I haven't slept much these past two weeks because there was always something interesting late at night. 

Unfortunately there was a lot going on during the mornings too, and although I could get the video feed at work, of course I could not follow much there.

We were disappointed at gymnastics, because our athletes failed at the finals with some unbelievable mistakes, but there results were nevertheless our best in the olympics.  Our men's football was a shame, the girl's did better but they deserved the gold (I'm not saying the USA team did not too).  Our girls in volleyball did an outstanding competition, crowned with their first gold.  I hope the guys do as well tonight. 

At work, we are having our own Olympic Games.  I played domino this week and will play bowling next week. 

Regards,
Adelaide

I haven't slept much these past two weeks because there was always something interesting late at night. 

Unfortunately there was a lot going on during the mornings too, and although I could get the video feed at work, of course I could not follow much there.

We were disappointed at gymnastics, because our athletes failed at the finals with some unbelievable mistakes, but there results were nevertheless our best in the olympics.  Our men's football was a shame, the girl's did better but they deserved the gold (I'm not saying the USA team did not too).  Our girls in volleyball did an outstanding competition, crowned with their first gold.  I hope the guys do as well tonight. 

At work, we are having our own Olympic Games.  I played domino this week and will play bowling next week. 

Regards,
Adelaide

I tape everything and then watch it late. Can't stand to sit through the commercials every 5 minutes.
Yea, those are great stories when someone or country wins a sport for the first time. I was kinda pulling for the brazillian girl on the floor exercise, I thought she was great. If I remember correctly I think she had a problem on her last tumbling pass? Such a tough sport, train for 12 years and then have your one big moment where you have to be flawless. Makes me nervous just thinking about it 

From what I'm reading and seeing, I think these Olympics have been some of the most tarnished.

From stupid fireworks that didn't actually happen to the ridiculous amount of talk about pollution to the consistently bad judging/refereeing

however its nice to see records fall despite the potential "engineering" the chinese did to have that happen in the pool (I've heard that the pool was built to be deeper and with more air bubbles to have swimmers go faster so that these games would be remembered for some sort of greatness)

And my favourite:  14 year old girls who are allowed to compete because the government forged their birth certificates

Way too many scandals - and I really hope the IOC learns their lesson that its not their job to be political and to give the games to places that can be responsible

Totally agree something is up with that pool. Seems a bit of stretch that world records are broken in every race. The new skins they are wearing might have something to do with it as well, but that pool is either short or rigged.

I think the truth will come out after the games as far as the young gymnasts. Its such a high profile event and I would hope people would not accept a 12 hour bogus investigation. The way I understand it, the birth certificates were new models, not originals.

Personally, I think the Olympics Games are a farce.

Sure, the athletes (when they're not drugged up to the eyeballs, younger than they state, or men pretending to be women) are amazing.  They put a hell of a lot of work and dedication into it and I admire them for that. The honest ones deserve the glory.

But the honest athletes deserve better than the 'smoke and mirrors' shenanigans that is the Olympic Games nowadays. A few examples:

-  At the beginning a 9-year old girl sings in an angelic voice that sends shivers down the listeners' spines. But, it turns out, she wasn't singing at all. The voice she was miming to belonged to another little girl who was deemed too ugly to appear. Where's the 'Olympic Spirit' in that?

-  Two old women, in their 70's, try to protest legally, in an area set aside for it, about being evicted from their homes to make way for the Games. Result? They are sentenced to a year's 're-education through labour'. Action by the Olympics Committee? A statement: ""The Olympics are about sport ... (they) are not a panacea for all ills." Yeah. Right. We get your 'spirit'.

And the Olympic Flame? Don't make me laugh. They fly it to a few big cities in the world, run it around the streets for a few hours, and then fly on to the next big city. What a farce.

If they lit the flame on Mount Olympus and then physically ran it, every goddam step of the way through the different nations in between, to the Games site itself, then it would really mean something. But who on the Olympics Committee gives a s**t about those distant tribes in something-or-other-stan.

Grumble ... grumble ... grumble. I'll get back to Photoshop.