The Things of Interest (TI) series looks at the previous week and some interesting things I’d like to log and share. No theme, other than I found them interesting.
Basketball Fans Uniting
How a tragedy brought the sports world together
All week the basketball world, and many outside of it, have struggled with the tragedy of Kobe, his daughter, and the teammates, coach, and their friends deaths in the helicopter crash in California. Pushing aside the feelings involved, there’s really something about the human spirit shown in the response of fans and really all around the world. I heard a talking head describe it as, “As fans we come to sports to get away from the realities of the world, and then this happens.” We’re falling into sports for an escape, and when the real world intercedes and takes a legend way too soon, there’s not much left but to wonder why.
Quitting Video Games
At least for the time being.
I’ve all but given up on video games, at least for now. I’m sure I’ll still play, but I’ve got to find better things to do with my time. I listened to the Penn Jillette interview on Tim Ferris’ podcast a few weeks ago. In it, he described losing over a hundred pounds of weight. He started the diet with a well known nutritionalist, who had him only eat potatoes for two weeks. The experience wasn’t some newfound starch diet, but one that was to teach him more about food, preparation, what he was putting into his body, and going without variety.
The past few weeks, I’ve done something similar and left video games behind for now. I don’t doubt I’ll still play, but I have read, wrote, rode the bike, played with my daughter, and done so much other more fulfilling things with my time. It’s remarkable how much I can get done without video games taking up so much of my time.
Nytimes Crossword
And even the mini
I’ve found a new piece of entertainment for at least a few minutes each night. I’ve been doing the NYTimes Crossword for at least a week now and I’ve found it to be a good substitute for some engagement on my phone.
I’m also a subscriber to the Times now. I wanted to continue supporting newspapers even though I don’t work at one anymore. This seemed like a good choice, albeit only the digital edition, which so far has been great.
I know this was late this week, but I still wanted to get it out there for the three people frequenting this blog