Shenanigans

Wii has created a way for classical music enthusiasts to conduct thier favorite orchestral ensembles through thier Wii system.  The gamer will use a special controler shaped like a conducting stick to speed up or slow down a classical piece. To test it, they are traveling to concert halls all around the United States with a plasma television and the other Wii equipment to let anyone try thier luck conducting thier own orchestra.  It is another fun way for people to enjoy music through thier television.

It looks like a pretty cool idea. I do not know how to score points or beat a song when all you do is wave a baton around. I am guesssing that to appreciate it, you have to be very interested in classical music and conducting. It was a pretty short informing piece so it did not have a lot of different tone or voice. I just thought it was very interesting and that you guys might want to look it up.  Wii is coming up with some very cool new stuff and I cannot wait to see what else is in store in the future.

One of the last skiers only mountains in America gave in and now Taos is open to snowboarders. Many people were worried about the tension between the two groups before the mountain was desegragated, but now, they are becomeing closer than ever as they ride the same chairlift up the mountain.  Jake Burton, owner of Burton Snowboarding company, used to despise the mountain because of thier skier only rule. He would give $5000 to snowboarders for videos of them sneaking into Taos. On the day of the welcome party, he and other Burton crewmen came and help set up a rental shop so people could get a chance to learn snowboarding.  The only three skiing only resorts now are Alta, Deer Vally, and Mad River Glen.

I am very excited about the rule change for snowboarders.  I still cannot believe that there are places that will not open thier mountain to snowboarders.  I am glad that Taos finally gave in.  The local skiers were outraged about the change.  They would say that the snowboarders were going to ruin thier favorite runs and fill up the bars.  It makes me angry that people think it makes a huge difference if people get down the mountain on one board in stead of two.  Hopefully this will spark a closer friendship between the two snowriders and force the remaining three skier only mountains to convert as well.

Kathryn Bertine is an amazing cyclist that changed her citizenship just to get a ride to the Olympics in Beijing. She was ruled out by all of the main Olympic powers like the Untied States, Germany, and Russia because they already have strong teams. To look for a country that has the biggest potential in “hiring her,” she printed out a list of all countries and uses different colors to circle countries based on their size, if they are competing in the Olympics, if they somewhat share her ethnic background, for political reasons, and if they have room for more cyclists. After narrowing down the list, she had to contact each of them and see if they had any interest in her. While looking for a new home, she has to prepare for the Games as well as work with her new mentor and former Tour de France rider Chris Carmichael. After emailing as many countries as possible she hears from a small Island Nation called St. Kitts and Nevis who was very interested and after getting through all of the complications of becoming a citizen, is happy to have her on their Olympic team.

Talk about a request! What would you think if you got an email from a desperate athlete saying that she is willing to become a citizen in a country she has never heard of to go to the Olympics? Her determination to make it to the Games is an outstanding lesson for us all that through hard work and sacrifice, anything is possible. Hopefully she stays healthy and is able to do her best because it would be horrible to have her dream go down in flames. Good Luck Kathryn and do your new country proud.

With the Olympics starting in early August, the Bejing Education Municipal Authorities has required all graduates of Bejing located schools to leave one month earlier than they normaly would. This is forcing career service offices to pick up the pace to job council the soon-to-be graduates. With an unemployment rate under 4.3%, the job market is very promising for the graduates. The career services have looked at over 2,000 foreign and domestic companies who have reported over 25,000 job openings. The Olympics themselves are in need of over 10,000 volunteers and are encouraging the graduates to take the opportunity to work at the games. They are even promising them a step ahead of other applicants when they begin to look for a new job if they participate in volunteering for the games.

I would be very exicted to get out of school early and be able to watch the Olympics in my home city. Being able to get out of school a month early and to alos not have to worry about getting a job becasue of such a growing economy would be the greatest feeling in the world. It is also very cool because they have an awesome opportunity to participate in working with the Games by volunteering. Besides being able to work with the best athletes in the world, the best reason would be to have a preference over other students in a future job. This sounds like a good deal for the Bejing graduates and it can only get better.

After reading this article, I have come to the conclusion that God gave us some pretty crazy imaginations.  Snowriding is about to get hit with the newest most unbelievable form of transportation, the hangboard.  With its invention in 2001 in Canada by Don Arney, the hangboard was created to combine hang gliding and snowboarding for a new, innovative thrill.  It is made out of aircraft aluminum which makes it light and very strong. These new toys fit onto any ordinary snowboard and cost about $1495.00.  this is the most recent innovation to rock the world of mountain riding since the snowboard was created in 1929.  Hangboarders say that is the closest that they have ever gotten to flying because you are parrallel to the ground when you are fitted into the contraption.  They are hoping that this will bring more people to the slopes and help resorts get a little more money.

To me, this looks like one of the stupidest things I have ever seen someone ride and I have seen a man ride down a hill on a ladder connected to two snowboards. But, I am not going to mak any assumptions about the ride itself because it looks like a lot of fun.  To steer the thing, you have to use your feet to push on rudders and shift your weight which makes it a little like snowboarding, but being horizantal to the ground makes it a whole new animal.  Unlike snowboarding, I don’t think that this sport is going to take off very fast especially since the price tag is so high.  But I don’t think it is the last time you will hear about them either. I wouldn’t be supprised if it became an olympic sport sometime in the future, it would fit in right with rythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming.

In the article Bear of a Coach almost gave Obama a run for his money, I learned for the first time that republicans wanted former Bears head coach Mike Ditka to run against Barrack Obama for senator of Illinois.  It starts out by talking about how he is a motivational speaker and was at a naval accademy where he was asked about the patriots losing to the giants. The article then flashes back to 2004 when the republican party was courting Ditka to run against Obama for senate.  When asked about his views on certain issues, he answered with conservative views and his resposes were very well presented and spoken.  Finally, when he was asked about if he would be interested in politics, he responded, “I thought about it,” “for ten minutes.”  

I thought this was a pretty funny article.  It reminded me of Arnold winning govern(at)or of California. Thinking of Ditka as a senator made me laugh until i read about his stances on issues and he seemed like he could be a politician.  The article itself was written in a way to inform you that it was supposed to be a little humorous yet informative at the same time.  It made me more interested in the article just by how it made me wonder who was stepping up against Obama.  Reading this makes me wonder what would have happened if he did run for senator way back when.  If he won, Obama would definately not be running for president this election.  I guess all we can do is imagine what Illinois would be like with powerhouse Ditka at the helm.

                   Tony Hawk’s “This I Belive” article  really intrigued me.  In it, he talked mainly about how important it is to do what you love no matter what everyone else thinks.  The first big struggle he had was when he turned pro at seventeen and his careers teacher told him in front of the class that he would have no future in the world of skateboarding and that it was not a real job.  His teacher was not the only one with that same opinion and, at some times, it made Tony rethink his life decision almost to the point of abbandoning it all together.  But through it all he never quit and never stopped riding.  Over his career, the sport progressed and became a very popular competative sport.  He went from barely scraping by and thinking of Taco Bell as fine dining to being the most well known pioneer of skateboarding.  Now he has many different job titles such as CEO but he is most proud of his title as proffesional skateboarder.  He concludes with saying that doing what you love will bring you more happiness than anything even if you are not rich or famous.

                   I really like his essay mainly because we rarely know the full life story of our favorite celebrities and that zero to hero stories happen more than we think.  It is also good to know that when you do follow what you love that it is not always going to be easy.  In any path we take, there will be bumps in the road (or in Michigan’s case, huge potholes!) but the important thing is to perservere and you will end up right where you want to be.  One of my favorite quotes comes from some Chinese Philosipher who said “If you do what you love to do, you’ll never have to work a day in you life.”  Tony Hawk is a testimony to that and through his example, hopefully we, too, can achieve the same happiness as Tony, just in our own way.

Because over 1 billion songs were traded illegaly in Australia, thier government is proposing a three strikes policy.  Illegal trading of music has been damaging the established music industry for years and now the Austrailian government is finally going to try and stop it. The first strike will provide an extensive warning to the pirater. The second strike will suspend the users internet service. The third will cancel the users internet indefinately. The policy in Austrailia will be about the same as one the was instituted in Britain that is used to police users internet activities. The owners of illegal trading websites will be faced with some severe fines if caught so the government is hoping to cut down on the websites and make it harder for individuals to steal music.

I think that this is a good idea to make sure that music is not stolen from the bands that we love to listen to. Every time a song is stolen, it affects the band that wrote it and makes it more expensive for them to write more songs.  As important as it is to protect someone elses property, I think that stealing music has been a way to kind of get back at the music industry for taking money and originality away from the bands they own.  the music indusrty has been nothing but trouble for bands trying to make a name for themselves as well as well known bands that have to do what their boss says.  This however still does not make it right for people to steal music. The article said that 63 percent of kids in a servey said that they would definately take music that they didn’t have to pay for. That number would be much higher in America and it needs to be stopped. What they are doing in Austrailia is a good thing and hopefully, it happens in America too.

Over 200 million people have been evicted from their homes for preparation for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Bejing.  Their houses are being torn down for the giant Olympic stadium that will be the center for most track and field events. Even after they take their homes, the government arrested everyone who even made so much as a bad comment about the evictions.  One man who tried to organize a 10,000 people protest was brutally beaten and arrested. Now there are over 40,000 people in jail, and about 200,000 people living in the streets. The prime minister of China did not see any of the 200,000 homeless during his visit to Bejing because the police kept them out of the streets.  British leaders protested to the Chinese Embassy in London about the treatment.  Steven Spielberg, who was put in charge of the artistic areas of the Olympics, quit in protest of the treatment of the people.  The Chinese government said that the Olympics would help strengthen their human rights but as we can see, it is not looking too good.

This is a very terrible and disappointing occurance that should not be tolerated.  The olympics was created to promote unity between all people not destroy their homes and trust for thier government.  I would not be surprised if some countries boycott the games this year because of the country’s actions which would definately not promote unity and wellness between countries. Whats worse is that the government doesn’t even listen to their complaints and throw them in jail the moment they try and state their complaints. With all of this comotion, there is no way that the Olympics this year will be an uneventful one.

An article by Gregg Bell talks about how expensive it is to ski at resorts especially Whistler-Blackcomb in Britich Colombia. He starts his article by stating how he and his roomate could drive up from Seattle to Whistler, spend the night in his truck, and ski the next day for $45 each. Today, you spend twice as much as that on a single day lift ticket minus accomodations and rental gear.  He goes on to talk about how expensive everything is from lodging, to food. You can not even sleep out in your own car without paying for an overnight spot.  But you realize it was all worth it once you get on that first run.  Whistler covers over 6,000 verticle feet of unbeliveable champaign powder.  With two huge mountains at your disposale, there will never be a dull moment. He finishes his article with the Olympics coming to Whistler in 2010.  As big as the games are, they will only take up only 10% of the skiable terrain at Whistler. 

I think he brings up two very important points in his article. That going to a resort to ski hit your wallet hard, but you will never regret doing it.  I am always a little bothered by the prices that ski resorts maintain even during very slow part of the year.  Even at Cannonsburg right here in Grand Rapids  you end up paying a lot more than that trash pile is worth.  Going out west costs even more which makes it hard for middle class families to get out there at least once to enjoy skiing at its very best.  But for those who have the privilage to go, they experince something that they will never forget.  You cannot go wrong with any of the resorts out west. Anywhere you you are going to get an unparralelled mountain experience.  At Whistler in particular,  you could ski for weeks and never ski the same run twice.

All in all skiing out west is in my top ten favorite things to do on this planet. Lucky for me I get to go at least once a year. Unfortunately, there are some people who will never get to experience it for the sole reason that  it is just too stinking expensive. If you ever have the option to go ski out west, to even hesitate to accept it and get there as fast as you can.