because i just looked at onemodelplace and modelmayhem . com and found out that my modeling career doesn't have to end! i looked and there are a few legit photographers in new hampshire and i'm actually interested in working with most of them. i discovered OMP from a friend during senior year. i did one photo shoot in boston and i loved it. my sister came as support but ended up being my make up artist too. it was great. a little weird because it was my first time in front of a camera like that - alone, without people, selling myself, not trying to just have a pretty smile and keep my eyes open. it was different.
obviously, i'll be busy with medical school and tests every 2 weeks but if i plan it right i think i can do maybe 3 shoots throughout the year. that sounds great to me! 1 shoot a term. i'm excited just gotta lose more weight!
and i know that picture isn't great, but hey, it's me. and that's my first shoot. i can only get better, right?
either it's me or youtube changed again and forgot something but i don't see the embed video link. so, here's the video. let me know what you think!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvOl5aXF5bg
i joined internation gymnastics online forum. so far so good. its cool to be around other ppl who like gymnastics so much and know so much. i looked up jessica gil ortiz. she fell on her head during 2010 floor exercise finals at worlds. she's ok and is back in the gym. she even has a youtube channel. JGO1207. here's her full routine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px6_MlZLgco
i just found out about internationalgymnast forum. its pretty sweet but i'm not sure if i'm gonna sign up. i dont know that much about gymnastics...
so, i remembered someone who i really liked watching 08 or 09 pac rims. bross was there as a junior. as was sam shapiro. there was a canadian girl, peng peng lee, also known as christine, who performed. she had http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spondylolisthesis but i believe i found a video or something telling me that she has competed this year. that makes me happy because i really liked watching her. she was only ajunior at the time and is listed on gym canada as a senior so i assume she qualified somehow.
mattie larson has already competed! as did sam shapiro. they both only performed on 2 events - bars and beam. they're total scores were 28.550 and 27.600. it makes me wonder who usa gymnastics thinks they can get with a 30 points for 2 event qualifying criteria for us nationals. pretty harsh if you ask me. i guess its good because you get more all arounders but why would you want to discourage/make it REALLY hard for specialists? if they're good, let them prove it at nationals with all the other girls who snuck in there.
alicia sacramone was at the last camp and scored a 15andchange on vault. if she gets that on beam/floor, she has a chance. people are also saying she can petitions, which i believe, since she's a former olympian/world champ.
sam shapiro - i hope the us doesnt turn into china. you remember how they had that girl flying but she wasn't the one who actually sang, it was a girl who they deemed wasnt attractive? i hope we dont factor looks into things. think about it, the most unattractive is bross right now and she's #1. ppl say nastia was unattractive (when she was younger, didnt know how to deal with the forehead yet) and she's 08 all around champ. pretty legit. i just hope they dont ignore her for reasons like that. i think marta is entirely too focused on winning, though, to let looks affect things.
another girl keeps popping up, alexandra christensen. i wanna look her up. i know an anna with her last name so i always get so confused when i see that!
I wasn't sure what I wanted this blog to be about. I friend all different kinds of people - friends from school, gymnast enthusiasts, fashion enthusiasts, and just people opinions i like to read. This blog was solely about gymnastics for all of oh 5/6 of the 11 posts. I was worried what people would think of me any my blog. As a swimmer, why do I love gymnastics so much? If I like fashion so much, why do I dress so normally? All these questions, I couldn't answer and it made me kind of ashamed of myself. That's why I don't advertise my blog. It's not on my facebook or anything. I haven't actually commented any of my friends although I'm subscribed to them and I guess it's worked. I've had so few visits and no followers. This isn't one of those "I need more comments" it's a "WTF do I want my blog to be?"
I've thought about this all day as I popped from gymnastics blog to fashion blog to med student blog. Everything written is important to that person. Why am I so ashamed to write what's important to me? Why care so much about other's opinions? I'm me and although I don't quite know who me is, I shouldn't hide her.
With that, today I continue my post on the Olympics. It's actually funny because I realize how swayed I am by the commentators! I was watching Mattie Larson and there was footage that said she would be the next big thing. This was it and I oohed and ahhed. She's good but I don't know why I was so in love with her, to be honest. She would be on my 2012 list but I think she needs to be more interesting.
I looked her up and she is back in the gym after an injury, ankle I believe. She competed at that USA-GER (I think it's a tri meet). This is her all around.
Watch at least her vault and bars. She's like a mini Alicia Sacramone. I'm gonna be honest and say that the reason that I might have liked her more than I intended to is because she might be part black. As a swimmer, I was always the only black swimmer on my team, except for my high school team at Tech. It didn't bother me in the sense that it made me want to quit but it was frustrating. The girls touching my hair, asking me why it was different, and just not having anyone who understood me. Jenny Thompson was my role model but I remember Sabir Muhammad trying a million times to make it. I remember Anthony Ervin tying for a freakin' gold medal and not really embracing/acknowledging the fact that he could be the inspiration for people that were like him, or half like him. Then, Cullen Jones made it and you can't get much darker than that. He was on that epic 4x100 free relay. He's made a movement in the black community encouraging Black kids to at least learn how to swim since he almost drowned when he was longer. Basically, I say all this because it's hard to get into a sport where you're part of a team but still alone. It doesn't have to bother you but I think everyone at least notices it. No matter how color blind you are, you know when someone doesn't look like you. And as you get to better and better swim meets, as you get to a more elite gymnastics style, the chances of you finding another African American get slimmer and slimmer. It's nice to have role models.
I remember watching this and jumping up and down cheering. I almost had a heart attack it was so close. Cullen was the slowest leg but I think he was always the slowest. Hey, 4 people, 1 of you has to be the slowest, right?
So, after yesterday's post, I also looked more at Ivana Hong and I don't think I like her that much either haha. All my favorites are leaving me! I think WOGA was good/will be good for her but I think they need other coaches other than just Valeri. He's coached 1 girl for the past how many years? [I think he only coached Nastia]. He's a great coach but I don't know where his originality is. Their beam routines are all very similar as are their bars now. I like Ivana's old bars where she had that funky shoulder thing. German giants. It's weird if you look at that video and another from 09. Her Tkatchev's have gotten lower. You'd think you'd get stronger. Yes, you weigh more, but you took out the german giants before hand, so no excuse. tsk tsk ivana.
I'm writing this on my itouch so bear with me with the spelling errors.
After reading different ogs, I've decided to look up WTF an elite qualifier is. Basically, different meets give you the chance to qualify for elite. If youget a certain score, you can go to the USclassic which is the last opportunity toqualify for nationals. Or, like Vanessa Zamsomething, a high enough score can land you straight to US Nats. Once on that team, you cancompete for spots on the US international squad for things like worlds and the Olympic. I skipped a step with international elite but life goes on. Alicia will be at the classic :)
I was wondering who would make the 2012 squad. A lot of people speak highly of Rebecca Bross but I don't like her. I think she's too much of an in-between. She's not super flexible and she's not so powerful that I ooh and aahh at every tumble. I hope Bridget Sloan can stay relatively injury free to make it to 2012. She's not my favorite but I don't mind her representing my country at all. She did a damn good job in 08 when the team was falling apart. She could've crashed and burned on her 1 event but she didn't. She's a very solid competitor to me. Next is the darling Ivana hong whom I hope can recover soon! She truly deserves a spot that she arguably shouldve had in 08 when the team broke. Most of her awards are on beam but I personally love her bars routine. Aly raisman is meh. I like her over bross and as long as she doesn't crack like Alicia in 04, she should be ok. I like the juniors more. I tend not to like the ones in the spotlight re: Jordyn Wieber. She's cuter, and better IMO, then Shawn as far as being america's commentators favorites. Maybe vega and Ross or one of the other yet to be noticed juniors will steal the spotlight.
not really sure what i'm updating here. i feel super scatterbrained right now.
1. i'm excited alicia sacramone is coming back! she'll be competing at us nationals. it will be hard for her to "make it" (or break it haha), depending on how you define it. i think she can be in shape and not make it. the current seniors are good and the juniors that were at pac rim are good too. so the olympics might be a long shot but maybe she'll travel for something in the near future.
2. according to Aunt Joyce, ivana hong is training again! i'm excited for this which leads to my next comment.
3. comebacks. i'm excited for alicia but don't know how far she will go. ivana has a beautiful body and i think she can do well if she ever starts to show some consistency and STOPS BREAKING!!! i couldn't care less for sam pezcek coming back. or shawn johnson for that matter. she will be pure disappoinment. a, she's HUGE. b, i have no idea what could make her interesting again. america liked her for her cute smile, her triple combination on balance beam, and called her the new it girl. they have an it girl in bross, which i do NOT agree with. nastia, i was excited for but she too has not really been training. someone called her chipmunk cheeks and i think thats very accurate. i dunno if she can get that 5'3", 99lb body back. she's probably grown more too with the lack of pounding and the increase in nutrition.
i'm having gymnastics withdrawal. i follow college so i have no idea what's going on. i feel like i'm in a gymnastics draught.
on the up side, i found a place where i can do gymnastics in new hampshire :) i'll definitely need a car but it'll be worth it.
watching the 04 all around. carly's beam was pretty cool. allana's floor was really low and i thought sveta's bars was too high for all the mistakes she's made. one thing i've realized though is that the code of points changes so what was allowed then, might be a deduction now. so who knows. maybe its ok to be totally sideways in your handstand.
anna pavlova's floor music is lovely and i like the tumbling pass that ends in a front walkover. its pretty and i feel like you don't see things like that today with all the crazy amounts of tumbling and combination and high passes that people want to get in.
courtney kupets did screw up on beam but i didn't think it was <9. courtney kupets score on floor was kinda low but she did step out of bounds and stuff. oh well, she tried. her floor music makes me wonder though...
the interview: "what were you thinking during khorkina's floor?" carly: silence. haha. i'm pretty sure she was thinking something nasty and downright mean.
back now! school is finally out of session and i'm glad. I've graduated and I will be heading off to medical school next year.
Posted my first gymnastics video. I'm really happy. Let me know what you think! It's the first one, so I'll gladly take criticisms.
I started to go to that gymnastics class. I will have gone to 10 classes by the end of this week. I like it so much. I can do a cartwheel, pop cartwheel, and round off. I've been working at my handstands. I'm not used to getting up in the air so I'm at that point where I'm in handstand and don't know what to do so I fall over.
Right now I'm watching the 2004 women's team finals. I can't believe I don't remember what happens. I vote US Silver. I'm actually shocked at how poorly Carly performed (I haven't seen floor yet) considering she got her act together to win the AA.
