From time to time, the blog comments section gets argumentative. A visitor might say stuff like "I just found this blog" and then say how absurd the blog is, how disturbed the blogger must be, hitting the customary fan war points.
Often, someone who decides to tell the blog how it is will present themselves as uninvested and above it, even if they practically live here and have for months. I don't think the person is bothered by the blog being "ridiculous", just finds the bloggER infuriating and has gotten obsessed about it and competitive.
So I want to repeat something I posted last time: I have a statcounter that I set up awhile ago because somebody left a porn link on the blog disguised as a user i.d. And I realized somebody can decide to hijack a comments section or sidetrack a topic. In those cases it might be useful to block an ISP by matching the time stamp of the comment with the time stamp on statcounter. Statcounter has a lot of stats
I haven't blocked anyone's ISP and I don't look at the ISPs of most people who comment. But if a pattern shows up I might and have looked. I feel embarrassed if somebody is carrying on about how they got here, when they got here, and how much time they spend here when I have information about all that that they don't know I have. So I want to mention to people who comment that if this matters to them, they might want to hold back on the stuff they say about themselves like the amount of time they spend on the blog and when they found it if it's something the statcounter can contradict.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Linsanity
The New York Knicks have a point guard sensation named Jeremy Lin. He's not "just" a basketball player - he's a Harvard Grad.* Today's New York Post covers the "story"* of brands beating down Lin's agent's email in hopes of getting on board what's anticipated may become a "global-marketing juggernaut."
Page Six's source alluded to the volume of reach-outs Lin has received culminating with this flourish as the coup de gras: "He's met with IMG."
Oh yes. If you want to be a marketing force, if you want to be a brand - who you gonna call? Debbi Wilkes? For all her experience coupled with the sort of marketing acuity that speaks for itself, I'd say no. It's still IMG.
Unless you've made Debbi-directed decisions in your strategic marketing and publicity life that have become legitimate marketing agentry kryptonite. That's when you make a side trip to Japan to figure skate among wafting CGI rose petals to the great entertainment of everyone on tumblr.**
___________________
*Safe bet the "story" came from Jeremy Lin's agent as the agent (Roger Montgomery) is the only non-star name bolded in the item even though the quotes are from an unnamed "source".
**I called this a "Hyandai" commercial in a prior post. It's Toyota hybrid - its brand qualities beautifully expressed by Tessa and Scott above and especially when the rose petals magically reconfigure into a bouquet once Tessa is comfortably soporific in the back seat.
Toyota can repurpose this commercial down the line - sell it out as stock footage for the happy pill market. Not cause I'm sleepy watching it but just look at those faces.
_____________________________
*"Balance" is important to Jeremy.
Page Six's source alluded to the volume of reach-outs Lin has received culminating with this flourish as the coup de gras: "He's met with IMG."
Oh yes. If you want to be a marketing force, if you want to be a brand - who you gonna call? Debbi Wilkes? For all her experience coupled with the sort of marketing acuity that speaks for itself, I'd say no. It's still IMG.
Unless you've made Debbi-directed decisions in your strategic marketing and publicity life that have become legitimate marketing agentry kryptonite. That's when you make a side trip to Japan to figure skate among wafting CGI rose petals to the great entertainment of everyone on tumblr.**
The Lin source mentions that it can take a year to nail down the types of deals being set up for Jeremy (Reportedly, Lin feels above the luxury watch market popular with other star b-ballers - he wants to bring Harvard in there somehow as part of his brand - a bit less ostentatious). I suppose that's similar except not to having your biggest deal (VM's with Roots) go down the toilet in less than a year when it was touted to be for four years.
But if Scott and Tessa were with IMG, chances are we'd never have gotten this:
But if Scott and Tessa were with IMG, chances are we'd never have gotten this:
 |
| This is classic Olympic gold medal winning endorsement quality right here. It's just like the stuff Michelle Kwan did for Chevrolet. |
*Safe bet the "story" came from Jeremy Lin's agent as the agent (Roger Montgomery) is the only non-star name bolded in the item even though the quotes are from an unnamed "source".
**I called this a "Hyandai" commercial in a prior post. It's Toyota hybrid - its brand qualities beautifully expressed by Tessa and Scott above and especially when the rose petals magically reconfigure into a bouquet once Tessa is comfortably soporific in the back seat.
Toyota can repurpose this commercial down the line - sell it out as stock footage for the happy pill market. Not cause I'm sleepy watching it but just look at those faces.
_____________________________
*"Balance" is important to Jeremy.
It's only kind of lying
Somebody who takes five years - from 2007 - to complete "about half" of a party school/intellectual bargain-basement institution's 3 year psychology degree requirements is on track to graduate by 2017. You can't call this being a part-time student.* That's called, charitably, an occasional pursuit. At this rate Tessa will have to turn around and start the program again because her 2007 credits will be obsolete.
But Tessa's played it up. She can take an instant and amp it into a thorough immersion experience. She's gonna ride that Windsor U pony til it breaks down.
The Windsor Star article on Tessa's passion for education says this:
How much walking and discussing in the ivied halls can she have done? How much of a contribution to that precious balance between Skate Tessa and Other Life Tessa is happening here? I don't think Scott not being next to her is why she's not recognized. She's not recognized because she's never there. Even her instructors are probably all - who now? But give the school a boost in an article and the people who work there become charitable.
Underneath this Collegiate Tessa fantasy Tessa is re-purposing her occasional school attendance as Tessa-speak for two things. One is the actual balance she and Scott have attempted to create away from the rink, together, at home. They take care to create connections apart from skating - to say the least. Together they've put a lot of work into that aspect of their combined balanced life. Balance - and keeping an eye on the future when they won't be competing - is something both of them have planned for and acted on. But not at the University of Windsor.
But the second thing Tessa is doing is using her "education" narrative to steer people into believing she spends most of her off-ice time away from Scott. Oh she loves school. Oh how she prioritizes the non-skating side of her. A girl like that, with so little non-skating-related free time, is not going to waste it hanging with her figure skating partner. Her nature is such that she wants a complete break from all that when she's not skating - a complete break into a different world - different PEOPLE (we got that too, right?). A world that doesn't include Scott. That's why she loves to talk about school. It's SCHOOL I love - not Scott. Besides, I live with my mommy. A girl who lives with mommy can't be with Scott Moir! Only Ryan Semple and Fedor Andreev!
About the University of Windsor - of which the urban dictionary says:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=University%20of%20Windsor
I remember when the Super Bowl was in Detroit - the celebs packed in as if it were Miami or New Orleans, mostly because everybody could hotfoot it across the border to party their brains out in Windsor. I never thought of Detroit as slacking off in the party department but going by reports from that time (2006) it can't touch Windsor.
I know I'm offending Windsor-ites but Tessa's wholesome knitted scarf, autumnal jacket, starry eyes and the "I love to be on campus" narrative, as if we're talking, say, the U of Michigan, is off.In a ranking of Canada's top colleges, Windsor ranks below the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario and the university in Waterloo, coming at No. 24 in Canada, 2 places lower than Concordia University at Montreal, where Jessica Dube pursues balance in her own skating life by studying communications (Jessica followed through with that right?). Editing: I just looked at a better list, arwu.org, and in the ranking of Canada's universities - it's not there, not even amidst the mediocrities. (U of Michigan is ranked very high worldwide).
It's not fair to snark at someone diligently working towards a degree while in an elite sport but what is taking Tessa so long seeing as she and Scott live such separate lives off the ice and other figure skaters seem to hit their academic milestones in a more timely manner all without down time due to compartment syndrome (remember, her bouts with compartment syndrome gave her more time for school!). And considering Tessa makes out as if every spare second she's soaking in the college experience. ***
The "I love school!" portrait does invite a couple of eye rolls simply because it's marrying something true (I bet she enjoys school) to something self-serving like Tessa's relentless on-message self-portrait of a girl who hates to think about ice (and Scott) or figure skating (and Scott) when away from the rink - a girl who glows when she's across the border "on campus" and adores the chance to have stimulating conversations with the U of W intelligentsia****, who loves balance so much she can't possibly be spending free time with that partner she loves but just hates being around off ice.
Tessa likes to lay it on thick.***** Also interesting is the drop that Kate Virtue lives with Tessa, per the article. Probably just editing out a couple of other people living with Tessa. I'd believe Kate is there at this time. I don't believe, and have reason not to, that Kate moved camp to Michigan until recently. Just add that to the lies in the book.
The thing with half truths is the sanctimony around them, like - oh it's only a semi-lie. No, it's not. It's a big manipulation. I also wonder why Tessa bangs the balance gong so so SO hard. If she's so about balance, why didn't she take last season off? That was the perfect opportunity to have a whole season of balance - a balance break. They both say their coaches wanted them to take that season off. What other permission do you need Tessa? Remember what you always say - you try to do things separately from Scott whenever there's the chance - I know the line as well as you do. Why did you instead choose to spend all that time training with Scott for a single competition when you'd have two more shots at it prior to Sochi? That's more time you could have spent being balanced away from Scott. Instead Scott's the one scooping you out of your hospital bed after surgery, he's the one who decides to relocate to London while you recuperate instead of going sandbag in Canton, instead of studying you're skating - all this hanging out - so unnecessary. I don't know girl, sometimes your stories - they confuse.
So - they did the 4CCs gambit and went for it at Worlds for no reason, really, under extraordinarily daunting circumstances. Why?
The "balance" as presented by Tessa is OTT. What she wants to be or thinks she ought to be, not who she is.
________________________
*Actually, Windsor University's definition of a part-time student is "one who is registered in fewer than four courses in a term" which leaves room for "no courses in a term" and "doesn't go to school whole terms at a time."
**The Canadian university student forums I've read seem to agree Windsor sucks and deserves its low ranking and that whether it matters depends on what the student wants to do after college and what they studied at Windsor.
***I wonder if Ice, Sweat and Tears will show Study Hall Tessa struggling to keep pace with the demands of the UoW's curriculum while we see Scott hoisting a few in Ilderton - the favorite "us time" destination for the Dube_Moir lovebirds.
****Is there an Audrey Hepburn Goes to College movie? Because Tessa's portrait of school doesn't feel lifted from actual experience.
*****FF to 2045 and Tessa will be Skate Canada's in-resident Director of Sports Psychology with a therapeutic focus on rationalization.
________________________
Windsor University doesn't make the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which ranks the top 400 universities internationally. That's not a shocker. Windsor also doesn't make THE's top 400 in North America.
Windsor is unranked by Quacquarelli Symonds not only in its world rankings (700 schools) but in its Canadian rankings.
The Windsor University Faculty Association went on strike in 2008. There were a list of important issues including terrible pay, the hiring of unqualified professors and gender inequity but this one jumped out:
But Tessa's played it up. She can take an instant and amp it into a thorough immersion experience. She's gonna ride that Windsor U pony til it breaks down.
 |
| College girl Tessa in her collegiate-style scarf |
She gives a lot of the credit to the Windsor faculty, which has permitted Virtue flexibility around her skating schedule in terms of completing assignments and taking exams.A lot of the credit? A year and a half of course work spread out over five years at a low-regarded university** and she still needs a Tessa-specific schedule to get it done? Tessa. You seem so intelligent.
How much walking and discussing in the ivied halls can she have done? How much of a contribution to that precious balance between Skate Tessa and Other Life Tessa is happening here? I don't think Scott not being next to her is why she's not recognized. She's not recognized because she's never there. Even her instructors are probably all - who now? But give the school a boost in an article and the people who work there become charitable.
Underneath this Collegiate Tessa fantasy Tessa is re-purposing her occasional school attendance as Tessa-speak for two things. One is the actual balance she and Scott have attempted to create away from the rink, together, at home. They take care to create connections apart from skating - to say the least. Together they've put a lot of work into that aspect of their combined balanced life. Balance - and keeping an eye on the future when they won't be competing - is something both of them have planned for and acted on. But not at the University of Windsor.
But the second thing Tessa is doing is using her "education" narrative to steer people into believing she spends most of her off-ice time away from Scott. Oh she loves school. Oh how she prioritizes the non-skating side of her. A girl like that, with so little non-skating-related free time, is not going to waste it hanging with her figure skating partner. Her nature is such that she wants a complete break from all that when she's not skating - a complete break into a different world - different PEOPLE (we got that too, right?). A world that doesn't include Scott. That's why she loves to talk about school. It's SCHOOL I love - not Scott. Besides, I live with my mommy. A girl who lives with mommy can't be with Scott Moir! Only Ryan Semple and Fedor Andreev!
About the University of Windsor - of which the urban dictionary says:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=University%20of%20Windsor
I remember when the Super Bowl was in Detroit - the celebs packed in as if it were Miami or New Orleans, mostly because everybody could hotfoot it across the border to party their brains out in Windsor. I never thought of Detroit as slacking off in the party department but going by reports from that time (2006) it can't touch Windsor.
I know I'm offending Windsor-ites but Tessa's wholesome knitted scarf, autumnal jacket, starry eyes and the "I love to be on campus" narrative, as if we're talking, say, the U of Michigan, is off.
It's not fair to snark at someone diligently working towards a degree while in an elite sport but what is taking Tessa so long seeing as she and Scott live such separate lives off the ice and other figure skaters seem to hit their academic milestones in a more timely manner all without down time due to compartment syndrome (remember, her bouts with compartment syndrome gave her more time for school!). And considering Tessa makes out as if every spare second she's soaking in the college experience. ***
The "I love school!" portrait does invite a couple of eye rolls simply because it's marrying something true (I bet she enjoys school) to something self-serving like Tessa's relentless on-message self-portrait of a girl who hates to think about ice (and Scott) or figure skating (and Scott) when away from the rink - a girl who glows when she's across the border "on campus" and adores the chance to have stimulating conversations with the U of W intelligentsia****, who loves balance so much she can't possibly be spending free time with that partner she loves but just hates being around off ice.
Tessa likes to lay it on thick.***** Also interesting is the drop that Kate Virtue lives with Tessa, per the article. Probably just editing out a couple of other people living with Tessa. I'd believe Kate is there at this time. I don't believe, and have reason not to, that Kate moved camp to Michigan until recently. Just add that to the lies in the book.
The thing with half truths is the sanctimony around them, like - oh it's only a semi-lie. No, it's not. It's a big manipulation. I also wonder why Tessa bangs the balance gong so so SO hard. If she's so about balance, why didn't she take last season off? That was the perfect opportunity to have a whole season of balance - a balance break. They both say their coaches wanted them to take that season off. What other permission do you need Tessa? Remember what you always say - you try to do things separately from Scott whenever there's the chance - I know the line as well as you do. Why did you instead choose to spend all that time training with Scott for a single competition when you'd have two more shots at it prior to Sochi? That's more time you could have spent being balanced away from Scott. Instead Scott's the one scooping you out of your hospital bed after surgery, he's the one who decides to relocate to London while you recuperate instead of going sandbag in Canton, instead of studying you're skating - all this hanging out - so unnecessary. I don't know girl, sometimes your stories - they confuse.
So - they did the 4CCs gambit and went for it at Worlds for no reason, really, under extraordinarily daunting circumstances. Why?
The "balance" as presented by Tessa is OTT. What she wants to be or thinks she ought to be, not who she is.
________________________
*Actually, Windsor University's definition of a part-time student is "one who is registered in fewer than four courses in a term" which leaves room for "no courses in a term" and "doesn't go to school whole terms at a time."
**The Canadian university student forums I've read seem to agree Windsor sucks and deserves its low ranking and that whether it matters depends on what the student wants to do after college and what they studied at Windsor.
***I wonder if Ice, Sweat and Tears will show Study Hall Tessa struggling to keep pace with the demands of the UoW's curriculum while we see Scott hoisting a few in Ilderton - the favorite "us time" destination for the Dube_Moir lovebirds.
****Is there an Audrey Hepburn Goes to College movie? Because Tessa's portrait of school doesn't feel lifted from actual experience.
*****FF to 2045 and Tessa will be Skate Canada's in-resident Director of Sports Psychology with a therapeutic focus on rationalization.
________________________
Windsor University doesn't make the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which ranks the top 400 universities internationally. That's not a shocker. Windsor also doesn't make THE's top 400 in North America.
Windsor is unranked by Quacquarelli Symonds not only in its world rankings (700 schools) but in its Canadian rankings.
The Windsor University Faculty Association went on strike in 2008. There were a list of important issues including terrible pay, the hiring of unqualified professors and gender inequity but this one jumped out:
5. Horrible financial decisions. VP Finance, Stephen Willetts, was hired at the UofW to create long-term financial planning. So he hired an outside consultant team to come in and do hid job for him. Ross Paul was paid $615,000 for leaving the school (hard work, we know). The new logo cost $1.5 million dollars. And we wonder where our tuition fees go?Maybe Tessa thinks she's at school more than she is because Windsor is/was so similar to Skate Canada. Zebra Studios re-formatted Skate Canada's logo in 2011 and it looks to me as if SC has been obsessed with the logo-as-brand ever since. Cause when your sponsors go bye bye sink some $$ into a new logo, shove it in people's eyeballs and the money will commence flooding in.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Director of Business Development and Director of Corporate Communications
Front and center with their star figure skaters.
Enjoying the benefits of Skate Canada's dime while doing nothing that benefits anyone besides its stars.
Avoiding real work or learning how to do their so-called jobs better; and, what makes it all run:
Shamelessness.
_____________________________________
*Meantime, much of the fandom had no idea who the USFSA officials on scene at the medal ceremonies might be. This must account for why the USFSA is run so poorly and Skate Canada is in fantastic shape.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Skate Canada Presents
Skate Canada's Carol Moir, Alma Moir and Marj Carey
with MacCormack family patriarch GMac.*
with MacCormack family patriarch GMac.*
We can see where Scott and Tessa got the great role model genes we're told about.
Previously we have largely experienced Team Virtue Moir in 2-D but now eyes peeled for a major motion picture - or at least a documentary from an award winning team of film makers. I have a feeling after Ice, Sweat and Tears those filmmakers will deserve all the awards they can get in several categories.
I'm curious if cbc will review the contents of this much-anticipated film before it airs and green-light it and then promote it even if the presentation fails to conform with cbc's own knowledge of the facts. Predictions? Who at cbc liaisons with Team Virtue/Moir, Skate Canada and the filmmakers on this project?
However it turns out, I think we can count on it being filmed in the spirit of Carol Moir's current facebook profile picture.
However it turns out, I think we can count on it being filmed in the spirit of Carol Moir's current facebook profile picture.
____________________________
*And I don't mean Mr. MacCormack per se, but the choice of profile shot.
See, they're not together
Couples walk together in corridors, heading into and out of banquets, and whenever a camera is running. Scott and Tessa aren't a couple, so this happens:
 |
| We're so not a couple we're ignoring each other. |
Are Scott and Cynthia a couple, as he was making a conspicuous show of talking to Cynthia in this video snippet?
If by some chance Cynthia's platonic, then why can't Scott walk with his platonic best bud, Tess? Is it that bit where they are desperate for time apart, and if not time, at least feet apart because of all that time they're together at the rink? See - off the ice, they try to be separate!!!*
Or maybe here they're hoping they won't be recognized if they walk apart?
Then there's this:
 |
| From "Jessica Dube's" Vancouver Olympics album. |
Wouldn't the photo above promote confusion? It looks double datey. Yet not a problem for them to go to banquets together, sit at dinners together even though she's Jessica Dube, Official Girlfriend of Scott Moir.
Tessa and Scott, who have never ever been a couple, let alone lovers, except for that adorable time when they were wee children (I love their stories - they never even kissed - that's why Scott had to dump her lol!) must appear to have each taken out a restraining order. If they are photographed at a banquet, Scott gets up from his fucking chair.
Sometimes things go awry.
 |
| Yikes. |
 |
| Tessa learns she's "not on the list" for the bus taking skaters to practice. |
 |
| No worries, the other skaters pooled a portion of their appearance fees to get Tessa her own separate bus. |
 |
| We're sure, right? No Tessa? 'Cause if it's a question of money, I've got it. |
 |
| No Tessa! :) |
 |
| Scott even has noise-cancelling headphones to shut out possible sound from the Tessa Bus. |
________________________
*Tessa, you are such a freak.
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