Browsing the "inspiration" category...
Basketball... And the Luck of the Irish
I was eight years old when I first picked up a basketball.
I remember vividly — it was on the bitumen outdoor court at Woodville Primary School. I’d heard that practice was happening and I knew I wanted to be part of it. I’d recently discovered the NBL on television, and was giddy at the prospect of being able to play the same fast and furious sport that my heroes from the Adelaide 36ers, Al Green, Mark Davis and Darryl Pearce, played.
By the time I reached high school I was playing three times a week — for a local church, my school as well as the local district league, the Forrestville Eagles — as well as training twice a week. I was never good enough to make the Division 1 team at Forrestville, but was happy enough throughout my teens to play in Divisions 2 and 3 and get more court time. By this stage I had convinced my father to erect a hoop, with backboard, on the side of our house, and spent more time shooting baskets in the driveway than studying.
At high school I was introduced to NBA basketball, and began following the rise and rise of such superstar legends of the game as Larry Bird, Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius ‘Dr J’ Irving. Here was a league that took both talent and entertainment to a new level.
When Michael Jordan soared onto the screen, my love for the game bordered on obsessive, and I decided there and then that I absolutely had to make it to an NBA game, one day.
Last night, 18 years later, I got that chance. Brendon and I drove in to San Antonio to watch the Spurs host the Boston Celtics, the team with which I’d always had a soft spot for since following Larry Bird and living in Massachusetts in my early twenties. Prior to these two teams meeting, the Spurs had beaten the Celtics 18 times in a row. The Spurs had won their past 13 games, and were sitting in third position on the ladder.
My beloved Celtics were not having quite as successful a season, flailing at the very bottom of the Eastern Conference. And they were playing the Spurs at home. It was not looking promising, but at least I was going to be there in the flesh when my team got its butt kicked.
However, defying all odds and everyone’s expectations (and much to the disappointment of the sell-out crowd of Spurs fans), the Celtics managed to pull off a massive upset and win by six points in an exciting nailbiter that had Brendon and I cheering in a sea of silence. The game had its scrappy moments, but it also had the occasional flash of NBA showtime (usually from the Spurs’ Tim Duncan) and was thoroughly entertaining.
Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take my video camera in to the game, so had to settle for taking a few snaps with a disposable camera. When I get round to getting the film developed, I’ll scan them in and post them. Photographic mementos aside, I was delighted with the result.
Of course, with their dismal record this year, the Celtics are still at the bottom of the ladder. But on this one game they came through for me, and I went home a happy man. I’d like to think that my presence contributed a small part to the Celtics pulling out their best, but chances are that it had more to do with their Irish heritage and the game coinciding with St. Patrick’s day. But you never know.
Scout will definitely grow up to be a Celtics fan.
Tags: celtics, dream, nba, sanantonio, spurs, texasGoing to SXSW!
In less than a week I will be boarding a plane and flying to Austin, Texas to attend for the very first time the annual SXSW (South by South West) Interactive festival.
SXSW started life as a music festival; a gathering of bands and a celebration of the passion for independent music. As this annual event gathered momentum, a film stream was added, which soon evolved into the most-talked-about event on every indie filmmaker’s calendar.
And then came SXSW Interactive.
Conferences for web professionals have been popping up everywhere of late. Part of this is a reflection of a strong economy; one in which designers, developers (and their employers) have the cash to spend on travelling interstate or overseas for several days of inspiration and education.
But there’s more to it than that. The other reason is that more and more people are realising that the Web is more exciting than it’s ever been. It’s evolving and mutating, and slowly but surely fulfilling the potential for social change that those who are passionate about the Web have always hoped it would.
SXSW Interactive, I believe, was the first. Many say it is still the best, that anyone who is anyone on the Web is there. That the energy is electrifying, that everyone is amazing and supportive and approachable, and that the parties are memorable.
I’m hoping they’re right!
P.S. If you’re going along, come up and say hi! I might even give you a book in exchange for a beer!!
Tags: austin, sxsw, sxsw2007Balancing Aspiration With Perspiration
There is never enough time in the day to do all of the stuff that I wish I could do.
Begin Rant…
To be specific, there are three hobbies that I quite enjoy, but that I need to do regularly to improve at all on them. Work, family, eating, sleeping… these things all get in the way (and, no doubt, so they should). But it’s a shame. I often wish I had more hours in the day to devote to the following:
Running
Now that I’ve passed that magical age of 30, my body doesn’t rebound from injury immediately like it used to. According to my physiotherapist, my left patella in particular (that’s “kneecap” for you biologically ignorant) doesn’t track properly. This results in an ache that develops after I run for about 20 minutes or so.
It’s a curable condition — the answer is to work up to running long distance. Rather than do no running for two months, then suddenly decide that I feel like jogging 5kms one day (which is the approach I’ve always taken), now I have to work up to it. I need to, for example, on one day run for 2 minutes then walk for 8. Then do that again. And again. And then on the following night change this routine so that I am running for 3 minutes and walking 7, and repeating this. After a few weeks of slowly increasing the load on my knee, I’ll be able to run for half an hour without my knee being in complete agony.
I tried this, and it worked. But then I stopped running regularly. And now I’m back to square one. I do ride to work and swim twice a week, so I’m still keeping fit. But who has time to run every day?
Drawing
A friend from work bought me some art paper and some coloured pencils for my Kris Kringle present at Christmas last year, thinking that it might ignite that artistic flair within that he knows exists. I added it to the pile of art paper and coloured pencils that I have sitting at home that I have bought myself over the years — every folder of art paper contains drawings on the first three or so pages, and the rest of the folder is blank.
I used to feel inspiration and a driving urge to want to draw all sorts of things. These days it feels more like an obligation in order to discover my own unique style, in order to differentiate my artwork from the masses of drawings that already exist in the world. I used to channel a creative energy and the drawing would be the result of that channeling. These days I feel guilty for not being creative. It’s not a good thing.
However, once I begin, I start to enjoy it again. It’s just that getting started that’s the problem. And there’s just never enough time.
Playing Music
I first picked up a guitar when I was 22. I had just returned from my first trip overseas full of enthusiasm for life and the world, and took some beginner’s lessons at Melbourne Uni. Even after only knowing five or six basic chords, I began writing songs. Lyrics came to me without me trying — lyrics about my vegetarian ex-girlfriend, a guy in a pub who bragged about watching porn, and an apology to my girlfriend (now wife) for being an ass that ended up being quite a powerful tune and brought her to tears when I sang it to her.
I substituted the six string guitar for a four string bass when living in Japan. Some friends and I started a band, wrote original rock and roll songs and practiced every two weeks in a rehearsal studio. The group dynamic and the evolution of the songs we wrote was an incredible buzz, and was just the motivation I needed to practice every day. I inhaled the music theory that I had snubbed back in my Year 10 music class; I mastered pentatonic scales in every key, knew how the different modes related to each other and could churn quickly through each of them using a number of alternate fingerings.
Then the band broke up, I gave my bass to a friend, and we returned to Australia. That was three years ago. These days I’d be lucky if I could play an awkward G major chord on either instrument without producing an embarrassing twang.
But I’m Not Complaining…
So there you go. Dreams and goals become intertwined and fall by the wayside for a new book that needs to be edited, dinner that needs to be cooked or a bedtime story that needs to be read. I know that if I want to pursue any of those things that I need to make a dedicated effort — possibly document each practice session so that I can chart my progress as I improve.
Or I can take that spare half hour when I’m not obligated to be doing anything and just curl up on the sofa with a good book.
That’s not being lazy, is it?
Tags: dreams, hobbies, rant
Matthew Magain works as the manager for online media at 
