Nicole Blood-- Saratoga & the Kranicks "from an insider's perspective"

Back in 2005 she did comment some on Toga's training.

Stop being a snotty short-dickwad. So what if Nicole Blood went to UO. It's still an accredited college. Not everyone wants to work on Particle Beam Weapons at Berkeley. I'm ANTI-WAR myself.

Ah... I remind you that Flotrack and Track & Field News can in NO WAY be considered as journalism.

thanks for the reminder...

laughing with a real skill wrote:

All of you who think grammar is an indication of one's intellect must lead a very sad life...

umm . . . journalism major

. . . just how low do you want us to set the bar?

I am going to focus on the spirit of Nicole's post and try and ignore the glaring mistakes. I hope she continues to post and that the quality of her writing improves. Nicole is easy to like. We'll all look forward to her future posts as long as the glaring mistakes are kept to a minimum.

laughing with a real skill wrote:

All of you who think grammar is an indication of one's intellect must lead a very sad life...

It is just one of the necessary but not sufficient skills you need and that should be mastered handily. Proper spelling and grammar is like driving a car, or dressing, or conversation. You need to be good at them, and it doesn't take much effort for those of us who are not stupid. I am not talking about being a great writer, just about spelling everyday words correctly and using them correctly.

Their, You're, Definite, Supposed, use of apostrophes, etc. ... you need to be able to use these correctly. If you CAN it does not prove you are smart, nor does it prove that you are not dumb. I am good at spelling and grammar and it doesn't say anything about me except that I am passable at both.

Now if you are not, then part of your intelligence is lacking, because you cannot write. That's right, if you cannot spell and use simple words correctly then you cannot write correctly. Not even beyond an elementary school level. It does not mean you are dumb, you may have a lot to offer in some other capacity, but it does mean that you cannot communicate with the written word well enough yet to consistently say what you really want to.

The world would cut you more slack if there wasn't a spellcheck built into the only thing you poor writers write on anymore. The machines can't fix your poor grammar in second, but it CAN fix your poor spelling if you actually know how to spell the word the correct way and not just phonetically.

laughing with a real skill wrote:

All of you who think grammar is an indication of one's intellect must lead a very sad life...

You used too many periods, dumbass.

Writepocalypse wrote:

It's true -- Americans suck nuts at writing. I go to one of the best journalism schools in the country but major in creative writing (impractical, I know), where I tutor people in academic and professional writing. You'd all (hopefully) be appalled by the basic grammar and usage errors I have to continually explain to students here who are on FULL RIDES for journalism and communications-related majors. Absolutely pathetic.

8.3/10

Well done. One of the finest efforts on LR in some time. I admit you had me until "FULL RIDES for journalism and communications-related majors." Got me good. Keep up the good work!

“we just hard work.”

Her and Art Kranick have coached at Saratoga since 1985.

when high schoolers are banned to attend official athletic practices

Let me tell you what else worked. Bagels and cream cheese after long runs. Watermelon Wednesdays. Smoothie Saturdays. Popsicles after every summer practice.

--none of these are sentences

And now, Mrs. Kranick tells me they’re upgraded to waffles,

Going to the zoo. Taking surfing lessons. Shopping at every mall (Mr. Kranick loves his malls).

She told me that’s why I peaked his interest right away.

~~~~~~~~

She may be bright, but she is not good at writing. All of the grammar errors I know not to make just by hearing them. I don't need to proof it, I would just know NOT to type those words that way. I guess her only spelling error is "peaked", the rest are mistakes. But just like most of Americans under 30, if that is the finished product for something that is going to be read by thousands, she can't write yet.

A "there" instead of a "their" isn't enough to stop a sentence of making sense unless you're the type that takes everything literally while ignoring context; In which case, you must get confused when people actually say the word "there" because you can't possibly tell the difference between the three when they sound the same.

laughing with a real skill wrote:

A "there" instead of a "their" isn't enough to stop a sentence of making sense unless you're the type that takes everything literally while ignoring context; In which case, you must get confused when people actually say the word "there" because you can't possibly tell the difference between the three when they sound the same.

No, it usually doesn't stop me from understanding the thought or idea, it is just wrong. Since the person doesn't have the capacity to understand the difference, even though they were taught the difference and drilled on it, and graded on it, they don't know how to write.

They don't know how to write the word that they intend to use. They know how to type some words that sound phonetically correct or "look right" to them, but they are wrong. It is just like writing "baseball" when you mean "ocean liner", they are not the same and they do not convey the same meaning.

It is like your sentence:

"A "there" instead of a "their" isn't enough to stop a sentence of making sense unless you're the type that takes everything literally while ignoring context;"

I understand what you are saying, even though "stop ... of making sense" is wrong and I don't see why you punctuated the sentence with a semi-colon. I still get what you are saying, it just is not acceptable writing. There are rules for writing and it did not follow them.

There is no way to confuse when people say "there" and mean "there". I guess what you are saying is that if you are too stupid to know the right word to use in each situation, just write the "sound" that the spoken word looks like and let everyone else figure it out. Keep on doing that, I will choose the other way.

It took one post to change the subject from Nicole Blood to the decline of American grammar. Nice going, numb nuts.

wow. So what? she made a few mistakes. NO ONE'S PERFECT! why do people have to rip apart this girl for a few mistakes. I'm sure you guys have made a heck of a lot worse mistakes than a few grammar errors. So why don't you actually talk about the contents of the article instead of ripping apart every girl on this message board. Sounds like cyber bullying to me. It could have a lot worse effect than you think saying all this bad stuff. So stop being a dumb @ss.

There's nothing to talk about. It's a fluff piece. "Oh we worked so hard, and there was free food at our borderline-illegal "track club" practices".

Obviously there is a bit of fluff to it. It is a single person's short essay on Flotrack, not a doctoral thesis.

It is good to see that Nicole has reconciled with her coaches and has accepted responsibility for her role in the split. It displays a good deal of maturity to do that in a public forum.

It is even better to see that she and several of her teammates from that program are still competing at a high level. The program is often maligned as a meat grinder. Seeing some of the girls that were most successful at the HS level continuing that success through college and beyond is very positive. As we know, not many girls and boys that had significant HS success from any program continue to improve through college.

manup wrote:

wow. So what? she made a few mistakes. NO ONE'S PERFECT! why do people have to rip apart this girl for a few mistakes. I'm sure you guys have made a heck of a lot worse mistakes than a few grammar errors. So why don't you actually talk about the contents of the article instead of ripping apart every girl on this message board. Sounds like cyber bullying to me. It could have a lot worse effect than you think saying all this bad stuff. So stop being a dumb @ss.

I have always admired Nicole Blood, both the runner and the person. However, she was an All-Academic journalism major at Oregon, yet her post is full of grammatical errors. (Not just errors, but elementary level errors.) Certainly not the level of writing one would expect from an All-Academic graduate. You don't understand why that would cause people to question the academic rigor of Oregon?

I am glad she has reconciled with her former coaches and wish her nothing but the best. My suggestion would be to have someone proof her work before posting.

T&FN: What prompted you to leave the program last year?

Nicole: It started with an IT Band injury. That happened right before Indoor States, but I continued running on it because I wanted to run States and Nationals. I had been training all season for it. And then after I ended that, the problem with our school is that by the end of our season—whether it’s cross-country or indoors—the next season has already started so that by the time we ended Nationals, outdoor already began so I really needed a break and my coaches were big into run to tolerance and you have got to help out the team. Which I’ve always been a team player. I loved running for the team.

T&FN: Looked like you were doubling and tripling last year.

Nicole: Right. It was a little too much and I needed a break. After I took the break a lot of drama occurred because of me leaving the team and I decided it was best for me to just continue on by myself. I took 5 to 6 weeks off totally.

T&FN: No running whatsoever?

Nicole: No. Five weeks of not running.

[...]

Nicole: I was training more with Lindsey Fergusson and she was more with Hannah Davidson on the team. If we ever ran on runs I’d run with Lindsey. So once we both quit that was the first time we both trained together in workouts and stuff.

T&FN: Did she leave first or did you leave first?

Nicole: I left first. She was also injured. She had a foot stress fracture. Actually she had a few of them in one foot in her toes and stuff. She needed time off as well and same thing, they wanted her to run to tolerance and she was fed up with it.

Butterfly Effect wrote:

It is good to see that Nicole has reconciled with her coaches and has accepted responsibility for her role in the split. It displays a good deal of maturity to do that in a public forum.

I would say the real maturity was her leaving in the first place. Her "both sides were wrong" post is just seeking peace and resolution over truth and principle, going along to get along. There's no halfway point, either BOTH Blood and Ferguson were selfish loafers, or the coaches really didn't have the athletes interests at heart at all. Pick one.

grammar is dead, cursive writing is dead, learn to text, welcome to 2011 you old farts.