Sad geek moment

[threemonkeys]

So does anybody else out there download multiple different torrents for the same show and set them all off in a race to see which one downloads the fastest?

No, I didn't think so.

In my defence, it is more fun than watching the NZ cricket team.

Comments

[russellk.livejournal.com]

Stop picking on the poor NZ cricket team, you bully. You're probably too young to remember the good old days when we won virtually nothing :)

I remember once slagging off the cricketers to someone in a shop. He listened politely, then said 'I'm Ian Colquhoun. Look me up in your almanack. (He was one of the batsmen out for a duck when NZ made 26.) Then think what I would have given to have been in a winning team.'

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the slagging off is part and parcel of being a true NZ cricket supporter - at least as taught to me by my father. It is an elaborate form of masochism. I have been a dedicated follower of the team since the days when I could recite all their test wins and still have fingers left over as I counted them off.

As for "too young" - when I was born. NZ had only ever won one test.

[russellk.livejournal.com]

Heh - well, we South Islanders are notorious for having extra fingers ...

I was born in early 1961 and at that point NZ still only had one test win.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

The one-test-win window is quite a long one - from 1958 to 1962. I was born in '58.

That first win must have had a huge impact on the psyche of NZ cricket. I have a book published in '61 (New Zealand Cricketers by R T Brittenden) which has 50 essays covering a bunch of players. All the players in that test were in the book and their contribution to that win is covered in great detail in their respective entries. From the way it is written it is clear the author regards that as the most important event in NZ cricket.

[russellk.livejournal.com]

I have to confess to being a rabid cricket fan. Part of the fun is the NZ team's glorious inconsistency, so every win is a pleasant surprise and every loss can be accepted.

Though the centenary year (mid 1990s I think) was hard to take - we lost everything and didn't make the final of our only tri-series one day tournament.

Only one thing puzzles me. Why don't the selectors and coach ring me regularly to ask my opinion?

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I too await that call from Sir Richard or Braces.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Ack - I meant 1956 to 1962.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

You culd support the Aussie cricket team. Today wasn't a bad day to be an Aussie supporter :) (except I really, really wanted a draw or lose today, just so that it wouldn't be all over so very instantly).

I want to know which torrent downloaded fastest. Because yes, I once set alternate editions of the same bok to dowload in a similar exercise. I needed the books, after all, and it was a really good way of encouraging them to move faster on a slow dialup connection.

[russellk.livejournal.com]

Does Australia play cricket?

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Not the same way New Zealand does.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

All the Australia-England tests are shown on pay-TV here. I have to say that when the ashes test and the NZ-Sri Lanka tests were on in parallel, I tended to switch between them at the end of each over. I am pretty sure that the Ashes series rates better here than the local game.

For what its worth, the pdtv download was faster than the hdtv. I actually only raced them to 20% completion this time - the winner got to live on to complete the whole course.

[russellk.livejournal.com]

The Ashes always comes first in the sports news. It goes: 'England lost again! Warnie took truckloads of wickets and Ponting scored tunza runs! And NZ lost.'

I've watched virtually every moment of the Ashes. The cricket was of such a high standard.

[littenz.livejournal.com]

I remember TV free-to-air cricket: it was a device to get me and my brother away from the TV and outside during the mythical Wellington summer.

I'm still tryng to work out why a team that loses so much gets so much air time and sponsorship (my summer teamsport of choice back then was softball).

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

We had summer yesterday.

Cricket is very cheap television to produce. It gets the nod over softball because interest is spread nationally while softball has regional enclaves - like the Hutt Valley. There are other reasons which are less compelling but nevertheless real which I'm sure you are aware of too.

[littenz.livejournal.com]

And we are still having summer today.

I think cricket got the nod because it ran over several days at one venue, whereas softball was only a Saturday afternoon game. But that was unimportant to me - cricket made for dreary, boring TV.