Live Chess 2010
Well folks, it's that time again. Time for LIVE CHESS. We're all starting up and getting set up! I'll be live blogging the whole event here at Cleverpork Central.
15:01 We're late already. woops!
15:10 Drew was speaking
15:12 They're playing the trailer from youtube
15:15 The storyteller is telling the story of what has happened until now
15:16 we had some confusion between kings and generals
15:18 the generals have sat by the world map to plan their moves
15:18 The white king is speaking. something about darkness.
15:19 ravenous applause form the white army
15:19 The black king is criticizing the white king. He wants freedom and peace and get rid of taxation. This is intense. I don't know how I feel about it.
15:20 if the entire game were judged based on the king's speech's, I'd say black wins. sorry white.
15:21 the pieces are being placed by Drew.
15:23 Black queen's speech was short and ended by proclaiming "Black Power"
15:24 White queen talking about being forced to go to war. And the black army being the fountainhead of their plight.
15:26 Wow. If the whole competition was decided by the queen's speeches, then I would say white wins. this is looking to be quite an interesting battle.
15:27 first moves!
15:29 first non-pawn piece moves!
15:29 OOHH! the white king was criticized for his black crown!
15:30 Black takes the first piece!
15:31 White retaliated!
15:32 the black king said somethign about deriving their color from the night. no one understood. he said "you're going down" everyone cheered!
15:35 A white knight was just killed! speeches seem to be stuck on the "his sacrifice will not be in vain."
15:37 the white commander gave a speech about loosing people, but they will succeed. the black king just says "nope!" after people's speeches.
15:40 "don't worry, be happy" just came on over the speakers. it made everyone smile.
15:43 more people are dying. This battle field is vicious!
15:45 the White king was being castled. the castle actually jumped over the king. it was awesome.
15:46 The black king was castled as well!
15:50 OMG!!! the dead black king is speaking from beyond the grave!
15:51 King Heath had a heir?!?!?! Heath Jr. is here!!!
15:52 The black king just invented democracy.
15:53 The rook in H-1 hasn't moved yet. I think he is the only one.
15:54 the black king is making calls of regime change!
15:58 the black king was pestering one of his knights.
15:59 Apparently I returned as a spirt. even though I haven't died.
16:00 hakuna matata? I think this is a ploy to convince the black army to loose all their worries.
16:01 Black army is dancing to hakuna matata. intense.
16:05 I think this is the disney mix.
16:07 OH CRAP THE WHITE KING IS IN CHECK
16:08 problem averted. for now.
16:10 there are a lot of battles just waiting to happen. queens fighting, bishops fighting. all that fun stuff.
16:11 Black queen just had and epic battle with the white queen. oh crap. I don't know what is going on. BLACK QUEEN WON!
16:12 WHITE KING STRUCK BACK AND KILLED THE BLACK QUEEN!!
16:15 DANCE PARTY!!!!!!!!
16:18 Dance party over, everyone is resetting.
16:21 where did that rook get a sword?
16:21 the rooks are getting a little rough!
16:22 that was an intense knight battle. straight out of the trailer too!
16:24 the black king just told the white king that he will be locked in a cage in the middle of town.
16:26 OH SNAP!!! BLACK JUST WON!!!
16:26 Even his winning speech was good!
Cleverpork Olympic Coverage: Sorry for the Break
In honor of NBC's coverage of the Olympics, where "live" means 3 hours delayed, Cleverpork Central is covering the Olympics in a timely manner. We can't promise daily coverage, but we'll try to keep you informed on the important events at least!
We have two days of coverage today. Day 6 brought the end of the luge, my loss of belief in USA curling and Sean White. Day 7 brought Evan Lysacek gold in men's figure skating as well as some other skiing and stuff.
The real excitement though was watching Sean White. There was a point where I poo-poo-ed snowboarding and was like "why is that in the olympics?" But Watching Sean White do his final run down the hill was quite spectacular. He had already won gold by the time he did his last run (it is a best of 2 runs kind of thing) so he didn't worry about it and did the coolest thing he could. And it was cool. He was getting huge air off of the halfpipe and the trick he did at the very bottom was really awesome. I was a little blown away.
Tomorrow is Skeleton medals, likely more failure from USA curling, and the beginning of Ice dancing. If I get an update. Otherwise, Day 9 is more speed skating, Apolo Ohno in short track, and the start of Women's Aerials skiing.
Cleverpork Olympic Coverage: CURLING
In honor of NBC's coverage of the Olympics, where "live" means 3 hours delayed, Cleverpork Central is covering the Olympics in a timely manner. We can't promise daily coverage, but we'll try to keep you informed on the important events at least!
That's right folks. Curling. In the USA it is only broadcast one time every four years. That time is now. I could cover other sports that occurred today, but my mind is a little blown because CURLING!
Yesterday I started by watching team USA play Germany. Germany dominated. It made me sad for myself. However, soon after I switched to Canada and I fell in love. Not with a person, but with a set of stylish pants.
Most curling associations only allow black pants. It is the tradition to wear black pants. To tell the truth, it was probably a pretty gutsy and arrogant move for Norway to decide to make these awesome argyle pants their official uniform. But I'm glad they did. Already curling is getting more coverage than just "look at this bizarre sport that no one in America understands." While that coverage may be nothing more than "woah check out these pants!" it is a conversation starter.
While Canada won, it was a close match between two of the favorites to win the whole competition. I thoroughly enjoyed te match and am excited to be able to watch curling for the rest of these olympics. Nearly every day. I promise I wont spend all of those days blabbing on and on about it like today, but I will be talking about it. I may even live-blog the gold medal match. Keep your eyes open!
Tomorrow we got day 2 of short track, Men's halfpipe in snowboarding, and pairs luge (another odd sport). Until then I'm going to watch more curling!
Cleverpork Olympic Coverage: We Laugh in the Face of Danger
In honor of NBC's coverage of the Olympics, where "live" means 3 hours delayed, Cleverpork Central is covering the Olympics in a timely manner. We can't promise daily coverage, but we'll try to keep you informed on the important events at least!
Day 4 brought with it more speed skating, women's luge, figure skating medals, and snowboard cross. All in all, an exciting day.
First things first, Shen and Zhao, who I was excited about yesterday did in fact win gold in pairs figure skating. It was a wonderful performance. All the skaters were wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed that event.
However, Snowboard cross takes the cake in terms of awesome-ness happening yesterday. Imagine a downhill snow event, where you not only need to worry about the time, but also four other people next to you trying to win. This is a relatively new event and has already had it's fair share of crashes. It is almost the Nascar of the winter olympics.
USA won gold and Canada won silver. There were some sick moves involved. Ski cross is still coming, which is expected to be even more dangerous, because not only are you dealing with multiple other people, you are also worrying about two separate things on your feet. Ski crashes tend to look much more painful than snowboard crashes.
Keep your eyes open for coverage of DAY 1 OF CURLING tomorrow! Also, the Men's figure skating short program, Women's luge and more speed skating.
Cleverpork Olympic Coverage: Start of Figure Skating
In honor of NBC's coverage of the Olympics, where "live" means 3 hours delayed, Cleverpork Central is covering the Olympics in a timely manner. We can't promise daily coverage, but we'll try to keep you informed on the important events at least!
Day 3 of the Vancouver Olympics brought with it Luge victory for the Germans, USA Hockey's first win of the games and Valentines day controversy on the figure skating rink.
Turns out, The man in one pair and the lady in another are dating. Great valentines gift right? Hey honey, I have a great idea, lets go compete against each other on the largest ice skating stage in the world. That would be a good way to show my love right?
Also, my mind was a little bit blown by the skill and grace of Shen and Zhao. Pairs figure skating is designed to be two people skating as one. Shen and Zhao display a mastery of that. In the slow motion footage of them spinning, it is hard to tell a difference between the two. During lifts and holds, they look so comfortable. I very much look forward to tomorrow's competition where they are not the very first pair on the ice.
I would throw a video in here so you can check it out, but NBC has the olympics on lockdown it seems and have decided to use Microsoft Silverlight to do their videos. As far as I can tell there is no way to embed them.
In addition to the pairs figure skating free program and medals, keep your eyes open for beginning of downhill skiing, more speed skating, and an exciting one, snowboard cross.
Cleverpork Olympic Coverage: First Medals of the Games
In honor of NBC's coverage of the Olympics, where "live" means 3 hours delayed, Cleverpork Central is covering the Olympics in a timely manner. We can't promise daily coverage, but we'll try to keep you informed on the important events at least!
Today had the first medals of the games. There was some biathalon, some short track and some speed skating. But Women's Moguls were the exciting part.
There is something about watching people ski down a hill with the worst posible conditions then do multiple tricks in the middle. I was thrilled as I watched the athletes rock the hill. It looked easy to navigate the bumps and then rocket into the air and do a flip and such.
Everyone thought that this was Canada's first chance for a gold medal, but USA got gold (and bronze) and Canada got silver. It was an exciting event and I was impressed with the skill of all the athletes.
Apolo Ohno got another medal in short track.
Also today marked the start of the Luge competition. The Luge started with controversy as a Georgian Luger died during a practice run on the track. Since then they have fixed some safety concerns and all starts are starting from the bobsled and women's start. This has ade some athletes unhappy because they do the sport because of the danger. They want the speed and technicality of the sport. One German luger said, "now we're starting at the old lady start, it's not fast enough."
The first hokey games of the games were today including Canada winning 18-0 against Slovakia. That is about a goal every 3 minutes of the game.
Check in tomorrow for first luge medals, opening of figure skating and USA's first hockey game.