Olympic Flag Bearer

Sarah and I were talking the other night about who should be the flag bearer for Canada at the Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics. Unlike last time where Cindy Klassen was an easy pick, it's not so clear-cut this year. Here are who I think the candidates are:

Alex Bilodeau - Won the first Gold for Canada at home. While it's a great achievement, I don't think he should be the flag bearer. Why? He won the first Gold because his event was one of the first ones scheduled. It easily could have been one of our other Gold medal winners, but they were scheduled to compete later in the games.

Kevin Martin - If Martin wins the Gold medal game in men's curling, his team will have gone undefeated through the entire Olympics. That's about 12-13 games in a row he will have won against the best in the world. That's just as, or more, dominant than Cindy Klassen was 4 years ago, but he'll only have one medal to show for it, not 5.

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir - I think these two have a real shot at hoisting the flag, for being the first North Americans to win Gold in their sport. To me that's more of an accomplishment than Bilodeau winning the first Gold of the games for Canada.

And finally, who I think deserves to be the flag bearer...

Joannie Rochette - She won a Bronze medal under the absolutely worst condition you can imagine. Her mother died in Vancouver of a heart attack just a day or two before Rochette was set to compete. Rather than bow out, which nobody would have blamed her for (Skate Canada was ready to support her decision to drop if she chose to do so), she skated her heart out in tribute to her mother. Canada would have been proud of her even if she finished last, but winning a medal under such adversity is an amazing accomplishment.

So there you have it, my thoughts on the flag bearer. If Joannie wasn't up to handling the flag bearer job (which would be completely understandable), then I think it should be Kevin Martin. Probably a long shot, since I can't think of any time in recent memory that a curler got to carry the flag (Sandra Schmirler may have, I'm not sure on that one), but if Joannie isn't able to, I'd like to see the Old Bear get the job.

The Problem with Own The Podium

Canadian officials have finally acknowledged that the Own The Podium program, a 100+ million dollar initiative to try and win the overall medal count at the Olympics, has failed. I'm not really surprised, and the reason why is simple.

Other countries have been throwing as much or more money at the medal count a lot longer than Canada.

I've heard reports that the funding Canadian athletes have enjoyed for this Olympics will be cut. This is a typical political knee-jerk reaction to the failure of a quick fix solution. To make Olympic champions, you have to start at the ground up, not by simply throwing money at your current crop of elite athletes. And starting from the ground up takes time, as those young athletes need time to grow into tomorrow's champions.

I'm not disparaging the efforts of our current crop of Olympians; they've trained hard and done their country proud. But I'm really sad to see the cuts coming to sports funding, as it is just going to set back what Own the Podium started, making that 100+ million dollars spent a waste.

Curling Too Rowdy

There is an interesting situation that has developed with the curling competition at the Olympics. The crowds have steadily been getting louder and more boisterous as the tournament has gone on.

In most sports, this wouldn't be a problem; it would actually be encouraged. However, curling normally isn't one of them. The etiquette of curling would have the crowd quiet down when one of the players is throwing their rock. Also, since communication is so important, the cheering is making it hard for the teams to communicate while sweeping.

I'm of two minds on this topic. On the one hand, the curling purist in me says the crowds need to quiet down. During the Canada vs Great Britain game last night, the crowd broke out into a loud rendition of O Canada. Normally awesome, but Canada's second actually had to wait for the singing to subside before he could deliver his rock. It wasn't a problem because Canada had a lot of time left on the clock, but if they hadn't managed their time so well, it would have put them in a real bind (each team gets a certain amount of time to make all of their shots; Great Britain had about a minute and a half left at the end of the game). If a team runs out of time on their clock, they lose the game.

But on the other hand, isn't it great to see so many people excited about curling? While curling remains popular in Canada, a lot of clubs are seeing a reduction in participation, not an increase. Why? The old guys are moving on and there aren't as many young people getting into the sport. The crowds at the Olympics are really pumped about the game, so if that excitement leads to new curlers as a result, that would be great.

Maybe at this level the players need to be given headsets to communicate with each other and then the crowds can make as much noise as they want. It would be a real shame to lose the absolutely electric atmosphere that has overtaken the curling venue, but we also don't want that atmosphere to cost anyone a game.

Losing What Is So Easy To Gain

Man, I wish my title was talking about money. ;)

I've been working at losing weight lately, but I want to make sure I keep my motivation up, so I thought maybe I'd start blogging about my weight loss adventure, kind of as an accountability/support thing.

I'm ashamed to admit it, at one point I weighed 314 pounds. That's what happens when you don't exercise and eat too much of the wrong things. I think I was operating under the impression at that time that exercise had to be running on a treadmill or an exercise bike, when really that isn't necessarily the case.

When I was in high school, I liked to get my exercise through sports, and while I lived in Winnipeg I stopped doing that because I wasn't really sure how to go about getting into sports in the city. Or more likely that was just my excuse. I'm getting back to sports now, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm curling 2-3 days a week (not counting a couple of bonspiels coming up), which isn't the most intense form of exercise but it's certainly better than sitting on the couch. I'm also playing indoor soccer in Winnipeg Beach once a week, and man do I wish it was more than once a week! Just last year I got back into soccer and hadn't realized how much I'd missed it. I've also been using the in-laws treadmill whenever we are in the city, and soon I'll be getting an elliptical machine that my parents are no longer using.

Anyway, at this point I'm sitting at about 282 pounds. Still way too much, but I'm plugging away at it. I'm down a belt loop on my pants since about a month ago and I've got clothes that are starting to fit better or just plain fit again. I don't think I'll ever get below 200 pounds, even though the Body Mass Index says 180 is my ideal weight (don't be fooled, BMI doesn't consider body build; all of the U of M Bisons men's volleyball team are actually above their "ideal" BMI, and I guarantee those guys are in shape!). I'm thinking that with my fairly broad build if I can get to 220 I'll be good. I admit, part of me wants to try get down to 199, just to say I broke 200, but I don't know if that's actually feasible without getting deathly ill.

So from time to time I'll post updates on how my weight loss is doing. I'm hoping that by talking about it on the blog I can keep my motivation going.

My first bald spot

Well, I guess I'm getting older. I found my first bald spot the other day. This isn't that momentous an occasion really, I'm just confused that it's not on top of my head, it's on my face!

(Note: Yes, that is Michael "Pinball" Clemens in the picture with me!)

Check out that smooth spot in my beard on the left side of my face (right along the "goatee line" were I to only have a goatee). I shaved my beard down to a goatee later to see if I'd just trimmed my beard to low in that spot, but nope, that patch is smooth.

I really hope that patch eventually grows again because I hate shaving every day, that's why I grow a beard!

Old Friends, Good Times

I'm in Winnipeg for a conference right now, and while I was in I thought it would be a good time to reconnect with some of my old Olive Garden friends. While I don't miss serving tables, I really did work with some great people.

I started a tradition at the Olive Garden (it lasted a few years, don't know if it still happens now) of a karaoke party to celebrate the ending of the Never Ending Pasta Bowl promotion. After that a group of us started going karaoke somewhat regularly, and we kept at it until the karaoke bar we frequented (which was really close to work) closed.

So, I thought doing a karaoke party as a way to catch up would be fun, and man was I right! We went to a place called Muz Karaoke; unlike a bar, you rent a private room so it's just you and your friends. If you want to talk, you can talk, and if you want to karaoke, you don't have to wait through 2 hours of people you don't know before you get your turn! The facility definitely caters to Asian customers, since English was the second language in the song books (and there was about 1/3 English songs to whatever the Asian language was), but it was a lot of fun.

We thought there were going to be about 10 of us, but in the end there was only 4 of us. Still, we took turns singing individually, doing some duets; sometimes someone would grab up the second microphone and join you on the chorus or harmony, it was a ton of fun. We booked the room for 3 hours, but were having so much fun we stayed for an extra hour and a half. The room rates were very reasonable as well; on a weekday, you can get a room for an hour and a half for $25 (including taxes).

I really loved getting together with my old friends again, and hope to do so again too. Thanks Colleen, Pasith, and Penni!