The Olympic$

As promised on my facebook updates, I fixed my computer and now I am all ready to sit in my room and watch Olympics in any way I can. I am checking all the live feeds and they're very disappointing but exactly what I expected. Canada's main Olympic coverage is done by CTV and, (as expected), it's not available outside of Canada. I've said this before but WHY BOTHER if it's not available outside Canada?! It's gotta have something to do with money. INSIDE Canada you don't need a computer or even CABLE to get CTV. STREETpeople in Canada are watching Olympic coverage on their TV's in alleyways for the love of GOD! Well actually right now the only place in Canada warm enough, (and without snow), so you could live on the street would BE Vancouver so the homeless are probably all going to the events live. Unless it's hockey. They'd have to collect bottles and cans for a lifetime to buy the CHEAPEST hockey ticket. I heard from a friend in Vancouver that you can pay 30,000 dollars for a hockey ticket there. 30 THOUSAND dollars! And if it happens to be Canada and Russia or Canada and U.S. in the final who knows how high the prices could go? It's obscene if you ask me. The Olympics is supposed to be amateur sports. This is what happens when you let the pros play. Damned exciting, but obscene. I don't like to see the evil of filthy lucre perverting and corrupting something as pure as sport. It sickens me. But I'm kinda used to it.

I went to the site available to Koreans to watch coverage in Korea, SBS. Of course, (as expected), you need a password. You need a password for everything in Korea. TWO! At the camp I just finished I had a list of about 10 passwords I needed to get into places or computers. And the only way you're gonna get a password on SBS is if you live in Korea and know a Korean who can navigate their way through the password process, which is hard even for a Korean. Also, SBS is available in Korea without a computer and I think without cable. So why bother? Gotta be some money involved! But I'm not too concerned. It'd be short track, short track and more short track with brief glimpses of figure skating and maybe ski jumping. Not my favourites to watch.

So how can I watch hockey games? I was able to catch the third period of the Canada/Slovakia game in women's hockey today because my brother in the U.S. told me, (chatting on facebook), he was watching it. That's the only way I could tell if it was on. The problem is times. I go to the official Olympic site and times are listed there but I'm not sure if they're Vancouver time or the time most things are listed in, Eastern Standard Time. It doesn't matter because no Canadian sites have live streaming video anyway. That I've found. So I go to the sites like JustinTV. There times are listed in Eastern Standard Time. I think. Cuz most people streaming there are from the States. I think. Or I could go to MyP2P. But I think most of the people streaming on THAT site are from the U.K. I think! It's frustrating so far.

But it's okay as long as I don't miss any of the men's hockey and I have a list of the times for those games already. No worries there.

I haven't noticed any demonstration sports yet. Doesn't the host country get to do a demonstration sport? Something popular in their country? I have an idea for Canada. And it comes from watching MANY MANY years of Canadian disappointment at the Olympics. I think we should introduce a new thing at the Vancouver Olympics but it's not a sport, it's a fourth place medal. Like maybe tin or aluminum or something Canadian like beaver pelt, moose antler, Saskatchewan sealskin, or how bout wood? The wood medal goes to Canada! We have had medal hopefuls every year, sometimes favoured to win gold, even HEAVY favourites, who came in fourth place. I think we'd be way up there in the medal count if we could introduce a wood medal. Should we call it a wood medal or a wooden medal? Too confusing, let's just hang a pancake around the fourth place finishers' necks. How much more Canadian could you get?

I guess so far the story of the Olympics has been a tragic one. That luger from Georgia named Nodar Somethingorother took a grisley spill didn't he? And I admit to looking it up on youtube and watching voyeuristically. I only watched once and felt a bit guilty about it. But it was very interesting to see the reactions of people from around the globe. I'm not talking about the fact that it's now the number one hit on youtube and other sites like it, I'm talking about the comments I read about it. I read "R.I.P. from France", "R.I.P. from Sweden", "R.I.P. from Canada" among them. That's nice isn't it? People from all over the world expressing their deep sorrow at the passing of an athlete. Well not deep enough to write the words "Rest In Peace" in full, but pretty deep. And I'm so glad at the girl from Canada taking it upon herself to express my, and millions of other Canadians' views on the tragedy in three letters!

And I heard they changed that part of the track where a lot of people wiped out and where Nodar died. Disappointing autosport enthusiasts and other death sport fans everywhere. Well honestly, it's like the fights at hockey, who looks away when there's a dangerous crash? Luge could have maybe taken a run a hockey for the most watched sport at these Olympics otherwise.

The second biggest story for Canadians will be getting gold. We already have a medal! This is brilliant for Canada! And it's a silver! Way to go Jennifer Heil! Canadians must be ecstatic! They must be chanting her name all over the country. Let's hope it's her FIRST name. Jen - ni - FER, Jen - ni - FER! We're all proud of her! But the story remains, no gold for Canada in Montreal and no gold for Canada in Calgary. We got lots of fourth place medals in '76 and '88 I'm sure but no gold in our two previous Olympics in Canada. And we have some good shots at gold in 2010. But as we can read from the link, this is only based on how much money we've been spending on our athletes. MONEY! Again!

But if our women's hockey team, women's and men's curling teams, and speed skaters don't win a gold I'll eat my gotch! We are gonna get some soon. And we have all kinds of other chances in short track, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, and other stuff. Some people think we might even win the medal count this year! It would be nice but I only care if we get ONE gold medal really. And that's in men's ice hockey. Ha ha ha. It sounds so funny saying it that way. I just call it HOCKEY and so does the rest of Canada. This will be the best thing to ever happen to Canada. Yeah sure there were a few nice political things like becoming a nation, getting our own constitution, joining NATO and silly little things like that but pppbbbttthhhhbbbtttt! Peanuts compared to this!

But men's hockey doesn't start till Feb. 16th. Feb. 17th here! I gotta wait three more days! It's gonna be rough. But for now I'll try to watch other stuff online to tide me over till the hockey starts.

GO CANADA GO!