Winter Olympics V

Sadly, the Vancouver Games drew to a close last night, leaving me speculating if life even has a point anymore. It's amazing how I actually managed to survive those two years without Olympics.

These Olympics have been nearly perfect for the US. We have led the medal count since day 1 (unfortunately, Canada pulled ahead of us in the gold medal count). What better way to end the Olympics than by winning another gold? We had the chance, but we couldn't do it.

It was the ultimate rematch. The US Men's Hockey Team had previously beaten the Canadian Men, but that game technically didn't even matter. It was only significant because it proved that Team USA had it in them to beat Canada in hockey. But could they do it again in the gold medal round?

I would imagine that for Canadians, there is really only one Olympic sport. Only one sport that actually matters, at least. If they did not win gold in hockey, then the entire Vancouver Olympics would have been a complete and utter failure. Hockey is their game, the game they invented and the game they hold sacred, above all other sports. If they didn't win gold against their rivals, on home ice, it would've been a tragedy. It was the gold that mattered the most to them. And they didn't let it slip through their fingers.

Canada took the early lead, and they were winning 2-1 at the end of the second period. Victory was at hand. But the US wasn't going to give up the gold medal without a fight.

With a mere 24 seconds to go in the last period, the United States miraculously scored a goal to bring the game into overtime. I suspect the Canadians groaned in agony. They were 24 seconds away from being crowned hockey champions!

They didn't have to be disappointed for long. Sidney Crosby (Who else?) scored to finally end the game and allow the Canadian fans to exhale. They had won hockey golds in both men's and women's hockey (both times they faced the United States, and both time the US settled for silver).



Tragically, I didn't get to watch The Hockey Game because of an untimely basketball game. Fortunately, there was a restaurant next to the court I was playing on, so whenever the crowd watching the game cheered, I knew something good had happened for the US.

Another disappointment was Luke's girlfriend, Lindsey Vonn, who won her first Olympic gold and a bronze in Vancouver - but also crashed twice and was disqualified once (I must say though, her crashes were both extremely cool, even though she broke her right pinky in one of them). Luke has proved he is a very steadfast lover. He still considers Lindsey Vonn to be his girlfriend, through all her crashes and disqualifications (and even though she is already married).



Jacob has become somewhat of an Apolo Ohno die hard. Whenever he sees him, he'll say in his cute little high-pitched voice, "There's 'Polo!" Well, he has good reason to. "'Polo" has 8 Olympic medals, the most ever from an American Winter Olympian. Sadly, in what was possibly his last Olympic race, he was disqualified for pushing a Canadian skater. He says that he has no regrets though, so at least he will retire - that is, if he retires - satisfied with his 8 medals.

The closing ceremony was a tiny bit disappointing, much like the opening ceremony. Once again, it was very cheesy, and the only part I enjoyed was when they sang "O Canada" (which is SO much better than our lame, boring national anthem). The rest of the ceremony included Michael J. Fox, a comedian vainly attempting to be funny but failing miserably, a big parade of things you can only find in Canada (Mounties, moose, hockey, etc.), and a couple of songs sung by this 16 year-old Canadian phenom, who apparently won "Canadian Idol". I think there was more stuff in the ceremony, but we didn't get to watch it because the regular network started showing this dumb new show called "The Marriage Ref", and since we don't have cable we were stuck staring at the blank, lifeless TV screen, with no Olympics to excite, thrill, or electrify us anymore.

Goodbye, insanely talented skiers, who can do a quadruple full double twist trick and not die, and hockey players so good they can get a puck past Ryan Miller, and skeleton sliders, who fearlessly fly down an ice track at 90 miles an hour head first, and Lindsey Vonn, who can wreck very awesomely and make Luke confess for the first time that he's in love, and. . . the list goes on and on, so I'll just stop now. Thanks for a wonderful Olympics! I can't wait to behold your awesomeness again in Sochi, Russia, in four years!

Winter Olympics IV

Yesterday evening, shock waves were sent through hockey-crazed Canada when the US Men's Hockey Team beat the Canadians, led by Sidney Crosby, 5-3. This is the first time that the United States has beaten Canada in hockey since. . . well, a long time ago. Wayne Gretzky says that if Canada doesn't win the gold in hockey, it'll be talked about for the next four years until they get a chance to redeem themselves in Russia.


The USA won five medals yesterday, marking the most medals won in one day by a single country. One came from Bode Miller in slalom, who has so far won a bronze, sliver, and gold. He has made it to the podium for every event that he has skied so far.

Another US medal came from Lindsey Vonn, who has so far won two medals in these Olympics. Her slalom run didn't earn a medal because of a nasty crash that tore off one of her skis.

Apolo Ohno made Olympic history on Saturday by winning his seventh medal, the most ever won by an American Winter Olympian. He finished behind two Japanese skaters, earning him his legendary bronze medal.

Incredibly, the inexperienced skater from Illinois, Evan Lysacek, won gold last night after a very clean, fundamentally-sound skate. However, his win was very controversial, because the silver medalist, Evgeni Plushenko, performed the extremely difficult quadruple spin, or twist. . . whatever it's called, and still came in second. Plushenko said that he though his performance had won gold, but apparently the judges though otherwise of his skate, which wasn't quite as clean and graceful as Lysacek's (I say that any sport that requires gracefulness to be judged well is stupid. Ice dancing is even worse).


Two of the coolest sports in the Winter Olympics started this weekend: ski jumping and freestyle skiing. No American is a real contender in ski jumping, but it's still awesome to watch. Freestyle skiing is also fun to watch, partially because the US is a legitimate contender, and also because it's simply amazing watching these people do such insane, unreal tricks.

The United States still leads in the medal count with 24 medals all together, 7 of them gold, 7 of them silver, and 8 of them bronze. Germany is in close second with 20 medals, Norway has 13 medals, and Korea, Canada, Austria, and Russia are tied for fourth, each with 9 medals.

GO USA!

Winter Olympics III

These past few days have encapsulated everything that makes the Olympics great. Excitement, electrifying thrills, records broken, and mind-blowing athleticism that only Olympians possess.

Shaun White proved once again that he is truly the best snowboarder in the world by blowing away the men's freestyle event. He performed a trick that has never been done before, probably mastered at his private half-pipe in Colorado. On his first run he scored a 46, and on his second he got an unbelievable 48.

(Notice the snow pants designed to look like jeans. These are so convincing that I first thought they could just throw on a pair of jeans and go compete in the Olympics!)

These Olympics have been a success for White, but things have gone terribly wrong for Lindsey Jacobellis, a favorite in women's snowboard cross. After the disaster in Torino, Jacobellis was determined to come back and win a gold in Vancouver. She got to the gold medal round, and then her Olympics came to a close when she swerved out of control and ran into one of the flags.

Lindsey Vonn made history last night when she won the gold medal in women's downhill skiing. This is the first time that an American woman has won the gold in this event and her first Olympic gold. Despite the course being extremely icy and bumpy (and a recently injured shin that had her questioning if she could even compete), Vonn made it to the finish in 1:44:19. Her amazing time couldn't be beat, and the US took home yet another gold.


The US Women's Hockey Team continued their winning streak yesterday when they beat Russia 13-0. Their most competent opponent will definitely be rival Canada, who we will most likely meet in the gold medal round.

The Men's Hockey Team is also doing very well, and I am really looking forward to the gold medal round, which will probably be USA vs. Canada.

GO USA!

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

On Saturday I went to the movies with my friends Lily and Dominic. At first, we weren't sure what to see, debating between Valentines Day and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Not wanting to waste my time seeing a romantic comedy (no offense to those of you who like romantic comedies), I made the decision for Lily and Dominic, who said they didn't care. Turns out that I made a good choice.

Percy Jackson wasn't a lot like the book (of course) but it was still a fantastic movie, with a ton of action, adventure, and excitement, along with a great plot involving Greek mythology.

If you get the chance, I recommend seeing Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. It's a wonderful movie!

Winter Olympics II

The US medal count is now up to 8, and at the rate we're going, I'm pretty sure we'll have a few more by tomorrow.

Bode Miller, a downhill skier, finished just 0.01 seconds behind the 2nd place finisher, bringing back reminisces of Michael Phelps's historic race to become the most decorated Olympian of all time. Speaking of records, Apolo Anton Ohno has tied Bonnie Blair to become the most decorated American Winter Olympian. He has 6 medals, and with many races ahead of him, he will most likely break the record.


Anyway, other US medalists include Seth Wescott, who repeated as snowboard cross champ, Bryan Wilson, who was virtually unheard of before his unexpected success, and Johnny Spillane, who won our first medal in Nordic combined.

Also, Alexandre Bilodeau earned Canada's first gold medal at a home Olympics in mogul skiing. He has said that he skis for his older brother Frederic, who suffers from cerebral palsy. Bilodeau upset Dale Smith, the Australian skier who is possibly the best in the world in the mogul event.


Another reason to celebrate is the US Women's Hockey Team victory over China by a margin of 12-1. One of the goals was scored on a between-the-legs move that completely burned the Chinese defender and goalie. It was an amazing goal that I suggest you look up on Youtube.

GO USA!

P.S. Happy Belated Valentines Day!

Winter Olympics 2010

Well, it's time for Olympic action once more! This year the Winter Olympics are in Vancouver, and we were treated to a very unique, creative, but somewhat mediocre opening ceremony before the torch was lit by the greatest hockey player who ever lived, Wayne Gretzky. Unfortunately, there was a slight (okay, not so slight) mistake. Apparently, something malfunctioned and one of the big columns that was supposed to rise, well. . . didn't rise.

Prior to this, the head of the International Olympic Committee gave a speech grieving the tragic loss of 21 year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luger whose Olympic dream was cut short when he flew off the Olympic luge track at 90 miles per hour and into a metal pole. Georgia was greeted by a standing ovation as they walked into the stadium, and there was a moment of silence during the ceremony. Surprisingly, this is the fourth person to be killed in a Winter Olympics.

Despite this horrific occurrence, the Vancouver Olympics went on as normally as possible, and as of last night the USA had 4 medals - 1 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze - giving us the most medals so far in the 2010 Olympics. The speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno won the silver, thanks to two Koreans who wrecked on the final lap (If they hadn't crashed, Korea would've gotten the gold, silver, AND bronze!) Our only gold was won by Hannah Kearney, a mogul skier.

There's a wonderful, vicarious thrill watching skiers hang suspended five stories above the snow, do an insane trick and land without breaking their back, or simply glide down the mountain at 80 miles per hour. There's nothing like it, is there?


Undoubtedly, the reason for our wonderment is the daring, recklessness, and seeming disregard of danger that is required to jump off a huge ramp while going faster than a car on a highway, or hurl yourself onto a downhill sheet of ice while lying defenseless on a tiny, aerodynamic sled.

The people who knowingly, willingly do these crazy things are not like us. They are different. They appear to have an indifference to injury - or even death.

Without these people, who flirt with death on a regular basis, who by rights shouldn't even be living, we would not have the Winter Olympics. Thank God for all those crazy people, and GO USA!

Skillet

On February 11th, my dad, Benjamin, Parker, David, Luke and I went to the Coliseum to see Skillet perform the opening act of a Puddle of Mud concert.

We got there half an hour early, and after getting metal-detected we watched a band called Like A Storm do the opening act before the official opening act. They were rather explicit and their songs were rather bad, so I was relieved when Skillet took the stage.


~Ever since Island, Skillet has been Ben's favorite band of all time. He has memorized all their songs, and could probably recite their life stories by heart. Needless to say, he was EXTREMELY excited when we learned that they would be coming to the Coliseum. We even had a countdown on our dry erase board. Even I was excited and anxious for February 11th~

They played Rebirthing (which includes some really cool violin), Monster, Whispers in the Dark (Parker's favorite song), Hero, and Awake and Alive (my favorite Skillet song besides Comatose). Obviously, Ben knew all the songs and sang along with them.

After their gig, they went to the back to sign autographs. Of course, Ben had to get a hand shake and autograph from his heroes, so we waited in the seemingly endless line to get our tickets signed. The band members were very cool and nice, and they engaged us in conversation as they signed our tickets and we stood gazing at them in shock, wondering if we were really talking to Skillet (I only vaguely remember what I said to them, but I vividly remember what they said to me: "Thanks for coming" and "Hi").

After that we headed home and showed off our signed tickets to my mom (and later I bragged about it to my cousins via the magic of internet).

We all had a great time (even my dad, who had never heard a Skillet song in his life), and my ears were spared damage because of the wonderful ear plugs my dad gave me and Luke!

Super Bowl Time Lapse

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowl/09000d5d81652753/Super-Bowl-XLIV-time-lapse

The entire Super Bowl in 1 minute and 15 seconds. Really cool! Just copy this URL and paste it in the search bar thing.

Winter Wonderland

We haven't had school for two days, we went sledding yesterday, there's about six inches of snow on the ground, and it's STILL snowing! Could it get any better? Probably not.

Sledding yesterday was extremely fun, but extremely cold. My boots are a bit big for me, so snow gets in them and it only takes a few steps before my feet are freezing. After a few times down the hill, I warmed up in the van and put on my gracious mother's socks (mine were sopping wet). With moderately dry socks on, I was able to more fully enjoy the snow with my brothers, their friends Joseph, Jacob, Parker, his sister Lydia, and Sydney and her brothers (somehow, whenever we go sledding, we end up bringing half the neighborhood with us).

For some reason, sledding always turns into climbing on the snow drifts of the Coliseum's parking lot. It's actually very fun, and a few weeks ago we dug a tunnel through the top of a particularly large drift. This time we simply climbed on them (this was exceedingly difficult because the snow is very powdery, and when you take one step up the drift, you lose about four). The climbing turned into a snow fight, which turned into playing Lord of the Rings. The girls plus Luke were Rohan, and the boys were the Uruk-hai of Isengard.

By the end of the trip, we didn't want to leave (despite the fact that my feet and hands felt frostbitten). The cold soon went away after some chili and hot chocolate at Sydney's house.

Stay safe on the treacherous roads!

P.S. It's STILL snowing!

Super Bowl

Sadly, this NFL season has come to a close, but it definitely finished with a bang. We were all looking forward to a great game between the two best teams in the league (this is the first time that the top two teams have met in the Super Bowl since 1928), and we certainly got one.

Chad Van Meter, the Director of Discipleship at my church, threw a Super Bowl party for kids in middle school through high school. It took place in the Holy Cross welcome center, and for $10 you got some open gym time, tons of snacks and pizza, entry in a Madden tournament, and the biggest football game of the year on a huge screen. Sydney and I both went to the party (Technically, Sydney wasn't allowed to come, seeing as she is only in 5th grade, but what they don't know won't hurt them, right?) and had an awesome time shooting around in the gym, eating, watching Madden games, and. . . well, the awesome times sort of ended when the Colts got beat by Drew Brees and the Saints.



The Colts came out explosively, and they were winning 10-0 by the end of the first quarter. They had control for the entire half, but beginning in the third quarter (after a halftime show performed by The Who) the Colts played sloppy offense and gave up the lead. They never took it back. The Saint's defense in particular stepped up and made plays, including an interception late in the game and an onside kick that was fumbled around by the Colts before it was finally recovered by the Saints.

Just because the offense wasn't functioning correctly, Dwight Freeney was. Even with an injured ankle, he pressured Drew Brees all night using his trademark spin move, and even got a sack in the third quarter.
After watching the presentation of the Lombardi Trophy to a grinning Drew Brees and Sean Payton, Sydney and I dejectedly headed home.

Oh well, I'm not a die hard Colts fan, and besides, Drew Brees went to Purdue, which is where my grandpa went to college. At least it wasn't the Vikings.

Yet Another Komets Game

Komets hockey simply never gets old. Last night was Report Card Night, and if you brought in a report card with an "A" on it, you got a free ticket. Taking advantage of this, we got four free tickets and brought Sydney along with us to watch the Komets pound our rivals, the Port Huron Icehawks, 9-1.

I can't honestly say it was an exciting game, because the Komets took an early lead and were up 4-0 by the end of the first period. We didn't really need to stay after that, since we obviously knew that the Komets would win, but we wisely stayed and watched two fights and the K's score 5 more points.

During the game there was much chanting the name "Larry", because the Icehawk's goalie is named Larry Sterling, and obviously if we chant his name he'll get distracted and let in goals, right? In this case, yes. By the end of the second period Larry was out of the game, replaced by their backup goalie.

The backup wasn't much better, letting in 3 goals by the end of the third period. Two of the goals were scored by our new defense man, whose name I do not know (we referred to him simply as "number 14"). We were all rooting for him to score another goal, giving him a rare hat trick (I have only seen on hat trick my entire life).

Anyway, it's always nice to see the Komets beat their arch nemesis. Let's go Komets!

Varsity Tournament

Today was the St. Michael Invitational, and since one of the teams backed out, Holy Cross was asked to fill their place in the tournament. Since the varsity team had only six players, I was invited to play as well.

We easily got past the first round, beating Central Lutheran soundly. A few hours later we played in the championship game against the home team. St. Michael is significantly better than Central, so we all prepared ourselves for a tough game.

Our preparation was not in vain. St. Michael won the tip, and in the first few seconds of the game had a breakaway for an easy layup. However, we headed down the court and answered. At halftime the game was tied 8-8.

In the third quarter I was fouled twice, and one was a bonus - if you make you first one, you get a second chance, if you don't, then it's a live ball off the rim. I made both, and on the next play I stole a pass for a layup.

However, late in the game St. Michael took the lead, and we weren't able to come back. We ended up losing 24-17, after a good, close game. Go Saders!

Bad Haircut

Don't you just HATE getting a hair cut that you don't like? I don't think I've ever gotten a haircut that was satisfactory. In this case, it's just a bit too short for my liking. Of course, everyone thinks (at least, they say) it's nice, but who gives their honest opinion about a haircut? Even if they absolutely hated it, they would still automatically say, "I like your hair! It looks really cute!"

Well, I guess I can't sit and wallow around in self-pity. There's nothing I can do except wait for my hair to grow back, which won't take very long! My hair could probably set the world record for fastest-growing and most thick.