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icepixieToday I did battle with the Evil Salchow, and emerged victorious.
P played with the positioning of my arms and legs on the entry edge and I finally manged to make it an entry with a hook instead of just an arc that keeps going and going and never actually turns into a jump. (Let me remind you, this is the jump "you just have to feeeeeeel" when it's right to actually move off the edge into the air.) Unfortunately, the entry wasn't into a jump so much as a stumble and a forward landing.
So in the last half hour, I decided I was going to get this to look like a jump. I'm pretty sure I did it 50+ times. It was like I was starring in one of those cheesy motivational commercials that has twenty fast cuts of some athlete or other doing the same thing over and over again untilexhaustion perfection.
And I will say this for those cheesy motivational commercials: The strategy is sound. By the fortieth or fiftieth mohawk-into-entry edge-into-stumble, I was able to get the hook--albeit scratchily, and too far onto my toe pick--and step through so that I landed mostly backwards. Depending on exactly where you pop off the toe pick, a Salchow is actually more of a 2/3- or 3/4-revolution jump than a full revolution (a fact which surprised me, given what you see on TV--it looks like they take off backwards, but in reality you take off...kind of halfway between forward and sideways). I probably have half a revolution now.
Also, the exhaustion. The exhaustion was real. I don't usually get that out of breath skating unless I'm doing Moves I know well at a pretty good clip, or those few occasions where I do 5+ waltz jumps one after the other or something. I usually do something, then take a moment to contemplate why it went wrong and how it can go better before trying again. Not this time. I was ready to fall over after all that.
It made me thankful that toe loops exist and are so much easier, especially since mine actually became a jump while I wasn't looking this week. Well, if I remember to bend my knee after the three turn; then I get into the air and I can feel my free leg swinging out and around as I land because I have real momentum, which is a very cool feeling. Toe loop-toe loop combinations are also less scary now that I can land the things more securely (yaaaaay new blade placement!).
*
Hey, this actually got good! I was surprised when it ended instead of half-watching the clock like I have been for earlier episodes. I got the impression there's quite a bit of background I'm missing in re: the Army unit who went to Russia with Peggy et al., but they did a decent job of covering for it and I don't feel like I didn't know anything vital.
The Good:
Peggy kicking ass and taking names.
Sousa being a smart investigator, and the way this led, in part, to a complete reversal of relationships at SSR HQ.
Dottie backstory. Dottie backstory that is super creepy. Dottie as a Soviet spy!
Dooley becoming slightly less of an outright asshole, maybe? Perhaps he is just biding his time.
I think I've lost a couple of details about the Battle of Finnau, but like most of the characters, I am very curious what led to all those dead Russians.
The Ambivalent:
Thompson's about-face. I absolutely buy his behavior over the previous episodes is a result of imposter syndrome. I don't entirely buy him voluntarily telling Peggy about ~his shame~, but...maybe? I was worried that he'd double down on the sexism and the disrespect after, because now she Knows His Secret And Must Be Punished--come on, you all know this is what happens IRL--but it was really quite nice to see him not do that.
If they'd led the show with this, nothing on god's green earth could keep me from shipping Carter/Thompson (I did enjoy that locker room scene), but they've had him be an ass for four straight episodes and I just can't get around that. Maybe with time. Though to the show's credit, it doesn't seem like Carter/Thompson is endgame, which is nice.
*
I went to an "Asian bistro" on the university side of campus for lunch yesterday (where I had a bowl of completely flavorless pho, ugh), and on the way saw a hawk of some stripe. It floated out of the sky onto a tree and then sat there for a while, tucking first one foot and then the other into its feathers (perhaps because it was 42 degrees at the time). I don't think it was a red-tailed hawk--although it might've been a lighter morph--but maybe a broad-winged or Cooper's?
P played with the positioning of my arms and legs on the entry edge and I finally manged to make it an entry with a hook instead of just an arc that keeps going and going and never actually turns into a jump. (Let me remind you, this is the jump "you just have to feeeeeeel" when it's right to actually move off the edge into the air.) Unfortunately, the entry wasn't into a jump so much as a stumble and a forward landing.
So in the last half hour, I decided I was going to get this to look like a jump. I'm pretty sure I did it 50+ times. It was like I was starring in one of those cheesy motivational commercials that has twenty fast cuts of some athlete or other doing the same thing over and over again until
And I will say this for those cheesy motivational commercials: The strategy is sound. By the fortieth or fiftieth mohawk-into-entry edge-into-stumble, I was able to get the hook--albeit scratchily, and too far onto my toe pick--and step through so that I landed mostly backwards. Depending on exactly where you pop off the toe pick, a Salchow is actually more of a 2/3- or 3/4-revolution jump than a full revolution (a fact which surprised me, given what you see on TV--it looks like they take off backwards, but in reality you take off...kind of halfway between forward and sideways). I probably have half a revolution now.
Also, the exhaustion. The exhaustion was real. I don't usually get that out of breath skating unless I'm doing Moves I know well at a pretty good clip, or those few occasions where I do 5+ waltz jumps one after the other or something. I usually do something, then take a moment to contemplate why it went wrong and how it can go better before trying again. Not this time. I was ready to fall over after all that.
It made me thankful that toe loops exist and are so much easier, especially since mine actually became a jump while I wasn't looking this week. Well, if I remember to bend my knee after the three turn; then I get into the air and I can feel my free leg swinging out and around as I land because I have real momentum, which is a very cool feeling. Toe loop-toe loop combinations are also less scary now that I can land the things more securely (yaaaaay new blade placement!).
*
Hey, this actually got good! I was surprised when it ended instead of half-watching the clock like I have been for earlier episodes. I got the impression there's quite a bit of background I'm missing in re: the Army unit who went to Russia with Peggy et al., but they did a decent job of covering for it and I don't feel like I didn't know anything vital.
The Good:
Peggy kicking ass and taking names.
Sousa being a smart investigator, and the way this led, in part, to a complete reversal of relationships at SSR HQ.
Dottie backstory. Dottie backstory that is super creepy. Dottie as a Soviet spy!
Dooley becoming slightly less of an outright asshole, maybe? Perhaps he is just biding his time.
I think I've lost a couple of details about the Battle of Finnau, but like most of the characters, I am very curious what led to all those dead Russians.
The Ambivalent:
Thompson's about-face. I absolutely buy his behavior over the previous episodes is a result of imposter syndrome. I don't entirely buy him voluntarily telling Peggy about ~his shame~, but...maybe? I was worried that he'd double down on the sexism and the disrespect after, because now she Knows His Secret And Must Be Punished--come on, you all know this is what happens IRL--but it was really quite nice to see him not do that.
If they'd led the show with this, nothing on god's green earth could keep me from shipping Carter/Thompson (I did enjoy that locker room scene), but they've had him be an ass for four straight episodes and I just can't get around that. Maybe with time. Though to the show's credit, it doesn't seem like Carter/Thompson is endgame, which is nice.
*
I went to an "Asian bistro" on the university side of campus for lunch yesterday (where I had a bowl of completely flavorless pho, ugh), and on the way saw a hawk of some stripe. It floated out of the sky onto a tree and then sat there for a while, tucking first one foot and then the other into its feathers (perhaps because it was 42 degrees at the time). I don't think it was a red-tailed hawk--although it might've been a lighter morph--but maybe a broad-winged or Cooper's?
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Date: 2015-02-10 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-10 06:16 am (UTC)