February 12, 2006 - Are you watching the Olympics?
Chances are you are either drawn to the hype, or you simply don't care. For me though, I have to admit that I am definitely drawn to the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. Compare to previous Olympics though, these games seem to have a much lower profile (as compared to say Salt Lake City in 2002). Perhaps it's because the games are being played out in Europe, in a little town that no one has really heard of; or maybe because these games are really looked upon as the precursor to Vancouver 2010 - which we all know will be what the entire country will pay attention to in just 4 years.
Personally, I find the Winter Olympics much more interesting than the Summer Games. I guess the primary reason is that Canada does much much better in the Winter Olympics. I also think the winter sports are much cooler to watch - I can't think of anything sports that are in the Winter Games that I don't like watching, whereas for the Summer Games, the only ones that I really care to watch are swimming, diving, and beach volleyball. Plus, am I the only ones who think the winter athletes are much hotter than the summer ones?
Watching the Olympics also brings this warm fuzzy feeling too - maybe it's because I know I will never win an Olympic medal - but also the games bring the world together, and for 2 weeks, we focus our attention on these athletes - on friendship, on sportsmanship, and on cooperation - something that we definitely don't see regularly enough on tv.
So here are some my favourite memories from watching the Olympics over the years. My earliest goes back to 1994, since I don't quite remember watching the games before then...
1994 - Lillehammer, Norway: Who can forget the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding skating scandal that took centre stage at these Olympics. The one thing I remember was Tonya Harding failing miserably in the finals (her laces broke or something?) while Nancy Kerrigan went on to win a silver medal.
1996- Atlanta, USA: I was in summer school that year when the Olympics took place. My best memory of those games was our teacher actually stopping his lesson so we could watch Donovan Bailey run the 100m heat trials. Bailey went on to win the gold medal - which I watched from home.
1998 - Nagano, Japan: Elvis Stojko won the silver medal despite his injuries was remarkable to watch. Ross Rebagaliati won gold in snowboarding (which I watched live in the morning) but is probably remember by most as the athlete who "inhaled" but not "smoked" pot. Michelle Kwan, who I had a big crush on growing up, lost the gold medal to 15 year old Tara Lipinski in figure skating.
2000- Sydney, Australia: Best memory was watching Simon Whitfield winning the gold medal in triathlon on my way out that night. The course was memorable since it featured great views of the Sydney Harbour. I remember watching rowing, but that's pretty much it.
2002- Salt Lake City, USA: Aside from the gold medal hockey game (which I think everyone watched), my best memory is probably watching Jamie Sale and David Pelletier skate to their well deserved, though belated gold medal. The two probably owe their medal to the media, who advocated endlessly for the pair. These games also forever changed the way figure skating is judged.
2004- Athens, Greece: I don't have any memories of these games, aside from how much I would love to check out Athens. This of course, coincides with Athens being Canada's worst Olympic performance in recent memory.
So there you go, and for the next two weeks, I'll probably watch more sports that I have in the past 6 months. And maybe, just maybe, watching the Olympics will entice me enough to go out there and try a new sport - anyone up for ski jumping?
February 3, 2006 - This week couldn't have gone by fast enough. Even though I had a relatively short work week (I called in sick on Monday), it felt like it just would not end. I guess it didn't help that things have been kinda weird lately and then on Thursday morning, my mom called to tell me that my sister's in the hospital! So let's do a quick recap of what happened...
Monday: It was nice spending a day in the apartment doing nothing. Sure I was suffering from killer headaches, but it was great just sitting around, watching tv, surfing the web. You're probably thinking: that's what you do everyday though, Felix! it's true, but it feels so different when you're doing it DURING THE DAY, when you know you're supposed to be at work.
Tuesday: Things are getting better with regards to the things that I was going through (re: last blog). It really helped that I was able to talk about it and it also helped that I had some time to think it through. I think I'm feeling much better now and I think the issues have been settled...
Wednesday: Even though I was away on Monday, work has been unusually slow this week for some reason. I spent most of today just sitting around, reading reports that weren't really useful nor important. I have a feeling I'll pay for this though...
Thursday: So my mom woke me up at 7 am this morning to let me know my sister was rushed to the ER last night. Apparently the flu virus got into her heart and was causing her heart to beat at an abnormally rapid pace. It was even scarier when she told me that the doctor had tried 2 different types of drugs and both of them have failed to lower her heart rate and her fever. When she called, they were still waiting for the cardiologist to show up (gotta love our waiting times at the hospital). Eventually though, the cardiologist showed up, ran a whole bunch of tests on my sister, and sent her home (after of course giving her this other drug which eventually lowered her heart rate and fever). But it was scary - since I was totally out of the loop and I felt like there was nothing I could do. I did offer to go back up to Markham to see them, but my parents said I wouldn't be of much help anyway (which is true). They did call me with updates though, so that was good. But still, it was definitely scary.
Friday: So today's finally Friday. I decided to go home early to see my sister. It was nice to see she's doing ok. It also made me think: despite, how much she annoys me on a regular basis, I think we really do care for each other. And now that I've moved out and we don't see each other as often, our relationship has even improved - as in we're more civil to each other than we ever have been. It's nice actually. hmm..does that mean we've finally grown up?
January 29, 2006 - Dazed and confused. I'm not even sure if those are the right words to describe how I've been feeling the past couple of days. Lately, I have been questioning myself on a lot of things that are currently going on in my life and this mid-life evaluation has suddenly sparked a lot of self-doubt and insecurity that I haven't experienced in a long time. Needless to say, these feelings haven't been sitting well with me, and though I still have more good days than bad, it seems like that the happy-go-lucky personality that I've been known to have suddenly seems to have disappeared.
Case in point, the past couple of days, I have been forced to make some tough decisions about where my life is heading. With each problem, I find myself asking if I making the right decisions and whether I'm doing things that are truly making me happy, or if I'm just going with the flow?
It's especially hard for me since I'm already not really good with making simple decisions. When these decisions involve more than one person though, the need to consider feelings and emotions become even more important. That's where the confusion comes in. For example, what do you do when something that you know is wrong, yet feels so right? Do I make a rational decision with my head then, or an emotional one from the heart?
The confusion part also comes in when others expect you to act a specific way, or when others set up paths to help you make the decision that you don't necessary believe in. It's disappointing when that happens - it's as if I'm not good enough to make my own decision about what I want and you have to make the decision for me - sacrificing yourself to help me make the decision-making easier (and not telling me about it) isn't going to help with anything - it just adds more confusion to the situation.
Dazed.
Confused.
A little disappointed too...
January 20, 2006 - Ok so the title might have been a little dramatic - it wasn't like a whole swarm of ants jumped out of no where and started eating my flesh (eww) but this morning's little incident just left a bad taste in my mouth...
So last night, when I was doing dishes, I noticed a red fire ant crawling up the wall behind the sink. My instinct was to squish it of course, and I was a little surprised as well, given I have never seen them (in my apt) before. A few seconds later, two more ants came crawling out of nowhere, followed by three more. I tried to follow them to see where they came from - a couple of them were going into the cabinet above the sink through the gap between the cabinet and the wall - and tried to stop them (by killing them and also by sealing the gap between the cabinet and the wall with my cocking gun and steel wool), but still, there were more to be found! So I gave up (I was getting a little pissed off by then, since I had also killed 2 other bugs, which I swear are baby roaches) and went to bed.
This morning, while I was making my breakfast, I saw two more ants crawling up the wall. Pissed off, I grabbed a Kleenex and tried to squish them. Those hard-bodied creatures just would not die. One of them ended up on my finger and the next thing I know, my finger started to bleed! I had been bitten by a freakin ant! Anyway, I finally managed to kill both of them, and went off to work, and told tell my colleagues yet another bug-tale. FYI: these ants were coming from this gap between the sink unit and the wall, way too far for me to reach...
I talked to my landlady after work (apparently I got a new one and I didn't even know). She seemed nice enough and said she would call the pest control people on Monday. But she also said that the building gets complains about ants and other bugs on average every 3 months - that set off an alarm: if the building gets complaints about bugs every 3 months, then doesn't that mean that there is something not quite right about the building?? Like seriously, I know the building is much nicer than a lot of buildings in TO, but still...I mean, I know it's probably not the landlady's fault, but the building could be better maintained - the units for example, could be better renovated (I swear my friends' apartments are much nicer than mine). I think the tenants in my building are to blame as well. I'm not even surprised anymore when I see candy wrappers in the elevator or trash left in the garbage room. People simply just don't care - because they just don't think of the building as their home...
So I'm seriously considering moving - I can't imagine how many bugs will crawl out when the weather gets warmer. Not to mention I'm paying way too much for rent, and it would be nice to move to a smaller, cheaper place, even if it's further away. Definitely something to think about...
February 12, 2006 - Are you watching the Olympics?
