redfiona99

Wrestling - where suddenly hearing about one of your old favourites is never a good thing.

As I said on tumblr, the only thing I can compare it to is that period in cycling where, if you heard the sport in a non-sports context it was because someone else had tested positive for something or someone else had been found dead in a hotel room.

And the thing is, cycling only became clean (if it is clean, and they've not just found a different way of doping), not because of anything the fans did, nor did it come from the riders, but because the sponsors were threatening to pull out and then several of them did.

Basically, companies like HTC said, we don't care if it's not our riders testing positive, we don't want our brand even vaguely associated with doping. And that stopped it (or made it a lot sneakier). Because the teams are utterly dependent on sponsorships (for historical reasons, they don't get much if any tv money, and the fans watch for free), they had to sort themselves out.

The really interesting thing was that it wasn't d'affair Armstrong that did it, everyone was willing to just consign that behind the veil of forgetfulness, it was that the newer "clean" riders weren't.

Wrestling's problem is that it's an unholy mix of art, a sport where people get hit in the head (because boxing and boxers face many similar problems) and a sport where players are pretty much on 365 (like cycling and tennis) but it sort of falls between the cracks between them. That's also been amplified by Vince McMahon's ability to rebrand wrestling as sports entertainment, so it doesn't come under the purview of the SGA (or the other one) who wouldn't let actors undergo the treatment wrestlers get, nor do they have a professional association like the tennis players have in the ATP. Wrestlers don't even get the protection boxers get of having to pass a medical on a regular basis, and of being checked for damage after fights.

You'll notice I blame Vince McMahon for this, but I'd love to know what everyone else's excuse is. This is not a race to the bottom. I think part of the problem is that a lot of wrestling companies are run by people who this system hasn't utterly screwed over so they don't see the problem. It's not quite 'I'm alright jack," but it's not far short.

There's got to be a way to fix it, but I've got no idea what it is. I have no idea if the WWE's ex-workers help scheme is just a sticky plaster or if the next guy in charge has noticed that at least 3 of his friends have major substance abuse issues that weren't helped by being wrestlers, but beyond that ...

Data Journalism Type Stuff:

Hacking the world’s most complex election system: part 1 - http://schoolofdata.org/2014/08/22/hacking-the-worlds-most-complex-election-system-part-1/
I suspect this might be of interest to

nwhyte as it's about the Bosnian election system.

Seven Ways To Create A Storymap - http://schoolofdata.org/2014/08/25/seven-ways-to-create-a-storymap/

Miscellaneous:

A map of every death on every road in Great Britain 1999-2010http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15975720
Morbid but interesting.

Disability and the Japanese art of mastering chopsticks - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-28646082

Artist attempts to create most frustrating products imaginable - http://imgur.com/gallery/rCcU6

Some French Parkourists recreating Assassin's Creed around Paris - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8b1zWOgOKA
Unfeasably awesome.

Science:
The man who helped save 50 million lives - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28564607
A brief history of the oral re-hydration therapy that saves millions.

Silicon: After the chip, another revolution? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28600802 Actually a history of the human uses of silicon.

Death By Cardio - http://www.fitocracy.com/knowledge/death-by-cardio-and-the-fortress-of-solitude/?utm_source=Fitocracy+Users&utm_campaign=f133a25ff8-Content_Death_by_cardio_08_16_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c1f25ec28f-f133a25ff8-242428009

Ignore the title and the bit about cardio and read the bit about the frustrations scientists feel when they come up against pseudo-science. Never have truer words been written.

Sports:

Rwandan teenagers cycling out of poverty - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/28826059

What different methods have managers adopted to get their players up to speed for the new season? BBC Sport consulted five seasoned pros, past and present, to discover some of the more unorthodox ones, and also what constituted their 'nightmare' pre-season routine. - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28589313

Wrestling:

Diva Dish With Celeste – How The Life Of A WWE Diva Is Truly The Definition Of Glamour - http://www.pwmania.com/diva-dish-with-celeste-how-the-life-of-a-wwe-diva-is-truly-the-definition-of-glamour#ixzz3BX67OSLL
As written by the diva formerly known as Kaitlyn, who writes well. Please can we keep her :)

Wondering why I suddenly had "I Am" running round my head at work. Then realised that it might have something to do with the presentation on P1 protein. Pavlov has nothing on wrestling.

~~~~

I haven't seen the Wolf of Wall Street (although it's doing very well at the cinema if the number of sold out screenings in Birmingham are anything to go off). This is partly because it doesn't look like my kind of film, and partly because I can't shake the feeling that I've seen this film already when it was called "Boiler Room".

Music: Fairytale of New York in Irish - http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2219635.html

Technology: An MIT Project That Lets You Spy On Yourself - http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/07/01/197632066/an-mit-project-that-lets-you-spy-on-yourself

Wrestling: Marco In Mexico With Mark Jindrak – How Mark Jindrak Became Marco Corleone - http://www.pwmania.com/marco-in-mexico-with-mark-jindrak-how-mark-jindrak-became-marco-corleone#.UrMcyN_mhTM

Where Are They Now: Jimmy Wang Yang - http://www.wwe.com/classics/wherearetheynow/where-are-they-now-jimmy-wang-yang-26171289

If the work thing leads to the thing my boss thinks it might lead to, the stress will have been worth it.

That being said, I look forward to work settling down a bit so I can carry on with the stuff that's actually directly mine.

That will also, hopefully, lead to me not forgetting as many things. So far I've lost one USB stick (probably forever, but there's a chance it's been handed in at work). It had a couple of meme answers on so I'll be even longer in responding that usual. I also nearly mislaid my wool needles. But I found those a couple of days later. Dear self, cease with the gaslighting.
~~~~

Wrestling - someone posted this set of Evolution gifs on tumblr - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/54093487534/randy-orton-a-to-the-z-e-1-is-for-the-evolution I may have squeaked.

~~~~

Fic Meme - Day 19 – When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

I used to sit straight down but I found I had far too many things going on at once and never seemed to get anywhere with any of them, so now I write a basic outline of the idea in my "to write" file, throw in any phrases that I must put in, and I'm only allowed to start the next one in the file once I've finished another fic.

The other advantage is I don't waste time on fics that I can't remember the purpose for, they just get put to the end of the list when I reach them.

( Other Days )

~~~~

Glastonbury Comment

While I've been writing this up, the Arctic Monkeys have been on the tv. When they were first a thing, I didn't get it. I accepted that they were decent musicians, but not "OMG saviours of music".

I still don't think they're all that, but they give a good live performance. And I get what people see in the lead singer.

I come with praise. One of the now graduated PhD students was down to hand in the final version and he showed me the famous Junior Heavyweight match from NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom VII. Or the "why is Low-Ki dressed as Hitman?" match. (Actually, all awesomeness aside, if someone does know the reason for the fancy dress, do tell.)

( Spoilers )

On to less praiseworthy things - ( TNA )

Re: last rugby post - this is what I meant by Castrogiovanni looking like he was ready to murderise someone - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/42293739457 So glad I wasn't playing against him.

The French rugby union team continue to be ... themselves. Trying to guess how they'll play is a fool's game, but I think they were paying for not having specialists in their second row. I have no doubt that over a 100 yard dash or bench pressing, the French would win, but in rucking and all the various diabolic arts thereto attached (i.e. the stuff that actually goes on on the pitch), the Italians were going to win every day. See also, the basis for a lot of recent Irish victories against England.

~~~~

Formula 1 - The best thing about the new season is Gary Anderson talking about the new cars and the changes from last year's specifications. Of particular interest are his comments about the new Red Bull (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21313453). I also like that he apparently grades on a scale, because he's nice about the Marussia (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21335626) and scathing about the Mercedes (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula-one/21322248), even though Mercedes will probably finish higher in the end of season standings.

~~~~
Fencing:

Guess who is ranked 100th in the country? Boom!!

Now to stay there, despite one of my favourite competitions not being run and me having points to defend from it.

~~~~

Some fun links -

A photo gallery of this season's F1 cars - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21261099

ATOS declare Richard III fit for work - http://tompride.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/atos-declare-richard-iii-fit-for-work/
Well, it makes a change from the Blackadder jokes and all the locals pointing out exactly how much Richard III owes in parking fines :) (Link care of

nwhyte)

Someone else's Castrogiovanni picspam - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/42293488652/dreezlebub-italy-23-18-france Castro owns an Italian restaurant out in one of the little villages round Leicester, and is apparently beloved by every small child that has ever entered it because he does things like jumping out at them and pretending to eat them.

Sebastian Chabal's comment on France vs Italy - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/42293336092/mylittlebinky-a-tweet-by-chabal-during-italy-v In his defence, he was really nice about Italy after the match, making it quite clear that they'd won the match rather than France losing it.

A taxonomy of wrestler's names - http://files.sharenator.com/PCL_ProWrestlers_Zoom3-s2000x2659-221663.jpg.html

“The Real McCoy” by Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly - Featuring Austin Aries and Alex Shelley

Or : That peculiar moment when you’re watching Xplosion and suddenly the indiest band in the world (well not quite but) get a mention because they’ve used wrestlers in their music video. It’s either odd or awesome. Possibly oddsome.

It appears to be wrestling/football cross-over day, in between Eurosport's mentioning of it in 'Early Doors' http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/match-day-more-important-deadline-day-090054292.html and Kurt Angle going up against Mark Lawrenson in the BBC football predictor - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16787287.stm Let me assure you that Angle could be picking names out of a hat and still do better than Lawro.

I've added them all individually, my responses to the the unpopular opinion meme.

opera142 asked for ( wrestling )

evilgmbethy asked for ( Star Trek:The Next Generation )

joanne_c asked for ( Torchwood )

one_more_cherry asked for ( ATS/Buffy )

Notthat I feel that bad any more, but you know what they say, better out than in.

( the Smallville finale )

( CSI:New York )

Dear friend in RL,

You come down, giving me ~ 14 hrs warning, instead of the 14 days I tend to demand because my house is a tip. I let you stay. You complain about the state of the flat. Not going to complain about that, because hey, tip. However, when you then try and make me feel bad by saying you worry that it'll affect how your mother sees me. I'm sorry, but the suggestions, demands, hints, pleas and orders of my own mother and grandmother have yet to make me tidy, why the fuck do you think I'd care what your mother thinks?! With no offense to the lady, who I do know, but really!

(There are many reasons I would never, ever sleep with or date this guy, but that he expects tidiness is one of them. I regard being a slattern (provided it inconveniences no one else) as something I have every right to be.)

Dear Self,

Stop eating so much. I know why (I appear to be bedding in for winter), but eating as much as a panda bear is bad for you.

Dear whoever it is in my block of flats that leaves at about 7 in the morning. Be more quiet.

Dear UK record buying public, why have you bought more of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_oLfC5Z_Ys - Professor Green and Emeli Sande - Read All About It, when it's a poor Eminem re-tread (down to our wailing woman of chorus sorrow) when you could be buying this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0fk6syQ7iY&ob=av3e Labrinth - Earthquake - which is, to quote a friend, criminally good.

~~~~

Utterly un-related, but watching the Longest Yard - did they just grab wrestlers wholesale, 'cause so far I've spotted Goldberg, Austin, Kevin Nash and the Great Khali.

I'm kind of a bit bleh about how badly my wrestling fics are progressing, and how many of them are set in the way past. Part of the problem is that try as I might I cannot get back into wrestling.

I can't watch any WWE, not on a regular basis, and the one Smackdown I did see gave me something I would have enjoyed immensely back when I was a regular viewer (Kane, with a world title, yay!!) and yet it was causing almost zero response. I say almost zero, because it was Kane, with a title, and Paul Bearer and it's not my fault that that gives me a warm glow.

So, instead, I'm watching the occasional bit of TNA, which has decided that making sense is for other people. In the roughly 6 hours of TNA I have watched in the past two months, the only segment that caught my interest was the one with Angle and Jarrett where Tazz made the save, because you've got your good guy doing the right thing, despite no-one else coming out and doing anything about it (although, by the way, way to make your entire roster of good guys look like wimps twice in one show, TNA).

In many ways, that's part of the problem, of that trio, they were all world champions at least 10 years ago, where are all the shiny new people? I swear there used to be shiny new people in TNA. What happened to that?

~~~~

On to happier news, it pleases me that there is still one country in the world where, if you're the best swordsman in the country, you get shiny things. Like publicity shots. And, in the case of Aldo Montano, a deodorant ad campaign that verges on the obscene (in the good way).

However, since I can't find the ad, have a publicity still of Andrea Cassara

Why yes, my sport has the most attractive body shape ;)

And also swords, I recall giving extra points for swords before now.

Following on from last year's self-set challenge to make icons out of all the Formula one drivers, 2009's challenge was all the Divas. Some of them are good, some of them are less so.

Total Icon Count: 20

Teasers:

TEASER! Icon 003 TEASER! Icon 016 TEASER! Icon 017 TEASER! Icon 018

( Icons Here! )

The rules were ask me my fannish Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post.

The first two are done.

( Top 5 footballers currently playing for Pyroyale )

( Top 5 Wrestling Moments for angstbunny )

4 1/2 unpopular opinions.

This one was difficult more because most of the opinions I have (could do with more cruiserweights and womenfolk, and please listen to Jim Cornette) are decidedly popular with everyone, except for the people in charge.

1 - I don't like ROH. Nothing to do with the product, which could be awesome for all I know, but the camera work makes me seasick.
2 - I miss AMW.
3 - I don't hate John Cena. In fact, I like him more than the two previous incumbents in the super-face role (my hatred of Rocky and Austin is long running [I like Dwayne Johnson just fine, but Rocky, nah]).
3b - I still mark out every time I hear Hulk Hogan's name.
4 - I know he's a (insert term of choice here), but I miss JBL's commentary.

First, shiny new icon. Whee!

Any film! Gambit icon was always going to be my squee! icon, but this was quite literally the shot where I started squeaking in the trailer. I've also seen a more recent cut of it, and they seem to be going with the 'eyes only light up when powered up' thing they did with Storm, which I can deal with.

Thinking about his eyes, I find it amusing that he and Kurogane both have red/black eyes.

Secondly, talking about red/black eyes, I firmly believe that Christopher Daniels would be someone who would have said eyes if he were a comics/cartoon/manga character. I cannot, however, write him. Which is annoying when he's required for a fic.

First two pictures I wish to share, mostly because they have both caused squeeage.

( First, Beth Phoenix looking like your favourite butch ex-girlfriend )

( Secondly, Gambit ... (squeeeee) )

The fic is part 2 of "Things We Do Not Say".

Author: Red Fiona
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, their situation or the worlds they travel in, CLAMP do. No money is being made from this piece of fiction.
Fandom: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles.
Characters: Fai and Kurogane, with mention of Sakura and Sayoran as well as others.
Rating: PG to PG-12, nothing worse than what's in the manga.
Content: Romance, drama and Fai/Kurogane slash.
Spoilers: Up to Volume 10 (Chapter 68 to be more specific)
Summary: Talking was something they found easy, communicating was more difficult, even before they travelled to the country of Shura.

( He hasn't been practising enough. )

Part 1 can be found here - http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/525492.html

Several moons ago, I bitched about WWE giving Cena a ruptured spleen instead of a more sensible injury at one point. Well now I have data to confirm my suspicion that it would be a pain and a half to rupture it.

"Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Chris Simms ruptured his spleen in a game against the Carolina Panthers in 2006 and had an emergency procedure to have it removed. He missed the rest of the season and returned in 2007, but was inactive for the first five games before being placed on injured reserve."

Source - http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-packers-harris&prov=ap&type=lgns

-- In an interview with Slam Wrestling, actor Mickey Rourke reveals that he was not initially interested in playing the lead character in Darren Arnofsky's "The Wrestler." Rourke says a meeting with WWE Hall of Famer Greg "The Hammer" Valentine is what led him to follow up on the role. Rourke tells Slam Wrestling, "Greg "The Hammer" Valentine was this big, big guy in, maybe his early 60s, but he was still all tanned, and with all this long blonde hair," Rourke said. "He spoke about wrestling with such enthusiasm, and such pride." He also commented on the lack of benefits available for the performers. "Absolutely, these (promotions) should be looked into. There's no insurance, no pensions."

For the tropes meta/fic thing

penknife is running.

So I had the choice of three tropes, Chained to the Bed (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChainedToABed) which I have no real interest in, Vichy Earth (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VichyEarth) which I have a real and extreme interest in but my view points are possibly obnoxious, terribly long-winded, and require references and actual research so I have settled for the third option - ultimate job security (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UltimateJobSecurity).

Why is it a trope? Because TV drama has two needs, it needs drama, often caused by inter-personal problems, and it needs continuity, because you can't keep hiring and firing actors, you end up with a bad reputation. Also, a lot of drama hinges on personal, shall we say abrasiveness, that you don't get in real life. If we take my work as an example, it's a pit of vipers, several layers of nested vipers at that, but we're terribly polite about it and always do it behind each others backs, and that just doesn't work for TV drama.

Drama also needs a setting and since the two most common settings are work and home, and home tends to be the setting for comedies, while work tends to be for dramas. So you have a situation where people do things that should get them sacked and they don't for reasons that have nothing to do with the story and more with backstage reasons. Cue trope.

Another thing that tickled me was that two of the shows named in the tropes are things I'm into, and two others I know well enough to understand that their rationalizations work. The latter two are House and MASH, and yes, doctors are nigh on impossible to sack.

Onto the two I'm fannish about which are Torchwood and Wrestling. Torchwood first:

You can almost forgive them for this one because there is an in-canon reason not to replace them, because it would be damned difficult, given that it appears that it took Jack a fair few years to get a team post the thing that happens in Fragments (why the hell Torchwood fandom doesn't go 'Oh Jack' like Supernatural does is beyond me. Possibly because we're too busy doing it about the whole lot of them). Except, especially in season one, they were that bad it might have been worth it. So why was no one making them behave - well the whole unpleasant thing at Canary Wharf went down, but I refuse to believe someone, like say UNIT, didn't come and smack them down and hard. So yeah, there's something totally bizarre in canon (except I think they enjoy pretending UNIT doesn't exist unless they need to use it). House at least explains why the lead character cannot be sacked. Torchwood never does. It's not like they're running low on ret-con.

Wrestling: First a quick definition for the non-wrestling fans who read this - kayfabe is the story we see on screen. I'm going to use that world as the real one, mostly because what goes on backstage is even more convoluted.

TV tropes chose Austin as the example of someone who never gets sacked no matter what. This makes me believe that whoever it was really didn't watch that hard because he was forever getting sacked and just ignoring that fact. The person I'd put up there is Vince McMahon, the chairman himself, because really, if a real executive behaved like that, he'd be kicked off the board and possibly thrown in jail. Admittedly he does get shoved out of the way at various time by the rest of his brood but much like the Maxwell family, I'm reasonably sure all the members of the McMahon family cluster should have been up before one magistrate or another a long time ago.

This is also one of those tropes that people notice a lot, possibly because very few people in the real world are lucky enough to have this. I've noticed that people spot and object to its existence more when the person is incompetent (see Torchwood, series one especially) than when they're good at their job, but obnoxious (see House). It really grates a lot of people because it's so different to how the world works, but is found a lot more often in real-world based programmes than in absolutely and resolutely non-reality related ones.

It's a very silly trope, but due to confines of television, one that will be with us 'til doomsday.

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redfiona99

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Entries tagged with wrestling

(no subject)

Links

Wrestling and The Wolf Of Wall Street

Links

RL, Wrestling, Fic Meme, Unexpected Glastonbury Comment

Wrestling

Rugby, F1, RL fencing and some links

Strange TNA / Indie Music Crossover

The Football and Wrestling Connection doesn't work as a catchy name

Meme Reply

Getting my grouch on

Misc. Stuff, mostly wrestling

Diva Icons

Top 5 Meme Answers

Meme answers part 1 - Wrestling

(no subject)

Pictures and Fiction

Of Ruptured Spleens

Tidbit About 'The Wrestler'

Ultimate Job Security