So, it turns out my grades this semester were less than phenomenal and more than poor. I ended up with an A and 3 B’s and I’m pretty stinkin’ disappointed about it, too. I feel like I totally got robbed out of the effort I put in–two of the B’s were directly related to that awful day when I had two tests (in two of the B classes) and a project due (in the other B class) within a few hours of each other. The class the project was due in should have yielded an A, but I apparently performed pretty poorly on the final in spite of the fact that I felt very prepared for it. I can’t describe how disappointing that is. The other two B’s were more a result of my awful test/project day than of my final exam performance, so I guess that’s a little encouraging. Either way, this semester had the potential to be my 4.0 semester and it just slipped through the cracks. Another mediocre semester on the books…

Today was my first day at work and I have to say it was all right. Not spectacular, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. I can’t say much about what I’m doing, but I’m basically in charge of writing a procedure for preventative maintenance on a test set (a huge test set). I don’t figure that will take very long, so I’m pretty curious what I’ll be doing when I finish that. My supervisor is pretty cool—straight forward, knows his stuff and is a hard worker. Hopefully, he’ll keep me good and busy with challenging stuff, so I’m not tempted to start pushing for the company mandated nap-time I’ve been thinking about.

I played some basketball today and it was good save two things: First, I was shooting pretty poorly, but I expected that because I hadn’t even touched a ball in a couple weeks; Second, I twisted my ankle again–not as severely as before, but I’m frustrated that it hasn’t healed from its tweak a couple weeks ago. I think I may have to buy an ankle brace. On a more humorous note, I had a guy complain about my low-post play today. He is about my height (maybe an inch taller), but he’s much broader and probably outweighs me by a good amount–most of it muscle. A few minutes into our game, he started whining saying, “You can’t just push me outta’ the block!” Well, I replied, “Man, you’re tryin’ to run the post on me. If you don’t want me to body you up, then don’t push me down under the hoop. If you wanna’ play the post, you’re gonna’ have to fight for it.” So, his response wasn’t verbal, it was physical: every time the ball went up and he was going for a rebound, he’d push off of me with his forearm. Now, bodying up on the post is perfectly legal and is considered good, physical basketball play (as long as you are using your body and not your arms, which I wasn’t); pushing off for every rebound, especially on a guy who’s smaller than you, is just kinda’ dirty. So, I mentioned it and he didn’t seem to have much to say. I don’t think he appreciated me playing tight defense on him, though. Maybe next time, I’ll let the big guy score some pity-points or something. Moral of the story: Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it. And definitely don’t dish it out on a smaller guy and then complain because he plays right back at you.

Anyway, the Mav’s playoff game is on and half-time should be wrapping up about now. Eight hours of work tomorrow and then a nice, relaxing weekend for me. It’s about stinkin’ time.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

…and before I get down off my soap-box, I remembered something else that’s really been frustrating me. There’s been a lot of “cheap” play going around. It’s like it’s an epidemic or something. At least twice last night, I saw or experienced plays that, by all normal standards in any regular game of basketball, would be considered cheap. They may have been technically “legal” (or they may not have been), but by acting in these ways, the person could have badly injured someone and for no particular reason other than frustration or “to send a message”. …as if we’re a bunch of pro basketball players and we need to be sending other players “messages” because we’re just that good.

I think I’m finished now…

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Basketball with my friends is starting to frustrate me. It seems like most of the people I usually run with have forgotten that basketball is a sport and there are rules, both written and unwritten, that people who play the game are supposed to follow. I’m beginning to enjoy playing with less experienced players over “more” experienced players, simply because the less experienced guys seem to have more respect for others and for the game. Lately, there has just been an inordinate amount of whining and complaining and crying about everything from a ticky-tack foul call to a “blind” foul or no-foul call. Now, what I mean by “blind call” is an instance where someone will not even be part of the play–either they are on the “weak side” of the floor or they were too lazy to hustle back to where the ball is–and they’ll authoritatively claim to have had a vantage point that no one else, not even those directly involved in the play, had. Tonight, there was an instance where there were eight guys on the floor who all saw the same thing, but there was one guy who essentially made a “blind call” and then chastised another player for not agreeing with his call. Things like that shouldn’t happen. There is no reason that eight guys would see one thing and another guy would see something else unless the latter was simply wrong. But the guys I play with don’t like to think about things logically like that sometimes. They’d rather insist that they’re right, even if they take sole representation of the minority on an issue.

I’ve been playing basketball for about fifteen years now–I even played with the same guys daily for about four years–and I’ve never experienced anything like this until now. It used to be that people had respect for other players–their calls, their safety, their ability–but now it seems like everyone is either only looking out for their team or their pride. Either way, that selfishness can lead to rifts forming and people getting hurt. I hit the floor hard two times tonight. I only got two apologies and both were from inexperienced players (at least they’d rarely or never played with us before) who weren’t even at fault. The fact was, we got tangled up and they wanted to make sure no one thought there was any intentional tripping or misconduct. On the other instance when I hit the floor hard, there were no apologies, just a guy telling me that, from his vantage point down at the other end of the floor, it was a legitimate play and I had no grounds on which to believe the foul might have been intentional. And, furthermore, I was at fault because I “lost my balance” when I came down. Suffice it to say he was the one who saw his own version of the play, while eight other guys saw something very different.

I guess I just don’t understand why things have to be so convoluted among a bunch of Christian guys trying to play a simple game. Intentional fouls shouldn’t happen. People shouldn’t whine about foul calls or no-calls. People shouldn’t make “blind” calls. Guys should simply respect everyone else on the court and play the game for what it is. In my opinion, if someone isn’t ready to show respect for the other nine guys on the floor, then they aren’t ready to play competitive basketball. Every time I play, it seems like there’s less respect on the court. I see more respect when a group of guys who don’t even know each other take the court and play an intense game for a half hour than I ever do with our guys. It simply shouldn’t be that way.

Sometimes, a man’s gotta’ vent…

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tomorrow’s officially designated Sleep-In Day. I have a class, but I figure I haven’t been in ohhhhhh two weeks or so now, so why bother going tomorrow? Basically, all I have to do is get a 75% or better on the next quiz and I get an A in the class. I think I can pull that off. Basically, I’m right on target for the ol’ “4.0″ this semester, save one class: Data Structures & Algorithms. I have a 100% homework average, but my test grades are 71% and 50%. The instructor claims to grade on an absolute grading scale, meaning it doesn’t matter how the rest of the class performs, everyone’s grade is based on the 10-point scale: 90%-above is an A, 80%-90% is a B, etc. Needless to say, I’m hoping he’ll curve it a bit anyway. I don’t want to talk about that anymore.

Oh yeah, I’m sleeping in tomorrow. I’m pretty excited about that, too, because it’s been almost 4 days now since I last slept in. There’s just something magical about waking up because I’m good and ready to, rather than waking up because some electronic demon is screaming relentlessly at me in harsh, prolonged beeps. I got my room cleaned and my hair cut last weekend, but I never got around to cleaning my car and since it needs it pretty badly, I’m hoping to get to that tomorrow. I’m also going to go ahead and start studying for my finals. Now, my alter ego, whom I’ve put to rest for a short time, so I can succeed in my classes this semester, would be thoroughly disappointed in my for fending off the procrastination bug. I’ve decided I don’t care what the other me thinks and, by golly, I’m going to do well. It’s been a while, but I remember a time when I shacked myself up in my cruddy little hole-in-the-wall garage apartment for five days studying for finals and I actually did very well on them all. I’m hoping to pull off a similar miracle this semester, particularly in Data Structures. A friend and I have both decided we’re going to get 100%’s on the final–I’m doing it because if I don’t, I could end up with a pretty nasty grade in this class; he’s doing it because his ego’s at stake.

We played basketball tonight and, for the first time in a while, I played how I expect to play every time I walk onto the court. I was knocking down open jumpers, knocking down not-so-open jumpers, making lay-ups and, best of all, making some really nice passes when and where they needed to be made. It’s been a while since I felt so good about my own performance; hopefully, I’ll be able to do that again soon. On a related note, I saw three of our men’s basketball team players playing a pick-up game today at our recreation center. I have decided I’m going to try and run at least one game with those guys before the end of the semester, just to see what I’m really made of. I think I have between two and three weeks left to try and arrange something.

Bedtime is near and, as my mom has always told me, I’ve never been one to fight sleep when it begins to take over. I honestly don’t remember ever complaining about being told to go to bed. I’m sure I did at some point, but it was so scarcely an occurrence that I’ve blocked it from my memory. Good night to all, and to all a good night…

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I’m a big fan of Breyers products. Right now, I’m enjoying a new flavor called Banana Fudge Chunk–Banana ice cream with fudge swirls and soft fudge chunks. Wow, this is good stuff. I’m a huge fan of banana anything and this stuff is really hitting the spot. I’ve said many a time that there are just some things that I won’t skimp on, and one of those things is ice cream. I can spot artificial flavoring and freezer-burn at a thousand yards, at night, with no special vision technology. I also really enjoy yogurt, but I’ve spoiled myself by only buying Breyers Fruit on the Bottom yogurt cups. I’m too lazy to mix my own and that stuff is about as close as one can get with ready-to-eat-with-real-fruit-inside yogurt. Anyway, I figure that’s a little peak into my personality–I can’t stand fake ice cream.

Today, I played basketball with seven of my buddies and we had a pretty good time, but I learned something about myself that I really liked. At first, we played on a court that already had a few guys on it, so we were forced to pick four of our guys to take on their four. We selected four guys by shooting free throws “first four to make it” style. I was one of the first four, so three other guys and I took on the guys who had the court. We lost–we didn’t get demolished, but we never really had a chance either. Then the rest of the guys with me (the other four) played the guys that had the court. They lost–barely. After that second game, we all decided to move to a different court because we wanted to play against each other and not just sit around waiting to play a bunch of guys none of us knew. On the way to the new court, one my friends–who was on the team with the second group of our guys–said that he was surprised that his team almost beat the guys that had the court because “the best ball players were on the first team”. Well, I didn’t agree with him and I didn’t like the sound of that, but I decided to let it go. …until I was designated as a captain for picking teams on the new court. I gave the other captain first pick and then proceeded to pick as many of the guys from the second team (from the previous court) as I could. I got three of ‘em. I was out to prove a point, and I think I ultimately did.

I wanted to show that my friend was wrong: the guys on the first team (from the first court) were not the best ball players out there. They may have been quicker or had more jumping ability, but they weren’t necessarily the better ball players. I decided to demonstrate this by picking those guys from the second team and beating the guys from the first team. And it almost worked, too. We lost pretty badly the first game–11-6 or something like that. But, we almost took ‘em the second game. In fact, we were tied at 10-10, but then we gave up two buckets in a row and lost 12-10. Or at least we lost as far as final score was concerned. As far as I was concerned, I had proven my point: The guys from the first team weren’t necessarily the better ball players. I honestly felt we outplayed those other guys in that last game, and I think they knew it too. I think the best part was that everyone knew what I was up to and I could tell that some of the guys appreciated it and some of them didn’t–probably because they had to swallow a little pride by the time it was over.

I have a feeling that didn’t make much sense, but at least I can have a reminder of today’s game from time to time.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites