Olympic Impressions Thus Far

A lot of my weekend was spent watching the Olympics. Actually, I'm watching the highlights of the US Men's Gymnastics Qualifications now. As it is fresh in my mind I thought I would share some of my observations. And because I'm Type A and like to organize things, I put it into categories.


Opening Ceremony
First, the ceremony was definitely good, but it was also random. 

• The first thing I thought of when I saw the beginning was Lord of the Rings. Why? Take a look at this and tell me you don't think of the Shire!

Source

• Also, Voldermort was in it, which was pretty awesome. But then he was banished by Mary Poppins. She is cool, but I didn't know she was akin to Harry Potter! Don't believe me? Watch this.
• However, having the athletic youth light the Olympic torch kind of took me by surprise and I still don't know what I feel about it. I'm used to what's traditional. You know, the famous older Olympian or something and it being so exciting. This one seemed a little anti-climatic to me, personally. Thoughts?
• The Queen of England is very cool. 

Sports

• Of course we all know that Mr. Phelps didn't do too well on his event on Saturday, but thankfully our other star swimmer, Lochte, did fabulous. 
• Speaking of fabulous, did you see his closet? Watch this video.
• Gymnastics is still amazing to watch and I am shocked at what people can do with their bodies!

Jake Dalton on the rings; source

• Fun fact for you, Texas A&M (my alma mater) has 23 athletes and 1 coach competing in the Olympics. That is more than any other university in the US. Gig 'em Aggies!

NBC
Matt and I do not have cable and thus rely mainly on the internet for our Olympic watching needs. In case you haven't noticed, NBC is not being the best in terms of their streaming. 

• As you probably know, in the US, there were no (legal) live stream of the opening ceremony. NBC was going to wait show it at 6:30. Well, they also weren't planning on having that delayed showing online, either. Booooooo. Though they were able to live stream the Super Bowl, they couldn't do it for the Olympics? Silly.
• There is also an overall lack of adequate coverage. For instance, even if you wanted to watch the swimming final match that Lochte won on Saturday, you couldn't despite all of NBC's promises. That video didn't get posted until Sunday!
• Their live streaming is pretty horrible. We have fast internet, but when trying to watch one of the events yesterday, it kept on freezing. Come on NBC, you knew a lot of people would watch. Keep up!

Despite my complaints with NBC, it is still an amazing two weeks! Have you noticed anything? Do you agree or disagree with any of my points?