Obama Fencing!

This is so cool! Apparently two Olympic fencers were at the White House on September 17th, and they showed the President some fencing moves! The best part is they were saberists!! I'm so jealous. Can you imagine both being an Olympic saber fencer AND getting to meet President Obama?? Hopefully Tim Morehouse is right, and this might help encourage people to start with the sport who have never considered it before, or might help encourage areas without fencing lessons to find instructors. It's a lot of fun, but so many people never even try it or know if there are lessons near them!

One thing I think is pretty funny though is that they were wearing their lames and other electric fencing gear, even though they weren't fencing electric! I guess non-fencers would be confused by a saberist not in full saber gear, but it's still amusing. At least they don't appear to be wearing wires...

Softball Semifinals! First time ever??

This summer is my fourth season of playing on a town co-ed non-umpired softball team. I was on a different team the first two years than the most recent two years, as it was created as an overflow for my current team. The team I used to be on (called the Turkeys) is a very good team, with very competitive people and a rather beefed up line-up. The team I'm currently on used to be consistently one of the worst teams in the league, but I have loved playing with them anyway. There are a lot of decent players on the team, but maybe not as much confidence as necessary.

Well, this year has been different! This summer we ended the regular season as number 5 out of 12 teams, with a winning record of 11-9. We got a bye in the first round of playoffs, and solidly beat the number 4 team in our first playoff Tuesday night. That team narrowly beat us twice in the regular season, so our 17-3 win was fabulous.

So, we are on to the semi-finals and possibly the finals tonight! In the semis we play the team that is undoubtedly the best team in the league, the Diamond Studs. If we manage to pull out a win, we'll play either the Turkeys or their semifinals opponent in the finals. This is definitely a big turnaround for us Coyotes!

I'm so incredibly busy right now, but it's good to get some exercise in here and there. Wish us luck for tonight, both that we don't get rain delayed to next week and that we pull out the win!

Goodbye, Olympics!

I'm so sad to see the Olympics end; I really enjoyed watching so many sports! Fortunately I had the mental strength to avoid watching all day long and mainly watched prime time coverage (except for watching fencing online, indoor volleyball during the day, and some other online clips)! If you didn't see the Opening Ceremony, you must find a copy of it somewhere! It was gorgeous, much as one would expect from Zhang Yimou, who directed both the opening and closing ceremonies. I love his movies for their artistic elements, so seeing his creative genius in a live performance was fantastic (I wish I had been there!).

The Closing Ceremony was equally pretty, but obviously not as elaborate as it was shorter. I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the British part of the closing ceremony though. It wasn't as pleasant to watch or hear, although I think that may partially be due to the television feed. I thought the hand-off to the Brits was done in an interesting way, but the level of artistry seemed much lower than we've seen in the rest of the Beijing performances. I hope that London has a more artsy opening/closing ceremony in 2012 than it appears they will; I won't bother to watch if it's just music celebrities performing.

The good thing about the Olympics ending is now I can be a better grad student and spend more time doing work! I was definitely not the only one here who spent extra time in front of the TV (even some of my grad student housemates that rarely if ever watch TV watched much of the Olympics), but that doesn't help the work get finished. To my credit though, I did do some mindless research-related tasks while watching some of the primetime coverage!

Well, good job athletes, I look forward to seeing you on TV again in 4 years!

Olympics are almost here!!!

I'm so excited about the Olympics!! I love playing sports, watching sports, and wishing I was to that level in sports! This year they are showing TONS of events online, so even if your favorite sport isn't shown on TV you can still watch!

This momentous change is great for me, as my favorite sport is fencing. I fenced in college, and ever since have been frustrated with how little we see on TV. During the last Olympics they did at least show the semifinal and final rounds in sabre (which was my weapon), which is better than nothing. This year it appears that is all they are showing as well, but at least now I can watch more of it online anyway!

Of course, the bummer is that I'm out of town during the sabre final, which will be shown at 2AM! What horrible luck. Last time I believe it was at least shown at a decent time (although then it wasn't live). I wonder if my friends will want to stay up until 2AM to watch fencing on TV? Somehow I doubt it.

But still, I'm excited. I suspect I will be able to find the events online somewhere after they happen, even if it's not via the NBC website. I noticed via Windows Media Center that they will have channels that allow you to watch Olympic events after they have happened (so not live). I don't how much it costs (or if it costs) to subscribe to that, but it may end up being worth it. I don't understand how other people can not care about the Olympics at all, I'm already giddy with excitement and it's still a week away!

Another big problem is the Olympic opening is during a concert I was planning to attend. I think I might still go to the concert, but it's actually a hard decision!

Tragedy in VA -- W&M Fencing

As some of you may know, I was on the fencing team throughout my time at Virginia Tech. One of the many other schools that competed in Virginia was William & Mary. During the weekend of November 10th one of the cars traveling with their team during a trip for a competition was involved in a crash. This crashed killed their coach Pete Conomikes and injured the members of the team that were also in that car. I just found out that although two of the injured players are OK, one of those team members Ben Gutenberg has died from his injuries. He was a freshman.

There are many things that have gone through my mind the past few weeks about this accident. One was that I wish I had been more involved in MACFA to have known Pete better (he coached the men's team, W&M doesn't have a women's team). Everyone has always revered him as a great coach, especially among those teams that are club and not varsity (i.e. all VA teams). I am sure the Ben was also a fabulous person, with a wonderful life ahead of him. On another note, I'm extremely thankful that it was not the VTFC involved in the crash. I'm quite sad that someone has died, and his death has hit many of the fencers at VT hard enough without it being a fellow Hokie. I can barely imagine the pain I would feel if one of my friends still at VT was killed on their way to a tournament.

It also reminds me a lot of what traveling to tournaments is often like. Many times you either have to leave very early in the morning the day of the event or in the late afternoon or evening the day before the event, because students can't get out of classes on time to leave earlier. It is common to need to drive at night on the way home from a tournament as well. For our team, the drivers are always team members. What is so scary about the W&M crash is that it really reminds me of how easily it could have been us. It still could happen to them. The one thing that puts my mind at least partially at ease is knowing that we always tried to have older more experienced people driving, always ensured that the people driving were not worn out, and always made sure to switch off drivers so no one became fatigued. I am in no way implying that W&M did not do these things, but at least I know VT fencers are working to try to make their trips as safe as possible. Hopefully their luck will continue to hold out. What a way to be reminded about how dangerous it is to drive.

My heart truly goes out to all of the W&M fencers. I've met a few over the years but I think everyone I had met has since graduated. Still, I wish them the best and I hope that their hearts heal. I hope their team is able to heal over time, that they will still travel for their tournaments next semester (sometimes getting back into it can be the best thing for you), and that no other disaster befalls them. Life has become too short for too many this year.

Watch out for falling...cameras!

Apparently at the Seahawks game on Sunday a camera almost fell on their quarterback. I know that football can be a hazard to your health, but this seems a bit silly. Who knew you needed to watch out for falling cameras? I think everyone has wondered at one point or another what would happen if a camera fell at a game. I don't know if it's happened before or not.

Apparently it fell twice before they decided to just string it up above the sideline and decommission it. At least the players were smart enough not to stand underneath of it just in case. It definitely would have been horrible if it had hurt someone. I wonder if insurance would cover that as a playing injury? Do football players even use insurance for that sort of stuff or does the team just pay for it? I have no idea.

Ironically, the quarterback it nearly hit is related to the lady on the View who is taking maternity leave now. I only know this because I was taking a break earlier this morning and read about that on MSN. I guess today is just a Hasselbeck kind of day for me.

You're breaking my heart!

I've been vaguely following the news on dog fights at Michael Vick's house this summer, as in I read the headlines and occasionally the story. The newest word on the street seems to be that he was indeed involved, and even helped kill poor performing dogs. Maybe he was killing the poor performing dogs because they were in really bad shape and it would be cruel to keep them alive? But that doesn't really help since he would have been one of the reasons they were in such a state to begin with.

Ever since Vick was at VT I've been a fan. I first saw him play when I was in high school! I found his brother Marcus to be a self-obsessed trouble maker, but Michael never seemed that way. Obviously I assumed that he had no idea about what was going on at the house, because it was definitely logical that he'd let family or friends stay there without him. It's not like he's hurting for cash. I've believed in him this whole time, and now he's letting me down??

If it turns out that he is indeed guilty, my heart will break. Well, it probably won't break completely but there will be some damage. He was such a talented player and seemed to be a nice guy at the same time! I was so proud that he had gone to my university. Are there any great football players out there who aren't letting their fame and talent go to their heads?? I'm beginning to doubt that they exist.

Of course maybe it will turn out Michael is innocent; but it sounds like they are working on a plea deal, so what are the odds? I'll keep believing until it's final, just in case. I'm sure I'm not the only Hokie that will be incredibly disappointed, although obviously we've survived much worse disappointments.

SI's best football uniforms

Sports Illustrated just released their Best College Football Uniform List to counteract their worst football list of last week. I can easily agree with some of the uniforms that are there, such as USC and Texas. But it seems that their definition of "best uniform" is primarily based on whether or not they have a dark muted color, and the level of boredom the uniform causes you (the more the better). Apparently the blue Notre Dame uniform is infinitely better than the green Notre Dame uniform.

So what truly defines "better" for these uniforms? I would wager that a good uniform would be defined as using the school's colors wisely, being pleasing to the eye, and having a modern look. Obviously I don't work for SI. My main wonder is why Michigan made the "best" list and Delaware made the "worst" list. Granted, Michigan's uniform is slightly more pleasing with the gold over the yellow, but the differences are not vast enough for one to be in the top 10 and the other to be in the bottom 10. Maybe if there were only 20 teams in college football I'd buy that, but we all know the truth of that statement.

Also, how could someone call a football uniform one of the best when there is no school logo on the helmet? Half of those uniforms could belong to any team with those general colors.

I wonder how they chose their rankings from 1 to 10 after determining their top 10. As far as I can tell, they were drawn out of a hat. Or maybe 10 people were ranked in their order of importance and they each got to choose who were the top 10 and bottom 10 based on their personal order. I was hoping that the best uniform list would be different enough from the worst uniform list to shed some light on their formula, but as I've elaborated on above we had no such luck. Although I think they nailed Texas and USC as being great uniforms, I have no idea why they ranked USC at the bottom of their "best" list.

I wonder if SI is stuck in the past enough that anything that appears "classic" is obviously "good." Maybe SI needs some new blood. Or maybe they just need to hire more women in general (and I don't mean in a bikini context). But that's another topic altogether, I suppose.

If I was choosing a team to cheer for based on uniform alone, I would choose Clemson (worst list, #7) over Wofford (best list, #6) any day.

Is that the worst you can find?

Sport's Illustrated has released their Top 10 Worst College Football Uniforms, and I have to say that I'm rather disappointed in SI, and quite pleased with college football.

Overall, the uniforms they show are not that bad from either an aesthetic point or a school spirit point of view. Some of them are indeed God-awful, like Delaware, Notre Dame, Air Force, and the old Oregon uniforms. But apparently SI has a thing against too much of one color. Did they miss the point that it's all about school spirit and being proud of your school colors? Yes, many of them could be better designed, and its apparent that most of the uniforms have probably been around since the late 90's, but most of them don't look that bad. I think a proper title would have been "Oldest-Looking College Football Uniforms."

As far as the new Oregon uniforms go, I like them. Coming from a school that is orange and maroon, I have to say that they did orange well. They have a nice modern design over the shoulders, and don't have too much of any color (which should have made SI happy!). It's a nice young look, which is great for a college team.

Sure, I may not be a fashion designer, but I guarantee the people that wrote that SI article aren't either.