Mission: Out with a Bang

This past weekend we had our first indoor track meet of the season, and after two plus months of nothing but training, I was very happy to compete. I'm only 5' 8'' or 5' 9'', maybe somewhere between, but I've competed in the high hurdles since I was a freshman in high school. However, each time I have a new coach, well the two sprint coaches I've had in college, they have thought I am exclusively an intermediate hurdler when I tell them I hurdle. My coach, at first, wasn't going to let me run the hurdles at this meet and I really wanted to, so I guess I harassed him enough to the point where he let me compete in the event. I ended up running my personal best in the 55m hurdles this past Saturday, 7.88 seconds, .03 seconds off the school record. One of my teammates, without my knowledge, captured the race on his iPad! I am very thankful and have probably watched the video over one hundred times by now, and you can, too!


 

I know the video appears in a strange format, but that's probably because it was taken on an iPad, but you can see the race, and that's all that matters. I had some success in high school competing in the high hurdles, so I'm hoping that I am finding my way back to that form. I'm cutting the gap down at least, my best time in the same event in high school (high school high hurdles are 3 inches lower than college high hurdles) was 7.70 seconds, so I'm only .18 off of that now. I haven't discussed track much, if at all on this blog. I think I have only occasionally mentioned that I run track. So let me reveal some track secrets! Except that they aren't really secrets. In general I run track because of the hurdle event. I have come to really enjoy hurdling over the years, and have now been doing it for almost eight years. I did not realize how long I've been doing this now.

In high school I got progressively better each year, building up to the thrilling climax of senior year. I reside in Massachusetts, which also happens to produce relatively good hurdlers comparatively to the rest of New England. In fact, my year, the 2008 graduates produced a good crop of hurdlers. That year I was lucky enough to be the fifth best hurdler in the state, only four people in Massachusetts posted faster times than me. I also placed second in the New England Championship meet that year. On the way to this exciting finish I set many school records, a Central Massachusetts high hurdle record (that still stands!), and two league meet records, in the two hurdle events. All of these records still stand, so I guess I did a decent job. I told myself and my teammates senior year that I just wanted to go out with a bang, and I think I accomplished that. I want to do the same thing this year, go out of collegiate track with a bang. So I'm doing my best to return to my best form!

Besides track, I had an interesting idea last Tuesday night that I am in the process of developing a post about. I think that this post will be marginally entertaining, and also unique. The idea I had is something about how society in the United States functions. That is all I am going to say on that subject for now, so if you want, get excited!

The school doesn't care about hurdles very much... sad face

I also forgot about the disrespect the hurdles are treated with. I guess I should apologize to facilities for leaving some hurdles on the track. Apparently they hit this hurdle, didn't notice, and proceeded to rip up part of the track by dragging it for some time. On a brighter note, one of my roommates and I finished an auditing project that had been looming over us for a few weeks before Thanksgiving break (turned in November 17). After we handed it in, I decided to not go to class on Tuesday, the last class before break, because honestly, I had had enough. I didn't feel like answering auditing questions one bit. The next Thursday, after break, I was in auditing class early and I discussed a case with my professor for a few minutes. After the brief discussion was over, the dialogue went like this:

Professor: "Did you have a good Thanksgiving break?"
Me:          "Yeah, I did, I had lots of great food"

Then I was about to start going into more detail when he dropped this on me:

Professor: "Did you take the whole week off, or did you just cut my class?"

I laughed at this question because I really did just cut his class. The class is at 9:30, but it wasn't like I slept in to skip it. I went to yoga that same morning at 7 a.m. And then I went to 11:00, so yes, I did just cut his class, but he doesn't need to know that.

This sums up how much we enjoyed the project

At some point I know I mentioned that barely anyone reads any of the crap I write about on this blog, but now I think the count is up to three people! I'm heading in the right direction. Also, I pointed out that the only reason the view count goes up, besides from the three people that actually read the blog, is because the blog shows up from keyword searches in search engines, particularly Google. From time to time, and when I say this, I really mean everyday, I check to see how people come to "find" the Sycophantic Laughter via keyword searches. I actually laughed one day when "dirty jew bags" came up as a keyword that led people to my blog. And I had multiple hits from "dirty jew bags." I don't really have anything else to say on this subject, but I found it hilarious. I don't hate on Jews or anything, I just mentioned in one post that I have a Jewish roommate and he ran away when it was time to pay at the grocery store once. I only have one explanation for this, and it's simple, he's Jewish. I attached a comical drawing of a Jew to this post and there you have it, "dirty jew bags."

Evidence

And now for something completely different, again. If you read Retentive Gibberish, the blog work of Chase, me, and friends, then you know that I enjoy video games and hate them simultaneously. Recently I got the new Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3. I've played it for a decent amount of time, the online multiplayer that is. Sometimes playing is fun, sometimes it sucks ass. I like to experiment in these games, try different game modes and a bunch of different weapons. I'm always running around like a jackass and get killed so many times from running out in the open. I don't throw out a tepee and camp by it racking up kills, in fact I can't, because I'm not patient enough nor do I have the skill to do camp. I never enrolled in boy scouts, so I lack the necessary skills. My preferred play style is, without a doubt, running and gunning. My kill:death ratio is also substantially lower than my G.P.A. All of these qualities about my playing of Call of Duty result in me not being very good at the game. I just want to have a good time.

I bring this up because the other day I was playing online, minding my own business, getting owned by most of the other people playing online. After a few games, I decided to switch to FIFA 12 since I have been neglecting it as of late. While playing FIFA I received a message from some random gamertag. Occasionally I get random messages from people about clan tryouts and stuff like that. Basically people are looking for people interested in proving themselves worthy of a clan. I never join the "party" because I don't care to play like that. I was entertained when I received this message, though:

 

I'm not completely sure, but I think this guy was offering me a spot in his clan. I can't imagine why he would want me, I'm not outstanding by any means and I don't remember doing anything particularly great. I didn't respond to this either, but I thought it was amusing. Sign me up! While on the subject of video games, I recently saw that a study conducted by a university showed that video games increased creativity. That's what I'm saying. If you don't like video games, that's fine, don't bother with them. But I don't think there's any reason to bash them. Playing video games is far more interactive than watching television and more stimulating than reading, two other highly sedentary activities. While I don't doubt that you can learn more from reading, video games are just fun. Although, I'm not surprised that Americans are concerned about how much time is spent playing video games. The lists grows longer all the time, possibly daily. Is the massive amount of time spent sitting at a desk detrimental to health, too? I guess it's not a risk if it makes someone money.

Well, I've blabbered on about a lot of nothing for long enough. I'm going to get back to analyzing Glengarry Glen Ross and Death of a Salesman. At least I now know that it takes brass balls to sell real estate, thank you Alec Baldwin. So, I run track to hurdle, I have a new piece in the making, and the semester is almost over!