2011-12-04

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There's Dung in my Room

The Agony of Defeat

If you were watching the Olympics yesterday, you probably saw Hungarian weightlifter Janos Baranyai's horrific accident. This guy is 77 kgs and while he was trying to do a clean and snatch of 144 kgs, his elbow gives out. I'm sure that he is in a lot of pain at the moment. What is disturbing about the whole incident is that Hungarian officials commented by saying something to the effect that Janos is 24 - he'll be ready for the 2012 games. Whatever happened to "we wish him a speedy recovery" or "let's prioritize his health and well-being before we see if he is fit to continue on to the next games?" This poor guy's career may be over and all his country can think about is how they will see him compete again in the next Olympics. He's probably suffering more emotionally than anything. Well I wish him a speedy recovery.

US Olympic Training Center

There's been a lot of buzz about the Olympics. I've blogged about some of it - both good and bad - but deep down inside, I'm probably more excited about the whole thing than I am willing to show because I know how hard athletes train. I know from personal experience. I almost had a shot at going to the Olympics in 1988 when Taekwondo made its debut as a demonstration sport.

From early 1987 when it was announced that Taekwondo was going to be a demonstration sport at the Seoul Games to the Spring of 1998, I trained hard everyday after school. My training consisted of going down to Shape Gym at the University of Life in Pasig everyday where I went through 3 hours of weights and cardio training. By around 6PM, I'd take a break to grab dinner then come back to Shape at 7PM and train in Taekwondo until 11PM. Unlike many of the athletes in the US, the only support that I got was from my instructor and a couple of the officials from the Philippine Taekwondo Association. To make a long story short, I qualified for a shot at the Philippine Team from the Philippine Olympic Week tournament but because I had torn a hamstring two months prior and didn't have access to the extensive sports injury specialist that many athletes have, I never fully recovered. My citizenship was also questioned and I saw my Olympic hopes come crashing down before my eyes.

That said, we've seen photo after photo of athletes in various events and of venues and other Olympic-related subjects. This weekend, I will be going to the US Olympic Training Center here in San Diego and will take photos of the facilities to share with all of you so that you can get a rare glimpse of what goes on before the games. I've used the Center as backdrops for a few photo shoots in the past but I've never really gone there without a client just to take photos. I will be taking photos of the facilities and the resources that go into making US athletes.

Since I already have a date with a fellow photographer that I was 'bromantically' involved to go take photos of the Star Trek exhibit at Balboa Park on Saturday, I will be going to the facility on Sunday and will have the photos up by that evening - No press pass is required for any of you to view them! So if you've always wanted to get a "behind the scenes" look at the US Olympic program, check back then! If you are a Trekkie, check back on Saturday evening as I will have photos of the Trek exhibit as well.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

Fresh Boneyard Lead

A few years ago, I saw a series of photos like the one posted here and immediately knew that I wanted to someday get the opportunity to take photos at a similar location - an airplane boneyard. A boneyard is essentially a place where aircraft are decommissioned and left for future use or to salvage parts off of and ever since I saw this series of pictures, I've been searching for boneyards in and around California. So far, the only one that I've found that was of any real interest was the one in the Mojave Desert. Although the Mojave Desert isn't that far away, it's still about a 5 hour drive (one-way) from my place and will require a great deal of planning so I opted to continue to search for something closer to home.

This project ended up taking a backseat to some of my more immediate projects and I admit that I haven't been able to do any more research other than finding out about the Mojave Desert location. Several recent events, however, have brought this project back to the front of my mind and I'm beginning to get excited about it all over again.

When the idea first came to mind, I had mentioned it to a good friend who is also a fellow photographer. He was excited about it as well and expressed that he would probably end up going with me so he had also started doing research into nearby boneyards. A couple of weeks ago, he mentioned that he had found a boneyard within San Diego County. I of course got all excited until he told me that there was a big BUT involved with this boneyard... it was a restricted area because it was used by the military to decommission and destroy combat aircraft. So unless we wanted to get put on a terror watch list, we quickly checked this boneyard off of our list.

Today though, I met someone at work who owns an aviation company and I mentioned to him my idea. He told me that he knows someone that works at a boneyard up in Victorsville, California - about 3 hours away. This person mentioned that he would call his contact and let me know if he could set something up. He would also let me know what sort of aircraft may be available for photography. The only problem is that he wasn't sure that his contact would allow my friend and I to spend the night at the boneyard. That's the whole point of taking these photos - at night!

So until this new friend calls me back, my photographer friend and I will begin preparations. I mentioned this to one of the chefs that I work with and he wants to tag along with is production crew (he has a television show in development for a local station). I agreed to let him come with us once we found out more information and once we got confirmation that the Victorville boneyard shoot was a go because where there is a film production crew, there is power and there will be light! Frankly, I wasn't looking forward to my photographer friend and I having to lug a generator to provide power and several halogen work lamps with the various colored gels on top of our individual photo gear, so adding another person with a production crew was a no-brainer.

I'm excited but I really have to contain my excitement for now because we're still not sure about Victorville... If all fails, we could plan a 3 day trek out to the Mojave Desert... I'll keep you all informed.

Wii are in Business!

We finally received the replacement Wii from Nintendo today and to say that everyone was excited is an understatement. Everyone is excited. We started playing Wii Sports and although the kids have gotten the hang of most of the games on it, it's great to see that they both certain games that they are better at.

Bea surprised me with Wii Bowling as she hit strike after strike after strike. She took to it like a fish takes to water. Basti, on the other hand, took to Wii Boxing like Manny Pacquiao takes to the ring (I'm not surprised) while Raissa and I are still trying to find a game in Wii Sports that we're good at. One of the things that we all did, was test our Wii Age. Bea was the youngest at 58. Raissa was 78 (or was it 72?). Basit and I were tied at a Wii Age of 80 (I guess that either means that I'm as young as a 3 year old or as uncoordinated as one).

I didn't realize how much effort you needed to exert to play the Wii. I had tried lazy Wii where you flick your wrists but where's the fun in that? Raissa and I played 5 sets of Wii Tennis and we were smacking each other with the Wiimotes, smacking the kids (by accident of course), and falling over furniture just trying to hit the ball or smash a serve. Now, our arms are tired from all of the flailing and it'll probably be some time before we play again - yeah right... Some time is probably more like "some time tomorrow afternoon."

Originally, I had planned on getting the Xbox 360 but I realized that if I did get it, I would be the only one able to play so the Wii was the more logical choice. At the moment, we only have Wii Sports and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (I got that last title as a consolation prize for not getting the 360 - I should at least have one Mature Rated title for the Wii right?) but we are open to suggestions on what other games to get for the Wii. I know that Mario Galaxy, Mario Cart, and WarioWare are all definitely on our list as is Zelda, Okami, and a couple of the Brain Academy titles... For all of the other Wii players out there, what else? I'd appreciate suggestions for family games as well as for single player (teen to mature rated) games. Let me know. Until then, Wii Sports and Resident Evil: UC will keep us busy - Heck, I can't seem to get past the zombie baboons on the second level!