Brettski's Random Stuff...
Really, truly - this is random stuff. I post some pictures and have the occassional rant about things that I'm interested in. Hope you enjoy...
The Beijing Opening Ceremony and Channel 7 August 9, 2008

So despite my better judgement I sat down and watched the opening ceremony of the 2008 games last night. Pretty spectactular stuff but the Channel 7 covered sucked in a quite a few ways.

First, they had the footy on until about five minutes before the ceremony started. No build-up, no pre-promotion, no nothing. Sure, you have to keep your footy audience happy (I guess - not a real big footy fan) but given that the Olympics is a relatively rare event I would have thought some more coverage would be in order.

Which brings me to my second point. With a pre-show Channel 7 could have shown ads during that instead of wasting about 2-3 minutes before the ceremony started promoting the 'broadcast sponsors' and stopping the broadcast of the ceremony every few minutes for ad breaks. It really ruined the atmosphere and meant that a few things (like the fireworks and a few bits of the show) were missed.

I did notice, however, that there were no ad breaks during the athlete's walk into the stadium. Or at least none that I noticed - I wandered off in the middle. Unusual, given that this went on for a few hours.

Also, the commentary disappeared for a few minutes at the start of the show to be replaced by the sound of technicians trying to get the commentary back online. Not that this was such a bad thing, because...

The commentary was nearly useless. It was filled with sexist remarks about various female athletes; had pointless comments about parts of the ceremony (like how paper could be used for writing or drawing on - really? I had no idea...); and they failed to explain for the first ten minutes of the athlete's walk in why they were entering the stadium in such an unusual (for a westerner) order. It turns out the order of the countries was dictated by how many movements of the pen it took to represent the country's name in Chinese script. This was about the only thing useful thing said in the entire broadcast.

Overall, this has reinforced my ongoing belief that the Channel 7 commentary team needs a complete overhaul. They are tired, monotonous and boring. And on top of that, it appears that Channel 7 has spent all their money buying the rights to the broadcast and none on quality production values.

Attack of the stupids July 19, 2008

I'm amazed at the stupid things people will do with their children (supposedly the offspring of their loins; beloved little cherubs) in tow.

Coming back through Subi from doing my shopping I saw a woman pushing a pram with three kids in tow. She crossed the road at a set of traffic lights while the pedestrian signal was on red. So far, only moderately stupid but still a bad example for the kids.

Anyway, only two of the kids went with her and the pram - the third (who had obviously not got his dose of stupid for the day) stayed on the footpath and was waiting for the light to change. Good kid.

Of course, the traffic moves towards this woman when she is halfway across the road. The two kids on the road run for the far side. Not too smart but the best they could do in bad circumstances.

The woman (who now has a surprised look on her face) sees the cars and then has a second attack of the stupids. She leaves the pram (with the kid in it) in the middle of the road and runs back to get the third kid who is still standing on the footpath; grabs him, rushes back across the road with the kid in tow; and proceeds to push the pram across the rest of the way. All while the traffic is approaching (admittedly, slowly becaue they can see this woman is having a real stupid attack).

What is with people? Sure, we all have an attack of the stupids occassionally and do dumb things. But who leaves a pram with a kid in it in the middle of the road with approaching traffic? Clearly, evoluation at work.

This isn't the only stupid thing I saw today and it certainly isn't the only stupid thing I've ever seen people do with their kids. But today, if I didn't know better I'd say there was some stupid injected into the water supply over the last few days.

Recent posts:
July 19, 2008: Comment: Attack of the stupids
June 20-22, 2008: Picture post: CanTeen 2008 - Pemberton
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May 10, 2008: Picture post: Powerlines Track with Laz
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May 2, 2008: Picture post: Half Ironman - Three Bears Trail
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April 17, 2008: Comment: Content Filtering...
Older entries:
April 4, 2008: Comment: Funny Signs
February 11, 2008: Comment: Been busy building websites
January 5-6, 2008: Picture post: Harvey / Lake Brockman
December 15, 2007: Picture post: Harvey
November 18, 2007: Picture post: 4WD Training - Wilbinga
November 05, 2007: Comment: Perth drivers suck
October 13, 2007: Comment: Outlook and Office 2007
September 13, 2007: Comment: Selling cars...
August 26, 2007: Picture post: Jeep Fight Club!
August 19, 2007: Comment: Privacy is Dead - get over it
July 22, 2007: Picture post: Powerlines Trip
July 15, 2007: Picture post: Leschenault Peninsula
June 23, 2007: Picture post: Powerlines Trip
May 18, 2007: Picture post: CanTeen 2007
November 2, 2006: Picture post: Ghosts on Tour 2006
May 27, 2006: Picture post: Ladies Training Day
May 20, 2006: Picture post: Canteen 2006
January 28, 2006: Picture post: Wilbinga
December 4, 2005: Picture post: Pluto's Day Out
9 October 2005: Picture post: The York swamp and then the power line track.
September 3, 2005: Picture post: Maverick's 4WD Monthly photo shoot
August 21, 2005: Picture post: VR4 Track Day
August 13, 2005: Picture post: Gerry's photos from our Mundaring trip.
August 13, 2005: Picture post: An excellent day wandering through the Mundaring hills.
March 19, 2005: Picture post: Canteen 2005
March 19, 2005: Picture post: Canteen 2005
10 April 2005: Picture post: Wandoo Explorer
April 10, 2005: Picture post: Wandoo Explorer - Anna's pictures
July 24, 2005: Picture post: Photo Shoot for 4WD Monthly
November 7-8, 2003: Picture post: Magellan GPS Training Day
4 July, 2004: Picture post: Mundaring Day Trip
May 18, 2003: Picture post: Another trip to the York swamp
23 October, 2002: Picture post: Toodyay Explorer
19 April, 2003: Picture post: Moore River Mud
5-6 April, 2003: Picture post: CanTeen Trip
March 29, 2003: Picture post: Mundaring Hill Climbs
7-9 March, 2003: Picture post: CanTeen Trip
29 December 2002: Picture post: Picnic at Dwellingup
November 17, 2002: Picture post: Ladies Day
22 October, 2000: Picture post: Mundaring to York
19-20 October, 2002: Picture post: Night Navigation
October 10, 2002: Picture post: Pinjar Suspension Tests
15 September 2002: Picture post: A swamp near York
8 September, 2002: Picture post: Muchea and Dunes
August 18, 2002: Picture post: Westec Rally Adventure Day
11 August, 2002: Picture post: Wilbinga
14 July, 2002: Picture post: Talbot Rd
16 June, 2002.: Picture post: Mundaring Hill Climbs
9 June, 2002: Picture post: 4WD Training Day
3 June, 2002: Picture post: Muchea
26 May, 2002: Picture post: 4WD Training Day
27-28 April, 2002: Picture post: CanTeen Trip
9 February, 2002: Picture post: Moore River
4 November, 2001: Picture post: Dwellingup
16 September 2001: Picture post: Mud near York
17 June 2001: Picture post: York to Mundaring
10 January, 2001: Picture post: Dwellingup
30 July, 2000: Picture post: Dwellingup
23 June, 2001: Picture post: Moore River
15 July 2000: Picture post: Mundaring to York
Picture post: Miscellaneous Pictures
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