Greg Nilsen

Johnny Spillane Celebrating His Silver Medal

I have to admit, I love the Olympics.  The raw competition of athletes around the world who truly appreciate the sports they play, and dedicate their lives to the one moment, or at best few moments, they are given to shine.  There’s just something great about seeing elite athletes in obscure sports step up to another level, and seeing unexpected athletes, like the cross-country skier from Brazil where they don’t really have winter, giving their all (and the crowd and fellow competitors cheering them for it).

There is an air of respect and honor around the Olympic games that still makes it special.  It always feels like the world puts aside their differences and turns their attention to friendly competition.

Probably the most amazing thing so far, and highly under-reported, has been the success of Johnny Spillane and the US men’s Nordic combined team.  Spillane not only won a silver medal in an event where the US had never medaled (leaving only biathalon where the US continues to struggle), but the team put 3 competitors in the top 6!  That’s quite an accomplishment in a sport where our country has struggled for so long.
So, only a few days in, I’m really enjoying it (except for the extensive figure skating coverage, which I could go without), though I am pacing myself.  After all, NBC likes to add in too many “human interest stories” and “other crap” (like the piece on polar bears who live on the other side of the country) that I just don’t care about.  Thankfully, there’s plenty of other coverage on their family of networks to keep me interested most of the (and if not, I can go online, or at least find an NCIS rerun).  Thankfully, they mix in a fair amount of Al Michaels trying to figure out why he’s at the Olympics after a 30+ year hiatus, which has a fairly high “unintentional humor” value.

And today’s when the real fun kicks off!  With curling and men’s hockey getting under way, it’s two of the bigger drawing sports that will carry excitement throughout the next few weeks!

Not that I won’t happily sit and watch hours of cross-country skiing anyway…they’re still amazing athletes who deserve the attention and recognition after their years of sacrifice.

So, Google Buzz has arrived, seemingly out of nowhere.  And I have to say, it’s OK….

And just OK at that.  While it’s not the potentially revolutionary step that Google Wave could have been, it is Google’s best effort at tackling the “Social Web” so far.

The problem is that it comes across as a hackneyed attempt to compete with Twitter and Facebook.  First, it’s essentially a Twitter clone, without the character limits and plus links to outside sites (like Twitter itself), so there’s nothing really new in place.  It’s really hard to justify “buying in” on Buzz when you’re already invested elsewhere, and until Buzz can differentiate itself, I’m sure many others will view it in the same light.

Second, it’s basically just slapped into the gmail interface.  Let’s not understress this point, because if you have a track record of launching new tools seperately with possible ties to one another, then why make your first legitimate foray into the “Social Web”, then why just slap it into something already existing?  With gmail, which I’m sure many people simply access via POP or IMAP like I do at home, there are millions who may not even see the new service if they are not logging in through the gmail web interface.

It’s like the Google team said “Well, Wave didn’t take off as we had hoped, but we need to do something to compete with Twitter and Facebook…like clone  them and mash them together!”

While I’ll be playing on Buzz for a little while to see if the Google team can take it to the next level that it so desperately needs (yes, just two days after launch), if they can’t take it there, it will just be gathering dust in the near future…

Back to the drawing boards, Google team!

Dear Idiot,

Nice job committing insurance fraud and completely lying to your insurance company about what happened.  I mean, I had started backing out, and saw you throw your car into reverse and start aiming at me, yes…but I stopped my car and honked THREE times at you to get your attention, which was clearly diverted elsewhere.

However, you tell your insurance company that you saw my car moving in order to cover your own butt (which, from the way you drive, I can only assume you’ve had to do before).  Of course, if you actually saw my car moving (which implies you were paying some modicum of attention), it begs the question, “WHY THE HECK DID YOU KEEP BACKING UP???”

The clear answer is that you were preoccupied with something else (talking up some girl on the phone or drowning out the world with music, I don’t know…).  However, it’s much easier to lie than to admit that you made a mistake, huh?

Except for at the scene, apparently, where you actually claimed responsibility for the accident.  You never said what distracted you, but you managed to vocalize that you were at fault.

At least until your insurance agent called.  Then you’re changing your story again to try and keep your growing premiums down.

So then I have to go through more than a month of dealing with your crappy, unresponsive insurance company and driving my crunched-up car while they twiddle their thumbs and finally offer to split the $3000+ in repairs 50/50.

Fortunately, I have real auto insurance with a reasonable deductible that allowed me to reject their offer and finally get the repairs done at a fair price (not as fair as the $0 I should have paid for you ramming your car into mine, but much better than $1500).

Next time you get in an accident, I sure hope the other party gets the police involved to get a clear report that you won’t be able to flip on.

-Greg Nilsen