The Winter Olympics- I hadn’t planned on watching any of it, but then I found myself clearing the DVR, and I haven’t missed a minute of it yet. I’ll probably soak up all 84 hrs of coverage over 4 channels. I’m fascinated by watching basically anything as long as it’s being done by the best people in the world. I also have a lot of admiration for all the participants. Michael Phelps and Apolo Ohno are the rare exceptions. Most olympians are from small towns, have regular jobs, and max out their credit cards for a chance to represent their countries. The moment I knew I was completely sucked in was when I found myself yelling at the tv in true disgust during a womens curling opening match.

While I’m here I’m going to go on a jag about the announcers. Apparently all you had to do was show up at an Olympics to have a mic put in front of you. I don’t get NBC’s need to have every moment over-talked with inane analysis. Heaven forbid allowing the viewers to just watch the events. During female cross country I heard these gems:

“So her lap time has increased. What does this mean?”
“That she is going slower.”

“She will be participating in four events. At best she can win 4 golds, and at worst none.”

“She is just heads and tails better.”

A couple more items:
- Stop using the word “redemption”. Besides Lindsey Jacobellis (2006 hotdogged the final jump in snowboard cross and face planted her gold away; she didn’t make it to finals this year), you shouldn’t be saying anyone here is looking for redemption. That word is as improperly overused as “ironic” and “courageous.” Which is ironic and brave of me to point out.

- I recently re-watched Total Recall on cable. Every instance of “ass” and “g**damnit” was edited, but graphic headshot close ups (4) and bulging eyeballs were in full HD glory. And then on NBC they showed the footage of the deceased luge athlete slamming to his death into a steel girder at 90mph over and over and over again. So we’d rather have kids desensitized to graphic violence than curse words that they hear at school and from their parents? These Christian watch groups have some pretty misplaced outrage.

- Dick Button is the new Captain Hyperbole (dethroned all of The Bachelor contestants who describe everything as “amazing”). In one conversation about figure skating he used: marvelous, elegant, magical, exquisite, majestic, glorious, quintessential, beautiful, spectacular, wonderful, amazing, powerful grace, understated chaos. I had to change channels before he climaxed in front of Bob Costas. Seriously, I felt like my mind was being raped with the heat of a thousand stars as I was listening to his bouquet of cancer blooming exaggerations.

The Wheel Of Time book series- 12 books, 7000 pages, 3 weeks.  And I just went back for more tonight.  The blogging has been thin during this parching summer.  All I’ve been doing is sleep, read, work, and occaisionally microwave a hot pocket. I’m so upside down right now, I turn the shower on before remembering I just took one an hour ago, and when my clocks says 4:30 I wonder why an infomercial is airing instead of PTI.  I think skin cancer patients are getting more sunlight than me these days.

Wagyu steak- $100 for an 8 oz steak is always ridiculous even if I’m not paying. It’s no coincidence that ‘wagyu’ is Japanese for mouth orgasm.

Adam Carolla- When I first saw him on Love Line back in college I found him annoying. Now I love him on his podcast where he rants and shares his theories on the loss of service in airplanes, lack of hot nurses, attack crows, when old people should die, spank shui, and especially his fake movie pitches like Pediph Isle.

My aunt’s professional ping pong coach- The closest I’ve ever come to a coach was Pee Wee soccer when someone’s dad would put me in for 10 minutes and say, “kick the ball as hard as you can if it comes near you, and for God’s sake try not to take one off your face.”

NBA Playoffs- I’ve caught most of the games and I told myself I wouldn’t let the Rockets suck me back in. But during that domination of Portland last night I broke out the quadruple fist pump.

PS3- I played with one for the first time. Killzone 2 was gorgeous (controls too loose though), NBA2K9 looked like a real game and has real time sports scores if online, Street Fighter 4 was great (but you need the arcade controller or your thumbs are toast), but Little Big Planet may be the reason why I buy the over-sized Foreman Grill.

Lost- I just got the SciFi Channel in HD and they’ve been showing daily re-runs. I had forgotten about this absolutely chilling scene with Juliet that reminds me why I love this show.

Futurama- I don’t think I was ready for this show back in 1999. But I can’t get enough out of what I think is the most clever cartoon on tv.  Here’s a scene where Fry makes a deal with the Robot Devil.

ESPN Streak for the Cash- Make a daily pick from Cricket to Baseball. Get a long streak going and win cash. You can join my group: brown streak 4 the cash password: aroid

NCAA Tourney- I’ve watched almost all of the games, but this has been the least entertaining tournament in a while. Where are the big upsets? And everything is drive-kick-drive-kick

Battlestar Galactica- I’ve had such a hard time saying goodbye to my favorite show. So I said goodbye a half dozen times, and then after that started over from the mini-series.

Gears of War 2- Can sneaking up behind someone and chainsawing them in half- the exact opposite of sneaking- ever get old? I say no.