Thursday, April 26, 2012

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Don't Be A Dick

Played a good game of soccer on Sunday. Would have been a great game, but for one guy on the other team. One guy, who rather screwed up what would have been an otherwise pleasant competition for everyone.

First contact: I am in goal. I block a hard shot but the ball rebounds from my chest and out of my arms. I collect it as I collapse on it. As I'm getting up, punk says, "You better catch that first time out or I'm gonna score all day."

I get up, I don't comment. He's a dick, that's clear.

Second time: Their wing fires a cross that is just a bit off. It goes out, rebounds off my thermos and re-enters the field, where it bounces from my leg and out again.

"Corner!" dick shouts.

"Yeah right," I respond.

"Sure looked like it. I mean, I could hardly tell the difference between your the uprights and your white-ass legs."

His comment is among the most racist things anyone has ever said to me while out of uniform.  So now I know we're dealing with a racist dick.

I stuff a couple more shots.

He takes a dive when one of our defenders wins a challenge. He whines to the refs.

A whiny racist dick.

He gets tangled up with one of our women, loses and fouls the shit out of her, taking her out of the game with a sprained ankle. No card from the ref.

Ah, a whiny, racist, hyper-competitive dick.

A few minutes later and he tangles with another of our ladies, loses again, takes a dive and shoots his mouth off at the refs.

On the next play, he fouls our ball handler so badly that everyone shouts some variation of  "Oh!"

He gets up and shouts "Fuck you, guys!" and goes on to rant about being taken out three times. The refs come together and confer, and give the screaming whiny racist hyper-competitive dick a yellow card, sending him off for a bit to cool off.

He comes back in the second half, and now he's screaming invective at his own team-mates in two languages. It gets to the point where they are all hanging their heads each time he opens his pie-hole.

Ah! He's a bi-lingual screaming whiny racist hyper-competitive dick.

Now, in the mean-time we'd scored four goals against them, so his team was already feeling down, but to have him calling them all sorts of names while himself failing to do even the slightest bit of good for the team must have been exceptionally frustrating.

I don't even know what to call that. Petulant, perhaps?

We win. I get my second clean sheet of the season. I am late coming off the field as I had to collect my kit. As I was late, I go among the opposition to shake hands and congratulate them.

I leave the bi-lingual screaming whiny racist hyper-competitive dick for last.

I extend my hand to shake, he raises a fist for a fist-bump, I suppose. I grip and shake it, saying, "Sorry, I must be too white for that."

Petty, I know. I hope nobody but him thought me a dick.

Don't be a dick.

Monday, April 16, 2012

More Writing Music

This is exceptional...and I discovered it doing research for a short story set in Annecy, France.

Agnes Obel, Riverside:

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Mythbusters

Both my daughter and I have long been fans of Mythbusters. The show has carved an incredible niche for  itself by presenting both science and entertainment to the public.  There is far too much of the latter on TV today, and far too little of the former.

Add to this formula the hosts: they are all people I could see myself both having a conversation with and being entertained by. They have, in their way, made it cool to know something of science.

In particular I love that my daughter gets to watch Kari Byron, an attractive woman and mother, conducting experiments and taking the lead on projects the show takes on. I delight in my daughter's affection for this role model, as I am surrounded by strong women at home and at work, but just don't feel there are enough representations of women like The Coolness or the judge I work for or the lead clerk of my court on TV.

I try and find good examples for her to observe, but they seem hard come by. So it was fun to see this on GeekMom:


"Even though I will have to eat live bugs this season and possibly handle poop, I am not fazed. I still do exciting, daredevil, and wild things — but now I do them so that my little girl will know that a mommy can distinguish between a C4 and an ANFO explosion.
If I want my daughter to be an adventurous independent woman who doesn’t shy away from new experiences, I will have to be that woman too." -Kari Byron
Just you keep it up, Kari! My daughter is watching, as are any number of girls awaiting inspiration.



Monday, April 2, 2012