Sweet Dreams

My hand still isn't a 100% yet, so I won't type a whole big post about the premiere of the new season of Sailor Moon Crystal, but I will say that it was FABULOUS! Loved pretty much everything about it but the new opening song, which was...eh. I also really like the new transformation sequences, especially the fact that Mercury's was so figure skating inspired.

Speaking of skating, last weekend was the World Championships, where my all-time favorite Ashley Wagner finally ended the decade-long drought of American ladies not being on the podium by winning silver with two incredible performances. *dances* I'm so, so happy and proud of her!

And Evgenia Medvedeva, the girl who placed ahead of her to take the title? She's a Sailor Moon fan!



The relevant moment takes place around the 1:25 mark. She recites the Japanese lyrics of Moonlight Densetsu, then says in English that she's watched the first four seasons of the original anime and really liked the show. I was already a huge fan of Evgenia's skating, but now I love her even more!

And somebody really should do a Sailor Moon on Ice show someday...

I have got to update this thing more often. -_- But there really isn't much to update about. For the past couple of weeks, I've been pretty much obsessed with Sims. Not playing them -- I gave it up for Lent like I usually do -- but downloading a bunch of mods, lots, and custom content. I'm fine for the first three or four weeks, but then I always start getting antsy and go on a downloading binge. It's bad. I think I've added at least .5 GB to my poor Downloads folder.

So tomorrow can't come fast enough for me. It's Easter, I can finally play Sims again, and I get to see a recap of the World Championships on NBC! Man, I hate, hate, hate that Universal Sports is only available on cable now. (It used to be available over-the-air here until this year.) I could have seen almost all the competition last weekend if we still had it, but I guess I'll take what I can get. *sigh*

Writing? Well, I haven't been doing much of that lately -- see aforementioned Sims obsession -- although I have made a bit of headway in moving my stories over to AO3 this week. I think I'm almost finish posting all my one-shots and ficlets, then I can start on the multiparts. My major goal for the month, though, is to get a new chapter of Melting Ice posted. Once I get over this chapter, the romance part can finally begin in earnest, which will make the fans happy, I'm sure. I think they're getting a little anxious for that to happen. *laughs* Actually, I am, too. I can't believe it's taken over fifteen chapters for anything to really happen between Yume and Mikhail. It's kind of ridiculous.

Well, it looks like the World Championships, which were set to begin next Monday in Tokyo, are either going to be postponed or canceled. (There are some rumors of relocation, but nothing official from the ISU.) Understandable, of course, but still disappointing. I have my fingers crossed for a postponement, but, really, Japan has more important things to worry about at the moment. Oh, well.

Day 10 

Character you wish was a Soldier

I'll be uncreative and go with Naru. With all the times she's been attacked in the anime, it would be nice for her to have some way to protect herself! *laughs* Plus, Usagi would probably like having her childhood best friend on the team.

( Days To Come )

(Boy, it's been a while since I posted... Not much to talk about.)

So, this weekend was the U.S. Figure Skating Nationals. I was determined to watch it this year, so I hooked up the converter box and was pleased to get a rather good picture on Channel 2, our NBC affiliate which we've always had trouble getting on analog. I had to sit right in front of the TV in order to fiddle with the antenna when the picture started to get wonky, but the more I watched, the stronger the signal seemed to get. That was good.

What was not good was that I missed the first hour of the first broadcast yesterday, showcasing the pairs final (which I really wanted to see since Melting Ice deals with pairs skating). This was completely my fault, I admit. I could have sworn that it was supposed to start at three instead of two, but when I checked the icenetwork.com schedule, they had the correct times posted. I was disappointed, but, oh, well.

But then when they were supposed to show the ladies final later that night, Channel 2 decided to show some Patti LaBelle tribute show instead. This definitely annoyed me. I mean, you don't see them pre-empting the Super Bowl to show a concert, do you? In any case, they announced they would show the ladies' competition today at 2:30, and I was somewhat placated, although I thought the time was a little strange since the men's final was meant to start at three.

Well, I turn on the TV at 2:30. No skating, just a car show.

They meant 2:30 in the morning!

*throws a fit*

When you say 2:30 tomorrow, Channel 2, sane people assume you mean in the afternoon! When you mean 2:30 a.m., then freakin' say "a.m." or "in the morning"! Better yet, don't go pre-empting national competitions in the first place for stupid concerts! The ladies' final is the competition most casual skating fans care most about. (More serious fans, like me, know that the men's competition is really where it's at, but I like watching the ladies, too.) I bet you didn't get nearly as high ratings with Patti LaBelle as you might have if you had broadcast the ladies' at the proper time. Seriously!

Ugh!

*calms down*

There, I feel a little better now.

At least today's men's competition was quite exciting. It'll be interesting to see who they'll name to the world team with my fave Evan Lysacek (3rd) and Johnny Weir (5th) unfortunately not skating their best. Jeremy Abbott automatically gets a spot since he won, but now the committee has to decide whether to send Evan and Brandon Mroz, the surprise second place finisher, dump Evan for Johnny, or dump Brandon for Johnny. It'll be a difficult decision, especially since this year's rankings at Worlds will determine how many American men will get to compete in next year's Olympics. Do you send the proven winners (Jeremy, Evan, and Johnny) or take a chance on Brandon, who was pretty awesome today, I have to admit?

EDIT: Huh, they decided to send Brandon and Evan, naming Johnny as the first alternate over the fourth place finisher, Ryan Bradley. I'm rather surprised, I have to admit. With this year's Worlds determining how many American men can go to the Olympics, I thought they'd want to send the current World bronze medalist instead of a relative unknown in the senior ranks. They must have a lot of faith in Brandon. Hope he does well!

Regular readers of this journal might remember how disappointed I was when I learned that most of the major figure skating events, including Nationals, were going to be televised on NBC instead of ABC like usual. For some reason, it is near impossible to get a good signal for our local NBC affiliate, so I had pretty much accepted the fact that the only competition I would be able to see this year was the World Championships, which are airing on ABC.

Well, today I decided I would at least try to get a signal for Channel 2 so I could watch tonights men's competition. I honestly did not expect to get anything, so imagine my surprise when I turned to Channel 2 and managed to get both a picture and audio (usually it's one or the other, if I can get anything at all)! Granted, the picture was fuzzy and colorless and the audio was static-y, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't enjoy the competition.

And what a competition it was! My personal favorite, the reigning national champion Evan Lysacek won the title for the second year in a row (yay!), but he and Johnny Weir actually tied on their overall combined score, each earning a total of 244.77 points -- something that has never happened before under the new, very detailed scoring system. The odds of that happening... Well, it must have been astronomical. However, since Evan had a slightly higher score (162.72 to Johnny's 161.37) in the free skate, which is the tie-breaker, he won the title, Johnny settled for the silver, and 2007 Junior World champion Steven Carriere earned the bronze.

I only wish I had thought to check last night to see if I could have watched the ladies' competition. :( From what I've read online, it sounds like that was quite a shocking competition as well, what with three first time medallists and former World champion Kimmie Meissner ending up in a disappointing seventh place (although she was still named to the world team because Mirai Nagasu (1st), Rachael Flatt (2nd), and Caroline Zhang (4th) are too young to compete at Worlds and Katrina Hacker (6th) was judged to be too inexperienced on the international stage). *sigh* Oh, well. At least I got to see some of Nationals. (And hopefully once everything goes digital next year, I won't have this stupid problem anymore. *crosses fingers*)

Man, I wish I had ESPN.

This past week was the World Figure Skating Championships, which of course ABC didn't show, so I've had to keep updated through the ISU website.

Well, I just about fell out of my seat this morning when I looked at the ladies' results and discovered that little Kimmie Meissner was the new ladies' world champion.

Kimmie Meissner?!

Sure, she's a talented skater and a fantastic jumper (with a triple axel in her arsenal, though she didn't attempt it this time), but this was her first world championships. (She couldn't compete last year despite medalling at nationals because she wasn't old enough.) That's practically unheard of! Man, I wish I could have seen that.

Olympic silver-medalist Sasha Cohen, on the other hand, who should have had a lock on the title with Shizuka Arakawa and Irina Slutskaya (the other Olympic medalists) choosing not to compete, had to settle for the bronze.

The U.S. almost had a lock on all the bronzes, actually. In addition to Cohen, Evan Lysacek won the men's bronze and Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto are the ice dance bronze medalists. The only event where we didn't get a bronze was pairs', but Rena Inoue and John Baldwin were just three points below in fourth place.

*sigh* I need cable.

Wahoo! U.S. Figure Skating Nationals this weekend! I've been waiting for this for months, especially since it's the only real major competition I'll get to see. Worlds are again on ESPN this year (boo!), and I probably won't get to see the Olympics since they're on NBC, which is the channel we can never get a clear picture on. *sigh*

Anyway, I just finished watching the men's final. Johnny Weir defended his national title, Evan Lycacek got the silver, and Matt Savoie won the bronze with an absolutely wonderful free program. If only he hadn't had that one fall, he might have challenged Weir for the gold, but I'm happy that it looks like he'll be going to the Olympics. (They haven't announced the official team, but it's usually the top three.) He deserves it. Of course, that means fourth place finisher Michael Weiss, who's one of my favorites, most likely won't get an Olympic berth, but he's already been twice before, so that's okay.

My favorite part of the competition, though, was when they revealed State Farm had bought tickets for Rohene Ward's mother and nephew to come see him skate. Unfortunately, he ended up having a terrible free skate, but it was still really touching when they brought his family out. Major waterworks.

The women's final is tonight at seven, and the big shocker is that Michelle Kwan withdrew from the competition with a groin injury. She's still hoping for an Olympic berth, though, as injured skaters can petition for a spot on the team (like Nancy Kerrigan did in 1994, ironically knocking Michelle off the team). Boy, it's going to be strange not seeing her at the Nationals. She's been to every one since...1993, I believe. I've never watched a Nationals in which she wasn't there.

However, with Kwan absent, that means the title is (my favorite ^_^) Sasha Cohen's to lose. I don't think any of the other skaters can touch her as long as she skates well. She has a fairly good lead after the short program. It'll be interesting to see who the third will be, assuming that Sasha wins and Michelle is given the berth. I'm rooting for Kimmie Meissner, but she's currently in fourth after the short, so I don't know. Emily Hughes is second, and I have to admit she's pretty good. It would be kinda cool if she went to the Olympics and had a fantastic free skate like her sister did in 2002 to win the gold, but I don't think she's really at that level yet. It's only her first or second year on the senior level. Then there's Beatrisa Liang, who's currently in third and rather good as well... It's a shame that Jenny Kirk decided to turn pro and Angela Nikodinov is out of competition due to the hand injury she suffered in that terrible car wreck that killed her mother during the Nationals last year (or was it the year before?). I would have loved to see one of them (especially Angela) at the Olympics this year. Michelle and Sasha are strong, but none of the others at the competition have much international experience.

As for pairs and ice dance, I hope they at least show the winning skates during tonight's broadcast and not just ignore them to show the women. I especially want to see Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, who won the national ice dance title and are currently the world silver medalists. They're always fun to watch, and the good news is that Tanith finally got her citizenship, so they'll be able to skate at the Olympics. That's a relief. Americans have never been that strong in ice dance, but they have a really good chance of medalling, maybe even the gold.

One more hour! Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!