Monday, April 26, 2010

Derby 2010.04.26

Saturday I had my first public scrimmage at the Rookie Rumble at Southland Skate Center. We were supposed to play a demonstration game for half an hour, but there were so few of us we cut it down to 15 minutes since we were all exhausted. While I usually enjoy scrimmaging, I didn’t skate well in the demonstration – I was completely shut down by another skater, who eventually even apologized to me.

I need to improve my skating ability before I skate again publically. This time I was skating against all new or returning skaters, and I still got completely pwn3d. If I’m going to compete in the Spring Roll against established teams next month (eep!), I need to improve vastly between now and then. I don’t mind losing so much, but it’s very frustrating to be completely ineffectual on the track.

Perhaps if we’d played longer I might eventually have had the chance to knock the opposing jammer out of bounds, or hit someone to help our jammer through. I don’t mind sucking overall if I can occasionally do something useful. However, if I’m going to continue being useless during bouts, I might be better off not going at all if we eventually get enough people where I’m not needed just as a warm body.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

I am ze Viper

From scifiwire --

Crazy cleaning company will send Spider-Man to wash your windows: Looks like Spider-Man has found other employment - http://tinyurl.com/26vayfv


heh. I'd so love to do that to someone... B)

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Week in Review – Week of 2010.04.11 – 04.17

This week has been stressful in terms of work, but fun in terms of derby. I’m still excited to be playing in scrimmage-like drills, as anyone around me can easily tell since I won’t shut up about it. I’m taking full advantage of my early work schedule to go to as many practices as possible. There are other things I’d like to be doing with this time as well, but right now I’m making derby a priority because I want to get my skills up to speed, and hope to be able to skate in the upcoming Rookie Rumble. Wish me luck!

Sunday’s endurance practice was surprisingly a lot of fun. I normally *hate* endurance practices, but since there was a bout last Saturday, very few people showed up for practice one and therefore it was ran at a slower, more personal pace. I actually got to work on technique instead of just racing pell-mell for two hours. It was nice. After practice I picked up Nivagi and we brought Ke dinner before Ke went into work. Nivagi and I snuggled and watched Angel, enjoying a pleasant, low-key night.

Monday I had off work so I enjoyed some quiet time while Ke slept and Jero and Nivagi were at work. When Jero got home I walked over to her house and we went out for a yummy dinner before I got on the MUX. I was able to get on early for a change, so I got to role-play with Cawh, Chdr, Desm, Hemy, Nightfall, Scourge, and Semcca in several different scenes. I didn’t advance the plot as far as I’d hoped to, but I had a lot of fun, which is ultimately more important. Jero and I then looked over Gen Con stuff before bed.

Tuesday night’s derby practice was a lot of fun. Again, my legs were tired in the beginning but fine once we started doing scrimmage-type drills. I got to be knocked around the track by Faye Stunaway, which was rather cool. I felt guilty “hogging” the track (even though I shouldn’t have because it was a men’s practice), but I wanted to block every jam. I still suck, but I’m having fun playing. After practice I tore Stsm away from my other girlfriends at the poly meetup to come hang out with me before bed. We talked and she brought me cool books to read and we had a lovely night.

Wednesday was a shitty day – it started with scheduling stress and went downhill from there. After I escaped work I didn’t want to go to derby practice, but I went anyway, since I usually enjoy it once I get there. Luckily, this was the case again that night – after skating around for two hours and getting pummeled by Uzi Q (who hits like the steel telephone pole), I felt a lot better. I grabbed some food with Jero and then Ke, and after a long shower I felt a lot better. Unfortunately since I’m working an earlier shift I couldn’t stay up too late, but I did get to watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report with her before she put me to bed. B)


Thursday was a better day at work than Wednesday, especially since I got to have lunch with Adshru. After work I went with Jero to practice where I had a great time getting my ass kicked by members of the Circle City Socialites during scrimmage-like drills. After two hours I was sore and incredibly tired, but I had a lot of fun. Jero and I grabbed quick food and then went back to her house so I could do my taxes (yes, at the very last minute, as always). Exhaustion and technology fail made it a much more difficult process than it had to be, but I finally got them filled out and submitted at 12:10 AM Friday morning (doh!).

Friday was busy and tiring, with the phones ringing off the hook all damned day. I did have a pleasant break when Jero visited me for lunch, but then the day dragged for the next 4 hours. I had to deal with a host of Friday-stress problems (every company in the Midwest seems to want to wait ‘til Friday to run everything), and I barely escaped on time at the end of my shift. I ran to Ke’s house to grab Nivagi, and then Nivagi and I went to see Neil Gaiman, who was awesome. After the lecture we went to Some Guys Pizza and ordered a ton of food, some of which we brought back to Ke before she went into work.

Thankfully today has been much quieter at work. We have very few people here, so I’m doing a combination of east and Midwest work, but I don’t mind. Tonight I’m going to go see the Naptown Roller Girls play the Ohio Roller Girls in a double-header at the Pepsi Coliseum. The Naptown Roller Girls got to hang out with Neil Gaiman last night after his lecture, so I’m a little envious. Jero is picking me up, and Stsm should be there as well. Should be fun!



Blast from the Past: Reminder of from where Obama’s “new” deficit originated :
Bush's tax cuts overwhelmingly favored the wealthy. The top 1% will saved more than $30,000 per year while the bottom 31% saved nothing at all.

Source: Citizens for Tax Justice and AFL/CIO

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Derby Progress – 04.10

This past week has been very cool in terms of my derby education. Tuesday at practice I got to play something akin to roller derby for the first time. I was completely ineffective, but it was still a lot of fun. I normally hate doing things I'm not good at, but it was cool skating around in a mini-pack and experiencing first-hand how it might work in an actual bout. It was 3-on-3 instead of a full scrimmage, but it gave me a taste of what the real deal is like.

Wednesday’s practice was good – this time I got to skate in a pack of first two and then four people, and together we tried to stop a jammer from coming through. I got to lay a hard hit on West Side Slam - my first hard hit in roller derby. He gave me positive feedback about it, possibly exaggerating because I’m new, but still very encouraging. He said I hit harder than he’d been hit in a recent bout, although I’m sure now that he’s wary I won’t have the opportunity again for a while.

At Thursday’s derby practice we worked on offensive scrimmage skills, and I cemented my discovery that I actually love playing derby. Until now, I didn’t know – all I’ve been doing is working on basic skills, and I could have hated playing the actual game, especially since I generally despise team sports. However, derby feels more like soccer to me, which I really don’t mind – if I screw up, I have other players right there with me that have my back. It feels more like a group effort than all pressure on me.

Although my legs were burning and wobbly after three days of practice, I was able to keep up the entire scrimmage-like drill. I even jammed once and got through the pack (although I couldn’t catch back up to the pack afterwards). Rockit Ma’am was happy because she got to hit me finally, though apparently she went easy on me because she didn’t want to knock me into a wall my first time out (thanks, honey!). B) Luckily, right now what I lack in skill make up for in mass – I can take a hit pretty well and keep going.

At first I just held the line, but eventually I got moved to the middle of the pack and surprisingly was able to hit the jammer out a few times. While they were able to get past me initially, my teammates often set up a wall in the front of the pack and I was able to catch up and push the jammer out, in a maneuver called Set ‘em up/Knock ‘em down. We worked on one-on-one offensive strategies, and I had a lot of fun, grokking the point of everything even if I’m not fast enough to always put the strategies into effect yet.

Based on the fun I was having, I told my mentor Dexter I have a goal to play in upcoming bouts, especially the upcoming Rookie Rumble. Dexter said he might even put me on the roster for this weekend. That seems a little soon to me, but if he thinks I’m ready, I’ll give it a try. As long as I keep practicing, I should be ready to get my ass kicked at the Spring Roll Tournament in Fort Wayne in May. That should be very cool, even if I personally will be hopelessly outclassed by our competition.

Should be fun! I’ll try to remember to post how it goes!

-- Eye-Roll 20s



Eye-Roll 20s – Derby Hoodlum - Race City Rebels
RaceCityRebels.com

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Week in Review – Week of 2010.03.28 – 04.03

This week was a lot of fun, especially in the arena of derby. I’m finally getting to actually play the game and it turns out I love it, which frankly was a big surprise to me since I hate team sports. Roller derby is different, however, and I’m enjoying the hell out of it even though I suck. I put in a request to officially scrimmage, and with luck if I keep improving I’ll get to play in the next Rookie Rumble. I’ve never been actually anxious to play a physical game before, so this is all new territory for un-athletic me.


Sunday morning Jero and I got up early have breakfast with Dawi and Deal while Dawi was in town. We had a great time catching up with them (we hadn’t seen either of them in years), and afterward Jero and I went back to my apartment to clean, do laundry, and be productive. We went out to Outback for dinner, but it was very disappointing and we probably won’t go back again soon. After dinner we gathered Jero and I belongings and retired to Jero’s to sleep.


Monday night after work I drove down to Bloomington to have dinner with Caro and her parents. Caro made yummy craisins-and-pistachio pasta, which was delicious. After dinner I chatted with her parents and perused their bookshelf while Caro scanned pages from her grandmother’s memorial book. When Caro was finished we bid her parents goodbye and I drove Caro back to Indy to spend the night. We didn’t have a lot of time together, but it was great to see her while I had the chance.


Tuesday I drove Caro to the airport before heading into work. At practice I got to play something akin to roller derby for the first time. I was completely ineffective but it was still fun. I normally hate doing things I'm not good at, but it was cool skating around in a mini-pack and experiencing first-hand how it might work in an actual bout. It was 3-on-3 instead of a full scrimmage, but it gave me a taste of what the real deal is like. Afterward I had a great night with Ke, marred by technology fail when my laptop and my phone both crashed and I stayed up far too late trying to fix them.


Wednesday’s practice was also good – this time I got to skate in a pack of two, then four people, to try to stop a jammer from coming through. I got to lay a hard hit on West Side Slam, my first in roller derby. Slam gave me good feedback about it, possibly exaggerating because I’m new, but still very encouraging. After practice, I picked up Nivagi from belly dance call and we went to Some Guys Pizza since I was craving their yummy avocado/black olive/sun-dried tomatoes pizza. I then kidnapped Nivagi back to my apartment to snuggle and sleep.


Thursday’s derby practice we worked on offensive scrimmage skills, and I furthered my discovery that I actually love playing derby. Until now, I didn’t know – all I’ve been doing is working on basic skills, and I could have hated playing the actual game, since I generally despise team sports. Derby is different, however, and I’m really starting to grok the basics and have fun even if I suck at it so far. After practice I met Stsm at my apartment, and we snuggled and watched The Princess and the Frog, which I liked. Afterward was Lost Girls story time and then bed.


Friday at work was hectic! It was a ghost town since everyone was off for Good Friday, and there were few people to take all the repair calls. I was the only ISDN guy, so I dealt with a lot of headaches one after another. The highlight of the workday was lunch with Adshru, which was far too short but a very nice break. Friday night I was planning to go see Electric Six, but instead Chpa, Ke and Nivagi and I stayed in and watched Legend, which Ke owned but had never seen. It was fun, but difficult to watch without constantly making Tom Cruise jokes. ;)

Saturday Jero and I drove up to Toledo for a CCS Newbie Bout vs Glass City.
Jero got to play since she was just coming back from a long absence, and the game was very close – one 15-pt jam made the entire difference, and otherwise the teams were almost perfectly matched. I recorded the first period on Wrecker Becker’s video recorder, and most of the rest on my phone. I need to get a copy of WB’s bout files, and upload mine from my phone. It was a great week for derby!



Eye-Roll 20s – Derby Hoodlum - Race City Rebels
RaceCityRebels.com