I'M WIGGING OUT!!!!

No more Olympics!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I started watching the closing ceremonies last night and they were lame compared to the opening ceremonies, it just looked like a bunch of people in cool costumes running around like chickens with their heads cut off just to fill out the stadium. But I don't fault them at all. Those opening ceremonies were as beautiful and much as they were freaking scary. I didn't feel the intimidation factor with the closing ... it was kind of like they were running on fumes after the past 17 days and this is the best they could do.

I don't know, the opening was so unexpected, it was a lot to live up to. And the British part of the ceremony was just plain stupid. Oh boy, there's a freakish looking OLD OLD Older than dirt Jimmy Page ... why??? He looked like Confucious .. is that what he was going for? If so, I shake my head in shame. He has nothing to do with sport. I mean, I love Zep, but why? Leona Lewis, never heard of her, sorry for any fans ... you could barely hear her at first and what in heaven's name does "Whole Lotta Love" have to do with the Olympics ... waaaay down inside, you know, you neeed it ... " ok people, that song is NOT about sports, wink wink. And David Beckham just looked like he wanted to be anywhere but on that bus that looked like Sherwood Forest with those silly glowing umbrellas??? If THAT was supposed to get us fired up about the London games in 2012 ... oy, I hope the next 4 years crawl.

And am I the only one who thought that the mayor of London looked like a cross Gary Bussey and Jon Daley? Those 3 looked just plain out of place waving that unruley flag. I'm sure the Chinese officials immediately took the flag away from the mayor of London and had it shot.

The soccer ball being passed around was cute though. Clever. But overall ... the Olympics ending with a wimper.

So now what ... I think I watched 5 minutes of the convention and that made me more depresed than the closing ceremonies. Maybe I need to watch the opening ceremonies again. Mad Men isn't on again until Sunday ... ARGHHHHHH!!!!!!

Ok ok ... Jacques Rogge ... you're still an idiot

Oops, got his name wrong ... still don't like how he was bashing Usain Bolt.

I can't believe the Olympics are over. I'm officially in withdrawl. I haven't turned on the tv today :( I'm so sad. I didn't even watch the closing ceremonies. Couldn't bear it.

And how about Iceland??? Silver medal in men's team handball! I have this odd fascination with Iceland. Maybe it's a Bjork thing. I don't know. I don't think there would be a darn thing on the island I would like to eat, but those spas. I hope to go there at some point in my life. But how cool that they won their first ever Olympic medal. Between that and Afghanistan winning a medal and that German weighlifter dedicating his medal to his recently deceased wife .. a great Olympics I'd say. Heck I even got into watching the men's basketball. I was amazed at how humble those guys were. They didn't show up and expect to win. They got shoved around and gave it right back, a good show!!! LeBron James is THE MAN! Hat's off to him.

Mad Men was fantastic!!!

"Thank you Don"

That was the best line of the evening, well that and:

"I'm Ken"

Don showing up in the hospital was a "whoa" moment for me. I'm such a sucker. So Don knows about Peggy's baby ... that's why he called her to "fix" the accident with Bobbie. Peggy better not get too comfy with calling him "Don" though. He uses people. Hope she doesn't take Bobbie's advice to heart.

Pete and Trudy. Pete is a gigantic ... . Trudy is just a twit. She should go get a job or go riding with Betty. I don't know how much clearer Pete could make it that he doesn't want a baby (HA!!!) I hope there's a big to do when Pete finds out about Peggy's baby.

Joan is engaged. Bet it doesn't happen.

Shut Up Jean Rogge

Yea, I'm talking to you. How dare you criticize Usain Bolt for doing nothing more than enjoying the fact that he owns the track this year. You should be more critical of the fact that China has little baby girls on their gymnastics team that the government cheated for and 2 of the most anorexic looking platform divers that I've ever seen. One even admitting that she doesn't like to eat. My god! Yea Rogge, you all took a huge risk in giving the games to Beijing, and so far, they seem like they are going great, but there's a seedy underbelly there ... what we aren't seeing under your watch, Rogge, unfortunately, let's hope that after the games, stories will surface and then maybe you'll change your tune about Mr. Bolt.

Yea, I cringed when I saw Bolt showboat after the 100m final, but none of his fellow competitors minded. In fact, they celebrated with him! He's a likeable guy who likes to clown around. He's immature, he's RAW ... he hasn't reached his full potential yet. We all expected Phelps to dominate the pool, but who knew about this Jamaican kid other than people who follow athletics? He's a pure joy to watch .. beautiful runner who is obviously having a freaking great time out there on the track and is enjoyed by his fellow athletes. I love to see athletes enjoy their sport.

Shut up Jean Rogge ... there are many things to criticize about these games, Usain Bolt is not one of them. Fermez la bouche mon frere.

And I'll never understand HOW both US 400m relays CHOKED!!! Yes, choked in the relay prelims. Dropping the baton???? At this level????? I ran that relay for almost 8 years and never once did I drop a baton ... ok ok, I wasn't at the Olympic level, but these athletes should at the very least have the core point of this event down to an art. Do they not practice prior to the games??? It sure didn't look like it. I'm not sure how these teams are chosen, but they sure looked like someone just said "you, you, you and you" and told them to get on the track. It was just painful to see. Jamaica will sweep both the men's and women's relays. Every one of their handoffs were perfect, like they've all be practicing. I hope they run Bolt second or third, down the straightaway rather than the anchor, which should be run by Usafa Powell. I've always held that you should never put your best runner last. Put them in the middle to establish dominance and then bring it home in the final leg.

Of course Jean Rogge will probably say that Usain Bolt is showboating ... what a dork.

And we swept the 400m! The bronze medal winner literally dove across the finishline! Way to go David Neville, formerly of Merrillville and IU ... thumbs up!!!

He's for Real!!

Usain Bolt ...

Seriously, with his name, what else could he be but a freaking sprinter? His Dad attributes his speed to the yams that grow locally in his town in Jamaica .. uhhhhh, ok. Sorry Daddy Bolt, your son has redefined sprinting. He's built like a wide receiver and runs like a cheetah. The people around him have to take 2 strides for his 1 ... he doesn't even expend all his potential energy because nobody is near him. As much as I don't want to see him lose, I just want someone to push him, get close. I mean holy moses people, you don't win the 100m by 5m nor the 200m by 10m .. Happy Birthday Usain. Last week was about Michael Phelps, this week it's about Usain Bolt, god I love Athletics. He's running in the 4x1 this weekend. I'd love to see what he could do in the 4x4.

Needless to say, I haven't been watching much else lately. I've been enjoying not watching the news during these Olympic games. I'm more at peace with the world. Sigh, unfortunately, the Olympics ends this weekend and then it's back to manic mode with the Democratic convention.

I'm enjoying this while I can.

Mad Men ... getting better and better

I hate to say this, but I actually cheered when Don shoved Betty ... but man, she's just awful. She's a terrible mother and she hates men. She takes out her hatred of Don on her poor little boy, Bobby. She wants nothing to do with those kids. I hope she gets some ya ya's out with her stable guy.

And when is Peggy going to get out of her terrible state of denial? I liked how the priest kind of shoved her aside with the easter egg. Did you know that was Tom Hank's son playing the priest? I thought he sounded earily like his Dad. Tom was in DaVinci code, Colin plays a priest.

But the best line of the evening was when Bobby was talking to his Dad after dinner. He's such a sweet kid, despite that mother of his. He asked Don what his father liked to eat, Don replied "Ham" ... the guy playing Don is played by John Hamm! HA!!!!

Joan having to babysit a drunk Sally was kind of funny too ... I loved it when Sally flatly told Joan "you have big ones" ...

And Pete, of course, got the short end of the stick, AGAIN!!!! That's what you get for trying to exploit your father's death. Butthead.

Bolt!!!

I participated in Athletics for more years than I can count. Athletics=track and field. I love watching track meets and wish I could be a track official. I would love to be a starter. Anyway, athletics started over the weekend at the Olympics and I have to say that I've witnesses greatness and his name is Usain Bolt. He's 6'5". He's too dang tall to run this fast, but he does. He's only been running the 100m for 2 years and he's managed to break the world record twice. Not only that, but he doesn't even run full on ... he shattered the World Record in Beijing and coasted, celebrated ... acted like a cocky S.O.B. before he even crossed the finishline. And watching this at 5:15am sure got my day started with a spark. I cannot wait to see this guy run the 200 ... I CAN'T WAIT!! I'd love to see what this guy could do in a 400 or on relays.

Another thing that was truly amazing is that 5 out of the 9 runners were from either Jamaica or Trinidad & Tobago. Bolt won the gold for Jamaica, a guy from Trinidad & Tobago won silver and Walter Dix from the US won bronze (way to go Mr. Dix!) ... I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!

The movie, Sunshine has fully marinated in my brain and I can wholeheartedly say that I love the movie ... I need to watch it again to fully absorb it.

I watched an old one that I missed the first time around and now I understand why ... The Beach. It's a Danny Boyle film and it sucked. It sucked bad. Oh my god did it stink. I want Danny Boyle to give me my 2 hours back. It was positively terrible. Ok, Leo was fresh off Titanic and Tilda Swinton ... well, I'll give 'em both a pass because they've moved onto much better things. But Danny Boyle!!! Blech.

I watched The DaVinci Code all the way through this time ... been trying for a year and I managed to get it done. Boy, the Catholic Church got all on it's haunches over this film. Why??? I personally, as a Catholic, thought it as a very interesting STORY. It's a story, folks ... so defensive these people. This was the most restrained I've ever seen Tom Hanks act and I kind of liked it. I thought it gave a great overview of how Christianity developed in the western world. A Cliff's Notes on relgion so to say. I don't understand why the concept of Jesus being a regular guy is so hard to grasp. I don't think it would affect my Catholic faith in anyway, but boy would it change the order of the Mass ... yikes!!! Oh and the whole Communion thing ... it would completely blow away the whole concept of transsubstantiation if Jesus were just a regular dude who had a pregnant wife at the time of his crucifixion. I don't know, I thought it was a great story and really gave viewers something to think about and maybe that's why the Church got so upset.


Watched an interesting episode of Penn & Teller Bullshit on world peace. Penn Jillette is an interesting guy with interesting ideas. They showed both sides of the extreme coin. Code Pink/A.N.S.W.E.R and an extreme pro-war organization, can't remember the name. Basically, they said that the Code Pink types are more about feeling good than actually doing good, and I can agree. Sorry, but the Code Pink people just look and act strange. They are the kind of people who get more caught up in being disruptive than actually doing something good. The pro-war folks were just scary ... please, anyone who thinks that war is a good thing needs to be checked into a psych ward, or sent to a third world country to fend for themselves. P&T stated that world peace=open markets and capitalism ... I have to kind of agree, but then you get into the politics of open markets and capitalism (NAFTA, Iraq oil war) ... to me, it just means the ruling of many be a few and no, that doesn't mean I'm a communist, far from it. I'm all for capitalism, it's in human nature to be competitive and win. I'm as big of a consumer as the next dope, but world peace equalling business reeks to me. World Peace to me means nobody is fighting anybody. No, not singing kum-bay-a either. Please. People just being people without acting like assholes. I don't think I'll see that in my lifetime, maybe my kid's lifetime.

Back to my Olympics!

The Road to Guantanamo

Watched The Road to Guantanamo ... another Michael Winterbottom film. It's funny, in a cynical way, how films like Osama, In This World, and The Road to Guantanamo are ignored by the American audience, when, in fact, these should be viewed by every American, especially this one. It's part documentary, with the 3 focal characters being interviewed, and actors replaying their terrible story. First, what they were thinking going to Pakistan from England just after 9-11 .. idiots ... then deciding to check out Afghanistan? Double duh. What those guys went through was bad enough, but they had to endure this bullshit (sorry), for 2 years. Denied legal counsel, tortured into giving confessions that were false. They were British citizens who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I could understand if they were actually fighters, like that crazy spoiled kid from California who was caught and is now serving in prison, but these 3 guys were just idiots who made 2 very boneheaded decisions. I'll give them credit, they hung on for as long as possible, but there was no reason that they needed to be in custody for that long, no reason whatsoever. The authorities could have cleared them sooner. I'd like to think that this whole ordeal with Gitmo is winding down, but our and the British government completely overstepped their bounds with these massive roundups and imprisonment. Shame.