Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

Seriously folks. First of all, thank God there is at least one journalist who hasn't hopped on the "China is so amazing!" train.

Yes, remember human rights violations?

Remember the Tiananmen Square massacre? I do.

Remember the little old ladies sentenced to hard labor? The lack of freedom of speech or the press? Google conspiring with the Chinese government to change facts?

I mean Jesus Christ, wake up everyone. What the fuck do you think is going on here? I'm sure there are very nice people in China and that the NBC reporters enjoyed going on their little human interest trips to visit various people in small villages with amazing stories, etc. But if we actually care about these wonderful people we're introduced to in these little side stories, then we should care that they live in a country with an incredibly repressive government which wields total control over their lives.

Do we all need a lesson in the whole "We have lots of freedoms we take for granted in this country" vein? (Don't worry, the Bush administration will continue to chip away at those for as long as possible.)

Honestly, I find the blind eye most of the press turned to pretty much everything China does very disturbing. It's their job to tell the truth. Even if nobody wants to hear it. (But I guarantee, there are always some people who do, by the way.)

OK, here are just a few from our Maine trip, since I'm on a roll...

Road sign on our way

A glimpse of the coast

Our cottage at Hutchins' Mountain View Cottages

View of Cadillac Mountain from our cottage

Me and Billy!

Billy worn out in the car

I could have sworn this was called Misty Harbor but I can't find anything called that on the map. If that wasn't the name of the Harbor it was the name of a road or something right there because the point of this photo was it was supposed to be of a nice view of the coast and ocean but there was too much fog to see anything, and I had just seen the sign saying Misty Harbor or Misty Harbor Road or something.

We were frustrated because we were supposedly on a scenic drive, but saw no scenery!

Here are just a few. I also have to put up all my photos from my family's visit, and pics from last weekend when robreed and I took Billy to Maine!

Hester is super excited about the ocean!

Hester playing in the sand

Hester at dinner Thursday, bein' a turkey!

Hester gets wild with her crayons!

Hester in the ocean at Pleasant Bay

Thanks for having me, Clementine and Hashbrown! It was great to hang out and relax, very fun to spend so much time with you, and of course so great to spend so much time with Hester!

Came back from the cape last night, where I spent a very fun couple of days with Clementine, Hashbrown, and Hester. It was very fun, very relaxing, and I only got a little bit sunburnt. Tons of pictures to go through. I will post a bunch soon as well as make a disc of all my photos for Clementine and Hashbrown. Stay tuned!

Quote just now on the score a Chinese gymnast received for her balance beam routine:

That's a high score, higher than her qualification score. Too high.

Apparently that's it though. Everyone just moves on, the Chinese gymnasts keep magically always getting "too high" scores and that's fine.

I think our next Olympics should be in Russia and the non-Russian competitors can show up all bruised and beat up and insist "nothing happened" to them.

Why do I care? Because I really hate cheating.

Seriously, have you listened to his commentary on the Olympics so far?

Lucky for me, fair readers, I have also suffered through years and years of his commentary on the televised coverage of the Tour de France.

He was making me murderously angry last night during the gymnastics coverage we were watching. It could have even been Tivo'd, I'm not actually sure when it was on, but it was during the tie-breaker controversy with Liukin and He Kexin.

First of all, we'll ignore the fact that all the Chinese women's gymnasts except for one are about 11 years old. Very fair China. Thanks for hosting this great event in your wonderful country and being so hospitable and also CHEATING.

Anyway, Al was going on and on about how complicated the tie-breaking procedure is. He wouldn't stop. Turns out the "complicated" process is that the next lowest score is dropped from each contestant's scores. Sounds pretty simple, Al.

One of the commentators who knows what the fuck he was talking about was trying to make a more useful point and Al jumped in, interrupting him to blather about tie-breaking some more. I wanted to stab my eardrums with a pen.

Dear Albert,

You should first learn how to use a computer. This will help you when your "screen goes black". It will also help you realize how to do things like monitor your credit card accounts online and also use Expedia's site correctly.

Then, after you're sure you can handle these tasks, you can try booking tickets again online. But if your "screen goes black" again, I would just recommend putting the computer in the garbage and driving to the airport and walking up to the counter to buy your tickets. This seems like the best solution for you.

Sincerely,
Jenn

Failblog.

Also, please make sure you see today's video of a girl in another country's American Idol take (I know the U.S. version wasn't the original) singing a really special version of "Without You".

That is all.

Hey, check out the really cool stained glass lamp my baby brother Brian made!

And here you can see it in a gallery of sample works online.

Cool, right? That Brian. What can't he do? (Hint: if you guessed play piano and guitar, draw, or do better in school than me and Dan, you'd be wrong. He can do all those things. And lots of others too.)

Officially he's employed as an architect, by the way.