Overdue again, you get to put up with my prejudices

Stable and beautiful Apple Mac vs clunky and fragile Windows PC

Apple Mac - Lots of work on edges this morning - started out PC, but looking a lot more Mac-like by the end of the lesson. Started on jumps - reviewed waltz, sal and toeloop, some half-flips, loop at the rail and walked through a lutz. Coach liked my landing and ride-out. Fw and back upright spins centered nicely, albeit still slow.

Windows PC - I'm seriously scared of the loop, this is going to be tough to get over. I've lost the feel for how a sitspin balances, I can't go lower than an awkward stoop.

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It's all about the dress!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Apple. So close and dear to my heart. However, if you do choose a PC, get an HP!!! Dells are crap. No offense.

I never post on these, but I had to when I read the title
(I'm predicting a lot of people will swap the good and the bad, but I'm a Mac girl 100%)

Mac - spins! spent my whole 15 minute lesson on forward spins, and for the first time ever, I was actually getting into the spin and holding it without feeling like I'm just flailing around as fast as I can till I fall out. My wonderful coach just kept giving me one small tweak at a time and the spins kept getting better and better. I held one for about 5 revs and it felt like I could have kept going and going... I just ran out of speed rather than running out of balance like I usually do

Also, practicing the pre-pre crossovers I was getting so much speed and power with seemingly no effort. 3 xovers to go around each hockey circle and I was just flying and remembering to point my toes and keep my shoulders up. Back xovers were pretty good too, though I tend to get a little more power than I can control on those and I worry I'm going to hit the wall. Control is getting there though, especially when I remember to keep my shoulders up.

PC - I hadn't stepped on the ice since my last lesson due to different schdule related things :-(

I practiced the preliminary alternating 3's and the outside ones were not as good as they were last week in my lesson. I hadn't practiced them though, so I'm hoping they'll come back as I get my butt over to the rink more consistently.

Mac - the inside 3's were pretty good.

PC - I wish I could afford more than a 15 minute lesson and one 1 1/2 hr public session once a week ::sigh::

Dell owner here!!!

That said, I own a iTouch and a iPod now... both gifts from DH... And yeah, I'll have to agree that to some point, Dell SUCKS, especially their service center. Mostly outsourced to India posing as one of us... so us Americans obviously don't "get them" when we place a service call to them!!! My ex-boss (who now works for Dell) has parts of his QA team going to India too. Sucks for the engineers here who are STILL looking for work!!!

So b/c of that...

PC: I had to cancel my lesson today b/c of a NASTY storm coming thru our way. I've already heard too much about flooding on the roads. LOTS of rain dumped on and HOWLING winds outside my bedroom window = call coach + I'm staying in BED!!! I really wanted to be at this lesson, obviously, b/c there's so much to work on for the Silver Moves test.

Mac:
We'll try for lesson with secondary coach tomorrow.

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

I'm ADDICTED to my iTouch. I love LOVE it! I plan on buying a new 15" PowerBook from Apple when I have the money. Most of my money goes to skating right now! LOL! So I don't have much spending.

I guess I should post something on here, eh?

Mac/Apple Addict: Went through my program several times. Mostly everything is clean and tidy. Took video of myself this week and was please with the height of my jumps, my spiral sequence, and footwork.

PC (Dell) LOL!: Saw my sit spin on video and was HORRIFIED! I am nowhere near where I want to be on it. its not low enough! Gonna work on that today.

I have a lesson with my coach and will probably be skating in my dress today. Refine things for my program and relax!!! Get used to how it feels for Saturday. I can't believe its here!!!

Good: I think I am finally getting somewhere with my program, I am landing the jumps when I do it and I am sure I will pass my Novice Freeskate when I test it in two weeks. Also my Rockers in my junior moves have gotten a lot better and I know that I will also pass that when I test my Junior moves in two weeks also. I also am finally getting somewhere with my double toe in terms of making it better, I put some footwork before it as distraction and it really seems to be working.

Bad: I cant seem to come up with a better footwork sequence for my long program. My coach saw what I had so far in terms with it and she said its way to easy and only level one luckily my coach is going to help me with it tomorrow.

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2010 Skating Goals

1) Land Double Axel
2) Pass Junior Moves at the end of January
3) Pass Novice Free at the end of January
4) Pass Senior moves by september
5) Consistant double flips and double lutzs
6) Learn a new cool spin!

Mac:
Spins are getting better back camel is making it to 6 and then the edge flipping begins to get the CCosp to a 3. No change camel combo is getting better maybe easier to hold the camel for 8 than the sit, currently sit is a 6-7 but its a long way down and an even longer trip up!! Layback is getting better....fast and centered but not a lot of flexibility. Jumps are better but still not clean...

I really enjoy my gold free dance and my Jr free dance, of course I get to be lifted and not do the lifting.

PC: Sr quick edge step still needs a lot more quickness, spirals need more stretch and slip steps more power. Back sit is @ 100 degrees still not low enough but is very fast, can mange, pancake at 90 but takes a while to get into it. ACL is compromised, I'll go to doctor in JUne,.....

Lovin' the mac since 87' if they have a tablet announcement on 1/27, I'll be ordering on 1/28.....

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

BTW, I absolutely LOVE my iPod Touch (Christmas gift) and do not know how I functioned without it! Had my private lesson yesterday, so, anyway, on to skating!!

Mac: Loops!! Yeah!!! Took up most of the lesson after we looked at the pre-bronze and bronze FS requirements to see what I could and couldn't do. (I still have to test PB FS, but after looking at those requirements (minimal), we decided to skip ahead to bronze and see what I would need for that). So then she wanted to see my backspin, it's been a while since I have showed it to her (except as part of a change foot spin). It wasn't too bad! (I've been practicing!!). The only thing I *really* can't do out of the bronze requirements are the sit spin, so we worked on that for a little (that falls under "PC" though, so I'll skip ahead to the jumps!!). Waltz jump was good, salchow was good after one botched attempt where I ended up flat on my butt (laughing, though). Waltz-toe loop was OK too, so then she asked if I wanted to work on loops or flips. (at which point I stalled a little by suggesting that I needed to do toe loops . . . which really WAS a stall since that's the easiest jump for me). Of course those were OK and I decided we might as well tackle the loop first. Did a few walk throughs with the inside 3 entry, then she headed for the harness (EEK!!). Ironically, by the time she got it set up, I had already managed to get the rhythm of it and was actually doing the jump on my own. But since she had to go through a lot of trouble getting the harness out (it hadn't been put back right, the time before) I went ahead and "buckled up." Did about 5-6 in harness and then moved back out to the ice, where I was SO excited to finally feel the "flow" and "lift" of the jump and do it on my own! Can't wait to go out again and work on it again. That's a really cool feeling when it finally all comes together.

PC - but, yeah, the sit spin. (back to earth). Actually, might have made some progress on that, but need to spend some time on it on my own. I can do the sit position fine, but the entry is a disaster (totally spastic, and I promptly tip myself out of the spin). She was going to have me work on shoot-the-ducks, but I quickly demonstrated that I can do those just fine, I can even do a backwards one! I can even do a couple of rotations in a BACK sit spin . . . I just can't get a solid entry to the forward sit spin to get it going in the first place. (pretty sure at least partly related to weak left hip muscles - but I've been trying to work on that off-ice). She did notice that I was leaning forward too much on the entry, so I tried it again, focusing on avoiding that error, and had a couple of attempts which felt completely different to me and actually, I think, have some promise. Kind of hard to describe, but sort of like I was "backing into" the spin?? Hopefully I will have a chance to work on it some more this weekend.

So all-in-all, I'm really happy with how those FS 4 elements are coming along!! (Just wish my friends and family had a clue as to why I am so giddy - don't have a whole lot of "skating" acquaintances in my circle!!).

I miss skating so much. Have to call and get an ETA on my new boots.

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I, too, am a Mac girl, since 1988. Love love love all my various Mac stuff. And two of my friends, both diehard PC users, are planning to switch to Macs.

PC: Haven't skated in a few weeks because my knee was bothering me. Hurt when I skated forward, not backward, but I decided rest was a better idea than just skating backwards all the time, LOL.

Mac: The knee is improving, hopefully I'll skate next week.

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August 22, back on the ice!

Not a Mac fan at all...I run a PC based network and just cringe on the occasions that I have to make a Mac play nicely with my stuff. That being said, I'm not a Dell fan either...HP across the board at work, and an older Toshiba laptop for home. Soooo, my modified version:

Ipod Touch (just waiting for my current MP3 player to die because I really, really want one of these): Lutz has had a mind of its own lately, but it was behaving well yesterday and today. I did 3 in a row this morning, clean.

Camel spin getting a tiny bit more reliable. Even managed another camel-sit yesterday.

Consecutive edges (pre-pre MITF) feeling pretty good. Need a little more speed on the back ones...I have a lot of trouble with the first push-off.

Dell ('nuff said): Left knee has been bothering me off and on for a couple of weeks. I rarely get off the ice early from a session, but it was so bad last week that I did just that. It got plenty of rest this week as a hockey tournament pre-empted my usual Monday session.

Everything feels rather slow and sluggish. I used to be able to skate with a lot more speed than this.

Crossovers on the ends of the pre-pre stroking pattern...must...bend...knees. Ugggggg.

No time to try axels at all this week, between spending more time on moves than usual, and the knee bothering me.

Sorry Mac people...not a Mac fan either. I do have an Ipod Touch, BUT am writing this from my awesome HP laptop with the extra large screen.

HP Went through my program several times tonight, but with and without music. Landed the flip the majority of times Landed the loop from the back cross-overs the majority of the time. Whoot! Had lesson with coach and she was happy with the run throughs I did for her.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the flip that it will hang around for good. Someone told me this week that I was "gutsy" for skating as an adult. So my mantra going into to the flip is "Skate with guts!" and that seems to be working.

Dell My arms are up in the air on the flip and the lutz. When I think about holding them down, it messes something else up. Guess I will have to practice the whole program with a skate guard in my hand ...how Coach make me fix the arm problem.

Okay, I have the perfect title for next week's practice/lesson thread... it will be "platform independent."

Mainframes: Working on waltz jump and unfortunatel my bad waltz jump habits are back again.

iPod Touch: They got slightly better towards the end of the session... and then for yucks, I tried to do off ice axels with her corrections for the waltz jumps. It's still 1/2 rev. short, BUT it became easier to do the rotation of the jump -- well, okay, it felt more controlled going into the jump... I'll take that!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

love them or hate them, the thread title sure got folks out of the woodwork

Mac - every skate things feel stronger and more sure. Ran all pre-bronze and bronze MIF for warmup and they didn't suck. Waltz sal and toeloop are ok. Been doing lots of stretching - forward spirals are nice, back coming slower but improving.

PC - loop, flip, lutz I'm remembering them fondly but not doing them. Might have jumped more, but started to get a sore spot at the front of my ankle on my landing foot, despite the gel thing on my ankle. Guess my feet are out of condition too.

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It's all about the dress!

I hear you! I haven't skated since Sunday-have 15 chapters plus skills to review for an exam on Monday....and I haven't even watched skating on TV/Icenetwork either! This really sucks!
Oh, I hate when bad habits creep back! Once in a while my technique leaves and I skate real sucky (hmmm, spins, salchow, waltz, etc....ok I have a lot of bad habits-LOL)

Liz, glad to hear you are doing well! Don't overdo it tho. Hope your ankle feels better (once it gets used to skating it should).

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

HP I was the only one at my group lesson today...so essentially got a private. I ran through the program for group coach.

Dell "Was that first jump a flip?" So we worked on the flip the rest of the lesson. That is actually good, because this coach has fixed the flip before unfortunately, I often revert to bad habits. When time was up, I was getting more height on the jump, but still 2 footing. Really no reason to. UGH!

PC, Dell and ASUS
Good run through. We were hoping to be ready by mid March, but now we need to be ready by next week. I'm organizing a skating show, "Ice to Water, A benefit for Haiti".

Mac - We're hoping to get the costumes finished in time!

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

COMPETED TODAY!!!

2 solo dances--overall I was really freakin nervous for dance. I passed one about 12 yrs ago before I went off to college/grad school and stopped dancing. Passed the other in '08 after I started dancing again. Worked on them for a few weeks before Peach in August and due to the injury hadn't been able to do them until recently. Spent 20 min of lesson time on them last week and that's really been it. So I felt grossly underprepared.

American Waltz felt a little shaky. Timing was OK, but I felt really stiff and alomst tripped on the first turn of the 2nd pattern. Was so nervous my hands were shaking the entire dance. I was shocked to get straight 1s, I thought everyone after me (I was the first skater) looked good. So I must have been doing something right!

Foxtrot was bad. I didn't realize it was going to be 3 patterns, I practice 2. First pattern was huge and the 2nd and 3rd ended up all thrown off, not as deep as I would have liked in a lot of places. Ended up in 2nd for this one, again, I was shocked, people who placed below me looked really good.

I really think my placement and some time between now and Nationals working on perfecting these will build my confidence. I need to go out at Nationals and freakin own both of these dances like I did with my Tango last year. (I had this insane confidence on the tango at Nationals last year, I have no idea where it came from.)

Freeskate was one of my better skates since I started freestyle again in '08. Best skate to date was Peach in August, this was a close second, and I'm extremely happy given that it's only the 4th full time through the program since my injury. Overall I didn't rush like I have a bad habit of doing in competition, it was weird because I was pretty relaxed but at the same time I was a little stiff and didn't get down in the knees. I just started working on a camel/forward scratch with a COE (literally yesterday in my lesson...I'd been playing with edge changes and my coach told me to try it with a camel first since my layback is a hot mess, and it worked). I nailed this in my program pretty well. Sit-back sit was shaky, didn't get a nice low/fast forward sit or a good snap into the back sit. Actually did my flying camel in competition for the first time. I tried it in most competitions last season and it always came out some sort of unidentified flying back scratchy thingamabob. Today it went into a recognizable back camel. Not sure if the takeoff was cheated at all though. Forward sit in the combo after it wasn't fast/low. Jumps were all clean, didn't have the height I'd want or the speed coming in/out of them that I was working on building pre-injury, but that will come back. Lutzes have been giving me major issues the past month and I had major edge changes on both in the program, but I was happy that I did something that went up in the air, around, and landed on one foot because even that was a struggle in my lesson yesterday. Forgot the toe loop on what is supposed to be my 3 jump sequence (lutz/loop/toe). Woops. I think this program will really work for me once my coach and I have time to really work on it between now and sectionals/nationals, it's just fun.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Man, at this time in my life, it seems the only thing that's REALLY working out well for me is skating. I've been having work, financial, and job searching issues that most 20 something year olds tend to fall into. But honestly, this new club I'm skating for is really getting better and better. Now I'm helping little kids for their exhibition coming up..hey its just helping, but for someone that loves to choreograph as much as I do, it's a BIG step in the right direction. Plus its a great way to get to know people in the club, since I'm very new to it and only knew two people coming into it. Okay onto practice notes:

Good Things:(I've never used a mac before, so that would be unfair to call it a bad thing)
-Power threes...especally while a quarter of the ice was being used by two hockey players
-Flip- surprisingly that jump felt flawless. I had to credit it, because a year ago I couldnt even land it consistantly. Now it's like nothing.
-Loops of all variations...another jump that I was uncomfortable with that is now one of the most natural and one of my fave jumps at the time
-Sit spins...when they were behaving, they were REALLY really good and low.
-Closed hip hair cutter/broken leg....it's definately do-able. I tend to slow a bit when I change the position, but it's good.
-Put my new showcase to ice and worked ALOT with it...mainly the traffic pattern and starting/ending ice positions. Its funny because I actually choreographed this thing in a dream and it worked perfectly.
-Had alot of fun with choreographing my showcase...it's gonna be a blast when finished.
-Working with the little kids for their exhibition.

Ehh.....
-Double sals....not my best attempts today. I was rushing the rotation and/or not jumping high enough.
-Lutzs...once again when they were behaving, they were very very good. But I need that jump to be consistant.
-Powerpulls...not the best.

Needs Improvement:
-Axel...Axel..freakin Axel- Today it was just awful. Last week I was close to landing it and today it was all wonky and just bad.
-Sit/sit...not pretty...I used to have it, but now it's taking a vacation
-Camels...didn't bother, there was far too many people on the ice

I guess thats it! I'm gonna try to skate at the other rink, sometime within the week and really fix those problem areas. Also hopefully by next week I'll find a way to cut my music, so that I can run the silly thing. Good times though!

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[i]Beauty May Be in the Eye of the Beholder
But passion is in the heart of a skater.[/I]

Like, dance2sk8 and RachelSk8er, I also competed this past weekend!

Apple:

I did practice ice on Friday and just used as a freestyle session.

I did all of my jumps through flip and they were all pretty good. I thought about going for a lutz but since it was a busy session and I'm still in the "needing time to set up" phase, I decided not to.

I always tend to spin well at Wyandotte and this year was no exception. My laybacks were fast and centered, my camel was pretty good and I even got a couple of good flying camels in!

As for the competition, I skated my solo A/D interp better than my previous outing with it at Buckeye last November and finished 2nd out of 4.

Leslie and I skated couples interp for the first time and had a blast doing it! We got a lot of compliments from spectators and the judges who were just watching the event (not on our panel).

PC:

The judges on our panel totally did NOT get our couples interp concept and placed us 3rd out of 3 teams. But, the reaction of the spectators has motivated us to keep the program and try it again next year (hopefully, with a different panel ).

Only 6 more weeks til Mids where I'm doing my solo A/D interp again as well as Silver MIF and team compulsories!

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I've got mad salchow disease!

PC's: not going to be able to skate until (hopefully) Friday....this is really maddening and if it continues might (will) affect my ability to test will come April. I sincerely hope not and I'm trying to remain optimistic. My school schedule is intense and I'm in classes until there is no hope of hitting a session. If my rink had an early am session it would be great (then I could go before labs), but it doesn't. The only sessions in the evening are hockey and LTS, neither would work very well for freestyle/moves. I'm not so good where I can get by skating once a week either.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Congrats to Flying Camel, RachelSkater, and Dance2sk8 on your competition this weekend!

Dell Couldn't get to the early a.m. session because of the snow. Had to take DH to work due to issues with his car. By the time I drove him in, I had no time to get to the early session. Got an extra lesson tonight and worked on the flip....what else Did plenty of exercises for them.

HP Went through the program and am finishing with more time left. That means I am skating faster so that is good. Spent a lot of time on the footwork, loop, camel-backspin. Coach pronounced the footwork good. We have 1 more lesson before the competition on Saturday. She thinks it will be good. I am trying not to think too much about it and just focus on going through the program as best I can.

IPod Touch: Knee was feeling better today. And as a result I was bending more, and a lot of things were working well. MITF felt decent. Spins and jumps were working for the most part. I made a conscious effort to add a little bit of speed to my jump entries and it helped a LOT. Especially the lutz. Even had enough time to try axels, which I haven't done in the last several sessions.

Dell: Said axel attempts didn't go very well. Loop jumps were puny, and the extra speed messed with my salchow as well. Not a great edge jump day in general. And what's up with the kids who skate their own programs while their friends' music is on? There was a gaggle of pre-pre girls and every time one of their music was on, they'd all get in their starting positions and skate their own programs to the others' music. Or, they'd shadow the person doing the program....it was like watching a freight train go by. Most of them are with the same coach who happened to be out sick, otherwise they never would have done it, I"m sure, but it still was annoying.

IPod Touch:

• Back to skate on my beloved social Monday night skate.
• Loop and flip were at the session!

Mainframes:

• No idea if my spin entry is good. I am more conscious of the foot turning out but I don't know if it's enough or whether I was conscious of the foot turning out ON the ice before going into a spin.
• Lutz could not make it to the session. Too rainy weather for him to come out...
• No skating for the next two days. ALL work related again!!! And all of them on the early morning shift. (And I couldn't get out of work 'til my work is done, so I'm putting in a LOT of hours... )

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Macs - took a vacation day to go with my older daughter to her class field trip - which meant I could do the 7am freestyle and get back in time to go. Private ice - whoooot moves are shaping up.

PC - jumps are rusty, program runthroughs have a long way to go before ready for public showing.

Mac - lesson was rescheduled for Friday. Rumor has it Jeremy
Abbot will be on the today show friday, so I'll get to see him.

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It's all about the dress!