Future Poltergeist

Over on Facebook I did a long list of jokey suggestions for Olympic events.  This has led to people associating me with strange former Olympic events.  Which is fine.  I've gotten to see some articles I otherwise wouldn't have, including this one here .  But that's not what this post is about.  I told you that so I can tell you this: the article has a paragraph on how the Olympics chooses what events it will have.  I haven't seen that anywhere before so I thought I'd share.  From the link: At the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896, nine sports were contested: wrestling, fencing, athletics (track and field events), cycling, tennis, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics and shooting. Over the years, that number has increased significantly with the inclusion of everything from table tennis to taekwondo, from basketball to badminton. While many of these new additions have stuck around, others have been phased out indefinitely for on...

I covered the Opening Ceremonies yesterday .  Today I want to talk about what I would have done with them.  Pretty much every one agrees that the Beijing opening is now the gold standard for Olympics ceremonies.  What did they do?  They decided that they would show off their history and progress.  They wanted to show the world just how far they'd come.  If anyone had visions of China as poor people in huts, tending rice, they wanted to show how wrong they were.  The planners did this with stunning visuals (remember the giant screen on the floor?) and a stunning multitude of people (remember the hundreds of drummers?).  You came away thinking 'wow, China has its problems but they can really put something special together'.  Two years later Vancouver hosted the winter games.  Their budget was less than half of what they used for Beijing.  What did they do?  They used a methodical and easy to understand format to introduce the c...

The FP Gal and I watched the opening ceremonies last night and I wanted to get some thoughts down. The time difference thing was very strange.  Before it had even started we both read some leaks and spoilers.  We both heard that it was very strange.  There were a couple of weird moments but for the most part it didn't strike me as that strange.   The whole first segment was amazing from a technical standpoint.  I'm referring to the 'agricultural' segment where people milled around and did farm-y type things.  The switch-over to the industrial revolution was quite a bit of work.  Amazing.  (Note, I'm not saying that it made for good TV...) The forging of the ring was very impressive too.  And when it rose up and joined the other rings?  That was the one time that I really, really wished I could be in the stadium watching it all live.   The high point of the whole ceremony was certainly the pairing of the Queen with James Bo...

I've pretty much abandoned the 'What I'm Reading' list on the sidebar but I thought some of you might still be interested to see what books have been coming into my life.  In the past few weeks I've gotten: The Tipping Point - Gladwell, heard a bunch about it and should read it at some point Island of the Blue Dolphins - O'Dell, remember it well from when I was younger Philosophy of Aristotle, will come in handy with the book project The Story of Dr Dolittle - Lofting, another old favorite, I'm reading it to Relia right now The Voyages of Dr Dolittle - Lofting, next in the series Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids - Caplan, very interesting reading on making parenting easier Gamesmanship - Potter, was highly recommended Remembrance of Things Past - Proust, on my 'someday' list The Looming Tower - Wright, featured in yesterdays picture, fascinating book Football Outsiders Almanac 2012, to get ready for the upcoming season, go Vikes! Little ...

  DF and I are trying very hard to understand the world around us.  (Very interesting book, btw.)

Inspired by Siskoid . 1. Tense endings 2. The 'actual' El Guapo speech 3. Ghibli Studios 4. Harrison Ford: "No tickets." 5. The song 'One Hand, One Heart' 6. The opening to 'Manhattan' 7. The score to 'In Her Majesty's Secret Service' 8. Sentimental Christmas movies 9. Bill Murray in 'Lost in Translation' 10. The light-cycles in Tron 11. "I have wasted thousands and thousands of kisses on you." 12. The soundtrack to 'Amelie' 13. The set to 'Rear Window' 14. The wisecracking skills of Han Solo 15. The Goat Herd song 16. Susan Sarandon in 'Bull Durham'. ("Oh my.) 17. Racing through Paris in 'Ronin' 18. Racing to find a fix in 'Apollo 13' 19. "I want my two dollars..." 20. The Marx Brothers 21. Kenneth Branagh 22. Smart war movies 23. Blooper reels in the credits 24. Every theory in 'High Fidelity' 25. The cast of 'It's a Mad, M...

This morning it was gray and drizzly.  And wonderful.  Still more humid than I'd like but such a welcome break.  We've had plenty of hot days, not quite the heat from earlier in the month but still 88 degrees and high humidty is no fun either. More cool rainy days, please.

Some suggestions I put on Facebook: 1. Give Cirque du Soleil an automatic entry into the gymnastics events. 2. International karaoke competition. 3. Dance marathon 4. Competitive weight loss 5. Frisbee golf/Ultimate frisbee 6. Amish style barn raising race 7. Abstract art contest 8. Six shooter quick draw tournament. Single elimination format 9. An 'In Memoriam' film montage. Those things always get me. 10. Have the sprinters chase a rabbit. 11. The ‘Get-Clothes-on-a-Toddler’ rodeo. 12. Lawn curling. 13. Long distance running competitions to be done on a figure eight track where the runners must criss cross. 14. Long distance ocean swimming. (All swimmers start at the same time and swim until they can’t go any further.) 15. Child/parent three legged race. 16. Competitive dramatic monologue 17. All countries pick one athlete to compete in a King of the Mountain style event 18. Have the sprinters be chased by a tiger 19. Mariokart tournament 20. BMX off road unicycle racing 21....

While at Target today, Relia got into a conversation with the check out lady.  It used to be my goal to be the most interesting (in a positive way) customer that a check out person/restaurant server/retail salesperson would deal with in a given day.  Now my kids have taken over that job.  I mostly just smile, nod and try not to upstage them. Relia: (deep in the conversation) And what's your name? Target lady: (amused and enjoying herself) Nancy.  And what is your name? Relia: Aurelia. Nancy: Oh, what a pretty name. Relia: I know.  Everybody says that.  (laughs all around) DF: And my name is Felix! (more laughs) Me: Yeah, I don't really have shy kids...

With just under a week to go, I thought I'd do one more post on the Olympics with various whatnot.  Ready? While the Opening ceremonies are next Friday night (July 27th), some of the events start earlier.  Notably the soccer games start on Wednesday.  Otherwise they can't fit the whole tournament into just two weeks.  You can find the schedule here .  The 2014 Winter games will be in Sochi, Russia.  2016 will have the first Olympic games to be held in South America as Rio de Janeiro hosts.  (Those Opening ceremonies will be something!)  In 2018 Pyeongchang, South Korea will have the winter games.  2020?  That won't be selected until September of 2013.  It's down to Istanbul, Tokyo or Madrid.  For reasons of geographical diversity, I'm guessing it will be Madrid. The U.S. hasn't hosted since 2002 in Salt Lake City.  When will they do it again?  For the past few years there has been an ongoing dispute between the U....

Last weekend I found a book at a garage sale called 'A Minnesota Travel Companion' by Richard Olsenius.  The book is arranged by major byways and tells little stories about various towns and counties.  Most of stories are about when places were founded.  It includes this story of Austin: An interesting story surrounds the naming of Austin as the county seat in 1857. In northeastern Mower, a town by the name of Frankford was the original county seat. But Frankford neglected to build a courthouse. newly elected commissioners from Austin were unhappy about the distance they had to travel for meetings. They reasoned that since a courthouse had never been built, wherever the 'tin box' containing the county records was kept, would be the site of the county seat. One day they stole the box while attending a meeting at Frankford and rode for Austin with the sheriff and townsfolk of Frankford following in hot pursuit. The posse caught up with the men at the stage way-station ...

After DF woke up today it was snack time.  He asked for a cookie.  As I was getting them out I decided to give him two.  (These are sandwich cookies, or as they are called in our house, beef cookies.)  He looked at them and this conversation happened: DF: Two cookies? Me: Yes.  I thought I'd be generous. DF: Thank you daddy!  (pauses and looks at them again)  Can I have three cookies?

I'm late for Bastille Day, but what the heck.  Also, I'm enjoying the heck out of watching the Tour de France each morning.  What a beautiful country to see in HD.

This was played in the car today. After it was done the kids said I was singing too loud...

In a little over four months, the greatest of the sailing races, the Vendee Globe, will start.  I'm interested in it so I'll be doing some blogging as it gets nearer.  On their website right now is a short interview about sailors and their superstitions .  It's very interesting and I learned a lot.  Before this I never understood the custom of christening a ship, for instance.  Also, there is this bit with a coin: For instance you have the golden coin that yachtsmen are supposed to put down under their masts. Once again, it is about the notion of sacrifice: when putting a very precious gold coin under the mast, the sailor will obviously not be able to use it later. Thus, by doing so, he proves his « good will » to the gods of the sea. Do they do this with navy ships too?

A couple of weeks ago we went out to the garage sales and I found a serious bargain.  A very nice lady was selling a full set of World Book encyclopedias for $1.50.  This is the same set that we had in my house as I was growing up.  Possibly the same edition.  The FP Gal wasn't sure it was a good purchase but for that small an amount I could hardly go wrong.  The nice lady told me that she had offered the set to each of her children and they all refused.  It's not hard to figure out why.  If I have question about a subject I go to Wikipedia or maybe just Google for an answer.  Someday when I have a smart phone I'll be able to check them out anywhere I can get decent phone service.  So why but a set of very heavy books? I remember times when I was young when I'd look something up.  Sometimes I'd just page through and see what kind of interesting things I would run across.  And I want my kids to have that same joy.  Also, I'm v...