#That's not a softball game that's a slaughter

[justgothamcitythings]

APOLOGIES FOR THE RADIO SILENCE.

Gotham U's accounting courses are absolutely brutal, and it's finals week. Got through my first exam okay (think I got about a B, anything over a C and I pass that course) but the rest are gonna be insane.

Just gonna open this up - if anyone has any stories about their time at GU (or any school in Gotham) please share. Doubly so if you got any stories about our local celebs.

For my story - I don't know when it started, but the softball team takes on Hudson U every year right before finals. The superstition is that if we win, the profs will be extra-lenient in grading.

We haven't won a game against them since 1978.

[power-chords]

The singer kind of slaughtered I Wanna Be Your Lover And someone went to fetch a few more pitchers It wasn't all that crowded because the softball games had washed out in the rain I'd slipped out of my shift on some sort of screw up with the schedule There's a couple newer places by the river but Skippers is mainly where we hang

Carlos had been distant since his sister went to Denver with that dickhead The dude claimed he was a carpenter but no one ever saw him pound a nail And Carlos knew his sister was old enough to make her own decisions But he hopes she isn't home when they finally come to take that jerk to jail

Now Carlos starts crying and we're all kind of frightened Every single person at the table stops talking And he's sobbing and shaking and yeah we've been drinking But it's different for boys

He said how did this happen? It feels like we're drifting Are you sure we're even asking all the pertinent questions? Turn on the burner and the butter will blacken Don't act like this was even our choice

Mickey got up to get some money to put into the jukebox The waitress brought some water and then quickly scurried off back towards the bar Carlos didn't even seem to care who was taking in the breakdown I asked him if he wanted me to offer to walk him to his car

He said how did we get here? We started as skaters Then you got your license and then graduation Then I changed medications and everything after Went sideways including tonight

You had a Screamer with trackers and OJs And I had a Steadham with Bones and a dome tail And if failure's a trick then we learned pretty quick It just took a few times to get right

Man, we used to glide We used to hang like the smoke We'd show off for my sister We didn't mind being broke

Now every conversation I have is about money And I leave home in the morning but then I just keep driving Kill off the day until you guys stop working Then pitchers at Skippers now Carlos is crying

Carlos is crying because he didn't tell his girlfriend That he stopped showing up at his job in the morning And it's been a few weeks and he knows it's not sweet And he's sobbing and shaking and all I can say is

I love you I feel you I know that you're hurting You're scared for your sister. You haven't been working. I love you I feel you I'm sorry you're hurting but Turn off the burner the butter is burning

[linisiane]

One of the problems with ADHD is your brain moving too fast for you to articulate, which means a lot of frustrating social situations like this:

“What’s the word? You know. For the thing… What am I trying to say?”

“Fraud? Misdemeanors?”

“No, no, you know. The thing.”

“Tax evasion?”

“Yes, that!”

Mostly this is frustrating and makes you feel dumb and may even delay the conversation long enough for you to forget where you were even going with the tax evasion thing, but I’ve recently learned it means I’m absolutely KILLER at charades.

Quintessential game for people who slaughter at trying to explain a word without saying the word. While the enemy team is stuck on softballs like space shuttle or table, it’s trivial for me to employ my tax evasion routine to demolish the opposition on charades night.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

On Weds (May 10), I’m in Vancouver for a keynote at the Open Source Summit and a book event for Red Team Blues at Heritage Hall and Thu (May 11), I’m in Calgary for Wordfest.

#15yrsago The lost NY Times steampunk feature https://web.archive.org/web/20080511003859/http://charmandrigor.com/clips/self-steampunk.html

#15yrsago Kids’ game adds 500–1000 words to its forbidden list every day https://www.gamesindustry.biz/mmo-week-industry-has-been-irresponsible-with-kids

#10yrsago NewsCorp shareholders make another bid to democratize the Murdoch family empire https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/may/08/rupert-murdoch-news-corporation

#10yrsago Welcome to the century of the copyright troll: Prenda Law was just the beginning https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/prenda-law-tip-iceberg

#5yrsago The most hated company in America is about to get much, much bigger https://www.vice.com/en/article/59qmqb/comcast-is-already-hatedand-its-about-to-become-a-lot-more-powerful

#5yrsago After the Boy Scouts opens up to trans kids, queer kids and girls, the Mormons severed their 105-year relationship to scouting https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/mormon-church-boy-scouts-cut-ties/index.html

#5yrsago Bumblefuck Watch: Rob Ford’s brother hired his own “reporter” to ask him scripted softball questions for literal fake news spots https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2018/05/06/doug-ford-evades-real-scrutiny-by-hiring-his-own-reporter.html

#5yrsago Colorado cop corrects would-be dog-slaughtering Illinois officer about drug-sniffing after marijuana legalization https://www.420magazine.com/420-news/international-cannabis-news/colorado-cop-debunks-illinois-cops-claim-that-legal-pot-would-lead-to-killing-of-police-dogs/

#5yrsago “Cocky” romance novelist embarks on a second career as a trademark troll: will romance writing fall from grace? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/08/romantic-novelist-trademarking-of-word-cocky-fameela-hopkins

#5yrsago Nova Scotia premier won’t apologise for libeling teen who discovered massive data breach https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/premier-stephen-mcneil-privacy-breach-freedom-of-information-portal-1.4653474

#5yrsago Nova Scotia abandons its attempt to destroy a teenager who stumbled on a wide-open directory of sensitive information https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/police-drop-charges-in-nova-scotia-government-breach-1.4651543

#5yrsago Revenge of the Laughable Bumblefucks: Rob Ford’s brother admits that actors were hired to pretend to be his supporters at rally https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/05/08/doug-ford-campaign-confirms-actors-were-hired-to-play-the-part-of-pc-supporters-at-mondays-debate-rally.html

#5yrsago A new strain of IoT malware can survive a reboot https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hide-and-seek-becomes-first-iot-botnet-capable-of-surviving-device-reboots/

#5yrsago Equifax lets identity thieves raid “frozen” credit reports through its shady, obscure secondary credit bureau https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/05/another-credit-freeze-target-nctue-com/

#5yrsago Ticketmaster finds a new way to be terrible: facial recognition! https://www.engadget.com/2018-05-06-ticketmaster-hopes-to-speed-up-event-access-by-scanning-your-fac.html

#1yrago At the FTC, a quiet, profound shift on antitrust https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/09/rest-in-piss-robert-bork/#harmful-dominance

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[kiss-my-freckle]

Because of Heart of Darkness, I’ve decided to write Stefanie as a softball player. I’ve opened up my fanfic with a parent-player celebratory after-game party that ends up slaughtered at the Mystic Grill, which Damon owns. Stefanie is the only survivor of her softball team because her blood is the cure for vampirism. A ripper went through there and ate em all up. 

[redvelvetcupcakes21]

That game is gonna be a car accident waiting to happen, ain't it?

Who can the 126 call to save them while they get slaughtered on the softball field?

[fierylittleniece]

Strong arms wrapped around May's waist from behind, the athlete burying her face in her hair. Roxanne couldn't go into a game without stealing a hug from her good luck charm. It'd become like a ritual.

"Are you gonna come see my game? I'm really glad they let me join the staff softball team this year. We're gonna slaughter those teachers from Easton High. I hope they don't kick me out for being an Olympian."

@maydxyparker

[brokenhardies]

🌟🌟🌟 for any/all of your freaky ocs?

10 x 4 facts! Here we go!

TINA

1. Tina’s biggest pet peeve is people who chew loudly

2. She’s definetly a Mitski and Girl In Red fan, because of course she is

3. Her first crush that she ever had was on a girl in kindergarten, but she never told that girl about it

4. She tried out for the cheerleading squad and didn’t get in. She isn’t very flexible

5. She’s one of the fastest runners on the softball team, being able to keep up with the coach pretty well

6. One of her guilty pleasures is an in universe variation of the YouTube channel Dead Meat and its show the Slaughter Numbers, where they tally up the victims in all horror movies

7. She’s squeamish around blood and guts

8. Her favourite color is yellow

9. She’s a terrible dancer

10. She’s actually an amazing cook and often prepares dinners for her siblings

MITCHELL

1. Mitchell had a much better relationship with Millie when they were children. As they got older they grew apart

2. He has incredibly terrible anger management issues

3. He likes to think of himself as suave, but actually he’s terrible at flirting

4. His favourite food is mac n cheese prepared by his mother. It’s also his comfort food

5. He’s surprisingly observant!

6. Even though he seems like an idiot, he has surprisingly good grades all things considered. He’s just a bit of a troublemaker

7. I imagine that when he and Millie’s relationship was good (or when it gets better at the end of the movie), he tries to teach her how to play video games!

8. He often ties his hair back to keep it out of his face when playing

9. He has an aversion to touch

10. He’s VERY overprotective of his sister, even though he doesn’t realize how much he would be willing to sacrifice for her

RICKY

1. Ricky has two dads! 

2. Her love of true crime started almost COMPLETELY by accident, when she read a book on Lizzie Borden when she was a child

3. She hates loud noises 

4. Her favourite season is summer, and she loves the ocean!

5. She has a grass allergy. Not fun

6. She more often than not walks around barefoot!

7. She prefers to wear her hair down then up

8. She and Millie became friends when she wound up standing up for Millie after she was crying in the cafeteria

9. She’s only gotten detention twice! Both times it was for breaking some fuckers nose

10. Related to that, she has a mean right hook

RYAN

1. He has a surprisingly good singing voice!

2. He lives with his uncle and aunt after his parents divorced

3. He’s basically living with undiagnosed ADHD, which is the reason he has a crappy attention span

4. He’s hyper competitive! At video games and other things!

5. His hair has been in the same style since he was like 5 years old, just slightly modified to fit better

6. He’s a cuddle fiend!

7. He has been trying to get Millie and Booker together for years which was how he figured out he had a crush on Millie

8. He purposefully wears odd socks

9. He flaps! A lot!

10. He’s constantly covered in bruises and bandages due to the fact that while he’s good at sport, he’s not very good at spacial awareness :’D

[luckylq37-blog]

The comedian encouraged Twitter to use his photo as part of a CosbyMeme

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[savior-of-humanity]

“I don’t know if I can stay awake.” (unchainedpredatcr, perhaps any of your DOOM/Wolfenstein/Quake muses?)

@unchainedpredatcr

--

“C’mon now, stay with me.”To be quite honest, when Blazcowicz, otherwise known as the infamous ‘Terror Billy’ had infiltrated this particular Nazi stronghold, he hadn’t been anticipating anything as downright insane as the chain of events leading up to this moment.

The only information he had on this facility - and the reason he was here in the first place - was that the damned Nazis were conducting experiments of some sort. Something involving extra-dimensional energies. Certainly some kind of weapon - perhaps something beyond the Übergewehrweapon he’d had the luxury of turning upon it’s twisted masters once.

But no. It had been something that B.J. couldn’t have possibly thought of being a realistic scenario - and yet it had become reality.

They’d been experimenting with some kind of portal technology, certainly derived from Da’at Yichud tech. He’d come across them in the middle of a test of this technology - a test that would suddenly turn horribly, horribly wrong.

A wave of energy had ripped forth from the gateway, and many Nazi soldiers and scientists alike simply dropped dead on the spot - before slowly, shambling to their feet. And from the opening in time and space came something so terrible, so wicked, so horrible that it rivaled, if not outmatched entirely, the twisted evil of the Nazi regime.

Blazcowicz could only describe them as demons.

And he was barely able to fend them off - such terrifying creatures, straight from the pits of Hell itself. Some lobbed fireballs with such ease, as though they were pitchers in a softball game; others were huge, hulking, lacking eyes and as tall as a Panzerhund. B.J., in the moments he clashed against these infernal monsters, did not show it outwardly - but he wouldn’t deny that he was terrified.

Then something else had emerged; something that made even the demons immediately shift their focus, with intense rage and fear. It had been a man, claden in armor so advanced and foreign that Blazcowicz didn’t know what to make of it. He bore weapons of unusual design, and as soon as this stranger had stepped through, the demons descended upon him.

But this man, for lack of a better word, slaughtered these monstrosities; as ferocious as they were they were no match for the absolutely devastating arsenal of weaponry that B.J. suddenly bore witness to. But despite his godly power he must’ve been just as mortal as the Nazi-killer was; there was a injury on his side, blood weeping from the huge gashes left by the talons of one of the larger demons. They were safe in the present moment - but Blazcowicz imagined the peace wouldn’t last for long. Either way, he was quick to tend to the stranger’s wounds with what supplies he had on himself.

“Don’t go bleeding out on me, here.”

[thefriendlypoet]

8/8/2020, Saturday

I woke up slightly hung over and totally not ready to play. It wa my first softball game today. The hangover left. But I was not ready to play.

We sucked. Hitting wasn’t there and we got rocked by the other teams hitting. I was tired. Not read to run. Slaughter rule and AI substitution made the game really good for me.

Saw an incredibly attractive white girl. She was on the other team. Wow. And another with her dog. Long haired Latina. And of course counisin-in-laws sister. Gorgeous/beautiful. But wasn’t dumping as hard today. The initial fascination faded away.

I cleaned what needed to be cleaned and finished eating lunch to go to Ralph’s.

Ralph is a pain in my butt. He’s stronger will than me but hold on to facts truths. He’s not a dreamer. I really don’t care to see him a lot. However because we balance each other out - I think we’re equal opposites - he forces me to grow.

Lastly got whooped by cousin Cristian in the Show. I was ready to go home. Lol

Watch Pain vs Naruto with Julian. Lily cut her hair. She looks younger.

I don’t want babies. I can’t handle them when they’re crying. No. Not for me.

- depression was not present

- mania/psycosis was not present. But I am still getting that glow when the conversation carries into a certain rift. I believe these rifts are responsible for activating the glows. And the glows are higher truths with immediate relevances and impact. These are good. They’re confirmations that I’m walking along Gods plan in a huge way

[kmaier-blog1]

Where is the youth in Youth Sports?

Growing up I loved playing outside with my friends. I spent many hours outside playing baseball, basketball, soccer, and tag. I imagined, one day playing baseball on a youth team until I found out girls could only play softball. I thought how awesome it would be to play on a team, I would be part of a team and have teammates, coaches who took time to teach me. The best part of it all would be to have my parents and the parents of my teammates cheering us on. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity join any sports team.

Fast forward thirty years, I am married and have a six-year-old son who loves watching football and now is asking to play. From the day he was born my husband knew he wanted our son to play sports. As a child, my husband played tackle football in Georgia and knew he wanted his son to do the same. We would see our friends with children posted photos of their kids playing sports and having a good time. That fall we decided to sign up our son for tackle football but could have imagined how youth sports was.

Practice starts in late July, during one of the hottest months of the year. The first two weeks of practice are four days a week for two hours. Not too bad as we are told that once school starts it goes to three days a week. My son enjoys going to practice especially since my husband volunteers to coach. The regular season would start in about eight weeks and everyone, parents and especially the boys are excited. The players are learning their positions and the coaches were teaching them the specific plays.  The eight weeks fly by and we are ready to play the first official game of the season. My son is super excited but also nervous and he doesn’t know what to expect. My husband and are excited too, as we are looking forward to our son’s first game.

Gameday arrives and players, coaches, and parents are excited and nervous, will we win is on everyone’s mind.  Hour and half later, and the boys win their first game.  The players and coaches are celebrating, giving each high five, and telling the boys how great they played.  The following week practice goes as planned and everyone is still high from the win. The confidence level of the boys is high, and they are ready for the next game. Game two starts like the prior one, then everything falls apart. Our players were getting outplayed by the other team, boys couldn’t stop the runs or passes. The head coach is mad and yelling at the boys who are five and six years old.  The team got slaughtered and lost 14 to 35. This is where I learned how youth football isn’t always about the kids.

After losing the next two games, parents were getting upset at the coaches and even the players. The parents were blaming the head coach for being a “daddy ball” coach (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=daddy%20ball).  Parents were upset that the head coach’s son was the quarterback and was awful at the position with his multiple fumbles. The rest of the season got worse. The games become screaming matches for coaches and parents. Parents yelling at the coaches for not playing their kids or yelling at referees for bad calls.  I stood on the sideline wondering, is this supposed to be for the boys.  Practices that once were fun for the boys to attend became destructive.  The head coach would yell at players who made mistakes and degraded them. The worse was the yelling of the head coach who couldn’t control his temper. His son received some of the worst treatment as he expected his son to be the perfect quarterback.

Then the safety concern became an issue, the head coach was instructing the assistant coaches to tell the kids to lead with their heads when tackling or chop blocking which are both unsafe and illegal even in the NFL https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/nfl-video-rulebook/chop-block/. The head coach was willing to put the boys’ safety in jeopardy to try to win a game. The sad part was that some parents encouraged this, for the win.  The team went on to win two more games and didn’t make the playoffs.

What the first season of tackle football taught me was it isn’t all about the boys. It’s about the coaches and some parents wanting to win regardless of the consequences. Parents acting out of control at games. Some not evening caring that their children were watching them being disrespectful and using foul language.  Aren’t we as parents supposed to be an example to our children?  Coaching is voluntary but that doesn’t give you a right to degrade young children. As a coach, your players should look up to you for guidance and as a coach you should teach them.  Youth sports are meant to teach children how to interact with each other, have fun playing, respect, and sportsmanship. Focus should be on the children and not on the parent and coaches. Because at the end of the day, the boys didn’t take it to heart if they won or lost, as long as they got their snacks.

[hotelbones]

Deconstructing New Games

There are a lot of misconceptions about The New Games Movement it seems. Everyone that talks or writes about the time knows that there is a history of the games being somehow formed to protest the Vietnam war and its military technologies, but really the specifics of the movement always seem to be changing with a new person’s story.

Here are some of the tellings of The New Games Movement:

From The New Games Book (1976)

“When Stewart investigated how and why people play together, he saw in games the potential for another such tool. ‘Changing games seemed to me to be a useful thing to do, a way to be, a set of meta-strategies to learn.’”

“I felt that American combat was being pushed as far away as the planet would allow, becoming abstract and remote. It suggested to me that there was something wrong with our conflict forms here.”

In 1966 the War Resisters League at San Francisco State College asked Stewart to stage a public event with them. Stewart created an activity that would let the players understand war and appreciate it by experiencing the source of it themselves. He called the event World War IV.

In 1966 pacifists and war protesters were opposed to warfare in any form and repressed their own feelings of anger. Stewart wanted to create a game that allowed them to express that aggression. Stewart created the game Slaughter to create an intense experience to release the aggression.

This is also where Stewart brought the Earthball from his experience in Army bootcamp training.

“There are two kinds of people in the world: those who want to push the Earth over the row of flags at that end of the field, and those who want to push it over the fence at the other end. Go to it.”

From these experiences Stewart conceived of “softwar”, the idea that people could design their conflicts to suit everyone’s needs. Stewart designed softwar as conflict which is regionalized, refereed, and cushioned. Which he made a point of making similar to sports.

George Leonard was interested in “creative play”: the experience of a player placed in an open environment and encouraged to use their imagination to devise new play forms.

George: “Sports represent a key joint in any society. How we play the game may be more important than we imagine, for it signifies nothing less than our way of being in the world.”

George and Stewart presented their new games and theories at the Esalen Sports Center in 1973

Around this time Pat Farrington joined the New Games movement and created the idea of the “soft touch” inspired by the “softwar”

“Games are not so much a way to compare our abilities as a way to celebrate them.” “I felt by reexamining the basic ideas of play, we could involve families, groups, and individuals in a joyous recreation experience that creates a sense of community and personal expression.”

The New Games tournament was to be held on two consecutive weekends on October 1973 in Gerbode Preserve. The New Games Tournament was the first public event held on the preserve.

The funds for the tournament came from POINT, a non-profit distributing the proceeds from The Whole Earth Catalog.

Anyone who challenged another to a weird event was encouraged.

What came from The New Games movement changed from something of a Vietnam protest into a therapeutic form of playing games that was deemed to therapeutically releasing the aggression from the players.

“The New Games is attempting to bring people into harmony with their environment once again.” As the preserve was left the way it was and people were free to explore the outdoor space.

While the thinking of New Games was not unique to the New Games Movement, it did begin to form as an event after the first New Games Tournament as Pat and Ray began to name themselves as New Games Staff

New Games started to be implemented in government parks as a way to modernize and bring more of the public out. The New Games staff also started going to low income areas to play such as Visitacion Valley in San francisco.

The first New Games Tournament was mostly white, middle aged, men. The second New Games Tournament was designed to bring people from many different backgrounds. The staff worked with various organizations to create more accessibility options such as free buses.

The second New Games Tournament left the New Games Foundation in a $25,000 deficit.

The third New Games tournament was inside of San Francisco and retracted the admission price. Now anyone could join and play without any restriction. From miscellaneous sources:

The New Games Movement wasn’t a collective of people, it was a line of thinking that came out of the 70s. A good example is looking at the Esalen Sports Center in 1973. This center had some people that are repeatedly referenced in relation to the New Games Movement, but it also had a lot of other people who were thinking about similar things such as Michael Murphy (Author of Golf in the Kingdom), football player David Meggyesy, sports coach Bob Kriegel and running coach Mike Spino. The program included a session of yoga-tennis, a demonstration of Murphy’s own version of Frisbee, tai chi and aikido workshops, a talk on the exploration of movement using hula hoops, and several of Stuart Brand’s games: Slaughter and boffing.  (Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970’s by Sam Binkley)

 “The Esalen revolution paralleled efforts in the Bay Area to come up with recreational forms that were aimed at the recovery of intimacy through games focused on ritual violations of social distance that called on trust, play, and bodily touching , often players who were not familiar with each other. These games infused the countercultural sense of play with a therapeutic project of self-development and learning.” (Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970’s by Sam Binkley)

“They’ve been called earth games, free games, and liberated games.” – NYT December 5

   “Some of them [the games] are brand new. Some of them have been played for hundreds of years. Many can be played competitively, with lots of opportunity for skill and strategy. Others have no object, really, besides getting people together and enjoying each other.”

“You can choose to compete because competition is fun, not because you’re concerned with who wins. If you’ve all played hard and enjoyed it, then you’ve all won. You can change the rules if you don’t like them. So long as you all agree on what’s fair, you can make the game into whatever you want it to be.” (Community valued over the game)

“New Games is for everyone who wants to play. You sex, age, or size doesn’t determine you ability to have fun. And if everyone keeps in mind that the people are the most important part of the game, then no one has to be afraid of being hurt.”

“All you need are a few of your friends and the desire to celebrate the day with play.“

Looking at some of the New Games:

Tweezli-Whop

In Tweezli-Whop two players pretty much just fill sacks and beat the heck out of each other (whopping) while balancing on a rail.  There is no winning condition with Tweezli-Whop, but maybe it’s easy to imagine a version of this game where people are trying to hit each other off of the rail. But, as with many New Games the rules are malleable and it suggests versions where there is no rail at all. It instead focuses on the whopping, and states that it is a terrific way to work out tensions. This is something that I am suspecting will show through many of the New Games, is ways for bodies to act out body movements and touch that are typically repressed from day to day.

Also its important to note that this game came from Wyoming, as many of the New Games came from a variety of different places. It’s interesting that the New Games took this game from Wyoming and made it one across the US that is now played in classrooms.

       Boffing

This is one that is mentioned most of the times Stewart Brand is mentioned in the New Games Movement. A boffer is a custom made object for Boffing. It looks kind of like a practice fencing tool, however it is custom for boffing. This activity also suggests that players have protective eye and ear guards as well. Then both people start to hit each other with the sword. I imagine this game becomes a bit more strategical as you play with each other; Dodging, parrying and more. After the rules have been described in the book, the original rules that were made for the game are given. This is so that the players understand that base of the game, but don’t feel pressed to follow the original, more strict rules.

In the original rules of Boffing, there are certain points of the body that give points to the players. This adds more built in strategy into the game.

Today, boffing has become the word associated with the physical weaponry battles of LARPing and soft-combat. This also seems to have created a culture of a lot of white dudes, interested in a sort of throw back to medieval historical appreciation. Here is a video that I think says a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOyOk6dNuHY

        Schmerltz

Schmerltz is less of a game and more of an object. You take a sponge rubber softball, like one of the cheap ones you get with plastic baseball sets and put it inside of a tube sock. The game here is “Schmerltz Toss” which involves twirling the Schmerltz around underhand and then letting it go when it reaches a critical velocity. Then the person who it is being tossed to has to catch it by the tail. Unlike the normal game of catch, Schmerltz Toss asks the players to put a more intensive physical action into the throw, and with the irregular catching involving a sort of alligator snap it becomes more difficult.

There are two ways the Schmerltz continues to be used today. In camp extracurriculars, and as a continued legacy through Bernie De Koven. When schmerltz is searched on the internet, loads of summer camp websites come up, including missionary training camps as well. However, when finding websites where De Koven continues to keep the Schmerltz legacy going, he is referring to the object for games to continue being soft, instead of being possible hurtful.

Apparently, this was invented by a person named Peter Whitely who I can’t find anything about.

Stand-Off

This New Game does not require any equipment to be played and can be played anywhere. In this game two players stand on a surface the length of their arms and then put their hands together with the goal of pushing each other off. If someone moves their foot or changes their stance then the other player gets a point. If both people lose balance, then no one gets a point. The game is won when one player scores 2/3 points.

This game was said to be brought into form by a guy named Scott Beach and seems to be inspired by Aikido. The 70’s was a period where a lot of eastern culture was being appropriated into western life and thinking. Aikido was even written about by George Leonard who wrote one of the fundamental texts for The New Games Movement, “The Ultimate Athlete”.

           Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman is a game based on the ghost ship where two players hold hands and walk around a circle of other people holding hands. At one point, the pair will break through a pair of people. The broken pair will then join hands outside the circle, and the original pair will go inside. Then the two will race around the circle to reach the open spot as a replacement. Whoever is left outside has to break through and repeat again.

Flying Dutchman does what a lot of New Games do. It has the players using aggressive actions but with fun so that there is an understanding no one should be hurt. As players bust through the hands and run around they are getting out all of this pent up energy.

This one also shows up in a bunch of camping instructions. https://boyscouttrail.com/content/game/flying_dutchman-901.asp

     In all of this Bernie seems to fit in as someone theorizing and watching everything happening. Not as the origin of New Games, but simply the only person that kept the spirit and theory alive. In The New Games Book chapters are written that contain games, and the introduction discusses how the movement started, but Bernie has a section in the middle theorizing what he discovered from being a part of the movement.

In some ways, it feels like Bernie sees differently what other people saw in New Games. Where Brand saw a different alignment of thinking, Bernie seemed to believe that the games were pointlessly necessary. That none of it was for a purpose.

“Here we are together, to have fun. We’ve already dispersed with the sense of any other purpose. We have no need to prove anything in particular to anyone in general. We’re not looking to be therapized or taught or charged. We want to celebrate. We want to play.”

Bernie’s theory here, is that there is no goal in what everyone is doing. That everything is without meaning, for the sake of fun and without consequence. But really that feels short-sighted. These games were being played in order to allow the players to reframe their bodies and minds, and to understand parts of the world great. Some of those parts are just…other people. All of this comes through moving, thinking, and touching. Just because there is no commodity produced from play, doesn’t mean that it is pointless.

The other theory that Bernie writes here is about the play community, which he later takes into his book “The Well-Played Game”. This is the group of people that connect with each other through the reframing of the mind into the mindset of the game. This quote particularly recognizes this.

“When we find ourselves on one particular side, its not because we feel that one side is any better. We make separation so we can find a new union.”

   Something that is interesting to see in The New Games Book is instructions to help ease people into the mindset of new games. This is actually something I was a little worried about when designing my own games. How will people want to play them if they aren’t in the right emotional or thinking space?

These instructions give tips on the games from the book that aren’t too involved for the beginning, and how to interact with varying levels of people that may be interested in the games. For example, if someone is standing around watching, just invite them to play

This is cool, because this aligns with the thinking I have about making a game without rules. These new games are just descriptions of how one could play, and are not prescriptive.

 NEW New Games

 These were created by Robert Herbst as a way of creating utopias through the retro lens in order to reframe today.

 “means by which people could realize their own visions of living, shape their environment accordingly.”

 Interesting about New New Games, is that some of them are scores.

And just from having these scores on the same page as the New Games it becomes clear what a score does compared to a game. Scores points out parts of the world to its player directly, and then asks the player to act once they have considered what the score has informed them. Games create rules for the meaning to be completely derived from play, like an engine as Colleen puts it.

[leblancmusicinfo]

7/16/2019

King Crimson - continuing alpha order playlist while bagging and delivering papers.  Got up to Islands.

at WQA:

Crimson Glory - Strange and Beautiful

Information Society - What's On Your Mind Pure Energy (The 54 Mix) (1988) HD Promo

Two Unlimited - The Magic Friend (12" Special Extended Mix) - (1993)

Frank Zappa - Waka Jawaka

The B-52′s - Mesopotamia

Judas Priest - Demolition

At the health club:

Def Leppard - Adrenalize and started  Hard Rock Greatest Hits Vol 17 HQ

1 - Ginger Snaps ( Intro )  Danger Danger  0:00 2 - Monkey Business  Danger Danger  1:05 3 - Valley Of Lost Souls  Poison  5:26 4 - All My Bridges Are Burning  Warrant  9:24 5 - Real Love  Slaughter  13:01 6 - Quicksand Jesus  Skid Row  16:41 7 - You're In Love  Ratt  22:06 8 - Hammer Swings Down  Babylon A.D.  25:21 9 - Red Hot  Shotgun Messiah  28:48 10 - Can't Stop Me Lovin' You  Steelheart  33:11 11 - White Lies,Black Truth  Slik Toxik  38:18 12 - No More Broken Dreams  Beggars & Thieves  43:15 13 - Red Rose  Roxx Gang  49:32

Elvis Presley - Fun In Acapulco soundtrack while driving to Lili’s softball game.

[mgicunleashed]

Headcanon corner;; Muses with Philophobia ( a fear of love ) and why

Craig;; It’s not entirely to do with his divorce from Ashley, but it did start a little bit because of it. ( It’s really only a very mild case ) He just can’t bring it upon himself and the girls, should he go down another road that ends in separation and/or divorce that’ll hurt everyone. He isn’t entirely opposed to dates, but there’s a reason he hasn’t really got back into the game since his divorce-- No matter how hard those softball and assorted sports moms try to get at him.

Prompto;; More or less, much as he’d love to feel love and wants to be loved-- He’s terrified of the idea because of what he was born to be, what he was meant to do. The last thing he wants is to hurt someone. He has, on several occasions, had nightmares where he’s been with a random person, and someone he’d hit it off well with, only to then see himself attacking them and practically turning into a cold-blooded daemon/MT within a second. He doesn’t care if he really gets hurt, but it scares him to think he may hurt someone he loves himself.

Menma;; For the same reason as Prompto, he doesn’t want to see anyone get hurt because of it. Living in the kind of world they do, love can be one of the most dangerous emotions, and the last thing he wants to see is an innocent person he loves being slaughtered. This one, for the most part, actually has nothing to do with him-- But the fact he is a jinchuuriki in his own right, is a good reason he is afraid to love on the off chance someone gets hurt. Because of this, it’s the #1 reason he’s pretty cold aside from some of his treatment because of his status as a jinchuuriki.

[vampirerite]

i had to run through three printing stores just to get something printed properly and even then its a bit sloppy and i got a sunburn from my sisters softball game even though they slaughtered the other team 24-0 in record time