I very rarely watch basketball, but whenever I do I think, "Wow! What an exciting game! I should watch this more often." But then I don't watch very often, I guess because I lack that sense of personal interest.
Hockey I will watch, and since I moved to NJ I've been trying to work up a sense of loyalty to the Devils. But I only go to about one NHL game per season, and no way would I watch an entire season on TV. The season is too damn long! (and also: the recent focus on brain damage amongst injured players has somewhat dampened my enthusiasm). I do like Marty Brodeur, though.
I think some people are genuinely enthusiastic about a sport, and they develop emotional affinities to teams and players as a result of that enthusiasm.
I kind of wonder if people who follow pro sports are interested for entirely different reasons than I am, or if they manage to put professional athletes into the emotional category of "People I care about personally"
Little of both. Certainly rooting for a team over the course of a season you develop internal narratives about who the players are and what you think about them.
Since the dawn of time pale litigators have longed to destroy the sun.
I mostly watch sports that I play myself; watching pros is interesting because they're doing things I can only dream about (I mean, seriously, I'd love to be able to do this, but it's just never going to happen), watching amateurs is interesting because I can critique the play.
Since the beginning of time makind has yearned to fuck the sun.
If you need a deputy after you get the GC spot with the Mole People let me know. I've been considering going in-cave myself.
Ages ago I wanted to get into baseball 1) to feel more well-rounded and 2) so I could talk to more people. Seriously, my old officemate* used to go to the bar in her building when she had the mean reds and just talk to the bartender or whoever about baseball, because people know about it and like talking about it.
I tried a little but I couldn't get into it precisely because I feel no personal investment whatsoever. I asked my sister if team fandom was about warm feelings for the city, but I immediately concluded not because the people on the team aren't from there, just paid to play for the team.
The only sports I have ever enjoyed watching were soccer the summer of the World Cup just because everyone was getting into it and often there was alcohol, and a match I saw at the US Open or whatever in Queens. I don't quite understand why that was as gripping as it was. I mean, in the case of soccer and of Roddick/Djokovic, there were certainly attractive people involved, so that helped...
*in the spirit of cow-orker I guess this should be offi-cemate, pronounced to rhyme rather casually with anti-semite.
We all want you to win this pregnancy, heebie.
A lot of people complain about baseball and football having too much downtime. I like the downtime, because it gives some time to strategize and think about what's coming next, plus long-term plans (e.g., warm up the closing pitcher/kicker). So I enjoy watching pretty much any random baseball or football game. And I've been enjoying playing softball at school; you can learn a lot about a person playing sports together.
But I find it hard to follow a sport. It takes time, and I'd rather read the news or blogs if I'm just killing time.
There really are multiple entry points to sports fandom. From those already mentioned, through the old intro to Wide World of Sports, to the communion shared with friends and strangers attending a game, and the community that fandom can bring. I experience all of these, in some measure, more with some sports than others.
Example: went to a Bruins-Habs game with my son about 5 years ago. Well and energetically played (it was the last game of the season and only the winner would go to the playoffs), but the young women singing team ditties in French really made the thing. (I had gone to a Caps-Nordigues game with a colleague quebecoise (we had a series of them in the mid-90s) and so knew what I was in for.}
Ils etaient les Nordiques, naturellement.
That play Josh linked in 4 is amazeballs.
I've actually found my own sports fandom (which was never very intense) waning considerably in recent years. Back in high school and college I used to like watching football and baseball, although I never got into it enough to keep track of individual players and so forth the way a lot of serious fans do. These days I very rarely watch any sports, either live or on TV. I did go to a minor league baseball game last summer, which was fun.
I'm not interested in sports, but like Charley said, being in a crowd can be quite exciting. Track cycling is pretty cool, but I'm not at all bothered about athletics, but our day at the Paralympics watching both was just fantastic.
I've also been to a few road bike races (going again to Normandy in July to see 3 TdF stages) and that really should be the most pointless spectator sport - you hang about for ages, and then they whizz past you and you go home - but there's something appealing about it. First of all you have the fun atmosphere amongst the waiting crowd, and then you have the cyclists whooshing past, which is a bit of a rush, so close that you could touch them and you can see their faces.
I think with sports, the more you know about what's going on, the more sucked in you get, and the more enjoyable it is.
I've also been to a few road bike races (going again to Normandy in July to see 3 TdF stages) and that really should be the most pointless spectator sport - you hang about for ages, and then they whizz past you and you go home - but there's something appealing about it. First of all you have the fun atmosphere amongst the waiting crowd, and then you have the cyclists whooshing past, which is a bit of a rush, so close that you could touch them and you can see their faces.
This reminds me that I have recently watched some dogsled racing, which is a similar experience and also fun.
I follow three teams (Oxford United, Chicago Cubs and Bears) and it's only really Oxford players that I "care about personally", and even then less than I did when I was a season ticket holder. That could just be because my Chicago fandom, or at least my regular gamewatching, is more recent and less often in person, though. As Sifu says, to a certain extent attachment to players (positive or negative) in a team develops naturally over time. But it's certainly not a pre-requisite for me to follow a sport or a team, and it's not why I do it.
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I'm not particularly stressed out that I'm overdue for its own sake, but I really, really hate the feeling that I'm using up all the grandparents' vacations without producing a baby. It seems much more unforgivable on the 3rd, when you should know better. (This also happened with #1.) The first grandparent leaves tomorrow. With my mom in particular, she seems stressed out to be extraneous and unneeded, and she's been here a week, and I know she's got a lot of things she needs to tend to back at home. I'M SORRY.
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21: I could be wrong, but I bet nobody* blames either you or the baby.
* Apparently you blame yourself. Let's just leave that aside.
If anyone's to blame, it's surely the baby rather than heebie, in any case.
No, I don't actually think so. I'm just ruminating and feeling like these endless days with too much time to fill are my fault.
My MIL at least busies herself with the grandkids, but my mom is in a weird stand-off, feeling rejected by my four year old. I sympathize with her but it's compounding everything and contributing to the clear sense that she wants to flee the situation.
Actually because I drank a bunch of coffee at like six and still don't feel tired.
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y...NIGHT!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y...NIGHT!
But no Boss Niece or other love interest?
Nope. Never heard back from Boss Niece.
Also the sun doesn't set until 9:30 this time of year, so it's easy to stay up late without realizing it.
You know, it was only three weeks ago that it set at the same time everywhere. I don't know if you can use the long summer nights excuse three weeks after the equinox.
Well, I suppose four weeks. And also, if there are six hours of extended daytime in the evening to gain over three months, I suppose you'd have two extra hours by now.
It adds up really fast for a couple months then slows down. We'll get an extra hour between now and the beginning of May.
It is admittedly pretty weird in March and April when the days are really long but there's still snow on the ground.
26: I'm writing, because it's quiet, and fretting, because I'm an idiot, about the other thread. Regardless, I should probably go to sleep, as tomorrow is day two of the older boy's swim meet. If only I were tired.
I just received an e-mail warning me to expect more flight delays in the coming days due to increased FAA furloughs. I'm surprised at how little one hears about the ongoing impact of the sequester.
I've heard a bit about it. A few weeks ago I saw a presentation by NOAA's Tsunami Preparedness program where they mentioned that between the sequester and the failure of Congress to renew their authorizing legislation they no longer had any funding at all.
I got de-friended tonight on FB by someone I utterly don't give a shit about, over a meme about how the West plant hadn't been inspected since 1985. She felt the need to inform me that she has a one-strike policy and now I'm out. I told her I'd hid her months ago, which isn't true but felt satisfyingly bitchy. (The whole thing still got me feeling all confrontational and wound up.)
Yeah, I saw that. Why were you friends with her in the first place?
We went to grad school together.
One of those people who you have known for years without realizing how unbelievably stupid they are, until they start spouting politics on FB.
39: it seems like it's been that kind of week. I never (at least not that I can remember) post political things to facebook, but I felt compelled to say something boring about Lindsey Graham's half-witted tweets, and I've had a few friends leave in a huff as a result. I don't think I'm losing sleep over that, though.
At least I'm wrapping up a bunch of grading that I've been procrastinating on, mostly because there've been all these houseguests and the kids have been around. So it's a productive insomnia.
productive insomnia
Having just finished a non-terrible paragraph in a review essay, I'm going to move on to a job letter.
Well, I'm now finally feeling pretty tired, so I'm going to go to bed. You kids have fun.
Now I'm awake, but not hung over. I'm not sure why I woke so soon.
50: as I've aged, my body seems to convert the calories from alcohol into energy. This happened last weekend at a conference, when I drank a great deal, went to sleep still quite drunk, and then woke up at 2 am ready to go. I wasn't hung over at all, but I did feel like complete crap because of fatigue.
Oh yeah, drinking gives me terrible insomnia. I fall asleep easily and wake up three hours later, and I'm stuck.
I do seem to be aging into needing less sleep overall. And limping.
I was just about to type "At least I don't have a limp."
You are as youthful as ever, Moby. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I was simply saying that as I'm becoming older and more infirm, my body is undergoing certain changes.
It's absurdly early on the west coast.
For those of us who haven't gone to sleep yet, it's actually quite late.
I keep thinking of some line from Arrested Development, to the effect that when Buster Bluth was finally born, he was four years old and there were claw marks on Lucille's uterus.
yes, Eggplant, see now who is who, there is one more solution to your ticket, to let it expire, after all what's money and what's the pleasure of meeting the bullying a/holes? spare your nerves, you have my sympathy
There are probably lots of claw marks on uteruses but nobody ever looks for them if the baby is on time.
I figured out that I could get into World Cup football I picked a team, figured out the players, and developed that personal connection/attention to them that you have, LB. But as I seem to be lacking some important sports fandom gene, I can really only mange this about once every 4 years, and I still am not particularly emotionally invested the way real, if only casual, fans are.
Yesterday, I saw several talks where the effects of gait were discussed but nobody mentioned limping per se. Probably too hard to model.
39: This has been a bad week for Facebook. I've hid multiple people that were once entertaining and now just obnoxious.
I'm a casual football (soccer) fan. I watch the highlights shows once or twice a week, and will watch bigger matches when they appear on TV. I have a couple of teams I support (one Scottish, one English) but I'm not enough of a fan to go to matches or buy merchandise. I grew up in the era when every boy played football, all the time. Even fairly bookish non-team-sport types like me. So I can't remember every not understanding football. I'd say I'm less knowledgeable or invested in individual players in the teams I like than I was, say, 5 - 10 years ago, though.
The only other sports I watch regularly are rugby internationals, and athletics. I've played rugby (just at school), and watched it for years, but I still don't have a clue about the roles that some of the positions do, so I'm hardly watching with an expert eye.
FWIW, I support Arsenal and Celtic. The former not giving me a massive amount to cheer about at the moment.
One of the reasons I've given up following baseball and football for basketball is that there are way fewer players so its less effort to stay informed and know the players.
My sports watching has gone way, way down over the past few years. I pretty much only watch the NFL (and honestly, that's more about fantasy football stats than about the sport itself), UNC basketball, and the UFC when it's not on pay-per-view. On the other hand, now that Keegan is the goalie on his high school's varsity lacrosse team*, I'm watching a couple or three games a week of high school lacrosse and (now that I've figured out all the penalties) it's a great spectator sport. College lacrosse doesn't show up much on the various cable sports channels, but I'll often stop and watch when it does now.
*10-2 and a lock for the state playoffs!
The NBA did get more interesting once it had a bunch of guys I'd watched play when they were in college, though this year's NCAA tournament was interesting for the number of players that were the *children* of guys I'd watched play in college.
I find almost nothing of interest in basketball. The sample size is simply too high. Either you can tell after three minutes which team is obviously going to win, or it's determined by random chance.
16- I don't know, the finish was a little weak, he could have gone top corner or something more impressive than just rolling it by the goalie.
Baseball's the only sport I watch regularly, probably because the large majority of games are close enough that they can be suddenly turned around, and therefore there are enough tense moments that the stretched-out nature of each play makes it interesting. Basketball suffers from each game being too open, though- nothing matters until the last two minutes. The sport I play most myself, hockey, I rarely watch, due to a combination of lack of availability (I'm not buying a whole damn channel subscription just to watch) and lack of loyalty to a particular team. Football there are so few games that each one is too much of a commitment- if you want to take a Sunday off you miss a significant part of the season.
I'll get into special events, though- superbowl, world cup, this year NCAA at the end because it had the chance to win money.
BTW, Heebie, ask your Ob to do a membrane sweep (if it's compatible with your positioning, etc.)- we did that and 6 hours later, baby, right on the due date. If you want to keep with the sports theme, you can tell her, "Sweep the membrane! Do you have a problem with that?" and she'll say, "No, Sensei."
67: Is there a UK equivalent of the US supporters who gather in English or Scottish or Irish-themed pubs to watch association football matches at weird times of day? Like, would people troop down to the pizza place to see an NBA game at 8 am on a Sunday? My housemate's niche as a bartender is serving drinks to association football fans, although he has manifested less interest in this as of late. It's a very definite subculture around here.
65: It matters not how straight the gait.
You need two things to really become a sports fan. 1) exposure to the game itself during your formative years, so the flow, rules, and at least some of the subtleties of the game feel like second nature, and 2) a personal connection to the stories of either some teams or some players, so you feel like you're following a narrative storyline. Sports are kind of a guy's version of soap opera -- sports media are always translating the breaks and bounces of a game into grand judgements on the character of the players for this reason.
BTW, this is a good place to note that my pre-season take on the Lakers as hopelessly old and washed up has been vindicated...Kobe's in the hospital and Nash can barely move; Nash will never be more than a shadow of his former self.
re: 75
Not as such, although I know a fair number of nutterspeople who follow US sport who might stay up late to watch it at home. Mostly American football and a couple of baseball fans.
re: 73.1
You can find endless instances of Le Tissier scoring with insane shots. You don't really get many players like him now -- sort of chubby, a bit lazy, amazing ball skills, regularly made the best goalkeepers and defenders look like total chumps.
No. 6 on this list is pure cheek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws2qjN3G1JY
No. 5 is pretty great, too.
74: you think so? I thought that was one of those things whose effectiveness didn't actually pan out statistically.
Anyway, my next appointment is Tuesday. I don't think I'm in any danger of being induced, just highly likely to send grandparents home with an unsatisfying visit - and not have much help for very long after she arrives.
In my experience of n=1, it's 100% effective!
Lacrosse is exciting as hell. Like off-ice hockey with a touch of basketball.
I find almost nothing of interest in basketball. The sample size is simply too high. Either you can tell after three minutes which team is obviously going to win, or it's determined by random chance.
I can totally see how people would think that but it's really not true...the game is not nearly as random as it looks. Each possession looks like random draws from the same probability distribution over and over again but that's not it. It's more like each team probing to find what will reliably work at the key moments of the game...like boxers feeling out the strategy over the early rounds of a fight.
I went to more basketball games this year than ever,* because a friend has season tickets: one of my very few talents in this life seems to be a certain je ne sais quoi that makes me a go to person for someone with season tickets and a cancellation to bring along.
I find that I don't watch sports as much on the TV as I used to -- the time difference is a factor, as is not having a TV. Mostly, though, it's living a more active life, I think: we're out biking or skiing or boating when sporting events would be on.
*Except 1984-85, my wife's first year of teaching, in a rural Montana high school. Teachers and spouses were expected to attend every home game. (And spouses to be on the VFD -- we never had a fire during a basketball game, so I went to all of them.)
Don't lose heart, Heebie. There's still time for a come from behind victory.
80: N=1 studies have very wide confidence intervals.
come from behind
That's what got her in this mess in the first place.
Lacrosse is exciting as hell.
It really is, and it has just exploded on the youth level around here over the past few years. No longer the exclusive province of white kids at high-money private schools.
I just added an old friend from Statewide Nerd Camp. She seems still very nice but also posts a lot of stuff about Catholicism and I wonder if she's going to end up defriending me when I say something dickish about religion.
|| I don't understand how to clean floors. I really don't. |>
21: I had a lot of conversations with my mom about why she should not plan to be there in the delivery room. Given that I almost had the kid five weeks early and now he's overdue, I'm very glad I did so. But no one should blame you or the fetus. They don't have calendars in there. The objine is saying she won't let me go past 41 weeks, so maybe induction on Thursday for me? I'm feeling a little depressed because I am getting really good at having five hours of early labor that fizzles out.
74: Sweeping the membranes works about 50% of the time within three days, which gives it about the same odds as anything else one does between weeks 37 and 42. Bonus is that it won't work if you're not ready so it's pretty low risk.
I find it difficult to follow a lot of sports when I'm on the East Coast not just because the teams I'd try to keep up with play late at night (and may not be televised locally anyway) but also because games start later in the day. Unless I'm really interested in a particular game, I watch a lot of sports out of inertia. If there's nothing on when I happen to look, I find something else to do and often don't check back. So having games start after noon on weekends or not until a few hours after I get home from work means I generally don't wait around for them to start.
I find almost nothing of interest in basketball. The sample size is simply too high. Either you can tell after three minutes which team is obviously going to win, or it's determined by random chance.
But you're ignoring the existence of "clutch players". And "hot hands".
Clutch players definitely exist in basketball. The ability to create your own shot in a high-pressure situation is a big deal.
Basketball is unique because there are more successful scores than any other game (typically, in the NBA each team successfully scores 35-50 times each game). If you aren't familiar with the intricacies I imagine that could make it seem numbingly repetitive. But there's a lot going on besides just scoring or failing to score.
I do think NBA games should be shorter though -- 40 minutes, like college. Crazy that there are 82 regular season games + 15-20 playoff games of 48 minutes each.
Speaking of watching sports, is there a legitimate way to watch the NBA playoffs online or is this another one of those situations where the business model says to refuse all money from non-cable subscribers? For various reasons, I won't really be able to set up cable until July.
My understanding was that it appears that Chris Paul is enough better in the clutch than random that it now appears that clutch players do exist, although there doesn't seem to be much evidence that more than one clutch player exists. But I might be out of date on that point.
Basketball is great, the clutch does exist in basketball though not in baseball (except very rarely), it's hard to watch west coast games on the east coast, the major American sports are great, especially baseball, and fandom is driven primarily by boredom and getting a sense of the conventions and narratives, just like you fuckfaces get into scifi novels or whatever, plus extra fun local pride and hatred, plus PGD's mother is seriously a total whore.
Speaking of watching sports, is there a legitimate way to watch the NBA playoffs online or is this another one of those situations where the business model says to refuse all money from non-cable subscribers?
Seriously, why the fuck isn't all content on Hulu already? I'm fine with ads, just give me access to what I want to watch godamnit.
You should be able to subscribe to NBA League Pass Broadband for just the playoffs for something like $40, if I remember correctly. But it looks like since the playoffs have already started they're no longer selling league passes for this year? Or something. As usual content providers don't actually want to make it convenient for you to pay them for their content.
Though poking around suggests LPBB doesn't actually work. They charge you $180/year for the regular season, don't let you watch most games, don't have a working product, don't have technical support, and then auto-renew your subscription the next year. So maybe it's just as well that I can't buy it.
Kudos to TNT, turns out they let you watch their playoff games online and it's really fantastic.
Oh, I saw the multi-camera/screen set up during a pre-game and thought that was one of those annoying things where you can kind of see the game, but not get much from the actual broadcast. But I see now that it's better than that.
(Of course the Warriors aren't on TNT.)
The player cam thing is really interesting.
Yeah, I like these things as enhancements, but some channel tried something similar years ago without having much of a "general" angle and it was hard to watch.
Yes, but the blackboard cam is watchable. Annoying that they seem to show fewer games further into the series. On the west coast I just watched the playoffs at restaurants, but on the east coast the games are just too late so there's no real option other than watching at home.
blackboard cam
All about the x's and o's.
Anyway, that's what I mean, this actually works - the action cam is ok, too. The thing I'm remembering was basically just that mosaic view. It was years ago.
Just because everyone needs to hear me complain, my face is peeling now, and I'm having a terrible time restraining myself from picking at it. I look like I have leprosy. (And my nose, which got burnt worst, isn't even healed enough to start peeling -- that's probably not until Thursday. When I have court.)
I hate that. I burned all the skin off my upper torso just last year.
And with only one of those little creme brulee torches, let me tell you that takes commitment.
My skin came off in very thin, large sheets. If I had butter to keep them separate, I could have done a cannibal phyllo dough thing.
Since this has reverted to the "LizardBreath complains" thread, I want to report that I sent LizardBreath an email, under various pseudonyms. Did I do the address right?
Not unless you're a woman living on the west coast, or otherwise impersonating a different poster. I've gotten two emails from commenters in the last day, but neither from you. "Liz/ardB/reath@un/fogged.com" without the slashes works, as does "e/liz/ardb@hot/mail.com".
Small business is the engine of growth in our region.
113- So what is it legal to brew yourself in terms of alcohol? Certainly wine and beer, is there some proof limit? Varies by state? Or were these guys arrested as part of a 20s reenactment event?
I think the line in most (all?) states is fermentation yes, distillation no. Which makes sense, given that it's harder to poison yourself with homebrew than moonshine.
Also harder to explode yourself.
Based on the science fair project section, I broke one more alcohol law than I thought during high school.
My HS best friend's dad just opened a distillery in my hometown. I am psyched.
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Yesterday I got approached by someone whom I work with closely, at a connected institution, suggesting I might be interested in a similar, probably more senior, job with them. I'm quite happy with my current job, and even if this other one were better, I'd want to stay here for at least the next two years because I'll get experience in some events that don't come around very often and in which participation is limited. So, not wanting to string them along, I thanked them and declined the offer to talk about it further.
Now I'm regretting this a bit, because even if I wouldn't have really considered it, I wish I knew more about the job, the pay, and generally how my skills are valued by those who know about them. It might, for example, help with later salary bargaining. Also I may have been a little abrupt in cutting off discussion about it.
Would it be weird to go back and say "actually, let's talk"? Should I just wait for the next time I get approached (as I have been, more obliquely, in the past)?
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Would it be weird to go back and say "actually, let's talk"?
No. You don't even owe them an explanation of why you've changed your mind. Go ahead.
My face is still messed up enough that I went and bought foundation so I could go to court this morning without distracting the judge with my scabbiness. I hate wearing foundation. I hate the sun.
We hates the White Face and the Yellow Face.
I don't think I can understand 120 unless it's rephrased in terms of pets.
I don't really understand why somebody who is presumably trying to sell more of it to women would use the term "foundation" to refer to a type of make-up. It sounds too much like a construction project.
I don't really understand why somebody who is presumably trying to sell more of it to women would use the term "foundation" to refer to a type of make-up.
Because they're psychohistorians, so they already know they'll sell a ton of the stuff and rebuild civilisation on the strength of it.