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Post by Killer Goldfish on Dec 6, 2022 0:20:46 GMT -5
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Dec 20, 2022 18:24:11 GMT -5
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Dec 20, 2022 18:25:01 GMT -5
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Dec 20, 2022 18:31:31 GMT -5
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Dec 23, 2022 19:45:44 GMT -5
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Post by Marxo Grouch on Dec 25, 2022 6:02:38 GMT -5
That goes some way towards explaining why their fortunes are falling: conservatives are not generally very good at creativity.
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Post by Lemmy Caution on Apr 11, 2023 23:03:28 GMT -5
Today was weird all around, but this might have been the weirdest bit:
I did my usual gym visit this morning with my colleague/adopted-sister Matt. We were accompanied by Matt's buddy Larissa, who has some background as a college athlete (as far as I've been able to figure out).
Now, I've gotten into pushing myself pretty hard when I work out --as much cardio as I can stand, pyramid lifting routines until multiple muscle groups are exhausted, and so on. I have no idea why I've picked up this level of jock-osity at my age, and feel no reason to be an asshole about it. But, for me, gym is about finding new and weird ways to burn out my body for the next 24 hours.
So when Matt said "Screw it, I just want to shoot hoops today" and Larissa vigorously assented, I was sort of...uhm.
Marxo Grouch can attest to how utterly pathetic I was at basketball as a youth. (I mean how many times can one coach tell one kid "You drag this whole team down?") I haven't even touched a basketball in the intervening *mumblemumble* decades. But friends are friends, and so I went along with the idea --with the condition that I was going to be the spectator/ball-retrieval guy cheering them on.
Matt, who is closer to my own age and kind of groks my allergy to anything involving hand-eye coordination was mostly good with this idea. Larissa, for whatever reason, couldn't stop asking me if I wanted to just come out on the court and try one shot. Being the fool I am, I finally gave in and stepped up to the free-throw line.
And...damn.. the ball went through the hoop. And the next time...the ball went through the hoop. Stepped back past the half-court line...fucking ball went through the goddam hoop again.
I ended up taking maybe twenty shots and scoring on 15 of them.
I went back and checked my locker for pods.
When I got home, I also checked all the closets --no, no evidence of alien life forms there, either. Dogs? Yep. They didn't bark at me like I was a monster in Sleestak clothing.
Wife came home. Still the wife. Pretty as ever and still smarter than me.
But I find I keep asking myself "Well, how did I get here?"
Because whoever was scoring all those baskets this morning --I'm pretty sure that wasn't me.
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Apr 12, 2023 7:56:42 GMT -5
Today was weird all around, but this might have been the weirdest bit:
I did my usual gym visit this morning with my colleague/adopted-sister Matt. We were accompanied by Matt's buddy Larissa, who has some background as a college athlete (as far as I've been able to figure out).
Now, I've gotten into pushing myself pretty hard when I work out --as much cardio as I can stand, pyramid lifting routines until multiple muscle groups are exhausted, and so on. I have no idea why I've picked up this level of jock-osity at my age, and feel no reason to be an asshole about it. But, for me, gym is about finding new and weird ways to burn out my body for the next 24 hours.
So when Matt said "Screw it, I just want to shoot hoops today" and Larissa vigorously assented, I was sort of...uhm.
Marxo Grouch can attest to how utterly pathetic I was at basketball as a youth. (I mean how many times can one coach tell one kid "You drag this whole team down?") I haven't even touched a basketball in the intervening *mumblemumble* decades. But friends are friends, and so I went along with the idea --with the condition that I was going to be the spectator/ball-retrieval guy cheering them on.
Matt, who is closer to my own age and kind of groks my allergy to anything involving hand-eye coordination was mostly good with this idea. Larissa, for whatever reason, couldn't stop asking me if I wanted to just come out on the court and try one shot. Being the fool I am, I finally gave in and stepped up to the free-throw line.
And...damn.. the ball went through the hoop. And the next time...the ball went through the hoop. Stepped back past the half-court line...fucking ball went through the goddam hoop again.
I ended up taking maybe twenty shots and scoring on 15 of them.
I went back and checked my locker for pods.
When I got home, I also checked all the closets --no, no evidence of alien life forms there, either. Dogs? Yep. They didn't bark at me like I was a monster in Sleestak clothing.
Wife came home. Still the wife. Pretty as ever and still smarter than me.
But I find I keep asking myself "Well, how did I get here?"
Because whoever was scoring all those baskets this morning --I'm pretty sure that wasn't me.
I think this may qualify more as a Head Scratcher, but yeah, interesting. Some unsung part of you has surfaced -- luckily not the way the chest-burster did in ALIEN -- and is now singing loud and clear. |
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Post by Marxo Grouch on Apr 13, 2023 5:02:16 GMT -5
I remember you not having a very good time of it in BB practice, yeah. I've also always found it interesting how it was not infrequently some of the younger teachers - who, fantasy has it, relate to the students so much better - who could be the biggest fuckheads at times, even those who did relate better. That includes high school.
For what it's worth, my experience with JV basketball had me playing so well in practice that Casalvieri put me on first string... until we had our first game and I choked so bad, he took me out in the first quarter, or right after it anyway, I can't remember which.
As to your sudden powers, I don't have a direct analog, but I can say that, contrary to any of my expectations, when I picked the guitar back up again a few years back, I found myself playing better than I ever had before, despite not having touched it in quite some time and not being particularly skilled to begin with.
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Post by Lemmy Caution on Apr 13, 2023 12:20:40 GMT -5
I remember you not having a very good time of it in BB practice, yeah. I've also always found it interesting how it was not infrequently some of the younger teachers - who, fantasy has it, relate to the students so much better - who could be the biggest fuckheads at times, even those who did relate better. That includes high school. For what it's worth, my experience with JV basketball had me playing so well in practice that Casalvieri put me on first string... until we had our first game and I choked so bad, he took me out in the first quarter, or right after it anyway, I can't remember which. As to your sudden powers, I don't have a direct analog, but I can say that, contrary to any of my expectations, when I picked the guitar back up again a few years back, I found myself playing better than I ever had before, despite not having touched it in quite some time and not being particularly skilled to begin with. I keep going back and forth on Killer Goldfish 's suggestion that this is a headscratcher, instead of an irony --I mean, the idea that magically I had the ability to sink baskets all along is nonsense. I brought in C's behavior in part because it mapped on to my real lack of skill at the time (though I confess I didn't mind getting a dig in at what an asshole he acted like back then). I guess the irony lies in that my self-assessment got stuck for so long at the level of what an immature person had said to an even less mature me. So yeah. There really was that weird-ass "out of body" feeling to discover that scoring a basket (while not running around and being bumped/blocked by other players) is actually a fairly straightforward hand-eye-physics thing. I must have known this all along, but the headscratcher is why I didn't just try it out a long time ago. I probably would have had some more fun as an adult, at least. As it is, I'm still sort of coming down out of the "shit, this upends my understanding of something" feeling.
Your remark about "choking" during a game maybe holds a clue to this --the idea of being in a state of uncertainty and under pressure in the moment. Sometimes it can yield surprisingly good results, but I've started to think that for most people, most of the time, it's at best a 50/50 proposition things will work --and usually worse.
Re: guitar --you've always had more of a 'knack' for music than most people I know. Maybe just picking up the instrument again without expecting to be "good at it" let that knack out into the world? I don't know.
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Apr 13, 2023 12:50:14 GMT -5
I remember you not having a very good time of it in BB practice, yeah. I've also always found it interesting how it was not infrequently some of the younger teachers - who, fantasy has it, relate to the students so much better - who could be the biggest fuckheads at times, even those who did relate better. That includes high school. For what it's worth, my experience with JV basketball had me playing so well in practice that Casalvieri put me on first string... until we had our first game and I choked so bad, he took me out in the first quarter, or right after it anyway, I can't remember which. As to your sudden powers, I don't have a direct analog, but I can say that, contrary to any of my expectations, when I picked the guitar back up again a few years back, I found myself playing better than I ever had before, despite not having touched it in quite some time and not being particularly skilled to begin with. I keep going back and forth on Killer Goldfish 's suggestion that this is a headscratcher, instead of an irony --I mean, the idea that magically I had the ability to sink baskets all along is nonsense. I brought in C's behavior in part because it mapped on to my real lack of skill at the time (though I confess I didn't mind getting a dig in at what an asshole he acted like back then). I guess the irony lies in that my self-assessment got stuck for so long at the level of what an immature person had said to an even less mature me. So yeah. There really was that weird-ass "out of body" feeling to discover that scoring a basket (while not running around and being bumped/blocked by other players) is actually a fairly straightforward hand-eye-physics thing. I must have known this all along, but the headscratcher is why I didn't just try it out a long time ago. I probably would have had some more fun as an adult, at least. As it os, I'm still sort of coming down out of the "shit, this upends my understanding of something" feeling.
Your remark about "choking" during a game maybe holds a clue to this --the idea of being in a state of uncertainty and under pressure in the moment. Sometimes it can yield surprisingly good results, but I've started to think that for most people, most of the time, it's at best a 50/50 proposition things will work --and usually worse.
Re: guitar --you've always had more of a 'knack' for music than most people I know. Maybe just picking up the instrument again without expecting to be "good at it" let that knack out into the world? I don't know.
But were you working out on any kind of regular basis when you were still flubbing at roundball? Now you're earning out, which not only builds strength and endurance but improves coordination, balance, proprioception, all those things that help you sink a basket. And, clearly, the stars were aligned that day. |
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Apr 13, 2023 12:59:32 GMT -5
This is tangential to the discussion at hand, but I had to share this selection of free throw attempts by the Toronto Raptors vs the Chicago Bulls (vying for a play-off spot) in Toronto last night. DeMar DeRozan is one of the starting guards for Chicago, and the young lady screaming her head off is his young daughter Diar. The Raptors went on to miss 18 free throws and let Chicago sneak their way back into the game and steal the win after being down by as many as 20 points earlier in the game. Kid's got real scream queen energy.
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Post by Lemmy Caution on Apr 13, 2023 13:20:51 GMT -5
I keep going back and forth on Killer Goldfish 's suggestion that this is a headscratcher, instead of an irony --I mean, the idea that magically I had the ability to sink baskets all along is nonsense. I brought in C's behavior in part because it mapped on to my real lack of skill at the time (though I confess I didn't mind getting a dig in at what an asshole he acted like back then). I guess the irony lies in that my self-assessment got stuck for so long at the level of what an immature person had said to an even less mature me. So yeah. There really was that weird-ass "out of body" feeling to discover that scoring a basket (while not running around and being bumped/blocked by other players) is actually a fairly straightforward hand-eye-physics thing. I must have known this all along, but the headscratcher is why I didn't just try it out a long time ago. I probably would have had some more fun as an adult, at least. As it os, I'm still sort of coming down out of the "shit, this upends my understanding of something" feeling.
Your remark about "choking" during a game maybe holds a clue to this --the idea of being in a state of uncertainty and under pressure in the moment. Sometimes it can yield surprisingly good results, but I've started to think that for most people, most of the time, it's at best a 50/50 proposition things will work --and usually worse.
Re: guitar --you've always had more of a 'knack' for music than most people I know. Maybe just picking up the instrument again without expecting to be "good at it" let that knack out into the world? I don't know.
But were you working out on any kind of regular basis when you were still flubbing at roundball? Now you're earning out, which not only builds strength and endurance but improves coordination, balance, proprioception, all those things that help you sink a basket. And, clearly, the stars were aligned that day. OK. When I said *mumblemumble* decades in my original post, I mean, literally, 38 years. One whole adult's difference in age. I caught shit for being lousy at ball sports in middle school. I was working out to the extent that there was team practice 4-5 times a week? In high school, I stuck with largely strength/endurance sports like wrestling and rowing. I wasn't quite fast enough on my feet to be a good wrestler, but I could row really well for a time. Only stopped because at the college level everybody was about 4 inches taller --that translates into an extra 3-4 feet out at the water end of the oar.
Then things kind of drifted. I did some lifting on-and-off in my 20's and 30's, though in uneven company. I also had an interesting friendship for a time with a German person who was big into long hikes ("Eight kilometers? Come on, we can get in two more before sundown...")
This whole "work-out-because-you-feel-like-it and get-talked-into-trying-a-sport-you-dropped-in-the-1980s-because-good-buddies" is, in fact, 100% novel. So, to answer your question: I have no idea. I truly don't. |
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Post by Lemmy Caution on Apr 13, 2023 13:25:14 GMT -5
This is tangential to the discussion at hand, but I had to share this selection of free throw attempts by the Toronto Raptors vs the Chicago Bulls (vying for a play-off spot) in Toronto last night. DeMar DeRozan is one of the starting guards for Chicago, and the young lady screaming her head off is his young daughter Diar. The Raptors went on to miss 18 free throws and let Chicago sneak their way back into the game and steal the win after being down by as many as 20 points earlier in the game. Kid's got real scream queen energy.
100% props to them for the effort though. Pretty sure without the pressure on and the exhaustion of running and weaving back and forth they'd be sinking 19 out of 20. Really good, dedicated athletes are often jaw-droppingly good. |
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Apr 13, 2023 15:33:06 GMT -5
But were you working out on any kind of regular basis when you were still flubbing at roundball? Now you're earning out, which not only builds strength and endurance but improves coordination, balance, proprioception, all those things that help you sink a basket. And, clearly, the stars were aligned that day. OK. When I said *mumblemumble* decades in my original post, I mean, literally, 38 years. One whole adult's difference in age. I caught shit for being lousy at ball sports in middle school. I was working out to the extent that there was team practice 4-5 times a week? In high school, I stuck with largely strength/endurance sports like wrestling and rowing. I wasn't quite fast enough on my feet to be a good wrestler, but I could row really well for a time. Only stopped because at the college level everybody was about 4 inches taller --that translates into an extra 3-4 feet out at the water end of the oar.
Then things kind of drifted. I did some lifting on-and-off in my 20's and 30's, though in uneven company. I also had an interesting friendship for a time with a German person who was big into long hikes ("Eight kilometers? Come on, we can get in two more before sundown...")
This whole "work-out-because-you-feel-like-it and get-talked-into-trying-a-sport-you-dropped-in-the-1980s-because-good-buddies" is, in fact, 100% novel. So, to answer your question: I have no idea. I truly don't. Headscratchers: The Maturationing |
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Apr 13, 2023 17:04:22 GMT -5
This is tangential to the discussion at hand, but I had to share this selection of free throw attempts by the Toronto Raptors vs the Chicago Bulls (vying for a play-off spot) in Toronto last night. DeMar DeRozan is one of the starting guards for Chicago, and the young lady screaming her head off is his young daughter Diar. The Raptors went on to miss 18 free throws and let Chicago sneak their way back into the game and steal the win after being down by as many as 20 points earlier in the game. Kid's got real scream queen energy.
100% props to them for the effort though. Pretty sure without the pressure on and the exhaustion of running and weaving back and forth they'd be sinking 19 out of 20. Really good, dedicated athletes are often jaw-droppingly good. Oh, absolutely. And there have been a lot of fan encounters around the league this year, too. With basketball, they are practically right there next to you courtside to shout shit about you and your family. I don't know how the players put up with it honestly (but I imagine the multimillion dollar contracts help).
But yeah, I watch NBA just appreciating athletes competing at the highest level, and I just love the game. I was only ever a so-so, streaky shooter and a shitty dribbler myself. For some reason, I have the opposite issue than you, Lemmy. The last couple of times I've been on the court, my shots are worse than they ever were. To be fair, I've only gotten out there a couple of times in the last couple of years, though.
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Apr 23, 2023 8:18:34 GMT -5
Someone reprinted an article about the Rosa Parks and Mike Illitch on Reddit and all I could think was "Damn, that guy looks like Reggie Nalder." |
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Apr 26, 2023 7:15:10 GMT -5
Someone reprinted an article about the Rosa Parks and Mike Illitch on Reddit and all I could think was "Damn, that guy looks like Reggie Nalder." Now that you mention it..! |
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