Derby is awesome, 2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year for the OKRD and I look forward to leading the K City Rollers to awesomeness, more to come later!

… but everyone knows that it’s a lie.

I spent 2011 learning and growing as a skater.. on and off track, I tried to balance my home and derby life. I’ve come so far, I jammed in a game.. actually, more than one game, I’ve become a leader.. and confident in my skills.. I could spend this entire post looking back on my experiences in 2011.. but that would not be the point of this post.

The point of this post is to look forward to this coming year…

First and foremost, I want to thank all my K City Rollers for voting me in a team captain for the 2012 year.. I look forward to leading K City to awesomeness!

I’ve spent the derby off-season trying to process what I really want to challenge myself for in 2012… I was fortunate to be able to skate with the Pacific Roller Derby (read my post at the OKRD blog!) I came away from that experience refreshed and ready for the new season. I also spent a few days reading Apolo Anton Ohno’s Book… Zero Regrets. It really sent a message to me about how much training was involved in speed skating, and it really inspired me to want to push myself to get to that level.

In 2012, it’s not going to be about resolutions, it’s going to be about accountability.. it’s going to be about skating harder than ever, about having the skills to compete with everyone else. Someday, I hope to skate with Team Canada Roller Derby… that is the hope.

.. and of course, I’ll be updating this blog to track my progress.

I wanted to post about my 2011 year in derby… a year full of many defeats, but more importantly many personal victories. The OKRD’s 2011 season has begun to wind down, and now we focus on training our new skaters and setting our league up for a bigger, and better 2012.

What has this 2011 meant to me? well.. first, and foremost.. the growth and evolution of the OKRD into a real league with 3 house teams an an All-Star team. I had the amazing good fortune to be placed on the K City Rollers this year, likely the BEST house team I could ask for. Their encouraging words and smiles keep me skating, I know that we’re going to be amazing in 2012!

I also happened to make the All-Star Peach Tarts this year, which was a privilege unto itself… that said, this year was not without it’s problems.. namely the defeat, after defeat.. after defeat. I’ve got to admit.. after playing close to 20 derby games in my life, and only being able to squeeze out 2 wins.. it’s making me a little.. hungry. We lost a few good skaters in the beginning of the year that added to that defeated feeling.. the Peach Tarts could never really gel as a team.

However, with what skaters we lost.. we gained even more amazing skaters and friends that filled the spaces left behind. I’ve never been more inspired to be a leader, to help everyone out to learn what they need to learn.  What loss that the league felt at the beginning of the year disappeared by the end of it. We all came together and made an amazing year of derby.

2011 - Troy Hill

This year, I made the resolution to play as a jammer in at least one jam, in one game. Needless to say, I think I’ve blown that resolution out of the water. I made the not-so-easy transition into a jammer this year, and inadvertently became a triple threat.. finding myself suitable for the Pivot Blocker position. My endurance has grown so much, so has my arsenal of skills… it makes me so happy and so honoured when other skaters will come up to me after the game and be so impressed with how I did… and even more, when random people come up to me and say that the liked the way I played… it’s such an AMAZING feeling to know that my game has really stepped up.

… sooooo, with all that awesomeness.. what does 2012′s derby season have in store?

Well, first off.. putting some boots to asses.. finally winning a few games here and there would be an amazing start. Just because the OKRD season is winding down doesn’t mean that Blair Block is winding down her game… I will keep training, finding different ways to strengthen my muscles, build my endurance, gain better agility… all so I can be a better skater next year.. and hopefully offer a better Block for the all-star team… I plan on becoming a better jammer, one that CAN get around Lorenagade and Rage… a better blocker, one that can destroy you with one hit and recycle you through the back of the pack… a better pivot, one that can think on her feet and have the best plays and strategies on the track. I look forward to running for the captain of the K City Rollers… and being the most electrifying skater  on.. and off the track.

Blair wants to win, and she’s going to work fucking hard to do so.

See you all in 2012

I log on to your “news” website daily, and I find myself bombarded by ads, colours and different weights of text. I cannot even begin to fathom to where to start looking. I understand your need to have optimal space for advertising, but is there a need to overwhelm the user with at least 4 different flash ads on page load? What happened to the effectiveness or simplicity of static ads? Flash ads cause the user’s system to slowdown, and therefore creates an unnecessary load on your page. Oh, did I mention that most iPhone, iPad and mobile  users don’t have flash capabilities?.. that’s just a minor detail considering that the web is now mobile and most viewers can see your website from anywhere on any device.

The colours of your page are bold, and bright! It almost looks like I’ve been brought to a child’s website given the colour scheme, I’m sure that your aim to appeal to all audiences was taken into consideration when you designed the front page. My 8 month old nephew likes the colours, my 3 year old dog, not so much. Maybe throw in some more yellow while your at it.

I admire the vast variety of sub-menus you have in your navigation bar, in the past 2 years of using this website.. I’ve clicked on only one menu… I have no idea what’s in the rest of them. What would be the logic in having so many sub-menus if you’re a news website? I take into consideration the fact that you’re also a community website, but do you really need that many sections and links on the page?

The 3 column layout of the website seems cluttered, again.. I understand your need for advertising space.. but you just don’t seem to have enough. Maybe put an ad across the top of the page, as well as another ad in the 1st column of your 3 column layout. The main photo on your website is not small enough, you should make it smaller and less prominent. oh, your headlines don’t blend in enough.. maybe you should add more videos and ads between the headlines so I can squint even harder to find them.

Speaking of your headlines, I feel like I”m reading the work of a remedial english student who has just discovered the thesaurus. A headline should be catchy, and reveal a small part of the story.. but hey, why not add a bit of a throw on the front page to the story to tease the reader? Oh, wait… that takes away from ad space.

As I scroll down the main page of the website, I can’t help but feel like I’m looking at the overcrowded bulletin board that hangs at a college. Poorly written content on a poorly designed canvas.

Oh Content… I could complain that you don’t have enough, but there’s so much here.. again, if I began clicking on every link on your front page, I would be here for hours upon hours. Therefore, I usually end up clicking nothing. I simply go to your front page… find the main headlines, read them.. and close the window. No advertising impression made, no reader gained.

I guess I hold out the hope that Castanet will take itself as a serious news publication with a great community focus and redesign their entire website… but that hasn’t happened yet, and I’m beginning to lose hope with the publication, if you can call it that.

I do often wonder, if maybe it’s the content that saves the poor design. Good reporting, great proofreading, limited typos.. articles that really speak to me… but even as I look on the website now, I see poor reporting.. an attitude of “get it up now and quick so we can be the first to publish the story”

Take, for example, this story about RIM (http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-66191-6-.htm#66191), a quote from the story goes like this (copied and pasted)

“A recent Castanet poll surveyed Blackberry users and of the 950 who responded, 65 percent said they have no planes to give up their phone.”

First off… Planes? I didn’t know we needed planes to give up our phones. Secondly, how does an online poll figure that those are the primary blackberry user base? Anyone can answer the poll, and those results are not proven, nor are they fact. The fact that Castanet chose to publish this story on the first day of Blackberry DevCon shows how shallow their research is when then begin the write stories. I may be biased towards Blackberry, but I don’t pretend to lie about the fact that I write a slanted personal blog. Castanet is a “news website” yet continues to buy into the media hype surrounding major stories, not only is RIM a Canadian company, but still a company that continues to sell products to various international markets. It’s as if Castanet has a major beef with a major tech company that not only put Canada on the technology map, but was one of the first innovators of the smart phone as we know it. If Castanet wants to put the slant on it’s columns, don’t present them as news.. present the site as an opinion site, and as such.. your audience will expect that.

The news reporting is sub-par on Castanet, it’s poor reporting results in a few quickly typed sentences that are neither cohesive or strung together with the proper verbage. Again, it’s as if they only worry about reporting it first, not reporting it right. A great deal can be said for proper sentence and paragraph structure, yes.. I know that online format is much different than a print format, but the journalistic standards should apply to the same situations. If a collision happens, don’t string together:

“An accident happened on street and avenue.

The accident involved 3 cars and a pedestrian.

Emergency personal are on the scene.

We will bring you updates.”

That snippet does not work for me. Try:

“An accident involving 3 cars and a pedestrian has occurred at the intersection of street and avenue. Emergency personal are working actively on the scene and it is advised to re-route your travels. Our reporter is en route to the scene and we will bring you more information as soon as it becomes available”

Doesn’t it sound more involved? More, newsworthy and informational? It presents the same information as the previous snippet, but creates a proper setting and format more akin to your Newspapers that you wish to replace.

I could go on, and on Castanet, but I feel like this would be far too much information to process such as the lack of local sports coverage (even obscure local sports like roller derby which is EXPLODING all over the Okanagan),  your use of the iPhone as a media capture tool (a great deal can be said for proper usage of proper tools), using Youtube to host videos (a personalized video application makes your product look professional and polished).

I hope this letter finds you in good spirits, as it has lifted mine to be able to express my opinion and views on a website that should have MUCH more potential than the one I see every day.

Sincerely,

The Lancer Girl | Blair Block

I have poked a hole in my tongue!

Even as I sit here with a piece of metal in my mouth, I too, question my motives for doing this… random act of rebellion.. my brain did nothing to stop the needle from going into my tongue region… and as I laid on the piercing table, adrenaline pumping through my system.. mind blanking out… I realized one thing… I defeated a fear. I did it, and that was all I wanted to prove.

My life has been a series of battles… battles within myself, battles among people, battles within family… and at the end of the day, the most important thing I walk away with.. is that I have something to prove.

My husband will always tell me that I don’t need to prove myself to anyone… the thing is, I”m not proving anything to anyone… I’m merely proving to myself that I can rise above the expectations that people have of me.

So, when I walk out of a piercing studio with a stud in my tongue and a smile on my face, it’s because I have proven to myself that I can step outside my limit.

… however, on a crappy note… the day after I got my new piercing, I acquired a really terrible cold and was sick for a week after the piercing. Needless to say, I lost a bit of weight being unable to to eat and unable to function, but this is unhealthy weightloss and being that it is Canadian thanksgiving.. a weigh in would not be a very nice thing right now.

that said, I’m feeling really good about getting back into the swing of things after this 1 week break and look forward to keeping the universe updated on this journey

I’m also super proud of myself because I’m running twice a week regularly and working myself up to 3 times weekly.

Here we go with his week’s results:

(Formatted like this: Last Week/ This week)
Weight: 187.4/191
BMI: 32.8/33.9
Body Fat %: 38.5/49.1

Chest: 44.5/ 43.5
Waist:  39/38
Thigh: 24/24
Calf: 16/16
Bicep: 13/13

Well, the weight is back up there.. which doesn’t exactly make me happy… but to be honest, I’m feeling good about myself as far as routine-wise. For the first time, I was able to get up for 5 am on a Monday to do my run, this will bring it up to 3 days a week for my running.

Not much to write this week, so here’s a video

My motivation for this week:

I’m sexy and I know it

Here we go with his week’s results:

(Formatted like this: Last Week/ This week)
Weight: 191/ 187.4
BMI: 33.5/32.8
Body Fat %: 40.7/38.5

Chest: 45/ 44.5
Waist:  39/39
Thigh: 23/24
Calf: 16/16
Bicep: 13/13

To be honest, I haven’t really lost much at all as far as size is concerned. Weight wise, I have lost a total of 8lbs, I was hoping to have lost more weight by this time.. but these things will take time, and I really would like this to happen. I’m also starting to get tired of keeping a food log, it becomes rather tedious to track every single calorie I eat and every gram of fat that I consume. I am going to try to go without a log this week and see if I can discipline myself as well as I have with the log.

As I said in the beginning of my blog, I’ve been watching footage of myself at the last game we played (vs. the Riot Girls), it’s interesting to see yourself play and be able to come away with that with something to learn. I’ve learned that I need to skate faster, move my feet more and maneuver around the track better.. I also need to learn how to lay some effective hits that I don’t have to sacrifice myself for. I need to keep my feet moving and keep the speed up, much like the feedback I got from post-westerns.

I know derby is slowing down for the year as we start to train up new fresh meat, but I cannot be more inspired to get better and get fitter, and continue to strive to be the best in the sport. I’ve been watching the big 5 tournaments, and I keep telling myself that someday.. I will be that good… I know it is a very long road, but I want to get there.

Changes will happen, 5 am wake ups will continue… I will always remain hungry to play that game…I will always “Bring It” on the track.

My motivation for this week:

epic music is epic.

I’ve been working out more in the mornings, adding an additional day to my workout which is helping me out greatly on the track. I really need to focus this week and channel my energy into better track focus.

So, here we go with his week’s results:

(Formatted like this: Last Week/ This week)  – ]
Weight: 191/ 191
BMI: 33.5/33.5
Body Fat %: 40.7/40.7

Chest: 45/ 45
Waist: 40/ 39
Thigh: 23/23
Calf: 16/16
Bicep: 13/12

I feel like I’m getting better on the track (could be perception too, who knows). I’m not as exhausted when I jam as well, and I really feel like I can do more than just 1 scoring pass nowadays.. it feels great, and really helps as a blocker too when I know that I can have the same endurance as the Jammer. The League (OKRD) is really ramping up towards this big game on Saturday and I’m going to stop at nothing on the track to help the Peach Tarts pull out a long-awaited victory. It’s been a rough year for the team, but I think we’ve got the right mix of skaters and more importantly.. the right attitude! It’s going to be a fun game, if you’re interested in coming.. Tickets are $10 at the door or from your favorite OKRD member!

After this game derby will be ramping down (and I will hopefully get some new piercings ), and going to one day a week practices.. this means that I make my long-awaited return to the gym.. I do miss lifting weights and the focus it requires. I hope that this change in excercise will motivate my muscles and body can make some awesome change.

My motivation for this week:

This video makes me love Roller Derby even more and more.. the passion that these ladies have for the sport really inspire me to keep skating hard.

My lack of progress that I had been feeling in my last post has since subsided, I realize that this is not an immediate change, and that good things will happen over time.

Today’s weigh/measure was done post-derby practice.. so a few numbers may be a little skewed.

So without further ado, this week’s results:

(Formatted like this: Last Week/ This week)  – ]
Weight: 193/ 191
BMI: 34.2/33.5
Body Fat %: 42.9/40.7

Chest: 46/ 45
Waist: 40/ 40
Thigh: 24/23
Calf: 16/16
Bicep: 12/13

I was so very proud of myself last week for not only getting up at 5am to run once.. but TWICE, and I worked it, HARD. Sadly though, due to a forest fire across the lake, when I skate outside.. my lung power reduces greatly.. and I can’t do as much as I can when I work indoors.

but, I can’t let the negative get to me.. I’ve been making some great positive changes… I’ve been doing a lot more cooking at home and a lot less eating out. I also find myself getting fuller quicker, which I guess means that I am properly feeding myself and not pigging out. (or I’m just eating really fast lol) I try to ensure that I bring at least 2 servings of fruits or veggies to work. I’ve also stopped drinking coffee, and moved onto drinking Green Tea in the mornings.

Another wonderful thing that’s really motivating me is the fact that we’ve just booked a trip to Hawaii.. so I’m looking forward to skating with the Pacific Roller girls, learning how to surf.. and doing some awesome things, and I can’t do awesome things if  I don’t have the energy to do them! So, I must continue my awesome workouts and really pushing myself at derby.

My motivation for this week:

I want to skate this awesomely.

I’ve gotta admit, I’m starting to get a little frustrated that not much has been changing as far as my body, but I think it’s really due to me having to make even more change towards diet and exercise.

So without further ado, this week’s results:

(Formatted like this: Last Week/ This week)  – This week’s results will be compared to results from 2 weeks ago
Weight: 193/ 193
BMI: 34.2/34.2
Body Fat %: 42.9/ 42.8

Chest: 46/ 46
Waist: 42/ 40
Thigh: 25/24
Calf: 16/16
Bicep: 13/12

So, as you’ve read… I’m starting to get a bit frustrated with things. Got slammed with a cold last week, so I ended up eating like a garbage can, weighed in last week at 187.5, and tonight’s weigh in brought me back up to 193. If that isn’t frustrating, I don’t know what is. It’s also frustrating to feel like I have the lung capacity of an 80-year old smoker when I skate, or do anything physical now. I honestly feel as if I’m starting over again and it really takes a blow to the confidence.

.. I’m also waiting on pins and needles to find out if I made the roster for the bout on the 17th, there are some great skaters, but I know 2 of us will have to sit out.. I really want to play, but that control is out of my hands.

I’m going to move on in this week and forget about being sick, and forget about starting over. I’m going to try to eat sensibly (I had a blizzard tonight ) and stick to a routine, dinners out are hard and snacking is turning into a bad habit. I have to remember that each day makes me stronger, lighter and faster.. and the more I stick to it, and motivate myself to get out there and get active I will feel better about myself, and hopefully grow past deep-seeded confidence issues of being a chubby little girl.

Each day is a journey, be happy and keep smiling…

My motivation for this week: