comes from just growing up and seeing Olympics after Olympics where Americans flat out rule. We have come to expect it really. And why shouldn't we? When we have an NBA dream team that doesn't get the gold it's the biggest embarrassment of the century. This years hockey team sucks as well and people are pointing fingers and hissing. Not because they think they are snakes or anything (as I first thought) but because they should be ashamed for diminishing the American brand name. It's sort of sad that we put so much expectation on just the USA name. We have different athletes in every Olympics and yet expect the same results. It's been a very humbling experience being in Great Britain for these Olympics. They have won a total of 1 medal in these Olympics and you would have thought that competitor Shelley Rudman had curred Cancer or something. She got such publicity and national pride for her second place finish in the woman's Skeleton competition. I admit I got wrapped up in the whole hoopla as well. It was very exciting... even more exciting than seeing a random USA athlete kickin' some serious ass. It made me realize why I am such a hug Cubs fan. Here we have a team that hasn't won the "World Series" since 1908 and no one ever gives them a real chance at ever winning it again and yet they have one of the biggest group of fans. Why is that? It's because when they do win... it's oh so much sweeter. And I stand by that... I dare say the celebration here in England for their one medal was way more passionate and celebratory than anything in the USA. I guess it's all in how you see it. Everyone loves a winner, but when the underdog wins... it's even better. And at the end of the day it's not arrogance... it's expectation. That's why I will end with the same thing I start singing every year at this time,"Go Cubs Go. Go Cubs Go. Hey Chicago what do ya say? Cubs are gonna win today!!!"

Whistling in the dark...

The lights went out in North London tonight. With Julie in Ireland for the day on business, it was just Ella and myself at home... whistling in the dark. And being a person who always needs noise around me (kind of odd for an introvert don't you think?) I played some MP3's on my computer. Well... mostly "They Might be Giants" songs actually. Oddly enough Ella seemed to enjoy it! Especially Particle Man and Whistling in the Dark. We got up and danced in our candlelit darkness. Well, I danced and she held on to my neck and smiled a lot. I must admit it's much easier dancing when your partners feet don't even touch the floor. We danced and smiled and even laughed at how big of a dork daddy is. Needless to say the lights eventually came back on, but the songs and memories will always be in my heart.

"There’s only one thing that I know how to do well
And I’ve often been told that you only can do
What you know how to do well
And that’s be you,
Be what you’re like,
Be like yourself,
And so I’m having a wonderful time
But I’d rather be whistling in the dark."

Things that don't make sense!

I don't usually get into religion or politics because to me both are no win situations. You can't change people and you need some sort of super natural, mind altering powers in order to change the way a person thinks. Now having said that, I have some comments about the Muslim backlash against the Danish cartoon that depicts the prophet Muhammed wearing a turbin in the shape of a bomb. I'm a pretty open minded guy so I can see how that can be offensive to Muslims but at the same time I can see what the cartoonist was after. I mean it's pretty obvious, yes? It's just a joke about Muslims' predilection for violence. Ok, let's get through the caveats... we all know that not every Muslim is a terrorist and not every terrorist is Muslim. My questions are about this whole debacle of events that followed the publishing of this cartoon. In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world began looting, rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence. They claim they are upset because Islam prohibits any depictions of Muhammad -- though the text is ambiguous on beheadings, suicide bombings and flying planes into skyscrapers. Apparently, these people adopt the same slogan my grandfather used to give me, "You gotta pick your battles". It's just sort of odd that one would get so upset over a cartoon when there are so many other issues in the middle east that one could choose to do battle with. And yet thousands of people took to the street this past week brandishing picket signs saying, "Behead Those Who Insult Islam," "Europe, you will pay, extermination is on the way" and "Butcher those who mock Islam" and they warn Europe of their own impending 9/11 with signs that say: "Europe: Your 9/11 will come". How can someone go to such lengths to uphold religious writings and yet throw out the whole basic principle of all religions... peace. Personally, if I were God... I would be more pissed by the looting, rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem. Hell.... I'm not God and it still pisses me off! It's almost absurd as if the whole Jewish community started burning down Red Lobster restaurants and killing it's employee's because the place isn't Kosher. It reminds me of another thing my Grandfather used to tell me, "The good book says judge less ye be judged." Even at age 6 I knew what that meant. Why can't people use that energy to better themselves instead of tearing others down? Who knows....maybe if something like this happens again... people will lead by example and show the world that Islam is a peaceful religion instead of perpetuating the stereo-type of the terrorist religion. That's just my crazy logic... and who am I after all? Just a guy. A guy with a keyboard and a blog and thats it...I'm not judging... I'm just questioning.

Robin Hood's

I was thinking the other day about the whole movie/music piracy issue type thing. Basically the reason we have copyright laws are to protect the rights of the owner. To make sure A: That no one takes credit for someone else's work and B: That no one uses that material to make money. So given that, how does the basic online trader violate that? I guess you could say that they are enabling others to watch movies who might have gone out and bought them? If you think that's the reason, explain to me how a major International chain such as Blockbuster doesn't get sued? They are taking a single DVD and "renting" it hundreds of times over to people who might have otherwise bought it? If anything they are the ones taking money from the movie industry. And yet, they pick on the little guy who isn't out for money at all. Just some guy who after all just wants to "share". I mean you can go out and buy a DVD and go to every house in the world and show them the movie and it would be legal, but allowing someone to download it to their computer is a crime. I guess you can say that is copying and therefor a crime BUT if you personally aren't A: Taking credit for the movie or B: Using it to make money... then how is it a crime? The same can be said for radio stations and the music industry. Here you have radio stations broadcasting on public airwaves tons of copy written material. Sort of like the Internet isn't it? And yet the music industry isn't taking them to court? You can listen to a song over the radio legally but if you get it via "copy" then its illegal. So I guess that you can do ANYTHING with first generation material and NOTHING with everything else. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me... especially since most of these industry deemed pirates are not out to make money for themselves. And where does all this stop? Next thing you know you could be at work humming your favorite song only to be arrested for unlawfully replaying music. Ok, that might be a stretch, but it is still my opinion that the music and film industry are attacking innocent people. And that's all I have to say about that!