New column: Tracer Rounds!

Started by bayonetbrant, January 04, 2016, 11:22:55 AM

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bayonetbrant

you are soooooooooooo better off not knowing
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Emeraldlis

That bad , huh  ??? I get the feeling though that you're probably right  ;D 
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm " winston Churchill 😉
"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune , or to take arms against a sea of trouble ,and by opposing end them "  hamlet  🎭

A bad hobbit is hard to break - Staggerwing
Booooo!!!!! Repeat !!!!!!!   - MetalDog

bayonetbrant

Absolutely nothing game-related today

enjoy anyway
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Silent Disapproval Robot

Pro sports?!  I just do not understand the appeal at all.  So a private, for-profit enterprise hires a bunch of employees to run around on a field following some set of pointless, arbitrary set of rules in the hopes that their group of employees perform better than other businesses in hopes of generating more revenue.  OK, I get that but I don't understand why anyone not directly employed could get emotionally involved ( except business owners such as pubs or memorabilia shops who derive their income based on the year-to-year performance of said corporation).  The whole process repeats every single year.  You're not a part of the corporation, you're not deriving an income from it.  I guess if the team performs well it generates capital flow for the region but honestly, I'd forego that if it meant less traffic around the stadium and fewer morons wearing shirts with another man's name on them trying to engage me in conversation about how "we're" doing this year.  There is no "we".  You're not on the team buddy!  I don't get giddy with excitement over the idea that the telecom company with its HQ located here is doing better than one with its HQ in Toronto.  Why should I care about how well a bunch of people I don't know are performing in what is essentially a children's game just because they play their game in the same city I reside in?

Tribalism is stupid.

bayonetbrant

can I say "we" if I'm referring to the university-affiliated team (a) from the school I attended, and (b) to which I've donated contributions for funding scholarships for athletes?
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Silent Disapproval Robot

Nope.  I just gave some money to the firefighters up in Ft. Mac but I ain't going to go and claim I'm part of the crew.

MetalDog

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on May 09, 2016, 02:34:18 PM
Pro sports?!  I just do not understand the appeal at all.  So a private, for-profit enterprise hires a bunch of employees to run around on a field following some set of pointless, arbitrary set of rules in the hopes that their group of employees perform better than other businesses in hopes of generating more revenue.  OK, I get that but I don't understand why anyone not directly employed could get emotionally involved ( except business owners such as pubs or memorabilia shops who derive their income based on the year-to-year performance of said corporation).  The whole process repeats every single year.  You're not a part of the corporation, you're not deriving an income from it.  I guess if the team performs well it generates capital flow for the region but honestly, I'd forego that if it meant less traffic around the stadium and fewer morons wearing shirts with another man's name on them trying to engage me in conversation about how "we're" doing this year.  There is no "we".  You're not on the team buddy!  I don't get giddy with excitement over the idea that the telecom company with its HQ located here is doing better than one with its HQ in Toronto.  Why should I care about how well a bunch of people I don't know are performing in what is essentially a children's game just because they play their game in the same city I reside in?

Tribalism is stupid.


Doesn't this make you just Disapproval Robot?
And the One Song to Rule Them All is Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones


"If its a Balrog, I don't think you get an option to not consent......." - bob

Silent Disapproval Robot


MetalDog

And the One Song to Rule Them All is Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones


"If its a Balrog, I don't think you get an option to not consent......." - bob

Silent Disapproval Robot

#114
Apologies are probably due.  Normally, I try to keep my opinions to myself here  if they're too contrary but we've recently hired some new employees and one is pretty much a super fan of every single sport on TV.  It's bloody annoying as every time he comes into the lunch room, if sports aren't on the TV, he just can't process it.  Immediately starts demanding to know why the game isn't on.  I find people like him very trying as he has let sports subsume his personality so much that he no longer has facets, sports is his only defining feature.   He's constantly trying to engage me and a few others in sports talk and just can't quite come to grips with the fact that none of us are even slightly interested in the subject.  The idea is so alien to him that he seems to think that if he just keeps mentioning player names and throwing stats at us, we'll finally engage.  When that doesn't work, he starts trying to pick a friendly fight by trash talking the local teams as though I care in the slightest.   It's pretty much the only topic he's willing to talk about and it's really grating on my last nerve.

Reminds me of the militant, raging queen gay dude in college who spent so much time defining himself as gay that he couldn't articulate a single thought or idea that wasn't tied to the gay rights agenda.  I find zealots of any stripe tiresome and superfan definitely fits the bill. 

bayonetbrant

Totally understandable; single-track minds are pretty annoying
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Boggit

Ask him what sports games he has on his pc, then steer him towards strategy gaming. Either it will piss him off, or he'll start talking about more sensible stuff... ;)
The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own. Aldous Huxley

Foul Temptress! (Mirth replying to Gus) ;)

On a good day, our legislature has the prestige of a drunk urinating on a wall at 4am and getting most of it on his shoe. On a good day  ::) Steelgrave

It's kind of silly to investigate whether or not a Clinton is lying. That's sort of like investigating why the sky is blue. Banzai_Cat

MikeGER

#117
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on May 09, 2016, 02:34:18 PM
Pro sports?!  I just do not understand the appeal at all.  So a private, for-profit enterprise hires a bunch of employees to run around on a field following some set of pointless, arbitrary set of rules in the hopes that their group of employees perform better than other businesses in hopes of generating more revenue.  OK, I get that but I don't understand why anyone not directly employed could get emotionally involved ( except business owners such as pubs or memorabilia shops who derive their income based on the year-to-year performance of said corporation).  The whole process repeats every single year.  You're not a part of the corporation, you're not deriving an income from it.  I guess if the team performs well it generates capital flow for the region but honestly, I'd forego that if it meant less traffic around the stadium and fewer morons wearing shirts with another man's name on them trying to engage me in conversation about how "we're" doing this year.  There is no "we".  You're not on the team buddy!  I don't get giddy with excitement over the idea that the telecom company with its HQ located here is doing better than one with its HQ in Toronto.  Why should I care about how well a bunch of people I don't know are performing in what is essentially a children's game just because they play their game in the same city I reside in?

Tribalism is stupid.

SDR, humans like to organize them self in clans and to fight other clans, ...usually for resources. This is part of being a Homo sapiens sapiens. Maybe back to still beeing a Homo rudolfensis or Homo habilis million years ago.   
But after 10 000 years of civilization development, this is not possible anymore in a lot of parts of the world  ....Middle East, Africa, and Stan excluded. This got transformed into sports. Let say local small village soccer club, when it was still local and the manschaft mostly composite of locals. The government, the rich, the upperclass and the higher educated people liked the concept very much to channel the boiling bad emotions generated by being born and stuck as a precariat workforce person for life and the harsh living conditions that came with it into sports-fandom. The masses can vent and scream-out (like psycho therapy) all the anger gathered in the week on every Saturday in a stadium, having a brawl with other opposite fans when they need it, and have a (meaningless) topic to chat about all week at work, and bet a dime on a match for a thrill ... Instead of getting board, thinking about their own general situation as a group, forming a strong union or political party, and starting to put all their energy and anger into a political fight finally storming the palaces of the upperclass.  (speeking of Industrial Revolution times ....first 'ball chasing' sport clubs showing up in 1843 for a reason)

And so it still today, steered and enhanced by the (rich people  or government owned) media. Keep the precariat busy with (passive) sports, give them a topic to chat/fight about with others all day, give them a place to vent all the emotions ...emotions mixed with thoughts which could otherwise turn into a critical mass to change the system.

Well, iam not immune to it. But i am am only fan of the National team (because its still kind of 'pure' ) ...and actual hate it when it getting spoiled more and more by choosing migrants with a fresh passport to fill up the rank.
(a national teammember should at least be born and raised in that very nation! and better his direct ancestors too...so 3rd generation is really a 'member of the tribe' with a root.. Go Figure, we have 2nd generation national team soccer players in the Manschaft with Turk and Ghana roots who still refuse to sing along the (their! born and raised in Germany) national anthem)     

bayonetbrant

new one this week.  forgot to post it yesterday
http://grogheads.com/?p=11300
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

After summer hiatus, here we are with a new Tracer Rounds

http://grogheads.com/?p=12443


I totally forgot to take it out of draft status yesterday and publish it...
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers