July 26, 2012

• Report # 904

  Hey everyone, I hope that you've all been having an amazing week. After super cool Monday the rest of the week has been a lot nicer, and today was actually pretty hot outside. On Wednesday my manager at work took us all out for lunch at IHOP. It was basically for my last day even though I don't actually leave the company until August 7. Month end time will begin next week and it was a good idea to go out this week before it gets busy and hectic.

  I had a sandwhich with egg, ham, and melted cheese with fries and two glasses of coke. I thought since it was such a big lunch I would just have some cereal to eat in the evening, though I really shouldn't have ate anything. I felt so stuffed the rest of the day. IHOP is a lot like Denny's, the food is amazingly good and there is so much of it, but it's just loaded in fat it's certainly not a place a person can handle too often !

  I now have 7 more days of work remaining and it looks like tomorrow I'll find out who will be replacing me. One of the candidates actually already works with the company in a different department, so it probably wouldn't be too hard to get them in some hours or training before I go, and the other person doesn't have a job right now, so either way it looks like there will be plenty of time to train someone next week so that's great news. The one girl I've been training from another department is doing really well and she is already entering in a lot of stuff on her own, so I'm sure everything will be fine once I leave.

  Yesterday evening I saw once again that I could only watch the first 25 minutes of the telenovela I've been watching online. I was able to watch all 120 episodes of the first one I watched without any problems. Well I was watching them on Youtube for a few months and then all of the episodes were removed, but a friend found a site I could watch them all and after that I had no problems. With the show I'm watching now, I was finding almost all of the episodes complete, even if I had to jump around from one site to another.

  In the last week or two though a lot has been removed and now sometimes I can only see 25 minutes out of 42 minutes or something of show. I finally just gave up and found out I could just order it for a fairly cheap price off of Amazon. So I ordered the telenovela I'm watching now, and I ordered another one which will have 165 episodes for me to watch. I have another 70 more to watch of the one I'm watching now so that will be sure to keep me busy for the next 8 months.

  The 2012 Summer Olympics will be starting in London tomorrow and while I never really watch any of the olympics on TV I still think they are such a cool event and they can really bring the world together. It's unfortunate that so many negative stories have been in the media so far saying such bad things about the games before they even started. This happened in 2010 during the winter olympics here in Vancouver and it was just ridiculous how critical a number of journalists were. Some even said it was the worst olympics ever before it even began !

  The olympics here in Vancouver in February 2010 were absolutely amazing and I am so thankful I had an opportunity to enjoy the atmosphere downtown and actually head up to Whistler and see a live event. The summer games are just as exciting and on a much grander scale. I would love for the summer olympics to be in Vancouver one day, though this city has a lot of growing up to do before it can handle a summer games here.

  I just wanted to say I wish all of the athletes from around the world the very best, and hopefully a lot of people around the world will have time to take off from their busy lives and watch at least some events that they enjoy. I really think with a global sporting event of that magnitude, there really has to be something for everyone. And to anyone lucky enough to be in London right now they really should take thousands of pictures !

  Before I go I wanted to talk about a Greek athlete getting removed from the Greek olympic team after what she posted on her Twitter account. Female Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou posted this on her Twitter page:

  With so many Africans in Greece.. At least the West Nile mosquitoes..will eat homemade food !

  After hearing some of the outrage she posted another Tweet:

  That's how I am. I laugh. I am not a CD to get stuck!!! And if I make mistakes, I don't press the replay! I press Play and move on!!!

  After finally receiving the seriousness of the uproar her first tweet created, she started to get more serious:

  I apologize if I inadvertently offended people! I have no mingling with politics!!! I am only an athlete!!

  And then came the real heartfelt apologizes:

  I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account. I am very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to enroach human rights.

  My dream is connected to the Olympic Games and I could not possibly participate if I did not respect their values. Therefore, I could never believe in discrimination between human beings and races.

  I would like to apologize to all my friends and fellow athletes, who I may have insulted or shamed, the National Team, as well as the people and companies who support my athletic career. Finally, I would like to apologize to my coach and my family.

  I've talked a lot about how people use their blogs and social media before and how people really need to be careful to what they post and the things they say. Clearly this 23 year old woman crossed the line and really said something that upset a lot of people. And for her senseless comments it appears that she is paying the ultimate price and she won't get a chance to fulfill her dreams and compete for her country at the olympics in London.

  What she posted was incredibly stupid and it does come across as being very hurtful, but based on her apology and what she has said, it appear its genuine and that she has really learned her lesson. I think banning her from the games out right is a little bit harsh. Now any racist behaviour is horrible and completely unacceptable, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to use one very poorly posted comment into saying someone is a complete racist person full of discrimination.

  This young woman made a terrible mistake, and obviously learned a very important lesson here, but no one is perfect and we all screw up sometimes. There are olympians who have done much worse that weren't banned from competing in the games. Michael Phelps drove drunk and was caught in photos smoking marijuana and he was still able to compete in the olympic games. There just appears to be a huge double standard here. Yes she posted something insensitive and stupid which clearly comes across as very racially unaccepting, but clearly people here have overreacted.

  So in my opinion, she should just be going out and giving interviews and apologizing, and mainly with her actions showing she is truly sorry for what she did, however banning her from living her dream for posting something without thinking is overreacting. I say give this young woman another chance instead of tossing her dreams in the fire. However it's not my call and ultimately she will have to move on and get passed what has happened. And hopefully we can all learn something from this to make sure we all use real sense before saying something we will regret.

  For the next question:

  Are you interested in the Olympics, why or why not ? Do you think the Greek athlete deserves to be banned from competing in this year's olympics ?

  Today I will leave you all with some pictures from the back yard. I hope that everyone has an amazing weekend. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Sunday, bye for now.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  sources: Expelled Greek Olympian apologizes for racist tweet. By John Bowman. July 25, 2012. cba.ca. CBC News Community.

  • 9:43 pm
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