My Favorite Toy

I signed up for this meet Christian Singles thing on Facebook. It was always there, staring at me. Finally I gave in and thought, "hey if it's free, why not!" Well after filling out all these crazy profile things, it came to the question of the week. 

Describe your favorite childhood toy. Do you still have it?

Here's my answer:

A stick. That was my favorite toy. Followed by rocks, acorns, and anything else that we could get our hands on. They were free, everywhere, and could be anything we wanted them to be. One day a stick could be a shovel. The next a fully automatic machine gun that could turn into a walkie talkie to radio home. Any time I pick up a stick, I have my favorite toy.

Us guys really are simple, but creative and imaginative. I fear for the boys growing up today. Have they lost the ability to dream, to create, to imagine? Are the great artist, engineers, and designers going to be no more? Has ADD/ADHD medicine stifled the creative imagination of our youth? Have mothers who can't cut the cord and let their boys be boys held our future leaders back? Has the fear of crazy predators held out kids captive in their own homes? The time is quickly coming when we will find out if the creative juices will run out and not be cultivated in the youth.

Either way, I still have my memories. And guess what... I'm not afraid to pick up my favorite toy today and play....

Australian Judges Need Glasses!

Come on! A .3 difference between the two gymnasts? Ok, the regular .1
or .2 is understandable. You can't catch everything. But to be off by .
3? Come on Australia! Your crazy. Get some glasses. Why do we use
judges from countries who don't DO GYMNASTICS? These people don't know
what to look for. Not even sure I want to watch tomorrow night for the
beam. Thinking about boycotting China and Australia. Aren't people
going to be glad when the gymnastics portion will be over? Then you
wont have to put up with me fussing about the crappy scoring.

Scoring? Is that what you call this?

Ok, that first chinese chick's score was crap! Shawn's routine was
soooo much better. There's no way that with several balance checks and
the lower start value that the chinese girl could get higher score
than Shawn. Shawn rocked that full turn, the whole way!

The second chinese girl is going now and has had some wicked
deductible errors...and it's complete crap! 15.7? Are the judges
getting paid? You have to be kidding me?!

Ok, if Nastia's routine does not score well...I'm turning it off. Ok I
really won't. YEESSS!!!!! Great routine by Nastia! She rocked that
solid and made it look beautiful! About time the judges realized what
good balance beam looked like.

I have to admit that there is some great gymnastics happening, not
just from the US girls, but also the Romanians and Russians. Great
routines by these girls. Especially on the balance beam. We'll see how
it goes tonight. Wish they could start these gymnastics events a
little earlier. Would make for a better bed time. lol.

What is up with the Chinese scoring in gymnastics?

Ok, not sure how many other people noticed it, and I don't care how
politically incorrect it may be to say to that the scoring is way in
favor for China, but the scoring was in so much favor of the Chinese.
The US men's bar routines were amazing compared to the Chinese and yet
they scored much lower. The US girls team got much lower difficulty
scores on routines that were much more amazing on the beam than the
Chinese. The Chinese lost there balance so many times it was insane.
And then let's not get into the whole age thing! Yeah, they're Chinese
and have different heights and growth stages than the US, but come on!
I've worked with enough girls to notice that these girls are
definitely not 15. Not even the youngest looking going to be 15 this
year US girl I've worked with looks this young. Absolutely crazy and
complete favoritism. I'm more relieved seeing the Chinese floor
scores, but still think the judging is favored in both the men's and
women's gymnastics. Just glad we kicked tailed in swimming. But I'm
partial to the gymnastics events.

So there you go. Another rant by Tory Almond.

Just a quick note

I really should be in bed by now, morning and work will be coming up faster than planned. But now that I have www.toryalmond.com tied to this blog, I should post more often. 

Today was a bit busy, slept in, long weekend. Then headed to lunch, work, and dinner. Ever feel like you do nothing but stay busy? There's some stuff that needs to get done for Off The Coast Ministries, but I have a headache and need to hit the bed, it will have to wait till tomorrow afternoon.

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So I haven't posted anything recently. Just downloaded this new browser called Flock, lets you keep up with all your social networking stuff. Thought I'd try to post something quick through it's nifty neat o blog tool.

Work hazards of a gymnastics coach

Today was another day at the gymnastics place. Subbing for more people who seem to be passing around something or just not showing up at work. It was a "safe" day. Had a few close calls while teaching roundoffs and rings. For those of you who don't teach gymnastics, let give you a few examples of the hazards that surround us gym coaches.

A gymnastics venue screams danger, no matter how you look at it. Kids everywhere, often completely oblivious to anyone or anything around them. Then these little bundles of energy that come alive as soon as they walk through the door, act like atoms set free in a nuclear explosion. Which often leads to near lethal collisions with stable atoms going around in their normal patterns. Once these little atoms have been roped back in, trying to keep them focused and not bonding with other little atoms is near impossible. If you just look at a gymnastics venue, the equipment looks dangerous. Trying to make sure these little atoms react in a proper and stable manner with the equipment is another daunting task. They are always looking for ways to use the equipment in unintended ways.

When you can gain control of the entire class and begin instructing various skills required to pass the different levels, there enters the whole personal safety issue. Kids have limbs. These limbs seem to possess a mind of their own. I know it's said that men have two brains, let me tell you, kids have about ten. I can prove this. When you ask a child why one limb acted wrongly or did not follow directions, the kid responds "I don't know." There you have it. Kids have about ten brains that independently control each member of the body. This can cause problems when one limb decides to interact with a part of the coaches body. Feet end up cutting open lips when a child actually follows instructions and surprises the coach. Feet land in very sensitive parts of the male body when a kid randomly switches sides that she roundoffs on. Feet also have a tendency to swing franticly when being hosted to a high bar or the rings. Often times
these feet make contact with above stated sensitive part of the male body. Sometimes it's just a swift kick to the legs or arms or stomach. Arms also have a tendency to do funny things too. They can flail about making contact with the side of a coaches face or other parts of the
body. Girls also have a funny mechanism in them that can shut off all brain function half way through a dangerous skill. This causes panic in a coach which results in the coach using all his might to bring the stunned girl to a safe and complete stop on the ground. There is often
some soreness in multiple parts of the body that occurs when pulling a decent sized girl out of mid air and twisting her body and yours so that a safe landing results.

You see, gymnastics looks all safe and fun, until you coach it. Then you realize why you had to sign more paperwork and waivers than your previous job at the nuclear plant. Today though, was a "safe" day. No serious injuries inflicted:-)

Tory Almond

Going To Try This Again

As you can tell it's been a while since I've posted on a blog other than my work one. So, I'll try to do this more often, especially since I can post here and it will upload to my notes on Facebook. So great. Until I have time to post. Take care!

Tory