There is just no way to adequately frontload “No, not outdoors at real games; no, not listening to games on the radio” in order to avoid those suggestions being made and doubled-down on, is there! I do understand: sometimes when someone says no to something but gives a reason that doesn’t click with me, it is almost irresistible to try to make them see it my way instead—worse than if they’d never mentioned what they didn’t want and why they didn’t want it! Anyway, I was telling the entire thing to Paul, and he went into the other room for awhile, and when he came back he said he had gotten us basic cable and now we can watch baseball on TV in the living room, and if we don’t like it / it’s not worth it / I can’t bear the price, we can cancel it.
I would like to tell you something that is bugging me about exercise videos: it’s when the instructor is using left/right the opposite of how it is for me, facing them. I need to MIRROR their actions, and at this point also need to hear the instructions, in order to know what to do. So if they are SHOWING their right arm crossing over to the left, for ME that is left arm crossing over to the right; but then they SAY right arm crossing over to the left, and I have to pick between the instructions my EYES are receiving and the instructions my EARS are receiving. And it’s hard to figure out a way around this, because SOMETIMES I am NOT facing the instructor, like when the exercise is done lying on one’s back, and then the instructor would have to remember NOT to swap left/right! So I don’t know what the fix is. It’s just something I wish to complain about.
We watched the newer (2014) version of Annie, the one with Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz, and I liked it MUCH MUCH BETTER than the older version (1982). I’d expected the children to enthusiastically agree, but they had mixed opinions: they liked some things about each version. I think for ME the newer version was cooler / funnier / less precious, and had cooler music, and I appreciated all the fun cameos (Mike Birbiglia! Ashton Kutcher! Mila Kunis! Michael J. Fox!) and little references to the older movie; but for the KIDS, the newer version was the DATED kind of cool, and Trying Too Hard To Be More Contemporary/Relatable (and was therefore Cringe), and they didn’t recognize the cameos, and they weren’t familiar enough with the plot to catch all the winks/nods to the older version.
I remember loving the version of Annie when it came out, but I was in grade school and have not revisited it since. However, I didn’t like the 2014 version, because some of the scenes I remembered liking in the older version had been changed or eliminated.
As a fitness instructor I know we’re supposed to say right and show left and vice-versa in a real class. Fortunately for me I teach a weight lifting class so it really doesn’t matter which side my participants use first as we do the exact same amount of work on each side – the only thing important is that they switch when I tell them to. I even tell people in the lunge track to start on their non-dominant leg so their weaker side is being used while they’re fresh and their stronger side can carry them through the second half when they are getting tired. Interestingly, the instructor training videos that have come out during the pandemic have been mirrored “to facilitate learning to coach properly”.
That is so weird about the exercise videos! I used to teach Jazzercise, and the first thing they nailed into us in training was that our left was now our right. They gave us bright wristbands to put on our left wrist that said RIGHT, and we practiced until it was second nature. And yes, when you’re lying down, or if you turn around to show how something looks from the back, you have to remember to switch. It’s tricky at first, but becomes second nature quickly. One veteran instructor told me she couldn’t give people directions on the street anymore because she’d tell them to turn the wrong way! That just seems lazy that these instructors aren’t doing it.
I also prefer the newer Annie! My kids love it, too, but they’ve never seen the original. I didn’t feel like it was trying too hard, but I’m an Old, so.
YES, Paul, for throwing money at the baseball problem! (My only suggestion would have been to go back in time and date a high school baseball player in a very small town and watch many, many, MANY baseball games until baseball saps your will to live. But that seems counterproductive as well as impossible.)
LOL, Suzanne. I tried to date baseball players in college but had no success. ;)
I also like how Paul withdrew to another room, did cable, and then announced it.
Sometimes this is how problems should be solved. By someone else, quietly, in another room.
Beat answer ever
I’ve been doing zumba at a fitness club for years with the same instructor who always has her back to us while she faces the mirror so this is what I’m used to. When covid shut everything down and I started doing video workouts it really threw me off that the instructor “faced” me but said the opposite. Like it took me several weeks to get it sorted. It’s a real brain scramble.
As someone who taught dance for years, I agree that instructors SHOULD be mirroring. When I say reach your right arm, I demonstrate by reaching my left arm. It’s not that hard. It’s like being able to snap on a consistent beat endlessly, just another trick of the trade. And yes, you have to switch when you turn around to demonstrate something, but if you’re teaching movement you probably have good body awareness, so you just…do it.
I believe you’re doing some Yoga with Adriene videos and she does NOT mirror her arms but for a few videos. If I catch one I’ll make sure to call it out to you. If at all possible, I make sure to have my mat the same way hers faces and I face the same way she does (which is not always the same way). If you’re repeating videos especially, then you can mostly just listen to her cues rather than layer on the mental math of what arm or leg she’s using visually. But I do find being lined up the same way helps for anything that’s happening lengthwise on the mat.
Re: baseball. Bilasport!
Can’t wait to read how your baseball immersion is going. Since I can’t stream my teams games I got cable for the duration of the season and will cut if off once it’s over.