Changing the Rules

Julissa D'anne Gomez (November 4, 1972 – August 8, 1991) was an American gymnast. She was born in San Antonio, Texas.

Gomez was an international elite gymnast in the 1980s. She trained with Béla Károlyi in Houston from the age of 10, later she moved to Missouri to train with Al Fong. In 1986 at the U.S. Championships, she placed fourth in the all-around in the junior division and won a place on the U.S. National Team. 1987 she was representing the United States in international meets. Strong on the uneven bars and balance beam, she was considered a contender for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.

Gomez qualified for the vault finals at the 1988 World Sports Fair, but observers had noticed her struggle leading up to the competition, including her former coach Béla Károlyi, teammates, and coach Al Fong. Her technique on the Yurchenko vault was as shaky at best. Julissa was unable to perform the vault consistantly at practices. Sometimes missing her feet on the springboard. Julissa's coaches insisted that she needed to train and compete the Yurchenko vault to keep high scores.

During warmups, she continued to practice the Yurchenko. During one approach, her foot slipped off the springboard, and her head hit the vaulting horse at high speed. The crash paralyzed her from the neck down. An accident at a Japanese hospital, she became disconnected from her ventilator. Julissa had severe brain damage and left her in a "vegetable" state. Gomez's family took care of her for three years before she got an infection and died in August 1991 in Houston, just three months before her nineteenth birthday.

Her tragedy is one of the most serious accidents ever to happen in gymnastics. In 1989, the International Gymnastics Federation decided to increase vaulting safety by allowing U-shaped springboard mats, like the ones used in practice. The mat is now mandatory: as of the 2006 Code of Points, performing a Yurchenko-style vault without the safety mat is a automatic score of zero.

Is Blogging Journalism?

I think blogging is a type of journalism. And the reason people say it isn't is because they fear the change. I like the quote: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intellegent that suvives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." If people are not willing to accept the change that maybe blogging is entering the field as journalism, then how long will what they think journalism last.

I never thought so many people blogged about things or their lives, until I got one for a class. There is a lot of followers and very popular bloggers. All kinds of different topics people write about. It is very interesting to read some of the blogs, to see what people's oppinion is. More and more are switching to blogging as their way of jouralism.

Love or Hate the day?

So why do people now days either hate it or love Valentines Day? I think the ones who don't like Valentine's Day might not because it's a day that reminds them of not having someone. Ones who do enjoy the red heart day share it with the special person. I don't know why some make it such a negitive day.

Giving and receiving gifts, like the classic chocolates and roses, are just a fun thing. 73% of Valentine Day flowers are bought by men, where as women buy only 23% of Valentine flowers.

There are different ideas to the way Valentines Day celebration began. Some think it is from the Lupercalia, an ancient Roman festival while others say the event with two saints named valentine of the early Christian church. One of them would secretly conduct marriage of couples by disobeying the rule of Roman Emperor, Claudius; he was a lover of children but, was imprisoned when he would not honor different gods. The children missed him and wrote messages to him through the bars of his jail cell. This can be considered as the first of exchanging messages. Still people link it with an old English belief that love birds choose their mates on February 14. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D.

Cheerleading stunt