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February 06 Feb. 6 - Day 5Took this morning off & visited the Athlete Village. It was very cool. After the games the apartments will be for sell - it ain't cheap. The athletes are saying this year's village is the best. They are brand new.
                       Feb 5 - Day 4In the morning we went to the Main Press Center to scope out where we will be shooting Press Conferences. It was very impressive. Vancouver is using their convention center for it. Then we went to Team Processing and did our little shoot for AT&T. Here are some picts.
      February 05 Feb. 4 Day 3 VancouverThe equipment finally arrived, well, all but 1. The sun was out today so still no snow for Cypress Mountain. Now Canada is bringing snow in by helicopters. Night temperatures are not going below 31 so making the snow at night is not an option. The long range forecast looks very nice but not so nice for Cypress. A few of us decided to wander around for lunch & see what we can see. We found a cool VW Beetle with stuff stuck all over it. I might go that route instead of painting my truck. It even had a water fountain on the hood. We also found ourselves by the water & saw a sea plane take off.
There is a strip club next to our USA House called the Penthouse. It is the oldest strip club in town. It is where the Rat Pack hung out when they visited. The owners house is right next to it and he was killed by the Italian Mafia. The used to have spotters onthe roof looking for police. If a policeman was spotted they would ring a buzzer onthe roof so the people inside could hide their liqour.
Tomorrow (Friday) is our shoot with Apolo - hope someone told him we will be there, but I doubt it.
            February 03 Feb. 3 - Vancouver Day 2Well - day 2 and still no equipment. I checked with UPS and it was stuck in customs. They finally released it & it should be here Thursday. It better be. I have a shoot for AT&T with Apolo.
Vancouver people are really nice. Some have seen us with our USA jackets & welcomed us to Canada and a few wished us luck.
The taxes here are nasty. I bought a 99 cent water with a tax of 23 cents.
More rain today in Vancouver. Canada is bringing snow in for Cypress Mountainnot good.
This is from the 18th floor where I am eating breakfast
  This is the Irish House - right next to our USA House. Notice the guy on top of the tent
 This is done by Acer. It is a paper latern forest. Other sponsors have other art work.
  This pub opens at 4 & people started lining up at 3. This was taken at 3:15. Look at the price - no wonder
 The street performer - weird. There are several up & down the street.
 February 02 Feb 2 - Day 1Yippee Landed in Vancouver. We arrived but our equipment did not. It was supposed to arrive at Noon. Let's hope tomorrow it shows up. The air is cleaner here than Beijing - check out the hotel window picture. The temperature is a little bit warmer than Colorado Springs. Cyprus Mtn, where the Aerial Ski jumping will take place, has to have snow hauled in from the higher mountains. This year's postings may not be as exciting as Beijing, but I will try :-)
  August 15 Aug 15 - Beijing1st day here verses a day after it rained. I had no idea there were mountains on the edge of the city.
Mike & I got to go & see the Tack events Friday night. We saw the Shot Put finals & the 400m heats. It was fun.
They had cheerleaders at the event & the weird thing, men had their picture taken with the cheerleaders but the wife would take the picture. August 14 Aug. 14 - Beijing
Ni-hao (hello) The dried lizard in the photo album is a medicine remedy. The skin is dried on a bamboo holder, then you boil it in water and then drink the broth - yummy yummy. 2 more weeks to the day & I am heading home - Nathanael cannot wait. He told me one day he wanted me home tomorrow by the time he woke up. Beijing said the tickets were sold out -no they are not. The scalper or "Ticket Managers" bought them all & are selling them at a huge mark up. A swimming $50 RBM ($8 American) ticket sells for $1000 RBM ($150 American). because of that, the stadiums are empty. The same thing happened in Athens & they did not make a profit. Time to get back to work August 12 Aug. 12 BeijingIt is very busy. I get in around 8:30 am & head back to the hotel by 10:30. We are shooting press conferences, our CEO's blog & the Victory Tour. Then I need to edit it the same day & put it on our webpage. Tuesday night we shoot the Men's Gymnastics Team who won a bronze. They are good guys. I knew some from previous interviews & the alternate, David Durnate (picture by himself) trians at the USOC complex in Colorado Springs. The were thrilled to have medaled. August 10 Opening Ceremony StatisticsBEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- On Friday night, the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony gave the world a spectacular visual feast. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the 29th Olympiad (BOCOG) held a press conference here on Saturday, where it released statistics about the event. 50 In minutes, the time it took to send all the athletes present back to the Olympic Village after the ceremony 10,000 The number of raincoats prepared for the athletes in case of rain. BOCOG said there were two possibilities of rain on Friday, before and during the ceremony. BOCOG's deputy director, Wang Ning, hailed work by the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, which performed cloud-dispersal operations. He also suggested, tongue-in-cheek, that the spectacular ceremony might have scared away the clouds. 160,000 The audience in the Bird's Nest, or National Stadium. 75 In minutes, the time it took for the audience to leave after the ceremony, which was 15 minutes less than expected. 600,000 The number of staff from Beijing's traffic branch working on transport lines on Friday. There were eight subway lines open around the clock and 28 buses running direct to the National Stadium. 81,000 The number of traffic volunteers keeping transport running smoothly. 33,866 The number of fireworks lit in the ceremony. 22,000 The number of performers and advisors for the ceremony. 170 The height, in centimeters, required for the martial arts performers. August 09 Beijing - 9You probably already heard about the men’s volleyball coach's in-law that was attacked & killed. They let us know immediately & told us to be aware of our situation around us. It is believed the attacker was a nut-job & the attack was purely random. They did beef up the security for our USA House & the hotels. The Hilton was secured to begin with some high profile athletes & officials moved into the hotel.
Our female fencing team swept the medals – very cool. Swimming starts on Sunday. August 08 Opening CeremonyThe opening ceremony has really cool techno stuff going on. It was neat. I hope ya'll enjoy it. Restaurants in BeijingRestaurants are a little different around here. The waitress will stand at your table till you are ready to order. Once you are done, they don't give you the check till you ask for it. They don't expect a tip unless you eat at a big fancy restaurant, then they automatically add 15% to the bill - even for 2 people. If you ask for a coke, they bring you the can & pour for you. There are ratings for the places from A being very clean & down. I've seen some places that should get a F, so they don't post their sign. The number one rule - never look in the kitchen. August 04 Beijing 7I was able to edit 2 press conferences for the web. Monday the USA House is unofficially open, they made a great lunch for us. We had Turkey clubs, Mac & Cheese and you can add bacon, mushrooms, ham or vegies to it - it was heavenly.
Today we shoot Judo, Men Volleyball & Women Volleyball press conferences.
The Main Press Center (MPC) is a huge buliding filled with all sorts of press people. The NBC camera guys are funny, not uptight like I thought they would be.
Inside the MPC is a UPS store, post office, computer store, convient store, 3 cafes and a Panasonic 103" TV.
The China Press says the stuff in the air is not smog but "steam." Hmmm, ,living in corpus Christi & visiting Houston & Dallas which have the same temps & humiduty, I don't think I ever remember "steam" hovering around for 3 or 4 days in a row. August 02 Beijing 6Wow, it's been almost a week in China. So far the experience is way better than I thought it would be. English is written & spoken more than I thought. The people are really friendly & great. The food is really good but is getting old. So last night we decided to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe Beijing for some good old American food.
There is a law in Beijing that you cannot have a dog larger than 22 inches as a pet.
the pollution is really low since they forced people to drive on odd/even days.
When you take a taxi or eat out, tipping is not required. We tipped a waiter & he was very shocked - but he deserved it.
Monday the USA House official opens. Mike & I start shooting Press Conferences Sunday night. Aug. 7 we have Press Conferences from 9-7.
If you go to the market or small store, you haggle over the price. I bought something for $150RBN & the starting price was $240RBN. You don't ask what the price is unless you have intentions on buying it. It's fun.
If you go to the department stores & see a 8 on a sign, it means it is 20% off. It ranges from 1 (90%) - 9 (10%) off.
Amy signed up for Skype and paid $10 for unlimited calls to my China cell phone. She made the first call & it worked really good.
We visited the Forbidden City Saturday. It was very impressive. It is huge. We had some Asain girls come up to us & wanted to take a picture with us. That was a weird experience. August 01 Beijing 05I fixed my big desktop & the laptop decide it needed to stop working. I had trouble getting onto the secured email system at the USA House. IT had to update my drivers becasue my laptop is really old, it crashed it. And it crashed good - blue screen of death is now my splash page.
Beijing is really nice. The city has a very western feel and the people are really nice.
July 30 Beijing 3I found some computer parts in the market. The market is a bulding with tons of small booths (10x10) with stuff. You ask for a price then knock it down. I had to buy the broken connectors off of a old power supply & splice it in. I bought the power supply & then sold it back after cutting of the SATA power connectors. Then I had to figure out the disk combination for the array. I figured it out & now it is working.
Ate at McDonalds today. I had a Quarter Pounder - it is different. It had cucumbers on it instead of pickles and had a spicey sauce. They sell corn in a cup, very good. It had cost about $3.50
Restaurants have a rating on the outside from A to D, clean to diry. They place we love to eat at is probably a E, but it is very good.
Last night we found a great place. The sweet & Sour Pork is really good. I don't like the American version but over here it is great. We also had cow stomach - not bad.
The food is done Family style. You order 3 or 4 bowls & then get little plates to eat on. I am getting really good with the chopsticks. I can pick up peanuts.
In the photo album - July 30 - you can see a typical bathroom, it's a squater. I recommend that you do not wear flip flops in there. July 29 Beijing 2Of course nothing goes right off the bat. I took out the compter & heard a rattling noise. I opened it up & saw the video card was half way out of the slot & also the video/encode card. The SATA cables connectors & power plugs into the hard drives were broken. It looked like someone - China Customs or United - opened the case up & forced the hard drives out. The outside of the case looks fine. We found a computer parts store called "Buy Now" and they had the SATA cables for $2 (US) each.
And of course the computer is still down :-(
Not sure what the next step will be. It does not see all 4 drives & does not load the OS. July 28 Beijing 01We made it around Midnight USA Mnt. Time. We ate at an interesting place. The owner's kids was peeling garlic at the doorstep & they were cooking something in the entry way. The meat freezer was a place for storage & a cutting board. The food was really good. The 3 platters cost $50 Chinese, $15 each ($4 US). We noticed in the older sections, there are no stop signs or a stop light at the intersections. Bigger vehicle wins.
Tomorrow is the first day of work. I have to set up the edit bay - keep your fingers crossed. If you look in the album, there are 2 pictures from my hotel room that overlook Beijing. The pilot said it was a clear day & the visibilaty is 1700 meters. Nice & clear - Hmmmm - hate to see a hazy day. July 05 BMX Bike RaceSunday, July 6, Nate will get a lesson on how to race BMX bikes. It's a 2 hour lesson & finishes with some races. He loves riding fast, he loves riding in the dirt by the creek, he loves riding over the hills, so I decided he should give this a shot. I showed Nate a video of the BMX races at our Olympic Day celebration & he said he wants to try it. Hopefully there will be pictures tomorrow. Beijing boundI head out to Beijing July 27. Flight leaves Denver at 8AM to San Francisco & then a 13 hour flight to the land of pollution.
I should be back home in the afternoon of August 28.
Don't forget to check out www.teamusa.org to see the results plus my work.
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