XXX Summer Olympics

The Summer Olympics have kicked off and I already know that the 30th Olympiad, represented by Roman Numerals XXX are going to throw off the balance of the interwebs between people searching events and landing on porn and vice versa.

I've always enjoyed watching the Games. The first Olympics I remember were the LA games and I remember going to Circus Circus in Vegas and every prize on the midway had something to do with Sam The Eagle, so I guess I was hooked. Later in life I became reinterested when they opened the Olympic Training Center in my hometown of Chula Vista, and even more when my BFF's brother-in-law was training at the facility and we got a cool behind the scenes tour before Beijing.

This is the first time that the Olympics have taken place at a time when I work from home and on my own hours more or less, so this means that though the games are just in the first couple days, I've already been up at odd hours watching men's and women's soccer, air rifle (really?), fencing, swimming, boxing, archery, handball (who knew?), volleyball, tennis, beach volleyball, and pieces of the men's road race. I also saw the beginning pieces of the opening ceremony before working and then watched the rest of the thing without sound while I was working at the Soda Bar. There is no point to this post other than a total rant. Because I can. So here are some Olympic observations, questions, and blah blah blahs....

1. If you actually care about the Olympics (and you have Cox Cable), you can watch at various times on NBC 7/39, MSNBC (39), Bravo (42), NBC Sports (65), CNBC (66), and there are replays OnDemand. Mostly you have to stay up all night if you want to see anything live. Which I did last night. Which is why I'm ranting right now.

2. Instead of worrying so much about security during the games and bragging about the 10,000 person crew and thousands of volunteers that made the opening ceremonies happen, how about focusing on attendance? How about making sure that EVERY event has a packed house? How about a Goldstar or a Groupon deal that you buy a voucher for uber-cheap and are on standby for seats? Or giving seats to students? Those women's soccer games are perhaps not the most exciting games in the world, but fill the seats with kids or soccer- er, football-  programs and let them spend money on popcorn and hot dogs (or whatever they serve in British stadia). It is pathetic watching events with hundreds in attendance in a stadium that has the potential to hold thousands.

3. Opening Ceremony- HUH? If you have to have Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer reading a script to explain what is going on, I would say that your "cinematic" approach to the ceremonies failed. On the other hand, Twitter was exceptionally entertaining tonight.

4. Boxing- Get your scoring together! The announcers suck ass, but one of them had a point when he suggested that kids who have talented XBOX thumbs would do a better job than the judges do. If you must, just go electronic like fencing.

5. Team USA- It is great that we have so many amazing athletes and all of them have these really great stories of triumph/hardship/struggle, but in competitions (like swimming) when there are EIGHT lanes, it would kinda be cool to know ALL of the countries represented and not just the two yellow lanes with America's next great hope. My favorite was in the women's relay trials when you cutaway before the swimmer in lane one even touched the wall. I'm pretty sure despite their disappointing loss, their families would like to see them at least finish their final event.

6. Who decided on that horrible font for the LONDON 2012 logo? It's like the new comic-sans.

I should've taken better notes because there were so many other things that popped into my brain while watching the dozens of competitions I've already watched, but I'm sure they'll come to me.

Without even touching the politics or business of the whole thing, what are your thoughts on the Olympics?