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| long time no post. this will be a short one, long one to come
soon (when i have more time). just wanted to comment on two
things. first of all, the presidential debate. seeing bush
speak last night, i kept wondering how he won in the first place.
a president is, among other things, an image of our country, and i tell
you, what i saw last night is not the image i want us to have. i
did notice that he tried not to say the word 'nukular' during the
debate (good idea, i might add). kerry said 'nuclear' about
twenty times before bush let out his one and only 'nukular' when the
debate was almost over. yeah, i know it's kinda stupid but i just
found that fact to be interesting.
the other thing i noticed was in the newspaper here at school.
why is a story about the suicide bombing by one palestinian that killed
2 children front page news, but a story about the mobilization of
israeli forces that killed 28 palestinians and injured 131 buried in
the middle of the newspaper? in my opinion, a change in israeli
military policy by moving into crowded areas of Gaza, areas that they
havent entered in many years, is well worth putting on the front page,
maybe it can replace that story about how we wont be able to use our
pool, but it wont matter.
sometimes i wonder...
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| I have to admit that I find myself being caught up in all this
Olympic fever, but it isn't for the reason you think. Stories of
swimming, gymnastics, and basketball have been told everywhere, but I
have been watching the Olympics for a different reason. I think
it's best here to go into individual events...
Swimming- I can see why Michael Phelps has become such a popular figure
in Olympic sportsdom. As a swimmer, he pretty much passes the
camera-friendliness test and, combined with that goofy grin you see in
that cell phone commercial (I thinks it's AT&T Wireless), people
tend to like him immediately. Plus, the possibility of a world
record amount of golds doesn't often happen, and people like to feel
like they're a part of history. But everyone has to remember that
he's just another above average swimmer that excels at one event
(butterfly). He's outmatched in most other events, and would be
considered extremely lucky to come close to those seven gold
medals. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets
those eight medals, after all, he is pretty well-rounded and he still
is better than most swimmers. (I'd like everyone at this point to
take a break and say out loud with me "Pieter van den
Hoogenband." I don't know why, but I just think that is such a
great name, and I know you agree with me. He doesn't even need a
nickname, like "Thorpedo" or "Lethal.")
Basketball- Not much can be said here, as I'm sure we all know what's
happening. We have gotten too comfortable in our position at the
top and have given the rest of the world a chance to catch up.
Because of our inflated expectations, each loss is treated much worse
than it probably is. The fact is that even though we may not be
playing the best that we could, there are other teams out there that
are as good as us, and it took us this long to realize it. Good
morning, USA basketball.
Beach Volleyball- Misty May, similar to Natalie Coughlin, have been
enjoying a bit of celebrity not based upon their merits as
athletes. Both of them (Coughlin in swimming and May in beach
volleyball) have survived sports-related injuries to enter in these
Olympics. However, people have to remember that these aren't the
only athletes to continue competing despite injuries. Gatson and
Dragulescu come to mind, only because I just finished watching the
men's gymnastics team finals, but the list goes on. I'm not so
much criticizing this situation as much as I am asking everyone to
acknowledge the reason behind their name recognition. I'm also
need to point out that I'm not trying to cheapen their skills at all,
as making it to the Olympics says a lot about their abilities as
athletes. And despite all that I just said about them, I'm still
going to watch May and Walsh play great volleyball, and will continue
to cheer them on to gold.
Volleyball- Not much here, just needed to mention the crazy
back-and-forth game against Germany. Germany almost coming back
with four straight points at the end of the fourth set, but the US held
them off and won the match. Good stuff. And with the rally
scoring thing going on, where every serve gives a point, the games go
faster and are more intense. Double good stuff.
Crew- Another exceptional preliminary match, this time with both
the men and the women. I actually didn't intend to watch it, but
it was on when I turned on the TV. It turns out to be a good
thing it was on. First up were the women. I had never
seriously watched a rowing team before, and the little yelling woman at
the front of the boat intrigued me to no end. The race itself was
spectacular- the US trying to hold off Romania and at the very end,
beating them by two tenths of a second. It was the same with the
men. We were behind by almost a whole boat length at the
beginning, but we finally managed to catch up and win by less than a
second. What makes crew so much more interesting is that after
each stroke, that team gains a foot or two on everyone else, making it
harder to tell who is winning, or if anyone is winning at all.
Water polo- The very idea of keeping afloat for seven minutes at a time
is tiring for me, as I can barely keep afloat for two (I think, I
havent really timed myself before, but I know staying afloat is
hard). Then you have to think about doing that WHILE wrestling
with the other team over the ball AND trying to get the ball into the
goal. Water polo, as far as I can tell, is a full-contact (within
reason) and protectionless (aside from the earmuffs) sport. Add
that to the possibility of fouls leading to those delicious power
plays. Let me explain: being a water sport, movements are harder
to control and fouls occur pretty often. Most contact is allowed,
and minor fouls are dealt with a simple blow of a whistle, when the
defense backs off and gives the offense some space before resuming
play. However, after major fouls, the offending player needs to
leave the game for about ninety seconds, leaving that team short a
player, resulting in a power play. This type of foul occurs every
few minutes, and it seems like one team or the other is always on a
power play. This in addition to how fast the ball is able to move
sometimes, and you have yourself a very interesting game. I was
watching last night when the US made that last-second goal against
Croatia on a power play, giving the US a 7-6 win, and man, was the
adrenaline pumping.
Handball- My personal memories of this sport aren't very fond, nor were
most of my memories of physical education in the public education
system. After watching a game today, though, I have renewed
interest in handball. Fast moves. Power plays. Good
goalying. Crazy ball handling. That's about all I need to
say. In the Slovenia vs Croatia game I watched, I ended up
rooting for Croatia, I think because they kept on getting fouled and
because Losert, the Croatian goalkeeper, kept making great saves.
In this game, as in the game of water polo I watched, the final score
of 27-26 tells very little of the intensity of the game overall.
If you're like me and you skip to the end of very long things
that you don't feel like reading, the only thing that I really want to
tell you is that everyone should watch the Olympics. Top athletes
from all over the world gathering in one place to do what they do best
inevitably will lead to some of the best, most exciting games people
may see for a long while, at least until the next Olympics. Call
me mindless if you want, but watching these Olympics has instilled in
me a feeling of unity that I haven't felt in a long while.
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| This is strange. On a pretty random day, I decide to
update this
xanga, and what do you know? It's been 365 days since I joined
xanga. So happy birthday to me, I guess. Actually, when I
said random, I meant arbitrary, as there is nothing random about the
reason that I'm posting again after half a year of inactivity.
That reason is Governor McGreevey's resignation. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/12/mcgreevey.nj/
If you don't know
about it yet, read about it and continue.
When I first heard the news, I thought the guy that told
me was kidding (yeah, he's one of those people, that
is, people that try to convince others of fictitious stories and
get a cheap laugh out of saying "haha i got you, thats not what
happened at all!"). It was actually kind of funny cause the guy
was from Massachussetts and said something to the effect of "the
governor resigned because he's gay, I've gotta get out of New Jersey,
there are gay people everywhere." Which resulted in my explaining
to him about the marriage laws in MA, which resulted in him walking
away from me before the logic could sink in. Figures.
Although that exchange was brief, it got me thinking a bit
about New Jersey governors, and I realized that there's quite a history
there. My memory only goes back to Whitman, but theres already
plenty of history. Having been appointed as head of the EPA, she
reminded the nation of our reputation of being the "Armpit of
America." Where, other than in New Jersey, could Bush have found
someone so experienced in what amounts to trash management? And a
Republican too! (by the way, even she couldn't handle the mess our
environment is in. in case you forgot, she resigned last
year) So here we have an erosion of our state's reputation.
This is a fine to to point out that, contrary to popular
opinion, New Jersey is not such a nasty place to live. The
factories and the pollution one sees while going down some of the major
highways (GSP, NJT) are exactly that- factories and pollution along the
highways. Travel away from them, and you'd find "The Garden
State" isn't a misnomer. We do have plenty of really nice
scenery. For example, when I went to the beach the other day for
the first time in several years, I found out that I live less than half
an hour away from the beach. How cool is that? Point is, it
was one of the nicest days of the summer- the sun was out, the sand was
clean, and the few clouds floating in the sky perfectly matched the
rhythmic crashing of the waves. Yes, this stuff does happen in New Jersey.
So after Whitman left the office, we have an acting
governor in DiFrancesco. Everything is hunky dory until January
2002 comes along. Remember the whole transfer of power
thing? I'm not sure about the details, but I am sure that we had
4 governors within the period of a month. DiFrancesco, Bennett,
Corey, and finally McGreevey. Once again, New Jersey as a state
is the butt, or armpit, if you will, of so many jokes.
And just so you don't think I hate all New Jersey
governors, I have to acknowledge Thomas Kean and his work as head of
the 9/11 Commission. Although I have yet to read the book for
myself, it has gone over well with everybody. Maintaining
nonpartisanship is not an easy task, but it was something Kean seems to
have pulled off. The real work now comes in achieving results and
putting the Commission's recommendations into action. However,
for the work done so far, Kean deserves kudos (or at least one of those
breakfast bars).
All this thinking just brought me back to the original
issue, which was Governor McGreevey's resignation. There's no
arguing that this is huge. I don't know of any other person of
well renown taking such a huge risk and telling the world the
truth. And that is exactly what McGreevey did when he announced
that he is a "gay American" - he told the world the truth about himself
and now must resign from the office of Governor.
People might argue that he's resigning because of the
affair, but we all know that's not true. I mean seriously, people
don't really hate adultery as much as they say they do. I'd even
argue that they enjoy adultery (I'm not referring to people liking to
commit adultery, but to their attraction to hearing about it). If
people really hated adultery so much, scandals would be much more
scandalous, and the previous president would be living a much different
life (one where the success of his memoir is not due to his actions
with a certain woman, but might instead be attributed to interest in
the downfall of an American President).
The real reason why McGreevey's resigning is because he's
not an idiot and he realizes that homosexuality has not been publicly
accepted. The public outcry over his announcement, as well as the
resulting distrust in elected officials, goes without saying, but they
would be much worse if he had not also announced his resignation.
Most people fear gays, and the more zealous of these people could...
make trouble. Then again, the resignation still will not make
people forget the other part of the announcement.
McGreevey's announcement that he is gay is important
because it shows the world that homosexuality is not an
affliction. Rather, it is a characteristic, an attribute much
like having a certain color of hair, being a certain height, or being a
certain nationality. Occasionally, one may wish to have other
attributes, but eventually one must realize that the attribute is part
of who you are; changing it would make you a different person and doing
so would be an unnatural act. When a person of such prestige
announces that he is gay, one must stop and think if homosexuality is
truly a hinderance on society, or if it is only protrayed as negative
because of traditional values, whichever they may be. One must
also think about the presence of gays in other places, and the silence
they must endure to hide one unchangeable characteristic about
themselves. I applaud Governor James McGreevey for having the
courage to speak the truth, and I am proud to have shaken hands with
such an influential man.
On a completely different note, does anyone else really
want to see Garden State and/or know of a place nearby that plays
it? It's just that all this talk of New Jersey reminded me about
it and about how Scrubs is such a great show.
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| I think we all know what this post is going to be about. MATRIXMATRIXMATRIXMATRIX!!! yeah, so I watched the matrix revolutions yesterday, and I think a day and a half is enough to let you all see it. so for those of you that haven't seen it yet, either read on if you dont care about spoilers, or come back after you've seen the movie.
To start off with, I'd like to say that, despite the above seemingly enthusiastic response to the matrix, it didnt really live up to my expectations. they (meaning the wachowski brothers) set everything up for a monumental ending, but they didn't take it as far as it could have gone. my biggest complaint was the lack of good hand-to-hand action scenes. the only part that was even remotely good was when seraph was taking down the dude in the garage, and then the weapon-check scene. everything else was just guns, explosions, and driving. my god, the neo/smith scene? what was with all the dbz-ness. and the hero-esque slow-mo water droplets? ... come to think of it, it was rather nice to see all that done in more realistically, and done pretty well nonetheless. but did they have to do it over and over again? I thought these movies were supposed to be original.
Other minor complaints include the inferiority of the new oracle, the pointlessness of the first fourth of the movie, and the fact that everybody takes so FREAKING LONG TO DIE. starting from the first one, id just like to say that the first oracle was so much better, even though i thought she was rather annoying too. you look at the first one and you could feel the warmth radiating from her, kind of a homely feeling. with this second one, even when she was trying to look nice at the end of the movie, it just didnt work. I guess they tried to explain it away, and I hear they answered the question in the game, but until then I'm going to keep complaining.
About the second complaint, it's simply the fact that everything in the movie up to when neo goes to see the oracle could have been removed. They only needed it to resolve the cliffhanger from the end of the 2nd movie, another thing that didn't add much to the movie. None of it added anything to the story in the matrices. Maybe, just maybe, they used it to introduce the 'eyes of the oracle' and a new concept of emotions, but they could easily have talked about them in another part of the movie. and saved us some time.
and i dont think everybody's deaths need to be explained at all. keymaker... trinity... that guy in the goliath or whatever... and trinity. (btw, someone tell me what those things are called. it's AT or ACP unit or something) all of them take about five minutes to die, after being shot infinity times, cut open like a slab of meat, and thoroughly impaled, respectively. if you have something to tell us, tell us and dont take forever in doing so. we get it, neo has to open that door, that kid needs to open that other door, and trinity loves neo. stop. next scene.
okay, i think that's the extent of my complaints about the movie. if I, or any of you, think of anything else, it should be shared with everyone. but now I think I should start on why i really posted something: matrix revolutions is a think movie. at first, i thought the movie wasnt that good, but the more i think of it, the movie really sheds light on a lot of the questions posed in the previous two movies. i say 'sheds light' because it doesnt actually answer them, but it helps people find their own answers. and now, on to what I thought the movie meant...
I should probably start with the religious aspects of the movie. the most simple way to say this is that the machines represent God/gods. think about it- they hold supreme power over everything that happens on Earth. regardless of what the humans do, the machines are still able to do whatever they want. No, do not say that Zion is a threat to the machines or that the machines need the humans to survive, because the humans have been fighting like forever and have not done anything significant in the 'war.' Trinity said it herself when she said that noone has come within even a hundred kilometers of the machine city, representing that god works on an entirely different level that humans do. Also, do not argue that the machines needed neo to stop smith, because, as you might have noticed, the floating spike head never acknowledged that it needed neo, it merely allowed neo to fight smith. come to think of it, this probably relates to the garden of eden and the tree of knowledge. in the garden, everything was perfect, but the tree of knowledge was maintained to give adam and eve a choice (more on the concept of choice later). by eating the apple, they lost everything they knew and had, not knowing what was ahead. in neo's situation, he believed that he could beat smith and risked his life, the life of his love, and the lives of everyone in zion. the machines, representing god, allowed neo to do what he did.
As for neo, he more directly represents jesus. This was most directly shown in his 'crucifixion' when he allowed himself to be absorbed by smith, and by the rippling when he walked over the water-like ground in the machine city. the role of NEO, an anagram of the ONE, was to save the humans. much like jesus, he sacrificed his life to save the lives of everyone else. Also much like jesus, neo was both a man and a god, shown by his god-like powers. like Ive said before, all of this poses more questions than it answers, but it does answer some questions. For example, it sort of explains how neo is able to do the things he does. the oracle refered to neo touching the source when he stops sentinels, or kalimari as i think they're referred to at one point in the movie. this touching of the source is literally translated as encountering mr spikehead the machine leader, but figuratively it represents neo's encounter with a higher power, namely god. at that point in the movie, neo wasn't ready for what he saw, but by the end of the movie, when he walked on the rippling ground, we know he was ready.
with all this talk about neo being a god, I'm sure you're all wondering about my basis for referring to the machines as god. well good, because there's much more where that came from.
actually, looking at the time, I see that this might take a bit longer than I expected, and I have a test to study for. balance.. more on religion... the 'source'... fate vs free will.. emotions... I have much to talk about. I'll finish this post later. | | |
| holy wow! it's been a month since i posted anything. i think i'm gonna try to post more regularly. lets start things off with what the last week has been like.
in case none of you know, and i dont blame you if you dont, the cubs played the marlins to get to the world series. of baseball. i say this because prior to coming to illinois, i heard nothing about them, and now that i'm here, i hear about nothing but the cubs. this wouldn't be so bad if it was just chatting during mealtimes or between classes, but these people are everywhere. you know the person that thinks he's your friend and talks to you at the most random times and you wish he'd just go away? yeah, it's like that. except more of them. "watching the cubs?" "go cubs!"
it's worse when theres a game on. imagine sitting in your room, door closed, tool blasting on your headphones. suddenly you hear cheering from the building opposite yours. obviously something amazing and uncommon has happened. you open the door and, you guessed it, something has happened. cubs got someone on base.
yeah, watching this cubs stuff after all that yankees/mets really puts things in perspective. i've decided to root for the cubs too, not because i want them to win, but because i want them to play the yankees and lose. maybe that will quiet them down. go cubs! | | |
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