The Greatest of All Time?

Roger Federer, arguably the best tennis player of all time, has just made a major push to be considered the undisputed greatest of all time by winning the French Open. The French Open is the only Grand Slam event that has eluded Roger during his illustrious career. Though were it not for clay court god Rafa Nadal, Roger would have won the tournament four times before, as Nadal is the only player to have beaten Roger at Roland Garros in the last four years. Eliminated in the fourth-round by Swede Robin Soderling, the path seemed wide open for Roger to claim his first title on "la terre battue". Other top players like Novak Djokavic and Andy Murray were dismissed early on in the tournament, which some might argue diminishes Roger's accomplishment. I disagree wholeheartedly. While his fellow top players were eliminated, Roger kept his sights set on his goal. He could have easily been defeated in a similar fashion by lesser-known players. And he almost was. Coming from behind more than once, Federer refused to be defeated. He pushed ahead with sheer will power and determination. As his most formidable foes were defeated early on, the pressure and expectations mounted for the Swiss superstar. At times, it seemed too much, but we witnessed first hand why he is so great. Playing the man who defeated his arch nemesis, Roger easily defeated the young Soderling, who was in his first grand slam final ever. The nerves seemed to be getting to him in the first set, which Roger won easily, 6-1. After a fan jumped out of the stands and disrupted play by rushing Federer and waving a flag in his face, Roger seemed to cool off. Soderling found his game and managed to take Roger to a tie-break. But Roger would not be denied. He dominated the tie-break. He only needed one break in the third to wrap up his historic win in Paris. Congrats to you Roger, and I'll be rooting for you to break Pistol Pete's grand slam record in this year's Wimbledon.

Fire-eater

My facebook name is Nick Fire-eater Peterson. I am not actually a fire-eater, I just thought that it was a wicked awesome nick-name. Well, apparently someone took it a little more seriously. Here is a copy of an message I got in my inbox:

were looking for male fire eaters jugglers the more outragoues the better also stilt walkers swoard swallores
for a shoot in nyc around june 6-8th forthe band MADJUANA there on my space and on here and you can contact them and me mentioning my name . . .
I dont know all the details Im just helping track down talent for video for my friends band
I myself am a photographer

Man, it's times like this I wish I really was a fire-eater.

NEW YORK

I went to New York with some friends last weekend. I have officially spent as many weekends in New York as I have in D.C. New York was out of control. That place is huge. First thing I noticed was that the metro in New York is about a million times more complicated than the metro in D.C. No worries, we eventually found our way to where we wanted to go.

First off, the drive was pretty long, and I encountered road tolls for the first time. Man, it's pretty expensive to us some of those roads and bridges. We stayed with friends of a friend in Jersey. Jersey was pretty sweet. I had imagined it as being similar to New York, but it was actually pretty chill. We then drove to New York, stopping off in Staten Island. Yeah, I've been to Staten Island. Then we continued on and parked at a park and took the Light Rail into town. First stop was Ground Zero, which was pretty crazy, but mostly just a big hole in the ground. I don't want to diminish it's importance, but we didn't stay long at that location.

On we went to Times Square. That place was sweet. Super huge, tons of people and buildings, it kind of blew me away. Talk about the complete opposite of Manti, where I grew up. We saw where they tape the Late Show, the Hello Deli, which was, unfortunately closed. Then we decided to get some Broadway tickets to Mary Poppins. Whilst in line, Tracy Morgan drove by in his Lamborghini. Yeah he's a celeb and all, but I'm not really a fan. Anywho, after we got the tics, we went to Chinatown. Man, that place is pretty sketchy. Okay, it's super sketchy. Then we went and hit up Mary Poppins, which was totally worth the wait in line and the crappy seats. After that, we went home.

Sunday we went to church and got invited to dinner:) We drove by my friend's old house in Jersey and ended up getting invited to lunch by her old neighbors. Then it was off to dinner, with a pretty chill family. We were basically adopted by two families in Jersey. Not bad for a weekend trip. Then we headed back to D.C. I drove the last leg of the trip into the District. I was pretty nervous, but I managed to get us to our apartment in one piece. And there you have it, my weekend in New York.

Veterans of Foreign Affairs

I have decided to continue my blogging efforts in order to document my summer as a Washington D.C. intern at the Veterans of Foreign Wars. This place is legit. I was worried that it would be a sketchy building in the middle of the ghetto, but the building is quite nice and it is located right accross from the Hart Senate Building on Capitol Hill. My first few days as an intern were pretty dull. The guy I am going to be working with is on vacation for a week, so they stuck me with the Associate Director, who doesn't know what to do with me because he's got enough on his own plate to worry about. So I am brushed aside and given a book on the history of the VFW to read and left to myself. Well, that was super boring, but luckily a few days later, they got my permanent residence set up. I have my own office, which is awesome, and a computer to mess around on when I don't have anything to do. Today my supervisor had to go to Annapolis for the day and left me a small task to accomplish. Well I finished all I was supposed to do in the morning, so I have been sitting around reading my history book and dinking around on the computer for the past three hours. One more to go! This summer should be interesting. Hopefully I'll be wrinting soon about trips to New York, Boston, and Philly. Peace!

Another Dream Job

So I've recently discovered a new entry for my list of shit-jobs: calling people and asking for money. Now the people who trained me would tell you that I am not a tele-marketer. I am calling from the U, updating alumni information, and, of course, asking for a donation. Well guess what, I am a freaking telemarketer! Our shifts are supposed to go from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. The computers dial automatically, and we are supposed to call until the computer automatically logs us out. Last time, I called all the way up until 8:59 before the computer logged me off. Then we have a talk before they let us leave. 8:59! Just let me go the freak home! Then tonight, same story. But guess what, 8:59 rolls around, the computer keeps dialing. No one answers. Dials next number. No one answers. Keep dialing. Oh, what do ya know? Someone answers! So here I am, 9:00 on the dot, and I'm in the middle of a conversation! Fun fun fun. As if I didn't already love that job enough, I get out fifteen minutes late because the stupid computer won't stop dialing. Man I hate technology sometimes.

The Dating Game

Tonight I went on a double date with a good friend of mine. He had a date, and this girl's best friend was to be mine. This was the second of such date-nights, and I am starting to see a pattern developing. We always spend so much freaking money. We somehow always end up eating at steakhouses, and when I am used to eating home-made sandwiches and ramen noodles, it is somewhat of a shock to get a dinner bill that totals fifty bucks! However, tonight we went to a Tepenyaki joint, and our cook was the man. He made a Star Wars joke that killed me. One of the girls was trying to use chop sticks, but couldn't figure it out, and in a voice like Obi-wan Kenobi, he said, "Use the fork!" (instead of "use the force"). No one else got it. Come on, this is classic Star Wars humor coming from a Japanese guy. Star Wars is an American tradition, get with it people! That is another thing that kind of gets on my nerve. I'd love to talk to my date, but she doesn't hear half of what I say because she is constantly having a whispered conversation with her friend, a conversation only the two of them are invited to. Then we go and drop another thirty bucks on some activity after dinner, so by the end of the night I am out eighty bucks, and don't even get a kiss on the cheek for my efforts. What the eff?! This dating game is going to break me in the end. What bugs me the most is I will never get past a hug at the door with this girl. If I'm going to be droppin' eighty bones on a lady, she better be plannin' on buying a wedding dress and marryin' a brother. I don't wanna go broke buying some other dude's future wife dinner. Shit.

This past weekend I went to the Salt Lake car show with my favorite people in the world, Winters and Hannah. What a coincidence that they are also the only people who read my blog:) It was a freaking awesome time. Don't get me wrong, the cars sucked, and we made a point to take many pictures in front of said crappy vehicles. The best part was the Maui Wowi stand. Now the reason it was so freaking awesome is because we went to the Deseret Industries beforehand to purchase uniforms for the show. I wore a stunning yellow turtleneck with a sweater that had the sleeves cut off along with my beautiful birthday shoes. Hannah found a killer purple sweater as well as some perfectly form-fitting cowboy boots. Also, she found a diabolic bowling ball, not pictured. Matt chose a chic McDonalds sweater vest and a one in a million Rockstar hat. He drew a shirt on her so that she would be more appropriate to go out in public. This experience made me want to dress up like this every day. It was nice to not try and conform to the norms of society. True, we got many, many weird stares from others at the car show, but I didn't even care. It taught me a great lesson, conform to my own norms. Don't be afraid to march against the grain. It's not cool to try and be different simply for the sake of being different, but it is also not cool to try and conform simply for the sake of blending in with the crowd. Be your own person, stand up for what you believe, and in the words Robin Williams as Genie on Aladdin, "Beeeeeee yourself!"

High Heels

You know, I've noticed an unusual amount of gals with high heels lately. It isn't just the classic variety with the strap, but normal looking, everyday shoes nowadays have heels on them. Some look classy, some do not. But you know what I think every time I see any kind of heel on a girl? High-maintenance. I don't know why, but these heels seem to scream out 'I like to buy shoes', which, in other words, means 'I love to spend money for no good reason'. In my mind, a girl who wears heels is the kind of girl who would spend a thousand bucks on a Gucci purse if her credit card had a high enough limit. This is a girl who spends two hundred dollars on jeans just because they have the right name or brand on the butt. This girl spends an average of ninety two bucks to get her hair cut three quarters of a centimeter. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't mind some heels on a Sunday to go to church, or an evening that requires formal wear. But why would you risk a broken leg, or worse, just so you can make a fashion statement? This girl needs to get her priorities straight. However, cowboy boots on girls are freaking awesome! Honestly folks, I love those cute little slender shoes that gals wear. That tells me they care about looking good and being fashionable, but they aren't obsessed with it. Give me a pair of Pumas over a pair of stiletto heels any day.

Sinking the Crimson Tide

Utes win! Utes win! Utes win! Wow, what a game. Utah jumped all over Alabama in the first quarter. Three touchdowns in what seemed like five seconds. Bama had no answer to the hurry up offense the Utes threw at them. I'll admit that I got a little nervous when they came back and scored on a Utah turnover at the beginning of the second half to come within four points. But Utah didn't sweat it, they just came right back and answered to the tune of a 28-17 lead. Their defense was, as Mike Tyson would put it, "impregnable". The Crimson Tide had only allowed 15 sacks all season long, and the Utah defense racked up 8 sacks against them in one game! You can argue that Alabama was without offensive tackle Andre Smith, but what the U did was still amazing. An Andre Smith-less Alabama only allowed 2 sacks to Florida, one of the top teams in the nation. Utah tallied 6 more sacks than a BCS-Championship Bowl bound Gator squad. Moreover, Florida beat Alabama by 11 points (31-20). If they end up beating Oklahoma and winning the national championship, shouldn't Utah at least tie for the number one spot, if not be the sole possessors? A Utah squad beat former no. 1 Alabama by 14, while Florida only managed to defeat the Crimson Tide by 11. Think about it folks, it makes sense. In the mean time, congratulations to Utah, and screw the freaking BCS!!!