memae

I mean... idk, that RJ at Worlds 2012 was pretty convincing.

I watched the latest from TSL (I know lots of people very much dislike them but this isn't about that or them) and they mentioned Bradie training a 3A. So I googled and found articles going back months mentioning it. How did I miss this? I think if she's able to come out of the COVID times strong and capable and she lands a 3A in competition, it's going to be big for ladies skating. She's in her 20s. She's twice the height of the girls at the front (she looked like a giant compared to them on the ice during warm up at GPF. This is the progress I want to see in ladies skating. I want strong women jumping big jumps properly. If she does it then it'll prove that it's possible for people who aren't 15 to add jumps to their repertoire. Maybe it'll mean we see some longer careers in ladies skating than we've begun to expect.

Another issue with the article was whatever it said about Nathan walking away empty handed when he's won all the major competitions since whenever. Except he didn't win 4CC this season or last, and WC didn't happen this season. If they're not counting that simply because he didn't attend, then what about Yuzu missing GPF and WC with injury in 2018? Anyway, that's not my problem with it. My problem is that by winning all those events he's already been rewarded for them with titles and medals. Why reward someone twice for the same thing? And, more importantly, P/C broke all three records in their discipline last season which I think is a much bigger deal than winning events, even championships, simply because you can do that without actually doing your best. And also Sui/Han have won all 3 major events they've competed in at least once since the Olympics, and they came 2nd at WC18 only to the Olympic gold medalists - Nathan didn't have that opportunity because Yuzuru wasn't there. They also have 2 current world records. They have a lot in common with Nathan (and they've even got an Olympic silver, like P/C). So there's all this talk about Nathan in the men's field but none about teams doing exactly the same thing in their own disciplines. And, well, Kostornaia can also be thrown into the mix. 2 records, won all major events last season, won JGPF the year before. Why would Nathan be more deserving for MVS than any of the others if it was just based on performance? The scores can't be compared because the disciplines are scored differently. So his record looks big but 6 points across programs is huge in ladies skating because of the PCS but also without quads in SP (and Kosto didn't do any in the free anyway). And it's her debut season. Sure, best newcomer, whatever. But that would absolutely be a cop out if MVS was based on performance - if it was, she deserved to be up for it as much as Nathan. I actually adore Nathan. I even like his skating. But I am so sick of this constant nonsense. It does him no favours and he sure does not need everyone trying to shine the light on him. He said it himself: he loves skating. He's happy to be here. He's not in it for the popularity or for his fans but for his love of the sport. Everyone drumming up this ridiculous rivalry narrative just takes away from what it really is about Yuzu and Nathan - two skaters who love their sport and are striving to do better and better.

Not that I'm unaware of the politicking and corruption in the ISU, but to be fair the 3 nominations for each category were selected by the voting open to the general public a few months ago and there were plenty of other skaters people could vote for. I remember voting for Shoma for best costume (his first SP costume was the best one last season and I will not hear otherwise). I do wish they made these awards less about the skaters and more about the behind-the-scenes work. Coaches and choreographers were a good category. I think best newcomer is a good idea in theory because in most disciplines, debuts to senior don't usually make it to the podium so it's a way of recognising their achievements but when the new ladies are winning everything it doesn't really serve its purpose because they're being acknowledged through their event wins. Perhaps that one needs to be split by discipline. The costume category needs to be awarded to the designers. From what I read about Origin 2.0, Yuzu basically just said he didn't want it to be black and Satomi went from there. She interpreted the music for the costume, kept Yuzu's skating presence in mind, chose a different colour, and went from there. And yet he was the one up for the award lol. I do have to say that I'm glad Chock/Bates won because she went to the practice at GPF in snakeskin print leggings and that is the kind of dedication to a costume and theme that I'm here for. I think she also had her hair done.

Yuzu but with a Michelle Kwan or Sasha Cohen spiral. We all know he can do it.

Right? He's just so nice! Just further supports my idea.

He is very handsome. He's got that wholesome American boy vibe - I often think he looks like he is a character in a teenage rom-com. He's the wholesome love interest star athlete except instead of a quarterback he's a FIGURE SKATER who isn't afraid of wearing some sparkles. Someone write that screenplay and give us the skating series we deserved instead of Spinning Out.

I spent the last week away visiting my parents and chilling by the beach in the next city south and there just so happened to be an ice rink there (like 1/3 the size of a regular rink lol) and it was open! I didn't have my skates with me and the ice was so thin that I could feel the foundations in some spots by the boards with my fingers, but I finally got to go skating again. There were only four people on the ice! It was so nice to go for a skate and to basically have the ice to myself but man rental skates are the worst. They weren't even the lace-up ones but those ones with the buckles and who knows when they were last sharpened. I'm not even sure how the ice gets resurfaced there - it looked like it had about a week's worth of skating since it was last done and the only equipment I saw was like a scraper with a broom handle. Makes me think they resurface by hand. I'm so excited for the rink close by where I live to open next weekend. You have to book online for the session to keep numbers low, but at least it means the ice won't be crowded so it'll be great for getting back into it.

He didn't say much but in that small amount of English there was a huge amount of sounds and clusters not found in Japanese that he didn't quite get but the intonation was good and it was fluent and clear. My main field of expertise is linguistics though so I have better trained ears for this kind of thing than your average native speaker. I'd say he can probably get those sounds if he isolates words and focuses on the shape of his mouth and where is tongue is but then that ruins the fluency so the way he speaks here is likely to be a bit more natural.

I just went onto the ISU website to check the profiles in their entirety and they aren't up for the MVS award so I'm guessing they've been taken down to have some editing done.

I often find myself staring at your signature lol. Mesmerising.

Jason probably just smiled and charmed his way through being his beautiful self. He probably didn't even try.

Aw Kevin. I don't think he's quite cottoned on that he himself is among the elite in men's figure skating at the moment.

We still haven't seen a clean Nathan vs a clean Yuzu in the same competition. Regardless of who wins (although, of course, I'd be hoping for Yuzuru), wouldn't it be a thing to see? My favourite event from my own athletic career goes right back to its early days when I was 12 or 13. It was 200m freestyle and there were 4 of us who were all chasing gold. We did that whole race in a line and we all touched the wall so close that we had to wait for results to know who won. I got the silver. We all did personal bests. It's the medal I'm proudest of even though I have a lot of shinies from much higher level competitions. It's just that we all gave it our all. It's the only race I've ever been in where I can say that we all had a great race. I didn't get silver because someone else had a bad swim. I didn't miss out on the gold because I had a bad swim. I won a race years and years later because the girl who touched first twitched on the blocks and was disqualified. Not nearly the same feeling. I think experiencing that perfect race when I was so young has a lot to do with how I perceive sport - besides football (the Australian kind), which is a different kind of thing. I wouldn't care if someone from my team had to illegally break someone else's ribs if it meant we won. In the heat of the moment, I'd probably even encourage it while yelling at the TV. But every other sport - I just want the best from everyone. If everyone does their best, the sport moves forward. That's how records get broken in swimming. That's how Yuzu imagined and developed the quality of his transitions. That's how he endeavours for the 4A.

For me, I love the sport. I certainly have my favourites, but I adore this sport (and a few others) and I always just want the best for each skater. I will always want Yuzuru to win but I also want his competitors to skate well and continue improving. There is so much possibility in skating - in terms of personal achievements for the skaters (like Rika and Jason chasing those quads) but also achievements that mean something historically for the sport (Yuzu and his 4A pursuit, for example). It's exciting to see skaters grow in skill and succeed. It's exciting and satisfying when the quality of programs is so good that scores are close even though skaters usually build up their scores with different strengths - Jason has triples and GOE, Roman has a couple of quads and beautiful spins, etc.

It's interesting to read what Satomi says of it herself. I think Origin 1.0 will always be my favourite costume. I certainly thought, from the second I first saw it, that there will never be a better costume in skating ever again but I have to say, the purple Origin has grown on me so much that it is now a very close second. (I also loved Shoma's first SP costume last season. I'm not sure who designed it but I thought it was so different and so great on Shoma).

I finally got to my parents' place today and got to open my copy of Satomi's costume book (which I preordered for its March 31 release lol). It is so beautiful. The costumes and her sketches are so beautiful. I have no idea how much money I ended up paying for it but I don't care. Every page is eyecatching. Her attention to detail is second to none. On some photos you can even see the glue holding each sparkle to the fabric. They're hand placed - I already knew this from the little documentary-style video in which she explains that she's extra careful with the sparkles so no one ends up with a point lost over costume faults. Seeing them up close in focus in these photographs really shows the sheer number of them. Even the H&L flounce on the shoulder has a bunch of sparkles on it. I am also struck by how she captures the line and movement of different skaters in her sketches - Shoma looks too tall for Shoma in the sketches (normal for fashion sketches) but she gets his hair and that way he holds his head just so, and you can tell it's Shoma because of that. The sketches of Yuzu somehow capture that presence of his. She's remarkable. I also got a 3 pack of clear files because I was shipping the book anyway so it seemed worth it (usually the shipping fees to Australia do not seem worth the cost of the files).

You mean the Chopin starting pose? I think the costume would distract from your endeavours though lol. Maybe a practice in the UA gear. On that note: I've recently noticed that UA is massively popular at my new school. I've never seen so many teenagers with at least one thing of it. I wonder if Yuzu's influence has made it especially popular in Asia and if that has somehow filtered down to kids in Australia. I know it's been around for years but I've never noticed anyone but athletes (of any description, whether competitive or social) to be wearing it.

This all sounds very tabloidy to me. Situations like this are almost always 'journalists' or writers (in my opinion, true journalists have integrity) taking things out of context and/or blowing things out of proportion to get readers. That the article has been revised again and again really suggests as much. Zhenya would truly be putting her foot in it if she started any drama between her and any of the Japanese skaters lest she lose her Japanese fanbase. She also loves TCC so I can't imagine she'd do anything make her training environment hostile or awkward.

They could also make it easier on judges by splitting the panel and having half to the TES score and half do the PCS for the same program. Maybe add a couple extra judges so that the average is across more people's judgement.

I found a few pickling recipes from Googling. It seems like you salt them first to cure them, then you either submerge them in ume plum vinegar and soak them before drying them out and storing them in salt or you can store them in the vinegar - the best way to preserve the colour is to store them dry in the salt (after pickling them in the vinegar for a couple of days). So I guess they have a floral but salty and tart flavour.

In linguistics we often use translated forms of Jabberwocky to look at different systems of language, particularly morphology and syntax. Basically, you can make sense of the poem without really knowing what any of the words mean so it presents quite a few useful examples and ideas to toy with. The made up words also help with identifying the different ages kids develop parts of 'adult grammar' across different languages. Like, if a child can make a plural or singular version out of the made up nouns at a particular age but the kids who are just a bit younger can't do it consistently, then we can see that there's likely a corresponding development stage. The word play in English can't be directly translated either - not only because the words are made up but because the grammar and the sounds are used in a way that is meaningful (like he almost uses onomatopoeia but not quite to get ideas/feelings across - like borogroves sound big or slow or something because of the voiced stops (b, g) and the big round vowels) so all of that has to be conveyed in a different way in different languages depending on how that kind of meaning is constructed through grammar and phonology. I might need a new thesis topic because I can't travel to do field research due to the virus. Maybe I could look at how well ESL speakers can navigate Jabberwocky. I imagine someone with Yuzu's level of English could understand kind of what's going on and identify the types of words (nouns, adjectives, etc) but maybe would miss a bit of that extra level stuff (like what I was saying about the borogroves). But at what point would a non-native speaker begin to pick up on that kind of thing? I feel like that would be somewhere around the difference of Yuzu's and Javi's English.

Perhaps we don't get the same thing out of them as each other. I take a lot of context into account, including that what one says in interviews is not what is going through one's head when they're in the middle of training and they're sore all over. Anyway "I guess you never read her interviews, huh?" isn't exactly a useful contribution to discussion, so I'm tapping out now.

I didn't say she had problems with work ethic so I don't know that the 'wtf' is necessary. I pointed out that even Brian marvels at Zhenya's work ethic and he's been coaching Yuzuru, who we know trains like a beast. My point is that even after everything that Zhenya has been through and even though things don't look promising for her competitively, she's still persevering and she's still training in a way that makes Yuzuru Hanyu's coach take note and make mention of it in interviews. It's going to be important for Rika to be able to look to the future and fight for it after having had such a rough season. She doesn't need Zhenya around for that, obviously, but it will probably be a nice bonus of that training environment. You can take inspiration from more than one person for the same thing.

Yeah, I know she was injured but I think the timing really wasn't in her favour. These Russian girls came through strong when she was struggling through the season - we know how that looks comparatively and how that influences judging. As it was, she was already getting underscored in PCS, especially compared to the Russians. She's really going to come back guns blazing to shock the ISU and the judges into remember that she is absolutely something to behold and perfectly capable of beating any of the Russian girls.