the-real-xmonster

[the-real-xmonster]

Alice, I wondered if you keep up with Yuzu things these days. He has just finished his first solo ice show tour and it is about video games.

Yikes, I have to be honest here and admit that I am absolutely, inexcusably, terrible at keeping up with my favorite athletes after they retire. I thought I'd be able to make an exception with Yuzu but eh, turned out I could not even manage that. I am ashamed of myself and will accept any insult y'all want to toss my way. That said, I was actually kinda vaguely aware of the video game-theme stuffs he's been doing recently (confession: because I saw some video snippets on figure skating reddit of all places) and I swear to the lord I have "checking Yuzu's new things out" on my to-do list, which I also swear I will get to, eh, like, um, eventually. No seriously though, I will get to it as soon as I get settled in after my recent (and very much on-going) relocation to Tokyo.

#replies

[the-real-xmonster]

omg congrats on escaping the singapore heat!! 🥳🥳 i hope you enjoy the japanese weather (damn, a place with seasons… that’s insane)

yeah, penacony has been my favourite so far in hsr as well! can’t wait for aventurine (i hope i win the 5050). my friend actually got me to play hi3 last year and i liked the story a lot, but i stopped playing as things got busy for me haha! i will continue playing when im free… i was only on chapter 17? so i have a lot of the story left to enjoy!

also i took a look at your supports and damn. that might actually be the most cracked jingyuan i’ve ever seen! what the heck! lore accurate jingyuan fr fr

Thank you!!! I'm looking forward to enjoying 'em seasons while they still exist you know, as in before global warming turns them into a distant memory as the sun slowly roasts us alive 🫠🫠🫠

I'm glad you liked my Jing Yuan lol. I think he still has room for improvement (somebody pls manifest for me a decent lightning damage sphere I beg) but I can't deny that I've spent an unholy amount of time farming that goddamn follow up attack relic set ever since it came out, all because the Mr. General is my favorite. The relic system in this game sucks even worse than the Genshin artifact stuff - there, I said what I said. Anyway, best of luck with your pulls! Over here I'm also on 50/50 and at close to zero pity but I'm telling myself that it's only fitting for it to be a gamble when you're pulling for Aventurine 🙃

Also for no particular reason lemme show you this stupidly extra big merlion plushie I came across today

#replies #random talk #my photos #hsr

[the-real-xmonster]

it's been a while since i checked your blog (life got really busy for me) but i'm glad to see your responses! the weather has somehow gotten worse this year... long pants are no longer wearable in singapore. why is it so hot!!! my back gets drenched with sweat within 10min of walking around. also i have a bad habit of not putting sunscreen and that is becoming increasingly unsustainable...

anyway i'm not sure if you're still playing star rail but i enjoyed belobog even though some of the story beats were kinda cliche. xianzhou was nice but i think a lot of it was hidden in the collectible items (which is a shame because i like dan heng a lot). i've been loving the penacony plot though! i thought aventurine's story was very moving and i liked him a lot more after the quest hehe

anyway, i hope you're doing well :D please take care in the overwhelming heat and 9% gst <33

Hi there! I totally agree with you about the Singapore weather. It's truly getting to the point of insufferable, which has left me no choice other than leaving the country altogether. So yeah I'm moving to Japan next week haha.

I still play HSR. Contrary to popular opinion I don't think the Belobog story was as great as the fandom likes to make it out to be. Like you said it's a bit cliched in some places and I still couldn't get over the whiplash of how fast the Seele-Bronya connection developed (and I did play HI3 so I get why that fan service plot element was there, but still). The Xianzhou storyline was ok IMO. Not perfect by any means but not as bad as the fandom likes to make it out to be either (istg this fandom seems to have extreme opinions about everything). As for Penacony, I only truly got on board with it in this current patch (maybe I'm emotionally defective or something but I really did not care about Firefly last patch) and yea it's because of how well written Aventurine's character was. Gotta give the writing team at Hoyo a huge kudo for this one. Can't wait for the Aventurine banner to start. I'll get him even if I've got almost every other sustain in this game 🤡

Btw I assume you're on the Asia server for HSR? If you want to be friends on there my UID is 800740717. I have pretty decently built characters (if I do say so myself) as support if you ever need 'em 😛

Anyway please put on sunscreen when you go out!!! Stay safe!

#replies #random talk

[the-real-xmonster]

hi, alice!

hope you've been well. forgive me if this is an ask you'd rather not answer because it seems you have moved on from figure skating (and for good reason tbh) but I know you were a massive kaori fan, and I just wanted to ask... are you happy to see her thriving these days, even from a distance? she is probably the only reason I've stuck in this thing as long as I have

I remain a Kaori fan :D though as you perfectly summed up, I'm only following her from a distance these days. One of my fondest memories about figure skating in the last few years was watching Kaori successfully defending her World title on home ice. I will always wish Kaori all the best in all her endeavors. She deserves only the best, truly ❤️

#replies #figure skating #kaori sakamoto

[the-real-xmonster]

hey! hope this doesn't come off as weird but i check in on your tumblr account around once every two months and i'm always happy to hear that you're doing well!! (i am here to chit chat about singapore's weather again, among other things) recently just sitting down in my room without aircon on has become a sweat-inspiring activity. walking outside makes me realise i have sweat glads in my face. pure suffering

how did you find honkai star rail btw? i played it on my friend's recommendation and ended up finishing v1.0 in around 9 days, which is definitely not normal behaviour haha

It's not weird at all. I always appreciate whenever I've got people checking in on me. Not to be morbid on main but seeing that I live by myself one of my biggest unreasonable fears is that one of these days I'd trip on a chair and die alone in my apartment without anyone noticing for the longest time.

Anyway.

It's terribly hot these days isn't it? I went out for a bit earlier today and felt like I was burning in the deep circles of hell as soon as I set foot outside of an air conditioner's range. Do take care of yourself in this heat okay?

Re: HSR, I like it. The story has been a bit of a hit and miss for me to be perfectly honest but I'm willing to overlook those flaws because of all the pretty characters, the *chef's kiss* sci-fi/fantasy blend vibe, and the very interesting background lore. I started playing at launch and also finished all of v1.0 in just over a week so I think your pace is completely normal by the way. Who and what story bit has been your favorite so far?

#replies #random talk

[the-real-xmonster]

chit chat

Somehow I keep forgetting to include tumblr in my usual routine of coffee and mindlessly scrolling through social media. Anyhoo, what's everyone been doing for fun recently? Me, I'm reading The Magician's Daughter by H.G. Parry - I'm almost done and it's a pretty nice book but not as good as her previous 3 books, which if I'm completely honest is a bit disappointing (I do recommend her other 3 books by the way they are excellent and yet I think suffering from an almost criminal lack of popularity). I've been playing a lot of Octopath Traveler 2; I'm 66 hours in and have exhausted almost all of the side quests, about to move on with the main story (side quests before main is just the normal way of playing RPG am I right, I am sure everybody does that, yes, most definitely). I'm also rather hyped for Honkai Star Rail's release later this month, anyone around here going to play that game?

@skating peeps: I watched Worlds last month by the way, first competition I've watched live since forever. Excellent event eh?

I went glamping up in the mountains in Thailand a couple of weeks ago. Here's a photo from the site:

Have a nice day y'all!

#random talk

[the-real-xmonster]

Do you still watch skating every now and then? Watching Beijing left such a bad taste in my mouth and while I keep up with a skater or two, I have moved on to other sports like football and baseball.

I do still watch skating once in a while, but what I watch in most cases are old performances. It's been a hot minute since I last watched a live competition. In fact, the last event I watched live and in its (almost) entirety was the Beijing Olympics, and friend, I understand exactly what you meant about the lingering bad taste. My condolences to both of us.

Sadly I haven't found any other sport to move on to. Can't even find a new fave to support in tennis so I haven't watched that stuff in a while either. Best I can do these days for live entertainment is checking out some Twitch streams once in a blue moon. What can I say other than that my mid-life crisis is going strong.

Hope your favorite baseball and football teams are doing well and winning all the games/matches.

[the-real-xmonster]

Happy Monday, do you guys want to see a fluffy cat belly? Of course you do, here it is

#cat pictures

[the-real-xmonster]

Glad you’re getting on with life! Thank you again for all of your amazing figure skating technical posts - I’ve learned so much from them!

Hi! Thank you for liking my old posts! I should take this opportunity to warn people that many of my old skating contents, especially the ones dealing with the more numerical aspects of the scoring system, are out of date by now, due to the fact that the ISU has screwed over revised their TES system half a dozen times or so since I last posted anything figure skating on this blog. I like to think that the more general observations I posted about the execution of skating elements are still valid though (last time I checked there were still only 6 jump types officially recognized in the ISU SOV, for example).

I unfortunately have zero desire to go back and update my old contents or post any new skating thing. I think the good folks over at https://www.soyouwanttowatchfs.com/ do keep up with the changes in ISU regulations (a positively Herculean task, I must say), so I'd recommend giving them a visit for skating stuff. As for me, the only sort of fandom-related technical discussion I dabble in these days is about the Genshin Impact meta, so er, hit me up if you want to talk that, yeah?

[the-real-xmonster]

really glad you’re alive and well!! those koalas look so fluffy 🥺🥺

Thank you, I am indeed alive, though I can't 100% co-sign on the "well" bit. I am having a bit of an existential crisis at the moment you see. It's all very inconvenient. I sure hope you are doing better than me!

[the-real-xmonster]

some casual chitchat about singapore’s weather: post the wonderful rainy days in january resulting in about a week of blissful cool weather, it is now back to the regularly scheduled hot and humid weather with even rainy days being so oppressively humid that it’s not even cold

Thank you for saying "wonderful rainy days", friend. I need to and will show your message to my colleagues. Everyone at my workplace seems to think that I am some sort of psychopathic alien masquerading as an unconvincing human whenever I state my preference for the rainy sort of weather. Rainy + cool Singapore is the best version of Singapore that there is, am I right?

Come to think of it though, I haven't set foot outside of my apartment since Thursday last week. It's hot and humid outside, you say? I had better continue staying indoor then.

#singapore #the weather chat

[the-real-xmonster]

ahh alice it's good to see you!! hope you're doing well (and yes #koalas)

Thanks, hope you are doing very well yourself. Koalas are the best, right? I think they are the cutest of the marsupials and nobody can convince me otherwise.

[the-real-xmonster]

so, I'm alive

Hi there y'all. Not sure who is even reading this but if you are and if you used to know me from the skating fandom from back in, oh, I don't know, 5 years ago, basically I just want to say hi, it's been a while. In case you are one of those lovely folks who have cared enough about good ol' me here to try checking on me at any time in the past 5 years, I just want to reiterate that you are a lovely human being and I'm deeply sorry for how utterly terrible I have been at keeping in touch. I am generally extremely very bad at keeping in touch - this applies to every social relationship, not only the ones on Tumblr. I've been meaning to work on improving that aspect of myself but eh, I never seem to get anywhere with it, strangely enough.

In any case, so I've decided to log back in to Tumblr, for the most basic and predictable of reason which is that I don't like being on Twitter anymore.

Now I do have to clarify that for various reasons, I no longer consider myself an active part of the figure skating fandom. I do still watch the sport from time to time but I no longer have any desire or motivation to create the sort of content I used to do - I apologize if this disappoints you. I'm up for it if anyone wants to have casual chitchat about skating though. Or casual chitchat about non-skating-related things, yeah those might work out even better. I can talk to you about how much I dislike the weather in Singapore, for example.

Anyhow, before I go today, here are some koalas I saw last year:

Cheers!

#koala

[the-real-xmonster]

Serious question: how do you deal with skating-related anger and depression? My favorite figure skater got his career brutally cut years ago and is nice entirely forgotten, and I never managed to process it and accept this fact. I have vented to fans, researched skating technique and injuries in detail, interviewed his coach, spoken to journalists, written about the issue, and still nothing seems to help! I am in serious need for advice from more experienced fans.

Do you know what has happened to that skater since his career ended? What has he been doing instead of skating? Is he enjoying it? Is he happy with his life right now? If he is, and I really hope he is, it means that he’s somehow gotten past the disappointment with skating. In that case, don’t you think you should be able to move on as well? I’m not making light of your anger and depression, but between you and him, he is surely the one much more directly impacted by the abrupt end to his promising career, no? If he’s able to let it go, can you not find it in you to be happy for him? And from there, maybe to accept that there is nothing either you or him can do to change what happened?

That, in a nutshell, is how I usually deal with any frustration caused by a favorite person while doing their sport: remind myself that however shitty I may feel right now, it can’t possibly be compared to what he/she is going through, and if they can pick themselves up to get over it, so can I. After all, the main reason why I become a fan of an athlete is usually that they’ve managed to inspire something in me and make me want to become more like them - if not in the physicality aspect, then at least in the mentality side of it.

In the worst case, if your favorite skater is unhappy and the memory of skating still haunts him, how about trying to reach out to him directly (since you mentioned you’ve interviewed his coach, I think it might be possible for you to get information on the skater himself)? I’m sure he’d appreciate the support, especially given how much you obviously care about him, and I think it’d do both of you good to have someone to talk to who shares the knowledge about the whole ordeal. 

Also, if you want to vent right now and need an immediate listener, feel free to PM me. 

#replies #figure skating #Anonymous

[the-real-xmonster]

David Wilson is in Japan choreographing for Mai. Time to be afraid. To be very afraid. Wish they would quarantine him for 90 days at the airport. Just saw Mai’s solo for SOI and I really liked that powerful vibe for her. She looked fierce. So if that’s DW I hope he dips back into that. Mai at SOI was a real treat. What would be your dream program for her?

I am sorta afraid now. The most generous remark I could make about Wilson as a choreographer is that his programs are hit-and-miss? So let’s hope it’s a hit this time with Mai, that’s all we can do.

I also liked the fierce vibe Mai had at SOI, though I’m still not convinced that I’d want to see her do another sexy tango. It’s just not... her thing, I guess. 

As for my dream program for Mai, after some intensive trawling through all sorts of playlists by friends, families, and myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’d probably die and ascend to heaven should Mai ever skate to the Mazurka Op.81 No.1 by Sibelius, and in particular this version performed by James Ehnes.

#replies #mai mihara #Anonymous

[the-real-xmonster]

Hi Alice, this message has been sitting in my outbox for almost a year, haha, thought I'll try ask :). First and foremost, thank you!! can't say enough how much I love your blog. What do you most look forward to for Yuzu in the new season? For me besides his 4A(!), I'd like to see more variety in his spins and ChSq, especially the latter, as much as I adore his ina bauer and hydroblade, maybe its time to try something new and different? Am I being too greedy?

Hello there, sorry for taking forever to get back to you on this (work is crazy and I just picked up a new video game so like… haha… *whisper* please send help). 

So, first, no, I don’t think you’re being greedy. I’d also want to see more variety in Yuzu’s ChSq in particular. I love the flavorful touches he put on his hydroblade this season by linking it with the one-foot Axel in Otonal and switching up the position in Haru yo, Koi - I hope to see more of such creativity next season, with possible application on the layback Ina Bauer as well. In addition, I’d give anything for him to bring back the sit twizzle (no Yuzu I still am not forgiving you for taking it out of Origin)

or any extended twizzle really

choreographed inside Ina Bauer

and even just a simple change edge spread eagle.

The thing is, Yuzu has so many nice, “wow” moves in his arsenal, I’d say it’s just a matter of him figuring out the right music and the right way to incorporate the right selection of moves into his choreography, which brings me to the next thing I very much look forward to, which is new music. I can say with confidence that I wouldn’t have any issue if he chooses to repeat Otonal and Origin next season, but if he decides to construct one or two new programs, I really hope he’d pick something classical, especially so if it’s for his LP. Yuzu hasn’t had a free skate set to classical music since… what… his first season as a senior? A violin concerto, a string quartet, a sonata, any kind of chamber music with a violin in it - I’m game. I think Yuzu and his style have both matured enough that now’s a good time to revisit that most fundamental of combinations: skating and classical music, and I believe he’d do a stellar job given the fitting music.

Continued:

Secondly, I’ve heard Kurt Browning commentated more than once that he’s amazed how relaxed/“quiet” Yuzu’s upper body was when he jumped, I’d like to ask if you can elaborate that point more, better yet, can you show me how “not-relaxed” other skaters might be when performing a jump? 

I actually have touched on this same topic before and miraculously enough I was able to find that old post, here you go.

In that old post I used Patrick, Shoma, Javi, Nathan, Boyang (the 2017 WC top 6) for juxtaposition, but it should be noted that none of those 5 is whom I’d call a “muscled” jumper. Their upper body might not be as totally relaxed as Yuzu, who is absolutely in a league of his own in that regard, but their takeoff postures are all fair enough to look at, and they don’t overuse their upper body to force start the rotation either. If you want to know what a truly “not relaxed” upper body looks like, I, sadly, have to point you to Junhwan (as discussed here in comparison with Javi), and Zhenya, especially back around when she was in junior / first turned senior. See the way she pushed her arms out taut and tensed up her shoulders before both of the jumps?

Now you can compare Zhenya’s 3F3T against this combo of Kaori’s below to see the difference between her takeoff and one with a quiet, relaxed upper body (most of the Japanese ladies are pretty good at that, but I think Kaori is truly the standout example even among her teammates). 

Continued:

Thirdly, in regard to the current rivalry between Yuzu and Nathan, I felt the same as Brian Orser that it kind of reminds me of back in 2013-14, when Yuzu was a teenager rising star chasing Patrick the 3 time worldchampion. And Yuzu was known as a great jumper back then while Patrick was renowned for his skating skills, and it was very excited to see them go against each other. Now Yuzu is so well rounded (pray for his ankle!) and Nathan is developing quickly too, are we gonna see more of that excitement in the next year or two? I hope its good for the sport. Sorry about this long Questions post. :)

Yes, of course, it’s good for the sport to have a lot of variety in (1) the natural baseline abilities of the skaters (2) which areas each skater chooses to focus on and (3) the strategies employed by the skaters, as a result of (1) and (2) combined. It’s also great for the sport to have a new generation developing and competing against the older one(s), whilst both continuously pushing / inspiring each other to move forward. A sport lacking such generational movement, IMO, is as good as dead, and no matter how intense the competition among the existing generation is, when you look at it as a whole, such a competitive landscape would ultimately feel somewhat… bleak (for lack of a better word). I know that feeling very well because that gloom and doom mood just about sums up the prospect of men’s tennis for the last half of the decade. Sure it’s been fun and it still is, mostly, to watch the holy trinity of Roger - Rafa - Novak trying to one-up each other on how many entries they have in the history book, but one can’t help but screaming into the void, from time to time: where are all the darned kids? 

So, yeah, you could say that, even though the outcome of their competition might not always be to my liking, I’m glad that a rivalry of sort exists between Yuzu and Nate, I think it does make the men’s competition more scintillating to follow for new and old fans alike, and just as importantly, I believe it’s part of the reasons why Yuzu’s decided to stay with us for at least another season.

Here’s to an exciting 2019-2020 skating season!   

#replies #figure skating #yuzuru hanyu #life-is-a-foreign-language

[the-real-xmonster]

Hi! If I remember correctly, you’ve mentioned in your posts that you’ve been to the GPF before. I’m struggling to find any useful information about when those tickets usually go on sale for the upcoming season and how the whole process of buying them works. I understand it’s next to impossible to get them, but I was just wondering if you have any information you’d be willing to share. Thank you!

Hi there, GPF tickets can be hard, but not impossible, to get, especially if the event is hosted outside of Japan (for the love of everything on Earth I still can’t understand why the Japanese won’t sell their tickets the same way everyone else does).

Now, there is unfortunately no hard and fast rule as to when the tickets go on sale, but you usually can monitor those dates by checking the event’s web page. I don’t think the official page for GPF 2019-2020 in Turin has been created yet, but when it does, it’ll likely be part of the FISG site (FISG = the Italian Ice Sports Federation). The 2018-2019 GPF homepage, for example, was on the Skate Canada website and looks like this.

Tickets will most likely be put on sale via a 3rd party online platform. For GPF 2019 in Turin, it’s probably going to be TicketOne (I guess so because Worlds 2018 tickets were sold there) - might as well create an account with them when you have time and if you haven’t got one already. While you’re at it, also make sure to register your billing address, payment method, etc. so you don’t have to do those later when you’re in a hurry trying to grab the tickets.

Once the on-sale dates are confirmed by the organizer, mark those down on your calendar, set a reminder, do whatever you need to do to make sure you don’t forget the dates and times (yes, the time too, as in the exact hour when the tickets start to be available). Sometimes the release information will be made available on the ticketing platform as well, so you can also set an alert for yourself via TicketOne. Note that I said “dates” in plural because the tickets usually won’t be on sale all at once.

All-event tickets often will be released first - these are, obviously, tickets covering all of the events (singles, pairs, ice dance, competition and gala, plus in the case of the GPF, senior and junior; sometimes inclusive of tickets to practice sessions - this is not guaranteed though so you’ll have to check). These bundles of course will make quite the dent in your budget, but the advantage of them is that (1) you’ll be sitting in one seat for every event so no need to go around looking for your place each day and, more importantly, (2) you only have to make one purchase and you’re all set. I’d say these are suitable for people who (1) are interested in watching everything, (2) have the time to watch everything, (3) can afford the price, and (4) lazy. I, fortunately and unfortunately, fit all 4 of these criteria so these bundles are what I usually go for. 

Then at a later date, the individual tickets for each event will go on sale. If you want to get these tickets, make sure you make up your mind about which events you want to attend and prioritize them so you can buy the tickets you want most first (unless you plan to go with a group of friend and divide the works among yourselves so each of you will handle one event and buy tickets for everyone in the group). You want to do that prioritization because for the more popular events like the GPF, these tickets can get scooped up so extremely fast that by the time you finish buying one ticket, there’s no guarantee that tickets for the other events would still be available.

Sometimes, depending on demand, the organizer can release a third or even fourth tranche of tickets, most likely a result of them tweaking the arrangement of the venue and squeezing in more seats. This would be an extra chance for you to get tickets to those events you couldn’t get before, but keep in mind that these tickets might be pricey, since they’re the result of demand overtaking supply.

A side note is you’d want to be patient with these purchases because sometimes the traffic will be so heavy on the sale date as to crash the ticket site - it has happened before and will almost certainly happen again.

The last resort for those who couldn’t get first-hand tickets via any of the original sales is to go look for second-hand tickets. I had this old post which I talked about this channel so have a look. In that post I also had a couple of tips and tricks on picking seats. As an additional tip, if ticket/event information is available on TicketOne (or its equivalence) beforehand, it’d usually come with a seating chart so you can scout ahead of time which section in particular you want to aim for - will save you some time when it comes to actually buying the tickets.

That’s all I can think of for now in terms of how I usually go about buying tickets. Hope that helps, let me know if you have more questions and good luck with your ticket purchase endeavor :) 

#replies #figure skating #y'all pls reply below if you have more tips for the anon? #Anonymous