So the closing ceremony has just finished, and it fit what I hear is the long tradition of Olympic closing ceremonies.

Sort of a tired attempt to get the magic going once more before we all go home.

There was Placido Domingo, Jimmy Page, David Beckham and some Chinese pop stars I didn't recognize. But the star power didn't generate much heat.

All the athletes walked into the Bird's Nest stadium in a sort of jumble, with 7-foot, 6-inch-tall Chinese basketball player Yao Ming the only person sticking out of the crowd.

The ceremony went on and on, and the big dramatic moment - the extinguishing of the torch - was remarkably non-eventful.

After the spectacular way the Chinese lit the torch, with gymnast Li Ning flying around the inside rim of the stadium before igniting the giant torch attached to the roof, this time, the ceremony's organizers just sort of turned off the flame.

One moment it was there, then it was gone. Pretty much at random. Like you were turning down a burner on your gas barbecue grill. No giant dragon flying over the stadium to blow out the flame or jets of water gushing flamewards out of Yao Ming's eyes. Oh well.

The nicest moment was actually outside the stadium as I was walking back to the press center ahead of the crowd. With the ceremony petering to a close, fireworks started going off in the distance, about a mile or so from the Bird's Nest.

It wasn't your most jaw-dropping fireworks display, not too different from what you'd see at your average mid-sized American city's Fourth of July show. But something about it was sublime as it went off humbly in the distance. They did shoot off some cool expanding rings with red hearts in the middle.

So much about these Olympics has had an attention-starved "look at me! don't you approve?!" quality that these fireworks sort of doing their own thing and not caring if anyone noticed was refreshing. It made me want to just go off to a cafe somewhere and read a book or catch an art movie in an afternoon matinee.

It wasn't about one nation's glory or another's decline or history or world record or Olympic spirit.

We all get to go back to the real world now, which is a relief for me. I've been working three weeks straight in Beijing, with most days starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 2 a.m. We'll all go to our homes and like those distant fireworks, quietly do our thing without anyone in particular to notice.

See you there.

-Jack Chang