Canada + Hockey = Win

Dohnutt wrote:Canada = Hockey + Maple Syrup

Fixed

The regular Olympics bore me, the winter one bores me to tears. I really don't get why people'd want to watch other people skate circles for an hour on end.

The_Emperor wrote:

Dohnutt wrote:Canada = Hockey + Maple Syrup

Fixed

The regular Olympics bore me, the winter one bores me to tears. I really don't get why people'd want to watch other people skate circles for an hour on end.

Maybe because theres the slight, slight chance that the skating may end in a terrible accident...
Otherwise, the reason is beyond me.

redgroupclan wrote:

The_Emperor wrote:The regular Olympics bore me, the winter one bores me to tears. I really don't get why people'd want to watch other people skate circles for an hour on end.

Maybe because theres the slight, slight chance that the skating may end in a terrible accident...
Otherwise, the reason is beyond me.

I enjoy watching skating because of the beauty and grace of it. Simple as that.

If you don't have something good to say about a sporting event, why say it at all?

Yeah, if you simplify it to "going in circles on ice", then yeah, it's no fun. You could always say gaming is only pressing buttons so it must be boring, and we know that's not true.

An enormous part of liking the olympics is feeling for the sports. I want to say I'm well rounded physically/activity wise, which is why I like a lot of the events. I didn't fall for skating enough until I skated, and injured myself on ice.

Grev wrote:If you don't have something good to say about [insert article (optional)] [insert noun], why say it at all?

Off-topic: Because just about anything is up for criticism and there is nothing special about sporting events that would exempt them from being so. Excuse me if that was meant to be a rhetorical question.

AQT wrote:

Grev wrote:If you don't have something good to say about [insert article (optional)] [insert noun], why say it at all?

Off-topic: Because just about anything is up for criticism and there is nothing special about sporting events that would exempt them from being so. Excuse me if that was meant to be a rhetorical question.

It wasn't, it was more of a patently thing to say. Like Thumpers mom in Bambi.
I recognize that people can criticize games, or like The_Emperor, simply express their opinions, I'm just a bit vexed by it.

Grev wrote:Yeah, if you simplify it to "going in circles on ice"

Speed skating is just going in circles on ice. Figure skating is much more interesting to me, but there are lots of sports that are just "going in circles" (read: any track race). Organized sports are born out of variants of people beating each other up or variants of going nowhere fast.

I don't take much time to watch sports in general (or the Games), but the Olympics are special because exciting or not, they are a great venue for displays of world-class athleticism. Displays of super-normal athletic talent are always appreciable on some level.

Maveritchell wrote:

Grev wrote:Yeah, if you simplify it to "going in circles on ice"

Speed skating is just going in circles on ice. Figure skating is much more interesting to me, but there are lots of sports that are just "going in circles" (read: any track race). Organized sports are born out of variants of people beating each other up or variants of going nowhere fast.

I don't take much time to watch sports in general (or the Games), but the Olympics are special because exciting or not, they are a great venue for displays of world-class athleticism. Displays of super-normal athletic talent are always appreciable on some level.

I disagree about "just going in circles". As a person who runs track and cross country, there's a lot more to speed skating or track than "just going in circles". I don't want to sound bigoted but unless you compete in an event like it you won't understand. There's a lot more internally going on during this "just going in circles", and I can't really find words to explain it, it's something that needs to be experienced to be understood. My example stands. As Jack Thompson would say: "you're just killing people", or "you're just pressing buttons". People who don't play games often/ generally speak negatively of them. As people who partake in video games, we understand that there's more to it.

Grev wrote:My example stands. As Jack Thompson would say: "you're just killing people", or "you're just pressing buttons". People who don't play games often/ generally speak negatively of them. As people who partake in video games, we understand that there's more to it.

? No, it doesn't. Don't strawman the point by bringing Jack Thompson into it.

Physically, video games are just pressing buttons (although to be most accurate it isn't a fixed sequence). Physically, skating around a track (or running, or driving) is just going in circles. That's not a "dis" against the sport, it's just a concise assessment. I didn't say anything negative, so don't pull the "oh but you just don't understand" card.

"Just going in circles" I only said in the context of comparing it to other types of skating:

Speed skating is just going in circles on ice. Figure skating is much more interesting to me,

...and until speed skating adopts a straight-line or obstacle-course format, it will always be "just going in circles" - that's one of the conceits of a race - and it's no injustice dealt to it as people are not being awarded for their mastery of turning left, but for their mastery of doing it quickly.

So ease up and don't take offense to anything and everything that doesn't seem to fully agree with you.

lol seems like these day we can barely have any non star wars topics without /crying and /hate messages. opinions are getting rough these day. I have to say I had alot of fun last night a bunch of us went to a bar to escape a baby shower so it was guys night out , we got wasted cracking up at the serious faces people make when they play do curling, i mean really its ice shuffleboard wtf LOLz. anyways it was fun but yea someone died already so i guess its serious stuff, some of it.

a joke someone just made me post : they said a guy flew out and died hitting a pole , turns out they were gonna ban him from the olympics anyways he stated he was swedish but in the end he was a pole.

Why are you guys talking about skating anyway? In my opinion it's not the most exciting event in the Winter Olympics. Try watching snowboarding or something with more action, then you can't say it's "just going in circles".

guru wrote:a joke someone just made me post : they said a guy flew out and died hitting a pole , turns out they were gonna ban him from the olympics anyways he stated he was swedish but in the end he was a pole.

Oh gosh, I don't know whether to laugh or to feel bad, 'cuz that actually happened.
Can't remember what nationality he was, though :/

And for the record, Empy didn't mean any harm in his post, it's just his usual silly posting habits. Well, maybe a little bit o' harm.

The one thing about the Olympics is it a showcase, tightly packed into 2 weeks or so, of a bunch of sports that you don't normally get to see on a regular basis. It also invokes the sense of national pride for the people from the various competing nations. (okay that one may have been an Olympic Organaizing Commitee saying)
Along with the grace of some of the sports or speed of others it is like any other sport people will watch it for the misfortunate accidents (or good hard hits in hockey), as in Speed Skating, especially short track get some good ones there. Or someone not making the complete rotation in any of the aerial event. Or the most tragic someone not making the double sowcow in figure skating.

Now what I didn't think was possible was to have a good wipe out in Cross Country skiing but yesterday someone was going too fast around a corner, left the grooved track things and ended up falling into a small revine and all you saw was one ski sticking up, it looked really funny (the person was okay BTW)


Oh and everyone, especially in Canada, should watch the Games and go out and buy all the advertised products.*


*shameless plug for the tv channels I work for that are showing the games

Maveritchell wrote:

Grev wrote:My example stands. As Jack Thompson would say: "you're just killing people", or "you're just pressing buttons". People who don't play games often/ generally speak negatively of them. As people who partake in video games, we understand that there's more to it.

? No, it doesn't. Don't strawman the point by bringing Jack Thompson into it.

Physically, video games are just pressing buttons (although to be most accurate it isn't a fixed sequence). Physically, skating around a track (or running, or driving) is just going in circles. That's not a "dis" against the sport, it's just a concise assessment. I didn't say anything negative, so don't pull the "oh but you just don't understand" card.

"Just going in circles" I only said in the context of comparing it to other types of skating:

Speed skating is just going in circles on ice. Figure skating is much more interesting to me,

...and until speed skating adopts a straight-line or obstacle-course format, it will always be "just going in circles" - that's one of the conceits of a race - and it's no injustice dealt to it as people are not being awarded for their mastery of turning left, but for their mastery of doing it quickly.

So ease up and don't take offense to anything and everything that doesn't seem to fully agree with you.

I'm not strawmanning the point, I was bringing up an example. An poorly chosen example yes, but you understood what I had in mind. Arguments like this end badly for me, but I think the "you just don't understand card" is fitting here. Another bad example, but one you might understand. I won't understand or feel bad for a marching band doing a parade in Florida until I've walked around in tough heat in the special costume playing an instrument until I've done it myself. I'll think, "Jee, that's nice music, and move on." I won't appreciate it until I've actually done something similar, because I'll think it's just people playing musical instruments. Perhaps it's a teenager thing.
And I personally also like figure skating more than speed skating, but I enjoy and feel for the athletes of speed skating because I ice skate, I've injured myself, and I partake in "going around in circles" in sports. In case that was too chunky; what I've been trying to say is that as an athlete who performs in such events, I enjoy the sports, and it bothers me when people blatantly out and say that it's just going around in circles, as it's so much more for the people who do it.

It's an opinion.

Hockey FTW.

Everything else is pretty fun too, except for figure scating, I just kinda hate it.

Dohnutt wrote:Can't remember what nationality he was, though :/

I'm fairly certain he was from Georgia (the country, not the state).

SilvaDalek wrote:

Dohnutt wrote:Can't remember what nationality he was, though :/

I'm fairly certain he was from Georgia (the country, not the state).

He was.

I can't believe that American guy won the figure skating contest last night. I was seriously thinking that Russia would beat us again. Looks like we got an unexpected turnout, but that shouldn't be so surprising, considering that everything in this Olympics is unexpected.

Not curling, that's the same thing every time. A bunch of crap.