Alex has graduated to Level 8 gymnastics this year. It’s a big difference from Level 7. In Level 7, there are required moves and routines that everyone has to do. In Level 8, you get to assemble your own moves and routines. You incorporate the highest scoring moves, you think you can execute well, in your routine. Level 7 is also broken down by age group to keep it fair for the younger kids; they are changing so fast when they’re younger. 10 year old Level 7s compete separately from 11 year old Level 7s. At Level 8; no more age groups. The pool of participants gets smaller at each level, so at the higher levels they run multiple levels at the same time; levels 8, 9, and 10 all together. So little twelve year old Alex is out there competing at the same time, and on the same equipment, as high school kids. That’s particularly evident at the start of the vault video. The coach hoisting Alex up to the rings is a new coach for him this year, Alex Svitlychnyy, an Olympian and USSR National Champion, who works exclusively with the Level 8s. The coach facing the camera and spotting Alex on the high bar routine is Roman Gryshayev, the Men’s Team South – Head Coach. (There are two gyms associated with 5280 Gymnastics, the north and south gyms.) Roman holds seven national pommel horse titles from Ukraine. Here are some videos from Alex’s first Level 8 meet. We weren’t there; Matt took them: High Bar Parallel Bars Vault Rings Floor He didn’t podium, but he scored pretty well overall. He had some 10s and 12s.
Inca doves
I have a really cool radio in the Mazda
I can pause it and let it get a little behind. The commercials and programs are indexed, so I can resume play, then skip through the commercials one at a time until the program I want comes back on. Judy has an even better radio in the Chrysler. When she pauses it, the current content shows on the screen as a list. We can watch the list grow as they run commercial after commercial, until the program comes back on. Then, without having to hit play and skip through all the commercials, we can just touch the screen to pick where the program resumes and go straight to it. Nicely done. Of course, that begs one to wonder what that does to the cost and value of television and radio advertising. What is it worth to the advertisers, if listeners don’t have to sit through it? Have they noticed we’re not listening?
It’s Friday again
That’s the second time this week. Happy Friday everyone. Update. I’m doing great; back to normal. Normal for anyone who turns their torso like Frankenstein’s Monster and has a zipper made of staples up the back of their neck. But the neck zipper is pretty cool. Who wouldn’t want one? Maybe I can sell it as a fashion statement. I’m ready to modify the 7 pound in 7 days infomercial diet too. Upon further study, I find that when you quit taking the narcotics, the weight quits falling off. This necessitates two changes in the plan. First, we can skip the surgery and just go straight to the narcotics to accomplish our weight-loss goals. That will reduce the overall cost and discomfort considerably. Second, when we stop taking the narcotics the benefits go away, so we’ll have to continue the narcotics for the rest of our lives. That’s not totally a bad thing for me though. That means every customer I get will be a lifetime customer.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Not knowing ahead of time if we were going to still be in the hospital or not, we didn’t make any complicated plans for today. We just left it open. Barb and Henry were kind enough to show up at our door with a steaming hot full turkey Thanksgiving dinner to share with us. Here’s to good friends and family. They kind of merge together don’t they. Thanksgiving Day is our time for Christmas lights to go up. Judy dug out the electric tree and it is shining in our window tonight. I can almost feel the crisp night air and hear the crunch of snow underfoot, even though it’s still seventy-five degrees outside. Again, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.