The Games; a foot!?!

What do semicolons do, really? (That being said, it seems a real missed opportunity in modern American prose {modern poets use semicolons constantly - I assume, I haven't read a "new" book of poetry since around 2004, but I'd guess it's rife with them - because it's a way of "splitscreening" a sentence and can be liberating for poets because you can avoid a bit further fully saying what you're saying with a half a contradictory sentence} what with all this postmodernity going around...

Anyway...

Sports!  or; more properly; Sport!

That's why I was coming here today - to celebrate the official start of the 2023 SeegerOlympics with our Event Selection "show" on February 1st.

So far, only two events are "live" and they're the two (new!) Musical events: 1) a Music League event with 5 Rounds to work themselves out over the next 10 months and 2) a Christmas Song-Writing Competition, where pairs of Seegers (Reese/Claire, Davin/Jen, Brooke/Andy, Joel/Tim) will compete by composing and recording a Christmas song to be judged by a panel (to include Shane {sorry/thanks Shane} and others to hopefully be determined soon!) of judges who've earned the respect of (at least most of) the competitors in Christmas Song Appreciation...

This year's Competition will include an Exhibition Event - "Clinton Scotland Yard" (CSY), where one team is Mr. X and goes and parks a car somewhere in Clinton and walk from there and has to text their location every so often to all the other players and stay "hidden" for a certain amount of time.  CSY is one of seven (7!: CSY, "Trivial Pursuit Glory", Basketball One-Shot Challenge, Farkle, 8-Person War, Croquet, & Casino Night!) total synchronous events being declared, where all 8 competitors have to be together to play, whereas there was only one last year, which was the final event to be played on the penultimate day of the year, so we will randomly determine the order of those events, and see how many we can get in.

Familiar (but slightly changed) events from last year include a Strategy Board Game Tournament, an Arcade Console Tournament, a FIFA Women's World Cup Pick-'Em and a Sorry! Tournament with the competition being rounded out by Throwing Cheeseballs and Catching Them in Your Mouth, Mini-Golf, Tennis TieBreakers & Competitive Wordle!

It promises to be quite a year, with up to 16 points available!

I was shot with a nail-gun, and it wasn't that bad

Today, as i was continuing to assist in the clintonSeeger's basement project, i was unexpectedly shot in the back. It had little to do with my aces over eights, Russ (my Jedi-Master-Contractor) assured me it was an accident. It hurt for a moment, didn't break the skin (it hit me flat - i was 5 yards away, or so). After being shot, verifying that the nail, in fact, didn't go in, and deciding i was alright, i started reflecting on my summer a bit.

During the past four weeks I have forgone (for the most part, sorry Lane, sorry Peter) my life of the mind in favor of a life of the hand... of the back. Familial obligation has dictated my summer, thus far, in a direction of hard labor... After flooding for the first time in 25 years, my parents' basement is going through a fundamental remodel. After installing a couple of sump pumps and a tile drainage system, the whole space is being re-created and I've been allowed to play along. I've framed walls (almost shooting a nail through my finger in the process), built soffits, and installed wiring. The day Rick shot a nail through Russ' finger (i know, it seems like a theme) i stood amazed as we neglected to call an ambulance or bring someone to the Emergency Room, and instead watched Russ tape paper towels around his finger with electrical tape and "call it good" (that night, he hit 4 home runs in his softball league).

This series of events got me to thinking about relative genetic makeups... (which might have brought me to a reminiscence of a certain trip to Alabama {not to mention a certain day of SeegerOlympic Events, which inexplicably occurred}, but that's the story for another day). I am, decidedly, not of 'tough breeding', but i think there is something to me that makes me a good sufferer (historically, some of the best sufferers i can think of {people who really don't seem to take it too bad when things go wrong} are Dave Wake, Walter Benjamin, and, well, i dunno, someone else.)

Clearly, my breed are not good sufferers, but somehow, i feel myself to be an adequate sufferer... not only in terms of actual suck-i-ness endured, but also the idea of physical pain... I'm not sure, but somehow, i feel myself 'greater than the sum of my parts.' I don't want it to seem arrogant, and i'm sure there are 'pain-factors' that will equalize this thinking, but just generally, when i picture myself in a time of true calling (any time other than now, other than a time of true reclination is a time of 'calling')...

I guess what i'm seeing is a lack of 'now' in anyone's time. Before now... there was always a possibility of something else... something that meant something... Nazis or Racists or... well... Communists... Now there are Terrorists... but they look like anyone (except they don't, right), but no longer are there real terrorists... as we know...

Oh Yeah, Eu-Ro

Who's got Euro 2008 fever. This guy (& andy, evidently who made multiple soccer-related phone calls on day 2 of the tourney). Generally i have a fairly moderate interest in the tournament and don't really pay attention until at best Round 2 & often just the semis & finals, but this year feels different.

Perhaps it's that the first (lame) SeegerOlympics point of the year is up for grabs, or that I have an extremely low key temp job with outstanding high speed internet so i can watch the games online, but whatever it is, i'm hooked. Not since i'm pretty sure i saw Chris Rogers in a bar in Bratislava watching the Euro 2000 semi-finals have i been this invested in the outcome...

Of course my rooting interest is conflicted by the SeegerOlympics pick... I always sort of want Germany to win, but my tourney pick was Portugal who won their first match soundly and are playing in a little under an hour.

In fact, i've made a couple picks against my better judgement (or against my rooting interest, perhaps in fact with my better judgement) these last few weeks... When we didn't go see the Tubes last week Andy & i made NBA finals picks. Now, i think i can safely say that i care less than almost anyone who would call themeselves a sports fan who wins the finals this year, but I thought it would be the Lakers, even though my very minor rooting interest would be for KG & therefore with the Celts... So, go Kobe, i guess... & go Portugal, really?

Fandom is a bit of a sticky thing for me... I mean, aside from the really obvious ones (Brewers to win the NL Central & da Bears) i have a lot of problems with finding fandom... Even this Friday, when we go to the Brewers/Twins game i feel like i'll want to wear my Brewers t-shirt & my Twins hat... Who am i cheering for? a 2-1 split? When i watch an MLS game i really can't figure out who i want to win... Having a local team helps, sure, but i can't say with any real sense that i was a Bucks fan when Chad Jorgensen gave me a ticket to a game, nor do i really care if the Omaha Royals were winning or losing (minor league baseball is an even more complicated fan situation, because when the players you root for get too good, they leave town)...

So, i guess go Portugal, go Germany (but boo Andy), go Sweden (because your fans throw their beers into the air every time you score) & go watch some Euro 2008...

Gamer

Tonight, Brooke jumped out to an impressive lead in the SeegerOlympics, a slightly embarrassing, extremely diverting past-time that is a family tradition... at least if you can call a 4-year-old event a tradition.

Since the 2002 World Cup Final, my two brothers (andy & tim) and i have competed in all sorts of events and awarded the Dick Koch trophy to the overall winner. I'm on a two-year winning streak, but this year jen & brooke both joined the ranks of competitors.

At first i assumed this wouldn't change too much, since many of the events played are video games or ridiculous child-ball events around the house, in other words, the sorts of events that my brothers and i have been training for our entire lives.


But in a single evening of events (which only rarely get played because we competitors live all across the country) brooke jumped out to a commanding lead (3 to 1 to 1 to 0 to 0) by doing reverse crunches, rolling a disc across a room into a bucket, and finding the word "very" in a book (she also dominated in her first ever game of a PGA Golf video game {a generic version of Golden Tee} at Brewsky's).

So, the competition gauntlet has been thrown down by... my wife. But play will continue and the fight for the trophy will be tough. Keep up with the games at the new SeegerOlympics blog. You can even play along, submit ideas for events, or trash-talk your favorite seeger.