Sportsmanship

silence = violence

Went down to the playground near the beach yesterday and happened to see a bit of junior cricket (under-14s?) at the oval.

I saw two dismissals. The first boy came off the field and threw his bat 3 metres, swearing, and ripped his pads and helmet off. The second (soon after) smashed the stumps over with his bat, and did the same performance off the field. Nobody did or said anything - not the umpires, coaches, parents, nor team mates.

I never saw anything like it in 6 years of junior cricket playing.

Are these little fellows copying their professional counterparts? Or their parents? Why didn't anybody at least approach the second little batsman, as he sat alone for the following 20 minutes with his head in his hands?

The parents and coaches evidently think the violent displays are normal and need no comment. They do not have the skills to comfort or talk when it is most needed. I imagine them saying to one another:
- he'll be right
- let him work it out on his own
- he's a bit upset, leave him alone

Silence is the greatest form of violence - and these young people are not learning to express themselves; to communicate how they are feeling. These gatherings show what an aggressive society we are. You see the cowardice, the inability to communicate, the uncontrolled angry outburts, then the internalization of pain. The playing didn't exhibit any characteristics of togetherness, teamwork, mentorship, or respect that are so often espoused as being benefits of sport.

Internet matters

This isn't directly related to the "noise, sound, music" debate, but is worth passing on.

I recently changed internet providers, because despite not changing browsing habits, my uploads (which are metered with Telstra) started sky-rocketing. In a day of normal internet use, we were racking up 300 - 500MB of uploads! Doing nothing much except checking/sending email, and the odd youtube clip. No file sharing.

I completely overhauled security - modem and wireless and account and computer (including scans for malicious cookies). No discernible difference.

Moved to Internode - excellent company / highly recommended.
Filled in the online fast transfer on 30th December; got an SMS from Internode at 6pm on the 31st saying it was all ready to go.

Our suburb still has an old steam-driven telephone exchange (pre-war copper wires?), so I'm not able to take advantage of the speed of ADSL2+ Extreme, but the standard plan (here's a list) is behaving very well. They don't count uploads in the monthly quota, but the usage monitor still shows them if you're interested. The levels have returned to normal.

By the way, Whirlpool is an extremely good source of information on all things internet related: modem security, plan choice, and much more.


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Noise

Here's a quote from a wonderful book I'm reading at the moment The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross.

Schoenberg (around the time of his early atonal works) in a letter to Alma Mahler:

listen for "colours, noises, lights, sounds, movements, glances, gestures".




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