So What.

I'm doing what every blogger in the planet has done this week. I writing an Olympic post.

People often talked about how China was more concerned about saving face than actually being part of the history of the Games. Why wouldn't they? Foreigners suddenly invade a country that's isolated itself for the most part of the last millenium (they even put up a wall, for goddness' sake). Athletes worried about the thick smog and the quality of living as they arrive in conspicucous medical masks.  But then to cope up, China built a new airport terminal, reduced fifty percent of their land traffic, shut down factories in the city, conquered an architectural feat by erecting the Bird's Nest and had their cab drivers learn English. However, the international press still felt constricted with the controversial firewall that would never be entirely lifted.They attempted to make the world's greatest fireworks display in a densely populated, smog-covered city for the international audience; and the world still makes a fuss about the computer generated bit of it. A cute kid sings their national hymn with a big smile and the everyone keeps busy making an issue of the lip-synching.

So what if they're saving face? At least they're winning medals. We send what, fifteen Olympians, and some of them are not even true-blooded Pinoys? Sure, Phelps will always set records and the Dream Team will always hoard points; but we spent our taxes for our athletes to play in this momentous sports event (and for Manny to wave our flag in a backdrop of blue barongs). We don't swim, fight or punch but we care, dammit.

Funny thought: I just realized that I actually weighed heavier than our gold medal pambato in boxing. Payat niya no? Lol.

But then let's go over the impressive ones... the ones who'll get 10, 000 hits on Google just from busy bloggers. If the Games are really named after Mt. Olympus like I assume it is, then I say Michael Phelps is an Olympic god. And weightlifting's Liu Chunhong is some sort of demigoddess- oh, how she made setting records look so easy. You know, Yao Ming used to give me the creeps. Asian guy standing over seven feet with a strong square-ish face... why won't I find him creepy? Even my tall cousins used to scare me. But Yao Ming, recently, surprisingly impressed me. So what if he's got injured knees, broken feet and an infected toe? So what if he's all tired and burned out? So what if he missed seven of his ten shots? He played majestically; like nothing else mattered more than that orange ball and the pride of his country. So take a breather, big guy... while we patiently hope for a gold and China continues to chase the US for that number 1 spot.

Another thing. Because of the Beijing 2008 games, my dream destination- The Forbidden City- has been much more devirginized.

My brain doesn't freeze, apparently.

Today is about 0 degrees F. Wind chill around -20 F. Again, F not C. Only single-digit highs this weekend. My head still hurts due to the 8-degree cold from the other day. For the life of me, I wore a coat which didn't have a hood and I refused to wear a hat for the simple reason that my blow-dried hair will be ruined. However, I just gave everyone the right to call me stupid because my hair was ravaged by the high winds anyway. LOL.

Okay, what follows is just totally random babbling of which you won't take the time to read unless you terribly miss me or you simply care about me that much. It came to the point that my fingers felt numb after going out in below freezing temperatures, but it seems that my brain continues being the stubborn machinery that it is no matter how cold it may be.

I've gone everywhere. Birthdays, holiday parties, workplace blowouts, family reunions, Christmas concerts, weddings and even funerals. The other day was actually a funeral of someone who passed away before I got to meet her. That's why I blow-dried my hair so I'd look decent enough to blend in with the visitors who were mostly health professionals and concert producers (don't ask about the strange combination); and so that my scalp doesn't freeze and kill me once outside. Funerals never had any effect on me; but I noticed: a death actually seemed sadder during winter. Outside, it was brutally cold and dreary to start with. People shared condolences with mist in their breaths and everyone came in black- suits and coats, wool and leather, scarves and boots.

I think the experience was funny in a sense. First, I went to visit a wake of somebody I don't even know and got to express my condolences to people I met for the first time. Second, the family of the deceased has got this gay relative who produces and promotes concerts in the Chicago area... so those middle-aged ladies who attended the funeral can't stop talking about the upcoming Piolo-Sam concert this March (see, even I now know about this stuff). It's still a mystery if I will be given passes to the after-party or a private dinner with the artistas, but I have to watch my mouth and not say anything derogatory about the the ex-pat fandom; or else my chance for free food will be gone. I assume they're treated VIP style, I'd expect they'll be in a good hotel or restaurant for dinner so you can't blame me if free food is what I'm after. Hehe. The other good thing that could happen though is that if my 14-year old niece gets to perform in an opening act to any of the Pinoy concerts produced here. Even though we are related and I don't seem to exhibit such talents (lol), she has built a reputation in the performing arts being part of the on-stage production of Disney High School Musical in the area. 

Blah. Blah. Blah.

The rest of this entry is in my other blog which I don't get to show everyone.. but it's there. It's just that some opinions are to be left there. Well, at least this is better than being alone in my room and talking to the laptop computer in a strange language in the wee hours of the morning. That's because I'm still self-studying Japanese, which I know seems odd when I should be learning a more useful language like Spanish so I can talk to the Hispanic waiters at restaurants, haha.

Watashi wa Anna desu. Hajimemashita. Dozou yoroshiku. (Dapat pala nag-Japan Airlines na lang para ma-try ito sa Tokyo. Haha.)

-edit-
I can't see my jawline anymore. I compared the new pictures from the despedida shots, I noticed my face appears to have swollen. Ten pounds makes that much difference.

Yep. I voted for this guy.

So for the past few weeks I've noticed I haven't posted anything socially relevant on this blog. First of all, I've stopped being a politics junkie since... I don't know... I guess when I got totally immersed into science. I'm at this point where nothing excites me other than transgenic transparent frogs, pGLO "glow" monkeys, synthetic 30 kiloDalton giant polyoxometalate molecules or the strange fact that rats cough. Secondly, I didn't think it would be wise to post another commentary on the Desperate Housewives controversy or the Cory Aquino 'slut' photograph or the issue about Andy Manzano's photo used in a mail-order bride website (I was kidding about the last one, lol.). That would just be overkill. But then I found myself joining the 11821 persons who voted for this guy several days ago:

Marco Antonio Torres. An expat in Beijing who's aiming to be the second Filipino torchbearer in Olympic history; the first being in Tokyo in 1964. He's a marketer for M Moser Associates, a prominent Chinese design firm and claims to be a sportsman and frequent traveler. From the pictures I think he looks like some adventurous yuppie with typical camwhore tendencies. (No offense intended. We're all camwhores. :P)

According to him, "Should I get chosen, I will take it as an opportunity to promote China to the Philippines and vice versa. There is truly more to China than the Great Wall, it is after all one of the earliest civilizations, and China has a lot of unique and interesting things to share the world. This is probably why despite over a year of exploring, you just can’t get enough of China."

About what he said, he practically babbled about how he loves China... we can only wonder what percentage of Chinese actually voted for him. So anyway, I found the link for the torchbearer rankings suddenly non-existent, so I assumed the voting has been closed; though I'm not really sure. In any case, you can still view his promotional site at http://pinoytorchbearer.com/.

Only 8 candidates will be chosen as the torchbearers in the Beijing 2008 Olympics so the whole country is rooting for him now. Way to go, dude.