at the beginnin gof the weekend the LCD screen of my dash broke.  I can only see about a quarter of the screen.  The rest is white.  For the mean time, I'm using my old Motorola V600.  It works as a phone, but I need something that can sync with my Exchange server.  I have several options.  The first is to see what T-Mobile will do for me.  Granted, either I'll have to buy a whole new phone or sign another contract.  I'm not sure I want to pay hundreds of dollars for a replacement and I'm not sure that I want to sign another contract.  My second option is to replace it myself.  I can buy a replacement LCD screen for around $40.  It'll be a bit tricky, but I'm used to that.  In any case, I'll post what I do.  Especially if I replace my screen myself.

I have to wait till Track and Field events to really be sure, but watching the Olympics I've noticed something odd.  When someone wins an event, it's not uncommon for them to carry their flag around in celebration.  Now, since I work during the day, I don't have time to really watch everything, but for the events that I've seen nobody has been carrying the flag.  It doesn't matter which country wins, they can drape the flag of their country or run it through the stands.  It's great to see nationalism.  But, has that been quashed in China? 

 

The event that made me think of it was watching Michael Phelps on the stand for his 7th gold.  After he got off, someone in the crowd off camera tossed him an American flag.  He went to catch it, but it fell to the ground next to a photographer.  The photographer went to hand him the flag, but Phelps didn't take it and the photographer left it on the ground.  Phelps said something to the photographer, so I'm not really sure what he said.  But why didn't he just keep the flag instead of leaving it on the ground?  Then I thought, "Have I seen anyone celebrate with their national flag?"

 

Come to think of it, it's even common to see people sing their national anthem while they are on the stand.  I haven't seen anyone do that either.  Is nationalism now not a good thing to show in China?  Is China's will being imposed over our nationality?  Now, I'm not saying that an athlete should celebrate by running their flag all over the arena or scream the words to their national anthem.  I just usually see one or two do that within the first week.

 

Now, typically the events that you really see the flag waving is in Track and Field events.  They started today, so I'll have to keep an eye out.  It could just be that I haven't seen enough events (I have been working upwards to 10 hours each day, so I'm not watching that much TV).  Let me know if you have seen someone celebrating either by carrying their countries flag or by singing their national anthem on the stand.

 

UPDATE: As I thought, I saw a Track & Field winner celebrating with the flag.  The womens marathon winner ran around the "birds nest" for about 20 minutes with her flag.  I'm guesssing it's mainly the type of athelete.