Who's watching Olympics then?
 

Phelps is just incredible. Is it just me and Bryan that's old enough to remember Mark Spitz. His records would still be standing were it not for that moustache he had dragging him back. Where are all these Chinese swimmers that were going to blow everyone out the water, I wonder..?

Watched the horse jumping thing for a bit. There was some English upper class twit doing the comms over the course PA. "Ind it's Lucinda Hothiringham-Botheringham ceming in with a tame of blahblah." Equestrianism One little corner of Empire that's always ours.

What else.. FINLAND won a gold. WooHoo! Some woman won the clay pidgeon shooting, so well done her.

Pretty fucking hilarious that the French (of course) shot their mouths off that they came to "destroy the U.S. team" and got their asses whipped as the U.S. swimmer came from behind, while the Frenchie was looking at him in disbelief under the water, and stole the gold. Phelp's face was priceless during that moment. He was actually very cool about it and congrastulated the saucy mouthed frog swimmer immediately after it was done. That is class!

The girls U.S. gymnastics team won silver, good for them, they had some slip ups in the qualifying round (ankle injury, falling off the uneven parallel bars, a few bad dismounts, etc.) but still held their ground as good as possible.

A few days agio the U.S. had 22 medals, China 20, South Korea was in third place, and Australia (God knows how or why) was in fourth overall. Do you think HC forged his passport and is now captain of the New Zealand sheep fucking team?

;)

Those little gymnast girls. Jesus. When they do that back flip on the beam.. I can barely stand to watch. eeerk! It freaks me out just thinking about it. I remember when Olga Korbut was the first to do it at the Munich Olympics in 72. The place went mental!

No matter who got the medals, the 34 year old Russian gal who competed for Germany this year, in order to allow her son to be treated in Germany for leukemia over the past two years is a hero. She called her German friend when he was diagnosed and they worked out a deal for her to come to Germany and train, and allow the boy to be treated there as the medical faciliites in hwer country weren't sufficient.

She is in rock hard shape. They showed her in Barcelona (I think) when she was a kid and then a clip of her now twice that age running down the lane and vaulting just like the little kiddies around her. Her son endured 7 chemotherapy treatments and is now in remission.

She gets the platinum medal in my book.

Anyone watch the women's 10,000? 40 laps in under 30 minutes!

Hillarious! That was a smack to his redish swollen balls.

Michael Phelps is a monster! His defeat of Cavic last night was absolutely unbelievable! He won that race by 1/100th of a second. The Serbs protested but to no avail. There was an interview later between Mark Spitz, Michael Phelps, and Bob Costa. Spitz won seven medals in the Olympics 36 years ago. It was cool to hear him and Phelps speak with each other. Spitz gave Phelps a good pep talk but didn't blow sunshine up his arse either. When Bob Costa asked Spitz who would win if Phelps Vs. Spitz (in his prime, of course) Spitz said "Both of us would know going into a race like that what each other's strengths and weaknesses were; if you ask me who would win today I'd say it would be a tie, but if he wins another medal tomorrow I'd say he would."

:)

Aye, it's an real accomplishment with "just" his 7 medals so far. He's an great athlete indeed and it would be cool to see him win another one.

Ontopic: I haven't been watching the OS at all, which is rather odd as the only time I enjoy sports is these kind of big events.

Heard that the danish handball team dosn´t do it to well and that Joacim B. Olsen didn´t make it with the punt shooting (is it called that). Besides that i know nothing...

Usain Bolt (Jamaican) broke the world record for 100m today - 9.69secs - Was crazy to watch, he was celebrating before he finished, so I imagine he could have gone even faster!!

A truly amazing athlete.

Yes, amazing, but kind of lazy in the same stroke. He could have have shvaed another .1 second off that time say some of the judges. That just makes it easier for the next young, fast kid to knock him off the books! Oh, well, he's the current champ and I hope he enjoys it.

BMX bikes? baseball? WTF?

BMX bikes is a great sport. Shut up.
So is Super Mario.

Olympics are over, school starts for me today, Boo Hoo!

If Super Mario is an Olympic sport I will be on the U.S. team at the 2012 games in London!

:)

Must get a Wii for xmas.

Hell yes! Time to start cutting back on food and electricity...

;)

There's a rabbit game that's funny as hell, the rabbits misbehave and try to avoid getting walloped by their teacher/a busdriver, their mean boss/etc. It's hilarious!!!

Almost had my thumbs in traction after a couple of those mini games on the PS2. I assume you mean Raving Rabbids.

I feel sorry for the cow.

Every time...

B

I love life sometimes. That is just brilliant.

Going to a mate's tomorrow to watch some mindless footy game on his cable tv service. P... has all the latest hi-tech gadge - massive tv, PS3, X-box, wii the lot. My son thinks the sun shines out of his behind.

All this stuff seems pretty expensive to me. Here's some Finnish prices:
http://www.verkkokauppa.com/

Click on Pelikaupat on the left.

Peli. "Spiel" in Kraut. Kaupat "things to buy"

OVM, do hi tech products have Finnish manuals, or is it normal to switch to English for technical documents?

All gadgetry sold retail must, by law, have a Finnish and Swedish manual. I think it's E.U. law.

That makes sense, Propellerheads and Clavia being innovative Swedish companies and Finland gets credit for being connected via the occupation. But I can't figure out why we have to have things translated into French as well. What have the French ever done? Le Synthesarthur Electronique?

B

Correct! We thank Sweden for those centuries of occupation daily.

I once found a software version of an EMS synth that was made by a French guy. Only trouble was the bloody manual.. :rolleyes:

Anyway. I have to go to work today. Bugger.

I'm taking a break from work and driving up from Melbourne to Brisbane over a few weeks. No plans and no clue what I am doing.

So the insults will be much reduced until I am back. Sorry for the interruption in service.

Cheers,
B

Outside of fine wine and cheese, the greatest French accomplishment would have to be hairy women. France had a military policy years ago that if Germany were invaded by by Russia, that the French would lob low-atomic mass nuclear artillery into Germany to eliminate the potential of the Soviet advance into the land of the Gauls. I'm sure Germany was very fond of that policy.

Recently I heard that Germany will not deploy their troops in foreign conflicts (aka "NATO" projects), and that they will only use German troops to fight if Germany is invaded. The handful of German troops that are in Afghanistan are in the lowest danger/least militarily active region by Germany's decree. Funny how the formerly blood thirsty Visigoths have become passive, sissy NIMBYists. Have they forgotten the bombing of the discotechs in Berlin in the 80's/90's?

;)

You should read Der Baader Meinhoff Komplex by Stefan Aust.

Plus, Germany was forbidden to have an army that would engage in foreign engagements until it suited US policy to have them onside again.

Plus, I had a very beautiful French girlfriend when you were about 11 yrs old.

;)

Will definitley check out htat book, OVM. I've never read anything about them other than what was in the Bild Zeitung during 81'-83', when they were issuing bomb threats against my elementary school (as well as other schools in U.S. housing areas). We were driven to school in a different touring bus every day of the week as a deterrent to getting kidnapped. Can you imagine if that wasn't done? "Ohhhhh, look at the big yellow school bus filled with Amercian children! Let's pull them over and play with them!" We had no idea how much danger we were in by just being there. My Dad was shot at by a guy armed with a fully-automatic M-16 while at work, talking outside to two of his peers on a lunch break.

Another good point about Germany's army being forbidden to participate in foreign conflict until it suited U.S. policy, totally fogot about that one. I say we ask them to pay back every penny of money expended on the reconcstruction efforts during the Marshall Plan. The U.S. gets crapped on in a majority of their international aid projects of any variety, we really should keep the money at home and stay the hell out of international politics for about 20 years, since obviously everybody else has a better idea of how the world should work. At this point I'm curious to see what the big brains in the EC, China, and India, and elsewhere think should be done, and what amount of their own resourses they are willing to sacrifice for others. uesses on that one?

OK, despite my default anti-French inclinations, stats on the ex-girlfriend please. Pictures???

;)

Alex mate, I forgot your childhood in W Germany. That was indeed a hot time. I was in Frankfurt in 82 and got dragged along to the weekly demo at the airport.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Im...tbahn_West.jpg
Was quite a wake up to get blasted by police water canon and baton-charged! Looking back, I was just a naive middle class English kid who didn't know his arse from his elbow - and far too scared to get involved.
I read Baader Meinhof Komplex in German, but I think there is an English translation. If you're interested in that period, there's really no more comprehensive history. The jailed RAF members hated Aust for it. He's got a German Wiki mention:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Aust

The US will not stay out of international affairs as there's too much money being made. And why would you want the Germans to pay back all the Marshall Plan money ffs? They've all turned out to be good consumers.

You have to understand why the kids of 60's West Germany became radical. The US was using Germany as a stop-over refuelling depot for the B52's that were anihalating the Vietcong. This was genocide being repeated just 20 years after the holocaust of WW2. The post war generation in Germany was horrified at what its parents had done - and here it was happening again. NIE WIEDER was the cry and they fucking meant it. Check out Aust's book for a less glamorous and better informed summary than mine.

Finally. I wish I had some pictures mate. We're talking 27 years ago here. I spent 6 months in Bourges in France learning the language, washing plates and eating good food for the first time in my life. I have got a couple of pics of those days, but none with pretty girls. I'll try and scan them for ya!

;-)

Now there's the side of Baader Meinhof that was never discussed on U.S. Army bases - the fact that the "Fatherland" was being used as a refueling depot for the flying fortresses of death, heading for Vietnam. It's one big mind fuck isn't it? The whole story, the real picture of everything is fragmented (intentionally) into so many sub-realities in an effort to maintain the desired reality of a given people's controlling majority. No wonder comic books, TV, junk food, alcohol, and all other effortless vices have so much appeal. FFS! I've got to take some time to read these links you've dropped once my school work is done this weekend, it is info I would never have dug up on my own, so thanks for it, honest and truly. We used to sneak off the base to convert our U.S. dollar allownaces to Deutsch Marks, buy some Legos, Gummi Bears, and Bazooka bubble gum, and then sneak back on base -all the time wondering why the MPs (military police) were so damn pissed if they caught us sneaking around, because if one of our stupid asses got abducted, they would be cleaning toilets with toothbrushes in Fort Leavenworht for the rest of their enlistment...

I'll post a picture of me flicking the camera my middle finger at age 7 if you can dig up one of those vintage pictures of you in the land of the Frenchies. My brother bought a Polaroid in 1979, and I had a one-fingered answer for his request of me to say "Cheese!"

;)