The end.

I am switching my blogging over to Livejournal so I will no longer update this account. I will probably leave it up though, and let Blogger delete it when it wants to. Hopefully it won't delete it too soon, because I am a diary-whore and I want to copy all the entries on to my computer before they are gone.

10 News and Notes

1. It is fucking snowing in Seattle. Like snowing wet, huge flakes that are actually sticking to the ground. Maybe a few inches by tomorrow morning?
2. UW totally blew their match against Nebraska. That was kind of depressing. I got really into it because I don't like Nebraska volleyball (they beat my girls in 2006, back when I was impressionable) and because the crowd was boisterous. They say there's something about Seattle sports lately...
3. I have been watching a lot of romantic comedy movies on TV. There are a bit too many stalkerish guys for my liking, and I rather enjoy people doing more ridiculous things and less lying.
4. I have also been reading a lot of stuff on fictionpress again. Trashy fiction for free is better than trashy fiction that you have to pay for, right?
5. I am basically done with experiments and fooling around now. I have some gels that I could have run today but got lazy. Maybe I'll run them tomorrow.
6. I have finished the knitting part of my tote. Now to sew in all of the strings...
7. Did I say I miss NaNoWriMo? Mostly I miss the forums. Especially the "Most Embarrassing Moments" thread.
   
8. Of course I must remember, 3 more days until I am home!
9. The day after that, Suikoden Tierkreis comes out. It got a pretty good rating. Now just come to the U.S. PLEASE.
10. Last but not least, Real Madrid vs. Barcelona was intense but it should have been better. I don't like Juande Ramos. Thought some dodgy substitutions there. Iker still tried his best, and Leo Messi cut his hair since I last saw him. I really should watch some more soccer sometime.
    

Something is wrong with me.

I have suddenly lost all motivation to go into my lab, even when things aren't going that badly, and I really, really, really miss snow. I know, what is wrong with me? I don't want it to be cold, especially not cold enough that I need a winter coat, but I want to feel the white flakes touch my nose, even if they just fall and melt. I'm not sure if I miss snow because I really want to go home and forget about this quarter, of because I actually miss snow that much.

edit: post-department party, I have heard that it might snow in Seattle tomorrow or this weekend. Of course news about the weather is usually 90% wrong, but let it snow!

I'm so jealous...

1. of Thrice's awesome lyrics in their songs. I wish I could be that coherent, lyrical, and awesome at the same time.
2. of the beautiful men who lead Panic! at the Disco. Meanwhile I still have acne and belly fat.
   
3. of any rotation student who has real data. I just realized what I should have been doing the past 10 weeks. Too bad I don't have time to do any of it.
4. of people who don't have a compulsive urge to eat all the time. At least I'm not too overweight yet...
5. of Stephen Curry, for being crazy good at crunch time. I need that so bad.
6. of people who are always full of ideas for stories. I am challenging myself to think of new story ideas every day and it's starting to become too much like a running commentary...
7. of people who know what they want to be career-wise. I have no idea still.
8. of people who can sing well. I am thinking of joining a choir in January, but my voice still sucks.
9. of people who sound cool when they blog, because I don't.
10. of people who don't have to work. I'm done with school, but I should probably run that experiment... I rather just spend my time bouncing around, drabbling, singing, playing the keyboard, watching TV, etc.
    

Monthly Outlook: December 2008

Recap: My labwork still sucks, but my professor thinks something is salvageable. Meanwhile NaNoWriMo went pretty well, despite my growing hatred for the story (actually it went down until about when I hit 30k or so, and then built up again). I didn't exercise or study French, which was bad, and I drank more hot cocoa and tea than I ever did (spending money...) I got my brother to give me his keyboard, so I jammed a little on it, but haven't touched my oboe. Maybe I should... Anyway, NaNoWriMo was awesome and I feel much happier because of it, even though I still don't have friends or a life!

Outlook: Well, it's going to be a mad dash to the end, which will be December 16 for me. December 17 I'm headed back to Michigan. I will take some time off to go to the volleyball games (regionals at UW!) and will probably need to work this weekend and next weekend around those times. I'm actually a bit sick right now (and missed the last 2 home volleyball games), so I hope to feel better! Sometime I will go shopping, though I keep being lazy... Hmm... Somewhere in here I'll start a mini writing challenge (500 words/day minimum on anything), try to learn some more French (Berlitz self-teacher lessons 21-40), read some stuff in Spanish (Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his famous book, maybe). Definitely going to be a month inside.

Events/Activities: volleyball regionals!, going home

Goals: resume French studying, keep writing, not be so sick, get some lab results!

Fever!

I have a slight fever. The thermometer in my mouth reads 99.1 degrees F. Looks like this is my first time getting sick in Seattle. What a bad time to be sick...but everyone is, it seems. I think I got it from the labmates too.

Hope I'm okay for Monday. I really have a shitload of work to do, or at least try to do.

Just a small sports update.

Currently watching UCLA vs. Michigan that I recorded a while ago. Somethings don't change, like how often Manny Harris can miss layups. There are some new faces that I don't recognize, like guys #1 and #0. DeShawn Sims still looks like an idiot, and I like Kelvin Grady. We'll see how much of Michigan basketball I'll actually try to watch this year... They are probably better than UW basketball.

Pissed off that my volleyball recording was overridden by Seattle U basketball. Women volleyball players from SoCal >> Seattle U basketball players. Seriously.

Otherwise, tennis season is over and I am a bit sad about it. But yay Spain for the title. The match of Nando Verdasco vs. Acasuso wasn't great tennis, but great emotions. Actually the doubles was probably the best of the matches. I really can't wait for the next tour season (don't have enough time to follow challengers); it's going to be awesome!

Stupid UCLA men's soccer lost to UC Irvine?? Why go on a 10 game unbeaten streak and then lose at the tourney... And of course Michigan and Peri Marosevic have to be awesome the year after I leave... One of the sucky things about graduating early, I guess... But seeing Cynthia and Foluke live kind of outweighs any college soccer. Pac 10 sports rock!

I WIN.

I got to 50,000 words for my NaNoWriMo 2008 project. I absolutely hate the story and where it was headed, so the last 5000 or so words was definitely a chore. The story is almost finished, so once I put the battle scene in (a fantasy novel with one battle scene at the very end, I know, very strange) I am done! I like the main character, Tanya, but I hate the story. I need to remake the world, and all kinds of other things... She definitely complained to me about not having enough fun mysteries to solve, so we'll see... I'm already thinking up characters for a high school romance story. Yes, what's wrong with me? I obviously lacked having gossip about who like who and all that fun stuff in high school, so I'm still catching up haha.

I'm totally going to miss the distraction that NaNo was, but I really should get back into reading again. My stupid cells took longer than expected to grow, so I have to do the bulk of labwork tomorrow instead of today, though hopefully it happens in 4 or less hours. Then I'll scurry off to the library and also sometime buy a cake... I'm looking for something under $15, and preferably with chocolate. We will see what I find.

Too sick to go outside... I know UW will kill the 'Zona teams and I need to blow my nose like every 10 minutes... Should do some knitting and finish that bag, then maybe a banner or scarf or something... I have way more of the bisexual-themed-colored yarn then I need. Oh, and that purple sweater-jacket-coat that I was going to make...should start that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have many things to be thankful for, even with this rough November. I list them off briefly (hope I don't forget anything obvious), since I'm soon going to be at my Aunt's place for brunch.

1. Being healthy.
2. Enough money for essentials (especially food) and a few gifts.
3. A wonderful artsy, liberal city.
4. Family who care about me even when we don't connect emotionally.
5. A few friends who still remember me.
6. The internet, especially to find other people who seem to be as crazy as me.
7. Books, for the joy and entertainment and emotions someone else's words can bring me.
8. NaNoWriMo, for giving me small successes in an overall frustrating month.
9. Music, for being so beautiful and so uplifting and warming my soul.
10. People in general, for their ability to help complete strangers and care about people they don't even know, it's really unlike anything else in the world.
    

NaNoWriMo is saving my life.

Wow, I am having such fun doing NaNoWriMo! I wish I had done this in high school, it would have definitely livened up my life. Back then I had a bit more of an imagination. But it's never too late to start doing NaNoWriMo, and I can still dig out some imagination from somewhere, as witnessed by my 30,000+ words I've written so far.

NaNoWriMo has let me reengage my creative side. It also helped me remember the joy of writing, of putting my inner sarcasm and humor, the rush from achieving simple goals, and the fact that I am crazy but I'm not the only one. NaNoWriMo has kept me away from boredom, away from depression, away from feeling failure. It has been an absolute wonder. It has also reminded me that despite my loserness and the fact that I am terrible at making friends, I can still be happy and find people who share something in common with me. I feel like I'm going back in time, back to high school where I would be reading and writing and sharing in the joy of the written word, the joy of sharing sentiments and opinions with other people, the feeling of not being alone in a world where people try to act more and more "normal" and repress their crazy sides and wanting to break free.

Also, I love how artsy Seattle is. I just need to find more of these people, though it's hard when you are a graduate student in the sciences. I really haven't forged any friendships with people through NaNo, but just going to a write-in and seeing other people crazily typing on their laptops, randomly bursting into conversation about their characters and their plots, and also (especially with the university ones) finding people who don't judge you by how you write, but instead applaud you for trying... I just love it. And yesterday, going to the protest and marching down from Volunteer Park to downtown Seattle, demanding my right to marry whoever I chose with about 6000 other people. Seattle is a lonely place but still wonderful.

Of course it would have been easiest if I had joined a program not located in a city, or with people desperate to make friends with each other because they had no one else, but it wouldn't be in Seattle. My need to achieve my own selfish goals outweighs my need to achieve those "normal" ones of forging friendships, contacts, success in my job. The one downside of NaNo is that I find myself less motivated to do schoolwork or labwork, but it distracts me from the frustration of it. Thus I've had a bit of a rocky November in the lab, but it's not dampened my spirits. I hate my project but I like the lab, and perhaps my professor will appreciate NaNo in the end because I won't think so badly upon this lab rotation despite my struggles.

I do hope someday to make some friends here, but I always do things slowly, so I will not worry about taking my time, being picky. I have close friends who care about me even though I'm thousands of miles away, and that's all I need. Well besides food and sleep and fun things to read!

I don't think I'll be updating much more this month because of NaNoWriMo, which means that I'm happy and occupied. Especially with the NaNoWriMo forums...they are such a drug.

Monthly Outlook: November 2008

Recap: Lab rotation isn't going as well as I hoped, but have gotten some reassurance from the professor. Classwork was more than I expected so I probably should have done more for it. I suffered from a bout of almost suicidal depression, got really into reading about my sexuality and chatting with people online, and had many revelations including the fact that I think I might want to stick to being a bit more androgynous.

Outlook: I have signed up for NaNoWriMo so I'll be busy writing for that. Otherwise I hope to do a bit better with my rotation (school work too, but not as important to me), start trying to do some more exercising besides just walking around, and try to be happier than last month.

Events/Activities: NaNoWriMo, UW volleyball games, UW soccer games, tennis and soccer matches on TV, Seattle Symphony Orchestra concerts, one volunteer event, Thanksgiving

Goals: keep up with French studying, get some results in my lab rotation, exercise a bit more, NaNoWriMo

Ana wins at Linz!

Great job Ana! You just looked relaxed, confident, and ready to win! Vera probably should have played better, but Ana probably would have won anyway. And maybe she'll get herself some nice wins at the Championships. Ajde!

In life news, I met up with some guy for dinner yesterday and I guess it was a "date" but it was awkward and weird... Unlike the chatting online. I think that cured my strange urge to want to be social. And with NaNoWriMo coming up, and with my realization that I shouldn't slack off on my classes until the end like I just did, and with the start of basketball and my renewed interest in soccer I will have plenty of things to do! And plenty of forums to visit, and a bunch of fics I can read if I am desperate. The only thing that will suck will be that November will probably disappear.

Yeah, so I'm catching up on reading right before my take home test is handed out. It's basically taken up my entire weekend, besides the sports-watching I've done. I think it just makes me feel better, even if I don't end up doing well on that test. I'm totally going to fail...it's a no-notes test. But I guess I have 2 more chances to pass tests after that haha...

Sports Update

So I haven't blogged about sports recently, though I've watched a lot! Today I went to the UCLA vs. UW men's soccer game. Somehow I managed to sit next to some student athletes again. It's like if I sit by college students, they have to be student athletes. It was weird. But anyway, UCLA got a win somehow. Took advantage of their opportunities. And UW didn't. But some of it was Brian Perk's awesomeness. Damn he was good! It was worth it, just to see him.

Otherwise, it's been volleyball. I watched both of UW's games last week and really enjoyed the game vs. Oregon. I thought I had recognized Maricic as Oregon's leader from last year and she kind of had "bitch-face" going on. But she is good, and so was the setter Djordjevic (spelling?). I saw some of UW vs. Oregon State but after UW women's soccer match vs. Cal. It was a nice win by the girls. Probably the soccer teams and the volleyball team will make the tournament, and with UCLA winning some more I think the men's soccer team will make it. And of course Stanford! Too bad they lost to Cal and Cynthia didn't have that great of a game... And she had a decent one today vs. USC but Alix... Well at least they won.

And on the professional tennis side, unfortunately Marin and Mario lost early this week, but Gilles continues to be crazy awesome marathon man and he's going to make his way to the Master's Cup! He was so charming in the interview after the final at Madrid. I have officially become a fangirl... And Ana has been playing decently well, getting to two semifinals two weeks in a row! So things are getting better for her. Hopefully Novak has a decent week next week. And hopefully my other boys do well too!

So I went to the ticket office today, planning to get tickets to the NCAA regionals. They told me that they might get a student package. Maybe I should have gotten tickets anyway. Oh well, I'll see. I'd be willing to pay more since it would be worth it. Plus, if Stanford ends up in this regional, and/or Cal, it will be awesome! Being the west regional, I don't doubt it. I guess it would be cool to see Nebraska, Texas, or Penn State as well. Strangely enough of those three I've only seen Nebraska on TV. And random teams like Northern Colorado University get on TV. I don't know how this happens; college sports TV programming is messed up.

And NBA has started but I'm pretty apathetic to it. Looks like Kevin Durant is doing well. If only he could have stayed in Seattle... UW men's basketball doesn't play that interesting of a schedule, so I'll probably just see Oregon and UCLA. Unless some other team in the Pac-10 is randomly good and hyped, I think that's it. I'll probably see some gymnastics meets but next quarter I might actually want to do my HW. And do better in school...whoops...

I did something stupid.

I did something stupid this weekend, which I don't want to discuss, and I'm lucky it turned out so well. But I think I'm paying for it now. My labwork is absolutely shit right now. Nothing is working. I have no idea what the fuck is going on and it just eats up my time. And one of my classes is about to end and I am screwed for it. And NSF shit. At least I don't have to do those extra meetings for the grant review.

Dude I was going to say something more important but I'm chatting with this guy online and for once he's not creepy! Maybe that's why my luck still sucks at lab...

No! Novak!

Novak lost to Ivo Karlovic! This just...sucks.

My DVR is going to be full...

I got the sports entertainment pack and now I will have plenty of things to watch. Now it's just for getting in the mood to watch them... All that tennis, especially with Madrid coming up! And all that volleyball too!

I better jump up and down a lot while watching TV or I'm going to get really fat haha...

I just realized

that to celebrate my bisexuality the easy way, I should buy dark pink, purple, and dark blue rubber bands. Then I can put those all in my hair as a "subtle" signal of my sexual orientation. It'll be representing as well as slight advertisement! But anyway...

To celebrate National Coming Out Day one day early, I knitted myself a "bracelet". It looks more like a wristband. And the pink isn't as pink as it could be, but what can I do? Hard to find cheap yarn in the right colors! I used the same yarn that will be on my tote. It will be exciting to get that done, whenever that happens.

And it brings up the question. I should really tell my parents. But the worst thing that could happen is not to be taken seriously. That's my greatest fear, more than being kicked out the house or something. Because I don't think they would kick me out the house. They don't care too much what I do, as long as I don't get myself into danger, get my health compromised, and as long as I get married/have kids. Technically I could still get married and have kids sometime in the future... And guess what happens! National Coming Out Day is on a Saturday, just when we have our family talks. But telling them on Skype is probably not a good idea. So I think I will tell them sometime over Christmas break. But we'll see. Especially since I'm embracing more and more my sexuality, and hope to march in the Pride Parade next year, since there is one in Seattle! (Maybe there was one in Ann Arbor, never checked...)

So tomorrow is kind of a big step. Last year I had that paper hi-lighter colored strip around my wrist, but it could have come off as an "ally" bracelet. This time the colors should indicate that I am bi, though I guess I could be a bi "ally". But whatever, it's going to be interesting because it won't be strangers, classmates that I don't care about, or close friends. It's going to be people I've only known for a few weeks, who seem to like me okay, and who seem to be slowly warming up to me. And I don't have any close friends here. I don't expect blatant homophobia, but it's still - if my professor knows anything about the symbols, he's going to know about me. That is kind of weird. I haven't faced any homophobia directly, and it's going to be weird. But it's time to come out again.

Still, the rubber bands would be better, because the wristband/bracelet is probably going to itch. Damn. And for someone who barely wears jewelry, rubber bands are one of the few things I'm used to wearing around my wrist. So I wouldn't be thinking about it so much, and then stop over-thinking. Oh well, for next time.

I am going to Safeway on Saturday maybe (food shopping is so much fun), so maybe the rubber bands then...

I am on crack(ers)

I don't know what the hell I am doing. So here are 10 things.

1. I've been eating lots of crackers. I just finished a bag of Goldfish crackers and I think I've eaten half a box of Cheez-it crackers. The Goldfish crackers were spread over a few days but the Cheez-it crackers I bought yesterday. Damn, I know I like to eat junk food on the weekends, but that is pretty bad.
2. I wasted a few hours yesterday chatting to people on bisexual.com. I don't think I can do that too often. Besides not getting any work done during that period, I also ended up talking about sex. Too many horny guys = trouble.
   
3. Later on I did talk to a girl. She was cool and didn't seem horny. Thank god.
4. I guess all the young bisexual people are somewhere else. On LJ, on facebook, on craig's list, on Myspace?
5. I just realized that I'm almost 21. Whoa. But I'll continue to think that I'm closer to 20 until the day comes. Damn, who is going to take me out for drinks on my b-day?
6. I got yarn! I didn't find wool in the colors I wanted, but found some chunky acrylic yarn which I'm knitting double-stranded. The result is something very thick with a bit of give. Probably about the same as my felted tote. I also got 2 pounds of purple yarn, bought in 1 pound rolls. Whoa, I know.
   
7. Sports! Watched a lot of stuff. Got my TV set up but I think I don't have the sports package for some reason. Must remedy that soon. Need the tennis channel like now.
   
8. Meanwhile I enjoyed live volleyball! The Stanford girls were as hot as I hoped! They dominated UW for the first two games. The third one was a bit of a fight, as Stanford's passing was off - probably somewhat due to some better serving from UW! Erin Waller could have won the match at 24-23 but her serve hit the net and went the wrong way! But despite some drama and hustle play, Stanford finished 3-0! Go girls! (I like to call them chicas too.)
9. Then I ran over to watch some UW men's soccer. They were playing against Cal, and the stuff was pretty good. Think it was better probably in the first half, since there were more goals! I saw one, a set-piece goal. There were a few decent shots - Cal took more shots but it seemed like from the parts I saw that UW (during those times) had better chances. At least better chances to win. But no, 2-2 even after double overtime. So I got about 50 min of soccer watching in.
10. And to conclude, after all this sports watching, I must say the UW volleyball chicas are the hottest, followed by the women's soccer players and then the men's soccer players. I don't care too much for the other athletes of this season. I love track but I'm not into cross country. Anyway the Stanford volleyball chicas are the best!

And just remembered, UW is hosting volleyball regionals. Must get tickets!

My Failures

First I failed at being social with my own lab. Second I failed to be very social at the graduate student social thingy. Third I failed at finding the LGBT people who were supposed to be there. Fourth I failed at cheering for UW volleyball because I am too in love with Cutura. She's just so awesome. Plus points for Carli Lloyd (???) and #14 was kind of hot...haha it was #14 on Utah's women's soccer team...it must be my new favorite number.

I also realized that this guy in my department looks kind of like the guy in my previous lab who I thought was hot. But he's kind of preppy compared to the other guy who had punk/metal/rock music stereotype fashion going on. I think these are the worst kind of "attractions" or "obsessions", whatever they are, because it's like an extension of an "old" one. It gets too messy. I think I had one of those in high school, and the guy I had the actual crush on (who had already graduated) was so much better than the "secondary" guy. But with the "first" person gone, I fixed my attentions on something similar. Yeah, if that made any sense...

I think I'm almost obsessed with my lack of friends here. I keep thinking about it, and thinking about it makes me think even more about it. Like the failure of my lab work... Too bad my French books came in while I was gone - I can't get them until Monday. So I guess I should actually study this weekend. But definitely plan to get some yarn. I am going to make a "bisexual" tote - tote with the bisexual flag colors! Hopefully I can find those colors. Otherwise I think I'm knitting a purple coat.

Talking about coats, I need to get a raincoat. The volleyball game was totally worth getting drenched on the way home, but I don't have to do that every time. Also, I need to not sit in the student section. Especially not on Sunday, when my favorite volleyball girls come to town. I probably shouldn't scream my love for Cynthia, but definitely will be wearing red! Maybe she'll notice me haha...

I should stop.

I am having way too much fun looking at the "strictly platonic" ads on craig's list. It is such a loser thing to do. I actually can imagine myself posting on there. But probably later - no point in trying to get "friends" when I don't have time. And I think my class load and work load will pick up soon. It's only been about a week after all.

I try to keep the side bar updated but sometimes the changes I make aren't saved. It's annoying. Not like most of you care, but it's fun. It's like my obsession with changing my status message. It's way too much fun, especially when so many thoughts run through my head. I do have many things of little interest that I note.

What I really need to do is to write some fiction and/or read some published fiction. Thus I think I'm going to the Seattle Public Library this weekend. Now if my French books came in, and I got off my butt and got some yarn, and my TV gets set up, I should have plenty of things to do. Starting to play the oboe again is helping out for sure. If all things fail, I can go back to trying to learn Chinese...

Damnit

I cut my left middle finger while cutting carrots. And then slightly burned the salmon fillet. And then did not have any flavor in the carrots. Oh well, at least the rice turned out. Rice cookers are awesome!

I would practice my oboe except that my cut finger is going numb to try and stop the bleeding. So I guess I'll just blow some reed (sounds like a drug haha) while I do something like...HW...

Monthly Outlook: October 2008

Recap: U.S. Open was interesting and all right. Then I started school in Seattle. Did a few fun things. Leeched off my brother. Spent a lot of money on necessities. Picking a rotation was stressful, and not knowing how to do anything was a bit embarrassing but more annoying. Hopefully I will remedy my uselessness in this lab by the end of this rotation. I actually blogged a lot last month, so that means that I didn't do very much...

Outlook: October is when I start really having stuff to do for school. Stuff in lab will hopefully start rolling, while I'll start getting more HW and tests. One of my classes ends at the end of this month. Have my 21st birthday coming up! I hope to start learning French (bought some French self-teach books) and to start practicing more on the oboe in preparation for playing in a school band winter and/or spring quarter. My TV will finally be getting set up so I'll get to watch tennis! Very exciting! I might also try to meet some people outside of my department, but we'll see how that goes...

Events/Activities: UW volleyball games (most important one this Sunday!), UW soccer games, tennis and soccer matches on TV, checking out some of the parks/museums, Seattle Symphony Orchestra concerts, UW grad student, etc. social events for the free food (hahaha)

Goals: to restrain myself from buying too much food, to learn some French, to keep up with school work, to get presents for people's birthdays

More Life Notes...Because...

1. I haven't made any "friends" in Seattle yet. Not anyone that I'd call up and say "Hey let's hang out!" And no one's invited me yet. But that's ok...
   
2. It's been 2 weeks in Seattle already! How time flies!
   
3. I wasn't completely a loser this weekend. I went to the UW women's soccer game on Friday and to the Seattle Symphony concert on Sunday. The former by myself, the latter with my brother. I also enjoyed the weather and went to Gas Works Park! It's only about a mile away from where I live, and has a great view! Got my own grassy space, sat on the hill and tanned (forgot the sunscreen, which was bad), spaced out, and wrote some stuff down because...
   
4. I had one of the cheesiest romance plots stuck in my head. So I wrote down some of the dialogue and now I hope it doesn't haunt me for a while.
   
5. Talking about cheese, I am listening currently to more of Huang Yi Da. I don't know what it is about him, but he's like the only Chinese pop-artist that I can stand. Very strange.
   
6. I suddenly got all inspired and have been reading a bunch about other bisexuals. I think I'm going to try to meet some other bisexuals. I think it's "natural" to want to associate with people like you, so I'm going with the flow, I guess.
   
7. I finished the book "The Gift of Fear". Besides the tone of some of the writing, which kind of lumped the audience (or reader) into one like-minded, same kind of thought-process group, it was great. It's not a work of art, but it's quite practical and yet inspiring to me. Maybe the tone is typical of those self-help books, but what I found fascinating were the people's stories, and the way he lets you see things through his eyes. I totally feel more confident in myself now, which is awesome.
   
8. Which is also good, because I think I'm reverting a bit to my ways of seclusion. But before college, I wasn't really unhappy spending most of my time by myself. And I still talk to people through instant messenger. I kind of want to go back to being able to amuse myself. Because my not-so-much of a "revelation" was that...
   
9. I am totally a narcissist. Ultimately I love my mind, my body. There are things I would like to change, of course, but they are more like "this would make things easier on me" than "this part of my is butt ugly". Well except for my knees...just kidding! I think besides my non-flat stomach it's the part I like the least - but I don't hate it anymore, not like in high school. And my issue with clothes now is more like "That doesn't show off the good traits of my body" or "That slogan sucks" and less "That totally makes me look fat".
   
10. But I do love other people too, so I guess that's a contradiction? I love the women finalists at the China Open and the two men at Bangkok. Too bad the ones I wanted to win more, Sveta and Novak, both lost. But I'm not upset. Just want Sveta and Novak to get their heads back on track...
    

Ana Won! And Life Notes

1. Ana comes out with a nice win over Alize Cornet! Finally!
2. In a few weeks I'll have TV set up (stupid Comcast is full of servicing, ugh, should have called them earlier) and I'll be able to watch tennis again! Because most of the tennis is happening at night, while I am SLEEPING. Which means that I can't livestream it (not like my internet connection is that great). So once I have DVR I will be tennis-watching like mad. And probably watching a bit of soccer and volleyball.
3. Talking about soccer, UW's women's team is ranked 21 currently. Will probably check out their game tomorrow...
4. Damn, I can't believe I have HW. But all take-home tests so far...which is pretty awesome. And it's not like we are learning anything "hard". I think it'll be more of a problem of remembering rather than understanding.
5. It's quite awkward not knowing anything and following one of the people around the lab again... Let's say that the lab organization doesn't quite make much sense, but I guess my old lab was the same way. But somehow I managed to talk to someone in my lab about tennis. I am such a loser...
   
6. My license came in the male and I have another vertical license. Isn't that exciting...
7. I feel like I need more gay friends. Or maybe just someone to makeout with. I don't know.
8. I am totally not eating enough food, and I really really want crackers. I am sleeping a lot and managing not to do enough "exciting" things at the lab to really keep me engaged and awake. I totally am going to bed at like 10:30 again and waking up at 8:30.
   
9. Tomorrow is Friday, and finally the weekend that I really need. So I can go shopping and buy some junk food, go to that concert on Sunday, buy my Dad a present.
10. I need yarn! So badly. My hands are so itchy. And I want to knit a purple cardigan for some reason...
    

Bisexuality Day! And Spandex

Happy Bisexuality Day! I totally did not know it was today until a friend informed me, and she found out from Google. So hopefully I remember this holiday next year, and do something fun, like wear a rainbow or something...

Life is interesting but not really, and every day on my walk to and from school I get passed by a large amount of bike riders. Which makes things quite interesting, especially if they are wearing spandex. Let's say I've been having an inner debate on whether or not the spandex pants are a good thing. On one hand, I get to see clearly defined upper legs and butts. On the other hand, they are clearly defined. It's a bit too disturbing for me at this moment. But I guess I'll get used to it... But I don't see myself wearing that anytime soon!

Class starts tomorrow, and I'll be starting real lab rotation work tomorrow as well. I still need to buy another notebook or three, and I don't have butter, but I've recently bought a bunch more food so life is slowly getting better! Buying food makes me happy. Anyway I hate not having the classes bunched together. And when am I going to eat lunch? Stupid class...

I know what I want.

I know what I want right now. I want to play tennis. I want to flirt with hot girls. I want to eat some crackers. I want to watch tennis.

This all means that I have to do a lot of things tomorrow. First up, driver's license. And then some major task-finishing. I still can't believe it took me like 4 hours to put together the dresser I bought from IKEA...

What Do I Want?

What do I want? I want to know what I want out of my lab rotation. I want to know if I want to dedicate myself to a career and what career that would be. I want to want things enough that I don't have doubts.

I also want to be less shy about myself and about my living situation. I need to "care" less about real things - I need to not care if other people are in the kitchen when I want to use it, how loud my neighbors may or may not be, if I'm actually being social enough or doing enough things. I need to care about being happy, healthy, safe. I need to also remember to study more Croatian!

Because of Orientation I've been very stressed out. Thus I miss knitting more than ever. I still need to set up the TV, do a few chores like get my driver's license and buy some non-vegetable foods like milk and butter and cheese, set up and clean my room. I need to write some stories or some music or draw or something creative. I need to also stop being randomly emo - hey I learned that stress can cause people to feel more depressed than usual, maybe that's what's happening...

Sports! Davis Cup is happening this weekend and I should have set up my cable TV before this weekend so that I could watch it! But whatever, I am happy that Mario won his DC match and Serbia are back in the world group (are up 3-0 in a best of 5). And seeing some photos, Janko is so pretty... So jealous... Also, UEFA Champion's League started up again and Atletico got off to a great start! Kun is amazing once again! And also I went to a volleyball game yesterday. Was fun - would have been more fun with my sister! Oh well... Two weeks it's Cal and Stanford! So looking forward to that (esp. seeing Alix and Cynthia and Foluke in person!).

I wasn't prepared for this...

Orientation for grad school is going on and I don't really know what I want to do. Things are happening and I feel like I'm not ready for a lot of this research. Then again I know I'd learn the stuff better on the job. I know this stuff will be interesting, but still...it's kind of like dating an I'm not so sure how stuff is going to work out. And I haven't even been on a date.

Met 2 people in the apartment complex so far. One girl from Indonesia yesterday and a guy today who said my stuff "smelled good" but I'm sure he was lying. I had broccoli and green peppers for dinner! I know, I suck. I'm going to have a banana later.

I like the other people so far. Everyone is nice. But shit here is expensive! I'm not used to that yet. So we'll see how the budget goes. Can't spend too much money on the yarn...

I am going to Seattle tomorrow.

And thus begins my 9.5-hour or so odyssey. That is really like 12 hours. Damnit. And then orientation the next day at 8:30 AM. I am fucking screwed. Oh well.

I'm too excited and I won't be able to sleep. I hate when that happens. But once my stuff gets checked in I'll be pretty happy. On my own! Pretty cool, huh?

U.S. Open 2008 Final Thoughts + Hopes For the Rest of the Tennis Season

With yesterday's final (delayed because of rain on Saturday), the U.S. Open is finally complete. Multiple slam-winners beat non-slam winners. Tennis world-order was somewhat restored. But I rather it be in chaos.

Youngsters showed that they can get it done (Del Potro, Cilic, Nishikori), but veterans also showed that they have grit (Jankovic, Federer). There were some cinderellas (Gilles Muller, Julie Coin) but the top seeds did pretty well (1, 2, 3, 6 on the men's side; 2, 4, 5, 6 on the women's side). Safina, Murray, and Del Potro lived up to their summer hype (good runs by them all), while Gilles Simon may have also done well if he hadn't run into Del Potro. It was somewhat interesting, but I knew it wasn't going to live up to the Australian Open or the French Open, which were seriously crazy. But as the last slam of the season, the really big prizes are wrapped up and those who qualified for the year-end championships will cruise along (men play the indoors MS because of requirements) until that final event. And Fed Cup and Davis Cup finals are always great fun too.

So my goals for some of my favorites:

Amelie Mauresmo - She has said she is going part-time, so I'm not sure what she'll be playing. But hopefully she can put together a few more quarters and semis, if she does play some more this year. The lead up to the U. S. Open was promising, and the 4th round run at the Open wasn't so bad (except for the double faults!). Just have fun out there!

Ana Ivanovic - She needs matches! She needs to regain confidence in her forehand and hopefully get good results leading up to the year-end championships. I don't expect any titles from her, but some quarters and semis will be pretty good.

Andy Murray - It would be awesome if he did as well as he did last year in the indoor season. But since he was awesome and surpassed expectations, I'm just along for the ride. Keep up the good work!

Dinara Safina - She has also surpassed expectations. Just take it easy and don't let pressure get to you. Good job!

Jelena Jankovic - I want her to take a vacation and get stronger, but she probably won't. Alas it would be nice to see her win another title this year, but no pressure.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga - I hope he can get confidence back and play as nicely as he did at Australia. It'll take time, but some quarters would be nice.

Marin Cilic - He has some points in the Asia swing which would be nice to defend so that he gets into Australia next year as a seed. But no pressure - would be nice to see some more quarters and semis! And keep Croatia in the World Group!

Mario Ancic - I hope he isn't still sick. If he is back for Davis Cup, then I hope he gets to play. But no pressure. Most importantly just stay healthy. PLEASE.

Novak Djokovic - I don't really care what he does for the rest of the season, but I want him to be HAPPY. Please don't think about defending points, winning titles, media. Think about keeping Serbia in the World Group and winning matches one at a time, believing in yourself, and if you need a break PLEASE TAKE IT!

Svetlana Kuznetsova - I think she needs to figure out how to deal with her nerves and emotions. Maybe playing some matches would help, and getting to the year-end championships would definitely make her feel better, but I think she needs to forget this year and think not about tennis for a bit, maybe.

I almost love the WTA more...

...because they care less about being "polite" and "PC" then the men. Who would have thought?

I actually like Maria Sharapova as a person. She's sort of the "Novak" of the women's tour. Except that the tour isn't "PC" and the Williams sisters and Jelena are also part of some trashing/bashing. I just don't like watching Maria mostly because of her shrieks. And there was also a backlash against her because she was considered the "next best thing" by American media once she won Wimbledon and poor girls who had just as awesome runs like Sveta or Anastasia Myskina (who is way hotter than Maria Sharapova in my opinion) were shafted. Sveta won the U.S. Open, and yet it was all MS. Maybe because MS won her slam first, but really because she won Wimbledon and that she was considered "hot". Hot at 16/17? I think she is hotter now because she doesn't look like a kid. I cringe when I see older pictures of her from Wimbledon 2004 and wonder how the media could be such pedophiles and get away with it. I also have many unjustified reasons for not liking people. I, for some reason, didn't like Justine and didn't want her to be that dominant, despite liking her game. The Williams sisters bring great athleticism to the game but I also can't stand their shrieks most of all, and then some of their attitude. Jelena rubbed me the wrong way the first time I saw her, but her smiles drew me in and though she'll never surplant Sveta, Amelie, and Ana on my list I still like her enough to want her to win. I didn't like Nicole Vaidisova for beating Amelie and I still haven't recovered (though I am fine with Lucie Safarova, huh). I still don't like Tatiana Golovin either, while Elena Dementieva has said some out-of-place things but I somewhat like her (a little of the non-PC is probably why). And Viktoria Azarenka's grunt still bothers me and it's also hard for me to watch her play because of that. And poor Daniela, who I didn't like because her anorexia bothered me and the fact that she's out there competing for top spots against my other girls - hard to like them all. Her game, and really none of the top players have that bad of games. I think the tour is going to get better once they are over this "power beating out crafty people" movement.

Anyway, I just realized that if the ATP Tour becomes a "farce" that bashes Novak without care (aka all bashing and hypocricy and no love for Novak), then I'll have no problems turning my back on it and watching the somewhat more "brainless" tennis of the WTA. But I don't believe that will happen. Just something I wanted to state.

More Novak thoughts

So something quite interesting, to say the least, happened yesterday with Novak. Here is a quick sumup:

- Novak calls for 2 injury timeouts during his match vs. Robredo
- Media thinks Novak is faking his injuries, using timeouts as gamesmanship
- Robredo says Novak puts on a show and is quick to call trainer
- After media prodding, Andy Roddick makes a joke saying Novak has "16 injuries" including "SARS, bird flu" and also says he may be quick to call trainer
- Media makes more articles, implying that Roddick means that Novak is faking and that "everyone" is doubting Novak
- Novak in his post-match interview reacts and says he thinks the crowd is against him because they think he was faking injuries
- Andy says it was clearly a joke and that Novak should be able to handle it
- Novak apologizes for his post-match interview but retains that he is honest and is hurt by the accusations

So, Novak. You are stuck in a hole right now and people are trying to bury you while you try to climb out. Not a good situation. But don't worry, the people who really liked you still like you, including me. Because these people are sick of the "gentlemen" tennis that is going around. Why do you have to be nice to each other when you don't like each other? As long as you aren't cheating, who says that you even need to smile at the net? We know that you like certain people more than others, and vice versa. Why can't it be out in the open? We don't need a "farce" anymore - maybe some people like to believe the tennis world is a happy place for everyone. Um, hello? Not everyone wants to be considered #3 or lower behind Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Some people want to be the best - is that wrong?

It's funny that Novak gets into all this shit for doing what he does, being who he is. I hate certain things about him, but yesterday's performance emphasized those things I hate about him as well as those things I love about him. For once he was being who he is - reactive, sensitive, confident, a bit self-centered and ignorant. The things I want for myself - to be more honest with myself - is what he was showing everyone out on that court yesterday. I'm sick of being "polite" and so is he. And I feel for him, because he's having a hard time shaking off the ridiculous nature of his parents, which some of has been impressed on him (I might have ranted about this before someone on my blog, since it pisses me off to realize how much of my parents I carry with me for unknown reasons). Seriously, do you expect him to estrange himself from his parents, despite how ridiculous they are? When they, despite their crazy statements and actions, may be the only ones who will always support him no matter what happens? When they were the ones who let him be who he is now, sacrificing so he could go to the Pilic Academy and become a professional tennis player? Tell me how many people would, in his situation, just cut ties with his parents right now and hope casual fans will give him support during the loneliest of times. Like if he has a career-ending injury right now - how many people would stick by him?

But really, in the end Novak is paying for "mistakes" he made before. For being the first to really declare that he'd do anything to win. For being the first to really say that he doesn't give Roger the utmost respect on court and wants to take him down. For doing imitations and having them posted on Youtube, and then trying to please a crowd when U.S. TV asks him to do some. How many people would do the same as him? Especially in the last instance, how players would go on U.S. TV and absolutely refuse to do imitations when asked, especially players wanting to win over the crowd. "No, sorry. I rather not piss other players off." How many of them have the foresight? Because the imitations only became an "issue" once Novak did them on TV.

I think in a way that Novak is "meant" to be hated. People don't like how he wants to break up the "harmony" between Roger and Rafa (which is more important than when Roger and Andy were 1-2 because Andy fucking bowed down to Roger like no other during that time). Now I want Novak to "embrace" those thoughts, "Michael Phelps" his way to the title by using their accusations and "hatred" as ammunition. I mean, the only way people are going to believe he is injured now is if he shows some actual damage - like discoloring or blood or swelling, while almost every other player gets the benefit of the doubt. He's only going to shake the "faker" label if he dies on court or something. Even if he never has to take an injury timeout again - unless he is showing some damage, he'll always be the "faker" to people. Even Jelena could be faking her life away and Novak will always be the "faker". So Novak just needs to be himself, say "Fuck you" to everyone and win some more slams. Take that, haters!

Novake!

Novake! Čuj mi!

Zašto nije srećan? Vidim te i mislim da ne voliš da igraš. Da li misliš od resultata i ne tenis? Da li je tenis posao i nije radost? Ne volim da vidim te nesrećan. Nije važna pobjedna kad nisi srećan. Tužna sam da vidim te ovako. Molim da se sećaš radost kad igraš.

Pardon the terrible Serbian/Croatian I typed above. But seriously Novak, I just want to see you happy. If you don't want to be there, you don't have to. I'll understand.

Where My Parents and I Don't Agree

I just got yelled at for watching more tennis, this time on my computer. Because I had basically watched from about 11 to 5, and then 7 until now, except for a break to eat a mandatory snack. No wonder why I got so fat under when I lived at home. Anyway it's obviously not the only thing I've been yelled at about. I forgot to clean the bathtub, and only cleaned the bathroom when asked. I don't go out of my way to cook when my Dad is anal and must control the food supply. I don't go out of my way to talk to them, I don't exercise a lot, I'm on the internet.

Basically I'm not on the same wavelength as my parents. I don't care about the same things that they do. I don't have much to talk about with them. Half of what I believe is different from what they do. Maybe it's too weird for them to understand that I am different from them because they are like "we raised her, why doesn't she do what we expect her to?" But somehow I am an introvert who is very sensitive and unable to hide my feelings. I also have an inferiority complex of unknown origin still. So I think too much about what people mean and how they react to things I do, things I say, but I can't help but say the first things that come to mind. I self-evaluate but have a hard time breaking habits, while my parents scold me for bad habits that they themselves still practice.

So I believe in taking care of things I care about, and not being a busy body. I find inspiration and enjoyment from watching tennis. I would be playing it too, if I had someone to play with or was taking lessons (definitely considering taking lessons some day). Yes, I did enjoy the Democratic Convention speeches and some of them were pretty good, but I also learn from seeing how tennis players deal with nervousness during matches. I'm sorry that athletes inspire me and politicians don't.

I think my dad was mostly pissed off because he watched me watch TV. I wasn't hiding in my room watching TV, like my sister does playing the SIMs. She also had the whole summer off while I am trying to milk 2.5 months which also included 4 weeks not at home. I also spent 3 of these days finishing up my lab summary, and half of my time in Seattle taking care of housing issues. So that stuff for me was very stressful. I'm sorry that it wasn't fun and games for me. But seriously, what do they expect?

I am definitely not coherent when I am pissed off. And I still haven't told them that I am bisexual. I feel like they would either not take me seriously or try to convince me that I am not. I don't even think they understand what it is to be bisexual and might understand me being lesbian a lot better.

Monthly Outlook: September 2008

Wow, haven't made one of these in a while.

Recap: Went to Seattle with my sister for a few weeks. Like the city. Found a place, looked around, bought some stuff, watched a lot of Olympics! And then the U.S. Open! So a very vacation/sports-watching month.

Outlook: I get to start graduate school. Hopefully it isn't too stressful. I don't really know what to expect and I have little idea of what I am doing (research-wise) so it will be interesting. Probably a bit stressful too. But at least I have my brother who can help me.

Events/Activities: U.S. Open, college sports?

Goals: to not spend too much money, to start learning French, to study more Croatian history

Serbian Pretty Boys

What is up with Serbia and the pretty? With Ana Ivanović and Jelena Janković being some of the prettiest girls on tour, you would think there are pretty boys as well. Well I just found another one.

Ilija Vučić. Makes me feel like a pedophile for thinking him pretty, but I can't help it. Along with Marko Đoković and for a pretty man (older than me for once) Viktor Troicki what can I do? I can only ogle them! Just kidding...

Croatia may have Mario Ančić and Niko Kranjčar, but somehow the Serbs beat the Croats in the pretty, at least at this moment...

Not So Easy to be #1 on the WTA Tour

It's kind of funny how easy it is to lose.  How there are nerves and excitement but not fear.  Julie Coin had no fear facing Ana Ivanovic.  Ana had no fear of losing.  But the livestream I watched had commentators that kept saying that Julie Coin was doing the impossible, and I wanted to beat them up.

Come on, guys.  You guys know Ana.  You know more than her numbers.  You know how streaky she is, how she hasn't put back to back tournaments together, how she is fighting a thumb injury.  You also have eyes, and you can see that her timing is off sometimes, that she has some doubts on how to feel when hitting the ball, that she is lacking a bit of confidence.  So fucking shut up!

Most people are not Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, or Justine Henin.  Most of the "top" girls are so used to being Justine's fodder that they didn't think about dominating.  They just thought about getting there, not staying there.  In addition, I think the fast courts of the U. S. Open are not Ana's favorite places to play.  I think clay is her thing, and then Australia because she just so energized for it.  Even as the top seed I was never expecting Ana to win this slam at this moment.  But it would have been nice if she had gotten farther...

The good thing about this loss is hopefully an opening for Amelie Mauresmo.  Amelie has struggled with confidence for a while, but has come through two tough matches in 3 sets.  I hope she takes care of Julie.  And hopefully tomorrow Jelena can find some form.  She won a match but should have been more aggressive.  It's worse when Sveta starts playing defensive, which isn't happening.  Sveta is loving the courts here and is looking the nicest of my girls, while Dinara is outhitting everyone once she gets the ball in play (those double faults need to go away!).  So hope one of the four girls above can win.  Though Jelena playing mixed doubles with Fernando Verdasco...wtf?  You are already tired - what are you doing?

On the men's side Marin is coming of age.  He's confident after that Pilot Pen title for sure!  I think he prefers the clay and the grass.  And Victor is doing awesome too!  And Tsonga is back from injury and being more and more like himself!  I will concentrate on the men to be happy since I don't think the women are going to make me happy...but you never know, I guess...

Reorganization

So I'm going to rearrange the side part a bit. I know it's a bit overcrowded at the moment, and I realized that I really just love and/or appreciate way too many people. So each category is going to be cut down to 10 or less. So that means I won't be listing all of my favorite soccer players or tennis players at the same time. And I'm keeping the top part so that you can quickly get the lowdown on what kind of mood/state I am in, since things like favorite athletes don't change as often. I might add or change more categories as I play around with what I want to tell other people, but I won't be making note of it here. It's not like you won't notice it if you actually look at the screen.

U.S. Open Round 1 Preview

Things go crazy fast in the sports world. Just as the Olympics end, the U.S. Open begins. It's a recipe for getting no work done once again.

This year's open is much more exciting for a few reasons. Firstly it's Nadal's first tournament as the #1 seed. Secondly it features the return of Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Thirdly this tournament is only a week from the Olympics in which Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic played until the last day. Fourthly there is the crazy battle for #1 at the top of the women's rankings. Fifthly, strong hard court tournament showings by Andy Murray, Gilles Simon, Nicolas Kiefer, Juan Martin del Potro, Marin Cilic, Dinara Safina, Caroline Wozniacki, and Dominika Cibulkova are going to be put to the test. Sixthly, Jelena's leg problems, Ana's thumb problems, and Sveta's head problems may or may not spell disaster for the top. We'll see...

1st round women's matchups of note (to me):
Nathalie Dechy vs. Amelie Mauresmo - they know each other so well, should be very competitive
Nicole Vaidisova vs. Petra Cetkovska
Shahar Peer vs. Na Li
Tamira Paszek vs. Maria Kirilenko

The women's favorites play the following 1st round matches:
Ana Ivanovic vs. Vera Dushevina
Dinara Safina vs. Kristie Haerim Ahn
Serena Williams vs. Kateryna Bondarenko
Venus Williams vs. Sam Stosur
Elena Dementieva vs. Akgul Amanmuradova
Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Shuai Zhang
Jelena Jankovic vs. Coco Vanderweghe

1st round men's matchups of note (to me):
Tomas Berdych vs. Sam Querrey
Kei Nishikori vs. Juan Monaco
Juan Martin del Potro vs. Guillermo Canas
Ernests Gulbis vs. Thomas Johansson
Marin Cilic vs. Julien Benneteau
Nicolas Almagro vs. Frank Dancevic
Tommy Haas vs. Richard Gasquet - maybe the best

The men's favorites play the following 1st round matches:
Rafael Nadal vs. Bjorn Phau
Novak Djokovic vs. Arnaud Clement
Roger Federer vs. Maximo Gonzalez

I think Jelena has the easiest opener of the women's favorites and Venus or Serena the hardest, but they should all win. Novak has the hardest of the men's favorite and Rafa should have the easiest if he is on form. We'll see.

Darkhorses for a deep run or the title include Wozniacki, Cibulkova, Cornet, Radwanska, Gulbis, Blake, del Potro, Murray, Safin. For the title the favorite should be Nadal on the men's side and the women's side is a complete mess, so probably Serena Williams. Now if some guy breaks through on the men's side it would be pretty awesome (aka another Tsonga), but I really hope one of the favorites win on the women's side. They need some steadying faces so that women's tennis can get more popular and more respect!

I take it back

I understand why I was so easily able to pick out the love triangle in Alphabet Thorn. It's because McKillip had more important things on her mind. Despite some bouts of predictability, the story of Alphabet Thorn was very well thought out and executed. It built well to a very nice climax and I was easily reading 2 pages/minute at the end. Which isn't that fast, considering the large font and all, but since I haven't been reading much recently, I think that it's a pretty good pace.

There are many other times in my life where I have had a first impression and had to change it. That's why, as I've gotten older, I've been more reluctant to make immediate judgements. For example, I used to dislike Fernando Verdasco for his one moment of gamesmanship against Andy Roddick. But then he does things like accompany Paul-Henri Mathieu to the hospital after an on-court accident. And his overall niceness to fans is a big plus.

So one day I'll read those Harry Potter books that I shunned when they first came out, and find a way to appreciate golf. But for now, I'm taking things as they are.

Too Predictable

I am currently reading Alphabet Thorn by Patricia McKillip and I already know the love interests.  She's too obvious with them, but I guess she doesn't care because that's not the focus of the story.  I'm a bit disappointed with the book, though.  I think I've grown out of her unfortunately...

I read plenty of stuff that is cliched or predictable but that stuff is usually free and written by amateur writers.  McKillip still excels at using twisty sentences that make the magic in her books feel like random objects that prickle or caress.  But I guess I expected more.

I think my own writing is devolving somewhat into teenage plots, but when I go over the plots in my head I can't help but laugh.  I guess I really need to write crack so my head isn't full of it anymore.

Seattle and the Olympics

So here's a life update. And then I'll add a bit more on the Olympics, since they are half of my life at the moment.

Seattle was nice. I think I'm going to like it there. The weather was pretty good, hotter than expected and quite sunny. I spent three of the days in the first week taking care of housing stuff and bank accounts. Two or three days for shopping for stuff to live. So really only a week of real stuff. I got to see some relatives (I'm not sure what the term is for them but my mom's cousin and husband and kids) and we gave them the ridiculously huge red Fuwa stuffed mascot thingy that my brother got in Beijing. I went with my sister to Pike's Place Market and did lots of browsing, got lost in a bunch of underground and above-ground malls, looked at lots of furniture stores (I like looking at furniture, so what), went to the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Glass, Henry Art Gallery, hiking once, Olympic Sculpture Park and Space Needle area (did not go up it). So not really much - like 5-6 hours out, played some tennis, did laundry, went on the internet a lot. Probably could have blogged, but I was on vacation. I could have also continued to study Croatian, but took a break. If only that beautiful language wasn't so hard to learn... Yes watched a lot of Olympics, more than half of a J-drama of epic emo proportions (enjoyed the realistic portrayal of a lesbian and her situation, remembered how Japanese actors border on the side of pretty and not on the side of hot). The only thing that really sucked about Seattle was the airport. Took forever to get luggage, and then almost missed my flight back home!

Side note, since my mind is jumpy. It is quite unfortunate that none of the beach volleyballers that I have seen are truly hot. Yes they all have nice bodies and I wouldn't mind being the bitch of most of them, but compared to tennis players they fail. So I guess I should be happy I follow such a hot sport haha... Um yeah, and Michael Phelp's face is ugly. He looks better with the swim cap and goggles on - maybe I can somewhat pretend he looks different? Ryan Lochte pwns all in male swimmer hotness - at least that I know of. Let's say I rather watch track. I shoud really go for gymnasts, since they are actually close to my height, but so many of them just look goofy...

So let's actually talk results. The Olympics have been quite interesting and enjoyable. I do find myself being a bit patriotic but somewhat not, and wanting China to sometimes do well and sometimes not. I like Dara Torres, even with the people who doubt that she's clean (aka not doping) but I didn't really like the idea of Phelps getting 8 golds here. Yet I didn't root against him - sometimes rooted for "him" - aka rooted for the USA relays. I rather the US win over Australia in swimming, so what. In gymnastics I just wanted to see clean routines, though people messing up allowed the US men to get 3rd in team finals. The women's all-around was perhaps the best competition to watch and super happy for Nastia and Shawn. Liked Yang Wei too, despite how painful it was to watch his high bar routine. Fabian! Unfortunately could have gotten silver had he stayed on. Life happens and Sasha Artemev would have medaled had he stayed on the horse in pommel finals...

What is really sucky is that Liu Xiang is out for track. Meanwhile Jamaican 21-year olds have been tearing up the 100 m distance in crazy races. I think if I ran on the Beijing track I would get a PB as well... U.S. Track isn't doing as well as it should this time. I do think that the 200 m will also be a cracker, and can't wait to see the relays!

(Crazy) Stuff Happens

I'm back from Seattle, yay.  We barely made the flight home after waiting in line to check in for over an hour.  So no food on the flight.  But came home and got to watch Michael Phelps get his 8th gold medal and NBC's showing of the craziest 100m dash ever.  Usain Bolt is a freak of nature.  I don't think I am going to forget that race for a very, very, very long time.

10 Hottest Girls Playing on the WTA Tour At The Moment

1. Ana Ivanovic
2. Maria Kirilenko
3. Sania Mirza
4. Elena Dementieva
5. Jelena Jankovic
6. Daniela Hantuchova
7. Elena Vesnina
8. Tatiana Golovin
9. Sorana Cirstea
10. Ioana Raluca Olaru

Honorable Mentions (alphabetical): Alize Cornet, Ashley Harkleroad, Nuria Llagostera Vives, Amelie Mauresmo, Flavia Pennetta, Maria Sharapova, Nicole Vaidisova, Venus Williams

I thought this would be easier, but it's almost as hard as the men. I got the top 8 and filled in the rest. Definitely I have slavic taste. Some people can look amazing when done up and then somewhat ugly or boring on court. So it was hard, and I think I always slant towards the pretty anyway (had to resist giving out too many honorable mentions)...

Ten Hottest Guys Playing on the ATP Tour (at the moment)

1. Mario Ancic
2. Marat Safin
3. Novak Djokovic
4. Richard Gasquet
5. Gilles Simon
6. Fernando Verdasco
7. Juan Carlos Ferrero
8. Rafael Nadal
9. Janko Tipsarevic
10. Robby Ginepri

Honorable mentions (not in order): Dmitry Tursunov, Tommy Robredo, Tommy Haas, Feliciano Lopez, Andy Roddick

Other than the top 6, this was really hard. Seriously the WTA is much hotter. Probably because all the hot guys play soccer haha.

I should stop working, Tennis results of awesome, Weird conversations

I went to work at 8:45 AM and came back at 10 PM. Argh. It's because my stuff is too slow. Because at work I read half of Book 7 of the Narnia series, stalked tennis scores, spent time talking to labmates and friends, watched the MLS All-Star Game, and spaced out. But I guess other people don't even try to work this hard, so it's my own loss. Only one week left! There's only so much I can do, but I hate not finishing things...

Well, talking about tennis, this week has been very interesting. And overall very good. Unfortunately Mario Ancic couldn't be a part of the very good, losing to Frank Dancevic in the first round and being sick for the millionth time. But Marin! He is in a quarter final and is set to face French hottie, Indy tournament winner, and Federer-beater Gilles Simon! I feel like Gilles is going to win it based on experience and Marin's tendency to choke when he has great opportunities like this, but of course it's MARIN ALL THE WAY! AJMO! Novak, meanwhile, is back on track and so is Andy Murray. They will also face each other in the QF! Now please win Richard.

Also, Jelena has a chance to get #1 in the world. It's cool and everything, but I just think that Ana and Jelena will be flip-flopping for the rest of the year. And once Ana and Jelena both have their #1 stint, they can concentrate on real things - Grand Slams! Rankings are only good for entry into tournaments (like please Marin keep winning so you can be seeded) and otherwise it's not too important. It's like your body weight - it keeps track of things but it isn't the most important thing in the world.

Anyway, on to more fun! So my roommate was like "So you think Eastern European guys are hot...what is it about them?" And I don't know how the hell to explain it. Seriously, me about judging hotness? You are asking the wrong person. For me I think it is the cheekbones, but it was awkward and yeah. He asked me about actors and actressed and I was like "Um..." So my ass is being kicked for not watching enough movies - whatever. Tennis is my life, and I have a thing for athletes so actors aren't always as hot. So yeah I fail at that conversation but it was interesting considering I was trying to form my top 10 list of hottest guys playing right now on the ATP tour. And miserably failing at that. Well for me Mario is #1, and Marat has to be there, along with Novak and Richard. Maybe Gilles Simon, Fernando Verdasco... I will make a list soon, I promise. And you may enjoy it, maybe.

Not a "Major" Problem, But a "Master" Problem

So the Roger's Cup aka the Masters Series event in Canada kicks off tomorrow and the draw is quite interesting.  But for my sadness, they have to first draw Mario Ancic vs. Frank Dancevic, and then the winner of that plays Novak Djokovic!  Now I've recently been in such a Mario-obsessed mood that I want him to destroy Novak should they meet.  But I'm sad if Novak loses, because then we'd be going back to where we were before, with just Fed and Rafa.  And I want Novak to be a contender mostly because I don't want it to be just Fed and Rafa and no one is anywhere close.  Now in my fantasy world Mario would be a contender, but he's just not quick enough.  Maybe he can gain quickness - let's hope!

I guess what would be ideal, considering that I can't change this draw, is that Mario and Novak are as far from each other as possible at Cincinnati so Novak can regain his "lost" points there.  Basically he'll end up having the same amount of points if he loses in the 2nd round at Toronto and wins Cincy.  Other fun things could include Fed losing to Gilles Simon, who I watched on TV today and his looks are totally growing on me.  Richard is still the hottest Frenchman currently, but Gilles is close.  PHM, who is (for once) not going to go against Marin Cilic (after 4 straight tournaments) unless they meet in the final, is strangely handsome and yet not.  Something about him is just a little off.  There is JW, who I absolutely love (though not at the level of Mario!) and would sleep with if he asked me, but he's not hot as in attractive.  And Gael is hilarious but totally not hot/attractive.  Jonathan Essyeric is cute, has the boyish look kind of like Marko Djokovic (they are "bishounen"-like, but too young to really be men yet), and Jeremy Chardy may or may not be hot - I haven't seen him.

Haha, went off on a major tangent.  Talking about other hot people, Niko Kranjcar just got married to his longtime and beautiful girlfriend.  I wish I was a Croatian woman - I would be so pretty!  Anyway, I am quite happy for him.

And other hotness-related/crush news, I am increasingly attracted to Fernando Verdasco.  He no longer has the longish hair that needs a bandanna look, and I love his coloring.  He actually looks kind of Filipino-ish with that coloring.  Anyway since Rafa and Carlos are too manly, Robredo is being a bum, Juan Carlos Ferrero is hot but too old for me, Ferrer was never hot in my opinion (and don't ask me about Nicolas Almagro), and Feli is just not my type, I have concluded that Nando Verdasco is the Spanish tennis player I'm most attracted to.  According to MTF he is also very nice to his fans!  Too bad he had that incident with Roddick and tends to go against players I like - I might have liked him in a different universe.  Oh well.

I hate waiting x 100

I am currently spending way too much time on facebook and craig's list look for roommates and housing options. And waiting for people to respond really sucks. I want to know NOW. And IMing my brother also sucks since he doesn't respond. I guess I should call him.

Tennis will finally be back on ESPN2 this weekend. I am so into tennis right now that it isn't funny. And I still can't believe that I didn't bring up my racquet to at least fail at tennis. And now it's too late to bring it up because I'm almost done with work! Yay! (But then I start to work too much, trying to get more done before I leave - like purifying a ton of enzyme that I won't be able to use up haha).

Seriously, the housing thing is making me too anxious. I can't get anything done - no real reading (finished book 6 of Narnia series and the occasional online fic) and no real writing done either. Though randomly I started trying to read German stuff online - yeah, random. I really need to get German music, though. It might make me remember that I know German.

Stupid Toilet, and Other Shit

I think today was one of those days that wasn't meant to go well.  Seriously.  Well the morning went fine, and I was at lab and I was like, "Hmm, the shaker is not shaking.  Oh, the power is off.  I better set the temperature too."  Except I FORGOT to turn on the heater.  So yeah, shaking my unhappy E. coli cells at like 15 C instead of 37 C.  Then my lovely reaction looks lovely and all, until randomly my spec decides "let's allow water to condense on the cuvet and allow the baseline to go crazy" and it's so messed up that even adjusting the baseline to one value doesn't work.  So that's thrown out.  Luckily I still have 20 mL or so of this stuff left, and I have an even older batch if I really need to go there.

So yeah, I'm depressed about wasting my time at lab.  And then while I am at home, I try to flush the toilet and the stuff isn't going down.  I plunge it and all and the toilet overflows!  And I have toilet water all over the floor in the smaller bathroom.  So I get to try and dry that up, but meanwhile my bacteria are growing and I need to induce them so they do the right thing and make me some protein.  But in my rush I forget to bring my ID card.  So I can't get into the building.  So I have to walk back to the apartment, grab the ID card, and then run back.  Well the only good thing - I got to see the girl I had a crush on last summer twice!  And she talked to me both times, asking to borrow a protein ladder and then telling me where she returned it.  Woot.  Though unfortunately I don't have a crush on her anymore, because I didn't get to test and see if I would stutter badly or whatever with her.

Other bad shit that happened this week include getting sunburned and it still hurting, getting lost in the dungeon in VP2 and playing so much that I missed volleyball on TV, missing volleyball on TV again.  And not having a life that week - that's pretty bad.  I even spent my "off" day looking up housing info.  And this week is not going to be any better, because I am suddenly motivated to do all this labwork that ends up taking a long time because these enzymes are "slow" (well compared to what I worked on for my thesis).  So yeah, I'm going to be in the lab a lot.  So probably a lot of cereal consumption this week - yum.

I shouldn't do this

It's past 10 PM and guess where I am at? I am still working in the lab, running simultaneous experiments on the stop-flow and on the spectrophotometer. I guess this is what happens when you grossly underestimate how much time you need to do your experiments. So after about 13 and a half hours I just want to go home and sleep. But I pushed myself to do this, and being the scientist I am, I hate wasting good enzyme. So I am still shooting it (or using little bits of it at a time while the machine mixes a bit of enzyme with a bit of substrate). Then because I am at a very high concentration of substrate, I need to do hella washing of the syringes with anaerobic water. And then finally load the oxygen scrubber. So hopefully I am out of here before midnight.

I pulled a few crazy-ish days last summer, but at least I planned for it. I came in at 6 AM and expected to leave at 8 PM, and appropriately brought breakfast, lunch, and dinner with me. Today I only brought lunch, a plum, and a tupperware of cereal for emergencies. Well looks like I'll need to load up on the emergency food again.

Even though basically no one is here, the whole "being at lab instead of at home" doesn't give me too much comfort. I miss things like my laptop and having knitting. And even the noise/life from my roommates. Talking about roommates, I need to find one in Seattle. One of my labmates came by and talked to me about what's going on (I don't see him much). I am putting off thinking about grad school just like I put off thinking about college. I want to enjoy my last summer of "freedom" for as long as I can.

It's funny. This stuff is so monotonous in practice and somewhat the reason why I am ditching biochemistry for pharmacology (because this was the most interesting stuff I thought I found in biochemistry). Yet the results are so cool. The more I work on this stuff the more I get this "nostalgia" for it. Yes I could have been complacent and done this forever, but I need a change. That was why promoting myself during grad interviews was so hard - because this stuff is quite different. Now I love the stop-flow machine because it just seems so cool, so I would love to use it in some way again in my career. But there is more to life than work, and what I love most of all is having more knowledge, more tools. This is partly why I love languages and playing instruments. I definitely would have tried to learn how to play more instruments if it wasn't so expensive to do so... I would also pick up more sports training if it was cheaper... But that's how life goes. There are only so many hours in a day.

Well, I'm about to finish up here in the lab. As soon as I get home it's brushing teeth and then SLEEP!

The Incredible Wimbledon Final

It was amazing, truly.  I saw the first 2 sets, the third set up to the first rain delay, and the fifth set and I have to say the quality of play was amazing, the grit and showed by both men was tremendous, and the result was perhaps perfect in the end.  I was pro-Rafa winning the title, and I also did not want it to go to Monday, so it ended right on time!

It was crazy!  At the beginning I think Roger was winning more points, but Rafa was winning the big points.  Not to say Rafa wasn't playing well, quite the opposite!  But the 2nd set probably should have been Fed's, had he played how he played later.  But somewhere he had a bump in the road, and dropped his serve twice!

Things started to change in the 3rd.  Rafa probably should have won that set.  But he couldn't break Fed at 3-all and then came the first rain delay!  And then the part I didn't see, since I was returning to Ann Arbor, was from 5-4 in the 3rd set to the beginning of the 5th.

It must have been very disheartening to have championship points and lose the tiebreak the way Rafa did in the fourth.  But he kept his head steady and fought off some break points at like 2-2 or something.  And though they were physically fit and running everything down like whoa, they were getting a bit mentally tired.  I don't think darkness had too much of an influence, but there was still wind so there were more strange bounces and errors.  Rafa was slowly getting more and more chances on Fed's service, trying hard each time to break.  To fight off most of them, Fed used his big serve and hit aces and service winners or serves that basically set up his point.  But in the end it was too much.  The balls were heavy, he might have been mentally down a bit, and Rafa finally seized the moment.  9-7 in the fifth.  If it had been much longer, they would have stopped play, because it was about 9:15 PM London time and the sun was setting.

Frankly I lived somewhat the points and screamed at the TV.  But not nearly as bad as the AO final between Jo-Wilfried and Novak, which was not nearly as dramatic.  I can't imagine how it was like to be a Federer or a Nadal fan, watching this final.  I don't know if they still can't believe it; I kind of can't feel it.  And Rafa is still going to be #2 in the world, but I believe he can get #1.  Please!

And I thought, even before this match, that Rafa could become the greatest of all time.  Even over Federer.  And I hope he can do it!  And his higher profile certainly has to help Federer.  I'm a greedy whore and want this generation of players that I am watching to have the greatest of all time so that I can say that I got to watch it!  At least, I may have seen the greatest Wimbledon final ever.  And that is truly how amazing it was.

And with Wimbledon over, I can't wait until the next biggest thing - the Olympics!  Let's see them duke it out for the gold!

Wimbledon Day 13, and Other Things

It's been awhile, let's just say.  I was on vacation with the family, which went just as expected, and I followed Wimbledon quite religiously.  EURO 2008 final happened (which I still haven't watched), Olympic trials for track and swimming are going on, I am about to go back to work.  So let's start with tennis.

The ladies' final was contested today and Venus was the deserving winner.  Probably on her best day Serena should have won, but I am no Serena fan so I had no problems with Venus winning.  Plus my sister likes Venus.  Nestor and Zimonjic won the men's doubles, and the Williams won the women's doubles, and quite-the-hit Laura Robson of Great Britain won the girl's singles.  She's cute, especially with wanting to go to the ball with Marat Safin.  And talking about Marat, he made the semis and played quite well against Federer.  Needs those big matches to get good play during the tense moments, but there is a ton of hope for him.  He's going to be ranked 40 on Monday!  But in the end, it's Federer vs. Nadal in the final.  So, vamos Nadal!

In terms of my favorites, it was overall good from Mario and Marin, especially Mario.  Marin could have had his breakout into the semis, but he's not mentally ready.  And I'm not sure he could trouble Clement when Clement is playing well anyway (WTF was he doing at 134?).  But good for him, I hope he can push towards a seeding at the U.S. Open.  Mario, meanwhile, is going to jump to #24 in the world!  Andy Murray vs. Richard Gasquet did come to pass, and it was a crazy match supposedly.  I only caught the end because of vacationing (exploring Botanic gardens on the 2nd Monday of Wimbledon sucks when you miss a day of 16 4th round matches), but Andy Murray's great hussle and subsequent firing up was replayed.  I guess it was overall good, because Great Britain really needed someone like Andy to do well.  But Richard, leading 2-0 and up a break in the third...  Hopefully he improves on his 2nd-round showing at the U.S. Open from last year.  Jelena lost, which I expected, in the 4th round vs. Tamarine Tanasugarn, and Svetlana also lost early.  Sveta needs to stop being a mental case.  But she doesn't feel that great on grass, though she does the most serve and volley.  She needs to improve her tactics real bad.  Dinara, also not home on grass, lost to Shahar Peer.  So on the women's side nothing awesome happened, well except for the awesome run by Jie Zheng.  I like her, I really do.  I will definitely keep an eye out for her.

In other fun, Marin is going to play against Paul-Henri Mathieu again if he gets to the 2nd round at Gstaad.  Crazy, they just met at Wimbledon and at 2 grass tournaments and two other times earlier this season.  Marin hopefully wins the 6th meeting and takes the H2H to 3-3.  But seriously, they must be attracted to each other.  Haha...

There was no way I was going to avoid the EURO 2008 final result, and it is the best thing ever!  Ghosts from the past have been certainly thrown off a cliff, never to be seen.  Seriously this little sequence, starting with EURO 2008 and Turkey's craziness, has been totally unexpected.  Maybe this different wind had spun its way through Wimbledon too.  Nevertheless I wouldn't trade anything for this.  Now if we were in Spain during this time...it would have been insane!

Swimming and track and field Olympic trials are going on, and I catch some news and some TV.  Watching Michael Phelps, I can't see how the hell I found him attractive 4 years ago.  His face is butt ugly!  I guess he does have a great body, but seriously Ryan Lochte is much better looking, which doesn't mean much.  Meanwhile, the only unexpected in track was the injuries that caused Tyson Gay and Allen Johnson to pull up lame.  And meanwhile I am waiting for Olympic rosters for soccer and gymnastics to come out.  Only about a month left before they start!

Wimbledon Day 5

So today was a good and a bad day.  I would say it was like 50%, because Ana and Amelie lost but Mario and Marat won.  The best part was being able to see them all play.  Labwork involved a lot of setting up a spec machine to do repetitive scans so I had lots of time to follow the livestreamer.  I also caught a bit of Berdych vs. Verdasco, by the way.

Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova - Sveta looked solid, being aggressive (which is good) and keeping her head on even with the rain delay.  Davai Sveta!

Ana Ivanovic vs. Jie Zheng - I think there was definitely a matchup issue.  Ana just could not get to the low bouncing balls and kept mishitting them.  Her serve wasn't great, but she's been battling with that for a while.  And Zheng's consistency was giving Ana fits.  But mostly the ball bounces.  Ana has matchup issues, which is why she's probably not going to be number one consistently until she can adapt.

Amelie Mauresmo vs. Serena Williams - I saw the first set only but it was such a great throwback to the 2004 match I saw.  First time I saw Amelie play actually.  I just love Amelie's style, and she even brought out more variety from Serena.  This is why Amelie needs to be here.  Unfortunately her weak serving/weak movement because of her injury probably was her demise.  But awesome first set and something to build on, hopefully.

Mario Ancic vs. David Ferrer - Wow.  Great play by Mario - I think that is the best I've seen him.  Maybe in ever.  Definitely his baseline game has improved, but some of those volleys he got were amazing!  I'm so glad that he managed to get it done in 4.  Ajmo!  Idemo do kraja!

Marat Safin vs. Andreas Seppi - I don't think I have ever seen Seppi play before, but he must have played better than usual because he looked great.  And Marat looked even better.  Some MTFers think he played better than he did against Novak, and I can totally believe it.  I hope he beats Stan the Man with his awesome!

The rest of the third round plays tomorrow, and I still have quite a few hotties on that side of the draw.  Here's the lineup:

Caroline Wozniacki vs. Jelena Jankovic

Tommy Haas vs. Andy Murray

Richard Gasquet vs. Gilles Simon

Shahar Peer vs. Dinara Safina

Paul-Henri Mathieu vs. Marin Cilic (their fifth meeting this year, third on grass, super-crazy isn't it?)

Unfortunately 2nd round casualties from this side were Lindsay Davenport and Viktor Troicki.  Injury concerns caused Lindsay to pull out and Viktor lost a 5-setter to Radek Stepanek.  Marin sweated out his five-setter against Jarkko Nieminen.  Now with Andy Roddick out that quarter looks even better for Marin.  SF Marin FTW!

Also very importantly, SPAIN WON AGAINST RUSSIA YESTERDAY IN EURO 2008 SEMIFINALS!  Germany vs. Spain final will be intense.  Spain has looked awesome, keep it up!  I think part of it was to make up for a terrible Wednesday

Wimbledon Day 3

Today was overall stressful and in some ways terrible for me. Especially with Novak. Poor guy, he puts way too much pressure on himself. And he was fighting himself and the wind as well as Marat. Now I really want Marat to go far in Novak's stead. And Ana had her crazy match against Dechy. I watched her lose that first set and wondered why she couldn't get any returns in play. And her serve was awful! But she was lucky - maybe that will mean something? Amelie also had to turn things around, but she had a much more emphatic command of the 2nd and 3rd sets. Mario had to regain his head (probably, only saw the scoreboard) and win in 5 after leading 2 sets to 0. The only quickly through was Svetlana. That really doesn't mean anything to me because she may be the nuttiest of them all.

Tomorrow hopefully is relief. Here are the matches I care about:

Xavier Malisse vs. Andy Murray
Su-Wei Hsieh vs. Dinara Safina
Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Jelena Jankovic (rematch of French Open 2008)
Richard Gasquet vs. Sebastien Grosjean
Gisela Dulko vs. Lindsay Davenport
Marin Cilic vs. Jarkko Nieminen
Radek Stepanek vs. Viktor Troicki

There is also double fun with Amelie and Sveta teaming up! Vania at least won her doubles match - I feel like she may find her niche in doubles instead - so yay doubles!

Wimbledon Day 2

Since my post didn't work yesterday, I'll be posting about Wimbledon in two quick posts. Today was overall a good day. Let me recap.

Fabrice Santoro vs. Andy Murray - supposedly fun. At least Fabrice wasn't crushed like he was at the French. And yay Andy!

Richard Gasquet vs. Mardy Fish - Richie's backhand was beautiful again. He looked happy and I am excited for his chances. Please meet up with Murray in the 4th round!

Olga Savchuk vs. Jelena Jankovic - she sounded happy in her interview and so I am happy for her. I will try to catch her sometime later, because I believe she can at least get to the quarters.

Anne Keothavang vs. Vania King - Vania should have played better. She looked ok in the first set. I don't know what she's missing - she used to have something - she played so well at the U.S. Open a few years ago... Whatever it is, please get it back!

Renata Voracova vs. Lindsay Davenport - Lindsay scraped through, according to the blog. I just hope that she's healthy.

Eduoard Roger-Vasselin vs. Marin Cilic - Marin won! Probably because Gilles Simon wasn't his opponent. Now keep up the good work.

Yung-Jan Chan vs. Dinara Safina - Good for her. Grass really isn't her surface, but I think she can still get a few rounds. She has the confidence after all.

Viktor Troicki vs. Nicolas Lapentti - I have no idea how that went, but he was leading before Nicolas retired. So many retirements in this tournament. I have no idea where Viktor is in the draw so hopefully his next match isn't too hard.

Anyway, tomorrow is another early day for Novak and Ana's matches. Novak vs. Marat - teenage fangirls are happy! Actually it's rough for Safin, who will still hate the grass. As for tomorrow's matchups...

Novak Djokovic vs. Marat Safn - I will watch this hopefully (please show this ESPN2)

Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Kateryna Bondarenko

Ana Ivanovic vs. Nathalie Dechy

Amelie Mauresmo vs. Virginia Ruano Pascual

Mario Ancic vs. Philipp Petzschner

Good luck to my faves!

Wimbledon Day 1

Day 1 was a nice sunny day, with almost all matches completed.  The results were overall good for my favorites.  Let me recap.

Ana Ivanovic vs. Rossana de los Rios - too early in the day for me to catch at home, but the highlights suggest that she looked solid.  Ajde!

Novak Djokovic vs. Michael Berrer - also missed somewhat because I wasn't home yet, but also because Hewitt and Haase went to a fifth set.  Supposedly fell asleep in the 2nd set or something.  Igraj bolje, Novake!

Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Mathilde Johansson - Sveta didn't do so great at Eastbourne and I'm worried about her.  I don't think she's winning this slam, but at least she loses to people with good mental strength.  But she can do better, I believe it!

Michael Llodra vs. Mario Ancic - Retirement from Llodra, but according to MTF Mario looked in good shape.  Aim for the match against Ferrer!  Ajmo Mario!

Marat Safin vs. Fabio Fognini - I caught the third set, where Fabio probably played more and Marat couldn't hold his serve for some reason.  But he won that set in a tiebreak and gets to play Novak next.  So sorry Marat, I want you to lose in the next round...  Though with the way you played today I don't have to work my voodoo.

Amelie Mauresmo vs. Ashley Harkleroad - I caught the first set of this.  Her serve looks awful - maybe because of the thigh injury? - but her strokes were fine.  Please get confidence, Amelie!  I know you love this surface - you can do it!  Allez!

Chris Guccione vs. Gael Monfils - didn't happen because Gael pulled out with a shoulder injury.  Poor Gael.  Seriously if he didn't get injured so much he could actually do something...  Gael's replacement beat Guccione by the way.

Now for Day 2!  Most of my faves are playing early (first match on) so I'll be up nice and early.  Of course, Andy Murray and Jelena and Lindsay have to be late so I won't catch them.  If those three don't win I will be disappointed.  Anyway...

Fabrice Santoro vs. Andy Murray

Richard Gasquet vs. Mardy Fish

Olga Savchuk vs. Jelena Jankovic

Anne Keothavang vs. Vania King

Renata Voracova vs. Lindsay Davenport

Eduoard Roger-Vasselin vs. Marin Cilic

Yung-Jan Chan vs. Dinara Safina

Viktor Troicki vs. Nicolas Lapentti

*I forgot Maria Kirilenko yesterday, but I'm not surprised she lost.  She spends too much time on the clay in my opinion...

¡Vamos España!

Lo más increíble ocurrió hoy.  España, que siempre no sale como debe, ganó el partido contra Italia en penales.  España, que trató de marcar un gol y no podía romper la defensa de los Italianos, que perdió muchas veces anteriores el mismo día en los años pasados, sobrevivió y jugará en el semifinal contra Rusia.  Estoy muy orgullosa de los chicos.  Merecían la victoria.  Todos jugaron con el corazón, con el alma fuerte.  Pienso que es la primera vez que lloré por un momento de deportes.  No solo una lágrima, había muchas.  Lloré porque había tanto estrés y alegría.  Es un sueño verdadero y magnífico.

Desafortunadamente Sasha Artemev y Raj Bhavsar no fueron llamados del equipo de gimnasia de los Estados Unidos, pero fueron sustitutos.  Pobre Sasha...  A pesar de la victoria de España, este fin de semana fue terrible para la gente que me gusta.  Pero hay verdad en el mundo, y balanza y todo saldrá como debe.  Y la victoria de España no tiene precio material.

Wimbledon!

Now for the grassy Slam...  The draw looks pretty awesome.  Novak is on Roger's half, and Marin can potentially be a QF-list.  The only rough one is for Mario, who I don't think is back to his former fitness yet.  Anyway here goes day 1...

Ana Ivanovic vs. Rossana de los Rios

Novak Djokovic vs. Michael Berrer

Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Mathilde Johansson

Michael Llodra vs. Mario Ancic

Marat Safin vs. Fabio Fognini

Amelie Mauresmo vs. Ashley Harkleroad

Chris Guccione vs. Gael Monfils

I feel too busy to really write more.  Men's gymnastics olympic trials for the U.S. concluded yesterday and I am super worried about Sasha since he did badly on the 2nd day.  But at least J-Ho was named to the team already!  Super excited for him.  It's pretty competitive on the men's side, and someone is not going to make the team.  Fingers crossed for Sasha!

And EURO 2008 is also going on.  Freaking out about Spain.  This weekend is truly nerve-wracking.  Tennis will save me, hopefully.

Tužna sam... (I am sad...)

...da su izgubili Vatreni utakmicu. (That Croatia's soccer team lost the match)

Da je kraj utakmice poslije 1:0 Hrvatska, Vatreni bi pobijedili. Ali Turska je imala odgovor i je odgovorila brzo. I Hrvatska je izgubila u jedanaesteraca. Luka Modrić je promašio gol i nije promašio Turan. Modrić koji je imao gol u prvoj utakmici... I Rakitić i Petrić su promašili penale i je bio kraj. Tužna sam jer volim Vatrene. Mislila sam da bi pobijedili sve, da bi bili pobjednik EURO 2008... Ne mržim Tursku nego više volim Hrvatsku. Turska je zaslužna pobjednik, ali bih bila sretna kad Turska bi pobijedila kontra Njemački. Sada sam tužna...

(If the match ended after 1:0 Croatia, the Croatian soccer team would win. But Turkey had the answer and answered quickly. And Croatia lost in a penalty shootout. Luka Modrić missed the goal and Turan did not miss. Modrić who had a goal in the first match... And Rakitić and Petrić missed penalties and it was the end. I am sad because I love Croatias soccer team. I thought that they would win everything, that they would be champions of EURO 2008... I do not hate Turkey but rather I prefer Croatia. Turkey is a deserved winner, but I would be happy if Turkey wins against Germany. Now I am sad...)