Matt’s Journal

Games we played at school…

Posted by Matt under General

Following on from this blog post, I have decided to compile a list of playground games I played as a kid that would almost certainly be banned now.

Reletion.
God knows if thats even how you spell it. There would be two teams of the same number of people, one would be the attacking team and one would have to get away from them. If you were touched/tagged/caught by one of the attacking team, you would be sent to a predetermined location where you would have to wait until you were released (hence reletion) by one of your fellow team-mates. This game would be the most fun when it was just you left and you had to rescue all the others who were extended out with outstretched arms making themselves more available to release.

Kiss Cuddle Torture
This was basically the same as above but boys versus girls. When you catch a member of the opposing team, they got the option of kiss, cuddle or torture. The torture option was not a favourite, that consisted of thumb screws and dripping water.

Bulldog
One that everyone should have played. In my school, we actually had to call this “Cheese” because the Dinner Ladies would send us to the headmaster if we were caught playing it.

This game was normally played in the markings of a netball pitch or football pitch. Two teams would be picked and one would be the bulldogs and the others would be the ones to have to get past them. The bulldogs would be in the middle of the pitch and the aim of the game was to get to the other side of the pitch without the bulldog grabbing them and yelling “Bulldog!”. This caused many a bloody knee and that’s why it was such a punishment if you were caught playing it.

IT/Tag
I think everyone played this, one person was “IT” and had to get rid of it by tagging someone else. A personal fave as most people couldn’t catch me, I was like a whippet.

Bundle!
This was one of the older playground games, if you can call it a game. This was basically a game that saw the strongest survive. The “in crowd” would gather en masse in the playground, pick a target they wanted to “bundle” and then chase him down like a proverbial fox. The kid would be grabbed, thrown to the floor and then the group would bundle on top of him, elbow drop him and basically leave the kid numb from the whole experience……literally.

I tended to be excluded from this game as I was able to hurt some the quicker one’s who got to me first as I was in the rugby team at the time and could spear tackle them. By the time the bigger blokes got there they would focus their attention on someone who couldnt fight back, namely the kid with the goofy teeth or the geeky glasses. This once saw a broken rib, most of the kids stopped doing it after then.

What games did you play?

[tags]playground games,schoolyard games,childhood,lunchtime[/tags]

Muscular Soreness

Posted by Matt under Sport

My girlfriend says that football rules my life, I am inclined to agree with her.

The amount of football that I play tends to increase on a weekly basis, I play in the 1st team for a Sunday League team (obviously on Sundays) and I train with them on Tuesdays. I then train with the 2nd’s on the Wednesday, who my best mate plays for. I also tend to play five-a-side at 9pm on a Sunday also, in total I probably play about 5-6 hours of football a week. I also tend to watch football when its on TV.

I tend to really ache throughout the week, my legs especially. This is down to what’s known as D.O.M.S (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), something that I have actually taken with me from my A-Level in P.E. D.O.M.S tends to be less painful than a muscle pull, more like a dull ache, it is typically caused by muscle fibres tearing after extensive exercise and lasts anywhere from 2-7
days.

For me, because I play so much, I am interested in getting rid of these aches and pains and playing football ache free. The recommended actions are as follows:

• Wait. Soreness will go away in 3 to 7 days with no special treatment.
• Avoid any vigorous activity that increases pain.
• Do some easy low-impact aerobic exercise - this will increase blood flow to the affected muscles, which may help diminish soreness.
• Use gentle stretching on the affected area
• Gently massage the affected muscles
• Don’t forget to stretch and warm up before your targeted activity.

Source: About.com

I have also been recommended to take an ice (or cold) bath to help flush out the lactic acid. Doing some cardiovascular exercises using the affected areas can also stimulate blood flow and help remove lactic acid. This is somewhat removed from the muscular soreness (i.e. the tearing of the muscle fibres) but in my case I think is contributing to my overall sluggishness when initially playing.

[tags]DOMS, tired, sport, fitness[/tags]

The Matrix Locations

Posted by Matt under Film, Internet

Flickr user adactio has gone through all the landmarks in The Matrix and photographed them in their real life situes. It’s pretty cool to see how they were changed, how they look when mirrored with shots from the film and even looking at the models posing in the exact same positions as the characters for the shots.

Take a look @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/sets/72157594317693606/

[tags]Matrix, photos, set[/tags]

Laptop Purchase!

Posted by Matt under Spendage, Tech

Yeah, I went through with it and did it. I decided to go with Acer and plumped for a Aspire 9301AWSMi. This baby features:

• AMD Turion 64 MK-36 2.00GHz Processor
• 17″ WXGA Widescreen TFT CrystalBrite Display
• 100GB HardDrive
• 1024MB DDR II RAM Memory
• DVD Super Multi Double-Layer Drive
• Acer InviLinkâ„¢ 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, 56K ITU V.92 modem
• Built-in 5-in-1 Card Reader
• Built-in 0.3 megapixel OrbiCam
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 6100
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition and MS-Works

The RAM can be upgraded to 4GB, the screen is large and is a nice new Turion.

But thats not all, I also ordered a new wireless router so I can surf on the move:

The credit card is suffering but I am happy!

Starting a blog webring?

Posted by Matt under General, Internet

I was reading through nabiy’s and Skudd’s blogs earlier and noticed how many of the same people read each other’s blogs. Data comes here, he also posts on nabiy’s and vice versa. Although we link to each other in our blogrolls, we should set up some sort of secret society that allows you to find each other’s blogs really easily. From there you can navigate to a random blog that belongs to that webring (does that make sense).

I have no idea how to go about it or what to even call it, what you reckon?

Free Skype Mini Cards

Posted by Matt under Internet, Tech

Together with moo.com, Skype made these things they call MiniCards. They are little cards where you can put your Skype Name, your web or blog link, pictures, and really just about anything else you want. And you can have the cards shipped right to your doorstep. For free!

Simply go here, use the code freebie in the box on the right hand side to claim your free 10 pack of contact cards.

Ive ordered mine, now I play the waiting game.