Curling “Chess on Ice”: 2010 Winter Olympics

Curling is game of touch, finesse and strategy I came across a couple of Winter Olympics ago. Now this is not a fast paced but it is rather interesting when you get two close teams competing.

This Olympics curling competition begins February 16th with the Mens Round Robin Session 1 at 11AM CST.

Here is a quick description for those who don’t know whats going on. This is taken from the Anchorage Curling Club site

THE ICE: A sheet of curling ice is dimensioned at 138 ft x 14 ft. Unlike hockey ice, the curling surface is carefully groomed by frequent shaving to keep it perfectly level. Before each game, a light spray of water droplets is applied to the surface and immediately freezes in place as a fine pebble. It is on this pebble that curling stones ride easily and react predictably to a player’s delivery.

CURLING STONES: Curling stones are made from a shock-absorbing granite. Each piece of granite is carefully machined and balanced, and a goose-neck handle is added for the player’s convenience. The result is a standard 42 to 44 pound rock, with a diameter of one foot, and a height of 4.5 inches, not including the handle.

SWEEPING: Sweeping in front of a running stone accomplishes several things. First, it cleans the path of any debris that may be on the ice that could otherwise alter the stones travel. Secondly, by applying pressure to the broom while sweeping in front of the stone, the ice is slightly warmed, creating less friction between the ice and the stone – this can help the stone travel further than it would have, and it can also affect the curl of the stone.

THE TEAM: A curling team consists of four players: the first player of the group is called the Lead, the second player is appropriately known as the Second, and the third is called (you guessed it) the Third, or the Vice-Skip. The Fourth, known as the Skip, is the captain of the team. He / she directs the strategy of the game and calls the shots. Though the order that stones are delivered typically follows this sequence, there are teams that play with the Skip throwing in a different position.

PLAY: A curling game is played according to the following procedures:

– The Skips of Teams A and B position themselves at the far end of the ice.
– At the near end, the Vices of Teams A and B flip a coin to determine which foursome will start first.

Let’s say Team A loses the toss …

– Team A’s Skip moves into the house (circles, rings) at the far end, and calls for the first stone from Lead A.
– Lead A throws from the hack at the near end of the ice with the intent that the rock will come to rest at the far end position called by the Skip.
– The stone must be released by the Lead before it crosses the nearest hog line, and be allowed to run freely on its path.
– Team A’s Second and Vice may help to control the path of the stone by sweeping, in front of it.

After Lead A’s first rock comes to a halt …

– Team B’s Skip takes over in the house and calls Lead B’s first shot.

When Lead B’s stone comes to rest …

– Skip A takes the house again to call Lead A’s second rock.

Play continues in this alternating manner, until all members of both teams have delivered their two rocks.

At this point, the first “end” of play has been completed and the score is tallied (See OBJECT of the GAME, below). The team that posts a score in the end must then throw the first rock of the next end. The next and subsequent ends are played by simply delivering back to the opposite house.

An end of play normally takes about 15 minutes. The number of ends per game has varied greatly since the inception of the sport. Nowadays, a regular game, played for enjoyment and sociability, has eight ends. A competitive game, played for titles and prizes, normally has ten. Extra ends are added to break ties that may exist after regulation play.

OBJECT of the GAME: The object of the game is to complete each end with as many of your team’s rocks closer to the button than the nearest of your opponent’s stones. Scores are awarded as one point for each such rock.

It isn’t as complicated as it may seem! To get a better idea of the game, talk with curlers at a club near you, or come to the club during a bonspiel or other event watch a game – curlers are always glad to explain the intricacies of the sport to newcomers.

I Pity The Fool!

Hello my name is Ryan and I play World of Warcraft and Im a Night Elf Mohawk!

Actually I just look for any reason to use Mr. T’s picture. I have been a fan of Mr. T since I was very young.

Laurence Tureaud or more commonly known as Mr. T was first introduced to American in the 1982 movie Rocky III as Rocky Balboa’s opponent. Mr. T’s signature catch phrase “I pity the fool” also comes from this movie. When asked if he hated Rocky, he replied, “No, I don’t hate Balboa, but I pity the fool.”

Some interesting info from Wikipediea:

Tureaud worked as a bouncer after he returned from the army. It was at this time that he created the persona of “Mr. T”. His wearing of gold neck chains and other jewelry was the result of customers losing the items or leaving them behind at the bar/night club after a fight. A customer, who may have been banned from the club or trying to avoid another confrontation, would not have to re-enter the club if Mr. T wore their jewelry as he stood out front. When a customer returned to claim the item, it was readily visible and available with no further confrontations required. Often, the “former” customers did not return. Mr. T thus built up a large collection and earned a reputation for wearing many gold neck chains and bracelets.

After Rocky Mr. T had a couple of odd roles here and there before landing the role that really solidified the “Mr. T” persona. In 1983 he landed the role of B.A. Baracus in the hit TV Series “The A-Team”. This television show was one of my favorite shows of the 80’s it ran from 1983 to 1987. After the A-Team he had a 3 year run in bit less popular tv series called T. and T.

Sadly Mr. T’s hay day mostly ends there. Still very well known nothing major has come his way since. Most recently the online video game World of Warcraft has implemented him in an advertising campaign even going so far as to add a Night Elf likeness of him in game via the “Night Elf Mohawk Grenade“. This fun little item can be obtained by anyone and when thrown at another player gives them a temporary costume of a Night Elf with a mohawk.

Well that about does it for me and my little history lesson and bio of the great Mr. T. till next time kiddos!

Work has been tough

Well ok so I feel as though I have been disconnected from the world as of late. For the past 3 weeks work has been are real pain to say the least. We have started using a new ad creation/tracking system and everyone has been in a complete tizzy over the smallest things. I have little to know patience for people who are not very computer competent but I have even less tolerance for those who spend more time bitching and moaning about there problems rather than trying to solve them.

Needless to say 11 and 12 hour days has kept me disconnected but hopefully the worst is behind me and I can get back in touch.

One of my all time favorite SNL skits because I can relate to it so well is the following:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/19050/saturday-night-live-nick-burns

Clowns

One of my favorite cartoon strips is Bizarro created by Dan Piraro. I also enjoy reading his blog and am a follower of his on Twitter. In a blog post he made today (of which I am going to steal some of the pics he used) he blogged about how he fears and loathes clowns. I too share in his distaste for that which is suppose to bring smiles and laughter otherwise known as clowns. I want nothing to do with them or their gags.

Now some of you may thing how could I possibly not like clowns they are so funny. Well some of the more famous clowns that im sure have brought smiles and giggles to millions include: Bozo, Red Skelton, Krusty and of course who could forget Homie D Clown. All of those clowns to me…..creepy!

Something about grown men hiding behind paint and make-up with wild hair and wanting to play with and tickle little children just is not right.

I say “Down with the Clown!”

Now I leave you with a look at some of the clowns that ruined it for me and countless of others.

Pogo The Clown (aka John Wayne Gacy raped and murdered 33 young men and boys)

Take on V

Ok so I finally got to sit down and watch the pilot episode of V last night.
So far I give it a B+

This gives off the vibe of being just another OMG drama like Lost, Flash Forward, Heroes and others. I think if anything my biggest problem with the show is that I already know the whole story and so all I have to watch for is how that have put their own spin on it to modernize it and make it work but the overall plot I already know. I do think this one may be a little more appealing to some over say Lost as it doesn’t seem to have the deep mythology that Lost does. Also those that never watched the original V then this may be something you will really enjoy.

On a different note the V leader Anna played by Brazilian born actress Morena Baccarin who is previously most famous for her role as Inara Serra on the tv series Firefly looked very good. I am not usually a fan of really short hair on women but I think it worked well for her on the show. She has really nailed that look of sweetly sinister too. Her smiles in the show with the look in her eyes is hawt yet somewhat creepy which is perfect for the leader of a reptilian alien race with plans to take over the world.

Speaking of Firefly another ABC tv series stars an actor from that show. Nick Fillion who played Capt. Malcolm Reynolds on Firefly stars in the series Castle which is in its 2nd season on ABC’s Monday night lineup. Castle is a guilty pleasure of mine. The show is funny and the plots and suspense start out really well. My only beef with the show though is the endings. The endings are usually rushed and not that thrilling. The show spends the majority of the time in the puzzle solving process as well as the cat and mouse relationship between Castle and Detective Kate Beckett and kinda runs out of time to wrap up the crime exciting fashion but I still watch the show every week. 🙂

I will blog about more than just TV I promise. In fact I have been doing a work out program with the YMCA called FitTREK that I have been keeping a record of sort of that I may start posting on here but for now thats all I got. l8r

V another remake I hope they don’t screw up!

Tonight is the premier of ABC’s remake of the popular 80’s series/movie simply named V. The original mini series turned series, in its time and at my young age was a great show that I loved watching. Marc Singer one of the main characters at the time was one of my favorite actors because of the movie “The Beastmaster” in which I was totally enamored with.

The show in short was about some lizard like aliens that come to earth and call themselves Visitors and disguise themselves to look like good looking humans. They claim to be friendly but they secretly have ulterior motives. A group of rebels lead by led by photojournalist Mike Donovan, Dr. Julie Parrish and mercenary Ham Tyler fight the Visitors and in the mini-series defeat them however to lead into the tv series there are still a lot of the aliens left. In the TV series, Nathan Bates, the industrialist who manufactures the biological weapon that was used to defeat the aliens, wants to get the aliens’ technology, so that he could profit from it and so he makes a deal with Diana, the alien leader or Queen if you will. Mike Donovan, Ham Tyler, and Julie Parish know that Diana can’t be trusted, so they are constantly trying to figure out what Diana is up to and stop her and thus you have weeks of episodes to watch and enjoy.

From what I gather the new V is the same basic plot just modernized. Aliens come to take over by disguising themselves and weaseling into our lives and key positions.

TV in the 80’s for series was great and this is just yet another show that has come back around to prove that.

7 central on ABC watch it and hope it doesn’t suck!

Here is a sneak peak in case you havn’t seen it.
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