Holy.

Crap. This is amazing.

I know, I know. I stole it from boingboing. But it's really amazing.

Firebird

I remember growing up hating Firebirds. Just thinking that they are the stupidest car ever. I was so disgusted by them. The late 70's into '81, '82 in particular. And then...it was probably around 1999 or so. It all changed. I somehow just got it. And I've wanted one ever since.

I remember watching Pimp My Ride a few years ago when they did up about a 1980 Firebird. It was so awesome. I fell in love.

Anyhow. This post excites me. It's amazing that somebody could be so crazy about Firebirds.

I looked at one a few years ago. It was out at the Shuswap and it was propane. White. My dream is to have one with a matching bicycle trailer. If I had a garage, I probably would have bought it.

Parallel Giant Slalom

Parallel Giant Slalom is a stupid sport that doesn't belong in the Olympics. I spent two days in terrible weather watching a boring sport and I'm not happy about it. Now, there was one exciting moment. We ended up slipping down the course 1 or 2 heats before the 2nd run of the gold medal final. Amazingly, the crowd had sat through a day of snow, rain and cold but were all really pumped up. When old Jasey-Jay Anderson came down and managed to create a win out of thin air, it was pretty exciting. But one exciting moment in two days of competition does not make for an Olympic event. Here's why:

1) The course was so dull. World Cup GS races (skiing) do not take place on blue square runs that are about 30 seconds long. If they did, they would be boring. If they had no terrain, they would be boring. They would also be more similar to parallel giant slalom.

2) The athletes are inconsistent. Yes, I know, you can't be perfect for the 50 runs that is required to win a gold medal. But still, I was shocked at how consistently sketchy many of the racers looked while completing their runs.
3) This race makes no sense and is hard to follow. There's so many runs and every athlete looks the same. I even knew what was going on and I had a hard time following it. Everybody understands skiercross/boardercross. Be one of the first two down the mountain and you move on. I can't remember how many times I heard "What? They have to go down again?" over those two days.

This whole theory can best be proven by telling you about a conversation with a photographer on my way down the course. See, we were slipping down the course between every freaking run. Like, thousands of times up and down the course. We'd do half of the run between each heat and then finish it up and head back around to the top. At one point I was beside either a Reuters or AP photographer. This was as I slipped down before the 2nd run of the bronze medal heat.

Photo Guy - "How many heats are left."
Me - "I'm not entirely sure. I think the next one might be the second heat for the bronze medal."
PG - "God. This makes no sense. This is the most uninteresting sport I've ever photographed. You get like 10 chances to win a medal. All these runs..."
Me - "Well...I think it's more that you get 10 chances to screw up and not win a medal."
PG - "No. (looks annoyed) It's definitely 10 chances to win a medal. I wish I had 10 chances to win a medal."

Then he looked even more annoyed and walked off. I don't even think he took a picture of the bronze medal heat. He was just angry and bored. And wet.

Anyhow. My Olympics ended with the Jasey-Jay Anderson gold medal. Once again, I was in the finish. I'm 3 for 3 on being in the finish and Canada getting a gold medal. And then I got the hell out of there and never looked back.

Canada-Russia

As we watched Canada wallop Germany, we were still unsure as to when they would be playing their quarterfinal game. Then there was the announcement - "Canada next plays Russia at 4:30 tomorrow." I quickly phoned Matt. "Those tickets are for 4:30 tomorrow, right?" Yes. Indeed they were.

The process started many months ago. Nobody believes me. But it all came down to careful planning. During the inital round of ticket purchases, none of the games had countries attached. Buying a preliminary ticket became a massive crapshoot. The gold medal tickets were too expensive. The semifinals seemed to be a bit unreasonable too. But the quarters...why, they were hardly more than a preliminary game. As well, there were only 4 of them and I speculated that they would make all attempts to put Canada in to the time zone that suited the East Coast of Canada the best. So we went for the 4:30 tickets and it worked out.

I was pretty happy to go to a Canada game and it seemed even more exciting as the hype for the Russia game was crazy. I arrived early and took in the atmosphere. I think every single person going in was wearing either Russia or Canada merchandise of some type. It was pretty crazy.

The seats we had were top bowl, second row back from the edge, right above the 1st/3rd period Canada goal. It was the best vantage point I've had in the top bowl at GM Place. It gave good perspective on the game. We were also able to see the crowd of people rushing the Wayner, asking for autographs.
The crowd, the signs, the crazy Russians, the excessive amounts of beer. It was all just too much for the senses. When Canada scored it's first goal...holy shit. I've never witnessed such an eruption in person before. High fives ran rampant. It was a crazy scene.

The jubilance lent itself well to more beer. As the game became a bit of a blowout everything got a bit muddy. It's all now just a haze of red and beers. I add pictures just to prove that I was there.

I said to Matt at some point in the second period that I wished it wasn't turning into as much of a blowout. His response was "I think we should take it. Lets go get more beer." Seemed like a fitting theme for the night.