Some recent things I have picked up on between dodgeball, dating, and Japanese (Yes, I still have a life sometimes!)
1.) Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's in that apples and oranges category of not comparable to other great movies, but the action in there is splendid, starts quickly from the first scenes and almost non-stop action. A diamond in the rough (really, desert) of movies that was washed over by Star Wars, Jurassic World, Inside Out, and yes, even Pitch Perfect 2 that opened on the same weekend.
2.) "Kanye" by the Chainsmokers is a great song and great for watching sports highlight videos, definitely something I did on my weekend in Las Vegas for the Sin City Shootout dodgeball tournament.
3.) Baseball season is only 2.3 short months away! Get ready, there isn't really anything quite like fantasy baseball. A good book to get one ready for that is "Big Data Baseball" detailing the story of the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates season. All about using data to find advantages and finding value in overlooked areas. Might be better than "Moneyball," the book it was probably modeled after.
I've never really talked about video games on this blog, as one might expect from an Asian, twenty-something, male guy growing up in America. Sure I had Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Golden Eye, Star Fox (I was a Nintendo guy growing up) when I was a kid and had a lot of fun with friends playing video games, but I really phased out of that when I reached high school, couldn't find much time for video games and really actually liked books more. It's weird, even back then I kind of didn't feel great about myself after two hours of video games, like I could have done something better with my time, or a combo of being sort of bored by the time it was over or frustrated because I wasn't very good at video games.
I just came up with the analogy recently that learning Japanese is my video game.....the sense of accomplishment that I get when I pass to the next "level" of Japanese, learn a new skill, beat a boss I've taken forever to get past (potential verb forms and "you ni" and "tame ni" were very difficult concepts for me to grasp for some reason). Whatever thrills and fulfillment people get from video games, I think I get those from Japanese, but really....it's life. I judge myself based on setting my own goals and reaching those goals in life, I feel good about myself for getting to certain real life achievements, not some artificial device attained by the right amount of timing and hand-eye coordination. Don't get me wrong, I don't disparage people who play video games, but I've found a way to replace them from my life. Now if I could only find something to replace my love of peanut butter (not healthy) or being late to places (urg!)
The one thing I'll say about video games, they allowed me to escape to a different world, get away from reality once in a while, which is something everyone needs. However, I do think being in a different reality for too long is detrimental, and then which one starts thing about that video game too much during real life to the extent of it being a distraction, that can really do some damage. Don't play video games in the morning when one has a fresh mind, I always say......do it at the end of the day as a cooldown to ease the mind and tone it down for the next day. I need to tell myself this for fantasy sports.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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