Seemingly worthless title

I just realized that my title of my last post had nothing to do with the body of the post. I had originally intended to rant for several days on the idiot that took Kyle's skis. As I started typing, I decided a couple things:
(a) my version of the story was partly secondhand. Although I was there for the theft and the use of the other rentals, I only heard about the encounter with the morons from Kyle. I wasn't there, so Steve should tell the story.
(b) in order to tell the story, I had a lot of details that were pretty mundane and boring. Not good material for a blog that no one reads already. Don't want to chase off the people that randomly come across this thing!!
(c) I found a few other things to talk about. By the time I finished talking about all those, I had forgotten about the ski incident. Imagine that - Flick forgetting something.

Things that I think I think. . .
- I think I become more libertarian every day. It seems like I stumble across stupid people or stupid events or stupid laws or bills or stupid ideals every day that could be amended with a few more people thinking with a libertarian philosophy. Here's an example of my rage - the show "The Book of Daniel" was cancelled by NBC after an incredibly short run. The major reason for this cancellation was the large amount of pressure to cancel the show by the group Focus on the Family. Damn Focus on the Family. Damn them. Do they understand anything about this country? This is a country that was founded on freedom. On liberty. Yet, Focus on the Family bitched and moaned about the content of a television show enough to get it cancelled. So much for freedom of speech and freedom of expression. The show did conflict with many of the groups central and core beliefs. The pastor's son was gay. The pastor smoked pot. Jesus literally sat and talked with the pastor throughout the day. I'm sure there were more "atrocities" in the show. But just because the show doesn't portray your particular beliefs, does that make it a show that no one should watch? Personally, I have a different approach to television. If I don't like the show or if I don't agree with the show, I don't watch it. Nothing says, "CANCEL ME" like poor ratings. If I'm not watching the show, I am helping the ship go down. That philosophy wasn't enough for Focus on the Family. They decided to encroach on everyone else's rights to appease themselves. To me, that is the greater of two evils.

- Figure skating is far too hyped up in the Winter Olympics. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't need to watch every freaking figure skater do every single event for the entire Olympics. Please, show me something more entertaining (like more curling).

- Working on President's Day is a crock. I am one of the few suckers that is actually required to work today. What a load of crap. Everyone else gets off school or work except my company. Way to go team.

- The Daytona 500 was far too anticlimactic for me. This is the first Daytona 500 that I have watched where there wasn't "The Big One", or the huge crash that takes out a large chunk of the field. There were several small crashes and one car pileups (if you can even call them that). Nothing big though. The good news from Sunday's race is the resurgence of Robby Gordon and DEI. Robby had moved himself up to 7th place before his right front tire blew out and put him into the wall. His crew did a great job in getting him back out onto the track. Robby then moved himself up to a 13th place finish. Add another 20 laps or so onto the end of the race and it would have been a top-10 (or maybe a top-5) for Robby. Dale Earnhardt Jr. managed to get a top-10 finish as he finished in 8th place. It could have been better, but there was no help for Junior on the top of the track in the final laps. It is still a better looking team than last year. Finally, Martin Truex had an early crash and worked himself back up to 16th. Add in a top 5 finish from Smoke, and it was a pretty good day of racing in my house!

Stolen Skis?

I've taken a huge step up here and decreased the time between posts to half a month instead of a full month. Baby steps, I guess.

The Olympics are going on right now, and I have concluded that they have an interesting effect on me. The biggest of these is that I root for people that I normally would never think about cheering for. First on the list is Jeremy Bloom. I despise Jeremy Bloom. I think he is a moron and a tool and I hate his hippie ass. And all that is just because he went to CU. Take all those emotions and multiply them by three because he played on the CU football team. I am just filled with rage toward him. Yet, when my roommate John asked if I would cheer for Bloom in the Olympics, I told him "yes" without even thinking about it. It's funny to see how quickly one's feelings change when a person changes teams. He plays for CU? I hate him. Wait, the same guy is skiing for my country? I love him and I hope he rages everyone.
The other people I don't normally cheer for are the snowboarders. I have never been a big snowboarding fan and I don't like the stereotypical snowboarder attitude and manner of speaking. "I totally nailed a wicked 1080 backy fronty grabby douche pick." I have no idea what they are saying. Yet, I was pulling hard for Shaun White to make the finals and dominate everyone in the half pipe last night. When he fell on the first run, my cheering just was that much louder the second run.
Lastly, the figure skaters. Worst "sport" ever. I'll admit that it is a hard thing to do, that figure skating. It takes skill and strength and conditioning. I just don't think you can classify it as a sport. You have to judge it. And it is lame. Completely lame. Yet, when Olympics time rolls around, I find myself glued to the TV, yelling at the East German judge, willing the Russian couple to fall on their heads, and cheering for the Americans. What a strange sporting event to make me love things I normally hate.

I went skiing again this weekend (this time with Kyle and Amy and Dunham). I've been up 9 or 10 times now, and I can feel and see the improvements in my skiing. The problem is that I am slowly getting more daring. More daring means more crashes. Twice this weekend, I came flying over a ridge to catch some air and I landed (going fairly fast) in a mogul field. Speed and moguls and Mike do not go together well. Twice, Kyle skied down to find me in the middle of a huge snow explosion. One time I kept everything with me. The other time, I had to climb back up the hill to collect both skis. Today, I am sore. On the positive side, I am feeling much more confident about moguls and jumps. I'm still not that good, though.