08.21.08
More thoughts on the Olympics
The Olympics are almost over, and Beijing is on the brink of resuming to normalcy. Here are some more random thoughts and observations about the Games as we count down to the end.
Thumbs up to Olympic Organizers for making sure concession prices were so cheap even migrant workers could afford them.
Thumbs down to the people who were in charge of buying all the concessions. Apparently they didn’t think anybody would actually need a meal during the games. I have been subsisting on sausages, yoghurt, and dry instant noodles for the past week and a half.
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| So far the Olympic volunteers have been great, as long as you don’t ask them any non-Olympic questions such as where the nearest restaurant is. |
Thumbs up to the hordes of volunteers, mostly college students and senior citizens, who have donated their time and labor to the Olympic Games.
Thumbs down to whoever was in charge of training the volunteers for not requiring them to take a quick walk around the block where they are stationed to get familiar with their surroundings.
Thumbs up to Liu Xiang for giving his all in an attempt to overcome injury…not to mention the pressure of 1.5 billion rabid fans.
Thumbs down to those who have suddenly lost interest in Track and Field because Liu Xiang is no longer competing.
Thumbs up to the foreign beach volleyball live announcer who has been calling all matches in both English and Chinese, and with excellent inflection in both languages.
(Unfortunately, I can’t think of anything negative to say about this guy)
Thumbs up to the Beijing weather for raining for 2 days straight, clearing up most of the pollution, and leading the way for pristine blue skies for another 3 days.
Thumbs down to the Beijing weather for raining 2 days straight.
Thumbs up to the Beijing 2008 web designers for putting all event and venue information on a neatly organized website.
Thumbs down to the Beijing 2008 web designers for making their e-maps (like most made-in-China websites) incompatible with Mozilla Firefox.
Thumbs up to Beijing cab drivers for making an effort to learn some English, even if it isn’t of much practical use.
Thumbs down to whoever chose those yellow uniforms that cabbies are now required to wear.
Thumbs up to CCTV for providing round the clock Olympic coverage on multiple channels.
Thumbs down to the CCTV basketball announcers for not even pretending to be unbiased. Is it really necessary to cry “aiiiii you” after every single basket scored by the team opposing China?
Thumbs up for the music director at the basketball arena for playing Kurtis Blow’s 1984 hit “basketball” as part of the halftime program.
Thumbs down to the music director at the basketball arena for playing the organ version of “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” at virtually every time out.
Thumbs up to the USA basketball program for making us look like we are once again taking international basketball seriously. (I am rescinding my previous prediction they had only a 50/50 shot at the gold.)
Thumbs down to the USA cycling program for making us all look like asses.
Alan
said,
August 21, 2008 at 9:18 am
“Thumbs down to the Beijing weather for raining 2 days straight.”
Raining 2 days straight? I am shocked to hear that. Doesn’t China have this weather modification technology thingy that can disperse clouds to make rain go away?
dianoga
said,
August 21, 2008 at 10:45 am
Thumbs down to CCTV for only showing events they are interested in or feature Chinese competitors.
BT
said,
August 21, 2008 at 1:27 pm
dianoga said:
“Thumbs down to CCTV for only showing events they are interested in or feature Chinese competitors.”
ben said:
“Thumbs down to the CCTV basketball announcers for not even pretending to be unbiased. Is it really necessary to cry “aiiiii you” after every single basket scored by the team opposing China?”
Most likely you haven’t watch much of the NBC’s coverage and its gymnastic commentators yet.
Hang
said,
August 21, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Thumbs up to 小本的博客!
Fidelmeister
said,
August 21, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Three issues:
1) “Shocked” to hear it rains in Beijing? Get real…
2) The Olympics nearly over? I don’t think so. Beijing is in Olympics mode until end September dude, the Paralympics are about to start. Beijing won’t be anywhere near back to normal until after the October National Holidays.
3) You can spot a Shanghai tourist blogger anywhere man
Jet So
said,
August 22, 2008 at 9:27 am
@ Alan: “Doesn’t China have this weather modification technology thingy that can disperse clouds to make rain go away?”
I think they shoot these rain-seeding artillery shells in case the rains *don’t* come…
Jiang
said,
August 22, 2008 at 11:50 am
-Ben
So far China has won 46 gold medals and on China’s media she ranks no.1 beats US 29 gold medals at the medal standings. But I found out that on espn.com and yahoo.com they rank countries by the total medals so that the US is the no.1. I don’t know if they used the same standard before or they changed it in order to keep their leader space this time.
chriswaugh_bj
said,
August 22, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Thumbs down to dianoga’s comment. I’ve watched several New Zealand athletes win medals in events in which China had no prospects live on CCTV, and I plan to continue doing so this afternoon and perhaps tomorrow.
Thumbs even downer to New Zealand’s online media for providing very good examples of “narrow minded”, “insular”, and “really shitty journalism” and for making CCTV look excellent in comparison.
Benjamin Ross
said,
August 22, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Jiang-
It’s been so long since I’ve watched the Olympics in the US, that I don’t exactly remember how they used to do it. Personally, I’ve always thought the most logical way to tally medals would be with a point system. 3 for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze. Another interesting statistic I saw recently was on gold medals per capita. I can’t imagine that will be used in China any time soon.
Dan
said,
August 22, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Thumbs up to your budy in the picture being able to pass as jason kidd from a far
Alan
said,
August 23, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Thumbs down to Ben for not posting any pictures of women’s beach volleyball games.
b. cheng
said,
August 27, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Beach volleyball had a crazy white guy doing the English announcing, and then occassionally was supported by a Chinese guy who did all the Chinese announcing. There was no foreign announcer at beach volleyball who did both English and Chinese.