Olympics on ESPN?

Did they read my blog? Click here to check out a New York Times story about ESPN pursuing the 2014 winter Olympics in Russia and the 2016 summer Olympics in Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid or Tokyo. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Chicago -- I'd be there ... watching of course.) While NBC's efforts have been good, ESPN has a lot more flexibility I think. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Bela Karolyi

What did he just say? I wish Bob Costas would ask Bela to repeat himself, just so I can double my Olympics pleasure.

A sad day in music

For those who know me well, know my obsession with the Dave Matthews Band. But, stealing words from another song, the music died a little bit yesterday.

If you haven't heard, saxophonist LeRoi Moore died last night after having complications from an ATV accident in June. That accident occurred a day or two after I saw DMB in concert ... LeRoi's last show.

The band has continued on this summer with Bela Fleck's Jeff Coffin filling in. And last night the band continued on with a show in Los Angeles. According to the official site, Dave told the crew: "There's no place I'd rather be than here with you guys right now."

Some people may question the future of DMB without one its original five members, but I think it would be a shame. There's nothing wrong with canceling the rest of this tour and taking a break next summer, but they have to keep playing to honor LeRoi. They have to write songs about him, so he can live on in music.

When a tied isn't a tie

It's absurd that two people can tie for first in an Olympic event, but only one can get gold. This only happens in gymnastics -- it doesn't happen in track or swimming if two athletes tie. Here's to betting that something changes by the time the London games roll around in 2012.

Georgia, Russia and the rest of the world

I'm sure that most people in the U.S. aren't paying that much attention to the Georgia-Russia conflict, but you should. Isn't this how world wars get started? One country in that part of the world does something to another country, and then other countries start taking sides? That's how it works. The only problem is the last generation to see a world war is dying off and they can't help people see what could possibly happen. Pay attention people -- this is more important than Iraq trying to take over Kuwait.

Fall in the summer, plus Olympics talk

This summer in Virginia has been weird. Record highs in June, near record lows right now -- it's like the seasons are starting to flip around. It's been so dry that my tree in my backyard is already shedding its leaves. My yard looks a lot like it did in mid-October last year. Will we have snow in Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I was wondering: Why do the broadcasters for the Olympics on NBC think they're so much better than the athletes competing? Here's to hoping that ABC can win an Olympics contract at some point. While I'm not the biggest fan of that network, I think the ESPN family could deliver better overall coverage.

The Yesterday Show

I'll admit that I used to be a big fan of the "Today Show" on NBC. Then Katie left and it seems the show has snowballed out of control ever since. It's not that I really like Katie Couric -- she just seemed to keep everything under control to a certain extent. Now it just seems like everybody sits around and makes fun of each other while we get weather updates every 20 minutes or less.

Today might have been the last straw when it was obvious that the portion of the "Today Show" in Beijing was taped, but they tried to pull it off as if it were live. Why? Who really knows. The bigger question is why didn't NBC just show the opening ceremony of the Olympics live at 8 a.m.? It's not like there was pressing news going on. Al Roker could have easily gotten a break from giving the weather for a day. For those who couldn't watch it live could just watch it taped delayed tonight. It's easily a win-win for NBC -- just think of the advertising dollars that could have been generated from McDonald's -- but instead the network left themselves looking awfully stupid.

So tonight at 11, when the opening ceremonies look like they're still going on, several athletes will be gearing up for their first event ... but you won't see that until Saturday sometime. Having the Olympics halfway around the globe is certainly a challenge, but there has to be a better way to go about it than NBC is already doing.

Welcome. Now why are you here?

If you happen to be reading this, you've either accidentally stumbled across it ... I trust you enough to let you read crap like this ... or I've added a link on my Facebook page to see if anybody actually looks at it.

First off, let me tell you a little bit about what this blog is about. The title is "You Never Know," which has to be one of my favorite Dave Matthews Band songs, depending on the day of the week. When listening to this song on my iPod recently, I realized how deep some of the lyrics are. Click here to read them. Simply put, you never know what life is going to offer you. I've discovered how true that is in 2008. Good things, bad things - you never know.

That leads me to this blog - you never know what you're going to get. I've had a couple of friends of mine encourage me to write more than I do. I've been told I'm good with the written word. I do keep two other blogs that I may eventually talk about or link to on here - you never know! Right now I'm keeping everything as simple as possible. I'm not sure if this is something I want to do.

I have a lot of random thoughts that are always running through my head, so I figured a random blog would be a good place for them. Whether it's something to do with politics, questioning why my dog insists on licking his butt or something I saw on TV, this might be a good place for it. It might also be a great place to vent without worrying too much about who reads it. You never know when something truly good will pop out. You never know if I might write a book some day.

I will likely leave names out of this blog, so I ask that if you make comments please do the same. If I have a story to tell, names will be changed just because that's what I feel like doing right now. You never know if I'll change my thoughts on that.

Lastly, a bit about the URL -- notlikethehotel.blogspot.com. If you know me, you'll probably figure it out. Otherwise, that's for me to know and you to figure out.

So for now I'm leaving it at that. Will I be back? You never know ...