The Olympics--a new sport?

I think there should be a new Olympic sport.  It could be called light rail riding.  The goal would be to try to maneuver your way onto an already full light rail train, jockey for position standing and then be judged on how little one moves when the light rail train suddenly stops, accelerates or goes over other tracks or around a corner.

A perfect score* would be for the person who can do all of the above in the middle of the train without holding on or leaning into anything...or touching anyone else if it's a REALLY full train.

That would be the kind of Olympic sport I could compete in.  I have a lot of training to do.  Lucky for me the light rail has been extra full lately and standing time has been in abundance.

*Speaking of perfect scores, does anyone else miss the old judging system for gymnastics?  A score of 15.70 doesn't mean anything to me.  Where are the 9's and 10's?  Why does everything have to change?!   Oops, sorry started channeling church people for a moment**.




(**Yes, I did take my extra snarky pills today, thanks for asking.)

The Olympics--Dear NBC

Dear NBC,

I understand, really I do.  In order to get as many people watching as possible you need to go for those "prime-time" hours.  Yes, I keep falling asleep in the middle of the event I really wanted to see but whose fault is that for having a job requiring me to be up and leaving the house soon after 7am?  Fault mine.  I do secretly wish programming would start at 7pm but I'll just keep that a secret for now.

What I don't understand is the coverage last night of gymnastics.  Not coverage of the CURRENT Olympic games but the at least 20 minute recap of years gone by.  What?!  I changed the channel and went to "Say Yes to the Dress".  I kept flipping back and forth and yet still there was the story of years gone by.  I was getting frustrated by then.  I know there had to be other sports that had contests yesterday in the 2012 Olympics but no, you chose to focus on years gone by.  I will admit, I didn't watch so maybe you tied it all together nicely.  I hope you did.  I just refused to watch.

I'm just one person, sitting at home in California, wanting to cheer on the Olympiads.  Your monopoly on the Olympic games meant that I couldn't do that...because by the time we got back to the recap of the days events, well, I was tired and I had disconnected from the Olympics.  Sure I tried.  I watched diving, I watched swimming, I think somewhere in there was coverage of shot put and maybe some volleyball, maybe running?  The drive, the enthusiasm, the WANT to really stay awake and watch the coverage by then had died.

NBC, I know you've paid all of the commentators a lot of money to be at the Olympics.  You've spent a lot of money on the newscasters and want to give them their time.  I get it.  I just won't watch the human interest stories from years gone by.  I'll change the channel and maybe hop back.  Or maybe I'll just search the internet and find YouTube videos or recaps of the events there.  It's not the same as taped, edited coverage with announcers who seem out to build up our expectations of one athlete in each event and then be completely surprised by the performance of another, but it's something.

Now, I've got to go see if I can find that runner from Cameroon that I saw for 10 seconds of actual coverage yesterday and see when she's running again.  I need to cheer her on for my Office building mate.  I'm hoping the World Wide Web will have some coverage of that race because NBC, I've lost trust in you.

Sincerely,
A want-to-be 2012 Olympic Viewer

The Olympics

The Olympics have arrived.  My life is on hold for the next two weeks.  Thanks for stopping by.


















Just kidding, kinda.  I do love the Olympics.  I refuse to root just for USA Olympians and usually find one person to root for in the field, no matter what country they are from.  I have an admitted hard time watching diving (jump away from the cement platform!), balance beam (too tiny, don't fall!) and pommel horse (swing higher!).  But I watch these events anyway.  Along with whatever they choose to highlight in the evening showcase.

Every Olympic season, though, I get annoyed with the announcers.  Really annoyed.  I feel like the announcers build the Olympians up so much and then when they don't perform up-to-speed I feel realllllllllyyyyyyy bad for them.  The announcers just like to mess with our emotions, that's what I think.  Last night I finally hit the mute button and watched the Olympics in silence.  It works in swimming, diving, volleyball and other sports.  The floor routine for women's gymnastics was a little different without the music but I was so much happier without the announcers.

This year, during the opening ceremony the announcers confirmed that they were annoying.  The parade of nations moved so fast they announcers couldn't keep up with the nations as they were shown on the screen.  Their recitation of the "fun-facts" aka crap-no-one-wants-to-hear-about-right-now slowed things down and they admitted it.  That was the moment the room of 6 of us were yelling at the announcers "then stop talking!" 

I wonder if we can invent a TV that allows you to mute the announcers voices but keep the back ground sounds? Hmmm...that would help with Ice Skating during the Winter Olympics, for sure!

Alright, time to head back to my Olympic viewing.  Never fear, I will be back with more!  We haven't even begun to talk about the itty-bitty outfits!!