Some links! To pictures! Because pictures are fun!

[osprey_archer]

First: 20 Fascinating Ice and Snow Sculptures. It's hard to pick a favorite, although I like the dinosaurs and Cinderella's coach and the giant sea horse. If it wouldn't melt, I think the giant sea horse would make an excellent addition to my dorm room next year. Perhaps if I put it on my roommate's side so the inevitable flood wouldn't harm my stuff...?

Second: pictures of Sochi, which is the host for the 2014 Winter Olympics and appears, from the pictures, to be a subtropical paradise. Presumably all the snow happens in the surrounding mountains, leaving the palm trees untouched.

I have added to my list of Possible Things to Do After College becoming an interpreter at the 2014 Olympics. I have no idea how one goes about doing this, but I feel like Sochi and I would be good for each other. I've always liked the Winter Olympics better anyway. Figure skating! So fast-paced and graceful and interesting, and one of the few sports where being female is not a disadvantage (probably because it's in many ways quite stereotypically feminine; but I hardly think that's a reason to discount it).

Apparently the 2010 Winter Olympics are going to be held in Vancouver. (I discovered this because the adorable 2010 Olympic mascots, Quatchi and friends, have taken up residence on Canada's international stamps. Canada's stamps are so much more interesting than American stamps that it's really kind of embarrassing.)

Comments

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

these are all awesome, though i think i like the telescope and melting men best of the ice sculptures.

also, the mascots! i'm definitely taking the "who are you like?" quiz. : )

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The melting men are lovely, though a little creepy. Ice sculptures are just so inherently tragic - so much work, and they melt away.

The mascots are so cute. I bet they make stuffed animals based on them.

[radio-silent.livejournal.com]

i liked that that transience was built into the work, though- very clever. and pretty!

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

You should be an interpreter, that would be very exciting.

Interesting sport fact: equestrianism is the only sport (I think) where men and women compete on an equal footing.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Perhaps race car driving? That's totally a guess; it just seems like it shares enough qualities with equestrianism that it might have equal footing for men and women too.

Also, there was a big deal a couple of years ago when Danica Patrick came in fourth in the Indy 500.