I did nothing else this weekend

Here are my first impressions of the Olympics. I'll try not to be too boring. :-)

• The Opening Ceremony - a combined effort
  I missed a good chunk of the artistic part of the opening ceremonies because of my false sense of security with DVRs. No matter. Am obtaining a copy as we speak. :-) Also saw most of the Parade of Nations...which I might comment on later. What I did see, visually speaking, was a marvel. It reminded me immediately of the Mass Games, now only practiced in North Korea. The premise is basically...communism. A lot of people, a sum of the parts, achieving a greater, larger effect. A documentary of two normal schoolgirls training for the Mass Games was made by the BBC, "A State of Mind". For some reason this was the only trailer I could find on Youtube. You see that image in the background changing at about 1:33? That's not a big screen TV; that's a lot of people with colored squares, changing the color on cue. I never got the chance to watch the documentary...you should also look up some of the mass games themselves. It's sheer madness.
  
  
  
  
• Michael who?
  In theory, before actually seeing Michael Phelps on TV yesterday I knew who he was. Swimmer. Awesome. Somewhat cocky. But for some reason, when I saw him, I was disappointed to see he did not have slightly long dark hair. Somehow, in my mind, even though I knew who the person was, the image I had in my head had merged with Michael Weiss, the figure skater. How this hair image merge happened, I don't know.
  
  
  
  
• Beach volleyball - one of these things is not like the other...
  Beach volleyball is an awesome sport. I don't have an opinion on whether or not it belongs in the Olympics. All I have to say, is that I think I should be at all of their games. Playing in a marching band. Given the music selection that seems to play at every timeout, I think there should be an Olympic side event of pep band-ing. I think I watched Women's fencing and Women's beach volleyball back to back and it was mindboggling that they were at the same games.
  I swear I heard Bon Jovi.
  
  
• Badminton - Shuttlecock. Ridiculous.
  I have no doubt that I would be completely and utterly trounced by a world class badminton player. I just have no understanding of the sport and what makes a good shot. But I watched a whole match because China was playing someone from Taiwa -- I mean Chinese Taipei, and I was pretty sure I'd never get to see Taipei represented on NBC coverage again. It just seems like the most fruitless sport there is. 90% of your energy expended goes into the frictional forces of the air against through feather on that...shuttlecock.
  
  
  
  

That's all for now! I'm catsitting and there's a cat asleep in the sunshine in a cat bed right now. 100% pure zen.