Naomi Shimada

Excuse the lack of posts. I kind of already ditched this summer blog run. Summer school is taking up way too much of my time. Anyways, I'm like in love with Naomi Shimada right now. She's a Japanese/Dutch/Canadian girl residing in the UK. She models, is an aspiring VJ, and a host on NME News. I was on the Married to the Mob blog. I some how reached there after the whole Paris Hiton mission The Arab Parrot pulled. Anyways, I was there and I saw a blog post on Naomi Shimada and I basically fell in love... aahaha.

US Elections 2008

Congrats To Obama for his win.

The Kanye Snap

This is essentially what happened at the airport, and the reason why Kanye got arrested. This is the video that one of the pap cameras captured on that morning of September 11. Kind of funny how Kanye acted up at an airport on such a date. However, sometimes the paparazzi can be stupid, and hopefully the rest of them might take this as a lesson.

And It Starts All Over Again

So, you all know, this is the time we all have to go back to school. Whether your in university or highschool, you have to go back to listen to some crazy teacher all excited about what they teach, or some boring old one that doesn't care about anything.
The best thing that could possibly come out of it, you get some new kicks?
Hopefully, because I can't wait until Christmas.











Anyways, as the load of school projects starts coming in, my blog posts may get sparse. Let's just hope I can keep up.

Frozen Grand Central

I don't know how many of you have heard of Improv Everywhere. But their a team of people who preform long form improvisation and execute pre-planned "missions" which usually involve socially awkward or unusual situations. Anyways, I found out about them through a video of one of their projects. This is called "Frozen Grandcentral." A mission in which they attempted as a large group of people to freeze all at the same time in the station for 5 minutes, hopefully stirring some interesting reactions.



You can check here for more details on the project.

Let's Go To The Ex

Bored? Than head on to the EX.

Olympic Problems

With all incredible things come problems. It's no different for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Putting aside the obvious human rights issue, there are a lot more problems sprouting out. First of all, everyone knows how large the counterfeit market is in China so why would it be any different during the Olympics. With thousands of people scrambling to get tickets, what better chance for these copy cats to jump on it. And it doesn't end there. The Olympic Event tickets that are priced at $8 sometimes are illegally scalped for thousands of dollars.







































Another issue that's risen is something called "technological doping." After observing so many Olympic records broken in swimming, not just by Michael Phelps, critics believe that these results have been doped by the technology introduced to the sport. Learning which suits are faster or that wearing a swimming cap over the goggles makes you faster. However, others claim that it's simply progression of the sport, and technology within reason should be treated the same as newer swimming techniques and methods.








































As you may have heard, another problem thats risen is the underage gymnasts from China. They've got government approved documents to prove their age, but a strange paper trail to suggest otherwise. If you have not already seen them yet, take a look at this video, see what you think:

08-08-08

So if you didn’t already know, today is August the 8th of 2008, otherwise referred to as 08/08/08. It's the first day of the Olympics which means it's time for the traditionally glamorous opening ceremonies.













Now everyone knows the whole event is shrouded in China’s poor human rights record. I recently watched this thing on CBC showing the mixed views of the people in China. In some of the people there, the Olympic games is instilling a sense of pride and duty in their nation. Some people are excited for the games and are actively participating in the campaigns that the government is fitting into their preparation. They are forcing last minute etiquette lessons on the people of Beijing, telling everyone little tips of politeness, anything from not spitting to not gambling.

Other people however are devastated, as the government is evicting thousands of people with little to no compensation. This is leaving many of the people homeless and in complete poverty while the bulldozers make room for China’s urban renewal that will continue after the games.

As for me, I won’t boycott the Olympics. I don’t know how much it would help if I did. I seriously don’t think the Chinese government will change their human rights policy to encourage a couple million more people to watch the games. I also don’t think it’s fair to our athletes who have worked so hard. I even don’t think boycotting companies that make their stuff in China, because that will just put more impoverished people out of their jobs. I think it’s just important to raise awareness of these issues. Tell people what’s going on. Find alternatives and financially empower companies and organizations that can actually help.

Anyways, to the lighter side of things, I heard that BMX and Moto-Cross will be added to the list of events for these games. I find it weird to have an action sport in the Olympics. (Below is a picture of the stadium housing the moto-cross and bmx events.)

I am just glad that it will only be the racing aspects of those activities. I would actually be really irritated if freestyle BMX became an Olympic event. And to think about that, I couldn’t imagine how much I’d flip out if skateboarding gave in to the Olympics too. I find the X-Games cheesy enough as is, the Olympics would just be too much. However, I’m fine with the rest of the Olympics. I find that the motivation and determination of these athletes should be an inspiration to all of us. However, I don’t think there’s room for skateboarding in the Olympics. Skateboarding is not meant to be surrounded by rules, like sports are. It’s more like an art that you can express yourself with, and do whatever you want with it. Let’s just hope that skateboarding stays out of the Olympics.