Mass Effect 2

Since I've already played Mass Effect 3 I figured I might as well play the two previous parts of the trilogy, which it isn't since there is DLC on the way for ME3.  I already owned the first part but I can definitely remember popping it into the xbox and thinking "this music sucks."  It sounded like some guy had been locked away in a teeny, tiny little room with a Casio keyboard for way too long a time.  Needless to say, I popped that baby out of the xbox.  Last week I was reading in one of the gamer magazines I get on my notebook that ME 2 was the best game of all time (maybe it was Gamestop).  This decision, they claimed, had been reached by a common consensus of universal game players.  So, I ordered a copy from Amazon.

Due in 3-5 days

And, of course, I'm trying to wade through the first installment.  Besides the shitty music, I find it amazing at how far graphics have come. You have to wonder how it became so popular they decided to use it to launch a trilogy (which isn't really a trilogy since there's more DLC on the way).  Now you know what I'll be doing instead of watching the closing ceremonies.  Someone said the Spice Girls are going to be performing.  Isn't that enough to make you want to vomit.

Lochte - oops

As far as I can see, the biggest controversy coming out of the 2012 Olympics has got to be anything and everything dealing with Ryan Lochte.  While you would like to put a positive spin on what he and his family are saying and doing, they are up against Michael Phelps who is definetly the kind of ambassador America wants to send to the Olympics.  Phelps is well spoken, sounding educated and he shakes the hands of his team members even when he comes in second, Lochte doesn't.  The fact that Lochte needs to be told not to wear his grill on to the podium is an embarrasment.  He doesn't seem to understand the games are not held to show the world he is 'cool.'  I've seen him interviews and he can not help he sounds like Rocky Balboa, but he needs to learn to conjugate his verbs when speaking in public.  He needs to say "Michael Phelps and I are," not Michael Phelps and I is."  One can only wonder if he wants to sound stupid on purpose; maybe that's part of the 'cool' thing.

Do a search on his name, pull of the article and start reading, even those most positive mention the negative aspects of his personality.  His mother doesn't help.  When I read in a sports headline that she had said his schedule only allows for him to have one night stands I was flabbergasted.  She's dumb as a box of bricks and perhaps the apple didn't fall far from the tree.  Evidently he's been trying to backtrack from that comment, his lifestyle up until a few days ago will limit just how far he can go.  Maybe what he really needs to do is pop his grill in his mouth and grin because maybe he wants to be remembered as a douchebag. 

Congrats to Michael Phelps

Yesterday and American swimmer became the most decorated Olympian of all time, of course, everybody knows who Michael Phelps is and they have for years.  I remember back when a photo of him surfaced taking a hit from a bong and the out cry was immense - from people who sit around with self-righteous sticks stuck up their asses.  They did not want a human being representing the United States, they wanted a robot, some one who aspired to demonstrate the qualities they choose.  I suppose they believe they are striving towards perfection when in reality they want to strangle to death any aspect which imparts individualism.  They want a Stepford populated not just with perfect wives, but with perfect husbands and perfect children not realizing the only thing in their future is failure.  "Nature always wins out," Jeff Goldblum said that in Jurassic Park. You can take the human out of nature but you can't take the nature out of human, that's me.

Here's a hearty congratulations to Mr. Phelps for becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time in spite of smoking a little pot.  It's also a finger shake at all those boo hissers - don't you just love being wrong.

Holy Crap! I missed the Dressage Team Event... not really

As the summer Olympics play out I find myself wondering if some of the categories are actually sports, or are they perhaps art forms.  Does being competitive make it a sport, or are the games meant solely to demonstrate competitive spirit?  From what I've read I gather the original games were, while being called games, were more exhibitions of war-like behavior, people didn't just throw javelins for the hell of it, they used were used in combat.  Perhaps the confusion is that I want to see them as sports and they really are nothing more then competitions.  Take synchronized swimming which might also be called water dancing and is more of an art form then it is a sport.  One surely wouldn't use it in battle unless you were entertaining your enemy.  Still, these are human swimmers involved and they use precise muscular behavior, and they need to control their breathing.  This is a lot more then I can say for those participating in dressage which reminds me an awful lot of the trained horse acts you see in circuses; with one you get water dancing, with the other you get horse dancing.

Horse Dancing

Another thing, when a synchronized swimmer wins a medal they get the medal, who gets the medal in dressage.  I doubt very much if the rider gets to hold on to that.  I'd say more likely it goes to the owner of the horse even though he or she is rarely ever, and most likely never, the rider.  I'd like to see the owners riding their own horses, but a rider is, after all, nothing more then an employee, a hired hand.  As such, should he not win a medal, I'd say there is a very good possibility loss will lead to termination of employment.  How many people actually watch dressage?  I don't.  In fact when I saw it listed on Bravo I decided that was the perfect time to load the dishwasher.  Since I didn't watch it I have no idea who was in the stands, millionaires I suppose, and a lot of people who thought it was something else when they were buying their tickets.  To be honest, I equate dressage to another horsey sport, polo, both of which are mostly enjoyed by the rich and famous and those rich and famous wannabe's.

NBC Opening Ceremony coverage sucked!

This is why I didn't really want to watch it, but I did, for about 45 minutes.  What I saw looked fairly chaotic with nincompoop commentators failing to create something cohesive out of a commercial break nightmare.  Every six minutes NBC shoved two and a half to three minutes of commercials down you throat. This is why they paid 1.8 billion to air the 2012 Olympics, not to give you the best possible coverage, but to make money.  They make money selling ad time.  Wall Street loves this.  Me?  I hate it.  When I watch something that has a narrative line I want to be able to discern that narrative line, I don't want to watch shots from fourteen different camera angles which succeed only in creating abstract  images.  Case in point, the entrance of all of those Mary Poppins'.  Dippy Viera said something to the effect of "with all this evil present look to the east," and the next second you saw them landing.  Where did the come from? Did they jump out of helicopters.

Kenneth Brannaugh read something from "The Tempest" and then you saw him wondering around, was there a purpose in his wondering?  Was he supposed to be an observer of the Industrial Revolution?  I kept thinking he looked like Abraham Lincoln without his beard.    

Watching the competitions this AM I noticed commercial breaks have been cut back, some what, they are still way too frequent, usually occurring after eight or nine minutes and they're wasting about 2 minutes of time.  How much time will I spend in front of the TV?  Not very much.  While I find the Olympics entertaining, I don't share the addiction so many others seem to have.  I don't need to win every competition to pet my ego. 

Topping the Chinese

Will I watch the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympics in London, yes.  Will I watch the entire ceremony... no.  It's way too long.  Here's my recommendation to all future opening ceremonies, march the Olympians in first and get that out of the way, and then entertain the world.  Everybody with access to either a TV or the Internet will be watching and everybody will turn it off when the athletes begin parading into the stadium.  People walk slowly around that track.  If we were called America our athletes would be one of the first to enter, but we're the United States and "u" is pretty damn near the end of the alphabet.  Sure, some of the teams entering before us will be small in comparison to the American contingent, they will still walk slowly around that track.

Why will I be watching?  To see if the British attempt to top the Chinese opening ceremonies.  That's a pretty daunting task.  My suspicion is they are going to take another tact to celebrate the United Kingdom, like a Shakespeare production number, maybe Macbeth chasing spots away from the track, or possibly a reunion of the two surviving Beatles singing "Love me do."  One thing you can be sure of, there will be fireworks and special effects galore.  You won't see 2000 Chinese drummers pounding  away but you might see the girls from Absolutely Fabulous staggering around.  The Brits seem to like exporting the idea that they are a staid people, perhaps they might let their hair down.  Wouldn't that be entertaining.