Halfway Up the Stairs

Nathan

2010-12-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

Last week, we lost a remarkable young man, Nathan Larson, in horrible tragedy. I'll start with two links: a news report about his accident and his obituary.

I unfortunately didn't get to know Nathan very well. He had only been a member of my Toastmasters club, Hog Heaven in Moscow, Idaho since this summer. He'd given five speeches; actually, he was scheduled to give his next speech this very week.

I heard about Nathan's death at church, when a deacon "announced" it during the prayers. My initial reaction, of course, was shock and disbelief. After mass was over, I even approached the deacon to make sure it was the Nathan that I knew, and after talking to him, I was fairly certain that it was. Then I went home, and true to my form, I researched it right away. Actually, I was looking for a picture, but didn't find one, but again was fairly certain that it wasn't another young man with the same name.

I'm Vice-President of Education for my club, so I sent an email to everyone informing them of our loss. I kept checking my email all day, hoping against all hope that we'd get an email back with something like, "It wasn't me! I've been dealing with this all weekend!" But alas, that email never came.

As a counselor, I'm full aware of the stages of grief. I know that on that first day, I went through denial and bargaining. I also know that the grieving process isn't neat or orderly. As I've said, I didn't know Nathan as well as I would've liked, but he had a big influence on my life, even after a few months of his participation in Toastmasters.

I have to admit, that after I read some of the news reports about Nathan's accident, I went through some anger, directed at Nathan himself. I mean, what idiot drives a 1990 Toyota Tercel in Northern Idaho? The answer came at his funeral on Tuesday morning, and was this simple: Nathan would. As was said during the homily, Nathan was a mixture of extravagance and thriftiness. He dressed sharply, but he lived in a cheap apartment in Moscow and was driving a car until it literally outlived it usefulness.

After hearing everything that was said about Nathan at his funeral, it occurred to me that his car was indicative of his personality. It was functional and served his purposes--nothing more, nothing less. What if he had been driving a newer car with more bells and whistles? Would he have survived? What about the people in the other car, which had three children in it? Would they have died, or been injured more severely? What if they had hit someone else?

In some ways, by driving that Tercel, Nathan gave his life for those children. At his funeral, it was said that was what Nathan was all about--living his life in service for others. I chose to think that's how he died as well.

One thing I always appreciated about Nathan was that he was who he was, with no apologies. He lived his life exactly the way he wanted. His uncle, who gave the eulogy at Nathan's funeral, said that Nathan was "eccentric." Nathan had his beliefs and convictions, and lived them out to the end. Both his uncle and the homilist, Father Caleb Vogel, pastor at Nathan's parish St. Augustine's Church, also said that Nathan loved the Lord and believed in serving others. He even used the car he died in to serve others, to the very end.

This week, as sad as it's been to go through this loss, I'm honored to have known such an exceptional young man, even for a few short months. I wish that there was more time to have gotten to know him better. I wish that I had the opportunity to see Nathan do great things in Toastmasters, because I know that he would have. Just last week, at his last meeting with us, I could tell that he was soaking in things and learning.

It was a joy, a privilege, and a pleasure to witness Nathan grow, even in just a few months. My life has been enriched by having known him.

I'm back

2010-11-30T04:32:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been five months to the day since last I posted to this blog. It really is difficult to be motivated to write anything when you know that nobody's reading it, anyway. Motivation, to be honest, is probably the biggest issue for me the last five months. Writing, for example, has been really show (although it's starting to pick up now).

For the last several weeks, I've been waking up fifteen minutes early to do some prayers and spiritual reading. It's the lesson I learned when I was a college student--if you don't have time for that kind of thing, you make it, even if it means getting up a little early. Fifteen minutes isn't cutting that much into my precious sleep time, anyway. And it needs to be in the morning, since usually the kids are still asleep and I can truly be alone.

It also helps to read more blogs, by people who don't care if they have an audience or not. You know a blog has potential for greatness when it states: "You know you're Catholic when the top five blog posts of the week have to do with drinking, sex, and secrets." And the kicker: "Oh lighten up you with the frown." I must say, I was not one wearing the frown; actually, I was smiling. Everyone who knew me when I was much younger and more judgmental might be surprised at that. At any rate, I'm going to have to follow that blog.

Morose-ness

2010-06-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

I just wrote a tweet that is me exaggerating again. These days, I've been in kind of a funk. It's something I go through from time to time, mostly when I'm feeling overwhelmed by the whole parenting children with disabilities thing. We can get in such a rut with these kids. At times it feels like I'm going to be watching the same episode of "Blues Clues" over and over again for forever. And I'm going to have to deal with the same workers who don't have a clue (har-har).

I've been hearing the word "no" a lot. No, what you're doing for the kids isn't good enough. You know that writing project you really wanted to do? No, you can't do that. It can really get old really fast, and it can just get a person down. This restlessness won't last, I'm sure--it never does. The academic writing has really dried up, it being summertime and all, so I've done some pretty tedious contracts these days.

Here are some random thoughts, before I leave to meet Anna at her speech therapy appointment.

I've still been able to notice the parallels, as I've talked about here before. The last writing project I did (which I really hated) consisted of going to webpages and summarizing them. Then I gave a speech about the Secretary position in Toastmasters, and it was about how important it was to have summarization skills as a secretary in any organization.

This past weekend, my pastor, Fr. Joe Schmidt, retired. There was a huge party for him on Sunday. Fr. Joe's final homily was about letting go, so I couldn't help writing about that in a 300-word essay I had to write for a kid going off to college for the first time. I've been thinking a lot about that this week. I suspect that's been the source of my funk.

A Miracle

2010-06-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

People who know me know that I tend towards exaggeration, kind of like my daughter announcing to her classroom a couple of days ago, "This is the best day ever!" Of course, while she was expressing her happiness, she was doing it in her true canned-phrased form. (Much of Anna's communication is via songs, phrases, and entire segments from things she's heard, usually from one of her favorite TV shows.)

Unlike Anna in that situation, though, I think that the event I'm about to describe really was a life-changing event, or series of events. It's actually a speech I gave in Toastmasters, but I thought it would be a good thing to reproduce here.

I would like to tell you about a miracle-—not the one we celebrated a few months ago, but one that’s related, as all miracles are related to that one. It’s not a very “splashy” miracle, unlike the aforementioned one, but significant nonetheless, at least to me.

See, there are miracles all around us. Most of them, though, don’t consist of the risen-from-the-dead, walk-on-the-water, heal-someone-from-a-deadly disease kind, although I believe it those, too. Most of the time, miracles are small and subtle. They’re often a challenge to recognize, and we miss out on so much when we don’t. That’s the kind of miracle I’m talking about, and it has come to us in the guise of a seven-year old severely developmentally disabled little girl, my beautiful daughter AnnaRose.

Now, we tend to talk more about her older brother George, because he’s had some medical scares that she hasn’t had, at least not up to now, but she has the exact same very rare genetic disorder that he has. They express it very differently, though. Anna’s seven, but she still wears diapers. She needs constant supervision; she can’t feed herself independently, or dress or bathe herself. Like her brother, she has global delays, but whereas people tend to underestimate George, we tend to overestimate Anna.

That’s because she’s so vocal, but not like a typical seven-year old. She has this amazing rote memory; she can recite whole segments of her favorite TV shows, and has an amazing repertoire of songs. She uses all that memorized material to communicate, sometimes quite appropriately, and very few of what she says is spontaneous. Most of what she says or sings is quite funny. I say that she’s the funniest person I’ve ever met in my life, and except for the week she spent in NICU as an infant, she’s made me laugh everyday of her life.

One day, right out of the blue, at least to me, her father tells me, “I think it’s time to get Anna baptized.” To be honest, his suggestion blew me away, because it’s been something, like the Virgin Mary, I’ve been pondering in my heart. We talked about it amongst ourselves, talked to my priest about it, and all of our concerns and questions were addressed. If you know Jon and I at all, you can see how much of a miracle that was.

One of those concerns was the question of who would be the godparents. For me, asking my brother Rick to be Anna’s godfather was a given, but we needed a practicing Catholic. Then we heard that Jon’s sister was joining the Church, which she did this Easter. Then it was whether she could come here for it, and she could.

Then I called my brother and asked him. He couldn’t believe that I would ask him. See, he had stopped going to church regularly because of some things that were happening in his life. We both agreed that this was a sign that he should return. So we got the godparents lined up.
The next miracle that happened was with my dad. See, we’ve had kind of a difficult relationship pretty much my whole life. I risked and called him, asking if he would make the trip from California. This weekend, he told me, “I’m 90% there.” Then I called my brother back, and he asks me, “What did you do?’

I answered, “It’s all AnnaRose!” Then Rick says to me, “You know, I’ve been asking Dad to come visit me here in Seattle for 13 years. You’ve said your whole life that Dad doesn’t love you, but it’s not me he’s coming to see; it’s you and your family.”

At first, I grimaced as only one can grimace when someone has nailed you. Then I laughed, and since it was Easter Sunday, I said, “It’s an Easter miracle!”

This baptism won’t be the typical baptism, that’s for sure. Anna will squirm and be difficult to control. Jon will have to put her on his shoulders to get her to stay still. There’ll be a running commentary on everything that happens, and a song or two. It will be hilarious. My goal is that Anna’s family members will pack out three pews.

So remember, miracles aren’t always splashy or huge. Sometimes they’re subtle and come in the package of a sweet, funny, beautiful little girl. I’m certain that there are miracles all around you, too. You just have to look around for them.

Lost

2010-05-31T21:51:00.000-07:00

Gotta blog about the final episode of "Lost." Spoilers follow.

Way back during the first season, I speculated that the island on "Lost" was actually Purgatory. Back then, I regularly listened to the show's podcast, and the producers denied it. Perhaps they were thinking, "No the island is not Purgatory, but the side forwards we're gonna show you in the final season is."

What makes "Lost" a remarkable series is that it's one of the few mass-market entertainment that honestly looks at spiritual issues, even Christian ones, with the character names and the literature references. Another thing that makes it unusual is that it's rooted in history and literature. It's smart, and it assumes that its audience is also smart, even if sometimes it isn't.

I'm specifically thinking of the post I read, just yesterday, in which the writer expressed her wish that the writers had been more clear about Jack's dad's name, Christian Shepherd, before the finale when Kate commented on it. Makes me wonder if the poster got the significance of Jack's name, either. Or the significance of the title of the series--how all of the main characters were lost in some way, and how the island and their relationships with each other brought them to redemption.

It's been said that "Lost" is a character study. I agree, because for me, all the questions that didn't get answered matters little to me. The finale was satisfying to me because I cared deeply for the characters. After Sun and Jin's death, my favorite characters and my favorite storyline, I cried everytime they were on screen. I spent a great deal of time in tears during the finale, because the end of their journey touched me profoundly.

There were plenty of the little "moments" I'm so fond of in my media. For me, the best moments were when each character realized the nature of the flash sideways. "Did you see it?" they asked each other. I loved how Jack volunteered to be Jacob's replacement, and how Hurley (who I thought would be the ultimate replacement) stepped in. I loved it when Hurley told Ben that he was a good "number two" and how Ben wasn't ready to join the others in the church. I loved how both Ben and Hurley were there, even though their deaths obviously happened later. (I do wonder what happened to everyone in that plane, though.) I loved how Locke was able to tell Ben that he forgave him.

I loved it that "the Man in Black" was never named, although in my mind, I called him, "Esau." I mean, he was Jacob's brother. And finally, I loved that the series ended as it began, with Jack on the ground and looking at his eye, and with all these characters I grew to love through the years experiencing true love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

Undisciplined me

2010-05-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

Ugh, I have really neglected this blog in the past few months. When you know that no one's reading it anyway, the motivation to blog is really low. I notice that I return when I'm applying for a new job and/or project (which I have, just today). The writing has really picked up, so I'm busy, and blogging is always the last thing to do on my list.

I know it's important, since the only way to increase readership to a blog is to actually write in it. I'm the kind of person that if I don't have a deadline looming over my head, it just doesn't get done. I can be very disciplined, but it's gotta be imposed on me from the outside. If it's something personal, I have to impose my own deadlines. If there are no deadlines, or if the timetable for completing tasks is open-ended, it simply does not get done.

Work for which I'm actually getting paid trumps the other stuff everytime. As a result, this blog doesn't get written in for over three months, and my Wikipedia articles get neglected. It's not as if I don't have anything to write about. My daughter's baptism in late April, for example. And the TV has been great: Evan Lysacek on Dancing With the Stars, American Idol, the end of Lost.

I just haven't been able to figure out how to blog more regularly when I'm so busy. I have the feeling that the only way I'm gonna be able to do it is if someone pays me to blog. Sorry, don't see that happening any time soon.

Olympic Blogging, As Such

2010-02-17T13:31:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged or tweeted as much as I wanted to this week, during the Olympics. There are basically two reasons for this. The first is general busyness; people have finally figured out that I'm back from vacation now, so I'm getting more work. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. One of my contracts has finally come through with some nice semi-lucrative work.

The other reason/excuse is my residence, out here on the west coast. I don't want to know what's happened until I actually see it, so that I'm surprised. In some cases, it's okay to know the result of competitions before I get to see them when NBC shows them during prime time here, but that's three hours later than many of the other folks on Twitter or Facebook. As a result, I'm reading what they're saying hours after the fact. I'd rather have the fun of being surprised than being up on everything.

So by the time I'm exposed to everything, I don't much see the point of adding anything. In my old Usenet days, we called that "lurking," and it's a perfectly valid way to do things. That being said, here are some brief impressions, this fifth day of Olympic competition.

The Opening Ceremonies. In some ways, I enjoyed this opening ceremony more than Beijing. Unlike Beijing, where my mouth hit the ground in amazement, I was touched. It was quintessentially Canadian, even down to the Great One waiting to light the torch. It was more subtle, and in some ways, more beautiful.

Apolo Ono. That was such an exciting race on Sat., and I'm looking forward to his next one. Today or tomorrow, I can't remember which. I helped pass his Wikipedia article to Good Article, so it's on my watchlist. The article's traffic has been huge, so it's been fun watching what's been going on with it. Like Ono, it has had its share of controversy. Speed skating is so much fun, almost as much fun as...

Figure skating. The skating, as is normal for an Olympics, has been outstanding. I am in heaven! It's had all the normal emotional ups and downs for me. I cried when
Shen and Zhao won their gold, and felt sad for the end of the Russian dynasty. I thrilled at Pleshenko, smiled with Johnny Weir, pumped my fists in the air after Evan Lysacek's marvelous short program and cried as I watched his tears in the Kiss and Cry, and felt Jeremy Abbott's disappointment. Can't wait until tomorrow night! It's a virtual tie, and I so want my prediction about Evan winning the gold to come true.

There are other reactions, of course, but time is short and I'll stop here. It's my hope to blog a bit more, but with my schedule this week, I'm not promising anything.

The Olympics

2010-02-12T10:48:00.001-08:00

I'm very excited about Opening Ceremonies tonight, and everyone in my life knows that I own the television set for the next two weeks. I thought that I'd try to do what I experimented with at Nationals, and utilize more social networks--Facebook, Twitter, and this blog. It's been so much fun to read some of the athlete's posts as they've arrived in Vancouver this week. I expect that it will parallel my experience at Nationals, and I'll feel more connected to what's going on, as it's happening.

Tonight, while I'm watching the Opening Ceremonies, I'll have my computer open and read what everyone is saying as they walk into the Ceremonies, even though it won't be live for me here on the West Coast. As the games progress, though, I'm sure that the connectedness will improve my experience of watching as much of the competitions as I can.

To that end, I've promised to put a link on this blog. TeamUSA is a great way to support the American athletes in Vancouver. I'll put the link on my sidebar as well. Also, see my Twitter and Facebook accounts for more from me.

Some of My Own Stories in Spokane

2010-01-19T08:29:00.001-08:00

I had stated previously that this blog, while I'm in Spokane, wasn't going to be a "I did this, and then this happened" kind of thing. I'm going to break that commitment now, because I think that yesterday's experiences are bloggable and part of the overarching theme discussed here.

I was very burnt out yesterday. I was exhausted, because I haven't been sleeping very well in a new bed. I was weary after all the emotional highs and lows of the long weekend. I was peopled-0ut. I was homesick, missing my kids. It didn't help that kids were all around yesterday; it was a holiday, so the Arena was full of children and their families. Even though I spent the morning at my hotel, there were times, while watching some of the skates, I kept nodding off. I didn't even bother to leave the Arena and spend the energy to go somewhere else to eat dinner.

The evening sessions, however, changed all that. The novice men's final was almost as exciting as the senior men's. The skater who won, Nathan Chen, is just ten years old, and the silver medalist, Emmanuel Savory, is eleven. To be honest, that was part of the emotional ups and downs of the weekend. Nathan is only fourteen months older than my George, who's so developmentally disabled that he can't even throw a ball. As I've said before in this blog, the comparison can be difficult to face.

It was very exciting, though. Both Nathan and Emmanuel are so charming and cute. They reminded me of Ryan Bradley's charm and connection with the audience. Nathan fell twice, and he still had amazing scores--over five points ahead of second place. And the third place winner, who won the long program, came back from ninth place. One of the most striking things about being at Nationals in '07 was the level of the skating at even the lower levels. Not being exposed to novice and junior skaters, I came into those Nationals with low expectations and was amazed.

During the novice free skate, my seat mate and I were joined by these two young women, who introduced themselves as Amanda and Samantha. They happened to be training this week as pairs judges, and they remained there for the junior pairs free skate. What are the chances of that kind of thing happening? I moved myself to sit closer to them, and listened in as they discussed the technical elements of the skating. Amanda was so generous about sharing her wisdom, knowledge, and experience. It was so much fun, and it completely rejuvenated me.

I felt so smart! Here I was, a lowly stay-at-home mom at the second figure skating competition in my entire life, and I was actually able to keep up with these girls. I told Amanda that I've never been able to identify the jumps (i.e., the difference between an axel and a toe pick), and she gave me some pointers. She even supported some of the impressions I've had about the more technical elements of skating. As I told her, "Everything I know about skating I learned from Scott Hamilton."

I had a friend in college who often said, "It's a God-thing." I think last night was. I was at a low point, and things just came together to remind me of why I'm here and that it's okay to be me. I even managed to embarass myself in front of a famous person again. Brandon Mroz happened to be sitting in the next section over, so I ran over for an autograph. He totally broke my pen! I told him that it was chancy anyway and said, "Guess I have to get a new pen." It was so typical of me and how I interact with people in general, and especially celebrities.

Stories From Spokane

2010-01-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

In yesterday's blog post, I talked about the stories that if they were told, more people would be interested in and follow figure skating. There are stories all around me this week, as I sit in the stands and ride the shuttles and watch the skaters.

Each person in the stands has a story--why they're there and why they're into the sport enough to buy tickets. My seat mate, for example, is an African American woman in her fifties who's a counselor at a middle school here in Spokane. How is that a black lady is interested in figure skating? As I said back in '07, the demographic for this event is middle aged white women. A few seats away is a couple who seem really into it, and who are even more knowledgeable about the sport than I am. How did that happen?

Last night, I rode the shuttle, and met Justin Gaumond, a beginning senior pairs skater who was sitting with his sister. He seemed a little down, especially when Keegan Messing, who did very well his first time as a senior at Nationals, got on the bus to female squeals. Justin admitted that he and his partner, Lisa Moore, didn't do as well as they would've liked due to the deep field here this year, and his sister told me that he was tired. That's a great story there.

Justin's sister also said that their mom was in Spokane this week. I commented about the great amount of support, encouragement, and cheers from the skaters' family members and friends. My section is next to a group of young skaters from a skating club, and it's been fun to witness the support. Each skater has that kind of story--his or her family, support system, what it took to get here, no matter what level they're at.

I'm looking for these stories, not necessarily because I want to write them down, but because I'm looking at the world like a writer now. I also think, as I've stated before, that if more people knew these stories, and if they were presented in an interesting and inspiring way by someone with the skills to do that kind of thing, more people would be interested in figure skating.

Maybe someone like me?

If Dancing With the Stars Can Do It Why Can't Figure Skating

2010-01-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

Dancing With the Stars is one of my favorite television shows. When it’s on, I get practically religious about it. The only other thing that compares in my devotion is figure skating, so being at Nationals, where I can immerse myself in the sport, is a great experience for me.

The difference, though, is that DWTS has consistently high ratings. For most of the show’s nine seasons, the only show that has been able to beat it in the ratings has been American Idol. This changed this past season, when according to USA Today, ratings decreased 17% from the previous season. (I again experienced a disconnect with the rest of the world, since I couldn’t get enough of the show last season because of Donny Osmond, who I’ve been in love with since I was eight years old.)

For me, watching figure skating naturally makes me think of DWTS. I’ve always thought that figure skaters would be a natural fit for the show, and Kristy Yamaguchi, who won in season 6 proved me right. There are all kinds of similarities between figure skating and ballroom dancing; an entire discipline of figure skating, ice dance, is based upon ballroom dancing. It makes sense to me, then, that if ballroom dancing can capture the imagination of the American public, so can figure skating.

I have a feeling that it all goes back to what I was saying in yesterday’s blog post. DWTS has had the support and promotion of an entire network. I understand that figure skating has some competition that, like football playoffs, which occur at the same time as Nationals. It occurs to me, though, that if figure skating was promoted more like DWTS is, it’d be much more popular. Actually, the thought occurred to me yesterday when the guy that U.S. Figure Skating has hired to entertain the crowd in between came over to my section. He was very funny, even when the camera wasn’t capturing him. I think that if that kind of thing was presented, more people would watch.

The disconnect that I’ve been talking about will probably continue, though, as the week goes on, even this weekend, when the “biggies” are back—the women and the dance teams.

Figure Skating and Stories

2010-01-17T09:02:00.000-08:00

One of the things about being as into figure skating as I am is that it often makes me feel so out of touch with the rest of the world. For the next week, my entire life will be about the sport--about these Nationals--and if you look at what the world is talking about, you'd barely know that it was even happening.

I'm not talking about the Haitian earthquake, which should be covered and talked about. I'm talking about the other buzz that's going on--Conan/Leno, for example, and other things in the news that I just don't care all that much about. I've never been able to understand why certain things get attention--why people talk about one thing and not another. I've read "The Tipping Point," which tries to explain it, but it doesn't explain it completely, at least not to me. It seems that I care about things that, if you look at NBC News and The New York Times and even Fox News, that most people don't even think about.

Figure skating is one of those things. A few days ago, there was a New York Times piece on Nationals and the state of the sport, in which the writer actually stated that figure skating needed another Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan type of scandal. Sure, figure skating had all kinds of attention and cash back then, but it was hot way before that happened. I think that there are other explanations for its surge in popularity. I'm certain that helped, because there's nothing like a good scandal to get people to pay attention, but the million dollar contracts were already happening.

There has to be another explanation for the slump in the sport's popularity. I'm not sure what it is. As a normal fan, I don't have enough information to make a guess. I suspect, though, that it has to do with PR and promotion. ABC certainly failed to promote the sport like it should have. I also believe that U.S. Figure Skating made a lot of mistakes in promoting figure skating in the last several years.

Sports is all about stories. One of the things that struck me about coming to the Nationals in '07 was that as a spectator in the crowd, I was able to see and hear all these great stories--stories about the skaters, even about the other fans. If you depend upon just the broadcasts, which tends to show the top skaters, you miss that. Sitting through twenty skaters' performances is worth it to me because it allows me to witness a story of a certain long program, something I've never got when I only watched the broadcast.

I think that if figure skating was presented in this way, it would be a lot more popular here in the U.S. In Canada, for example, where figure skating is more popular, that's how it's presented. Perhaps I'm thinking about this because I'm a writer now, and I'm thinking about how I would present what I'm experiencing to a reader, in an interesting and engaging way.

There's plenty interesting and engaging about the sport of figure skating, and it's a shame that the rest of the world is getting exposed to that. I think that lots of people would eat it up, since there's nothing the world needs more than inspiration and hope. There are so many stories with that all around me in Spokane this week.

Nationals, Day Two

2010-01-16T08:43:00.001-08:00

One of the most interesting things about being at Nationals this time is the whole internet connectedness thing. It certainly is different than in '07, when it felt like I was the only person here who was on the internet trying to talk and report on my experiences. This time, with Twitter and the trend on the internet of more social connectedness and networks, my experience of Nationals is very different in that respect.

I don't feel compelled to report about what's been going on like last time. If anyone wants to know anything about a particular skater's score, it's easy enough these days to find them. Someone from Figure Skaters Online, for example, has been tweeting her little heart out all through the competitions. Someone who wants to know that kind of detail can simply follow her on Twitter. If I had a laptop at the Arena, I might do that same, but it's a little unwieldy on my phone. It's fun, though, to follow her tweets and the tweets of the other skaters here. I think I'm the only fan that's been on Twitter here, though.

So I'm feeling more connected to what's been going on here this time. In just three years, it's so much easier to access all kinds of information and opinions. I don't feel as alone here this time. That's an odd statement, I realize, since there were over 200,000 attendees in '07, but because of the social networks out there at this time, I feel like I'm a part of a community that's here.

So this blog has a very different focus this time. I feel more compelled to be a writer, and to record my meta-experiences. I'm compelled to go a little deeper than things like, "After the short program, Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir are only .18 points apart and in 2nd and 3rd place." Anyone who wants that information can get it easily, so I don't feel much a point to do that.

That being said, yesterday was very fun, with some frustrations. I'm happy to report that I now have my inerrant luggage. My husband sent it on a shuttle that travels from Pullman to Spokane. Without going into the excruciatingly boring details, it was a real comedy of errors that in some ways, paralleled the strangeness of the senior pairs' short program earlier that afternoon, made me miss the Opening Ceremonies, and cost us $50. I got back right in time for the senior men's short program, so all was forgotten.

Perhaps I'll go into more details at a later time. For anyone who's following the Nationals, I'll tweet from time to time. I also suggest using Twitter to find out the particulars.

Nationals, Day One

2010-01-14T21:57:00.000-08:00

I left Moscow at about 11:15am, about an hour after my goal. Man, sometimes getting ready for a vacation is a lot of work! Got here safety, and in good time--the weather was great, and supposed to stay that way for the next ten days. Well, it's supposed to rain, but in the 40s. I was so intent on getting out of town, I went and left one piece of luggage behind. Fortunately, it wasn't anything I need right away, so my husband is kind enough to ship it to me.

In 2007, the last times the Nationals was in Spokane, they divided up the events in two venues; this time, the competitions are all in one place--the Spokane Arena, and the additional events will be at Riverside Park. I think I like it better that way. I don't know what I think about the senior events being separated into two weekends, though. I understand the reasoning behind it (the Olympics), but we are talking about NBC, the network who (just today!) screwed over Conan O'Brien.

I got at the Arena at the perfect time; just as I arrived, the senior men were starting their practice session. So I got to see Evan Lysecek practice! He looked so strong. There are reports that he's planning on a Quad for his long program. He didn't do one in practice, but he hit all of his triples and looked healthy and well-prepared.

Johnny Weir and Ryan Bradley were in the same practice group. Johnny's practice didn't go as well, but I understand that he tends to spend his practices during competitions all up in his head, anyway. There was one point, where another skater had a spectacular fall, right in front of Johnny, and you could tell he was embarrassed for falling in front of the great J. Weir. A little while later, Johnny fell too, and made it into a clownish fall that made the spectators laugh. I think that he did that on purpose--to make the younger skater feel comfortable about his fall. If that's true, that was a very sweet gesture.

Ryan Bradley's practice was worth the price of admission. I love his short program; it's funny and shows off his great personality. He had the crowd laughing and cheering; I'm really looking forward to his performance tomorrow night. I'd so like to see him at the Olympics, but he's had a tough season this year.

Anyway, the rest of the week should be good. I think I like my seat; it's on the short part of the rink, but almost directly behind the commentators' desk and kitty-cat to the Kiss-and-Cry. I sat directly behind the great Scott Hamilton! What a wonderful man he is. I went up for an autograph, and he politely listened to this elderly woman tell him her whole life story. Then I was able to see him interact with a bunch of other autograph-seekers (including some little boys who were impressed when their mom told them that Scott had won a gold medal at the Olympics) when I stayed behind to make sure the elderly woman made it back up the stairs.

What is it about me embarassing myself in front of celebrities anyway? I was making my way to the restroom tonight, and was fairly certain that Peter Carruthers passed me. I could tell he knew that I recognized him, even though I tried to be all cool about it. But how cool can you be when you're making your way to the restroom? Famous people are able to see that double-take of recognition, no matter what the circumstance.

So tomorrow I've got to buy a program and a bus pass. It's gonna be a long day. I will be tweeting from the Arena and trying to take pictures to post.

Update

2010-01-14T21:51:00.000-08:00

So I never got around to completing posting all my fluff articles. Actually, I've been neglecting this blog horribly, even more than usual. The reason for that is that I was busy preparing for the vacation I'm currently taking.

I thought about reverting the title of this blog back to its original one--"Figure Skating Fan," because for the next ten days, that will again be the focus of this blog. As my Twitter account has shown (see the right panel of this blog), I've been crazy with preparing to complete my few contracts and everything else that going on vacation for ten days entails.

But I'm here in Spokane now, and for the next ten days, I'll be blogging and tweeting about my experiences, just like I did back in 2007, the last time the Nationals were in Spokane and back when the focus of this blog was figure skating.

Fluff post #7: Summer reading list

2010-01-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

President Obama is on vacation right now, so there have been articles written about what he’s reading during his time off. Can you imagine being so famous that people talk about what you’re reading?

This is what I’m reading this summer, in spite of the fact that I haven’t been able to take a vacation this year.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. I first heard about it when I was asked to review its Wikipedia article. What an interesting book. Clarke creates this entire alternative history about the use of magic and magicians in England. It’s about the resurgence of magic in the early 1800s in Britain, and focuses on these two magicians. There are footnotes surrounding the study of magic. It’s written in the style of Jane Austin—funny and witty, and just as much a commentary about modern society as the time it’s about.

Mary, Mother of the Son, by Mark Shea. This is actually a series of three books about the Virgin Mary; I’ve read the first volume so far. Mark Shea is an acquaintance of mine, although my husband knows him better. Mark is a Catholic writer from Seattle with his own blog, kind of famous in the Catholic blogosphere. He does a good job of explaining the reasons Mary is so venerated by Catholics.

Kermit Culture, edited by Jennifer C. Garlen and Anissa M. Graham. A book of articles about Jim Henson’s Muppets, specifically the “Muppet Show” Muppets. Very cool.

The Heart of a Woman, by Maya Angelou. Angelou’s fourth in her series of six autobiographies. I’m reading it because she’s someone I greatly admire, and because I’m working on all Angelou articles on Wikipedia.

Fluff post #6: Hell's Kitchen

2010-01-01T13:26:00.000-08:00

I watched this week’s episode of “Hell’s Kitchen” tonight. Man, sometimes that show makes me so mad!

Like all reality shows, “Hell’s Kitchen” has a standard cast of characters. There’s the obnoxious, bitchy woman so Gordon Ramsey can call her “a cow.” There’s the cocky chauvinistic male. Then there’s the fat guy, who Ramsey calls “you pig!” I suppose that as a fatty myself, I’m a little sensitive about the last one.

For the last two seasons, the fat guy on “Hell’s Kitchen” is a fellow named Robert. He’s morbidly obese, probably well over 300 pounds. He went pretty far last season, before he had to pull out because he developed heart problems, so they invited him back this year. It’s obvious that Ramsey likes the guy.

Ramsey sent him home this week, though. In last week’s episode, they had his team, who had lost their challenge and was being punished, pedal a bike up and down a hill transporting supplies. The result wasn’t a huge surprise—it overexerted poor Robert and he was sent to the hospital, making him miss a dinner service. This week, he was weak and everyone took advantage of it and he was sent home.

I get that the guy is probably not healthy enough to be a chef. I get that his obesity has, for the second year in a row, hindered him from succeeding in the show. I think that what they did to him, though, was unfair. Whoever decided to put him on that bike is directly responsible for his ambulance ride to the hospital, and for his ultimately leaving.

Fluff post #5: Wikipedia and quality control

2010-01-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

I’m not the only editor on Wikipedia that has spent my own money on books for research. One of my Wiki-pals (i.e., people I’ve met on Wikipedia) has spent wads of money that way. Of course, she actually takes a trip to her local university library to conduct her research. I haven’t gone that far, at least not yet.

I have plunked down loads of cash for books, though. It’s worth it, though, and they’re all books I’d be inclined to buy, anyway. I don’t spend time working on articles that I’m not interested in, you know. I’d rather own the book straight out, instead of worrying about library fines. I can also write notes in the books I own, or dog-ear them to mark areas I know I’ll need.

I’ve recently submitted one of my articles for Good Article (GA), which is the level of quality directly below Featured Article (FA). The difference in process between the two processes is that for an article to pass to GA, it only has to be reviewed by one person, whereas for FA, there are several reviewers involved. The criteria are also higher for FA.

Anyway, one of the issues the reviewer for GA raised was that my article didn’t have enough sources he could check easily, meaning sources that were on-line. My response, which I’m pretty sure was reasonable, was that there are loads of articles on Wikipedia (even FAs) that used those types of sources. I’m glad that isn’t a requirement, because all kinds of articles couldn’t be written, or at least they couldn’t be brought up to the level we all want in Wikipedia.

For Wikipedia to survive, the quality of its articles needs to be higher. I believe that I’m helping accomplish that goal. Eventually, there’s going to be less new articles written, since there really is a limit to the topics of knowledge, and the quality of the articles that remain will need to be higher.

Fluff post #4: Wikipedia and reasonableness

2010-01-01T13:20:00.000-08:00

Speaking of Wikipedia, as time goes on, it’s becoming more and more respectful. There was a time, in academia, when it was “illegal” to use it for term papers. You couldn’t even say the name inside a college classroom.

These days, as more articles are improving in quality, that’s not as true. Some college courses are creating and/or improving articles as part of their curriculum. It teaches students how to research, cite sources, and write in a collaborative fashion. They use the peer review process, and the “FAC,” or “Featured Article Candidacy” process. Not only do they learn collaboration, they learn how to interact with others, and sometimes even conflict resolution.

One of my Wiki-pals (i.e., people you know through Wikipedia) likes conflict. I swear, she picks the most controversial articles and works on them. Then she steps back and waits for the attacks. I think that’s what she lives for, although she does seem stressed out about it. As for me, I tend to choose articles with very little controversy. It so fits my personality; I’m one who avoids conflict at all costs.

I was certain, then, that when I “adopted” the Wikipedia article about “Sesame Street,” that I’d get all kinds of controversy. I’m honestly surprised that I haven’t. It’s somewhat highly vandalized, though, but hardly anyone has objected to my large-scale edits. I mean, I have literally taken chunks of content from it and thrown it away.

Not without substance to replace it with, though—at least what I think is substance. Because before I got a hold of it, it was crap. It had very little (okay, almost no) information that was backed by a reliable source. Now that I think about it, perhaps I haven’t been confronted about it because any reasonable person would look at its previous version and be glad that the crap is now gone.

Fluff post #3: Wikipedia, my addiction

2010-01-01T13:15:00.000-08:00

The one website I live for these days is Wikipedia. I have such an addictive personality, and Wikipedia plays right into that. At night, after my husband and two kids have gone to bed, I turn off the TV, put on some nice music (or sometimes I don’t, and enjoy the quiet), and edit my articles. It’s the way I unwound after a long, stressful day.

At first, I would go to the library to do my research. Now, I’ve spent so much money on books for my articles. Of course, you have to remember that there’s no “ownership” of articles on Wikipedia. Since everyone is open to edit on Wikipedia, no one person is the writer of any article. Wikipedia uses phrases like “main editor” to describe a person who has led the article to improvement, even if it means that the main editor has written the majority of the article.

My trouble, and I freely admit it, even on Wikipedia, is that I spend hours and hours on an article, and I work very hard to improve it. Yes, I get emotionally involved with these articles. I’ve noticed that I’m not the only editor who has this propriety attitude about the articles they nurture. It’s only natural, and I make no excuse for it. I do recognize, though, that the ideal is that lots of editors contribute, and the best articles (even the featured articles, the ones that make it to the front page) are the ones who have had several contributors.

Fluff post #2: Computer games

2010-01-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

One of the things I do on the computer is play games. I have a subscription to Real Arcade, and I spend way too much time playing their games. I love to sit in front of the TV and play a game. Just tonight I watched my soap, “General Hospital,” and last night’s taped version of “Hell’s Kitchen,” which is just another soap. Mindless stuff perfect for playing mindless games.

My favorite computer games are variations of puzzles, games where you actually have to figure stuff out. These days, I can’t get enough of a game called “4 Elements.” It consists of a board with different color discs that you have to clear off. There’s a fog underneath the discs, and sometimes it takes several clicks to clear them. There’s a time limit, and if you don’t get to the end before the time runs out, you have to start over. It’s quite addicting. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “Oh, it’s really late and I need to go to bed, but I’ll play just one more level.” It starts out easy at first, of course, and becomes more and more challenging. I keep playing it over and over again.

Another game I’ve been into lately is “World Mosaics,” which is basically just a variation on “Mine Sweeper.” I love “Mine Sweeper,” and have for years, but the “World Mosaics” game is more interesting. Like most games, the board gets larger and more challenging as you go along. I’ve already won, and I’ve played all the “extra games,” but I keep going back to the harder boards, the 20x20 ones.
I spend way too much time on these games!

Fluff post #1: Flitter and Ashton Kutcher

2010-01-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

I spend way too much time on the computer. From what I hear going on in the world, though, the stuff I do on it doesn’t seem to match what everyone else is doing.

I do have a Twitter account, though, mostly because I wanted to check out what all the commotion was about. At first, I thought, “160 characters? How can you can any substantial conversation with anyone with 160 characters?” Then I read that Time Magazine article about Twitter last month, and I was intrigued.

At first, I resisted following the people everyone else follows, like Ashton Kutcher and Ryan Seacrest, with their 2 million followers. But then Kutcher guest co-hosted on “Live With Regis and Kelly” a few weeks ago, and that was the end of that. I love how he, as Anderson Cooper put it a few days later on the very same show, “mentored” Kelly Ripa into Twitter. And for a couple of weeks, she got totally into it.

I mean, there’s a reason Ashton Kutcher has 2 million followers on Twitter. He’s an interesting young man, smart as heck. I’ve always thought it was cool that he married a woman much older than he, helping her raise children who are not that much younger than he and that Demi Moore’s ex-husband Bruce Willis seems all right with it. They seem to all get along and are having this unusual family life. It’s very honorable in this day and age.

One thing I will not do on Twitter, though, is follow or be followed by anyone whose picture on their home page shows them naked or semi-clothed. For some reason, when I first got on Twitter, I kept having follow requests by these women. I first, I accepted them, thinking, “Oh, they just need a good model.” Then I thought better of it. I mean, heck, it’s not my responsibility to bring morals to these young women! I am no longer Evangelical, for Lord’s sake, and I’m not gonna be the one to save them.

But Ashton Kutcher, he epitomizes everything that’s good about Twitter.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T13:08:00.000-08:00

This is an impossible-to-get-any-work-done day. My husband and his dad are spending the day putting in our new wood floor, for which I grateful because we really needed it, but that means that I'm stuck monitoring the children. I can't concentrate enough to write, so it's not worth it. Fortunately, the client is willing to extend today's deadline until tomorrow.

I'm been meaning to do this for awhile, and this seems to be a good opportunity to complete the task. This summer, one of the first writing jobs through Elance I got was a project the client and I dubbed "Fluff articles." The assignment was to write about twenty articles about anything, as long as it had the name of the product in them at least once. Pure SEO writing, which is cheap and tedious as heck to write.

The positive thing was that even though it was a pain-in-the-arse kind of project, I gained one of my most loyal clients, a hilarious lady from Canada. We've actually become friends, chatting about our lives with each other as we both try to avoid work. She has never tended to pay well, mostly because she accepts jobs that pay low, but it's come to the point to if she has something for me, and I've available, I'll do it for her, even if it's $5 per 300-word article.

Some of these fluff articles are really silly, but I've always thought that they'd make good blog posts. I'm sure that enough time has passed to make it okay to re-publish here, without the product mention, of course.

More Christmas music

2009-12-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

As promised, I'm listing my favorite Christmas music. As a matter of fact, I'm listening to some right now. I suppose it should go on the list!

1. One of my favorite ways to listen to music is to stream it. Most of the music I stream is from actual radio stations; there are few that I regularly turn to, from all over the country (mostly, places where I've lived). When I'm in the Christmas-music mood like I have been lately, I listen to a lot of classical, because the more traditional music I prefer tends to be played on classical radio stations. For example, KDFC out of San Francisco has been playing a lot of Christmas music the past few weeks, and currently they'll playing it constantly.

2. Amy Grant, A Christmas Album
Amy Grant has recorded a few Christmas albums in her career; this album was her first and in my opinion, her best. I listen to it all year long, and it's always the first one during the Christmas season. It has this spiritual edge to it that few artists can match.

3. The Priests
I "discover" a new album each year, and last year this was it. The voices of these Irish priests are exceptional. Their version of "Ave Maria" is the best I've ever heard.

4. If On a Winter's Night, Sting
This year's discovery. I love Sting, and I love his foray into classical music. He does a very nice job with this album.

5. Charlie Brown Christmas
For me, Christmas isn't Christmas without reviewing this album. No more needs to be said!

6. A Christmas Together, John Denver and The Muppets
Another of my all-time favorites. Funny, weird, and sweet all at the same time.

I'll stop now. I could go on and on. Perhaps I'll continue the list in another post.

Christmas music

2009-12-03T10:48:00.000-08:00

As per my "promise" to blog at least once a week...

The holiday season is now upon us. For me, with my disabled kids who don't really "get" Christmas, it can be a bittersweet time. We've never put up decorations or even a tree, because our house just isn't set up for it. Plus, a tree is something that the kids will just get into (or want to) and it's simply not worth the hassle.

It can be sad sometimes having kids who aren't developmentally to the point that they don't get excited about Santa or presents or the anticipation of Christmas. I try, though. I take them out to get pictures with Santa and send them to family and friends. And we try to expose them to Christmas-y things, like Santa and dressing up and celebrating on the day.

So I try and get into the season, even if it's just for myself. It can be really hard, though, and there have been years when I haven't even made the attempt. It almost takes real discipline, but I've learned that for me, it's necessary because the alternative isn't fun at all. The holidays can be hard enough without making it worse on yourself by having a bad attitude.

One of the biggest helps for me during this time of year is remembering the spiritual aspect of the holiday. I try and remember that this is Advent, the time when we're to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ, both into the world and into our own lives. I try to use this time to anticipate experiencing Him in a more profound way.

One way is the use of music. I'm the kind of person who listens to Christmas music all year long, but in December, I try and immerse myself in it. I try and "discover" at least one new Christmas album each year. I will make a list of my favorite Christmas music in a future post. I used to say that Christmas is the only time that it's socially acceptable to listen to "Christian" music. I love it. It reminds me of the really corny saying, "Jesus is the reason for the season."

Angelou and Norrell

2009-11-27T14:11:00.000-08:00

The last time I was blogging regularly I was on a roll about the "coincidences" I tend to experience. In that vein, I'd like to share one more. It seemed that their regularity stopped after this experience, or perhaps I stopped being so aware of them.

As I've shared here, one of my Wikipedia projects is their articles about Maya Angelou. I read her fourth autobiography, "Heart of a Woman," and was ready to re-write the article, and went looking for one of the books. I swear, I spent a good part of a morning tearing up my house looking for it, but it was no where to be found. Eventually, I gave up and re-ordered it from Amazon.

Later that day, I brought the novel I was reading, "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell," to lunch with me. It's a fun read, kind of a mixture between Jane Austen and fantasy. I was inspired to read it after I helped review the article when it was up for featured article. I got to the place in the novel when Strange has published his book on English magic, and his ex-mentor, Norrell, who was opposed to the publication, put a charm on the books that made them disappear after the reader bought it.

I had to put the book down after I realized the coincidence! That's what happened to my Angelou book--some pesky magician put a charm on it, and it disappeared! I did go out and purchase an additional book, so there might just be some credence to that.

Update

2009-11-27T14:05:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've been here. It's terrible how sporadic my blogging is at times. I just need to schedule it into my week. I've read that it's not as important to blog a lot than it is to at least blog regularly. I'm not even doing either of those things.

Part of it is simply busy-ness. I've been getting more writing work, including some nice leads for more regular and more lucrative contracts. I've learned that using Elance is a good way to get your feet wet--to gain the confidence with the little, low-paying contracts. That has happened for me. My confidence increased to the point that I actually quit my job to work at home and focus on this new, fledgling writing career. I think it was a good decision for me and for my family.

Celebrate the Child

2009-09-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

Real quick blog post, since I'm running up against a deadline: 9 500-word articles by tomorrow.

From time to time, I go through my music from A to Z, to delete clips I no longer want or to delete copies in my iTunes files. Right now I'm on the C's.

As I've been blogging for the past week, I've had several of those weird coincidences happening to me. As I've said, this kind of thing happens to me quite often, but for some reason, in the past two weeks, it's been occurring more often than normal. Perhaps it's just that I'm noticing it more, or that I'm recording them here. Another one just happened!

Like I said, I'm on the C's. "Castle on a Cloud," from my "Les Mis" soundtrack came up. That song is the child Cosette singing about her fantasies to get through her miserable little life, full of abuse, starvation, and humiliation. The very next song on the queue: Michael Card's "Celebrate the Child," which is about the Christ child.

There can't be two songs more different in their themes and sentiments than those two songs. The first is about how a child has been mistreated and devalued, and the other is the profound value of another child. "Celebrate the Child" implies that because Christ is precious, all children are. "Castle on a Cloud" is about darkness; "Celebrate the Child" is about the Light coming into the world. Christ teaches the opposite of what many characters in "Les Mis" believe and practice: that all life, no matter how weak and lowly, is precious. As Christ himself said, "Suffer the children to come to me."

Brer Rabbit

2009-09-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

Something happened today that proves my point about things happening to me that are connected. Just like the above post, half of it has to do with Maya Angelou.

Today was a writing day. Not only do I have some freelance deadlines looming, I also have progress notes to complete and billing to process for my other job, which I'm currently in the process of leaving so that I can concentrate on the writing. I needed a break, and the kids were home and needed access to the dining room table where I camp out with my laptop. I picked up the book I'm reading right now, Angelou's Heart of a Woman, mentioned in the previous post.

Angelou was recounting her experience getting hired as a journalist in Cairo, in spite of her inexperience in the field. She described it as feeling like she was Brier Rabbit being thrown in the Brier patch: "Please don't do the worst thing to me! Please don't throw me in that Brier patch!" Then she recounted the story.

A few hours later, my husband and I are going through our nightly TV viewing, trying to eat dinner and not kill the children. (If you lived in our house, with two tiresome severely developmentally disabled little kids, you'd understand that statement.) First, we watched the season finale of "Warehouse 13," which is an interesting little sci-fi show that has grown on me throughout the summer. (We also watched the last episode of "The Colony" on the Discovery Channel, another oddly compelling show.)

During a scene towards the end of "Warehouse 13," the protagonists were bringing in the bad guy, and my husband cited (you guessed it!) the same Brier Rabbit story that Angelou references in her book. Before he even finished quoting the same line, I said, "It happened again!" Like I said, that happens to me all the time! Weird, huh?

Cairo

2009-09-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was awarded a new writing job, a book review of The Yacoubian Building, by Alaa Al Aswany. I've finished reading it, and have done some preliminary research this morning, before actually starting to write the review. It's an Arab book about life in Cairo. It's a very interesting book, very controversial for its depictions of sexuality and even of homosexuality. It's nice that I'm actually enjoying the task of writing for something, instead of the insipid product descriptions and SEO blog posts that I've been doing so far.

I've also been reading The Heart of a Woman, by Maya Angelou, for her Wikipedia articles. Sometimes it's really weird how the things I'm reading, watching, listening, and thinking about become connected. It's happened so often, I'm no longer surprised about it. This time the connection was Cairo.

The Yacoubian Building is set completely in Cairo. It reminds me of Les Miserables in that it depicts the lives of the poor and working class of Egypt, at the time of the first Gulf War in 1990. (And of course, as I'm writing this, my point is made: a song from the musical "Les Mis" comes on iTunes, which I have on shuffle.) Angelou's book is also set partly in Cairo, but before the Egyptian revolution, in the early 50s, when Westerners were welcome there and when the society was freer than it is now.

The difference in the descriptions of Egyptian life is quite different in both books. Angelou describes her and her husband's opulant lifestyle, while Aswany describes something much different. I'll go into more detail when I have the review completed.

New blog

2009-09-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

I have changed the title and appearance of this blog, to better reflect my change in status. I've decided to change my career focus to freelance writing, and I want to use this blog to talk about that. So instead of this blog focusing on figure skating, like in the past, it now focuses upon my new career and what it's like to be a newbie freelance writer.

That doesn't mean, though, that figure skating is off limits. Actually, nothing is off limits on this blog. That's been what's going on here from the very begining, anyway. For example, in January, I will be attending the US Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, and I will blog about it, just as I did the last time the nationals was in Spokane, in 2007. I will most likely also discuss television, parenting my beautiful developmentally disabled children, and my Catholic faith.

Again, very little has changed about this blog. I'm just changing the title to better reflect what it's been about all along, and to give folks an idea about what I'm about and "how I can fulfill their writing needs."

Blog title

2009-09-17T11:17:00.001-07:00

The title of this blog, "Halfway Up the Stairs" is taken from an A.A. Milne poem that was put to music and performed by the Muppets. I think it perfectly describes my feelings about life, that none of us have "arrived" yet. We've all stopped at that middle stair, where "there isn't other stair quite like it."

Here's a clip of Robin the Frog, singing it on a "Muppets Show" episode, performed by Jerry Nelson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGFR3zz12p0

Of course, the best version of this beautiful song is Jerry Nelson's performance at the 1990 funeral of Jim Henson (5:14 in):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHe39ZTCs-4

And here are the lyrics:

Halfway down the stairs is a stair where I sit.
There isn't any other stair quite like it.
I'm not at the bottom, I'm not at the top.
So this is the stair where I always stop.

Halfway up the stairs isn't up and isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery, it isn't in the town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts run round my head.
It isn't really anywhere, it's somewhere else instead.

Halfway down the stairs is a stair where I sit.
There isn't any other stair quite like it.
I'm not at the bottom, I'm not at the top.
So this is the stair where I always stop.

Christine's resume

2009-09-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

Work Experience
Counseling, 2003-2009
I worked in service coordination and psychosocial rehabiliation, which are Medicaid programs in the state of Idaho, focusing on clients with chronic and persistent mental illnesses. I wrote and developed psychological assessments and action plans.

Sign Language Interpreting, 1986-2000
I translated American Sign Language and English for Deaf and hearing clients in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Eastern Washington areas.

Education
San Francisco State University, 1999 - 2003
M.S., Marriage & Family Counseling and Rehabilitation Counseling/Deafness
Member, Chi Sigma Iota honors society.

California State University, Hayward, 1998 - 1999
4 credits short of a B.A. in psychology

Fuller Theological Seminary, 1994 - 1995
Theology, Christian ministry, church history.

California State University, Northridge, 1986 - 1989
B.A., Deaf Studies/Sign Language Interpreting
ASL studies, history of Deaf people in America, linguistics, Deaf education.

Related Experience
“Experienced and established editor “in Wikipedia (Userpage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Figureskatingfan
Near-native fluency in American Sign Language.
Extensive experience in Internet, webpage development, and research.
Parent of two children with developmental disabilities.

Stanford Memorial Church

2009-09-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

I'm very proud to report that I've reached another milestone in my Wikipedia editing career: my third featured article to be placed on the main page. Stanford Memorial Church, which is a real effort of love on my part, is there today, Sept. 16.

It's a great accomplishment (all three of my FAs have been on the main page), but there are drawbacks to it. The added attention brings out all kinds of people who take issue with the article, even though it's been thoroughly worked over in the process to become a FA. Sometimes the feedback is quite bizarre, as the statement below, which is on the article's talk page. (I can reproduce it here, since everything on Wikipedia is free use.)

A lot of this seems fairly biased... particularly the section about the church's influence. It paints secularism in a bad light by repeatedly quoting people for the church as opposed to the more NPOV [non-point of view] approach of quoting someone painting secularism in a bad light as well as quoting the opposing view. Perhapsif there were more than one sentence with a conflicting view from "this church made stanford, a former bastion of LIBERAL ATHEISM, great!" then this article would be more deserving of being featured.

My first reaction, upon reading this, is to make some sarcastic and snarky comments. I even wrote a response, but I deleted it because I've been advised to refrain from that kind of thing if I want to submit myself for administrator sometime in the future. I can, however, record it here, on my own blog, where I can be as snarky as I want to be.

Huh? Excuse me if I come off as disrespectful, but anyone who knows me well would guffaw at the above statement. First off, perhaps I'm being dense as well (been known to happen!), but I'm not sure what you're saying here, your second sentence in particular. But let me explain why they'd laugh, and why I did after reading it. Anyone who knows me would say, "Former bastion?" 'Cause honey, they'd know I'd say something like, Stanford still is! But who the heck cares, doncha know? My personal opinion matters little, and after all the vetting this article has been through, you're the first person to have caught me in my ultra-conservative, POV [point-of-view]-pushing agenda. Amazing!

I have to run now, so I'll have more about this later.

Blogging struggles

2009-09-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

I've been spending more and more time with the freelance writing thing, to the point that I may change the title and look of this blog to reflect that. The common wisdom these days is that if you're a writer, you need to have a blog. That's been a struggle for me, mostly because if I'm writing all day, the last thing I want to do is blog.

It's not like it's an onerous task, though. One thing I've learned about writing is that it begets more writing. It's like the creative juices are flowing, so finding more things to write about isn't hard. The problem is that I'm the most undisciplined person in the world.

In my research for some of my freelance writing, however, I read some really good advice about blogging. The most successful blogs aren't updated several times a day; instead, they're updated 3-4 times a week. That's certainly manageable, even for me. I need to do what I tell my clients in my other job: work it into my schedule. In other words, make an appointment with myself every other day to spend ten minutes blogging. Eventually, it will become routine for me, just like every other blogger in the universe.

More Wiggles

2009-09-08T17:10:00.000-07:00

This blog is no longer about figure skating (although the new season is due to start soon); it's about The Wiggles!

In that spirit, and because I haven't blogged for a while (I really need to be more disciplined about it), here's the perfect Wiggles-centered blog post. I saw this interview on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcy9AU35X0g

A guy from Comcast is interviewing the guys, and as usual, Anthony takes point and does most of the talking. At one point, the interviewers says something like, "I heard on the internet that you got your name from a Cockroaches song called 'Get Ready to Wiggle'..." And then they all smirked knowingly and Anthony corrected him, saying that the song was called, "Mr. Wiggles Back in Town." Of course that got my little mind going:

"The internet? Could that really be code for Wikipedia? But I wrote that! That's what the New York Times Magazine said!" And I imagined all kinds of things, like "OMG, Anthony must think I'm a total idiot that I got that piece of information wrong. What does he think of me?" Then I calmed myself down by realizing that the guy from the NYT was more of an idiot than me, and I was just using his article as a source for my article.

The interview goes on and brings to light an even worse error in The Wiggles' Wikipedia article, taken again from the same source. (It really makes me doubt the information gained from that article; unfortunately, a lot of the information I used came from it.) The NYT states that the Cockroaches' genre was "catchy roots rock", and Anthony says in the Comcast interview that they played "60s inspired pop music."

Fortunately, I can use the interview and correct the misinformation. It makes me want to write Anthony and ask that he give an interview, either filmed or in print, where he corrects all the incorrect information in their Wikipedia article. This makes me think there's a lot, and that makes me go, "Uh-oh." And that makes me re-think meeting Anthony and telling him I basically wrote that article. Yikes!

My only defense is that everything stated in it is sourced pretty well, and if anything's inaccurate in it, it's not my fault. I wonder if he's gonna care about that. I mean, the way all the guys reacted to the question makes me think it may be a sore spot with them. I suppose another defense would be that I got some things right. In the interview, he says that the only difference between the early Wiggles stuff and "the Cockies" is the lyrics. That's stated very clearly in the Wikipedia article, although I'll probably go back and change the wording to better reflect his.

Hot videos!

2009-07-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

I mentioned Anthony's YouTube fitness videos, so here they are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA6owquGyro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GTCtkm_sto&feature=PlayList&p=B66D57F9BB2DC298&index=4&playnext=3&playnext_from=PL

Actually, doing a search on "Anthony Field Fitz" will get you lots of hot videos!

The Wiggles concert

2009-07-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

After the meet-and-greet, we went and found our seats for the concert. We had really good seats--the fourth row back. It was the first time I had been in the INB center in Spokane, which is next door to the Convention Center. I forgot, in my last post, to mention that before the meet-and-greet, we were early, so we picked up some Sonic (my husband's favorite fast-food; he's disappointed that there isn't one in Moscow), and hung out at Riverside Park for a little while. It was the first time I had been there, too. It's a beautiful place, located next to the Little Spokane River.

As I also mentioned in my previous post, we were told that Anthony had the flu. You wouldn't have known about it from his performance. The only reason I knew was that I was told, and the only reason I noticed was because I was looking for it. You could tell he wasn't completely on his game. This year's tour has a circus theme, so he (and Paul Paddick, as Capt. Feathersord) did lots of gymnastics tricks. It obvious that the tricks took more out of him than usual. His singing was barely affected. The show must go on, you know. It's always impressed me that performers are able to perform like that, even while being sick.

I know everything there is about The Wiggles, so another thing that impressed me about this concert was how they utilized their personal interests and incorporated them into the concert. It's like a little glimpse of their lives. For example, I knew that Anthony and Paul Paddick are both into gymnastics, so it was nice to see them demonstrate it. I had even mentioned the fitness videos out on YouTube to another parent as we were waiting for the Meet-and-Greet. (I also mentioned how "hot" they were.)

At one point during the concert, a screen fell onto the stage. Everyone, including the audience, reacted, and without missing a beat, the dancers picked it up and took it backstage. It was done so professionally, it almost felt like it was part of the show. Fortunately, it didn't hit anyone, so no one got hurt. Another thing that impresses me about performers is that how well they handle things like that, and you know that this kind of thing happens often.

So it was an enjoyable show. I think it's worthwhile to attend a Wiggles concert; you see aspects about them you can't see from just their TV shows and videos. For example, Sam really does have a marvelous voice, as evidenced during his performance of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" That was one of the highlights of the show. They darkened the theater, and then shone lights that shimmered everywhere.

The Wiggles put on a show that's just as enjoyable for parents as it is for the kids. They played all my favorite songs, and it was just as fun watching the kids. Anna actually sat enraptured the entire 90 minutes; George was so excited, he couldn't sit still, and yammered throughout. It was great fun. We had to rush home, since it was also my in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary. This day, as I told my husband, will go down in the annals of the Meyer family history.

The Wiggles meet-and-greet

2009-07-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

So we went to Spokane on Saturday for the much-anticipated Wiggles concert. Well, it was at least well-anticipated by me; remember, the kids have the mind of a two-year old.

They enjoyed it, though. Also remember that like all toddlers, the kids are all about being in the moment, and we gave them quite a moment. The meet-and-greet, which was what I was reallly anticipating, didn't live up to my expectations. Of course, they were probably too high--I was expecting something more like a cocktail party. Instead, they brought us and the other thirty or so adults and children to the foyer of the theatre, right outside the stage door. Two young Aussie guys introduced themselves as "Wiggly dancers", and then informed us that Anthony wasn't going to meet us, since he had the flu and didn't want to pass it along. They did say that Capt. Feathersword would meet us, though.

Then Murray, Jeff, Sam, and the Capt. appeared. A line of chairs were set up, and each group/family were brought to them, we said hi, and then pictures were taken by the dancers. Then they moved us to another part of the room and the guys moved to the next group, while everyone else watched. It took both kids a few minutes, but when they figured out what was happening and that it was The Wiggles, both faces lit up. The expression on their faces was worth it.

My husband, of course, felt it necessary to announce to everyone that when I woke him up that morning, I told him, "You have to wear purple. I'm wearing blue, George is wearing red, and Anna's wearing yellow, so you have to wear purple." Everyone laughed, and I said, "Shows you how much he listens to me!" Leave it up to Jon to embarrass me in front of The Wiggles.

So I didn't get the pictures for their Wikipedia article. I was so star-struck, I didn't even mention it. Murray is much better looking in public, and Sam's hair is so black! It was a nice encounter, and I think the kids enjoyed the moment.

Perpetual toddlerhood

2009-07-10T09:07:00.001-07:00

I've just spent the last three weeks in hell. How's that for dramatic?

It has felt like that, though. For some reason, George's sleep patterns for the last three weeks have been really irratic. He'd wake up every few hours, or sleep very few hours, or wake up at 3am and be up for the rest of the day. Jon and I would switch staying up with him, but it was up to me to handle most of it, and I do not do sleep deprivation very well. For example, the other night, at the tail end of it all, George went to bed very early, at about 5pm, and woke up at 10:30 (which is about my regular bedtime), and since he requires constant supervision, I was up with him the rest of the night. By 3:30am, when Jon woke up to relieve me, I was in despair and weeping because it was the third week of doing it.

Sometimes we forget that both our children are basically toddlers, even though they're chronically much older. I call it "perpetual toddlerhood." That period's called, for good reason, "the terrible twos", and it's probably the most difficult part of parenthood. For most parents, though, they know that sleepless nights, them getting into stuff continually, and the "everything's mine" outlook is temporary. That's not true for us, though; we've been doing it for nine years and there's no end in sight.

Most of the time, it's manageable, because toddlerhood is also full of Sesame Street and The Wiggles and lots of joy. There are times, though, when it's difficult, and being sleep deprived for weeks at at time makes it difficult to handle. It's those times that I get down, become deeply depressed, and feel despair. Despair over not seeing an end to it, and over the seriousness of my kids' disabilities.

If George was typically developing, he'd be able to tell us why he wasn't able to sleep. At the very least we'd be able to tell him to go to his room, shut the door, put on his TV, go on the computer, play his Playstation, and let us sleep. The door to his room is broken, so he'd come out of his room and need constant supervision to ensure his safety. It makes me understand the parents who got into trouble for putting their disabled kids in cages. The solution was to purchase more baby gates and tie them together--not cages, but a way to keep him safe so that we can sleep.

So last night was the second night of this solution, which we know is only temporary, and it's gone well. For some reason, though, it coincided with George's sleep improving. Perhaps he's woken up, seen that he's safe in his room, and gone back to sleep. Perhaps it was just a stage. Who knows? I've had two good nights of sleep, and it's made all the difference in the world.

RIP Michael Jackson

2009-06-25T19:53:00.001-07:00

So I came home this afternoon, a little bummed because I was worried about some clients. I turned on the TV, and there it was, news of Michael Jackson's death. I went, "Oh my god!" and the personal care worker there agreed and asked, "Did you like Michael Jackson?"

My response was, "Well, back in the day..." Thriller was probably the fifth album I ever owned, and I graduated from high school in 1983, a year after it was released and right in the middle of all the attention he got from it. For good reason, since it was a remarkable, ground-breaking record. It's sad to think of what he became, and his death is a tragedy.

Green

2009-06-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

I have changed the color scheme of this blog to green, to show my support of the resistance movement in Iran. I am wearing the color today, as are my children. It's my intention to try and wear green all week, and to put the kids in it as well. It was interesting to see how many people wore green in Mass this morning. Even the priest was wearing green, although I'm not sure if it was intentional.

Oh, and happy Father's Day, too. Jon and I were supposed to go out for lunch today, but I'm not sure if it's gonna happen, since our worker didn't show up this morning. Who knows what's gonna happen. That's the drawback of depending on others when making plans; they often don't happen, especially when the people you depend upon are flaky and young.

Elmo vs Blue

2009-06-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Just now, my son approached my husband and said, "Blue!" This in spite of the fact that we're right in the middle of watching "Elmo's World" on Sesame Street recorded earlier today. Understand that George loves Blue; it's the first thing he says upon waking up in the morning. If Noggin ever stops showing it, I don't know what we'll do. We may actually have to break down and buy some DVDs.

That reminded me of another instance in which George asked for Blue, earlier in the week. George approached me with the same request, "Blue!" "Elmo's World" was on the TV again, and I was right in the middle of reading some of Kevin Clash's book for the SS article, so I said, "George! You love Blue more than Elmo?! We won't tell Kevin Clash; his feelings would probably be hurt!"

After reading some of the book (the parts available on Google Books, which is why I posted on Twitter that I may have to invest in it), I think I may actually be correct about Clash's feelings about George preferring Blue over his Elmo. Not that I'm criticizing him for that, though. On the other hand, I think it's an accurate estimation of his feelings about the role and about Elmo's influence on young children, which is profound. Looking over my computer at both my kids watching him is evidence of that, at least for me.

Alan Muraoka

2009-06-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

For us adult fans of Sesame Street, the question is always asked: Who is your favorite character on The Show? This is formost in my mind because being burnt out on the History of SS article, I decided to tackle a list this time: List of characters in Sesame Street. Of course, that begs another question: how is that taking a break? I never said I wasn't obsessive.

Anyhoo, if you were to ask me, "Christine, who's your favorite human character on SS?" I'm sure you may expect me to say Gordon, and if you did, you'd be dead wrong. My favorite character on SS is Alan. During my research for The List, I found this image of Alan, made-up for another role. He's greyed-up, but I think he's very attractive here. What a great smile!

I decided that Alan was my favorite human character on The Show after an episode that aired a few years ago. After looking it up in Muppet Wiki, it was Episode 3993, which aired in 2002. Alan and Gordon are playing chess when Big Bird passes, chasing a bouncing box. Alan leaves the game to catch the box to take it to the Mail-It Shop. I gained so much respect for Alan, both as a character and as an actor, that he'd be willing to do something so silly for The Show. It also doesn't help that now that Bob McGrath's as old as dirt, he's currently the best looking male on The Show.

Oh, the box ended up being from Big Bird's granny-bird: that month's installment of the Letter of the Month club, "a joyful jumping J", as the Wiki puts it.

Daily Mass

2009-06-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that I have plenty of "bloggable" experiences; I just need the discipline and self-awareness to think of my experiences in that way. It should be on my list of ways to self-improve: continue the weight loss, exercise, better take care of the housework, get on my paperwork more efficiently, edit for Wikipedia, pursue the writing career, be more tardy, don't overdraw the checking account, blog more.

So I will now relate today's "bloggable" experience. After the kids' workers arrived (they need to add tardiness to their self-improvement list as well), I went over to church. There was a special mass today, and I had arranged that I was going to meet my friend, Sister Mary David, there for the luncheon held following it. Sister and I meet weekly for spiritual direction (she's been such a tremendous help to me, and worth another blog post). I showed up before Mass was over, and had intended to just wait in my car, but changed my mind and went into church.

I'm very glad that I did, since I walked in right at the point where our priest, Father Joe Schmidt, was washing his hands. I missed most of the service, which was a special healing Mass our parish, St. Mary's Church in Moscow, has twice a year. I've never attended one, since I've either always been busy or I didn't think it was for me. What a pleasant surprise--I didn't expect that I'd be able to take Communion today, but I did. I really wish I was able to attend Mass daily, but I've never been able to, due to my kids' schedule. (Mass is at 8am, and the kids get dropped off at school by 8:20, and it just isn't feasible during the summer, either.)

I love it when God surprises me with unexpected gifts, like being able to take him in through the Eucharist. It doesn't happen often, but I appreciate it and am thankful when it does.

I have sold out

2009-06-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed that I've added a new link to the sidebar. I've done that because I received an email from the owner of that blog offering to link mine if I linked hers. I'll do pretty much anything to increase the traffic on this site, doncha know. So please excuse the sell-out, and if you're visiting from there, welcome!

I have a strange life

2009-06-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

I really should blog more. I know that no one reads this, but now that I'm on Twitter, it's probably a good idea to simply force myself. Part of the reason I don't blog often is that not really that much happens to me that I'd call bloggable. Today, though, I had an experience that's definately bloggable.

I attended my son's therapy sessions this afternoon. His speech therapy occured at the therapy center across the street from the hospital in Moscow, and his occupational and physical therapy co-treat was immediately after. (I say "co-treat" because his OT and PT work together during the same appointment.) We met at Friendship Square in downtown Moscow, a few blocks from the hospital on Main Street. Friendship Square is half-way down Main Street right in the center of town; there's a fountain on one side of the street, and a play structure and park benches on the other side. It's kinda a "mini-park".

I sat on one of the benches watching the therapists work with George, and a young woman, probably in her mid-to-late 2os sat next to me as her little boy was playing. He kept talking to her, and she replied, "What? I can't hear what you're saying." His response each time was, "Never mind," and I asked him, "Who are you--Gilda Radner?"

Of course, he looked at me blankly, and I said, "Of course, you don't know who she is." Then I turned to his mom and asked her, "Do you know who Gilda Radner is?" She said, "Uh, no," and I proceeded to explain to her that Gilda Radner was a member of the original cast of "Saturday Night Live" and one of her characters was "Rosanne Rosannadanna" and her catch phrase was "Never mind." It wasn't until I told her that Gilda Radner was married to Gene Wilder that she knew what I was talking about. My reaction to that exchange was, "Oh, I'm so old!"

Later, after therapy was over, George and I went over to listen to two 20-something young men busking in the Square, playing a drum and guitar. George loves anything to do with music, so he had a great time, especially when the drummer let George play his drum. ("Busking" is playing music in public for donations; the only reason I know the term is because of my Wiggles research, since that's something they did at the beginning of their career.) At one point, I said to the musicians, "Do you know anything from The Wiggles?" Of course, they didn't, and I found myself explaining again.

I have such a strange life. I'm basically a 45-year old mom of toddlers, so a lot of the other moms with toddlers I come into contact with, some who are young enough to be my daughters, don't have similar cultural experiences. I go around explaining my life to people all the time. It can get a little tiresome, but it also opens up conversations. It's also a bit lonely, because other than my husband, I don't know anyone who can relate to me.

Racism and rape

2009-02-16T13:44:00.000-08:00

It looks like this blog has become more about my Wikipedia experiences than about figure skating. Perhaps when Worlds happen next month, I'll have more to say. The cool thing is that Worlds is in L.A. this year, so we'll be seeing more of it. As I've previously stated, it looks like I'm going to have to break down and subscribe to IceNetwork next season, so that I don't go to the '10 Nationals unprepared.

At the current time, I'm addressing some reviews about the Caged Bird article. The experience of editing that article has been an emotional journey for me in many ways. As I was re-editing some of the material about racism today (which I have off, at least until later this afternoon), I was struck with how inadequate I am to the task of writing about the subject. It's a bit overwhelming, and humbling. I think I got myself in way over my head once again. This is a characteristic of mine; I tend to take on things that are too big for me to handle.

At one point while addressing the reviewer's comments, I stated, "Who do I think I am anyway, taking on this article?" Here I am, this white woman with very little experience with the topic of racism. No, actually, none at all. No wonder I'm struggling with the writing, and it has more to do with my weaknesses as a writer. It's almost like my experience writing the "Organs" section of Stanford Memorial Church. It was obvious from my first attempts that it was written by a non-organist and someone who knows little about music. My solution in that situation was to elicit help from an editor who's an expert about organs.

Perhaps what would help in this situation would be to elicit an expert about this, a black editor who specializes in this kind of thing. Perhaps I'm already doing what I can, getting help from more experienced and skilled editors to get the prose right. What doesn't help is the fact that the topics (not just racism) in Caged Bird are so complicated, difficult, and emotional. I know it's been emotional for me.

For example, back in September, when I was in the research phase of the development of the article, I sat on a jury for a man accused of child molestation. (We found him guilty.) Now, I was aware of the kind of case going into it, but I thought that it would be a good opportunity to do some research while waiting for jury selection, and I brought one of the books I read for the article. I can't believe that I didn't make the connection between the rape in Caged Bird and the court case, and didn't even think that it may be an inappropriate book to read that day. Well, sure enough, I had to put the book away before the day was through.

My life is like that: I do research about a book that features a child's rape the very same week I experience my worst nightmare and sit on a jury about a child molestation case. It's not the first time a "coincidence" like that has happened to me. Racism, especially the way Maya Angelou describes it, is also emotional, and I'm finding myself having a great deal of difficulty writing about it. In spite of that, though, I'll finish improving the article, since I'm committed to seeing it pass to featured article, even if I am a white girl.

Parallels

2009-01-08T14:55:00.000-08:00

Since it's pointless to blog about Figure Skating (see post below), at least I can still blog about Wikipedia. I wanted to point this out some way, but it didn't seem to fit on my user page, and it certainly doesn't fit on an article talk page.

Two of my main projects in the last several months are I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Sesame Street. After a flurry of editing on Caged Bird before the holidays, it's currently in a holding pattern waiting for another editor to look it over before we get more feedback before it's submitted to become a featured article. My goal is to have it FA sometime this year, the 40th anniversary of the book's publication.

While waiting, I took on the Sesame Street article. Up to this week, I was in the "research phase of article development." Basically, that means reading: G is For Growing, which is a compilation of research done on the show, and the new book, Street Gang, by Michael Davis. The latter book is delightful, and full of all kinds of usable information for the article. I highly recommend it; not only does it cover the history of Sesame Street; it covers the history of television, children's TV in particular.

What I found interesting, though, is that both of my main recent WP projects were both created 40 years ago. (I may not get the Sesame Street article to FA by November, which is the show's anniversary, but I may be able to get History of Sesame Street to that point, since it's more manageable.) The even more interesting thing is that both Sesame Street and Caged Bird were created out of dinner parties.

Jean Ganz Cooney hosted a dinner in 1966, and the discussion of the guests led directly to the creation of the show. In 1968, Maya Angelou attended a dinner party at the home of cartoonist Jules Feiffer and the discussion about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination and their childhoods inspired Angelou to write her autobiography. I don't know what it says about me and my obsessions with the material in both articles, but the parallel is too interesting to let pass by.

The other thing to note has only to do with Sesame Street. In 1969, when the show premiered, I was five years old, the very end of the population the producers and creators wanted to reach. As I read Davis' book, it struck me: all this was done for me! Perhaps that's egocentric, but I became teary-eyed as I realized that. For me, and for my beautiful disabled children, who can recite the alphabet in large part due to the show.

Perhaps Angelou wrote Caged Bird for me as well; so that I can learn about racism the first time I read it as a young college student, and the research I've done this year, the year we elected a black man as President of the United States.

Not so long this time

2009-01-08T14:39:00.001-08:00

So it's been two months since the last time I posted anything on this blog. The reason for that is that as I was attempting to view some of the Grand Prix figure skating events on YouTube, I discovered, to my dismay, that they had been removed. I suspect that U.S. Figure Skating is to blame. Of course, that means that just because I live in the US, I can only watch the sport when it's broadcast by NBC, even though the YouTube videos were originally broadcast on other networks outside the US. At this point, that's only twice a year. As a result, I gave up blogging about figure skating in disgust.

The only hope we American fans have to watch the sport more regularly is that if the ISU gets its act together and make a contract with some US network to broadcast more figure skating. I've seen nothing in the media about it, but with the "downturn" of the sport in the US and the state of the economy worldwide, I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon. It's shameful on so many levels. Of course, ABC is responsible for much of it, for not promoting the sport after they lost the rights to broadcast the Olympics.

The bright spot in all this, at least for me, is that NBC will broadcast the Nationals in a few weeks; perhaps I'll blog more regularly after that. In addition, my marvelous husband bought me tickets to the 2010 Nationals because it's returning to Spokane. The 2007 Nationals, which he also sent me to, were the highlight of my life. Spokane wrote the book on how to host a successful Nationals, so it should be even better. Let's hope that the city doesn't have another winter like this one, with eight feet of snow!

Skate Canada - Pairs short program

2008-11-05T22:21:00.000-08:00

As I expected, there's more to view of Skate Canada. It doesn't look like I was correct about the popularity of figure skating in Canada, though; all you have to do is to look at the audience in these videoes to demonstrate that. According to this story, they only "broke even." It also states the following:

Next year, Skate Canada will be later in November because of scheduling issues during the Olympic season. Because Skate America had difficulties attracting a broadcaster for a date that would put the competition a week earlier, the dates for all Grand Prix events have been shuffled. For next season only, Skate Canada will be the last of the six Grand Prix events, instead of the second. Skate America will be the fifth.

That is so interesting. It's gotta be an NBC thing. I wonder what's going on next year for that to happen. At any rate, here at the videos I found. I'm also including the scores, since not all include them.

Kawaguchi and Smirnov - Eurosport - 65.02
McLaughlin and Brubaker - Eurosport - 60.66
Dube and Davison - Eurosport, French - 60.14

Vise and Trent -Eurosport - 53.94

Dong and Wu - Eurosport, French - 50.84
Brodeur and Mattatall - Eurosport - 50.76
Kirkland and Radford - English - 50.08
Evora and Ladwig - English - 47.04

The power of words

2008-11-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

This morning, while working with a client, I got an insight that for me, doesn't happen very often. I love it when it does happen, though.

The client calls it "our Bible study", but I call it, in the progress notes I have to write, "studying spiritual literature, to help her with her anxiety". I've always been a big believer in using a client's spirituality to help them psychologically. There are plenty of studies that prove that the most emotionally and psychologically healthy people have a healthy spirituality, so I've been known to even use Scripture to help my clients decrease their anxiety.

Without going into too much detail about the client, since confidentiality is involved, we're looking at a Protestant confirmation book my husband has used for teens. This morning, the content focused on creation and on God as creator. We read Genesis 1-2. A couple of things struck me, but the biggest thing was that God spoke, and the universe was created. His words brought creation into being.

Last night, I happened to listen to a Maya Angelou interview on a BBC broadcast, in my on-going project to improve her Wikipedia articles. One of the things Dr. Angelou talked about was her period of muteness after her rape at the age of eight, as described in her I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She said that she was traumatized after she heard that her rapist had been murdered and from that point on, she decided to stop speaking. She said, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone..."

Angelou was more traumatized by the murder than by the actual rape. She believed that "the issuing forth" of her words caused the death of another human being and could imagine them killing others. As a result, she was mute for five years. It struck me, as I was reading and talking about Genesis 2, that Angelou must have read it, even as an eight-year old, because she understood that words have great power. It was through God's words that the universe came into being, and in the mind of a narcissistic child, her words had destructive power.

Of course, Angelou spoke again; she became a teacher, she makes much of her living by public speaking, and recited her poem at Clinton's inauguration. Caged Bird says that she began speaking again when her grandmother's friend, Mrs. Flowers, introduced her to great literature and made her memorize poetry. It was through literature that she found her voice again. So not only does words have the power to destroy; they have the power to restore.

Maya Angelou is one of my heroes.

And finally, figure skating

2008-11-02T16:48:00.000-08:00

I listed the YouTube videos that focused on last weekend's Skate America. (See below.) The most disappointing thing about that was the fact that there have been very few downloads of the pairs and dancers. I suspect that this weekend's competition, Skate Canada, will be better, since figure skating is huge in Canada.

What's missing from Skate America is what I watched from the NBC broadcast, which showed only the top three male skaters, both long and short programs, and the entire final group of skaters during the ladies' free skate. Poor Kimmie Meissner--she only came in eighth! So much for the Grand Prix final.

In addition, there was some confusion in the audience about the men's scores. For example, the crowd expected Evan Lysacek to do better, but he only came in third. (Takahiko Kozuka from Japan came in first. ) This makes me think that I may be wrong the comparison I made earlier about the figure skating scoring system and gymnastics may be incorrect. I'm sure I'll talk more about that as this season progresses.

Wikipedia News

2008-11-02T16:27:00.000-08:00

This week, Gather Together in My Name, became a good article. Gather Together in My Name is Maya Angelou's second autobiography. It's not as well-received as her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, so it doesn't have nearly as much written about it. As a result, its WP article is probably doesn't have Featured article-potential like Caged Bird. (I'm waiting for someone to do a copyedit on that article before I nominate it for FA again.) I wrote this article, with very little input and collaboration from other editors, probably because it's one of my "strays" that no one else has any interest in.

My goal for Angelou-related articles is to have an article for all seven of her autobiographies, and to get her main bio page improved enough to make it a FA. What that means, of course, since I'm probably going to be the one who does it, is that I have to actually read them. I figure, how can you write an article about a book unless you've read it? Since they're autobiographies, I don't feel like I can contribute to those parts of her articles with any expertise until then. As I told the administrator who passed Gather Together, I don't see that happening for at least another year.

When that's all done, and I'm sufficiently satisfied, I'd like to get a Maya Angelou featured topic. This is what it would require. Dr. Angelou is certainly is an important enough American author for it, and it's a worthwhile long-term project.

Halloween Week

2008-11-02T16:06:00.000-08:00

Halloween at our house, with two developmentally disabled little kids, is often a sad holiday. The kids don't understand it, much like Christmas. George is somewhat better at getting it than his sister; he loves Santa Claus, but much like he loves all costumed characters.

Something funny just happened: right after I wrote the above, George came over to me with his Halloween costume (a khaki soldier outfit) and "asked" me to put it on him. After some hesitation and encouragement from his dad and grandma, I went ahead and did it. So I take back what I just said; George does seem to at least enjoy dressing up in costumes. How many times does these kids make me out to be a liar?

Anyway, both kids loved getting dressed up, even though they really don't understand the concept of Halloween. I waited until the last minute (i.e., the night before) to get costumes because I assumed that it was pointless. After this year, we decided that next year we're going to take the kids trick-or-treating for the first time, at least around the neighborhood.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Anna was a princess, mostly because it was the last minute and that was all Walmart had. For the last several years, little girls dressing up as princesses has been all the rave. Anna loved it, though; on Wednesday when she was able to dress up for school, she came home with her worker and curtsied all over the place. "Who taught you that?" Very cute.

Skate America - Pairs short program

2008-10-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

Duhamel and Buntin
Zhang and Wang
Canac and Coia
Savchenko and Szolkowy
Mukhortova and Trankov

The final three performances haven't been downloaded yet. The commentaries are in English (if I were to guess, they're from the Canadian broadcast), except for Zhang and Wang, which is in Russian. Warning: the English commentaries are really bad--they're boring and barely adequate. Where's Terry Gannon when you need him? In addition, the person who downloaded them didn't include the scores. Here they are, from the ISU site: http://www.isufs.org/results/gpusa08/SEG005.HTM

Skate America - Men's short program

2008-10-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

This morning I've been spending some time watching figure skating on YouTube. The only segment that's up as of 10:30am PST is the men's short program, and I watched about one-third of the entries. I figure that's comprable to what I would've probably seen if we were seeing it on TV, but without the Russian commentary, of course. On Sunday night, more was downloaded, and I was able to see most of the SP.

Kevin Reynolds
Shawn Sullivan
Takahiko Kozuka
Igor Macypura
Adrian Schultheiss
Adam Rippon
Evan Lysacek
Johnny Weir

Lysacek is first after the short program. You can tell it's the beginning of the season; all of the above were solid, but no one tried to do any quads. We'll see what's up for their long programs, especially Lysacek, whose triples looked easily done.

I'll give folks a little bit longer, and then I'll go looking for more performances. The most interesting to note was Lysacek; from this first outing, it looks like he's the one to beat this season. He skated to "Bolero", and his costume, which had a red cross on both sides of his torso, was interesting. That's pretty brave; I've always said that if I were a figure skater, I'd never skate to "Bolero".

More later.

My pal Pam

2008-10-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

One of the most marvelous and often unexpected things about life on the net are often the people you get to meet. Some, as the media is so quick to point out, are nasty and icky, but I've learned that you meet some like that in real life, too. My experience is that most people, both on the net and IRL, are pretty decent.

One of the "decent" folks is a woman named Pam I've encountered while editing the hep C list. I came upon the article while doing research for a client, and saw that it needed a great deal of work, mostly in repairing and improving the references. It's the first list on WP I've worked on, and now my repertoire includes two lists that I've created myself.

Pam is no WP expert, but she knows a lot about hep C and does wonderful advocacy work for folks who suffers from the disease. She also understands the importance of having quality articles/lists on the project about hepatitis C. I know very little about hep C, but Pam has taught me the importance of education. With this list, I've kinda run into the dilemma I often run into with my pet articles--it's a very "unsexy" topic these days, in spite of the prevalence of the disease. This list is on the short side because hep C has a lot of stigma attached to it, even more than AIDS/HIV. I think it's kinda strange that more celebrities are more willing to admit they're HIV-positive than HCV-positive, but that's because the stigma attached to hep C is stronger than AIDS.

In spite of being non-WP savvy, Pam has taken on herself to do away with this stigma by helping me with this list. She figures that if someone newly diagnosed sees that someone like Naomi Judd or Natalie Cole has hep C but has successfully gotten treatment and lives a happy and productive life, it provides him or her with hope. I've learned that hep C is one of the most under-diagnosed ailments, so as Pam stated below, this also could save someone's life by inspiring them to get tested.

So here's Pam's words, cut-and-pasted from my comment box:

peachstatepam said...

You are awesome Christine! Thank you for all the hard work you do at Wikipedia. As you know I am especially interested in the Celebs that have Hep C page as hopefully it will bring about some recognition to this unrecognized epidemic in our country. Hep C patients outnumber HIV patients 5 to 1 but most people don't even realize that Hep C is only transmitted blood to blood much less any other facts about it. YOU ROCK and all your hard work is very much appreciated.

Peace
Pam
www.myspace.com/figmento

Well, thanks pal. As I've told you before, I keep you around because you're so wonderfully complimentary and supportive. Editing for WP, especially the kinds of articles I tend to be drawn to, can be a lonely enterprise. Ya don't get much recognition for it, doncha know. I appreciate that you're helped me so much in the improvement of this list. I think it's time to try and get it to featured-status. If I didn't have to take off right now and actually make some money this afternoon, I'd do it right now. Perhaps tonight. Please expect some direction from me in an email to get your support, since that's why it failed a few weeks ago. You rock, too!

What I've been doing

2008-10-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

It's not as if I haven't been busy.

Most of my time on the net has been spent in Wikipedia. I think that this blog got so neglected for so long because a year ago was about the time when I really discovered it and got addicted. I've had a marvelous time, and now use it as a way to de-stress after everyone's gone to bed. It's a way to express myself creatively.

I think, like other WP editors, I'd like to use this forum to record my "wiki-experiences". WP has changed the way I write, probably for the best, and a blog can be a good way to explore my experiences with the editing and writing process.

Lots of stuff has also happened with the kids, but that's another story for another time.

To start, here a link to my user page on WP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Figureskatingfan. My user page lists some of my WP "accomplishments"; it's also a good place to find out more about me and my interests.

Currently, I'm in the research phase for Sesame Street. This article was, back in 2006, a featured article, back when the criteria wasn't as strict. I wasn't surprised when it was delisted; it's by no means high enough quality at this point. So my goal is to get it back there, but it needs a great deal of research.

I'm also waiting for a complete copyedit of my newest high-priority article, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. My goal for that article is to get it to FA before the 4oth anniversary of its publication in 2009. I think that Maya Angelou is enough of a gem in this country to deserve high-quality articles, so I've taken her articles on. (Actually, I'm in the midst of a minor controversy right now; see here.) I can write more about Dr. Angelou's bio page, and will, at a later time.

In a couple of days (either Friday or the weekend, depending on my time), it's my plan to re-nominate List of people with hepatitis C, as a featured list. It failed on its previous nomination, due to lack of support. I'll write more about that article, especially why it interests me, also later.

Finally, two other articles, Stanford Memorial Church and Gather Together in My Name are pending good articles nominations.

So it looks like at the current time, mostly I'm playing a waiting game. Shoot, I'm like Indigo Montoya: "I hate waiting!" Fortunately, I have Sesame research to do, so I'm all right.

Starting Again

2008-10-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year since I've blogged, and since tomorrow is the start of the figure skating season, I think I'm ready to take it up again. I think that last season I was a bit burned out on figure skating, after my marvelous experience at Nationals in 2007. One of my personal goals is to make back to the Nationals in 2010, when it's back in Spokane, one month before the Olympics.

It looks like I'm going to have to depend upon MySpace if I'm to get serious about following the Grand Prix series. It looks like the only GP event that's going to be television here in the US this season is Skate America on NBC, and they're only showing the ladies long program on Friday afternoon. My plan is to tape it, and hope that the other events make it on YouTube. I'm certain that Skate Canada next weekend will be downloaded there. I just wish that the CBC put figure skating on the web, like so many US networks have their programs there.

The ISU have to really get it together and make a deal with NBC to broadcast international events, like they've already done in '09 for Worlds. Maybe they can do it with the money they're saving by using fewer judges. At least the situation in figure skating is better than the judging in gymnastics.

I watched a great deal of the Summer Olympics this year (it was just marvelous--Michael Phelps! Volleyball, all!), and I had to stop watching gymnastics because I was disgusted. Disgusted by the little Chinese girls who were obviously too young. Disgusted by the scoring system that I, as someone who knows little about gymnastics, found incomprehensible and unfair.

Figure skating has had many of the same challenges to overcome, but the sport has been able to so much better at revamping their scoring system. Sure, it's more complicated than the 6.0 system, but I don't think it's impossible to comprehend. Sure, there need to be some changes, and it's by no means perfect, but I don't think it shames the sport.

I haven't been here for a year, but that doesn't mean I lost my opinions! I'm looking forward to following the new season, even if it's going to be more difficult.

Blue's Clues is frustrating

2007-12-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

It looks like I'm turning into the children's TV expert on Wikipedia. First was The Wiggles' article, as I've stated here. Now my project is Blue's Clues.

I ran into that article early last summer, and saw that it was quite horrible. Then someone downgraded it from B-status (the third lowest) to "start," which is pretty bad and embarrassing. I suppose the problem lies in the fact that there aren't many parents of preschool-age children with the time to waste their time editing Wikipedia. Things are different with my situation--virtually unemployed with older kids who are developmentally young enough to watch these shows but old enough for school.

It's actually been interesting researching Blue's Clues, especially the way the producers used early childhood research to create the show. Everything was done for a reason, with research to back it up. I won't go into details here (I'll link it when I'm finished rewriting the article), but one of the reasons Blue's Clues has been so wildly successful is that it was able to tap into the way little kids think, learn, and watch television. The Wiggles' success is the music; BC's success is its structure and the way it present information. Very cool.

I say that BC is frustrating because of something I haven't been able to find, even after an entire morning of Google searches. When the show premiered in 1996, Nickelodeon showed the same episode for a week. When my seven-year old started watching it back in about 2001, they had ceased the practice, but resumed it shortly afterwards. At the current time, they show a different episode everyday.

There's all kinds of research out there that supports the effectiveness of repeating it daily, but I could find nothing (NOTHING!) about why they stopped the practice. I'm thinking about writing Nickelodeon about it; at the very least, I'm going to post the issue on BC's talk page.

More Wiggles Wikipedia

2007-11-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

The other interesting thing to note also has to do with The Wiggles. Currently, I'm re-writing their article's section about the group's "other characters" (Capt. Feathersword, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog), and while doing a Google search on Henry and Jeff Fatt, who does his voice, I found a very interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald, written back in 2002, about the tenuous and difficult relationship the boys have had with the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

It seems that The Wiggles' first two TV series (not seasons; this is Australian TV, you know) were self-produced because the ABC refused to let them "be themselves" on their TV program. If the ABC had its way, they would've had to wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts (with Anthony Field's two large tattoos, that would've been an issue) and not speak while on camera. By 2002, though, they had worked out their differences and the ABC produced their subsequent series.

I'm not so sure that's a good thing. I wish that the Disney Channel broadcast The Wiggles' early shows. I remember groaning at it when I first saw it, but eventually it grew on me. It was so raw, so under-produced--unlike the over-produced kiddie TV shows here in America. The ABC series are obviously well-produced, and I think the show has lost some of its spirit and innocence as a result.

It's interesting, though, that not all was as smooth and golden for The Wiggles as they'd want us all to think.

Wikipedia update

2007-11-27T13:55:00.000-08:00

In order to increase the traffic here, I've decided to share what I learn during my Wikipedia edits, since that has captured most of my attention these days.

One of my major goals is to improve The Wiggles article. I believe that it's been greatly improved, mostly by my efforts, since I got a hold of it this fall. In the last few days, another editor submitted another Wiggles article for deletion--a silly thing called "Le Wiggles." So did anyone else know that The Wiggles have been franchised to France? I follow The Wiggles in the media through my Google alert on 'em, and I didn't even know it!

So it was, most likely, a hoax, and when I voted for deletion, I stated that. The end result was that it was deleted, and the administrator who submitted it in the first place called me "the primary editor/reviewer of the Wiggles pages." Now how cool is that? I'm actually getting recognition for the work I'm doing on it!

I take credit

2007-11-26T13:24:00.000-08:00

I take credit for Johnny Weir's success of late.

Last year, at this time, I stated that I thought that Johnny had lost his way. He had announced that he was "changing his image" to become more "masculine" (and I say again, whatever that means). His programs were more "stark" and his costumes less expressive. He was undertrained and busy doing other things. It was my opinion that he was trying to be less than himself, and he suffered for it. He lost the National championships to Evan Lysacek and struggled throughout the season.

This season, though, he's come back. He won gold at both Grand Prix events he entered. At Cup of China, he beat his personal best in both his long program and combined scores. At Cup of Russia, he was only .34 points behind Stephan Lambiel after his short program (also his personal best).

He's better trained this year, and from my perspective, he's returned to his former greatness. His programs are fluid and beautiful again. He's changed coaches--the great Galina Zmievskaya, who also coached his idol Oksana Baiul. Personally, I think that was a good move because it parallels his love of Russia and the Russian language. (She trains him in Russian.) I also think that his previous coach simply gave him bad advice.

Evan Lysacek said, after losing the gold at Skate Canada, that if he had nailed his quad in his long program like he had in his short program, he would've won instead of Johnny. That's probably true. I think that due to Evan's commitment to the quad, he'll suffer for it in the short term. Evan believes that the quad is crucial for success in the coming years, especially at the Olympics in 2010. I agree--if Johnny is to continue this success, he's gonna have to gain the quad. What's impressive is that at the current time, without the quad, his other elements are superior enough for him to earn high enough points to compete with the guys who have the quad.

At any rate, I loved how, during his interview at the end of Cup of China, he said, "I love making people eat their words." Well, I have one thing to say about that: Johnny, hear that noise? It's me, eating my words. And I'm very happy to do it. I'm pleased more than I can say about being wrong about you. Well, let me take that back. I maintain that I was right--you had a miserable season last year because you stepped away from who you are. It looks like you listened to me, and went back to being true to yourself. Thank you for taking my advice.

Even Johnny's haircut shows that he took my advice:

So here's my prediction about this season, and I'm sure that I'll be right again. Johnny Weir will regain his National title.

The problem

2007-11-14T22:01:00.000-08:00

Tonight I've been preparing for my Skate Canada write-ups. These days, how I've been doing that is viewing the performances missing from the American broadcasts on YouTube, and then reading news articles. I'm also beginning my edits from the SC broadcast on ESPN over the weekend, and it's given some things to think about.

I'm deeply disappointed in NBC's broadcast of Skate America two weeks ago; it differed very little from the sub par broadcasts on ABC. Both networks show individual performances, probably a result of our celebrity-crazed American culture. One of the ways that attending the Nationals last year spoiled me was it was the first time that I saw an entire skating competition. As a result, I was able to see it as a whole, with connecting issues and themes.

I believe that may be why the American broadcasts are so dissatisfying. There are two examples of this that I can think of off the top of my head. The first happened last season, at the 2006 Skate Canada. Stephan Lambiel came from seventh after his short program to win the gold. He had taken off his costume because he wasn't expecting to have to stand on the medals podium and had to rush out of the stands to change.

Of course, that wasn't something that I learned from the ESPN broadcast; it was from the Canadian broadcast shown on YouTube.

The other example is something that happened at this year's Skate Canada. ESPN failed to broadcast any of the Dance performances, and as a result, I didn't know about Gregory and Petukhov's fall during the warm-up for the free dance. I had to find out about it on YouTube as well. ESPN didn't broadcast it, so it's as if it didn't happen.

The ironic thing is that watching figure skating on YouTube, which presents short, individual performances, gives one a more complete picture of what happens in the competitions. And most of the time, they're aren't even in a language I comprehend.

I've come to the conclusion that one of the problems with how figure skating is broadcast in the U.S. has to do with the disjointed way the competitions are presented. They don't tell the viewers the story of the competitions. They focus on each performance and on each skater. That's most evident in those silly "fluff pieces" on ABC.

I was hoping that NBC would do a better job, but from their broadcast of Skate America, it doesn't look like it will. I'll withhold complete judgment until after the Nationals. In the meantime, it looks like I'm going to have to depend more on YouTube to get a more complete picture of figure skating competitions.

Kimmie Meissner - LP

2007-11-13T20:52:00.000-08:00

Kimmie Meissner, from the U.S., performs her long program at Skate America. To her surprise, she wins the gold.

Miki Ando

2007-11-12T22:27:00.000-08:00

Reigning world champion Miki Ando, from Japan, skates her long program at Skate America. She wins the free skate, but earns the silver.

Caroline Zhang

2007-11-12T21:19:00.000-08:00

Caroline Zhang from the U.S., making her Grand Prix debut, skates her exquisite long program at Skate America. Music: "Ave Maria."

Scott Hamilton: "It's just wonderful to witness the impossible."

Mai Asada

2007-11-12T16:09:00.000-08:00

Japan's Mai Asada performs her long program at Skate America.

Emily Hughes

2007-11-12T12:46:00.000-08:00

American Emily Hughes' long program at Skate America. She came in fourth.

Mira Leung - LP

2007-11-12T12:17:00.000-08:00

Mira Leung from Canada performs her long program at Skate America. She came in fifth place.

Daisuke Tagahashi

2007-11-10T15:38:00.000-08:00

Takahashi's marvelous short program (so early in the season!) at Skate America 2007.

Takahashi's long program at Skate America. He ended up winning the gold.

Evan Lysacek

2007-11-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

Evan Lysacek comes from behind to win the free skate at Skate America, but it's only enough to win the silver medal.

Patrick Chan

2007-11-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

Canadian Patrick Chan performs his long program at Skate America. He won the bronze medal.

Stephen Carriere

2007-11-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

Stephen Carriere of the U.S. skates his long program at Skate America 2007. He came in fourth overall.

Skate America videos

2007-11-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

It looks like U.S. Figure Skating has gone after YouTube. The videos that were downloaded of Skate America have been taken down due to copyright reasons. What's up with that? I suspect they want to protect icenetwork.com, even though the videos that were downloaded the days following the event were from TV broadcasts from other countries. That makes no sense to me at all. Why would they go after foreign broadcasts that were free to begin with, anyway? And I was seriously considering subscribing to both icenetwork and to USFS' magazine. Not anymore.

I'm going to download the videos I made from the NBC broadcast here. If anyone's reading this and needs a home for their videos, please contact me and I'll put them here. Let's see how long it takes for USFS to come after me!

At least the ABC broadcast of Skate Canada is this weekend. Those videos will definately go on YouTube.

My favorite CD

2007-11-05T12:11:00.000-08:00

I'm in for another slow week, while transitioning to my new agency. So I have lots of time on my hands this week.

This morning I've been working on some Wikipedia edits and listening to some of my CDs in Napster. One of those CDs is probably my all-time favorite, "Two Rooms," which is a tribute album for Elton John and Bernie Taupin. It has some great covers by artists like Sting, Eric Clapton, and Joe Cocker. It's not a perfect CD by any means; The Beach Boys' version of "Crocodile Rock" is disappointing, even though the song was originally an homage to them, and I hate George Michael's version of "Tonight" enough that I usually skip over it. (Then again, I don't care much for anything he does.)

My sense of aptness and irony is satisfied with this album: The Who does a version of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting." They say in the liner notes (which alone are worth the price of the CD) that they're happy that they could "take back" one of their songs. So true!

This CD also has the best cover of any song by any artist, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," by Oleta Adams. Now, this also happens to be my favorite Elton John song, but this version is one of the few covers that's even better than the original. Her voice better fits the gospel quality of the song as written, and it's a superior arrangement.

A stupid quiz

2007-11-05T11:33:00.001-08:00

I usually don't take those internet quizzes; they tend to be quite dumb. This quiz, however, was quite fun. And it totally nailed me!

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Enterprise D (Star Trek)

You have high ideals and know in your heart that humanity will continue to evolve in a better people. No matter what may happen, you have faith in human beings. A rare quality. Now if only the Borg would quit assimilating people.

Enterprise D (Star Trek)

94%

Serenity (Firefly)

88%

Moya (Farscape)

88%

Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

75%

Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)

75%

SG-1 (Stargate)

69%

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

69%

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)

69%

FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)

56%

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)

56%

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)

56%

Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)

56%

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)

25%

New Season!

2007-11-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

Yippee! The senior season of figure skating started this weekend! And of course, after a summer of boredom, this is the busiest week I've had in months, so I'm behind in my write-ups. I have written, though, an article about the women's' competition, and I'll post it tonight. (I'm also sending it to Ron Porter, the administrator of Emily Hughes' website.) I hope to have YouTube videos of the NBC broadcast up this weekend.

Speaking of NBC, I was somewhat disappointed with their broadcast of Skate America this weekend. On the one hand, their coverage was more extensive, but they only showed the long programs of the men and women. Consequently, I went to YouTube to supplement what I missed. It seems odd to me that in spite of it being an American competition, there was more shown on foreign broadcasts. NBC has promised to broadcast more of the Nationals in January, however.

I did think the commentary was better than ABC's, though. Scott Hamilton--need I say more! I missed Terry Gannon, though--as the "non-skater," he's obviously more experienced and knowledgeable about skating than Tom Hammond, even though Hammond has announced for the Olympics.

Emily's Misery?

2007-11-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

Skate America 2007

What is it with the press, anyway?

I recognize that’s a silly question. My friend Mark Shea, who runs a highly successful blog on Catholicism and politics, says that anytime the media reports about religion, you have to deduct ten IQ points. I’ve come to the conclusion that you can say the same thing about figure skating.

For example, I was a bit disappointed in The Baltimore Sun’s Candis Thomson and her reports on Skate America, since figure skating is her regular beat. The only explanation I have for her sub par writing was an over-enthusiastic editor. For example, in the middle of her article, seemingly out of nowhere, she writes:

Emily Hughes’ misery continued. After scoring the second-worst technical marks in the short program, the U.S. silver medalist had a gruesome practice marked by frequent looks of disgust and resignation. Just before the start of her long program, Hughes, 18, missed a high-five with her coach and then missed scoring points with the judges in subpar program skated to “Carmina Burana.” Even after all that, she finished fourth.

Thomson makes the assertion that Hughes had missed points right after quoting Pam Gregory, Kimmie Meissner’s coach, regarding the judges’ “crack-down” on the scores skaters earned. All skaters suffered from this, which Gregory stated was something the ISU had warned them about since last summer. All eleven women who competed at this competition were downgraded for “cheating on their jumps” (i.e., taking off on the wrong skate edge or under-rotating).

It seems that Thomson longs for the horrible days of the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan scandal. For example, when comparing Hughes’ and Meissner’s coaching and educational choices in her pre-Skate America article, she tries to conjure up a “rivalry” between Hughes and Meissner: “Not the intensity of Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding or Tara Lipinski-Michelle Kwan, but a rivalry that has included near-collisions in practice and small program tweaks that indicate each athlete is thinking about the other. Not that they'll discuss it.”

I’m sure it makes Emily wish for the days when she was compared to her Olympic gold-winning sister Sarah. While it’s true that Hughes has struggled a great deal since becoming a senior, much of her difficulty is bad timing. Both Hughes and Meissner represent that last vestiges of the old scoring system, and Hughes’ success has been hampered a great deal because of it.

Thomson has a point: it must have been difficult for Hughes, losing the U.S. Championships last year by such a slim margin (.82 of a point). And their scores have been so close between the two in other competitions that Hughes falls behind Meissner consistently, often making a bronze or even fourth place, as she did at Skate America. All Meissner has to be is a hair better than Hughes, and because she is, she wins more often than Hughes.

References:
Thomson, Candis. (October 28, 2007). It’s Emily Hughes vs. Meissner at Skate America. http://www.amny.com/sports/olympics/ny-spemily1028,0,2672184.story?track=rss Baltimore Sun.

Thomson, Candis. (October 28, 2007). Meissner wins gold at Skate America: Bel Air native picks up first Grand Prix win http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/olympics/bal-skating1028,0,4178310.story Baltimore Sun.

Shea, Mark. Catholic and Enjoying It! http://markshea.blogspot.com/

October 17

2007-10-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was a child I've loved my birthday. I thought that October 17, 1964 was the coolest combination of numbers and letters. It made me a Libra, the scales, which although I had very little interest in astrology, was also cool. It's during my favorite time of the year, the fall.

October 17 as a birth date also doesn't have the trouble that my siblings had. My middle sister's birthday is December 26, which she hated. She never got a birthday party, and her gifts were second thoughts--an extra gift thrown under the Christmas tree, wrapped with Christmas paper.

My older brother's birthday, even though he was born a few weeks earlier in the first week of December, was still too close to the holidays. My husband, whose birthday is November 25, which often falls on Thanksgiving, always complained that while his siblings could choose their birthday dinner, he couldn't--it was always turkey and pumpkin pie for dessert, which he hated.

I always had a birthday party that was well-attended because it wasn't close to any other important holiday, and no one was "too busy" to help me celebrate. It wasn't in the summer, like my youngest brothers (the end of May and early June), and birthdays for kids are always better during the school year, since they get celebrated in the classroom. It was far enough from anyone else in my family (between my mom in August and the two December birthdays), so I didn't have to share it with anyone. It was my birthday, and my birthday alone.

How lucky was I to be born prematurely. The cool thing about that is that it made my brother and I "Irish twins," since we were born ten-and-a-half months apart. When I figured that out, when we were about seven years old, I went up to him and had a marvelous time taunting him about it: "I'm as old as you are, I'm as old as you are!" It was the one and only thing I could taunt him about.

I love my birthday.

They say it's your birthday...

2007-10-17T10:12:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday, so I thought I'd write a blog post. I can't believe that I've been doing this for a year now, on and off. These days, mostly off. I haven't been working much lately (but hopefully, that will change in the coming weeks), so I've been spending my time at Wikipedia. My recent projects there are a peer review of my pet article, The Wiggles, and getting #2 article in my heart, Maya Angelou, to the point where it's ready for a peer review.

My goal for both articles is get them to "good article" status, which is the highest rating on WP. If that happens, they could get "featured article" status, which means they're good enough to go on WP's main page. Wouldn't that be cool if that happens to an article I'm heavily associated with; I'd be so very proud of myself.

Editing WP is great fun. There's this cool community based around it, and I'm really enjoying learning about it. There are folks who are really into it, and who are intensely committed to creating quality articles. There are also a lot of people who spend a great time vandalizing articles, too. For example, this week the Maya Angelou article has been heavily vandalized. Scary stuff, too--cruel, disgusting, racist comments. I'd never say this on its talk page, since that isn't appropriate there, but it reminds me of the kind of racism Dr. Angelou talks about in her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It also reminds me of the rape she experienced when she was seven years old.

Hmm, maybe I will talk about it, at least to get it protected again...

Anyway, the next post will be thoughts about my birthday, which is what I intended this post to be about in the first place, but I distracted myself.

Kathy Griffin at the Emmys

2007-09-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

I've talked a great deal about Kathy Griffin, since I "discovered" her this summer, so I thought I'd finally go on the record about her "acceptance speech" at the Emmys last week. Plus, I expect she's appreciate me extending the issue longer.

If you hadn't heard, Kathy caused some controversy at the Emmys this year by taking the Lord's name in vain. Below is the first part of her interview on Larry King for background. (The rest of the interview is also on YouTube.)

My take on the whole thing is that this kind of thing is true to Kathy's form. She did it for the publicity, since her schtick is getting press and attention at all costs. And it worked, at least for about a week and a half.

As I've said previously, I like Kathy because she "gets" our culture's obsession with celebrity. Her whole D-List career is based upon it. She calls out the celebrities who are famous for being famous, and those whose behavior is ridiculous and over the top. That's something we need, and it's often hilariously funny. This is simply what she was doing at the Emmys--satitizing the tendency for many award-winners to thank Jesus. As Robin Williams said in his appearance in "Inside the Actor's Studio," you don't ever hear them thanking Vishnu. That was Kathy's point.

At the same time, though, I wish Kathy would've at least mentioned her father at one point in the midst of all this controversy, since I suspect that it was the depiction of his death in her show that won her the Emmy. She should've at least credited him for it. I suspect, though, that he wouldn't have wanted her to do it, anyway.

So congratulations, Kathy--you deserve the Emmy and your descent (choice of word intentional) out of the D-List!

Ice Network

2007-09-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

So I've been watching the Junior Grand Prix (Lake Placid) this afternoon on Ice Network.

Ice Network is a good way to watch figure skating. They show a great deal more than ABC, and without it, Americans wouldn't be exposed to the junior skaters. The first time I watched a junior competition was at last year's Nationals. I went there with low expectations, but was surprised at the high caliber of skating, even at that level. I decided that this season, I'd follow the juniors more closely.

First Impressions
This afternoon, I'm watching the Free Dance. Americans Samuelson and Bates is the team to watch. Last year, at Junior Worlds, he ran over her hand with his skate. At this competition, they were ten points ahead after the OD, and won easily at Lake Placid.

The commentators for Ice Network are horrible. Mike Mancuso is wooden and obviously knows very little about figure skating. It's sad when someone like me thinks she can do better than someone hired to do commentating. I've never liked Nancy Kerrigan, even during the whole Tonya Harding scandal.

I suppose it's better than nothing. The skating is enjoyable, though.

Note

2007-09-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

After a summer of blogging over at MySpace, I've realized that being over there hasn't made all that big a difference, so I decided to return to Blogger. I will, however, copy my blogs there, so I can retain the few readers I gained over the summer. Few being the operative word, of course.

Work has been slow this summer, so I filled my time by editing Wikipedia. Loads of fun, I found! See the side panel for my userpage over there. I'm also in the process of re-reading the Anne of Green Gables series, something I do every few years. I'll probably write a post about it when I'm finished. (I just finished the sixth; there are two more.)

I want to get back into the habit of blogging more often, since the figure skating season is about to begin. The Junior Grand Prix has already begun, and I've started watching some of it on IceNetwork. More about that later, as well.

Whew!

2007-06-19T14:53:00.001-07:00

I did it, it's done!

I've just completed moving my posts over to my MySpace page, because I've been frustrated with Blogger, both technically and due to the lack of numbers that have found me here. So I figured that if I moved to a more popular space, I'd gain more readers. That logic could very well be faulty, but what the heck. (MySpace isn't perfect technically either, of course.)

So the few readers I have, get yourselves over there! And thanks for your support. Here's hoping that you can someday say that you were my inaugural readers, when I become a famous figure skating writer.

My friend Dan'l

2007-06-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

I'm moving this blog over to MySpace, in the hopes that more folks will read me over there. I'm in the process of moving all my posts over there--perhaps a waste of time, but oh well--and I happened upon a comment my good friend Dan'l made way back in October.

I have one thing to say about that, since both Dan'l and Mark are friends: Ouch! Oh, and how much I love both guys. Big guys with even bigger hearts, just the type of men I love the best. The world needs more of both of 'em.

Man, I hate it when I'm wrong

2007-06-09T21:52:00.001-07:00

Last week I posted that I was looking forward to the upcoming (07-08) figure skating season because it was expected that many of the skaters that had taken last season off would return. It looks like everyone I had listed is not coming back, after all.

This article lists the entries to the Grand Prix series. Sasha Cohen and Eveny Plushenko aren't on the list. Then my one and only reader anonymous wrote this in my combox:

Irina is pregnant with her first child. She withdrew from COI [Champions on Ice] this summer because of it. It was posted on the site at one point. So, there is a possibility that she might compete during the 2007-2008 season, but I kinda doubt it.

I went and did research about this, and sure enough, it seems to be accurate. I found a couple of articles, but I'll direct you to this one. It's even been reported on her Wikipedia page. I'm very happy for Irina, especially in light of her health struggles the past several years. I wish her the best, but I'm inclined to agree with anonymous.

In other drop-out news, Canada's Emanuel Sandhu has requested to be dropped from the Grand Prix.

Kathy Griffin

2007-06-06T22:18:00.000-07:00

I am so into Kathy Griffin these days. If I were a lesbian or a 13 year-old girl, I'd be so stalking her! If I were a comedian, I'd wanna be her, except for her potty-mouth, of course.

To be serious, though, I think the reason I enjoy her so much is that she gets the craziness in our culture these days about celebrity. I think I also like D-List celebs best anyway. They're less pretentious, work hard, and are often tons more talented. Figure skaters are all D-listers, and much more worthy of admiration, in my opinion. I love that Kathy relentlessly makes fun of the famous, and that she takes no prisoners.

I love her reality show on Bravo. Her parents are a hoot! I watched the first episode of "Life on the D-List" tonight, and it was probably the best TV I've seen all week. She actually made me teary-eyed twice--when she talked about her divorce and when she performed at Carnegie Hall. I love TV that makes me laugh and cry, all in the same hour.

So Kathy has my vote to replace Rosie O'Donnell on The View!

Studio 60 and Cultural References

2007-06-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

I was actually disappointed when NBC pulled Studio 60, so I'm happy that they're showing the already-produced episodes this summer. It's still cancelled, though.

I have to make a comment about the episode they aired two weeks ago, "The Disaster Show." I quote from the Wikipedia article on Studio 60:

- The West Wing evidently exists in the Studio 60 universe. Allison Janney appears as guest host in "The Disaster Show" and several characters reference her role on The West Wing.
- At the top of "The Disaster Show," the camera follows a PA holding a flower arrangement with a flamingo centerpiece. Later, a large lawn flamingo can be seen in Allison Janney's dressing room, and during the commercial breaks a graphic of Janney and two flamingos appears on the screens. On The West Wing, Janney's character's secret service code name was "flamingo."

I would add something else to the above list. Timothy Busfield plays Cal, the director of the show Studio 60; he also played Danny, a reporter on The West Wing who ends up with CJ, Allison Janney's character, by the time that show ends. It seems that there's at least a flirtatious nature to their relationship on Studio 60. (He kisses her on the cheek at one point.)

That brings up my point: if Allison Janney and The West Wing exists in the Studio 60 universe, Timothy Busfield must as well. Busfield must look an awful lot like this director fellow. If the show continued, I think it'd be interesting if they had Busfield appear on Studio 60 and do a green-screen with Busfield as Busfield and Busfield as Cal. Shoot, they could do the same with Bradley Whitford.

The overarching theme here, I suppose, is that I really like it when shows make references to other shows. They're in-jokes, and for me, fun. According to the Wikipedia article, Studio 60 did that often, with references and in-jokes to both The West Wing and Sports Night (a show I never saw, but also made by Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme).

Another show that does this well is the above-mentioned Stargate SG-1, especially with the addition of Ben Browder in its last two seasons. Browder's character, Cameron Mitchell, makes cultural references all the time, as did John Crichton, his character in Farscape. One of the most endearing and fun things about Crichton is that he continually makes American cultural references in the presence of these aliens he interacts with, sometimes dozens in an episode. One episode in particular in the third season is an entire cultural reference--a Chuck Jones cartoon.

When Crichton makes these references, the other characters, especially early in the series, react by going, "Huh? What are you talking about?" Often they're pissed and annoyed. By the end of the series, though, his friends either ignore him, get his meaning by context, or understand because they've learned enough about his culture. When Mitchell in SG-1 does the same thing, I think it's a nod to Farscape fans--an in-joke.

In a recent episode of SG-1, "Bad Guys," the above dynamics also occur, between Mitchell, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c. Mitchell has captured a security guard and explains over the radio to Daniel that the guard "went all John McClane on us." Daniel goes, "Huh?" and Teal'c crosses in front on him and says, "Die Hard." So it was the alien who had to explain the cultural reference to someone from our society. It's true, though, that Daniel, being a geek, may not necessarily get the reference, and that Teal'c might have, since he's probably extensively studied Western/American culture.

Stargate SG-1

2007-06-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

So far, this week about the TV season has ended, I've already found a couple of shows to follow in the summer.

Stargate SG-1
My husband loves science fiction. It makes up for the majority of his reading, and I've always said that if it's got a ship in it, he's there. So he's watched Stargate SG-1 for all of the ten years it's been on. I've only been really paying attention to it in the last two seasons because I'm a big Ben Browder fan. (Man, I still miss Farscape!) See, I actually saw the original Stargate movie, and I hated it. I couldn't get past that hatred (I still believe it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen, as much as I love James Spader) to allow myself to get into the TV show. I regret that now, I really do.

So SG-1 is going off the air this year, so I decided, as I often do when a show goes off the air, to catch up with it. (I did it with Friends the year it ended.) I've been enjoying it, but I'm a little peeved at Sci-Fi Channel for not airing them in order! Fortunately, though, I'm familiar enough with the SG universe that it isn't a huge disability, and I'm sure that I'll catch what I've missed later on.

I like the themes of the show, and I like the relationships. These two things are really what make great SF great. So I'll probably talk about it in the coming months.

Post-Season Blogging

2007-06-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, the figure skating season is over, as is the television season. I love summer, and there's always plenty to do and watch. For example, this morning, we drove to Lewiston (about a 30-minute drive) with the kids for a horse-riding faire for people with disabilities. We got to watch the kids ride horses twice--very cute!

It wasn't the first time George has riden a horse; he used to be in hippotherapy. It was Anna's first time, though. While watching George, I commented to their grandmother, "He's such a big boy, but looks so small." We think that Anna made a new friend in the gentleman who rode with her on her second ride. Knowing her, she probably was singing about horses and neighing the whole time. I wanted to tell the guy, "You don't get to keep her; she's ours!" It was very fun.

So school is out on Wednesday, and the summer schedule begins. Both kids will be in summer school, and our local pool is open starting next Friday, so they'll be there everyday. It's a very fun place, and both kids are such waterrats.

As far as TV goes, I said when I started this blog that I also wanted to talk about "media." Figure skating kinda got in the way of that, as it should have, so now I should have the time. I'm looking forward to the 2007-2008 season--some of the skaters who took this post-Olympics season should be back, like Sasha Cohen, Irina Slutskaya, and Evgeni Plushenko.

So I will try and blog nightly and report on my media musings until the start of 07-08 season in October.

"Fallen Angels"

2007-05-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to viewing the Marshall's showcase, the final event in U.S. Figure Skating, a few days ago. Below is the YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqT6noqBUng

I think this program is my favorite of this season. I hope they do it again. It's just beautiful. One of the best things I like about it is that it kinda proves the point I've been trying to make all season about Johnny Weir.

For Johnny, this program shows off what he does best--the lyrical, liquid gold. I think that instead of trying to "change his image," he should stick to this kind of thing. Denis Petukhov choreographed it; I think that he should choreograph more programs for Johnny. I've gone on the record to say that part of the reason for Johnny's lack of relative success this season is his departure from who he is, and what he does best. It's my hope that this beautiful program is an indication that he's learned his lesson and goes back to staying true to himself.

A Sad Few Days

2007-05-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

I've lived in Moscow, Idaho for almost four years now. I've come to love this little town that has been struck with such unimaginable tragedy over the weekend.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=9959

You'd think that living in a little town like Moscow would isolate you from this kind of violence, but it really doesn't. Please pray for the residents of this place that's become so dear to me, as well as the victims' family, the officers of the Moscow Police Department, and everyone involved. I suppose I'm still in shock, since I'm finding the words hard to come by, which is pretty unusual for me.

Women’s Free Skate, Worlds 2007

2007-05-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

It seemed that nerves got the best of some of the female skaters at the World’s championships, while others were able to rise to the occasion.

Kimmie Meissner, for example, was in third after her short program, and in spite of being the defending gold medalist and having less pressure than the Asian women, wasn’t able to shake off her nerves. Of course, it didn’t help skating immediately after Mao Asada, who came from behind after a short program affected by her nerves to make her personal best and win the free skate.

“It was tough tonight,” admitted Meissner. “Mao skated before me and obviously did very well so that the crowd was really into it. It was very emotional and intense. I had to calm down myself, and I think it took me a jump to get into it.”

As Candus Thomson of the Baltimore Sun said about Meissner, her “performance at the World Figure Skating Championships looked a lot like her performance at the U.S Championships. Except for one major difference: she didn’t win here today.”

Like she did at Nationals, Meissner put her hand down on her opening jump and failed to do a triple-triple combination. She was also downgraded for cheating the landing of the second jump of her triple flip-triple toeloop combo. She was able to complete six clean jumps and her footwork was excellent, but it unfortunately wasn’t enough. It was the first time since 1994 that no American woman won a medal at Worlds.

“It was not my best; I can do better,” Meissner admitted. “So I’ll regroup and come back strong next year.”

Yu-Na Kim’s long program was the most disappointing, especially after she earned the highest-ever score for a short program earlier in the week. She came into the long program the favorite to win Korea’s first gold medal at Worlds. Her nerves and chronic back pain seemed to get in the way, though. Two minutes into her free skate, it appeared that Kim would fulfill all expectations, but she fell on the first jump of an intended three-jump combo, fell a second time, and had another combo ruled scoreless.

“I didn’t really feel any pain in my back,” she reported. “But my legs felt heavy and so I was unable to perform well and I wasn’t as confident in my jumps.”

The biggest comeback at Worlds was Canadian champ Joannie Rochette. She skated a dismal short program, putting her way back in 16th place. Canada needed two berths for next year’s Worlds, though, and she was able to deliver for her home country. She rallied and her long program was the fifth-best.

“I was disappointed [in my short program] so I wanted to come back and fight for it and try to keep those two spots,” Rochette said. “I knew I needed a top-12 finish. It was really hard to stay focused and I tried to give it my all.”

Mao Asada won the free skate, but narrowly missed the gold medal, probably because of her disappointing short program. Her home audience was completely behind her; by the time she ended her free skate, they were on their feet. She was able to overcome the nerves that had hassled her previously and she earned her personal best, winning the silver medal.

“I am very happy,” said Asada. “Before the program, I was in the 5th place after the short program, so I really wanted to win a medal of any color. I am very satisfied with my performance. The crowd was very nice. I was very impressed by myself. I love skating at home!”

Asada’s teammate Miki Ando came back in more ways than one. The first woman to land a quad salchow, Ando was attacked in Japan after a poor showing at the Olympics. After finishing 15th in Turin, she re-hired her previous coach, Yuko Monna, and moved to New Jersey to work on her choreography and jumps.

At Worlds, though, she had practiced her acclaimed quad and even made it a few times during the practice sessions earlier in the week, but chose to play it conservative and “only” do a triple salchow, her opening jump. When she ended her marvelous performance to the roar of the crowd, Ando knew that she had won a medal, but didn’t know if it would be enough to win the gold. She posted a personal best. She was second in the free skate, but edged out Mao Asada by a mere 0.64 points.

“After the Turin Games I had such a hard time,” Ando said, tears running down her face. “I came back strong.”

Sources:
Associated Press. Ando Wins Women’s Title. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032401047.html

Canadian Press. Rochette 10th at figure skating worlds. http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/195716

ISU World Figure Skating Championships: Tokyo (JPN) Day 5. http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/content/news/0,10869,4844-131973-133281-18886-268081-news-item,00.html
Kaye, R. 2007 World Figure Skating Championships: Ladies’ Free Skate Highlights. http://goldenskate.com/articles/2006/032507_ll.shtml

Thomson, C. Meissner comes up short in world championships. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-skating0324,0,80130.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Pairs Free Skate, Worlds 2007

2007-05-14T13:09:00.000-07:00

Instead of writing an "article" on the pairs free skate, I'm going to give some "random" musings about it. Why? At this late date, I was only able to find two articles about this part of the competition, and my thoughts aren't organized enough for something more formal.

The articles mentioned above do an adequate job at reporting what happened. Here they are:
ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2007 - Day 2. http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/content/news/0,10869,4844-131973-133281-18886-268020-news-item,00.html

Kaye, R. 2007 World Figure Skating Championships: Pairs' Free Skate Highlights. http://goldenskate.com/articles/2006/032207_pl.shtml

One of the things I love about figure skating is its bittersweet nature. As a fan, I experience happiness and sadness, often to their extremes. The highs are high and the lows are low. That seemed to be the case for the pairs free skate at Worlds.

For example, two couples had to bow out at the competition due to injury, and they were due to retire after this season. Petrova and Tikhonov of Russia had to withdraw before the long program after Tikhonov injured his right leg during practice. And the inspirational Dorota Siudek and Mariusz Siudek from Poland had to withdraw after Mariusz re-injured his back. What a sad way to end a career, especially for the Siudeks. Plus, it made the field a bit tougher for the Russians, who failed to medal in any of the disciplines, something that hasn't happened since 1960.

A highlight of this competition was the gold-winning performance of China's Shen and Zhao. Their skate was flawless. They personified another reason I adore this sport so much--they were able to transport me somewhere else as I watched them. They were emotional as well--hugging and kissing as they ended their program and Zhao touching the ice as they left it "to thank the ice in Tokyo." They earned their standing ovation, and the gold as well.

It was great to see my favorite program (of all the disciplines) of the season one last time: Germans Savchenko and Szolkowy's long program. It unfortunately wasn't their best free skate of the season, but it was good enough to earn them a bronze here. I've talked about this program before--it's choreographed to one of my favorite pieces of music; the costumes fit the choreography and their personalities; it's almost an ice dance. Great stuff.

One final comment before I close and go work on my final Worlds article. Dick Button, in his commentary on Pang and Tong, called Qing Pang "frail." For the life of me, I don't understand that comment. If I were to ever meet Mr. Button, I would like to ask him about it. I wonder, though, if he says it because of her fall at the Olympics, in which she fell after attempting a throw quadruple Salchow and had to stop for several minutes. Please, how is that "frail"? The only other explanation I have is Qing's appearance. It's true that she doesn't look as muscular as other female skaters, but anyone who can get through a five-minute skating routine has to be somewhat robust!

Women’s Short Program, Worlds 2007

2007-05-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

It was the “battle of the teenage jumpers.”

Many of the female figure skaters who competed at the Worlds championships in Tokyo this year were under the age of twenty. The reigning World champ, American Kimmie Meissner, is just sixteen, as is Korea’s Yu-Na Kim and Japan’s Mao Asada. Both Kim and Asada were too young to compete at last year’s Olympics and Worlds. Much has been made this year of Asada’s ineligibility, but most of the press has seemed to forgotten that Meissner also experienced the same thing the year before, when she was too young to be eligible for Worlds in 2005.

The difference, however, is that Meissner is participating in a sport that many are saying is in a decline in her home country, while figure skating in Japan has never been more popular. Even Meissner recognized that although there was a great deal of pressure on her as the defending champion, the real pressure was on the Japanese skaters, with their massive and highly critical press and enthusiastic fans.

The pressure was so great on Mao Asada after her ineligibility last year that she moved to Lake Arrowhead, Calif. to train. There has been a great deal of discussion about the fairness of the international rules regarding skaters’ age limit, but Asada’s short program at the 2007 World championships seemed to give support to the wisdom of the limitations on young skaters. Asada started off well with a triple Lutz, but then crumbled under the pressure and popped the second jump of her planned triple flip-triple loop combo into a single jump. She lost eight points on that one move alone.

“I didn’t feel that nervous. I knew I had to do my best,” Asada said. “When I finished I thought, ‘I failed.’”

The big story thus far at this competition was Yu-Na Kim, who has become Asada’s biggest rival. The Korean, who bowed out of her own Nationals due to a herniated disc in her back, had just come out of a month of intense training (with her coach, Canadian great Brian Orser) and acupuncture treatment. Kim arrived in Tokyo still in pain, but had improved by the time she skated her short program. “Today during the performance I felt no pain, so I was feeling better and was able to skate in a very confident manner,” she said.

Kim put out a dazzling performance of her short program. She made a triple flip-triple toeloop combo, a triple Lutz, and a level-four combination and layback spins. She had just one shaky moment, in her spiral sequence, but earned another level four anyway. When her marks came up, Kim reported that she could hardly believe them.

“I was surprised with such a high score. I made a small mistake on the spiral sequence, but I’m happy that I had a good score," she said. The end result was amazing: not only did she post a personal best (71.95 points), she set a new record in the short program, beating Sasha Cohen’s score (71.12) back in 2003.

Miki Ando, the only female skater to execute a quad salchow, has been touted as another of Asada’s rivals in the Japanese press. Her quad made history, but it has also proven to be her undoing; she tried one at the Turin Olympics, but fell and missed most of her remaining jumps. She finished in a disappointing 15th. Although Ando hasn’t successfully made a quad for three years, she was able to make a quad during a practice session earlier in the week, however, putting her one the front page of Japan’s many sport papers.

She was coy about whether she would bring it out for the free skate. “I don’t want to make the same mistake as last year,” she told reporters.

Ando’s performance was exceptional enough to put her in second place after the short program. She nailed a triple Lutz-triple loop, a triple flip, a double Axel. She earned a level four for her spiral sequence and flying sit spin, but only a level two for her layback spin. Her 67.98 points slightly improved her previous personal best.

The other two notable teenagers in the short program, Americans Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes, seemed to falter. Hughes came in sixth, but was happy with her skate, which included a triple flip-double toeloop comb, a triple Lutz, and strong spins.

“The excitement in the arena helped a lot,” said Hughes, who skated after Kim and Ando.

Meissner came in fourth place after her short program. She landed a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combo, a triple flip, and a double Axel, but earned only a level one for her layback spin. “The short program is always nerve-racking for me,” Meissner said. “The long program is definitely my favorite, so I am looking forward to it.”

Sources:
Associated Press. S. Korean Soars to Big Lead At Worlds. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301566.html

Brennan, C. Once-Popular Figure Skating Losing Heat. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2007-01-24-brennan-figure-skating-popularity_x.htm

Figure skating: Asian debutantes raring to steal show at worlds.http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_sports/view/264724/1/.html

ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2007 Tokyo (JPN) Day 4.
http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/content/news/0,10869,4844-131973-133281-18886-268075-news-item,00.html

Thomson, C. Meissner skater to beat in Tokyo: Bel Air teen set to defend title at World Figure Skating Championships
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/olympics/bal-meissner0319,0,2842347.story?coll=bal-sports-olympics

Zanca, S. (Associated Press). South Korea's Kim leads World Figure Skating http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Mar/23/br/br4739568021.html

Worlds 2007 Free Dance

2007-04-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

It has happened at least one other time this season: at Skate Canada, to Stephane Lambiel. He was so certain that he wasn’t going to make the podium that he changed out of his costume, but made an amazing comeback (over 14 points after the short program) to win the gold at that event. A similar thing happened to Belbin and Agosto at Worlds.

(YouTube video chronicling Lambiel's rise at Skate Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja2sd5iecgI)

The U.S. ice dancing champs were so certain that their free dance wasn’t good enough to win a medal, they also changed their clothes and were ready to leave the building when they were called back for the awards ceremony. “I learned a lesson,” Tanith Belbin said. “Don't take anything for granted.”

“I guess we dodged a bullet on that one,” Ben Agosto said. “We’ve been working really hard on the program. We didn’t skate our best, but I guess we did it good enough.”

Belbin and Agosto had only been skating their free dance program, done to the soundtrack to the French film “Amelie,” for a little over two months, having introduced it for the first time at the U.S. championships in January. As a result, it still had some rough spots at Worlds. Belbin bobbled a twizzle and nearly bumped into Agosto. They also lost a point on a lift held longer than the rules stipulate.

"I can’t believe I missed my twizzle. I never do that,” Belbin said.

The judges must have thought Belbin and Agosto’s errors were minor, for they made up what they lost in their other elements: excellent choreography and high marks for their lifts and step sequences. It was close, however; they were a mere 0.25 points over the fourth-place finishers, French champs Isabelle Delobel and Oliver Schenfelder.

“We're happy with how we skated,” said Delobel. “We were beaten by the Americans. Oh well.”

By the competition’s end, it was an exact duplication of the podium at the Worlds championships last year in Calgary: the gold going to Denkova and Staviski of Bulgaria, the silver to Dubreuil and Lauzon of Canada, and the bronze of course to Belbin and Agosto.

2006 Worlds podium

2007

The Bulgarians were very proud of their performance, which was probably their last in competitive figure skating. “It is wonderful for us to be here and to have won the second gold medal," Denkova stated. "I never thought this is possible. We’ve fought for it since the beginning of the season, we fought every moment.”

Denkova also admitted that she didn’t understand why she and her partner won the gold medal last year, but felt more secure with their performance this year. “I feel happier than last year,” she added.

Albena and Maxim had previously stated their intentions to retire from competition, but resisted formally announcing it. “I want to have a rest. But she’s the president. I’m just a skater,” Staviski grinned, referring to the fact that his partner and wife was elected president of the Bulgarian Skating Federation last fall.

Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon exhibited the romance in their relationship with their long program, set to “At Last” by Etta James, took the silver again this year.

"Last year the worlds were in Canada,” Dubreuil said. “It added to the pressure. After the accident in Torino my body was not 100%, and to get back on that ice after Torino, it was overwhelming and was very hard to skate. We skated this competition very well with no pain and much less stress.”

The married couple were, disappointed that they lost the gold by such a close margin (barely one point). It didn’t mar their happiness at winning the silver, though. “We skated with a lot of love and joy,” said Dubreuil. “We just felt really free out there, which felt great.”

Sources:
Associated Press. Figure skating: Bulgarians’ intricate swirls win ice dance title.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/23/sports/skate.php

Free Press News Services. Belbin, Agosto capture bronze.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070324/SPORTS18/703240377/1048/SPORTS

ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2007 Tokyo (JPN) Day 4.
http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/content/news/0,10869,4844-131973-133281-18886-268075-news-item,00.html

Kaye, R. 2007 World Figure Skating Championships: Free Dance Highlights. http://goldenskate.com/articles/2006/032407_fd.shtml

A Good Thing

2007-04-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

This could be a good thing for figure skating.

U.S. Figure Skating agrees to three-year deal with NBC

Skating telecasts figure to change under NBC deal

I'll write more when I have more time. For now, I think it could be just what the doctor ordered.

Blades of Glory: My Review

2007-04-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was full of figure skating for me, a day I haven’t had since I immersed myself in the sport for eight glorious days in January at the Nationals. I put on my U.S. Figure Skating hoodie sweatshirt, watched some of Worlds, and edited a couple of videos for YouTube. Then I went to a matinee of the new Will Farrell movie, “Blades of Glory.”

Everyone else in the theatre was probably there for Will Farrell and the humor, but I was there for the figure skating. Most of the reviews I’ve read have focused on the humor and on the cast’s performances. “Blades of Glory” is a typical Farrell film, full of crotch and gross-out humor. Of course, not that there’s anything wrong with that, as they say. There’s a place for that, and Farrell is always there for it. I have to admit, that’s not my favorite kind of comedy, but I do laugh at it when I’m expecting it. So I laughed a lot at this movie.

Other reviews also have tended to compliment the rest of the cast, and I agree that they were exceptional. I have never seen “Napoleon Dynamite,” so I was impressed by Jon Heder. Amy Poehler and Will Arnett as the brother and sister pairs team who become Farrell and Heder’s nemesis are standouts. One of the funniest parts of the movie is a “chase scene” that starts with speed-skating on a frozen river to Farrell trying to escape Arnett through a lobby. The Entertainment Weekly guy calls it a “riotously clunky chase," and it’s an apt description.

Comedy wise, my other favorite scene was Will Farrell singing “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” into the phone while lying on the floor. There’s one thing that must be said about Farrell, and that he knows how to do comedy.

There have been other reviews about the homoerotic nature of the movie and about figure skating itself. This is definitely not a "pro-gay movie," but the movie makers don't care, so why should anyone else?

But as I said, I wasn’t really there for the comedy, or even for the social commentary; I was there for the figure skating. From previous reports, I had heard that the figure skating in this movie was quite good. I had also heard that many in the figure skating community had gotten behind this movie by appearing in cameos and by participating in the training of the actors. So I came to “Blades of Glory” with medium-to-high expectations.

I’m with the NY Times guy: I’m looking forward to the DVD coming out so I can see exactly how they filmed the figure skating routines. The actors came into their roles requiring a great deal of training to even look comfortable on the ice. Jon Heder said that he thought highly of himself when he was able to make a backward cross-over. Heder also broke an ankle, and almost ended the entire shoot, but he “made a miraculous recovery."

That story reminds me a lot of many stories we hear about actual figure skaters having an injury and coming back from them quickly. Both Heder and Ferrell talk about the respect for figure skaters they gained from making the movie, even though it was a parody and spoofed the sport. (There’s a good video at the MSN site called ‘Blades of Glory’ Inside Look: Training, about the training they went through; I highly recommend searching for it.)

Other reviews talk about the easy target figure skating is for spoof, and it is. Consider this:

Instead of honoring the sport, they poked fun at the sport. Sure, it was in good humor, but it still makes fun of it. And because of this angle, I have more respect for the sport now. When the figure skating stars let the jokes fly, it’s heartwarming because it shows that they aren’t so full of themselves. I don’t discount the athleticism needed to do a triple lutz, but do we really need all that spandex and glitter?

I would agree with that. With the music, and the costumes, and egos, there’s a lot to make fun of. I didn’t see “Blades of Glory” as disrespectful of the sport at all. The skaters who appeared in the movie certainly agreed. Ferrell was worried about their reaction, but he said that they embraced the movie.

So instead of denigrating the sport like many have assumed, “Blades of Glory” actually shows great respect for it. I can point to one sequence that I think supports my position. The two main characters, Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy get into a fight at a major competition, and as a result, get banned from figure skating for life. The panel making the decision consisted of William Daniels (of “St. Elsewhere”) and four real-life figure skaters: Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Brian Boitano, and Nancy Kerrigan.

These four represent the past four decades of great figure skaters. Sasha Cohen has a hilarious cameo at the very end of the movie. I see that as a nod to the great figure skaters of our era. I absolutely loved seeing the great Scott Hamilton as a commentator. His presence is fitting, since he can be funny in his skating as well. Some of the best lines of the entire movie belong to him. As Ferrell says, figure skaters know well the campy aspect of their sport. Quite frankly, as a figure skating fan, that’s one of things I love best about it.

For example, the first skating sequence is of McElroy skating a routine as a peacock. When I first saw it, I thought, “He’s being Johnny Weir!” Sure enough, John Heder has said that the inspiration for that costume was Weir’s swan costume from last season. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if his character were based upon Weir, probably one of the highest compliments anyone can pay him.

So in many, if not most, ways, “Blades of Glory,” like the sport it portrays, goes over the top. One reviewer said that this is probably the best figure skating movie ever made. (Which isn’t saying much, I know.) It won’t change the sport, unless it makes it more popular, which God knows we need right now, but it’s a nice diversion and loads of fun.