Olympic TKD

Nia Abdallah - Texan vs. Jang Ji Won - Korean

Thus far, this is the only Olympic match I've been able to see. I "taped" (TiVo'ed) six hours of crap for something under 3 and a half minutes of TKD match. Oh well. That's the way the ball bounces.

I found the match interesting. The players or contestants have a "unique" style. Their arms and thus their guard remains firmly planted at their sides. This does little good if one is actually attempting to deflect a technique. Never-the-less, they dazzled us with their repertoire of varied and unusual techniques. The only kick I recall seeing from either person was a round house except for one push kick executed to Ms. Won's head while she was falling on her Korean pride and another push kick also applied to Ms. Won but against the front of her hogo. The first technique scored no points as it was illegal at the time of execution. You're not supposed to attack a fallen opponent. Obviously, Ms. Abdallah took a page from my book. If they hurt me, kill them.

The official score was 4 to 1, Ms. Won's favour. Unfortunately, she received 2 full point deductions making the score 2 to 1. Had she received but one more full point deduction and she would have been disqualified, at least around here. I'm not sure what rules the Olympic committee set up for these games. It seemed fairly obvious that some of the rules included free points for the Korean player. During a shoving match (also not allowed in this sport), Ms. Won gained a point. I have no idea how it happened as punches are not counted as points and both contestants' feet were on the ground during the entire incident. The rules also seem to include NOT counting points for non-Koreans. Ms. Abdallah plowed Ms. Won at least twice with powerful body shots that counted nothing. She even grazed Ms. Won's head which also counted for naught. (Yes, TiVo slow-motion/frame advance can be very nice in this situation.)

Obviously I'm not very happy about the outcome of the match. What I wish to make clear however is that this not prejudice against Koreans. IF Ms. Won had actually won the match (hmm, homonyms), I would cheering her all the way home, but as far as I could tell, she did not. Now, before judging me as some arm-chair referee, please be aware that I am a certified USTU referee, grade C3. I also teach the Art form which, Olympic announcers is NOT "The Way of the HAND and FOOT." It is, "The way of the Foot and Hand." Tae Kwon Do = Foot Hand Way. Look it up. Order IS important. Otherwise, who cares who gets the gold if gold doesn't mean first?

A week ...

It's been a week since I've posted anything here. Why? I'm not sure. I can use the default excuse "busy" but I think it's more than that. I think I've been bordering on depression. *shrug* Oh well. That is part of life, my life anyway.

It has been busy. Last Thursday evening, a room-mate of mine tested for her yellow belt in Taekwondo. She did well, even with making one wrong turn on her form. She re-did the form and did very well on it the second time. Then she splintered a board with an ax kick, first try and was finally pitted against a red belt for sparring. Although the red belt did get in a few good shots, my room-mate controlled the match. Go figure...her boy-friend is a deputy black belt.

Over the weekend, I met some people, specifically the family of another room-mate of mine. They seemed pretty nice but there were a lot of them. They were all celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of a couple of grandparents. Very impressive. I doubt I will ever do that. The kids were the hardest to deal with, not because they were bad. On the contrary, they were fairly well behaved. They just reminded me of former nieces and nephews who I miss from time to time. Some days the path I chose is not as easy as others, yet it is the best path I can take, at least for me.

The rest of this week has just flown by. Work devoured a good chunk of my time along with my own Taekwondo classes. I'm also trying to get into a little better shape by playing more DDR. It's really a lot of fun if somewhat frustrating from time to time. I'm still the least advanced of everyone who plays here. *sigh* All things with time and practice; my own words haunt me relentlessly.

I've also been working on a friend's computer. Let me tell you folks, Windows ME blows goats. I think it is my least favorite of the Windows 9x series. (And yes, it is a 9x variant. It just cripples the user a bit more than 98.)

So, there you have it. Mundania strikes again.

Quote

A man is not old until his regrets take the place of dreams. -Yiddish proverb
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Too pooped to pop...

Of late, even the quotes don't interest me. I don't know if I caught something from one of my room mates or I'm finally getting too irritated with work or if I'm just plain tired but whatever the case, of late, I've had no interest of much of anything. It might be the TiVo though I don't think I'm really spending any more time in front of the TV. The time I spend is just better utilized. *shrug* I need to play more DDR. ;-)

In other news, the guys at Trillian are working on the next beta. I'm hoping they'll let me have a peek, but I'm not holding my breath.

The name is batty...

On Police Officers: I got lucky today. No, I didn't sleep with a cop. Rather, I accidentally ran a stop sign on my bike in front of a cop and he politely looked the other way. I think he was busy because I saw another two patrol cars combing the neighborhood as I continued my sojourn to work. Never-the-less, I felt fortunate.

On Office Fauna: I was also referred to today as the new Bat-man but I didn't want to even attempt to live up to that moniker. When I arrived at work this morning 20 minutes late (due entirely to a rather sneaky cat hiding under a couch), I noticed a creature of some sort flitting about my office. You guessed it; it was a bat. The friendly little creature winged into my cube, hung out briefly and then zipped down the hallway. After several minutes conversation, I very politely offered the bat a canister to hang out in and he agreed. In return, I carefully returned him to the out of doors. We were both very polite about the whole matter and all told, I think it took about 5 minutes. This was the 'dull' part. The interesting part occurred when I returned to my desk and found out that this delightful little fellow had been 'terrorizing' the entire basement crew as well as part of the first floor. I was even given the title 'hero' by one particularly startled person. Hardly worth it, in my opinion. It was just a bat.

Quote

Often war is waged only in order to show valor; thus an inner dignity is ascribed to war itself, and even some philosophers have praised it as an ennoblement of humanity, forgetting the pronouncement of the Greek who said, "War is an evil in as much as it produces more wicked men than it takes away." -Immanuel Kant, philosopher (1724-1804)

Several days

It's been a few days since I've posted anything and a few more since I've posted anything of my own. A friend of mine had been out of town for a couple of weeks and when said friend returned, we spent some time getting reacquainted. I also purchased a TiVo. The company was offering refurbished units for less than half the price of new AND they came with full warranty. I couldn't say no. Unfortunately, I think I found out why this particular model was sent back. The RF out is faulty. When someone walks across the room, static is produced on the screen. Occasional, it just goes nuts for no reason and gently wiggling the RF out will often produce favorable results. I'm probably going to see what the company can do for me. In the mean time, it is still very enjoyable to watch quality recorded TV and have the ability to bounce through the commercials at break-neck speed. Pausing live TV is also a real benefit. I'm just not sure how much longer I'll actually watch live TV.

There's not much else new. There's always too much work to do at work, or so it seems and now that I've been granted the ability to get overtime, I'm not really interested. What mattered once obviously didn't so why should it matter now? *shrug*

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The only devils in this world are those running around in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought. -Mahatma Gandhi
(1869-1948)