Vancouver 2010 Olympic Mascots

The Vancouver Olympic Mascots were unveiled just a couple hours ago today. Meet Sumi, the Thunderbird, Quatchi the Sasquatch, and Miga the Sea Bear.

What do you think? Personally I don't like them that much, but if I had to pick a favorite, I think Miga is the cutest. According to a survey done by CTV, 93% voted that they did not like the new mascots. (I'm not siding with anyone, but Vancouverites are so hard to impress. First of all, the Vancouver Canucks' jerseys, now this.) The mascots are the creation of Vancouver graphic designers Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy, who own Meomi Design. I kinda feel bad for all the bashing that the designers are receiving for these mascots.

Here were some of the comments posted on Canada.com:

"The mascots look like the Pokemon characters my kids watched years ago, you might as well use a Chia Pet for a mascot." -- Lori

"You must be joking. What kind of mascots are those. First we get the crappy logo, now these. I think I even saw Miga on Pokemon and Sumi looks like a teddy Graham in bastardized native garb. Quatchie just looks like a pile of . . . well, it has boots and ear muffs. I know we have talented designers in this city; why isn't VANOC using them. Fortunately these inane choices won't be remembered a few years after the Olympics, and thank God for that." -- SK

"Now I'm convinced we really are culturally challenged!" -- Ellen Gallant

Bonus!

Have you ever experienced bonuses where you go buy something, but then you end up getting the item for for a lesser price or sometimes even for free? I have. The feeling's awesome!

This one time, I bought a pair of pants from the GAP. Strangely, the label that was on the pair of pants that I took with me to the cashier was $10 less than the other pairs of pants of the same pile. And to my benefit, they gave me the price that was $10 less. I guess they had to, otherwise it'd be considered as false advertising.

There was also this other time. It also happened at the GAP, and I was also buying pants. They were too big, so I had to exchange them for a smaller size. But when the cashier did the exchange, they accidentally did a refund. We didn't realize that they didn't charge me for the pair of pants until my mom checked her credit card statements.

And the last one that I remember is when I was buying Rurouni Kenshin mangas in Seattle. My dad paid for it with his book. They put all of the books on top of the de-magnetize thingy. But the cashier was too busy talking to his friend, so instead of beeping the barcodes of *all* the books into the machine, he just beeped in my dad's book. I saw the price and watched the guy put our books in the bag but I didn't say anything. I end up getting my mangas for free!