Feeling random
May. 31st, 2007 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sen_no_ongakuThe way to navigate a crowd, or any cluttered field in constant motion, is to not let your eyes focus on any one thing. Instead, pay attention to how the negative space is changing, read the dx/dy of the emptiness between a million small things moving at random.
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Something I love about intense competition, whether it be baseball, poker, or Soul Calibur, is the (very) occasional moment of zen, when the next 5-10 seconds somehow become incredibly obvious. "Obvious" isn't even the correct word -- it's as if the near future is, in a way, already the past, immutable. Changing it would be not so much impossible as inconceivable.
In particular, while playing baseball:
* as a catcher, knowing that the next pitch would be crushed as my pitcher was in his windup. I think I actually said, "Oh shit!" as the ball left his hand. It landed over a 30-foot-tall fence about 350 feet away to dead center field.
* as a catcher, calling for a head-high fastball, knowing with every fiber of my being that the batter would swing and miss.
* at the plate, knowing that the next pitch would be a curveball, and that I would line it to right field for a base hit.
* in the outfield, running to catch the ball during the pitcher's windup -- before the batter made contact -- and ending up in the right place to pull in a deep fly ball.
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Anyway. If you got this far, I'm curious if other folks have experienced something similar.
__
Something I love about intense competition, whether it be baseball, poker, or Soul Calibur, is the (very) occasional moment of zen, when the next 5-10 seconds somehow become incredibly obvious. "Obvious" isn't even the correct word -- it's as if the near future is, in a way, already the past, immutable. Changing it would be not so much impossible as inconceivable.
In particular, while playing baseball:
* as a catcher, knowing that the next pitch would be crushed as my pitcher was in his windup. I think I actually said, "Oh shit!" as the ball left his hand. It landed over a 30-foot-tall fence about 350 feet away to dead center field.
* as a catcher, calling for a head-high fastball, knowing with every fiber of my being that the batter would swing and miss.
* at the plate, knowing that the next pitch would be a curveball, and that I would line it to right field for a base hit.
* in the outfield, running to catch the ball during the pitcher's windup -- before the batter made contact -- and ending up in the right place to pull in a deep fly ball.
__
Anyway. If you got this far, I'm curious if other folks have experienced something similar.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 07:07 pm (UTC)More sports-oriented, and it's been a while, but seeing what move your opponent is going to use (tae kwon do) and being able to not just counter it but know what you should use to land your own move. Very cool.