(Photo courtesy of DUANE GALBRAITH-USA PARENT. During the WC Men's 10K Points/Elim, looks like the skater from Spain, with both arms stretched out, is having a hard time deciding WHICH line to skate in!!)
I set my alarm last night to ensure that I would be up by 6:00am. I wanted to take a shower, feed the animals and get some things done around the house before I would sit down in front of my computer at 8:00am to watch the award ceremonies which were scheduled to start at 5:00pm in Spain (they are 9 hours ahead of us West Coast folks). It's kind of nice to be able to get up, mill around and sit down with a cup of coffee and watch speed skating in the comfort of my own home, oh but what I wouldn't give to be right there in the mix of it all!!
The alarm went off.... and off.... and continued to stop and go for the next hour. My second alarm that I use as a back-up, kicked in about 7:30am and when I realized that it was now my SECOND alarm going off, I knew I had better get up and at least get my shower in before I got involved in watching the finals that were scheduled to last for the next 4 hours plus.
It was just a few minutes before 8:00am when I turned on my computer. I read a little bit of the news on my homepage, especially paying close attention to the hurricanes, as my youngest son is on "stand-by" with the US Coast Guard, before I opened up ROLLER TV VIDEO. I figured by now they would have started the awards. When all of a sudden my heart stopped. This little sign kept popping up telling me that the URL was not valid. Now I know what that means.... it means I can't watch the awards or the events for that matter until the URL is valid.
I closed the window and tried again and again, and again!!! I was really starting to freak out at this point. I missed watching my son's race yesterday, there was no way I would miss his race today. Besides, I wanted to watch all of the events today. For the next TWO-HOURS I would come back to my computer and push the "STREAMING" button on the bottom of the page and patiently wait until it would once again tell me, "ALERT - URL is not valid".
Then I went back over to "GIJON 2008 LIVE" and tried that live feed. Nothing. I became infuriated. I had spent the last two-hours trying to get something to work and I should have just walked away the first time it said it wasn't valid, but I kept thinking "what if this next time it works?". I felt like I was gambling. "I can feel it... this time it will work. I just KNOW I will win the jackpot or that the live feed will come on...... either way I can feel it."
Just at the point when I was about to give up.... it opened up. YES.................................SCORE!! I was going to be able to watch something. Sometimes "something" isn't always "something good".
Here it was, the last 2 laps of the World Class Men's 15K Elimination race and the feed was so sketchy that I could barely tell that they were guys, never mind what uniform and what country they were from. And there was NO sound. I did notice that none were wearing the familiar red, white and blue. I was so bummed..... now I had to scramble to find out who had done what. Did our skaters even make it to the finals? Were there any reports of any more pile ups? There are so many things that go through your mind when you are given a minuscule amount of information, but it's enough to plant that "worry seed" in your mind.
Then it hit me.... as I have 7 different windows opened up, jamming back and forth from one site to the other, I accidentally CLOSE the one that I wanted to open, that there is not one website that I am aware of (and PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG), that has all of these items listed below:
LIVE FEED (available on two sites, can only get one site to work-sometimes)
INSTANT RESULTS (some sites do-they post almost immediately, but not all)
PLAY BACK VIDEO (found this on another site)
STORIES IN LENGTH ( found it on one popular site but not in English. The English is updated next day)
PHOTOS (I love that photo that reels you into the story and then the link that gives you more photos)
FORUM (where people can tell us all about Worlds and only Worlds. I don't want someone who has a grudge against the last poster getting on there and filling the forum with BS and "put-downs". I just want a place to post or that I can read what others are seeing, thinking, feeling and ask questions if I want)
Someone..... find me a website that does those 6 things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would actually pay a fee to be guaranteed so many hours of GREAT streaming. Heck, they could have 3 package levels... GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE!! Imagine that. But they can't half way do it... it has to be WORLD CLASS!!! (yes, another pun).
So needless to say, that was all I got to see today was 2 laps. Just 2 laps. Oh I know that there were more races after the 15K Elim, but my computer shut down and when I went to push that STREAMING button again and the "alert-url is not valid" popped up.... I shut my computer down and went about my business doing other things.
My frustration started a little over 12-hours ago and it's not like my life is over, but I was like a little kid anticipating going to DISNEYLAND today and after I was all dressed and ready to go, then I was told I had to stay home and scrub the bathroom till it shinned! I am still bummed.....
By the way, if I could do more than just type on a computer, I would have a World Class site that provided those 6 items above. I know the commitment that it would take and the late hours, and I would have to have help with the photos, the stories, the uploading, the downloading, the taking of video and the editing and publishing...... and of course someone to monitor the forum, but wouldn't that be cool to have all of that under one domain name??!!! Something to think about for 2009...............................
Linda
