Saturday, April 30, 2011

Wedding and Skating

While I'm not crazy enough to wake up at 5 in the morning, the first thing I did when I got up was watch the Royal wedding. I cried a little at the end. And then went back to rewatch the first 10 minutes because I had to look up the name of the first hymn. Even if you don't care about the wedding, you should listen to the music. It was FABULOUS! As was Kate's dress.

Most of the rest of my day has been spent catching up on the men's figure skating videos. Now that Pluschenko is retired/disqualified/sitting in the stands, I have a few new favorites to share!

#7 Florent Amodio
- European Champion
- SP: Once Upon a Time in Mexico - Robert Rodriguez
- FS: Medley of Black Eyed Peas, Michael Jackson, Lisa Gerard, and Taio Cruz
- I've liked him since the Olympics last year
- He is Brazilian/French
- He completely broke the lyrics rule and got away with it


    #3 Artur Gachinski
    - Bronze Medalist in his first senior competition!
    - SP: Medley of Pink Floyd
    - FS: The Bolt - Dmitri Shostakovich
    - Finally, another beautiful Russian! And he's coached by Alexi Mishin (AKA Pluschenko's coach)

      #9 Richard Dornbush
      - Highest placing American (although the Americans did so bad this year they lost a spot in the 2012 worlds)
      - SP: Elena - Brian Setzer
      - FS: Sherlock Holmes soundtrack!
      - 2011 U.S. Silver Medalist
      - He's so adorable, he might just rival Johnny Weir as my favorite American skater

        #10 Javier Fernandez
        - One of three skaters who landed two quads!
        - SP: Histoire d'un amor and Nu Pogodi
        - FS: Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack!
        - He wore lime green, purple, and a bright pink bow tie for his SP
        - Look at those awesome pirate boot/skates :)
        - The first Spanish skater I've ever seen at this level

          Wednesday, April 27, 2011

          Happy Wednesday

          Things I Love
          • Smoking ban on campus next year = not dying of lung cancer! Yay!
          • Figure skating worlds are this week. I LOVE FIGURE SKATING. If I didn't have such bad ankles and such terrible balance on ice, I would definitely have taken it up ages ago. So instead I just watch. Or in this case, since they don't broadcast the competition on TV...I check the ISU results page every few hours and watch my favorites' performances on YouTube. Today was Day 1 - SP for the men. My French skater is #5 and there is a Russian in fourth!! Also, Pluschenko was in the audience. I am so jealous.
          • End of the semester! I have 2 more days of classes, not many more rows of stitches, forum responses, a puppet, and 6 exams left to do. Oh and packing. I love packing :)
          Things I Don't So Much Love
          • Obama released another copy of his birth certificate. If I were him, I would have just accepted that a lot of people are really ignorant and/or really racist and couldn't care less how much proof there is that he was born in Hawai'i.
          • Floor meetings that we don't find out about until 6 hours before they're going to happen. I am so tired of these RAs. It's the end of the semester - I still have stuff to do tonight!
          • Figure skating not being on TV. Or costing $9.95 to watch live online. Half the fun (well, not really half, but that sounds better than 19%) of watching skating is not knowing who's going to fall or what they skate to or how they place. Sooooooo sad!

          Tuesday, April 26, 2011

          Books Books Books!

          I don't think I have anything inspirational to say today...so instead I'm going to post the 21 fabulous books I've read so far this year! I'm hoping to get to 100 - I'm not sure how many books I usually read in a year, but that seems like a good number. Excluding textbooks, of course :)
          1. Eragon - Christopher Paolini
          2. Eldest - Christopher Paolini
          3. Brisingr - Christopher Paolini
          4. The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis
          5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
          6. The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis
          7. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis
          8. The Voyage of the Dawn Treador - C.S. Lewis
          9. The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis
          10. The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis
          11. Outside In - Maria Snyder
          12. Revenge of the Rose - Nicole Galland
          13. Graceling - Kristin Cashore
          14. Fire - Kristin Cashore
          15. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
          16. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams
          17. Life, the Universe, and Everything - Douglas Adams
          18. So Long and Thanks for all the Fish - Douglas Adams
          19. Young Zaphod Plays It Safe - Douglas Adams
          20. Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams
          21. The Borgia Bride - Jeanne Kalogridis

          I would have to say that Graceling and Fire are two of the most amazing books I have ever read. If you like fantasy and/or female protagonists, you really should read them. I think I'm ordering them from Barnes and Noble pretty soon. And anyone who like historical fiction should read Nicole Galland's books. They're all set around 1200 A.D. and they're just beautiful.

          I am such a book nerd.

          Monday, April 25, 2011

          Wouldn't You Know, I Forgot a Title

          As of now, this blog is just going to be used as procrastination and writing practice. I don't know if all the stuff floating around in my brain is really interesting to anyone else. Today, I'm putting off homework/studying for both of my Spanish classes. It's the last full week of the semester and I am so done with work. Especially considering the amount of knitting I did this weekend.

          I don't know how this whole experiment is going to work out but out of all the blogs I read (writers, friends, random people) this site seems like it's the most manageable. Tumblr is too fancy and pictoral for me while Livejournal has a bunch of weird features and I hate the archive thing. So here goes :)

          And yes, I had to go back and edit in a title because I couldn't think of one and left it blank. Silly me.