A mouthguard that can tell when you're having a concussion

Science and technology are awesome. Okay, sure they make things like nukes and whatnot but sometimes there are things that come along which are really useful and we wonder why nobody thought of them before. You know, things like this mouthguard:

For anyone who's had a concussion before, you know those things aren't fun. Your vision is blurry, you can't make proper sentences and falling down is a constant thing. Ok, and of course there's also the fact you've got some kind of brain damage.

Mouthguards in derby are supposed to help prevent that to some extent--when you fall on your head the force of impact can be distributed and absorbed by your jaw and your mouthguard is there to reduce the injury to your body. But the problem is that there's little research on concussions in derby specifically--I mean, we've adopted our safety gear from other sports, and we're still in the early days of knowing how to protect ourselves in a way specific to our sport.

So, the next best thing from actually being able to protect yourself specifically for your sport is to be able to protect yourself generally, AND also get information about how these injuries are occurring. I'm a big fan of information gathering. Enter the FITGuard mouthguard, which has an indicator to tell you the likelihood of your having a concussion in a pretty foolproof way.

Here's an article on HuffPost about it. In particular, they say:

The FITGuard has a green LED strip on the front that turns blue when it detects a medium force impact and red when there’s an above-50 percent chance the athlete has suffered a concussion. The athlete can then use an app to download a data log showing why the guard is displaying a given color. The data will also be uploaded to a central database to help the FIT team improve the device.

Yeah, so that's a handy-dandy way to helping determine the injury. Plus one thing that's good is that you can tell without having to take the skater's helmet off (which might make things worse if they have some other injury, e.g. to their neck).


Plus it's a LED strip so you'd glow in the dark (maybe)!




It kind of reminds me of those stickers they put on things in Mythbusters to measure G Forces or whatever (for illustration, here's the Exploding Water Heater episode, the stickers are at 0:35 onwards but stick around for the explosions):

Yeah, I'm glad my head doesn't do that when I get a concussion. 

New Year, New Gear

Workbench, computer desk dinner table, whatever.

Yay, so after Season's Beatings and over the break I got a bunch of fun new stuff for derby!! Here is what's new:

1. Helmet. It is a thing of beauty. And safety.

Bauer IMS 7.0 Custom Hockey Helmet
It's custom for my tiny head.

Yay!! I now have a hockey helmet which is supposed to be really good for not having concussions. That'd be nice. I had to order a custom helmet because all the head measurement sizes were so big for the hockey helmet and I guess a lot of stores didn't stock XS. But the custom was the same price as a non-custom, with the added bonus that I got to pick the colors of the little air venty things, which is why they are yellow, of course.

Lots of padding for my brain

The helmet also has a little ratchet thing on the back so it's more adjustable than just the chin strap, and the foam compresses enough to keep my brains in. It's removable and replaceable as over time it will compress (and not squish my head so much), but unlike the brainsaver lining in my other helmet, it's not washable. Not that I ever washed my helmet lining in the 2+ years I had that helmet but anyway... :P

i can haz face shield

I also have a face shield for it but I haven't been game to wear it yet, but hopefully this will stop me getting popped in the face like at the CVRG bout last year. We're actually scrimmaging with them this weekend so I guess that is a good reason to get that face shield installed. It just screws in with a regular screwdriver, so that's kind of cool. The downside of the new helmet is all my cool stickers are on my old one, sadface. :(

2. Bushings. I have only ever changed my bushings once (which I detailed here) but I got some new ones at beatings. They're orange and the same squishiness as my old bushings, so I know what to expect once they compress a bit. I did remember to adjust my trucks enough so that I can accomodate for them while they're new.

These remind me of fruit pastilles.

That said, when I replaced the bushings, I was NOT expecting them to be as grody as they were when I took them out. I've had them in for almost two years, and one thing is that there IS a noticeable size difference between them, from the compression on my trucks I guess. But that size difference was made up by an inordinate amount of crud and grime around the bushing, washers and kingpin. EW.

Even if I don't replace the bushings more frequently, I guess it's not a good thing to be skating on a sheet of fuzzy crud (some of which actually looked like dried spiders legs), so maybe more cleaning is required there.

3. Toe stops. I still love my moonwalkers but they're wearing a bit.

Yeah, these wore unevenly too.

They're still functional, but I have to rotate them regularly to make sure they're still useable. That's not a problem, but hey, they were selling toe stops at Beatings, so why not.

So Bionic came out with these giant ass toe stops (aptly named Super Stoppers) which are HUGE like elephant feet. Okay, not really, but they do have a LOT more surface area, which should be good for running on and pushing off of.

I had a bit of trouble getting used to the size (e.g. I would go to run on my skates and there'd be so much toe stop that I would be tripping on it), and there is a flat side to it so it's angled (unlike the moonwalkers, which were more round). So they will take a bit of time to get used to, but otherwise it's all good.

Holy giant toe stop area, Batman!

YAAAAAY, NEW STUFF!!

Science is awesome!

(Or is this in the realm of math? Or engineering? I don't know.)

So, I read today that a guy in California has invented a wheel. No, keep reading. That's not the end of it. It's a wheel that rolls faster and better than a round wheel, across a variety of terrains.

AND IT IS SHAPED LIKE A CUBE.

 

YES. A CUBE. LOOK AT IT.

Okay, it's not SO crazy. The cube shape has a wave pattern, so you would still get a roll on these wheels. The grooves in them mean you don't roll over debris, but they get "funnelled" off to the outside, so you're less likely to trip and eat shit if you skate outdoors. Plus because there are those big grooves, there's less contact area with the ground so you have less friction, which would result in a smoother roll on a variety of surfaces.

So far it's only available for skateboards, but if this takes off, I wouldn't mind trying these for derby, especially given the way these are made. The super cool thing about this is that they're made by snapping together smaller wheel-parts of different hardnesses. So if you wanted a sticker inside on your inside wheel (e.g. if you push more on one side of your wheel than the other--and you can see how much you do this by checking your wheels for coning), the bam! You just put together different segments of different hardnesses and Bob's your uncle.

(That said, there's already something like this on the market in the form of Faster skates' demilune wheels, which were released several months ago, but haven't seen to have taken off. But they have a little strip of sticker urethane closer to the axle on each wheel for more push.)

More information is available on the kickstarter here.

Rollerbones bearing tool

So shiny.

I decided to get a proper bearing tool for changing my bearings. Until now what I'd done is use the allen key that was on my T-tool to prise out bearings and then I would use the blunt end of the T-tool to shove them back in. So yeah, that's not a smart idea because it can mess with your bearing covers and the bearings themselves.

So here's the rollerbones bearing tool. It's this little handheld thing that you can carry around in your gear bag without looking like you are lugging a bearing press. It has a little button on the top which retracts the two little buttony things along the bearing tool post.

When you want to put bearings in, you simply put a bearing on the end of the tool (with the button down) and then use the tool to push your bearing into the wheel. The button thingy is pretty strong so it's not like the bearing or wheel will just fall off.

If you want to take bearings out, you just put the tool in, push down the button and with the button down, pull the bearing out, and it should just pop out. Pretty straightforward, no? This thing is so easy to use that it doesn't even come with instructions.

I really like this bearing tool. I have more wheels than bearings and I often just switch out my bearings out, and this is much easier and less annoying to do that with my jankety old T-tool. Plus, at $15, it's also way cheaper and easier to carry around than a bearing press.

SISU mouthguard (formerly known as ProTech Dent)

After my disgusting story about how I got cavities from my year-old mouthguard, I decided it was probably a good time to get a new one. Probably.


I really liked my old mouthguard, it was one of those ultra-thin ProTech Dent mouthguards that you mold yourself at home. Apparently now ProTech Dent is called SISU for some reason, but it's more or less the same thing.

The SISU mouthguard is basically a really thin piece of plastic that you custom mold to the shape of your mouth. It has lots of litle holes for easy breathing and drinking water and whatever, and I think having the holes also helps with with absorbing shock (kind of like how shock absorbers on cars have spaces in between them for compression).

The molding process is relatively easy to do. You start with the mouthguard being this flat bit of plastic, which you drop itno a cup of hot water:

Cup O'Mouthguard. Mmmm.

Then when it's all soft and stuff, you just put it in your mouth and push the bits up against your teeth and gums, making sure it is a snug fit. Notice that a "snug fit" when the mouthguard material is soft and pliable is VERY different from a "snug fit" when the material hardens; at that point it's like a retainer and becomes actually kind of painful on the teeth. I'd suggest not taking their instructions about making a suction while the material is forming too seriously; the first time I did that it hurt like the dickens to take the mouthguard off or put it on (but once it was on my teeth it was okay).

I usually take about 2-3 goes to get my mouthguard right. I find that sometimes you might get bits at the top near your gums that are a bit scratchy, so you have to redo it when the edges of the plastic start cutting into your gums, or if it's too tight or something these are things you can fix the next time you mold it. All you need to do is pop it back in the hot water and let it unfold (which looks kind of cool) and then do the process again.

Attempt #2.

 And then when you come up with a fit that you like, you're done!

This time I am actually going to try to clean my mouthguard regularly so I don't end up with all disgusting cavities again and having weird stains on my mouthguard.

Don't worry new mouthguard, I'll take better care of you
than I did the old one.

Need new wheels? Try this!

Every time I need new wheels I get in a giant bind about all the possible things I could buy. There are so many options for what surface you are skating on and what style of wheel and if you want slims or talls or mids or whatever the hell. It is always an indecisive clusterfuck and it leaves me wondering if I have buyer's remorse or not.

Introducing the Wheel-a-ma-jig.

It's like a search engine thing for derby wheels. You simply put the hardness, hub style, height, and width of the wheel you are browsing (you can do a range for hardness and size) and it returns possible wheels that fit your criteria.

Of course, it can't tell you what wheels would be ideal for your size, skate style, surface you skate on etc.. You still need to do that sort of work yourself. But at least if you've narrowed that down (Atom, for example has a Performance Matrix which should help you get an idea of what hardness wheels to get at least) then it should make your indecision less terrible. I also would recommend asking other skaters for their opinions on wheels that they have used, or, better yet, actually getting some of the wheels and trying them yourself.

This actually came out in October last year, and I know there are a couple of new wheels on the market that came out afterwards (like the Faster Demilunes which I am dying to try out). I'm not sure if they are on this or not. But this should cover pretty much all your main derby wheels.

Happy rolling!

And the torch passes

Remember my Diablos? They were my very first pair of derby skates that were mentioned in the first entry for this blog all the way back here. I stoped using them after a while because they turned out to be the wrong size for me, and I learned that the hard way.

Anyway, they have a new home! One of the freshies has inherited them, but at least she has the smarts to not skate on those horrible stock Evos that come with them, and she has Poisons instead. I'm sure they feel much better than the rental skates that she has otherwise been skating on. Plus, I'm glad the Diablos are getting put to good use and not just wasting away in a closet because I was dumb and got the wrong size skate.

It's awesome when you have a pair of skates to call your own. When I first got my skates I slept with them in bed (before they were dirty and skated on) because I thought they were so fantastic. I'm not saying that everyone does that, but hey, I was excited.

Anyway, here they are on their new owner:

Note asymmetrical laces! All my footwear has asymmetrical laces.
Also note horrible looking Adventure World carpet.

Yay! Happy rolling, Sarah!

A cautionary tale

Like most people, I strongly dislike going to the dentist. I don't like the little high pitched drill things, I don't like how hygienists make you feel guilty about your teeth cleaning practices, I don't like the fact that when I leave I am thanking someone for making my teeth sore and my gums bloody. I also think that teeth are just pretty gross. So yeah, boo going to the dentist, indeed.

But you get free shit from the dentist, hooray.

Anyway, I finally braved going to the dentist today and got my teeth cleaned and whatnot, but one thing I was told was that I had like five cavities. FIVE. What the fuck. I didn't have any a year or so ago, and I don't even like candy. As far as I'm aware, my teeth don't look gross. I am usually pretty good about brushing and even flossing and burning my mouth with listerine, so really, WTF?

Okay, science time. Our teeth have microscopic grooves and pits. Sometimes food and other random stuff can get in there that you can't brush out. Cavities are caused by a bacteria in your mouth that eats all the random food particles. The bacteria is in your saliva as well, and when it eats the food and multiplies, boom, cavities.

Your temperament's wrong for the priesthood
And teaching would suit you still less.

You might be asking what this has to do with anything derbyish. Well, because in derby you use mouthguards and they are often covered in spit and other random disgusting shit (e.g. sweat, floor crud, whatever), they harbor bacteria as well, especially if you eat before/during practice and don't clean your teeth/mouthguard (seriously, who has time for that). Then when you don't clean your mouthguard, the bacteria grows on it, and then when you put your mouthguard back into your mouth you're basically shoving a bajillion bacteria into your mouth. Then they get at all those easy to eat food-covered random spots, and have a giant bacteria party.

EWWWWWW.

Okay, gross! Now how do you prevent it? My dentist said something pretty obvious: "you should be cleaning your mouthguard every time you use it." Yes, I felt dumb. I normally brush it with a toothbrush every other week or so, but you can also listerine it (although I did that with mine once and it dyed it green) and you should replace your mouthguard every 6 or so months. I've had mine for over a year. Yeah, so that is some pretty nasty shit.

So because I didn't clean or replace my mouthguard often enough, I have cavities, and I have to go back in and get a shit load of fillings done. Sadface. I hate those stupid drills.

MORAL OF THE STORY: If you don't clean your mouthguard out, this could be you:

SERIOUSLY. VOMIT.
(Not my mouth, to be clear)

This stinks.

Deodorizing stinky derby pads has just reached a new low at Casa de Mouse.

Normally after practice I air out my pads immediately on a clothes airer, and when it's sunny outside I put the clothes airer outside for the day so the sun can burn off whatever stink molecules are hanging out on my gear. But it hasn't been sunny lately, and because it's also been cold the windows at my house have also been closed a lot. So what this means is now my house smells like sweaty derby pads and breakfast burritos a lot.

This is what I've now resorted to:

Yep, that's one of those air freshener/deodorizer febreze candle things. To be fair, I am using my old old wristguards, since my fingers are still a bit munted and it's hard to slide my new wristguards on (given that the splits bend the opposite way that my fingers currently do), so these have some residual stank on them. They work fine, but they just smell pretty bad.

The idea is that hot air rises, so hopefully hot, deodorizing air will rise and destink the pads. I'm not confident this will work. The worst that can happen is that I go to practice smelling like sweaty hibiscus and pineapple (since the candle I got was some tropical flavored one, I think it had a stupid name like "Hawaiian Aloha" or something dumb).

But still... ew. It may be time to do a pad wash.

New wheels! Whee!

It's not even that hard to see bits missing off this wheel.

I got some new wheels for my skates. About fucking time! My old ones were over a year old, they were bald and the urethane wasn't softening up so I was sliding out of turns, and chunks of them had actually broken off on three of my wheels (I think it's my inside wheels because I push pretty hard on those). I cleaned them about two weeks ago and was like "the edges of these feel weird" and they were bits missing. I don't know how long I'd skated like that. So for my birthday I decided to blow a bunch of money on new wheels and other derby stuff because I am a grownup and clearly responsible with money.
 
After doing some online research and polling, I decided to have a go on the new radar bullets. They feel lighter than my old wheels and they actually have treads, and I wanted to try something new--wheel configurations to get some optimal combination of roll and grip. I am pretty slow and I wanted to get more roll because I feel like I'm constantly pushing my stumpy legs; something that gives me more roll for my stride would be great. I ended up getting combination of the 88 and 91As. I didn't want to go much harder than that because I still need some grip.

SO FESTIVE! They look like frigging candy. I want to eat them.

I love how new wheels makes me feel like a goddamn viking. I was super stoked when they arrived, and they are SO pretty! Eeee! They're bright pink and (YESSS) bright yellow. Now I'm like bleh because I have one red shoelace and red toestops and you know how red and pink don't match, haha. :P But I'm testing out configurations and whatnot and I'll report on that once I have an opinon. Actually, just having the different hardness wheels gives me the opportunity to mix and match at all, so hopefully that will work well.

Note that I am assembling skates on my laptop because I am smart.

I have also been munted, so getting back to practice with new wheels was pretty rad! I think I was more confident as well, and I managed the 25/5 in 4:27, which wasn't too bad. Plus my wheels are still clean and pretty. I guess I'll really get to test them out when I go to SEASON'S BEATINGS NEXT WEEKEND. EEEEEE!

Return from munting

You'd think from all the munting I did that I'd get used to how awesome it feels to come back. I haven't, but it still feels awesome.

I have new gear too! New wheels and configurations, and also some anti-blister sock things. I'll have to do a product review of both of those at some point.

We were working on stuff for the WFTDA skills test, so we did 25/5. It was a good opportunity to test out the wheels, and I think they were okay. It was good to be back and I felt faster and more controlled in the corners than I had before. I did 25 laps in 4:27, which I think was pretty good for a month off skates. I want to knock that down to 4:20 though but I was happy with the result.

We also did a "pace line with hitting someone out of bounds" drill which was fun. Because of my size, hitting isn't the easiest thing for me, so Gritz suggested I try swooping/leaning people out instead of trying to hit them because if I bounce off them, all the worse for me. Basically, I should plant my foot in front of theirs and point my foot in the direction that I want them to go and then lean all my weight on them. It's much more effective than me trying to hit people twice my size, so I'll work on that too.

I also learned to (at least try to) do something I'll call the Sex Move--not because it's inappropriate or anything, but because Sexaqshunher was doing it. Basically you skate up to someone in the pace line, transition so you're going backwards, and then check them out of bounds. Because you're backwards, you're already ready to run back so they have to backtrack as well. It doesn't come naturally to me in derby yet, but that's something new to try out. Yeah. Being back on skates is good. :)

Bout time, in about two weeks

My VDL peeps are currently at the Gold Coast for Rollercon (eeee!) and I'm still slowly getting off the munted list. My fingers are still borked but at least I can sit down now. In the meantime, I have some new wheels to play with and I'm figuring out things like configurations and whatnot for them. In retrospect I probably should also have got some new bearings as well. Oh well.

Anyway, we're in the tail end of the year and a bunch of things are happening. I'm heading to practice this week for the first time in a month (after muntings and hospital visits). I'll also have new wheels and stuff, and WFTDA skills test is on next week at NRV, and then it's off to Season's Beatings! I'm listed to play in three bouts (the three newbie ones) and hopefully I won't suck too much. The roster is up here. I also did it so I wouldn't have to bring a bunch of different colored shirts, heh. Gritz is driving up and I am rooming with her which should be fun. I haven't been on the road with NRV before so I'm kind of excited about this (since they do a bit of travel to bout other people, so getting some experience with that this year before I bout with them will be good). Also, afterparty and whatnot.

Anyway, I have to admit I am a bit nervous because some of newbie people actually ARE bouting now and stuff and I'm still being crap and not drafted to a team. But we'll see how it goes; all I want is to not get mega injured or whatever.

Time for a quick recap

I got some 187 ReCaps for my kneepads. There's nothing wrong with my current ones, except pne thing I noticed with the material on the caps is that little black bits of shit shear off them every time I do falls. But this was much more just for aesthetic purposes than anything like getting new gear because I needed new gear. Plus they were only $20, so yeah.

Everything is velcro.

Basically, the 187 derby kneepads are made up of wads of velcro and you can switch out the caps. I'm always a fan of kneepads where you can replace the caps, since your knees probably take the most beating of all your padded up joints. Also, I've known people's kneepads to crack from them just falling really smashily (yes now a real word) on them, so having a set which are replaceable (as opposed to the ones that are riveted to your kneepads) makes your pads last a bit longer since you don't need to replace the whole pad. Plus with these ones you can take the caps off to wash your pads.

They're all nice and clean and unscuffed now, and I can't wait until tomorrow when I can get some good scratches on them. Because we're on a roller rink surface for derby, you need to get some good scratches/nicks in your pads for extra stoppage. Also the other day I was talking to one of the freshies who had new pads, and she was sad that her pads were getting scuffed, but I was all like "no that means you're doing it right!" so yeah. I want to get some scratches in. I've still got my black kneepad caps, and those are fine, but I might use the yellow ones anyway. Yay.

I have a residual worry that the material for the colored caps might be worse than the black ones so the colored ones are structurally weaker, but I have no reason to actually think that. We'll see anwyay when I have a slide on them tomorrow.

So yes. This is me blinging out my derby gear. I'm such a glamor jammer, ugh. :P But yeah, they're not too expensive, and they're pretty cute. See?

This one needs an angry face to match my elbow pads.

Time for some new wheels, methinks

I was looking through my blog and I realized the wheels I'm skating on (my Super-Gs, which I reviewed here) are now just over a year old. Happy birthday, wheels. They've sure taken me a lot of places. They're also completely bald. I have been thinking about regrooving them for about 6 months, now, but I am a lazy butt and can't be bothered.

So cute! But too high (and wide).
Sadface indeed.

I want to get some new wheels. Suggestions are welcome! I like the fact that my Super-Gs are pretty low, at 58mm (instead of the normal 62). That 4mm difference really makes me feel much closer to the floor, such that I'm more confident with picking up my feet and agility stuff. They're also really grippy, and at the time when I got them I was moving from a 95A so a 88A was like insta-control. But given that I am now skating on a stickier floor, I really want something that will give me more push for each stride I take. I really want to get more speed, now that I've got a bit more agility and control over my feet.

There are a couple of wheels I'm looking at, like the new Atom Snap (and it comes in yellow!) but that is a 62mm and I don't know if I'd want to go back to that. Plus the wheel is quite wide (44mm) which means more push, but at the cost of more likely to get clipped/less agility. I was also thinking about Jukes, but they only come in 93A, and I think that might be a bit too hard. Because I don't have much weight, I need something in a lower number for some grip and control. But I don't want something with too much grip because I also don't have much strength for pushing.

Maybe I should just get the Super-Gs in the 91A red core, WHICH WAS WHAT I WAS GOING TO DO A YEAR AGO ANYWAY.

The Chairman has arrived.

I don't have classes on Monday, so normally I hang out at home and do some class preparation and stuff. I was sitting outside my house reading and the mailman came and had a delivery for me. My new helmet decals had arrived!

Also, I intentionally picked a Chinese-looking font.
It's called "Wonton". Ze Boyfriend says it's racist.

Okay, so firstly, you'll probably notice that they say "Chairman Mouse". Yes, I am officially changing my derby name. I submitted a thing to TwoEvils a few months ago, but they're working on January now so I won't even know if it is official for ages. But I don't really care, since we don't care about 2E now, do we? I think the new name's been growing on me, since I thought of the change. I like that it's a play on "Chairman Mao", and since I'm Chinese and probably going to be branded a communist in this country, it was fitting. And I get to keep the "Mouse" part because I'm little. Also, I like the idea of having a dictator for my derby alter-ego.
 
The thing to do was obviously to stop doing work and put the new decal on! Yes, I actually did this. My poor students. Oh well. I had prepared for this day last week by buying some rubbing alcohol, some wet/dry paper (like sandpaper, but finer) and some hardcore cleaning shit called "Goof-Off" which removes shit like gum from carpet and stickers and anything from anything else really.

Anyway, in with the new and all that! So, the first thing I had to do was take off the old derby name and number. The name wasn't so bad, since originally what I had done was print out my name and use a big piece of packing tape to stick it down. I have a white helmet, so the white paper on the white helmet made the black text stand out a fair amount and it worked okay. It did get a bit grubby over the year:

Also, I'm keeping the stars. I worked hard for those.

Peeling the tape off wasn't so bad except that it had kind of fused to the helmet in a goopy sort of thing and only came off in tiny strips. The bit under the actual name with the paper was probably the cleanest part of my helmet to date. It was all still shiny and bright white and not covered in scratches. I gave it a bit of a clean with some paper towel and rubbing alcohol and then that was pretty much done:

It looks like a giant shiny egg. For my egghead.

I have to admit that it was a bit sad, taking away one derby identity and replacing it with another one. Or at least taking that one away and then having nothing there. :( Maybe I'm just an old sap like that. But that said, the back of the helmet still looks the same as before. I'm not a huge fan of sticking craploads of stickers and whatnot all over my helmet, so I guess this is all I'm going to have on it:

F is still for Fucking Awesome.

The derby number was a fucking bitch to get off. For one thing, I had used strips of duct tape originally, but then they fell off, leaving that cloth strippy stuff underneath but no color, so I had just colored it in with a paint marker because that was faster than making new duct tape cloth strips and possibly duct taping my hands together (which is what happened the first time). I had to use rubbing alcohol and a towel, and it took ages. I got impatient and used some wet/dry paper, and that helped although the dissolved bits of paint marker got into the the little scratches so it ended up getting a bit gray, and then I had to buff that out.

This bit was a fucking pain in the ass and took over an hour to do. I also ended up just using the Goof Off shit for the 3, because that wasn't going anywhere and by this time I'd used half a bottle of rubbing alcohol and the fumes were making me slightly high. Also then I knocked over the bottle of rubbing alcohol and got it all over my front steps(since I was responsibly doing this in a well ventilated area) and then also burned my leg on the metal edge of the step to the house while I was trying to clean that up. I'm kind of surprised and thankful that none of the rubbing alcohol got onto the cat that lives downstairs, and directly under my stairs at the time. Anyway. Don't huff chemical fumes, kids.

After having all these weird chemicals on my hands I also went
and ate lunch. Because I am a viking. Or an idiot.

FINALLY, when I was done, it was time to put the new decals on! One thing to note is that I originally had my name/number around the opposite way from what most people do, which is that your name is on your right side of your helmet and your number on the left. (I guess this is because when we started doing derby, Sarge would stand in the middle of the track and to see our names he needed them on the left, not the right. But when you are skating past audience members on the outside of the track, you'd need your name on the right so they know what to yell out.) So I had to reverse that.

I got my decals from TLKelly Graphics from Etsy here. That one's just for one color, but I got the fancy two-color one, so it was considerably pricier, at something like $28. Like, whoa. But I figure that I was going to be a grownup and spend responsibly... not. But they look fucking good and they were quick with the order and design so yeah, why not. I actually emailed them to ask what the font would look like (since the font I'm using is custom and not one of their standard ones) and they did some mock-ups for me within the hour. Then we changed font sizes and placement but yeah. I liked it enough to jump on the wagon the next day.

The first one I put on was the number, since that was smaller and the area for that was relatively clean. The hardest thing about putting decals on is that you are effectively putting something that is flat and two-dimensional on a curved three-dimensional surface. The problem also with decals is that you press down parts of it and they actually stick to the helmet and not to the adhesive thingy that they came on and then you're like FUCK and have to wonkily stick the whole thing down.

But the number wasn't too hard, I guess:

It still looks like a mouse, in Wonton font.

I think I would have liked it a litle bit further forward, but whatever. It was stuck down by this point. The name was a fucking pain in the ass to put on though. I have a pretty small head, and therefore a pretty small helmet, and it was hard to position it right so that I wasn't going to have the name spill over to the MUNT bandage on the back or the monster face on the front. So that was annoying. Also because the decal is fucking huge, it was much fiddlier than just the number. After some wrangling and use of scissors and swearing, I managed to get this thing done:
 

I fucked up the "M" in "Mouse" a little bit because there was a huge air bubble at this point but nothing I could really do about it. This is why when I was little I never bothered to put that Con-Tact shit on my books because I always fucked it up with air bubbles in it and whatever. Ugh. But yeah, it does look pretty fucking awesome, despite the imperfections. I love the font with the black outline, and I like that it looks kind of comic booky as well.

Overall, I think it's pretty good, although $28 (plus $1 shipping) is probably a bit steep to blow on something like this, especially if you're not the kind of person who is good at putting decals on helmets and might fuck it up. I guess for that price you could get a decal and pay someone to put it on your helmet for you in a way that won't induce stress and swearing and air bubbles. But whatever, it's on the helmet now and I fucking think it is rad.

P.S. This will mean at some point I will also have to change the name of this blog, but we will get to that point later. I'm still getting used to the new derby identity.

Ze Boyfriend is awesome

I'm not the gushy type, but I have to post this because Ze Boyfriend decided to get me a surprise. I normally hate surprises because I'm one of those impatient types and I like to know stuff. But check out this awesome ring that he got me:

It's a custom ring that he got someone to make at a website that normally does monogrammed rings and whatever but he got them to put my derby number on it. AND THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RING IS A BOTTLE OPENER. I have opened many bottles with it in the past week. Yay.

I am now wondering if there's a way I can heat up the ring without injuring myself, so I can brand people with it when I hipcheck them or something. Or maybe an inkpad will do in a pinch. But yeah, isn't that awesome? :D

Also the picture makes me look like I have sausage fingers, hahahaha.

Boudi and Mouse in San Francisco, Part 1

The little skate icons are so we know what we're going to do,
in case we forget.

Yay my derby wife and I are reunited! Boudi was on the other side of the country doing research and stuff and then she came and visited me! We've only got a few days together before she heads to Tucson so we've been doing some serious catchup and skatey things. Yay. Because I am a little bit overexcited and/or OCD, I made her a list of awesome things to do, which was going to optimally cover skating things and also eating lots of awesome food.

Anyway, we started with Mexican food in the Mission before hitting up Cruz Skate Shop. Motley remembered who I was, and asked how the Antiks were going. I showed her the scar on my foot from the super gross blister I got earlier this year. And I needed new wrist guards, so she recommended some things. I now have the new Triple Eight RD Wrist Guards, which I'll do a product review for later after I've had a bit of a go on them. But yeah, Boudi got new wrist guards too, so now we are matchies. And then we went and did some touristy stuff like go to Muir Woods and stuff, and then it was time for a skate!!

Neither of us had skated for a while so we wanted to hit up somewhere flat and away from cars and pedestrians for a bit of a skate first, so we went to the skate area at Golden Gate Park. Happily, Old-guy-with-the-boombox was there, doing spins on his front wheels and toe stops (seriously, wtf, I want to learn how to do that even if it has absolutely NO use in derby). We skated a bunch there and caught up on little tips and skills we had learned from our time away with other leagues. Between us, we've skated with like eight leagues or something. Boudi had this really cool tip about hopping onto your toe stops when you're pushed out of bounds, instead of falling/stopping and then coming back into play. It saves a bunch of time in a jam, but I think I need more practice skating fast and then popping onto my toe stops and turning around. I also got to scuff/break in my new kneepads (which also are due for a product review), which was nice.

We then decided to be more adventurous and skate in the park. We were on the sidewalks and didn't have much of a problem with outdoor skating (except for a part which was slightly hilly but had also been watered lately so it was slick), and we went to the California Academy of Sciences and skated around the Music Concourse out the front of it. It's pretty and flat, and apart from some old men and a little girl on roller skates with her family, it was empty. Yay, more skate!

Me, Boudi and Francis' Butt.

There was a fountain and some circular paths, and we did some continual crossing for a bit around a statue of Francis Scott Key, who was the guy who wrote the Star Spangled Banner. He has his own statue with all the verses around it, haha. It was pretty fun, and it's on a hill looking down over the rest of the concourse and it's all pretty and whatnot. Then we headed to the end of the concourse, where the bowl was, and it actually said NO SKATING on the ground. Lol indeed. We didn't even know that the area was a No Skating one until we got to the end, since it was all one continual concourse.

But then, of course, instead of just being like "oh we should leave because it says NO SKATING" we took photos of ourselves with the signs on the ground. But anyway, that bit wasn't too fun to skate--it was bumpy and kind of full of chairs on gravel--so we headed back around the concourse and up to the path towards the skate area and the car. The sun was setting when we were done. We actually skated for about two hours all up, but it didn't seem like much of a hard skate, although we were really hungry and then went home where Ze Boyfriend ordered pizza for dinner for us. We also went down to the local dessert cafe and got craploads of pie (and some very specific reheating instructions for optimal deliciousness on chocolate lava cake). Nom.

Incriminating evidence.

Also, at the Concourse, we stealth skated up to a squirrel, which seemed to look straight at us but not realise what we were doing when we were rolling towards it.

Anyway, more skating tomorrow! Yay!!

ANTIKS! EEEEEEeeeeeee!

 ...in which I build my skates. WITH MY HANDS.

Yesterday, I got a very exciting phone call. The peeps down at Cruz Skate Shop called to let me know that my Antiks had come in. EEEEEEEE INDEED! Today I went down there to get my Antiks. How excitement. I kind of wanted to wait until Motley was around, but she's not working until Monday, so yeah. I guess I could always go there and show her what I got (even though I bet she's seen like 3865926352962 pairs of the damn things).

So I went there and got this box:

You could tell it was mine because it was the one with the ridiculously small size:

Size 3 is the smallest Antik ever made. Yay.

And inside were my boots!! YAY!! I don't have a picture of the actual inside of the box, because I got excited and forgot to take a picture of the skates then. I just got the boots and plates, and I was going to put my wheels, toe stop, bushings etc. on it instead of getting new ones. After all, I just got new toe stops and bushings, and I like my wheels. So I tried on the boot in the store, except obviously without wheels I couldn't stand up in my boots on just the plate or I'd bend the axles. But yeah, my boots were there in the box and I got to lace them up and whatever. One thing that I noticed with the Antiks is that they have ridiculously long laces. Like, the ones I have are just the standard 100" ones. Now, 100 inches is a LOT. That's like 2.5 metres of lace per boot, for you metric people out there. That's like 1.5 times my height. Some people do the old school wraparound thing around their ankle, but I didn't want to. It reduces agility in your ankle movement, and makes it like fiddlier to do up anyway, and doing up Antiks already takes some getting used to. I'll write more about that when I skate on them this weekend and do a product review.


But yeah. I can't roll around on just boots and plates; we need to make some goddamn skates! Basically I had to take out the kingpins and switch my bushings, put the wheels on the new axles and put the toe stop in. Eric (who was in the store today) was with another customer (or two, and then like ten people came into the store) so he set me up with some skate tools while he helped them out. I only vaguely remembered my skate anatomy lesson from Steffin, but it seemed easy enough, and all the bits seemed to come out and go into the right places easily, so phew. I diassembled my Diablos, and moved the parts over, but I had to also reassemble their parts since I might be selling or giving my skates away to some newbie. So yeah, doing everything one way in taking the parts out and then doing it back the other way was kind of tricky.

It was really fun, fiddling around with the tools and whatnot and moving parts from my Diablos onto my Antiks. I got DynaPro plates, because it was either that or the Powerdyne Reactor plates, which would have been nice but would have made my skates close to $800. No other plates came small enough to put on a size 3 boot. (Also, it's a size 2 plate and SO cute. The curved bit is pretty much like an inch long.) One thing that I thought was pretty cool is that the DynaPro plates that I have don't require those giant nuts and washers for toe stops, like they do on the Ridells--you know, the ones that require the 3-way Powerdyne Skate Tool to take off, and then you have to adjust the height and hope that 1) you've screwed it in tight enough and 2) the nut that is adjusting the height doesn't move around. Instead, the plates come with an allen key, kind of like the ones you get with Ikea furniture. The plate has the hole for the toe stop to screw in, and then a little thing that looks like a line machined to the side of the hole, and then a gap for the allen key next to that. Basically, you screw the toe stop in, and then hold it in place by tightening the plate around the toe stop with the allen key. That was kind of new for me, and I was a bit worried that tightening the toe stop so much would pretty much break the allen key. Haha. 

My skate has arguably the tinest plate in the world.

The powerdyne bushings that came with the skates were pretty hard (they're stock bushings, meh). I guess that means some newbie gets to skate on brand new bushing though, for whatever that might be worth. I'm not sure how tight to put the trucks on the Diablos now, but whatevs. Anyway, I moved my orange bushings over from my Diablos, but I've got those conical ones, so OF COURSE I put the damned things on backward first. Ugh. And it's not like I haven't looked at how they went on my skates; I knew that the pointy bit was on the bottom; I think the kingpins threw me off for some reason. I don't know. But yeah, it all eventually got done, even if I had to do it twice because I fucked it up the first time. (I wonder what skating on that would have been like...?)

Anyway, construction time was over. My hands were all grubby, but whatever. Time to go home and wear my skates! I coughed up my money (with discount and deposit, $425) and took my skates home. Well, my Antiks now with wheels and everything are skates, yes? And then I also took my Diablos (or what's left of them). Yay. I was so excited to get them home and roll them around on the floor. And then I got a parking ticket outside Cruz. Lame.

I've just worn my Antiks around the house for a bit today, which was really fun. I relaced them with my yellow laces (also I forgot to put the toe covers on so I'd have had to undo the giant laces if I wanted to stick with those anyway). I still need to check the truck tightness, the toe stop length and how tight I want to tie the skates around the ankle but they seem to be pretty good. They're really padded on the inside, and there's the option of heat molding parts of the skate (like the sides and toe and around the heel). I haven't really done that yet but I might try that out or something for shiggles. Product review to come when I've actually used them properly.

 I can't wait to take them to training! Weekend skating with BAD, here I come. WHOO.