Apolo Ohno and His Korean Crybaby Counterparts

It's been with great interest that I've watched the Olympics this year. One thing that has been of particular interest to me is the continuing poor sportsmanship of the Korean short track speed skaters in their approach to Apolo Ohno. Don't get me wrong. I have it from an excellent source that Ohno isn't the nicest guy to the average employee working at the ice rink. Maybe he thinks a bit too highly of himself. That being said, in public, and in the spotlight, he seems to conduct himself rather well. Not so the Korean skaters. In the 1500m race held earlier in the week, Ohno collected the silver medal, and his teamate, J.R. Celski collected the bronze. Said gold-medal winner, Lee Jung-Su, "He [Ohno] did not deserve to stand on the podium".

The bad blood goes back to Salt Lake City, 2002, when apparent winner of the 1500m race, Kim Dong-Sung, was disqualified for blocking Ohno. Kim supporters deluged the IOC with complaints. It's been Hatfields and McCoys ever since, with the Koreans mostly sounding like a bunch of crybabies. Take the gift that they handed Ohno and Celski in the 1000m final. With three Koreans in the lead going into the final turn, the two in second and third took themselves out of the race by crashing into each other, allowing the two Americans to medal. That sound you heard was the collective slaps in the embarrassed faces of the Korean team and its supporters. Too embarrassed to admit their own culpability and failure, they tried to put the blame on Ohno.

Look, let your skating do the talking. If you're better than him, go out and win. If not, be gracious in defeat like the hundreds of other Olympic athletes who have done so.

I Look at Trash Part Two

I just found this interesting link, along the lines of fun and exciting trash. Check this out!Bottomless Trash Bin

Struggling with the Shoulder

Last night I had excruciating pain in my shoulder, probably the worst I've had since the surgery. I was just heading out the door to a meeting, which I probably should've canceled. This morning I've been doing a lot of research, and found several sources that basically said that this is normal. Here is one such source: Recovering from Rotator Cuff Surgery. It looks like it's going to be a long, hard road, and I'd better be careful not to try and push things too far, too fast, or I'll end up on that hospital operating table once again.

On the bright side, the doctor gave me permission to play my guitar, which I was excited about, but which may have led to the pain I was enduring last night. I think I may go with the electric guitar next time as it's thinner than my acoustic and probably won't strain my sore shoulder as much...I'm hoping anyway.

I Look at Trash

Yup. I just discovered something again about myself, that I'd forgotten. Now that I have to slow down and walk, instead of run, and doing it outside, instead of on a treadmill, well, I find that I'm looking at the trash along the side of the road, hoping for discovery of something cool. Today I thought I'd found an MP3 player or something, but it ended up being a part to a Verizon cell phone. I thought I saw a free sandwich coupon for Quizno's, but it ended up being a "buy one sandwich and a drink, get a second sandwich free" card. I found a rusty steel ball though. I didn't keep it. I was actually not real excited about the veritable cornucopia of paper cups, empty energy drink bottles, and assorted other garbage left over from those whose IQ is nearer 50 than 100.

There are too many cretins in the world that just dump their trash anywhere. Half of them are probably junior high school kids (since I was walking near the school) who learn in their half-baked educational system about the "realities" of climate change , and probably scream at people for using too much oil, then drop their twinkie wrapper along side the road, without a care in the world.

All that being said, I think there is some virtue in looking through trash for the serendipitous random cool thing.