Not Olympic Sports

Here is a list of sports which I don't think should be in the Olympics

- Road cycling (this is NOT the Tour de France)

- Basketball (at the very least, change the format so that American multi-millionaire NBA players are not competing for gold)

- Any sports that involve subjective judgement (anything that involves "artistic performance" is not a sport - hello Rhythmic Gymnastics)

- Chess (I heard that it has applied for inclusion in future Olympics - anything that is NOT a spectator sport should never be considered)

- Golf (come on, even the golf pros couldn't care less about it)

- Football/soccer (who cares about Olympic soccer?  At least make it 5-a-side or beach soccer or something that makes it distinct)

- Tennis (as with golf, already have 4 majors a year so Olympics is just not necessary)

- Synchronized swimming (a joke)

- Race walking (stupid)

- Equestrian sports (come on, the Olympics is about human not animal achievement)

- Trampoline (good grief, it's for children)

- Skateboarding (stick to the X-Games)

- American Football/Aussie Rules Football/Gaelic Football (as much as like all of these, they're just too regional)

- Beach Volleyball (just an excuse to minimize clothing.  Stick to regular indoor volleyball)

And I'm sure I'll discover more as I catch some of the interminable coverage on US TV.

Future Olympic Sports

There are already a load of ridiculous events in the Olympics, so here are a selection of sports which I think need to be added:

- Kabaddi (which I remember watching on Trans World Sport on Channel 4 on Saturday mornings!)

- Kick volleyball (check out the video, and tell me it shouldn't be in the Olympics)

- Squash (I was surprised to find out that it wasn't already an Olympic sport!)

- Darts, Snooker, Ten-pin bowling, Poker (tell me that none of these would be entertaining)

- Cricket (surely worthy of being an Olympic sport?  Though maybe not the test match form of the game!)

- Tug-of-War, Arm wrestling (classics!)

- MMA (I'm a big fan, and it's much better than boxing)

- Sumo wrestling (wrestling is an Olympic staple, and Sumo is the best type of wrestling apart from WWE!)

- Competitive Eating (sport of the kings)

- Rugby Union and Rugby League (if swimming is allowed to have about a gazillion different events, then let's have all forms of rugby)

- World's Strongest Man (it's good enough to be on every Christmas!)

Meeting Etiquette

An interesting observation from a meeting I recently attended at work.  Someone had flown up from California to specifically give a presentation to some of us in the Seattle office in person.  There were about 15 of us in the meeting.  The presenter was using slides, yet I couldn’t help but notice that every single attendee in the meeting apart from me had brought their laptop and had it open and was looking at that instead.  Some were just looking at the same slides, even though they were right there being presented in the meeting, and others were actually typing away on e-mails or working on something else.  But not paying attention.  It was so disrespectful, I was quite shocked and embarrassed.  I don’t know whether this is a cultural thing – virtually everyone else in the meeting was Chinese – but it was obvious and noticeable.  I have no desire to give these kind of presentations and training myself, but if I did I would make sure that everyone put their laptops away before starting.  I definitely have some opinions on being part of a group and department that is majority Chinese – none of them particularly good - but that is for another time.

Seafair

It’s Seafair Weekend in Seattle this weekend, and I only know this because I can hear and see the jets flying around over Seattle today from my cube window.  This is an annual tradition, with powerboats on Lake Washington and the Blue Angels (the US version of the Red Arrows) performing, but which I really couldn’t care less about so I’ve never bothered going to.  All it does is remind me of San Diego where I used to work near Miramar Air Base (Top Gun!), so I used to hear jets all the time – and reminds me of how much I miss living and working in San Diego.  There are certain key points in our lifetime which have significant consequences on the rest of our life, for good or bad, and definitely getting laid off and having to move back to the UK from San Diego was a big one for me.  Literally on the day I was laid off, I had a signed lease renewal on me – San Diego is perhaps the only place I’ve ever lived where I actually never wanted to move away from.  So, it is perhaps surprising that I’ve never moved back there since – I’ve had opportunities, but not the right opportunity at the right time.  With the way I’m feeling about work and Seattle at the moment, I hope that might change sometime in the next few years.

These are photos taken whilst I’m actually sitting in my cube – so you get an idea of what I have to look at for 40 hours a week!  Sadly when the jets were a lot closer, by the time I’d got my phone ready they’d already passed by…

Olympics

I think it is the opening ceremony this Friday, and I have to confess a massive feeling of indifference to this Olympics.  I’m not really sure why – I just know that I’m not going to watch much of it, and I’m certainly not going to be invested in it.  This might be a hangover from the London Olympics, it might even be a hangover from the Euros and/or Brexit with a subsequent diminishing of national pride.  But I suspect it might mostly be because I’m not looking forward to the US TV coverage of the Olympics – it wasn’t good during the London Olympics, and I don’t have high hopes of it being any better this time.  Too much focus exclusively on US athletes, and exclusively on sports that I don’t care much for but the US will undoubtedly win gold in (Olympic basketball is a joke).  I have no idea how the time zone difference is going to work out (I think they’re something like 4 hours ahead of me) and what that means in terms of following events live (I know the opening ceremony is going to be on delay), but I’d much rather watch a condensed highlights package of each day’s happenings – but that doesn’t seem to be a thing that the US does well for any sport. 

Huffington Post

I think I need to stop reading Huffington Post. There is anti-Trump coverage, but there is also ANTI-TRUMP COVERAGE.  It is hypocritical of me to criticize Daily Mail readers when I am also guilty of consuming and being influenced by extremely biased reporting.  Not that it is possible to have a positive opinion on Trump, but I don’t like the constant barrage of scaremongering and prophecies of doom and gloom.  I think most sensible and rational people know that Trump is not qualified to be President.  However, I don’t need to read sensationalist headlines like “Donald Trump Vows To Crack Down On Pornography (Yes, Really!)”.  Just let the facts and his ill-conceived words speak for themselves.  In many ways, this kind of reporting echoes the Brexit coverage in the British media – where the media was guilty of crossing the line.  Don’t let Trump use the lefty liberal media bias to score votes.  He is perfectly capable of shooting himself in the foot.

Commuting

In a sad reflection of how much time I spend in my car, I ran out of new podcasts to listen to on Friday.  I can't remember if this has ever happened before - certainly not in the last few years.  Decisions – do I spend more time listening to the radio or music, or do I attempt to seek out new podcasts to add to my current selection?  Perhaps the best solution is to move somewhere where my commute is significantly less, but frankly given the alarming increase in property prices (and hence also rental prices) in Greater Seattle, I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up moving somewhere even further out.  I’ve already adjusted my commuting times to getting in late and leaving late – not ideal, but at least I avoid the absolute worst backups (though there have still been numerous times where an accident has snarled the traffic enough to affect me by the time I head out or back).  I think the traffic in and around Seattle has got so bad that it might actually have crept into my top 3 reasons why I would want to leave Seattle.  It’s that bad.