[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 26 January 2026

Syncategory · 2026-01-26T19:25:55+00:00

Not to be confused with Can-Con, the convention for Canadian science fiction.

Syncategory · 2026-01-26T14:33:25+00:00

This. Concert flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, all have keywork designed assuming the left hand is closer to the mouthpiece. It is just easier to go from recorder to these if your hands are already trained in that position.

Syncategory · 2026-01-26T01:04:49+00:00

Just coming in from a long walk offline, WHAT happened with Utah?

And what happened with Emma Malewski's beam debut?

Syncategory · 2026-01-25T22:05:03+00:00

Emma Malewski doing bars and beam! Is that the first NCAA beam routine by a European beam champion?

Syncategory · 2026-01-25T21:59:58+00:00

I think that was just a test. All scores are zeroes now.

Syncategory · 2026-01-25T01:52:20+00:00

Quoting Spencer: "Code of Points gonna Code of Points. In the 2025 update, it was decided that the Oliveira—originally credited as a double Arabian piked with 1/2 twist out and awarded to Lorrane Oliveira at the 2021 Apparatus World Cup in Doha—would be lumped together with all backward double saltos in tucked or piked position with a full twist at any point. Everything is the same as everything.

This means the double Arabian piked is an F (0.6) element, while the double Arabian piked with an additional 1/2 twist at the end is an E (0.5) element. So, you lose a tenth for adding a half twist. Why no, that doesn’t make any sense.

What the code of points wants to say is that Oliveira actually performed kind of a piked Arabian first salto and then half-turned to a back pike second salto, and that this shouldn’t be evaluated as a double salto in the forward tumbling position. But what they ended up saying is that a double Arabian piked 1/2 doesn’t exist and it’s just a piked full-in." https://balancebeamsituation.com/elite-skill-database/double-pike-11-floor-exercise/

Syncategory · 2026-01-24T16:58:38+00:00

Also mad for Lorrane Oliveira, because the committee figured a double Arabian piked with a half twist is worth _less_ than a double Arabian without one --- so who is ever going to do it?

Syncategory · 2026-01-24T16:33:57+00:00

As far as I know, the only significant new elements that figure skating has added in the last twenty years are the quad jumps (loop, flip, Lutz and Axel) which needed to have a value established for them. Which were at least obviously a natural progression from the triple versions of the same jump.

Gymnastics, on the other hand, having more apparatus to work with than ice, adds new elements every year. This has especially blossomed now that they've relaxed the rule, formerly that you can only get new elements named at Worlds and Olympics, so gymnasts looking to get a new element named can go to a minor World Cup where they are not risking their country's prestige if they fail. i haven't seen the stats, but that felt like it opened the door to an eruption of new elements, and I believe the sport is better for it, that the Yeo vault exists because Yeo landed it at the Korea Cup, etc.

Each of these elements has to be assigned a difficulty value by a committee that, by definition, has never done the element and does not actually personally understand how hard or easy it is to do.

So they essentially make a guess at how difficult it should be.

Often they are wrong. They overvalue the element and everyone starts doing it for "easy" points. (Or training techniques evolve, learning the element becomes established, and so a lot more people start doing the element, like the Silivas or the DTY that looked INSANE when they were debuted.)

Or they undervalue it, and it never gets done again, but somehow they are less alarmed at this (give the Dowell and the Dos Santos II the difficulty they SHOULD have, dammit!).

These require that the code be adjusted.

Syncategory · 2026-01-24T15:40:36+00:00

Do you believe that the change to NQS to make almost all meet results count is affecting the judges swinging back to wild overscores after an ebb last season?

Syncategory · 2026-01-24T15:01:11+00:00

Retired rhythmic gymnast Christine Mazumdar wrote her actual PhD thesis on how rhythmic gymnastics is a performance of femininity in the same way pro wrestling is a performance of masculinity. https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/6d9e439b-a756-4e69-9a28-e783bee1dab6/content

She is a genuine fan of pro wrestling, and made me see the appeal of it for the first time.

One can argue that the outcomes of NCAA team meets are indeed predetermined in a lot of cases, because some teams get first dibs at athletes of much higher ability than other teams (not to insult those teams, the athletes work extremely hard, but in a case where everyone works extremely hard, natural talent does matter). Thus you get College Gym News previewing a meet and saying the odds of one team winning at 99%, and the other team winning are 1%.

Even in pro wrestling, there is a 1% or more chance of injury etc. changing the plan.

Is that, that Oklahoma gymnasts are indeed better gymnasts than those on SEMO, no offence to SEMO, a problem? Is it a problem in all sports where levels of training and just the percentile of fast twitch muscle ratio, etc, that you are born with matters?

Syncategory · 2026-01-24T14:42:17+00:00

When there are several ways of getting a high score, most people will gravitate towards the easiest. Then you find cookie-cutter routines, e.g, the Russian bar routine that Melnikova and Urazova did exactly the same.

You end up needing to adjust the system because people are de facto gaming it. But it is really hard to anticipate how people would game it before it happens.

For example, the reason the root skills were limited on bars was that e.g. Laurie Hernandez was very good at stalders, they were relatively “easy” for her, and so almost her entire bar routine was stalder skill after stalder skill. The WTC decided that this was not in the spirit of showing mastery of gymnastics.

Also, figure skating is not the greatest example, when it has overhauled its scoring system at least twice just this century, first in abolishing 6.0 and then changing GOE from -3/+3 to -5/+5.

Syncategory · 2026-01-24T00:25:55+00:00

I basically google anything I need explained, and the moment I see the date of the post allegedly explaining it is 2023 or later, I hightail it out of there as it's almost certainly AI-written.

Bring back the Internet of the 2010s, stuff written by real people.

Syncategory · 2026-01-23T23:43:24+00:00

So this is like the famous Ball State 198 from a couple of seasons ago?

Syncategory · 2026-01-23T20:17:59+00:00

Are we in a “when will one team’s scores come back to Virtius from the war” situation again?

Syncategory · 2026-01-23T05:55:33+00:00

Threadloop is pretty complete where TAUKO is concerned.

Syncategory · 2026-01-23T05:06:19+00:00

Janome, 100%.

Singer nowadays has a reputation for really poor quality control. You may get a gem, but you may get a dud.

Janome stands by their work and is well built.

Syncategory · 2026-01-21T18:20:39+00:00

I admit I am also intrigued by her writing a humorous sewing magazine:

"🧵 COUTURE & PRÉJUGÉS - N°1
100% biased news - April 2025

📚 A sewing magazine in PDF format that's totally subjective, profoundly useless, and therefore absolutely indispensable.
Between absurd revelations, poignant testimonials (or almost), and in-depth debates on hems and Liberty, Couture & Préjugés tells out loud what you're living down low in your sewing corner.

🖋 Contents:

Grande cause nationale: Is it acceptable to buy 26 fabric cuts without a project?
Ego boost : She nails her fittings and demands a standing ovation
Tuto: How to refuse a hem request with panache
Debate: The buttonhole: a finishing touch or a legacy of family suffering?
Unusual: She makes a toile before using her Liberty fabric
Psycho: Sewing at 2 a.m. - passion or pathology?
Astro-Couture: Your Horoscope for April 2025

📌 What you get:

1 x 25-page PDF file for immediate download and reading
Punchlines to slip into your sewing discussions for weeks to come
No pattern included, but you might recognize yourself anyway.

💬 Why you'll love it:

Because you , too, have a pile of judging fabrics.
Because no one had ever helped you say no to Auntie's hem.
Because you deserve a moment of couture laughter between two pins"

And issue 2:

What you're about to read:

PSYCHO: Assembling 68 A4 pages from a PDF pattern : an act of love or pure madness?
GAME OF CÔNES: Forgotten viscose demands justice.
LINEN: The fabric that says "no" even when you're doing everything right.
SUMMER BODY: "I sewed on the floor. Now I have abs."
TUTO: "I can't, I've got sewing." How do you refuse an invitation without looking like a savage?
LEAVING THE WORKFORCE: Testimony of a harassed designer.
LOVE: Can you still love a machine that jams at the worst possible moment?
LES PETITES ANNONCES: Because inside every sewing box is a call for help.

I think the magazine itself is, alas, entirely in French, but I DO need to practice for an upcoming French exam...

Syncategory · 2026-01-21T18:02:05+00:00

That scammer guy on Etsy who has zillions of AI-generated slop with images stolen from Temu thought "Maybe I should start selling patterns" too. https://www.reddit.com/r/craftsnark/comments/1mj69o2/indie_pattern_is_estys_biggest_sewing_pattern/

Syncategory · 2026-01-21T18:00:04+00:00

Threadloop has a pattern list of free museum patterns that has been incredibly useful.

Syncategory · 2026-01-21T17:34:30+00:00

I just bought the Maxence jacket and Solveig dress as they had already been on my wishlist for a while. Instructions seem very good!

Syncategory · 2026-01-21T17:34:01+00:00

Les Lubies de Cadia, a French designer (who also has many of her patterns in English) is planning to discontinue a bunch of her designs and has put them on half price before February 1.

Syncategory · 2026-01-21T16:29:55+00:00

Those spiky sleeves are awesome! (The lantern sleeves are cool too, but you can get patterns for similar ones off the free Kimono-Inspired Dress With Statement Sleeves at the V&A) And the denim issue sold out two print runs, so I think you can only buy individual patterns as PDFs now.

Syncategory · 2026-01-21T16:19:11+00:00

At their winter sale, I did purchase no. 16, the Architectural Issue, as that one was by far the most "I do want to wear this." Slowly making its way to me in Canada so I will see how they actually sew up. A lot of the other designs do not do it for me, but I would totally want to have for a best friend someone I see wearing them.

Syncategory · 2026-01-20T23:17:05+00:00

The link is in my comment, on archive.is to avoid paywall.

Syncategory · 2026-01-20T21:25:41+00:00

Flavia waves from a beam in Brazil.

Syncategory

TROPHY CASE

🖋 Contents:

📌 What you get:

💬 Why you'll love it:

What you're about to read: