Watching the Olympics this year literally has me stunned. Even though I was a gymnast for 15 years, it seems like a completely different sport to me. Not only is the entire scoring system totally different [so I can't even pretend like I know what I'm talking about], but the skills are so incredibly advanced that even my former coach is shocked.
I don't think any of us need to see old videos as proof, but I decided to look back at some of the most notable gymnasts in the past 30 years, and show you just how much the sport has changed. I think it's easiest to tell when watching a beam routine, but since that's not normally the favorite event to watch, I have some examples from all of them.
VAULT
The horse changed in the early 2000s, but I don't think that had a whole lot to do with the skill level increase.
Nadia Comaneci- 1980
Kerri Strug, epic vault of 1996
Jordyn Wieber, 2012 Olympic Trials
BARS
The bars used to be a lot closer together, so the types of skills have changed quite a bit... but notice all the release moves and different ways of gripping the bar Gabby does compared to Kim.
Nadia's perfect 10!
Kim Zmeskal- 1992
Gabby Douglas- 2012 [practice]
BEAM
It used to be simple and dancy, with a couple mandatory skills. Now it's an unbelievable amount of connections/series of skills.
FLOOR
You'll notice quite a bit of dancing early on... but now it's nothing but skill after skill [and not as much sticking].
Mary Lou Retton- 1984
Dominique Dawes- 2000 [trials, but she made it!]
Gabby Douglas- 2012 Trials
I'm really upset it's so hard to find good quality videos, but whatever... that's not the point.
It's crazy to watch the routines from the 80s again because I could have easily done any of those routines while I was in my prime. In the 90s, there was no way I'd be doing most of those skills, but I could if I really worked hard. The things they're doing now- oh hell no. They've been brainwashed into not being afraid of ANYTHING.
Kudos, gymnasts of today. You're truly incredible. And to the gymnasts of tomorrow and another decade from now- I'm terrified of and for you. I can't even imagine what they'll be coming up with.
Well, as promised to LaToya last week, I had to get Swift on this week to apologize to LaToya for accusing her for all of the sea urchin [which I think is the real devil of this Real World season] drama.
We talked for over an hour [woah! It's super easy to talk to this cast, that's for sure..], which shows that he really wanted to A) make his point known and B) be an open book about it all. I cut the interview down to 20 minutes for you, and will give you insight into the rest here. [Don't worry, I'm not hiding any secrets from you! I left the juice in!]
Get ready, he's got a lot of ...mmm.... talking... about his roommates to do. And he says to pay attention because "it's foreshadowing in the episodes to come."
[ALSO: At the end, there's some info about the upcoming Real World season! Ohhh snap!]
I'm not going to lie, when he asked me about what I thought about him/LaToya, I hadn't let the entire interview digest yet. The fact that he kept bringing her up, over and over again [including times you don't hear in there], lets me know they have a seriously heated relationship. Who knows if that's more hate or love at this point, but he was not about to let his thoughts fall by the wayside.
Beyond the podcast and the roommate talk, Swift said we won't see much of him because he tried to stay away from "Prison Paradise" [the house] and became "The Mayor of St. Thomas." As I can imagine, he felt pretty trapped and bored and full of drama in Hassel Island, so he became part of the main island of St. Thomas. He said he met tons of locals, got to know them well, and even volunteered with several charities/community service opportunities.
One specific thing he told me about was going to the local high school and talking to football players. That's pretty awesome. Of course, the cameras didn't follow him to most of these things, just like when the DC roommates volunteered around the city, because it's not very entertaining. Still, it says a lot about his character.
It'll be interesting to see how much they do/don't show him in the next 8 episodes.. I'd assume he's still pretty involved in some drama considering his strong opinions on everyone he lived with.
I'd like to say that summertime is "Dare Season," but I'd really love to complete dares all year long! People just seem to have solid ones when the sun is shining!
Anyway, we're completing some while "taking over the beach!" To keep the videos short, Brandon and I are only doing a couple dares at a time.
This week: More dance dares, doing yoga in awkward outfits while invading people's personal spaces, and jumping on a stranger's family bike.
It's funny because a lot of people are like "OMG WHAT DO I DO FOR A VIDEO IN THE SUMMERTIME WAHHHH" and I'm all "OMG SUMMERTIME IS THE BEST FOR VIDEOS, WE LIVE AT THE BEACH!"
Way fun. And I kinda wanna be challenged even harder. So submit some on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or even comment this post!
Yesterday was National Tequila Day, and since I was already out filming some Dares on the beach [that video to follow soon!], it was only right that I try and celebrate the beautiful holiday with some strangers gracing the boardwalk with their presence.
And since I haven't been on my stilts in quite some time, I figured I'd whip those suckers out, too.
I mean, WHO WOULDN'T WANT A FREE SHOT OF TEQUILA?! Granted, it was only apple juice, but they didn't know that! Which is why little miss girlfriend was pissed, and why the crowd of people had the looks of shock and disgust when I started chugging then falling over. Silly people, I wasn't trying to get arrested!
I think I may have talked about this while I was in Texas, but I'll tell ya right now... I've NEVER heard stories like this!
Whenever I have freebies for good stories, people are all about sharing their stories. Last night, they told me where they've gotten hit on. It was anything from the bathroom to in a hospital while pulling a catheter out of a dude's peen. You gotta hear these.
I thought it was awkward when people tried to holler at me in front of my mom. NOPE. Those take the cake FOR SURE.
Watching James Holmes in the courtroom this morning was unbearable.... He was WAY too creepy with his eyes. THEN, I realized who he looked like. [He was totally wrong with the Joker comparison.]
That would be "Heat Miser" from "The Year Without Santa Claus." And clearly he's the bad guy James was trying to look like with that awful hair.
Ugh, I'm still creeped, and hate him beyond words, but had to share.
Forget the Shake Weight and any other sexual workout items. This here, my friends, tops them all.
And thank God for the Asians who give us such beautiful pieces of equipment.
Now equestrians can simulate the ride in the comfort of their own home.........
First of all, there's no way they can really pretend like this is all about "simulating riding a horse." They're just smarter than us and think of sexual things, THEN try to compare them to other, more innocent things... I would bet my bottom dollar on that.
Either way, I do think it'd be fun to have. And it might even work some muscles! But I think it would work even better with a partner... ya knowww?!
I'm on a freakin' roll, right?! [Minus getting this up 3 days after recording... Forgive me, it's been a stressful weekend!]
LaToya is in the spotlight this week, and what perfect timing! She finally played a big role in this past episode, duking it out with Swift!
Of course we addressed that situation, but she also told me about a major celeb who came over to see her when she got back to VA after filming! Also- Where's the Subway?! Normally the roomies are constantly eating the sandwiches, but this season their eating habits are different! She spilled the beans on that.
"LaMaR" is something we haven't seen on the show yet, but she said they were inseparable and it's just one of the things that had been edited IN so far into the season. Also- what she says the rest of the season will be like.
All of it is explained, right here in this podcast. Download it, listen to it, bring it with you on the way to work for entertainment in traffic. Most of all, enjoy it. ;)
You better believe I WILL try and get Swift on, and if he is, we'll be talking apologies.
Should we try for him next? Who are you hoping to hear from? Laura? Robb? Brandon? Let me know!
So I discovered this website last night, Polyvore, and LADIES BEWARE! You will spend entirely too much time throwing together outfit ideas that don't exist in your closet. It's like dressing up dolls or something.
BUT, I made sure I had a purpose to waste a couple hours messing around with it.... giving you fashion ideas for tonight's big opening night at Luckie's! Here's a little style board full of HOT 100.5 colors!
The neat thing is you can click on the items and buy em for yourself! [Just click on the link below and it'll be interactive on the website. I guess it's technically free advertising for those websites, huh? Whatevs. It's neat.]
Have you played on it before? If so, send me your boards! I wanna pin em!
Goodbye, life as I knew it. Time to play with fashion. [WHO AM I THESE DAYS?!]
A couple weeks ago I Instagram'd this pic of a necklace my dad made for me out of old washers and ribbon he found in his garage:
Today, I was stalking my BFF LC and she's teaching the world how to do it!
I mean, OBVIOUSLY she saw my pic and was like "OMG, I need to learn how to do that." So she helped me out a little since I couldn't figure it out. Thanks, girl!
It IS neat though, right? I think it's more of a "badass/rocker" style when I wear it, but hers does look a little more fancy.
I've been getting a lot of complaints [obviously from the boys] about my lack of XXX posts lately. I'M SORRY! It has been a year, and I will try harder to please you smuts.
This isn't totally XXX rated, but it is slutty and outrageous. It's Coco's ass in a "Thong Thursday" shot. So that newcomers are slapped in the face with the ridonkulousness, click here!
Dannggg, it's been a LONG time since I've put together a celebrity lookalikes post, but apparently people remember them because I've been getting called out whenever I mention "woah, you look like _____!"
This happened twice recently. The first time, Dan pointed out that he has been told several times that he looks like [gasp!] Joran Van der Sloot, the guy who [may have] murdered the Aruba chic. Why he'd wanna point something like that out, I'm not sure, but here's some "proof."
My mom FREAKED when she saw that picture, but I feel like it's not nearly as dead-on as this next one.
We celebrated my brother's birthday this weekend and his friend Brittany came over, who I almost called Jessica on several occasions. Her looks, mannerisms, everything was just like Jessica from Laguna Beach.
Thankfully I've been watching my Retro MTV or else I may not have caught that, but am I right?!
While we're talking about Miss Jessica from LG, I was Googling her and found out that homegirl is not only married, but has a kid!
FINALLY all of this talk about No Doubt coming out with new music is no longer just talk, hopes, and dreams! The day is here, their new single is released, so let's freaking listen!
Yes, it's very long, but the 4 minutes in the middle are full of No Doubt goodness. When I first started listening I wasn't loving it, but give it another 30 seconds and I'm giddy about hearing Gwen Stefani's voice again and totally singing along.
All of these groups and people who are able to come back and make new music that reflects their sound while still evolving with the times are amazing me, and I'm loving it!
What do you think about it? Disappointed or totally worth the wait??
I knew I was going to like Marie before the season even started, and in three episodes she's been hilarious to watch, and fun to tweet with... so OBVIOUSLY I had to get her on ASAP!
Within seconds she proclaimed herself a trainwreck, so we have that in common, and we were a giggling mess for the next 20 minutes. [Don't worry, I edited all the annoying giggles out. You're welcome.]
We talked about her thinking someone was pranking her when she first showed up at the house and the fact that it should be "7 bitches picked to live in a house," not strangers. She also let out her feelings about Trey/Laura, why LaToya should have been voted the funniest over her in our chat [apparently the cameramen couldn't even keep their composure!], and why we'll be seeing a lot more Swift soon.
And, of course, we addressed the "scumbag couple of the year," as she nominated her and Robb.
She's fun, this is fun, you'll have fun listening.
Alright "Elizabethanation" [I haven't used that in a while! Lame!], you officially have a mission- Give Marie's drunk language a name! Tweet herand I and we'll pick our favorite! I also wanna see a slew of #drunkgirlproblems from you all this weekend, kthanks.
Let me know who you want to hear from next! And as you can hear, I totally ask your questions, so keep those coming! Thanks for listening and participating!
love,
elizabethany
PS: If you wanna subscribe/download/listen to ALL of my "Beyond the Real World Cameras" podcasts, click here!
Obviously EVERYONE has a complaint about some song that the radio plays WAY TOO MUCH. [I'm not going to pretend like we don't, we totally do, but there are reasons behind our madness.] In order to give people a chance to get it off their chest, I headed to the beach with Corey and Brandon last Friday.
We asked people what song we overplayed, then challenged them to sing it, with only the instrumental. If we truly overplay it, they must know all the words, right?!
WRONG. And it was hilarious seeing them try and realize we won. It was also hilarious to see a group of 10 guys sing "Call Me Maybe."
Don't worry, I wasn't only cruel to strangers. I made all of us try it too. And even though we hear these songs multiple times a night, I think we were the worst at it. I apologize for that and our singing ability.... or lack there of.
What a fabulous caption for that thumbnail, right? Goodness, that was all so, SO wrong.
We're still heading out to do these videos on the beach every week, so if you ever have an idea for what we can do, holler at me!
Sometimes I get really nervous from the pressure of giving gifts that I'd much rather call off the whole process or just give some moneys. Since it's normally unacceptable to call it all off, I try to come up with inside joke gifts or clever ways to give cash. For a birthday last week, I got clever.
They asked for something I totally couldn't afford [Ray Bans], so I helped pitch into that fund, and kept with a summertime theme. I got a cooler with their team on it, bathing suit, and ice cubes... filled with cash.
It was VERY simple. If you wanna do it too, here's how:
1. Boil a bucket of water. This makes it so the ice cubes are super clear once they're frozen.
2. Fold up the cash and place in cubes. I originally thought the tighter rolled, the better... but that was false. If you make them a little messier, they'll stay in better once the water is poured in.
3. Pour the boiled water into the ice tray. [I put it in a cup first and let it cool a little bit.] Some of the cash will float up and out of the holes, so just use your fingers to sink them again.
4. Freeze!
5. Remove from trays once completely frozen and dump into your container. Some of the cash was poking out of the cubes, but it's a neat effect.
The fun part is seeing their face and realizing they have to let it melt AND dry before they can use it... Then they have a big ol fat, wrinkled stack of ones. [If you're broke like me and can't afford the big bucks, anyway.]
I'm sure this has been done before, but I'll be honest... I came up with this idea on my own and I'm pretty damn proud of it.
Happy Day after 4th of July! How much are YOU dragging?! The only thing I have to say is: Thank goodness it's Thursday and we only have 2 days to work until the weekend.
My camera died while we were out on the water yesterday, but I managed to get a few pictures while we were floating at Chicks Beach, just like we did during Memorial Day Floatopia. This time we joined in with the "main group" to try out some rum ham, many flavors of jello shots, and meet some interesting characters.
You should notice that the dude in the bottom left has a real tattoo of the Statue of Liberty. America- F yeah. I also loved the other dude's helmet, the guys riding inflatable penguins/sharks, and you can see the guys who were tossing out the rum ham to everyone. It's exactly what it seems like- ham soaked in rum. And it was delicious.
After floating all day, we did what all Americans should do on the 4th- grilled some grub. I got a new grill for my birthday so we popped that sucker's cherry. [and my friend Rob, who may have thought he was a grill master, burnt most of the food and the thermometer on my grill. It's not the 4th if you don't have a burnt hot dog, my roomie says.]
I'm also very proud to say that we walked all the way to the oceanfront [little over 2 miles from my house] to listen to a Michael Jackson cover band, see TONS of people, and watch the fireworks in front of a bright orange moon. It was pretty surreal. I still can't believe I live at the beach. [Not my pic, it's from NorthCoastNews.com, but it's what they looked like to me!]
What I learned this holiday: don't believe a man when he says he knows what he's doing, soak meat in dark liquor while candy and fruit is in vodka, and if you're going to walk 2 miles, have a ride back for when your legs get jiggly.
love,
elizabethany
PS: Because I knew I'd be rocking the swimsuit all day, I dressed festive on Tuesday with a $4 blue/white striped tank from Forever 21, $10 jeans, 75 cent red and white polka dot flats from Wet Seal's clearance rack, and a $3 red necklace from Body Central. An $18 outfit? Hell yes!:
I went to Rochester for the first time last weekend for a wedding, and I was stressing the days before trying to find a dress for under $20. I ended up finding one at Ross for $12, but knowing the wedding was going to be pretty fancy, I wasn't pleased with it.
I had a dress from New Year's 2011 that I got at TJ Maxx for $14 that had some holes in it and I thought was lame because it was gold with no color.
Welp, that's the one I went with. I sewed up the holes [and had my friends keep an eye on my butt in case it ripped back open], and dusted off the turquoise heels I wore for the Real World DC Premiere party. [They're a size too big, so I had to go get some inserts to make them fit.] The only accessories I added were the turquoise earrings I made. Total cost for the outfit: $8, thanks to the inserts. Yay for shopping in-closet!
[We felt the need to take prom/senior portraits thanks to the awesome view we had... that you can't even see thanks to our big ass heads. Also, my hair was quickly put up into a topsy-tail after these pictures. Yikes.]
The wedding was super long [7 or more hours for everything!], but when you have an open bar and fun people, it's a beautifully long day.
Check out the groom doing the air guitar and the bride having the typical "here we go again" face. They were adorbs.
Also awesome: Hangin with my new friend Dexter... the bearded Dragon who HATED garland. I wish I had video of him dancing/trying to attack it.
And that's another weekend in the life of me... minus video of me CHOMPING on a garbage plate for the first time. Imagine meat, macaroni salad, fries, and sauce all mixed up into one big mess. It was deliciously awful for my diet.
YOU GUYS!!!! I feel like I've been waiting forever for the moment my blog finally hit 1 million views, and I missed it! It happened last week during all the Real World premiere hoopla!
Anyway, I'm celebrating on the inside [and with a couple drinks tonight, duh], but I wanted to thank you for supporting me, this blog, all of its changes, hard times, Real World obsessions, and of course- all of the good times/posts.
A lot of people tell me they're amazed I still keep up with this thing. My response is always along the lines of "What?! Why WOULDN'T I?! In fact, I feel like I've let it go a little, and it bothers me!" This blog is me and my career. It's changed as I have changed, and as my job has changed. It may keep changing, but I don't plan on letting it die any time soon, so here's to 1 million more!
Take a look around, check out some posts you may have missed... see the difference in 2008 when I was getting 20 hits a day and now. And know that I love the ish out of you.