"Lemon Iced Ted", anyone?

Found at a Chinese grocery store... I think it was supposed to be Lemon Iced Tea, but someone did not proofread the labels.

2006 Olympic Gold Medal Turin (Winter Games)

My sit spin in March...

Here's a picture of my latest sit spin. It's considered a passable sit spin for Bronze FS.

Birthday gift

Got one of these for my birthday! (Thank you "Santa", for the b-day gift!!!) :D

GOOOOOOOOOLD!!!!

Well, I didn't land my loop cleanly (toe tap on the landing), had a UHT (Unindentified Hoppy Thing) instead of a flip and instead of competing with just one person I went up against TWO but... I got the GOLD!!!! Straight 1 ordinals too!!! OMG!!!! =:-O And I was expecting to place behind my tough competitor too!!!

What a wonderful birthday present!!! :-D

Dave Loves Elizabeth!

What a lovely (and very entertaining) marriage proposal!!!

A Phone Scam Alert Heads-Up

If you get left a VM from this number: (716) 650-6240 on your caller ID and asks you to call a 1-800 number regarding a very urgent business matter that can't be discussed over the phone, do NOT waste your time calling them back...

Did a Google search. Hmmmm?

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff160418.htm

I would delete and if possible, block this number by using ACR (if on a LAN phone) or whatever code you use if the call is made on your cell...

I am competing at Skate San Francisco

... Nov 3rd at 7:30pm (tentatively) at the Pre-Bronze 3 Freeskate event! I'm going against one other person, so at worse, I'll get another default Silver medal... And if I'm REAL lucky, I might even get a Gold medal this time around! (HA!!! Fat chance with my skating as of late!!! So take this as a warning to stay away from the Yerba Buena rink in San Francisco at this time. LOL!!!)

My primary coach is definitely on the ball, as he asked this Monday evening (the schedule was posted Monday at 10am) so do you want me to put you out on the ice on Thurs night or do you want your secondary coach to do it? (I told him, "You! That's what a primary coach is supposed to do, right!!!")

And BTW: the program I'm skating to for this event is ALSO my Bronze FS test program! I have NOT forgotten my goals to pass my tests in time for Adult Nationals in Dallas. And I certainly have NOT stopped my Bronze moves practice either!!! Am practicing just as much as before. (Can't 'ya tell I'm STRESSED!?!?!) *"pulling hair out" emoticon here*

Startup Funding thru Donations, no VC's or Angel fund???

Hmmmm? This should be interesting. Kevin Burton mentioned on FeedBlog that he's funding his new startup, TailRank, not by VC's or Angel funds, but by the "goodwill from people in the Blogsphere." You get different benefits depending on whether you donate $20 or $100.

Hmmm? It's an interesting thought. Certainly beats having to run your company based on profits and NOT on innovations. Plus, raising $5K is cheap enough, given enough time.

If you are reading this, Kevin, I would hook you up, but I have not used my PayPal account for a long time and don't have any wish to. If you post a reply to this blog which coffee shop you're doing your hacking this weekend, I'll come by with my $20. (And I don't need to make my blog public. This is just a friendly blog to share my life with amongst friends.) Knowing that he is a co-founder of yet another company (Rojo (which BTW, I'm still trying to eventually work towards getting a QA gig at...it's SOOO close to the skating rink and my gym...but I digress...)[1], I'm curious to see where he'll take TailRank. Besides, if he does make TailRank into a successful venture, I would like to know that I have a small hand in making TailRank a success.

[1]I would love to join Rojo someday as a QA gal, but I'm not ready to join now b/c I really have to get up to speed on my RSS knowledge and at least brush up on Apache, MySQL and various other technically "stuff." Currently, I am too busy dealing with other "stuff" related to my current job. (Very boring QA process work and fighting with Microsoft ACT/VBScript/Learning how to write HTML Request and Response Headers. I know for the computer geeks reading this, it's boring stuff!!!) I'm also staying at my current job also for no other reason other than it's a quiet enough job where I can concentrate on finishing my goals to become an Adult Bronze level freestyle skater and compete at Adult Nationals (my Olympics!) :)

Going to NYC for Christmas again!!! :D

Well, I loved NYC so much last year that I've decided to do another Christmas there and spend time with my in-laws again!!! Can't wait to have my MIL's cooking too!!! (She's a GREAT cook!!!!)

This year I'm planning to go to the following rinks:

• Prospect Park/Kate Wollman rink
• Central Park Wollman rink (freestyle session only)
  
• Chelsea Piers
• The Ice House in Hackensack, NJ!!!

I am planning to rent a car for parts of the trip but not the entire trip. (And if I'm REAL lucky, I MAY opt for getting a ride from a NJ Transit train station since it's a 4 minute drive from there to the Ice House (or even opting to walk it even if it's not too cold.) Car rental is expensive enough as is...

There's also talk of some of the skatingforums.com gang going out for dim sum in Brooklyn. I hope it does come together. I would love to meet everyone all in one shot. (Though I don't know how my hubby's gonna handle this one though since he's not much of a skater type... maybe have people bring their significant other, maybe?)

YAY!!! Can't wait!!! :-D

The Figure Skating Channel

...is finally up and running.

One of our fellow skaters at my home rink is part of the effort behind this new subscription based website!!! KEWL!!! :-D

Bronze Moves Test Experience

So close... but no cigar! One judge passed me but I need at least 2 to pass the Bronze Moves test.

Here's my take on things:

PASSING AVG: 2.5

Forward perimeter crossovers: I got a 2.3 from one judge and a 2.7 from a second judge! Don't remember what the third judge thought of it...but I think it was borderline passing. I did remember that the comment was pretty much "Good power, skated on flats though..." One other judge did comment that I was "walking" on my crossovers. She wants progressives (as in "cross under"), NOT crossovers (as in... well, crossovers!!!)

Back perimeter crossovers: The toe pick monster got me on this one... again, I had a "skated on flats" comment. (As you can see, this is a reoccuring theme for me.) But this time there were no comments on flow and speed... (Last time I took it I was marked for being SLOW too!!!) I think you would need to do back progressives to pass this test. BEND your knees!!!

Forward Power 3's: This is where I did get comments for power and for toe picks. One judge commented on my being out of control on the transition to RFO from back crossovers on the end pattern... (Yeah! I was a bit wild there...) Same judge also said that the 3's were SWINGY... And yes, the toe pick monster and flat edge monster got me here too... (God! I hate HATE HATE this move!!!) Another move that you have to BEND your knees on is this one b/c of the power thing...

Back crossover to BO edge: No comments on extensions. They commented again on the flat edge here too. (I REALLY need to work on back crossovers!!!! YIKES!!! ) BEND your knees!!! It does help you on the "continuous flow and strength" part of the moves...

5 step mohawk: Step on flat (probably that 3rd to 4th edge is bad...) FI mohawk "hoppy". No comment on extensions though. I guess I did okay on that. Don't know what happened to me on that one... Probably I was quite tired and exhausted by the time I did this move.

I also don't remember which move, but I got a "good posture" remark from one of the judges on one of the moves... (Which I find funny since that's one of my WORST attributes in skating...)

General comments:

Overall I think most of the low scores were not below 2.3. (I think one of my moves on the really tough judge was like 2.2. She essentially gave me scores more closer to "I didn't improve from last year...") The one judge that DID judge me last year gave me much better scores overall this year. Some were 2.4's. The judge that passed me had me at 2.5's on some moves and a 2.7 on the forward perimeter. (B/c of the power I got from that move...) My not getting a reskate had nothing to do with ONE particular move. It was an overall thing. (i.e. the other two judges that didn't pass it gave me 2.3's on some moves and 2.4's on others.) If it was a matter of one move being on the borderline and everything else was passing, then yes, it would have been a different story. But this is not one of those cases! I was not deemed a reskate b/c of this.

REALLY BEND KNEES!!! If I did bend my knees enough, I'd probably would have gotten better scores on some of the moves... Certainly, it would harder for the toe pick monster to get me!

Watch your posture!!! They do watch for that... and besides, if you lurch over, then you'll definitely get bitten by the toe pick monster...

Just b/c "power" is taken out in place of "continuous flow and strength" doesn't make it that much easier to pass. If anything, having the emphasis on power encourages the skater to work on better technique. And as we all know, better technique makes skating those move elements ten times EASIER! (See the notes on "flat edges." If I had worked on power, there would be no "flat edges"...)

Also on the same vane: Taking out "power" in place of "continuous flow and strength" DOES NOT mean you can slow down!!! You still need to go FASTER and PUSH!!! This is the "continuous flow and strength" part of the moves! (Ha HA! And we, the pre-Bronze Peanut Gallery thought we have it lucky, huh? )

And speaking of flat edges: WATCH THOSE EDGES!!! Make SURE you're ON a true edge!!! This is primarily what did me in this time! If I had skated on a correct and true edge, I probably would have passed this test... Currently, it's probably kinda hard for me to distinguish and the only person who can tell me whether I'm on an edge or not are my coaches.

I don't have my test form with me. I'll get a copy of it sometime towards the end of the month. I'll have more comments then. Primary coach did read mine and did relay the comments onto my secondary coach, so they know what they have to work on now... One note of encouragment though... I will be testing again in two months!!! Secondary coach wants me to try it again!!!

"Blond Window Guy" started a new startup!!!

Kevin Burton (aka "Blond Window Guy", well I should retire that title since he no longer is at the Rojo office window near the rink...LOL!!!) started a new startup company named TailRank. Here's his blog about it!!!

Should be interesting to see how this new startup develops... (Hope he picks me to be a beta tester!)

Santa wish list #1...

Dear Santa!

I've been a very, VERY good girl this year practicing and working hard for my skating! I would highly appreciate it if I could find the following in my Christmas stockings:

1. Most important one: Please let me pass my Bronze Moves and FS test so I can go to Dallas for AN!
2. Tickets/hotel to Dallas for Adult Nationals in 2006, of course...
3. One of these, preferably 4GB.
4. A camera phone with good video recording and photo resolution.

Thank you, Santa!!!

My skates... aren't they pretty???

The skates on the bottom is TashaKat's and is my inspiration for my current pair (on the left.)

Moon cake!!!!

YUMMY!!! It's that time of the year for Moon Cakes!!! (This year's Moon Festival is on the 18th!) The more egg yolks in the moon cake, the better!!! :-P~

I can't afford my gasoline

http://www.t-shirthumor.com/Merchant2/graphics/fullsize/glol_lg.gif

I'm posting here b/c this is from a "cast member's experience..." If you want to just read about the elite skaters, you might want to skip the stuff after the Cast Party section...

Elite (and almost elite) skaters

The rewards of the hard work returned on the dress rehearsal day when I showed up not expecting Rudy, Surya and Caryn to show up 'til the day of the show and seeing instead TWO of our guest stars during rehearsal... (I will not publicly embarass the person who didn't show up. You know who you are.) It was weird... skating with the stage lights, the live singers and having to go thru costume changes (some very quick ones) and being backstage alongside the elite skaters.

Caryn did an elegant and graceful "Anyone Who Have a Heart." She did struggle with a double axel but seriously, she really didn't need to do one!!! Surya did two numbers: "One Day I'll Fly Away" and "I Will Survive" (Yes, THAT version!) She's ever the show girl with her acrobatic and skating talents on the ice! And despite her size (she's quite short!!!) she looks like one lady the hockey guys don't wanna mess with on the ice! (MUSCLES, man!!! MUSCLES!!!!) And what a sweetie!!! She and Rohene pose a picture with me!!! Rudy skating "Send In The Clowns" with a golden hula hoop!!! When we're not in awe of his skating, we're taking notes on the many ways you can skate to a program with a hula hoop as a prompt. And what a class act!!! Parts of my ensemble group and I got off stage quickly -- right thru the entrance door backstage to a cheering and clapping Rudy!!! I like him!!!

I personally think besides the elite skaters that the skater who stole the show was Rohene Ward!!! WHAT gorgeous lines, extensions and flexiblity!!! (The guy can rival SASHA COHEN in this area!!!) PLUS, he can jump AND spin in both directions too!!! And he's just one the nicest and most gracious skaters I've ever met. All I can say is (He got a good laugh coming off the ice to a bunch of us too!)

Justin Dillon - Nice and smooth!!! (And FAST too!!!)

When we were all out to take our bows on the ice (and yes, all the ensemble skaters were introduced by name), I was right smack on the "50 yard" line with our elite skaters RIGHT in front of me center ice!!! How KEWL is THAT!?!?!

Cast Party

Rudy had to go practice super early the next morning, so he bowed out of our cast party. Don't know why Caryn couldn't make it (she rushed out REAL fast after the finale) but she looks like a busy lady anyway. Surya DID make it to the cast party and signed autographs and had LOTS of adoring fans taking pictures of her with them! You're KEWL in my book Surya!!!

Hubby liked the wine and the good bar. Food is okay... but all those who have gone to restaurants that I recommend before know I can find better pot stickers! Party was alive and kickin' though! Hubby and I didn't stay long since it was way past bedtime for me and I was turning into a pumpkin!

Adult skaters

Century Leigh - Ever the classy show girl she is!!! LOVE her dress too!!! And WHAT a sweetie off ice too!!! I just LOVE her energy!!! (She strongly recommends I save up for Germany next year!)

Amy Entwistle - Also another gorgeous skater!!! Nice gal too!!!

Elizabeth Floriani - (yet another lovely skater!!!) skated to "Knowing When to Leave."

John Braun aka "Contessa de la Frommage" was such a hoot!!! Love him...er, her...er... (He had a lovely hair pin in his blond wig that I'd just LOVE to have!)

Our own "Lives To Skate", Burt Powley is definitely an attention getter with his gorgeous skating (including an EASY double flip and death drop) and his skating jacket and pants outfit. The closest way to describe it is that it reminds me of one of those 70's disco balls!!! There were quite a few spectators and kids who gravitated towards Burt either after the show or during intermission... not sure if it's more b/c of his skating or his outfit though!

And yes, folks!!! Now that I've met him myself... he's KEWL in my book!!! And if I was in his shoes and, at a time, was pretty much near death's door...only to come back to skate and win like he did at AN -- damn straight I'm gonna go celebrating my life now too!!! You GO, "Lives To Skate!!!" You GO!!!

Last but definitely NOT least... Edward Van Campen...kinda hard to decide whether you're an "almost elite skater" or one of the "adult skater" given (but choose to put him here b/c of his recent bronze medal at AN in the Championship Masters Men event!) WHAT a handsome matador he was as he's skating to Malaguena!!! MAJOR KUDOS for his figure loop, footwork and BIG split jumps in his program!!! Also a charmer off ice too!!! (Which, knowing my luck, probably means if you're one of his MITF students, you won't be "charmed" for long! )

Edward and I briefly talked backstage as well as at the cast party over some fried pot stickers and other fried appetizers. FrankR, if you are reading this, please tell your moves coach that he has a fan in SF and if he's ever back in SF again, I would love to take him out for some REALLY GOOD pot stickers -- worthy of this SF foodie too!!! Love to hear what his response is!

There are some of you I didn't get to see b/c of either costume change or just plain concentrating for the next group number. If I didn't mention you... I humbly apologize!!! I was changing for our next number and I really wished I had a chance to see your number.

General Notes:

First thing, it was a LOOOOONG night!!! Two sold out crowds! I didn't do much skating, but I still had to be in skates throughout the show b/c the ensembles are scattered throughout the shows. Each show was at least two hours!!! My feet are KILLING me!!! And I already turned into a pumpkin by the time the cast party was getting started!!! And when I got home I got about 45 bobby pins to secure the hair extension bun, which was also a pain to remove b/c of the stiff hair from the TON of hairspray my hairstylist put on my head... (but people loved my hair and makeup job!!!)

Second thing, it's been a while since I've worked on an ensemble number, never mind 3 numbers. And trust me, it's very scary to learn 3 synch skating number with 16 people who has no experience in synch skating, never mind various skating levels, in two months' time!!!

But we made it!!! Overall, it was a good experience to go thru! I learn a lot about skating with a group, formed some strong friendships and met some new friends!!! I loved the "hen party" (costume and makeup) ... and learn a lot about being part of a skating synch group. Not sure I want to do this again next year, though, admittedly!!! But I can now say that I've done something "interesting" in my skating life and have no regrets about the experience!!!

But would I do this again??? It's a great show experience and I love being around all these wonderful skaters. The show experience was great!!! However, I value my own training time more than ever. There's so much I need to work on in my skating and I really want to go to Adult Nationals sometime in my lifetime!!! I also value the autonomy of being a single skater, so unless things change, I plan on remaining a single skater.

Berkeley Iceland is NOT closing... for now!!!

From SFGate:

BERKELEY
Rink gets a month to modify ice making

A popular ice rink has received an extra month to improve an ice-making system that Berkeley fire officials have called "a distinct hazard to life or property."

The city had given Berkeley Iceland until Monday to remove 4,200 pounds of ammonia from its refrigeration system but has agreed to give the 65-year- old rink until Sept. 23 to install a temporary mobile refrigeration system that will allow it to operate during its hockey season.

Iceland hopes to have completed a major overhaul of its cooling system by the time the permit for that temporary system expires in April, said rink administrative manager Monte Tiedemann.

City officials threatened in December to close Iceland, at 2727 Milvia St. , because it had not improved its cooling system despite two documented leaks of toxic ammonia gas since 1998. The city later learned that the company was storing more than five times the 750 pounds of ammonia it had earlier reported.

The new mobile ice-making unit, which Tiedemann said will cost more than $100,000 to operate, will use about 800 pounds of ammonia, according to city officials. The firm renting the system to Iceland is Willy Bietak Productions Inc., which provided refrigeration for the 2002 Winter Olympic games in Salt Lake City.

The rink is a hangarlike building that opened in 1940 and covers almost a city block just west of Shattuck Avenue in South Berkeley. It is across the street from a day care center and numerous homes, and there is a high school less than a block away -- all reasons for concern by city officials.

WHEW!!! Another bullet from the city of Berkeley dodged!!! This is a big relief for me! Now I can quietly concentrate on Bronze moves! :) (I skate at this rink on weekends! It's just too DAMN crowded at all the other rinks during the week. I rely heavily on this rink for my training!)

Fire & Ice, The Reality Show...

Well, it's a week before our show... and to be frank, a lot of us are stressed and losing our normal patience. There are quite a few ummm...observations and my comments:

• There are people who think that everything is going too fast. (Here's your chance to challenge yourself!!!)
  
• There are people who think that the skater is too boring and non-challenging for them. (Sorry, but this is a group ensemble show and you need to work WITH the group! If you don't like working at anyone else's pace but your own, you should be working solo...)
  
• There are people who try to be a coach -- you know who you are! We know that you are much beter skaters than us and are trying to show us the ropes but... PLEASE take it up your issues with the other skaters with our choreographer!!! It's HER job to fix things!!! You will be frustrated if you try to do that. (Yes, do work with us on thing that you need from us to feel comfortable, but unless it impacts your skating, please leave our skating to our coaches! That's what we pay them to do!!!)
  
• I know we're pulling a LOT of hours, but please remember our choreographer and our producer of the show too! They pull in a LOT more hours than you and they definitely have a reason to be stressed!!! Please be patient with them, especially when they yell at you for no apparent reason.
  
• We got less than one week 'til the show happens!!! I can see our ensemble numbers coming together nicely! I recommend now to take a deep breath and enjoy the experience!!! Besides, how often do we skate in the SAME show as Surya Bonaly, Rudy Galindo, and Caryn Kavady altogether??? ;)
  
• And for those who can't appreciate the previous bullet point, look forward to that nice (albeit short) break afterwards from all those weekend rehearsals!!! *evil grin*
  

I'm tempted to say "break a leg." But since this is an ice skating show, I'll just say "good luck" to all the skaters in the show! We CAN do this!!!

Peter Jennings signs off permanently... :(

RIP, Mr. Jennings!!!

Fire & Ice, Part Quatre

HOLY BACKFLIPS!!! Surya Bonaly just got added into the cast for our show!!! =:-O

This should be interesting. I wonder how Thom is gonna put her into the show...

Ensembles rehearsal are coming along. We just started doing weekend rehearsals!!! And there's one more routine that the women ensemble group will have to learn. I still have to go shopping for a very bright shirt for one of the numbers.

Off Ice tickets are ALL SOLD OUT!!! We only have on ice tickets (i.e. NOT the cheap seats) available now... and that's also going fast too!

Saying goodbye to an old reliable friend...

Oh, dear... what can I say... it's almost time for me to say goodbye to my beautiful but very old purple Honda Civic. Just got the latest estimate on my car repair and to completely fix it would be twice as much as the Blue Book value of the car! I'm forced having to get a new car.... ASAP!!! (I can still drive it but only for shorter trips.)

Finance is gonna get tighter for me, so I'm force to have to say goodbye to my pilates session too, much to the chegrin of my secondary skating coach! I probably will have other difficult expenses that I need to cut out as well to make ends meet... but I have to do it! No, skating won't get cut, but there are other areas I will make cuts on.

I may also (long term) start my job search for a better salary job. I really can't afford living on this salary for very long...

Fire & Ice, Part Trois

The rehearsal are getting there... it's not perfect yet... and I still gotta get myself a BOLD color shirt for a number too. (Will opt for BRIGHT PURPLE one to go with my skates...) >:-)

Tickets:
Off Ice Seats (the cheaper seats) are selling out!!! The On Ice seats are left!!! I know they're not as cheap, but you CAN get a discounted on-Ice tickets thru me (since I'm part of the cast!) Just reply with your email address on this thread and we'll work out something where you can pay me for your discounted ticket and I'll order your ticket thru my reference...

LOTS of press...including...

* Flyers all over the city!!! (I'll have to find a coffee shop "somewhere" where they DON'T have a flyer!!!)
* Full page ads in magazines (don't know which ones though...)
* 92.7 FM radio will begin airing promotions about the show on a daily basis
* NBC 11 TV will begin airing promotions about the show in the coming weeks

MAN, what am I getting into... =:-O :-P

Figure skater's car repair...

Was driving to the gas station earlier to put more oil into my car before heading to my weekend rink. Drove halfway to the weekend rink and I started smelling gas. I pulled over and ACK!!! My oil cap is gone and oil is spraying all over the engine!!! I called up my Honda shop to find out if they has gas cap for my old car. Thankfully, they did!!! But, the station is at least 5 miles!!! I need a stop gap oil cap until I get there!

No problem!!! I used the towel that I usually wipe my skating blades with as a stop gap oil cap and drove to the Honda shop. Bought the cap and put the thing on! All is resolved!

Now to figure out how to get the oil off my skating blade cloth... I hope there's enough bleach on that towel... or hubby's whites are in for a rude awakening... :-P (He grabbed my towel and threw them in with HIS whites and dumped a load of bleach in there...)

I told a skating buddy about my stop gap oil cap. She just cracks up and says "Only a skater would do that!!!" I guess that true... :-P

My one frustration: I still need my ice time, DAMMIT!!! :-( (I was planning to go to my pilates session afterwards, so I can't go now.) I guess I'll have to go sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. *sigh*

UPDATE 1: For those who were worried about my safety and thought I was NUTS for putting in the towel as a stop gap oil cap...

http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?p=236392#post236392

UPDATE 2: The towel needs another wash to get all the black stains out. (It's now kinda grey-ish rather than all black...)

Jazzpants' way of eating pizza...

Today my job had their monthly "free lunch" for the employees and they had PIZZA!!! AUGH!!! Bad news for this gal who has an (luckily mild) allergy reaction to milk and milk products!!! :-( Don't feel like spending for lunch today since I'm kinda watching my cash for an expectedly expensive car maintanance. As it is, I don't make enough $$$...and husband can't contribute either...

Here's how I eat pizza:
1) Take pizza to big plate (make sure the toppings are in big chunks.)
2) Wait 'til pizza is cooled off enough where the cheese will start stretchable...
3) Take plastic knife and fork and start pulling out topping from pizza.
4) Take cheesey topping parts and separate out the cheese from the other toppings. Dump cheese parts to a smaller plate. Keep non-cheese toppings on bigger plate.
5) Eat non-cheese parts and crust (assuming the pizza crust doesn't already have cheese baked into it or having cheese on top...)

I know... I'm weird! But my company orders the pizza and I'm in the minority for milk allergies... so I can't request for a cheeseless pizza. :-(

Farewell, Blond Window Guy!

Look like the blond window guy is no longer going to be at the window anymore. He hasn't decided what he's going to do... but wherever he goes, I hope he'll be happy!

Good luck to you, Kevin!!! I will miss seeing you at the window on Monday nights! :( (And I hope if we do end up meeting somewhere in the future that it WON'T be behind a glass window, but someplace where I can finally shake hands with you.) :-P

Cheers,
The Office Window Gal

Too much work just for a root beer float!!!

This is a recipe for Root Beer Granita!!!



Geez, a good tall glass with ice cream (your favorite brand and flavor!!!) and a nice cold root beer pour over it -- why go thru all that work to freeze and melt the root beer anyway??? :P

Just doing my job.... :)

MUHAHAHAHAHAHA. This EVIL QA Engineer's plan at preventing a bad piece of software from shipping is working.

This was in my Inbox from a fellow developer mentioned about a bug that I filed, slightly edited to protect the not-so-innocent... ;)

All-

The last bug "jazzpants123" put in made me realize that I need to rework the back-end as well. Currently the app that processes tasks is pulling from "oldbutimportantdatatable". However, since the contacts are now PULLED from a more up-to-date copy of "newandcurrenttable", etc..., the two may not be in sync, and I'll get yelled at because the data doesn't match.

I'm going to work on getting that working tomorrow morning, between phone sessions with "another group" as they're trying to get the new DocImage workstations configured and online.

"Developer Person"

MUHAHAHAHAHA.... *evil and satisfied grin* (Developers way of saying thank you for preventing a potential headache from falling into his hands...)

God beamed Scotty up...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=796&e=1&u=/eo/20050720/en_celeb_eo/16979

I would like to share one of my fave Scotty moments I had watching Star Trek as a kid. (Though thru syndication... first run on network TV ended when I was a wee lass of two...)

(From "The Trouble with Tribbles")
Capt. Kirk: Scott, you didn't transport them into space did you?
Scotty: Captain Kirk, that'd be inhuman.
Capt. Kirk: Well, where are they?
Scotty: I gave them a very good home, sir.
Capt. Kirk: WHERE?
Scotty: I gave 'em to the Klingons, sir.
Capt. Kirk: You gave them to the Klingons?
Scotty: Aye, sir. Before they went into warp, I transported the whole kit'n kaboodle into their engine room, where they'll be no trouble at all....

(...except to the Klingons in the next scene, who's royally pissed...LOL!!!) :P

RIP, Scotty!!! You will be missed... :(

Recovering...slowly coming back online...

The swelling from my left cheek has pretty much gone down and I'm almost back to normal again. The left HIP is totally bruised up in black and purple... It's not a pretty sight, lemme tell 'ya... :-(

I went back to skate on Sat. at my weekend rink. I've been noticing that I'm playing it more cautiously on Sat. as opposed to today, mostly b/c there were a lot of kids and I didn't want to crash into them. The bad part is that I could just let myself go and skate as fast as I possibly can, which is exactly what I need to practice for Bronze moves and my artistic program!!! The most I could do is to work out tough sections in small chunks and build up my skils so I can go do stuff at higher speeds.

The good news though is that when the crowd started going away towards the end of the public session today and I don't have as many people on the ice, I was able to do those Bronze moves with no problem. I feel the test date getting closer. I think I'm just about ready now though. (The test date I'm aim on is the Saturday of the Labor Day weekend.)

Bonus of the day is being able to do an attitude spin. They're not pretty or perfect, but I can do them now!!! :D

Even BIGGER BONUS: Having a couple of small kids asks if I was a "star" or something... Awwwwww!!! :-)

Turn the other cheek... :(

I had a collision with a skater this morning! She's okay. (Just another hip bruise to add to her collection of other hip bruises...) I took it on the hip and on the left cheek (face). Got a bruise and some cuts on both. My left cheek is swollen right now. Nerves are shoot too!

I think both of us were in each other's blind spots and we both were going very fast on the ice. (She on her program and me on my moves.) With 22 people on the ice (not counting the coaches) on a freestyle session and everyone going fast, it was only a matter of time before something like this happens!

I'm determined to just get back to business as usual (but with some makeup on it for now though! I don't want people to think that my husband's a wife-beater or that I had got into some bar room fight!!! LOL!!!)

I appreciate everyone's support and concern in getting me off the ice and making sure I'm okay! And no, I do NOT have a concussion. ("Yes, you have 10 fingers... 4 of them held up...")

Rudy Galindo joins Fire & Ice Cast!!!

YEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAW!!! Another Elite skater is joining the cast at Fire & Ice!!! This is gonna be a FUN show. And if Thom is lucky, a THIRD elite skater is in the works. (I know who it is too, but I'm not gonna disclose it 'til it's official.)

For those of you who don't know of Rudy Galindo, he's the 1996 US Nationals champion and World Bronze medalist. He is also known for being 1) a very openly gay figure skater and 2) the first elite skater who has come out that he is HIV positive. You might see him on occasion on TV doing a professional competition. :)

Click here if you guys like to get tickets for this show! It's for a good cause!!! :)

Fire & Ice, Part Deux; Bronze Moves progress

The show is coming along pretty well so far in our third week of learning our ensemble routine!!! I hope my skating will do justice for this show. There are 15,000 flyers for Fire & Ice that got distributed to the public doing the Gay Pride weekend. I hope we'll get a full house and raise TONS of $$$ for charity. :) Other than that, it's quite fun doing the group number!!! (Of course, some women had more fun than me. They get to do pair lifts!!!)

Of course, my lower back doesn't think it's fun doing this program... and it was hurtin' after skating the public session Should have gotten off about 15 minute before the end of the session but I really wanted to get a tip on backspins from a fellow skating buddy of mine.

I worked primarily on two things: 1) Bronze Moves and 2) footwork and Chinese spirals for my artistic program! Bronze Moves is doing pretty well. My weak move is getting faster and it's looking quite nice. Hopefully I could get my secondary coach to look at it before I do the test, but I think I'll have to rely on Jay for this Moves test. (He hasn't steered me wrong. Then again, he did make me do the test last year knowing that I would fail it, so...) :(

The footwork for the artistic program is still not quite there yet. I'm still hesitating slightly on a couple of footwork steps and totally bailed entering RFI3 from the speed I'm supposed to go into a Chinese spiral from (though I can do them now at slightly slower speeds.) I skated pretty fast tonight, but it was hard to push for quicker speed when there's at least 30 skaters on the ice with you... EEEEK!!!

Time to hit the showers!!! :-D

My ex-company just got acquired!!!

... by our (now former) competitor!!!

http://www.sdl.com/company/trados/trados-faq.htm#titan-faq-What%20does%20this%20mean%20for%20customers%20of%20TRADOS

It's interesting news but not that much of a surprise. The company hasn't been in the best financial shape since at least a year ago now. We kept missing our numbers quarter after quarter since Q2 2004 (which is why I was laid off in Jan 2005) and I didn't really see any real effort to try to fix the problem after that. I was told by a source (when pointing out that you're being acquired by a competitor) "Well, what can you do when your investors wanted their money back?" This part was also no surprise if you think like a VC...and physically worked there as a engineering grunt with an ear for gossip... *evil grin*

I suspect as with all mergers that eventually there will be another round of layoffs to figure out the "redundant" resources. I'm concerned about some of the friends who are still working for TRADOS. Some of them came halfway across the world (from Germany) just to work here at TRADOS!!! And of course, the Chinese contingency too b/c of their immigration Visas. And definitely accounting too!!! The after-sales deployment team should be safe on the short term!

A couple of recommendation for tea rooms

Time to put on my foodie hat!!!

My favorite one is this little place called LoveJoy's Tea Room in the Noe Valley district of San Francisco. I've been going thru since it was at his old locale at 24th St. and Church! It has since moved down the block to Clipper and Church, but the tea and food is still the same!!! This is probably the closest I've seen to British High Tea here in SF. Very feminine and relaxing environment. I know that a couple of my women friends wanted to do their bridal showers at that location...

However, I would also like to recommend another place for tea for the MEN who appreciates tea but not the frilly feminine feel of LoveJoy -- Samovar Tea Lounge over at 18th St. and Sanchez in the Castro district (also in San Francisco.) British High Tea, it ain't!!! The feel is more woodsy and Asian! It also has a lot more choices for the type of tea you could try too. It does have less choices for sandwiches but makes up for it in other foods offered. Best part (especially for your computer geeks out there...) -- WIFI HOTSPOTS!!! (I see lots of guys sitting with their tea with their laptops!!!) And it's open a lot later than LoveJoy's too! Very relaxing environment!!!

HP iPAQ 4000 Pocket PC

Good news: I got a (sorta) new toy... an HP iPAQ h4000 series Pocket PC!!! :D (Or at least this one's the closest picture to what I physically have in my hand.)

Bad news: it's not mine's to keep! It belongs to my company!

More bad news: I'm going to be testing software for the iPAQ and I have no experience in this area at all!!! And they want a quick turnaround time to test this thing. EEEEEK!!!! =8-O

Nevertheless, this toy should be fun to play with though. I never had a pocketPC before, never mind test software on those, so this should be an interesting experience. :)

Caberet On Ice: Fire & Ice (Part Deux)

We started rehearsals for the ensemble number for "Fire & Ice" this week. It's gonna look REALLY good when it's SHOWTIME, BABY!!! We got our 20 ensemble skaters now... and we don't know if there will be some that will end up in the transitional group. (They're just skating and hold flags and going around. They will probably show up just for the final four rehearsals!) But as far as I know, I'm in the ensemble numbers and my name might on the website soon as a member of the ensemble cast on the cast list. (There's at least 3 skaters that signed up on the same day I did and their names are not up there yet. Probably Thom's waiting for the check to clear first.) ;)

I'm happy to announce that tickets are now officially on sale (will go thru PayPal...) Also, Caryn Kadavy will be our elite skater star for the show! There is also one more elite skater that is being signed to the show, but until it's official... (And if you don't know the locale, it's at the Yerba Buena rink in San Francisco.)

If you are planning to be in the San Francisco Bay Area, please go to this show!!! It's for a worthy cause and it's gonna be SMASHIN'!!! WHEEEEE!!!! :-D

"Stalker Kitty!!!" :-P

I have a neighbor's cat which is totally adorable... but getting totally annoying!

He's a grey and white cat by the name of "Buddy" We thought at first the cat was a girl b/c of his affectionate nature, the size of the cat and the fact that the cat has a little bell on his collar, but it turned out to be a boy that likes to take on fights with cats much bigger than him!!! (I never said that cat is smart...) ;) He's a very nice kitty... until it starts eyeing the prize, which is getting into our garage!!! We try to keep all cats and dogs out not just b/c of the smell but also b/c my husband is allergic to the dander from both cats and dogs. (But if the cat or dog is outdoor, his allergy doesn't act up as much.)

These days Buddy is getting more "daring" trying to get into the house. It actually tried the last couple of times of hiding in the bush... until our garage doors opens and Buddy sees that the car is out before it tries to sneak into the house thru the now opened garage door!!! And then when we catch him trying to get in, he goes into "affectionate kitty" mode, all the while eyeing the open garage door prize.

A neighbor of ours suggested a water pistol. *sigh* as much as I hate being cruel to Buddy... lately I have been resorting to "target practice" with the water gun whenver the cat either tries to sneak in the house or get too close to the garage door so we feel weird about closing the door on him. (Alright! My sadistic side LOVES the target practice, given what Buddy puts us through.) *evil grin*

Hell, if we could just get the kitty to stay away from the door when we're closing it, we'll be happy! We (everyone in the neighborhood) loves Buddy, but... we have to go work!!! :-P

3 Phrases that guarantee a happy marriage...

I got good chuckle this Sunday from Dear Abby...

DEAR ABBY: From time to time in years past, you have offered your readers tips for a happy marriage. Have you any to share today? -- ENGAGED IN OHIO

DEAR ENGAGED: As a matter of fact, I do. At the wedding of his youngest daughter, my friend John P. McMeel offered the following "three phrases that guarantee a happy marriage":

"I was wrong."
"You were right."
"I love you."

What an uplifting story!!!

(Don't forget your tissues!!!) ;)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bkh_ryan_s_shot

Looks like Jay is having fun...

... at the ISU Adult Open Competition... Can't wait to get the results!!! :) (Scroll down to bottom of page on link to see a picture of Jay. He's the one with the loud leopard spot green shirt!!!) *rolleyes* :-P

Edited to Add: Looks like his overall skating is great but his jumps are lousy. :-(

Take a gander at the score for his event (using the fairly new "Code of Point" system.) It's pretty interesting to watch to see that everyone's overall skating is pretty similar. (Jay is about the same if not better overall than Burton Powley. See all but the Performance/Execution score, then look at the Performance/Execution and the Total Element and Segment score, and you'll see that his "technical difficulty" wasn't as high as everyone else. I think he took some falls... which is possible given what I saw in his practice. The judges detail notes also tells me the same too!!!

Given what I've heard about Burton Powley and his skating (and seeing the scores...) I think it's time he moves up to compete as a Masters Men skater! I think his skating is good enough to challenge most of the Master's men.

I'm an ESFJ!!!

I just took this Myer's Briggs Personality Test. I'm an ESFJ!!! :)

Your career personality type is ESFJ

That means that based on the standard measure of personality traits, you are a strong team player and believe the needs of the group come before the individual. You generally care about the people around you, which allows you to provide a
personal touch at your workplace. That sense of caring allows you to feel personal accomplishment and acceptance from your co-workers who know they can turn to you for help.

You are generous with your time and spirit and look to make the present moment better for everyone. Your emotional strength combined with a pragmatic approach to work makes you a strong asset. You have a strong work ethic and inspire others by your example. Because of this, you are a strong leader on any team.The reason employers and recruiters might be on the lookout for you is that only about 11% of the U.S. population shares the unique characteristics of your personality type. Research shows that businesses succeed when employers create a good balance of personality types in the office. And since only 11% of the U.S. population shares your type, that means employers are looking for you.

Good luck to my primary coach...

No lesson today with my primary coach, Jay! He is currently preparing for his competition in Oberstdorf, Germany at the International Adult Figure Skating Competition this weekend. This competition is dubbed the very first "Adults World" competition. Of course, we also have the Mountain Cup competition in Villard -de-Lans, France every year, but it's not officially sanctioned (that I know of) by the ISU. Skaters ALL over the world are going to be at this competition, including my good (online) skating buddy, Annabel Smyth! (Go, Annabel!!!)

Gay Games in Montreal, Canada is also coming up! Seems just like yesterday that I watched the videos for the Gay Games 2002. The guys at the rink are bugging me to sign up for this event. Of course, the only comment I could come up with was "Ummm...er, but I'm straight? I don't have to be gay to be in the Gay Games?" (Answer is "No you can compete even if you're straight.") And of course, there's the Winter Games in Turin... (But I'm saving up for Adults Nationals 2006 in Dallas!)

In any case, GO JAY!!! Go kick some ice butts out there!!!

The move to "Bronze"... so far so good!

It's looking good as of last Thursday's lesson with my primary. I still had a couple of "gotchas" but for the most part, he's nodding his head and saying that it's looking better and better each week. He's very optimistic about my testing in Sept. In fact, he's showing his confidence by making me do spins in the reminding 5-10 minutes of the lesson.

Here are my current status for Bronze Moves:

Forward Power 3's: I still occasionally fall back to the bad habit of steping and then turning my foot onto the FO edge for the FO3, but I'm doing them a lot less now. LFO3 are still kinda slow but getting faster each week. Of course, knowing my secondary coach, she's not gonna be happy with it b/c it's not fast enough for her. (She wants to see LOTS of speed! You should be zipping along...) Primary coach says that he has seen one of his students pass Bronze Moves with LFO3 slower than my LFO3... and my RFO3 is my STRONGER side. (RFO3 is this particular student's weaker side.)

5 step mohawk: Occasionally I'm clunking the FI mohawks. I'm not wide stepping as much now, if at all... but it's still not a perfect FI mohawk. Otherwise, he's happy...

Everything else is pretty much steady, with the forward perimeter crossovers essentially the move that has to be extra strong in case one of the other moves on the test is weak. But I better build everything else too so that doesn't happen though.

Now the problem... I have not been working on jumps in a LOOOONG time!!! My loops and flips are now consistently on two foot landing status. And here he is working on my backspins and not my jumps. I guess he's particularly nervous about them since currently it does spin more than 5 revs (and probably more if I wanted it to)... but I'm not crossing the leg and making it look like I staying on the BO edge. (Occasionally it rocks back and forth between the BO & BI edge!) So...I trust that he has a reason for his madness. But even with those spins, he thinks I'll have a good chance passing with those backspins. (He reminded me that he has seen people passed Bronze FS with backspins a lot worse than mine.) My worries now is my "third single jump" for the test. All the other requirements for Bronze FS I could do almost in my sleep...

We'll see... this will be a close one.

"Cat Laptop Bypass" indeed

Okay, this is WAAAAAY too cute!!! Check out this picture!!! LOL!!!

Julie Andrews' "Favorite Things" for her 69th Birthday

This was forward to me from a friend. I just had to share this. Especially if you 1) have grew up watching "The Sound of Music" as a kid and 2) have grew up SINGING this stuff as a kid!!! (I wanted to do pop or Rock N Roll!)

To commemorate her 69th birthday on October 1, actress/vocalist Julie Andrews made a special appearance at Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall for the benefit of the AARP. One of the musical numbers she performed was "My Favorite Things" from the legendary movie "Sound Of Music." However, the lyrics of the song were deliberately changed for the entertainment of her "blue hair" audience. (Sing the song as you gooooo....)

Here are the lyrics she recited

Maalox and nose drops and needles for knitting,
Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,
Bundles of magazines tied up in string,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Cadillacs and cataracts and hearing aids and glasses,
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,
Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,
These are a few of my favorite things.

When the pipes leak,
When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets, and corn pads for bunions,
No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,
Bathrobes and heat pads and hot meals they bring,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Back pains, confused brains, and no fear of sinnin',
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin',
And we won't mention our short shrunken frames,
When we remember our favorite things.

When the joints ache,
when the hips break,
When the eyes grow dim,
Then I remember the great life I've had,
And then I don't feel so bad.

Ms. Andrews received a standing ovation from the crowd that lasted over four minutes and repeated encores.

Caberet On Ice: Fire & Ice

I have just signed up for the Fire & Ice show!!! I will be part of the ensemble group. It's gonna be FUN!!! (And no, I will not be doing a solo. I'm getting better, but still not THAT great a skater... yet!!!) :-P

Paige Scott, who's doing the choreography, also is the choreographer for our Tremors synch team... and she's GREAT!!! Knowing her, she might let some skaters have solo parts within the group number. (i.e. possible skaters will criss-cross thru as they're doing some interesting move like a split jump or a spiral, or maybe a group of people will do spins or something...)

The cast for the ensemble doesn't have the list of skaters who just signed up. My name should show up with those people once tickets go on sale June 15th and they annouced the headliners. :)

I don't think I'll have a problem with my skating coaches letting me do this. But you never know since this year is particularly busy with 1) Bronze Moves test, 2) new artistic number, and 3) revamp/new(?) Bronze FS program before the end of the year. Should be interesting... :-P

Looking for more technical challenges...

Need to start talking to my boss after my current project about getting a project that's more challenging for me. I would like to see if I could persuade him to at least let me try a couple of UI test automation and I could start building up some test automation for the company...

Don't get me wrong though... except for this, I love my new job!!! The commute is a dream and the people there are just wonderful!!! I have the luxury doing the school year of taking off in the middle of the day to skate at a quiet public session.(Well, except for last week and this week!!!) And it's a lot more sane than my last job (as much as I enjoyed working at that last job too... and I do miss my friends there...as well as my ex-boss.) :-(

I don't know... *sigh* Part of me thinks it's not a good sign if I'm bored and not challenged on things that I think are marketable in the real world... And right now, I'm technically bored!

Other option I have is to start playing with the freebie stuff. (i.e. start learning LAMP... I got the M part of LAMP so far on my own...)

Need prayers for my artistic program...

Oh, dear! Secondary coach wants me to skate MUCH, MUCH faster than I'm comfortable with for this program. (And keep in mind, this is a 3 week old program and we were still adding on to it too!!!) She gave me this lecture when I wasn't pushing as hard as she wanted me to..

I intentionally designed this program knowing that you have these weak spots in your skating, so I can make you do them. The intended purpose is to make you take risks to make yourself get over these obstacles. I expect to see you PUSH yourself and FALL a lot!!! If you have to get wear protective pads, do it, but I expect you to take MORE risks and FALL a lot!!!

Uh oh!!! (Murder scene music inserted here!!!)

But WAIT!!! There's MORE!!!

I've also intended for this beautiful program to look
nice...but ONLY if it's skated fast.

Oh, man! Now I wonder if I'll ever live to see myself pass my Bronze Moves test... or even Peach Classic! :(

Well, at least now I AM allowed to wear those SkatingSafe pads (YAAAAY!!!!) ... BUT only under the case of that I take those risks to push myself to do those footwork the way she wants me to. Since my old SkatingSafe pads disappeared with my first pair of purple skates... (My skate bag with my first pair of purple skates and all the protection pads disappeared back in November! WAAAAAH!!!) I went and spent over $220 to get another set of those SkatingSafe pads! The one extra for myself is that I got myself the glove pads also... so I don't screw up my hands/wrists...as much!!!

Of course, if I'm fortunate enough to stay alive thru this and actually get thru the skating obstacles in this program, it may actually turn out pretty nice! Until then, please pray for me!!! *whimper* :(

Now I know how Nancy Kerrigan feels...

Went to my weekend rink and had lots of (for the most part) nice empty ice to skate on! Everything was grand... until I had a collision with a young lady that was playing tag with someone and was going backwards (but not looking behind her...) I try to move around her and she ended up going EXACTLY where I was going to avoid her!!! She fell first... but I tripped over her and fell on top of her!!! NOT GOOD!!! I came off with a bruised left knee. Her, a bruised forehead on the right. OWWWW!!! My knee wasn't as bad as how much my heart dropped when I saw the young lady I collided with a nasty bruise on her forehead and majorly crying!!! (Those who know me well know I love kids and have strong "mommy/auntie" tendencies... Long story as to why I don't have my own kids...never mind writing it on a public blog...)

Lucky for both of us, after a brief rest and some ice (and I meant for icing the injury...eh, never mind...you know what I mean...) both of us were back in action!!! This is one case where it was better to "skate it off," because if I didn't I would lose the flexibility I need to walk (which requires some bend of the knee.) Probably the only thing I couldn't really do initially were backspins and toe loops. (Requiring deep knee bend on both for the LFI3.) But eventually I did both of those at the end of the session too! Speaking of FI3's, my RFI3's has improved a bit... then again, just being able to do them is improvement to me!!!

Of course, after I had dinner later tonight, I whacked the same knee again as I was getting out of the car. Car door decided to close by itself... right into the already injured left knee! (OWWWWW!!!) "WHY ME!?!?!?!"

I'm thinking of staying off the ice and the gym on Monday. I just don't want to push it. I want to save myself for my lesson on Wednesday. In fact, maybe I'll just stay in bed all day tomorrow. Don't wanna risk getting my knees hit by a stray door or wall or water cooler or...

Hello Maddah! Hello Faddah...

An online dialog I had between me and a fellow skating who's going to take an ice dance (Cha-cha) test next week. This dialog developed out of the "Word Association Game" Thread in the Non-Skating Section of the skating forum. The purpose of this thread was to post a word or short phrase that associates with the word that the last poster posted...

So we left it at: (word in bold is the word to associate.)

Oracle: camp
jazzpants (me): Granada ("Hello, Muddah! Hello Faddah...")
sk8r1964: Cha-cha (I'm testing that next week, and that's the music! I keep singing that in my head) 8O
jazzpants (me): ice dance (I have an idea for you to think about when you're nervous about testing the Cha-cha. Imagine coming into the test session with a "camp girl" outfit ... and totally freak out your coach by telling her that you're gonna go test in that outfit!!!)
sk8r1964: OMG! I almost died laughing! My coach is a guy (about 15 years younger than me), and he's taking me though my test. To imagine the look on his face if I appeared in that outfit... He'd be and looking to melt into the ice ! Sorry -- back to jazzpants' word.......ice dance

Okay. For those who aren't skaters... the joke behind this is partly that one dreadful thing about doing ice dancing is that you have to skate to corny music over and over again in order to demonstrate that you can "ice dance" in form and music to that particular dance. (It also drives everyone who skates regularly with you up the friggin' wall too!!!) In this case, sk8r1964 had to demonstrate in front of a panel of judges (i.e. test) that she can do Cha-cha ice dances to the Cha-cha version of the tune of "Camp Granada" is. (A bit of history and the lyric to "Camp Granada.") Skating tests are excruitingly nerve wrecking!!! So I suggested the idea of wearing a "camp girl's outfit" to test to ease the tension of testing the Cha-cha...

Evil gal, I am!!! *evil grin*

Catching up on life...

First thing, I'm back!!! And I’m sorry for not posting for a while… but life has been interesting…

I've been off the board partly because I've been sick with the stomach flu. (It's been affectionately named the "Roto Rooter" bug.) For about two days the only thing I was able to hold down was water, broth, liquids... essentially bland watery foods. I lost a couple of pounds very quickly b/c of that! (Extremely effective way of losing weight, but I wouldn't recommend this method.) :-P It took a while to completely recover from this flu! The worst part is that it's now going around the office at my job. Our receptionist was out with the "Rooter bug" from last Wednesday to Friday. She came back Monday from getting over it, but is still kinda ill. :(

Then I tried to get back into my normal routine too soon (i.e. skate, work out at the gym.) Spins were crappy because even though I was well enough to go back to work, I was not well enough to skate. On the Monday I got back from the illness, my stomach still feels like it's swirling around. Last week I tried to keep my 3 days a week workout schedule at the gym, plus pilates and just couldn't do it. Last Sunday I was starting to feel mildly nauseous again and thought "Oh, no! Not again..." I barely had the energy to skate and this went on well into this past Monday night. Currently I'm holding up much better and slowly getting back into my workout routine. And of course, as soon as I got better, the weight came back! Nothing but water weight I lost...

My secondary coach and I just started my new artistic program for this year. This is a change from my usual routine because my primary coach has been doing my choreography in the past and usually it's put together two months before Skate SF (usually it's Halloween weekend, but this year it's the weekend AFTER!) I'm also starting about 5-6 months before Skate SF and with a new choreographer!!! I was going to go with our rink’s top choreographer but after seeing some of the choreography that my secondary coach did with her students, I thought it'd be more convenient to have her do mine this year! I've picked a good safe choice that I think the judges will like. Secondary coach loves this music artist! We are now starting to choreograph this number! It’s gonna be a pretty program… (Of course, I would LOVE for my skating to do justice to it.) *rolleyes*

As for my quest for Adults Nationals 2006 in Dallas... my primary coach thinks that I'm just about ready to take the Bronze Moves test. He's opting for me taking the test in Sept. of this year for a few reasons: 1) to give me the time to get my moves on auto-pilot, 2) to get around the rush for the kids to test to qualified for "Centrals", and 3) to take advantage of the new Adult Moves Test rules, which now focuses on "strength and flow" rather than "power." (I'm skating steady right now, but I’m not fast. If I keep this up, I should be okay under the new rules.) He thinks that given that change, it's much easier for me to pass in Bronze Moves. My secondary coach originally disagrees and thinks I have a way to go. But she just read the new proposed changes that just passed at the Governing Council and see that the bar just got lowered for the adults, much to her relief.

Of course, I’ll humor my primary coach and take the test just to see what happens, because even if I were to address those issues that my secondary coach mentioned (which I am, see below), it will take a while for me to get strong and flexible enough to do these moves. I want to pass both Bronze Moves and Freestyle test this year!!! It’s unacceptable that I would have to sit home while everyone is at Dallas b/c I’m held back again by the Bronze Moves test. I’ve working on Bronze Moves for over 3 years. It (my becoming a Bronze Lady) is becoming a big joke now. I would like to stop laughing about it and start making it happen! :)

I also on a work deadline and had to get thru it. I’ve been typing this in between the times I’m waiting for FileMaker Pro to load up all these files with HUGE amounts of data. (GRRRR!!! SLOW as molasses!!!) My current project essentially consists of doing database synchronization between FileMaker Pro and an accounting system called Macola. BOOOORING as well, but it’s the first of many things to come on this HUGE migration project.

Last but not least, I have started pilates training. My pilates trainer, Mike, is doing his job so far. We’ll see what happens.

Am not skating on Wednesday nights anymore...

I'm starting to gain back some weight from not doing enough cardio and I'm not getting as much productive practice as I would like, so I am going to switch back to doing the gym on Wed nights to help get that 3 day a week at the gym.

I'm just sick of having to deal with the kids there and I need an emptier session to start gaining power on the moves w/o feeling like I'm gonna crash into someone. I'll try this for a few weeks to see what happens.

Also, I'm now looking into doing Pilates either on Sat. or Sun. with a Pilates trainer to appease the secondary coach goddess' need for me to be more flexible and have more muscle control. I don't know if I'll add more skating time... but if I don't, I don't think it'll be that big of a loss... (Of course, I'll tell the secondary coach this. I think she'll understand why I'm dropping Wed. nights, considering that I take lessons on Wed mornings with her! And my primary coach doesn't really care about how I spend my time as much... he just wants results!) :-P

Playing QA spy again...

I'm now learning the Extreme Programming Model so that my company can get started on using this model for testing software. This should be a pretty hard sell though since everyone right now has their own office and is very content having their own cube and not into the open office model that this model is encouraging.

And then a thought came to me... I was thinking of the office setup that the blond office window guy was in. Initially when I saw the office I thought "Ewww!!! No privacy!!! And I have to face people in the middle too!" Now thinking about it, it was INTENTIONAL!!! I saw how the office had design notes and how the objects are organized. I also noticed on occasions that they have a meeting in that office but on occasions, one or two may have headphones on and keep working. I realized that this was part of the working environment that EPM promotes. However, I don't see developers work in pairs that often, though there may be cases where a developer is hovering over a person's computer on something. (Pairs programming?)

The other thing I noticed that's strange is that they all work at pretty much the same hours!!! They also mostly leave at the same time too...well, except for the Lead Engineer/founder (Yeap -- "Blond office window guy") who usually leaves first.

I wonder if they know that I'm slowly picking up on how they work, even though I don't know their technology yet. Well, other than that they're writing in Java and are probably using LAMP (b/c they're a startup!) :-P

Post AN stuff... and next year's stuff!!!

AN was fun, even though I didn't attend it. Imagined if I did attend... :)

Lots of my friends have medalled. A couple of them even got the Gold!!! And lots of interesting things at the post-AN competitors party!!! Oh, my!!! :)

My poor primary coach got a lot of people asking "So when am I testing and qualifying for AN?" He says "When she gets her power 3's!!!" *rolleyes* Figures!!! :-P They also hassled him to hassle me to go to Peach Classic in September. Better start saving now...

Of course, there's "other gossips" too but...

Next year's Adult Sectionals is sorta on my home turf! I really want to make my debut as a Bronze lady this year and I've been pushing myself hard to pass Bronze moves b/c I'm really sick of it and also b/c I need to pass it to work on passing the Bronze FS (which I'm already close to getting... all I need is a program!!!) to qualify for AN. The talk now is that I will test once the new skating season starts and all the kids are done with testing for regionals, so that 1) I don't get really tough judges who also will be scrutinizing the kids along with me and 2) the test requirements for the Moves test would have been changed to make it easier for me to pass the test.

GRRRR!!!! (But... he's right! No chance in hell I'm getting enough power from my skating to pass this year.)

Last Lesson before AN...

My primary coach and I had our lesson this afternoon before he takes off for Adults Nationals. This year he is "in retirement" and won't be competing, much to the sadness of a lot of adult skaters out there, because he's such a beautiful skater to watch!

Oh, dear! I still have a long way to go on my basics to be ready for Bronze Moves, especially the back crossovers going the counter-clockwise direction!!! I guess my homework this week, like last week, are practicing those 'til the cows come home! I also have work to do on my FI mohawks too! He skipped working on forward power 3's this week (which is just as well, since the LFO side has no power whatsoever.) *rolleyes* However, he did like my forward alt. crossovers a lot!!! :D

So I got work cut out for me while both of my coaches are gone. (My secondary coach is also out of town at a competition but NOT AN!) No rest for this demi-geek/skater!!! She's got WORK to do this week!!!

Adult Nationals Send-Off Party

The skaters who ARE going to AN from my rink just had an informal freestyle session where they warm up for about a half hour and do their individual programs with the entire patch of ice split amongst the skaters there on the second half of the hour. It's like a mini-skating show of sorts and it was fun watching all the programs that are going to be done at AN -- especially the interpretatives programs! Loved all the outfits donned for the program! :)

I wish them all good luck at Kansas City! Go kick some ice butts out there, you guys!!!

Getting close to Adults Nationals

...and I'm not going!!! :( I am STILL struggling to pass my Bronze Moves test this year. I've worked very hard for the last 3 years to pass just this one test. I did take this test back in August but I was nowhere near ready. This year I'm a bit closer to being ready, but I'm going thru some rough patches on a couple of the moves.

Right now:

Forward alt. crossovers - It's the strongest of the moves! I think I'll pass with this move, but it's still not perfect yet. I sense at least one of the judges will ding me on the quality of the crossovers.

Back alt. crossovers - Have trouble with staying on the BI edge when I step out and letting the edge ride around. And we are NOT going to talke about those back crossovers around the ends of the rink... *rolleyes*

Forward power 3's - getting much better. I think if I could get more power on my weaker LFO3 and keep going on my RFO3 side, this move may become the second move where I'll score higher than average.

Back crossover to BO edge - It's hit and miss! When it's good, it's very VERY good! But when it's bad... well, it TOTALLY SUCKS!!! AUGH!!!

5 step mohawk. The first step is consistently crappy. The 4th and 5 step is dicey b/c I have to be careful not to let it go on a flat. I've had good and bad days on this.

But WAIT!!! Even if I pass the Bronze moves, there's also the Bronze FS to take care of before I can go to AN 2006 in Dallas. Meanwhile I'm keep practicing as eveyrone else is in Kansas City... and hope that by this time next year, I will be on a plane to go to Dallas to compete. :)

Yoga... Yoga... Yoga....

This is the new command from my secondary coach for today! She wants me to start taking Yoga classes and learn to stretch those hips. In fact, she encourages yoga for me over ballet! (Now there's a first!!! She pushes ALL her students to take ballet usually...) :-P She said that she can always work on "my arms and my overall presentation." But I definitely need to work on stretching and flexibility.

I practice on the ice a lot and work out a lot at the gym as it is and now she wants YOGA too!?!?! Where am I gonna find the time besides on weekends? And since she wants at least 3 times a week, where am I gonna fit in the 3rd day? YIKES!!! =8-O Unfortunately, my primary coach and NOW my chiropractor says the same. So... *sigh*

Best bargain at Walgreen's yet...

Found THIS at the Walgreens on Market near the Castro district!!! It's $99.00, but well worth it!!!

AHHHHH!!! :D

RIP John Paul II

Nuff said... :(

Secondary choose new music...then a better song came along!!!

AAAAAUGH!!!! What a dilemma!!!

I've picked out Enya's "May It Be" from "Lord of the Rings- The Fellowship of the Ring" soundtrack. Actually it was more my secondary coach's choice out of the 6 pieces that I've picked. Most of them are soul or rock... and she had to pick the one ETHEREAL floaty piece!!! BOY do I know my secondary coach well... (Oh, well! It *IS* a beautiful piece. I hope I can do justice to it and finally WIN the artistic event this year!)

But the new piece I just stumbled along on is Duran Duran's "What Happens Tomorrow" from the relatively new Astronaut album. AUGH!!! I would love to do this piece!!! Maybe my skating friend from LA (who's a big Duran Duran fan) could do this piece justice, since she has the edges and the skating prowess for the piece. (I don't have that prowess yet, which is why I'm doing wimpy ballerina and ballad pieces now...GRRRRR!!!)

Got Bug Tracking Process first. Now the tool...

...well, not quite! It seems there's been no discussion from anyone as a group on what source code control software to use in the end (or at least whether or not VSS is the one they want to give up. This of course, determines which bug tracking system I want to evaluate, since one of my criteria is integration between the bug tracking system and VSS (or whichever SCM system they want.") But...we'll fix that Monday at our "weekly" meeting!!! :D

So I'm slowly but surely whipping this new organization in shape to become a freakin' efficient software group!!! If only the "so called geeks" (have to differiate between "REAL geeks" and "so called geeks." The real geeks know their technology and they think about the consequence of changing their code. Also, they are smart enough to follow good sound fundamental software engineering practices, (which I'm trying to teach these guys now...) The "so called geeks" rely on their technical knowledge to "program their way out of problems." Also, they don't do this for the love of technlogy, but simply for the money!!! "Real geeks" love technology... and their emthusiam shows...and they aren't afraid of showing me (a demi-geek) a thing or two w/o coming off condescending. :)

The group of engineers I work with don't claim to be geeks...and they admit that they're in it for the money and they value family life more than work... I can most definitely live with that!!! :)

But... getting back...

I have 9 defect tracking software to evaluate... and the shark... eh, vendors are smelling a potential sale. We'll see if we end up buying anything though. If the company is really strap for cash, we might take the existing Sharepoint system's bug tracking system and try to get it to act like a REAL one. And that developer sure wouldn't mind it either. :) (I'm trying to narrow it down to about 3...) :)

Chicken Fat

My online skating friend, Annabel, pointed me out to this funny exercise routine song that she wanted to skate to (but her coach wouldn't let her...) The title is appropriately named "Chicken Fat!!!"

(Warning: put on the speaker or headphones, but turn down the volume (it's LOUD!!!) before clicking on the "Chicken Fat" link.)

OMG!!! I would LOVE to have known about this piece back in the days when I was doing high impact aerobics classes and everyone used to pick on each other by yelling "CHICKEN!!!" to each other. LOL!!!

Bug Tracking System

The end of my second week at work and I'm already looking into bug tracking system. WOW! This company REALLY doesn't have ANY processes!!! I wonder how they managed to build this other system using FileMaker Pro they did without QA processes? EEEEEK!!! =:-O

I took parts of what I remember from my last job, parts from Bugzilla's User Guide and parts from the existing database. I hope I can give them a respectable bug tracking process in the end and they would go along with whatever choice I had in mind. :)

There's never ONE piece of music...

...that I specifically want to skate to. I have at least 12 pieces of music that I want to skate to. I had to cut it down to the ones that I could 1) skate at a reasonable speed and 2) that my coaches would like approve of my skating to. *sigh*

More motivation to get more power and speed in my skating I guess... ;)

One reason why I keep pushing to be eligible for AN...

http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?p=220377#post220377

The comaradarie that comes from the adult skating world is the REAL reason why I work so hard and so many years to become eligible for Adults Nationals. I feel the "Quan" (or should I say "the Kwan") when I'm around these people...

I posted the posting above the one that "sk8er1964" has reply to (that I linked above) because I *KNOW* how well those guys skate! Nick Chou (this year's Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals champion in the Championship Adult Gold men event) have gorgeous edges, nice jumps and cool spins. (Especially his cannonball sit spins!!!) I dare "kunduchaiko" to tell me that he doesn't have that nice polish. Same with Andy Schell!!! Same with a particular former Adult Gold male skater and 2002 Adult Nationals Adult Gold men champion. (My coach, Jay... *AHEM*)

I hope that posters like "TimDavidSkate" and "kunduchaiko" would strongly think about getting back on the ice and "SKATE DAMMIT!!! SKATE!!!" You guys have LESS THAN ONE MONTH to get ready for Adult Nationals in Kansas City! What the hell are you guys doing griping about a "sandbagger?"

Court Rules against California Ban on Gay Marriages

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20050314/ts_nm/rights_gays_california_dc

This is good news, in my opinion! I've been pretty sick of the "Religious Right" spewing their views on one's personal sexual preference for a while. You do your thing! They'll do theirs! If you don't like it, look the other way!

(Of course I'm writing this in support of the majority of our male figure skating coaches!!!) ;)

Cuz I'm the tax man...yeah, I'm the tax man!!!

Best described by the Beatles It's that time of the year again... Gotta go and see my tax consultant! BTW: here's a shameless plug for Bob Deitz's Tax Services! Excellent guy... of course, he's a tad expensive, so I go to his associate Dorothy instead! Both are EA's (enrolled agents... they're the ones that represents the taxpayers before the IRS.) If you got lots of complicated tax paperwork (i.e. stock options, self-employed, etc...) and want strategic advice on how to manage your money, he's the guy to go to!!!

Of course, I hope this year won't end up with another parody:

"I owe! I owe! So off to work I go..." :-P

(It shouldn't be this way. I have a house with a mortgage...) :)

Edited to add: Got back about $2800 in Fed and $800 in State. All debts are now in the house equity loan, which is DEDUCTABLE! Thank goodness for buying a house!!! :)

"Skating Psycho"

This past Wednesday morning I ran into this skating coach. She was doing her own practice for her own program. Later on, I was back at the rink to practice the stuff that my secondary coach wanted me to do. She saw me and I said "Are we just crazy to be here early Wed. morning, only to be back for more Wednesday night?" She replied "Me? At least *I* am getting paid for this. You're not???" And I added, "Yes, and if you think that's bad, I'll be back to skate some more the next day in the afternoon." She replied "You are PSYCHO!!!" (Unfortunately she's probably right!!! Lucky for me, my aging body and my good sense does slow me down enough to NOT skate every single day!)

Hey! At least I'm not skating Friday. Of course, that's because I'm skating Sat. Sun AND Monday nights again!!! :P :D

Survived first week at new job

It's a good sign that people are very nice at this company and have a great sense of humor! I wish to get to know these people better, but of course, now is the time to make an impression on them. I want to start putting in some necessary software processes in place so we can at least have a sane software release cycle! :P

Boy, it's gonna be interesting though.. there's no software prccess in place! Nada!!! Zilch!!! I get to start from scratch, including the bug tracking system. (They want to swicth from Gemini to Bugzilla...) OTOH, I get to learn about C# and .NET... and maybe, just maybe... I could ask for a UI automated test tools? Maybe? Please? :D :P

Read a few of "blond window guy's" blogs

Definitely a computer geek. LOVES computers!!! Middle-of-the-road to left political leanings based on his blogs! Certainly is NOT a Bush fan!!! (Thumbs up for that!!!) :D Very intelligent guy... too scary intelligent, in fact!!! I think I'm gonna bore him to tears if we've ever met for coffee!!!

Never mind working at his company either! I'm definitely NOT as much of a geek as he is and I think he'd want someone who's as passionate about technlogy as he is to work for him. I have my limits -- choosing between computers and ice skating, it would be no contest which one would win!!! ;) After all, the one major reason I want to work for his company is that it's right across the street from my home rink and a half block from the gym I train for my skating!!!

Oh, boy... do I have Adult Onset Skating Syndrome (AOSS) or what!?!?! :-P (If "blond window guy" sees this blog, he's probably gonna think I'm insane...well, after he finally stops laughing!!! And he's probably right too!!! LOL!!!)

Feeling my age...

I'm taking a day off from skating and working out at the gym and just letting my body heal itself. And as soon as I start relaxing, I can feel the effects of my age coming. The carpal tunnel is still there. My lower back from my sciatica is still there. And I just don't have the energy that I once had. I still remember back when I was 31-32 at the time I was bragging that I can keep up or even beat out most college age kids physically. I can't do that now! Running is out because of the sciatica. Heck, even speed walking on the treadmill is out now too! The only cardio thing I could do that doesn't impact my lower back is the elliptical trainer and well, skating laps around the rink. :) And I'm starting to worry now about closing in on the big 4-0!!! EEEEK!!!

Push-ups? I could only do about 10-15 on the floor now. I used to be able to do 40 of those on the floor!!! And by push-up I meant the standard version and not the modified version for women to do. (My former voice coach was a witness to that.) Too much mousing cost me my push up shoulders. :(

I hope I can find the warranty for my body. Maybe I could trade in for a newer one? :-P

Last Day of Freedom...

As of Monday, I start working at my new job. So much to do. So little time. And I certainly will miss being able to skate in the prized midday session where it's nice and quiet and I have the ice pretty much to myself... And admittedly, I'm a bit nervous about my techie skills as of late because I haven't been using it much as of late! (Uh oh! I forgot to get an oil change for my car, my skates sharpened... and i still haven't picked up music for this year's skating season for me., much less a new choreographer...)

I'm relieved though that I can finally not worry about paying the bills (and of course, my skating lessons, ice time, etc...) It's no fun being stuck at home just interviewing and getting rejected... and that's mild compared to having to deal with idiot recruiters and hiring managers who don't have a CLUE how to run a QA organization!!! I can actually concentrate on pass that #:#%@&$ Bronze Moves test that I've been trying to pass for like... FOREVER!!! GRRRR!!! I also have some personal life goals that only a few people know about (which I won't post here...) But I hope that by the end of year there will be more opportunities open to me!

I spent my last day of freedom doing what I love best... SKATING and spending time with my skating buddy, Clari Clyde.

Midwestern Adult Sectionals is this weekend!!! Good luck to you skaters out in the Midwest!!! Go kick some ICE BUTTS!!! :-P

Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals is the following weekend. And next week's morning FS session is gonna be STRESSFUL!!! EEEEEK!!! =:-O (Wish I could go though. Unfortunately, my Bronze Moves is still crappy as of late...) *sigh* :-(

Introduced myself to "blond window guy"

My friend "Clari Clyde" dared me to introduce myself, but I couldn't just go to him and introduce myself because he's at a window and I'm on the other side of the window. The only way I could do this is to gave him my cell number to call me and he called from his desk phone. So I took one of my notebook and put out a sign saying "Call me and introduce yourself" and gave my cell number. It was initially a humilating experience but "Clari Clyde" wouldn't let me off the hook on it.

I got his name and he sounds like a very nice guy! :-) Clari wanted to take a picture of this pinata thing in the office that looks like a cross between Elmo and The Cookie Monster. He mentioned that it's this thing that one of his coworkers picked up and it's their company mascot.

I did give him my email address as well and an invite to join me at the rink on Mondays. Probably should have also mentioned Wednesday nights sessions too since I'm now planning to be there to play "Auntie Jazzpants" to some of my Tremors (our synchronized skating team) friends. But based on the email I got from him, I'm not sure he wants to come because I'm not sure if he took my inviting him to skate as possibly "inviting him out on a date" and he has a girlfriend and all. (Which was not the intention. I did it to be social and the ice is where I'm the best being social.) I emailed him back to tell him "No worries! When you have time and want to come, the public session is from 7:30-9pm. Say hello to me if you do decide to show up there! And if you don't know how to skate, I'll help you out!"

So, I'll leave things at waving at him via his work window for now. But he has an open invite to ice skate with me when he wishes to.

Starting new job... and new blog!!!

For those who don't know the story (or me...) I had just been laid off with a few engineers at a company in Sunnyvale the day I came back from Christmas vacation. My (now ex-) boss was laid off the week after. My ex-boss and I occasionally keep in touch (we were very close friends when we were working together), but he's now busy with his new job as a founder of a startup company that he joined with a bunch of his old friends, his life in the sci-fi world and other interests. And I have my life as a figure skater.

And as of Monday, I'll start a new job in San Bruno as a software QA engineer and concentrating mainly on passing the USFSA Adult Bronze Moves and Freestyle test this year so I would be eligible for Adults Nationals in 2006. I'm now also looking into music for my artistic program for October's Skate SF competition. I have two wonderful skating coaches (one primary and one secondary) who gets paid for kickin' my a## on the ice and lots of skating friends. :-P

Anyway... getting to some interesting observations...

During the time I've been unemployed, I've been skating at Yerba Buena Ice Skating Center to take advantage of the emptier afternoon public sessions. I usually park on the streets across from the rink to save some money. Sometimes I get lucky and park on the 2 hours parking spots so I could skate for an extra hour without having to move my car. One section of the 2 hour parking spots is right in front of an office building where there's a bunch of people working on computers. One day, there's this blond young guy sitting at the corner window seat who watched me parallel park into this space and I barely managed to make it into the spot. He was still watching when I turned off the engine and got out of the car, so I waved hello to him and he waved back.

Since then, whenever I see him, I wave hello to him and he waves back, smiling, but we never gone beyond that. Sadly, since my hours are going to be pretty much the same time as when I'm working, I may not see him as often (if at all in fact...) I'm hoping that I can work out my schedule so that he's about to leave his work at the same time that I'm going to skate. (I think he leaves somewhere between 6:30-7pm...closer to 7 when he's on a crunch...)

So... my goal is that I find out what his name is and he knows mine. My friend "Clari Clyde" knows about this... and suggests that I write on a notepad in big letter to ask for his phone number so I can call him from my cell and introduce myself to him thru the glass. Of course, she wants me to do this when she's with me at the rink, so she could see for herself what's going on. One problem... I think "window blond guy" is on vacation this week! I haven't seen him this week and this is my last week before I start the new job!!! So I probably will do this on the following Monday night. Hopefully then, he'll be back at his desk, so I can pull my stunt of introducing myself to him.

And if in case you are the "window blond guy" and you're reading this, please reply to this blog with your name and an email address where I can reach you. :)