gimmie back my cookies

[dragonlady7]

LJ keeps losing my login cookie, or something. I'm like... why is everyone putting their entries behind LJ cuts that say "this content may not be suitable for minors" and when I click it, it's really nothing that racy?
Oh.
Ell Jay, you are less and less with the fun of late, you know that?
Oh well.

I have peektures in large quantities, and not all by/of me. Including some but not all responses to that photo meme I posted ages ago. Anyone, encouraged by this belated success, want me to take a picture of anything in my life? Maybe I'll be more prompt this time. :)

First off, links to photos/videos others have posted about the roller derby match. Fritzenfrat, Lulu's boyfriend (hence the awesome pics of #33, who is actually that beautiful in person too-- she kinda looks like Louise Brooks only in color) has some awesome action shots including some of yours truly. I'm not doing anything awesome, nor are my facial expressions terribly attractive, but, here's the weird thing: I look at least 20 pounds lighter in photos he takes of me than I do in any other photos ever taken of me by anyone in any outfit, including that same uniform.
He is magic, or something.

Meanwhile Mr. Fit has posted the highlight reel. I don't seem to be in it, which is pretty much OK by me because when I am it's usually pretty embarrassing. But it's much more watchable than previous ones-- he has new cameras, for one thing, and he's also just getting really good at doing these. We're lucky to have him. (Even if he did spell "derby" wrong. What do you want? He hasn't had any sleep since Saturday.)

And, on to self-centeredness. I'm rather proud of this photo, which was for ithilwen's request: the bottom of one of my skates. I went right away and took my skate and was going to take a picture of it, and then I thought, that's lame. I should be in the skate. That's harder to do, though, which is why it took me so long.




I also got a photo of how long my hair is at the moment. Then I trimmed it, but I took off less than an inch, so a) it made no difference, and b) I still need a haircut. Oh well, it was fun to do. I think I look better with waist-length hair but at that point I'd have to cut off so much, I'd probably better go to a salon.
I was surprised.
The dress in that picture is the one I plan to wear to Ursula's wedding, incidentally. I got it from Pinupgirlclothing.com and it is everything I had hoped it would be, so yay. They also had it in solid black or solid dark red, but for some reason despite pink flowers being totally out of character, they appealed to me a lot.

Comments

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Neat pic! is there a reason why the wheels on one side are orange, and on the other side blue?

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Yup! The two different colored wheels have different hardness ratings. The harder a wheel is, the less resistance it gives when you're rolling (so you can go faster and maintain speed with less effort), but the less it grips the floor. Seeing as roller derby takes place on such a small track, grip is almost as important as speed. (If you look at some of the photos from the last bout you can see by the girls' body posture how they're coping with the centrifugal force of skating really fast in a small circle. Like Redfox, here (http://www.fritzenfrat.com/gallery/4664197_C8tpu#276924848)-- she's a very fast skater. And here, Resident Eva, in pink-- (http://www.fritzenfrat.com/gallery/4664197_C8tpu#276633312) she's got the same wheels I have, and you can see the crossing-over gesture she's making with her foot to pull herself into the corner.)

So some skaters wear gripper wheels on the inside side of the skate (on the left wheels of each skate-- the set of wheels closer to the center of the oval track when skating counterclockwise), and harder wheels on the outside of each skate, to better compromise between rolling resistance and grip. (The inside wheels are the wheels you lean hardest on around the corners, and the ones you use to push off when propelling yourself out of a corner.)

They're called "Pushers (http://sincityskates.com/2nd/wheels/sg-fugitive-pushers.html)" and the ones I'm wearing in that picture are brand-new, because I also found out the hard way at the last minute ("hey, why do I keep sliding out so much? Oh hey, my wheels are bald. Wonder how fast I can get new wheels shipped from Vegas?" Turns out it takes three days, which is good because I only had four) that softer wheels wear out a lot faster! The orange ones are more expensive so I think in future I'm just going to skate on all blue ones except for important scrimmages and bouts.
But since I just had a bout, I haven't switched out my wheels yet. (Also I loaned one of my blue wheels to someone during the bout when she had an equipment failure. I know, who borrows one wheel?)

Probably more than you wanted to know, but we love to geek out about our skates.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Wow! Who says LJ isn't educational? :)

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

Hi! I came here from your post on Fatshionista. Two things!!

1. DON'T CUT YOUR HAIR!! You should be on our LJ Longhair community! It's very supportive there. Just ignore the people who suggest you do this or that to it. I only wish I could get my hair to that classic length--I get stuck just before there. I know you are probably having some kind of doubt from the way you sound, but don't go to a salon--people end up carrying their hair out in front of them, and that's sad. Your hair looks GORGEOUS. There are lots of ways to wear it up and so forth if it's seeming to get in your way sometimes. There are links over at longhair to various kinds of updos, buns, TopsyTail stuff, and so forth.

2. WOW, ROLLERDERBY!! You are in the roller derby!?? That burns off calories!! I screwed up my knee by shattering my kneecap last summer and had to have surgery, so now I have a lot of trouble with it all. Could never skate in the first place. But now that I know the derby is still around, I am thinking of making one of my heroines a skater. That would be cool, but it'd require research. Would you be willing to answer questions about that in email if I do that? At the earliest it'd be sometime later this summer when I start the new book.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I've been a member of longhair for about a year, so I'm aware. I didn't mean to alarm anyone with talk of cutting my hair-- I'm talking about losing at the most five inches, just to get the scraggly ends out so I can wear it down. My hair is very prone to tangles, so I must wear it up at all times, and when it hasn't had a good trim in a while it gets so tangle-prone I can't even braid it. I had a horrible tangling episode a month or two ago when I had the flu and was too weak to brush it out, and it took me ages to get the rats-nests out. So it's a little damaged from that. I did a self-trim of less than an inch, but it wasn't enough, so I'm thinking of going to a salon-- but it's a girl I skate with (http://qcrg.net/category/18/Devil_Dollies/page/88/Cha_Cha_Wheels______.aspx) and I've known her a long time and she said she's very respectful of people who want to keep the length. It's just that I know her specialty is cute short cuts, so I'm worried that I'd let her talk me into that. I don't think she really would, but it would probably be tempting-- it's hard to get all that hair under my helmet. (I do manage, though. (http://www.fritzenfrat.com/gallery/4664197_C8tpu#275519012) That red ribbon is where I've tied the braids together at the back of my head after passing them over the top of my head under the helmet.)

Roller derby is the single most size-positive thing I've ever done. I've been considering having the heroine of one of my novels be a skater too, but I always seem to end up writing SF/fantasy/historical fiction, and so it's very hard to incorporate something as real-world-normal (well, normal to my real world) as derby.
Even if your knees won't let you skate (I won't lie, it's brutal on the knees; I have developed patellar tendonitis from overuse, and i never had bad knees before-- it's hard on the small girls and the big girls pretty much equally, in my observation), there's a good chance you could get involved with your local roller derby league in some capacity-- if you're looking to learn about the sport or even just to get meaningfully involved with your community, the women's flat-track leagues around the country are generally pretty awesome organizations. At least go to a bout and watch it, they're generally awesome.

I'd be fine to answer any questions you have-- more than happy, in fact-- so feel free to ask me. :)