Month: February 2006

The party Olympics

Bode Miller is proud of his accomplishments. Oh, not his accomplishments of downhill skiing in the 2006 Olympics (of which there were none).

Nope, he is proud of partying in Torrin.

“I just did it my way. I’m not a martyr, and I’m not a do-gooder. I just want to go out and rock. And man, I rocked here,” Miller said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press soon after he skidded off the slalom course in his fifth and final race, completing an 0-for-the-Olympics.

Miller came to the Italian Alps cresting on a wave of expectations and was considered a medal threat in every Alpine event. But he failed to finish three of them and his best showing was fifth in the downhill — part of a games with few highlights for the U.S. Ski Team.

“The expectations were other people’s,” Miller said. “I’m comfortable with what I’ve accomplished, including at the Olympics. I came in here to race as hard as I could. That was my obligation to myself.”

Dude! He partied! What an inspiration. I remember a time when “I did it my way” meant achieving goals without going through conventional methods. Now it means not achieving goals because of not trying. Partying was more important. But that is OK. Better to party, than to try but lose, right Bode?

Miller said that while he might have prepared differently, he isn’t one to second guess and he started each race fully focused and determined to win.

Bode doesn’t know the difference between being determined to win and being prepared to win.

“Me, it’s been an awesome two weeks,” Miller said. “I got to party and socialize at an Olympic level.”

If there were a gold medal in underachievement, Bode would get it. But at least he has self-esteem. Which goes to show you self-esteem is worthless without accomplishment. I havent’ even trained for the Olympics and won just as many medals as he did. But that is all right because I was determined to win just like Bode was.
Bob Costas summed up it up best when talking about Bode Miller’s effort (or lack thereof):

If you don’t care enough to consistently give your best and at least sometimes do your best, then pretty soon nobody else will care either.

How am I supposed to drive?

The Daytona 500 was yesterday. This is one sport I don’t understand. In the 110th lap Tony Stewart was penalized for “aggressive driving”. Isn’t this a car race?

How exactly does one win a NASCAR race without driving aggressively?

I saw later the penalty was specifically for bumping. Maybe they should call it reckless instead of aggressive.

Democrats in the Twilight Zone

Vice President Chenney appeared on Fox News today to talk about his hunting accident over the weekend where he shot his friend with birdshot.

The White House press corps seems to livid over the fact that the story broke through a local newspaper in Corpus Christi, TX. Of course the Democrats are trying to jump on this.

The situation is becoming absurd. Hillary Clinton of all people said, ” “A tendency of this administration — from the top all the way to the bottom — is to withhold information …” She apparently said this with a straight face and no sense of irony. Yes, this is the same Hillary Clinton that found files  in her White House closet a year after they subpeonaed. The same Hillary that was involved in the delaying the release of Vince Foster’s suicide note.

I’m amazed how she can say these things without any regard for her own history. She has gotten all the way to the White House and then into the Senate doing it though. I now know why I could never be in politics. I wouldn’t think people would be stupid enough to fall for it. Hillary clearly doesn’t have that issue. And it works for her.

Leigh Nash is funny

I mentioned not long ago that Leigh Nash has a spot over at MySpace. She is one of the few artists who seems to contribute regularly to their web site.

When she decides to retire from the music business, she should be able to find a job in comedy writing. At least her blog post about how to beat up an ostrich is funny.

Batman vs Al Qaeda

Legendary comic book author Frank Miller is writing a graphic novel that he refers to as “a piece of propoganda,” where “Batman kicks al Qaeda’s ass.”

Cool. There was a time when comic books and entertainment media in general were unabashedly pro-American. Not only that, they weren’t afraid of naming our enemies. Captain American fought against the Nazis. John Wayne fight everyone.

Now Hollywood is so afraid of not being politically correct, they change characters in movie adaptations. Remember the movie The Sum of All Fears? The plot is that terrorists detonate a nuclear device in the U.S. In the original book it was Islamic terrorists. The movie would have none of that in a post 9/11 world. They decided that it would be better to make them neo-nazis. Okaaay.

It’s good to see an author who is not afraid of recognizing where the real threats are in the world and sending a message that they should and can be stopped.

(hat tip: Michelle Malkin)

Search engine blindness

Yahoo! has been accused of releasing information to the Chinese government which led to the a Chinese dissident being imprisoned for eight years.

Google is releasing a Chinese version of their site that will censor search results (in spite of their “don’t be evil” motto).

Today, Google produced a video commenting on Michelle Malkin. Michelle Malkin pointed out that Danish Imams had fabricated some offensive cartoons about the Muslim prophet Muhammed and blamed the cartoons on the Danish newspaper that previously printed a series of 12 cartoons. In the video, Google said it is not clear how much of Malkin’s theory is true.

What? Michelle Malkin provided links to news organizations to back up her statement. How does Google not know how to verify this information? Do the people at Google not know how to click on links? First, the three pictures did not run in the original Danish newspaper; they should be able to verify that through their own search engine. Second, there is absolutely no doubt that one of the fabricated pictures taken from a French newspaper story about a pig calling contest and had nothing to do with Islam or Muhammed until the Imams claimed it did.

I’m sick of both Yahoo! and Google at this point. (Yes, I know Google owns blogger who hosts this blog. I’m working on it.)

Update:
By the way, if you are concerned about Yahoo! helping to jail Chinese citizens, you can call their media relations at (408) 349-3300.

Update:

This was written when the blog was hosted by Blogger. Obviously I’ve since moved it.

Carolyn remembered

Here is the biography read at Carolyn’s funeral. Even though I knew all of this, I’m still impressed when I see her accomplishments in one place. She was driven to succeed.

Carolyn Frances Whitaker was born February 21, 1948 in Denver, CO. Her parents were John Ward and Violet Marie Hitchell Ward. Early in her life Carolyn lived in Chula Vista, CA, Platte, SD, and Orange, CA. She was the fourth child of five. The year that she spent in Platte with her grandmother was especially significant in her life.

Carolyn graduated from Orange (CA) High School in 1966. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Irvine in 1973, specializing in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Carolyn was employed by Rockwell International on the Space Shuttle program in the 1970’s in Environmental control and Life Support Systems.

Carolyn also did environmental airport noise consulting for J.J. Van Houten and Associates, and thermal engineering for TRW Systems. She became a registered Professional Engineer in Mechanical Engineering in 1978.

Carolyn married Will in 1975. They have one daughter, Bonnie, who was born in 1978. The Whitakers Lived in Diamond Bar, CA and Rancho Cucamonga, CA between 1975 and 1994.

In 1985, Carolyn made a career change. She earned a Master of Arts degree in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling from Chapman University. She was licensed as a Marriage, Family, and Child counselor in California. She also was a Certified Trauma Counselor. Carolyn worked as a counselor in several clinics and also established a private practice.

With a move to Tucson, AZ in 1994 Carolyn became a Certified Professional Counselor and Certified Marriage and Family Therapist in Arizona. She worked as a Mental Health Counselor for Palo Verde Hospital, and was also in private practice. Later she did substitute teaching in the Marana Unified School District.

Carolyn’s varied interests have included Making clothes, painting, and writing. She taught sewing classes at Stretch & Sew in the 1980’s.

Carolyn became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1990. Her callings in the church included ward librarian, in-service teacher where she trained other teachers, stake missionary, and primary teacher. Recently, she served a mission at the Tucson West Family History Center assisting members of the Church as well as many who are not members of the church who were interested in searching their genealogical roots.

Carolyn was diagnosed with cancer in the lower abdomen in late 2005. After a short struggle with the cancer, she passed away on January 31, 2006. Carolyn is survived by her husband Will Whitaker. She is also survived by three siblings: James Ward of San Diego, Alice Nelson of Redding, CA, and John Ward of Centennial, CO. She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother Thomas Matthew Ward. Other survivors include her daughter Bonnie Harper and son-in-law Kevin Harper, and their children Margaret, Matthew and Andrew.