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[valley_parade]

One man hardcore punk side project.

[Tom]

I have 70 words left on this report that is due @ 4:30 this 'arvo. I've done the bulk of it this morning and now I get stuck/bored.

[Patrick]

1. Tonight I went to Berkeley with a high school bud of mine, we went to my bandmate's place and did a drinkin' and smokin' thing, and my bandie and I rocked out and there was a lot of fun had.

2. I received one of the greatest compliments from one of the raddest musicians I have ever met. He grew up here in Livermore but lives in Austin, TX. He suggested I move out there and rock out with him, and said I was one of the best guitarists he's heard. I admire the guy's work a massive shitload, and the offer's super tempting, but I'm broke as eff.

3. My old weed dealer from AK is on a road trip with his old man and stopped into Livermore yesterday. We got to catch up, and I enjoyed every second of kicking it with that guy. Yeeeeeeee

4. I'm durnk.

[Patrick]

Went camping last night. My friend's dog got skunked right in the mouth. OH GOD THE STEEEEEEENCH

[Patrick]

Hey cool I'm the only one posting here anymore. Well, my favorite uncle passed away yesterday. He's my uncle by marriage to my aunt, and they're the only aunt and uncle I ever had who are worth anything as people, frankly. We knew by January that the cancer was gonna be fatal, and I'm amazed he lasted as long as he did. The docs and the hospice folk expected 2, 3 months, he tripled that shit like a boss.

Gonna miss that old fart, though. Rarely ever saw him without a big ol' shit-eating grin on his face, even when he was bedridden.

[Barmymoo]

I'm sorry, Patrick, that must have been a blow even though you were expecting it eventually. I remember you've talked a lot about your uncle on here.

[HiFranc]

That's insane, fewer than half of students pass?! And only a tiny percentage pass without retakes? That makes no sense at all! Does basically everyone go to university even if they aren't really academic, and then the ones who are can feel smug? Why would you even have a policy like that?

I don't know about Belgium but I suspect it's similar to Germany.

In the German system anybody who gets the minimum grades has the Right to go to university (in Britain it's a privilege).  As such university are over subscribed so they work at getting rid of people at the other end.  In Germany that extends to lying to people to see whether they are lazy or have the initiative to exceed what they've been told  -- e.g. "That doesn't need to be in until next week." Translation: "If it's not in by tomorrow, you've failed."

{edit}Hugs Patrick.

[pwhodges]

Commiserations, Patrick.

[Patrick]

Thanks for your kindness, you guys. Funeral's on the 8th. My auntie said she had a special request for me, and given the singular focus of my skillset, I assume this means I'm playing a song. If that's the case, I'd be honored. I loved playing for him when he was among the living.

[valley_parade]

given the singular focus of my skillset

You're going to smoke a lot of weed at the funeral?

(<3)

[Jimor]

Condolences, Patrick. Your uncle sounds like the kind of guy that made a world a lot brighter.

I'm reeling, but in a good way. I went to a local meeting of video professionals in order to start making some business contacts in town. One of my professors, a few classmates, and a couple other people I've worked with are regulars. They usually hand out a buttload of door prizes at each meeting donated by various companies, usually things like software plug-ins, collections of production music or stock footage, books on various software, etc. Things that are cool and useful, but nothing earth shattering.

Except tonight we had a presentation by a rep from Adobe, and as part of that, they raffled off a copy of the entire Adobe Studio Premium package, and I won! 

A $1700 package that includes Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Encore, After Effects, Audition.... Pretty much everything needed to make a full Hollywood movie outside of actual CGI. This is also exactly what I was thinking of buying on my own, but the need to replace my camera that I talked about earlier effectively put that off indefinitely. Now I still need a computer that can run this stuff, but that is probably the easiest piece to get if I'm willing to not have the vroomiest machine on the block.

I am definitely not a believer in the woo-woo new age The Secret type stuff, but it really does feel like it's a reward for the time and energy I've put into the local music scene to promote and showcase my friends and other artists. This is exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it to have an opportunity to take everything I'm doing to a whole 'nother level.

[Barmymoo]

That is so great, Jimor, congrats! It does seem like the universe is paying back all your effort, and now you can achieve even greater things

I got a phone call today and my first tutoring session is arranged! Monday, 5pm for one hour a week to start with, for a 9 year old boy from South Korea who needs help with his english particularly written. I'm excited about it, it seems ideal in every way - best time of the week and day for me, because it doesn't clash with choir or any academic things, the right sort of level (teaching a 5 year old seemed wrong somehow) and something I am very good at, rather than German which I tutored before but was never totally confident with. I'm planning some fun activities to do with him, which will hopefully help him without seeming like schoolwork at all. This mother seems much more sensible and isn't aiming for her son to storm his way through dozens of workbooks to become a genius at 10, she just wants to give his language skills a boost.

I've moved safely into college with all my stuff and made a fairly good start on the unpacking, although the room is still pretty messy. I have a huge amount of stuff but it's been swallowed up by the cupboards and there isn't a lot left. The things that are left won't necessarily fit in the places I want to put them, though. I should do a book purge and give some things away - on the bookshelf alone I have thirteen folders and there's another bag full of them. I only do five subjects.

[Patrick]

given the singular focus of my skillset

You're going to smoke a lot of weed at the funeral?

(<3)

No, but you did actually get me thinking, and I have a somewhat related plan. I'm going to smoke a HUGE bowl in the morning before my dad picks me up, and I'll probably have an edible stashed for the trip home. He's bringing my stepmom, despite the fact that Uncle Bob told him outright that he didn't want her there. Having dealt with her shit for ten years now, I know she isn't going to have anything polite to say for the whole 2-3hr drive each way, and there is literally no way I'm going to be able to stand being in the car with her for it unless heavily sedated; smoking a bowl will be enough to last the whole trip down, and it will wear off by time the service starts. And it will keep me from kicking her apart. I also plan to have an edible in reserve for when we leave. That way, I can avoid her on the way back, too, and avoid giving myself away with my smoke.

It's maybe not the healthiest plan, relationship-wise with her, but I've all but given up on her. That is the only drama I have with this whole thing.

Thanks again for your kind words, guys. I'm gonna be kinda distant for a little bit while I get some shit sorted. Jimor and May, it sounds like things are going really well for you guys and I'm really happy for you!

[Jimor]

The cable access talk show I work on as a camera operator just finished interviewing John Singleton. 

[Lupercal]

I've conquered both print and online news media at university, fuck yeah. I mean, it's not anything great, but I feel like I'm already amassing a portfolio and finally have something that is an awesome extra-curricular activity that I do. And I'm good at it, and the editors are super pleased about my punctuality and the effort I put into articles. Shameful plug? (It doesn't make much sense to many people outside of my city, but hey)

[Patrick]

Last night as a part of my set I played (and sang) Weezer songs from the Blue Album. I play it a half step higher than the original (because I don't tune to Eb) and as a result the ending scream of "YEAAAAH YEAAAAH YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" is also higher. So it is that much more likely to give me a very sore throat the next morning.

Here I am now, drinking citrus hibiscus tea from the coffee shop across the street and reading a shitty Orson Scott Card sequel (Shadow Puppets; why the fuck was this book published?). Hating myself this morning.

[Barmymoo]

Man things have got busy fast. Today I had two lectures, a singing lesson, an accidental two hour nap, another lecture, choir practice, evensong and then self-defence class. Also in there about two hours of reading, which should have been four hours but see above for accidental nap. I only had time to eat at quarter to nine, which is way too late to start cooking anything properly so I had toast. I think Thursdays I will have to eat a proper meal at lunchtime, otherwise I'll keel over.

It was all good though! The singing lesson was amazing, a complete revelation. I've been having all kinds of problems with my voice so we just spent an hour doing exercises to fix them and the difference was incredible. It'll take dedicated practice to solve the issue entirely but I can already tell it's working. And my singing teacher is totally lovely, and thinks that I still have the chest infection I got three months ago (or was it more? More, I think) so I should go back to the doctor and get something for that. It's so nice to find someone who can actually identify what is going on with my voice and help fix it! She has done some speech therapy training and is doing more related stuff that is just exactly what I need to learn. So excited.

I only went to self-defence because a friend asked me to go with her, and I don't see her often so I thought I would just go this week. It was actually really good. I'm a bit uncomfortable with the concept of a class that teaches you how to inflict pain on men on the assumption that you will be attacked by one, but it was great exercise and a lot of fun. I'm so incredibly unfit, and one hour a week, in my college rather than miles away, at a sensible(ish) time, without any commitment to turn up every week if I'm busy - perfect.

Now I need to get to bed, so I can get up at 7am and make up the time I didn't spend working today. Thank goodness all I have tomorrow is three lectures, all in the afternoon.

[Lupercal]

I deem tomorrow to be Middlemarch day, and will endeavour to read as much of the rest of it as possible while my eyes are still moist in my skull and I am still partially breathing.

(Srsly like 800 page victorian novel don't think i can take much more of it after 325 pages kind of losing the will to live but have assignments and exams on this book so have to know it back to front and arhhhhhh)

[Zingoleb]

Someone gave me a mandolin earlier this week, and I have been dedicating time to this like I haven't to music in a long, long time. It is so fantastic - I know a bunch of Zelda songs, the Tetris theme, Ziggy Stardust, and I'm going to start working on Crazy on You next.

[Jace]

Wake up at 3pm, pick up friend from work.
Chill with friend until her boyfriend gets home.
Get plugs from him because he works in body mod warehouse.
Go eat taco bell.
He goes to second job.
Keep chilling with friend watching TV+weird videos online.
Go to other friend's party.
She wasn't expecting me, was super happy I showed up.
Flirt with her cousin.
Cousin isn't okay with me having a girlfriend even though we have open relationship.
Mill about still workin on that cousin thing.
Kiss other friend who was hosting because she asked me to.
She thinks I'm a good kisser, neat.
Keep on keepin on with her cousin.
During above party: Drink beer. Indian dude has me do high quality absinthe shot with him. I do shot of patron because italian girl won't do it. I do another half shot of absinthe. Drink second beer.
Chill around with random people just bullshitting
Friend is upset at her boyfriend, has been upset at him for some time, he went to bed super early.
She says she is super close to just blowing me in my car.
I'm like okay.jpg
We go to my car and have some sloppy blowjobbery
She is very impressed with the size of my dongasaurus rex.
Both decide now isn't really the time or place for blowjobbery.
She's probably gonna dump him for reasons unrelated to me.
Still feels good man.
Didn't sleep, went right to work.

[valley_parade]

Someone gave me a mandolin earlier this week, and I have been dedicating time to this like I haven't to music in a long, long time. It is so fantastic - I know a bunch of Zelda songs, the Tetris theme, Ziggy Stardust, and I'm going to start working on Crazy on You next.

Battle of Evermooooooooooore

[Patrick]

Today, I buried my favorite uncle and played some songs for his funeral. It was the most heartfelt performance of my entire life. I saw a lot of cousins for the first time since before I ever moved abroad. It was awkward. I have literally nothing to talk to them about that wouldn't feel to me like I was bragging or in some way trying to be something above what I actually am: a regular dude who is from Bizarre Circumstances. The only thing that made me feel comfortable was the familiarity of the Catholic service, the presence of my favorite aunt (the widow) and her superhuman strength in this situation, and the fact that I was basically only expected to play and sing.

I avoided destroying my stepmother in the car without being stoned (my hook flaked on me) and it was almost as hard as having to bury my uncle. She is so full of herself and she says so many hopelessly tasteless and inappropriate things ALL THE TIME that I honestly pity every single one of her students (she is a middle school teacher).

I guess the reason I'm so beat up about this is because it is only within the last 8-10 months that I finally learned what was worth the emotional investment I spent years wasting on ultimately trivial shit, and those 8-10 months were a major turning point in my uncle's health condition. I feel like I wasted too much time wallowing in my own self-induced misery and didn't put enough time into being there for such a powerful figure in my life.

The shitty thing is that my uncle was a major part of my eventual realization that I was prioritizing things badly. Is this a catch-22 or am I just beating myself up over stuff?

[Barmymoo]

I think when someone important to you dies, it is impossible not to feel regrets about the time you didn't spend with them, but it isn't possible to know in advance how you will feel later on. If someone has had a big impact on you, the best way to honour them is to continue developing in the way they helped you to set off on, and there's no use feeling bad that you were caught up in your own thing when you could have been with them. I'm sure your uncle would be pleased and proud to know that he'd helped you sort yourself out, and that would be just as valuable as your presence while he was ill. That's the thing about true family - they are pleased and proud when their "young" are on track, even if it's at their expense in some way.

I didn't explain that very well but when my godmother died and I hadn't gone to visit her for the last time when I said that I would, I spent a lot of time feeling bad about it. But I'm now fairly sure that she'd have said I should have been getting on with living my life and working out where I was going, rather than worrying and being upset about her all the time. Everything needs balance.

[pwhodges]

You can't change the past, so feeling bad about it will achieve nothing - which is not to say that grief doesn't have its appropriate place.  If you feel that your uncle started you on the right path in some respects, the best thing for you and for his memory is to continue along that path as best you can.

[Barmymoo]

Argh I hate banks, and money, and budgeting, and bills, and not having any clue where this week's money got to! I'm allowing myself a £50 budget each week, which considering I only spend at the most £20 on food and I earn an additional £15 that isn't included in that, ought to be ample. I am racking my brains to work out where I spent all of this week's £50, plus all the cash I had with me - another £20, I think, although it's complicated by the different days that money is paid to me.

It would be so simple if my bank statement would update and show where I spent it! But noo, the last payment it shows is the incoming £50 from Thursday. And it says "available balance £51.34" but then further down it says something like "Balance available £3.34". Well. Great.

ARGH. I keep telling myself that once I've bought all my textbooks, fixed all my bike issues, and send birthday presents to everyone has a birthday between now and Christmas (which I have done), I'll be spending less. I bloody hope so, or I'm going to run out of money.

[The Seldom Killer]

If you need help with the bike issues, I have all sorts of spares and bits and bobs kicking around that it would benefit me to donate to a good cause (namely reducing the stack of stuff before I have to move into a new house in a couple of weeks).

Am definitely not liking househunting at the moment. Seems like anything that isn't about to fall down or on some sink estate is looking getting let before we have a chance to look at it. A new one popped up this weekend so I'm hoping that we'll be able to bag it as it's quite nice in a nice part of town which is pretty much where we want to be.

At least Leeds Thoughtbubble have announced the comic convention programme so I can finally book my day there. Anyone else planning on attending?

[Barmymoo]

Thanks for the offer, but the bike issues were a) I hadn't screwed the bike light brackets on yet, and then I dropped the screw into a pile of leaves, and b) the batteries were flat. Both easily resolved

The fire alarm in my college keeps going off, and we just all evacuated despite the fact that it was the intermittent alarm in most of the buildings (which means that you don't have to leave, but there might be a fire in another building so be careful) but it's so loud. It was kind of a party atmosphere but then we all came back inside again and now it's stopped. So I have to do some work.

[Zingoleb]

Someone gave me a mandolin earlier this week, and I have been dedicating time to this like I haven't to music in a long, long time. It is so fantastic - I know a bunch of Zelda songs, the Tetris theme, Ziggy Stardust, and I'm going to start working on Crazy on You next.

Battle of Evermooooooooooore

Why did this not occur to me? I already have Going to California down...

@Patrick: I understand what you mean. Whenever someone's gone, it's hard not to look back at all the times you could have spent together but didn't. I've never heard anyone look back on their life and wish they had spent less time with their children, you know?

[Dazed]

There are some cool blind melon songs with mandolin too.

Just sayin'.

Also hi blog, life is good and shit but I have a cold.

[Jimmy the Squid]

Hey blog thread.

I haven't been around much lately. I've been hanging out at some other forum for a while. It's ok.

Things have certainly been interesting for me. At the beginning of the year I went back to university after two years of not doing much and I'm coming up to the end of the course now and I'm starting to get pretty stressed out. I have my thesis due in just over two weeks and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do a very good job. I'm not an incredible writer or researcher to be honest and I feel really hopeless at this sort of thing. I've applied for a bunch of Master's programs and have one more application to submit after I hand in the thesis. I'm actually really confident about the Masters applications because my references are really good and all my other marks for the year have been Distinctions or High Distinctions (two top grades in Australian university) which is a first for me. I'm even top of the year for statistics, a subject I barely understood at the beginning of this year so that's really impressive.
If I get accepted into the course then I'm going to apply to get a teaching job taking first year psychology classes. One of my teachers told me to speak to the Masters co-ordinator and to tell him that she personally recommended me. I'm so excited that I might actually be able to do something with my life.

Edit: Oh, and the other students at uni seem to think I'm some sort of genius or something? I think they're seeing the long hair and black fingernails and tattoos and assuming that I must be really smart to compensate for it all. It's really strange because I don't think I'm that smart, I just show up to all my classes and lectures (last week I was the only person to show up to Developmental Psychopathology, it was really awkward) and I try to get involved in classes and stuff. I realise that I am that mature age student that always answers the questions and shit but god I am so sick of the lecturer or teacher asking a question and then being met with this stone cold silence from the class. Augh.

[Lupercal]

People are strange and don't seem to want to answer a question, as if they'd be looked down upon for the answer they give. I do Literature, so most commonly the stone cold silence is based around the fact that people haven't actually read the bloody book(s) that we've been set to read. We have so few contact hours compared to other courses and people still don't manage to get the work done - while I don't mind what they do with themselves in terms of hours per week they spend studying, it does annoy me that they cannot contribute to the lectures or seminars.

Had something quite similar myself today, bit depressing that third year students cannot find the time for reading.

[Patrick]

Thanks for your support, guys. It means a lot. I'll keep what y'all said in mind so I don't beat myself up over it.

Yesterday, I found out that one of my favorite open mic participants (who is also a good buddy of mine) got arrested. Was surprised to learn he was a coke dealer, which by itself wasn't even the reason they stopped him in the first place. He'd had a traffic offense of some kind where he didn't appear at his court date, and they had a warrant out for him for that. When they found him, they searched him and found an ounce of blow in his shoe. Dude's going away for a while.

Not only am I a little pissed to find out that my friend would hide something like that from me, but I'm also a little pissed to know that somebody who had an outstanding warrant AND who was dealing blow would come into my house and endanger me, my roomies, and every single friend any of us have ever brought up here. My house is fairly high-profile to start with; it's right in the middle of downtown, and there's police patrols at least every 30 minutes, regardless of what time of day it is. And how many times did we have that kid up here...

[Zingoleb]

There's a thing called 'guilty by association'; not sure how applicable it would be in this situation.

[Jimmy the Squid]

I just heard back from one of the schools I applied to for a Masters in Clinical Psychology. Did not get in. They didn't mention anything about my other application for the Forensic Psych. Masters so maybe they're still considering me for that.

Oh well. I have high hopes for the other schools I've applied/am applying to.

[Carl-E]

So, I spent last weekend changing the fuel pump in my wife's van.  It went out Thursday night, when she was at Wal-Mart.  She was on steroids for her walking pneumonia, and went through some serious 'roid rage when it wouldn't start...

After about 3 hours I was able to narrow it down to the fuel pump and tow it home with a friend's truck.  The only thing about changing a fuel pump on a modern car is that they're put in the top of the gas tank, so you have to pull that out.  Mind you, this is a 26 gallon tank that takes up the whole bottom of the van - it's bigger than me, and was still 1/4 full of gas, so about 70 - 80 lbs.  And I don't have a lift...

But I did it, and it works.  It's probably the best thing that's happened for several months.  Gave myself a slight case of gas poisoning while I was at it - sick all day Monday, still feeling it a little.  Unfortunately, I also found out exactly how badly the body and frame are rusted.  So it looks like it probably wasn't worth the fucking $200 it cost for the part.  I'd say the van has another year, maybe two, before it's too rusted to pass inspection. 

C'est la guerre!

[Barmymoo]

Jimmy, stay positive! They would obviously reject you for one course if they're going to accept you for the other! So it could be a very good sign Which one did you most want to do?

I am up way too early. Wayyyy too early. 7.15am and it is still kinda dark out, and tonight I have choral compline which doesn't even start until 10pm. I can see a nap coming on this afternoon - in fact I have scheduled it into my day (I am a huge geek with so many timetables it is quite funny - weekly ones, daily ones, monthly meal planners).

Time to do two and a half hours of reading before lectures! That sounds really impressive and dedicated but it's because I have a supervision this afternoon and I'm not even half way ready for it. But I will be.

[Jimmy the Squid]

Clinical was actually my first preference. If I get offered a place in a Clinical program anywhere else I would take that over Forensics at UNSW.

[nobo]

Jimmy, what did you do your undergraduate in? and where? My sister wants to get into forensic science and I am at a bit of a loss as to how I can help her.

[Lines]

I realise that I am that mature age student that always answers the questions and shit but god I am so sick of the lecturer or teacher asking a question and then being met with this stone cold silence from the class. Augh.

Ugh, I hate this. There was one class in my undergrad where only two people would ever answer questions - me and this one older woman. I spoke up mostly because I got sick of both the silence and the other woman talking all the time. Also I really wanted to yell at the other students, "Do you people know how to read?" (It was a lit class. An easy lit class. We read Treasure Island and Sherlock Holmes and shit. Read a fucking book.) Now I'll speak if I have something to say, but I hate it when I have a lot to say and feel like I'm dominating a discussion. But I have Questions about Stuff.

I hope you get into a school you like! How many places did you apply?

[Barmymoo]

I'm signed up to a daily email with tips about... well, kind of about budgeting but it's also got recipes and tips for cleaning and generally the kind of stuff that the average housewife would care about.

Because I'm a massive geek I wrote in once thanking the woman who writes the column for a really useful tip she'd included. And the auto-reply email I got back included the following paragraph:

Did you know that www.Google.com is a great place to get the information you need fast. Just type your question into the Google search bar (for example, "Does corn syrup go bad?" or "How to sell a timeshare") and you'll be amazed at how many links will be featured with the information you're looking for. You'll be surprised at the ease and speed of Google. It's like having a research librarian at your finger tips.

Holy moses. I guess that tells you about the kind of emails they get a lot.

[pen]

I get one of those types of emails every day.  It's the Everyday Cheapskate, and I can't NOT read it.  I have yet to use one of the actual tips, but I think it's pretty neat to just learn about different ways of doing something. 

[Barmymoo]

That's the one I was talking about too Half of it is either too American or too meat-related to be useful (or are they the same thing?  ) but it's still interesting. It appeals to my nesting instinct.

[Jimmy the Squid]

Jimmy, what did you do your undergraduate in? and where? My sister wants to get into forensic science and I am at a bit of a loss as to how I can help her.

All my undergrad and grad work (I have two qualifications and I'm working on my third) have been in Psychology. First was a BA majoring in Psych, the second was a graduate diploma and this year I'm doing a postgrad diploma. I've done all of these at the University of Western Sydney which is good and bad. It's a fairly young university (about 40 years old) and historically has not been very well funded so a lot of people on the street would tell you it's not as good as other, older universities. The fact is though that in the last few years the Psych faculty specifically have been getting a lot of funding and have pulled in a lot of really respectable psychologists for senior lecturer positions. One of my thesis supervisors is the most prominent sports psychologist in the country (to the point where most sports psych masters programs across the country are based on her work), the head of psychology is the leading researcher in the country in positive psychology and the most prominent expert in paranormal psychology (he's really cool, he used to be on TV a lot whenever tabloid news programs used to do stories about ghosts and shit but now they don't call him because in all the interviews he keeps explaining how and why there are no ghosts and stuff like that). At this point it's the second highest rated university for psychology in the state.
In regards to your sister, I should clarify that the Forensics Masters I was looking at is Forensic Psychology which is very different from Forensic Science. If your sister wants to go into Forensic Science there are a lot of options. If she's interested in studying it here there are actually a shitload of courses available, basically every uni in the country has an F.Sci degree and a lot of the time it's actually easier for international students to get accepted in because they lower the restrictions when you pay full fees (international students can't get Commonwealth Assistance). Aside from forgetting anything she might have learned from television I really couldn't tell you what she could do though... but here are some links to Australian Universities that offer F.Sci degrees.

http://www.forensics.uts.edu.au/
http://future.uws.edu.au/future_students_home/ug/forensics/bachelor_of_science_forensic_science
http://cit.edu.au/future/courses/forensic_science_degree
http://www.bond.edu.au/degrees-and-courses/undergraduate-degrees/list/bachelor-of-forensic-science/index.htm
http://www17.griffith.edu.au/cis/p_cat/admission.asp?ProgCode=1264&Type=overview

[nobo]

Jimmy, thanks for the info. I wish my memory had been better and I realized you were studying in Australia and not here in the US. My folks are already having stress ulcers from the idea of my sister moving to a different state, I cannot even imagine what they would do if she moved to a whole different continent. I am a little curious as to what is involved in sports psychology. Have they figured out why athletes slap each others butts?

[Jimmy the Squid]

Sports and Performance Psychology is basically all about the use of psychological techniques to enhance performance. It's not just sports, the theories can be expanded to basically any performance environment; dance, music, public speaking, etc... My thesis is on how well some performance techniques extrapolate to academic situations (according to my data, they don't).

Really it's all about increasing focus, concentration and relaxation during high pressure events and stuff while lowering tension, decreasing distractions and lowering anxiety with the intention to increase performance. It's kind of interesting but mostly not.

[Carl-E]

So basically how to make a free throw (or not... )

[nobo]

I wonder if sports psychologists are consulted during stadium construction, or when they are making the playlist for the games, or designing uniforms. I'm guessing not, but those thing scould have a potential impact on performance.

[valley_parade]

That last one is sheer marketing.

[bainidhe_dub]

Or something...

[valley_parade]

From what I remember of the Maryland flag (Rosie you're from there right? Correct me if I'm wrong), it would actually work were the designs on the helmet reversed.

Otherwise, shut up Under Armour.