March 3, 2012

The Motion

I got caught up watching a soccer game while I was buying my nightly 24 case of beer and immediately felt at home. After watching the World Cup, I became very familiar with how a soccer game moves. It’s a tidal movement. The players flow from one end of the field, then recede to the other end of the field as the ball changes hands. Or…feet, I guess.

As the game moves from one end to the other, emotions build. There’s the tension as they get closer to the goal. And then it either dwindles, fades away, if they miss and the ball makes it way toward the other side, where the tension begins to mount again. Or there’s an explosion, a release from all that emotional build-up as your team makes it.

Basketball has a similar rhythm, but much more kinetic and frantic. Since the court is a much smaller space than than the soccer field, the energy rollercoasters back and forth. There’s no real build-up, it’s just a constant high run of emotional feeling. If the two teams are relatively evenly matched and the scores stay neck and neck that it.

Baseball is different. It’s a sport of circles, long, slow loops over the top and then a sudden swift swing around the bottom. There’s the steady climb, where there’s no-one on base and it’s the first inning and the pitchers are fresh and no-one reaches base. It’s the wait, that calm, low period where everyone is watching for the moment.

Then there’s a full count and there are two outs. He needs to hit to stay alive or the pitcher needs to fail. There’s a pause in breath.  And then the pitch. Still , the audience waits, perched at the top of the loop, waiting for the moment. He hits it, it goes out to center field and the center fielder has it in his sights and everyone knows he has to catch it, an easy pop fly and he…bobbles it! The crowd lets out a roar, it’s the pent-up breath of 30,000 fans being let out.

It’s the languid stretches followed by the sweet, bursts of looping speed that make it worth watching. It’s those pivoting moments where a thousand earlier pivots come together. It’s a circle, a loop-d-loop of emotional release.

I might be turning into an fan, this, the pivotal moment where two months of book work turn into actual, emotional payoff.

Dylan Charles

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March 3, 2012

Zombies, Run!: Conclusion

This will be the last Zombies, Run! entry for a long, long while. Promise.

After completing the first three missions and starting the third, I think I’m ready to bring in my final verdict on Zombies, Run!

There are a couple of things that I wish they’d add:

-I’d really like to know how much I’ve run in terms of miles, rather than in the vague and ambiguous steps. Some of us aren’t blessed with iPhones or iPods equipped with a GPS.

-In line with the previous, I’d really like to be pursued by zombie mobs at some point. I dunno if that’s really possible with the accelerometer and I’m not going to stop using the program because it’s not there. I’ll just be bummed.

-Something explaining why I want to level up all these buildings. What’s the difference between having a level 1 armory and a level 2 armory? I know that higher level buildings will give access to more missions, but I don’t know which buildings to level up to unlock, say, Mission Four.

Aside from these issues, Zombies, Run! is a great app. It’s gotten me running again and I actually look forward to running. If it keeps me running for, say, a month, that’ll make it more awesome than my own, not-so-great willpower. The second and third missions don’t have the lengthy opening narration either, so feel free to run right out the gate without worrying about extended helicopter sequences ruining the illusion that you’re running from zombies. A small aside, I’m glad that they’re not avoiding using the word zombies. It’s kind of refreshing for someone to break that rule, for once (Don’t say the Zed word!).

I also like how the game has started to introduce other elements. At one point, your character picks up a newspaper clipping, which has a reference to a twitter account. And, lo and behold, you can follow the account. Considering that the game is an alternate reality game, it’s nice to see that they’re not just limiting it to the running itself. I’m interested to see just how much further they’ll take it.

So, buy the app if you’re interested in making running fun. Don’t buy it for the iPod if you want the random zombie encounters. And the length of the missions depends on the length of the songs you play while you run.

To see the first two parts of my review go here:

Zombies, Run!: First Impressions

Zombies, Run!: First Mission Review

Dylan Charles

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March 1, 2012

Flashback to Go Forward

For the first time ever, I’m watching a Red Sox game. Granted, it’s a Red Sox game from April 1st, 2011, but it’s still an actual, for really real, major league baseball game.

After months of reading and watching clips of past games, this is extremely refreshing. I’m finally able to put my (still somewhat limited) knowledge to use. I understand what most of the stats mean. I understand why Pedroia attempted to bunt while Ellsbury was on first with no outs. And I even understand why George W. was in the stands wearing a Rangers cap.

There are still some areas where I’m confused. I don’t get why Napoli was out after being hit with the ball while he was running inside the baseline. And the sheer number of unfamiliar names are almost overwhelming.

But I’m starting to hold onto them and starting to recognize people as they  come up to the plate. Ellsbury, Pedroia and Youkilis. Crawford, Ortiz and Cameron. They’re becoming fixed. This might be a problem, cause I don’t know how many of them are still on the team now, but that doesn’t matter so much at the moment.

My biggest worry when I start the 2012 season is that I won’t have any idea what’s going on or who anyone is. And I’ve managed to settle my fears a bit.

I think I’m going to be ok.

Dylan Charles

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February 29, 2012

Zombies, Run!: First Mission Review

I used to run occasionally, but that was a year ago and the most I’ve done since then is to stare at my running shoes before quickly throwing a towel over them to hide my secret shame.

So keep that in mind as I review the first mission of Zombies, Run!.

As I mentioned before, the beginning of the mission has a three minute introduction in which there is no running. If you’re anything like me and you want to stay grounded in the game’s universe, I recommend using this as a warm-up period. Do some stretching.

This is especially important if you’re like me and you can’t run more than ten minutes without fainting. I wasn’t able to run long enough to make it to he second checkpoint, which meant I had to sit through the introduction again the next day.

I also recommend holding onto any items you find until after you complete the first mission. The game gives you information for all the buildings in Abel at that point giving you a better idea of where you should put everything. At this point, I don’t see how the base plays a part in the game. It just seems like a neat graphic for your runner to come home to.

My initial problems with the accelerometer are not as bad as I thought. It does settle down after a while and stops counting off paces when I stood stock still. The main problem with the accelerometer is the that the zombie chases are disabled. This seemed like the funnest portion of the game when I first heard about it, but it’s only available if you have an iPhone.

There’s also no way to input how long one step is. So while you know if you’ve gone 1000 steps, you won’t know how long that really is in miles or kilometers unless you’re willing to crunch the numbers yourself.

Aside from the nitpicks, Zombies, Run is a great app. It got me out of my chair for the first time in over a year and I actually look forward to running the next day, if only to find out what happens with Sam and Runner Seven and the doctor lady whose name I can’t remember. The voice acting is serviceable at its worst and considering this is an independently funded and designed game, the voice acting is, for the most part, pretty good.

They’re going to implement for free content over the next few monhs, including repeatable supply missions. I want to see how the storyline develops over the next couple of missions and I want to see how the supply missions will be handled.

The story drew me in and gave me a reason to keep running, even when I was flagging. For whatever its flaws, it does what it’s supposed to do: make running fun.

Dylan Charles

 

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February 28, 2012

Last Season

At times, I feel like I’ve crashed a funeral. Every article I read about this upcoming season, there are the same words whispered over and over again in somber tones.

“The collapse” “Last September” “2011″

It’s a spooky repetition. There’s a shadow over the start of this season and for someone who’s just now entering the story, it’s ominous. I hear snippets of information. Players talking about those dark times. Hanging their heads. Others are angry. There are those who aren’t there anymore. who paid the price for what happened and who didn’t want to be a part of it anymore.

To me, after ingesting 160 years of baseball history in two months and from an academic distance, I see it as one bad season out of 100. While I know what happened, in general if not in detail, I didn’t experience it. I don’t know the regret and the sadness of the fans who had been following the team all season.  Everyone else actually experienced it and felt it.

It’s the difference between studying the game and actually following it. It’s ab0ut becoming emotionally invested in a team. This emotional distance is a large part of the reason why I’ve decided to do my best to watch as many of the Spring Training games as I can.

The Red Sox and I need to have a bonding experience.

Dylan Charles

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February 27, 2012

Zombies, Run!: First Impression

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that at one point, I was doing some running. You might also remember that I stopped talking about it. A lot of that has to do with the fact that running bores the absolute dogs out of me. I can’t keep doing it every day or every other day without some kind of constant impetus and my own good health is not enough of one.

So I got excited when I heard about Zombies, Run!. It’s an app for the iPod and the iPhone (scheduled for Android for a Spring release date).  It’s the zombiepocalypse and you’re Runner 5. You go out and scavenge supplies for the tiny community of Abel. The difference between this and any other zombie game is that you actually run to get the supplies. As you run, your device uses GPS or the accelerometer to keep track of how much you’ve run. You pick up supplies, dodge zombies and try and complete the mission before you’re eaten.

I started playing it today using my iPod and I had a few issues.

Since an iPod obviously can’t link up to a satellite, I have to use the accelerometer, but it looks like either the software or the accelerometer is way too sensitive. I’d be standing still and notice that I was continuing to run in game. I ignored that and just kept going. Since at this point, it’s not tracking stats yet, it doesn’t really bother me if it’s not completely accurate.

The second issue is the storyline. The first couple bits of plot don’t really feature a lot of running, so I was running while my character was in a helicopter. It was only after I’d gone a few blocks that the radio operator told me to get as far away from the zombies as I could. This is a bit of nitpick, but it kind of took me out of the story a bit. I wish I’d known so I could just have sat on my ass and made helicopter noises for the first part.

I’m going to run through the first two missions before I write up a full review of Zombies, Run!, but I’m tentatively enjoying it. It got me to run a mile for the first time in almost a year, so that’s good.

More later.

Dylan Charles

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February 25, 2012

Gone Away Past

The past is, as far as we know, a thing lost to us.

We’ve captured it in our memories; wrapped it in a gauzey, filtered tangle of emotion and condemned it to perpetual nostalgia. What once was better than it ever will be.

You take a good long look at the way things were and you can find the principles, the matter-of-fact rightness of the world. Everything was as it should be. It’s a comfortable familiarity that cannot brook even the slightest bit of deviation. When we look back, it’s a known. An absolute. An unchanging. It is constant and nothing will ever affect it.

Now take the Future. Or, let us not be so bold, and merely approach the Present. Ahead of us is unknown. There is change. By its very nature, there is change. You can’t go forward without something changing. You get older. The jobs change. The president changes. The politics change. The economy changes. Change defines the future, because without it, we’d just be in the past.

(Obviously)

The future is the thing was all hate. We cannot abide change. We cannot abide the unknown. So we wrap the gauzy muddled up wrap of nostalgia around ourselves to protect ourselves from that unknowing that lurks perpetually and forever ahead of us.

It is always coming. It will never stop arriving. Your life will never, ever be the same. Any attempt to hide from it is a form of cowardice.

All you can do is stand up and take it.

To deny it is ignorance. To condemn it is foolish.

You cannot stop it, but you can affect it.

The past is forever lost to us, but the future is always there waiting for us.

Dylan Charles

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February 22, 2012

The Hellion

There are players where it’s almost impossible to see them as anything but legendary: Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig. Even in their flaws, they’re almost more than human; Babe Ruth’s love of excess and Ted Williams’ temper.

There is one player who goes beyond legend though, in every way. Ty Cobb set almost 120 records, plenty of which are still unbroken almost a century later. He was the best at bat. He was the best on base. He was the best in the field. He was ferocious, relentless, fearless, untiring, unwavering and almost unbeatable for the 20 some odd years he played baseball. Even in his twilight years, he was one of the top players.

He was also the most vicious, vile men to play the game. He never stopped fighting the umpires, the other players, the owners, the fans. He beat one fan brutally, despite the fact that the man had no hands. He took on three muggers single-handedly and beat one to death with his pistol. He hated African-Americans. He railed against integration. He beat one black groundskeeper and then, when the man’s wife intervened, he beat her too.

There is no way to measure the amount of contempt and admiration he managed to garner during and after his career. He spiked other players and spiked the umpires. He stole home 35 times, a record that hasn’t even been approached.  He was sneaky and underhanded. He was a master tactician. He would play so hard that he would bleed and then he would play some more.

He was, with no exaggeration or hyperbole, the greatest baseball player to ever play in the major leagues. He was also, once again with no exaggeration or hyperbole, one the worst human beings to ever play the game.

It is my belief that an angel was ejected from Heaven and sent to Hell, but, on the way down, he decided to play some ball.

Dylan Charles

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February 20, 2012

The Park

One of the most surprising things that I’ve read through-out my spring training, was that, prior to Henry, Werner and Lucchino buying the team, there was a lot of talk about abandoning Fenway and building a new park elsewhere.

To me, even before I started my whole Baseball Project, this was unthinkable. Leave Fenway? But…it’s Fenway! It’s one of those places people think of when you say, “baseball.” It’s been around almost as long as the Red Sox have been around. It’s been the home to Babe Ruth and Ted Williams and that Yaz fellow. You can’t leave Fenway.

Since I’ve never been to a major league ballpark and since the season is still a ways out, I decided to take advantage of the Fenway Park Tours. After all, what better way to get acquainted with a ballpark than when it’s completely empty? When it’s full of screaming fans and vendors and balllplayers and reporters and crew, you don’t really get to appreciate it. You miss out on details that are going to be obscured by the excitement of the game.

But a ballfield without players is such an odd thing to see.

The view from the Green Monster.

The history of Fenway is apparent from the moment you walk through the gate. There are dates everywhere; marking the first series the Red Sox won (1903, which was also the first World Series ever) and the years they won the American League pennant. There are the old bleacher seats that have been there since 1934 and they show it: There’s no leg room. There’s no room between you and your neighbor. And, as our guide pointed out, there are no cupholders.

Everything has a story attached to it. There’s the red seat out behind right field, where Ted Williams’ home run landed, the longest homer hit in Fenway. There’s the Green Monster, where Carlton Fisk’s homerun safely landed after he willed it there.

The Green Monster in all its glory.

Fenway is both one of the oldest and one of the smallest ballparks in the major leagues. It’s crammed into a tiny space, surrounded on all sides. Fenway represents Boston, in the way that Boston embraces its past and the future on the same street corner. History and progress in one square block. To me, a newcomer to the game and its history, it’s unthinkable that they even contemplated building a new park.

I can’t wait to see it in action.

Dylan Charles

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February 19, 2012

Making a Sandwich

To some, a sandwich is a quick and easy lunch. Put something between two slices of bread and bam, you’re ready to go.

Those people should never be trusted, either inside the kitchen or out.

The Sandwich is something that can rise above and beyond its ingredients. In no situation is the term “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” more applicable. To make a Sandwich right, you have to work at it. It takes preparation. Time. And the willingness to get your hands dirty.

There is no “perfect sandwich”. A vegetarian would not be happy with one of my…creations. But there are ideal sandwiches for each individual. I made such a  sandwich today.

Since I ate my sandwich too quickly for it to be photographed, let me paint you a picture….with words.

First layer, bread. Then yellow mustard and a mild cheddar, sliced thin. Next, a layer of bacon, with some more, thinly sliced cheese. Then some roast beef and turkey. Another layer of cheese. Next, add a second layer of bacon. More cheese and mustard. Bread slice.

The final step involved frying the whole kit and kaboodle in bacon grease.

I’m not writing out this recipe so that you can make it yourself.

I’m writing it here to brag.

It was delicious.

Dylan Charles

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