SPorts fan?
Aug/084
The Beijing Olympics have come and gone. Due to circumstances largely outside of my control – like my insane workload, and the general upheaval of the house due to ongoing renovations – I didn’t spend as much time watching the various sports* as I normally would have.
*if you can call synchronised swimming a sport…
I started to think that I just didn’t care about sports as much as I had previously. When I did catch the odd glimpse of the games, they just didn’t seem to captivate as they once did. It didn’t help that some of the message was ruined through communication issues (7’s woeful coverage). Nevertheless, all it takes is a special moment for me to remember exactly why it is that I like sports. A single passage of beautiful play, an outstanding individual achievement, someone pushing their limits…
All the frustration melts away, and I remain a sp orts fan.
The Line
Aug/080
I’m currently wondering where the line between persistence and stupidity is located. I guess, like all invisible lines that exist only as concepts of the mind, you only find out once you’ve crossed it. I haven’t reached it yet… lets just hope that you can get back across the line, and that it’s not a fence protecting me from some sort of giant-abyss-of-doom.
I cross a more quantifiable invisible line tomorrow, turning 20. I’m ok with not being a teenager anymore. I wasn’t a particularly conventional example of the species anyway, and now I have a decent excuse for hating clubs. There were a few typical teenage things I never did… some I never will, others I just won’t do as a teenager.
I have no idea what to expect tomorrow in the way of gifts. The only thing I actually desire can’t be bought, so I couldn’t really offer up any answers when asked what I wanted. I may be well-stocked in socks tomorrow.
I nearly published this without mentioning my physical soreness – the annual ‘first bowl of the season’ pain. It’s not a big deal, because I’m used to it. After cricket performs its yearly sneak-attack on my muscles, they hurt for a few days and then it’s fine. It occurs to me that I should be similarly far-sighted about the emotional pain/angst/doubt/insecurity – accept the pain of today as the price of future achievement. It’s a good plan, even if I’m not likely to follow it.
On the subject of cricket training, a few of the guys commented that I’d lost weight, one even saying that I was half the man I was last season. That was a pretty awesome thing to hear, and yet another example of the good things that have occurred indirectly from my distraction.
EXTREME!
Aug/080
Last night was the first* Extreme Programming (XP) lecture.
*Despite the fact that they wanted the first lecture to be last week, it was cancelled due to the typical levels of disorganisation in the university.
XP sounds awesome. And daunting. Awesomely daunting. Actually, the entire semester seems a little bit scary after examining the subject outline for everything – but that just means that completing it will actually be an achievement to be proud of. I like the idea of actually pushing myself for once. Sometimes you have to break something in order to find out its limits. I don’t intend to get broken, per se, but I’m pretty sure I’ll come closer to my limit than I’ve ever been before. It’s a simultaneously thrilling and frightening prospect.
James nudged me into posting this blog, noting that it had been August for an entire week, and I hadn’t posted anything. That’s a shame… August is my favourite month. For starters, it’s my birthday month. Even better, two very good friends from school have their birthdays 9 and 7 days before mine – and we all live within about 10 minutes walk of each other. It’s a pretty strange coincidence – or is it? Are we close because we’re geographically close, or is there some psuedo-horoscopal fate & predeterminism happening?
Getting back to XP, when I was thinking about something to write about, I had a notion that it would be nice to have a post free of ambiguous references to subjects of romantic questing or general insecurities, paranoia and angst. Fuck it. I can’t really turn off that part of my brain, and I don’t really want to. I do sometimes wish that I could look at things in more simplistic terms, though, and I remembered that simplicity was an XP value. It led me to think about whether the XP approach could be adapted for other areas of life – relationships, for example.
XP Values:
- Simplicity
- Communication
- Feedback
- Courage
Despite being incredibly far from being able to claim any manner of expertise in this field, it seems like those are four pretty relevant values. At the moment, I’m struggling the most with simplicity. I’ve been over-analysing everything – it’s my nature, I suppose. Communication is obviously important in all social interaction. I’ve had a communication void for a week or so now, which is pretty disappointing. Feedback can mean from the other person or from other people – I guess the former could fall under communication, which leaves feedback as getting advice from or just talking about it with friends. This has been really positive for me. I can think of at least four people who I feel closer to as a result of trying to get close to one person – that’s a decent side effect :) The last value – courage – doesn’t really require a whole lot of explanation. It will suffice to say that it’s the most important of the XP values when applied to relationships.
I guess that counts as my first XP blog… I don’t think I’ll put it on UTS Online though.