INTERNET ACCESS DIATRIBE: As Fa has been infelicitously Internet connection-less for more than a year and has relied on the capricious munificence of the public library system for all of her cyberinformation exigences, and due to extenuating circumstances on the weekend following the commencement of the 2008 Summer Olympics (and the fact that no library opens its doors in the dead of night), she, unlike the millions of bloggers who already take this (personally) historically inaccessible luxury for granted, was not able to blog about the aforesaid 2008 Summer Olympics in a more timely fashion than conflicting library hours and various nettlesome errands could possibly allow.

The humble author also wishes a malediction upon those who churlishly snigger at Fa's tragic privation.

Now on to the main course!

Olympics, Olympics, Olympics! NBC, our national television network here in the U.S., has devoted practically all of its broadcast time to coverage of Olympic events. I've always been somewhat disdainful of organized sports, but competitions between athletes from around the globe? Displays of sportsmanship transcending cultural and political barriers? Commentary that for once doesn't pertain to that odious testosterone-fest known as American football?? I am all over this one, baby.

In addition, that opening ceremony was a glorious splurge. Incredible! Over 15,000 individual performers! The choreography, the training! The sheer engineering involved! If you haven't seen it, WATCH THE FRICKIN' CEREMONY AND PREPARE TO BE AMAZED. If you don't… well, then you're an effing pariah.

Commentary on the Parade of Nations: I actually stayed up to watch the entire procession — no problem when one loves seeing and learning about different nations and cultures. What was especially of interest was the reception of the various teams, measured by political sentiments and the volume of cheers/boos. The U.S. probably got the noisiest and most sustained cheers aside from the Chinese. Australia and North Korea also received warm welcomes. Iraq was cheered surprisingly loudly, in direct contrast with Iran, the only team I remember that was booed. And there were some tense moments when Team France filed out into the stadium, but the audience applauded them just as loudly as for the others. No jeers or violence from ultra-nationalists.

And is anyone else slightly ticked off that Taiwan is being forced to participate as "Chinese Taipei"? I looked this up online, and apparently this is nothing new. But still. They're not even permitted to use their own flag! WTF.

Also check out NBCOlympics.com for more streaming video and insanely extensive news coverage.

On another note, the ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Georgia that's escalated to war… does not look good.