Olympics - Gold

I believe most sports fans have to suffer a crushing loss in a do-or-die game before they can truly appreciate what championship victory should feel like.

Yesterday, with about 5 minutes left in the gold medal game I had flashbacks to game 7 of the 2006 final watching the Oilers Lose to the hurrianes who were trailing by the same 2-1 score in the waning moments before an empty netter iced it. With the Canadians barely holding on and knowing full well that they were lucky in the late stages against Slovakia, I thought about what a win would mean for the people of Canada who have this one team they can all unitedly cheer for. It was a combination of nerves and anticipation. The nature of hockey at it's pinnacle suggests that a team with an extra player should generate many scoring chances so if you can't get the puck out you're asking for trouble.

As it was, the late goal came and went. It was a collective deflation of air. But, like many things in these Olympics, it was a blessing in disguise. It created a golden goal scenario that allowed for Crosby's snap shot to be that specific glorious moment in history that we will all remember with accuracy.

So much more to say but busy with work. Will try to continue this another time...

Gold!

Pigeon Impossible!

This is a great animated short film. As usual, very clever and has amazing effects and (virtual)camera angles.

Toblerusse.com is now Live!

My website for my artwork is now up and running.

The URL is www.toblerusse.com

Please check it out and pass it on if you have friends that might like it.

Thanks

Here's some class.

Classy and also reason #1 for why everyone should spend more time in South Los Angeles

Hannibal Buress

Saw this guy on College Humour. Pretty good shit so I looked him up. His style is solid. Plus his name is Hannibal, that's just fucked.

Dire Straits live in Rockpalast - Cologne, Germany. Februari 16th 1979

Live version of Water of Love. Been enjoying this song on shuffle recently.

Raekwon with the Roots on Fallon

Love this performance. I like the darker beats.

Humans and the things they can do

Somethings just need to be seen to be believed. How does someone even get to this level of skill? I'd like to see a list of broken bones and concussions from this guy's past 20 years. These tricks are as wild as they are difficult.

Sweet cocktail-making skills

Generally speaking this "Cocktail" shit doesn't impress me that much. It's certainly a cool talent but high end jugglers perform superior feats. This, however, was pretty damn impressive...and creative.

Sports (psychology) goggles?

I read an interesting article today on the topic of perception/confidence for athletes and how it impacts their performance.

The article came from Wired.com

The following is an excerpt from that article:
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Flubbing a field goal kick doesn’t just bruise your ego — new research shows it may actually change how your brain sees the goal posts.

In a study of 23 non-football athletes who each kicked 10 field goals, researchers found that players’ performance directly affected their perception of the size of the goal: After a series of missed kicks, athletes perceived the post to be taller and more narrow than before, while successful kicks made the post appear larger-than-life.

Professional athletes have long claimed that their perception changes when they’re playing well — they start hitting baseballs as large as grapefruits, or aiming at golf holes the size of a bucket — but many scientists have been slow to accept that performance can alter visual perception.

“The reason why this is so radical is that perception has always been conceived as being all about information received by the eye,” said pychology researcher Jessica Witt of Purdue University, who co-authored the paper published last month in Perception. “In my studies we keep all the optical information constant, so the eye is seeing the exact same info — but it looks different depending on performance.”
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It got me to thinkin', and that usually leads to trouble.

The future of sports will no doubt be quite technologically advanced and with that change so to will come advances in sports psychology and methods of preparation and training. From what the Wired.com article described, it is clear that confidence (or sometimes lack thereof) can influence how we perform, especially in high pressure situations. That is certainly not a novel concept but viewing the topic from a cognition and visual perception standpoint does change things. The knowledge of how to control and manipulate this sort of brain functionality can open some massive doors in the field of sports psychology and athletic training.

My crystal ball is flashing visions of a Minority Report style world where holograms of virtual training grounds hover around, spatially encompassing athletes with footage of past and future performances in the hours before a big event.


Even in the shorter term there are means for this to be realistically applied.

Imagine, for example, a field goal kicker who took to the practice field with custom built and designed glasses [there is a great documentary on something similar to this called Cyberman. here is a link]that record every kick you made in practice for the entire week leading up to the game. Now imagine this footage, which is recording from the precise vantage point as that by which he views his entire kicking motion from snap to follow through, can be edited to simulate a real game environment.

If the kicker could go through repeated clips of successful (simulated) kicks before a game his confidence on the field, as per the article's claims, would be at it's peak. In fewer words, it's like pregame preparation/meditation made easy and accurate.

This would be really good for basketball players as well. Imagine Shaq going through a video of himself knocking down 25 straight freethrows!!?!

Kim Peak - the origin of Rain Man

This is a good documentary on the person who was the inspiration behind the character Rain Man.

Limitless memory essentially.... at birth they swapped his brain with a sponge. The relationship he has with his dad is nice, but 100% co-dependent. Will be sad when he will find himself alone.


http://www.boobootv.com/2009/11/26/the-real-rain-man-full-documentary/

History - Extatic. Mos Def and Talib Kweli

November 25th, 2009 on Fallon. Probably won't last on youtube but until then, enjoy.

Do you like my idea?

Had a skit idea. Thought the best people to potentially make the magic happen on screen were the good people at College Humour dot com. So I emailed them.


Thoughts?





_______________________________________________________
Dear College Humour,

You guys are neat. I think you are swell. Your site makes me laugh and so does your comedy.

Submission:

i like your cross-over/amalgamations skits.
Would you consider doing one that combines the movies "where the wild things are" with the movie "wild things".

potential for some serious hilariosity there. Especially if you secksify it up with hotties that have akin hottiness to that of denise richards and neve campbell.

yours truly,

fan #x

Am I bluffing?

Poker Commercial Parody - watch more funny videos

This FullTilt Poker commercial spoof was pretty funny.

Super Fan

Built to Spill is coming to Vancouver this week. I'm excited to see them for the second time. And in the lead up to any concert, it isn't too uncommon for fans to use youtube as the warm up tool to "get in the zone" before a show. So, that being said, I was cruising the utubies and cam across this gem. I can only hope and pray that come Wednesday night I am feeling the music as much as the guy here in the hat. He is awesome. Plain and simple.

These fans want their $'s and nickels back

Holy Fuck. No, really, that's their name

I really enjoy their music. The name of the band is questionable given the fact that the explicit nature of it limits some of their potential audience/sales.... but whatever, i dont mind.

Funny family

This family, although spastic and a hyperactive, are fun to follow once in a while.
I particularly enjoy the great dane. He has a funny voice.

Electric Light Orchestra - Livin' Thing (Remastered Audio)

Just kickin' some classic old school.

Fan Loses Game For Home Team - Watch more Funny Videos

This is incredible. The footage of the kid knocking the ball onto the field is hilarious.