[tei_]

 

A ranger? Oh no! I've been an assassin so long. Okay, not that long, but the Rangers is the largest guild, and as Plutarch, "I live in a small city, and I prefer to dwell there that it may not become smaller still," I didn't want to be a ranger, EVERYONE'S a ranger, come on now. But maybe it's time for me to accept that the real action is in Rome/that my entire life is a mediation of the driving need to do ALL THE THINGS with the necessity of choosing some subset of Things to actually get done,  at risk of being paralyzed by how very many things there are in the universe.  So: Ranger.

 

I went to a hockey game last week, and decided I wanted to learn how to skate on hockey skates/maybe eventually play hockey. So, I have three fitness Things that I want to keep up this challenge:

 

-Gymnastics: Wednesday/Sunday, with Wednesday being my main training day where I can go to the gym while EVERYONE ELSE is there and marvel at all the gymnastics happening, and Sunday I come in a bit early before I coach my adult class to do some flips.

 

Lifting: Tuesday/Thursday/Friday. I'm still trying for Thursday, even though i teach a Zoom class at 2:30 and had been spending Thursday mornings wandering around the house muttering maniacally to myself about math for a pretend audience. But if I take the car to the gym that morning then I'll have plenty of time. (I usually take the bus.)

 

Skating: Once a week! There's open skate Mondays 2:30-3:30, so I'm going to aim for that. I need to look up stopping, backwards skating, etc.

 

Other things I will do this challenge: learn python (I got a summer job that... has something to do with data science? I literally have no idea what it is or how I was chosen but hey), learn classical mechanics (my one class that I am taking this semester is first-year physics, which yes hilariously I am taking first-year physics and teaching first-year math, because when I went back to school I MEANT to take science classes that I'd been scared to take in high school because I couldn't do math, but then I had to take a math prereq first, and fell into a rabbit hole of math, and now need to get around to those science classes, and going from differential equations last semester to a physics class which does not have calculus as a prereq this semester is a really bizarre form of whiplash and confusion), keep practicing and making reeds even though concerts are cancelled for the entire month, buy peg dope and new strings for my violin and take it out of the case for 15 min/day, keep up my now weeklong duolingo streak (anyone want to be duolingo friends? https://www.duolingo.com/profile/_tei) and--

 

GO TO BED BY 11:30 AND AIM TO WAKE UP BY 8 SO I HAVE TIME TO DO ALL THESE THINGS

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

I've always seen assassins as basically rangers who hate running.  

 

[KB Girl]

We are now Duolingo friends! 
Someday i want to learn how to play the violin.. is there an app for that too? 😅

 

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

I've always seen assassins as basically rangers who hate running.  

You’re not wrong (I think) never met an assassin who didn’t like chasing shinies. 

[tei_]

4 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I've always seen assassins as basically rangers who hate running.

 

TRUE, I do still hate running. There will be no running this challenge except the kind with knives strapped to my feet. 

 

2 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Someday i want to learn how to play the violin.. is there an app for that too?

I... don't know! Honestly, probably! I keep getting ads for a piano-teaching app on duolingo, so...

[Mad Hatter]

16 minutes ago, tei_ said:

TRUE, I do still hate running. There will be no running this challenge except the kind with knives strapped to my feet. 

This is what I imagined before remembering your challenge.  

[WhiteGhost]

23 hours ago, tei_ said:

I wanted to learn how to skate on hockey skates

From my experience it was a pretty easy transition from the figure skating ones.  The biggest difference was not having the ability to drag the toe as a brake, but it also meant less hilariously dangerously splaying yourself across the ice when you accidentally get your balance in front of your skates and the brake suddenly kicks in.

[tei_]

On 2/9/2022 at 9:31 AM, Mad Hatter said:

This is what I imagined before remembering your challenge.  

If any opportunity arises for non-skating foot knives, I will definitely take it! 

 

On 2/9/2022 at 11:45 PM, WhiteGhost said:

From my experience it was a pretty easy transition from the figure skating ones.  The biggest difference was not having the ability to drag the toe as a brake, but it also meant less hilariously dangerously splaying yourself across the ice when you accidentally get your balance in front of your skates and the brake suddenly kicks in.

Huh, I don't think it ever actually occurred to me to use the toe as a brake on figure skates! So far the differences for me seem to be that I'm a lot more likely to pitch forward , since I'm used to the pick catching me, and I was used to using it for propulsion a bit, too, so I have to actually learn how to get momentum from a side-to-side motion instead of a "walking" kind of thing. Also, since I only ever skated in a "family outing to toddle around the rink in the park" kind of way, skating with the goal of eventually learning hockey means I would need to learn a whole lot more skating skills that I never learned in the first place— turning and stopping quickly, skating backwards, etc.

[tei_]

Went to a junior hockey game yesterday! Coming from a perspective of knowing nothing at all about hockey and trying to learn what the sport is from observation, it was really interesting to compare this game (men's hockey, players drafted into NHL teams regularly) with the I went to last week, which was the womens' team at the university. 

Obviously the biggest difference was that the junior team was, well, better, which I wasn't sure I would actually have the discernment to be able to see, but definitely could; the speed of the skating, the passing, the... idk, organization of bodies so that everyone always had options of who to pass to? Was just a whole other level. 

There's also the fact that the mens' game allows checking and the womens' doesn't. Which, if you had asked me before, I would have said I either had no opinion on checking, or would prefer to watch a game without it. But actually... the actual checking, the fact that you are allowed to put yourself a location someone else is already occupying in order to get the puck, I think actually did make the game more interesting to me? I mean... a lot of sport is kind of inherently about aggression? And I mean that in a good-to-neutral way, I guess; humans have physically aggressive feelings and it feels good to have outlets for them! So I'm not necessarily anti-violence. That's what I liked about the womens' game too! It wasn't not violent; the game itself was violent, even in the absence of "illegal" contact. 

So given that, I'm trying to figure out why the actual fighting in the mens' game... kind of ruined it for me? Given that I am not opposed to violence in theory— what's the difference between smashing someone against the boards, and punching him after for good measure? 

And I think part of it is the feeling of dishonesty or cognitive dissonance that there is around fighting. Like, it's not allowed, you'll get a penalty, it's not sportsmanlike. And yet, as soon as two guys pulled off each others' helmets and started punching each other... the cameras focused on them, and the crowd cheered, and the refs kind of just hovered around until one got the other to the ground. Clearly, there is also a perception that fighting is in some situations honourable and sportsmanlike and the only possible response to certain kinds of slights! Which I would be okay with, except, y'know, if fighting a guy for something he did in a hockey game were the only reasonable response, why stop with a little scrap on the ice? Shouldn't you come to the aid of your teammate, if he's fighting? Why not take it out back after the game, if that's the only way to defend your honour? Clearly, if the main goal of hockey is to be a game where people compete to put a puck in a net, deciding that fighting is OK is just... not super practical. 

So, OK, if fighting is in fact dishonourable and unsportsmanlike then... well, I'm going to think less of people who do it, and become less invested in the success of their team. Which is kind of where I'm at. Watching a fight makes me think, this is stupid, you're stupid, your whole team is stupid, now I'm less impressed with your abilities than I was before. 

There's also something almost infantilizing about the fights, that I find kind of creepy. Like, there's so much power and mature skill on display, and then suddenly they're being separated and sent to time-out jail like kindergarteners? idk, aren't they embarrassed? (Don't answer that. I'm sure they're not. I'm sure they think they're cool and assume everyone else does too.) 

[Artemis Prime]

Oooh, hockey talk! I think fights in hockey are always going to be inevitable to a certain extent. It is, as you pointed out, inherently a violent game. And on top of the legitimate checks, guys take cheap shots all the time. So this guy's been throwing his elbow in your face every time the ref turns his back all night and at some point enough is enough and you take a swing. I don't think that's ever going away, and I judge the guy who was taking cheap shots more than the guy who threw a punch. Also officiating in the NHL (not sure about juniors) is notoriously inconsistent so there's also the attitude "if the ref isn't going to do something about this I will." Then there's the mentality that you have to prove that you can stand up for yourself, which is probably even worse in juniors where guys are trying to catch the attention of scouts. Overall, I would say it's less about honor than it is letting your emotions run away with you in the heat of the moment.

[tei_]

On 2/12/2022 at 8:35 PM, Artemis Prime said:

Oooh, hockey talk! I think fights in hockey are always going to be inevitable to a certain extent. It is, as you pointed out, inherently a violent game. And on top of the legitimate checks, guys take cheap shots all the time. So this guy's been throwing his elbow in your face every time the ref turns his back all night and at some point enough is enough and you take a swing. I don't think that's ever going away, and I judge the guy who was taking cheap shots more than the guy who threw a punch. Also officiating in the NHL (not sure about juniors) is notoriously inconsistent so there's also the attitude "if the ref isn't going to do something about this I will." Then there's the mentality that you have to prove that you can stand up for yourself, which is probably even worse in juniors where guys are trying to catch the attention of scouts. Overall, I would say it's less about honor than it is letting your emotions run away with you in the heat of the moment.

Yeah. I think part of the cognitive dissonance for me is the difference between the mens' and womens' games— the women do seem to get penalties for being violent in ways they aren't allowed to be, but they don't seem to have a culture of drop-everything-and-punch fights during games, so clearly it is possible to play hockey without frequent fights. I can see the argument, however, that fights are the natural extension of allowing checking in the gameplay, so you kind of have a choice between no-violent-contact-or-else hockey, or some-violent-contact-which-will-inevitably-sometimes-get-out-of-hand hockey. 

[tei_]

Went to the rink today in between French practice zoom and interviewing-my-friends-about-art podcasting. Tried skating backwards for the first time. Fell a few times but not at high speeds 😂 

 

Gymnastics yesterday was, as always, low energy; I don't know if it's just something about Sundays? I usually take Sunday off my ADHD meds, but that didn't have a huge effect last session. This session, the time I'm training before I coach the adult class is just... there's one other class there, and the coach is a kind of quiet teenager that I don't really know but the CEO was enthusiastic about me going in to train at that time because it meant I could be the official Adult In The Gym for insurance purposes and he didn't have to go in and supervise. IDK! She never puts on music, which seems like a silly thing to make a differemce, I'm just used to the gymnastics club being a loud busy place and feel lethargic when it's not. 

 

However, I did manage to do some front layout fulls of the trampoline, THANK GOD, I had gotten into a mindfuck situation which happens, depending on who you ask, either when you twist too early in a front layout, or when you have hardcoded the "wrong" twisting directions into your body (i.e. I cartwheel and roundoff right but twist left, which is technically mismatched) and as a result end up going for a full and end up twisting half in one direction and then the second half back in the direction you came from, i.e. no net rotation at all. BUT I seem to have fixed it:

 

 

ALSO, there's a former competitive athlete who comes to adult gym who did a little pommel horse lesson yesterday, and I realized I'd been trying to be hollow in the back (front support) stage of the circle, when you actually want to be slightly open. Which makes sense, since your hips need to be open in the front and sides, why wouldn't they also be in the back. But I think that will help with my quest for mushroom circles. Whenever I actually work on pommel again. I never do it on Wednesdays because the gym is busy and I don't want people looking at my flailing. 

[KB Girl]

That is an awesome flip

 

5 hours ago, tei_ said:

I never do it on Wednesdays because the gym is busy and I don't want people looking at my flailing. 

But flailing people who keep at it are super inspiring, you totally should bestow upon them that view. 

[Mad Hatter]

13 hours ago, tei_ said:

interviewing-my-friends-about-art podcasting

That's neat, is it available somewhere?

 

13 hours ago, tei_ said:

Tried skating backwards for the first time. Fell a few times but not at high speeds 😂 

Speed might be your friend here! I say might because obviously I don't know how fast you were going, but going too slowly makes it much more difficult. 

 

Sundays be Sundays. But wheeee such flippiness. 🤩

[DoubleTrouble]

Twisty flips, yay! There's a video by David Morris that explains the physics and biomechanics of twisting which I found really interesting (link)

I'm going to learn skating at some point, would be interested to hear how it goes for you

[sarakingdom]

On 2/14/2022 at 11:46 PM, tei_ said:

the women do seem to get penalties for being violent in ways they aren't allowed to be, but they don't seem to have a culture of drop-everything-and-punch fights during games, so clearly it is possible to play hockey without frequent fights. I can see the argument, however, that fights are the natural extension of allowing checking in the gameplay, so you kind of have a choice between no-violent-contact-or-else hockey, or some-violent-contact-which-will-inevitably-sometimes-get-out-of-hand hockey. 

 

I can say with some experience that it's entirely possible to practice martial arts, the actual sport/art of literal fighting and getting all up in people's faces and putting their asses on the floor, in a full-contact way, without any fights breaking out and no punches being thrown (except sanctioned ones in the handful of arts that have them). So I call bullshit that checking in the game makes fights inevitable. There is zero level of physical conflict that makes the occasional fight inevitable unless the culture of the sport values aggression over self-control.

 

In the case of men's hockey, it's become part of the expected entertainment value of the game for the audience, the WWE layer on top of the genuine sport. (They don't want a brawl, because they don't want to interrupt the actual game, but they do want a few guys who lose their temper and throw a few punches when provoked and then get slapped on the wrist before coming out of the penalty box and showing everyone how great they are. It's wish fulfilment or redemption narrative or the team bad boy they want to gossip about.) If you have a game without an audience that is entertained by it and viewing figures affected by audience response, I suspect a fight is much more unlikely. I'd be curious about the stats on, say, Canadian amateur leagues that don't expect to feed into the NHL, or the winter Olympics. If the fights are a natural extension of the type of contact, it should be true at about the same rate at every level, including the hypothetical Canadian local recreational leagues, and I'd wager money that it's not the case.

 

It's culture. It wouldn't be hard to train players to keep their cool in the face of any physical check. Other full contact sports do it.

[sarakingdom]

On 2/15/2022 at 1:34 PM, Mad Hatter said:

That's neat, is it available somewhere?

 

Also curious!

[Artemis Prime]

On 2/20/2022 at 3:22 AM, sarakingdom said:

So I call bullshit that checking in the game makes fights inevitable. There is zero level of physical conflict that makes the occasional fight inevitable unless the culture of the sport values aggression over self-control.

Just to clarify what I said, I don't disagree with you here. It is the culture of the NHL that makes fights happen and they could eliminate fights from games if they really wanted to. My point with the physical contact was that is presents more of an opportunity for a guy to sucker punch his opponent versus, say, tennis, where you spent the game approximately 75 feet away from the other player. 

[tei_]

On 2/20/2022 at 2:22 AM, sarakingdom said:

I can say with some experience that it's entirely possible to practice martial arts, the actual sport/art of literal fighting and getting all up in people's faces and putting their asses on the floor, in a full-contact way, without any fights breaking out and no punches being thrown (except sanctioned ones in the handful of arts that have them). So I call bullshit that checking in the game makes fights inevitable. There is zero level of physical conflict that makes the occasional fight inevitable unless the culture of the sport values aggression over self-control.

 

Yes, this is a great point. I haven't done a huge amount of training in martial arts, but I've tried out a few different classes/styles, and it seems like one thing that is remarkably constant across martial arts styles from very different histories and cultures is a heightened emphasis on protocol, respect, and hierarchy; much more so than in other sports, which often have those kinds of values in theory but don't really implement them in day-to-day practice. In many styles of martial art there are specific ways to speak to your teacher and other students, greet your opponents, dress, move around the space, etc., that are taught alongside the actual fighting. It supports the intuition that, if you're going to develop your capacity for violence and harm, you need to do so in concert with the development of your capacity for restraint and self-control.

 

22 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Just to clarify what I said, I don't disagree with you here. It is the culture of the NHL that makes fights happen and they could eliminate fights from games if they really wanted to. My point with the physical contact was that is presents more of an opportunity for a guy to sucker punch his opponent versus, say, tennis, where you spent the game approximately 75 feet away from the other player. 

 

Yeah, for sure. And I think in order to eliminate fights they would need to not just passively condemn them or try to remove the motivation or reward for them, but work to build a culture where losing your temper in public is considered actively shameful and undesirable. Which I don't really see being a priority, especially when so many fans clearly enjoy the fights. I went to another game this week, and was sitting beside some preteen girls who were shouting fight! fight! basically the entire time. If the fans want it, the players will do it-- not just to please the audience, but because of course the players grew up as fans, wanting the things the people around them taught them to want from the game.

[Artemis Prime]

8 minutes ago, tei_ said:

work to build a culture where losing your temper in public is considered actively shameful and undesirable

This is an interesting point. It reminded me that there used to be a lot more hockey fights where players really didn't seem upset. It was seen as part of the game where player A did X and now player B is honor-bound to fight him. So they'd meet at center ice and drop the gloves, but there never seemed to be hard feelings involved. It was something that made the fans happy, and often after the game players were quite admiring about their opponent, "Oh yeah, [insert ridiculous hockey nickname here] has a hell of a right hook." I really don't have any problems with those kinds of fights and did find them entertaining. Somehow the NHL managed to crack down on those and get them almost entirely eliminated, while failing to get rid of the fights where guys are legitimately pissed off and trying to smash each other's faces. Makes me wonder how they messed that up so badly.

[Mad Hatter]

18 hours ago, tei_ said:

but work to build a culture where losing your temper in public is considered actively shameful and undesirable.

I’m veering off topic a bit, but I feel like this already is the culture in most places. So much so there’s few opportunities to give room for perfectly valid emotions like anger. Sports might be the only place where it is somewhat acceptable. Not saying that fighting in the rink is a good thing or should be part of the sport. Just not convinced that more shame is the answer when considering this in a wider context.

[tei_]

On 2/26/2022 at 6:00 AM, Mad Hatter said:

I’m veering off topic a bit, but I feel like this already is the culture in most places. So much so there’s few opportunities to give room for perfectly valid emotions like anger. Sports might be the only place where it is somewhat acceptable. Not saying that fighting in the rink is a good thing or should be part of the sport. Just not convinced that more shame is the answer when considering this in a wider context.

Yeah, I see where you're coming from! IMO, the question of whether there is too much or too little shame w/r/t expressing anger is too dependent on gender, race and class to have a single answer. In particular, it seems to me that white men who are able to project a certain image of power and authority have a much higher bar in terms of how much anger and aggression is socially acceptable to express, even in workplace environments like offices, even to the point of a kind of "boys will be boys" attitude to the reality of abusive behaviour in the home or workplace. Meanwhile women, nonwhite people, and anyone who can't fit into that specific projection of traditional authority has a much lower bar for socially acceptable anger, to the point that any expression of negative emotions is liable to be interpreted as being overly emotional/aggressive/unprofessional.

 

So maybe "shame" isn't quite the right word, but I think there is a certain kind of calibration of someone's capacity for looking at their own expressions of anger and evaluating whether they were reflective of the kind of interactions that are owed to other people, that needs to be calibrated upwards for some people and downwards for others. And I think it needs to be calibrated downwards for hockey players, in the same way I think it needs to be calibrated downwards for a lot of upper-class white men (related, of course, to the fact that the NHL has the most affluent fanbase of any major sports league in the US, and one of the most visibly white-dominated player demographics.)

[Mad Hatter]

Yes, yes to all of this.

 

How are you doing otherwise? 🙂