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GeekNights 080612 - Dodgeball

AprecheApreche
edited June 2008 in GeekNights
Tonight on GeekNights we reminisce about our salad days playing dodgeball in school. In the news, the NBA might be rigged, and Cedar point is not doing well.

Scott's Thing - Fake Forex Trading (but don't do it for real).
Rym's Thing - Carl Sagan - Library of Alexandria
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Comments

  • VigaViga
    Ah~ Dodgeball~ My favorite game!

    I played in elementary and at camp a lot. In school I don't remember us playing in teams.

    The majority would get in the middle of a rectangle. A few kids would be surrounding everyone with a ball or two. They would throw the ball as the ones in the middle dodge the ball. Then I remember eventually the class would dissent into chaos and all throw balls at each other. Being the geek of the class they all targeted me but I was the best dodger in class and got the one up on everyone. Also, catching the ball you were still out.

    At camp we played similarly with these rules. I guess people play dodgeball differently in places. I never played the type with the balls in the middle.
  • RailithRailith
    The best dodgeball I played was the kind they played at the karate dojo. It was standard dodgeball with about 6 players per team in a 30 to 40 foot rectangular room. It's been awhile so I don't really remember the exact dimensions of the room, but because it was so small the balls would bounce off the walls and ceiling for some truly epic plays.
  • NeitoNeito
    salad days
    Anyone fancy a game of tennis?
  • DkongDkong
    edited June 2008
    Haven't listened to the ep yet- regarding that cedar point article...it's not that Cedar Point is doing bad (cause it's not, it's still as big of a clusterfuck as it always is), it's that everything else is. Your link is a little misleading...
    Oh, also, it's not $65 for a day. It's closer to $40-45, cheaper if you get those coupon things from school and/or grocery stores.
    Post edited by Dkong on
  • raquorraquor
    hmmm...only dodgeball I ever played as a kid there were two balls and two lucky kids. Everyone else lined up against the wall as targets. If you caught the ball the thrower was out and it was your turn to chuck the ball...
  • DkongDkong
    edited June 2008
    Also, as far as your bitching about the book reading...

    I can't really speak for the forum as a whole, but I can speak for me and my geeky and non geeky friends combined: no one (especially high schoolers) gives a shit about reading books. 1, maybe 2 of my friends read for fun. One of my friends read just about every Stephen King book he could get his hands on last summer. Since finishing that endeavor, he hasn't read since.
    I read Harry Potter, and seldom else.

    As much as you guys are gonna hate to admit it, videogames, anime, manga/comics, school, commuting, work, sports, whatever other shit people do with their time, usually comes WAY before reading.

    Don't get me wrong, it's not that I dislike reading (forums, websites, magazines, etc), it's that I dislike reading books. They're really not compelling when compared to...fuck, about anything most geeks do with their spare time.

    And to many of you guys, this is probably going to look like massive flame-bait. But I'm being 100% honest here.
    Post edited by Dkong on
  • ErynEryn
    Haven't listened to the episode yet, but just wanted to say that our elementary school was so wussy that we never actually played real dodgeball. We would always play more lenient variations, most often Doctor Dodgeball. And in junior high PhysEd, we never played any dodgeball or dodgeball variations for whatever reason (we played LOTS of Belly Baseball, though; the PhysEd teacher had a big thing for that game). I myself to this day have never played real dodgeball thanks to those experiences.
  • DkongDkong
    edited June 2008
    And....as for how I've played dogeball:
    In gradeschool: Divided into teams, with a set divider in the middle that you couldn't cross. Then each team started with a bunch of balls. If you got knocked out, you go along the edge of the court. You can't do much on the edge...if you got ahold of a ball, you could throw it at the other team. If you got one of them out, you could get back in. Thus, it rarely had a set end, unless one team was so godawful that the entire team got knocked out.

    In high school: Again, lined up on 2 sides. This time, the balls were lined up in the middle and you had to run to get them, vs teams starting with them. Then you just threw the balls at each other. If you got hit, you were out. Significantly less balls than in gradeschool, significantly shorter games...they also had ends...and it was just damn fun.

    Oh, also, no bounces ever. It made it easier to tell who got out and who didn't. If there's 20 balls going, with a bunch of people, it would be easy to lie and say you got someone on a bounce, or something.

    Also, I think you could pull off dodgeball at a con. We pulled off a nerf war at A&G Ohio....we didn't even have waivers (and trust me, people could have gotten their eyes taken out, with the amount of modded guns that were there). If you guys even included waivers, you'd definitely pull it off.
    Post edited by Dkong on
  • chaosof99chaosof99
    edited June 2008
    In austrian schools, something very similar is played called "Völkerball". A single player is designated as "Freigeist" (literally it means free spirit) who starts on the outside of the opposing teams field. If a player gets hit, they go to that field and also act as "Freigeists". If in the field catches the ball, one of the players that was hit before can come back into the field, normally the player who was out the longest. When the first to last player is hit, the original Freigeist joins the final player.

    If you shoot and the ball is caught, nothing happens. If you get hit but you or a teammate catch the ball before it hits the ground, you are not out. Hits to the face are taboo and and if you hit someone in the face, you are out instead of him. Stepping out of bounds with the ball or to get the ball is an out. However, if you jump into the other teams field and shoot while in the air, it's still legal as long as you immediately return to your field.
    Normally the game is played with two balls and the game begins with the gym teacher throwing one ball each high into the center of each teams field. An often used strategy is to deflect the ball into the air with the other ball so a teammate would catch it and your team would end up taking control of both balls.
    Post edited by chaosof99 on
  • RymRym
    I can't really speak for the forum as a whole, but I can speak for me and my geeky and non geeky friends combined: no one (especially high schoolers) gives a shit about reading books. 1, maybe 2 of my friends read for fun. One of my friends read just about every Stephen King book he could get his hands on last summer. Since finishing that endeavor, he hasn't read since.
    I read Harry Potter, and seldom else.
    That honestly saddens me.
    Don't get me wrong, it's not that I dislike reading (forums, websites, magazines, etc), it's that I dislike reading books. They're really not compelling when compared to...fuck, about anything most geeks do with their spare time.
    That frightens me more than it saddens me...
  • NeitoNeito
    edited June 2008
    Honestly, my problem with reading is the same as my problem with playing vidyagames. I'm sitting there, bored out of my mind, but for some reason I never remember that I have the book/video game. It's not that I don't WANT to read, it's that I keep FORGETTING to read.
    EDIT: Pahk the cah in hahvada yahd.
    EDIT2: Where are you going now that has a better S/N ratio, Rym?
    Post edited by Neito on
  • VigaViga
    I think reading is fun but only when it's a book I'm super interested in. If it's not or I'm forcing myself to then it's not.

    It's like when I borrowed 1984 to read because everyone says it's awesome but it didn't really jump at me. Forcing my way through it felt blahblah. Right now I'm really into Dreams of Terror and Death and Japanese School Girl Inferno so they getting or got read much faster.

    I still haven't picked up The Darkness That Comes Before because of funds. I wish I had more than one reading friend I could jack books off.

    Hey, I know the topic of this thread is dodgeball but since the convo is on books I have to ask? Does it take anyone really long to read too? I have this thing whenever they describe something I try to imagine it and I stop to think about it and I end up taking a much longer time reading than a normal person would.
  • scotbuffscotbuff
    I mostly played circle Dodgeball in elementary school. I was awesome at dodging and often was the last person remaining. I played many of the varieties you mentioned though. Cool show!
  • Li_AkahiLi_Akahi
    Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story was a very funny movie, but as you said it was very wacky. The fact that there is a pirate on the main character's team makes up for the silliness, though.
  • ninjarabbininjarabbi
    Don't get me wrong, it's not that I dislike reading (forums, websites, magazines, etc), it's that I dislike reading books. They're really not compelling when compared to...fuck, about anything most geeks do with their spare time.
    Maybe you are just reading shitty books. When I was in elementary school and middle school I didn't read much because most of the books written for kids felt to dumbed down or just poorly written.
  • RymRym
    as you said it was very wacky.
    Wacky is fine. I just got the impression from the trailer that it was simply dumb. Maybe uninspired is the word. Perhaps manufactured.
  • ErynEryn
    I actually quite liked the movie Dodgeball, far more than I expected to. It has the over-the-top wacky humour, but it's also just kind of a genuinely uplifting underdog movie. I liken it to cotton candy - light, fluffy, and has no nutritional value, but it's very sweet and a joy to consume.
  • VigaViga
    I loved the Dodgeball movie a ton. It's fun to watch with friends.
  • ColdguyColdguy
    See the last episode's comment for Agility ball.
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    edited June 2008
    My daughter is like Viga. She gets books assigned from school to read and it is like pulling teeth to get her to read them. The newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid comes out and she reads it in an hour and a half.
    Post edited by HMTKSteve on
  • AprecheApreche
    My daughter is like Viga. She gets books assigned from school to read and it is like pulling teeth to get her to read them. The newestDiary of a Wimpy Kidcomes out and she reads it in an hour and a half.
    I hear that Diary of a Wimpy Kid is really good. I want to get it.
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    edited June 2008
    My daughter is like Viga. She gets books assigned from school to read and it is like pulling teeth to get her to read them. The newestDiary of a Wimpy Kidcomes out and she reads it in an hour and a half.
    I hear thatDiary of a Wimpy Kidis really good. I want to get it.
    We have them all. There is also a series of books that is very similar but features a female main character. We have several of those too.

    One of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books has a section where they are playing a D&D; style game. When my daughter read that part she immediately showed it to me.
    Post edited by HMTKSteve on
  • RailithRailith
    As much as you guys are gonna hate to admit it, videogames, anime, manga/comics, school, commuting, work, sports, whatever other shit people do with their time, usually comes WAY before reading.
    You just have to read this.
  • bigryanbigryan
    Those books have been taking me a while to read. I think it has everything to do with my reading schedule. Instead of a train ride, I drive to work. So the only time I read is in the evening. I like reading a chapter before I go to bed, and I'm half way through the second book (the warrior prophet).

    Some parts of the second book have been pissing me off. It's like Bakker is writing in too much datail about the great sex some of the characters are having. I don't mind a little shaggin' in fantasy fiction but I only want a sentance or a paragraph tops. So far, I almost feel that the quality has gone down from the first book. If you read the front, he talks about how he had more time to write the first and the second he tried to bang out in a year.

    Also, with dodgeball it would be an awesome olympic sport. I think in order to make it a better spectator sport though there should be harder balls and harder hits.
  • RailithRailith
    Basketball is more interesting than Soccer.
  • Rolf SoldaatRolf Soldaat
    Here in Holland we call dodge-ball 'tref-bal' which translates to 'hit-ball', we used to play with one or two foam or plastic balls.
    Some special rules included: above the neck doesn't count (this resulted in people blocking balls with their head) and no 'sling throws' because they scared the girls.

    The last two episodes are making me want to make a dodge-ball game. In fact, I'm going to pixel some sprites right now.
  • VigaViga
    My daughter is like Viga. She gets books assigned from school to read and it is like pulling teeth to get her to read them. The newestDiary of a Wimpy Kidcomes out and she reads it in an hour and a half.
    I hear thatDiary of a Wimpy Kidis really good. I want to get it.
    I read some of the first one. I loved it.
  • DkongDkong
    edited June 2008
    Maybe you are just reading shitty books.
    Could be. But I mean, I'm kinda like how Viga is. If I'm super into a book, I can tear through it (granted, I've NEVER done a "zomg I just read this all today" or "I finished it in 3 days" thing). Otherwise, I feel as if I'm just forcing myself to read it, and then I just stop caring.
    Otherwise, I'd still pick a great video game over a great book if I want to spend a good chunk of time doing something.
    That honestly saddens me.
    That frightens me more than it saddens me...
    Why? Is it because everyone isn't like you and not everyone regards books in the same way you do? I mean really, out of the few podcasts that you've talked about books in, you've said stuff like the fact that the lack of reading scares you, but I don't think you've ever given an actual reason.
    Then again, I'm probably wrong and one of you guys will take a direct quote right from an episode and make me look stupid. Take your shots, guys.
    Post edited by Dkong on
  • AnastiusAnastius
    Our dodgeball(in middle school, anyway) was basically Scott's, but the method of getting out of prison was different. If you caught a ball thrown by one of the guys not in prison, the guy goes to prison. If you catch a ball thrown by the people in prison, you can select one of your guys in prison to get back. Bounces don't count as anything.
  • ......
    On the topic of reading The Prince of Nothing for the Book Club. I'd love to read them, just send me them, or money to buy them, to me. :) (kidding of course) As for Scott reading the trilogy in a few weeks. Like you said, you have a long commute, that's a lot of time to read the books. Not everyone has a long commute, and besides, many of the people now reading The Prince of Nothing only obtained the books/started reading in the last week or two.

    And my dodgeball days were similar to Rolf Soldaat's one. Though I don't think we had any special ball(s) for it. And we weren't allowed to sling the balls when the majority was still at the age of 10 or so. Bad memories. Getting a ball slinged into your face for no reason HURTS LIKE HELL. X_X

    Either way, we didn't play dodgeball that often. We played Apekooi. No idea what the English translation would be for it.
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