As you may imagine, tickets for 2010 are not going cheaply.
There's a lottery system in place. My understanding though, is that if you "win" a lottery for a ticket to an event, you are obligated to buy the ticket. The rumour on the street however, is that odds of winning in this ticket lottery are not very high.
What does this mean? This means that some of my friends have put there names down for a LOT of tickets, with the mindset that they'll be lucky if just a few of them come through. It'll be kinda hilarious though, if in fact, tickets aren't that hard to come by. Because then, I know quite a few people on the hook for thousands of dollars worth of Olympic tickets.
A lot of this purchasing happened last night, at a small Mario Kart gathering I held. The lesson is that peer pressure and a party atmosphere will make people do extravagant things.
There's a lottery system in place. My understanding though, is that if you "win" a lottery for a ticket to an event, you are obligated to buy the ticket. The rumour on the street however, is that odds of winning in this ticket lottery are not very high.
What does this mean? This means that some of my friends have put there names down for a LOT of tickets, with the mindset that they'll be lucky if just a few of them come through. It'll be kinda hilarious though, if in fact, tickets aren't that hard to come by. Because then, I know quite a few people on the hook for thousands of dollars worth of Olympic tickets.
A lot of this purchasing happened last night, at a small Mario Kart gathering I held. The lesson is that peer pressure and a party atmosphere will make people do extravagant things.
Labels: Mario Kart, Olympics
Goodbye sweet sweet Olympics!
4 Comments Published by Simon on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 10:02 AM.
Once, I lost a spelling bee because I spelled Olympics incorrectly. Apparently, you have to specify that it is a capital O. Those grade school teachers sure can be nit-picky!
Anyways, I am supersad now that the Olympics are over. I think they are my favourite TV activity. I don't quite understand the big deal about Phelps though. I saw an article in the paper saying that they think his eight medals will be worth 100 million dollars to him over his lifetime. I don't understand how we can live in a world where someone can make 100 million dollars from swimming fast. Doesn't that thought seem ridiculous? I'll bet that he's wishing that there was a 150m race and a 250m race, and a175m medley. That'd be three more medals!
Also, I think horse back riding and shooting things are ridiculous Olympic sports. But that might just be me.
Did everyone watch the triathlon though? Boy that was something. It's so great to see Simon's do well. I didn't think he had anything left, but he just kept reeling the lead pack in.
I also watched a lot of volleyball (indoor preferably). I can't help but think how different the game is compared to how the founders of the sport must have envisioned it. They probably thought it'd be a great past time for regular folks, where-as now it's a profession for 7 foot superhumans. I mean, when the rules were originally formulated, do you think that it would eventually be played by guys who could jump so high that there waists were parallel to the top of the net?
Finally, I'd like to propose my super awesome Olympic idea.
People always talk about how athletes 'represent' their coutries. But do they, really? I mean, how is Michael Phelps representative of his country if the majority of his country is shaped liked beach balls and can't stay afloat without life preservers?
Here's what we should do. All countries select their athletes by random draw. Like a draft.
So basically, you'd get a letter maybe a month before the Olympics that you, Joe Blow, are going to represent your country in hurdles. Because your name came up.
Then, you'd go to the Olympics and you'd compete against all these other random, NORMAL people who had also been selected.
How engaging would that be? The commentary for marque events would be like this:
And in lane 5 of the hundred metre final we have Oleg Hardisky. He's a butcher in Poland and claims that all those years chasing escaped pigs has really contributed to him making the final. He's going to have to run his best if he hopes to beat Richard Kelland in lane 6 of Canada. Since the Nigerian runner false-started out of the race, Richard is now by far the skinniest runner in the race, and that gives him a huge advantage. His friends and family back home have got to be pretty excited right now.
Or this:
If Greg Roderick can just manage to stay on his horse, he'll qualify for the finals. Unfortunately, he's had two pretty spectacular falls trying to mount his horse in his first two attempts. He was quoted as saying "Man, why couldn't I have been drawn for water polo?". That's just how these Olympics are!
Anyways, I am supersad now that the Olympics are over. I think they are my favourite TV activity. I don't quite understand the big deal about Phelps though. I saw an article in the paper saying that they think his eight medals will be worth 100 million dollars to him over his lifetime. I don't understand how we can live in a world where someone can make 100 million dollars from swimming fast. Doesn't that thought seem ridiculous? I'll bet that he's wishing that there was a 150m race and a 250m race, and a175m medley. That'd be three more medals!
Also, I think horse back riding and shooting things are ridiculous Olympic sports. But that might just be me.
Did everyone watch the triathlon though? Boy that was something. It's so great to see Simon's do well. I didn't think he had anything left, but he just kept reeling the lead pack in.
I also watched a lot of volleyball (indoor preferably). I can't help but think how different the game is compared to how the founders of the sport must have envisioned it. They probably thought it'd be a great past time for regular folks, where-as now it's a profession for 7 foot superhumans. I mean, when the rules were originally formulated, do you think that it would eventually be played by guys who could jump so high that there waists were parallel to the top of the net?
Finally, I'd like to propose my super awesome Olympic idea.
People always talk about how athletes 'represent' their coutries. But do they, really? I mean, how is Michael Phelps representative of his country if the majority of his country is shaped liked beach balls and can't stay afloat without life preservers?
Here's what we should do. All countries select their athletes by random draw. Like a draft.
So basically, you'd get a letter maybe a month before the Olympics that you, Joe Blow, are going to represent your country in hurdles. Because your name came up.
Then, you'd go to the Olympics and you'd compete against all these other random, NORMAL people who had also been selected.
How engaging would that be? The commentary for marque events would be like this:
And in lane 5 of the hundred metre final we have Oleg Hardisky. He's a butcher in Poland and claims that all those years chasing escaped pigs has really contributed to him making the final. He's going to have to run his best if he hopes to beat Richard Kelland in lane 6 of Canada. Since the Nigerian runner false-started out of the race, Richard is now by far the skinniest runner in the race, and that gives him a huge advantage. His friends and family back home have got to be pretty excited right now.
Or this:
If Greg Roderick can just manage to stay on his horse, he'll qualify for the finals. Unfortunately, he's had two pretty spectacular falls trying to mount his horse in his first two attempts. He was quoted as saying "Man, why couldn't I have been drawn for water polo?". That's just how these Olympics are!