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A Collaborative Austin Texas / Florida Blog Currently Featuring Tommybear and: |
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August 2008 Archives |
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So the sport of my youth, Tae Kwon Do, took a real beating in this year's Summer Olympics.
It had been rumored that Tae Kwon Do was on the brink of elimination from the next Summer Olympics much like softball and baseball.
With this mind, TKD nation was trying to do the best it could to avoid controversy. Unfortunately, other than the possibility of under age girls in Women's Gymnastics, it might be the most controversial sport of the games.
The first incident was when US TKD golden boy, Steven Lopez (American 2 time defending gold medalist) was eliminated from gold medal contention following a referee's penalty. Lopez was docked a point for doing a cut kick. A cut kick is essentially kicking away an opponent's blow below the waist. I don't really understand why this is a penalty at all but Lopez was docked a point and lost in sudden death. Rules are rules. I'm not sure why he's being such a whiney baby since the match did go into sudden death and he didn't step up and just win despite the point deduction.
Lopez's team was so soured from the decision that they made some seriously damaging allegations including:
“When (poor judging) happens to you, you’re told to shut up and not say anything because of what will happen to you, or what will happen to the sport,” Lopez's team leader said. “If this is truly what taekwondo is about, maybe taekwondo shouldn’t be in the Olympics. Maybe they should fix it.”
What came next had the WTF scrambling
on the defensive as Perez came out with some serious allegations.
First, he said the protest wasn’t properly handled – that the
Olympic Competition Supervisory Board didn’t respond for 45 minutes,
well outside of the allotted 15 minutes typically allowed. Second,
Perez said they were given little explanation as to why their
protest had been deemed “unacceptable.” Perez said that, in a June taekwondo conference, the heads of the 25 teams which attended were asked to sign an agreement not to file any protests at these Olympic Games in hopes of avoiding a controversy that could further put the sport’s Olympic future in jeopardy.
So I thought this was kind of bad for TKD but that's not even close to what I saw in the paper today.
Angel Matos from Cuba kicked a referee in the face after being disqualified for not returning to the match fast enough after an injury. WTF?! Look at the picture. He straight up walked up to that referee and delivered a high kick to his face. What has this world come to??
I also read in the paper today that good ole Castro said Matos's actions were justifiable.
Well I mean if Castro said it's ok then it must be right?
Tae Kwon Do is a big time sport/martial art for children in America and now they have to see a couple of the top competitors in the world act like a cry baby and a thug.
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That's right tommybear readers, I said proposal. I apologize if I haven't had a chance to tell you personally before you read this blog.
Still unaware. The left hand is still bare.
So the proposal was coming as a complete surprise to Mandy. I did all the ring buying on the sly so she had no idea that it was coming. At first I hadn't decided which night on the 4 night trip I wanted to ask her. I thought that the first night wasn't any good because everyone's still getting acclimated and relaxing. I decided the 4th night wasn't any good because we'd have to get to bed at a decent hour to prepare for the long trip home. I thought the third night wasn't going to cut it either. What if something happens and the mood isn't right that night then I wouldn't have a back up day. So I decided to do it on the second night.
Night two at the resort was more beach time during the day but that evening they had a theme night, "Fiesta Night." Yesterday, the buffet was "Italian Night" and the night before was "Oriental Night" but we ended up missing that. I'm kind of curious of what was in Oriental night. Fiesta Night was going to be more than different food in the buffet. They had cleared out all the beach benches and umbrellas and set up a fancier, decorated buffet. They also put out a bunch of tables on the beach.
Mariachis
Theme night was ok. The sound system was kind of loud and jarring but I appreciated the resort's effort. They had Mariachi singers and traditional dancers who danced with a smile on their faces.
Robb not feeling very well. He blamed it on the taquitoes.
Something happened to the Corona kegs that night that caused the beer to not be warm. I didn't realize this until I ordered my first beer and they brought me a cup with brown liquid and ice. At first I thought the waiter misheard my order for a Cerveza and brought me a tea or something. It turns out that was my beer on ice. There's a really good reason beer isn't served on ice normally. Ice instantly takes away the carbonation and it was watered down before I even got it. It was kind of gross so I switched to margaritas.I don't know if warm beer or iced beer is worse.
For some reason my camera can't take pictures at a distance in the dark. I figure a 7.1 mp camera could handle it. This is the "night time" feature. Doesn't work well when people are dancing around.
I didn't want to do a public proposal so after the Fiesta I tried to find a romantic, private place to set it up. I thought perhaps I could propose on a beach chair overlooking the water but due to Fiesta Night, all the beach chairs were put away.
Resort Hammocks
Then I thought we could grab a hammock that overlooked the ocean and I could propose as we watched the waves gently crash. No such luck. All hammocks were taken down which was a complete shock to me. The only explanation I could think of was that they didn't want bums sleeping there over night.
Then I thought maybe we could take a walk on the pier but that spot wasn't romantic at all. It kind of stank and there were big piles of seaweed everywhere.
After we couldn't find a place to relax, Mandy had the idea of going back to the room with a bottle of wine. Since it was all inclusive, they didn't let us just take a bottle from the bar but we discovered that we could buy it from room service for $220 pesos. It's funny but in Mexico they use $ to also denote pesos. I thought all currencies had their own symbols. I guess not.
View from balcony.
Getting ready to give room service $220 pesos.
Fancy set up for our wine.
Teeny little bottle opener that required the use of brute force.
So we had wine on the balcony for a while and I thought this is the place. The water looked beautiful, the weather was perfect and then BAM. I popped the question.
Not enhanced. It really shines like that!
I think it's going to be mad fun planning the wedding. Details to come.
For you local readers, let me know if you know of any cheap cover bands besides the Spazzmatics. |
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Here's a picture of the social coordinator doing trivia. What's the biggest ocean? Easy! How many muscles are there in the body? Hard!
Random island guest.
Another random island guest.
Rob looking for something.
Too much backlight.
That's better.
Lot of beer drinking, sun worshipping, and hanging out in the water.
Classic Corona picture which is, by the way, the only beer at the resort.
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So I haven't posted any blogs lately because I was in Mexico from 8-13 to 8-17. But now I'm back and ready to break it down in multiple parts.
Our flight was at 8:30 am so we woke up at about 6:00 am to give us time to do any last minute packing, drive to the airport, and deal with any long international check in. Here we are in Houston still bright eyed and bushy tailed not knowing the harsh commute that lay before us.
This is Lisa getting a snack before our Mexico flight.
When we negotiated for transportation from the airport to the ferry that would eventually take us to La Isla Mujeres, they told us it was a "private shuttle." To us, private shuttle meant we got our own shuttle that would take us directly to the ferry. I guess to them, private shuttle meant it was a shuttle from a private company. We realized this when we got to the shuttle and there were already two people on it. The four of us packed in the van with the two other people and we drove off to what we thought was towards the ferry. Instead, we looped around the airport for a while and picked up some old lady in another terminal. If you drove directly to the ferry from the airport, it takes about 35-40 minutes. Now we've added 2 more out of the way stops so who knows how long it was going to take.
This was easily the worst shuttle ride I have ever taken in my entire life. Literally! The first issue we had was the air conditioning barely worked. It probably would have been better to roll the windows down and let the air from the 95 degree weather wash over us then have this weak AC system tease us. The vents on the AC were also broken so you couldn't even channel this pitiful air towards you. It blew straight down on your foot. The second problem with this private shuttle is the driver drove like he was fucking insane. I could only assume he got higher marks or a bonus or something the faster he makes his drop offs and deliveries. I know people like taxi cab drivers in Mexico or even in the states drive aggressively but this guy was playing chicken at very high speeds. Later on in the trip we took many other taxis and another shuttle and none of those drivers drove like this fool.
So it was hot, the guy was driving too fast, and now the normally 35 minute trip was now taking over an hour because we were the last to get dropped off. When the shuttle driver dropped off the second group of people, he went some back alley way through streets with horrible conditions that just jarred the hell out of us.
We finally arrived at the ferry dock and we couldn't wait to get out of that van.
This was more like it. The ferry ride was very very pleasant and I didn't feel seasick at all. We sat on top instead in the ACed bottom but it felt great on the roof with the cool wind blowing off the ocean. To our surprise we even had a singer/guitar player entertain us with Spanish ballads. I put a 20 second YouTube video below. It's a little hard to hear because it's too windy.
We made it! Island Ho!
This is the Corona tank top I bought two years ago in Puerto Vallerta. Still fits!
The best part of the island is the beach. The pool is really small and had way too many rug rats running around and doing cannonballs. The water at the beach is almost completely still and crystal clear and shallow to your waist for at least 100 yards. Most of the time we just sat down right on our butts and enjoyed the water and the sun. The only problem with hanging out on the beach instead of the pool is that it was a long trek to get back to the bar.
More to come later... |
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I think when people tell me that Animal House is good, I think they're misremembering it somehow. Maybe they're remembering that it made them feel good when they watched it as a kid like they were getting away with seeing a movie with nudity and excessive drinking. Maybe they remember that they watched it when they were young and now they miss the innocence of youth.
They certainly couldn't have remembered accurately that it was a good or funny movie. Animal House was released in 1978, but that's no excuse for being crappy. You can find funny movies in any decade that hold up pretty well over the years. Young Frankenstein was released in 1974 and it was a hell of a lot funnier than Animal House.
Let's briefly break down why Animal House sucks. What's funny about it? John Belushi? What's so funny about him? Yelling food fight? Yelling Toga? The Zit bit might be the only legitimate joke of the movie. There are also two smart alecy Ferris Bueller type guys in the main frat. There should always only be one smart alecy guy in any movie.
That last scene where they completely wreck the parade was really strange to me. I'm probably just getting to be an old fuddy duddy in my old age but I kept thinking they're going to kill someone and they're sure acting like terrorists.
Anyways, you should some good early 80's movies instead like Ghostbusters, Real Genius, or Revenge of the Nerds. Movies with a real story line and likeable characters. |
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I USED to smoke. Now I'm just annoyed by it. I used to take a smoke break at least once an hour, sometimes more. One of things that helped me kick that smoking break habit was working with other people that didn't smoke and working in a really tall building where it was just too much of a pain in the ass to ride the elevator all day long.
A paralegal was fired from her job in Rochester, New York for taking too many smoke breaks. She was warned there was a policy that hourly workers could not take a break outside of lunch. The policy was put into place because management was noticing that breaks were lasting longer than 15 minutes and sometimes stretched to 30 minutes. In addition, sometimes non-smokers would leave with smokers to chat. I know I've been asked to keep smokers company many times in the past. I'd never do it now.
Karen Kridel decided she would just ignore the new policy. When told the only smoke break you get is lunch she said, "If you are addicted to cigarettes, you can't just do that." Who's problem is that? That's sounds like a YP and not a MP (you're problem not my problem.) I used to work with a guy that was so addicted to smoking he had to chew nicotine gum during long meetings. Needless to say he took at least 2 smoke breaks an hour. Am I supposed to have sympathy for people who are addicted to smoke breaks? Maybe that's a hint that you should quit or at least cut down to the point where you don't put your job in jeopardy. To say "I just can't do that. I'm addicted." is such a ridiculous notion to me. How would I have felt 5 years ago when I did smoke? How did I feel 5 years ago when people said I STANK of smoke behind my back after a smoke break? I don't know but I guarantee you that I wouldn't keep smoking in their face at the risk of my job.
Of course Kridel got fired because she deliberately violated the no break policy. I don't know if she sued but the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in Albany upheld the firing, saying Kridel engaged in misconduct by violating the no-break policy.
In addition: "The court also sided with
a state Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, which said Kridel
misrepresented the reason for her firing when she said was because
of too little work to do. She acknowledged that she didn't cite the
official reason for her dismissal, but said she felt her smoking was
a contributing factor.
Now some people may think that since I smoked for 7-8 years, I might have a little more sympathy towards Kridel. Hell I used to complain out loud like a dumb ass when I found out California bars didn't allow smoking. I'm all like, "but this is a goddamn bar. If you don't like smoke, don't come to the bar!." I also said when a fellow smoker was worried about smoking on a patio at a cafe, "It's outside for god's sake! If they don't like the smoke they can go inside!" C'mon, what a hypocrite I am.
But being an ex smoker just makes you realize what a ridiculous habit it is and for someone to still be smoking in this day and age just makes no sense. 90% of my Asian friends still smoke. God bless them. But if any one of them got fired for taking too many smoke breaks when told not to, then I couldn't feel very sorry for them.
Story in it's original form: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423618732&rss=newswire |
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I like to use the snooze button in the morning. Ideally, it would be set at 20 minutes, but most clocks don't have the adjustable snooze length feature. You usually just get stuck with the standard 9-10 minute snooze. Anyway, I will snooze anywhere between 0 and 6 times, probably an average of 2.5. This is annoying to some people, namely the person sharing the bed with me.
Why are all these snoozes required, they may wonder. Well, if I got to bed at a reasonable hour the night before, no snoozes would be necessary (ok, maybe one). But if I stayed out late, I need the extra snoozes to gradually get back into a state where I am capable of crawling out of bed. It's not every time I go out, just the times when I stay out later than planned.
For those of you who snooze, you know how it is in the morning. Say you set the alarm for 7:00am. When it actually goes off at 7:00, you think, maybe 10 more minutes. When it goes off at 7:10, well, maybe another 10 minutes. At 7:20, you say, 7:30 sounds good. Etc., etc...
Sometimes it's the same way at the bar. Say you plan to leave at 10:00pm. When 10:00 comes around, well, why not stay for one more? At 10:30, you say, okay, last one. At 11:00, you may be about to leave, but then you notice Tommy Do just put a full beer in front of you. Etc., etc...
This is what I like to call the Booze Snooze. For me, it's very hard to leave anywhere without at least one Booze Snooze. Often, there are multiple Booze Snoozes, which lead to multiple snoozes in the morning. To speak like an enginerd, I have observed a positive correlation between the snooze number and the Booze Snooze number. |
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Just the other day I was thinking it would be nice if I lived closer to work then I could just ride my bike to work and save gas, money, and get a little exercise. Then I realized if I lived close enough to work where I actually could bike, say 5 or 6 miles, then every day I would just say screw it. I live so close anyway that it would barely cost me anything in gas so why don't I just go ahead and drive?
Lowest Gas Prices In Your Area |
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(It's a long blog but don't miss the "funny story" at the end.)
I have to admit that parking my Tundra proved to be a much more daunting task than I expected. I figured a truck was like my SUV only a little bit bigger. The truth is it's a lot bigger. It's wider and it's quite a bit longer. Over the past few months I've been getting and better at pulling in and backing out of spaces but sometimes it still took me a while because I wanted to be really careful. When you're really careful you have to constantly pull forward and backup because you're using less space than you actually have and your angles just aren't efficient.
Parking a car, any car, is part sight, part feel, part memory, and part strategy. When I say part sight, I mean looking directly at your parking space, looking at your mirrors, and looking at your car going into the spot. Feel and memory are intertwined. For the part of you car you can't see directly, you have to kind of remember how big you car is and what you can get away with and then based on that memory, you have an instinctual feel of what happens when you move your car in a certain way. And then strategy is how you position your car you to back up or pull in.
The learning curve for these skills increases as the size of the car and the number of blind spots increases. My truck has many blind spots. The most obvious one is the tailgate. Although I know the tailgate represents almost the very end of my car, I can't see anything past it as I might a car with a back window. For the most part, when I back up, I can really only see the other car's back window but I kind of have to guess how far it's trunk sticks out from that back window. It's one thing to memorize the dimensions of my car but I only have a brief moment to memorize the other car before I can't see it at all. If the car behind me is at an angle, It's easy enough to look at the side mirrors and see how close I am to it but if it's almost directly behind me, I can't use the side mirrors much.
The second blind spots I have are the corners directly in front me. This is due in part to how high a truck is and because the design of the hood is bowed with slightly muscular look. I have to guess and memorize how much actual space I have in front of me as well once I start getting close.
I didn't think I could do much about these issues except try to learn and get better until Mandy's parents came to town. Her dad has a 2008 Tundra similar to mine except that it's a CrewMax model and he spent a lot more money than I did to get more bells and whistles. One thing he had that I was really jealous about is a built in "Sonar" feature. I didn't even know this existed.
A car sonar is basically a bunch of sensors in the front and the back that emit ultrasonic waves to determine how close an object is. It's like a bat's sonar. I started doing some reading about sonar's to see if it was even possible to get this installed after market. I called the dealership and they said this wasn't something they could install. I thought I didn't have a chance to get this done at a reasonable price because I read you had to have a bumper that already had holes in it. When I did some more research I saw that most of these parking sensor/sonar kits came with a big ass drill bit that would be used to drill a hole directly into your bumper. I wasn't about to do that and I figured either most generic installers wouldn't do it or else I wouldn't want someone who never drilled a bumper before to try it for the first time on my car.
Interestingly, I found a website called http://www.reversebackingsystems.com that said they had a national network of people that did installation. I emailed them and they said that had some installers pretty close to where I live. The installer (http://www.autero.com/) had a little bit of an issue wiring the thing but I am very pleased with the results.
So I have 4 sensors in the back and 2 in the front and a display unit that I mounted on the left on my dash board. It's a lot smaller than the picture below makes it seem. I should have put a quarter next to it to scale it.
The front sensors are always on but the display won't show anything unless you get really close to something. The back sensors are only activated when the car is put into reverse. The display has different sounding beeps depending on how close you are to the object and really whistles if you're 1.5 feet away from something. The display will also count down the distance in feet as you get closer to the object. I've been using it a couple of days now and it seems pretty accurate. I totally believe the back sensors because I mostly back into my parking spaces. I believe it so much right now that I feel like I can almost just keep backing up without looking and just let the numbers count down. When the back of the car of is 4 feet or closer to something, you can't see a thing anyway.
It's actually been really fun so far to see the thing turn on and countdown when I get near obstacles.
Funny thing happened to me last night with my parking sensors as I was coming home from pool. I've been feeling like my front sensors aren't very sensitive because they never come on when I'm at a stop light. I even tried to get semi close to the cars in front of me sometimes just to see if it'll turn on and it doesn't. I just looked at the web site and it says you will get a reading on your back one for 4-6 feet and the front one for 3 feet or less. HA! That explains it. Anyways last night, I get slighter closer than I normally do to a car to play with my sensor and of course my sensors don't turn on but then something strange happens. The beat up, manual truck in front me revs up like the guy's trying to get it in gear and he rolls back towards me slightly. I used to drive a manual transmission car and I understand the whole gas clutch, roll back thing. It was strange this guy was having trouble because we weren't on much of a slope. So he rolls back at me a good amount and my parking sensors suddenly come on starts beeping 2.5! 2.5! Holy crap it does work! At first I wasn't sure if the guy did that as a way of telling me to get off his bumper but it seems like a crazy, wreckless, and aggressive thing to do. I was about to just put my car in reverse as well until I saw more cars coming up behind me. The guy does it a second time and this time my sensors yell 1.5! 1.5! The guy finally pulls away but god forbid he hits me and the cops have to come at that time of night.
Anyway, I love the parking sensors. It's almost like playing a video game with my car now when I'm parking. I still may or may not get the a rear camera installed also as an extra safety device. I haven't decided yet. Nothing really beats just being able to see everything with the naked eye. The parking sensors have instantly increased my enjoyment of my 2008 Toyota Tundra Double Cab.
Oh yeah, the national average for gas is all the way down to 3.86. That means locally I can probably find it for under 3.80. That's just like old times. Prius deeze nuts. I got some hay to haul.
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Week was OK. Made it to the gym with
Edgar on Saturday for a really good workout.
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by Tommybear
by Chris Ward
