February 20 - Quarter Finals and Beyond

Today is one rather huge day, I'd say.

J.R. is competiting at 6:29 PM in the quarter finals in the second round.

He'll be skating against Jialiang Han of China, Thibaut Fauconnet of France, Nicola Rodigari of Italy, and Si-Bak Sung of... Korea.

Korea? Again? Of course. They are mighty fine people.

If he wins this round, he'll move on to the semifinals at 7:28 tonight. The finals are at 8:05 tonight.

So by 8:30 tonight, we'll know everything that we wait in anticipation for right now as I type this.

Speed Skating - Short Track - Success

Ready for results?

Well, if you're a J.R. Celski fan, you must already know. But here we go, the reults from the Men's 1000 m Heats.

Overall, Celski ranked third.
This is out of around 32 skaters total.

He was in the 7th heat. You can read about the competitors a few posts back.

Out of his heat, he got 2nd, right after Jung-Su Lee of Korea - the skater who got the gold in the 1500m as Ohno and Celski took silver and bronze.

Overall he got 3rd after the two Koreans, Jung-Su (who got 2nd) and Si-Bak Sung.

Si-Bak Sung currently holds the Olympic record for this event.

I think racing against Jung-Su Lee was a huge factor that helped Celski to the top of the ranks. He had it in him. He was capable, of course. But, when you race against some of the best, that forces you to go faster to keep up. In a time limit that small, there's no time to know how fast you are going.

Example for you to try with someone sometime. Ask someone to raise their hands as high as they can. Wait a moment. Then ask them to raise them higher.

At the beginning, they rasied their hands their highest -- yet after you asked them to raise them higher, they could do it. Just like skating. Ask a skater to skate their fastest, they will, but there is still more in them.

Then again, the heats truly aren't huge indicators of how the skaters will perform. It does reconfirm the capabilities of the Koreans, but overall, the skaters just needed to do well enough to make it into the quarter finals.

The quarter finals will be at 6:29 PM on Saturday, the 20th.

Celski Money

Today at school I decided to hand out J.R. Bucks. 'What are those?' you may ask. They are basically like Monopoly money with J.R.'s face on them.

Don't they sound wonderful? I think so. As did many of my classmates.

I left J.R. Bucks in the backpacks of my peers, on their desks, on tables in the library, and in the hands of a few fans.

You may be left wondering what was done with those "Bucks" after they were left in the capable hands of my peers. I can't say for sure, but I did give them a few suggestions. Such as:

• make a paper airplane and fly it into some one's hair. I tried this and it didn't quite work as well as I would have hoped. Making paper airplanes out of 4"x2" paper that can actually fly, is difficult.
• tape them to your elbows.
• put them in your shoes.
• give them to your dog to chew on.
• and many more. The possibilities are infinite.
  

600 Views

Over 600 views in less than a week.
Not too shabby.

And why is this?

Because J.R. Celski is such a capable, skilled athlete!

8 Hours and 57 Minutes till...

What will you do n the next 8 hours and 57 minutes.

Think about the fact that JR is about to enter into a second "division" or "event" of short track in the Olympics? Of course you'll be thinking about that.

This will be the fourth time J.R. will be stepping onto the ice this year as a competetor.

He will be skating in the 7th heat against Takahiro Jufimoto of Japan, Peter Gysel of Belgium, and Jung-Su Lee of Korea.

What? Jung-Su Lee... again? Lee was the Olympian who won the gold in the 1500 M against Ohno and Celski.

But I'm confident in JR. He's one capable athlete and we know he'll put forth everything he has each and every race.

At 17:27 today, you can bet I'll be jumping up and down, hoping and praying, and shouting, "Go Jay-Are! Go J.R.!"

A Graduate of Sherwood Forest

As a friend of mine was passing Sherwood Forest Elementary, he saw this magnificent sign. Knowing of my recent fan-age, he sent it to me.

As a fan, I then felt that it was my duty to share this with the world. Doesn't it make you smile? We are a proud town, Federal Way.

Our next step of fandom?
Early next month, Magi and I plan on doing some Celski sight-seeing.
We will travel to:

• Pattison's West- Where he used to roller skate.
• Todd Beamer High School- He went here for his sophomore year. My sister goes here now and may be able to get us to meet a few of his teachers.
• And now, perhaps, Sherwood Forest Elementary- He is a graduate from here, as evidenced by the aforementioned sign.

Again, congratulations J.R. Celski for being such a capable athlete.

Shirts & Socks

Yes! Celski Shirt II.

This one is done with an iron on transfer. The design can be seen below.

In addition - socks were made! We now have Celski Socks so when we walk around without shoes on, he can smile at the world. I just wish I had had them a week ago for the Blue Scholars concert, then he could have attended too.

This being a fan thing is quite a lot of fun. I'm definitly looking forward to Wednesday.

Celski Shirt

Tonight, we made J.R. Celski shirts.

This is the first one of a series. We both know this girl from junior high. She was a fan of someone so, hence, she wore a shirt every day in honour of that person. Is that what a good fan does? Well, just in case, we are making some shirts because there are not many JR shirts out there (besides the Just Rocks shirts).

I cut out a stencil and I have to say, I am quite pleased with how it turned out considering I haven't done a stencil of a face before.

I think he looks like an astronaut.

Run the Good Race

1 Corinthians 9:24

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Philippians 4:13

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

God is who we can rely on for our strength, power, courage, and peace. There are so many tasks that seem near impossible - like skating in the Olympics just a short time after getting a huge gash in your leg, or even getting an endless mound of homework done - but through God, well, anything is possible. I'm not saying anything we want is impossible, but whatever is in his will. A lot of times we try and get through this life relying on our own strength. I've tried it, didn't get me far. Relying on the strength of my heavenly father, someone I know I can trust.

We know God has a plan for our lives. He knows exactly what will happen and it is all according to his will. Gold medal? Bronze? No medal? God has it planned for his own good. In that, we can find our peace.

The peace of God, what a concept. What an amazing thing. The Bible says it transcends all understanding - it's beyond anything we can imagine on this earth. It isn't the peace found in yoga or colours, it's God's peace, and that's something I want.

J.R. Music Selections

Ready to listen to some music like J.R.?

After some research, we've been able to check out some tunes that just might be the same that JR would listen to while driving around Federal Way, California, or Vancouver.

On his Twitter, he can be heard listening to songs by artists such as Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, and one of our local favourites, the Blue Scholars. Others include Ohmega Watts and Erykah Badu.

From various interviews we tracked down that his favourite song to sing in the car is "probably, “Just Friends,” by Musiq Soulchild."

Just leave this window open and you can pretend like you are in his automobile, ok, not really. That is brinking on creepy...

Going Viral

J.R. Celski is going viral.

It's been interesting to see how much attention he has been getting lately. For most people, when they first hear of a person, first thing they do is head to Google and do the ever-popular-ever-new verb of googling them. When we first looked up JR, there was a bit of information on him, but he wasn't "huge." There were a few blog interviews, newspaper articles. Now he is news... to the point that if you look him up on Google, he shows up with Google Trends. Take a look at that, 8th most popular search in the hour.

He also made it to the homepage of MSN with teammate, Apolo Ohno.

If you had been following him on Twitter, the morning of the ceremony he had some 800 followers, or some number close to that. Now he has 3,083. Every time I check, it seems like hs has some 1,000 more.

His page on Facebook now has 3,791 fans. Before, it was under 1,000.

Anyways, this is just the beginning for this chill guy. M&M are excited, but still deciding how much we like it. We're trusting that he won't let it get to his head too much. Look at Ohno, doing ads for GAP and other organizations. What is the future of Celski? All I know is that we'll continue to be loyal fans and cheer him on.

Just 3 days until his next event!

Bronze Sucess

Day One is done.

Today was the day of the Men's 1500 M in/on the Short Track.

Ever so exciting - so many emotions, but the main one expressed was joy. Our dear friend J.R. Celski did beautifully today. He is very very capable.

The day started with the Heats - he conquered.

Semi-finals? Conquered. Most definitily.

What about those Finals, eh?
Conquered in style!

Style as in, very quick, speedy, and full of grace.

J.R. did not receve the gold, nor the silver, but he did get a bronze which is still altogether quite impressive.

The gold went to Jung-Su Lee of Korea. He currently holds the olympic record for this event.
Silver went to Apolo Ohno, well known guy so I don't feel the need to elaborate much on him right now.

Bronze went to... J.R. Celski!

That is what I would consider success.

His time was 2:18.053 - that's just .0442 seconds behind the gold medalist. So, while USA did not come home with a gold in short track, yet, they did earn, win, and achieve two medals.... and both to folks from the good ol' Pacific Northwest.

Gut gemacht. Well done. Jawohl J.R. Celski. Way to make us proud and smile.

Men's 1500 m - Heats - Results

J.R. just competed in his vary first Olympic game... and I'd say, he was quite successful. There were some 36 athletes competing to make it into the semi-finals. Our dear friend got -- 2nd place in rank overall. While it I know that preliminaries aren't the best representations of an athlete, in JR's case, I would guess that is was crucial.

I'm not saying I know, how could I, but it would seem like this to me.

He just got the gash some 5 or so months ago. Huge gash on his leg, and has been recovering quickly, but in time for the Olympics? Yes. He thought so. But it seems like this would be the way for him to prove to himself how capable he was.

So, if you look at the chart below, out of all the skaters he got second. The one person ahead of him is the dude from Korea, and he is the guy with the Olympic record for this event. Not bad. You can see Apolo Ohno is pretty far down, but that's no worry for America. That guy knows his capabilities. He knows what he can do and he didn't need to get his moral up.

Go JR! You did it! You made it through the first heat and it's time for you to move on. We'll be cheering for you all the way.

[click to make larger]

Final Countdown

30 minutes to go.

30 minutes to determine if he gets to move on to the semi-finals.

Apolo Ohno, fellow American team mate, will also be competing in this event.

He's going to be in the third race with helmet number 252.

It might be important to note that "252 is the smallest number which is the product of two distinct numbers that are reverses of each other: 252 = 12*21," so, we'll see if that number does much good, not that I believe that numbers hold any value in terms of luck.

On the ice, skating at the same time as JR, will be Yuzo Takamido of Japan, Paul Herrmann of Germany, Nicola Rodigari of Italy, Benjamin Mace of France, and Jung-Su Lee of Korea.

Go JR! This is ever so exciting for us. Cheering for people is fun.

Day One - Fun Has Begun

Today is the very very first day that J.R. Celski will be competing in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. The excitement is jumping out of my fingertips as I type this. Hence, I keep making a lot of typos.

According to Jrcelski.com, not affiliated with Jrcelski.blogspot.com, he will be competing at 17:00. His event? Short Track. Men's 1500 m Heats.

No, he is not short silly. He is 5 foot 8 inches. But apparently 1500 m equates to a short distance. That's around .93 miles. Yep, quite short indeed. Just a mere stroll in the park.

So. Who shall he be competing against? I don't really know. Our energies of being fanners have been focused on the person himself, although I guess investing our time in learning about this huge moment in his skating career that is happening today could be important.

Let us see.

He won't be competing against anyone from Switzerland. There are some people from Canada, like Mathieu Giroux. He ways 170 lbs. Looks like he will also be competing against Brian Hansen today. Brian is only 16 days older than me. He shares a birthday, September 3, 1990, with one of my friends. How exciting! Then there is 32 year old Chad Hedrick. I hope he likes cottage cheese. Jonathan Kuck, also from the United States, was almost born on my half birthday. He's also 19. It seems like that is a good age for going to the Olympics. He weighs 174 lbs. More than a large baby would. Other folks include Trevor Marsicano... wait a minute, scratch all the above. Guess I was looking at Speed Skating as opposed to Short Track Speed Skating.

Anyways, we wish JR the best of luck today. We know he can do this, this refering to getting the gold. With our support, and the rest of America's support, and his capabilities, anything is possible! He's won the Gold this year at the 2009 World Championships in Vienna in 3000 m and 5000 m relay. What a speedy guy.

Just Rocks!
JR
You are a good person!

Fan Causation

This is the quest of two young citizens of the United States to become perhaps the greatest fans of an athlete that we capably can -- without being too creepy.

Here is how this project came about.

Monica and I were watching the Vancouver Opening Ceremony to the Olympics, 2010. It was a whole lot of fun when I thought, "Why don't we just choose some random folk and become the hugest fans possible." Just for kicks. Monica liked it. We both liked it. We haven't been fans of a human being before. Sounded like a fun concept, as humans are much more depth-ful than inanimate objects, like almond butter.

We wrote down a few names we heard, not really knowing who they were, and got on the computer and started googling after the games. Monica looked up a J.R. Celski. I wasn't sure who that was, girl or boy.

Turned out to be boy. I thought he was an old man. I laughed when I saw he wasn't. Then I still wasn't sure of his gender. Saw another picture. Definitely of the male gender. J is for John. He does speed skating.

I laughed even more when I saw he lived in the same town Monica does.

The world just got a little bit smaller.

Anyways, our quest is to be the greatest fans ever! Extreme fans. Crazy fans. Decorated with shirts and pins fans. We shall be fans. We have never been fans of something before, especially a human. Picking one from the Olympics seemed like a fun chance to develop this new hobby.

This is based on his career and capabilities. We have no judgement upon his character or outer appearance -- although if he turns out to be nice, that would be good. From our research, he seems very level headed and very likely to help an old lady across the street. I'm glad he ended up being the one we will support because he turned out to be a pretty swell guy.

The Olympics started today and all I have to say is - Go Team USA -- Go J.R. Celski!

Daily updates on his progress can be expected -- as well as other reports on our own progress. I think we're making buttons tomorrow.