faeline

I've thought about what happened in the past week quite a fair bit. To me, Yuzu is a once in a lifetime kind of existence to FS, and it is this kind of existence that brings people into the sport, beyond those that are already following the sport. The success of Yuzu and the draw of his personality brings about an enormous commercial success to this otherwise niche sport, and to ISU or JSF, they are probably aware of this. At the same time, Yuzu is at the stage whereby he can (if he wants to) announce retirement from competitive FS anytime he wants without any damage to his personal commercial value, whereas such a move would very likely cause major financial issues to ISU and JSF. They are probably in a hurry to rebuild another "LEGENDARY" skater to retain this amount of commercial value within the sport itself. It is not as though they are blind to the fact that Yuzu himself is the reason that FS is enjoying unprecedented commercial success, but they probably HAVE to do something drastic to keep something going. If the Yuzu $$$ train is going to stop when he retires, they need to look elsewhere for a cash cow. JSF tries to hype up poor Shoma (who looks absolutely uncomfortable), and ISU tries to hype up Nathan. They are probably seeing some kind of success in pushing Nathan forward since the USA media is just lapping it up. It feels like they are trying to rehash Yuzu's history into building some kind of a formula to hype up skaters: 1) Young and terrifyingly good! (Yuzu wins OWG at age 19! Nathan wins WC at age 19!) 2) Studious! (Yuzu in Waseda! Nathan in Yale!) 3) QUADS! (Yuzu brings in the era of high quality quads! Nathan knows them all!) 4) Record Breaking (Yuzu breaks whatever possible it was last era! Nathan breaks whatever possible this era!) Etc... and we all know it doesn't work because there are specific qualities in Yuzu, specific experiences in Yuzu's life that made him the way he is, and this can never be replicated for anyone else. I understand where they are coming from, but what they are doing is pretty much killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. It is motivated by greed and is unsustainable - they will turn off the longstanding FS fans and cause more fans to leave in droves once Yuzu retires. In such a sport, good competition brings about good performances, and of course, good performances brings about better audience attendance. (Which, by the way, good performances is the reason why people attend Yuzu's competitions, no?) By throwing the scores that way, will it promote good performances? Will Nathan be motivated improve his artistry? I doubt so. Why would he need to do so now that he's already obtaining the scores he wants? Will young and upcoming skaters think that artistry is important based on the scores? I doubt so, since having good TES apparently means good PCS as well. I feel like eventually when Yuzu retires, we'll be looking at Jump Skating instead of Figure Skating - until another "once in a lifetime" figure skater explodes on the scene again. At the same time, I feel like ISU and JSF will not want to recognise Yuzu's GOAT until he retires, because they want to push forth this forced competition/rivalry to keep the audience attendance going. I hate it that they are making use of Yuzu's competitiveness and thirst for perfection against him and making him do things he doesn't need to do to stay competitive, at the expense of his health. Yuzu himself probably feels a great sense of responsibility towards FS and Japan as well, being double OWG, having ridiculous amounts of fans, receiving People's Honour Awards, being a survivor of Tohoku Earthquake etc, that pushes him to keep competing, e.g. reminded of CoC 2014, when he said he thought of retiring after the collision, but wanted to perform worthy of a OWG champion. I think I spoke too much - sorry for the wall of text

Just sent another small amount

I saw that we have a video section, and plugged in my OWG 2018 B.Esp collection hopefully that helps everyone here stay happy despite all the shit that's going around!

Words of Wisdom of the day:

My eyes!! My eyes!!

The amount of spontaneous fainting that will cause though...

Wild idea - feel free to shoot me down... What if we split the book into sections - Yuzu Junior - Yuzu pre Sochi - Yuzu Sochi to Pyeong Chang - Yuzu post Pyeong Chang And we can put fan art into the respective era, we can split the satellites into whichever section they want... Maybe run a google survey to determine the number of pages - people need to select: - Message or Fan Art - Which section - What's their favourite performance of that section, etc?

Not all of us are talented with the pen as well - maybe some of would just want to add some words of encouragement/comfort, and we can compile that into a few templates as what @Salior said, with some featuring of fan art?

Some hotels only release their rooms 3 months before the date itself, so maybe that’s why everything appears to be booked.

A brief research of paper sizes: 4" x 9" (or flip for Landscape) 5.5" x 8.5" (or flip for Landscape) 6" x 9" (or flip for Landscape) 8.5" x12" (or flip for Landscape) 4.75" x 4.75" 6" x 6" 12" x 12" Perhaps we should settle for one paper size. I think custom size might be expensive Also, leave approx 1 inch on one side (left or right) for binding? I was also thinking, what if the background of the page corresponds to our favourite SP/FS/EX - we could save some space there and yet allow uniformed variety. I'm on my way to work now but I don't mind coming up with something for this.

It is a bit hard for me to rank because all of his programs gave me different chills and goosebumps - I'm gonna go by how numb my skull feels after watching it. FS 1) Hope and Legacy Worlds2017 - Full on numb, 100% Fanyu convert after watching so I guess... hehehe 2) R+J V1.0 GPF2011/Worlds2012 - The step sequence!! It felt like he was burning the essence of life to deliver that program! 3) PoTO CoC2014/WTT2015 - I watched CoC once and can't bear to watch it again, it was like a moment straight out of a manga. WTT2015 had him saying goodbye to Christine, I died there. 4) Seimei NHK2015/GPF2015/OWG2018 - The dominance of this man... and his smiles were the broadest there. 5) Origin CoF2018/CoR2018/Worlds2019- It's a shame that he was basically nursing an injury half of the time, and the other half of the time has shit ice. Only really felt the program in Worlds2019. 6) R+J2.0 OWG2014/Worlds2015 - some goosebumps, not much there, didn't feel much of the program except R+J2.0 in Worlds2015, mainly from how he tried to come back from behind. SP 1) Chopin Ballade No. 1 OWG2018 - Specifically that Ina Bauer with closed eyes. At that point I needed to calm my self down and repeat to myself - he's 12 years younger than me... It also basically became the Chopin I'd watch if I needed a Chopin fix. 2) Let's Go Crazy GPF2016 - Let's just say it's a guilty pleasure, I always feel so dirty after watching it. 3) Otonal CoR2018 - The step sequence is amazing. And his hands! HIS HANDS!! 4) Parissiene Walkways OWG2014 - All kicks after 3A is a kick straight to my heart EX 1) Notte Stellata CoR2017/OWG2018 - It is so beautiful. I can only repeat these 4 words. 2) Haru yo, Koi CoR2018/Worlds2019 - It is only marginally lower because I prefer Swanyu. 3) Hana ni Nare - I'm not sure what version it is, probably in ICE Shows/TV shows. I felt it. 4) Requiem - I don't even know which version I watched, I found it too painful to finish watching. Watched it once and never touched it with a 10 ft pole. Hmm I spoke too much I feel. Sorry!

Well there is this average asian aging process... given that he doesn't have to go through menopause and stuff, he might end up looking like this beyond 50 years old... certified alien?

YASSSSSSSS Hey! Fellow SG!

I needed this today

Eh that's fine - we could go all digital. In that case we should pay more attention to the DPI, print quality and paper quality during the final printing. A standard template would be great since it will standardize everything. My Japanese proficiency belongs to the "enough to navigate Japan" category, otherwise I would volunteer myself as well. My career pertains to project management, so if you need my help do let me know

I am onboard with this! And also thinking about the logistics involved - we probably need: a standard size (for everyone to prepare their fan art/hand written messages) a representative to collect for a specific region each (for fan art/hand written messages) an end collection point/consolidation point a few translators donations, obv for the item as well as shipping (let's ship it with tracking etc) I'm already thinking about how to make it work haha

The pictures remind me so much of his CwW interview with Plushenko. FULL ON FANBOY and it's so adorable.

We may start receiving the first Alien communications complaining about impossible Alien beauty standards.

Also, happy belated birthday! Wishing you well in health!

How about another PPoS!

After all, Yuzu's programs this season were not tailored to break records. We'll see what his kuyashii will create in September. If a program not tailored for record breaking is this number... what will he make?

I guess... finally, a suit that fits.

Yuzu: I'm joining WTT. Tracy, Brian, Grislain, Us, His Ankle: WUT? I feel like this is the appropriate response.