It's the OLYMPICS!!! my thoughts...

i love the olympics. it's got everything...drama, sports, various ages participating, and healthy competition within the international arena. some friends of mine consider me addicted, especially as i don't seem watch much sports games throughout the year. but it's the OLYMPICS...how can you NOT watch with anticipation the competition between the very best athletes in the WORLD who are mainly competing for the sake of competing and do their country proud. unlike american sports where the athletes seem to get more spoiled by the year and the games have become all about the money rather than the sport and the fun of competing. where's the dedication? as an olympian, dedication is ingrained, training is brutal and it's survival of the fittest is key. whether you win or you lose, an olympian remains an olympian forever.

i don't understand how anyone can miss that asians tend to age slower than caucasians and other ethnic groups. this may be why the chinese womens gymnastics may look younger than others. considering the amount of training these chinese women have to maintain throughout their lives...i consider that equal to other standards. not too mention the threat of death by their own gov't if they lose---allegedly!!!!

hey, what is up with handball? i didn't even know this is an olympic sport. running, jumping, hurdles, rowing, wrestling...it get that the ancients competed in those sports but handball? i don't understand it...is it basketball? is it soccer? is it lacrosse? how the hell did this sport get overlooked when the IOC decided to get rid of softball and baseball. yeah...baseball and softball are american dominated sports. so, if that's the issue and the criteria for eliminating them, then get rid of badminton it seems only china and indonesia dominate THAT "sport."

i love watching volleyball. whether it's team or beach...it just fun to watch. especially beach volleyball where it seems amercian music rules and it's a friggin' beach party in cali rather than in the motherland. the dj plays like 20 songs over and over so that by the time the first set is over, even the afghanis watching the game (in the stands or in their tent) can sing the first 3 lines of chumbawamba's "i get knock down/but i get up again/you never gonna keep me down" or queen's "we will rock you."

and why do the men's beach volleyball get dancing girls during the breaks/time-outs? why can't the women's volleyball get some straight "thunda from downundas?" sheesh! grab some of the soccer guys from brazil...i know they'll dance for the women's beach v-ball. those guys will dance for anything...and i MEAN anything.

speaking of beach v-ball...i just watched beach v-ball between georgia and netherlands. georgia won in only 2 sets and let's just say the dude with the curly hair on the georgia team was very HAPPY about that...especially south of the border. after the game point, he made a dramatic run from the sand ALL the up to the top of the stands to stand by the georgian flag. and this is where you can see his "happiness" prominently or as the chinese would describe it "his sacred jade." what's even more interesting than THAT is the georgian beach v-ball players are actually brazilian. they gave up their citizenship and couldn't play for 2 years in order to play for georgia. we are talking about the country of georgia or the republic of georgia...not the banjo-playing, "squealin' like a pig" georgia. so what the hell do these guys know that we don't that they would give up their citizenship to a county now at war with friggin' Russia? raise your hand if you think it's just a matter of time before georgia is gobbled up by the ruskies! cease-fire, my arse.

anyway.....................back to th big O (olympics, i mean). why do i find synchronized swimming so fascinating and scary. it's so fascinating to see how long these women are able to hold their breath and do all those intricate moves with their legs (let's see if phleps can do THAT! i still think they should check his DNA for dolphin or seal chromosomes). but it's so frickin' scary when the pop out of the water and you see their faces. YIKES!!!

as this is an olympics where so many of the sport events are being televised for the first time, the announcers for the sychronized swimming were scrabbling to get a clue on how the sport was actually judged. they finally got a professtional and former synch swimmer to help explain the sport. there's the swordfish move and the blender as well as the scissors with a bit of chopping involved. i felt like i was watching to the Food Network. i confess that i might've made up a few of those names but that's what the moves looked like to me. before they get into the water they do some weird-a** pose before diving into the water. then the swimmers pop out at the end of the routine with grins that rivals the joker's in this years batman. the make-up...omg...the make-up is sooooo scary. worse than tammy fae baker, ariel from little mermaid at disneyland and amy winehouse put together. it's no wonder this sport wasn't telelvised mainstream. it's too scary to have close-ups.

Geek Squad to the Rescue!

while in LA, one day i had sound on my laptop...then i get salmonella...get out of the hospital...logon to my laptop...update my system...things are working...then the next day i have NO sound. i can't listen to my iTunes, videos, Windows Media Player, or play any games. it was weird. i tried to figure out the problem but everything seemed fine and they were no viruses. i just had no sound. so, i took my laptop to the Geek Squad (GS) at Best Buy (BB) here in Hawaii.

i was reluctant to go to GS since my last trip to them in DC/Virginia ended up costing me over $100 for them to tell me to send it to Sony as they couldn't fix it. muthas!!!

so i drag myself to BB thinking i was gonna just leave my laptop there and come back a couple weeks later when it was "repaired." hopefully. i labeled everything on it with my name: the laptop...the battery on the laptop...the 2 cords. i didn't want no switcheroos! i also marked it with my invisible pen/powder so i can use my ultraviolet light to verify they didn't switch my stuff and just put my labels on the crap they switch my stuff with....OK....i didn't do that last one with the powder but i was tempted. where’s the trust?

i get to BB and there are 2 GS dudes. one was a talkative haole (white person) kid who had a tattoo of a star on his left temple but tried to cover it with make-up but that made it worse. i couldn't stop staring at it. it was just badly done. i'm thinking the dude does not have a girlfriend to help him. the other was an Asian (Aiea) dude that showed no emotions except 2: impatience and disinterest. i'm like PRAYING to get the haole guy. the customer he was working with was an old computer geek who looked like Woz. he was wearing short-shorts and a tight orange ti-shirt over his big belly...and he kept leaning on the counter...sort of bending over. yeeeeech!!! you couldn’t help but watch as the shorts kept rising and rising.

i totally started off wrong with the GS dudes by not signing in. there weren’t any other geek customers and i didn’t see the dang sign-in sheet, so i just sat down on the chair in front of the counter, trying to look friendly and not confrontational. but i could feel myself losing the friendly look as the old-computer-daisy-duke-geek kept manipulating the time of the haole GS. freakin’ Asian GS gets rid of his customer but then starts playing the "don't make eye contact with the customer and we can pretend she's not waiting especially since she didn't sign in" game. the Asian GS was playing that avoidance game real good. he was a frickin’ pro. Olympic caliber. finally...as the daisy-duke geek started wrapping up his dissertation on battery usage for Sony products...the the Asian GS calls me over. DANGNABIT!!! freakin' A! my luck sucks!

i'm totally thinking i'm gonna get the blow off from the Asian GS. his whole attitude was telling me that i was an idiot for even having an electronic. kind of like the car service guys when i go in for a check-up...i know they think i shouldn’t even have a vehicle since i’m ALWAYS late for my oil change.

since i was being presented with this attitude from the GS, i changed my approach in explaning what’s wrong with my laptop. i had all my notes and dates and was SO ready to launch into a detailed account of what happened and what was wrong and how i tried to fix it...yada yada yada. when he asked in his curt tone what was my issue, i went with “no sound” then i shut up. he didn’t say anything and proceeded to work on my computer.

as he didn’t seem to want to send my computer to geeks in the back and try to swindle me, i just stood there while he worked on it...right there in front of me. i was nervous and excited. a GS was actually working on my laptop and i was a witness. :-) yeah!

as he worked silently doing his thing, i just stood there trying not to look like an idiot. i started to listen to the customer/lady next to me who was trying to get a refund but sounded like she was trying to cheat BB. her explanation was long, confusing and stupid. the haole GS kept trying to get her focus and explain the actually reason for the refund but off she would go about the day she was born, how the world has turn to crap, etc. the GS kept asking “how is this relevant to you not needing spyware protection on your son’s laptop? and wasn’t the spyware automatically installed once your purchased it?”

it soon became apparent that my GS dude was the manager as he finally cut in on the 5^th stupid explanation about aliens, not illegal aliens, visiting her and her son, and told the other GS to give her the refund. i think he actually grunted and then said “give her the refund.” the other GS didn’t even question or try to argue that the woman was obviously trying to cheat the system...he just did it.

now...i was impressed with my GS and his powers but still wondering if he was just playing solitaire on my laptop while making me stand there and wait. in defense of the waiting and the loss of the entertaining but mentally challenged customer (who got her friggin' refund), i bust out my Sony portable reader system (PRS-505) to read one of the books i downloaded. my mom got me this device for my last birthday and it is awesome. especially if you are a reader. it is so easy to carry around and it holds over 160 books...more if you download to a memory card.

i start reading and then all of the sudden my GS guy comes alive and animated. he starts asking me a gazillion questions about the Sony PRS. it was like someone plugged him in or something. i couldn’t answer him fast enough. then the other GS dude gets involved with the conversation. after 20 minutes of them discussing the PRS, the haole GS dude asks my guys “do you read alot?” and he answers, “no.” i couldn’t believe it. no? NO? what the hell is he so excited about then if you don’t frickin’ read?!!!

the next thing i knew, my former non-talkative-samurai-Geek-Squad-assister-now-turned-best-friend is telling me that he fixed my laptop and starts playing Brother Iz from my Windows Media Player. i was so happy. i’m not even gonna tell you what he did to fix it as it was such an easy solution...ok....i’ll tell so you have the solution if you ever have the problem. he didn’t say what actually happened for me to lose sound but he uninstalled and then reinstalled my sound device. friggin’ duh, yeah?! i almost reached over to kiss his Buddha face but held myself back. when i asked how much for the work...he said no charge. i couldn’t believe my luck! i guess i can go back to my bank and return the loan i took out. :-D

shake shake shake! shake shake shake! shake your booty!

i can now say i have survived an earthquake. who would’ve predicted that Chino Hills would be the epi-center of a 5.6 earthquake? what the heck is going on? and why do i always seem to be SO lucky to have experienced such a thing?! wtf?!!

let me break the quake moments i experienced down for you:

the quake started out slowly. i was on my way to the post office (p.o.) in my friends Toyota Tundra (big a** truck). as i was drove by a construction site near the p.o., i felt the truck shake and heard a rumble. at first, i thought something was up with the truck engine but the truck didn’t stall. then, i thought it was the constructions dudes that might’ve hit the truck or something. when i looked around the truck during a red light, i didn’t see any damage to the it.

so onward i go.

i get there, park in my handi-cap spot, and mail my package. i head back to the truck and slide into the driver’s seat. as i turn the key to start the truck, it starts rockin’ like the craziest ride at Disneyland (“wildest ride in wilderness!!!” – Big Thunder Mountain http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/toppicturegallery/ig/Disneyland-Rides-Frontierland/Big-Thunder-Mountain-Railroad.htm). my head was whipping back and forth and i was trying to hang on to anything in that cab.

now, i’m not sure why...but my immediate thought while all the rumbling and shaking was going on was that the engine was gonna blow! really. the engine was on it’s way to exploding with me in the truck. either from a bomb that was placed under the truck (by those bastard Chino Hills groundhogs in retaliation for my murdering their brethren in my friends yard last summer) or because i somehow put the wrong gasoline in when i filled up the day before. i just knew that i had to get out of that truck immediately.

so, i bolt out of the cab and head for the palm tree (thank goodness a car wasn’t parked next to me or i would’ve had to somehow jump and roll over the hood to get to the tree!). not noticing until later that i’m barefoot, i’m trying to hide my body behind the tree (‘cause that’s what they always do on CSI when a car blows and they survive); but the friggin’ tree is shaking like it was in a category 4 hurricane (i know hurricanes...let me tell ya). now i’m looking up at the tree thinking what the hell is wrong with it as it’s a clear blue sky day with no wind.

that’s when i noticed the grandma-lady.

she’s standing a little ways from the truck with her armed crooked to hold her handbag. she is a stylish california grandma with that look of superiority (you KNOW she lives in a gated community somewhere in Chino Hills). anyway, i glance over at her and she is staring at me. i'm not sure if she’s upset ‘cause she heard me swearing on my way out of the truck and at the friggin’ tree, or if she's worried about some hispanic-looking chick (i'm portuguese not mexican, lady!) acting crazy; but she tells me, “honey, it’s only an earthquake” in that tone that convey's what an idiot she thinks i am.

it took me a moment or 2 to process what she said as i was worried about her getting blown up since she was in blast range. then it dawned on me what she said...and that i might've over-reacted. just a bit.

since i was out of breath (my lungs aren’t quite up to speed yet from all the operations), i just kind of waved at her and threw a grin at her although it was shaky. i shuffled my way back to the truck and watched as the grandma-lady shake her head and make her way into the p.o., which i thought was more stupid than me running around and ducking behind trees. hello! big earthquake...building might be unstable....???!!!! friggin’ californians think they know it all and are invincible. like...what-ev-er.