don't call me for 17 days.

the olympics are my favorite sporting events to watch on tv. better than texas a&m football or belmont basketball. well, maybe even. i don't know. it's a big deal.

some people say it's lame-o to care so much, because we (the olympics fans) don't watch those sports the rest of the year.

i submit that this is because network tv doesn't play them for us to watch! i would watch swimming, and diving, and gymnastics and the more interesting ones...but i don't ever see them on tv.

anyway. here are my two favorite parts of the opening ceremony, which blew my mind. when i think of china, i think of rigid and sad people. it was so artistic and creative.

in one segment they made the great wall of china, and it was all lit up and dancing. which sounds absurd. but it wasn't. at the end, it disappeared and was replaced by flowers. the flowers symbolize "openness." it was supposed to symbolize that the most common image of china (huge barricade, stay out, leave us alone, we have secrets....) is changing to something else.

and there was this painting that took shape over the entire ceremony. it started out as a blank page. then some dancers came out, and their movements created the art! a few things were added as the night went along, but my favorite was when the athletes come out. they all stepped on some ink pads before they went across it, so their footsteps became part of the painting.

i also made a couple random observations.

there was this huge screen that circled the perimeter of the stadium, at the top. it was playing some lame-o images of waterfalls and birds the whole time. but they kept referring to it as a "membrane" and that really bothered me. membrane. there's a word i hate.

china's flag carrier was that really tall chinese guy who plays basketball...in the united states. yao. he walked in with this little boy who is a hero, blah blah. (great story, i know...) here's the random part. they talked to yao for a few minutes. his english is not the best. that's ok, i don't think the world has to speak english, or even speak it well. but he's hard to understand. they turned to the boy and told him he's super cool, and he said "thank you, thank you very much." in PERFECT english. no accent. so i figure they taught him how to say that, and maybe nothing else. and that he probably doesn't understand english at all. i'm just guessing. so whenever people went up to him last night, no matter what they said, that's what he responded with. "hey watch out. you're in my way, you little person." "thank you, thank you very much."