Olympics 2010 - Men's Figure Skating

CONGRATS, EVAN LYSACEK on the GOLD MEDAL!!! First US Man since Brian Boitano (back in 1988) to win a figure skating gold medal!

Most of the men like to show off and prove their uber stregnth and yadda yadda yadda (typical males) and try a QUAD in their program, which is 4 revolutions. In the men's program, you are required to do triples. Most can safely land triples. Same in the women's competition.
The past few Olympics, alotta these guys started throwing quads in. If you land a quad, you could win and get extra points. But the problem is..... most of these guys, from Nagano, to Salt Lake City, to Torino to Vancouver now, DO NOT land the quads and DONT even land them in practice.

There were 3 Japanese competitors in these games. All 3 of them tried the quad. NONE of them landed it. I don't remember if Evan Lysacek did a quad. Johnny Weir had a quad Toe Loop (the easiest jump but i think all the guys do this jump as a quad) but Scott Hamilton (Long Time Commentator, Olympic Champion from 1984, professional skater, and Stars on Ice creator) said it was up to his COACH, Galina Zmievskaya whether Johnny would do the quad. Yevgeny Plushenko did it and LANDED it! But... he made alot of mistakes along the way. His jumps were off center and he landed them all but I think he lost points because of the revolutions being off. He probably wouldn't have gotten the Silver Medal if he DIDNT do the quad, so in this case, the quad helped. The others... they should've left it out.


The final standings for the men were: Evan Lysacek - gold, Yevgeny Plushenko - Silver, and Daisuke Takahashi - Bronze.

Yevgeny looks pissed that he didnt' win. He won gold in the LAST olympics in Torino. Daisuke seemed happy about his Bronze medal (thats the spirit!). He even had to stop his program cuz his lace came undone, and he had to fix it and resume in the middle. Kinda like Tonya Harding did in Lillehammer in 1994 if anyone remembers. Yevgeny couldve like pretended he was happy until he got backstage ya know....

Here is Evan's coach, Frank Carroll, who also coached Michelle Kwan, the 1998 Olympic Silver Medalist, US Champion, World Champion and 2002 Bronze Olympic Medalist. He barely cracked a smile.

All this talk about men's figure skating just wouldn't be entertaining if we didn't have some pizazz, and flamboyance, right? Well here it is.....

Johnny Weir.... need I say more. lol

Fabulous pose. Johnny weir is gayer than the Gay Pride Parade, but it's all good. You can't NOT like Johnny. He's just so......fab! He is into all things Russian (he may be part russian, not sure), and he seems like a nice guy. He's outspoken, and is himself. Thats why I like him. He doesn't do those pre rehearsed comments like the other skaters do. He says what he thinks. Johnny was gonna retire but decided not to and he made it here. He did not do a quad, his program was great to me, but the judges placed him 5th. Big surprise to me, the audience and the commentators, Scott Hamilton and Peggy Flemming (1968 Olympic Champion).

TRIVIA! Johnny's coach is Galina Zmievskaya who coached 2 Ukrainian Olympic Champions....

Oksana Baiul - Lillehammer 1994 Gold Medalist. (She's still my fave even tho' she's a little weird now)

And Viktor Petrenko - 1992 Albertville Gold Medalist. I used to have a crush on him from like 1992 to I dunno, whenever he stopped skating professionally.Probably late 90s. I saw him with Galina Zmievskaya and Johnny Weir last night and he still looks good. And he's like in his 40s now. Poifect! haha. He's actually not gay (for the ppl who think all male figure skaters are gay). Some are some arent.

So thats all for my recap/commentary on the men's competition. The women's competition starts Tuesday night (fuck I have band rehearsal!!!!) and has the medal event Thursdsay (fuck I have an Anatomy Lecture!!!!!!!!!!) but hopefully I can get a delayed cast. i know they rerun it at 1am or 2am. For skating, I WILL stay up and watch it.

My fave for the Women's event is actually NOT from the USA. I want Yu Na Kim from South Korea to win. She's been my fave skater recently. Her rivals are Mao Asada, Carolina Kostner, and maybe Rachel Flatt and Marai Nagasu. I'm not sure who else got to the olympics from the other countries yet. I'll see when they show it. Yu Na could take it all. But she has consistancy problems. I'll do a recap of that event too.

Yu Na Kim. Possible 2010 Olympic Champion???


**** The paragraphs running together is really getting on my nerves. I go in and edit it and it doesn't take. I tried editing the html part too and it wont take either. Gonna complain. lol

Poverty here I come! Well here I shall stay I mean.

Today was a bad day. I went to UE to find out for sure what my claim was gonna do next. I needed to come up with a plan. I have an $8000 extension sitting there for the income level I make now (barely makin' it).But my claim renewal date is approaching (April 6). last year I had to renew my claim insted of take the extension I had. This year its different. All I did was TEMP.

I temped for shit pay. Cuz well, thats what temping pays. So UE is 60% of that shit pay. I waited at the UE office for 3hrs. I was about to leave cuz there was 100 ppl in front of me, but in the end decided to stay. I talked to the wonderkind, Patrick, a nice guy who works ther who can override the system and he'll actually help you, rather than tell you TOUGH like the rest of em do. I was hoping I'd get to talk to Patrick. He was my onlyhope. there was a spanish lady there too who was a bitch. I didnt want to talk to her. She doesn't go out of her way to help like Patrick does.

I got called and I did have Patrick. I explained my situ and he kept flipping thru tons of screens and he was doing math out loud. I hoped that'd be a good sign. He said "ok ..." in a good tone, hoping that maybe he was gonna help me.

Then he goes "You can't take your first extension. The government wants people off the extensions cuz its federal money. Youo are elegible for a new claim since you've worked (temped) and you have to take what they give you." I was shocked. I said "what about that $8000 I have sitting there?! Its gonna go to waste?!". He said, "basically, yeah. You have to take the new claim. Its federal rules. We can't tamper with it." I was in a state of panic, knowing how little i got paid as a temp, thinking my claim was gonna be $300 a week or so. Which I couldn't live on. I asked him if there was any way he could tell what I was gonna make on my new claim. He said yeah and he said they use all of 2009's income. I was gonna make....


$279 a week.



I think i said something like "WHOA" or something lielk that like i got shot in the stomach by a sniper. It was a huge blow. I Knew theres no way i can live on so little money. No way. I got up so quickly and walked out. Panicking. I knew there was no hope at all now. I was gonna be in poverty longer. Much deeper into poverty.

Shit's hard. Money's tight. I try to see my friends and enjoy life if I can swing it cuz at this point, its all I have. There'll be no more of that. I probably won't be able to drive much anymore. Def wont be able to go out w/ friends unless its someone's house. I walked to my car in a state of defeat.

They beat me. I lost the battle.

I can't believe things are going this way. I dont' know whats next. Short of a miracle, theres no hope. This is where I am now. Cuz I sure the hell dont' feel like talking.

i did the math and found out that the federal poverty level is $10,000 and change. I'll be making $7,000 and change. I will be living under the poverty level at 30yrs old. But won't qualify for help cuz there are alotta people poorer than me (who have kids). I never thought that THIS would be my life.

All I can do now is hope for a miracle. Cuz I'm all out of ideas and for once I dont' have a plan. I always have one. But today I was defeated by the government. Thanks, Uncle Sam. *flips off*

People who know me know i'm "anti drug" and barely take an advil unless I have a splitting migraine or something but tonight, I am gonna fill my Rx for Xanax. Shit that I usually sell for 10x the price to other people. I'm about to call the pharmacy now to have them fill it. Its gonna be rough from here on out and I'm overstressed as I'm writing this. Luckally I'm so not an addictive person and dont enjoy feelig like a vegetable so Xanax is only for rough nights.

Running works better than a drug. Problem is its snowing and its slushy. If it wasn't I'd be going for a jog instead of resorting to the American way to solve problems by popping a pill. *bah*