Sore from golf (3) Oct 10, 2007
I played golf on Monday for the first time since 2004.  It was great.  I started off a little rough, getting the "maximum score" for the first two holes, but I ended up getting a couple of pars and only losing two or three balls all day, none of which were in the water.  A golf score in my book takes into account not only the actual number of strokes it took to complete the round, but also the number of balls and tees lost, the number of balls and tees found, and the number of water and sand traps missed.  This is why I only play golf once every three years. 

The other reason I rarely play golf is because I was sore the next day.  As if the act of playing golf didn't make me enough of a non-athlete, I got sore muscles from playing this non-sport.  It had something to do with the fact that my body doesn't normally experience that kind of swinging motion on a daily basis.  It also had something to do with the fact that I, like any testosterone-filled individual, swung as hard as I possibly could.  If you're gonna lose a ball, you might as well make it worthwhile. #sports
Favorite team (1) Oct 9, 2007
As I've mentioned before, I'm a fair-weather fan.  Years of rooting for loosing teams have left me jaded and cynical.  At least I admit it.  I don't claim to be a Colts fan or a Patriots fan.  People who do this are below scum in my opinion.  Unless you can prove you liked either team before they got good, you're a fair-weather fan too.  You just haven't been around long enough to ditch them when they get bad (largely because they never get bad; Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are godlike).  It's easy to like teams that always win.  It's also shallow.  So there you have it:  Two insults in one paragraph. 

For this reason and a few others, I've decided to adopt a "no favorite team" policy.  I've been teetering on the edge for over a year now:  I claim to like the Eagles, but I show absolutely no loyalty to them.  They win some, they lose some.  I'm apathetic.  To be quite honest, it's extremely difficult to like a team that's not from your area (or if you live in a dual-team region) because their games are rarely televised.  It's a heck of lot easier to like the local team simply because it's a heck of lot easier to watch their games.  And go to their games.  And fraternize with their fans.  And buy their merchandise in stores. 

But again, I have no favorite team.  I'll watch the local team.  I'll also watch their division rivals.  I'll watch last year's Super Bowl champions.  I'll watch this year's likely Super Bowl champions (Pats).  I'll watch that old guy from Wisconsin.  I don't really care.  I like watching football (by the way, this post is entirely about football because I don't watch or care about other sports ... perhaps I should've mentioned that at the beginning ... oh well).  I like watching good football.  Watching Tom Brady systematically get first downs and score points is amazing.  The man doesn't make mistakes.  I enjoy watching stuff like that.  Watching my favorite team fumble the ball and stumble down the field is disheartening at best.  It would be easier if my favorite team was a good team, but it's not and has rarely ever been.  So yes, I'm essentially giving up. 

The advent of fantasy football has really helped my decision.  With a fantasy team, I manage players from all over the NFL.  Some are on good teams, some on bad.  The success of a specific team often has nothing to do with the success of an individual player in fantasy football land.  This makes it easier to watch games that would otherwise have no impact on me or my favorite team.  I have a wide receiver from the Jets and a kicker from the Cardinals (my kicker is oddly a reliable point-scorer).  Do I like the Jets or the Cardinals?  No, but I'll watch their games because I like some of their players. 

I have to admit the idea of not having a favorite team didn't occur to me until a few weeks ago.  When asked what his favorite team was, a guy I know said he was undecided.  He made it sound like he didn't know much about the sport and was still formulating an opinion.  I have a feeling he knew exactly how he felt and intentionally chose to not have a favorite team.  I liked the idea and latched onto it. 

So that's how it's gonna be.  I'm not basing my decision entirely on fantasy football, mainly because I just started about a month ago.  That interest may fade.  But my disinterest in a favorite team probably won't. #sports
Recent NFL observations Oct 9, 2007
1.  Pink towels:  I saw a towel draped over a player's shoulder pads, and it didn't look clean and white, but it also wasn't completely red.  I figured it might've been a fluke.  I saw another one and thought, This is an NFL team.  Don't they have enough money to get clean towels?  After I saw the same thing in several other games, at different times, and on different networks, it finally all came together:  It had something to do with breast cancer awareness. 

2.  Let's travel back in time to the last 5 or 6 games of the 2006-2007 season, where Jeff Garcia was the Eagles quarterback in place of an injured Donovan McNabb.  Garcia managed to take a below-.500 team to the playoffs, beating the division rival Giants, and losing in the 2nd round to the Saints.  When asked what he would do next season concerning McNabb, coach Andy Reid said he'd bench Garcia and put McNabb in as soon as he was healthy.  My immense knowledge of football and everything else said, If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Jeff Garcia is a game-winner, McNabb isn't.  Andy Reid surprisingly wasn't able to read my mind and consequently didn't take my advice, and now look at the Eagles.  They're a joke of a team even with a healthy McNabb.  And they got rid of Garcia.  This is why I don't like the Eagles, even though I tell people they're my favorite team. 

3.  I think it's funny how teams that do well one year end up doing poorly the next year, and vice versa.  I can think of three teams off the top of my head:  the Saints, the Bears, and the Chargers.  All three teams had incredible records and made it to the playoffs last year.  They had Pro Bowl players and managed to consistently win and get better each week.  In all three cases, not much changed from last season to this season in terms of personnel, both players and coaches.  Yet all three teams are borderline atrocious so far this season.  Sure it's only week 5 and there's still a ton of time to turn things around, but the obvious question is:  What happened between last year and this year?  What changed?  If your players are generally the same, your coaches are generally the same, and the league is generally the same, what could possibly be different about this season to make you lose so many games so poorly?  Did you get lucky last year?  Were you overrated?  The "vice versa" is also true.  The example that comes to mind is Green Bay.  The team was so bad last year, it almost forced Brett Favre to retire.  But he decided to stay, as did most of his team and most of the coaches.  So what exactly changed from one year to the next to turn a terrible team into a pretty good team?  Who knows.  Maybe Brett Favre is like wine and gets better with age.  But what happened for the last several years when he wasn't good?  Maybe that was his valley and now he'll get exponentially better each year until he retires as the league's MVP at the ripe old age of 65. #sports
Kickboxing Sep 14, 2007
I started kickboxing this week, and I can already say it's in the top 5 best experiences of my life.  Even though I'm brutally sore due to being pitifully out of shape, it's an awesome class.  Contrary to what I originally thought, kickboxing has hardly any kicking involved.  For some reason, I thought it was all lower body stuff, but somebody pointed out to me the fact that "kickboxing" refers to "kicking" and "boxing". 

The main downside of the Israeli self-defense class I took was that it was pretty much entirely centered around person-to-person encounters.  That's a good thing for the purpose of the class:  To teach people how to defend themselves in person-to-person encounters.  For example, if you have a gun pointed at you, it doesn't matter how high you can kick your leg or how hard you can punch a pad.  You need to know a few simple moves that'll both protect you from the attack and turn the attack around to the other person.  But because the class teaches such violent, destructive moves, you can't practice them at full force and full speed.  You're forced to practice at 10-20%.  Sometimes this was enough, other times it felt lacking. 

That's why I'm enjoying kickboxing so far.  Up to this point, the class has been pretty simple: 
  1. Run around to warm up.
  2. Do some push-ups and sit-ups.
  3. Punch and kick the living crap out of a padded bag.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 several times.
It's really quite fulfilling.  And more than that, it serves two purpose for me: 
  1. It lets me figure out how hard I can punch something.  The limiting factor is my body strength.  Since I'm wearing padded gloves and hitting a padded object, I won't break any fingers or walls/doors.  It's both satisfying and relieving to put all your strength and energy into something, especially something so potentially destructive yet relatively harmless.
  2. It lets me figure out what I'd do in a real-life situation.  I have a feeling that I, like most people, will fall back on a few simple moves when under pressure.  I won't remember how to defend against 50 different attacks.  I won't remember how to throw 30 different combinations of kicks and punches.  I'll probably remember about 2 or 3 things, and I'll use them until I'm red in the face.  Those 2 or 3 moves will come out when we start sparring.
#sports
Faceball Aug 6, 2007
Faceball is an "office sport" played by throwing beach balls at fellow employees' faces.  Opponents sit 10 feet apart and try to hit each other directly in the face.  Glancing blows don't count, and ducking is not allowed.  The one with the most points after 5 rounds wins.  (via Neatorama) #sports
Golf and gators (1) Jun 26, 2007
A guy almost lost his arm while trying to get his ball out of the water at a golf course in Venice, FL (via Obscure Store).  Oddly enough, my grandparents lived in the little town of Venice for 170 years (or it might've been around 25), and I played golf there a few times.  The rule on those golf courses, as with most Florida golf courses, is simple:  If your ball goes in the water, leave it.  Even if you can see it and it's only a few feet in, leave it.  You can get another ball.  You can't get another arm (actually you can, but that's not the point).  When I played, I saw several alligators sunning themselves right next to water traps.  It was cool to see such an unusual animal out in the open (unusual for a New Jerseyan), but it was also at least slightly mortifying.  Alligators are in the same category of animals as sharks, lions, bears, etc.  Things with teeth large enough and jaws powerful enough to snap your femur like a toothpick.  So when I hit my ball in the water (with me and golf, it's always a "when", not an "if"), I thought about reaching in and getting it.  My grandfather, aunt, and uncle said not to, but I said, "Look.  It's right there.  I can see it in the water."  They convinced me otherwise, and that's the main reason I'm still here today. 

The article mentioned above has a stupidly funny statistic:  "The attack was the second in 18 years".  Is that a lot?  Is that a little?  What am I supposed to think? #sports
Rock-Paper-Scissors Apr 27, 2007
I'm always amazed and pleased to read the plethora of online information about Rock-Paper-Scissors, the simple hand-gesture game used to make decisions and win wars.  Known as Reaux-Sham-Beaux, Rochambeau, or Roshambo (French and its variants) to dork minions professionals (yes, there are professionals), it's bigger than you could ever possibly imagine.  And now it appears there's a guy who's added several more gestures to the game, including Lizard, Spock, Fire, Water, Air, Sponge, and others.  What a fascinating sport. #sports
Women's basketball Apr 5, 2007
This is offensive for at least 3 different groups of people, but I can't help laughing at headlines like this from the Onion: 
Trey Wingo Apologizes For Accidentally Calling Champion Lady Vols 'Pat Summitt's Marauding Army Of Monstrous Lesbians'
I wish I didn't laugh at that, but I did. #sports
Athletic progression (1) Feb 18, 2007
I used to be really athletic.  And I used to be good at sports.  Oh how my life has gone downhill.  I can pinpoint the precise moment when I reached my prime in several different sports.  With baseball, I was on a plateau from 4th grade through 6th grade.  I was a pitcher, and I was apparently pretty good.  I remember getting the game ball several times, and I pitched a zero- or one-hitter on more than one occasion.  After 6th grade, my skill level actually decreased.  With basketball, I'd have to say I reached my prime in around 6th grade, since this was before anyone took things seriously.  After that, everyone got good, but I stayed at the same skill level.  With soccer, I peaked in 9th and 10th grade.  That was when my natural athletic ability provided exactly enough skill to make it look like I was good.  After that, everyone started going to summer soccer camp and getting better, while my skills diminished. 

It's actually kind of interesting how my athletic ability decreased whenever everyone else's increased.  It's purely psychological.  Whenever I saw everyone getting better, I would get more nervous and reserved.  Any good athlete knows it's all about calmness and composure under pressure.  That's exactly where I went wrong. 

I also find it interesting that I was born with some natural athletic ability.  I don't say this to brag; it's sort of a fact.  I was always pretty good at sports, but I was never a major standout.  I was good at jumping into a sport and quickly doing pretty well.  But when it came right down to it, I wasn't all that good, so I would crack under pressure and fail to improve my skills over time. #sports
Football season ends Jan 28, 2007
Here I am, sitting around on a Sunday afternoon, crying my eyes out because football season is over.  Well, maybe not actually crying.  More like just really sad.  Watching football is the thing to do on Sundays from September through January.  And now that it's over (except for the big game next week), I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself.  It's still too cold to do much outside, and I have no desire to do any big jobs around the house.  Part of the appeal of watching football is that it's an activity closely related to sleep:  There's not much movement, there's hardly any thinking, and there's no interaction.  Basically, it's just a good reason to sit around and relax.  And I think relaxation is something we don't always put on the top of our priority lists.  It's hard to find time to sit around and do nothing, but it's always easy to find time to watch football. #sports