It's That Time Again
Sunday, 29 July 2012 22:27![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsConfession
I am an Olympic junkie -- Summer and Winter -- nearly all the events. In a way, it's a perverse thing. Every four years, for a period of about two weeks, we can become experts in a dozen plus diverse sports. Well, of course he over-rotated on that dive. You can clearly see the large splash from the entry. That's not a foul, that's just water polo. Will they JUST learn how to pass a bloody baton?
Friday 27 July 2012
We missed the opening of the Opening Ceremonies, coming in just as the workers began to transform the pastoral lands into the industrial age. The pageantry was gorgeous. But unlike the Beijing Opening, I was more familiar with the story, the narrative that they were showcasing. Loved the Queens "entrance". The Corgis. Rowan Atkinson -- ah that British sense of humor. Paul McCartney way off-key. Mary Poppins. Smokestacks. Dickensonian men of business. The torch. Did anyone else watch the forging of the Olympic rings and start reciting One Ring To Rule Them All...?
Saturday 28 July 2012
How can life and work intrude when there's Olympics going on five time zones away? Ah well, family obligations made Saturday a day trip run to Chicago. Before we left, caught part of the men's 250km cycling race. Team GB was expected to win, since they had Bradley Wiggins, winner last week of the Tour de France and tremendous sprinter Mark Cavendish, plus the hometown Olympic advantage. But they were talking about the breakaway possibly getting away with it. And the medals didn't go to Great Britain.
Later in the day, in Oak Park IL, we flipped between men's badminton doubles USA vs KOR, women's fencing foils between two Italians, women's volleyball USA vs KOR and men's beach volleyball USA vs RSA (South Africa). Heard about Michael Phelps coming in fourth in his first medal race. Ah, as in everything, eventually you have to play the game.
Sunday 29 July 2012
Water polo, dressage from equestrian three-day event, Kazachstan's second gold medal of the games with a 19yo female weightlifter, American woman skeet shooter 99/100 for the gold, women's table tennis, cycling, beach volleyball and swimming. Cold rain for part of the day. Men's swimming, 4×100m freestyle relay -- FRA (in lane 6!), USA, RUS. Favored AUS in 4th.
If I have it right, the beach volleyball venue is at the Horses Guard parade grounds, which helps possibly explain the glorious white building behind the stadium. The color scheme is so very purple -- purple and magenta -- and nary a corporate logo to be seen. Ah, I do love the Olympics.
There's a GVSU grad in the women's rowing team -- the two Sara(h)'s. Qualified Saturday.
More. Much more.
Dr. Phil
I am an Olympic junkie -- Summer and Winter -- nearly all the events. In a way, it's a perverse thing. Every four years, for a period of about two weeks, we can become experts in a dozen plus diverse sports. Well, of course he over-rotated on that dive. You can clearly see the large splash from the entry. That's not a foul, that's just water polo. Will they JUST learn how to pass a bloody baton?
Friday 27 July 2012
We missed the opening of the Opening Ceremonies, coming in just as the workers began to transform the pastoral lands into the industrial age. The pageantry was gorgeous. But unlike the Beijing Opening, I was more familiar with the story, the narrative that they were showcasing. Loved the Queens "entrance". The Corgis. Rowan Atkinson -- ah that British sense of humor. Paul McCartney way off-key. Mary Poppins. Smokestacks. Dickensonian men of business. The torch. Did anyone else watch the forging of the Olympic rings and start reciting One Ring To Rule Them All...?
Saturday 28 July 2012
How can life and work intrude when there's Olympics going on five time zones away? Ah well, family obligations made Saturday a day trip run to Chicago. Before we left, caught part of the men's 250km cycling race. Team GB was expected to win, since they had Bradley Wiggins, winner last week of the Tour de France and tremendous sprinter Mark Cavendish, plus the hometown Olympic advantage. But they were talking about the breakaway possibly getting away with it. And the medals didn't go to Great Britain.
Later in the day, in Oak Park IL, we flipped between men's badminton doubles USA vs KOR, women's fencing foils between two Italians, women's volleyball USA vs KOR and men's beach volleyball USA vs RSA (South Africa). Heard about Michael Phelps coming in fourth in his first medal race. Ah, as in everything, eventually you have to play the game.
Sunday 29 July 2012
Water polo, dressage from equestrian three-day event, Kazachstan's second gold medal of the games with a 19yo female weightlifter, American woman skeet shooter 99/100 for the gold, women's table tennis, cycling, beach volleyball and swimming. Cold rain for part of the day. Men's swimming, 4×100m freestyle relay -- FRA (in lane 6!), USA, RUS. Favored AUS in 4th.
If I have it right, the beach volleyball venue is at the Horses Guard parade grounds, which helps possibly explain the glorious white building behind the stadium. The color scheme is so very purple -- purple and magenta -- and nary a corporate logo to be seen. Ah, I do love the Olympics.
There's a GVSU grad in the women's rowing team -- the two Sara(h)'s. Qualified Saturday.
More. Much more.
Dr. Phil
