Olympics/China commentary, nachos

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?

But I don't wanna.

My cousin is getting married, and I don't want to go to the wedding. Not because I don't like her, or because I can't afford it, or even because I'm not a big fan of weddings. If it were somewhere I could drive to, I'd go. But it's in New York. And while I love New York, a) I just got back from a very fun trip there; b) I don't really want to be there with my family; c) it'd only be for a few days, because I wouldn't want to waste more vacation time on it than that, in which case having to sit through two 5-hour flights (when I absolutely despise flying) wouldn't be worth it.

And on top of that, her wedding day is my birthday. I know it's totally selfish, but hello, that is MY day. Even though it's not like I have anything special planned for that day, it's still mine. I don't want to spend MY birthday doing something I find tedious (I just hate weddings, I don't know why).

In her defense she doesn't know it's my birthday (and even if she did, I'm not sure she'd change it, nor would I expect her to -- not sure what etiquette dictates in a situation like that), because we're not super close. We didn't even know of each other's existence until we were like 16 (I think she's a year younger than me?), and even though she's a perfectly nice and friendly person, I have no desire to go to her wedding. I feel kind of obligated to, because she is my cousin, and she let me and Jade stay with her the first time we went to NY a few years ago, but ... not obligated enough to actually buy a plane ticket to go.

Again, if it were easy for me to do so, in terms of time and cost, I'd go, regardless of it being my birthday. But given the other factors I just can't justify going. My mom says that it's fine, but I still feel guilty. I feel obligated enough that I don't feel right just telling her I'm not going without a good reason. I'd have to make something up about work (which probably won't be untrue, given how things go). So if I'm having to lie about the reason I can't go, does that mean I really should go?

I wonder what NPH would do.