Archive for the ‘olympics’ Category
Canadian Olympics… proud of being modest?
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
I’ve been watching the Olympics these past days. I’m in Canada right now, which really gets me into the spirit of it, as I’m sure British TV focuses on British athletes, and Canadian TV on Canadians. Which it should. I was always excited for the winter Olympics, just because, well, as a nation, Canadians have 5 months of winter, so it’s not like we’re going to start sweeping the summer Olympics. We love hockey, we have snow. There’s nothing else to do here.
Here’s my view from my window today: try training for a marathon here.
It's snowing today!
The media in other nations are critical though. Things aren’t going smoothly. There’s hilarious, embarrassing, annoying happenings. Every event has them. Just because you try hard, doesn’t mean that people can’t criticise you. People will always complain. People will always be critical. People will always joke. Get over it.
I am quietly proud of being a Canadian. I love our snowy, boring nation.
What I hate is this arrogance. And the arrogance at being polite and modest. How can you be declaring yourself modest? How does that make ANY sense?
Skeleton champion belts out Oh Canada. He's got the right idea... he's just absolutely 100% ecstatic about winning.
I’m all for the cheering, singing oh canada, flag waving (who said Canadians don’t wave flags? I happen to think we have a beautiful flag!), and glorifying the athletes. We’re going to cheer louder for our countrymen, there’s going to be more of us than other fans, and tell me of a country where this isn’t true.
Canadians aren’t that interesting (with a few notable exceptions). We are nice, and we’re doing our best, but we should learn how the world works. We’re not very often in the world media, we don’t get criticism very often because we’re often not a big player. Now that we’re in the spotlight, we’re boasting with arrogance about our modesty.
These Canadians that are hurt by the criticism, that say we should just focus on the sport, have lost their grip on reality. Grow some thick skin, Canada. The Olympics are going fine. They suck at times, they’re great at times. That’s life.
Speech writers/media content creators: Your arrogance makes us look bad.
I’m sure most Canadians flinch when someone goes on about how AMAZING we are. We have a beautiful country, and we’re nice. Let’s not forget that we usually let people discover this themselves. We’re not perfect, but I think some of the public data is misrepresenting us. If we were acting like proper Canadians, we’d be proud, but acknowledge that we’ve made mistakes and things haven’t gone perfectly. We’d be able to laugh at ourselves.
I also look forward to 2012 in London, where I know cynical Brits will have no problem criticising their own nation’s attempt at Olympic glory.
Safetygoat’s 2009 hopes and dreams
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Everyone is writing new year’s resolutions, making predictions, and looking back, and at first I wasn’t going to join in the party, because most of these dreams fade come February 1st. But let’s face it– I’m an annoyingly cheerful individual and I can’t help but be excited about 2009. So, in no particular order, here’s my 2009 resolutions.
1. Rework, rework, rework safetygoat
This is actually a cheating one– I’ve been working on this for the past few months (speeding it up in the past few weeks), and my grasp of wordpress is slightly above dunce level now. Sure, putting a plug-in (that’s not a widget) seems to take me 3 hours to configure, something that would take someone even remotely proficient a few minutes, but I’ve depended on other people too much to get this site up, so now it’s time for me to do it myself, with all the optimistic bells and whistles.
2. Launch apps I’ve been working on for ages
Let’s face it. It’s sad having to go edit your portfolio page to change the launch date, which you set to November, thinking you were leaving lots of room for contingencies, way back until march. BUT I WILL ACTUALLY FINISH THEM! (I hope, soon).
3. Get a vinyl toy designed and made
I’ve made my own plastic safetygoats this past year (if you want one, email me and I might just send you one) and it’s been fun hand painting them and giving them out to people, but I think it’s time to do this properly. This means a) doing the sketch/3-d model b) finding someone who will do a short run. No problem!
4. Make more custom things
I’ve made some dresses, but they haven’t been perfect. BUT I got a dressmaking mannequin for Christmas from olliekav, and have already made my first dress, which I wore to new years. 2009 should see more dresses, but I also want to make some custom shoes, maybe some bags… you know, stuff with drawing on them!
5. Learn learn learn
I’m amazed how far I’ve come in the past 2 years. I mean, I made my first real website with css then (I don’t think html tables in high school really count, do they?). I’m thinking I’m very good at css now, and have gotten great working in the java environment, but I would like to master styling in ruby and flex as well as getting the hang of some of the more advanced jquery stuff. As I get better, I will be able to try out more experimentative webdesign, and use a lot of the css3 selectors well and properly.
6. Write more
I used to keep a diary in high school and uni and used to write in it every night. Of course, it was just hormonal teenage rage, but it’s so interesting to reflect on things and then have a paper trail to actually see where and, more importantly, who you’ve been. So, writing, yes, but maybe writing more blog posts too. I’ve learned a lot while redoing safetygoat this past while, so I will definitely be sharing some of the stuff I’ve learned.
7. Talk to my best friends more
I live in the UK. My best friends are in Canada. We will always love each other, but I’m rubbish at keeping in touch. This is unacceptable!
8. Get into shape
I know, I know, this is everyone’s resolution, but lord I’ve packed it on over the holidays. It would be nice to at least get back to where I started.
9. Spraypaint
I did a bit of work practicing this past year, but I’m frankly rubbish. It’s fun, so I will be doing more. This is definitely not a chore!
10. Have an adventure
Pretty sure I know what this will be, but I’m going to keep it on the down-low for now. Stay tuned for my crazy times!
Making text in inputs disappear when you click on it
Sunday, October 19th, 2008
This is probably really REALLY obvious to other front-end coders, but I didn’t know how to do it. It’s a great way to save room on a design, but still label things clearly. So here it is….
<input onfocus=”this.value=”” type=”text” value=”sometext” />
So you can put an id or class on this as you normally would, but the words ’sometext’ will appear until someone clicks on the input box. If you want them to have to select and delete the text before they enter in their own text….
<input onfocus=”this.select()” type=”text” value=”sometext” />
Update: My good friend Andrew, of Pepsmedia, has informed me that this is a bit naughty, as I’m putting a javascript function on an actual html element. He suggests going to this link and using the jquery method.
I’ve got the olympic fever!
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
While I didn’t watch as much of the olympics as I would have liked (Britain’s coverage really didn’t give me very much access to my canadian countrymen…), I have caught olympic fever. Yes, myself and Margaret, Irish girl from work, are competing in an 5-day olympic challenge in the first week of October. That means 5 weeks to train for events!
I’m sure you’re dying to know what the events are, so I couldn’t *not* tell you, could I? It’s 5 days… sooo…
1. Rowing 1km (her with a 12 second handicap as she has competed in rowing before)
2 & 3. Weights (spread over two days)– there’s 8 machines using all of the main muscle groups, and we get three attempts to lift as much as we can for 5 reps.
4. Running 5km
5. Swimming (10 laps for her, 12 laps for me as I’m a better swimmer)
Should be good! We’re also monitoring our bmi and our inch-loss, which will factor in to our ending score. We’re still not sure what the prize should be. Possibly a night out on the lash, possibly having to do something embarrassing. I will also be planning a chinese-style opening ceremonies.
