Do you care about the London Olympics? (poll)

Discussion in 'World Events' started by Syzygys, Jul 19, 2012.

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Do you care about the London 2012 Games??

Poll closed Aug 9, 2012.
  1. I care and I'll watch.

    9 vote(s)
    26.5%
  2. I'll watch, but I don't care.

    8 vote(s)
    23.5%
  3. I don't care and don't watch.

    14 vote(s)
    41.2%
  4. I care but I don't watch. Other option...

    3 vote(s)
    8.8%
  1. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,671
    Before you vote, let me explain what I mean by caring... When I was a child I cared about Olympics, even years in advance. I knew the names of the sportsmen, they were mostly amateurs, and it was a big cold war friendly contest between East and West. Not to mention national pride and other silly things...

    Then a few decades passed, I saw probably too many games (I would say 8-9). There is no cold war anymore, the players are mostly pros, and I find national pride a missguided emotion in sports, etc.etc So I don't care anymore. That doesn't mean I am not going to watch it, it just means that I don't really care who wins. The better should win, keeping in mind that it is a competition among vastly different sized countries. So a country with 5 million people beating China or the US is probably a bigger achievement than having a Dream Team bulldozing down everybody.

    So are you looking forward to the Games or are you just so-so (like the Brits themselves) about it?
     
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  3. R1D2 many leagues under the sea. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,321
    I care a little. An will watch some to very little if I can help it. GO USA!!
     
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  5. Gremmie "Happiness is a warm gun" Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,593
    I have to agree with you...

    The Olympics have lost their luster.

    I actually "worked" at the 1984 games in L.A... I thought it was awesome.

    The '88 games were so-so. Since then, I have just caught a bit here and there. Yeah sadly, it's just bullshit now...Maybe I'm just jaded, and apathetic.

    Will I watch this Olympics?... Yeah, a bit here and there. Meh.
     
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  7. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    54,036
    I worked on something that will be used in the Olympics, so I am interested in a specific athlete to see how that goes.
     
  8. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    16,479
    well in woman's beach vollyball they are no longer required to wear bikinis so i'll admit i'm not as interested as i could be.
     
  9. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    54,036
    How about hurdles?

    [video=vimeo;45784191]http://vimeo.com/45784191[/video]
     
  10. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    (Insert Title Here)

    I don't really care. For Winter Games, at least there is hockey to watch. But, no, I don't really care about the Olympics in general. I tend to see various events because the people I'm around are watching them. Thus, I'll probably see some swimming, diving, and track & field. Oh, and gymnastics.

    I think part of the problem is American network coverage of the games. I mean, yes, we know these young athletes have worked their asses off, through rain and sleet and snow, good times and bad, and so on and so forth. But NBC lays it on so thick these days that they make the striking adversity and miraculous achievements of American Olympic athletes a useless, melodramatic cliché. I think it was during the last winter games that I looked at my brother and a couple friends and said, "Did we just really see that?" because it seemed like we had watched a half-hour of downhill skiing coverage that involved fifteen minutes of backstory segments and all of three actual runs down the course.

    I no longer give a damn about all the hard work our athletes put in. I don't care what they've overcome. And, frankly, I really don't care who wins, or what the medal count is, or any of that.

    Besides, if someone sets a world record in any of the T&F events I might otherwise pay attention to, I can watch it online, at my leisure, without drowning in the would-be tearjerker stories of hardship and heroism that make up so much of American network coverage. Seriously, I'm not going to sit through twenty minutes of that crap in hope that I see the several seconds it takes to set a world record in the triple, long, or high jump.

    My mother actually said, "Maybe we'll see some of the places we went." Well, yeah. Duh. It's London. So I took a screenshot from Blood+ and sent it to her with the note: "Westminster Bridge & Parliament ... looks like the view is from the top of our hotel." But the really cool stuff we saw in England? No, we won't see that in the Olympic coverage. Well, maybe. There are some really obvious cool things. But the little pub where C fell off her chair laughing about my mother's inability to say the word, "Fart"? No. Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate, the shortest street in England, whose name is almost longer than the street itself? No. The little pub in York where I had the awesome bacon lentil soup and talked with a student from Seattle? No. The only launderette in Edinburgh we could find that was open on Sunday? Definitely no. (Okay, okay, that's Scotland, I admit, but still ....) Little Solsbury Hill? More than likely, no.

    The statue of Charles I? Oh, look! We were there! Yes, and the camera flies right over it in Half-Blood Prince. So what?

    Oh, right. I'll stop ranting now.
     
  11. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,391
    Summer Olympics is lame. Just a bunch of trust-fund weirdos who are always complaining that nobody cares about their sports at all except during the Olympics (to which I'm happy to respond by simply never caring about their sports). Seriously, who gives a crap about shot put or triple jump? Shit is stupid.

    Call me in two years when the ski and snowboard sports occur.
     
  12. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,671
    OK, maybe I should rephrase the question: Do you care for the sport value of the Olympics and not as eye candy and masturbation material?

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  13. Gremmie "Happiness is a warm gun" Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,593
    Hmmm...If you take all the fun out of it, all that's left is maybe boxing.

    The rest is crap for the most part.

    I guess I'm an old perv, I'll still watch the female events.(Sans the shot put, and other "butch" fare.
    I agree with Quad... Winter Olympics is way more watchable.
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2012
  14. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    54,036
    Isn't that enough?
    I do have a professional interest, apart from that, no- with the possible exception of Taekwondo.

    Why isn't MMA an Olympic sport?
     
  15. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,391
    Hell yeah. The speed, the danger - it's awesome. When was the last time anybody risked grievious injury in the Summer Olympics? We get, what, a few marathon runners who pass out from dehydration? Seems like somebody dies or gets crippled at every Winter Olympics though. Heck, many of the sports involve risking death just to complete a run, let alone have a shot at winning.

    Now if only they had fighting in Olympic hockey...
     
  16. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,884
    Internalizing Picabo Street, and What Ever Happened to Fay Wray?

    You know ... it's an interesting juxtaposition.

    Maybe I should have taken the hint when I was young. I did like women's gymnastics, but only in a, "What ever happened to Fay Wray?" kind of way.

    I got over it. Today's pornoworld includes a bizarre fixation on female gymnasts that defies my comprehension. I can no longer comprehend the idea that a woman is sexy simply for being in one of those outfits.

    To the other, Dan Savage suggests transvestism is not a normal part of homosexuality, so ... er ... um ... right. Never mind. I would actually link to the joke about the word "right", except the YouTube version is inappropriate for Sciforums consumption.

    Damn, I keep digressing. At any rate, sure, I care about the sport value. But NBC's coverage of the Olympics is so abysmal that I can't stand watching. I don't blame the network itself; I doubt CBS or ABC would do any better.

    And the Olympics have fueled my hetero aspects, too. Something about a brief personal moment internalizing the idea of internalizing Picabo Street, but never mind. I keep digressing.

    So ... er ... I don't know. I caught the U.S. gymnastics and track & field finals a few weeks back; I wouldn't have watched except it was one of those family dinner nights and my brother is a sports fiend who whines about me watching too much politics on TV despite the disparity in hours he spends watching ESPN. And his girlfriend was a junior high gymnast, so we had to watch that. It was a nightmare watching some woman fail to make a comeback after an injury while another made the team despite absolutely sucking. I actually spent a few minutes exploring my psyche, wondering why I wasn't turned on, but that would be another digression.

    No, honestly, it's impressive to see the T&F events; I can't believe how fast those people are. But, in the end, I just don't care. I mean, there's an event called "athletics" this year. Between that and canoe slalom ... well, I just don't know.

    And there really is no sex appeal for me about freakishly conditioned athletes. Flip a coin. Heads, I lose; tails, I lose.
     
  17. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,671
    I like the new camera angles, like the underwater shots of swimmers or the parallel running cameras to the hurdles runners or the divers. One would never be able to see from these POVs, not even live. But I just appreciate their movements, and not really counting the "unofficial national Olympic medal count".
     
  18. R1D2 many leagues under the sea. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,321
    Hmm, Why isn't MMA an Olympic sport?
    Because its way to cool for the olympics...
    Isn't there a shooting competition in THE Olympics?
    I like seeing the special olympics. Has anyone else?
     
  19. youreyes amorphous ocean Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,830
    surface to air missiles on civilian buildings, 10s of thousands of cops and military personnel, pre-game terrorist attempt charges...is this really a game setting? sounds to me like a warzone.
     
  20. R1D2 many leagues under the sea. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,321
    War zone? Its just tight security... Ha ha
     
  21. Gustav Banned Banned

    Messages:
    12,575

    omg!
    omg!!
    omg!!!
     
  22. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    20,285
    Damn, that was niiiiice

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  23. Saturnine Pariah Hell is other people Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,072
    Could really care less but if there is nothing else on i suppose i'll watch it.
     

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