I saw Olympics golden medalist Matthew Mitcham diving at Royal Easter Show in Sydney

I was watching yesterday the Olympics, men's diving with the Australian Matthew Mitcham claiming the gold, and have realized, that I've seen him somewhere.

Today I picked up Sun-Herald, and of course, the front story was about the diving gold medalist (his final jump was the highest ranked in Olympic history), and there it was - he apparently quit sports at some stage, and was performing diving tricks at Royal Easter Show!!!

Last year I've seen Matthew Mitcham performing for crowds as a part of a diving group, they were doing brilliantly of course, and now he is back into sports and has the gold medal!

and I have a picture of him at the Royal Easter Show :)

Caught in Olympics Spirit

For me, being ethnically Russian, born in Lithuania, holding Belarusian passport and living in Australia with a flatmate of chinese origin - Olympics is definitely the event to watch :)

I find myself supporting obviously Russian team most of times - as I am russian, and also there are simply so many sports Russia competes, and wins in :) I'm also going passionately for Belarus (but it gives less reasons to hooray), and very glad to see Australia win, too (convenient, isn't it :)

I check medal rankings every day, and several times; have TV on Channel 7 most of time at home; watch TV streaming at the chill-out room at work... (in fact so engaged that couldn't stop myself from writing the post just an hour after the last entry, after weeks of silence :)

Minutes ago I was jumping up and down on the couch screaming "go!!!" as Russian team of women 400mx4 running relay almost took gold (silver at the end). And just seconds later was awing looking at a stunning performance of Evgenia Kanaeva in women rhythmic gymnastics all around (artistic gymastics with a rope, ribbon etc). It's probably the most beautiful sport in Olympics...

By the way, results hot from the spot - this rhythmic gymnastics medals are:

gold - Russia (Evgenia Kanaeva) about her
silver - Belarus (my surname 'tezka' -Inna Zhukova!) about her
bronze - Ukraine (Anna Bessonova)

See - all three places are taken by the very Eastern European slavic 'sister' countries!! :) (yes, this is what people inside those countries call themselves, despite all governmental conflicts)

And 7 out of 10 finalists are representatives of ex-USSR countries; a testament to the strength Soviet sports system had... (I constantly hear commentators on TV saying that many athletes around the world, especially US and Europe, are trained by ex-USSR champions now living overseas)

Very proud for all three girls, go we! :)

Olympic Games rock

Russia and Georgia

Recently I found myself being often asked "what do you think about South Ossetia conflict?"

(a side remark - so often many people don't have a clue some place exists until one day something happens and then everyone seems to be an expert)

I do not particularly support either side, but as always I am frustrated that the media choose to portrait a particular side of the story, not really covering all the facts (both, Russian and Western media)
Australian papers, for example, made no reference to the fact, that it was actually Georgia who launched an attack on South Ossetia, with Russia responding (fairly said, overreacting). And that many of the victims are victims of Georgian assault, and it's not only Russian forces that are the reason for all misplaced and killed...

I found, rather surprisingly, that in this case BBC was reasonably objective, and for those wondering, check out their Q&A on the conflict (they tell it better that I would :)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7549736.stm

Just a comment on double standards that Russia at least was consistent, in both Kosovo and South Ossetia situation, while West proclaimed support of Kosovo's independence and did not support South Ossetia's, because with this country, their friend is the mainland leader... How do we (and who can, if any?) decide, who is worth having independence, who is not?

As for the summary, here is some good overview, again from BBC, about lessons from South Ossetia conflict: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7553390.stm

(and by saying good, I do not mean pro-russian, no one was really the good, right side in this conflict...)

StumbleUpon

I'm re-discovering StumbleUpon. Got introduced to it in 2006 by 'the due who knows awesome random stuff' Tom Gara. Haven't been using StumbleUpon for a while, but recently started on it again - great way to spend your time when you want to do something but don't know what exactly.

Well, StumbleUpon serves just that :)

Based on your selected preferences and using intelligent system of comparing rankings, stumbleupon loads random internet websites, but the more you use it, the better results suit to your interests. One of best examples of web 2.0 application, user-driven content!

Recently I saw:
- amazing portrait photography website
- 20 ways to change the world
- interactive chart of problem solving
- chocolate cake in 5 min
- personal barcode site
- flickriver - 100 strangers portraits
etc etc etc...

looking for some inspiration really