If my calculations are correct, I may want to go for more inconvenient "experience" tickets, while continuing to push my luck with the more favored events. I need to have something to fall back on as I plan to bring my family and friends to town next August.

It might help the public understand their situation better if ticketing officials were to provide breakdowns on the allocation of tickets on a sport-by-sport and session-by-session basis in the first ballot. We don't know much about these details except some generic information, such as that a total of 1,411 prime events sessions were over-subscribed during the first ballot and had to go to a lottery.

By the way, BOCOG has said that more than 11,700 foreigners currently living in China had submitted orders in the first round, but it failed to disclose how many of them were successful.

Now we are bracing ourselves for the second public release of the Olympic tickets, which will begin in October. Tickets can be reserved through the official call center as well as via the Internet on a first-come, first-served basis.

It is a little daunting to think that when you pick up that phone, you will be trying to beat the rest of the world, or nation, to it - especially in a country with a population of 1.3 billion. And especially when you have not been well-informed about your prospects.