Olympic Opening Cermony and sooo many vids and links to share....

[kseenaa]

As a comment on the Olympic Opening Ceremony last night... It rocked. :-) Well done London, I say! So much British awesomeness squeezed together in such a short time... even if it ended up being an hour longer then planned. :-) I stayed up and watched the live coverage all night until 2am. :-)

Not to mention how proud and awesome all the WOMEN were... There were women athletes from countries that haven't allowed their women athletes to participate before, and man... How PROUD were they? How GORGEOUS were they? It rocked. All of it. :-) Now let's hope at least ONE of them women gets a medal of some sort. ;-)

Anyway. For some reason I've managed to collect a shit ton of links and vids, so you'll have to be prepared to be spammed here.... ;-)

First off, I found this vid with James Marsters, mostly known for playing Spike in Buffy the vampireslayer. He has said on numerous times that he was over and done with playing vampire roles, but... he DID actually audition for a role on the TV-show True Blood... where he was to act against Alexander Skarsgård. Now, James Marsters is kinda a short guy, only 5.9 feet aka 1,77 meters... While Alexander is 6.4 feet tall aka 1,93 meters. A bit of a difference there. *grin* And I just loved James comment on that! :-D

Amusing man, that one. :-)

Another amusing man is this bartender. :-) I think this is from the Ukrainian equivalent to America's got talent. And this bartender? Is seriously talented... I bet his drinks taste just as good to! :-D

Observe that he doesn't spill a drop! :-D

Talking of America's got talent! This guy just had my jaw drop! Just... look at the whole thing...

Just proves that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover... ;-) Pretty cool, eh?

Another pretty cool thing I stumbled upon, while talking about not judging a book by it's cover... is this. Barbie and Ken is the perfect happy couple, right? Ehr... Or maybe not...? An artist and photographer Dina Goldstein took these series of photos showing the hidden side of Barbie and Ken's marriage... It is REALLY cool, I gotta say!

The dark side of Barbie and Ken's marriage - The Dollhouse

There is also a behind the scenes movie here that is pretty cool to see how they worked on getting this whole photo-project set up! :-)

Kinda cool, eh?

Another cool thing, or movie, that I really wanna watch... is this documentary about rap and hiphop... It looks really interesting! :-D

Yep. Should be interesting that one.

Another movie, or documentary I really wanna see is this one. Anyone who has been around here reading my LJ for a while knows I... do not approve much about the US Army. Nothing personal, I just don't. And this? This just made it worse. I mean, seriously? Really? WTH?

So you wanna be in the army just spread your legs and take it... and then shut up about it... *shakes head*

And since we stumbled down in a bit of a more serious waters, this really got me to understand you US-people a little more... even if your view on health care still boggles my mind like you wouldn't believe. Maybe this article / blog post can give you a bit of an eyeopener to? It was very well written, I gotta say.

How I lost my fear of Universal Health Care

And before you ask, yes. Swedish health care works pretty much the same way as she is describing Canadian health care. She has also written a follow up to that awesome post, that is pretty much just as awesome giving more insight to everyone (the woman is good with words).

Why I used to be afraid of Universal Health Care

Read both. :-) You won't regret it.

Next link I'll share is not about health care, but about health none the less... Historic health. Where the last ones alive with this condition is slowly dying... and their story needs to be told. I don't remember HOW i stumbled on this site, but I was truly fascinated. The Golden Lotus.... the bound feet of China. Should be as small as possible to be as beautiful and desirable as possible. On this site, those last few that still live with their bound feet tell their stories... Why they did it, how it happened and the traditions behind it...

Bound feet

I will willingly admit I was absolutely fascinated reading those stories... I HIGHLY recommend said site!

I have a few more links I'd like to share, but I think I'll save them for now.

Just, end it with this. Take a moment to melt all I've shared, sit down and relax... And take a tour to...

The Thoughts Room

Comments

[melluransa.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for sharing! I watched the Alexander De Leon vid and the army vid.

Just last month, one of my classmates decided to do a project on head injuries soldiers received in the military, and she couldn't find anything. Injuries are not reported, and so many soldiers are returning with multiple disabilities and brain damage. The impact is huge. And that they also hide rape? That's terrible! A person has the right to their body safety. That's so awful to hear, and I suspected they hide this stuff. They hide everything and it's really scary to think of what all they hide.

I'm watching the Alex video now! WOW!

The universal healthcare blogs are similar to what I heard! I recently read a book called "Where is the Mango Princess," by Cathy Crimmins from the U.S. Her husband had a severe head injury while they vacationed in Canada. Their care in Canada was immediate and very high quality care. No questions, no delay, just what was needed! Then after her husband's condition stabilized, they arranged to return to the U.S. and they experienced so many problems. In the end, the poorer care and high expenses resulted in causing more damage to her husband's brain. O.o He didn't recover as much as he could have.

The book was mostly about living with her husband and his brain damage, but that part about the healthcare of the U.S. versus that of Canada really struck me. Healthcare in the U.S. actually hurt him, which is ironic because it's called healthcare. Health. Care. *shakes head*

Again, thank you so much for sharing! <3

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Health care is very close to my heart. My mom is an assitent nurse, as is my aunt (her sis). And since I have Endometriosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endometriosis) I've had to make several surgeries thanx to it... Not to mention, without Universal Health Care... Little Nerd Jr who is soon to be born... would NOT exist.

To be honest, the way US health care system works? It disgusts me. Sorry, nothing personal, but it does. SO fucking much! And I have SUCH a hard time understanding how an entire country can be OK with people DYING or losing their fucking homes because they can not pay for health care... I just... I can't.

That blog post gave me a little understanding. Pretty much that an entire country has been lied to. And refuse to listen to reason. :-/

[zeph317toho.livejournal.com]

Ah, I thought the opening ceremony was just amazing! *__* I missed a few parts in between the dog and laundry, but overall, spectacular. And this might sound terribly sexist or awful but I swear that countries pick the most gorgeous women to represent them! I kept seeing all these cool outfits and these stunning women and I was like …WOW! :D But, yeah, like you said, it’s always such a great feeling to hear about women getting the chance to compete for some countries for the first time. And this is the first year that the U.S. sent more female athletes than male!

Oh, James Marsters, I still love him. Whenever I see him on any TV show, I just sigh and get hearts in my eyes. I will always adore him because of the way he played Spike. <3 He actually looks great here – a little more muscled than I remember. I liiiiiike it. (Also his fight and the result with John Barrowman in Torchwood is one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen. )

Thanks for sharing the video about the guy on America's Got Talent. His voice was beautiful!

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Well, if you train and workout as hard as Olympic athletes do... I think you end up being gorgeous by default. ;-)

Glad to hear you enjoyed a few of the links and vids I shared. :-) There's a lot of interesting stuff to read and watch in there! :-D Hence why I wanted to share it. ;-)

[steinsgrrl.livejournal.com]

Please girl, don't paint all Americans with the same brush. A lot of people I know WELCOME universal health care. As usual, it's the radicals that you guys hear about, the people who act like idiots and make the rest of us ashamed that they're representing our image globally.

Sort of the same thing with the US military. I grew up in the military, so before all this came out about the rape cover ups, we all knew about it. I remember things happening on base and how it was all supposed the be hush hush, but everyone knew about it. It's not just women these things happen to. It happens to men, too, but that's kept covered even more, because the men it happens to don't want to report it. Thing is, it happens in EVERY military. That doesn't make what happens in the US military any better, but it does happen in every military where men and women serve together, and even to other men. It's not right to single one out.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can understand that. :-) I really can. That's why I found that womans blog-posts so very interesting. I really did. It gave another understanding for me, you know? How it comes that those radicals look at things the way they do. Because we never hear that here. Just THAT they look at things weirdly. :-) (Well, weirdly for us.) I know not all US-people are like that. I mean, hey... Pretty much all the US-people on my f-list should be proof of that. ;-) Sadly you are right though. :-/ It IS only the loudmouthed radicals we hear about here. :-P Well, more or less.

Oh, I've lived in a army-family in the US. :-) Captain Steve Low of the US Armed Forces. He was damn awesome! Always open for questions and discussions about the US Army. I was their 7th aupair (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aupair), so I suppose he was used to questions and answering them. Sadly I've lost contact with that family... :-/ I loved those three kids they had, and I would love to know if they reached their dreams and goals.

ANYWAY! Of course it happens to men to. The problem is... that it HAPPENS. And that it is kept hush-hush. I think that is the mayor problem over all. And of course it happens in Swedens Military to, small as it is. (Small country - small military.) But if you count on it, percentage wise, it still happens more in the US Army. Sad to say. It needs to get out. And it needs to be done something about. No matter what army or what country. I think it is an important movie, an important debate. Hopefully such movies might make people start to talk. And hopefully the hush-hush and the cover ups will be less... and maybe disappear in the future?

[ruchirahni.livejournal.com]

That's so funny, because I didn't enjoy the Olympic ceremonies at all! I was really disappointed. The only part I really liked was Mr. Bean!

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Really? :-D Interesting... I love hwo they pretty much showed the history of Britain and how it became the country it is today with it's industry and all that... And I LOVED the part with the nurses and the story-book characters from famous British books. :-D And of course... Mr Bean. :-) He rocked.