What you know "hooray" is in german? It's HURRA!

HURRA! HURRA!

Although I still like the standard "hooray", cuz it sounds more silly. HURRA is more of a gut sound, making it sound more serious.

HURRA!

Germans are serious speakers! HURRA is a fist pump in the air. Hooray is a silly hi-five.

While instant messaging someone, I said:

spudart: WHOA IS ME
spudart: how do you spell whoa?
spudart: woe
spudart: WOE IS ME
spudart: i don't think i've EVER typed out that word in my entire life

(By the way, I was being sarcastic in this instant message, i am not truly woed)

Has anyone out there ever actually typed the word "woe" before?

A couple days ago Vocalo.org asked, "If you invented an Olympic sport from one of your daily activities what would it be?"

My response:
CTA stair races. Both up and down the stairs. I will defeat ANYONE. BRING IT ON.

In fact, here's a video of me running down the brown line Western Station stairs.


What's your response? Which of your daily activities would you like to be an Olympic sport? Drop it in the comments, please.

300,000 Lego bricks were used to create a 10ft by 26ft miniature city of the 2008 Beijing Olympics including the Bird Nest Stadium and the Water Cube swimming center.

How much would this cost?

I have a general rule when buying LEGO sets. I like to pay five dollars for every 100 pieces (that's five cents a piece). 300,000 bricks would cost $15,000. Whoa, fifteen grand just for the supplies to create this stadium. That's not even including the 4,500 LEGO people. I have no idea how much figures cost. What. Like a dollar a figure? So that's at least $20,000 in supplies. Now keep in mind, you'd need A LOT more supplies to have extra on hand, cuz you never just use exactly the amount of bricks you need to build something.

The Hong Kong Lego User Group certainly has a large supply of LEGOs. Aside from the cost, this display is very impressive. It's an increadible work of art. :-)

You can read more about this display at:
--On your marks, get set, Lego! Welcome to the Olympics where everyone's quick off the blocks
--More LEGO Sport City details and behind-the-scenes photos from HKLUG
--Photos on flickr

I've been into the idea of photographing LEGOs, so I did some research on flickr to see what was possible. Here are photos by other flickr members:



These are all in my flickr favorites

I'm wondering who of the regular spudart.org readers can speak a little bit of German? No reason. Just curious. Danke. If you ever took any classes in German or learned it at some point, just please drop a comment on this post.

photo courtesy of raincitystudios via creative commons

I really enjoyed watching fencing. What summer olympic sport do you really enjoy watching?

My niece took her first steps yesterday! Here's a poem I wrote for her to commemorate this event:

During the 2008 Olympics
Livvy started her walking kicks

Olivia so full of pep,
took three small steps!

With those three paces,
she's off to the races!

You know what would be cool? In the Olympics when they have the athletes on the medal stand, they should let the winner pick a pop song from their country. And then everyone will dance to the song.

Right now it's so boring to hear the same national anthem every time. And the people stand there like robots. When it should be party time for that country!

Years later it will be fun to look back at the award ceremonies and laugh at the songs that were picked. Mary Lou Retton picks Michael Jackson's Thriller. Kerri Strug (the American gymnast who broke her ankle in 1996) picks the Backstreet Boys' We've Got It Goin' On.

Since Estonia's independence in 1991, they have only gotten two summer golds. Erki Nool's decathlon in 2000 and Erika Salumae's 1992 Cycling.

And only one silver, Juri Jaason's 2004 silver in single sculls rowing. (he's estonia's oldest competitor this Olympics at age 43, this is his 6th olympics).

Estonia has won the five bronze medals. Two of those are from a bronze streak in heavyweight judo the past two olympics (2000 and 2004). Martin Padar should continue the heavyweight Judo streak in the 2008 Olympics as he's favored to win the gold.

Source: Estonia at the Olympics: Summer Olympics Medal Count

Mr. cocky fencer Jerome Jeannet of France (currently ranked 2nd in the world) won the gold medal in 2004. He clashed sabers against underdog 57-ranked Estonian Nikolai Novosjolov in the second round of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.


Let me tell you, Jerome Jeannet wasn't handling things very well as he was down against Novosjolov for most the match. He yelled at the umpire on one call. He would drop his helmet to the ground during breaks. Estonia was up 9-5, and 12-9. With a jab to the Estonia's neck, France tied up the match 12-12.


Then as France took the lead 12-13, he took off his facemask and yelled. Did we see any drama when Estonia tied it up 13-13? Nope. The crowd went wild when the match was tied up in a double-hit by both fencers making it 14-14.


Then there was some controversial call at the end, when Estonia blocked an attack and then France hit Estonia in the butt (in epee fencing, the entire body is a target). Estonia almost pulled a huge upset, but France narrowly won in the end.

To watch this video, go to NBC's olympic video archive, watch the Men's Individual Epee, and jump to the 1:32:00 time.

Nikolai Novosjolov
Born: June 9, 1980 (age 28)
Birthplace: Haapsalu, Lääne, Estonia
Height/Weight: 6'4"/198lbs

Estonia male cyclists a bit pokey
Estonia's male cyclists didn't fare too well in the Bicycle Road Race of the 2008 Olympics. Tanel Kangert finished 69th, 13 minutes behind the leader. Rein Taaramae landed 48th, 7 minutes behind.

Whoa! 69th? Is that even possible? How many road racers are there? Actually, there are 90. And 60 didn't even finish! So there's 150 bicyclists. Sheesh! What a huge race this is! So 48th out of 150 is actually pretty good. Good job, Taaramae! And Tanel, you need to pick it up a bit. ;-)

Rein Taaramae
Date of birth: April 24, 1987 (age 21)
Height/Weight: 6'1"/150lb
Current team: Cofidis
Discipline: Road
Role: Rider


Tanel Kangert
Date of birth: March 11, 1987 (age 21)
Height/Weight: 5'10"/140 lb
Current team: Ag2r-La Mondiale
Discipline: Road
Role: Rider


Estonian woman cyclist a bit better
Grete Treier claimed 30th place in the women's road race, 53 seconds behind the leader.


Grete Treier
Date of birth: January 13, 1979 (age 29)
Height/Weight: 5'7''/134lbs

I love the name of Estonia's female badminton player, Kati. It's like a merging of my parents names: My dad Mati (who is Estonian) and my mom Kathy (German).

This Estonian woman badminton player had better chances to win than her male counterpart, as Kati's world ranking is 46, while Raul Must's ranking is 74. Kati was facing Ireland's Chole Magee ranked at #77.

Kati started the match off well winning the first game 21-18. But then she lost the last two games 18-21 and 19-21. There's no video available on NBC's site of this match. But there is an interview with Kati on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkAfbjGXSF4.

Kati Tolmoff
Date of birth: December 3, 1983 (age 24)
Place of birth: Tartu, Estonia
Height: 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)

Underdog Estonian Raul Must started off his first round against Poland's Przemysław Wacha. Raul is ranked 74th in the world badminton rankings with Przemysław currently at 15. Przemysław also won the bronze medal at the 2008 European Badminton Championships.


The backs of all the Olympic uniforms for badminton have the player's last name, and then their country. That makes the back of Must's uniform say "Must Estonia." Very cool.


Raul Must ruled the beginning of the first game 7-4.


However, the Estonian player's fans got worried after a half-game break with Raul down 10-11. He just fell apart going down 11-15. During the half-game break it looked like the Poland coach gave Przemysław some excellent tips enabling Przemysław to destroy Raul 14-21.


Raul just looked really tired, always wiping his face from the sweat. Przemysław won the first game with a finese underspin shot causing Raul to unsuccessfully dink the birdie into the net.

The Estonian got literally smashed in the second game of the match as it started off with 0-5 with Przemysław getting all five points from deadly overhead smashes that just befuddled the Estonian player. A Polish smash ended the game and match 15-21.

You can watch this match on NBC's website. Go to this singles and doubles video and head to the time of 1:56:15.

Raul Must
Date of birth: November 9, 1987 (age 20)
Place of birth: Estonia
Height/Weight: 5'9"/150 lbs

The question on everybody's mind. Who will carry the flag for Estonia in the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics?

It will be the great super heavyweight Judo champion, Martin Padar. At 6'4" 300lbs, he rules the heaviest weight division (100kg) in Judo. Here's the following world championships he has won:
* 2008 World Cup
* 2007 Super World Cup
* 2007 World Cup
* 2006 World Cup

Just check out that super cool blue robe-thing he wears. The man is a Judo wrecking ball. Watch him destroy the world online on Thursday, August 14 and Friday, August 15. The man will simply judo-ize the competition with his incredible Estonianess.

All next week spudart.org will feature blog posts about Estonia in the Beijing 2008 Olympics.