Across the Internet: Ryan Lochte, Catching Fire, and The Winds of Winter

The past couple of days have brought some exciting things in the world of the internet, so I'm going to talk about them, because that's the point of me having a blog!

The long saga of Ryan Lochte getting a reality show has finally come to fruition- E! announced on Tuesday at the TCAs that they will be airing a six-episode reality show starting in April titled What Would Ryan Lochte Do?.  I've heard a lot of people making negative comments about the show, saying it's going to be awful and it's going to be a complete failure and paint Ryan in a bad light.  However, I'm of the opposite frame of mind.  

First of all, when has reality television ever painted someone in a good light?  Reality TV is about vaguely scripted drama and generally always makes people think the subjects are idiots.  You don't watch reality television for hard hitting stuff, you watch it because it's hilariously ridiculous and entertaining.  And if Ryan Lochte is trying to pick up girls in front of a camera, I'm pretty sure it will be both ridiculous and entertaining.

It's also going to be a huge promotional boost for the sport of swimming itself- with World Championships in Barcelona this summer, what better way to get people excited for it than a reality show on national television airing a couple months before the championships themselves? People love watching swimming during the Olympics, it would be great if the general public would show the same enthusiasm for the sport during another event.  I'll watch Worlds regardless, but if the show can bring in more fans to the sport, I'm not going to complain.

Top Moments in 2012- #4: Meeting Famous People

This seems like a really silly thing to have as a top moment, but the thing is, before this year I'd never really met or seen any famous people.  I've been to concerts over the years, and there was a brief moment when MGMT was performing "Kids" and I'm 99.9% positive Andrew Vanwyngarden and I made eye contact, and Usher made a surprise appearance at my freshman orientation, and I've taken pictures with Major League Soccer players, but other than that, nothing.  And in 2012, I had several celebrity encounters, so I was pretty pleased with that.

My 2012 End-of-Year lists

I decided to make some lists to sort of sum up 2012.  Shows with stars next to them indicate favorites that I would highly recommend!

Happy birthday, Dixie!

Fourteen years ago, on December 30th, 1998, in Savannah, my dog Dixie, a West Highland White Terrier, was born.  My parents brought her home on February 26th, 1999, and since that day our lives have been so much better.

Top Moments in 2012- #5: Getting Back in the Pool

Since I started college, I had been gaining weight.  The only thing mythical about the Freshman Fifteen is that you only gain it freshman year.  Back in the summer of 2010, I did Weight Watchers for a little bit, and managed to lose 15 pounds, but when I went back to school in the fall I gained it right back.  I won't go into specifics, but let's just say that I weigh more than I would like to weigh.  The worst part is that I'm pretty lazy when it comes to working out, especially since I hate running, so I never really had a routine for going to the gym or anything.

After the Olympics this summer, though, that changed.  Watching all of the swimming events reminded me of how much fun I used to have swimming and how much I used to love just being in the water in general.  So I decided that a great way for me to start losing weight and getting back into shape would be for me to get back into the pool again.

I started swimming when I was ten years old, when the neighborhood pool we were members of started a swim team, so I was a founding member of the Rivershyre Tiger Sharks.  I loved swimming in general, and being able to swim competitively just made it even better.  Unfortunately, I was never very fast- I got last or second to last in almost everything, but I always loved going to the pool and going to practice and just being in the pool in general.  I had already basically chosen club soccer over club swimming at this point, so I was just swimming in the summer and the kids who were swimming year-round were getting so much better than me, but I didn't really care that much.

By the time I got to high school and started swimming there, the 2004 Olympics had happened and I had a Michael Phelps poster that I'd gotten at a meet that summer hanging up on my wall and despite the fact that I loved soccer, swimming was my favorite sport to actually do.  I loved being in the water- it was a great way for me to take my mind off everything else and just relax in the pool.  I kept it up all through high school and was a co-captain my senior year.

I went to the first meeting of the swim club my freshman year at Georgia Tech, but I didn't want to make time to go to practices at night, so I just never went back.  Looking back now, I wish I had, because not only would I have been able to stay in better shape during college, but I would have made some more swimming friends too.

So when I was inspired to get back in the pool after the Olympics in August, it was the first time I had been in the pool in over four years.  I started out slow, using some of the beginners Speedo Pace Club workouts of around 1000 yards.  I kept gradually bumping up my yardage until I was doing a mile or more every time I was going to the pool, which was one to three times a week, depending on how I was feeling.

After Thanksgiving, I decided I wanted to kick it up another notch, since I knew I would be eating more and the main reason I had gotten back in the pool in the first place was to lose weight.  With my dieting and swimming combined, I've lost 20 pounds so far.  I've been doing up to two miles now the past couple of times I've been to the pool, and even though I haven't been in a couple weeks due to being out of town and not feeling up to it, I'm excited to get back into the pool after Christmas and diving back into my swimming routine.

The Hobbit

On Thursday at midnight, the day I had been waiting so many years for finally came- I saw The Hobbit in theatres.  And not the creepy animated version, though I do own that- no, Peter Jackson had finally turned my favorite book into a movie, and he did it brilliantly.

On Black Friday

Thanksgiving has now come and gone and right on the heels of that was Black Friday, also known as The Most Ridiculous Day Of The Year- an event which has somehow only gotten bigger since I was a kid and has now actually started bleeding into Thanksgiving Day itself.

Growing up, I don't really have many memories of Black Friday.  I remember little snippets of my parents talking about it, or staying at my grandparents' house after Thanksgiving so they could go out early.  This really only proves that my parents had the common sense not to drag kids around a crowded store and have them wait in line really early in the morning when they just wanted to be at home in bed or watching cartoons on the couch.

So, I have actually only done "real" Black Friday shopping once in my life, and it wasn't even on Friday.  Last year, the main thing on my Christmas list was a Wii, and Wal-Mart had one for a good price in a gorgeous teal color that I loved.  Since I'm too old to really be surprised anymore, my dad and I set out for our local Wal-Mart around ten o'clock on Thursday, when the sales started.

The insanity started in the parking lot, where every single space in the giant shopping center lot was full despite the fact that Wal-Mart was the only store in the center open.  I think we ended up finally finding a spot back behind the store.  When we got in, there were lines set up all over the store for various things, and that was actually fairly well-organized.  So my dad got into the line for the Wii, and since I'm not at all patient, I decided to wander around the store looking for deals on DVDs or games that I might want.

This proved to be a mistake.  The rest of the store was an absolute nightmare.  The handful of people who had gotten shopping carts were trying to use them to push through all the throngs of people, and trying to maneuver around them and all the lines was insane.  I ended up mostly giving up on my wandering and just headed back into line with my dad- at least I knew I wouldn't get run over there.

This year, we just ended up going to Target and Kohl's around lunchtime on Friday, and other than the insanely long lines at Kohl's (two lines that wrapped almost completely around opposite sides of the store), it was a normal shopping experience, only with better prices.  I ended up getting a couple cute things at Kohl's and thanks to Target was able to add a couple of seasons of TV on DVD (The Office season seven and Happy Endings season two) to my collection for only $8 each.  We've done Black Friday that way for a few years now, and I would say that's definitely the way to go.  Unless you really want that one big ticket item, it's just not worth the hassle.