Boiling Point

Being a teenager is all about reaching the climax. The zenith, the epitome, and the high point. Everything else after this is just falling action (literary terminology, it's neverending). In chemistry terms (BTW, I abhor chemistry, I detest it, and I despise it with a the burning passion of a thousand suns *it's that seriously - that class is a GPA murderer) the boiling point is when a substance is excited enough (energy wise) to change states from liquid to gas. In teenage jargon, that means the peak. Get ready for the boiling point.



Let's start with the latest on the olympics. It's been a few days of high intensity drama, some awesome performances and some epic disappointments. This is one of the few times the whole country is rooting for the same team. Team USA, going all the way. NBC - first and foremost needs to be destroyed, and demolished for their insolence. This whole delayed playback thing for primetime ratings is truthfully just sad and y'all know I don't break my TV schedule for anything. You think I'll watch the Olympics over PLL, JBD, Teen Wolf, Degrassi, Baby Daddy, Melissa & Joey, Lab Rats, Royal Pains, Suits and Political Animals - well you'd be right mistaken. I tried to access to the live online feeds, but Time Warner Cable was doing the utmost to ruin my morning, that was a no-go since I needed my dad for login info (never bother a doctor at work, that ish cray). All I wanted was to see Tom Daley take on David Boudia in real time at 10am instead of some clips at 8pm. Well, it came to that. Too bad it's impossible to not see spoilers. I knew exactly what happened with all the athletes, and I don't blame tweets, trending topics, USA today updates or even yahoo's homepage but NBC it's damn self. Get it together, suburban moms all over the country can go without their daytime soaps in favor of live Olympics coverage. Any who, Bob Costas and his boring self eventually comes on and it starts with the diving. Literally so majestic, it was astonishing just to watch. Such a close match up, but Boudia and his synchronized partner took Bronze with Great Britain and every fangirl's favorite diver, Tom Daley, missing out on a medal. The worst parts, the commentary by some unnecessarily rude lady over the action - her just saying the word "Mexican" whenever Team Mexico (who got silver, those dudes demolished it and upped the ante with their difficulty) came up with this tone that was just not okay ruined it for me. Then the douchebag low life teen who had the audacity to tweet at Tom Daley that his "dad would be disappointed in his performance" - his father passed away last year from brain cancer - it's not okay, and not appropriate at all. Daley replied to the troll and the fool was banned from twitter. There's a commercial break and Bob Costas comes on to say in a monotone voice, "This is the olympics, obviously we're back" - like what - if you hate your job please quit. We got highlights from swimming were Missy Franklin went beast mode for a gold medal in backstroke, Matt Gevers and Nick Thoman powered forward for a gold and silver respectively in 100m backstroke. All these people who weren't hyped like the overplayed Phelps and Lochte (the grill is ridiculous) are delivering. One of my favorite Olympic moments came from South African Cameron Van Der Burgh who won gold 100m breast stroke, after the race he just floated there smiling and looking up to remember his friend who had recently passed away - so humble. Lastly for the day, the men's team gymnastics final reached it's boiling point when everything fell apart. After slips, missteps, falls, from Sam Mikulak, Jake Dalton, Danell Levya, Jonathan Horton, John Orozco (who shed tears) on pomel horse, vault, and floor team USA came in 5th place after being in first for qualifiers. It was heartbreaking, mistake after mistake - all you could do is watch in despair and home they would recover. I applaud their effort, they did their best and that's all that matters. The royals watched as GB skyrocketed to silver, only to be knocked down to bronze by a sketchy formal review called by team Japan. It was absolutely ridiculous. The world groaned with annoyance via twitter, and boiling point reached.

The last few days of summer vacation are always different. People are getting ready to head back to school and make their final departures. It's a weird time of the year that's for sure. My advice for anyone who's getting ready to leave home and head out, don't leave anything at it's boiling point. I'm saying that if there's conflict or things that need to be said, say them and get it over with. Going to school with a grudge won't help anyone. Make sure you tell your friends and family that you love them. I mean, say the words and mean it. Don't just go through the motions, it's highly important. Lastly, make sure to touch base with everyone who matters specifically to you. Let them know you'll be leaving and that you care about them. This is it, we've reached the high point of the summer season - the boiling point.
 
This title of boiling point is most definitely a nod to the season 10 novella style of Degrassi when the craziness ensued 4 times a week for a summer of drama. Who could forget the V.V. Brown "Shark in the Water" promos? That got me thinking about that old MTV show "Boiling Point" where people would purposely piss unsuspecting patrons off and if they lasted they would get a dollar for every minute they didn't explode with anger. There were so many of those weird little shows like Room Raiders (the blacklight used to look for spillage from bodily fluids always did people in), Next (where people would get instantly booted for looking straight ratchet), and Parental Control (where the worst people to every exist on Earth disrespected their gf/bf's parent while their significant other went on multiple other dates). Not going to lie, I kind of miss that. Along with TRL - oh MTV, can you please go back to showing music? Those afternoon shows were my staple as background noise to do my homework to and gave me a laugh every so often. Who could forget Made, My Super Sweet Sixteen or Cribs (Teen Cribs got me so heated, creepy parents who never want their kids to leave their premises *aka parents who supply their kids with alcohol and encourage to have sex under their own roof)? Getting glimpses into the privileged lives of teenagers everywhere. The Real World has been slacking for the past few seasons, they need to have mandatory jobs again - all these new casts do is daydrink and fornicate by night - get a damn life and do something for once. Nowadays we've got the Hard Times of RJ Berger & Skins which both failed, Awkward (going for a full season 3), Teen Wolf (another full season 3), and an American remake of the Inbetweeners (One Direction synchronized dance ensue). Maybe MTV should learn not to remake British things, they're British for a reason, but I'll give it chance. I like high school shows, and liked Joey Pollari in that Disney XD movie with Kelly Blatz. All I'm really saying is give new shows a chance, they're not supposed to be like old shows - they're completely different. The thing missing, morality from these shows - what ever happened to it. That's why everyone misses the 90s and the early 2000s. Let's be real, the drugs, sex, alcohol, scandal, betrayal, bullying, shootings, abortions, and LGBT storylines keep people interested instead of goodie-goodie hogwash (I really just didn't write that). It's the boiling point, this is summer TV at it's finest.

Being a teenager is all about making it out under pressure. There are times in your life when you're in the hot seat (like a rapid fire q&a), cooking in a crucible (like that adulterous play), and fuming so wild, you're about to boil over. Things won't always go your way, but it's not the end of the world. Confrontations kept bottled up become more explosive and disastrous the longer they're suppressed. Pressure put on you doesn't always mean you have to react to it. Boiling point avoided.

My blog post question for the day is ... who's your Olympic crush? I would have to say the Canadian and Australian girls - they're doing it just about right in my book. Gold medal efforts for good looks, if there was such a thing.