The Closing Ceremonies was a fitting end to the Beijing Olympic Games. The Chinese again dazzled with remarkable feats of acrobatics and sheer people. Lots of color and light brought amazing images into our minds. When it was time for the British handover for the Games in London in 2012, we got a small glimpse of how different the Games will be. Jimmy Page playing guitar on top of a double decker bus, while people danced below, almost like a music video. London’s budget for the Games is something like 11 Billion. Beijing’s was over 40 Billion. Its going to be different. Nobody will every have that kind of money to throw at it again. Only the Chinese government could get away with it now. No other government would ever be able to justify such an amount.
These Games were spectacular in many ways. Beautiful venues, compelling stories of triumph, and just plain old great competition. To watch the men’s swimming relay, and the women’s gymnastics all-around final, the U.S. women’s soccer team, and U.S. Men’s basketball team have fantastic finishes was amazing. The U.S. men’s volleyball team won a thrilling game over Brazil in a fitting tribute to their coach whose family had just been struck by tragedy. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the competition this Games. I will never forget the Michael Phelps performance. To be at the Games where that took place is being a part of history. And then to have met the guy who put in the most amazing relay swim in history was awesome.
To have had the opportunity to hold an actual silver medal in my hand and see the amazing beauty of the Jade ring on the back and see the equaled awe in the eyes of the athlete sharing it with me was incredible. What a moment to share in.
To have had the opportunity to go and experience Track and Field in the National Stadium with 90,000 screaming and cheering fans, is something I’ll never forget. There were only three of us that got to experience finals at Athletics. What a blessing.
My Olympic experiences are always blessings. I never have any idea what I’m going to experience. Sometimes I go in with a plan, and none of it works. Sometimes the plan works beautifully, but the end experience isn’t the most memorable. Sometimes they are indirect blessings that sneak up on you. I’m had the pleasure of exchanging about 6 or 7 emails with long time sports columnist Rick Reilly while I have been here. I met him in Salt Lake City, and low and behold he still has his same personal email address. I wrote him at the beginning of the Games to see if he would be here. He wasn’t but he was writing about it. So I sent him some feedback about one of his columns, and emails went back and forth. This is the guy that inspired me to begin writing back when I was in high school. That has been one of the coolest elements of this experience.
After the Closing Ceremonies were completed I got another opportunity to have a great interaction. There is always a company party at the close of the transmission. Its at the IBC and it invites everyone from the company. At this event, besides free food, drinks, and dancing, there is the opportunity to thank bosses, and network. I got to have a picture taken with Dr. Jim Owens of Asbury, who made all of this happen and Manolo Romero the President of the company.
On my last night there, the entire department went out to dinner at an Arabian themed place. We had a great time laughing about all the funny situations that had occurred during our stay. The food was fantastic and the chance for a proper sendoff was appreciated by everyone. I had bought a white hat earlier in the day, and I was able to get everyone to sign it. Now I can put it on display and remember everyone I worked with and the stories that come to mind with each name. Finally as the evening came to a close, what struck me about the parting of ways was this: I was the first to leave for home and everybody came up to me and did not simply give me a handshake, but a hug. It was as if we were a family saying goodbye to each other. Several of the harder to love individuals who I had specifically spent quality time with, gave me very poignant goodbyes. That spoke volumes to me. It was the payoff for the for all the moments I had put others before myself. I had been quick to praise the overlooked, give to those that wanted, and look out for the good of the team. It was noticed. The final hug goodbye came from the supervisor, Milan. He said “Great job and see you in Canada my friend.” Well that had not happened in Athens. He said great job, but there was no comment about the future. I don’t know what the future will bring, but I have a feeling if I want it to include the Games, it will. That is certainly something I will have to pray about going forward.
The very final interesting thing that happened on my journey home, was I met Jason Kidd who was on my flight. I congratulated him on the Gold Medal, and told him how much entertainment he had provided. The flights home ended up being very smooth and now I am fighting the jet lag. Hopefully I can beat it sooner rather than later.
I hoped you all enjoyed a bit of an inside scoop on the Olympics. I hope what I wrote made you think a little bit about the rest of the world. If anything I said spurned you to have more questions, I would love to answer them and correspond further. I have also decided that I will continue this blog on a once a week basis. I really enjoy writing and between having a wife in medical school and the adventures I get into at work, there is enough material I think to keep things interesting. My email address for further comments is philcobb@gmail.com
Thanks for reading,
-Phil
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
You're still watching?
Today was day 15 of competition. It should be called day 2 of “oh, you’re still here and watching? We thought you would be done after swimming and gymnastics.” You say day 2? Yeah, there are a few other sports people watch that happen in the second week, like track and field, or women’s soccer, but the majority of what’s on the second half of week two feels like Olympic Title IX in action.
Some of these sports need some help to make them a little more appealing to the masses. I have some ideas:
Trampoline: They put a basketball goal on each side of the trampoline and they have to dunk after each flip or twist: And now Svetlana Vorkhof will do her famous 4 1/2 flip tuck 2 1/2 twist windmill jam. What a crowd favorite. They would get bonus points for wearing a mascot outfit.
Taekwondo: Every point has to be scored from the crane kick position, and instead of padded helmets they were headbands with random chinese characters on the side. And of course there has to be a female love interest watching anxiously from the side of the mat, and the coach must have a fu man chu beard and address his athlete ending in son. “Lopezson, remember wax on, crane kick. Now go beat Jacksonson.”
Syncronized Swimming: Easy, they have to incorporate dolphins and killer whales into the routine, its worked for Sea World for years.
Rhythmic Gymnastics: Every prop is on fire. Let’s see katrina gracefully twirl that ribbon now.
Modern Pentathalon: Its sort of based off the the aristocratic society concept of a prince being good at all these different disciplines. It really is a whacky combination; simplified fencing, swimming, horseback riding, running, and shooting. Well in my version they do it old school and the fencing is the last event. Based on how you do in the other four sports depends on how sharpe your sword is and how much protection you get to wear. “Dimitri Karcolkof, is really wishing he’d practiced his swimming technique, as he faces the difficult last event wearing only his speedo and wielding a broomstick.
Sailing: You have a hole in your boat, you’re carrying a record load of fish, and a storm is approaching. I bet that increases the urgency to finish the course.
Swimming Marathon: Added for Beijing, I can’t help this one. As if watching people run a marathon is boring enough, swimming is even worse.
Table Tennis: This one needs to have the playing field leveled a bit, so all Chinese competitors must take a drink of beer after losing a point. Let’s see Wang Li hit her famous serves after 4 cans of Budweiser hit her 90 pound body.
(Funny aside that is true rule in Olympics: alcohol is a banned substance in archery because of its ability to calm, competitors must abstain from alcoholic beverages 1 month prior to competition. Not even making that up.)
Canoeing/Kayaking: Its always held in West Virginia, there is banjo music playing over speakers going down the river, and whatever happens on the river stays on the river. Everyone who makes it to the finish automatically gets a medal.
Wrestling: They add ropes, fireworks, and announcer and they come into a theme song. And in this corner hailing from Iran the Cleric of Chaaaoooosssss! His opponent from Russia, Boris the Ukranian Undertaker. For the Gold Medal Match they drop a cage over the mat.
Dressage: It doesn’t need any help. I watched the Grand Prix final the other night. You ever seen this stuff. They get the horses to dance to stuff like Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, 80s one hit wonders. I had no idea Dressage could actually be entertaining to watch. The horse skipped across the ring to Sympathy for the Devil better than Mick Jagger.
So, I think that if these few changes are implemented, the ratings for week two could be even better than week 1. I’ve sent my ideas to Jacque Rogge, and his people said they would get back to me.
In all seriousness, you can really feel things winding down. Venues now are hosting all Gold Medal games for team sports and individual competitions. We’ve already shut down half of the venues. There are parts of the day now with only two events happening, versus last Saturday with 32 events happening simultaneously. When you watch network coverage you have no concept of how much stuff is going on at the Games. While you watch Phelps swim and Nastia flip, there are about 10 other competitions happening. You really end up missing a lot of amazing performances by athletes from other countries. Some of the Table Tennis that gets played is hard to fathom. I don’t know how people develop reaction times like these athletes. Even shooting skeet. They shoot at 100 fired skeet, and the winner hit 93. Are you kidding me? And these people train for these less popular sports while working full time and living a pretty normal life. I say pretty normal, because they have to mix in hours of training. At its best the Games is a fantastic venue for really hardworking, disciplined athletes to show off and compete. And outside of the superstar, celebrity, athletes, most have an incredible experience living in the Athlete’s Village, getting to know people from all over the world, and sighting seeing in the Olympic City. I run into random athletes all the time downtown. Boxers from Poland, Judo competitors from Brazil, etc.
Not to mention getting to meet the journalists from all over the world. Yesterday, I met a lady from the U.S. who works for Reuters. She covers cycling for the Games, but covers politics the rest of the time. She is currently on the trail with Obama, on the plain, bus, wherever he is. Fascinating to ask her questions about what he is like and to talk about the upcoming elections. She says he is actually a very genuine down to earth guy, and is a basketball nut.
Last night I road the bus with the primetime anchor for Channel Seven Australia. We chatted about our families, the Olympic experience, and what we enjoy most about telling stories. She was very nice, took a picture with me as we parted ways.
I like talking to Australians because they say things like “I was really buggered about not getting to do that” or “Aren’t you a shocker.” (Cute, funny) Lincoln says this one all the time “Ah, good on ya mate.” (sounds like things are going well) And of course Cheers (Goodbye).
The next entry will about the Closing Ceremonies. Love the fireworks. Until then, Cheers Mate!
Some of these sports need some help to make them a little more appealing to the masses. I have some ideas:
Trampoline: They put a basketball goal on each side of the trampoline and they have to dunk after each flip or twist: And now Svetlana Vorkhof will do her famous 4 1/2 flip tuck 2 1/2 twist windmill jam. What a crowd favorite. They would get bonus points for wearing a mascot outfit.
Taekwondo: Every point has to be scored from the crane kick position, and instead of padded helmets they were headbands with random chinese characters on the side. And of course there has to be a female love interest watching anxiously from the side of the mat, and the coach must have a fu man chu beard and address his athlete ending in son. “Lopezson, remember wax on, crane kick. Now go beat Jacksonson.”
Syncronized Swimming: Easy, they have to incorporate dolphins and killer whales into the routine, its worked for Sea World for years.
Rhythmic Gymnastics: Every prop is on fire. Let’s see katrina gracefully twirl that ribbon now.
Modern Pentathalon: Its sort of based off the the aristocratic society concept of a prince being good at all these different disciplines. It really is a whacky combination; simplified fencing, swimming, horseback riding, running, and shooting. Well in my version they do it old school and the fencing is the last event. Based on how you do in the other four sports depends on how sharpe your sword is and how much protection you get to wear. “Dimitri Karcolkof, is really wishing he’d practiced his swimming technique, as he faces the difficult last event wearing only his speedo and wielding a broomstick.
Sailing: You have a hole in your boat, you’re carrying a record load of fish, and a storm is approaching. I bet that increases the urgency to finish the course.
Swimming Marathon: Added for Beijing, I can’t help this one. As if watching people run a marathon is boring enough, swimming is even worse.
Table Tennis: This one needs to have the playing field leveled a bit, so all Chinese competitors must take a drink of beer after losing a point. Let’s see Wang Li hit her famous serves after 4 cans of Budweiser hit her 90 pound body.
(Funny aside that is true rule in Olympics: alcohol is a banned substance in archery because of its ability to calm, competitors must abstain from alcoholic beverages 1 month prior to competition. Not even making that up.)
Canoeing/Kayaking: Its always held in West Virginia, there is banjo music playing over speakers going down the river, and whatever happens on the river stays on the river. Everyone who makes it to the finish automatically gets a medal.
Wrestling: They add ropes, fireworks, and announcer and they come into a theme song. And in this corner hailing from Iran the Cleric of Chaaaoooosssss! His opponent from Russia, Boris the Ukranian Undertaker. For the Gold Medal Match they drop a cage over the mat.
Dressage: It doesn’t need any help. I watched the Grand Prix final the other night. You ever seen this stuff. They get the horses to dance to stuff like Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, 80s one hit wonders. I had no idea Dressage could actually be entertaining to watch. The horse skipped across the ring to Sympathy for the Devil better than Mick Jagger.
So, I think that if these few changes are implemented, the ratings for week two could be even better than week 1. I’ve sent my ideas to Jacque Rogge, and his people said they would get back to me.
In all seriousness, you can really feel things winding down. Venues now are hosting all Gold Medal games for team sports and individual competitions. We’ve already shut down half of the venues. There are parts of the day now with only two events happening, versus last Saturday with 32 events happening simultaneously. When you watch network coverage you have no concept of how much stuff is going on at the Games. While you watch Phelps swim and Nastia flip, there are about 10 other competitions happening. You really end up missing a lot of amazing performances by athletes from other countries. Some of the Table Tennis that gets played is hard to fathom. I don’t know how people develop reaction times like these athletes. Even shooting skeet. They shoot at 100 fired skeet, and the winner hit 93. Are you kidding me? And these people train for these less popular sports while working full time and living a pretty normal life. I say pretty normal, because they have to mix in hours of training. At its best the Games is a fantastic venue for really hardworking, disciplined athletes to show off and compete. And outside of the superstar, celebrity, athletes, most have an incredible experience living in the Athlete’s Village, getting to know people from all over the world, and sighting seeing in the Olympic City. I run into random athletes all the time downtown. Boxers from Poland, Judo competitors from Brazil, etc.
Not to mention getting to meet the journalists from all over the world. Yesterday, I met a lady from the U.S. who works for Reuters. She covers cycling for the Games, but covers politics the rest of the time. She is currently on the trail with Obama, on the plain, bus, wherever he is. Fascinating to ask her questions about what he is like and to talk about the upcoming elections. She says he is actually a very genuine down to earth guy, and is a basketball nut.
Last night I road the bus with the primetime anchor for Channel Seven Australia. We chatted about our families, the Olympic experience, and what we enjoy most about telling stories. She was very nice, took a picture with me as we parted ways.
I like talking to Australians because they say things like “I was really buggered about not getting to do that” or “Aren’t you a shocker.” (Cute, funny) Lincoln says this one all the time “Ah, good on ya mate.” (sounds like things are going well) And of course Cheers (Goodbye).
The next entry will about the Closing Ceremonies. Love the fireworks. Until then, Cheers Mate!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Update part 2
Well I was at the Today Show just an hour ago, met Al, Meredith, and Ann. I also met several members of the women's water polo team that won the silver. I mention that because I got to hold one of the girls silver medals. Its pretty heavy! The jade on the back is very impressive. I told her it was the nicest paper weight she'll ever have, and she laughed pretty hard. Very nice girls.
I was standing in the first row behind the fence in back of their main desk, behind an American flag draped over the fence. I had on a green shirt. The lady standing next to me got a text from a friend in the States saying she could see her, so I assumed that was the same for me. It was really quite fun, because I was so close to everything. I made some quick tourist friends waiting for the show to start and we really had a fun conversation and even traded some pins. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I told Al I wanted to apply for the position of equipment manager for he and Matt's Rhythmic Gymnastics team. He laughed. I had watched the video of it at work hours earlier. Pretty funny. Saturday is their last day from Beijing. I will post another longer entry later, but wanted to post this after prepping everyone.
I was standing in the first row behind the fence in back of their main desk, behind an American flag draped over the fence. I had on a green shirt. The lady standing next to me got a text from a friend in the States saying she could see her, so I assumed that was the same for me. It was really quite fun, because I was so close to everything. I made some quick tourist friends waiting for the show to start and we really had a fun conversation and even traded some pins. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I told Al I wanted to apply for the position of equipment manager for he and Matt's Rhythmic Gymnastics team. He laughed. I had watched the video of it at work hours earlier. Pretty funny. Saturday is their last day from Beijing. I will post another longer entry later, but wanted to post this after prepping everyone.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Quick Update
Just wanted to post the message that Friday night for me morning for you I'm going to head over to the Today Show, so anybody that watches can be on the look out for a really good looking, non-Chinese guy in the crowd. I'm going to attempt to be there earlier rather than later in the broadcast.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Athletics spectacular
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to meet some world class athletes. I was walking out of the IBC by the exit from NBC and out of sheer lucky timing I crossed paths with three gold medalists finishing up interviews. Aaron Piersol, Jason Lezak, and Brendan Hansen, 3/4 of the United States medley relay team were still in their Team USA warmups with victory roses in hand from the medal ceremony 4 hours after the event. I shook the hand of each and offered congratulations. Each one obliged the greeting and climbed into a minivan waiting to take them to the Athletes Village. This was the first time in three Olympics that I’ve ever gotten to meet such high profile gold medalists. They were actually the second meeting of the day. Twenty minutes earlier I had run into Rebecca Soni, the new 200 meter breast stroke world record holder after she too had finished an interview. It was quite thrilling to be able to congratulate athletes who throughout the week had given me such an entertaining performance.
The main event for the day, and what will be a lasting memory for my life was the opportunity to attend an event. In the past Olympics I’ve attended speed skating, men’s indoor volleyball, and table tennis. At two of those events I witnessed medals being awarded. It was a great experience but somewhat lacking in true Olympic buzz. So you can imagine my excitement at finding out a way to arrange an upgrade pass for entry of Lincoln and myself to the Bird’s Nest for Track and Field in Primetime Sunday night. We would get to see the showcase venue up close and personal, without even buying a ticket. In actuality, going with our pass gave us access to areas that normal tickets would never have. Here is an Insider’s View into Athletics at the National Stadium.
Upon walking up to the stadium there is a huge plaza that separates the Nest’s enormous compound from another enormous showcase, the Water Cube. The Stadium is surrounded by very well maintained flower gardens with little light posts along walkways that incorporate the architectural elements of the Nest into their look. We had been instructed to report to the television compound to obtain our passes. The Compound manager met us with two passes and a stern warning to bring the passes back to him at the end of the night. He also made a passing comment of his unusual generosity in giving us access to the evening session. We thanked him profusely and made small talk for a minute or so and then he directed us to follow the hundreds of cables leading from the compound into the stadium structure. We headed down into the bowels of the enormous facility following the heaps of wiring carrying the video, audio, and information that enable the magic. We arrived at a lower concourse that had several pass checks. We flashed our passes and were given access to every point we came to, passing several interesting sights along the way. For the first time I was able to see the venue mixed zone. A mixed zone is where the press and video media are able to interview the athletes. The press get a bit of a raw deal at the Games. They have to line up inside the main lower concourse in queue lines with questions and recorders in hand. The reason I say raw deal is that the athletes get interviewed by the Broadcast media immediately exiting the field in the video mixed zone. They answered numerous questions, then the press get a crack at them. By then, they are done, so the press gets the short end of the stick most of the time. Most of you probably didn’t know this but, athletes cannot simply exit the field to the locker room. The field exit literally winds winds in between several rows of rented space cubicles that usually contain a reporter and a cameraman. In order to skip interviews they have to actually walk past and ignore reporters who could reach out and grab them. Its a system that is designed to create interview opportunities. The location of the mixed zones, help give an impression that the interview is taking place down on the field. Its not, its actually occurring about thirty feet away and several feet up from the track surface.
Continuing on we went up several flight of stairs, following signs for the Commentary Control Room, or CCR. This room is the extension of my department at the venue. All the commentators equipment is wired to feed this room built into the back of the lower level stands. In there all the audio circuits are monitored and then they are fed into digital modems that carry the signals to the main broadcast center switching center which is where I work. At the National Stadium we get to know the crew there pretty well over the period of the Games because we work extensively with them in getting things ready for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. It has the most commentary positions, and special compound feeds of any of the venues. Track and Field is still the grandaddy of the Games. More countries are interested in Athletics because of the broad nature of the events and the fact that many of the smaller nations can compete in many of the track events. It doesn’t require a lot of expensive equipment to run.
We walked into the CCR and greeted the crew. Lincoln and I took in the setup, which for us was very helpful because the switching center acts as the lead on trouble shooting. So any insight we have on the other side of the line helps us help the venues figure out issues. After some time of swapping stories, the CCR manager showed us the observation seating area. The seats were right outside the room and located just above the start finish line, behind the mixed zone. We were about 40 feet from the track. We grabbed two seats and took in the scene. The stadium was at capactiy, filled with color and waving mini flags representing dozens of nations. Two giant scoreboards gave stats on the action taking place on the field. One was in Chinese and the other in English. There also two giant video boards showing closeups of the various things happening down on the field of play. Camera flashes continually popped up little white sparks of light. Above the three levels of seats ringing the stadium was the enduring image of the Olympics: The Torch. It was across the stadium from us creating a perfect backdrop for many of our pictures.
For any of you that have ever attended a track meet you know that it is a bit of a circus. There are running events, jumping events, and throwing events all happening at the same time on different parts of the field surface. On this particular evening there were sprint and hurdle running events, the high jump and triple jump, and the hammer throw. If there is ever a sport that television doesn’t do justice to its the hammer throw. We were watching the men’s final. These guys were launching cannon balls attached to metal wires from a cage, about half way across the green field. It was unbelievable. Its sort of like when cheerleaders use that air cannon to launch t-shirts into the stands, except that in this case the object would kill you. Same sort of flight path. Once the hammer lands on the field it is picked up and returned to the cage, via a remote controlled car. Yep, that’s right somebody gets paid to drive a remote controlled car back and forth on the field of play returning throw objects like a game of fetch.
On this particular night the women’s 100 meter final was being run. When it came time for the event everyone pulled out their cameras and got ready to witness the fastest woman in the world be crowned. The amazing thing about the race is that when it actually happens its over so quick, you don’t even have time to react.
We witnessed a new world record in the 3,000 meter women’s steeplechase. There was a medal winner from China recognized, and to hear the roar of 80,000 Chinese fans was something I will always remember. It was unreal. Pride in their athletics achievement is not something they have to conjure up here.
We took a number of pictures, walked around the concourse admiring the architecture, and then returned our passes calling it a night. It was an experience that was unexpected but certainly welcomed and will leave me a lasting memory. What a blessing. When I get back into the States I will post some of the photos from the evening, so you can get a little more visual perspective. 8 days left on my Chinese adventure.
The main event for the day, and what will be a lasting memory for my life was the opportunity to attend an event. In the past Olympics I’ve attended speed skating, men’s indoor volleyball, and table tennis. At two of those events I witnessed medals being awarded. It was a great experience but somewhat lacking in true Olympic buzz. So you can imagine my excitement at finding out a way to arrange an upgrade pass for entry of Lincoln and myself to the Bird’s Nest for Track and Field in Primetime Sunday night. We would get to see the showcase venue up close and personal, without even buying a ticket. In actuality, going with our pass gave us access to areas that normal tickets would never have. Here is an Insider’s View into Athletics at the National Stadium.
Upon walking up to the stadium there is a huge plaza that separates the Nest’s enormous compound from another enormous showcase, the Water Cube. The Stadium is surrounded by very well maintained flower gardens with little light posts along walkways that incorporate the architectural elements of the Nest into their look. We had been instructed to report to the television compound to obtain our passes. The Compound manager met us with two passes and a stern warning to bring the passes back to him at the end of the night. He also made a passing comment of his unusual generosity in giving us access to the evening session. We thanked him profusely and made small talk for a minute or so and then he directed us to follow the hundreds of cables leading from the compound into the stadium structure. We headed down into the bowels of the enormous facility following the heaps of wiring carrying the video, audio, and information that enable the magic. We arrived at a lower concourse that had several pass checks. We flashed our passes and were given access to every point we came to, passing several interesting sights along the way. For the first time I was able to see the venue mixed zone. A mixed zone is where the press and video media are able to interview the athletes. The press get a bit of a raw deal at the Games. They have to line up inside the main lower concourse in queue lines with questions and recorders in hand. The reason I say raw deal is that the athletes get interviewed by the Broadcast media immediately exiting the field in the video mixed zone. They answered numerous questions, then the press get a crack at them. By then, they are done, so the press gets the short end of the stick most of the time. Most of you probably didn’t know this but, athletes cannot simply exit the field to the locker room. The field exit literally winds winds in between several rows of rented space cubicles that usually contain a reporter and a cameraman. In order to skip interviews they have to actually walk past and ignore reporters who could reach out and grab them. Its a system that is designed to create interview opportunities. The location of the mixed zones, help give an impression that the interview is taking place down on the field. Its not, its actually occurring about thirty feet away and several feet up from the track surface.
Continuing on we went up several flight of stairs, following signs for the Commentary Control Room, or CCR. This room is the extension of my department at the venue. All the commentators equipment is wired to feed this room built into the back of the lower level stands. In there all the audio circuits are monitored and then they are fed into digital modems that carry the signals to the main broadcast center switching center which is where I work. At the National Stadium we get to know the crew there pretty well over the period of the Games because we work extensively with them in getting things ready for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. It has the most commentary positions, and special compound feeds of any of the venues. Track and Field is still the grandaddy of the Games. More countries are interested in Athletics because of the broad nature of the events and the fact that many of the smaller nations can compete in many of the track events. It doesn’t require a lot of expensive equipment to run.
We walked into the CCR and greeted the crew. Lincoln and I took in the setup, which for us was very helpful because the switching center acts as the lead on trouble shooting. So any insight we have on the other side of the line helps us help the venues figure out issues. After some time of swapping stories, the CCR manager showed us the observation seating area. The seats were right outside the room and located just above the start finish line, behind the mixed zone. We were about 40 feet from the track. We grabbed two seats and took in the scene. The stadium was at capactiy, filled with color and waving mini flags representing dozens of nations. Two giant scoreboards gave stats on the action taking place on the field. One was in Chinese and the other in English. There also two giant video boards showing closeups of the various things happening down on the field of play. Camera flashes continually popped up little white sparks of light. Above the three levels of seats ringing the stadium was the enduring image of the Olympics: The Torch. It was across the stadium from us creating a perfect backdrop for many of our pictures.
For any of you that have ever attended a track meet you know that it is a bit of a circus. There are running events, jumping events, and throwing events all happening at the same time on different parts of the field surface. On this particular evening there were sprint and hurdle running events, the high jump and triple jump, and the hammer throw. If there is ever a sport that television doesn’t do justice to its the hammer throw. We were watching the men’s final. These guys were launching cannon balls attached to metal wires from a cage, about half way across the green field. It was unbelievable. Its sort of like when cheerleaders use that air cannon to launch t-shirts into the stands, except that in this case the object would kill you. Same sort of flight path. Once the hammer lands on the field it is picked up and returned to the cage, via a remote controlled car. Yep, that’s right somebody gets paid to drive a remote controlled car back and forth on the field of play returning throw objects like a game of fetch.
On this particular night the women’s 100 meter final was being run. When it came time for the event everyone pulled out their cameras and got ready to witness the fastest woman in the world be crowned. The amazing thing about the race is that when it actually happens its over so quick, you don’t even have time to react.
We witnessed a new world record in the 3,000 meter women’s steeplechase. There was a medal winner from China recognized, and to hear the roar of 80,000 Chinese fans was something I will always remember. It was unreal. Pride in their athletics achievement is not something they have to conjure up here.
We took a number of pictures, walked around the concourse admiring the architecture, and then returned our passes calling it a night. It was an experience that was unexpected but certainly welcomed and will leave me a lasting memory. What a blessing. When I get back into the States I will post some of the photos from the evening, so you can get a little more visual perspective. 8 days left on my Chinese adventure.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Hmm, I'll pass
Pin collection is a shrewd business. It takes cleverness and patience. You have to stick to your guns in order to win out on the swap. For me pin collecting is not what it is to others. Some people go nuts over collecting and swapping pins. Me, no, what I do is go after very specific pins that represent a memory or event. For instance, if there is a particular broadcaster I’ve done a lot of work with, I will attempt to get a hold of a pin from them. If there is a particular place that holds a good memory, I will either trade for a pin with that place or I will buy one.
My main motivation now is to build up a collection that supports a good shadow box display. Stacey is really good at display handicrafts and she can take the various items I’ve collected and turn it into a fine piece of art. I have a very cool display from Athens she put together, and I’ve been collecting items she can use for a Beijing display. What I love about this type of souvenir, is when its on display in my house and I see it, it brings back great memories of not just the events and experiences but of the relationships that are a part of the memories.
Outside of the main press center there is a whole other level of pin trading going on. Professional pin traders stand outside the press center hoping to trade for press and broadcast pins that are rare. These guys travel to every Olympics and every day come outside to trade, looking for the rare pin that has never been seen before. Its amazing to see all the companies and places represented in the collections these guys have. They’ve dedicated much of their lives to this hobby. Glad I’m not them.
On a totally unrelated note I made a visit several days ago to a place that you may have seen on the news coverage of the Games. The Wang Fu Vendor street. This is the place where they fry everything in front of you and serve it up on a stick. In walking down the street a menu of the following could be offered: Fried silkworm, fried squid, fried grasshopper, fried centipede, fried snake, fried starfish, fried sea horse, fried scorpion (small and large), sugar coated watermelon, honeydew melon, strawberries, grapes, kiwi, pineapple, stewed DOG, and my personal favorites, fried sheep testicle and fried sheep penus. The smell is enough to make you toss your cookies without even putting anything in your mouth. On my visit I was with Jared, and he had tried this stuff the other night. I patted him on the back and said you the man, you can have the title. Even though most of it all tastes the same after frying it (according to everyone who has jumped on the opportunity) the sheer psychological damage I envisioned wasn’t worth it. I liked watching Fear Factor, but I never wanted to actually participate myself. So it makes for a good laugh, a good cringe, but not an experience I wanted to venture in on. It doesn’t help things when the Chinese man across the counter, smiles and in broken English says “try the sheep testicles, truly delicious!” Riiiiggghhhtttt.
The torch burning in the Stadium has so much gas pumping into it, when no action is going on you can pick it up on the commentary unit microphones. Our venue manager at the Bird’s Nest noticed that the other day, while troubleshooting a noise on the circuit he couldn’t figure out. He then discovered it was the gas line feeding the flame. If oil prices jump even more the next few weeks, you’ll know why. Its a pretty amazing site, the torch, burning on top of the stadium. The stadium is incredible and that torch up there is just beautiful and quite the symbol for the competition.
I read Michael Phelps makes about 5 million a year in endorsements. Imagine what that amount is going to be now.
My main motivation now is to build up a collection that supports a good shadow box display. Stacey is really good at display handicrafts and she can take the various items I’ve collected and turn it into a fine piece of art. I have a very cool display from Athens she put together, and I’ve been collecting items she can use for a Beijing display. What I love about this type of souvenir, is when its on display in my house and I see it, it brings back great memories of not just the events and experiences but of the relationships that are a part of the memories.
Outside of the main press center there is a whole other level of pin trading going on. Professional pin traders stand outside the press center hoping to trade for press and broadcast pins that are rare. These guys travel to every Olympics and every day come outside to trade, looking for the rare pin that has never been seen before. Its amazing to see all the companies and places represented in the collections these guys have. They’ve dedicated much of their lives to this hobby. Glad I’m not them.
On a totally unrelated note I made a visit several days ago to a place that you may have seen on the news coverage of the Games. The Wang Fu Vendor street. This is the place where they fry everything in front of you and serve it up on a stick. In walking down the street a menu of the following could be offered: Fried silkworm, fried squid, fried grasshopper, fried centipede, fried snake, fried starfish, fried sea horse, fried scorpion (small and large), sugar coated watermelon, honeydew melon, strawberries, grapes, kiwi, pineapple, stewed DOG, and my personal favorites, fried sheep testicle and fried sheep penus. The smell is enough to make you toss your cookies without even putting anything in your mouth. On my visit I was with Jared, and he had tried this stuff the other night. I patted him on the back and said you the man, you can have the title. Even though most of it all tastes the same after frying it (according to everyone who has jumped on the opportunity) the sheer psychological damage I envisioned wasn’t worth it. I liked watching Fear Factor, but I never wanted to actually participate myself. So it makes for a good laugh, a good cringe, but not an experience I wanted to venture in on. It doesn’t help things when the Chinese man across the counter, smiles and in broken English says “try the sheep testicles, truly delicious!” Riiiiggghhhtttt.
The torch burning in the Stadium has so much gas pumping into it, when no action is going on you can pick it up on the commentary unit microphones. Our venue manager at the Bird’s Nest noticed that the other day, while troubleshooting a noise on the circuit he couldn’t figure out. He then discovered it was the gas line feeding the flame. If oil prices jump even more the next few weeks, you’ll know why. Its a pretty amazing site, the torch, burning on top of the stadium. The stadium is incredible and that torch up there is just beautiful and quite the symbol for the competition.
I read Michael Phelps makes about 5 million a year in endorsements. Imagine what that amount is going to be now.
Friday, August 15, 2008
The Sports
You want to know the best way to judge Olympic Achievement? It can be measured by how many journalists working the Games will stop what they are doing to watch. It doesn’t happen very often. These are people who for the most part not only work every Olympics, but they also cover these sports all year. It takes something special to catch their attention. Enter Michael Phelps. His 100 meter butterfly race had journalists pulling chairs around the television in the dining area. They don’t cheer they just watch, and when the finish graphic popped up after they touched the wall, there was a groan of amazement that could be heard murmuring through the room.
Regardless of whether the relay team wins the last Gold for the great eight, he has at least tied Mark Spitz for the single Olympics Gold mark. And there have been numerous quotes I’ve read from other swimmers and coaches that say in one way or other, that Spitz was swimming in a far less competitive generation. Let me help put his accomplishment into perspective a little more. I don’t have the benefit of super promotion via NBC. I’m just watching uncut, live feeds. The CHINESE cheer for Phelps as loud as their own athletes. His success has transcended nationalities. He has simply become the man...and very rich at the same time.
You wouldn’t believe some of the hours that people have to keep here. This is a 24/7 operation and most of it is divided into shifts to give coverage to everything that needs to happen. Some of the NBC interns work 3pm - 3am, 6 pm - 6 am, and so on. That really puts your body out of whack. I have a hard enough time with 3:30 pm to midnight. The light outside says one thing and your body gets trapped in this bizarro sleep schedule. And why? So that you the captive audience at home can have the best coverage imaginable.
This is the last Games for baseball and softball. They did not make the cut for the London Games. The IOC needs to cut some more sports. The amount of competition that gets played out over the two weeks is just silly. And within each sport its silly the number of different events that get competed in. Like sailing. Who cares. Just pick a boat, put a crew in it and see who can make it the fastest across a lake. Takes one day, you’re done. Road Cycling has it right. Make a course, startem, and see who wins. The other thing that drives me nuts about the Olympics is when they put in sports that really aren’t world championships. For instance. Tennis is a world tour already. We don’t need another sport added to the Games that already is competed in internationally by the best. Basketball has at least gotten to level internationally that it works to have an international tournament. Baseball is being taken away for precisely this point. Who cares. Minor leaguers getting together to play. We don’t care. Men’s field hockey. If only a quarter of the countries even know it exists, it shouldn’t be an Olympic sport.
Some sports are around just to give small countries something to get excited about. You know what Iceland is good at...handball. They dominate handball. And we all care. Its all about including everybody. And sometimes even countries like the U.S. start to steal the limelight in sports we shouldn’t. Table Tennis. We have a pair competing for the bronze as I write, although it should be noted they are Chinese by race.
I’ve decided that Stacey and I’s children are going to compete in the Olympics, and we’re going to hire a private badminton coach from Indonesia to come train are kids. Very little risk of injury, very little competition to make the team in the U.S. You have several windows of opportunity to crack the competition as well. They can practice in the backyard, cheap gear needed, and it won’t cause them to have no social life.
In all seriousness the Games are really a great place for many of these unknown athletes to shine. I can appreciate the discipline and hard work they put in for years to compete at the biggest event in the world. For Olympians they get to have a very rich cultural experience in the village hanging out with the other athletes. To see USA basketball members show up at a swim meet is something you only see at the Olympics. My only question is, what will Michael Phelps first post Olympics cameo NBA game be?
Regardless of whether the relay team wins the last Gold for the great eight, he has at least tied Mark Spitz for the single Olympics Gold mark. And there have been numerous quotes I’ve read from other swimmers and coaches that say in one way or other, that Spitz was swimming in a far less competitive generation. Let me help put his accomplishment into perspective a little more. I don’t have the benefit of super promotion via NBC. I’m just watching uncut, live feeds. The CHINESE cheer for Phelps as loud as their own athletes. His success has transcended nationalities. He has simply become the man...and very rich at the same time.
You wouldn’t believe some of the hours that people have to keep here. This is a 24/7 operation and most of it is divided into shifts to give coverage to everything that needs to happen. Some of the NBC interns work 3pm - 3am, 6 pm - 6 am, and so on. That really puts your body out of whack. I have a hard enough time with 3:30 pm to midnight. The light outside says one thing and your body gets trapped in this bizarro sleep schedule. And why? So that you the captive audience at home can have the best coverage imaginable.
This is the last Games for baseball and softball. They did not make the cut for the London Games. The IOC needs to cut some more sports. The amount of competition that gets played out over the two weeks is just silly. And within each sport its silly the number of different events that get competed in. Like sailing. Who cares. Just pick a boat, put a crew in it and see who can make it the fastest across a lake. Takes one day, you’re done. Road Cycling has it right. Make a course, startem, and see who wins. The other thing that drives me nuts about the Olympics is when they put in sports that really aren’t world championships. For instance. Tennis is a world tour already. We don’t need another sport added to the Games that already is competed in internationally by the best. Basketball has at least gotten to level internationally that it works to have an international tournament. Baseball is being taken away for precisely this point. Who cares. Minor leaguers getting together to play. We don’t care. Men’s field hockey. If only a quarter of the countries even know it exists, it shouldn’t be an Olympic sport.
Some sports are around just to give small countries something to get excited about. You know what Iceland is good at...handball. They dominate handball. And we all care. Its all about including everybody. And sometimes even countries like the U.S. start to steal the limelight in sports we shouldn’t. Table Tennis. We have a pair competing for the bronze as I write, although it should be noted they are Chinese by race.
I’ve decided that Stacey and I’s children are going to compete in the Olympics, and we’re going to hire a private badminton coach from Indonesia to come train are kids. Very little risk of injury, very little competition to make the team in the U.S. You have several windows of opportunity to crack the competition as well. They can practice in the backyard, cheap gear needed, and it won’t cause them to have no social life.
In all seriousness the Games are really a great place for many of these unknown athletes to shine. I can appreciate the discipline and hard work they put in for years to compete at the biggest event in the world. For Olympians they get to have a very rich cultural experience in the village hanging out with the other athletes. To see USA basketball members show up at a swim meet is something you only see at the Olympics. My only question is, what will Michael Phelps first post Olympics cameo NBA game be?
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Lighter Side
So after so many serious blogs I felt it time to lighten the mood. Here are some unrelated but humorous observations and occurrences from Beijing.
Olympic reporting: The other night I connected a unilateral that featured Al Jazeera television interviewing...Craig Sager, the NBA sideline reporter, who is working here for NBC. I’ve always wondered what the quality of other nations sports reporting was. When they are speaking in another language they sound very put together and very intelligent. When you get the opportunity to actually here the questions in English, one quickly realizes the rest of the world is not setting the pace for intelligent journalism. It started with the commentator and having to look at Sager’s name badge to remember his name, accompanied by Sager actually whispering it into his ear. Then the guy turns to Craig and says “Mr. Sager, you saw the game tonight. Why was it so exciting?” Sager, trying not to laugh, and looking like he was rethinking his agreement to the interview began to try and actually give basketball analysis to the game. Instead of just saying China playing Spain is a big matchup, and there are some great stars out on the court, he tried to get into the strengths and weaknesses of Spain and China. Next question: “China was winning, why did they not win?” Sager, chuckles, then tries to explain that the guards for Spain are NBA caliber and begin to play better defense in the fourth and that the Chinese big men weren’t setup defensively the right way...etc. It all finishes and Sager quickly exits, while the reporter is saying off air thanks Craig Sager, thanks Craig Sager. At the time I thought I was the only one taking this magical journalistic moment in. A guy in the department next door came in said “Did you see that!” We both burst out laughing. Only the Olympics can feature Craig Sager doing post game analysis for Al Jazeera Sports Television.
I’d be willing to make a bet that several weeks after the Games we might be in for controversy when its revealed that some of the Chinese gymnasts weren’t 16, the age limit for competing. There are enough investigative journalists over here that I’m sure are working on that as we speak. They might not come up with anything because the government will produce whatever doctored paperwork is needed to show proof, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
Female weightlifters from every nation share one thing in common. They all fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
Table Tennis and Badminton are sports that they really shouldn’t even compete in. Just hand over the gold and silver to the Chinese in each sport. Professional Table Tennis is what is on in primetime here. Turn on the CCTV sports channel and night and many times its a table tennis tournament. You can see kids playing badminton in the streets whenever you walk around at night. No net needed. They just bat it around. You actually see a lot of moms and daughters playing.
One of our new favorite sports to watch here is handball. Handball isn’t new but us watching it is. You have a limited amount you can run with a little soccer ball before either dribbling it or passing it. Then you throw it in a net past a goalie. Its played on an indoor court about the size of a basketball floor. The perfect game for any church youth group with a gym. Pass and throw. We haven’t quite figured out the fouling rules yet, but some of the athletic double pump throws the competitors make are pretty impressive. Final scores are usually in the upper 20s and low 30s. Apparently, they play this a lot recreationally in Australia. At least that’s what Lincoln tells me.
I was happy to see that the American south contributed to the Olympic effort. New Olympic record in trap shooting by a guy that looks like he was from Alabama or Mississippi. Hopefully he gets some nice endorsements from John Deere and Stihl after this.
I would love to know the U.S. Gymnastics budget for medical tape and wraps. It has to be absurd.
There is now a Chinese military tank parked outside the IBC. As if we needed any more reasons not to try anything. People have certainly enjoyed taking pictures of it.
I’m really glad the U.S. is good at basketball again. Its a lot easier to talk smack about slamming a ball in a guys grill than talking trash about how much faster our guys can row a boat.
Amazing occurrences: The U.S. Women’s soccer team explodes for 4 goals, the Norwegian team gets taken behind the woodshed by Japan, and the U.S. wins the group on goal differential. This might be a team of destiny, because the way the pool play finished was nuts. Now the draw is Canada instead of Brazil. Nice trade.
Members of the European media should be banned from receiving liver transplants. When I get off my shift at midnight and get back to the media village I have to walk through a common outdoor area with tables and chairs. Every night the European broadcasters and journalists have enough empty beer bottles to cover the entire table surfaces. Its crazy how much alcohol they consume...every night! They all smoke as well. Americans will die from heart attacks and diabetes, but Europeans will be right there with us keeling over from liver failure and lung cancer.
Olympic reporting: The other night I connected a unilateral that featured Al Jazeera television interviewing...Craig Sager, the NBA sideline reporter, who is working here for NBC. I’ve always wondered what the quality of other nations sports reporting was. When they are speaking in another language they sound very put together and very intelligent. When you get the opportunity to actually here the questions in English, one quickly realizes the rest of the world is not setting the pace for intelligent journalism. It started with the commentator and having to look at Sager’s name badge to remember his name, accompanied by Sager actually whispering it into his ear. Then the guy turns to Craig and says “Mr. Sager, you saw the game tonight. Why was it so exciting?” Sager, trying not to laugh, and looking like he was rethinking his agreement to the interview began to try and actually give basketball analysis to the game. Instead of just saying China playing Spain is a big matchup, and there are some great stars out on the court, he tried to get into the strengths and weaknesses of Spain and China. Next question: “China was winning, why did they not win?” Sager, chuckles, then tries to explain that the guards for Spain are NBA caliber and begin to play better defense in the fourth and that the Chinese big men weren’t setup defensively the right way...etc. It all finishes and Sager quickly exits, while the reporter is saying off air thanks Craig Sager, thanks Craig Sager. At the time I thought I was the only one taking this magical journalistic moment in. A guy in the department next door came in said “Did you see that!” We both burst out laughing. Only the Olympics can feature Craig Sager doing post game analysis for Al Jazeera Sports Television.
I’d be willing to make a bet that several weeks after the Games we might be in for controversy when its revealed that some of the Chinese gymnasts weren’t 16, the age limit for competing. There are enough investigative journalists over here that I’m sure are working on that as we speak. They might not come up with anything because the government will produce whatever doctored paperwork is needed to show proof, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
Female weightlifters from every nation share one thing in common. They all fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
Table Tennis and Badminton are sports that they really shouldn’t even compete in. Just hand over the gold and silver to the Chinese in each sport. Professional Table Tennis is what is on in primetime here. Turn on the CCTV sports channel and night and many times its a table tennis tournament. You can see kids playing badminton in the streets whenever you walk around at night. No net needed. They just bat it around. You actually see a lot of moms and daughters playing.
One of our new favorite sports to watch here is handball. Handball isn’t new but us watching it is. You have a limited amount you can run with a little soccer ball before either dribbling it or passing it. Then you throw it in a net past a goalie. Its played on an indoor court about the size of a basketball floor. The perfect game for any church youth group with a gym. Pass and throw. We haven’t quite figured out the fouling rules yet, but some of the athletic double pump throws the competitors make are pretty impressive. Final scores are usually in the upper 20s and low 30s. Apparently, they play this a lot recreationally in Australia. At least that’s what Lincoln tells me.
I was happy to see that the American south contributed to the Olympic effort. New Olympic record in trap shooting by a guy that looks like he was from Alabama or Mississippi. Hopefully he gets some nice endorsements from John Deere and Stihl after this.
I would love to know the U.S. Gymnastics budget for medical tape and wraps. It has to be absurd.
There is now a Chinese military tank parked outside the IBC. As if we needed any more reasons not to try anything. People have certainly enjoyed taking pictures of it.
I’m really glad the U.S. is good at basketball again. Its a lot easier to talk smack about slamming a ball in a guys grill than talking trash about how much faster our guys can row a boat.
Amazing occurrences: The U.S. Women’s soccer team explodes for 4 goals, the Norwegian team gets taken behind the woodshed by Japan, and the U.S. wins the group on goal differential. This might be a team of destiny, because the way the pool play finished was nuts. Now the draw is Canada instead of Brazil. Nice trade.
Members of the European media should be banned from receiving liver transplants. When I get off my shift at midnight and get back to the media village I have to walk through a common outdoor area with tables and chairs. Every night the European broadcasters and journalists have enough empty beer bottles to cover the entire table surfaces. Its crazy how much alcohol they consume...every night! They all smoke as well. Americans will die from heart attacks and diabetes, but Europeans will be right there with us keeling over from liver failure and lung cancer.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Behind the Athlete is great support
Now that some medals are being awarded, this brings me to my favorite part of the Olympic Games. The stories of these athletes unfold before our eyes and to see them achieve victory in something many of them have spent their lives working towards is amazing. I just finished watching some of the swimming finals. When you see the closeup of the athlete turning to look at their winning status on the scoreboard is just incredible. For anyone who has ever competed for something and won, you know that feeling. That’s the payoff. Its especially fun when an athlete medals who really wasn’t expected to. You can see it in their eyes when they step up to the platform to accept their medal.
The reason I love this element of the Olympics is it occurs when everything else is stripped away. Other than the logos on their uniforms, its just the competitors, the field or water of competition, and everything else falls away. Pure sport and the stories that unfold around it.
One of the elements that I love about being here to watch the games, is the feed that I get to watch is uncut. When someone wins the competition there is no commercial break. We watch captivated by the celebration of the athlete. For me personally this coverage allows me to see an image that brings back treasured memories. Behind most of the successful athletes here at the Games are dedicated parents and siblings. Sometimes you get to see this on network coverage, but most of the time they cut away to another sport or analysis. For me seeing that mom cry for joy because her son just made his lifelong dream come true is a vision of joy. That mother has spent a good part of her life shuttling that kid to and from practice and games and meets. And the payoff, watching that beloved child achieve Olympic Champion status and being able to share in that. The reason this resonates with me, is because my parents were incredibly supportive of me and my siblings in their endeavors. Every game and match they were there cheering us on. We weren’t always on good teams either, and they were still there giving us their undivided attention and support.
Having had that kind of support growing up gives me a genuine appreciation for the images of those parents cheering on their Olympic Champion son or daughter. Becoming the best in the world is too hard to do on your own. You have to have great coaching and great family and friends support.
On a totally unrelated note, yesterday gave us an Olympic experience we haven’t had to deal with since at least Sydney: Rain. It never rained a drop in Athens. But it rained yesterday. So much rain it postponed tennis, held up Archery, made the cycling road race very difficult, and otherwise wreaked havoc on fans at every outdoor venue. One of the Commentary Control Rooms at the center court tennis venue started flooding. A frantic manager informed us he was ripping up the false floor to drain water out of the room. After its rained in Beijing in the past weeks, the air quality has improved. We’ll see if that happens this time. Its been pretty bad thus for the Games. In a press release the other day, one official was quoted as saying that Beijing is going to have to figure out what their solution will be long term. You can’t keep factories closed and odd and even license plate cars off the road forever. The way this city is expanding and attempting to grow, these problems are only going to get worse. For the sake of the Chinese people I hope they can come up with a good lasting solution.
Finally, it was nice to see Team USA basketball at top form again. Last night while watching the game with the Chinese students in our Switching Center, I took the opportunity to teach them how to talk junk during an athletic competition. They didn’t understand how to do that. So I gave them some lessons on proper reactions to great dunks, bucket and the foul, and building the lead bigger and bigger. I considered it part of my cultural giving back. The students enjoyed the lesson, though it was at the expense of their own team. I don’t think they minded too much because the American players are almost more loved than the Chinese players are. Kobe Bryant could probably amass enough support to make a run at the Chinese Presidency. I’ve also decided that the sport of gymnastics can only be watched with expert commentary. If you try to watch any of it as just video with ambient noise, you have no idea who is doing well until someone falls and then you only know that they aren’t winning a medal. And they changed the scoring system. Great. Now a 10 stinks. I don’t have time for this, there are like 15 other sports happening at the same time, and they have clearly defined rules: put an object in the right place in the fastest or given amout of time, it doesn’t matter how you look doing it!
The reason I love this element of the Olympics is it occurs when everything else is stripped away. Other than the logos on their uniforms, its just the competitors, the field or water of competition, and everything else falls away. Pure sport and the stories that unfold around it.
One of the elements that I love about being here to watch the games, is the feed that I get to watch is uncut. When someone wins the competition there is no commercial break. We watch captivated by the celebration of the athlete. For me personally this coverage allows me to see an image that brings back treasured memories. Behind most of the successful athletes here at the Games are dedicated parents and siblings. Sometimes you get to see this on network coverage, but most of the time they cut away to another sport or analysis. For me seeing that mom cry for joy because her son just made his lifelong dream come true is a vision of joy. That mother has spent a good part of her life shuttling that kid to and from practice and games and meets. And the payoff, watching that beloved child achieve Olympic Champion status and being able to share in that. The reason this resonates with me, is because my parents were incredibly supportive of me and my siblings in their endeavors. Every game and match they were there cheering us on. We weren’t always on good teams either, and they were still there giving us their undivided attention and support.
Having had that kind of support growing up gives me a genuine appreciation for the images of those parents cheering on their Olympic Champion son or daughter. Becoming the best in the world is too hard to do on your own. You have to have great coaching and great family and friends support.
On a totally unrelated note, yesterday gave us an Olympic experience we haven’t had to deal with since at least Sydney: Rain. It never rained a drop in Athens. But it rained yesterday. So much rain it postponed tennis, held up Archery, made the cycling road race very difficult, and otherwise wreaked havoc on fans at every outdoor venue. One of the Commentary Control Rooms at the center court tennis venue started flooding. A frantic manager informed us he was ripping up the false floor to drain water out of the room. After its rained in Beijing in the past weeks, the air quality has improved. We’ll see if that happens this time. Its been pretty bad thus for the Games. In a press release the other day, one official was quoted as saying that Beijing is going to have to figure out what their solution will be long term. You can’t keep factories closed and odd and even license plate cars off the road forever. The way this city is expanding and attempting to grow, these problems are only going to get worse. For the sake of the Chinese people I hope they can come up with a good lasting solution.
Finally, it was nice to see Team USA basketball at top form again. Last night while watching the game with the Chinese students in our Switching Center, I took the opportunity to teach them how to talk junk during an athletic competition. They didn’t understand how to do that. So I gave them some lessons on proper reactions to great dunks, bucket and the foul, and building the lead bigger and bigger. I considered it part of my cultural giving back. The students enjoyed the lesson, though it was at the expense of their own team. I don’t think they minded too much because the American players are almost more loved than the Chinese players are. Kobe Bryant could probably amass enough support to make a run at the Chinese Presidency. I’ve also decided that the sport of gymnastics can only be watched with expert commentary. If you try to watch any of it as just video with ambient noise, you have no idea who is doing well until someone falls and then you only know that they aren’t winning a medal. And they changed the scoring system. Great. Now a 10 stinks. I don’t have time for this, there are like 15 other sports happening at the same time, and they have clearly defined rules: put an object in the right place in the fastest or given amout of time, it doesn’t matter how you look doing it!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Game On!
The Games have begun! I worked the Opening Ceremonies, and for our department it was anything but a ceremony. The most troubled opening I’ve worked in Commentary Switching. Between equipment failing due to the absurd heat and humidity in the National Stadium, to standup position camera guys failing to show up, it was a rough night. I still got enjoy much of the ceremony watching throughout. The fireworks were something else weren’t they! I stood outside during the last set. It was amazing to see fireworks going up from as far as you could see left to right across the horizon.
Now that competition has begun, there is a lot of stuff going on. Everyday there will be competition from 9 am until past midnight. While you’re watching let’s say the US women play volleyball, there are 4-6 other venues going with their own competition. Its a lot to keep track of. What makes the Olympics so unique, is that unlike most other events of any size, they tend to be centered around one thing or sport. This runs the gauntlet of setups and needs. For instance, there are special kinds of wireless camera feeds for the cycling road race, and then there is the robotic camera inside the weightlifting floor to look up at the competitor (though a closeup of the female weightlifters is a debatable need), and then of course there are the track cams that go alongside the swimmers and runners. What’s really crazy to think about is that only covers the video coverage of the sports. There is a whole other side to the Games you never see. Food service for all workers and athletes, accommodations, travel around the city, security, merchandising, etc. Its an amazing amount of work that goes into two weeks.
Speaking of merchandise. Wow, this has to be the most heavily marketed games in history. I’ve never seen so much merchandise. Here is an interesting trend I’ve found. In past games there has been a lot of clothes you can buy. Not so here. Much more limited in clothing options. Though the prices are cheaper than in the past (pricepoint so Chinese can afford to buy), there aren’t as many shirts and pants available. In China, the marketing materials of choice have been the mascots and mascot things for children and trinkets. My gosh, there are more Olympic trinkets available to buy than you can believe. Crystal miniatures of the Water Cube, the National Stadium, the mascots. There are gold plated miniatures of the National Stadium. There are dozens of different types of keychains and pins for each venue, sport, and mascot. There are official Olympic pins for major Chinese landmarks. There are tea sets, coffee mugs, a whole line of Lenovo sponsored computer items like flash drives and mouse pads.
The Chinese have been buying everything! Many of the women’s soccer stuff has sold out. They bought all the Olympic tickets. Everything venue in Beijing is sold out for the Games. First time that has ever happened. If there was ever a place to be concerned about for post Olympic depression its Beijing. It’s been shown in past studies that the Games being over has a depression effect on the host city. In Beijing, these people have lived for this for years. Most of the way of life here has been centered around preparing for the Games. National pride for hosting a great Games has been the motivation for much of life around here. It will be interesting to see what will happen when the Games are done. I’m sure there are people waiting to do studies on just this after the Games have concluded.
I made a visit to the common Olympic domain the other day. One giant sponsor commercial. The major Olympic sponsors have built temporary exhibition spaces to show off whatever they deem to show off for the Games. Adidas for instance has former displays of gear worn by former Olympic Champions. A neat history lesson, because it includes athletes from Games that occurred decades ago. Its interesting to see how athletic gear has evolved. At Coke’s display you walk through a Chinese centered exhibit looking to recreate the spirit of the Games. There are videos and lights, and it ends with a Coke design contest that went across China. As you are walking out of the space they of course send you on your way with a refreshing, ice cold Coca-Cola. That was really welcomed by me because it was 95 degrees outside with 60 percent humidity. You stand, you sweat, you walk, you sweat more.
One last note. As you’re watching the medal ceremonies, watch the Chinese athletes. Anything less than Gold is failure here, because the Chinese government is attempting to prove that its academy system of plucking children from their homes to place them in intense training environments is the most successful system. If they do not win the most gold medals, it will be considered a blow to their philosophy. So already I’ve seen one Chinese athlete be almost sad by winning the silver. The goal is gold. Something to keep an eye on.
Now that competition has begun, there is a lot of stuff going on. Everyday there will be competition from 9 am until past midnight. While you’re watching let’s say the US women play volleyball, there are 4-6 other venues going with their own competition. Its a lot to keep track of. What makes the Olympics so unique, is that unlike most other events of any size, they tend to be centered around one thing or sport. This runs the gauntlet of setups and needs. For instance, there are special kinds of wireless camera feeds for the cycling road race, and then there is the robotic camera inside the weightlifting floor to look up at the competitor (though a closeup of the female weightlifters is a debatable need), and then of course there are the track cams that go alongside the swimmers and runners. What’s really crazy to think about is that only covers the video coverage of the sports. There is a whole other side to the Games you never see. Food service for all workers and athletes, accommodations, travel around the city, security, merchandising, etc. Its an amazing amount of work that goes into two weeks.
Speaking of merchandise. Wow, this has to be the most heavily marketed games in history. I’ve never seen so much merchandise. Here is an interesting trend I’ve found. In past games there has been a lot of clothes you can buy. Not so here. Much more limited in clothing options. Though the prices are cheaper than in the past (pricepoint so Chinese can afford to buy), there aren’t as many shirts and pants available. In China, the marketing materials of choice have been the mascots and mascot things for children and trinkets. My gosh, there are more Olympic trinkets available to buy than you can believe. Crystal miniatures of the Water Cube, the National Stadium, the mascots. There are gold plated miniatures of the National Stadium. There are dozens of different types of keychains and pins for each venue, sport, and mascot. There are official Olympic pins for major Chinese landmarks. There are tea sets, coffee mugs, a whole line of Lenovo sponsored computer items like flash drives and mouse pads.
The Chinese have been buying everything! Many of the women’s soccer stuff has sold out. They bought all the Olympic tickets. Everything venue in Beijing is sold out for the Games. First time that has ever happened. If there was ever a place to be concerned about for post Olympic depression its Beijing. It’s been shown in past studies that the Games being over has a depression effect on the host city. In Beijing, these people have lived for this for years. Most of the way of life here has been centered around preparing for the Games. National pride for hosting a great Games has been the motivation for much of life around here. It will be interesting to see what will happen when the Games are done. I’m sure there are people waiting to do studies on just this after the Games have concluded.
I made a visit to the common Olympic domain the other day. One giant sponsor commercial. The major Olympic sponsors have built temporary exhibition spaces to show off whatever they deem to show off for the Games. Adidas for instance has former displays of gear worn by former Olympic Champions. A neat history lesson, because it includes athletes from Games that occurred decades ago. Its interesting to see how athletic gear has evolved. At Coke’s display you walk through a Chinese centered exhibit looking to recreate the spirit of the Games. There are videos and lights, and it ends with a Coke design contest that went across China. As you are walking out of the space they of course send you on your way with a refreshing, ice cold Coca-Cola. That was really welcomed by me because it was 95 degrees outside with 60 percent humidity. You stand, you sweat, you walk, you sweat more.
One last note. As you’re watching the medal ceremonies, watch the Chinese athletes. Anything less than Gold is failure here, because the Chinese government is attempting to prove that its academy system of plucking children from their homes to place them in intense training environments is the most successful system. If they do not win the most gold medals, it will be considered a blow to their philosophy. So already I’ve seen one Chinese athlete be almost sad by winning the silver. The goal is gold. Something to keep an eye on.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
First of two new posts
The Zoo
Who doesn’t like the zoo? I love watching animals at the zoo, so I found out where the Beijing Zoo was and George, my Greek friend, and I made a visit. It took us two half days to make it all the way through.
It all started with a game plan to meet at the zoo at 9 am. No problem right? Wrong. I took the subway without incident and came up to the street. Now based on my careful calculations I needed to turn left coming out of the subway and head two blocks west. My assumption was proven correct by a volunteer who in hand motions and basic counting told me to head three somethings in the direction I was going and go right. Okay, lets roll, so I confidently started out, taking in the sights. My confidence was boosted by seeing Beijing 2008 signs with sporting symbols. My confidence was boosted because two of the volleyball venues are next door to the zoo, so I figured I’m on the right track. About twenty minutes later, the Beijing 2008 Olympic posters had given way to...welll...nothing. I was just in a random neighborhood. So I saw another volunteer person posted for help, and showed them the map and asked for guidance. Oh, go south 3 blocks and turn left. Thank you, now we’re in business. When I hit the dead end trash filled alleyway, I thought to myself. Either this is the crappiest zoo ever or I’m really not in the place I’m supposed to be. And mind you George and I were supposed to meet at the zoo at thirty minutes ago. So I pulled the map out again, and now that I didn’t even know which way was North, that didn’t do a lot of good. If you ever find yourself spinning the map trying to match shapes of roads with the map, you’re not in a good situation.
I asked for some divine intervention, and God literally within 20 steps, sent me an English speaking student who asked me if I needed some help. I explained I was looking for the zoo. Politely, he did not laugh at how off the track I was, which I discovered when he pointed to where we were on the map. Now, I want to make sure you understand this part. This original volunteer who had given me directions, had looked at the map, which had an icon and chinese character name for the zoo. He had lead me East instead of West. It was ridiculous. I would have been better on my own. The student told me the best route, and I thanked him and began power walking hoping to still somehow catch George, who I figured by now, an hour later, had either given up and gone back home, or was already enjoying the Golden Monkeys.
I passed the subway going the right direction, and made my way towards an increasingly tourist area. I passed more Olympic signage, and then saw signage for the zoo! I pulled out the map to see how much farther I had to go, and felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to my astonishment to see George! He had gotten lost too, and we literally found each other randomly on a street still blocks away from the zoo. How crazy is that. He was worried that he kept me waiting.
We made our way to the front entrance, laughing about the occurrence. It was free admission with our accreditation pass. We started by looking at the reptiles and amphibians. Lots of turtles. Saw a King Cobra, and a lot of pythons. Next there was a penguin house, funny little guys mostly standing on their shore area. One was swimming in some suspicious looking water. Online I had read that the Beijing Zoo has some suspect conditions for many of the animals. Umm, yeah. Most of the animals were very small enclosures, and didn’t seem to have much energy. If I didn’t know any better, I would have loved it because it meant you were really close to the animals. They couldn’t get away from you. However, we have educated by the animal community and zoos in the states that animals need adequate space to live in at zoos for it to truly be a good situation. The monkeys had decent spaces to live, and some of the smaller animals were in good shape. However, we came to the rhino pen. It was laying down on its side, in a grass yard the size of a typical suburban backyard. Elephants in the same situation. That wasn’t the worst. They had an impressive collection of lions, tigers, leopards, and panthers. they were being kept in cages about 10 feet by 10 feet. They were pacing from one side to another as if crazy. Saddest thing I’ve ever seen for an animal. I’ve never been so close to a tiger or lion, but it made me appreciate an Animal Kingdom or other park where they give the animals ample room to run and live. These huge animals were in drab concrete chambers. The Chinese tigers were in an outside enclosure that was much better. National pride affects even the animals.
The other thing that was flabbergasting was, there were signs everywhere for not feeding the animals. What do you think the people were doing? Feeding the animals anything they had. So of course when the bears would sit or stand up in expectation for thrown food, everybody loved the show, however these people weren’t paying a bit of attention to the signs. Maybe I’m in the dark, but I’ve never seen that in the U.S. I’ve been to numerous zoos, and I’ve always observed people respecting the directions of how to observe the animals. George was even taken aback being from Greece. He said several times how sad this was. We really enjoyed seeing and watching the animals, but its hard to totally enjoy it when you know that these actions from the people happen all the time and they are not good for the animals. Where the heck was the military now!
The Giant Panda House was the exception. Great conditions and glass was the barricade to keep the herds of people from attempting to feed the pandas friend chicken or even their children for a great picture. And Chinese people love their Pandas. The zoo had 14 of them and they were like rock stars. People fighting to get a picture of their child posing in front. We enjoyed observing the Pandas play with each other and feast on bamboo chutes. We finished by going to the new aquarium which was inside of the zoo. Unreal. Brand new and incredibly facility. Great design and conditions for animals. Great exhibits, and very much on par with the new Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. They even had a dolphin and sea lion show which we took in. Dolphins can jump really high in the air. I was impressed. There were a lot of educational elements in the aquarium as well about rescuing animals and research.
Once outside we saw some signs asking for financial support for other areas of the zoo. It seems as though they know they have a problem with the animal conditions, but it hasn’t been made a priority by the government. PETA gets pretty worked up over small incidents in America, I believe its time they come over here. This could keep them busy for a while.
Great visit, great pictures, light crowd. It made for a great two half days hanging out. I especially enjoyed the time with George.
Tonight is the Opening Ceremony. The big show. I would recommend watching. There are some very cool elements involved. I have quite the setup at work for watching the Games. 4 HD monitors in my station with 64 feeds. 44 venues, do the math. Yep, I have total feed access, meaning I can watch all four rotations of the gymnastics at once, not just whatever NBC decides to show you. You see there is more than one feed from the major venues. I was watching swimming and gymnastics warm ups the other day. We also get 40 transmissions at our apartment, so I can watch whatever sport I want when its on. I can watch all the handball I want if I feel like it. If only I could figure out how to get this setup for the NCAA basketball tournament.
Who doesn’t like the zoo? I love watching animals at the zoo, so I found out where the Beijing Zoo was and George, my Greek friend, and I made a visit. It took us two half days to make it all the way through.
It all started with a game plan to meet at the zoo at 9 am. No problem right? Wrong. I took the subway without incident and came up to the street. Now based on my careful calculations I needed to turn left coming out of the subway and head two blocks west. My assumption was proven correct by a volunteer who in hand motions and basic counting told me to head three somethings in the direction I was going and go right. Okay, lets roll, so I confidently started out, taking in the sights. My confidence was boosted by seeing Beijing 2008 signs with sporting symbols. My confidence was boosted because two of the volleyball venues are next door to the zoo, so I figured I’m on the right track. About twenty minutes later, the Beijing 2008 Olympic posters had given way to...welll...nothing. I was just in a random neighborhood. So I saw another volunteer person posted for help, and showed them the map and asked for guidance. Oh, go south 3 blocks and turn left. Thank you, now we’re in business. When I hit the dead end trash filled alleyway, I thought to myself. Either this is the crappiest zoo ever or I’m really not in the place I’m supposed to be. And mind you George and I were supposed to meet at the zoo at thirty minutes ago. So I pulled the map out again, and now that I didn’t even know which way was North, that didn’t do a lot of good. If you ever find yourself spinning the map trying to match shapes of roads with the map, you’re not in a good situation.
I asked for some divine intervention, and God literally within 20 steps, sent me an English speaking student who asked me if I needed some help. I explained I was looking for the zoo. Politely, he did not laugh at how off the track I was, which I discovered when he pointed to where we were on the map. Now, I want to make sure you understand this part. This original volunteer who had given me directions, had looked at the map, which had an icon and chinese character name for the zoo. He had lead me East instead of West. It was ridiculous. I would have been better on my own. The student told me the best route, and I thanked him and began power walking hoping to still somehow catch George, who I figured by now, an hour later, had either given up and gone back home, or was already enjoying the Golden Monkeys.
I passed the subway going the right direction, and made my way towards an increasingly tourist area. I passed more Olympic signage, and then saw signage for the zoo! I pulled out the map to see how much farther I had to go, and felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to my astonishment to see George! He had gotten lost too, and we literally found each other randomly on a street still blocks away from the zoo. How crazy is that. He was worried that he kept me waiting.
We made our way to the front entrance, laughing about the occurrence. It was free admission with our accreditation pass. We started by looking at the reptiles and amphibians. Lots of turtles. Saw a King Cobra, and a lot of pythons. Next there was a penguin house, funny little guys mostly standing on their shore area. One was swimming in some suspicious looking water. Online I had read that the Beijing Zoo has some suspect conditions for many of the animals. Umm, yeah. Most of the animals were very small enclosures, and didn’t seem to have much energy. If I didn’t know any better, I would have loved it because it meant you were really close to the animals. They couldn’t get away from you. However, we have educated by the animal community and zoos in the states that animals need adequate space to live in at zoos for it to truly be a good situation. The monkeys had decent spaces to live, and some of the smaller animals were in good shape. However, we came to the rhino pen. It was laying down on its side, in a grass yard the size of a typical suburban backyard. Elephants in the same situation. That wasn’t the worst. They had an impressive collection of lions, tigers, leopards, and panthers. they were being kept in cages about 10 feet by 10 feet. They were pacing from one side to another as if crazy. Saddest thing I’ve ever seen for an animal. I’ve never been so close to a tiger or lion, but it made me appreciate an Animal Kingdom or other park where they give the animals ample room to run and live. These huge animals were in drab concrete chambers. The Chinese tigers were in an outside enclosure that was much better. National pride affects even the animals.
The other thing that was flabbergasting was, there were signs everywhere for not feeding the animals. What do you think the people were doing? Feeding the animals anything they had. So of course when the bears would sit or stand up in expectation for thrown food, everybody loved the show, however these people weren’t paying a bit of attention to the signs. Maybe I’m in the dark, but I’ve never seen that in the U.S. I’ve been to numerous zoos, and I’ve always observed people respecting the directions of how to observe the animals. George was even taken aback being from Greece. He said several times how sad this was. We really enjoyed seeing and watching the animals, but its hard to totally enjoy it when you know that these actions from the people happen all the time and they are not good for the animals. Where the heck was the military now!
The Giant Panda House was the exception. Great conditions and glass was the barricade to keep the herds of people from attempting to feed the pandas friend chicken or even their children for a great picture. And Chinese people love their Pandas. The zoo had 14 of them and they were like rock stars. People fighting to get a picture of their child posing in front. We enjoyed observing the Pandas play with each other and feast on bamboo chutes. We finished by going to the new aquarium which was inside of the zoo. Unreal. Brand new and incredibly facility. Great design and conditions for animals. Great exhibits, and very much on par with the new Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. They even had a dolphin and sea lion show which we took in. Dolphins can jump really high in the air. I was impressed. There were a lot of educational elements in the aquarium as well about rescuing animals and research.
Once outside we saw some signs asking for financial support for other areas of the zoo. It seems as though they know they have a problem with the animal conditions, but it hasn’t been made a priority by the government. PETA gets pretty worked up over small incidents in America, I believe its time they come over here. This could keep them busy for a while.
Great visit, great pictures, light crowd. It made for a great two half days hanging out. I especially enjoyed the time with George.
Tonight is the Opening Ceremony. The big show. I would recommend watching. There are some very cool elements involved. I have quite the setup at work for watching the Games. 4 HD monitors in my station with 64 feeds. 44 venues, do the math. Yep, I have total feed access, meaning I can watch all four rotations of the gymnastics at once, not just whatever NBC decides to show you. You see there is more than one feed from the major venues. I was watching swimming and gymnastics warm ups the other day. We also get 40 transmissions at our apartment, so I can watch whatever sport I want when its on. I can watch all the handball I want if I feel like it. If only I could figure out how to get this setup for the NCAA basketball tournament.
Under the hood
The day off part 2
After leaving the Amusement Park we went over to another big marketplace selling copies of name brand merchandise. The west has given several things to China over the last few years. One thing is consumerism. I have been to one other Communist country, Albania. Totally different. Albania is still in recovery from having everything controlled and distributed. China on the other hand is Communist in the way its covered by western media, but its not Communist in the way you think about Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In China, the government still controls the land, and regulates life pretty heavily, but they’ve opened up the economy to capitalist ways. So here you have a market that is filled with “name brand” merchandise. Watches, phones, clothes, shoes, video games, pens, golf clubs, etc. However, these people can’t afford the price point of the real thing. So in their desire to have the namebrand merchandise due to the overwhelming advertising, they copy it and sell it at a fraction of the cost. And along the way you create the opportunity for black market labor practices.
The reason I bring this up is after the initial amazement of these bargain markets for stuff, I’m done with them. It sickens me. Stuff for miles. I walked into this market which is a pretty heavy tourist locale for obvious reasons of people wanting to buy these products really cheap, hoping they will work. Jared and I walked in and then back out after a few minutes.
Now if you watch the financial news here in China by CNN, CNBC, BBC World, and so on, you’ll here over and over again about how China is this gold mine of a market waiting to be tapped. 1.8 billion potential consumers. That is incredibly misleading and troubling. Here’s why.
Jared and I were walking the area around the Forbidden City and Tiananman Square to close out the day. We walked past some beautiful gardens admiring the beautiful landscaping abilities of the Chinese. A student who looked to be 18 or 19, approached us. He said his English name was Johnny. A wiry thin kid, with an excited but nervous look on his face. He asked us if we would come see his art which was on display down the street. We decided to take on the adventure not really sure if he was leading us into a gang beating or truly an art exhibit. One way to find out, and I figured it was always another story to write. So we followed the student for about a block on a quiet street just outside the perimeter of the Forbidden City compound. Sure enough there was a small art shop. Johnny spoke very good English, and seemed very genuine. He was gaining my trust as we conversed about where we were from, and what kind of art he likes to create. We stepped into the shop and on the walls were beautiful traditional Chinese art. There were calligraphy scrolls, and paintings of animals and native plants, and the Great Wall and other landmarks. Some were more abstract, telling the story of Confucious principles thorough idea images. He showed us some of his work. He pointed to his seal on the bottom of the painting. He explained what his works meant. Two fellow students came in that also had work on display. They asked us questions about where we were from, what was it like in America, what did we like about Beijing, etc. I asked Johnny if he sells his work. He hesitated and said, “I am not asking you to buy anything.” I responded that I was interested in buying some his art because I liked it. He told me the modest price, and I picked out a painting of some pandas in summer. We then had a picture taken with the two of us holding the artwork. Jared also bought a piece. The students seemed very pleased with the chance to talk and share about ourselves. I think they really appreciated our closeness in age. As we were leaving Johnny asked if we would be willing to go look at the local neighborhood. He stated that this was part of old Beijing. Why not a few extra minutes to see a part off the beaten track. We walked down a few alleys, and walked past some newly painted and built walls. They lined these tiny alleys for blocks. Every 50 feet or so there would be a small metal red door. Many times the door was open and you could see inside. What the open doors revealed was astonishing. The government had come in and built facade walls through all the alleys, to cover up the third world Hutong shacks that were behind. These shacks were about 5 or 6 feet by 8 feet maybe, falling apart, connected to each other, one after another, all the way down the little alleys in between. Talk about sweeping an issue under the carpet. In anticipation of the world looking on, the government had created a fake appearance of better conditions.
I know I have bringing up issues like this throughout my blogging and I apologize if anyone feels like I’m beating a dead horse, but I can’t help it. Being on this morning evening shift now, I’ve gotten out and about every morning before work. As I’ve traveled to different sites and walked around, I’m seeing these conditions beyond the main roads of everywhere I go. Literally, if you go out of the tourist hubs, one or two streets, it feels like a third world country. You know why this economy seems to be the next great thing? Because, the workforce is cheaper then anywhere, proof in that little stamp on everything you own in your house, the government doesn’t deal with problems facing its people until somebody on the outside points it out because the people aren’t allowed to complain, and people here don’t have the ability to get themselves into credit crisis like Americans.
The best part of this trip has been marveling at the old creations of China and getting to interact with the people. They try really hard to be hospitable, and they are so curious about what its like on the outside. But I can also appreciate their pride in their country. They make the best of the hand dealt them. In an effort to impress, the government has wiped out a lot of its authentic history in favor of modern new buildings and amenities. Luckily, there are still people like Johnny around to help you get a feel for the real spirit of China. When I hang the painting in my house, I’m also going to hang the picture of the two of us, as a reminder to pray for my new friend his gift of art.
After leaving the Amusement Park we went over to another big marketplace selling copies of name brand merchandise. The west has given several things to China over the last few years. One thing is consumerism. I have been to one other Communist country, Albania. Totally different. Albania is still in recovery from having everything controlled and distributed. China on the other hand is Communist in the way its covered by western media, but its not Communist in the way you think about Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In China, the government still controls the land, and regulates life pretty heavily, but they’ve opened up the economy to capitalist ways. So here you have a market that is filled with “name brand” merchandise. Watches, phones, clothes, shoes, video games, pens, golf clubs, etc. However, these people can’t afford the price point of the real thing. So in their desire to have the namebrand merchandise due to the overwhelming advertising, they copy it and sell it at a fraction of the cost. And along the way you create the opportunity for black market labor practices.
The reason I bring this up is after the initial amazement of these bargain markets for stuff, I’m done with them. It sickens me. Stuff for miles. I walked into this market which is a pretty heavy tourist locale for obvious reasons of people wanting to buy these products really cheap, hoping they will work. Jared and I walked in and then back out after a few minutes.
Now if you watch the financial news here in China by CNN, CNBC, BBC World, and so on, you’ll here over and over again about how China is this gold mine of a market waiting to be tapped. 1.8 billion potential consumers. That is incredibly misleading and troubling. Here’s why.
Jared and I were walking the area around the Forbidden City and Tiananman Square to close out the day. We walked past some beautiful gardens admiring the beautiful landscaping abilities of the Chinese. A student who looked to be 18 or 19, approached us. He said his English name was Johnny. A wiry thin kid, with an excited but nervous look on his face. He asked us if we would come see his art which was on display down the street. We decided to take on the adventure not really sure if he was leading us into a gang beating or truly an art exhibit. One way to find out, and I figured it was always another story to write. So we followed the student for about a block on a quiet street just outside the perimeter of the Forbidden City compound. Sure enough there was a small art shop. Johnny spoke very good English, and seemed very genuine. He was gaining my trust as we conversed about where we were from, and what kind of art he likes to create. We stepped into the shop and on the walls were beautiful traditional Chinese art. There were calligraphy scrolls, and paintings of animals and native plants, and the Great Wall and other landmarks. Some were more abstract, telling the story of Confucious principles thorough idea images. He showed us some of his work. He pointed to his seal on the bottom of the painting. He explained what his works meant. Two fellow students came in that also had work on display. They asked us questions about where we were from, what was it like in America, what did we like about Beijing, etc. I asked Johnny if he sells his work. He hesitated and said, “I am not asking you to buy anything.” I responded that I was interested in buying some his art because I liked it. He told me the modest price, and I picked out a painting of some pandas in summer. We then had a picture taken with the two of us holding the artwork. Jared also bought a piece. The students seemed very pleased with the chance to talk and share about ourselves. I think they really appreciated our closeness in age. As we were leaving Johnny asked if we would be willing to go look at the local neighborhood. He stated that this was part of old Beijing. Why not a few extra minutes to see a part off the beaten track. We walked down a few alleys, and walked past some newly painted and built walls. They lined these tiny alleys for blocks. Every 50 feet or so there would be a small metal red door. Many times the door was open and you could see inside. What the open doors revealed was astonishing. The government had come in and built facade walls through all the alleys, to cover up the third world Hutong shacks that were behind. These shacks were about 5 or 6 feet by 8 feet maybe, falling apart, connected to each other, one after another, all the way down the little alleys in between. Talk about sweeping an issue under the carpet. In anticipation of the world looking on, the government had created a fake appearance of better conditions.
I know I have bringing up issues like this throughout my blogging and I apologize if anyone feels like I’m beating a dead horse, but I can’t help it. Being on this morning evening shift now, I’ve gotten out and about every morning before work. As I’ve traveled to different sites and walked around, I’m seeing these conditions beyond the main roads of everywhere I go. Literally, if you go out of the tourist hubs, one or two streets, it feels like a third world country. You know why this economy seems to be the next great thing? Because, the workforce is cheaper then anywhere, proof in that little stamp on everything you own in your house, the government doesn’t deal with problems facing its people until somebody on the outside points it out because the people aren’t allowed to complain, and people here don’t have the ability to get themselves into credit crisis like Americans.
The best part of this trip has been marveling at the old creations of China and getting to interact with the people. They try really hard to be hospitable, and they are so curious about what its like on the outside. But I can also appreciate their pride in their country. They make the best of the hand dealt them. In an effort to impress, the government has wiped out a lot of its authentic history in favor of modern new buildings and amenities. Luckily, there are still people like Johnny around to help you get a feel for the real spirit of China. When I hang the painting in my house, I’m also going to hang the picture of the two of us, as a reminder to pray for my new friend his gift of art.
The Day off part 1
The first official celebrity meeting has occurred. Some will know this name and some will not. I met Dick Ebersol the other day. He is the President of NBC Sports. No big deal. I told him how much I enjoy their golf coverage. He thanked me and wished me well. I recognized him in the middle of a hallway, and he was wearing a polo, cargo shorts and casual leather shoes.
I had a day off today along with Jared the other American. We decided to head to the Beijing Amusement Park. We knew very little about this place, but hey what the heck why not! So we boarded the subway and noticed three young women with green marked Olympic credentials. Athletes. I asked one of the three girls what sport. Swimming she answered with a European accent. What country, Kazicstan. I know that isn’t spelled right, but I’m too tired to check. She lives in Washington D.C. and trains all year...before and after her full time job! She made the FINA qualifying time, and is representing her home country in the 50 freestyle. Her third and final Olympics. Marina is her name and she finished 27th in Athens but was swimming the 200 IM. Her friends with her were also swimmers, and they were competing in the 100 back and breast respectively. They all three were very disheartened by their nations uniform selection. Orange is the dominant color. You can watch for that in the Opening Ceremony. We chatted for about 30 minutes, while our subway train steadily made its way downtown. This is one of the great things about working the Games. Knowing what to look for we can strike up conversations with athletes we spot and find out about a girl, who won’t get any press, but has trained for 20 years in order to compete for her home nation. What discipline to work out on her own before and after work, without any chance of medaling.
We arrived at our destination, which had signage that looked like a used car lot and a hello kitty store had been mixed in a blender and poured out on giant billboards. There was nothing tasteful about the Beijing Amusement Park entrance. I had found it on a map, and looked it up online. Their motto was the following: Disney world is too far, come to Beijing Amusement Park instead. I’m not making that up. Their front gate had a princess theme, except that the princess was on drugs. Not a pretty sight. It was also deserted. About 100 people in the entire park. Did that stop us! Heck no, we bought our tickets and headed into what would be the most depressing amusement park I’ve every seen. We were greeted by a giant green algae invested lagoon. The giant lilies growing on top, were blending in way too much. We walked up to the first ride we saw. It was a small roller coaster called: Super fast cool cool bear. I’m not making this up I swear. The sign below it said “don’t hesitate, come ride”. See in the China somebody who some English came along and translated a lot of stuff. And to this day they’ve never checked to see if the translation actually makes sense. We boarded the ride with other 5 kids in line, and away we went on our 45 second steel adventure. The ride worked without a problem and it was very fun. However, don’t look for Six Flags to be importing this one anytime soon. We continued on to the next attractions. They were permanently fixed fair rides. You know those rides operated by a guy with one leg shorter than the other, or a guy wearing a shirt with a name on it, but it isn’t his name? Well these were the vomit inducing specials. We’re going to lift you in the air, then spin you around on a gravity based arm that flips separately from the spinning of the machine. I was just watching it and it made me queasy. None of the Chinese kids riding it toss their cookies, but I did notice the ride operator was sitting in a glass enclosed control booth. Coincidence? I think not.
We continued through the park noticing it was in quite a bit of disrepair. If a ride was no longer operating, they just left it there, and let the grass and weeds grow up through it. Never seen anything like it. No more water twirl magic car, let it grow old, rust, and continue to take up space. The names of the rides were hilarious. No creativity. We rode the Sky Bike next. Yep, we got on a shared seat with pedals and a sprocket above a track a cycled our way at about 1 mile an hour around a metal track overlooking animal props that were succumbing to very little landscaping maintenance. We could have gone faster but the mother pedaling around her two year old son, was taking forever. Next we went to ride the roller coaster, named the...roller coaster. It had a decent first drop and a loop and several corkscrews. It also took about 50 seconds to ride. Finally, we saw something that looked truly promising. Go-Karts on a huge winding track. We thought it looked like it had great potential but thought it would speed govenors in place to limit us to about 5 miles an hour. However, when we had to put on our helmets, and get into our open gas powered kart, we shot out into the first straight away and quickly saw we could go as fast as that little engine allowed us, and that was pretty fast. Fast enough to feel like we could flip the things going into turns. After five minutes of heated racing I defeated Jared to take the first ever unilateral coordinator grand prix. And with that victory we decided we’d seen enough of the Beijing Amusement Park and it time to head onto to other adventures.
This amusement park was a great illustration of this country. The Olympics have driven some massive upgrades and rebuilds around the city. But if you get off the Olympic path, you run smack dab into terrible conditions. This amusement park was in terrible shape. It was ugly, not well kept, run at minimal effort, yet the people didn’t seem to know any different. That is the real China. When you peel back the Olympic curtain, you seen poverty, and no creativity, only copying of other ideas somebody saw. This thing was a mismash of Disney, pop culture and anything else someone saw a picture of. Quite sad really. I’m going to expand on this topic more with part two of my day off, which I will post shortly.
I had a day off today along with Jared the other American. We decided to head to the Beijing Amusement Park. We knew very little about this place, but hey what the heck why not! So we boarded the subway and noticed three young women with green marked Olympic credentials. Athletes. I asked one of the three girls what sport. Swimming she answered with a European accent. What country, Kazicstan. I know that isn’t spelled right, but I’m too tired to check. She lives in Washington D.C. and trains all year...before and after her full time job! She made the FINA qualifying time, and is representing her home country in the 50 freestyle. Her third and final Olympics. Marina is her name and she finished 27th in Athens but was swimming the 200 IM. Her friends with her were also swimmers, and they were competing in the 100 back and breast respectively. They all three were very disheartened by their nations uniform selection. Orange is the dominant color. You can watch for that in the Opening Ceremony. We chatted for about 30 minutes, while our subway train steadily made its way downtown. This is one of the great things about working the Games. Knowing what to look for we can strike up conversations with athletes we spot and find out about a girl, who won’t get any press, but has trained for 20 years in order to compete for her home nation. What discipline to work out on her own before and after work, without any chance of medaling.
We arrived at our destination, which had signage that looked like a used car lot and a hello kitty store had been mixed in a blender and poured out on giant billboards. There was nothing tasteful about the Beijing Amusement Park entrance. I had found it on a map, and looked it up online. Their motto was the following: Disney world is too far, come to Beijing Amusement Park instead. I’m not making that up. Their front gate had a princess theme, except that the princess was on drugs. Not a pretty sight. It was also deserted. About 100 people in the entire park. Did that stop us! Heck no, we bought our tickets and headed into what would be the most depressing amusement park I’ve every seen. We were greeted by a giant green algae invested lagoon. The giant lilies growing on top, were blending in way too much. We walked up to the first ride we saw. It was a small roller coaster called: Super fast cool cool bear. I’m not making this up I swear. The sign below it said “don’t hesitate, come ride”. See in the China somebody who some English came along and translated a lot of stuff. And to this day they’ve never checked to see if the translation actually makes sense. We boarded the ride with other 5 kids in line, and away we went on our 45 second steel adventure. The ride worked without a problem and it was very fun. However, don’t look for Six Flags to be importing this one anytime soon. We continued on to the next attractions. They were permanently fixed fair rides. You know those rides operated by a guy with one leg shorter than the other, or a guy wearing a shirt with a name on it, but it isn’t his name? Well these were the vomit inducing specials. We’re going to lift you in the air, then spin you around on a gravity based arm that flips separately from the spinning of the machine. I was just watching it and it made me queasy. None of the Chinese kids riding it toss their cookies, but I did notice the ride operator was sitting in a glass enclosed control booth. Coincidence? I think not.
We continued through the park noticing it was in quite a bit of disrepair. If a ride was no longer operating, they just left it there, and let the grass and weeds grow up through it. Never seen anything like it. No more water twirl magic car, let it grow old, rust, and continue to take up space. The names of the rides were hilarious. No creativity. We rode the Sky Bike next. Yep, we got on a shared seat with pedals and a sprocket above a track a cycled our way at about 1 mile an hour around a metal track overlooking animal props that were succumbing to very little landscaping maintenance. We could have gone faster but the mother pedaling around her two year old son, was taking forever. Next we went to ride the roller coaster, named the...roller coaster. It had a decent first drop and a loop and several corkscrews. It also took about 50 seconds to ride. Finally, we saw something that looked truly promising. Go-Karts on a huge winding track. We thought it looked like it had great potential but thought it would speed govenors in place to limit us to about 5 miles an hour. However, when we had to put on our helmets, and get into our open gas powered kart, we shot out into the first straight away and quickly saw we could go as fast as that little engine allowed us, and that was pretty fast. Fast enough to feel like we could flip the things going into turns. After five minutes of heated racing I defeated Jared to take the first ever unilateral coordinator grand prix. And with that victory we decided we’d seen enough of the Beijing Amusement Park and it time to head onto to other adventures.
This amusement park was a great illustration of this country. The Olympics have driven some massive upgrades and rebuilds around the city. But if you get off the Olympic path, you run smack dab into terrible conditions. This amusement park was in terrible shape. It was ugly, not well kept, run at minimal effort, yet the people didn’t seem to know any different. That is the real China. When you peel back the Olympic curtain, you seen poverty, and no creativity, only copying of other ideas somebody saw. This thing was a mismash of Disney, pop culture and anything else someone saw a picture of. Quite sad really. I’m going to expand on this topic more with part two of my day off, which I will post shortly.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Shift Supervisor for a Day
You know those in times in life when you experience things and you’re not really sure why, and then the moment comes when you realize that you had been preparing for another more important moment? Yesterday was one of those moments.
For my department our crunch time is the preparation time period when all the testing occurs. We can only really begin final testing when circuits and wires are in place at each venue. That can’t happen until all the crews are in place. When the Olympics crews are scheduled, the thought is, guarantee product delivery whatever that is, at greatest profit. So hire enough people with enough time to know delivery will happen, but not a moment sooner. Now imagine hiring several thousand temporary employees to all perform at a high level for a month. Each person doing a slightly different job under slightly different conditions. Each job dealing with variables that can’t be predicted before hand. Now imagine millions of dollars at stake on those performances.
For Commentary Switching, we rely on each venue’s crew arriving, understanding their job, and having minimal obstacles to overcome. When that equation doesn’t play out, it makes for a lot of stress. So with less than a week to go before the Opening Ceremony, our shift supervisor had the day off yesterday. He left the oldest guy in charge. This guy didn’t want to be in charge. I picked up on that, and went to speak to the guy. I asked him if he would rather me run our main desk, coordinating everyone’s efforts. He thanked me. So now all this capacity building and project management I’ve been working in was going to get a good test. What had to be overcome was language barriers, a multitude of tasks with 44 different locations, some special tasks that would occur during the day including the first real live unilateral broadcast by a rights holder, and finally, everything we did had to be handed off clearly to the second shift, which had yet to happen so far, even under the real supervisor.
We started with a morning briefing, in which I had everyone briefly share their experience from the day before, suggestions, issues, etc. After 20 minutes of that, I divided venues between crew, and gave specific questions for them to answer for each process they were carrying out. Once they finished with a venue, they would report back to me, where I would then log info into the computer. The computer log is the key component to our setup. It is an online spreadsheet that is viewed by top boss all the way down. I kept a close eye on each person in their station throughout the morning, noting who was light on load and could take an incoming issue. The live standup happened without a problem, we got about 75 percent more testing done than the previous two days, we did three sessions of special commentator unit training on the side, and had an updated report for the second shift coming in, letting them know the status of every sports venue. What made it work? Two things. I kept encouragement constant for each shift member, letting them know the importance of the job they were doing. Second, I kept communication clear. If they couldn’t explain what they had done, I helped them understand what needed to happen, and helped them talk through the procedure with the venue manager. Those elements had been missing before. Guys didn’t know the relevance of their tasks. If something seems irrelevant then why do it? I gave them a chance for feedback throughout process. Even the interns. Finally, I prayed. I knew I could do it, but I knew I needed to have God give me wisdom and patience throughout the process.
Most of the time, the Olympic gig for me is show up to work, do the tasks, then maximize the experiences out of the office. However, this go around I got the opportunity to have a new experience, that had nothing to do with China. At the end of the day, its a good feeling to know you’ve played an integral role in pulling off the largest event in the history of the world.
Misc update: The Olympic common area has opened up and so today I’m going to go check that area out. Also I’ve shifted work times from 7-4 to 3:30 pm to midnight. So the blog will get posted at a different time.
For my department our crunch time is the preparation time period when all the testing occurs. We can only really begin final testing when circuits and wires are in place at each venue. That can’t happen until all the crews are in place. When the Olympics crews are scheduled, the thought is, guarantee product delivery whatever that is, at greatest profit. So hire enough people with enough time to know delivery will happen, but not a moment sooner. Now imagine hiring several thousand temporary employees to all perform at a high level for a month. Each person doing a slightly different job under slightly different conditions. Each job dealing with variables that can’t be predicted before hand. Now imagine millions of dollars at stake on those performances.
For Commentary Switching, we rely on each venue’s crew arriving, understanding their job, and having minimal obstacles to overcome. When that equation doesn’t play out, it makes for a lot of stress. So with less than a week to go before the Opening Ceremony, our shift supervisor had the day off yesterday. He left the oldest guy in charge. This guy didn’t want to be in charge. I picked up on that, and went to speak to the guy. I asked him if he would rather me run our main desk, coordinating everyone’s efforts. He thanked me. So now all this capacity building and project management I’ve been working in was going to get a good test. What had to be overcome was language barriers, a multitude of tasks with 44 different locations, some special tasks that would occur during the day including the first real live unilateral broadcast by a rights holder, and finally, everything we did had to be handed off clearly to the second shift, which had yet to happen so far, even under the real supervisor.
We started with a morning briefing, in which I had everyone briefly share their experience from the day before, suggestions, issues, etc. After 20 minutes of that, I divided venues between crew, and gave specific questions for them to answer for each process they were carrying out. Once they finished with a venue, they would report back to me, where I would then log info into the computer. The computer log is the key component to our setup. It is an online spreadsheet that is viewed by top boss all the way down. I kept a close eye on each person in their station throughout the morning, noting who was light on load and could take an incoming issue. The live standup happened without a problem, we got about 75 percent more testing done than the previous two days, we did three sessions of special commentator unit training on the side, and had an updated report for the second shift coming in, letting them know the status of every sports venue. What made it work? Two things. I kept encouragement constant for each shift member, letting them know the importance of the job they were doing. Second, I kept communication clear. If they couldn’t explain what they had done, I helped them understand what needed to happen, and helped them talk through the procedure with the venue manager. Those elements had been missing before. Guys didn’t know the relevance of their tasks. If something seems irrelevant then why do it? I gave them a chance for feedback throughout process. Even the interns. Finally, I prayed. I knew I could do it, but I knew I needed to have God give me wisdom and patience throughout the process.
Most of the time, the Olympic gig for me is show up to work, do the tasks, then maximize the experiences out of the office. However, this go around I got the opportunity to have a new experience, that had nothing to do with China. At the end of the day, its a good feeling to know you’ve played an integral role in pulling off the largest event in the history of the world.
Misc update: The Olympic common area has opened up and so today I’m going to go check that area out. Also I’ve shifted work times from 7-4 to 3:30 pm to midnight. So the blog will get posted at a different time.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Who are the People in Your Neigborhood...
I think one of the most fun and interesting things about being at an Olympics is the number of new people you get to meet. The nature of the setup here, particularly in the Media Village, is close quarters for a lot of people. By default you are going to have the opportunity to greet somebody new around every corner.
One day for me was like this: Get up and get ready and head to breakfast. On the elevator, meet another guy from host broadcaster BOB, who is from Spain. At breakfast, interact with Chinese catering hires for Aramark Catering. Sit down to breakfast and talk with some Canadian engineers at next table. Get on the bus to work, and sit next to one of the head engineers for CBC (Canadian Broadcasting) whose been a part of every Olympics since Atlanta. At work throughout the day interact with 3 new people from 3 different countries on installation testing; New Zealand, NBC, Japanese TV. Go visit Korean Broadcasters to pick up equipment. Leave work, get on bus sitting with new contingent of Channel 7 personnel (Australians) Get a pin from them for nothing. Awesome! Help them orient themselves to Beijing sights and transportation, exchanging emails for further talking. While taking down laundry in the evening ride elevator with a Television Director from Finland.
Not bad for a day! I’ve really enjoyed getting to interact with and chat with these different people from different cultures. My sense of humor has come in particularly handy when we’ve been together trying to figure out how to make the washer/dryer combo, wash and dry as a combo. The fact that I can become close enough friends with a Greek guy that he is contemplating a visit to Atlanta, is proof that the Olympic experience is really a special time of relationship building. The one thing I haven’t been able to translate yet: this friend’s main request if he visits is to see the Atlanta Hawks play. Oh well.
Update on the work. We are testing every venue right now for the first time, making sure all the audio commentary and producer coordinating circuits work. There are standup positions that the various rights holders can rent for broadcasts at the National Stadium, Tiananmen Square and the IBC. NBC has a spot in the Square and when you see them use that location, know that the Bob location shares the same stage and is next to it. Things are starting to get really fast and hectic and new personnel, particularly the reporters and producers are arriving by the busloads everyday. Yesterday I worked extensively with Beach Volleyball and a few of the Indoor Arenas holding boxing, basketball, and weightlifting.
One day for me was like this: Get up and get ready and head to breakfast. On the elevator, meet another guy from host broadcaster BOB, who is from Spain. At breakfast, interact with Chinese catering hires for Aramark Catering. Sit down to breakfast and talk with some Canadian engineers at next table. Get on the bus to work, and sit next to one of the head engineers for CBC (Canadian Broadcasting) whose been a part of every Olympics since Atlanta. At work throughout the day interact with 3 new people from 3 different countries on installation testing; New Zealand, NBC, Japanese TV. Go visit Korean Broadcasters to pick up equipment. Leave work, get on bus sitting with new contingent of Channel 7 personnel (Australians) Get a pin from them for nothing. Awesome! Help them orient themselves to Beijing sights and transportation, exchanging emails for further talking. While taking down laundry in the evening ride elevator with a Television Director from Finland.
Not bad for a day! I’ve really enjoyed getting to interact with and chat with these different people from different cultures. My sense of humor has come in particularly handy when we’ve been together trying to figure out how to make the washer/dryer combo, wash and dry as a combo. The fact that I can become close enough friends with a Greek guy that he is contemplating a visit to Atlanta, is proof that the Olympic experience is really a special time of relationship building. The one thing I haven’t been able to translate yet: this friend’s main request if he visits is to see the Atlanta Hawks play. Oh well.
Update on the work. We are testing every venue right now for the first time, making sure all the audio commentary and producer coordinating circuits work. There are standup positions that the various rights holders can rent for broadcasts at the National Stadium, Tiananmen Square and the IBC. NBC has a spot in the Square and when you see them use that location, know that the Bob location shares the same stage and is next to it. Things are starting to get really fast and hectic and new personnel, particularly the reporters and producers are arriving by the busloads everyday. Yesterday I worked extensively with Beach Volleyball and a few of the Indoor Arenas holding boxing, basketball, and weightlifting.
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