I knew "Me Like Hockey" off by heart before I ever saw a game, okay? It's hard to be a Kiwi.
I have been thinking about this for actual months, plural, now, and I still have no idea how to start this, so. Uh. Hi, here is the post about hockey which has been knocking around the inside of my head and needs to just be done.
Background: I live in a very temperate country. I am uncoordinated - like seriously, I never met a wall I couldn't walk into - and terrible at sports, and have historically only really ever cared to watch four of them when it's not, like, the Olympics or whatever.
Those sports are curling, equestrian, cricket, and hockey.
...one of these things is not like the others.
So I was thinking about it recently and realised it's actually entirely accurate to say that I'd never seen a hockey game in my life until 2005. I mean, I saw Mighty Ducks as a kid, and I knew 'ice hockey' existed, but that was about it. And then in 2005 when I was visiting Sunny and Rob, they took me to a Phantoms game, and I was like "this is pretty great, sure, LET'S GO AGAIN!"
Which, I'm not sure if they actually realised, is basically unprecedented in the annals of me and sport. And even more impressive given the state of wrecked I was in at the time. But yes. That was really fun.
So I figured that I liked hockey and if was convenient I'd watch it or go to a game or whatever, although I didn't know if we even played in NZ (we do. For a country which has - so far as I can tell - only 5 rinks total, we're actually doing pretty well, too) and I wasn't, like, going to go out of my way or anything.
And then, just like always, I failed spectacularly at self-awareness, to the tune of being genuinely surprised to realise during the first round of the NHL playoffs this year that I was actually really invested in this.
Because, you know, it wasn't like I'd... bought tickets to an international** exhibition game, or rearranged my entire vacation around being able to go to a Caps game with
lilac_one or tried to wangle a way to get to Chicago before the regular season was up, or anything. Or like
jocondite had had to physically drag me out of a rink back home while I watched the U18 team score their second goal in five minutes after we'd been skating. Or like I'd been reading people's game reports and comments and fics for months. Or like I kept accidentally ignoring people I was meant to be hanging out with at bars to watch the game on the TVs and curse the unfairness of life when the other team scored. Or like I high-fived Owen for his good opinions on who should've won the series. Or like 90% of the stuff Molly mentioned at MJ when she was pimping Kat in were things I'd already seen or at least heard referenced. (Ice cream dates! <3) Or anything.
NOPE I WAS LIKE TOTALLY NOT INVESTED AT ALL.
...god I'm dumb.
At least most people did not laugh too hard, but they did point out that they had - once again - known way before I did. Shades of that time I realised I was into girls, and then that time I realised I was into bandom, and also that time I realised Jon Walker was my favourite. (Jocondite, pointing this out to me: "I met you an hour ago and I already know he's your favourite!")
:D?
So yes. Hockey.
I'm trying to not be too irritatingly one-track-minded (team Auckland can probably speak to the success and/or failure of this), but I'm also trying to catch up which is, of course, a hell of a learning curve at this point. Like, pretty obviously this is the most extensive canon (for lack of a better word) I've ever been interested in, and frankly I guess sport or Star Trek are really the only things that could dwarf Star Wars. Well, I guess maybe Harry Potter, but only if you look at fandom and not just canon.
I'm also doing my best to not be That Guy or an asshole about anything, so if I have been, I really really do apologise and if I'm persisting in being irritating, for the love of god please point that out to me, because I guarantee I haven't realised. Obviously, the playoffs are kind of the least ideal time in the world to have this kind of enlightenment moment, because then you get new-interest-brain and all of the ~feelings at a point where feelings are running high anyway, so... idk, that could definitely have gone worse? But it could probably also have gone better.
ANYWAY.
I've been adding things willynilly to both my google reader and my twitter feed, and it's going okay so far, although I might actually have my brain explode when the regular season starts up again. Hopefully by then I'll have worked out a bit better how to filter things down in a way that works for me. I do keep reminding myself that tracking this kind of thing properly is an actual FULL TIME JOB for many people and I need to chill, but it's hard to fight the completist impulses. Also research is fun. Also I have spent more time on youtube in the past four months than in the rest of my life put together, I'm not even exaggerrating, oh my god.
I've also been going to the local games at home in Auckland - conveniently, our season runs counter to the northern hemisphere, although it's only, like. Three months long. (We have five teams in the National League. \o?) But that has been really really fun, and an excellent learning experience, and is pretty much a whole other post in and of itself, if only because a) this is long enough and 2) I'd rather save it for the two point five of you who might care. *g* We have three more home games to go for the Swarm (tonight, Sat/Sun next week) and then I miss at least one of the Admirals games at the end of the month because of going to Christchurch, so I'm at least doing pretty well for being able to actually see games. I cannot seem to work out when the women's games are, though, which is really irritating. I need to suck it up and just ask someone, because the overall schedule on the website for the non-NZIHL games is quite literally incomprehensible. ACTUAL literally, not Canadian literally.
**They finally released more info on the 'USA/Canada' game. It's looking pretty sketchy tbqh. Ih, whatever, I'm sure it will still be really fun. But yeah, misleading advertising shenanigans like whoa.
But yes. At this point, I think mostly what I want to do is just ask those of you who care about the NHL to rec me recs on blogs/etc that I should be following or things I should look into, because I think I have the bulk of those important ones covered right now, but I could be missing things. (Also I'd love to know why only half the PD posts show up in my google reader. Don't make me tag stuff on twitter, guys. :( I am really bad at that.)
Or if you just want to talk about whatever in comments, I am also super pro that. I don't have aaaaaaaaaaanywhere to be for another three hours. (What do you mean 'I could tidy my room'? *shifty*)
This entry also posted at dreamwidth.
comments/ view comments at dreamwidth.
Background: I live in a very temperate country. I am uncoordinated - like seriously, I never met a wall I couldn't walk into - and terrible at sports, and have historically only really ever cared to watch four of them when it's not, like, the Olympics or whatever.
Those sports are curling, equestrian, cricket, and hockey.
...one of these things is not like the others.
So I was thinking about it recently and realised it's actually entirely accurate to say that I'd never seen a hockey game in my life until 2005. I mean, I saw Mighty Ducks as a kid, and I knew 'ice hockey' existed, but that was about it. And then in 2005 when I was visiting Sunny and Rob, they took me to a Phantoms game, and I was like "this is pretty great, sure, LET'S GO AGAIN!"
Which, I'm not sure if they actually realised, is basically unprecedented in the annals of me and sport. And even more impressive given the state of wrecked I was in at the time. But yes. That was really fun.
So I figured that I liked hockey and if was convenient I'd watch it or go to a game or whatever, although I didn't know if we even played in NZ (we do. For a country which has - so far as I can tell - only 5 rinks total, we're actually doing pretty well, too) and I wasn't, like, going to go out of my way or anything.
And then, just like always, I failed spectacularly at self-awareness, to the tune of being genuinely surprised to realise during the first round of the NHL playoffs this year that I was actually really invested in this.
Because, you know, it wasn't like I'd... bought tickets to an international** exhibition game, or rearranged my entire vacation around being able to go to a Caps game with
lilac_one or tried to wangle a way to get to Chicago before the regular season was up, or anything. Or like
jocondite had had to physically drag me out of a rink back home while I watched the U18 team score their second goal in five minutes after we'd been skating. Or like I'd been reading people's game reports and comments and fics for months. Or like I kept accidentally ignoring people I was meant to be hanging out with at bars to watch the game on the TVs and curse the unfairness of life when the other team scored. Or like I high-fived Owen for his good opinions on who should've won the series. Or like 90% of the stuff Molly mentioned at MJ when she was pimping Kat in were things I'd already seen or at least heard referenced. (Ice cream dates! <3) Or anything.
NOPE I WAS LIKE TOTALLY NOT INVESTED AT ALL.
...god I'm dumb.
At least most people did not laugh too hard, but they did point out that they had - once again - known way before I did. Shades of that time I realised I was into girls, and then that time I realised I was into bandom, and also that time I realised Jon Walker was my favourite. (Jocondite, pointing this out to me: "I met you an hour ago and I already know he's your favourite!")
:D?
So yes. Hockey.
I'm trying to not be too irritatingly one-track-minded (team Auckland can probably speak to the success and/or failure of this), but I'm also trying to catch up which is, of course, a hell of a learning curve at this point. Like, pretty obviously this is the most extensive canon (for lack of a better word) I've ever been interested in, and frankly I guess sport or Star Trek are really the only things that could dwarf Star Wars. Well, I guess maybe Harry Potter, but only if you look at fandom and not just canon.
I'm also doing my best to not be That Guy or an asshole about anything, so if I have been, I really really do apologise and if I'm persisting in being irritating, for the love of god please point that out to me, because I guarantee I haven't realised. Obviously, the playoffs are kind of the least ideal time in the world to have this kind of enlightenment moment, because then you get new-interest-brain and all of the ~feelings at a point where feelings are running high anyway, so... idk, that could definitely have gone worse? But it could probably also have gone better.
ANYWAY.
I've been adding things willynilly to both my google reader and my twitter feed, and it's going okay so far, although I might actually have my brain explode when the regular season starts up again. Hopefully by then I'll have worked out a bit better how to filter things down in a way that works for me. I do keep reminding myself that tracking this kind of thing properly is an actual FULL TIME JOB for many people and I need to chill, but it's hard to fight the completist impulses. Also research is fun. Also I have spent more time on youtube in the past four months than in the rest of my life put together, I'm not even exaggerrating, oh my god.
I've also been going to the local games at home in Auckland - conveniently, our season runs counter to the northern hemisphere, although it's only, like. Three months long. (We have five teams in the National League. \o?) But that has been really really fun, and an excellent learning experience, and is pretty much a whole other post in and of itself, if only because a) this is long enough and 2) I'd rather save it for the two point five of you who might care. *g* We have three more home games to go for the Swarm (tonight, Sat/Sun next week) and then I miss at least one of the Admirals games at the end of the month because of going to Christchurch, so I'm at least doing pretty well for being able to actually see games. I cannot seem to work out when the women's games are, though, which is really irritating. I need to suck it up and just ask someone, because the overall schedule on the website for the non-NZIHL games is quite literally incomprehensible. ACTUAL literally, not Canadian literally.
**They finally released more info on the 'USA/Canada' game. It's looking pretty sketchy tbqh. Ih, whatever, I'm sure it will still be really fun. But yeah, misleading advertising shenanigans like whoa.
But yes. At this point, I think mostly what I want to do is just ask those of you who care about the NHL to rec me recs on blogs/etc that I should be following or things I should look into, because I think I have the bulk of those important ones covered right now, but I could be missing things. (Also I'd love to know why only half the PD posts show up in my google reader. Don't make me tag stuff on twitter, guys. :( I am really bad at that.)
Or if you just want to talk about whatever in comments, I am also super pro that. I don't have aaaaaaaaaaanywhere to be for another three hours. (What do you mean 'I could tidy my room'? *shifty*)
This entry also posted at dreamwidth.
comments/ view comments at dreamwidth.