Roberto's idiolect concerning sports

Today's post goes out to a guy who makes up funny words in the middle of a Syracuse basketball game even though he claims to have used them in high school.

idiolect \ID-ee-uh-lekt\, noun:

a person's individual speech pattern. Compare dialect (def. 1).

We'll call this particular guy Roberto, a guy who lives on my floor, and happens to be a sports fanatic.  Roberto has a few words that he likes to use in his own little sports idiolect that I'm going to share with you below (p.s. I have to completely make up the spelling):

-Steeze: just another word for "swag" but implies athletic ability.

-Clutch: player HAS the ball.

These are the main two words that he uses, although there are more that Roberto doesn't particularly favor.

In other news, Syracuse just lost to Michigan in the Final Four round, and although it was a helluva game, I'm terribly sad about it.  :(

Insouciance and basketball

insouciance \in-SOO-see-uhns; Fr. an-soo-SYAHNS\, noun:

the quality of being insouciant; lack of care or concern; indifference.

The feeling of insouciance came over me tonight as I was participating in a yearly phenomenon that I did not know existed until last year: March Madness.  

I mean, of course I've never cared before, I've never lived in an environment where people cared about basketball so much.  This year is the first time I've ever made a bracket, or stayed up until 12:47 at night for a game to end.  But it was really awesome!  Insouciance is rather the antonym for my excitement though, the true feeling of indifference came from the team that Syracuse played tonight, which was Montana.

What a joke.

I wouldn't have said anything like that last year, as I had no idea which teams were good and which teams were bad, but this year I know, and I now know that Syracuse is ten times better than Montana because we beat them by almost fifty points.  Talk about insouciance.

Whipsawed in the Dome

whipsaw

\ HWIP-saw \  , verb;

1. to subject to two opposing forces at the same time: The real-estate market has been whipsawed by high interest rates and unemployment.

2. to cut with a whipsaw.

3. to win two bets from (a person) at one turn or play, as at faro.

4. (of a trailer, railroad car, etc.) to swing suddenly to the right or left, as in rounding a sharp curve at high speed.

noun:

1. a saw for two persons, as a pitsaw, used to divide timbers lengthwise.

 

Boy does this word describe my world right now.  I am very, very sorry to report that Syracuse lost its basketball game against rival Georgetown.  The whole school is in mourning.

 

We were whipsawed together really, both of the teams having lost only four games this season.  For Syracuse, it's now five.  It was also our first time losing in the Dome in two years.

 

 On a more positive note though, I had fun; the entire group did actually.  We camped out, woke up early, stayed up late, and sat through and snow and rain to get good seats, which paid off!  We were in the first row! (Holla at a playa!)  In addition to that, we got free sweatbands and sunglasses at the game today, which is always a favorite of mine (getting free stuff).

 

I won't write on anymore because the wound is still fresh, but let's just say that ordering Bleu Monkey (Japanese food) and Insomnia Cookies made everything just a little bit better.  :) 

"Tenting"

Layers of blankets in our homey tent!

It's the night before the Syracuse vs. Georgetown basketball game, as Jillian had mentioned in one of her earlier posts (I think). And of course we camped out starting 8am this morning, separating our friends into different shifts so that representatives from our groups would be in line 24/7.

I took the 6:30pm-10pm shift. My next one is the dreaded 5am-9am shift. It was my first time "camping out" per say even though I didn't have to spend the night out in the cold. I was with my friends Josh and Skye and we had a fantastic time making up words (like "tenting"), watching Midnight in Paris, and eavesdropping on nearby "tenters" who were obviously drunk, loud, and obnoxious blasting their rap music and playing beer pong outside.

I had originally thought that camping out meant taking nature by its full force, but I couldn't be more wrong. The school had staff people passing out free ice cream and pizza to campers. Occasionally they'd take roll call to make sure each group had present representatives in queue. Group numbers 67, 68, and 69 REPRESENT! :)

Watching Sports

For the longest time, I did not understand sport fanatics. Watching sports was (and still is) watching other people have fun. And where's the fun in watching other people be active and having the time of their life? How is it entertaining if you are not experiencing the sport? You're merely an observer.

From an objective standpoint, I could make this argument about anything really. A more relatable experience would be watching dances at dance competitions because I used to be a dancer. Watching dances on YouTube and at competitions like So You Think You Can Dance are intriguing, yet one could argue I am watching other people have fun performing their art. Same with watching dramas in a theater! Watching sports like basketball and football are almost the same thing. One could critique the plays and technique like one would critique the musicality, the acting, and the emotion in dance and theater.

Despite thinking that I could not relate to people who watch sports, the line between watching art and watching action almost nonexistent! However, I do see a major difference between rowdy college sports fans who cheer and scream whenever the team succeeds (often hurting neighbors with their flailing limbs that accidentally miss the air and hit the skull) and an audience in the theater that keeps quiet unless a scene has ended followed by applause.

I prefer art. Just saying.

Obama's allocution

I didn't use today's Word of the Way in conversation per se, but I did think of it while watching today's inauguration address.

allocution \al-uh-KYOO-shuhn\, noun:

1. A formal speech, especially one of an incontrovertible or hortatory nature.
2. A pronouncement delivered by the pope to a secret consistory, especially on a matter of policy or of general importance.

President Barack Obama, who was sworn in today made quite a dramatic allocution regarding America's status, as well as his hopes for the future for this country.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch much of it.  It is surprising since there were no classes today, but I found myself in a whirlwind of school spirit as I got ready to see my very first Syracuse basketball game ever.  Which, for those of you who are unaware, is a pretty big deal.

I won't bore you with the details of my day as I prepared for the big game against Cincinnati (which we won by the way, 57-55 by a few second margin, we're now ranked 3rd in the country thank you very much) but it was a very exciting day.  Well, it was exciting up until the point when I had to gravitate towards reality and do my homework, which for tonight, includes reading Oedipus Rex.  Now there's a guy who can make a helluvan allocution.