Sunday, November 2, 2008

Writing and figure skating, they make my world go 'round...

Writing

I'm happy to report that yesterday I had a chance to sit down and write a few words for my new story, which is presently operating under the title "Unidentified Flying Object." I think this is just a working title, but we'll see. It will probably depend on whether or not I can come up with anything better. In less than an hour I managed to write 723 words. It's a good thing I'm not trying to complete NaNoWriMo this year, I'd already be behind. You need to complete something like 1,300 words a day on average to meet the target. No, I just want to get as much done as possible, which when you're in the thick of a semester is fairly challenging.

Moving on to something different...

Skate Canada

I have to say, I'm pleased that CBC is actually airing figure skating this year. They broadcasted some of Skate American last weekend (although showed nothing of the ladies or dance) and all of Grand Prix events will be shown later on. Of course, if I had better Internet I could watch it all online, but our slow connection doesn't allow for that.

At any rate, I wanted to comment on the men's competition of Skate Canada, featuring Patrick Chan, the new Canadian hopeful now that Jeffery Buttle has retired. First of all, Patrick is just 17 years of age and pretty much all the attention of the skating community of Canada has shifted to him in the last few weeks. He is an excellent skater and I hope he manages to handle the pressure. His short programme was skated fairly well. He put a hand down on his triple axel and there was a small bobble in his foot work, but altogether pretty good. He placed second. Yesterday was the long and again his programme went fairly well...but he fell on his second triple axel and completely missed his second triple lutz (it wasn't even rotated). Despite these errors he still won the competition.

Now, much can be said about figure skating where judging is concerned. I really do feel that the new Code of Points system works. The skater only gets points for what they accomplish and although 11 judges sit on the panel only 7 judge's marks are actually included in the score (I might be slightly off on those numbers) which makes it very difficult to "throw" competitions since you never know which judges marks are going to count. This being said, I think Patrick did deserve to win. The second place finisher fell on his quad-toe and doubled a couple of jumps. However, in his interview after, Patrick didn't seem to think so. I really felt bad for this poor kid who was clearly disappointed in his own performance, but yet still came out with the top prize. I hope his season picks up from here. He does have a lot of talent and I enjoy his skating.

Anywho, I could yalk about figure skating for much longer than anyone would care to read and I really must get on with my day. That's all for now.

Ciao,

Andrea

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