January 27, 2009 16:47 by
Seth as i settled into the first class seat in seoul south korea after the never before and rarely heard of double bump i couldn't help but think that things were looking up. i grabbed a copy of the herald tribune as the newspaper cart went by and started reading about the next days impending inauguration and my excitement was barely containable.. when i got to page two my eyes got far wider however and i was happy that we were already taxiing down the runway. on that saturday north korea had "fueled up" whatever war heads they possessed and had sent massive reinforcements along the boarder to levels unseen since the end of the cold war.. i felt lucky to be lifting off and getting the hell out of there.. goodbye korea i may never see you again.. parting can be such bliss.. so we got to aspen settled into the house in snowmass and i spent tuesday celebrating along with the rest of the nation on the couch watching the proceedings from washington. through my eyes what has already transpired this past week is much like coming out from under the rule of a brutal dictatorship.. i have at times these past eight years felt a weight in my heart so heavy from the direction we have been lead with the losses to freedom and civil liberties that at times i couldn't help but feel as though we were living in an Orwellian reality.. goodbye thought police hello freedom and transparency! thank you kindly mr. Obama!!
so x-games.. at night when you look south from snowmass for one week a year there is a glow that outlines the aspen valley's peaks and it is the circus that espn creates. it is a total conflict of interest with itself. they talk about having a green stance toward the environment and yet the light pollution alone is a disgusting sight to behold in and of itself.. i really can't decide if i still like it anymore. it is one of the only times that the american public can see what i do but it is so skewed towards its own self importance and the fact that sal masakala says that its core.. its really quite annoying. for an organization that claims to put on the worlds best event they overlook the most major details that even our own sugarloaf comp center could teach them the reality of the most important "real" issues with hosting an event. for instance when you host a winter sports event there is a chance that it might even snow. you would think that this reality might have crossed espn's mind in the 13 years of x.. you might want course workers or maybe even course slippers for an event the whole world is going to see but no.. on qualifying and race day it was up to the athletes to make sure the foot of powder got removed from the mile long course.. rookies. so all in all it was what it was. qualied 3rd despite a couple major mistakes. won the first heat easily. got the hole shot in round two and got clipped by an out of control teammate from boston.. damn mass drivers.. they even change lanes unexpectedly when they're on snowboards.. so i went back up and won the small final for a seventh place finish but its kind of the story of the year so far.. bad luck in the semifinals is really hurting the overall results. if only i was in baseball. having won 13 of my 19 heats this year it would be an all time average for the hall of fame.. well at least there is always next week. the whole x-games skew continued sunday night as we all went up to watch the pipe.. so glad i am not in judged events anymore. kevin pierce absolutely killed it sunday night and lost to judges apparently influenced by the corporate sponsors of the shaun white games. not to take anything away from shaun but he more or less threw a training run when the pressure was on and i am sure he couldn't have helped but notice the lack of a cheer that went up from the crowd when the scores were posted.. oh well. there is a reason kevin has been beating him internationally for the past two seasons.. end of story. on to tahoe..