#054 Golden Accolade and Alien InvaShawn

I've done it.

I won Gold at the 1st Sleep Olympiad.

To be honest it should come as no real surprise... I was the only competitor.

:-)

A side effect of all the extra sleep and my overall restfulness of the past two weeks has been increased dream activity.  Most of it was just the repetitious dreams each night that would continue after I'd wake up in the night and just continue on once I got back to sleep. 

To be honest most were hardly news-worthy, and not worth repeating. Most I could delve into lucidly after waking up and going back to sleep two or three or four times during the night. All except for one night. Last night...

It was a long standing re-occurring dream I'll have once every year or so. I've been having it now for a good 15-20 years. I've never really taken that much notice of it, recorded dates or times. Which, all things considered, has me kicking myself in the pants for that now.  I have other re-occurring dreams but this one is different.

This particular dream vary somewhat over time. What remains the same is the fact that it is about an alien invasion of Earth, and they always take place at home (Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia). While other re-occurring dreams I have will be set in different locations, the Alien Invasion one is always at home. 

The other facts that remain the same are:

The invasion comes out of nowhere.  There is no warning, no notice. No one is prepared. The sky instantaneously fills with hundreds, if not thousands of alien aircraft. As far as you can see there are star-ships, war-craft of every type and dimension, from right above us to the horizon. No matter where you look, 360', there are craft flying.

All of the alien ships are always flying from the South-East towards the North-West.

There is no direct violence in view, but it can always be heard in the distance, and the glow of fire and explosions, as well as the sounds of aircraft (theirs and ours) exploding and crashing into the ground.

And finally, even after those times where it repeats within the night, I have never been able to enter or re-enter the dram lucidly. I always have to let it continue without my interfering, and it never ends well for us.

While I never wake up from these dreams like I do from some night-mares, I always wake up with the same feeling, and that is total defeat. But that's not the worst part, for me it's the first glimpse of the ships in the air, and that the keep on coming and coming and coming, there is no end, and you just feel so small and insignificant and weak, knowing that this is the end. 

With this dream, that is always what remains with me... from the moment I wake up, and usually for hours if not days after. And nothing I've ever been able to do allows me to change that outcome...

...yet.

#052 My Olympic AspiraShawns III

The training continues...

Milestones continue to be reached. Today, I have set a personal best for this the 1st Sleeping Olympiad. Unaided by alcohol or drugs I have attained a Personal Best, Seasons' Best and Olympic Best. 10:36am.

I attribute this time to watching the Winter Olympics all day and 4 episodes of Supernatural at night. Seeing as this strategy is working, I will continue my training unchanged and will strive for an 11am wakeup. 

If I am not too careful I might run the risk of sleeping through Sunday morning altogether.

#049 My Olympic AspiraShawns II

I am pleased to say that I have made it through the semi-finals for the Sleep-In Olympics. 

And not only have I consistently been sleeping in past 9:30 am every morning, but I have been DRUG-FREE since Saturday night. Hell, I've even stopped my mid-night pee break!

I have become a lean, mean sleeping machine!  

There's no stopping me now.  

The finals are on Sunday morning. The training and late morning practices continue!

Zzzzz Zzzzz Zzzzz

#048 Near PerfecShawn

Well Virtue and Moir came in Silver to Davis and White's Gold, but it could have gone either way. 

That said, I had a feeling that this is what would happen. Having seen their two long programs multiple times throughout the season,  aside from artistic arrangement, the only real difference has been consistency.  Davis and White are nothing if not consistently flawless, Virtue and Moir are amazing but unfailing repetition has never been one of their calling cards.

Certainly, Scheherazade is not a very well known story, the music a little more so, but I have to say it; had Virture and Moir skated to some music and or a more recognizable story I think that would have put them farther ahead over the season and at the Olympics. Both pairs are known to be at the top of their class so it's the small things like connection to the music and performance that can give an edge.

Now, I'm not looking for something so common, I mean how many skates have we seen over the past week that were performed to Les Miz or Romeo and Juliet?! It gets old. And even more so when someone skates to something that the audience claps along, often times getting louder and louder and sometimes clapping faster and faster, and UGH! that's  annoying, if not distracting to the skaters. 

Choosing something that the audience knows and will draw them into the skate without overly participating to the rhythm is as much a skill as every twist and turn on their blades.

Many skaters have selected music from Russian composers, some were a little blatant about it, if not painfully obvious: the Russian couple skating to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, or even Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet are just green thumbs. Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade  had just the freshness and slightly less well known feel to it that gave it an edge.

Add that edge over Virtue and Moir's skate and when you have two excellent skates you need something that is going to grab a little bit more attention.

I congratulate all the skaters, those that did as well as did not medal, but at the end of the day, Davis and White received an extra tip of the hat from me.

#047 Rule of the NaShawns

GO CANADA, GO!*

---

*Marcel and I are fickle sports fans.

While without a second thought we will ALWAYS root for Canada. And almost without fail, we will never root for USA, the one exception is in Figure Skating Ice Dance. We will ALWAYS root for the Canadians, but we've been known to falter a bit when Davis and White are skating.  I say "we", but really, it's more me than we.

I can't help it. Visually, artistically, Davis and White are like a beguiling Witch and Warlock and I am helpless against their charms.   Don't get me wrong, I Love Virtue and Moir, but Davis and White just speak to me that much more. I still want Canada to win the Gold, but the ONLY acceptable exception would be Silver (behind Davis and White).

This one hiccup aside, the rules are clear and finite.

In order,  the countries we will root for:

Canada

Great Britain

Ireland

Australia

New Zealand

If any of the above are out of contention, but there is an American still in the running we will root for, (in order of preference):

And Scandinavian Country

Germany 

Russia

any Asian country: China, Japan, Korea (North or South)

any other Country

... even France.

It might sound childish, immature and un-Canadian but I can assure you, we get immense pleasure out of it.

GO CANADA, GO!

#042 My Olympic AspiraShawns

Just two days into my official vacation (Saturday and Sunday didn't count), if sleeping-in were an Olympic Event, I'd have thus far made it through the quarter-finals.  And my intentions are to medal.

When I was young, sleeping in was a given, but these days I fight to remain in bed past 7am. For some, that might sound like a dream come true, for me it's a nightmare.

If I had credit one thing for helping me in my competition thus far, I'd say it was our marathon viewings of the Winter Olympics.  Watching all these athletes force themselves to reach faster, higher, stronger is exhausting.  I can barely manage to watch all that they are doing! 

If I had to credit two things, the second would be the blue bippies (aka Extra Strength Tylenol PM)  I've been taking when I go to bed at night... not so much to get me to sleep, but to keep me asleep. 

Okay, so I'm not necessarily competing cleanly, but I'm willing to do what it takes, by any means to make it to the top of the podium. 

#040 Olympic Commentary FrustraShawn

Here's the thing; we're LOVING the Olympics, but OMG, the commentators... at least for the Canadian coverage, are abysmal... embarrassing... infuriating! 

Consistently, the commentators for Figure Skating (Olympics or otherwise) Kurt Browning and some British broad named Carol Lane are shiite. I swear their voices and every word that comes out of their mouth give me the shingles.

There is nothing they say that compliments the coverage of the Skating events. Practically never does anything they say offer useful insight into the performances. And often, as is the case, Kurt manages to swing the commentary around him. Here's a news flash Kurt, IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU ANYMORE!

And it's not just these two.  One of the commentators for the Snowboard Slopestyle, Rob Snoek appears to have never watched the sport in his life and was for the most part being tutored by Craig McMorris (a snow boarder, and brother to Bronze Medalist Mark McMorris) throughout the entirety of the coverage for both Men's and Women's events. Honestly, it's as if the day before the Olympics they just picked Snoek out of a crowd on the street and offered him the job.

Not all of the CBC Sports "Specialists" (as they like to call them) are tits on a bull, but it really makes me reminisce for the days of CTV's Olympic coverage.

It really takes away from your viewing enjoyment when you find yourself constantly yelling at the TV and the garbage pouring from the mouths of the majority of the commentators.

I swear, if someone invented a device that would allow you to watch these events, with the music, but NO commentary, regardless of cost, I would not only buy it, I'd invest in it at the grass-roots because THAT would sure to be a gold mine!

#039 Olympic Medal AmbiShawns

Well thus far today we've watched a little over 8.5 hours of Olympic coverage. And we've seen Canada win our first Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals!

And even though we've been watching everything PVRed, we've been avoiding all other media and limiting our viewing on Facebook so as not to spoil the excitement of watching the events and our athletes winning. It's no easy task, but we're managing.

Our three medalists have to be so very proud of all they've accomplished, and too, all the other Olympians that have competed so far. Certainly they all want to win a medal, but I see they're even being there as an immense accomplishment. As they say on award shows, 'It's an honour just to be nominated', so too, it's an honour to simple qualify and make it to the Olympics.  In pure and simple terms it means that you are among the most elite of those in your sport in the World. And to represent your Country on the World stage is no small thing. 

For us to have one three medals on the first full day of competition has to be a huge inspiration and incentive to all the other athletes.

So far Canada has impressed.  

There are a few more hours of today's events left to watch and  even still, we cannot wait for tomorrow.

...but now to get up off the sofa and stretch.

GO CANADA, GO!

#038 Winter StaycayShawn

It's official.

I am on Vacation!

After the past two weeks, it will likely take the following two weeks to properly unwind!  And that's fine.   This is a stay-cation. With little planned other than watching the Olympics, and sleeping in. We'll try and venture out every couple of days for provisions as needs warrant.

The official uniform of the next two weeks, consist of flannel pajamas, flannel pants with t-shirts, and jeans with flannel shirts. And I do not intend to shave until Sunday Feb 23rd. 

Tonight we'll watch the Opening Ceremonies that we DVRed, and then first think tomorrow, let the Armchair Judging begin!

GO CANADA, GO!

#037 Armchair Judge PreparaShawn

I am so excited I could scream! 

After tomorrow I am off until the 24th of February. I still had 2 weeks of vacation left to take before the end of April, and I thought what could be better than taking the two weeks of the Olympics off, so that Marcel and I could take advantage and watch them live... day and night. 

Marcel and I love watching the Olympics. Both Summer and Winter; but truth be told, it's really about the Winter Olympics. We met only a few months before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and we spent as time as we could during those two weeks watching every event we could. We became experts on event sport, judging all we saw. 

It's a little different this year. To watch or not to watch. There's been so much talk about the Anti-gay laws on the books in Russia. Protests and boycotts, are buzzwords that are forever twinned with Sochi.  What to do? I agree that the laws are barbaric, ridiculous and downright fucked up, but these athletes have spent years, if not most of their lives training for this moment. Who really wants to deny them their moment to shine? I don't.

I think the World has judged Russia already, and I think the World will also judge Russia harshly on their Olympics.  If the news reports coming out of Sochi the past few days are any example of what we will remember (along with the Anti-gay laws) about unfinished venues, unfinished Media venues, unfinished accommodations. Tandem toilets. Yellow water. Corruption, and on and on and on... then karma is being served.  And hopefully in time these insane laws might be reversed.

My hopes over the next two weeks are that our athletes do their best. If they medal, all the better. And I hope even more so that there are no tragic events, no terrorist attacks, no violence. 

Marcel and I are ready for the Olympics. We're ready to be be amazed by the athletes performances. And we're more than ready to judge every event we watch. And we've done our voodoo to ensure Canada wins more medals than the US. ;-)

GO CANADA, GO!