Diana the Valkyrie's Newsletter - August 2000
A hard man is good to beat
The flowers are in full blast, flirting hard to get the bees to pollinate them. The bees are buzzing about frantically trying to collect as much nectar as they can, they don't care about pollination.
So, now you know about the flowers and the bees ...
It's been sunny here, but we're expecting that the weather will get back to normal soon.
Galleries added this month.
I've started the Ninth bookshelf of miscellaneous stories. If you're an author, and you've done a bunch of stories that are in the miscellaneous bookshelves, then please get in touch, maybe you should have your own bookshelf.
Christa has a Bookshelf now.
Stories added this month.
I have a new reader for Listen with Diana the Valkyrie. If you go to the Bigarm Gym then you can hear what she sounds like. Leave your comments in the Message Board for Listen with Diana the Valkyrie. What I want to know, is whether you like the sound of her. If you do, then I'll be able to get a *lot* of stories read.
Movies added this month.
I told Sandra to check everyone's list of Favourite Newsgroups, and also to make a list of everyone's Favourite Message Boards. The top Newsgroup is predictable, but the Message Board at the top of the list surprised me. I guess there's some life yet in the legacy media such as TV.
VTV01 (Valkyrie TV transmitter 1) is the server for The Valkyrie Channel. The number one implies that there might be more - broadcasting video like this is very server-intensive, so if it's successful, I might need to add number 2 and so on.
This is what is called "streaming video". With the old way (as in the Movie Theatres), you had to download 10 mb of file for a one minute clip. That download might take half an hour, or even longer. But with The Valkyrie Channel, it starts to play shortly after you click on it.
Don't even think about this if you haven't got a 56K modem, but what it really needs is cable or DSL (which I see more and more people getting). With a 56K modem, it's rather disappointing, but with DSL or cable, well, go find out if you can get coonnected!
If you do want to try it, you'll need to be a Silver plus Audio member. If you need to upgrade, you can do that here.
You can read about it here. Different people were affected in different amounts. Some not at all, but many people experienced major problems accessing the web site.
On the other hand, I think I got a better understanding of the problems with the Newsthumbs, and that's been a lot more stable recently.
Six million pictures! We passed the six million figure on July 30th, and the server isn't half full yet. I'm getting something like a million per month.
To be precise the current figure is 
I completely revamped the APL area. If you're interested in f/f wrestling, you should check that out (they also have some mixed wrestling).
Also, the video of Maryse training and posing nude (but tastefully) is available via the Mall. Look in the Diana the Valkyrie Video video shop.
probably the most ripely defined female bodybuilder among the seniors
By Wessex Man
MONTEREY PENINSULA, Calif, August 1st -- Michelle
Ivers
She says she has no plans to abandon her development goals despite the Fitness bonanza which is undermining the serious end of the sport.
"My frame can still hold more muscle and will be able to stay symmetrical. I compete at only 132 lbs at a height of 5' 3-1/4"....I would still like to add more muscle density in my back and hamstring areas," she told me in an interview.
Of course the sculpture of her back is already evident to anyone who's seen the exotic flowering of her magical lat spread. The spectacle of her V-shaped back, ablaze with pumped mobile muscling, puts her increasingly in the front rank.
Michelle is also known worldwide for her elegantly brawny forearms, perhaps the most muscular in the sport. These forearms have to be seen. And the fullness of her biceps, whether outstretched or rampantly erect and peaked, is another special achievement. Her additional attributes -- a tight muscular waist and boldly aroused quads -- add extra voltage to her physical impact. Those strong legs combine athletic grace with virile no-nonsense muscularity.
At the same time this gently spoken thoughtful lady is no macho hard guy. She comes across as a modest and beautiful woman.
MICHELLE FLEXES 16 INCH BICEPS, 14 INCH FOREARMS
A native of the Monterey Peninsula, Michelle describes herself as an athlete, entrepreneur and crazy woman (crazy for sticking to bodybuilding for 15 years). "Besides my arms, my most memorable features are my ready smile and amber liquid eyes which reflect the happiness and passion I feel when discussing my chosen profession," she says.
For the record her biceps reach 16", forearms 14", chest 40" and thighs 25". She's benched 275 lbs, squatted 350 lbs and deadlifted 415 lbs. She did a stint of powerlifting early in her career.
Michelle plans shortly to marry her fiance Joe and has a 13 year old son Kyle. Her gym business, Bayside Fitness, recently had to close because Gold's was right along the next block and now she's doing personal training at Gold's and at another facility. She's also into rehab work with post-therapy patients and has worked with special education kids.
WHY KIM CHIZEVSKY DECIDED TO DESERT BODYBUILDING
I asked Michelle how she feels about her sport, particularly given the split directions it's going in.
She says the Fitness movement has been very frustrating to serious women's bodybuilding. "And that's the big reason Kim Chizevsky has decided to desert us and go into Fitness. Fitness gals are good athletes, don't get me wrong, but they also need the smell of coffee and to see who is benefiting most."
"I feel that women's bodybuilding is a very unique and demanding discipline for us women to pursue. I don't give a #$%# what anyone has said about women not looking feminine....It's not the Chyna Syndrome or any other avenue that has women seriously training their tusses off....".
"Fewer women are pursuing it because of the Fitness craze and regardless what the 'Powers that Be' have been saying about saving the sport, I feel we havn't had their backing because of Fitness being more appealing to the public and capitalizing with a big 'C' on them to make more."
MICHELLE CONTINUES TO SET SIGHTS ON THE MsO
And what about her contest plans ?
Michelle: "I came second at the (U.S.) Nationals last year. My placings have slowly progressed in the years. I believe this has led me to be more a quality bodybuilder because my muscle has taken years to mature."
"I hope finally to attain my pro card at the end of this year and would love to do the Ms International if I get invited.
"Then the MsO at the end of next year finally after all these years...". Michelle reflects that she's competed with so many women who later went on to turn pro over the years -- going back to the mid-1980s. She mentions Laura Creavalle as one of them.
MICHELLE'S INTO RAILROAD HANDCART RACING
She's also a sportswoman who enjoys energetic pastimes outside the gym.
"For the past five years I've been involved in an activity called 'Railroad Handcart Racing'. In a nutshell there is a team of four people (my team has two men and two women). Two in front, two in back. I'm a back puller."
"We race against the clock in a little over a 200 metre stretch of track. Our team won five National titles, but we lost our first time in '98. I didn't race in '99. We hope to resume our team this year."
FANS SEE HER AS AN "INTELLIGENT WOMAN WITH MUSCLE"
I asked her how ordinary people responded to her remarkable physique in public spots such as beaches, shops and crowded streets.
Michelle: "People sometimes give me double takes and that is when I'm wearing regular clothes -- they just fit me differently. I don't go out of my way to wear skimpy clothes out in public.
"I know what I've got and when I go to a store and somebody notices I usually get good responses because I act 'main stream'. It's when a gal feels she needs to wear trashy clothes out in public that she is going to get negative responses.
"Hey I know everybody is different in the way they want to portray themselves, but I want to express that I have more people approach me and then ask me questions. And then I drum up business easier (personal training) because I act accordingly.
"....Once a person gets to know me they see me as this intelligent woman with MUSCLE !!"
We currently have six running; Nicole Bass, Andrulla Blanchette, Sheila Burgess, Christine Envall, Sarah Dunlap and Marilyn Perret. Nicole and Seila have said that they'll be at the Femsport Valkyarie Festival on October 1st.
The big news here, is we're organising a party! This is a combined Femsport/DtV effort, with Tre doing the actual organising (thanks, Tre). It's called the Femsport Valkyrie Festival. October 1st, Holiday Inn, College Park, MD from 12 noon till 5pm, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if folks then get together after that for a meal, and then maybe a drink or two, and, well, who knows...
Admission $20, $10 for students. Call 240-350-8146 for more info. Here's the poster
The idea is to have a get-together, and at the same time a women's strength contest, so there will be some flexing and posing and strength-related competition. Check out BA's Events message board for more information (and you can also say what sort of things you'd like to see at the Festival).
Sheila Burgess will be there (as one of the judges of the competition).
Member | Posts |
| jabb6328 | 5738 |
| gaily304 | 4923 |
| boomer444 | 4028 |
| tre1313 | 3492 |
| Grog | 3400 |
| Blast222 | 3277 |
| gold0951 | 3000 |
| TomNine | 2976 |
| dgt321 | 2449 |
| stu666 | 2434 |
| hiram2000 | 2392 |
| rdhdpwr150 | 2237 |
| franz5334 | 2113 |
| Diana the Valkyrie | 2067 |
| stone001 | 1882 |
| cry2cin | 1583 |
| tex666 | 1410 |
| k1a2t3 | 1372 |
| 000wlt | 1206 |
| fistman | 1183 |
Jabber pulls clear of the field, with Gaily and Boomer trailing, and the rest of the field a long way behind.
I've started to change the interface, to make things load faster.
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| Towards the end of the month, the Grinch ate the statistics again, but with some help from Scooby, I think I've found what was causing it. In the stats that were collected, TomNine's board was the most popular. | On 30th July, Patrick reached the end of the Zs in his encyclopedic posting. We wait with bated breath to see where he'll go from there. |
I checked the site statistics. that Sandra counts up each night.
At the end of July 2000, there were about 272,000 pictures (13 gigabytes), 29 gigabytes of video, 3900 text files (mostly stories) and a total of about 43 gigabytes.
On Vanessa, the new Newsthumbs server, there's the NewsThumbs, which is another 6.1 million pictures in 423 gigabytes and 8.0 million text files, a total of 442 gigabytes. Yowser! And Vanessa still isn't half filled yet!
