So here's the first of a few thoughts I've got in my skull about "America - the real & the percieved".
Today's topic is gonna be about sports. I'm not really as much of a crazy sports fan as some of ya'll may think, but I've been unable to sleep recently, and so, around 3am I'm oft to be found flipping channels aimlessley, and always stopping on ESPN2. Why? Fucking craziness, that's why.
The other night I watched 2 hours of what must be total midwestern/rocky mountain type bliss, "Luberjack/Ironjack World Championship 2004". Guys wildly chopping into logs in totally different events, all the events have different rules, but all based on SPEED of cutting. There's one where they have to stand on their logs, and chop thru in the middle, so they end up standing in 2 smalller logs. Then there's the "springboard" and "double springboard", where they basically have one tall standing log, and chip small holes into it so they can shove in a thin plank, then hoist themselves up onto it, and have to balance themselves on the plank (or else they fall off & start over, costing them time), and cut off the very top part of the log which has been painted to show them where to cut.
Amazing. Where do you train for this shit?
Then, there's the women who do the log rolling. Um, young beautiful girls in white shirts who spin around the logs they stand on in shallow water lakes, and try to send the other girl off, first. Hello!? where can I sign up to watch? Oh, right, ESPN2. This year it seems the sport is totally dominated by 3 amazing (im not usually a fan of blond girls) and funny Wisconsin sisters. Here's photos of two of them - the middle sister won the world championship. How tough was it on that mom to congradulate them all? Oh, plus, mom herself is a 11-time world record holder in this sport.
Lastly, we have another crazy sport, Bull Riding. Who on earth came up with this one?? Get some 20 yr old men, stick them on top of a wild, angry bull, and then open a gate & let the bull go crazy. I read about this sport recently, very interesting how the points are earned: 1) riders have to stay on for 8 seconds - no less, no more. If they get kicked off early, they lose points, if they stay on too long, they lose points. 8. That's it. 2) the points also get awarded based on which bull you're on - each bull has it's own difficulty levels, and that's factored into the score. 3) Lastly, you can't pick the bull, there's a rotating lottery for the bulls, so you can get stuck on the lowest scoring bull before your out of a gate & could be looking at a disadvantage in your score compared to other riders. That's just fucked.
The reason I even have thoughts about such non-NYC type of activities, is partly due to the election. Also partly due to work, where I try to anticipate or learn what people nation-wide may be interested in.
Personally, I feel there has been a really strong surge in the rural-ization of the US. And, with that, has oddly come these wildly strong support of Republican party ideals, along with Fox News. Now, I'm not opposed to people having ANY opinion, but it's odd that the idea of "ruralization" has been butitng heads so strongly with "the need for less Governmental influence". This is totally a topic for another post tho....
Y~!
Today's topic is gonna be about sports. I'm not really as much of a crazy sports fan as some of ya'll may think, but I've been unable to sleep recently, and so, around 3am I'm oft to be found flipping channels aimlessley, and always stopping on ESPN2. Why? Fucking craziness, that's why.
The other night I watched 2 hours of what must be total midwestern/rocky mountain type bliss, "Luberjack/Ironjack World Championship 2004". Guys wildly chopping into logs in totally different events, all the events have different rules, but all based on SPEED of cutting. There's one where they have to stand on their logs, and chop thru in the middle, so they end up standing in 2 smalller logs. Then there's the "springboard" and "double springboard", where they basically have one tall standing log, and chip small holes into it so they can shove in a thin plank, then hoist themselves up onto it, and have to balance themselves on the plank (or else they fall off & start over, costing them time), and cut off the very top part of the log which has been painted to show them where to cut.
Amazing. Where do you train for this shit?
Then, there's the women who do the log rolling. Um, young beautiful girls in white shirts who spin around the logs they stand on in shallow water lakes, and try to send the other girl off, first. Hello!? where can I sign up to watch? Oh, right, ESPN2. This year it seems the sport is totally dominated by 3 amazing (im not usually a fan of blond girls) and funny Wisconsin sisters. Here's photos of two of them - the middle sister won the world championship. How tough was it on that mom to congradulate them all? Oh, plus, mom herself is a 11-time world record holder in this sport.
Lastly, we have another crazy sport, Bull Riding. Who on earth came up with this one?? Get some 20 yr old men, stick them on top of a wild, angry bull, and then open a gate & let the bull go crazy. I read about this sport recently, very interesting how the points are earned: 1) riders have to stay on for 8 seconds - no less, no more. If they get kicked off early, they lose points, if they stay on too long, they lose points. 8. That's it. 2) the points also get awarded based on which bull you're on - each bull has it's own difficulty levels, and that's factored into the score. 3) Lastly, you can't pick the bull, there's a rotating lottery for the bulls, so you can get stuck on the lowest scoring bull before your out of a gate & could be looking at a disadvantage in your score compared to other riders. That's just fucked.
The reason I even have thoughts about such non-NYC type of activities, is partly due to the election. Also partly due to work, where I try to anticipate or learn what people nation-wide may be interested in.
Personally, I feel there has been a really strong surge in the rural-ization of the US. And, with that, has oddly come these wildly strong support of Republican party ideals, along with Fox News. Now, I'm not opposed to people having ANY opinion, but it's odd that the idea of "ruralization" has been butitng heads so strongly with "the need for less Governmental influence". This is totally a topic for another post tho....
Y~!
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i from manchester in the UK