You Know You're a Figure Skating Fan When...

[Diana Delafield]

I heard that four-time Chinese national Ice Dance champion Xiaoyang Yu was planning to team up with Alexei Bychenko (silver at 2016 Europeans) and compete as XY/AB.

A fluke, honestly! (Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket, since I seem to be on a roll.)

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Alphabetically by surname, or the first surname if it's a partnership. By the time you've got them all posted they'll have sorted themselves out. You could put what librarians and indexers (like me) call a "See" reference in the Random Confessions section: For XY, see my fan fest for AB/XY.

If they've split, you can also make a post for him under his own name, including the information for them as a couple, or put a "See also" reference sending readers back to the couple. But leave those fiddly clean-up details for later, after you've posted the main fest entries. If anyone even notices, they can always comment asking where so-and-so is.

The simplest way to summarise it is this. There are two male skaters and five female skaters. One of the male skaters has been in partnerships with three of the female skaters (the other two female skaters are relatives of his most recent partner). He, his second partner, and his third partner have all already retired. And I know how I am approaching them:

• One thread will contain the existing OP for his most recent Pairs partnership; a new OP for his previous Pairs partnerships; and a new OP for his Singles skating.
• Another thread will contain the existing OP for his third partner's Singles skating; and new OP's for the Singles skating for each of her relatives (the relatives are currently competing).
• Another thread will contain an OP for his second partner's Singles skating [the existing OP re-purposed]; a new OP for her Pairs skating (she has had 2 partners); and a new OP for what she has been doing the past few years (I wouldn't normally bother with this sort of thing, but it is actually relevant in this case).

Two threads already exist. What I would be doing is re-structuring them to add in extra OP's; and creating one new thread from scratch, and moving the relevant posts from the existing threads to it.

The problem, though, is his original partner and her current partner. They both have previous partnerships, and have both also competed as Singles skaters. And I have two options:

• Have three separate threads.
  • The existing thread would contain the existing OP for the current Pairs partnership.
  • A new thread would contain a new OP for the female partner's Singles skating; and a new OP for her Pairs skating (she has had 2 partners).
  • Another new thread would contain a new OP for the male partner's Singles skating; and a new OP for his Pairs skating (he has had 3 partners).
• Have all 5 OP's in the existing thread.

Having separate threads is probably the best option from an organisational viewpoint. The problem with doing this is that I know that these threads will never be posted in again after the OP's are posted. So, it is hardly worth creating threads for just 2 posts each.

However, if I have all 5 OP's in the existing thread, what is the best order to put them in?

Post Number​	Option 1​	Option 2​
1​	Current Pairs partnership	Current Pairs partnership
2​	Her previous Pairs partnerships	Her previous Pairs partnerships
3​	His previous Pairs partnerships	Her Singles skating
4​	Her Singles skating	His previous Pairs partnerships
5​	His Singles skating	His Singles skating

The second problem is what order that I click on the button to actually post the new posts. When I do family threads or team threads, I order the OP's according to when the skater was born. When there are twins involved, I order their posts alphabetically.

I was thinking of taking the same approach here. But, I don't think that would work well because, in the case of the first set of threads I discussed, the second partner is the youngest and the third partner is the oldest, with the first partner in the middle. And in the case of the second set of threads I discussed, it would mean digressing from following the etiquette of dealing with the female partner first, and then the male partner. Because he is older than her (as is often the case in Pairs partnerships).

Another option would be to do it according to when they started skating, but that would mean jumping about between threads, doing a post here and a post there. This option would do my head in, because the numbers in the addresses of the new posts within each thread would not follow on from each other.

It could make more sense to post the posts in a more chronological fashion. But, that would also involve jumping around between threads, albeit less so.

Gaaah!!!!!! Why do I think things through so much and end up making everything so complicated?!

---

Actually, writing this post has helped me a lot. Seeing it all written down rather than having it all swirling around in my head has really helped me to finally make a decision as to what way to approach it. First of all, I am going to create separate threads for the careers of the individual skaters in the partnership that is still competing, rather than have all 5 OP's in the existing thread. And deal with the female skater's thread before the male skater's thread, to keep with the etiquette.

As for the order for the rest of the posts, when you look at the two sets of bullet points listing the threads, I am generally going to start at the bottom bullet point and work my way to the top. The only deviation being that I am going to do the two new posts for the family thread last, because these skaters started competing way after the others due to being much younger.

So, thank you for replying, @Diana Delafield. It has really put my head in gear.

Hasty addition: When I said "if anyone even notices" I meant noticing that skater X's years partnered with skater B are missing and asking you about that in the comments. I didn't mean that nobody notices the fan fests and all the work you put into them ! I could have phrased that much better!

Don't worry, I knew what you meant. And I know that you are not the sort of person to make that sort of a dig.

But, I also realise that some Fan Fests do not get noticed. And I do not have a problem with that. The main thing is that the information is up there, in case anybody does ever happen to be looking for it.

I heard that four-time Chinese national Ice Dance champion Xiaoyang Yu was planning to team up with Alexei Bychenko (silver at 2016 Europeans) and compete as XY/AB.

Brilliant!

A fluke, honestly! (Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket, since I seem to be on a roll.)

Yep! You are on a roll!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Diana Delafield]

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---

Actually, writing this post has helped me a lot. Seeing it all written down rather than having it all swirling around in my head has really helped me to finally make a decision as to what way to approach it. First of all, I am going to create separate threads for the careers of the individual skaters in the partnership that is still competing, rather than have all 5 OP's in the existing thread. And deal with the female skater's thread before the male skater's thread, to keep with the etiquette.

As for the order for the rest of the posts, when you look at the two sets of bullet points listing the threads, I am generally going to start at the bottom bullet point and work my way to the top. The only deviation being that I am going to do the two new posts for the family thread last, because these skaters started competing way after the others due to being much younger.

So, thank you for replying, @Diana Delafield. It has really put my head in gear.







CaroLiza_fan

Happy I could help. I taught cataloguing and indexing in the publishing centre at Simon Fraser University for a few years. If I were still doing that, I'd probably use your tangled web as a project for my students to brainstorm a workable solution!

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Happy I could help. I taught cataloguing and indexing in the publishing centre at Simon Fraser University for a few years. If I were still doing that, I'd probably use your tangled web as a project for my students to brainstorm a workable solution!

It was rather complicated, wasn't it?! And now that you mention it, I can definitely see how it could be used for that type of a project!

It probably would have been easier to follow if I had used names, but I don't want to fully reveal what I am up to just yet, even though it is probably obvious to a lot of people reading this.

I'll post an update when I get it all finished. But, it'll be a while before then, because the order I have decided to post them in is basically the opposite of the order that I have been working on them!

To give an idea of where I am at, I've got all the existing posts updated (I'm not uploading these updates until I come to upload the rest of the posts, because some of them will be put onto a different post to what they are currently on), and the family thread is completed. I'm currently working on the posts for the male skater that links the other skaters. But, I haven't even started on the posts for the thread about his second partner, or any of the posts about his first partner and her current partner.

But, it should be all done by the time the new season starts.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

...when you go to the Facebook page of a skating club and spend over an hour trawling through over 1,000 photos spanning 12 years, trying to find a photo of a particular skater from that club, so that you can confirm whether or not she is the same person as a skater with the same name who represented a different country a few years later, and is now coaching in that country.

In case you are wondering, when I did eventually find a photo, there was no question about it. It was definitely the same girl.

But, I also found another couple of photos which have opened up a whole can of worms for one of my Fan Fests. They showed the Protocols from the Advanced Novice Ladies segments at Nationals that year. I had never looked at the Protocols before, so I didn't know until then that they do not actually agree with the results tables.

According to the results tables, one of my kids (who belongs to a different club) finished 1st out of 1 in both segments and overall.
According to the Protocols, she finished 3rd out of 3 in both segments and overall.

If we go by the Protocols, the girl whose photo I was looking for finished in 2nd position (2nd in the SP, and 1st in the FS), while another skater from the same club that I hadn't come across before finished in 1st position (1st in the SP, and 2nd in the FS).

On, and you know that skater I hadn't heard tell of that won overall. I just looked her up, and it turns out that she switched to Inline Roller skating shortly afterwards. And she has gone on to win all the Majors (Junior Worlds; Senior Worlds; Europeans; World Open) in that sport at least once.

Suffice to say, I now want to create Fan Fest profiles for both of these skaters. However, doing that will present me with a dilemma over which position to have in the existing Fan Fest profile for the girl that finished behind them in Advanced Novices all those years ago. Do I put her down as the Gold Medallist like the results table says; or do I put her down as the Bronze Medallist like the Protocols say? Let's face it, you can't have two winners in the same competition! Well, you can, but not when there is that massive a difference in the scores! (In each segment, she was around 10 points behind the leader, which meant that she finished around 20 points below the other two girls overall).

Sometimes I wish I didn't get curious when I come across things...

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Diana Delafield]

...when you go to the Facebook page of a skating club and spend over an hour trawling through over 1,000 photos spanning 12 years, trying to find a photo of a particular skater from that club, so that you can confirm whether or not she is the same person as a skater with the same name who represented a different country a few years later, and is now coaching in that country.

In case you are wondering, when I did eventually find a photo, there was no question about it. It was definitely the same girl.

But, I also found another couple of photos which have opened up a whole can of worms for one of my Fan Fests. They showed the Protocols from the Advanced Novice Ladies segments at Nationals that year. I had never looked at the Protocols before, so I didn't know until then that they do not actually agree with the results tables.

According to the results tables, one of my kids (who belongs to a different club) finished 1st out of 1 in both segments and overall.
According to the Protocols, she finished 3rd out of 3 in both segments and overall.

If we go by the Protocols, the girl whose photo I was looking for finished in 2nd position (2nd in the SP, and 1st in the FS), while another skater from the same club that I hadn't come across before finished in 1st position (1st in the SP, and 2nd in the FS).

On, and you know that skater I hadn't heard tell of that won overall. I just looked her up, and it turns out that she switched to Inline Roller skating shortly afterwards. And she has gone on to win all the Majors (Junior Worlds; Senior Worlds; Europeans; World Open) in that sport at least once.

Suffice to say, I now want to create Fan Fest profiles for both of these skaters. However, doing that will present me with a dilemma over which position to have in the existing Fan Fest profile for the girl that finished behind them in Advanced Novices all those years ago. Do I put her down as the Gold Medallist like the results table says; or do I put her down as the Bronze Medallist like the Protocols say? Let's face it, you can't have two winners in the same competition! Well, you can, but not when there is that massive a difference in the scores! (In each segment, she was around 10 points behind the leader, which meant that she finished around 20 points below the other two girls overall).

Sometimes I wish I didn't get curious when I come across things...

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Mathman]

...you get an email fom "Babbel Lang" (Babbel Languages for Life, an online "learn to speak a foreign language" site) and think it's from Bebe Liang.

 

[Mathman]

I taught cataloguing and indexing in the publishing centre at Simon Fraser University for a few years.

I have fond memories of Simon Fraser from when I was a graduate student at the University of Washington. There was a group of number theorists on loan from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland who lectured at Simon Fraser and UBC (we went up from Seattle).

But the best thing was, Simon Fraser had (and still has, I believe), one of the best collections of totem poles anywhere, and an ongoing program of restoring and preserving them at the University's Museum or Archaeology and Ethnology.

 

[Diana Delafield]

I have fond memories of Simon Fraser from when I was a graduate student at the University of Washington. There was a group of number theorists on loan from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland who lectured at Simon Fraser and UBC (we went up from Seattle).

But the best thing was, Simon Fraser had (and still has, I believe), one of the best collections of totem poles anywhere, and an ongoing program of restoring and preserving them at the University's Museum or Archaeology and Ethnology.

I wonder if they took them over from UBC's Museum of Anthropology, which had a wonderful collection of them around the walls of the Great Hall? One of my brothers, an art historian, worked at the MOA, and when he died suddenly in 2003 they had a memorial service for him in the Hall, at which I spoke. Sadly, the Hall had to be torn down for safety reasons as it was too close to the cliff above Wreck Beach and the cliff was crumbling away. I never heard what happened to the dozen? twenty? poles that had been supporting the Hall's high ceiling. Perhaps the rival SFU, way over on the far eastern side of the Greater Vancouver region, took them for safekeeping. I'd like to think so.

 

[Mathman]

^ I am sorry for the loss of yor brother.

 

[Diana Delafield]

^ I am sorry for the loss of yor brother.

Well, it was over 20 years ago, but I miss him too. Great sense of humour. My kids' favourite uncle. Thank you.

 

[moonvine]

A fluke, honestly! (Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket, since I seem to be on a roll.)

Wait is this true?

 

[Mathman]

Wait is this true?

No, it was a joke.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

...when you are watching the Monaco Grand Prix, and during the podium ceremony you see a forehead and a bit of hair sticking out from behind somebody's shoulder. And you instantly say "that's my kid!!!"

We eventually got a good look at Alex when the guy standing in front of her went to present one of the trophies. She was wearing a beautiful red dress. And she looked no different to when we last saw her in the Junior GP's, coming up on 9 years ago.



As soon as the anthems finished and the drivers reached for the bottles of champagne, Alex took to her heels and ran for cover! It was so funny. As if the drivers were going to spray anybody in the royal party! But maybe Alex was wise, because her Uncle Albert found a spare bottle and started spraying it too!

Because I was watching the MotoGP race from Barcelona, I didn't see the lead up to the F1 race. So, I don't know if they showed Alex on the grid walk.

But, it was so good to see her again. And looking so happy too!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

...you are told that the Manx language has been added to Google Translate, and you go in to test it. And you discover that there have actually been a whole pile of languages added. One of which is Udmurt. And to test it out, you type:

I love you Liza​

Which came out as:

Мон тонэ яратӥсько, Лиза​

It's a pity that they haven't got the audio set up for Udmurt yet. I need to practice for when I meet her and sweep her off her feet...

(...which will probably be never. But, you never know! A guy can live in hope! )

I'm disappointed that they don't yet have my local language, Ulster-Scots, or it's parent language, Scots. Or either of the ancestral local languages for my long-time main skating crush.

On the other hand, they do have @elektra blue's local language. Although, for everything I got it to translate, when I then put the resulting translation back in, it detected it as Corsican.

I would have thought you were too far away from Corsica for your languages to be similar enough for Google to confuse them.

Is this something you would expect to happen? Or, is Google Translate up the creek?

CaroLiza_fan

 

[elektra blue]

On the other hand, they do have @elektra blue's local language. Although, for everything I got it to translate, when I then put the resulting translation back in, it detected it as Corsican.

I would have thought you were too far away from Corsica for your languages to be similar enough for Google to confuse them.

google translate is drunk and isn't ashamed of it

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

google translate is drunk and isn't ashamed of it

Aha! Thanks to this comment, the penny has just dropped. This must be what @balabam does during the off-season. While waiting for the skating to return, he is passing the time doing the translations at Google!

Looks like we're going to get some interesting reading material this summer...!

See what you've got me writing! Me, who wouldn't say boo to a goose! You are a bad influence, @elektra blue!

... And we love you for it!!! ​

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Diana Delafield]

....you see something that in itself has nothing to do with skating, but you immediately read a skating reference into it anyway:

 

[elektra blue]

See what you've got me writing! Me, who wouldn't say boo to a goose! You are a bad influence, @elektra blue!

guilty as charged

 

[PaulE]

Could someone please help me out and tell me what @elektra blue's local language is?