Confession Tuesday - Olympic Bitchfest

It's Tuesday and them means time to head to the confessional. Won't you join me?

Dear Reader,

It's been another week since my last confession. One more week of mostly ghastly heat.  One more week of week of almost not stop a/c compressor running outside our back bedroom window, and  week and two days since my last poetry submissions.

I confess that last night when I realized it was national cheese cake day I wanted so badly to go out for a piece of cheese cake. When I realized designation of the day it was getting late and I did not want it bad enough to put one real clothes that I could actually be seen in public in. However, our office has a birthday party to celebrate at the Cheese Cake Factory this Friday. It all works out in the end.

I did not see the opening of the Olympics. How big is this? Well, I confess that I do not recall the last time I missed an opening ceremony. I caught some of the Olympics last night and I have to be honest, I'm just not that taken in by it this year. I've never quite felt about the Summer games the way I do about the Winter games. I love almost all of the winter stuff but I confess that less of the summer events strike my fancy. Sure I'll watch some of the gymnastics. I like the volleyball. The cycling and fencing is cool. The Boxing too. I quit caring about basketball years ago when Team USA had pro athletes compete. I confess that was a big turn off and they have never won me back. I was really int the baseball, but with that gone <sigh> so is a lot of my interest. I've never cared for soccer Olympics or otherwise. The canoe event that looks like white water rafting is pretty cool.

Talking about all this Olympic stuff makes me long for the next winter games. The Hockey, skiing, giant slalom, ski jumping (love it - I think I'd like to be a ski jumper at least till I got up on the run and was looking down) and toboggan, bobsled, luge, cross-country skiing and figure skating. Love the figure skating. So you see I'm pretty much a winter games kind of guy.

But there is another problem with the Olympics. The best covered games I ever saw were the Sarajevo Olympics in 1984 and Lake Placid in 1980.  They have gone down hill since and what I've seen of coverage this year is an all time low. I loved it when the coverage included cultural tid-bits about the host country and biographical sketches on the athletics and there home countries. Things about their families and what they went through to get there. I despise the tape delays. I Miss Jim McKay. No one knew the Olympics better.

I confess I did not intend this to be an Olympic bitch fest but is is what it has become. ;)

I confess that I will try to do better next Tuesday and cut this off here for tonight.

Poetry Games: Cast Your Vote!

The ancient Greeks felt poetry and sport went hand in hand at athletic festivals like the Olympics. Poets sang the praises of athletic champions and, at some festivals, even competed in official events, reciting or playing the lyre.  NPR is reviving that tradition with it's own  

Check out and vote for your favorite.  Poetry Games.

Why It's Not The Same

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy the USA men’s hockey team beat Canada in the Olympics. To Canada where there is a real pride of ownership in the game, the loss yesterday was a very big thing. But to be very clear, what the U.S.A. team win means yesterday is not and cannot possibly ever be seen as on the same level as the successes of the 1980 U.S.A. Olympic team. Not even if the 2010 team ultimately wins the Gold.

The U.S.A. Women’s team is playing in the Simi-finals. That’s a big story. You see, the women’s team is not a bunch of professional players. Neither was the 1980 men’s team Herb Brooks coached to a gold medal win over the very senior, very experienced Russian team. I love the Olympics for the spirit of athleticism that is about the purity of amateur competition. Pulling a bunch of NHL players together on a U.S. team to play a bunch of NHL players on a Canadian team is just another NHL game. If you like NHL hockey then you get bonus play.

It’s the women playing on the U.S. team that deserve attention for carrying on the true Olympic tradition. I would love to be able to feel the same way about the men’s team, but we are all cheated out of that possibility. Therefore, all that’s left to say is, You Go Girls!

Confession Tuesday

A week already? Let's go to Confession...

It's an extended weekend for me which was good. I didn't shave during it. I confess that I've grown tired of shaving. What makes this even worse is that I believe my whiskers are growing faster these days. It's like they are on steroids. I don't know, maybe it's a rush of testosterone. At any rate today it's back to the office and the growth came off. It was just as annoying shaving this morning then it was last time I did it on Friday. I know this sounds silly but I'm tired of shaving and I'm tired of the whiskers.

I confess the past week has really been relatively uneventful. That may be obvious by being annoyed by whiskers. I mean there really should be bigger issues in life.

I was home alone much of the weekend. This includes part of Valentine’s Day which didn't really seem like Valentine’s Day. My wife and daughter were in St. Louis. I confess it was lonely and I was really glad to see Cathy when she arrived home. We've planned to celebrate on an alternative day.

I confess that I spent some time working on a sestina during the time I was alone. I confess I was not happy with my efforts. I will return to this project later this week.

I confess I was Olympic Crazy this weekend. I love the Winter Games. I confess the Summer Games don't move me the same way. I confess there are several things about the coverage that are annoying me. For one the way they are doing the points for the free style skating. They put the judges points up cumulatively all at once and it takes some of the drama out of it.

I confess I do not care for the snowboarding or the moguls competition. I also confess that Ski Jumping - the downhill, the Nordic combined, figure skating, Hockey, luge, bobsled, these all get my blood flowing.

I confess I'd like to take off the rest of the Olympics and watch it all. Alas, I confess that isn't happening.

Olympic blogging...

I decided to take the majority of my blogging away from the stickpoet site. This is not to say I will be neglecting poetry, but I felt better not comingling thing for the most part.

So here is the link to the site of my Olympic blogging.

The opening ceremony is not far off, but there is already sad news as a Georgian (country not our southern state) was killed today in a horrific accident during a trial run on the Whisler Slider Center track. This tragedy certainly will hang over the opening celebration. I'll be posting later from the new sight.

Blame It On Canada

I anticipate the Winter Olympics every four years like a four year old awaiting Christmas. My eyes wide open in wonderment. My heart races with the sound of the Olympic theme music. And it’s here. It all comes together tonight with the opening ceremonies in Vancouver. I’m Olympic Crazy and you can blame it on Canada!



I can recount many times in the past watching events; many wonderful moments that my wife and I shared together enjoying the games. We won’t get to see them start together tonight as she will be out of town till Sunday, but then games go on till February 28th so there will no doubt be some time for us to watch parts of it together.





I’m not nearly as captivated by the summer games, but so many of the winter games trill me. Among my favorite are the Alpine Skiing, Ski Jumping, Cross Country, Hockey, figure skating. I even like curling now… but there is more to that story at a later date. I even have my favorite Olympic Games. They are Sarajevo in 1984 and Lake Placid in 1980. I think ’80 mostly for the U.S. Hockey team’s Victory. And in Sarajevo the Alpine events were all astonishingly exciting. Plus the coverage of the people in the host city, the human interest stories were wonderful.





I will probably blog more about the Winter Games this year; I just have not decided it to set up a separate blog site for them or continue to post here. I’ve got a few hours yet to think about it. I’ll let you know what I decide.

Sunday Afternoon Breather

I've been cleaning and I'm in need of a break. So this is my break. Nothing earth shattering- this blog post is likely to be more therapeutic in value than informative.

I was excited by the Women's softball team at the Olympics being 20-0! In Baseball, The U.S. was down four runs midway through their game with Canada and scoured 5 unanswered runs to win and stay in the hunt for the medal rounds. Sure I could mention Phelps, but I'm sure someone else has been talking about him.

We are coming up on the Democratic National Convention in about a week. I'm going to step out here and make a prediction on Obama's running mate. At one point I thought he might select Hillary Clinton in spite of a good number of reasons he would likely overlook her. I don't believe it will be Hillary and unfortunately I don't think it will be any woman. You have to give Hillary credit for enhancing the possibility of a woman President. I'm not suggesting anyone make bets on the basis of my prediction, but right now I'd have to say I believe Joe Biden followed by Evan Bayh are my predictions.

I would be remiss if I ended this post without a hint of a mention of poetry, so I'll point you to this amusing story... Olympics postcard: Chinese translations pure poetry. Enjoy!

Celebration!

Sorry, I can't help it. Sometime overnight the 40,000th unique visitor was registered in our stats at Stickpoet Super Hero!

Kudos too for U.S.women’s gymnasts Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson who won Gold and Silver respectively last night in Beijing.

*photo credit - FreeFoto.com

Olympics over sleep....

Watching Olympics, just got in from a poetry society meeting tonight and I'm trying to catch on the events of the day. I've never been as big on the summer games as I am the winter, but I have enjoyed quite a few events this time. I've especially enjoyed the volleyball, badminton,
field hockey, gymnastics. I'm not a big fan of swimming but I've followed the exploits of the U.S. team none the less. The men's relay was awesome the other night.

I did not see it but I understand the U.S. women's softball team had a good day. The softball and baseball I'm very interested in. I couldn't care less about basketball. Skeet shooting- thumbs down. I am disappointed that I did not see the fencing.

Anyway, tonight's meeting was good. Had a new draft of a poem that I read and got good feedback on. I am feeling upbeat about my work this past week. I have four pieces now that are strong and need a little tweaking.

Enough for now. Back to the games.

A Summer of Discontent?

As the Beijing Olympics opens to all it's anticipated fanfare, what will be the storyline that emerges around the world?
Will it be one of a China that is developing into a more modern society with tremendous economic growth, or will it be one of a nation that in spite of a globalizing influence, remains backwards and determined to suppress civil dissent?

I will be anxious to see how free reporters and bloggers are to bring us the story of these Olympic games. Historically coverage has been as much about the culture of the host people as it has about the athletic competition. There is a strong national pride that is evident among the Chinese people connected with these games. I'm sure China wants use to these games the enhance their world image, but will the world see a picture of China that is real or one that is filtered through the only lens that the government allows us to view?