Also called ANNA FOR DAMN OLYMPIC GOLD!!!!!!!

As you all know, Irsquo;m a big fan of gymnastics and of the Olympics. Tomorrow, the competition for rhythmic gymnastics will begin.

I have spammed the internet with my childish cheering, but I need to compensate for all the times it has been said that it just will not happen.

If I give up, it will happen only when I have been proven wrong. Meanwhilehellip;

ANYA DAVAIIIIIIIIIIII!!

UKRAINA DAVAI!!

Anya for Olympic gold!!

ANYA, OLYMPIC CHAMPION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also called ldquo;Emo dayrdquo;.

So I dusted off the blog with a post about a day. Herersquo;s another one.

I spent the whole of Saturday, 19th of July sitting at my computer.

2:40 - 8:50 PM: Refresh the NBC page over 60 times? That and actually reading the quickhit updates on the US Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Olympic selection camp. And read forum posts. And chat with wonderful Gymworlders about it.

9:00 - 01:00? AM: Walk my avatars for the sake of it at Relay for Life. ON SECOND LIFE. And take snapshots.

No much room for social interaction, huh?

So it’s been one of the most emotional days for me this summer.

Leaving any gymnastics fanatism aside, the experience of actually knowing what was going on in the selection camp every minute was quite ground-shattering for me. The whole gymnastics community found out perhaps 30 seconds after the routine of a girl was over that that was it - her Olympic dream was over. We found out the first morning even before the competition that another girl was done, toohellip; breaking her leg a couple of hours before the second most important competition of her life. I hate NBC for its yellow broadcasting and its lack of respect towards the grief of others, but I have to admit I give kudos to them for the quickhits. http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/news/newsid=152642.html

The US WAG team is great. They will be a real threat for the Chinese dreams of Team gold. Still, it is impossible (or at least it is for me) to feel bad for these girls, you know? These are girls who are my age or younger and who have spent the last ten years of their lives going everyday to a gym. They go through injuries, lack of a normal social life, sometimes though lack of a proper formal education, to be the world’s best - and it was stopped by a fracture, and by two falls in uneven bars routines. Two falls out of other great seventeen routines at least in this year.

These children don’t go to war, go through starvation (at least out of lack of food in their country) or have no access to clean water. But, honestly, I can only imagine what is going on in their minds.

The second part of the day - Relay for Life. I didn’t attend the event earlier because I was, as you now know, tuned to see who’d make it in. Also, I didn’t consider it a priority because the RFL events I had attended before didn’t really make it for me, you know? I didn’t find myself there. It was very hard to visualise how buying a T-shirt would really liberate me from the guilt of not going beyond a purchase to do actually do something about cancer.

I am not even sure if my effort counted as I crashed throughout the about four hours I was at it, but it was something impressive to attend. I don’t think there is a point in writing more about it. I’ll just say that seeing the products of the work of months (not mine, by the way), the attendance and the personal side was very moving. It was moving to pass by donation boxes devoted to someone lost to cancer, or to builds made to make the walk nicer for people, or avatars of all kinds carrying flags and tags with names of people they lost.

It is pretty sad. It really is. I don’t think the essence of it is cheerful, despite what the RFL page says. What I do think, though, is that it is heart-warming to see how something so painful is able to unite masses.

Especially when those in the mass will never meet offline.

I will upload some of the snapshots I took to www.flickr.com/photos/faeriedevilish .

Herersquo;s the story of the woman to whom I dedicated the donations.

Leaving aside any lesson I possibly acquired from the development of my social relations at school, I must tell you about the thing I found on the internetz that really made me sigh.

Enough said. Again. 

She would have turned 36 today. 

She died, however, fifteen years ago. It was fifteen years ago that the world of rhythmics mourned her after her tragic death in a car crash - today, it is time to celebrate the legacy she left in this beautiful sport.

Here is my tribute to one of the best rhythmic gymnasts in history. As Robin Catalano once said, she is ldquo;possibly the only rhythmic gymnast who is beloved by almost every rhythmic fanrdquo;.

Robin does her more justice than I through a video, so http://www.gymnpics.com/gymnasticgreats/memorial/kostina.htm is worth checking.

Rest in peace, beautiful Oksana.

Irsquo;ve been avoiding this spot on the internet because Irsquo;m busy. Very. Also, because I still have to write millions of posts about the stuffs that have been going on (i.e. cool stuff like Cirque du Soleil, UK, La môme, MUN, uni applicationhellip;) that have now to be yet again postponed due to an attack of rage that will otherwise cause me to attack the skittles.I hate educators. I will always hate myself if I do study International Relations for being somehow related to something as filthy as politics, but then I sit down to think (or at least try to): What am I going to do with my life? Will I be a visual artist that considers herself superior for ldquo;not being pragmatic enough to ignore Beauty, tempted by the oh-so-evil commercial power of a mad salaryrdquo;? Will I become a mad scientist that considers herself superior for ldquo;saving the world with action and not waste my time with words, like those idiotic humanities peoplerdquo;? Will I study law and become the devilrsquo;s advocate? hellip;Even worse - will I become an educator to blame my lack of efficiency on the system and corporations? Okay, that was pretty harsh. I hate educators (not you, Rafi). I really do.Why is it that educators canrsquo;t see the impact of the things they do? ldquo;We raise people. We keep society aliverdquo;. Why is it that all educators seem to know so clearly that they solve the worldrsquo;s problems, but they seem to ignore that they have some actual influence on people? It seems to be all about the grants you can get for your world-changing project, about the ways some institutions certainly donrsquo;t cooperate with you in the revolution, about the way the media/government/preferred subject of hatred are consistently managing to kill what you dohellip; But hey - when is it about what you are actually doing to make the world better? When is it about the things that do depend on you and that you seem to be neglecting as much (if not more) as yoursquo;re being neglected?Irsquo;d love to see.Hugs from someone who proudly learned most of the things she finds most useful in her life through MUN, the internetz and a baby. 

Letrsquo;s face it: time never runs the way we want it to. No matter how many times you curse at the universe for hating you when a boring debate is taking place in social science class, time will never run fast enough to let you scream in joy when you really need to. This case, however, is the opposite.  The last months in my life have rushed with little stop outside certain things in school. I cannot say I am satisfied with all the things Irsquo;ve gone through, though at the same time I am grateful for many of them. In this post, I feel tempted to blog for the sake of written memory about some of these points, but I will be fair to one of the major immediate changes I will go through when I turn 18 tomorrow.  For those of you who donrsquo;t know already what Second Life is, it is a virtual world where people do whatever they please. It is divided into two sections: one for teens (13-17) and one for adults (18+). I was lucky enough to be brought into this environment when I could still get to see the happenings of the often ignored Teen Grid, which makes me sad as I never focused on making a positive impact on it. Now that it is time for me to migrate, I will try to contribute somewhat to the community by writing on a public space about the things Irsquo;ve learned while there (as opposed to the machinima I planned but never achieved), hoping that, one day, adults (including myself as of tomorrow) will appreciate, respect and exploit the opportunities that environments like this offer to the world.       These are the top 10 things I learned (and in an unique way) on the TG. 

10. No matter how many people may initially disagree, there is something worthwhile in all things and simulators. Or in most of them, at least. :p

[Images taken in Snicket and Coda sims] 

9. You only find out what yoursquo;ve got until yoursquo;ve said lsquo;goodbyersquo; (i.e. mad FPS efficiency).

8. Itrsquo;s good to be a consumerist sometimes. Well, the truth is it isnrsquo;t - I just think I would have been a bit happier if I had ever had a piece of land in Tolkien. lt;_lt;

7. Hang opportunities for teens on the ceiling and they may take them; put them in their cereal and you will be more successful. If you want even less margin for error, though, paste them on money notes.

6. Most adults (and teens, for that matter) on the TG arenrsquo;t willing to realise the number of opportunities they have just by being there (including myself). 

5. All human defects and excesses find a space in SL - however, so do the just mediums, which keeps the struggle alive.

4. Imagination and will are the only limits. 

3. Second Life would be overrated if it werenrsquo;t for Second Friends. And perhaps so would be the First one. 

2. It does not matter how good your scripting, building, animating or designing skills are (or arenrsquo;t) - they make you good only when you use them for something good.

1. All success tastes sweeter when it is achieved and intended by and for a community.

Thanks to all the people who made this experience the way it was and for having an impact on First Mariel through the Second one. Being on the TG helped me find personal paths that I couldnrsquo;t have found otherwise. Thanks to Global Kids and Unicef for opening the opportunity; to Lucky F, Cheesepuff B and Guildenstern D for being good friends, and to Nafiza GKid, Rafi GKid and Katharine Berry for always being there when needed.

See you all on the MG!

Monday: Greeted in school by a ldquo;OMG you made it to school on a Monday! Collective illusion!rdquo;

Tuesday: We discovered the corner at which I seat in the classroom is haunted or something. All the people who sit there end up talking more than they learn. Justification for my academic performance this year? Also, as expected, mum had to come to school for my grades. x_X

Wednesday (i.e. today): Law test for which I should have studied for at least three hours - 46%. They say that may be faith helping me decide NOT to study Law. Chinese test for which I donrsquo;t know more than half of the characters. PACKING!

Thursday: OMGCirqueduSoleilwheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Friday: I hop on a plane and try to learn all the history I havenrsquo;t learned in the last five years.

Saturday: lt;3

Sunday: Time will stop just for a moment.

Happy week, everyone!

As per request, this post is totally dedicated to Tom.

Just because Irsquo;m off to Wales in, um, eleven days.

And wersquo;ll meet Meli and shersquo;ll most probably take us to a fetish club. Woo!

(Also called, ldquo;As it is stated in the class rules, I must bring my material to classrdquo;)

They say that you never were in school if you werenrsquo;t forced to write lines at some point - 12th grade isnrsquo;t too late.

Elirsquo;s are the ones on the left, and mine are on the right.

lsquo;Nuff said.

I never used to have strong feelings about AIDS in the past. I never tried to diminish the importance of the cause, but it just didnrsquo;t make it for me - I never felt motivated to try and learn anything beyond ldquo;people should use condoms because condoms are cool and they are going to keep you alive if you feel like being promiscuous, or not promiscuous but stillrdquo;. My way of thinking about this subject has changed this year, so, even if AIDS activism is not on top of my list of priorities in life, I consider todayrsquo;s a politically correct day to say something I never thought Irsquo;d say before.

Irsquo;ve overcome my hatred towards MTV. I still refuse to let you rule my mind and to blindly believe Staying Alive is based entirely on good will, but I appreciate the opportunity you gave me and others of, beyond having a voice, learning (and remembering) what AIDS can mean to a person.

I hope human effort will be able to find solutions for the problem, but at the same time people will stop dying of simple ignorance.

For your enjoyment, the best piece of AIDS-related activism Irsquo;ve ever seen, ldquo;Walking with AIDSrdquo;, and the website where my ugly vlog was published.

http://walkingwithaids.info/

http://www.staying-alive.org/vlogit/

So I was browsing Facebook profiles for the sake of stalkinghellip;

Oh, yes. Hi, by the way. ^^

(This onersquo;s worth a whole new category)

Anyway - I was browsing Facebook profiles of those people I know, and, suddenly, I went, ldquo;Hmmmmhellip; I wonder what theyrsquo;ve been up to ._. They look kinda oldhellip; They look like theyrsquo;re 20 or something.rdquo;

Well, surprise!

They are twenty years old.

The people I went to school with at some point are twenty years old now.

And I am almost eighteen now.

Eighteen.

I have to actually prepare to apply for university.

Before I know it, one of my feet will be in a coffin.