T i m wrote
Rod Speed wrote
T i m wrote

I think the whole thought of putting up something like the Olympics
is all a bit bizarre. What actually is it? It's a competition between a
tiny minority of the population who are interested in those particular
things and can be bothered (or get the opportunity) to do it

And who happen to have the genes that let them do better than others.

Yup, there is that as well. Isn't it a shame to set yourself some
arbitrary goal of winning something when, (as you say), because
of your genes there would never be the chance of winning.

And it looks like that even something as basic as whether repeated
training works to improve the result you get has a substantial genetic
component too.

(and as you say, 'dedicate their lives to it' in many cases). So?

Fact, for every_single_sport, there *will* be
someone out there who could be better.

And when the difference between silver and gold can be just 1/100th of a
second.

Yup, g, gold and 1/100th of a second later you are a nobody.

And the result can be reversed the next day.

Or on the re-run the same day. It's not a race therefore, it's a Lottery?

Wota packa terminal ****wits.

Well, I wouldn't go that far but it does seem a bit bizarre to me. ;-)

There are those things of course that do relate to the real world.
Like if you can throw a spear a long way and keep it accurate
you are more likely to bring home the bacon than the next guy

Not anymore.

Well, I think there may still be a few groups / cultures who survive that
way?

Not really. I can't think of any that use spears for that anymore
who do depend on what they can spear for survival. And it isnt
throwing it a long way that matters either, its being able to get
close enough to the target to spear it successfully even with
those that still spear what they want to eat today.

What its now about is who can find what they need
on the net instead.

;-)

Corse that doesn't make it to the olympics.

Quite.

Even with something like chess, who actually gives a flying red
**** who can play something like that better than anyone else ?

'Them' I guess and I have no issue with that. If people want to compete
amongst themselves then that's fine (as long as they don't interfere with
me)

I still sneer at those who decide that the silliest stuff like whipping
yourself is a sensible thing to devote your pathetic excuse for a life to.

so I guess it's the thought of it being anyone's 'job' that get's me.

That too. Tho I consider what you devote your life too as more significant.

but what if the next guy is 'better' at starting a fire to cook it on?
Do they also hold 'championships for that? Why shouldn't those
people also be recognised? How many of us could be 'champions'
at cutting in a metal back box into a brick wall? Why shouldn't
skills, honed over decades also be recognised thus?

I don't actually give a flying red **** about recognition myself.

No?

Nope, tho I realise that most do.

Don't you think it's 'nice' though when someone comments
on some work you have done and says 'nice job'?

Nope, I know whether I have done that or not, I don't need
anyone to recognise that.

I'm not saying you / we do it for that but if you are doing it anyway
(because
it needs doing rather than you just waning to do it 'because' as such)?

I really don't care if it gets recognition or not.

I mean the difference between someone saying "nice job" for a neat
fence or car body repair rather than running 100m to nowhere faster
than the next guy? (Especially so when they are 'experienced' in such
fields themselves)? [1]

Nope, I know whether I did a good job or not, and I also know when
its worth putting more effort into a better job and when its not worth
the trouble and when near enough is good enough etc.

If I had done one of the more revolutionary ideas like Einstein had
done, the last thing I would give a damn about is something like the
Nobel Prize etc. That would just waste my time on a formal ceremony,
the sort of thing I really hate wasting my time on, and I would have to
field lots of phone calls from stupid journalists who wouldn't actually
have a ****ing clue about what I had actually done etc.

I wouldn't even give a damn about a standing ovation at a conference
of my peers that understood the significance of what I had done either.

I might be interested in spelling out how I was treated in school to
try and put a bomb under the education system so others wouldn't
be treated like he was in school in the future, but that's a very forlorn
hope even if you could find someone who could spell that out to the
world in a very effective and succinct way.

I get it ... I get it in that I understand how and why we have come to
do what we do with the likes of the Olympics but I don't get it as in
the fundamental desire to. I guess I don't get the point or the hype.

I don't even see any point in any sport at all myself.

Nor can I for most of it, however I can see why *other people* might.
Just as you might only be good at say 'building stuff', they aren't, but
they may be good a vaulting over a pole (however useless that may
be today. H&S won't even let you get on the roof that way any more!).

There is nothing to stop me doing it again.

In fact I did all the electrical wiring and got licensed
electrician to claim he did it all, completely illegal here.

In spades with watching someone else do it.

Quite.

Isn't watching someone row 100m like watching someone row
100 virtual m in a gym? I'm sure you can race these gym rowing
machines these days so shouldn't it be on telly?

Just watched a doco where the stupid south koreans do just that.
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2012/s3557618.htm

Again, I've done quite a bit of online gaming myself (single player
and part of a 'Team') and it was cool because *I* was actually doing
it. Not sure I've ever (seriously) watched anyone else doing it past
learning how to get past a tricky bit maybe.

And why would you want to watch someone
doing that sort of thing in any case?

Because you have a pathetically inadequate 'life' presumably.

weg

but I don't watch others competing. Ok, I guess it's also 'good' for
England that we gave done well, but who actually cares? What are
we (as in England) going to get now because of it ...[2] both the
country and the citizens? Or do you have to have this tribal / gang
thing within before you can have a 'side' and then support it? [1]

Maybe that's where we all obese these days,

I'm not. I'm right in the middle of the ideal BMI range.

It was a 'Royal' 'we'. ;-)

we count watching someone else exercise
as exercising (when we say we are 'into sport')?

I think obesity is more about modern food being
much more calorie dense than traditional food was.

I'm sure that's a big part of it.

I don't even think its got that much to do with exercise either.

Well, only that we can indulge ourselves in such
high calorie foods and then burn it off afterwards

Turns out that the obese kids get just
as much exercise as the skinny ones.

(or were you talking about 'sport' as such)?

Nope, just activity in general.

So, whilst I can see there can be some good come
out of such a spectacle, if it actually encourages
people to go out for a run, or get their bike out etc

I've seen no evidence that it does.

I think I heard suggestion of their being
more cyclists on the roads these days?

Yes, there certainly are, but that's not due to the olympics.

There are certainly a hell of a lot more walking for exercise
on the roads these days too, but again that's got nothing
whatever to do with the olympics or any sport at all either.

Not sure if that is because of exercise or just a side
effect of the 'cutbacks' as such?

It must be the exercise, because we haven't had
any of the cutbacks ourselves, we didn't even get
a recession because of the complete implosion
of much of the world's financial system.

And hordes are out walking on the streets at all times
of night and day where I live, you have to be a bit careful
at sunup and sundown because they mostly do walk on
the roads because we have **** all in the way of footpaths.

There you go. That's where some of that
'Olympic' money could have gone.

True. We have had some added recently, but that was because
the govt decided that we might see some effects from the
complete implosion of the world financial system and they
started spending money to try to avoid that result.

Its still **** all of the roads that people walk on, wouldn't even
be 0.5% of the roads.

but to have this 'dream' of being the best at 'hop, skip
and jump' ... "from when I was 7" ... really? Especially when
you will never know if you really were the best in any case ... ?

And all those who make it to the olympics are are the best
at ****ing their pathetic excuses for 'lives' against the wall
on something that completely pointless at anyway.

hehe Not sure if I'd agree if it was just a hobby
for them, or they just did it for fun, for themselves.

Sure, but they don't devote their lives to it, its
just a small part of their lives. That's not true with
olympians, except when they have retired etc.

But then I'm not into 'Live entertainment' much either

Yeah, I've never bothered with any of it myself.

The most I ever bother with is air shows etc.

That's one area where the real thing can leave the
same thing on video for dead, like when the F/A 18
flys over at 50' and then heads straight up in the
air with the jet exhaust pouring into the crowd etc.

I can still remember a Vulcan doing it 40 years or more ago now.

(it often seems 'flawed' which of course it is). I don't
mind a film where the bad bits have been edited out.

Sure, you can certainly get a much better view in video
than you ever can in real life with lots of things.

Oh well, it will soon all be over and I can turn the tell back on again.
;-)

I only watch stuff I've recorded and the only effect that the
olympics has is that a couple of free to air TV channels aren't
worth even bothering to check the EPG for the duration.

We do that quite a bit normally. Timeshift TV. ;-)

[1] I do 'get' fun / amateur competition.

I don't, and never have.

Never played darts, cards,

I did when I was a kid, but don't anymore.

raced yer mate to the pub

Nope, don't bother with pubs, I prefer to drink
at my place or a mates place and preferred that
even before I started brewing my own beer.

or yer kids across a park?

Doing what kids want to do is different.

I certainly don't give a damn about who wins etc.

Jumpers for goalposts, a round of golf with your
mates or even a game of darts down the pub.

Never bothered with any of that.

Me neither (those ones) but I do 'get' the competition thing.

I did manage to infect quite a few of those I knew with the
house building bug when I built my own from scratch tho.

I wonder if there was any 'competition'
there to do it better, quicker or cheaper?

Not for me. I know I did mine much better than they did.

Only one of them actually physically built most of the house
himself like I did and he's not a patch on me quality of work wise.

One of my mates is better than I am at stuff done on a lathe etc
and can make you a handgun out of metal out of the rack any
time you want one etc. Leaves me for dead at that sort of thing.

But he's completely hopeless at anything electrical or electronic,
just doesn't get it with stuff he can't actually see. In spades with
computing.

I guess for me it's when people take that and turn what
is only / ever 'a game', 'a sport' and mutate it into something
bigger than it really should be (IMHO of course).

I'm not humble either |-)

I've noticed. ;-)

[2] Personally, I would much rather they spent the same money they
spent The Olympics, opening up our existing waterways across the
country and providing facility's for *everyone* to actually go out and
do this stuff. Not just those who happen to stumble into it but give
everyone a chance to not just give it a go but to be able to carry on
doing so (free / cheap) if they so choose. We don't need one velodrome,
we need thousands of miles of cycle paths and good bikes to ride on
them.

Not into that stuff myself. I prefer to walk and do that well out of
town, basically because I find walking in the burbs too boring.

Still, the same can apply, even in the burbs (and as you mention
elsewhere with people on the road dawn / dusk etc). Take the
Olympic money and make a dual-use pavement for real
everyday people to help them get about better and safer?

Yeah, that would certainly be a much better use of the money.

And another mate of mine got run over when walking and
that pretty comprehensively ****ed over his life for a long time.

We don't want a huge sports stadium
we want free gyms across the country.

We do have something like that.

We do?

My town, not yours.

The ****ing great multilevel mega oval has a heap of exercise
machines out in the open that you are free to use any time you like.

Where is this then?

Country town in Australia, population 25K.

Don't use them myself.

Not sure how many of them I would but
it might be nice to at least try a verity.

I don't even ride a bike myself.

With limited cash, we all need better facilitieS,

We don't.

We don't?

I meant my town.

The facilitys are pretty decent and we have just
built some for the kids too, free for anyone to use.

They still exist though and I'm saying we need more (as you say,
especially for the kids). [2]

[1] A tiler, here to do another role spotted my tiling and asked who
did it? I said 'me' and he added 'nice job but I bet that took you a
while?' (It took me whatever time it took to do a 'nice job'). ;-)

I did find it hilarious when the local council told the builders in
my town to look at how I had done the reinforcing mesh for the
concrete slab for the house, because that's how it should be done.

I just did it the way its sposed to be done with bar chairs holding
the mesh up so it ends up at the right level in the concrete.

The local builders don't bother with them and just hook the
mesh up with a long metal hook thing as the concrete is
poured. The council hates that approach because they can't
check what height the mesh is hooked up to at pour time.

This would be in contrast to the dear old lady neighbour
saying 'you are making a good gob of that' when she
observed me putting up a new fence at the front. Whilst I
accepted the comment in the spirit it was given I'm not sure just
how much skill she had re judging if it was really good or not.

I don't care even when I know they are an expert at it.

I know if I did a good job or not, I don't need anyone to tell me that.

[2] And I don't just mean some patch of tarmac behind
an industrial estate, I'm talking a proper (say) skate park,
properly manned and maintained.

We don't man ours. The only one of ours that's manned is the pool.