Olympics/China commentary, nachos

[sarea]

Brief-ish commentary on the Olympics/host nation, and then I will probably leave it alone. I wasn't planning to follow the Olympics, because a) it's never really been all that interesting or compelling to me; and b) I deliberately wanted to avoid it this year due to China being the host country. As someone with Chinese ancestry it really bothers me that they are still so backwards in terms of human rights and individual empowerment, and that the entire country is run by a bunch of corrupt dipshits. (My dad goes to China at least twice a year for business, and he rants about the corruption.) China/Chinese people are ruled by their pride and how things look -- thus they want to always be the best at everything, win all the gold medals, etc. etc. Yet it's totally contradictory, because what they do to get what they want to look good is what makes them look bad! And yet they don't seem to care about this. The little girl lip syncing thing? The evidence that's been found that at least 2 of China's female gymnastics team is only actually 14 years old, 2 years below the Olympic minimum? SO TYPICAL. China is so busy doing everything they can to "look good" that they are willing to lie, cheat, and steal to do it -- which HELLO, LOOKS BAD. But for some reason they don't understand this! Ugh, it makes me want to tear my hair out.

That said, it's impossible to avoid the Olympics if you go to any news sites at all (which I do, multiple times a day), so I did catch the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, which was amazing. Am I the only person who thinks Phelps is a little bit of a pansy for preferring to be the initial leg rather than the anchor leg? In my mind, a true champion is the one who's willing to stand up and take the pressure, be the go-to guy, the clutch player, the one who, with everything riding on the line, wants to have the ball in his hands in the last 5 seconds so he can make it happen. /shrug Maybe I've seen too many sports movies, but being the initial leg and yet supposedly the best swimmer seems like a big cop out.

I'm excited because tomorrow I'm going to a farmer's market and buying pig fat. That's right, LARD. But more on that later.

I made my own corn tortilla chips for the first time yesterday! And okay, it was really simple. But I've never done it before, and they were reallllly good. I ate them with fresh salsa and green sauce (tomatillos + avocados) that I made as well, along with carnita meat, cheese, and tomato. In other words, nachos. Yummmm. (Did you know that in Texas, apparently true nachos are made INDIVIDUALLY, chip by chip? While I commend the effort, and I'm sure they're delicious, it seems on the extreme side of 'too much time on your hands.')

Why is the plural form of the word avocado 'avocados' and not 'avocadoes'? Same with nachos and tomatillos, though I suppose those aren't originally English words so that's an explanation. But what's the rule/exception to the rule with avocados? Or is it the same reason, that the word avocado is actually Spanish or something?

Edit: Apparently, there is no reasoning for it. The original Spanish name was ahuacate. But a bunch of U.S. farmers just decided to name the fruit 'avocado' and that the plural form was to be spelled 'avocados' instead of 'avocadoes.' How lame is that?

Comments

[pipperstorms.livejournal.com]

first, that sounds really tasty. But on the relay thing, I don't think the swimmer choose who swims in which order, the coaches do. But I could be wrong, who knows.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

I don't know for SURE as obviously I've never been behind the scenes, but I've read on several sources/seen on commentary replays that it's Phelps who chooses to be the initial anchor, because he "feels more comfortable in that position."

[akscully.livejournal.com]

I know on the 4x100 Jason Lezak, the anchor, had anchored the last two Olympic relays and I think usually was the anchor in the world championships so maybe moving him out would be sort of insulting? I think the relay is his thing and he's been doing it for years so it's kind of his place of honor.

[akscully.livejournal.com]

Another thing that just occurred to me--having the best swimmer go out first means a great starting time and hopefully a comfortable lead (as in the 4x200 relay) which takes the pressure off the other swimmers and allows them to not freak out and tense up.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

That is not untrue, and I'm sure is the case for some teams. Some teams have their best swimmers go first so they have that initial edge (like the German team -- I think -- did for the women's relay), but that is not the reason that's been cited everywhere as why Phelps goes first on his relay teams. He goes first because he chooses to go first.

And frankly, he actually got beat by the swimmer from Australia on that first leg in the 4x100m freestyle relay, so it wasn't much of an edge that he gave his team.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Yeah he had, and I'm sure it would have been somewhat insulting, but let's face it, it's the Olympics and they're there to win, especially with Michael Phelps questing for record golds or whatever.

In any case, I'm not just making it up, it was said several places that he chose to be the initial leg.

From ESPN: "Phelps chose to swim the first leg of the relay and immediately set the tone. By the time Peter Vanderkaay swam the anchor leg, the Americans held a five-body-length lead."

If you watch the NBC Olympics replay of the swim, the commentator says that he chose to swim first as he's "more comfortable in that position."

Also, he swam the first leg of the 4x200m relay as well, and Jason Lezak isn't on that team, so that wouldn't have been a factor.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Ugh, obviously the ESPN quote is from the 4x200m relay given the reference to the anchor who is not Lezak. I can't seem to find any of the news articles I read on the 4x100m when it first happened -- all disappeared into the news ether, I suppose -- but I'm sure the replay/commentary is still there. I give up looking for the exact quote I was thinking of.

[elle-blessing.livejournal.com]

As someone who's done relays before and played sports at an extremely high level (national finalist competitor in collegiate women's soccer), I just wanted to say that Phelps probably didn't have a choice about what leg he was. The coach makes those kinds of calls. And dude, you don't argue with a coach no matter how good you are. Then they just want to show you that they're in charge. And you swim/run/jump/breath when and where they want you to.

In other news, I totally agree about China. I'm not really watching much either and am all meh when I see the news channels hyping the country every time I turn the TV on.

As for the market... is that the Thursday market thing on Queen Anne Hill? I was in walking distance of it for over a year and never went, but it did look pretty fun/cool ...

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

I totally appreciate what you're saying. But I will say what I said to the other two people who have said pretty much the same thing: I'm not just making it up. It's been cited several places several times that he CHOSE to swim the initial legs of his relays. Whether or not that is actually true is up for debate, since I don't personally know the guy. All I know is what I've read/heard, and have to base my reactions assuming that I'm being told the truth, as they come from reputable sources. IF it's true, then that's how I feel about him/his choice. If it's not true, then yeah, you guys are right and I probably wouldn't have even commented on it in the first place.

The farmer's market that I'm planning to go to is actually in Bellevue, as that's closer to me than their other two locations, the U-District and West Seattle. It's the only market I've found who has a vendor that sells pig fat! Queen Anne is such a cute place, you're lucky you lived there!

[elle-blessing.livejournal.com]

I totally didn't see your comments until after I'd already posted. And I agree with you... I tend not to believe anything the media tells me because in my personal experience of being quoted and such for newspapers, or reading articles about my teammates or coaches, it's SO skewed that the grain of truth there is completely warped beyond recognition. I'll not go into it, but the most recent experience I've had with this was when either the Seattle PI or Seattle Times did an article on one of the coaches that "resigned" from his position ... everything in it was so ... grr.

Anyways, I did love Queen Anne and if I ever lived in Seattle again, that's where I'd want to be. I didn't know about the other markets though *nod* ... and random, but what exactly to you use pig's fat for?

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that about the media... but I'm not surprised that it happens, they're such vultures. It does make me want to take everything they say with a grain of salt, but in this case, it wasn't that they were saying anything negative about Phelps's 'decision'; that was just something that occurred to me assuming what they were reporting was true. I hope the coach you're talking about wasn't someone you personally knew or anything. :/

LOL, so re: the pig's fat... I know it sounds strange, but I will be rendering it and turning it into cooking lard. Lard is the secret ingredient to making the best pastries ever (it make things flaky like nothing else). This is kind of a preview to a post I plan to make after I actually buy it and render it, but -- lard has gotten a really bad rap (obviously; just saying the word makes people shudder and totally close down), but isn't actually the terrible thing that we've all been led to believe that it is. It's like whenever scientists discover some new thing about a food and makes everyone freak out about how bad it is, but then it turns out not to be so bad after all once we understand it better -- that happened with lard, but it never recovered (there's good and bad lard, though, so the trick is knowing the difference). I'm planning to bake with it -- pies, cornbread, biscuits, anything else that I want flaky!

[elle-blessing.livejournal.com]

I did know him. It was an administration vs. the coach vs. the student athlete type thing. For once, the administration was doing what was best for the school and for their student-athletes. The coach was ... unhappy about his "retirement" ... he'd been there for about 30 years? It was time and he'd become complacent as well as other things that should have been taken care of long ago. The newspapers got quotes from the school and the coach, but it turned out looking like he was horrendously wronged. It's not true. There was a true story behind the story and the one that everyone saw was a warped skewing of what really happened.

As for the lard, LOL! I totally get it. Just like there's bad fat and good fat, etc. The lard would serve the same purpose as shortening, yes? Except probably better for you as it's natural, etc. XD

Oh! And I LOVE your dog icon XD Puppy!loves!

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

You never really know the truth of anything unless you're involved. Otherwise the way the media portrays something is skewed to however the reporter feels about the subject, or how slow the news cycle is that day. And whether there's a celebrity involved.

Exactly re: good fat, bad fat! And yes, precisely, the lard is the shortening/butter in the recipe. I was super surprised by some of the things I learned when I was researching this -- I think most people would be too. But more on that later! /mysterious

Thank you for complimenting my dog avatar. <3 I love my little Talis, even though I can't deny that he's really such a bad dog, lol.

[elle-blessing.livejournal.com]

Otherwise the way the media portrays something is skewed to however the reporter feels about the subject

You know, my favorite professor I ever had in college said something to the effect of "just because it's written in a book/magazine/scholarly article/newspaper/whatever, doesn't mean it's truth. It was written by a person and every person has an agenda. It is your job as a student, a scholar, to not believe everything you see or hear or read, but to go beyond what is obvious and find truth where you can." ... Basically, he told us to think for ourselves. Up until that point, I'd never thought about questioning what was written in a book... The written word is so ... sacred, you know? And it goes for anything else for me... if I find myself becoming too comfortable in accepting what is fed to me on the news or in a magazine, book or newspaper, I try to step back and think about it all from a different angle and find what the author/speaker isn't saying.

*coff* So, off my little philosophical spiel XD.

I'm looking forward to the surprises of lard :D Srsly. the word still makes me shudder a bit, but I intellectually know it's not all that bad XD

And I love your little Talis too, hee! I've got a little Yorkipoo and am just love little fluffy pooches to pieces. They're made of win (even when they chew up your new Guess heels >.>)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_____faith/]

Re: Phelps

He didn't anchor because he just swam another final just a couple of hours earlier :) It would've been too tiring to 1) swim the relay to his fullest potential and 2) to anchor with his full effort and tire him out for the next day.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_____faith/]

Edit: Sorry, not a final - he swam the 200m freestyle semifinal :) It took place almost exactly an hour before the relay.

[jade-okelani.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm boycotting the Olympics this year for the same reason!

And everyone was talking about how GLORIOUS the opening ceremonies was - and then word came down about how someone had already been killed at the games. How you describe the Chinese government is my reasoning entirely. The Burma situation alone is just - guh.

People who randomly name things usually are quite lame.