josie

No longer a shutout for the Czechs- Zidlicky beats Lundqvist for a 3-1 score.

4-0 Sweden.....

You gents have your thread for attractive women in hockey, I have men's Team Sweden. Third period starting! AND ZETTERBERG SCOOOOORES 3-0 Sweden :D

Been a while since I've seen someone talk about life being awesome.. Today I had a service appointment for my car and they gave me a box of chocolates and a flower. D'aww. Love you too, van bortel subaru. Also, being the antithesis of a morning person, seeing the sunrise and the deep blue shadows in the morning is pretty much worth the cost of an early alarm. Maybe I'll get up early more often. Yeah, nope.

It was -2 when I left my apartment in west henrietta, and when I was done getting my oil changed in Victor, I walked into the sun and thought "damn, it's warming up quick!". Checked the temp gauge... -4. Oh. Was a scorching 5 when I got to work in Pittsford.

Shaun White's reign is over. He came in at 4th place in the half pipe, pushed out of contention by two Japanese athletes and gold going to a Swiss contender. Now watching women's ski jump So happy to see it. Watch the doc Ready To Fly on Netflix if you're so inclined- it focuses on Lindsey Van and the American would-be team's efforts to have a women's team. First year for it, in Sochi. Awesome.

It really does. They look so incredibly zen until the final lap and suddenly their eyes are bulging and you experience sympathetic lung burn for them. But that ice... oh man, it looks so inviting and beautiful.

haha not you. I've seen it elsewhere though, which prompted my whole rant. Ah well, speed skating is on. Damn it looks like fun.

Definitely semantics. I'll say that marching band can be athletic. Ever seen the Ohio State Marching Band? I have friends who march with them, they have grueling practices/conditioning, and I was lucky enough to perform with them once. Holy crap, those kids are in good shape. As a former section leader (sax) and occasional drummer (quads), I can say it was tough- tougher to play the wind instruments because circular breathing, control, marching, blah blah blah. And again, under my super broad definition, it's a sport :) Semantics shemantics. I played piano 15 years and though I would never call it a sport by traditional sense, yet I guess it fits my broad definition as well. I never hit the treadmill to get better at playing Rachmaninoff or Joplin. My main issue with the sport v non sport was the superiority complex. I think I'm past caring beyond that now haha

Yeah, sorry, I try to keep my nose out of these kinds of threads/discussions and let you boys have your fun (it's a male dominated community, after all, and to be expected), but sometimes I can't resist. It IS a pretty fascinating look inside the way the other sex thinks, good and bad! Don't mean to be a total feminazi. I am plenty guilty of drooling on the water polo players and half naked Canadian bobsled team when the opportunity arises. They are pretty manses, as ink would say. :)

If you're cool with streaming, I just downloaded Tunnel Bear and switched my geo domain to the UK... so I'm watching all the BBC stuff live- pretty sure they have replays of stuff too. Recording wise, I'm not sure, but it's a start. Hope that helps. Olli Jokinen hanging out in his Finnish livery in Sochi... Man I don't know why but it totally blows my mind that he's that thin. Also, apparently Pavel Datsyuk is having injury problems (yet again). He may not play for Russia. Sat out the first practice, even. Which could be a pretty big deal for that team, and potentially us.

If that's butch, then I must be a total lezzy. I stomp around in Carhartts and plaid like her all winter long... gosh, I feel bad for d4rk now, didn't realize I looked like such a lumberjill. Practicality. Gotta sacrifice some of that girly bs sometimes. If they're anything like most of the young female athletes I know, they're possibly pansexual. There's just something about a person half in half out of their hockey pads...

Downloaded an app that switches my geo domain to UK if I want, so I can watch the BBC live coverage at work. Tunnel Bear, if anyone's interested. No commercials, no insipid NBC babbling... happy. Also, Canada's ladies whups Finland, 3-0.

The kid I was arguing with over on the book faces was telling me that singing is more of an olympic sport than figure skating. I am a terrible internet debater/arguer period, but I got into it with him. And nah, brain surgery doesn't fit that broad broad definition because I don't think it's generally intended to provide entertainment (though I find it fascinating to watch). Double bass actually would fit the argument better. Whether it is or isn't is an ongoing debate that can be applied to many Olympic events, like snowboarding, as it's subjective analysis vs. a solid, visual/measurable goal. Some people believe it one way, I believe it another, and all the semantics of definitions and bumbling over my own words couldn't convince me (or others) otherwise. Art, speed, goals, times... I can't stand the presentation of beach volleyball, personally, but it's no less an athletic undertaking. Why it's an Olympic sport confuses me, butt... I just get hot under the collar when I see skating belittled as a somehow lesser undertaking. I guess I better hold my tongue on that one at the ping pong finals in the summer games. :P

I'm fighting this one over on facebook and I'm ready to tear my hair out. Sport is a very broad definition. Chess is considered a sport. Sport is something that is competitive and provides entertainment while seeking to improve its method. It is not about quantitative vs qualitative success.

I get really twitchy when people say figure skating shouldn't be in the Olympics. That ###### is hard. You have to have grace and stamina and devote pretty much your whole life to it. I've known several skaters who've made it to Nationals and Olympics. My mother was a skater, she knew Scott Hamilton. I've dabbled in it myself. Ice dancing.... well, you may have a point there. Still difficult, the footwork is a pain, but you're not flying through the air, spinning, and landing on one foot without twisting your ankle to hell. It's gymnastics on ice, with no padding. Try it sometime. Toepick.... The only thing I really hate about it is the costumes/judge corruption. There is a rule that a female cannot wear anything but a skirt. Probably so gentlemen can stare at their ###### and boost ratings. Several women did switch to wearing unitards and they quickly ruled it out.

He was raised in what I call a figure skating gulag- taken from his family very young. As a little boy he was stretched so he could perform moves no other male figure skater could (like the scorpion). I loved him growing up- was always happy when he outskated Alexei Yagudin. Apparently he's become quite an arrogant dick lately, and really shouldn't be on the team. Another skater supposedly outscored him in qualification but Russia has a ###### for him, so, here he is, his last shot for gold. Announcer for the men's cross country ski was absolutely losing his mind over the final push. Was it cross country ski? I don't know- I honestly don't know the differences between all the skiing disciplines.

Yep. At the end of the swinging sixties part.

Niiice. My favorite is Solzhenitsyn. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is great. The Gulag Archipelago is a wonderful read, too. Also, yay US Women! Heard the Norwegians are already cleaning up in speed skating. This is so awesome! I can't wait to follow her journey over there. Best of luck to her!

Alright, my two cents. Watched the Opening Ceremony as it happened. Don't read if you want it all to be a surprise this evening, but the beer is flowing and I am babbling. The music. I'm a classical nerd, so perhaps I'm biased, but I really loved the sequences using Tchaikovsky and Sviridov.. I read where a Russian official said basically, well, we don't have pop stars, so instead of One Direction or the Spice Girls, we have Tchaikovsky. It worked. Only thing that could've made it better for me was some Rachmaninov. I loved the Tolstoy ballet. I thought the use of the projections and rafters was very ingenious. Then there's some odd bits that are uber colorful and artsy, and there's giant animatronic mascots that I honestly thought were well done, but could be rather creepy to some. I was so happy to see Tretiak. Putin's mistress/lady/thing is one of the final torchbearers as well, as is Sharapova. Lots of pretty Russian ladies. I was impressed. I honestly hadn't given much thought to the fact that many of the literature/arts that I love are actually Russian, so that made it better for me. (except Dostoevsky, my god, i could never get through his work) Admittedly, the BBC feed had the announcers breaking in with updates on the hijacking issue out of Istanbul, which made it a bit darker, but overall, very beautifully done, with a classic Russian failure in the rings not fully opening and looking like Putin's puckered ######. I look forward to seeing it on a full TV without graininess and lags. The ceremony, not Putin's winking eye.

Do you have a link to an article about that? I walk around with metal in my heart because I had one of those- stroke was one of the worries. I gave 'em all the slip and had a heart attack at 15 instead. I'm curious to see if Letang and I have the same heart hole haha

....aaand our first terrorist threat of the games. http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/07/world/europe/turkey-flight-bomb-threat/

I read that he will be on blood thinners and it is thus treatable that way... Not expected to be career threatening. But it's still early.

NEWS ALERT: Penguins defenseman Kris Letang will miss at least six weeks after having a stroke last week http://t.co/xzSqJ8r854— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 7, 2014 Jeez. He's awful young for that. Speedy recovery.

Yes. He is so careful when he says it. You can hear his brain going "here it comes. the Word. On international tv. Alright now Bob, purse the lips aaand... there we go. Ok." I can't help but giggle.