Rainy autumn days for coding and skating
Nov. 13th, 2022 04:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
allekhaI have spent most of this week bashing my head against the wall of parallel processing in Python. I do not like it. That is all.
Our paper got accepted and is already out in preprint form :) The PDF was exported improperly and the graphs I worked so hard on were covered with jpg artifacts :( (My co-author has emailed them to ask if they can fix it for the final version.)
Z and I are going shopping early today and picking up Thanskgiving ingredients well before the rush. I think I will try making a variation of Swedish Princess Cake instead of a more traditional dessert, because I've had it on my to-make list for a while, and this seems as good a time as any.
Random side note, but I think a higher percentage of people were wearing masks at Skamerica than they were on either of the plane trips that Z and I took for the wedding.
Free dance:
Soucisse/Firus: She won best costume of the group for us. He won worst.
Liked the dramatic music for both the French and the German teams.
Kanadai: I hate POTO programs - I simply don't like the music, and a lot of them also have weird cuts. I liked Akiko Suzuki's, but that was mostly because of the emotions surrounding her winning FS at Nats that year; not a fan of the program itself. And yet Kanadai? They managed to make me love a POTO program. I've seen a few comments that they didn't seem connected, but that didn't come across at all to me in person (and generally I think they do have really good chemistry; they come across as a very equal partnership in terms of performance, even if Kana is carrying him hard on the technical aspects). I could have done with a little less on-ice choreo - kind of wonder if that's there to help disguise Dai's weaknessess - but their lifts seemed more stable.
Chock/Bates: On the one hand, I appreciated that this wasn't yet another 'Maddy is SEXY and EXOTIC, Evan exists' program for them - I actually did like the astronaut one, but to this day I am baffled by the praise they got for that godawful snake charmer program. On the other, it was boring. They didn't seem that into it from our seats, either, to be honest. Hopefully they were just feeling tired.
Hawayek/Baker: Not the most exciting program, but the music was very pretty and there seemed to be more emotional depth to me, and the ending was lovely. My mom liked this one a lot over C/B. The whole audience gasped hard when we saw the scores.
Women's FS: Second group of the FS was winning the costume game. (Except Katya. Sorry, Katya, that is not your shade of yellow or tights.)
Ahsun Yun: I had seen some excited comments about her and especially this FS... and I have to say, I didn't really get why. She seemed juniorish (she is only 15) and not yet ready for this music, and it didn't help that her choreo just didn't match the music at points (the choreo sequence came across as a bunch of random moves). Several of her jumps also had rotation issues in real time. She was really cute and had a beautiful costume - the photos of her that came out are some of my favorites - I just wished she had a program that was more suited for her age and ability level.
Eliška: Started off well, then kind of lost her momentum and struggled to keep up with the pace of the song. But again, we liked her music and her performance.
Katya: She didn't seem quite as bubbly in this program as she can be. Her 3Lz-eu-3F is very gutsy even if she didn't land it here, but I wonder how worth it it is. (She's not even getting PR points from it, because by the time she started doing it, the kind of people who were weirdly into posting about girls with 3Lz3Los were over them and only 3As/quads counted for hype.) Still enjoyed watching her; she's good at connecting to an audience.
Amber: I was holding my breath on every jumping pass, and I know she missed a combo, but she stayed up! And the 3A issue didn't bring her down. I'm really hoping that's a sign of her having more mental toughness. I also liked the brief turning spiral she's been doing recently and the arm movements in her Ina Bauer. Generally enjoyed the program and the music build, but I do think the double spins at the end kills the energy a little.
Isabeau: Didn't enjoy as much as her SP; I don't really remember anything from it. I will give her coach this - she's got Eteri girl packaging from back when the girls were allowed to have personalities, and she has much better choreo than what Danny G is churning out. It was sad to see her look so upset by that missed combo. Hope USFSA isn't putting her under too much pressure, because we all know how that turned out for the last few Chosen Girls :/
Kaori: Nearly perfect! I need to shout out her beautiful 2As again, along with her effortless lift on her jumps. I was a bit nervous about how the vocals would sound live, but they came out fine and not too disruptive in the arena, although toward the end, the cheering was drowning it out anyway lol. I think the whole crowd held its breath on that last combo until she landed the second jump! A well-deserved win for her.
(Generally speaking, my mom enjoyed the older women more - she especially loved Kaori and how strong she looked. She's not really into watching barely old-enough teenagers. Maybe it's just her, but I wonder if raising the age limit might help bring some viewership interest back just by letting skaters grow both physically and artistically before they're facing senior competition.)
Gala:
Half of the gala practice was right in front of us in the main rink! I got some cute pictures of Katya and Amber together :) Also, Eliška was hanging out in the arena during the practice; I saw her talking to some other fans and taking pictures, and I gathered the courage to ask her for one as well (and I told her that we liked her programs).
I missed whatever the syncro team was doing, because that was the moment they decided to turn up the music and I had to dive for my earplugs. Sorry, synchro team.
Amber: Billie Eilish songs might also get backlash (skaters should skate to modern music young people listen to! but not that modern music young people listen to!), but I wouldn't mind if this was one of her main programs! She was very into it and extremely entertaining. One of my favorite programs of the gala.
Donovan: LOVED his costume, it looked amazing. Very fun performance!
Isabeau: This is her 'iconic' program from last year, so I get why they/she chose it for her gala, but I was surprised at how much more flaily and uncontrolled she looked doing it. Her arm movements were so much noticeably better in her actual programs this year, but it was like she regressed when she returned to this one. At least it speaks to how much progress she's made in that time.
Katya: Katya of the Caribbean! The music mix was a little corny and weird, but it's a figure skating exhibition, so I didn't mind lol. She's such a performer.
Haein: She seemed to be having so much fun with this music that I wished she might try skating to kpop for one of her programs, although I don't know how well the judges would receive that.
Demougeot/Le Mercier: They were testing out various chairs during the practice, I guess to see which felt the best to skate with. A bit more out there than some of the other programs, but also creative and interesting.
Our paper got accepted and is already out in preprint form :) The PDF was exported improperly and the graphs I worked so hard on were covered with jpg artifacts :( (My co-author has emailed them to ask if they can fix it for the final version.)
Z and I are going shopping early today and picking up Thanskgiving ingredients well before the rush. I think I will try making a variation of Swedish Princess Cake instead of a more traditional dessert, because I've had it on my to-make list for a while, and this seems as good a time as any.
Random side note, but I think a higher percentage of people were wearing masks at Skamerica than they were on either of the plane trips that Z and I took for the wedding.
Free dance:
Soucisse/Firus: She won best costume of the group for us. He won worst.
Liked the dramatic music for both the French and the German teams.
Kanadai: I hate POTO programs - I simply don't like the music, and a lot of them also have weird cuts. I liked Akiko Suzuki's, but that was mostly because of the emotions surrounding her winning FS at Nats that year; not a fan of the program itself. And yet Kanadai? They managed to make me love a POTO program. I've seen a few comments that they didn't seem connected, but that didn't come across at all to me in person (and generally I think they do have really good chemistry; they come across as a very equal partnership in terms of performance, even if Kana is carrying him hard on the technical aspects). I could have done with a little less on-ice choreo - kind of wonder if that's there to help disguise Dai's weaknessess - but their lifts seemed more stable.
Chock/Bates: On the one hand, I appreciated that this wasn't yet another 'Maddy is SEXY and EXOTIC, Evan exists' program for them - I actually did like the astronaut one, but to this day I am baffled by the praise they got for that godawful snake charmer program. On the other, it was boring. They didn't seem that into it from our seats, either, to be honest. Hopefully they were just feeling tired.
Hawayek/Baker: Not the most exciting program, but the music was very pretty and there seemed to be more emotional depth to me, and the ending was lovely. My mom liked this one a lot over C/B. The whole audience gasped hard when we saw the scores.
Women's FS: Second group of the FS was winning the costume game. (Except Katya. Sorry, Katya, that is not your shade of yellow or tights.)
Ahsun Yun: I had seen some excited comments about her and especially this FS... and I have to say, I didn't really get why. She seemed juniorish (she is only 15) and not yet ready for this music, and it didn't help that her choreo just didn't match the music at points (the choreo sequence came across as a bunch of random moves). Several of her jumps also had rotation issues in real time. She was really cute and had a beautiful costume - the photos of her that came out are some of my favorites - I just wished she had a program that was more suited for her age and ability level.
Eliška: Started off well, then kind of lost her momentum and struggled to keep up with the pace of the song. But again, we liked her music and her performance.
Katya: She didn't seem quite as bubbly in this program as she can be. Her 3Lz-eu-3F is very gutsy even if she didn't land it here, but I wonder how worth it it is. (She's not even getting PR points from it, because by the time she started doing it, the kind of people who were weirdly into posting about girls with 3Lz3Los were over them and only 3As/quads counted for hype.) Still enjoyed watching her; she's good at connecting to an audience.
Amber: I was holding my breath on every jumping pass, and I know she missed a combo, but she stayed up! And the 3A issue didn't bring her down. I'm really hoping that's a sign of her having more mental toughness. I also liked the brief turning spiral she's been doing recently and the arm movements in her Ina Bauer. Generally enjoyed the program and the music build, but I do think the double spins at the end kills the energy a little.
Isabeau: Didn't enjoy as much as her SP; I don't really remember anything from it. I will give her coach this - she's got Eteri girl packaging from back when the girls were allowed to have personalities, and she has much better choreo than what Danny G is churning out. It was sad to see her look so upset by that missed combo. Hope USFSA isn't putting her under too much pressure, because we all know how that turned out for the last few Chosen Girls :/
Kaori: Nearly perfect! I need to shout out her beautiful 2As again, along with her effortless lift on her jumps. I was a bit nervous about how the vocals would sound live, but they came out fine and not too disruptive in the arena, although toward the end, the cheering was drowning it out anyway lol. I think the whole crowd held its breath on that last combo until she landed the second jump! A well-deserved win for her.
(Generally speaking, my mom enjoyed the older women more - she especially loved Kaori and how strong she looked. She's not really into watching barely old-enough teenagers. Maybe it's just her, but I wonder if raising the age limit might help bring some viewership interest back just by letting skaters grow both physically and artistically before they're facing senior competition.)
Gala:
Half of the gala practice was right in front of us in the main rink! I got some cute pictures of Katya and Amber together :) Also, Eliška was hanging out in the arena during the practice; I saw her talking to some other fans and taking pictures, and I gathered the courage to ask her for one as well (and I told her that we liked her programs).
I missed whatever the syncro team was doing, because that was the moment they decided to turn up the music and I had to dive for my earplugs. Sorry, synchro team.
Amber: Billie Eilish songs might also get backlash (skaters should skate to modern music young people listen to! but not that modern music young people listen to!), but I wouldn't mind if this was one of her main programs! She was very into it and extremely entertaining. One of my favorite programs of the gala.
Donovan: LOVED his costume, it looked amazing. Very fun performance!
Isabeau: This is her 'iconic' program from last year, so I get why they/she chose it for her gala, but I was surprised at how much more flaily and uncontrolled she looked doing it. Her arm movements were so much noticeably better in her actual programs this year, but it was like she regressed when she returned to this one. At least it speaks to how much progress she's made in that time.
Katya: Katya of the Caribbean! The music mix was a little corny and weird, but it's a figure skating exhibition, so I didn't mind lol. She's such a performer.
Haein: She seemed to be having so much fun with this music that I wished she might try skating to kpop for one of her programs, although I don't know how well the judges would receive that.
Demougeot/Le Mercier: They were testing out various chairs during the practice, I guess to see which felt the best to skate with. A bit more out there than some of the other programs, but also creative and interesting.
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Date: 2022-11-14 11:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-15 04:50 am (UTC)