Friday, August 11, 2006

Tiger Woods Is An Alien/Swing Portrait

For many years, I've had the suspicion that golfer Tiger Woods isn't really a human, but an alien from the planet SasQuatch. That guy is a bloody machine, for crying out loud! A new feature that appeared a few days ago at NikeGolf's website seemed to confirm my worst fears. The Nike folks used a digital camera capable of capturing 4000 frames per second, pointed it at Mr. Woods, and requested him to do a swing. As I watched the swing portrait, I realised it should be obvious that anyone who can repeatedly replicated that sort of deadly power and grace, winning 50 PGA titles by the age of 30, simply can't be human. As Sherlock Holmes once said, once you eliminate all possibilities, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. Anyway, even if you don't like golf, have a go at watching Tiger swing if only to see what a 4000 frames per second camera can show you. The cello background music is very nice too... I just started golf lessons for the first time and I was determined to learn as much from this alien as much as possible. I think watching the swing sequence numerous times might have helped; I got my breakthrough with the second set of 50 balls I hit last night. Everything just fits together when the ball flies, it's like a point of singularity so precise and yet so elusive. Anyway, here's a writeup I did 10 years ago if you're interested about this 'slow' sport works...

In The Jungle/Teacher's College

So a few weeks ago I started school again at Teacher's College. This place is really cool. It's in the middle of a thick secondary tropical forest and they simply cleared away some land to make way for a very nice campus. The library is especially wonderful. I'm writing this sitting at the circular balcony on the fourth floor, it feels like I'm in some exotic place, with trees stretching as far as the eye can see... The instructors have been wonderful so far, way better than what I'd heard or expected; the students are supportive and intelligent. Eventually, I'll be teaching political science, human geography, history, and languages, all of them English, so that'll be really interesting. But let me just enjoy the oasis of green until that happens...