"I don't even know what to feel right now," Phelps said. "There's so much emotion going through my head and so much excitement. I kind of just want to see my mom."

On The Today Show, "Just be my normal self. You know I just, I mean, I-I still, you know, kind of see myself as a normal kid, you know. I'm doing something that I love to do, that I've dreamed of doing. And, and, you know, I'm still the same person who likes to sit and play video games and I miss my dog. And I can't wait to see my dog, that's, I'm excited to go home."

How can anybody not love Michael Phelps?

A couple videos I like:

Feist on Sesame Street - 1, 2, 3, 4 monsters walking across the floor, I love counting, counting to the number 4...

Habanera - Bork bork bork bork...

I have to say that I like the idea of Barack Obama as our president. Seriously, think about the benefits of having an African-American president. It would totally mess with the countries in the "Axis of Evil." Iran and Iraq could no longer refer to us as "white devils". And they can't call us "black devils". That would just be racist. And North Korea? Everybody knows Asians are scared of black people.

I really like Bill Clinton, or so I thought. Over the course of the Democratic campaign, I've come to realize that, I don't actually like Clinton that much and who I really like is Darrell Hammond doing his impression of Bill Clinton.

If I ever run for president, I would take four years off between my two terms because then I'd get to have my presidency count twice. As the 22nd and 24th president, Grover Cleveland is going to get TWO different $1 coins, unlike all the other two-term presidents. Plus, he got to have a cartoon character named after him!

A mildly related video for your perusal.

Some thoughts from my trip last week to Taiwan and Vietnam follow.

I am a GIANT in Vietnam. Yes, being 5' 7" or 5' 8" makes me taller than 99% of the Vietnamese people. I actually found myself crouching down a little sometimes to fit in a bit better.

The women in Vietnam are FORWARD. Within a few hours of arriving in Vietnam, while I was out on the town, I had a super-cute girl deftly sidle up next to me where I was sitting. Before I had realized what was going on, she had actually grabbed my legs, pulled them apart, hopped between them, and sat down. A few hours later, I found myself pinned to the ground on some stairs, after said gal had pushed me down and thrown herself on top of me, pushing her face up against mine. I must admit though, I didn't really resist any of it. Yeah, I know, that's probably bad. I'm going to be such a pushover if I ever have a cute 5-year old daughter of my own.

Could this happen at any airport except an Asian one?

Yeah, that's an actual gate.

While I was at the top of Taipei 101, there was an earthquake and I actually felt the tower sway and saw the damper pendulum swing around a bunch. All while listening to this wonderful audio tour.

Move over Norah Jones.

After having seen the difference between Taiwan 20 years ago and Taiwan now, I think Vietnam will be like Taiwan today 40 years from now. That's assuming that Taiwan 10 years ago is like Laos 15 years from now, Thailand 10 years ago is similar Indonesia 25 years ago, Indonesia's political climate now resembles Laos's 20 years into the future, and Vietnam maintains its current trade surplus with Indonesia for the next 30 years. How long does it take for train A to meet train B?

I think this sums up Asia pretty well:

Monks, Hello Kitty, and electronics. Asia in a nutshell.