Sheesh! Why do I have to constantly remind people that the blog is where I get to unleash my inner curmudgeon when the mood hits me, even if that’s for weeks at a time every Wednesday? It’s kind of my virtual den or ‘library’ if you will – I imagine this blog as a 21st century version of an overstuffed chair in a cozy room where I go to smoke (actually I don’t smoke, but dens always struck me as places you should smoke), have a drink and indulge my unfettered opinions or my craving for the writings of Chelsea Handler and the stand up of Russell Peters. One difference: I have a welcome mat outside my den for anyone who wants to stop by and share a laugh or a lively debate. I don’t mind a little banter of course. As a natural born shit disturber I certainly get a kick out of knowing I’m inciting people to react, though I draw the line a bit short of Wiki-leaks founder Julian Assange. Launching Equi-leaks would be fun, but I would hate to have to go into hiding.
DC’s website today sports the announcement that the half-marks are for sure for sure no doubt about it going to be in use as of January 2011. There is one teeny weeny modification to the rule that was first announced a few weeks ago. I don’t like to brag – I usually leave that to people with narcissistic personality disorder who have honed it to perfection – but last week I spent a little time scratching my head and then emailing my bff Trond at FEI HQ, because it seemed to me the rule DC wanted to employ was based on a mis-reading of the FEI rule. It had to do with judging freestyles. Half marks have been allowed in FEI freestyles up to now only on the artistic side. I did sit through lengthy descriptions of the new half mark rule at both the GDF and FEI GA. I thought I knew whereof I spoke and I was unsurprised when Trond replied (in minutes, thank you Trond!) to confirm that the half marks extend to the technical marks in the freestyle. Apparently ‘two FEI judges’ were consulted on the DC rule and everyone decided the FEI rule meant the opposite. Being the loving sharer of information – useful or otherwise – that I am, I emailed the folks at DC and informed them of what I had confirmed by asking Trond a simple question. The DC rule as it is now worded includes half marks for technical scores on freestyles. Of course, it’s possible that I was having a parallel experience to the rule changers at DC and they discovered this all by themselves, but if I consulted David Stickland he would almost certainly assign a pretty low probability – maybe somewhere between being struck by lightning and having a fatal accident falling off a stationary bike. I know I should just feel glad to have helped, but I can’t quite stomp out the smoldering idea that the situation had a tinge of asinine about it. I mean, what if I hadn’t noticed or got interested?
I’m not going to be around next week, but I promise to keep the Christmas blues and New Year’s resolutions at bay by blogging through the holidays. For those of you who think I’m a downer (my nick name in highschool was The Whiner you know), I thought I’d show you a couple of uplifting, glass-half-full-of-life photos from my husband Jan’s trip to Baja last month. He took one photo and his formerly estranged but now reunited brother Zdenek took the other. If you think one photo is better please leave a vote in the comments at the bottom of this page and I can deliver the results to the Brothers Beran – without, I hope, estranging them anew.
Is there a name in Spanish for Inukshuk?
Anyone know the wingspan of a pelican?
