Making It Up As I Go Along #326 (week & story)

The complete Update is now here.

MONDAY...
— Work 10:30 to 6:30 for our ball game tonight. Laura comes by for a visit and even plays in our game... good to see her and chat. We win the game too but my hamstring doesn’t do as well in it as I would have hoped. It doesn’t give out but it does become irritated pretty early on and I’m left with little in field range and slow running. Oh well.
— We go for some drinks after the game, so the team spends some easy going times together off the field.

TUESDAY...
— Sore from yesterday. Good time for physio, and that’s where I go before work. The physiotherapist actually doesn’t seem concerned, saying little hits in the recovery are common. Of course, friend Jim called such a response in an e-mail hours earlier. Smart friends I have.
— Despite the cheery views, sitting at work is a bit of a literal pain this evening... having me need to get up every 20 minutes or so to alleviate the knot in my leg. I actually go home a couple of hours early to lay down and rest it.

WEDNESDAY...
— Do work today. Still a bit of an uncomfortable knot in the hamstring and a headache... plus tired today. But work goes alright. Do supper with Megan and have Claudio working overtime to keep me company.

THURSDAY...
— Physio before work goes as usual. Work becomes my Friday. I woke this morning feeling like it should be Friday so I make it so. Taking tomorrow and Monday off work... that’ll make it a 5 day weekend for me. No work until next Wednesday.

FRIDAY...
— Pretty quiet day. Evening has me going to Melissa’s for supper and a movie. Easy Rider on DVD. I liked it but it ended kind of strangely for what I expected. Today is the first day of my five day weekend. A little extravagant but it felt like a nice thing to do.

SATURDAY...
— Quiet day around the house... then off with Sheila to go to a party at Nick’s friend’s place. Not a bad night until people drink too much and some get stupid. So it’s pack it in and cab home at 2:30 in the morning while the garbage gets figured out. Overall, a fun evening but not one I’d be dying to relive every week.


This Olympic Dream is Brought to You by Visa
How messed up do things have to be when the Olympic Games no longer hold any interest for a sports fan? And what changes for this to occur? Is it the fault of the games? Is it political? Is it the sports fan who’s gotten too worried about it all? I don’t know.

What I do know is that I not only no longer care about the Beijing Olympics, I’m getting annoyed at them. I see a commercial for the games on TV and I turn the channel, or roll my eyes. So what has caused it?

For me, the summer games have been sliding off my interest scale for a while. I can watch the winter games with more excitement, but those summer Olympics... ugh.

I think it began back in 1988. Ben Johnson getting caught with steroids. But it wasn’t only Ben that brought shame to me... it wasn’t really that at all. It was the scapegoat mentality of it all. Toss Ben and it’s all good again. Yet Florence Griffith Joyner (nicknamed Flo Jo) was a freak who just happened to retire days before being called to testify on drug use. She remained an American hero right up to her death. She’s basically ignored since then. There is no shame if it never existed I suppose.

With other athletes getting caught on drugs... while rumours of American track stars being given breaks when it came to drug testing (because, in these rumours, American TV networks would threaten to pull their deals with the games if their athletes would be banned from competition)... track and field events no longer exist to me. They’ve gone Flo Jo in my eyes.

And really, if you take track and field out of the summer games, you don’t have much left. Synchronized Diving? Equestrian? Gymnastics? No thanks.

Then there’s the China Syndrom. That is the fact that this years Olympics are coming from China. It brings the delusional and politics together. We see those people who believe the Olympic spirit will change China’s stance on human rights issues.

It used to be that, when politics clashed with sport, nations would boycott the games. 1980 and 1984 saw countries believing in one way of life turning away from games hosted by those who lived with different standards and morals. You’d believe in a principal and not take part. It may not have ever changed a nation’s politics but it at least showed a conviction of ideas.

Now that China has done nothing to change their stand on human rights, the talk of boycotts have returned. But with the games meaning so much money in advertising... for TV revenues and clothing sales... the boycott was not taken seriously. Instead, there has been talk of political leaders skipping out on the opening ceremonies. That’ll show’em. Stephen Harper not being there to watch the torch get lit live. The Chinese will be forced to rethink everything!

And the torch rally. Holy Moses the fiasco that is the worldwide Olympic Torch Rally. From Greece to the four corners of the earth. The torch that is supposed to be handed off from ordinary citizen to ordinary citizen. From all backgrounds of life. The rich and the poor. From leading world scholars to simple farmers... we are all meant to share in the spirit of unity.

But bring on the protests! And the torch took on secret routes in hopes of evading the nay sayers. It was rammed into Tibet (a nation hard hit by Chinese rule) with talk of being able to use lethal force if protesters try to stop it’s progression.

With all of it, I just don’t want to buy in to the Olympic fever. I don’t care about Canada’s “Team Visa”. For those who haven’t noticed, there’s a group of Canadian athletes who are all sponsored by Visa. We get little profiles of their training and listen to how Visa has helped them in their quest for gold. So even Canada’s athletes, all one big team there to strive for doing their nation proud, are divided up among sponsors. Will Team Visa have Visa clothes and walk in under a Visa flag?

And any athlete profile now takes on such warrior like flavour. Showing clips of pictures of an 18 year old diver looking all tough and serious, crossing arms and staring down the camera... ready for war as they spout one liners of inspiration, one after another after another.

Show me the jumping around, happy athlete after they’ve accomplished their goal. Don’t show me a gymnast preparing to go to war for Sparta.

If people want to watch the Olympic games, fine with me. I won’t stop anyone from doing it and I don’t even rule out the occasional viewing of the spectacle myself. But I don’t look forward to it. I don’t much care where Canada will place in the medal count. And I am not swayed to support Visa due to their “team” generosity.

The Olympic Spirit... alive and well.