I’m watching the Olympics again, after a break. Why not? They’re still on, and surely better than most of the rest of the stuff out there.
With that said, is there any way we can get this stuff, or programming like this, the rest of the time? Because that would be great.
I know there’s an Olympic Channel, but I’m not sure what’s on it. I’ve never seen it. But I suspect that even with that, I won’t be able to just… stream whatever I want, like entire events, like whole marathons and such.
That stuff is really cool, I think. I saw the women’s road race yesterday and it was like taking a road trip myself, consequence free and without any of the hassle of a real trip. It was great. Japan really is a beautiful country, and it’s really nice seeing the countryside, and it’s people.
In a way the lack of a foreign audience really helps. I mean, alongside the route. You get to see the country, then, without the spectators getting in the way. You get to see the beautiful ocean, Tokyo itself, and… I guess, just normal Japan, which is basically like any other modern country, mostly.
I’m seeing quite a bit of English on the signage in Tokyo. More than I expected.
But it’s fun, it really is.
I think I saw the SNK headquarters during the Men’s race. I’m pretty sure it was. What other building would have a giant Neo-Geo logo on it’s roof?
And I caught the Super Mario power up sound that plays whenever a free throw is made during 3×3 basketball. Very clever.
Speaking of which… 3×3 basketball is fucking awesome. I would watch that, were it on. Can we please make that happen, and not have it be awful? It turns out basketball is actually pretty fun! It’s the NBA I can’t stand. As usual in America, it’s the league that’s the problem, not the sport.
But 3×3… yeah this stuff is awesome. It’s fast and cool.
But I suppose that it’s format- short games that last about 20 minutes total including stoppages, would make it unpalatable to a TV audience and commercial programming, etc.
That sucks.
Blah.
Other stuff… sailing is cool, very underrated. Greco-Roman wrestling doesn’t have commentators? At least in the highlights. Weird, but actually interesting. Less insight, but less dumb chatter, too.
Speaking of which, I wrestled a bit in junior high school. I was no good at it, though. I didn’t have the body type for the sport. It’s the same problem I had with Judo, which I tried a little bit in one of my Karate classes, when the instructor wanted us to “broaden our horizons” or something, lol.
I’m very quick, and have ridiculously strong abdominals, but I have a weaker upper body, with small shoulders, elbows and wrists. I could get into position really well but my throws had no power.
It also didn’t help that my school didn’t give a shit about the wrestling program, lol. My school was poor, and had to pick and choose which sports to give it’s money and attention to. Wrestling got the short end of the stick, there. I think we were given a couple of weeks to prep before competitions began, lol. And everyone was new to the sport. We ended up in last place in the district. IIRC, we got pasted by everyone, lol, mostly because the other schools were richer and actually spent time and real money prepping the students. The only standout was one kid, who was naturally gifted and strong to the extreme.
I don’t remember much of my wrestling career (I mean, we’re talking months here, tops, lol) but I do remember this kid. He was utterly huge and had an incredible instinct for the sport. He went All-American in wrestling in high school. Not sure where he ended up, but he could have gone far, had he stuck with it. To go All-American in wrestling in literally the worst program in the state is one hell of an accomplishment.
In comparison, the rest of us were chumps. You could easily tell the difference between him and us. You need a particular chemistry of strength and instinct for wrestling. There’s no getting around it.
Other thoughts… I see that one American TKD athlete, Paige McPherson, is being coached by my old sensei. She got fourth place. Amazing; well done Paige.
That’s seriously cool.
As far as my own training goes, I’m down five pounds to 190, and have… not reached my old heights, lol. And I never will, not at this age. But I’m in good shape and getting better all the time.
I’ve run out of ways to make pilates difficult, so I’ve added pelvic floor, breathing, and other deep internal muscle exercises to my routine. I’m still adding pushups and still intend to reach 100 in total done through a variety of types. That will take time, though.
But yeah I’m kinda running out of exercises. An hour long pilates session, with no breaks, is almost overkill for what I need. I think I need the advice of a pro at this point if I want to figure out what to add or change or whatever. Or a gym membership, which is probably out of the question. Are gyms even open in this area? Last time I checked they weren’t. And even if they are, who knows what will happen next week.
I think I’ll ask for some isometric exerciser stuff for Christmas. Maybe that will help, IDK.
I’m still playing those old RPG games from Jeff Vogel in my downtime. I guess this is also beneficial; it helps to keep my general computer skills up. And it’s been awhile since I’ve played computer games.
And the nostalgia factor here is strong, too. I think I wrote on here years ago about the Exile games, how I played them back in high school, back when they were… if not cutting edge, certainly revolutionary. I mean, they were huge. I remember being blown away that not only were they huge games, they were also made-for Macintosh games that were actually in color.
I played on PC, of course. But at the time all I remembered for Apple were those old black and white RPGs like Shadowgate that I used to play in school wayyyy back when. And I guess educational stuff like Oregon Trail.
Hmmmn… yeah, that was a lonnnnnng time ago.
But it’s… kinda amazing that Spiderweb is still at it, churning out the same type of extremely old school text based RPGs even in this day and age. It’s an anachronism in a very good and welcome way. I don’t mind the near total lack of graphics and sound, so long as the stories, in-game dialogue and text, and gameplay are so good.
I get some Castle of the Winds vibes from these games sometimes. You know, that ancient Windows 3.1 RPG made by… I don’t remember his name, but he was a Microsoft developer. I’ll need to google it.
I was thinking of getting a new laptop sometime soon. Maybe I’ll get one that can handle something like DOOM Eternal. Maybe not; we’ll see.
Well, I think that wraps up this one. I think I’ll watch more Olympics.
If my girlfriends want to help me with something, maybe they could point me in the direction of some good breathing exercises. That would be appreciated.