all the beauty today

“Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

TOKYO | Maya Nakanishi is one of Japan’s most promising track and field athletes. She just missed the podium at Beijing and is now on her way to London.

She has spent years training, competing or earning money in a bid to continue the cycle.

To get that extra edge, she left Japan — where she holds the national records in her class for the 100- and 200-meters and long jump — three years ago to chase her dream at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., with track and field great Al Joyner, the 1984 Olympic triple jump gold medalist.

Those who are close to Nakanishi say her ambition, dedication and energy are on par with any Olympian they have ever known.

“She is amazing. She’s a great athlete,” Joyner said. “Her dedication is totally different.”

Ask any Japanese who she is, however, and you are almost certain to draw a blank stare.

Until you mention that calendar.

The one in which she posed naked.

(japandailypress photos; longer article about her)

Paralympic rower Oksana Masters.

trillg:

i always wondered what these gymnasts looked like naked!

“The “feminine” woman is forever static and childlike. She is like the ballerina in an old-fashioned music box, her unchanging features tiny and girlish, her voice tinkly, her body stuck on a pin, rotating in a spiral that will never grow.”
― Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women

“One word I’d use to describe space is lonely. The only way I’ll board a space shuttle is if I had a babysitter with me. You know, to watch the baby I’ll make with her. ”
― Jarod Kintz, This is the best book I’ve ever written, and it still sucks

“Every Valentine’s Day, the student council sponsered a holiday fundraiser by selling roses that would be delievered in class. The roses came in four colors:white, yellow, red, pink, and the subtleties of thier meaning were parsed and analyzed by the female population to no end. Mimi had always understood it thus:white for love, yellow for friendship, red for passion, and pink for a secret crush.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, Masquerade

“Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.”
― A.A. Milne

“My body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story.”
― Johnny Depp

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” »Mark Twain

Do you think it’s true?

“I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, ‘I love you.’ There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”
― Maya Angelou

“Now, undress for me and let me see what’s mine.”
― Kresley Cole, A Hunger Like No Other

this is how to rollskate :)

This is how to jump :-)