It was just too long

Friday night, a friend came over and asked if we could watch the opening ceremony for the Olympics. I said yes, since there really wasn't anything on.

I was impressed and in awe of all the beauty that China has to offer with their art and whatnot. We don't have anything that comes close to that here in the USA, but that's not a bad thing. We have other things to offer...I think?

This is the first ceremony I've seen since 1996 (Atlanta Olympics). From what I remember this one surpassed that one in every way.

There was a tape delay since China is on the other side of the world, not this is where my dander was raised. 204 countries participating in the Games, is it really necessary to show them all walking around the track? Nothing against any of the athletes, but NBC could have taken advantage of the thing not being live and edited it to just introduce the countries and say how many athletes they have, especially the smaller countries that no one knows about.

Sad part is, they did that when they would come back fro ma commercial break, and near the end. Why couldn't they have done that for the whole thing?

After sitting through all that, there was still a good 30 minutes left before they finally lit the torch, which apparently appeared out of nowhere, but the way it was lit was cool.

Oh, and I can't end this without mentioning the pointless 30-45 minutes they spent before the ceremony started just blabbing about China. It was like watching a horse race. They come on a good hour or 2 early for some that last maybe 5 minutes and just blab on and on and on....and on and on....and on endlessly until the race starts. That's the same feeling I got Friday.

Still, after all that, it could have been worse. There are tensions between the US and China, not to mention the ever present threat of terrorism. So, it was good to see that it went off without a hitch. Now, let's hop we can bring back a ton of gold!