guitarist

My parents spent most of the month asking me what I wanted for Christmas, and I said I had no idea. Turns out it was this.

That's totally fine, I'm in Mexico right now anyway!

Omg! I love it, thank you!!!

Glad you like it

Merry Christmas @kaaaaaaat!!! I'm not very creative, so I copied it from a picture. I hope you like it! I'll be sending you the physical drawing soon!

Javi, please do us all a favor and help Yuzu pick his next suit (I'm looking at that picture he posted thanking everyone)

Hmmm. So tomorrow I have the rather daunting task of teaching my coworkers how to ice skate. We're doing a small group outing to celebrate the end of the year, and at my manager's suggestion, I organized an ice skating trip... (Yes, even my manager knows I'm obsessed with figure skating) I already told them I only know the very, very, very basics, but to them, who can't even stay upright, that is more than enough... Well, aside from my manager, who's been playing ice hockey for 30+ years. Soooo... Any suggestions on stuff that would be easy to teach? Swizzles is the obvious one, but idk what else would be good. And I'm scared one of my coworkers will want me to help her by holding her hands because I'm not great at skating backwards, other than basic stuff like swizzles or slaloms... (Can't do backward stroking at a good speed) I have a feeling this won't end well

Here's Javi's programs: Um... The FS was not great. But well, this is Nationals, so he could've popped half his jumps and still won. Hopefully he'll do better at Olys... The commentators weren't saying anything particularly interesting, but I'll translate if anyone's interested. Or anything else in Spanish, just shoot me a PM, since I don't usually check this thread.

Today I learned a valuable lesson. Sleep deprivation and ice skating do NOT mix. I was sitting in a cramped bus for 10 hours on Saturday (5 hrs each way, I take guitar lessons in a different state, long story) and got 4 hrs of sleep last night, so when I woke up today I was still exhausted and my knees were sore. Result: I fell down like 5 times But my bunny hops (which I definitely shouldn't be trying yet, but who's going to stop me) are getting decent. Crossovers are still... not really crossovers. And I still have terrible control over my edges. Realistically, I know I've been skating for less than 2 months and I'm doing ok so far, but progress is infuriatingly slow

Ah, I'm not sure I'm willing to try regular mail again... But who knows, maybe eventually I'll get the Rubik's cube and plushies. It's only been 5 and a half years If anyone wants to send me stuff, my US address is a lot more reliable, but I wouldn't get it until Jan 3rd.

Oh, right, I'd forgotten. I'm open to receiving/sending physical gifts, but I'll be in Mexico for Christmas (and mail in my hometown is not known for its reliability), so perhaps receiving is a little trickier.

A little less than that, but yeah... Ah, the advantage of being a guitar player! My fingers are already covered in calluses!

That's next week!!! Unfortunately I'm going to Mexico to visit my family right after, so I won't get to use it till January haha. So I'm cramming in all the practice I can next week, since I'll miss 2 weekends...

You guys are so cool, doing one-foot spins and buying new skates, and I'm only just starting on crossovers T_T All in due time, I suppose...

Agreed. But to me, the worst is everytime anyone says they've got musicality. I just want to bang my head against the wall when I hear that. Shoma has terrible rhythm, none of his arm movements are matched to the music (to say nothing of his non-stop crossovers... errr.. I meant "footwork"). I think Nathan would be more musical if he weren't focusing on the technical elements so much, but alas...

I checked some Japanese news sites, which all had the same quote. I've yet to find one that says knee. They all say 右足首, which is right ankle. 膝 is knee, I think. I'd need to check more articles, but since they're all pretty much the same thing I think it's just a mistranslation.

Oh, sounds fun, I'd love to join!

I would pay so much money to see Brian jumping along with Yuzu while dressed up as Pooh. So much money.

What time is the deadline? Won't have access to a scanner until later today.

I don't think it'd work, but it's ok, I'm obsessed with music, so I can hear the whole thing in my head anyway hahaha.

When no one's watching at the rink I do a simplified version of the first few seconds of Parisienne Walkways hahaha. No rinks I've been in allow earphones, though, you guys are lucky... NYC rinks are always kinda packed, so it'd be dangerous...

And it's ridiculous to expect today's skaters to be as clean as the skaters from 10-15 years ago. Of course they were clean, their programs weren't nearly as demanding, the old system encouraged clean skates over technical difficulty, and the difficulty of the programs took several years to become this intense even after the change in 2004. No one had to learn a 4Lz to win. How many of the "consistent" skaters would have been able to do programs with 3-5 quads? My guess is not very many of them. Which is not to say they weren't good skaters, simply that the sport now demands superhuman skill, which in turn brings more mistakes... Idiot people on Twitter, seriously...

In today's installment of Guitarist embarrasses herself on the ice: I learned bunny hops! (Or well, the sad version of them, anyway. I did it on my own, so it's likely 100% wrong) and my 2-foot spins are actually starting to resemble spins. Aside from that I tried lunges and shoot the ducks (I landed flat on my ass when I tried that second one). Overall, decent progress. Having trouble with crossovers, though. Of course, my coach hasn't taught them to me, so maybe that'll change tomorrow...

Neither do I, but it's still so much fun!

I really, really hate this season. Poor Jun Hwan He should've stayed in juniors, Olympics is such bad timing for him.