The Son on the Winter Olympics

            Ok, first off, I want to say that it was INCREDIBLY STUPID for Brian Williams to show that clip of the guy dying! I think it was hugely disrespectful to his spirit and his family. OK, I just had to get that off of my chest... I have a different style of presenting this to you, by taking sections and stating my opinion, and giving the pros and cons.

The Olympics 

                Pros: Simply put, the Olympics are one of the most exciting things in the world. I think it is a great way for everyone in the world to come and do sports together. Also, it is incredible to see these athletes doing what they do best! For instance, watching the ice skaters doing amazing tricks... WHILE THEY ARE SKATING. Cons: People try to "spice it up" and make it pretty cheesy. For instance, I think the skater outfits were incredibly corny... But other than that, there really aren't many bad things you can say about the olympics

TV Coverage                                                             
                 Pros: Gives you a great view of the games, especially when the athletes are doing what they do best. Also, it gives you exclusive interviews and other information, and it gives you a clear view of the Olympics and you don't even have to be there. Cons: Way too much talking, wont shut up even when the information they are saying is clearly visible at the bottom of the screen, and commercials. Oh, the commercials! About four tenths of the part I was watching was commercials.
                                                       

  Opening Ceremonies

               Pros: It gives you a great aspect on Canadian culture, and shows you the athletes from around the world. I didn't get to see it all, considering it went till midnight. ( Four and a half hours!!!) But from what I saw, like I said before, it gives you a great aspect of Canadian culture, and while watching it, I learned the Canadian national anthem, and that performance was pretty cool. (It was a girl singing on this ice platform thing whilst the Canadian police raised the Canadian flag.) Only Con: Four. And. A. Half. Hours.

The Father on the Olympics: Confused but hopeful.

The best word to describe the Winter Olympics so far is puzzling. There's a distracting lack of snow in Vancouver (it's cloudy, balmy and drizzly at most of the venues). The Opening Ceremonies were held indoors (indoors?) and came off as a little "Lord of the Dance" for me. The event coverage is pretty much real time, unlike China, Turin, etc. I kind of got used to the 8-hour delay somehow. (I know, it's me.) And there was that horrible death of the Georgian luger before the Games even got started.

That said, I'm thinking things will get better. That's because I'm an Olympics junkie and an incurable optimist. This combo allows me to ignore stupid stuff like what Johnny Wier's wearing under his fur and lets me focus on giddy Polish ski jumpers with broken teeth and mangled English. That's entertaining. To me, there's nothing cooler or more exciting in all of sports than to see these amazing athletes from around the world converge on an actual "global village" for 2 weeks to compete, share meals, hang out ... hook up? Good or bad, I'll take it all in by TV, radio, computer, newspaper or 2-way radio if I have to. Here are a few random thoughts on the Games so far:

• Opening Ceremonies: They started off a little rocky with some awkward lingering shots of the VIP section (watching obscure dignitaries take their seats is not compelling TV)... too much commentator commentary (we have eyes, you know)... some cringy lip synch moments by performers. But all in all, things settled down and got better with the spectacle of the parade of nations, special effects, etc.
• TV Coverage: Too many commercials and, again, too much talking by the announcers. They feel the need to fill every second of air time with talk. NBC, if you're reading this, just point the cameras at the short track skaters and we'll figure out the rest.
• Worst TV moment so far: NBC's decision to replay over and over the horrific crash and death of the young luger from Georgia. This was live, on national TV, prime time... no one needed to see this. Especially his friends and family watching at home. And my kids didn't need to see it, either.
• Favorite moment so far: The end of the Nordic combined event. First U.S. medal ever. Those guys are studs.
• Most annoying trend: Portraying certain athletes as "bad boys," "rebels" and "free spirits" because of soul patches or pink streaks in hair or tattoos or fur coats or some other empty fashion statement.
• Favorite athlete despite the hype: The Flying Tomato. A little biased, but you just can't keep a good Ginger down.
• Least favorite athlete: Johnny Weir. See above. This guy's super annoying.
• Favorite event: Short track speed skating. Just a nerve-wrackingly high-speed, dangerous and unpredictable event. It ain't over til it's over.
• Second favorite event: Curling. The training, the conditioning, the sweeping! OK, it's just fun to watch, like shuffleboard.
• Least favorite event: It was going to be Moguls, but after watching that Kearney girl, I have to say it rocks.
• Best-looking country: I have to go with France from what I saw during Opening Ceremonies.
• Best Opening Ceremony uniforms: Hands down, Bermuda. Did you see the shorts?
• Medal Count predictions in order: U.S., Canada, China, Austria, Germany.

OK, those are my thoughts on the Olympics so far and I hope you got something out of it. What did Milkshake Boy have to say?

The Dad on Facebook

Facebook. My favorite new obsession. Since joining last March, I've transformed from nonbeliever/passive sceptic to daily updater/champion . "Facebook Nation" is startlingly engaging and fun. It took me by complete surprise. Updating, sharing, ranting, raving, goofing, laughing. It's an amazingly powerful, galvanizing and user-friendly medium. It feels like home when I sign in each morning. Logging in to my page now trumps the morning Sports page (but not my morning coffee, yet). It can take up a lot of time, and you have to avoid the whackjobs, endure the casual acquaintances, turn off the "annoying" button. But for the most part, I'm friends with the people I want to be friends with. I've been able to catch up with former classmates, coworkers, friends near and far, and most of all family. The downside? I'm a little addicted and I don't like admitting that. But I've learned to curb my updating (a little) and am getting pretty selective about my friend base. My sons won't like this, but it's a great way to keep tabs on them and their friends without getting in their grill too much. Anyway, that's the scoop on Facebook. I think Milkshake Boy and I probably agree on this topic more than not. Sorry to disappoint this time. I'm sure we'll be going at it soon enough. Thanks for reading.

The Sons Opinion: Facebook

              Hey everyone, I have our first topic: Facebook. I'll be writing the first post this week.
So, heres my opinion: Facebook. (Everyone knows what this is, right?) It's a social networking site which lets you connect with other friends and share pictures, videos, play games, chat and all kinds of other stuff. But in my opinion, it's not as good as it sounds.
              For me, it weighed me down. Every day you feel as if you have to check it, and if you dont have many friends on it you will get absolutely ZIP out of it. Also, there is the addiction problem. I saw a special on the news which was on Facebook addiction, and I saw that some people spend mor than 5 hours on it PER DAY. But all of that was the cons. The pros, for me, is that you can connect with friends and share many things and chat, and you even have an e-mail-like system.if you have the right amount of friends, it can be a blast and a great way to communicate with friends. But if you have too little friends or even too much, you can find that it can be either overwhelming and complex to useless.
           In my opinion, Facebook is a great social networking site; if you have the right amount of friends and time. That's what it's all about. Like I said before, even having too much friends can be bad. So thats my opinion on Facebook. If you have any feedback, you can either comment or e-mail us. (See sidebar for e-mail address) Also, if you want to check it out, go to it at http://www.facebook.com/.

Father & Son

           So, today is the first day of the blog. After days of preparation, we have decided on our name and what we are going to do. Here's what we're going to do: Take a topic and I will give my opinion (the son) and Dad will give his opinion and we'll see how it all turns out. Pretty cool, right? And useful. Don't forget useful.
           Ok, a few personal details first. I just wanted to tell you that I am "The Son" (Milkshake Boy) and Dad is (naturally) called The Dad. Also, we plan to review some pop culture things like movies, video games, social media stuff and maybe even family life. Here's an example: I like Xbox, so I might be backing it up with reasons why it's cool. But my Dad might not like it, so that could be an interesting discussion. Maybe even a conflict?
       So, yeah, that's the concrete information. We'll have another post up as soon as we can. We're going to talk about Facebook and how it's become a part of our lives. In the meantime, don't forget to drop us a line if there's a topic you'd like to hear us discuss. See you there!