Feb 01 2010

Monday Morning Meta Madness

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

hitchhikingYou see, my goal for DocuDharma is to make it a cool place to hang out.  A no pressure zone where you can let it slip on occasion that you’re part of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party without having people get all in your face like you’re a Yankee fan.  A virtual Cheers where everyone knows your name Norm! and you can ignore blowhards like Cliff.

Liveblogging is hard, but no harder than on many other platforms.  You just have to remember to hit the ‘Refresh’ button on your browser instead of admiring your last bon mot for an hour or two.

On the other hand (appointment blogging) it sucks when you get no feedback from your audience.

Now I don’t seem to have a problem with that so much in part because I don’t care what people think, and also I’m perfectly comfortable expressing my interior dialog (and they called me mad at the institute).  I talk to myself all day every day and twice as much on Sundays.

And I watch TV.  All the time.  I can’t remember the last time I turned it off.

Coming up in GroundHog Month are some major sports events that I think we can enjoy together-

Puppy Bowl, Curling, America’s Cup.

While I’m content to try and provide content myself, I think the Olympics is a little more than I can handle even on steroids and I’d like some volunteers.

Oh you betcha.

The benefit of on deadline televised liveblogging is that everyone is sharing the same experience.  It’s a lot like being at a bar with your buddies except the beer is cheaper (well, unless you have the good fortune to be a Veteran or a member of an Animal Club with it’s own).

You talk trash and interact on your favorite keyboard (or an acceptable substitute in my case since I still haven’t sent my Northgates off for repair).

Next Sunday is Puppy Bowl VI and I intend to give it the same treatment I gave the AFC and NFC Championships only with more attention to commercials and field turds.

Don’t miss the Bissell Kitty Halftime Show.

Likewise America’s Cup is an easy single hander though you do have to be up at odd hours and have a weird cable package.  As with Formula One, it tends to be boring once one team asserts the dominance of its equipment.

For the Olympics there are 3 sports I think it’s crucial to cover-

  • Curling (I love it, really)
  • Speed Skating (Stephen Colbert)
  • Hockey

Now for Hockey I’d actually like to put undercovercalico on the spot since a lot of these guys are NHL players on leave and I have no idea who they are, but I’ll understand if she has obligations that prevent her from doing it.

Speed Skating and Curling I see no hope for but me.  Still, I’d be happy to give either up.

Things that would be nice to cover-

  • Alpine (I ski)
  • Ski Jumping (Richard is a ski jumper)
  • Bobsledding, Luge, and Skeleton (they are just so cool mon)

Now you may have a special affection for a sport I haven’t listed, like Nordic Combined or Freestyle Snowboarding or Figure Skating-

Feel free to contribute!

What I’m Hoping For

I’m hoping that people will put up liveblogging essays on the sports that they’re interested in and tend them with comment updates on the action.

They don’t need to be terribly complicated.  Simply setting the stage will be sufficient-

Let me tell you about ski jumping.

The last time I jumped on skis it was off a mogul and I ended up with my head between a rock and a tree, but the reason I was taken to the hospital is that one of my skis came off and cut my chin so that I needed stitches.

See how simple?

Then you kind of ramble about what’s happening until it’s over.

What Sucks

It doesn’t exactly suck that nobody is into Nordic Combined like you are.  What really sucks is that somebody else IS and their essay is getting more comments than yours.

I’d like to avoid that by co-ordinating.

This is not the most complicated thing in the world.

You can step up today and declare your love for Curling (that’s mine- hands off!) OR I’ll be putting up Olympic coverage essays in the morning every morning listing the current volunteers and the times they expect to post.

New volunteers should feel free to claim a spot.

You post your essay on the right (not the Front Page) and I’ll periodically gather and highlight them.  This shouldn’t cause much of a problem with our regular content since I doubt very much we’ll get more than 50 essays a day and even if we do and you haven’t reset your preferences to 50 you can always look at older ones 20 at a time by using the |https://www.docudharma.com/diaries/#| trick that OTB taught me.

Or you can bookmark these in a folder and open them in tabs-

but whatever.  That prospect should not discourage you from expressing yourself.

And you get 3 Essays a Day just so you can waste 1 or 2 on something frivolous, but if that’s inhibiting you let’s talk about it because I can fix that (I’m very influential).

The most important part is the atmosphere.

This is the fun blog.  The one where you don’t have to worry about being yourself.

Let’s have a good time!

34 comments

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  1. America’s Cup looks like it’s going to be a tough research job.

    I know that the Olympic Schedule is going to be tough to work out.

    “Do you need some help?”

    “Oh…  All I can get.”

  2. but I could care less about sports – any sports.  I am like you in that I have the TV on all the time.  But what is on my TV most of the time is Science Channel, Discovery, History or NatGeo.  Most of the time I have it on for White Noise.

    About the closest I get to enjoying a sports show is something I don’t expect you to recognize called “ManTracker” and I like that for black humor reasons more than the sportsy aspects.

    So carry on you crazy diamonds, heh.

  3. Snow Sports

    Alpine Ski

    Biathalon Ski

    Cross Country

    Freestyle

    Nordic Combined

    Ski Jumping

    Snowboarding

    Ice Sports

    Bobsled

    Curling

    Figure Skating

    Hockey

    Luge

    Short Track

    Skeleton

    Speed Skating

    schedule here  http://www.nbcolympics.com/eve…

    First competition day Saturday 2/13/10  is Alpine Ski, Biathalon, Freestyle Ski, Short track, Ski jumping, and speed skating.

    2nd day, Sunday 2/14/10 is Alpine Ski, Biathalon, Freestyle Ski, Luge, Nordic Combined, and speed skating.

    The figure skating does not start competition until the 14th, giving viewers 2 days to fast forward thru the endless, syrupy soft focus biographies of figure skaters that will be interspersed into the other sports.

    curling starts on this channel on tues the 16th, medals fri 26th and sat the 27th.  hockey on thurs the 25th and then sunday the 28th.  

    snowboarding on monday the 15th, goes tue, wed, thurs the first week, then some more on fri the 26th and sat 27th

    short track ice skate racing starts on saturday the 13th.  then wed, then sat, then wed again, then fri.  

    bobsledding doesn’t go until the 20th, medals the 21st, on Sunday.  skeleton, which is the minimalist form which looks more suicidal, goes on the 18th and 19th.

    ski jumping starts sat and sunday the 13 and 14th, then there is a pause until the next week.

    downhill skiing and speed skating on the regular track seem to be the sports most likely to be seen during either week.  

    ___

    this effing laptop is going to have to go back to the shop and be regutted long before that.  

  4. I love the Olympics, especially makin’ fools of some of them other loser countries.  Livebloggin’ some patriotism is a great idea!

    I’m kinda partial to the biathlon myself, which combines my love of snow with my love of shootin’ stuff.  But I could fake my way through any sport.

    Also Vancouver ain’t that far from Alaska.  If I go there to cover an event live, should I take expense money out of Docudharma’s petty cash or will ya just reimburse me later?

    A somewhat serious question though:  I’d expect the primetime NBC coverage to jump around with segments of different sports.  Are ya thinkin’ one person would host an evening session of whatever was on?  That would be OK too.  

    U-S-A!  U-S-A!

    • Edger on February 1, 2010 at 16:03
    • #

    PNCC: Project For A New Chinese Century, eh?

    Slate yesterday:

    China Doing Laps Around West on Clean Energy

    China is so far ahead in the race to create technology related to renewable energy, that “the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China,” notes the New York Times. The United States, along with other countries, is trying to catch up, but it’s an uphill battle. While renewable energy continues to be more expensive, China charges a fee to all users to help spread out the cost, an example of how the government takes a deep interest in energy policy. And it’s not just about government regulations. In fact, part of the reason why China has been able to become a world leader in building this new technology is that its domestic market is growing. Demand for electricity in China is skyrocketing, so power companies have to constantly buy new equipment, making it easier to develop large-scale production lines.

    Read original story in The New York Times | Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010

    • TMC on February 1, 2010 at 16:19
    • #

    by then, definitely for week two. I may miss the America’s Cup which starts in Valencia, Spain on Feb 8.

    BMW ORACLE Racing, with its trimaran and towering wing sail, made its debut on Spanish waters Tuesday afternoon.

    It’s the first time the American team has sailed its America’s Cup boat at the venue of the 33rd Match.

    When the boat took to the waters off the Port of Valencia, it was sporting USA emblazoned on its stern, the name designated for the boat by the Golden Gate Yacht Club when it challenged for the 33rd America’s Cup.

    Previously, the trimaran had been called the BOR 90. But now, in Spanish waters, this is the name the boat will carry into battle for the America’s Cup next month. Conditions were ideal for a first test sail with four to eight knots of wind and just a small chop on the otherwise flat water.

    The trimaran is officially USA 17



     

  7. You are achieving your goal, IMHO, of making this place a nice place to hang out.  I feel much more comfortable posting here and at emptywheel’s place these days, than elsewhere.  I just seem to be more on the same page, so to speak, and am having a big case of dissonance and WTF, much of the time, at the big place.

    As for the Olympics, I can try to help, but the summer Olympics are more my thing.  I’ve done some skiing in my day and a bit of ice skating (all just for fun) but other than that cannot relate to winter sports.  The swimmers, gymnasts and runners are my thing.  

    Also, in recent years, the coverage of the Olympics drives me nuts.  So much fluff, so relatively little coverage of the competitions themselves.  I’d much rather watch the sports than listen to the blowhards and watch the sappy vignettes that are legion.

    So, I do like the figure skating, usually, and like to watch the luge, bobsledding and skiing.  Maybe I can help out there when the time comes.

    Again, good morning, and here’s hoping it’s a good day.  I’m thinking of ignoring the news today – budget and all that.  I’m already in enough pain 😉

  8. I know I am culturally irrelevant because I actually did not know who Taylor Swift was but holy cow she cannot sing!

    I love Maxwell and Roberta Flack but they were lame. And I could actually understand what Lil Wayne was saying this year.

    I love the Puppy Bowl! And you know how I feel about the Winter Olympics….

    I am vaguely cheering for NOLA in the stupid bowl.

  9. That sport is Futbol.  I have no idea what the Winter Olympic sports might be.  They are apparently played outdoors in the winter and involve ice and snow.  What a dreadful circumstance.  The athletes all seem extremely pale and don’t seem to mind the ice and snow or how cold it is.  I simply do not understand that.  I think the only acceptable, civilized sport(s) in Winter involve drinking alcohol.  The Winter Olympics seems to me an exercise in barbarianism.    

  10. I could care less about sports myself but I may wander in and spam y’all with some kind of vaguely related music toob. Unless you ask me not to, as Im guessing it could goober up the liveblog, esp for folks with slower connects.

    😉

    • Metta on February 2, 2010 at 20:20
    • #

    Daffodils are blooming and the tulip and hyacinth bulbs are up!  They are trucking in snow and building ski runs with straw in North Vancouver!  Cypress Mountain is nearly bare!  We’ve had lows in the lower 40s, highs in the upper 40’s with a 40% chance of rain for weeks! Welcome to the mid 40s!  HA!!

    I think I like winter Olympics best because summer Olympics are overwhelming.  I’d rather be doing things outside then anyway.

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