Sophistik8

Sorry this post has been a bit late in coming. I have had the same icky sickness for about 3 weeks now and I just can’t kick it. I have stayed home from work today and hopefully a day of rest and recuperation will kick my immune system into shape.

Last Sunday, Valentine’s Day, was the most amazing day ever! The excitement started Saturday night. Ryan and I made sushi for V-day (we like to stay in and cook a gourmet meal for ourselves) and hopefully he will post something on his blog about that experience. I could barely sleep Saturday night thinking about my upcoming bout…my heart felt like it was going a million miles an hour. I woke up sharply at about 7am on Sunday and had 3 agonizing hours to get ready before my ride picked me up. Then we got to the rink about 30 minutes early and had to kill some time at Target and attempt to forget about our nerves.

We did a walk through of the bout around 11am and then had warm ups. It felt really good to get the nerves out before we were relegated to the kiddie rink (which they had blocked off with tarps for our “locker room”). We waited very patiently (not!) as the crowd began filling up Winwood until at 2pm the bout was ready to begin! Both teams were introduced and then we went through a quick “How Roller Derby is Played” demo which I got to participate in. Then the fun began.

I never knew that 40 minutes could go by so quickly! I jammed a lot and blocked a few times and had the best time ever! It was exciting, it was exhilarating, it was terrifying and wonderful all at the same time! Our team did a great job of talking to each other, and I think everyone, including the other team played at 110%. We were sitting on the same side of the rink as the score board so I didn’t actually know the score most of the time, and I was pretty sure we were winning (we were playing like winners!). But in the end, the red team beat us by about 20 points (still don’t know the official score).

But the fun didn’t end there. At the end of the bout we were drafted onto our teams…I am a DREADNOUGHT DOROTHY! So get ready, buy your tickets, and I will see you at the first bout on March 26th!!! In the meantime here is some footage put together by my wonderful relative, Scott, to tide you over till then!

Well this has been an interesting week.  We have been split into our red and black teams for the fresh meat about on Sunday, February, 14th.  I am on the black team.  We have veteran bench coaches for the bout and we will be electing captains soon!  It is going to be a great time.  If you are looking for something to do on Valentine’s Day I will be selling tickets.  Here are the details:

• $10 per person
• 2pm start time (but doors open at 1:30)
• Winwood Skate Center (map)
• This is a bring your own chair event
• Tickets are only sold by fresh meat, and no tickets at the door!

I hope to see you all there cheering the black and red!

The big news is that you all helped me raise $150 to run a 5K and jump in a freezing cold lake and I did!  I finished my 5K in 33.5 minutes and I ran the whole time, which was my goal!  And then came the part I was really scared of.  I have never done a polar plunge but I figured that I owed it to all of you who donated to the cause to jump in that freezing cold lake!  When we got there for the 5K they were using a chainsaw to cut through the ice.  After the 5K we had some time to wait as we watched everyone get ready for the plunge and I changed into just a t-shirt and shorts, as little clothing as possible to peel off afterwards.  We had to wait in line for about 20 minutes as other groups went and as I got more and more nervous!  But when our turn came we put our hands in the middle, yelled “Roller Warriors” and plunged into the freezing cold water!  I made it all the way out to the edge to give the firemen a high five and then it was to the heated changing tent and back into warm clothes for me!

I went straight from the plunge to Crossroads Bootcamp to weigh in for a bootcamp which I start next week!  I hope that it goes well, honestly it frightens me a little too.  I am feeling good now that I am back home with a warm shower and looking forward to a hot dinner!  Thanks to everyone who donate and came out to cheer me on!  I hope you can all make it to the Bloody Valentine’s Bout to see me play!

As promised here are the pictures from the plunge!  If you are looking for me on the video I am on the far right in the red shirt and black shorts!

2010 Polar Bear Plunge

Hear me ROAR!  That’s right, we found out this week that we are officially Roller Warriors!  I submitted my name as “Barbrarian” thanks to my new leaguemate Rita.  I really wanted a Dewey decimal number but unfortunately, they recently changed the rules and you can’t have symbols in your name (and a period is a symbol).  So my number is 511 (both my birthday and my height!).  I am really looking forward to this season as we start to scrimmage and learn the strategy of the game.  But there are some important things I need to tell you dear blog readers!

First, this weekend is the annual Polar Bear Plunge!  The Roller Warriors traditionally participate in this to raise money for the KC Special Olympics and I am participating in both the plunge and the 5k.  I am trying to raise $100 in 5 days!  (I got to this game a little late)  The Special Olympics is a really great charity and if you have $5 burning a hole in your bank account I would ask that you donate it them on my fundraising page.

Second, we have our first bout, Fresh Meat only, on Valentines Day (February 14th for those of you guys who haven’t figured that out yet).  It will be at the Winwood Skate Center and tickets will be $10.  Hopefully I will be getting tickets tomorrow night at practice and I can start selling them.  I am pretty sure the bout starts at 3pm but I am not totally sure about that yet.  I will be emailing everyone I know as soon as I have tickets!  I can’t wait to see you all there to watch me fall on my butt and have a great time doing it!

Alright.  We can start turning in our names on Wednesday so it has come down to the final 5 names…  You need to help me decide.  Some of these were crowd favorites from the other polls and some are my favorites.

This was such a great Xmas. I got to celebrate my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary on the 23rd (their actually anniversary is the 24th) along with my aunt and uncle who also had their 40th this year in August. Then we had Xmas with my mom’s family before spending Christmas Eve night at my dad’s mom’s apartment so that we could wake up there on Xmas morning. Then it was off to my aunt and uncles house for an Asian Xmas dinner (we pick a different theme each year). Just a great time with family! I can’t wait for next year! Of Course it doesn’t hurt that I got some awesome presents (blue ray player from ryan, new laptop from my parents!) I am swimming in awesome!

Meet Elena, the newest member of our family!

So I wanted to keep the pictures to myself until my parents and Ryan had gotten back into the country and been surprized. But I love my new hair. If you ever need anything amazing done to your hair see Alison at Chop Tops in downtown Merriam, KS. She is the best!

Two out of three hurdles cleared! I passed the skate test on Sunday and knocked out the rules test last night! The final cut will be on January 24th. So I will know by then if I am in the league and then we will have a fresh meat only bout on Feb 14th when the draft will be announced and we will find out what team we are on. Meanwhile keep the votes and suggestions coming!

Well I have just found out that Paige Turner and Dyebrarian are already taken in the international derby league registry of names…too bad since they were the front runners. Which means I need your suggestions! Vote below, send suggestions or add them to the comments!

Well almost…I still have to pass a few more tests but tryouts were this morning and I passed the skating test!  It was a grueling 4 hour ordeal where we had to demonstrate our skills as skaters (e.g. gliding on one foot, doing figure eights, weaving in and out of cones), and our ability to fall down (both on command and when hit really hard by a veteran skater).  I totally had myself psyched out this weekend and it felt really good to get them over with.
I have a few more steps before I am a full fledged Roller Warrior.  I have to pass a rules test on Tuesday and then we have a few weeks off.  We come back for practices in January and sometime mid-month we go through a round of interviews to judge our personality, coachability and attitude then they make the final cut and draft people onto teams.

Ok so I have had my Motorola Droid for a week now and that means it is time for a review!

Physical Design:  I was pretty sure I wanted the Droid when I stopped by the Verizon store to check it out before I bought it and I noticed the HTC Eris which is certainly more attractive than the Droid.  I began to waver and I went home to do some research.  It turns out that the Eris has really cruddy battery life, and considering I use my phone all the time I really need battery life than can last all day.  So when I finally got the Droid I got a pretty pink case for it (I am also prone to drop my phones) and it is acceptably cute to me now.  What is really impressive is the power.  I wasn’t sure if I cared about a physical keyboard but considering the phone is almost the same dimensions as as an iPhone but includes the keyboard why not get it right.  And it has come in handy for me when I want to type lots of text or on certain forms where it is easier to navigate with the directional pad on the keyboard.

The screen is HUGE and awesome.  It is so clear (it has the highest screen resolution of any smart phone on the market right now).  And although some people complain that it weighs a lot I haven’t really cared (it is in my purse or my hand all the time so maybe this is an issue if you are a guy and it is pulling down your pants).  I kinda miss my silent mode switch (it was a physical switch on my old palm centro) but I downloaded an app to put the switch right on the home screen so it is easy to silence the phone).

Software:  I LOVE Android 2.0.  I realized that most Android phones will be upgrading to 2.0 soon but it is awesome to have it first.   I am loving it!  And the Android app store is super easy to use.  I keep finding new things to download (all free apps so far).  My favorite apps have been Twitteroid, Facebook, and Pandora.  There are tons of best of Android app lists so I won’t go into that here.

I also love that the Droid is able to sync with my work email, calendar and contacts.  I wish it could sync with my Outlook to do list though, which is where I keep my to do lists.  I am temporarily trying out Astrid (an Android app) that syncs with Remember the Milk to keep track of my to dos, but there is a learning curve.

My other two complaints about the software is the lack of pinch zooming.  I downloaded Dolphin browser which supports it so I can us those types of gestures when I am online but not when I am checking my reader or email.  Hopefully that will be included in a later update (maybe Android 2.1 which is expected sometime early 2010).  The Gallery app (which is already loaded on the phone) has a tendency to freeze on me.  It is only that app and I am thinking I just need to find a new one and perhaps that won’t happen anymore.

Peripherals:  The camera is pretty good, with auto focus and a flash.  It is in fact better than my old camera!  And I haven’t really done much video recording but I hear it is also very good. Verizon sells the Droid with a 16gb micro SD card which is awesome and it can take up to a 32 gb card (which is about $99 right now so it is 16gb for me!).  The sound quality is excellent, both for music and for speaking.  I really like the speakerphone, and all accounts say that I am clear as a bell when I use it (even in windy conditions).

The battery power of the phone has actually surprised me.  I spent the first couple days with the phone taking the power cord with me everywhere but I have eventually taken those training wheels off and the phone when 10 hours yesterday with some pretty heavy usage and only  used about 65% of the battery.  Google also just released an update which increased battery life.

Overall:  I love this phone!!!  I am really glad I didn’t get the Eris which is where I was headed when I got intimidated by the Droids size.  But for the extra $100 you get another 8gb storage, a faster phone with a bigger and much higher resolution screen, 5gb camera with flash, a physical keyboard for those times when you need it and Android 2.0 (although the Eris should get an update to 2.0 sometime in Q1 2010).  I can’t imagine being happier with a phone!  Now I just need to figure out if it is a girl or a guy and give it a name and our union will be complete.  (I personally think it is a cross dresser since it is super powerful manly phone in a pink case)

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