From Sunday and monday, i have decided that i want a job watching the Olympics, i love them. Like marry them love them. All of them, even ice dancing and anything involving cross country skiing. i actually found myself asking other people if they had been following the big women's 15k biathlon scandal. Let me repeat that, i asked other people if they had been following the big women's 15k biathlon scandal. Some Russian woman took performance enhancing drugs that "were legal in Siberia" and got caught. She was stripped of the silver. She missed gold by 2.3 seconds and took a penalty cause she missed shooting a target after skiing 13k up a hill. The penalty is basically a pretty large lap. 2.3 seconds behind someone with no penalty, how do you deny doping at that point?

that is a rugged event though. i started watching it and the first woman to finish went to put her hands down on her knees and just kept going, lying out on the ground drooling on the snow. i think my reaction was something similar to "ohh shit someone just died in the Olympics" while i was screaming in my apartment though three other women finished and performed exactly the same action. at the end of the race it was over a 90% fall down drooling on the ground rate. Talk about grueling.

props go out to the female Korean speed skaters as well. They seem hellbent on sweeping all medals in every race. i just watched the 8 lap speed race and it was 1-2-3 Korea but one person got disqualified. What was interesting is that they were 4-5-6 until the second to last lap than passed everyone.

last Olympic point. Did anyone see the Russian figure skater, he had me clapping for him in my apartment. i think i saw a glimpse of why my grandmother likes ice skating so much. Done right it is something to see.

today has been nice and relaxing. Went grocery shopping and just sat outside in the central area of the apartment for a while because it was gorgeous out. Then did laundry and messed around the house in between events. i have become a regular at the restaurant i go to a lot. They brought out my tsing tao by the time i decided what i wanted to eat.

i was reading the foreign affairs issue dedicated to china and they brought up some negatives with American society and how Chinese society is better in these respects. Most of them i did not agree with but there was one that resonated, the lack of violent crime here is really nice. i have not felt unsafe here since i have been here (ignoring the traffic) even with the lack of street lights and the many alleys and small streets you end up walking around in. In America there is a lot more tension maybe? About safety. Even in the bar district where i expected people to be drunk and rowdy (code for fighting) there was not any of that. Also you don't see any reports of violent crime on the news (wonder why?) so maybe it is just blissful ignorance. It seems in a city of 20 million that there would be some conflict.

another concern brought up by the foreign affairs was rampant piracy and worries of intellectual property here. The most provocative argument i have heard about this matter since being here is as follows. Beijing is the host of the 2008 Olympics. It has defined an Olympic symbol that it uses on all Olympic related products or information. No matter where you go in Beijing you do not see that symbol on anything other than authentically produced goods. The word from Shanghai is the same. There is not piracy of anything involving that symbol. Thinking about that leads to some interesting discussions that are probably better held in person.

music recommendation, Willard grant conspiracy and telefunk - in the fishtank 8 - konkurrent. konkurrent is a Danish label that started this project. They get two diverse groups in the studio to record an ep in a limited amount of time (usually under a week with no rehearsal, except for this album which is the first to use rehearsals). This particular combination works really well. Willard grant conspiracy are a slower Americana group. They are focused on lyrics and melody with almost a country tinge. telefunk are a Dutch electronic unit. Everything comes to together perfectly for this album. It is mostly traditional songs that have been given a stronger bass with telefunk and great banjo parts from wgc. Also the interplay of vocal styles makes this album one worth listening to no matter what style you like.