Sports: An Outside Perspective

I updated the blog! Not just with a new post either! A whole new fancy banner and background. If you have a widescreen monitor there is more to the background than just trees. There's also some weird ball of green energy, which I don't actually like, but since I can't see it on my monitor, I don't care enough to remove it. I'm also in the process of revamping the "about me" section because it really sucked before. The Rambler blog also got a few design updates. Anywho, on to an appropriately rambling post.

I started writing this after I got back from watching the last basketball game of the school year. It's been sitting in my drafts for a while. I figured it was about time to finish it.

Sports make sense to me. The human need to compete, to pit oneself against others with mind and body. The structure of training, the loose camaraderie of the players. The thrill of victory and the resolve that comes with defeat.

I used to play sports and I felt all those emotions. I played T-ball when I was very young, soccer here and there in grade school, more soccer from middle school to sophomore year, and sometimes the occasional rugby bout with my friends. I wasn't terrible at the sports I played either. I was a decent fullback in soccer and was pretty good at dodging the rhino-like charges of my friends in rugby. I even managed an in-the-park home run way back in T-ball (cause I'm that awesome).

My trouble isn't with sports, its with the social environment which surrounds them. I attended two basketball games a while back just to hang out with the crowd and be entertained. While I can't say that I didn't enjoy myself it did show me just how out of place I am at sporting events.

Now I recognize the fact that part of my awkwardness at sporting events stems from the fact that I am a nerd and any social event can result in my feeling uncomfortable. But some of the chants and motions the fans do are just plain WEIRD. For example, when our team had a free throw everyone would raise their fingers up and wiggle them in silence. When the OTHER team did a free throw the arms went up again but instead of wiggling fingers there was much jerky arm motion. Eventually it was decided that every time there was a free throw the fans would all turn around and face away from the court. And there was someone in an inflatable sumo suit.

In fact a lot of our nationally accepted notions of sports are just bizzare. I could go on for quite a while about how the leader of our nation gets paid $400,000 a year while athletes can get paid $100,000,000 a year. It's kind of ridiculous. But I suppose nobody is going to pay to watch Obama sign bills into law.

I guess a lot of what ends up throwing me off is the extreme competiveness some people experience. I need only point as far as the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry for an example. People break down crying when their team loses, whether they're a player or just a fan. I don't have a very confrontational personality so I end up not being nearly so concerned. It's possible that is due to the fact that I can only truly recall being on the winning team of a sports game about five times. Ever. So losing a game isn't a big deal for me, it's just a fact of life.

Whatever the case, sports games just don't present a fun time for me if I'm actually watching the game. All that said though, I do enjoy going to games to hang out on the sidelines with friends and chat, even if I don't know whether to be cheering for a touchdown or a basket.

                              -The Emotionless Rock

MOBILE POST 1

Just shipped off hard drive with the back end credits for Putt Putt to Secret Headquarters Inc. Coolest production company name ever. Im writing this on cell.


...(on the computer now) Which means I can only fit two lines per post.  Still, it's kind of cool. I may use the ability to update without a computer now and then if something really cool happens. Then I'll elaborate later. I'm still against using Twitter, but I'll admit this is much the same concept.

Organization and Opera (for Josh H.)

This post is dedicated to my cousin Joshua Hunt so he can see that my blog is not dead!

My life has become a lot more organized of late. About the only thing I have failed to organize is time to blog. Which you probably noticed.

One thing I have organized the heck out of in the past couple days is my plans for The Hazards of Love. Every single film date (well, almost) is planned out to the very end. Tomorrow I'm filming two halves of two different songs. I still desperately need to figure out how to film the scene with the deer however.

While I haven't been organizing THIS blog, if you check out the Rambler Productions blog you might notice a couple of changes. I keep trying to add more features to it to make it more interesting and useful. I also tend to run into this problem with myself when reading other people's posts. And since I'm an admin I can go in and fix them. Take note though that I do not change the message or intent of someone's post, I simply fix grammar, spelling, and I add relevant links. I just can't leave sentences like "this great solder agaisnt the Roman was named Sparatcus" lying around in the open. Someone might see them.

The "unexpected excursion" to Boston went very well and I'm really glad I decided to go. We went to see "Young Frankenstein" at the Boston Opera House. As our group of 16 loud high-school students filed through the front entrance of the Opera house we all became suddenly subdued and quiet. It was like we had stepped into a royal palace. The ceiling soared about forty feet above us and there was a chandelier that must've been ten feet tall. Every square inch of the walls was covered in ornate plaster scrollwork. We all agreed that we immediately felt underdressed in our sweatshirts and jeans.

When we got into the actual theater room I was completely floored by the immensity of it. The place seats 2677 people, is about 100 feet from pit to ceiling, and there are massive pillars around the edges. I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open a lot.

The show itself was incredibly impressive. But what else can you expect when it was written by the same guy who did Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs, and Men in Tights? (Mel Brooks) Bawdy jokes and clever lines made the show absolutely hilarious. The choreography was incredible, the props and sets were SO perfect, and the acting was unparalled. Stage theater is so very different from film and affords a truly unique experience.

I've only received one coat of arms to date. This one by Chris Balcer. I would have my own to upload but seeing as my editing computer has no functioning video card I can't really do that. Since Chris was the only person to send me anything, he wins the super amazing awesome prize from my house. However I don't think I will be using his submission on the blog, sorry Chris. Once I get the computer back up and running I'll see what I can come up with myself.

That is all for now. Wish me luck!