“Winning isn’t everything–it’s the ONLY thing.”

So I really had to make myself sit down and write a real post today.  I’ve been so busy and tired with studying for the GRE that I really haven’t felt like sitting down to type anything at the computer.

So, where to start?

I guess I can startr with the post that I added yesterday about the book that I finished reading–”The Kite Runner”.  Awesome read!  I would recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction.  Never before have I read something about a part of the world that I know so little about.  It’s funny how the author says that the cities and events of his childhood were suddenly all over the news shortly after 9/11 and people were suddnely talking about it like they knew what was going on.  It shows just how sheltered we are in this world.  A really sobering and heartbreaking story about the cruelty that exists in this world–”man’s inhumanity toward man.”

Today was really exciting.  I had intended to get up to watch Breakfast At Wimbledon to catch the Men’s Tennis Championship.  But because I stayed up so late last night tinkering with my music, I had a hard time getting up.  Mike called me from work during one of his breaks, but I didn’t wind up getting up for real until around noon.  I figured that I had missed the match.  But when I flicked on the tube, I discovered that there had been a rain delay!  Good old rainly England   Turns out that the match lasted and lasted until right around 4:30 PM EST (9:30 PM England time), just before all the lights went out.

It was a great match!  The top two players in the world–No. 1 sede Roger Federer of Switzerland was defeated in a fifth set match with a score of 9/7 against No. 2 sede Rafael Nadal of Spain.  I think that Federer had won the last of five consecutive championships at Wimbledon, including the last few against Nadal.  This really was an epic battle and Federer was not going to give up his throne without a fight.  It seems like everytime you thought it was going to be over, someone would pull out a move that would ensure that play would continue.  But “Rafa” really wanted it and he got it.  You could tell that Roger was broken and it was hard for him to stay on the court and wait for the awards ceremony.  It’s constantly being said that Roger has amazing “grace” and that Rafael has amazing “humility”.  I would say that the latter is correct, but I get the distinct feeling from Federer that he has some feeling of entitlement and an arrogance that fills his aura.  I always seem to root for the underdog in these situations.  I’m glad that Nadal won.  Now the next time they meet at Wimbledon, Federer will really have something to fight for and not just expect that he will win.

On the women’s side, it was another amazing matchup, but I unfortunately didn’t get to see it (you guessed it–I was sleeping ).  No. 7 sede Venus Williams defeated little sister No. 6 sede Serena Williams in two staight sets.  I’m sure that there were some really great highlights from this match that I wil have to catch on YouTube.

After watching the Men’s final, some of the commentators said something about the Williams sisters that I found rang very true.  They are so unconventional, so diffrent from the rest of the field, that when they win, people don’t always feel that it’s legitimate–like the outcome has somehow been “rigged”.  They’re “unconventional” because they’re sisters, they’re African American, they are more athletic and less “dainty” than the other women; they did not come to the sport with trust funds from wealthy backgrounds and country clubs.  They were anomalies in every sense of the word.  So sometimes when they win, it’s very spectacular, but somewhat lackluster in terms of how it’s perceived.  I’m glad that they continue to win and show that they do belong in this sport dominated by people very different from themselves.

In other news…Like I said before, I have been studying for the GRE.  Mike has been on my case about finally figuring out when I want to take the test and really buckling down to study.  And I did just that.  I think that I want to take the test mid to late August.  This should give me enough time to get through all of the practice tests and really hone my skills on certain areas that I’m not so good at.  I looked at the GRE website, and it seems that there are still lots of days available for the timeframe that I’m looking at (there are still a lot of days around now, which I was surprised about).  So after I take the next test, I will see what date I really want to commit to.  The practice tests are much harder to get through than I imagined.  Each section (and there are six) lasts for about 30 minutes.  I have not been timing them–at this point, I just want to make sure that I know how to do the material, then later I will concentrate on speed.  I also skipped the writing sections figuring that I can read more about those later so that I can perfect my writing skills.  That shouldn’t be a problem.  In the meantime, I also need to continue building my vocabulary.  It feels good committing to this aspect of the study process for once and feeling like I”m going somewhat.  Complacency is so easy to get stuck in and so hard to get out of.  Thanks Mike for the swift kick in the pants!

Speaking of Mike, we have also been talking about this show called “30 Days” which is produced by the same guy who brought us “Supersize Me”–Morgan Spurlock.  This is an FX original series.  And like much of his work, this show is controversial.  Each show features someone stepping into the lives of people who hold opposite viewpoints from themselves with the hopes of learning and growing from the experience.  I have watched a couple of hour-long episodes so far:  Gay adoption and Life as a gay man.

The first one featured a woman from The O.C. who went to live with a gay married couple from Ann Arbor and their four adopted sons.  This lady was adopted, too, but she held very strong beliefs that it was wrong for gays to adopt and raise children, saying that in order to children to be healthy and happy they need to be in a two parent home consisting of a “mommy and a daddy”.  Even though she was faced with the changing structure of the American family, she held very strongly to her religious beliefs (surprising, huh?) that being gay is a sin as laid out in the Bible.  Sadly to say, this woman did not really come to any new conclusions about the ability of gay people to raise a family despite her only admission that the family that she witnessed was very warm and loving and a great environment for these kids.  Some people will never learn!

The episode that I watched tonight featured a 24-year-old conservative, straight, gun-carrying, white male from Oxford, Michigan (do I sense a Michigan theme here?  Is Moran Spurlock from Michigan?).  He was transplanted to Sanfrancisco–the Castro District (”the gayest place on earth”)–to see for himself what it was like to have a gay roommate and to see if being gay was as much of an “abomination” as the Bible tells him it is.  I’ happy to report that in this eposode (unlike the last one), the subject actually learns something and becomes a “dynamic character”.  He is able to dispell many of the stereotypes that he has about gay people after working in a cheese shop, catering a cheese and wine party, playing softball on a gay league, going to the gym, living with his rooommate, and speaking with the local lesbian minister.  Even though his veiwpionts weren’t totally changed, he did seem to have some huge epiphanies: “Gay people don’t choose to be gay anymore than straight people chooose to be straight”; “The Bible says that both homosexuality and murder are sins.  I was in the military and shot people and I own guns, but I somehow am able to reconcile killing with my beliefs, but not homosexuality.”  I loved the minister.  I want to go to her church.  She recommended a book to him in the show that they discussed that I plan to read: “What the Bible really says about Homoosexuality”.  I’ll let you know how it goes.