best or nothing?

As you are all probably well aware, its Olympic-time and I love watching them on TV. I remember being a kid and watching in awe as the all-powerful Soviets were beaten by a bunch of college kids from the USA in 1980. Four years later I remember watching an athlete hobbling across the finish line in agony and having tremendous respect for a man who had to complete the race even though he had ruptured a tendon while sprinting down the track. I am awe-struck with the physical accomplishments that many amateur athletes can accomplish even though many of them have no prospects of being a professional. They do it for the love of the sport and spirit of the games.

I used to think that Americans were satisfied with giving it our all and never giving up in any competition. As long as we gave it our best, that was good enough. A lot of times our best was better than what others could ever hope to accomplish, enough to win medals and break records. But I feel something different from certain athletes and members of the press this Olympics. Getting a medal isn't good enough - the only place on the podium is the top and not getting there is a "disappointment".

Here are some examples - Chad Hedrick was hoping to break/tie Eric Heiden's record of 5 gold medals in speedskating in one Olympics. Chad took the bronze in the 1500m (after winning gold in the 5000m) and proclaimed, "I didn't come here to finish third. I'm not happy with what I did. This is not what I sacrificed my whole life to do." Chad was also a bit peeved with teammate Shani Davis for not being on the team pursuit squad in an effort to help him attempt for more medals. Instead, Shani did an admirable thing and let others who had not had a chance to skate as much in the Olympics take to the ice and skate for their country. Chad - way too focused on himself and not understanding what it truly means to be at the Olympics.

Yi-Wyn Yen of Sports Illustrated is calling for the resignation of women's hockey coach Ben Smith because of the team's failure to win the gold medal - the team lost to Sweden after a 3-2 shootout loss in the semi-finals (the women would go on to win the bronze). She claims that Ben is responsible for USA Women's hockey going downhill because he chose to cut a player (Cammi Granato) who may have had an influence on the team's loss; if she had been there she would have saved the day. What total BS! She claims that since Ben has coached the team for 10 years that they have gone downhill. Hmmm, I distinctly remember them winning 3 medals (gold, silver, and bronze) winning a World Championship, and appearing in ALL of the championship games (except this Olympics) during his tenure. The only team that they've lost to in a big game is Canada - notably the best team in women's hockey. What the heck?! The team has a bad game, doesn't go on to the gold medal match, and now the media (Yi-Wyn isn't the only one) is calling for his resignation? I thought it was the players on the ice who decided the game, not the coach behind the bench. Yi-Wyn is calling for a man to lose his job because of a bad performance by his team. How about she loses her job if she writes ONE cruddy article?

And there are other examples but I don't want to be too long-winded; there's a bunch that I could say about Apolo Anton Ohno, Bode Miller, and the list goes on and on. My point is this - since when did we put such pressure on people to be the best or nothing at all? Yes, Americans donate a TON of money to train Olympic athletes (I know, I am one of them) and expect them to do well, but "gold or bust"? We've even gone so far as to make sure we have the best out there by allowing professional athletes to participate. So much for being a showcase for amateurs to strut their stuff...

As an American who is tired of the trash-talking, chest-pounding, showboating antics of what sports has become in America today, I thank Jay Hakkinen, Tim Burke, Lowell Bailey, and Jeremy Teela of the 4x7.5km biathlon relay for doing their best and coming in 9th; Eric Camerota, who placed 40th in the nordic combined; Katie Uhlaender, placing 6th in skeleton. You're not the best in the world but you're doing your best, and that's all anyone could ever ask for.

need for introspective?

I am somewhat of an enigma for most of my friends back in the US. They don't seem to get me and my curiousity (obsession?) with other places and the need to constantly move. My life has always been about moving and the longest that I've lived in a single place has been 5 years; that was the place where I was born. Since 1975, my life has been about relocation every two years (or so) and its one of the constants that I have become accustomed to.

Recently I sent out an email to my friends telling about my adventures last year and describing what I had done over the last 12 months. Its something that I picked up from an old girlfriend when she was an expat. Its a good way to do a check-in with folks that I haven't heard from in a while and let them know that even though I am out of sight (or even out of country), that I am still thinking about them. If nothing else, it gives me a chance to update people on my most current email address.

After I sent out my last update (a coupla weeks ago), I got replies back from some of my friends. Some were excited at the prospect of me moving to Peru since it will give them a chance to visit the country and crash at my place. Others were hopeful that I would be able to stop in to see them before I headed to South America. And then there was a small contingent that wrote to me and wanted to know my motivation for moving. Why did I move so much? What is it that I am missing in my life that makes me continue to wander the planet in search of a home?

What great questions! I have no idea what the answers are to those questions and perhaps this is a sign that I need to seek professional counseling. Maybe its time for me to go lay down on someone's comfy couch and tell them all about my life, maybe then I could gain some insight as to why I am a 'wandering fool'. Most everyone else on the planet seems content with finding a home and staying relatively close to it for their entire life, so why don't I fit that mold? What makes me so afraid to commit to a place? Heck, maybe that would help to explain why I'm still single at my tender age of mid-30s. Maybe the time has come for my spiritual journey to begin and true enlightenment to occur. Perhaps if I were to live as a hermit in a high Nepalese village I could answer all these questions and more.

Sounds great. I'll get to it later. Maybe after Peru, maybe after the next place I live. And maybe therein lies the true answer - maybe I'm just procrastinating. :)

keeping up with the joneses

Ok, so I know that its probably old hat by now and that most of my readers know about this but I still like using this tool. From the folks that brought you GMail and Google Earth comes ... Google Reader.

Trying to keep up with all the blogs that I try to read, I find it frustrating to go to certain websites day after day and seeing nothing new. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand that there are days/weeks when you don't have the time to update - I know EXACTLY how that feels. So rather than going to the blog day after day and waiting for the update, let the new entry come to you.

As many of you are well aware, there is a lovely idea out there and it has to do with live feeds. Its this fandangled thing called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and it is tied together with XML (Extensible Markup Language). None of that is terribly important to what Google Reader is all about and Acid Zebra can be asked about all of the particulars that I don't know.

What I do know is that Google Reader brings my blogs (and other RSS feeds) right to me, no need to surf around to all the websites anymore. I log in to my Google account, go to the Reader (click on title above) and poof! there are my feeds. If any of them have been updated, the new entry is there for me to read. If nothing new, nothing new is shown. If you want to go back to read old posts, you can do that too. If you want to see the original, the link is provided for easy navigation so you can go to the website. All there, nice and easy.

And isn't that what technology is supposed to do?

south of the border

Well, I'm back from Iowa and I have some news to pass along (per someone's request). Here's a brief synopsis of what all went on this last weekend.

I got to Iowa late on Thursday night and got my stuff ready for the next day. Clothes were hung up, CVs were carefully organized, my alarm clock set. I got some mexican food and fell asleep while eating my burrito. No, it wasn't actually IN my mouth, I had set it down and woke up a half hour later. I went to bed as early as I could because I knew that Friday was going to be one busy day.

It started off with an interview with the American School of Kuwait at 7:15 in the morning. If that sounds a bit early, you aren't the only one who thought that. But hey, it was a free breakfast and I am never one to turn down a free meal. The director of ASK pushed hard for me to go to their school but something just didn't feel right. Maybe it was because it felt like he was a used-car salesman the way he was working the situation or that I couldn't quite envision myself working for the high school principal that was there, but in any case, I quickly shifted ASK to a spot low on my list.

I got a little bit of time off and then I sat down with the director and her husband of the FDR School of Lima, Peru. We chatted for about an hour and I thought things went really well. They were one of my top choices from before the fair and the interview didn't disappoint. After that interview, the fair actually started. I mean that it started in the fact that others got their chance to schedule interviews with schools. I kinda jumped the queue because I'm so wicked cool.

Or something like that.

But then I did my signups and the interviews were fast and furious - 30 minutes top per school. I talked with Seoul Foreign School (great package) in Korea; ASF in Guadalajara, Mexico; ASF in Tampico, Mexico; Escuela Carabobo in Valencia, Venezuela; IS Manila in the Philippines, and the Kwajalein School of the US Marshall Islands. That's right, 8 interviews in one afternoon. Ugh, me tired. But the day wasn't over. There was still the 'social mixer' for candidates and recruiters to mingle and chat and hob-knob and basically kiss ass. While I was there, I walked up and got myself a beer - a Heineken. When the barmaid said that it would be $3, I scoffed. "They don't cost that much in Holland." She giggles and flips into Dutch. I have no idea what she said but I chatted with her for a minute and found out that she was there because of a man in her life, a transplant from Haarlem. What are the odds??? I'm in the middle of a small town in IOWA and I bump into a Dutchie. The world is a truly small place.

Saturday was second interviews and I went back to talk with FDR and Seoul Foreign. I had a second interview with Venezuela scheduled as well but dropped it so I could sign a contract with FDR. Even though the package that SFS had was absolutely amazing, I just felt like Lima was going to be a better fit for me and decided to take the job there. So I'm off to South America! What a hectic summer its going to be...

There's other small drivel of information about the weekend but nothing that really makes the story any more exciting. And more to the point, I'm exhausted and want to grab a nap right now (I am writing this mere moments after returning home). So ask questions and I'll be glad to answer. For now its nappy time.