The garage door opener broke this weekend. I found a part that was defective, and it only cost $4 bucks to replace; however, after I replaced the part I found out it was a much larger problem that required replacing the opener and the springs on the garage. In short, I was out of time and money this weekend.
I enjoy watching the Olympics. There’s a lot of sports I get to see that I normally don’t get to watch and I feel at bit more cultured after the whole experience.
I have mixed feelings about China hosting the Olympics. The Chinese government has no regard for human rights, but at the same time I’m proud to see an Asian nation host the games and do a spectacular job – especially with the opening ceremony. In general, I think the Asian community gets made fun a lot, and I’ve often been on the end of those jabs that still pains me today, so hopefully some good will come out of this exposure. Hopefully.
I thought it was real classy of NBC to dedicate the broadcast of the opening ceremonies to Jim McCay, especially since McCay wasn’t really part of the NBC family.
I don’t think I can recall watching a summer Olympics on anything other than NBC.
The opening ceremonies for the next winter Olympics will be the first of any Olympics to be held entirely indoors.
I still favor how the torch was lit in Barcelona.
The United Kingdom is next to host the games. I wasn’t aware that they hosted two consecutive Olympics, 1944 and 1948.
I’m still a little surprised that Atlanta hosted an Olympics. I’m not saying they did a bad job, but when I think of cities of the world, Atlanta isn’t one of the first to come to mind.
There have only been 58 Americans to have an honor to carry the Old Glory into an Olympics opening ceremony. What an honor!
I’ve always hoped that if aliens from another world were observing us from afar, that it would be during the opening ceremonies of an Olympics.
That last statement made me think of the movie Contact in which the first signal sent out to space was of Hitler opening the games.
I think a lot of countries are good at separating the people of a nation from their respective governments, but I don’t think Americans in general do the same.
I think it’s pretty cool of W supporting our athletes by watching their events live. But I do think he’s taken too much vacation time during his two terms.
As I am typing this, Costas is interviewing W and he seems to be speaking very well and not fumbling over any words, even tricky Russian and Chinese names. He seems so poised and I’m a little shocked.
I think his mother would be a little upset that during that interview he never sat up straight.
I also thought it was cool of W to worship at a Chinese church.
I think the best job for W when he leaves the presidency is to be the next commissioner of baseball.
Costas is one of the best.
There’s a Visa commercial that keeps airing in which Morgan Freeman narrates. I wonder if he would have died in that car accident last week if they would have still aired the commercial.
I use to work with a person that raced against Carl Lewis at the Olympics in L.A. He was representing Iceland of all countries.
I saw that there was a technical problem with the national anthem when Michael Phelps one his first gold. It only played about two-thirds of the way through. I think Phelps missed a golden opportunity. Instead of laughing it off, it would have been cool for him to finish it and try to lead the Americans in the crowd.
I use to swim competitively in the summer in the early teens and really enjoyed. I dropped out the year in which we were going to have to start to wear Speedos.
I saw some footage of Kobe Bryant entering the stands to watch our women’s basketball team. I was really impressed how he kept his composure as fans were literally pulling his shirt.
I think it’s really cool of USA Basketball to be staying at the Olympic Village and mingling with the other athletes. In the previous Olympics in Athens, the team stayed on the Queen Mary II and made me think they were a bunch of pompus jerks.
Brian Williams is growing on me, I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to stay loyal to Charlie Gibson.
I think Tony Romo’s shoulder pads look a little too big for him.
I think this will be the first time in about ten years in which I don’t play fantasy football.
Thoughts on Thoughts: 1)Some countries had total populations smaller than the crowd in the Olympic stadium 2) Dirk Nowitzki, flag bearer for Germany, had the Olympic symbol shaved into the side of his head 3) My favorite event is boxing, covered by Teddy Atlas and Bob Pappa 4) There’s a growing controversy over the manner in which points are awarded to the boxers 5) According to the DMN, NBC will broadcast 3000+ hours of coverage. If you could tape it all and watched it later, at eight hours a day, seven days a week, it would take over a year to watch it all. 6) 87 of the countries won’t medal at all 7) For most sprinters in the 100 meters, your entire Olympic performance will last a total of 10 seconds. 8) To build the Olympic venue, China evicted 1.5 million people from the area.
“When, oh when, will our selfishness end? To give a sporting event (Olympics, Cowboys, etc.) precedence over one’s homeplace is nothing but WRONG!!!”
Huh? Are you saying that someone should not attend a sporting event nor watch it? Are you part of the Puritan movement?
Oh ok thanks. I thought it was in reference to being at home and watching the events or attending them. Thank you for the clarification.
In that case I agree with the sentiment but there’s a long history of people being displaced for “progress”. Look up the story of the massive Three Gorges Dam currently going on in China…entire villages were wiped out and over a million people were displaced.
The Calgary Olympics in ’88 and the Atlanta Olympics in ’96 were no stranger to controversy about the forced evictions of families living in areas up for redevelopment.
Thank you, Rev. Hart for your explanation of my comment. Yes, I was referring to displacing families……….and, it HAS been going on for a long time in the name of “progress”. Again, I say……”When?”
To me, it is wrong to take away one’s home in favor of a step towards progress.
Those aliens would presumably also be able to see the displaced families, in their awful situation, no?
As for George Bush as the commissioner of baseball, I was thinking more along the lines of a tribunal for his war crimes.
No fantasy football? Darn, I had fun last year.
Thoughts on Thoughts: 1)Some countries had total populations smaller than the crowd in the Olympic stadium 2) Dirk Nowitzki, flag bearer for Germany, had the Olympic symbol shaved into the side of his head 3) My favorite event is boxing, covered by Teddy Atlas and Bob Pappa 4) There’s a growing controversy over the manner in which points are awarded to the boxers 5) According to the DMN, NBC will broadcast 3000+ hours of coverage. If you could tape it all and watched it later, at eight hours a day, seven days a week, it would take over a year to watch it all. 6) 87 of the countries won’t medal at all 7) For most sprinters in the 100 meters, your entire Olympic performance will last a total of 10 seconds. 8) To build the Olympic venue, China evicted 1.5 million people from the area.
Hey Dan –
I saw a story in which NBC showed a family being evicted. They filmed their reaction when their home was being bulldozed, and it just broke my heart.
In a weird sort of way, it kind of make me think of the homes that were bulldozed for the new Cowboys stadium.
“……… if aliens from another world were observing us from afar, that it would be during the opening ceremonies of an Olympics.”
I had this same exact thought!
When, oh when, will our selfishness end? To give a sporting event (Olympics, Cowboys, etc.) precedence over one’s homeplace is nothing but WRONG!!!
“When, oh when, will our selfishness end? To give a sporting event (Olympics, Cowboys, etc.) precedence over one’s homeplace is nothing but WRONG!!!”
Huh? Are you saying that someone should not attend a sporting event nor watch it? Are you part of the Puritan movement?
Warren, she’s talking about the act of displacing families’ homes in order to build sports stadiums.
My husband also quit swimming when Speedos were required.
I’m curious to know if your reasons were the same, if so, good for wife Geeding 😉
Oh ok thanks. I thought it was in reference to being at home and watching the events or attending them. Thank you for the clarification.
In that case I agree with the sentiment but there’s a long history of people being displaced for “progress”. Look up the story of the massive Three Gorges Dam currently going on in China…entire villages were wiped out and over a million people were displaced.
The Calgary Olympics in ’88 and the Atlanta Olympics in ’96 were no stranger to controversy about the forced evictions of families living in areas up for redevelopment.
Thank you, Rev. Hart for your explanation of my comment. Yes, I was referring to displacing families……….and, it HAS been going on for a long time in the name of “progress”. Again, I say……”When?”
To me, it is wrong to take away one’s home in favor of a step towards progress.