Hilary Booth... of course!

The new job is a job. My mother used to words "unchallenging". Not a good sign when my smart mouth wants to quote Missy in "Bring it On" -- "What about doing something that actually requires neurons?" I don't think that would be terribly popular. A lot of library tech work is just that, very basic day-to-day stuff, especially when you're moving/expanding/shifting a collection, existing or otherwise. If I had any good advice for people who want to work in libraries: infinite patience (in infinite possibilities), strong back, and good shoes. I'm grateful for the job, but lord is it going to be a long stretch until Columbus Day.

Security is a little tight, so sadly I haven't really enjoyed the nearby Ronald Reagan Building. I was however treated to a free concert at Woodrow Wilson Plaza. That was a weird twist on "name that tune" or as my mother and I used to call the game "But can you skate to that?" The performer was Chuck Brown, the so-called Godfather of Go-Go music, lots of loud heavy beats and rhythms combined with guitar and clarinet and maybe another instrument. They maxed out their decibels. They were performing a fairly bumping piece that had quite a few people swaying their hips. The melody was strangely familiar. I couldn't place it though. For a minute, I thought it was a classical music piece like "Bolero" or something like "Kismet". Then I closed my eyes and I could see Philippe Candeloro landing a jump at the end of a phrase. Yes, it was the "Love Theme" from the "Godfather". That I recognized it through skating and not from seeing the movie says something about me. Not sure what.

The laptop is still hosed. I tried replacing the a/c adapter and the connection is just too loose to hold. It's really frustrating. So I get to talk to tech support. This can only end in tears.

Sports Illustrated has opened a huge free archive of its articles and covers from 1958 down through the ages. Where was this years ago when I doing skating research?

For future reference: Sports Illustrated February 13, 1961 and the cover article "Mother Set the Style". Painful article on Laurence Owen, 1961 US figure skating champion. Laurence, her mother and sister and the rest of the US team were killed in a plane crash outside Brussels, Belgium on the way to the World championships. The crash wiped out a whole generation of US skaters, coaches, and officials.

It's April, but you wouldn't know it here. The temperatures have hovered in the 30s all day and we had a little dusting of snow over night. The poor Cherry Blossoms are probably glad they're almost done with their cycle. If they'd waited a few days, they'd have gotten frozen out.

I finally cleared off the World Figure Skating Championships off the dvr. They were held in Tokyo this year and true to form, it really was the Asians turn to shine. Representatives from that continent medaled in three separate disciplines. If they ever figure out ice dance, we're all in big trouble! The Japanese ladies are still skating great guns, even though my favorite Arakawa turned pro. All of them either have a triple axel or quad in their arsenal, but they've also acquired a nice bit of artistry too. There's even a South Korean girl Kim Yu Na in the ladies event who blew the field away in the short program. She's coached by Canadian Brian Orser and I hope they figure out her back problems, because she'll be fun to watch in the future. (She beat Sasha Cohen's old record, so I'm doubly pleased and impressed.) The Chinese still own the pairs event. This may be Shen & Zhao's last event and boy did they go out in style. Amazing to think how much they changed the sport. I still remember seeing them for the first time in Nagano and going "Wow!" over their tricks. Now I go "wow!" over their whole performance. I'm curious what effect Michelle Kwan's popularity and prominence had on the Asian skating boom, if any.

Feeling much better. The bug had mostly cleared up by Friday and today my stomach feels mostly normal, rather than plotting to overthrow the monarchy.

Congrats to our guys and the Canadian men in the Olympic curling event! Yes, we do rock! We even sweep up beforehand! (You should have heard the Minnesota crowd's cheer "Jeepers, creepers, where'd you get those sweepers..." You could really hear during the US-GBR match when they were the only match being played.)
olympicicons has a couple more curling icons within a larger post.

Also pleased Arakawa won her gold medal. Honestly, while watching the Grand Prix events this year, I said "Geez, the Japanese girls are skating like wildfire, I wouldn't be surprised if one won it all." I didn't expect to get that prediction right. The Japanese are not unlike the Canadians in that they're notorious for putting a lot of pressure on their skaters to perform well. Some of them hold up and others crumble. I had a feeling though, when "Olympic Ice" dissected the girls' practices and Arakawa was always mentioned as just going out and steadily getting it done. Sometimes the less showy approach does win.

Have I mentioned how much I loathe basketball? Especially games that run over and lose half the skating coverage? I do have to remember to add the fudge factor in the DVR. I never do and that's why I have the end of an NBA game instead of the dance final. *sighs*

I found my old Handspring PDA and have been trying to see if I can upload fic onto it. I can't find my old Wordsmith disk. Unfortunately the upgrade is for Palm OS 5, which is far beyond my paltry capabilities. I'll have to dig around and see what my other options are. neadods, don't you use your Palm for fic reading? Or have you switched to the Dana? What do you use?

ETA: Aha! I had the Handmark version of Wordsmith, so the upgrade was different. Now the file pops up. So I can read some of the longer fic now. All's right with the world. Except ESPN.

The job is going fine. A little mindless, but surprisingly soothing.

Sad news from the US Figure Skating championships. Angela Nikodinov was involved in a car crash with her parents and coach in Portland. Her mother was killed in the crash. Understandably Angela has withdrawn from the competition. This was supposed to be the year Angela returned after all the tragedy and injuries. She looked really good in the one Grand Prix event I saw her in. It's a real shame.

I really don't need "Your Song" stuck in my head. Thank you so much "Moulin Rouge".

I've been out of skating fandom officially for the better part of four years, since skatefans moved from the old udel server. I've occasionally posted on rssif, but I've never felt a regular again, and haven't wanted to. So I wrote a SOI review and guess who is now "Miss Popularity" with several sites for one skater? Not terribly surprised, actually, since skating fandom is almost as small a world as skating itself. So why am I so skittish? Why did I post the reviews in the first place if I didn't want people to see them? They'll have to use the links for now.

I mentioned my skating blog in my last post. I've gotten fed up with Blogger. And I quite frankly like the LJ interface better. normadesmond suggested I cut and paste the old entries and backdate them so I keep them all together. So I created yet another journal mad_season and have been slowly moving the old articles over. So if you add the journal to your friends list and you don't see anything showing for awhile, I'm still moving things around. I hope to continue updating the journal throughout the season now, although I'll lose my sidebar. Now to find a situable skating icon...