(no subject)
Just some observations I had while watching the Olympics.
First off, the rest of you Canadians who are watching the Communist Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) will know what I'm talking about here. I am not impressed with the CBC's Olympic coverage. Their heaviest focus is on the events in which Canada has made the final (which are not as numerous as one may think). I don't know about the rest of you, but I find it exciting to watch world class athletes battle it out, regardless of what country they are from. Secondly, and this is true for most television networks, the ridiculous amount of commercials. I watched the women's cycling (the one on the road) in the first days of the games, and the CBC managed to reduce a three-hour race to five minutes of cycling and ten minutes of commercials.
Speaking of commercials, if there must be so many of them, at least make them entertaining or amusing. Have you ever seen the one where everyone on the street does the wave? Well, it's wonderful, but no one does the wave at track meets. They just don't. And besides, the stadium on the commercial is empty. Usually, people who try to start the wave at a track meet in an empty stadium aren't too successful in getting it to travel ten feet, never mind reverberating to all corners of the globe. Then there are those ads with the Little Blue Cow, a Canadian cow that happens to be a brilliant athlete. I understand that it makes perfect sense to send a cow to the Olympics rather than a human being, and have it compete in weightlifting, synchronized swimming, beach volleyball, and the 110-meter hurdles, what with the sad state of Canadian amateur sports. The only thing I don't understand is how the cow in question manages a sex change after event. The cow is clearly competing in a men's weightlifting competition, a men's 110-meter hurdles race, a women's beach volleyball game, and a women's synchronized swimming routine. The curious part is that the cow appears to be a female. Must be a pretty fast/strong cow. What's more, the "little blue cow" isn't even blue. It's clearly white, with a blue maple leaf. Strange.
Next item, swimming. Why is it that guys like Michael Phelps can enter eight events (well, swim in seven actually), and medal in all of them, while track athletes can usually only run two races, plus a relay?
Moving on, gymnastics. And all judged sports, for that matter. South Korean Yang Tae-Young missing out on a gold medal on Saturday in the men's all-around final, simply because he received the wrong start value on his parallel bars routine. In fact, the start value for the very same routine had been 10 in team qualifying and finals, but received 9.9 in the all-around final. Had Tae-Young been awarded the correct start value, he would have won the gold. Ridiculous.
Next, sprinters. Yes, I know I'm biased, since I refuse to run anything less than an 800m. But have you ever noticed that 100m sprinters have the biggest egos in the world? Case in point: Maurice Greene. His right shoulder bears a tattoo that reads "GOAT" - Greatest Of All Time. Greene has actually stated that he believes he is the greatest 100m runner of all time. "Every time I get on the track and run, I just add one more '9' -- under 10-second race -- to my stats," Greene says. "Not to take anything from the sprinters before me -- they were good, they were great -- but it takes an athlete like me to come along and surpass them. They were great in their time, but right now I feel it's my time." After placing third in the 100m final in Athens, Greene still felt the need to run his own victory lap, extending his index finger, to show the world that he was still number one. Silly me, I thought the winner was number one.
No Olympic rant would be complete without whining about how the Canadian government doesn't adequately fund amateur sport. Well, remember at the Juno awards, when some women proudly stated that the Canadian government has been giving large amounts of tax-dollar-funded money to Canadian musicians to promote "Canadian culture". Yes, it's true, our Liberal dictators government give Canadian musicians (who sound no different than American musicians) our hard-earned money so that they can move to America and live the self-delusional dream of becoming a rock star! And if they ever do get famous, then they can become celebrity degenerates and make stupid statements about the Bush administration and how wonderful communism is, flaunting their Canadian identity! Maybe that's why the government has this policy, to create a new generation of America-hating liberal celebrites!
Stop subsidizing the singers, and start subsidizing the athletes.
Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to read like a madwomen before school starts to get this damn book finished (which I won't be able to do anyway). Whatever.
First off, the rest of you Canadians who are watching the Communist Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) will know what I'm talking about here. I am not impressed with the CBC's Olympic coverage. Their heaviest focus is on the events in which Canada has made the final (which are not as numerous as one may think). I don't know about the rest of you, but I find it exciting to watch world class athletes battle it out, regardless of what country they are from. Secondly, and this is true for most television networks, the ridiculous amount of commercials. I watched the women's cycling (the one on the road) in the first days of the games, and the CBC managed to reduce a three-hour race to five minutes of cycling and ten minutes of commercials.
Speaking of commercials, if there must be so many of them, at least make them entertaining or amusing. Have you ever seen the one where everyone on the street does the wave? Well, it's wonderful, but no one does the wave at track meets. They just don't. And besides, the stadium on the commercial is empty. Usually, people who try to start the wave at a track meet in an empty stadium aren't too successful in getting it to travel ten feet, never mind reverberating to all corners of the globe. Then there are those ads with the Little Blue Cow, a Canadian cow that happens to be a brilliant athlete. I understand that it makes perfect sense to send a cow to the Olympics rather than a human being, and have it compete in weightlifting, synchronized swimming, beach volleyball, and the 110-meter hurdles, what with the sad state of Canadian amateur sports. The only thing I don't understand is how the cow in question manages a sex change after event. The cow is clearly competing in a men's weightlifting competition, a men's 110-meter hurdles race, a women's beach volleyball game, and a women's synchronized swimming routine. The curious part is that the cow appears to be a female. Must be a pretty fast/strong cow. What's more, the "little blue cow" isn't even blue. It's clearly white, with a blue maple leaf. Strange.
Next item, swimming. Why is it that guys like Michael Phelps can enter eight events (well, swim in seven actually), and medal in all of them, while track athletes can usually only run two races, plus a relay?
Moving on, gymnastics. And all judged sports, for that matter. South Korean Yang Tae-Young missing out on a gold medal on Saturday in the men's all-around final, simply because he received the wrong start value on his parallel bars routine. In fact, the start value for the very same routine had been 10 in team qualifying and finals, but received 9.9 in the all-around final. Had Tae-Young been awarded the correct start value, he would have won the gold. Ridiculous.
Next, sprinters. Yes, I know I'm biased, since I refuse to run anything less than an 800m. But have you ever noticed that 100m sprinters have the biggest egos in the world? Case in point: Maurice Greene. His right shoulder bears a tattoo that reads "GOAT" - Greatest Of All Time. Greene has actually stated that he believes he is the greatest 100m runner of all time. "Every time I get on the track and run, I just add one more '9' -- under 10-second race -- to my stats," Greene says. "Not to take anything from the sprinters before me -- they were good, they were great -- but it takes an athlete like me to come along and surpass them. They were great in their time, but right now I feel it's my time." After placing third in the 100m final in Athens, Greene still felt the need to run his own victory lap, extending his index finger, to show the world that he was still number one. Silly me, I thought the winner was number one.
No Olympic rant would be complete without whining about how the Canadian government doesn't adequately fund amateur sport. Well, remember at the Juno awards, when some women proudly stated that the Canadian government has been giving large amounts of tax-dollar-funded money to Canadian musicians to promote "Canadian culture". Yes, it's true, our Liberal dictators government give Canadian musicians (who sound no different than American musicians) our hard-earned money so that they can move to America and live the self-delusional dream of becoming a rock star! And if they ever do get famous, then they can become celebrity degenerates and make stupid statements about the Bush administration and how wonderful communism is, flaunting their Canadian identity! Maybe that's why the government has this policy, to create a new generation of America-hating liberal celebrites!
Stop subsidizing the singers, and start subsidizing the athletes.
Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to read like a madwomen before school starts to get this damn book finished (which I won't be able to do anyway). Whatever.