Theme Week Medal Presentation

Jeremy’s Sametime Status Proudly Presents: Olympic Fun Facts Week! Poland's Stella Walsh won the women's 100 meter dash at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, becoming the first woman to break the 12-second barrier. When she was killed in 1980 as an innocent victim in a robbery attempt, an autopsy declared her to be a male.


Speaking of people named Walsh, rumour has it that Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won the gold medal in Women's Beach Volleyball last night, much to the surprise of roughly nobody in the world. I say "Rumour" because I recorded the match since it was after my bedtime (9:00 PM) and I haven't watched it yet. So if you know what happened, don't say anything, okay?


We go from great success to great failure. Here's people failing at gymnastics:

Theme Week Medal Round

Jeremy’s Sametime Status Proudly Presents: Olympic Fun Facts Week! At the first Modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, Silver Medals were awarded to the winners, and Bronze Medals were awarded for second place.


So apparently, the phrase "Going for the Gold" is slightly newer than the Modern Olympics themselves, as the awarding of Gold, Silver and Bronze (in that order) originated in the 1904 games.

Here's a clip of some people Going for the Gold, Silver and Bronze, but ending up with Red, Black, and Blue:

Theme Week Round Robin

Jeremy’s Sametime Status Proudly Presents: Olympic Fun Facts Week! Beibei the Fish, Jingjing the Panda, Huanhuan the Flame, Yingying the Tibetan Antelope, and Nini the swallow are the Official Mascots of the 2008 Olympic Games.


Most sports teams have a mascot. Come even have a couple. The local baseball team basically has 4, but they're all the same. (It's a family of Raccoons) But, being the Olympics, we have to take things one step farther. They have five, count 'em, five mascots. Combine that with the fact that each of their names repeats, and you have 10 mascot names for a single Olympiad. Not bad! Granted, a flame isn't much of a mascot, but It's Been Done Before.

For some good, wholesome edutainment, you can check out The Official Mascot Homepage of the Olympics to learn more about these lovable creatures, colored after the Olympic Rings, and each with a back story that some chump actually spent time and money to write and then had to pitch to a bunch of chumps sitting around a long table while they bobbled their heads in approval and/or disapproval.

Enough of that. While not at the Olympics, this guy attempts a pole vault. Needless to say, he does not succeed. Also, please note...yes, I know there is a video of some dude totally ruining his arm during the weightlifting at this year's Olympics. No, that will NOT be one of the videos posted this week. It's just...well...ew.

Theme Week Opening Ceremonies

Jeremy’s Sametime Status Proudly Presents: Olympic Fun Facts Week! The 1912 Greco-Roman wrestling match between Finn Alfred Asikainen and Russian Martin Klein lasted more than 11 hours.


Well, everyone. The Olympics are in full swing. And full run, full jump, full spin, full throw...whatever it is athletes are doing at the games is happening now. To celebrate, this week will be "Olympic Fun Facts Week" which will highlight an amusing tidbit about the Games, both past and present.

Along with that, you'll also have the opportunity to watch amusing videos of Olympic games gone horrible wrong...such as this gymnast's unfortunate vault in the 2004 Athens Games. Enjoy!

I'm not sure what he was getting at

It's a good thing I don’t like olives. Because if I did, I'd eat them a lot...and I don't like them.


Congratulations. That makes no sense.


That's okay. It's part of a lecture once given by my old history teacher. Maybe it's part of why to this day, I know nothing about history. Lines like this that make no sense at all and send my mind into a swirling miasma trying to figure out what it's supposed to mean instead of listening to the rest of the lecture.


You could just take it for what it's worth, let it pass, and move on with life...and the lecture...


It's akin to Nerd Sniping, made popular by the whimsical webcomic xkcd. Here's the comic for your Friday:

I'll also poke my eye out.

Mom always told me “Never stand outside during a thunderstorm waving a sickle around.”


You do know that your mom is one of your readers, right?


Very true. Hi Mom! So while this little bit of sage wisdom may not have specifically come from Mom, it probably would have been helpful for This Moron who was, in fact, struck by lightning while wielding a sickle.


Thunderstorms tend to sneak up on you.


Yeah, the distant rumbling of Thunder is easy to confuse with UFO's, and maybe the water drops coming down were actually the neighborhood punks with their squirt guns. Definitely easy to mistake the two.

Nothing says “Good Morning!” like driving behind a truckload of asphalt.


One of the advantages to working from home.


Or not having a job, I guess. You'll never have the pleasure of driving behind a full dump-truck of fresh asphalt on your way to work. It's really quite unpleasant, and I'm probably going to have that smell in my car for the rest of the day. Thanks, dump truck guy! You couldn't have stopped an extra second or two at the intersection to let me get in front of you instead? Jerk.


What? You couldn't have peeled yourself out of bed a minute earlier and beaten the truck to the turn easily?


That's beside the point. Here's a flimsy segue to a video of people moving a crane with a crane: