Anyone Gonna Watch the Opening Ceremonies?

I love the Olympics! There’s something amazing about watching people do what I can only dream about doing.

[B][COLOR=Green]Here’s[/COLOR][/B] the schedule, in case anyone is interested.

I started an Olympic Dishcloth KAL, located [COLOR=Red][B]here[/B][/COLOR], in case y’all are interested.

Go USA! :happydance:

Yes, I’ll probably watch the opening ceremonies. I want to see what the Americans look like in their Ralph Lauren outfits! And I’ll watch the gymnastics and maybe some of the swimming (Michael Phelps!).
For some reason, I like the Winter Olympics better.

Probably will and I am going to record them for the kids to watch later. Not sure on the actual events though. From what I understand, NBC will be showing (I think) all the events on all of their channels (http://www.nbcolympics.com/).

I’m bummed, I have to work tonight…so I’ll miss the opening ceremonies. I can’t wait to watch all the competitions though, I love them as well!

I’m more of a winter Olympics person myself but I will definitely watch the opening ceremony and probably quite a lot of the actual events too.

I’m watching them right now!

Go Canada! WOO WOO!

I will definitely watch it. I love gymnastics…

I love the Olympics but have made the decision to boycott them entirely this year for political reasons. When the Olympic committe chose China to host the Olympics they made a terrible decision.

My personal opinion is that no country with the wide spread violation of human rights that China has should be allowed to host such a sacred event.

Yes, I definitely will. Can I share that my 15-year dd is a sophmore and a marching band fanatic. After a summer of camps all over the state, the season is beginning and it is always an exciting time.

Their band was invited two year ago to China and they had a concert on the Great Wall. My dd was not yet in high school ( she was in the 8th grade) but the trip was an enormous success.

I’m somewhat glad they did go two years ago since the human rights concerns have been increasingly in the forefront and many parents would likely have not allowed their kids to go even as of last year and I think I too would have suffered a crisis of conscience (sp?) if given the decision. Not altogether sure how I would have felt. I’m glad I wasn’t put in the position and it was nevertheless an amazing opportunity for the kids. The olympics was an ongoing theme of the trip.

Anyway, I look forward to watching from the perspective of the students who can show us where they had been and their impressions and stories.

That said, the band director is hyper-patriotic and I am planning a knitted collar/scarf for her in patriotic (mostly red) pallette. Which leaves me open to cool sock yarn fingering suggestions that are elegant but shade appropriate?

All in all I love this time of year, new beginnings and holidays around the corner - helps with dog days of summer-itis.

Thanks for letting me share! If you too have a band/music person(s), I’d love to hear about their adventures…

PS: Almost finished 2-day sock marathon and how do you spell carpel tunnel? My hands kept going numb while sleeping - gotta put the darn wrist braces back on and pass the Motrin. Arrgggghhhh!

loo

I’m with Ginny. No Olympics for me as long as they are in China. They have a terrible record of human rights violations and just the fact that they not only kicked people out of their homes and but then knocked them down to make the Olympic park was enough to turn me completely off.

There are political prisoners in China who are imprisoned simply because they disagreed with their government. China is a nasty nation and I’m disgusted with the Olympic Committee for deciding to let them host these Olympic Games.

Yes, it is a shame that the Olympic committee chose China as the host of the games. China has a horrible record of human rights violations. It is disgusting. However, these young people have trained their entire lives to get to this world stage and I will watch for them. They deserve it. It’s not their fault that the Olympic committee make a horrible choice for China to be the backdrop for their triumphs and incredible dedication.

I think it’s a shame that atheletes’ feats won’t be seen…because of politics. This is their time to shine, despite what’s going on in the world. They have been blessed with tremendous skills and have worked so hard to get where they are.

That’s why I watch the Olympics.

(Spoken from the perspective of a soccer mom who sees kids lay it all out on the field every weekend.)

Oh, and I certainly respect everyone’s decision to watch or not watch. You all know that. We have to do what our hearts lead us to do.

:hug:

GO USA!!!

(I think I might go get a manicure now…with the USA flag airbrushed on my nails…:teehee:)

I know my view is not necessarily a popular one and that is ok, I don’t expect everyone to agree. I do agree it is unfortunate for the youth (and older folk) who have trained their entrie lives. But the general opinion of many involved (I have a patient who is on the US Olympic committee) is that China is going to do many things that will give them a distinct advantac\ge.

It is known that China has been genetically engineering athletes for years and this Olypic is one where many of their “expiraments” are being competed. They are not allowing many countries to bring their alternates to the country. The alternates must wait to be needed in nearby countries, adding to their stress and the likely hood that they will not be able to compete.
Millions of Chinese have been left homeless because of the Government taking over their homes to build the various venues.

The whole situation just makes me weep.

No – because I don’t have cable & nothing comes in without it.

I will still be knitting dishcloths, however.

I know for sure that my opinion will not be a popular one, but… I watched the opening ceremony and i think it was remarkable and absolutely breathtaking. I don’t think a nation of a billion and so people with history and culture going back a few thousand years (and that’s much more than any European culture or US) should be regarded as “nasty”. Their leadership is not the people. Also, if we’re talking politics, which i mostly dislike, then we should boycott the next Olympics, because UK in some point conquered about half the world and it is a common fact that human rights weren’t their primary goal. So the Barcelona Olympics (i think that annihilation of ancient Indian cultures also stand for human rights violation) etc. etc. IMHO, it’s a known fact that the Olympic games are a somewhat political event and so is the choice of the country hosting them. That way Moscow was chosen to host the 1980 games and many other places. With all the problematic aspects of Chinese policy taken into account, i think China is an outstanding economical and political force on today’s political and economical arena (no pun intended) and should not be disregarded.
As we don’t own a TV, I don’t get to see the competitions, which sucks actually…

We just got back from camping in a tent in Colorado so we did not see the opening, but I have it on DVR and will be watching it tonight. Since I can remember I have never missed an Olympics. To me it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the human spirit. I do tend to be more of a Winter Olympics person though, so I usually catch more of those events than I do the Summer ones. I am really looking forward to all of the swimming, diving and gymnastics though.

The opening ceremony was simply fantastic, we thoroughly enjoyed it! :cheering:

I saw an interesting story today. Tom Brokaw had a story about the 1984 Summer Olympics when the Soviet Union decided to boycott and threatened that 100 countries would follow suit. The committee organizer sent out volunteers to over 100 countries to try to persuade them to attend…the biggest and most important country being China.

In the end, China promised, via oral and written word, to attend, thus possibly securing the future of the Olympics (as it had been suffering the ramifications of world politics).

I think it’s fitting that the U.S. is supporting China right now. Repaying a favor, if you will.

Thus far, it’s been a good few days, with the exception of the early tragedy.

I understand the issues surrounding the Olympics being in China but the opening ceremony was amazing. To get 2008 people on the floor at the same time to perform the detailed routines they performed was amazing to watch. I’m sure the majority of the performers wanted to do well for their country. It’s sort of like the parent-child relationship, parents don’t always do right but children still love their parents and I’m sure these people still love their country.

I appreciate the fact that people can express their opinions here without getting attacked. It would certainly be a boring world if we all agreed!!

A dog forum I am on just had a terrible row over a thread on the Olympics (no I didn’t post to the thread:roflhard: ) with Moderators threatening to lock the thread if anything else was said.

There was an interesting report on the news this weekend about the Chinese economy. Apparently the young people are becoming less politically motivated and less likely to fight the government or protest as the economy gets better and better and they are able to enjoy more material things. Nothing has changed as far as Human Rights or the fact that there are very few personal freedoms in China since the uprising of the 80’s but there is much less protest when it is wrapped with a more materialistic society.

I’m not sure I consider that progress. China is most definately a politicial and ecomomic force in the world today but I am not sure I would call it “outstanding”.