Tournament play started to{day|night} and Belgium was a hairs breath away from winning a set against our glorious ambassadors of pwn.

Wait… Belgium?

Yeah. Belgium. The team who won a play-in game last night just to get their feet in the door. Five set points later Misty and Kerry, you know, woke up. Let’s just say the second set was less close. I don’t recall the exact score, but it was something like tree-hunnerd twenty to negative 18. Or something. A nice way to celebrate your 30th if ever I’ve heard one. Note: The second-best team in the world also made it into tournament play, so I like our chances for gold/silver.

Phelps continues to dominate the pool, but he may actually be showing signs of humanity. 10 gold for the US so far, 5 of which are his. He’s already a champion. All that’s left is to see if he can become a legend.

The host country is leading the medal count by one with 35 right now, 22 golds. Domination, thy name is China. It is worth noting that Gymnastics accounts for half of those as well. It’s a matter of pride, I’m sure, but not something I really care about. Nothing is more exciting than the best athletes in the world fighting for that last inch.

Oh, and Rebecca Soni just destroyed the (now) former WR holder and favored winner in the 200m breaststroke.

The title is a quote from Kerry after the match. It’s not my place to judge, so if she’d rather be a bear than a dragon that’s her perogative.

For those of you who care about such things, and that should be ALL of you, it’s been a great couple of days.

Firstly, the opening ceremonies were just plain awesome. I don’t mean the sheer scope of things, although that in and of itself was amazing, but it was just… fitting. China has over 3500 years of recorded history! They’re not going anywhere and our generation is the first that’s truly been able to experience their culture and peoples. The TV was calling it “China’s coming out party.” I’m inclined to agree.

Phelps, expectedly, picked up his first gold and slapped his own world record down by ~2 seconds.

Misty and Kerry, goddesses each, had a slow start but ultimately showed why they are the best players in the world with an easy 2-set win in their opening match. The men’s team, slightly less dominate, got just spanked by Latvia. It was painful to watch, they had nothing going at all.

Katie Hoff just took the bronze in the 400 IM. It’s her first loss in that race in some amount of time, I guess. But the winner (and silver) were both below the old WR. Australia has great swimmers. This is not news. I <3 competition. Oh, and the Aussie who took gold is a little hottie. Must be the accent. I’m weak, sue me.

I watched the crew semi-finals. Or skulling or something. I have no idea. People in boats. It was boring. I made lunch. The US team (both from New England) got spanked anyway.

The men’s gymnastic team his hella-good. So is China’s. The finals promise to be amazing.

The olympic commercials have been wonderful. Morgan Freeman’s narration for Visa has been poignant, inspirational and just plain good. We’ll call that tasteful commercialism.

That, of course, is the segue to the campaign ads. What the motherless fuck is wrong with the McCain camp? I realize that the Republican party can’t help itself but dissemble these days but come the fuck on. There’s an old tradition called the Olympic cease-fire. It would have been nice for the nominees to read that memo. The Obama ads have been tamer, but not by much. I’m just curious as to how stupid one has to be to fall for this shit? Seriously. Are you so stupid that some narrator guy saying “raise taxes” 5 times in 30 seconds makes you want to give Bush the 3rd a seat in the oval?

[youtube yGIqGaWZOo0 McCain - Debunked]

The 2008 summer Olympics are finally here! Are you stoked? I’m stoked! Get stoked motherfuckers!

This year you can watch just about anything online, so my work-day productivity will likely be something approaching zero. It looks like Charter added at

least 1 if not 3 new channels for Olympic feeds as well so the DVR will get a workout.

Things to watch?

Try beach volleyball (women), swimming, and Track & Field for starters.

Ignore sissypansy basketball, try and watch some baseball as it’s out after this run.

Check here for a quick schedule.

Hancock - no.
Wanted - yes.
Olympics? VERY yes.

What? You want more? Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman are great. Seriously. <3’s and butterflies. Most of the time I even like Will Smith. But the movie doesn’t work. It goes from funny to wtf to emo over it’s scant 90-some minutes.

Wanted is based on the Millar mini. I’ve read a couple. I’m going to get the rest now. It was a little nutty, a little funny and a lot of action. I was excited from start to finish.

Also worth not noting is that my favorite area theater was sold a few months ago to some new company. They switched to Coke products. Coke is horrible. The service has declined and it’s the only iMax in 100 miles.

I love the Olympics. Well summer Olympics anyway. Which is odd considering I was an avid skier every summer for over 10 years. Kerri Walsh and Misty May are ridiculously amazingly impossibly good. 84th consecutive match win, 2 short of their previous record of 86. Both have over 90 career tournament wins. They are, without question, the best players in the world - and they’re going to China.

8.8.08, bitches.