Olympics and camping gear

[hrj]

The nice thing about watching the Olympics opening ceremonies via Tivo is that it can be done at everyone's convenience. So I ended up having Saturday as my "free day" and did the Olympics viewing at scotica's on Sunday. I now have a foam mattress for the platform in the back of the Element. I covered it with fabric that used to be a set of sheets (the sheets that convinced me that thread count actually is important ... and that a thread count of 150/inch should never be allowed to touch my body). I checked out all the logistics of platform function. (Pictures will follow at some point.) Both the expanded and contracted positions operate as desired. I've measured and marked off the corner of the plywood that needs to be trimmed so that it can swing over into the expanded position while in place. I've confirmed that my bike fits in next to the platform in the contracted position. I've confirmed that the gear storage totes fit and are accessible under the platform in the contracted position. And I've drawn up the "standard equipment" checklist for the gear totes. The goal of all this hyper-organization, as usual, is to make it as easy as possible to take off for a weekend without forgetting anything. Now I've got a week and a half to decide where I want to go. It's kind of funny how I wasn't really thinking about doing non-medieval camping when I picked out the Element, but now I've gotten rather excited about it.

Olympics: nice. Great opening ceremony. Obvious heart-string jerking. Excellent use of host-country history and imagery. We followed the opening with Tivoed selections from equestrian, men's gymnastics, synchronized diving, and snippets of assorted other sports. For the rest of it, I'm going to be stuck with whatever NBC decides to put on the main channel. Beach volleyball? Is this really the best use of prime time?

Comments

Re: Olympics

[hvideo.livejournal.com]

That was the best opening show evah - of course, at ten times the price of the next most expensive opening show, it durned well OUGHT to be.

They've had several retrospectives already on the opening. One particular thing I recall - remember the section with all the blocks going up and down? They rehearsed that 8 hours a day for 4 months and and in all that time they never had a perfect rehearsal. The actual show? Perfect.

I'll admit that Beach Volleyball still carries overtones of "family outing" rather than "serious sport" to me. That's how it was as I grew up. But things change, and they wouldn't put it on in Prime Time if it wasn't Really Popular.

I have enough recording gear that I can record pretty much everything they show. Sure, I have to skip major sections of much of it to have time to watch the things I like best, but I've learned to do that. So I've seen things like Woman's Individual Saber, Badmitten, Equestrian (Dressage), Team Handball, Water Polo, Rowing and several other sports that are not on in Prime Time on the main channel.

Out of curiosity - which sports would you like to have on the main channel in Prime Time?

Re: Olympics

[hrj.livejournal.com]

What I'd like to see on prime time is highlights of the best performances of the day -- no matter how obscure the event and no matter how non-American the performer. I want to see the best of the best -- all the completely kick-ass performances. Instead we get 80% "USA no matter how mediocre they are", 10% "rock-star sports like gymnastics and hot chicks in bathing suits"**, and 10% "non-Americans so good we'd really be embarrassed not to take note of them ... but there had better be an 'awwww' angle to push."

**Not that I have anything, in principle, against watching hot chicks in bathing suits.

[naadhira.livejournal.com]

But beach volleyball is *sexy*.

Or rather, beach volleyball is a sport in which the US is likely to medal. That's all you'll see on the main channel.

Lucky for me swimming is one of those sports.