August 2008 - Posts
50 M Smallbore rifle. I just watched the replay and the American, Emmons looked like he had it wrapped up. I won't say I am a marksman, but controlling your breathing and holding your mark *should* be the same across all 10 shots. Emmons completely lost it on the last shot and blew a 3.6 point lead scoring a shot off the target. That guy must be kicking himself. He had the gold locked with a 7.0 shot, but scored 4.4 and watched the field post scores int the 8-10.5 range and walk past him. After the scores he posted on the first 9 shots this is essentially the same thing as not even shooting the last shot. Poor guy. I guess it is no different than buck fever, but this is a trained marksman. Bummer...
If you haven't seen it yet (I'm not sure how you could avoid it) go over to nbcolympics.com right now and watch the world-record shattering 4x100 free relay effort from yesterday/last night. 5 teams in the event eclipsed the previous world record and the US and French teams both surpassed it by more than 3.9 seconds (with the USA ever so narrowly winning by 8 hundredths of a second). The finish was so close, with the USA coming from behind, that it made for very fun watching for the American audience. Watching it live as it happened, I was thinking, there's no way. When Cullen got out-sprinted that first 50 of the third leg, I thought the difference was insurmountable. Jason Lezak's final split (46.06!!!!) was simply outrageous and one of the most memorable Olympic moments I can remember. Congratulations to the whole team on a fantastic race and a gold-medal win!
This past weekend while I was grilling burgers, I noticed something in the side-yard flower gardens. Upon closer inspection, it was a very large butterfly. I grabbed the camera and got Jodi to bring the kids out to see it. We didn't mess with it, just tried to get some photos and enjoy its presence.
Upon doing a little research after the fact, I believe this is known as the 'Giant Swallowtail' (papilio cresphontes). I found some other similar matches, but they didn't appear to be normally in my area, and this one is the best match and is known to be local, so I am guessing it is right. Unfortunately, the butterfly never stopped flitting about long enough for me to get a really good wing picture, but I got enough different angles to identify most of the wing bars and colorations. It really was a beautiful little creature... The first two photos show the top/back of the wings and the last three highlight the underside. It is pretty amazing how different the two sides appear...
These are old, but great:
"buzz buzz buzz Hello, Mosquito!"
"aaaaaah! the Atmosphere!!! aaaaaagh!!"
I loved these when they were new, and they still crack me up for some reason...