You can help my derby team get to Oregon!

JCRD Trainwrecks are bouting in Oregon September 7th and 8th and we need your help to get there!
Anything helps, and right now we are just over 10% to our goal. With your help you can bring us a little closer to our WFTDA bouts in the Beaver state! Puh-leeeze help us - we really don't want to have to forfeit :/

Two derbies

Our team has a connection with the demolition derby show in Ogden, so some of us went down to exchange volunteer time (timing between car hits) for roller derby promotion. Timing cars was actually kinda fun... must remember ear plugs next time!!!

 

Check out the car that came down from British Columbia! I don't understand the penguin... but whatever...

 

Pretty setting for an ugly event.

  

This guy from Idaho liked our logo so much he painted it on his truck.

 This guy was quite the dancer across the way in the audience... I think his "vest" is made out of balloons???

And then, this weekend my old roller derby team made the drive from Bakersfield to come play my new roller derby team. It was a blast, and a lovely reunion and a good bout and we won!

Visit from Sister

Lulu came out to visit, and building on the theme of weird California, I immediately took her out to see the "Metaphor: Tree of Utah" that Utah is not famous for.

Metaphor.

Then we drove a little further along to the Bonneville Speedway.

It was a lake, thus we could set no land speed records.

Since it's winter, we went cross country skiing a couple of times. The first of these times it was too warm to ski... so instead I accumulated huge wads of snow above and below my skis and plodded along awkwardly on ski-stilts.

 

Lulu did enjoy that we got to ski into Idaho though.

Conveniently there was a derby scrimmage on this weekend as well, so some watching of derby got to happen for Lulu as well. Here Roll X and I are doing something useful AND the photo isn't blurry. Success!

the derby

We've had a couple of bouts so far this season and have a tournament this weekend too. Meanwhile, I finally have some photos to provide evidence of my actual participation...

Against Santa Cruz - I managed to sneak through the pack and get lead jammer status a couple of times. Here's a sneak move, and no, I'm not hauling that girl back by her shirt! I don't know what's going on there.

That ref hand signal means "lead jammer", all that power and glory didn't make me any less tired though!

Against Angel City (LA) we had a super tight game that occurred only because of a major come back. The game finished 100-98, you can see the score here. Yikes! I also picked this photo because that's me over on the edge there bumping their jammer out of bounds.

it's December already?

Wow this year has flown by. It's been a doozy for sure. Well, the beginning of December in Bakersfield is marked by Mr Toad's Wild Run for those of us who like to participate in that sort of thing. I happen to be one of them, and I really do love that race, it is the most fun footrace I have ever done - starts with 1.5 miles of uphill, followed by about .5 miles of flat, and ends with a mile of downhill in a steep and windy gully. Totally awesome. This is the race that I did for the first time, on a whim in 2006 and placed 2nd in my age group - but did not stay for the medal ceremony and thus did not get my medal. Then did again in 2009, slightly hungover, wanting to get a medal, and came in 4th in my age group... sigh. This year, new age group, more competition, no chance to medal - but I sure was happy with 9th!

Meanwhile, later on that same day, was our last roller derby bout of the season. This one was to benefit Toys for Tots, and we had a huge turnout and loads of donations for the charity. It was great - really the only thing that was missing was our newest fan Ramón to cheer us on! A surprise for me was to get thrown into the Jammer hat - more surprising was that I didn't suck at it on the first run, and got thrown out there in that position 2 more times... I even scored us some points! I don't know the full tally by any means, and so far have nearly failed at locating any photographic evidence, but thanks to Into the Void Photography and Firefly Photography? There's at least these photos.

Finally, this blog post is brought to you via a break in reviewing the proofs of my article to be published in the Journal of Economic Geology. Oh yeah, that monkey will be off my back before 2011. Which ultimately means that in this year of disasters, I've managed to pull out the publication of a book, a peer-reviewed scientific article, and 2 presentations at GSA.

On the note of the book, it's being carried at the Buena Vista Museum, and I'm trying to get it at Russo's and Barnes and Noble. Meanwhile it's available in limited quantity from me (if you're in Canada and want a copy - let me know!) and from the publisher.

And now for something completely different

A while ago I sent a square I made out of one of my derby T shirts (the one where my name was spelled wrong) to contribute to the Roller Derby Quilt project. My original submission is here, and you can see it sewn into the quilt (under a cat) here.

What's totally cool, is that this project is actually a collaborative art project for Dreadnaught's thesis somewhere in Boston! Even more awesome that our team is a part of it, and that I got an invite to the thesis exhibition... not that I can make it, but either way, the thought is what counts!

Further - she's going to try and self-publish this quilt project as a book, so if you feel like supporting her, I bet she'd really appreciate it.

Me + Derby = Silly

On this occasion, I had to extend my reign of silly just a little more. Luckily we won 102-25, so silly didn't mean "foolish".

From top to bottom: helmet decorated with sharpie marker (you've probably seen this before), new shirt (for when I play for the "Rough Cuts" rather than the "Diamonds") reads "Canadian Bacon", anatomy panties (say that 3 times fast!), alpaca socks (ok, this was just by chance as I grabbed socks on my way running out the door and didn't know they were the ones with alpacas on them until I put them on right before playing...), and Canada Flags hot glued onto my skates.

Roller Derby!

You asked for it, and I can finally deliver. What follows are a few summary shots of our bout against "Atomic Assault" (from Fresno) on Saturday night. Our team, the Diamond Divas, won 106-64 (check out our website to learn more about the team and the game). More photos are here.

some action - our pack dominating the front line

the VIP seat (couch that we raffled) seeing some action and losing their drinks... pile ups are frequent, but this is definitely the funniest we've had

this is definitely a penalty... you are NOT allowed to bear hug in derby

the jammers jamming - our Devious Darling on the way to score some points

speaking of names, here's me: "Canadian Crusher" - note my appropriate number

the requisite booty shot - what really draws the crowds in...

one of the funniest names on our team: Dutch Dynamite "kiss my tulips" hahaha!

proof that I was actually in the action

Atomic Assault and Diamond Divas, all done, sweaty and about to go to the after party

Roller Derby!

Well, a few of you know that I picked up a new sport a couple of months ago, and yes, that sport is roller derby! And no, for those of you who grew up with me, I did not magically learn how to skate during these last 4 years in Bake-town. The ladies, or Divas I should say, are a great bunch and I'm happy to be on a team again. Although, I must admit that I am not happy to be just about the least talented on the team... lots of work to do!!!

Anyway, this weekend we had our first "bout", against Visalia:

I was not playing (thankfully!) and unfortunately 2 things lead to the less-then-fabulous 2 photos that I have below. 1) batteries died. 2) even if they hadn't, I got so into cheering for my team - I would not have gotten around to taking photos anyway. Our girls did amazing for their first ever bout. We were almost tied at the first half. But then endurance failed and fatigue set in, and we fell behind unrecoverably in the second half.


Here our team is warming up. We're on quad skates, not inlines. This is a terrific opportunity for fun socks (don't worry, I have plenty!). The belts are actually more functional than fashion accessory, the jammers can grab a belt to help them get pulled through the pack and whip themselves around the track. The tights are also functional... darn it. This is a fundamental way to prevent your skin from peeling off onto the floor... which means that I will have to invest in some tights before our next bout on May 9th.

She's "lead jammer" - check out the stars on her "helmet panty" (yes that's what it's called).