When certain pundits started taking NBC to task for offering too much choice during the Olympics, I thought they’d lost it. How could there be too much choice?

I still hold to that position – if a little girl wants to watch Equestrian on Oxygen and I don’t, so much the better – but I must admit that all this choice has altered my viewing habits, and not always for the better.

I have a full HD cable package, which means that on top of all the regular Olympic channels, I get a Korean and Chinese (Mandarin) channel. I was like a third-grader with a new video game the first weekend, but lately I’ve been noticing a problem: I’ve developed a short attention span. I tune in a little boxing, a little cycling, a little beach volleyball, a little softball, a little badminton, a little of everything, and don’t stay very long at any of them. It just occurred to me that I haven’t watched an entire contest in any of those above-mentioned sports.

I must be missing out on some good competition, some nailbiters. I’ve taken in a lot of swimming — about a world record every few minutes last night – probably, precisely, because the races take just minutes (and because Phelps is an animal). The only thing I’ve watched buzzer to buzzer is the U.S.A. Basketball trouncing of China on Sunday. I even stayed for the post-rout garbage time, probably just to see if could watch one event all the way through.

Part of this scattershot pattern is due to games being shown. The last couple of nights have been heavy on gymnastics, and no matter how hard I try I can’t get into watching prepubescent girls twist and tumble, nor well-muscled little dudes for that matter.

(I’ve probably missed a few good wipeouts, which I love – although not as much as figureskating wipeouts – and that’s because I can’t keep my finger off the remote.) Hopefully, my attention span will lengthen when the track and field starts and basketball gets into the medal rounds. Until then, my TV’s probably going to resemble a popcorn popper.

By the way, the coolest unusual (to Americans) sport I’ve seen during these Olympics: team handball. It has nothing to do with hitting a rubber orb against a wall. Look for it. Here's a video primer.