Journal: News & Comment

Being selfish

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Okay, first, my article about digital firewalls and other Internet protection measures has finally appeared as the first feature in the Summer 2003 issue of D-Link's LINK magazine. I wrote it months ago, so it's a tad out of date, but it still might be a worthwhile read.

Second, I fully expect the 2010 Winter Olympics here in Vancouver to cost money in the end, probably a fair bit of it. Claims of balanced budgets for megaprojects rarely pan out. (One key thing about the bid process that bothered me was the claim for no net cost. Come on! How much better PR it would be to say, yeah, it's gonna cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and then be amazed and pleased if it does break even.)

There are logical reasons, therefore, to think that having the Games here is a bad idea. There are other logical reasons to claim that some things should cost money.

Yet I'm throwing logic out the window in either case. The Winter Olympics are pretty much the only sporting event I enjoy watching. I avoid hockey, baseball, football, soccer, and all the other big-league sports. I think the Summer Olympics, and even Olympic hockey and figure skating, are just okay.

But I love events where people hurtle down snowy slopes or around frozen tracks, racing, in essence, more against themselves and the clock than any other individual or team. Anyone who dedicates his or her youth to learning skeleton or biathlon—both profoundly difficult endeavours, despite their obscurity—isn't in it for the money, that's for sure.

I loved the Winter Olympics for a long time, but when my first daughter was born during the 1998 Nagano games, the same day that Canadian Catriona La May Doan won the women's speed skating gold, well, that clinched it.

I just hope we can afford tickets.

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