I'm in Love With...Wayne Rooney?

Its not something I do often, but today I watched the soccer game between Manchester United and Arsenal. Outside, Tropical Storm Irene was winding down, and I was in a relaxed free-floating state that somehow allowed this game to draw me in. What really got my attention first though, was not the game, but a word.

Manchester United was already two goals up when the announcer remarked that "the organization of the Arsenal back line has been shambolic". Shambolic? I got the meaning - in shambles, but I'd never heard the word before.
It was juicy, it was derisive, it was rambunctious - and he practically spat it out. I had a British co-worker who often used the word ' bollocks' (nonsense, rubbish) - that connotation came careening at me too, as did shame, bullshit, along with, yes, shambles.

The announcer would use the word at least two more times during the course of the game as Man U broadened its already commanding lead to 8-2. Arsenal truly was in shambles and Manchester United was a beautiful picture of precision, unison and heart. The young Danny Wellbeck, who I've seen perform extremely well in the last few games, delivered two goals before he pulled up with a hamstring injury. Nani -who came out a little selfishly at the start, recovered to produce a nice chip into the goal at close range right over the keeper's head. Ashley Young deposited two flawless goals high into the corners, and Jay Sung Park wowed himself and South Koreans everywhere by sinking one in as well. And then, there was Wayne Rooney.

I think hardcore soccer fans would have a much better analysis of this than I ever could, but I swear something has happened to Wayne Rooney. Obviously, he has matured from a talented hot-headed kid into the current captain of the Man U team. But looking at his face and demeanor, I think something much more fundamental has changed in this man. In the yoga tradition that I follow, it is believed that when one's energy changes, so does one's physicality, especially one's face and 'eye-light'. As I sat watching him play, I was more and more drawn in by him. When he scored ( two free kicks and one penalty) he was like a child. No bravado, no chest thumping as before, just unbridled shining joy. Not shambolic, more like Shambhala. I do believe I fell in love.

My Son's Diction Lines

Bridging the Great Divide

Inanities

Noob - Slang for the slang newbie, meaning: clueless.
(Further slangified to Nub, just to keep me qualifying.)


Try-harding - video-game speak for trying hard. Putting one's heart and soul into something. Usually intoned with awe, as when someone is holed up in a building lobby, ambushed by enemy forces and he's giving them all he's got. Superseded in nobility only by...


Martyrdom - video-game speak for running out of the building lobby into the enemy ambush, and letting them give you all they've got...so your friends can escape.

Fail! - Exclaimed in response to an unsuccessful attempt of any kind. Used to express frustration or glee, depending on the situation. 

I'm bored! - This can happen without warning at any time.There's no explaining it.


Profanities
 
"My G*d, I'm Lagging!" - Son is experiencing slow Internet connection due to mother's blogging or father's Internet bill-paying. Parents are encouraged to wrap up their activities promptly and clear the lanes of the superhighway. 

"My teacher is so sexist!"... "The girls get to do whatever they want!"
- Son says the word 'sexist' and pauses to take my temperature. Delivers the next sentence, if necessary - so he can turn this into a vocabulary lesson.

Tight mad - Pissed off


Banalities 

Mad hot - Cool. 
However, when I say it, I get the look. 
Apparently, this expression has been passé since the release of the documentary 'Mad Hot Ballroom'.


Subtleties

GOML - Get on my level.  
This acronym is usually transmitted to an outmatched opponent during a video game, and means simply - you're a loser.

Peculiarities 

No-No Square - Off-limits area of one's anatomy.
(Sometimes delivered with a gesture delineating said territory.)




Profundities:

"When you have correction tape, you make more mistakes."

Of Passwords and Prestige

My 12 year old son is a video game junkie. This I say without a smile or even a hint of one. There is nothing I like about the fact that he prefers to spend many hours a day on his PS3 rather than doing any other activity. It used to be that he would play FIFA soccer or NBA basketball, but lately its just one game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - aka MW2.  He plays this game with his friend down the block, his cousin in Queens, a friend in Florida, and his cousin's cousin in Austria - at the same time. The ridiculous result of this arrangement is that these boys would rather sit at the game console in their own homes than meet in person to play. Meeting in person has a major drawback - they are away from their own machines and profiles - i.e. they are away from their game 'identities': their K-D ratios, and their 'rank'.

If your K-D (kill to death) ratio sucks, you are labeled a 'Noob'(slang for the slang: newbie). That's such an undesirable state of affairs that if one of your friends is a really good player, you may consider giving him your password, so that he can play 'as you' and raise your rank or prestige. The other way this can go is - someone who knows your password and wants to ruin your rep can play 'as you' and destroy your rank.

Recently my son's account was hacked, basically hijacked. Someone signed in, changed the password and locked him out. Since he had shared his password with a couple of his friends, he had at least that many suspects. His level of distress was greater only when he learned that the 'OpTic Nation sniper clan' he'd been invited to was a fake (a whole other story). The process of smoking out the offender was unsettling for him to go through, and painful for me to observe.

It did turn out to be one of his friends, though not the one he suspected. The deed was done in retaliation for an imagined slight - but my son made light of the incident to keep the friendship. We reset all his passwords and I told him never to share them again, which translated to 'fight your own battles and don't trust anybody'. In the end it was this that he had the hardest time with.