Good Morning!

Wow! What an evening last night!

Hands down Simone Biles is the best gymnast we have ever seen. Incredible all around but I must say her floor routine was flawless. I’ve never seen a gymnast reach such incredible heights and make it look so effortless. Simply amazing.

I’m not much of a swimmer, but girl…I so appreciate someone who can, and this girl Simone Manuel stroked it with the best of them and came out a winner. Girls like her no longer need to feel alone in their struggles when they have Manuel to look up too.

Congratulations to them both – So proud of these young girls. What an inspiration they will be to girls like themselves. 

I know that many of you probably watched their successes and read the good news, but I’m a girl, and in the spirit of supporting my siSTARS there is nothing better to post this morning than to share their successes with you here.

From the Huff Po:

Simone Manuel Makes Swimming History In Women’s 100-Meter Freestyle

Simone Manuel celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Women’s 100m Freestyle Final.

Simone Manuel became the first African-American woman to medal in an individual Olympic swimming event on Thursday after setting an Olympics record in the women’s 100-meter freestyle.

In a rare occurrence, Manuel, 20, tied with Canadian Penny Oleksiak, 16. Both finished the race in 52.70 seconds, an Olympics record. Swede Sarah Sjostrom finished third.

Oleksiak’s win is also historic. Born in June 2000, she is the first person to win an individual Olympic gold who has only been alive in this century, The Guardian noted. Manuel and Oleksiakged hug in the pool after tying for gold.

An emotional Manuel spoke about her feat moments after exiting the pool, saying the gold medal was “for all the people after me … who believe they can’t do it.”

“It means a lot, this medal is not just for me. This is for a whole bunch of people who have come before me, and have been an inspiration to me,” Manuel told NBC. “It’s for all the people after me who can’t — who believe they can’t do it. And I just want to be an inspiration to others, that you can do it.”

Manuel picked up a silver medal earlier this week with her teammates in the women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay.

USA Swimming notes that Manuel has been active in the organization’s governance, serving as an athlete representative on a diversity and inclusion committee.

Manuel said in an article posted on the USA Swimming website in February that there wasn’t a great amount of diversity in the pool when she began swimming, until athletes like Cullen Jones and Maritza Correia McClendon made the U.S. Olympic team. She said she sees her role as a female swimmer of color as important for future athletes.

“When I was younger, I didn’t want to be called the black swimmer, or the African-American swimmer, because I was doing what everyone else was doing, so I didn’t see a difference. But I do realize that who I am and what I am doing does carry some weight and can show people that if I can do, they can do it too. And I didn’t really think of anyone relating to the trials and tribulations I went through until people started looking up to me, and I realized others have felt or are feeling alone, too …

A lot of people go through a lot more than I did to lead the way, and I got a lot of support from parents and coaches during those hard times. But that’s what makes it mean more as the sport moves forward and the diversity increases, so other kids don’t have to keep feeling that way ever again.”

Thursday night was yet another epic one for Team USA, as Michael Phelps snagged a history-making 22nd gold in the 200-meter individual medley, and Ryan Murphy won his second gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke.

Simone Manuel, Penny Oleksiak and Sarah Sjostrom with their medals for the 100 meter freestyle.

*****

Simone Biles Isn’t The Next Anyone, She’s ‘The First Simone Biles’

The gymnast is in a league of her own.

Simone Biles signals to the crowd after winning the gold medal in the women’s individual all around final on Thursday.

The breakout star of the U.S. gymnastics team shrugged off comparisons to other Olympic legends after winning the gold medal in the women’s individual all-around on Thursday.

Simone Biles, who at age 19 has been called the best gymnast of all time, won the event in Rio de Janeiro by a massive margin spanning more than two points, ahead of fellow American Aly Raisman.

Perhaps in reference to a slew of sexist commentary at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Biles succinctly noted her legendary feats were an accomplishment all her own and in no way comparable to those of celebrated male athletes.

“I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps,” she told Sporting News after accepting her second gold medal. “I’m the first Simone Biles.”

Her performance on Thursday began with an uncharacteristically shaky start that left her trailing Russian Aliya Mustafina after the vault and bars. But by the end of the third event, the beam rotation, Biles held a commanding lead of more than 1.5 points. She sealed it with an impressive floor routine.

Biles’ celebratory comments come on the heels of several high-profile sexist headlines to emerge in Brazil. An NBC commentator this week compared one of the three-time world champion’s uneven bars routines to that of a man’s.

Other women’s accomplishments have been linked to their husbands and coaches, or celebrated because of their age or recent pregnancies.

While Biles has already made Olympic history, there’s still a lot of medals to be won. The gymnast is still favored to take home a few more golds in three individual events later this week. Viewers can expect to see absurd levels of difficulty and routines packed with skill-after-skill many of her peers won’t even attempt in competition.

As her teammate Raisman said, “Simone’s just in her own league. Whoever gets second place, that’s the winner.”

*****

Readers: Running a bit late as I has already prepared another post for this morning but after last night I had to switch it up. :) On a side note: Yes, I read the write about the racist headline by the Mercury news too regarding Manuel’s Olympic win, (Ugh! All I will say is it was racist and insensitive) but today, I myself, chose to focus the write on the positive. Of course, as usual, all comments are welcomed.

Happy Friday! You know what to do.

Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good morning!

Yes, Alycedale, it was a quick switch, and I’m switching again this morning. :)

I started doing gymnastics at age 7. My father built me a balance beam so that I could practice at home during the days when I wasn’t in the gym training. I was a competing gymnast for many years so watching gymnastics during the Olympics is always a special and exciting time for me.

It’s changed a lot since my time in the sport.

From The Huff Po:

Here’s The Real Reason We Love Watching Olympic Gymnastics

The sport stretches our expectations about women’s bodies and women’s sports — but only as far as we’re comfortable.

Gabby Douglas practices on the uneven bars during a training session on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro.

Among Americans, gymnastics is one of the most popular Olympic sports. In 2012, over 38 million people watched the USA women’s team take gold in London, and the “Fab 5,” led by America’s third consecutive Olympic gymnastics champion Gabby Douglas, returned home as celebrities. This year, with a similarly dominant team that includes Douglas and 2012 veteran Aly Raisman, as well as three-time world champion Simone Biles, NBC can reasonably expect similar numbers.

It’s not just Olympic viewership where the sport is popular, either; across the nation, at hundreds of clubs, close to 74,000 American girls and women are doing artistic gymnastics (the official name for the version of the sport that involves vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise), according to numbers provided by USA Gymnastics.

It might not be the NFL or the NBA, but gymnastics is big here. Americans love gymnastics, and the popularity of the women’s side of the sport considerably outweighs that of the men’s.

Some of that popularity is due to the breathtaking daring involved: There are few things more thrilling than watching a gymnast launch herself into a tumbling series on the 4-inch-wide balance beam, or watching her whip her body around the high bar into a dazzling dismount followed by an improbable rock-solid stuck landing. Gymnastics, as gymnasts and coaches know, is physics; it’s governed by the rules of inertia, momentum and rotation, like the rest of the world. To outside viewers, though, it can seem more magic than physics ― how else to explain how these young women manipulate their bodies into feats that ought to be physically impossible? No wonder it’s a must-watch on NBC every four years.

There are other reasons why gymnastics is one of the most beloved sports at any Games, though, and they’re less about the magic of the sport than they are about how gymnastics stretches cultural norms around women’s bodies and women’s sports only as far as we’re comfortable. They’re less about the delight viewers feel at seeing a gymnast stick a galactically high vault than they are about how the sport walks the fine line of pushing boundaries while compensating for its transgressions against gendered expectations.

Lauren Hernandez trains on beam ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

In her new book The End Of The Perfect 10, gymnastics journalist Dvora Meyers documents the sport’s shift to a new scoring system with theoretically limitless scoring, in which the difficulty of a gymnast’s routine and her execution of it are evaluated separately, with the two scores added together to produce a final score. The goal of the new Code of Points was to find a way to reward gymnasts for attempting increasingly difficult routines and discourage them from playing it safe in order to perform perfectly ― and to recognize when routines were being performed well. It was implemented in 2006, and 10 years on, one thing is clear: The sport has become dramatically more athletic.

Gymnastics has also tended toward increasing difficulty; the vaults that were being performed by Olympic champions in the 1970s and 1980s are now considered easy enough for lower-level gymnasts to perform. Watch a video of Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut vaulting at the 1972 games and a video of American Carly Patterson vaulting at the 2004 Games, the last to be held under the old Perfect 10 scoring system, and it’s clear that there’s been some difficulty deflation.

But the new scoring system, Meyers argues, has accelerated that phenomenon, because the new Code of Points puts a greater emphasis on acrobatics and tumbling over the dance elements that used to be common on floor and beam. The result, says Guardian sports journalists Elizabeth Booth, is that “gymnasts have become athletes.” The ideal body shape for the sport has changed, yet again, from improbably strong but short and skinny, or with long, balletic lines, to spectacularly muscular, with an even greater emphasis on the strength of lower body muscles required for explosive tumbling and vaulting.

Aly Raisman competes in the floor exercise during day two of the 2016 P&G Gymnastics Championships at Chafitz Arena on June 26in St. Louis.

Gymnasts have become athletes. Crucially, some of the more difficult vaults and tumbling tricks are ones that were pioneered by male gymnasts and that women are now attempting and mastering. And as the sport has become more difficult and the gymnasts more undeniably, mind-bogglingly strong, the aesthetics of the sport have changed to emphasize their femininity, as if to compensate and reassure those who view femininity and athleticism as contradictory.

For one thing, if you watch the Games this week, you’ll notice that the gymnasts are heavily made up, as they are in most competitions. Until recently, the U.S. gymnastics team had a sponsorship deal with CoverGirl. Sometimes, the team will compete in matching bold red lipstick, as they did earlier this year at last year’s World Championships in Glasgow. Gymnasts have long worn makeup in competition, and when you consider the number of cameras being pointed at them, beaming close-up images of them around the globe, you can understand why. But in recent years, watching gymnastics competitions has left me wondering ― especially since makeup was prohibited in meets when I was a gymnast in the late ‘90s and early 2000s ― when they find the time on meet days to apply so much of it.

Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina displays the gold medal for her performance on the uneven bars during the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus finals at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

So it goes for jewelry, which was similarly prohibited when I was a gymnast. We were not permitted to wear jewelry of any kind ― no earrings, no necklaces, no navel rings, nothing. At the risk of bearing too close a resemblance to an old man yelling at a cloud, I would say this seems like a necessary rule, for obvious reasons. Jewelry gets caught on things, it bumps against your body and distracts you, it can come off and go missing in the gym. An earring on a gymnast always looks like a bloody mess waiting to happen ― what’s to stop it from getting caught on a coach’s sleeve while she’s spotting you and tearing out of your earlobe? Yet earrings are now permitted in international competitions, provided they’re studs, and they’re commonplace.

And then, there’s the sparkles. As the New York Times documented this week, international gymnastics is experiencing something of a sparkle arms race, with leotards becoming increasingly crowded with crystals. In 2008, the Times noted, Olympic Champion Nastia Liukin won her medal in a leotard that featured 184 crystals. Four years later, Douglas’ leotard had 1,188 crystals. This year, the Team USA leotards have 5,000 crystals ― each.

The combined effect ― of the makeup, the jewelry, and the glitter ― is an impression of a concerted effort to convey that these girls may well be athletes, but they are still girls.

Gold medalist Simone Biles, left, celebrates with silver medalist Gabrielle Douglas after the women’s all-round final at the World Gymnastics Championships in Scotland in October 2015.

Meyers agrees that a desire to compensate for athleticism with sparkling displays of femininity may explain the Swarovski surge. She also allows that there may be other factors at play; elite gymnasts tend to compete longer and therefore be older than they once were, “so maybe they can express their aesthetic preferences a little better.” The same goes for makeup, she says: Because the gymnasts are older, “they’re given a little more permission to play with makeup than they used to have, and they’re a little older, so maybe they’re allowed to assert themselves a little better.”

All the same, the dramatically increased difficulty of the sport has coincided with a noticeable shift in the gendered self-presentation of gymnasts, and the two would appear to be connected.

Recent changes aside, there are other reasons why gymnastics appeals so widely that have less to do with the sport itself and more to do with cultural expectations of girls and women. For one, as Meyers notes, gymnastics is not strictly adversarial: The athletes compete against each other, but each routine, each gymnast’s performance, exists independently of all the others. They aren’t chasing and tackling each other to gain possession of a ball or aiming shots at each other’s goals. They’re competing against each other, but there is no physical contact of any kind, and each routine is a performance that, in theory, shouldn’t be influenced by the rival who performed immediately before.

It’s probably no coincidence that one of America’s most popular women’s sports is one in which athletes perform more than they compete. This is a form of feminine athletic involvement we’re comfortable with; even though they’re throwing themselves around in skin-tight leotards that show every line in their six-packs, they’re competing in an appropriately feminine way. This may also account for the relative unpopularity of men’s gymnastics, which is similarly non-adversarial; America’s most popular men’s sport is one in which athletes pummel each other to the point of causing permanent and debilitating neurological injuries.

Gymnast MyKayla Skinner poses for a portrait in Los Angeles in November 2015. 

Finally, there’s the ways that media coverage of gymnastics encourage viewers to focus on gymnasts’ bodies, muscled and athletic though they are, in ways that are perfectly in keeping with a culture that objectifies the female body and often undermines women’s abilities and achievements by emphasizing their physical appearance. It’s evident in press shots of gymnasts wearing leotards but with their hair down and flowing, instead of pulled back tight as is necessary for training and competition ― as if to reassure the viewer that they’re athletes, but they’re also women.

It’s evident in the ways that commentators comment on and compare the size and shapes of gymnasts’ bodies, in terms that have varied, over time, from excessively frequent to downright creepy. And it’s obvious in the tendency of media outlets to feature photos of gymnasts with their legs wide open and their crotches facing directly to the camera. Clearly, these photos are spectacular ways to convey the strength and flexibility of gymnasts, but the widespread reliance on the “crotch shot” to communicate that idea suggests at best a lack of imagination, and at worst a sexualization of world-class athletes, some of whom are very young indeed.

There are ways to show how strong and flexible a gymnast is without aiming a lens directly at a teenager’s barely covered crotch.

In short, one of the ways in which gymnastics is made palatable to ― and wildly popular with ― a mainstream audience is by making it more closely resemble the rest of the world, where women are valued not for what their bodies can do but for how they look. It’s a world where women’s achievements, be they athletic or intellectual, are often perceived to be at odds with their ability to perform a particular kind of femininity. A world where women and girls often feel pressure to cushion the transgressive impact of their excellence in athletic or intellectual fields ― long viewed as the province of men ― by emphasizing that femininity, with sparkles and lipstick.

There are many reasons to love gymnastics. For me, the love is rooted in memories of my own gymnastics career, and in my awe at the strength, tenacity and fearlessness of little girls, whether or not they grow up to be Olympic champions. It’s easy to enjoy the sport for its death-defying tricks and its sparkly glamor. But as we tune in to watch this year’s highly anticipated competition, we should remember there are other, less savory reasons for the sport’s appeal: Even as it challenges us to see girls and women as exceptional athletes, it reassures us that ultimately, they will be kept in their place.

*****

Readers: In my opinion gymnasts were always athletes. I always considered myself an athlete when I was doing gymnastics. I certainly trained and was dedicated just like any other athlete. My body benefitted big time (I had muscles to prove it), and paid for it (Hello later hip problems and two frozen shoulders).

The tumbling tricks that I performed then were dangerous (You try doing back flips on a 4″ wide piece of hard wood) and required a lot of strength. If you didn’t build those muscles you wouldn’t last in the competition. And like many sports, the degree of difficulty has grown which makes it that much more exciting to watch. I love that these women are stretching (no pun intended) themselves to greater heights (again no pun…), and pushing their bodies to perform incredible feats of athleticism.

What about the huge increase in glitz and glamour? Yeah, I’ve noticed. It has gotten a whole lot more glamorous and glitzy then when I was competing when leotards were just a basic one or two colors. And jewelry? Forget about it – too dangerous. No thanks to the make-up too. Who wants all of that on your face when you’re out there sweating? The “made up” face especially on the younger girls in my opinion is too much – I find it distracting.

Who started this? Women gymnasts don’t need to justify their femininity in any manner. They’re athletes, female athletes. The focus should be on their talents and athleticism in their sport, not how they look in their leotards.

Speaking of… I agree that all the crotch shots are lacking imagination when it comes to showing just how incredibly strong, and flexible these girls are. I too think it’s sexualizing, and sickening. Women have come a long way athletically in this sport but it looks like we still have a long way to go when it comes to shedding the sexual objectification of women and it’s not just in gymnastics.

What’s your thoughts?

As always, the topic du jour is whatever anyone feels like talking about regardless of what I post. So nothing is ever off topic. I think that’s what makes this blog a place people want to visit and hang out at for awhile. So, please go at it as you please.

Delighted to hear a few of you have little loves in your life that bring you joy. Happy Sunday! So good to have you all here with me.

Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

Readers: I thoroughly enjoyed reading the comments yesterday. What a hoot. This election and the events surrounding it are just like no other. We’ve got the LSOS Trump claiming he saw a “top secret” (Shhhh!!) video of 400 Mil in cash handed to Iran, and the questioning of Melania Trump’s legal U.S. citizenship. (Oohhhh!) How ironic if it turns out she is an illegal immigrant. (Oh, the gods must be quite entertained by all of this.)

The republicans are showing their true colors and are sticking with it.

We’ve got another LSOS Paul Ryan still supporting Trump. After all the negativity Trump has thrown his way about him et al…

It appears that neither insulting the family of a soldier who sacrificed his life serving the U.S. in Iraq, nor proposing a ban on Muslims from “terrorist countries” nor attacking the impartiality of a federal judge over his heritage are crossing the line for Ryan. ~ Excerpt from the Huff Po

And then there’s John McCain. Vets crashed his office demanding he dump Trump:

McCain, like nearly all GOP lawmakers, is endorsing Trump for president, despite the GOP nominee’s comments disparaging women, Muslims, people with disabilities, immigrants and, most recently, the family of a Muslim American war hero who died in Iraq while protecting his troops. Trump isn’t returning the favor ― and he has even directly targeted the Arizona senator, mocking McCain’s status as a prisoner of war. ~ Excerpt from the Huff Po

Yes, the political environment is pretty interesting to say the least. So much for the republican’s trite sentiments of “country first.” If this is how they act with regards to “country first,” one can only imagine what would happen if they couldn’t care less about country.

Oh…wait…excuse me…we don’t have to imagine because it is in our face. We. See. It. Daily.

If Obama was even a smidgen like Trump and the other white privileged hypocritical LSOS’s…well…it goes without saying what would’ve happened.

Oh, the expression of rampant white privilege. It is quite shocking what one can get away with when one is of a certain color.

OK enough of that…Onto, today’s topic. I want to talk about sexism. Because in my opinion it’s showing up big time in this presidential race.

I’ve been saying how much more Clinton is scrutinized and held under the microscope more than any other man would be in this position. I discovered this write in my local newspaper and found it to be seriously right on, in a not so serious lighthearted way.

From the SF Chron:

Gender matters in the presidential election

If Donald Trump were a woman, her tweets would be seen as catty, gossipy, and more like something out of “Mean Girls.”

As a sociology professor who has researched and taught about gender for many years, I know that gender matters. And that gender difference matters. Yet, it is the difference that gender makes in our lives that matters most. Nowhere is this more evident right now than in the current election.

If Hillary Clinton were a man with the political prowess she possesses, he would be seen as not just qualified but more likely overqualified.

If Donald Trump were a woman with his same lack of political experience and qualifications, she would be told to go back to wherever she came from, most likely the kitchen. And, she likely would not have made it this far.

If Clinton were a man, his rational authority, pragmatism, optimism and sober speeches would work in his favor and would be celebrated.

If Trump were a woman, her name-calling would indicate that she is ruled by her out-of-control, post-menopausal body, her tweets would be seen as catty, gossipy, and more like something out of “Mean Girls,” and her condescending ways with marginalized others would be seen as exclusionary bitchiness.

If Clinton were a man, having been a senator and secretary of state would be a good thing and a sign of understanding complicated budgets.

If Trump were a woman, her history of bankruptcies would indicate that she is careless with money and that she went shopping one too many times.

If Clinton were a man, his speeches would be seen as strong and exuding confidence.

If Trump were a woman, her speeches would be regarded as shrieking, hysterical rants.

If Clinton were a man, his pantsuits might earn high marks.

If Trump were a woman, she’d be told that she should hire a better hair colorist. And a speech coach to assist her with controlling her belittling facial expressions and hand gestures.

If Clinton were a man, he’d be regarded as monogamous and lovingly loyal, even in the face of a spouse who had previously cheated. He would be admired for staying with his wife through thick and thin.

If Trump were a woman, she’d be labeled an immigrant-loving slut for her choices in whom to marry.

If Clinton were a man, we’d be apt to see his spouse as a magnetic public speaker who routinely and magically wins over a room.

And now we have the unique chance to have Clinton, an exceptionally accomplished woman, as our next president. That is, unless we let sexism get in our way.

♡♀♡

Agree? Disagree?

Blog me.

Happy Friday, Everyone! Thanks for being here with me!

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good Morning!

I thought this was an interesting read for hump day.

REMEMBER THESE?

In Memoriam: The VCR, 1956 – 2016

The Videocassette Recorder, a piece of technology already so obsolete you would be forgiven for not realizing it hadn’t died long ago, finally kicked it for good last Thursday, when Funai Corporation of Japan, the last known VCR manufacturer on the face of the Earth, announced it would cease production by the end of July. According to the New York Times, a company spokesperson said Funai will keep on selling VCRs “though its subsidiary until inventory runs out and will provide maintenance services as long as it can.”

The VCR is survived by the technologies that fueled its demise, which rule for now (the DVD), the foreseeable future (the DVR, streaming video) and probably forever (piracy). It was 60 years old.

It was a player and it crushed a lot (of the competition)

The Ampex Electric and Manufacturing Company introduced “the world’s first economically and technically successful magnetic videotape recorder,” the VR1000 — colloquially known as the Mark-4 video recorder — in the mid-1950s. As Fred Pfost, an engineer at the time, wrote in a blog post, he and his team introduced the Mark IV recorder at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters’ convention on April 16, 1956. They were announced by the vice president of CBS; Pfost surreptitiously recorded the opening remarks and, as soon as they were over, pressed play. (This was new invention in and of itself: Not just the first working video recorder, but the first instant replay! The sports world is forever in his debt.)

“There were about ten seconds of total silence until they suddenly realized just what they were seeing on the twenty video monitors located around the room,” Pfost wrote. “Pandemonium broke out with wild clapping and cheering for five full minutes. This was the first time in history that a large group (outside of Ampex) had ever seen a high quality, instantaneous replay of any event…The experience still brings tears to my eyes when I recall this event.”

These Ampex VCRs were prohibitively expensive for most; they cost $50,000. The first video tape recorder for home use was the Sony CV-2000, which was marketed in 1965. The reel-to-reel CV-2000 could record and play back black and white images, but most of those machines wound up being used for medical and industrial purposes, according to Sony’s history site.

The future was closer than ever with the hip-sounding Sony U-matic, which came on the market in 1971. It could fast-forward and rewind! Then the Philips VCR, made available to consumers in 1972, changed the game with its first model, the N1500, that incorporated all the best qualities of recorders that came before it. There were basic controls — the play, pause, fast-forward, and rewind buttons — plus a clock with a timer, so you could record shows when you weren’t even home.

How the porn industry saved the VHS tape

Sony’s Betamax came out in 1975; hot on its heels was the Betamax’s rival, the VHS format by JVC.

VHS (Video Home System) was developed in 1976. Its features were impressive: A super-compact two-hour tape, longer playtime, and speedier rewinding and fast-forwarding. The JVC system, called Vidstar, was quite pricey. The VCR would set you back $1,280 (as Wired reported, it would be $4,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars). The blank tapes were $20, or $72 in today-bucks. Still, it was appealing: Back in the day, before every Marvel movie was approximately eighteen hours long, a two-hour tape was enough to record an entire feature film. The Betamax tapes had only half that recording capability and were more expensive than VHS-players.

JVC licensed its format to other electronics producers, filling the marketplace with VHS machines, Wired reported. “In just its first year, the VHS format took 40 percent of the business away from Sony. By 1987, about 90 percent of the $5.25 billion market of VCRs sold in the United States were based on the VHS format.”

The fight for market share between these two incompatible formats lasted ten years, until 1985, when JVC introduced VHS HQ (high quality) and, two years later, Super VHS. What really fueled the victory, though, was allegedly not that crisp sound and image but an even more powerful force: Pornography. Legend has it that Sony, pure as the driven snow, would not allow smut to sully its Betamax tapes. JVC and the rest of the VHS scene operated by more of a live-and-let-live ethos; powered by this nation’s unstoppable thirst for pornography, the VHS emerged as the dominant format.

Before Netflix and chill: A trip to Blockbuster

Today’s children may never grasp the infuriating feeling of getting home from the video store– you know what, I’m getting ahead of myself. A video store was like a Netflix you had to pace through, where you could easily run into people you knew. This limited what you could rent, because what if Josh — not marching band Josh but Josh in a band which is a completely different thing — knew you were renting the Lindsay Lohan remake of The Parent Trap for the eight billionth time? You would die, RIP you, like the VCR is dying now.

At first consumers shopped at small, cool video stores, and the people who worked at these establishments were medium-pretentious: snobbier than independent bookstore employees, less condescending than record store staffers. Those small stores were crushed, as small stores often are, by the entry of a corporate behemoth, Blockbuster. Blockbuster went defunct in 2014, but just twelve years earlier, it was the king of the video rental market; the chain boasted over 2,800 stores worldwide. Sometimes you would go to Blockbuster, or your local video store, on a Friday night after waiting all week to see the movie of your choice only to find that your movie of choice had been rented out. There was nothing you could do. You were helpless in the face of this devastation.

But Blockbuster was edged off the throne by Netflix, which — from its beginnings as a DVD-delivery service in 1997 to its present-form as streaming hub — was something of an accessory to the murder of the VCR. As lore has it, Netflix founder Reed Hastings started his company in part out of frustration that Blockbuster charged him a $40 late fee for failing to return Apollo 13 on time. (Late fees were Blockbuster’s bread and butter: In 2000, the chain took in a stunning $800 million in late fees, 16 percent of its revenue for the year.)

Anyway, back to today’s children! For it is these youths, those who are too young to bear the mantle of millennial, who can scarcely fathom the struggles their elders faced. (Do we have a name for them yet? Are they “Generation Z”? Snapchildren? God I hope not.) They can never know how it felt to be ready to watch a movie — popcorn all popped, blanket just so, the good corner of the couch secured while your sibling was running to the bathroom like an amateur — only to discover after sticking that VHS tape into your VCR that the previous renters had been so callous as to notbe kind and rewind. This feeling, the waiting during the interminable whirring of the rewind, was buffering’s ancestor.

Later than same evening, an entirely enjoyable night with the family spent watching That Thing You Do! could be ruined by what was, looking back, the reasonable request of a parent to rewind the video before returning it to the shelf.

I made that glitch famous

In theory one could use a VCR to record television shows. This liberated audiences from the time-space continuum, allowing us to watch television shows on our schedules. We didn’t have to be beholden to some corporation’s idea of when shows are supposed to air! No, we could watch what we wanted to watch when we wanted to watch it. Free at last, free at last, etc.

But freedom in theory so rarely manifests as freedom in fact. What would actually end up happening is you would set the recording for Tuesday night on the WB at 8:00 p.m. for an hour — to do this, you entered a bright screen in a shade technically known as Doogie Howser Blue; this was the secret control center of the TV set and every time you used it you were convinced you’d broken the precious television for good — and even if you did everything right, some baseball game or breaking news or whatever would run late.

Of course your VCR couldn’t adjust like some nimble, modern thing. No, the VCR was as clunky and slow as it looked. It was not a “smart” device. In the 1990s, we were naive, and we did not ask our devices to be smart. We thought: We can be smart, and we can operate the devices, and that will be enough.

So the VCR would just start recording at eight like you told it to and then stop recording at nine, cutting off the last eleven minutes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And because this was the real deal dark ages, of dial-up internet and nothingness, you couldn’t just download the episode somewhere or even read a witty, informative recap, nope, you just had to LIVE there, in the not-knowing, until next week’s “previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer” gave you the bullet points. A person might have thought: That this baseball game, a sport for men, is displacing Buffy, a feminist superhero who fights against the forces of darkness, is a metaphor too perfect to invent. And also: Why is this technology so flawed and annoying to use?

Families also stored home videos on VHS tapes, and then teenagers (it was always a teenager) would record over these priceless memories — competitive rounds of Coke and Pepsi at bar mitzvahs, bowling alley birthday parties captured with that shaky, handheld Blair Witchcinematography — replacing them with something else of arguably equal importance, like the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards.

Literally dead

The VCR was killed, finally, by a one-two punch of technological advancements: The arrival of the DVD (first sold in the United States in 1997 and ruling the marketplace by 2000) and, in 1999, the DVR;TiVo unveiled its Personal Television Service that January and shipped its first TiVO DVR on March 31. And these technologies, too, can probably feel irrelevance on the horizon, as streaming rises like the climate-changed-tides and “TV” becomes less a physical thing, bound to the box itself, and more of a style of storytelling that can be accessed on any platform at any time.

Redbox, a DVD ATM, is still a thing, though revenue is in decline. Most of the kiosks are outside convenience stores, lingering there even when no one has much use for them, like 14-year-old boys on skateboards.

What was once the dominant entertainment viewing and recording device of its day is now the kind of thing modern, iPad-owning toddlers look at in fascination and horror, wondering how we ever lived in such lame, inefficient times. VCRs used to feel like the future. Obsolescence, like death, comes for us all. RIP, VCRs.

Readers: How I loved going to Blockbusters or a small independent to rent a VHS movie. Enjoyed walking the aisles and finding an old classic or the latest. Miss those lazy evenings of at-home movie watching with my own concoction of homemade popcorn doused in olive oil, sprinkles of cayenne, and a little sea salt. Yummy memories. I rarely watch movies at home anymore. You?

Blog me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

 Good Morning!

Whew – what a night, right?

Congratulations Hillary Clinton for breaking the glass ceiling! 

I’m so proud. I loved last night…I loved the last 4 days. Clinton is so smart, tenacious, committed, compassionate, competent, and completely qualified to be our president. She will not quit on us. I will not quit on her. #GirlBoss

If there is anyone reading this blog (and there were many in yesterday’s blog) that still needs convincing, read this:

Let Me Remind You Fuckers Who I Am

by Hillary Clinton

What the fuck is your problem, America??

I’m Hillary goddamn Clinton. I’m a political prodigy, have been since I was 16. I have an insane network of powerful friends. I’m willing to spend the next eight years catching shit on all sides, all so I can fix this fucking country for you. And all you little bitches need to do is get off your asses one goddamn day in November.

“Oh but what about your eeeemaaaaillls???” Shut the fuck up. Seriously, shut the fuck up and listen for one fucking second.

Here’s all you need to know about me:

• In 1992, I said I was proud to have followed my career instead of baking cookies.
• The GOP fucking dragged me for it. They made me bake cookies. They’re scared of me.
• Every time I have a job, y’all love me. Every time I run for anything, the GOP breaks out the big guns again and fucks me up good. And apparently it fucking works.

But you know what? I don’t fucking care. If I gave two shits about the haters I would’ve dropped the game decades ago.

You know why I keep fighting? Because we all want the same shit. We want economic and racial justice, we want to seriously attack climate change, we want everyone to be able to afford college and health care and housing and food, we want women to be treated like humans, yada yada yada.

And I’m the only person in this goddamn country who knows how to do it.

Because of course I do. Because I’ve been preparing my whole fucking life for this job. So stop making me dab on Ellen and just give me a fucking chance already.

If it seems like I have contempt for the American voter, it’s because I do. Frankly, most of you are fucking stupid. Most of you have no goddamn idea what it takes to run a country. I mean god damn, almost half of you think God created the Earth 10,000 years ago!

What the actual fuck????

Look, this is the big leagues. If you think any problem has a tweetable solution, you’re just wrong. If you think “border wall” or “muslims = bad” is gonna solve our problems, I don’t have time for your shit.

This is literally why we have a representative government. I know you don’t want to read long, boring things. So I do it for you, and I ask a bunch of smart people, and we come up with shit that works. Here’s my solution on energy. Here’s my solution on Wall Street. Here’s my solution on jobs. I have fucking binders full of this shit and you know it. I’m so fucking ready, America.

The GOP just spent their entire convention fantasizing about literally imprisoning me. They are terrified. They know what I can do.

I’ve spent my life clawing my way into a system that’s terrified of change. A system that just wants to let rich white dudes be rich white dudes. And holy shit, you guys, I could not have picked a better opponent for my final boss battle.

So lemme sign off with the same Nancy Scheibner poem I quoted back in 1969 (when I gave the commencement speech at my own fucking graduation, btw).

My entrance into the world of so-called “social problems”

Must be with quiet laughter, or not at all.

The hollow men of anger and bitterness

The bountiful ladies of righteous degradation

All must be left to a bygone age.

And the purpose of history is to provide a receptacle

For all those myths and oddments

Which oddly we have acquired

And from which we would become unburdened

To create a newer world

To translate the future into the past.

We have no need of false revolutions

In a world where categories tend to tyrannize our minds

And hang our wills up on narrow pegs.

It is well at every given moment to seek the limits in our lives.

And once those limits are understood

To understand that limitations no longer exist.

Earth could be fair. And you and I must be free

Not to save the world in a glorious crusade

Not to kill ourselves with a nameless gnawing pain

But to practice with all the skill of our being

The art of making possible.

(Flip flop my ass.)

GIRL♡♀♡POWER

Lol. I’m having so much fun this morning.

This is for you Hillary and all us girlz and guys who are in this fight with you:

******

Readers: On a serious note, we have 101 days left to make this happen. Let’s do this. #GoHillary

Happy Friday! Flap your lips. Blog me. 

✌🏽& ❤️

PS: Loved her all in white. That’s my stylist side talkin’ 😘

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"