Wednesday, May 23, 2012

iPod Inspiration: The Beat

I was lacking the push to write and decided to inspire myself. I put my iPod on shuffle and forced myself to listen to whatever song played, on repeat, while I wrote a 100-word mini short story. This is my first one.

Inspired by:
'The Beat' by Basshunter ( http://youtu.be/FsDyYaqnc7Q )

The worm ran through his brain, devouring everything it found. Night filled the space left behind, lit by pulsing and flashes of light. Control was relinquished to the man in the booth, worshipped by clothed and half naked bodies for his prowess in auricular synthesis.

Personal inclination to maintain inaction slipping out the hole left by the worm, his limbs acquired consciousness without permission.

His body followed, mirroring the neighboring opposite. Hair flew past his face, and he followed it to the alluring origin.

“Dance with me!” Her yell was intimate against his ear among the pounding noise.

He succumbed.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Do I Ever Lacrosse Your Mind?

I went to my first lacrosse game last month. A friend of mine is on his high school varsity team, so despite having no experience with or knowledge about the sport, I went to see him play.

This was my reaction moments into the game: It's a bunch of boys running around a field hitting each other with sticks. ... No wonder they like it!

This was followed by much confusion as to how in the world the game is actually played. I understood that the goal of the game is to get a goal, but some of the things that went on while the players were trying to get a goal were confusing to a lacrosse newbie like myself.

Take the face-off thing that happens at the beginning of quarters, after goals, and maybe at some other (not) random times. These two guys are crouched down all intense, ready to fight over the ball, with some other players stationed at various distances away. The whistle blows, they start grappling for ball control, and the other players dash in. One team gets the ball, and suddenly one of the guys that was hell-bent on getting to that face-off turns around and runs off the field. Just runs right off the field!

Tell me how that makes sense (and I don't want to hear sensible things about how lacrosse has specialized positions, and some players are better at offense or defense, and one player runs off the field so another can take his place. That's beside the point).

I also couldn't see any rhyme or reason as to which team got the ball after it went out of bounds. And why were players from both teams running after it holding out their sticks? More confusion.

My friend's team won that game, which was cool, but I decided I needed a little help before I went to another. So I went to my ever-helpful local library and checked out "Lacrosse for Dummies (2nd Edition)."

It was quite informative. I was excited to learn the official name for the stick thing that the players use to throw, catch, and carry the ball. It's called (wait for it) a stick. And when the players run after the ball holding their sticks out as it goes out of bound? That's because sometimes, the team closest to the ball when it goes out gains possession of it when play resumes.

I went to another one of my friend's games this month. Even though they didn't do so well, I was able to understand the gameplay a little more thanks to the "Dummies" book.

Maybe if he plays next year I'll actually read more than just the first four chapters.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Post-Hunger Games

The following is my immediate visceral reaction to the Hunger Games trilogy after having read all three books in nine hours over three days, three hours per book, one book per day.
They wrecked me. The Hunger Games wrecked me.
I’ve either been crying or on the verge of it ever since I finished them an hour ago. I can’t handle it. I feel exhausted. I’m not sure what to do to get it out of my head. The story engulfed me, consumed me. I am unable to deal with the intensity of the emotions that were contained in that story, those books.
I must send others down the same path, let them be consumed as I was. Maybe then I’ll be able to find what’s left of me, what didn’t get destroyed or devoured by the voracity of the story that is The Hunger Games. But if I never find myself again, if the words have wrought some change in me, is that so bad?
All I can do now is sleep.
I read the trilogy for the first time in February 2012, before The Hunger Games movie was released in theaters.