Sunrises and Chinese mascots...

So I decided to go with a new layout for my blog. The other one was a little dark, a little crazy, and doesn't really fit my current state of mind. So I spent at least an hour or two surfing blogger layouts while I was work today and finally found one that I think is quite appropriate for the time being. Perhaps I'll change it again when the holidays come around to something a little more festive or I could get bored of it in a little while, but for now I'd say I'm pretty content. That being said, I have recently stumbled upon what I find is one of the most amusing things I've discovered in quite some time. As everyone knows, the Beijing Olympics began early August and recently ended maybe a few days ago. I've never really watched them in the past, but this year I, like many other Americans, rooted for Michael Phelps to win his collection of gold medals and supported the women's gymnastics team during their struggles and so on and so forth. I invested a few hours here and there, more so than usual, and I'd say I rather enjoyed. But probably the best part of the Beijing games was the mascots. That's right, I said the mascots. Granted history was made with Phelps and all sorts of fabulous scandals were uncovered regarding the opening ceremonies, but for some reason I can't seem to get over those darn mascots! First off, I didn't even know that the Olympics has had mascots in the past, which is amusing in and of itself. I mean, just think millions of dollars are spent by each host city when planning for the games every four years, a fraction of the money of which I'm sure is delegated to the committe that not deliberates and designs the image that will represent their take on the games. I can't even imagine what the discussion would be like during one of those committee meetings... But then to see what they come up with is almost just as funny. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not poking fun at the Olympics - I think they're a great way for athletes to exhibit their talents and for all countries inthe world to come together, differences aside, for the purpose of sport and human talent.

With that said, you have to check out this years official Olympic mascots:


Creative? Yes. Cute? Sure. But when I was first introduced to these characters, they were prancing all over the Google emblem (I discovered them when looking to find the closest printing business to our office). I guess I'm mostly amused again by how much time, effort, and monetary resources that went into to deciding what the mascots would be, and of course their names and their mini bios, which can be found on the Beijing Olympics website. It seems as though I find humor in strange things...