Slashdot Mirror
Techie Fight Clubs Springing Up
Browncoat writes "USAToday reports a new phenomenon hitting some of the cubicles of Silicon Valley. It seems that engineers and developers previously confined to sitting in front of their computers are getting their anger out the healthy way: by pummeling each other. From the article 'Inspired by the 1999 film Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton, underground bare-knuckle brawling clubs have sprung up across the country as a way for desk jockeys and disgruntled youths to vent their frustrations and prove themselves. "This is as close as you can get to a real fight, even though I've never been in one," the soft-spoken Siou said.'"
Aside from which, I loved how they worked in this:
Earlier this month in Arlington, Texas, a high school student who didn't want to participate was beaten so badly that he suffered a brain hemorrhage and broken vertebrae. Six teenagers were arrested after DVDs of the fight appeared for sale online.
So exactly when did "getting your ass kicked by a bunch of jerks" turn into being "an unwilling Fight Club participant"? I suppose next we'll be hearing about how Ken Lay and company were actually just repeating what they learned by watching "Wall Street" at the executive team-building offsite? Or how the well-abused Zonk and ScuttleMonkey voodoo dolls on my desk are actually just a result of my having seen part of "The Craft" one time on HBO?
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Doesn't this article violate the first and second rules of fight club?
The teams I've been on have always handled stress by Quake/Unreal Tournament/etc. deathmatching. What's the appeal of brawling? Same thrill of victory, longer-lasting agony of defeat.
No one saw this coming. No one.
DO NOT post stories about Fight Club to Slashdot.
So is Cowboyneil Slashdot's equivelent to the charicter Meat Loaf plays in the movie?
Check out this episode of diggnation and you can catch a bunch of guys really going for it. very amusing, they look like absolute idiots... do I want a go? Hell yes!
Bring on that printer
*sticks on "still" by the geto boys*
Promote Charity on Myspace, Show Your Colours!
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.
Is this fact, or just poor reporting?
Registered Linux user #421033
This doesn't worry me much... yet. I mean, transgressional fiction was bound to come true at some point. People tend to break out of the cube. What worries me is that this might be a trend in fiction influencing reality. If Patrick Batemans start cropping up all over the place then we have a problem.
The problem with this is that these things is that these guys don't know how to fight and as such could really get hurt. And the thing is, if you accidentally kill someone in an illegal fighting event, it is still manslaughter. Course, a few dead dorks might mean that new positions open up in the fields they're in. HEY!!! That's a great idea. I need a job, I could get it Klingon battlecruiser style.
Now, I can simply point this practice out, and state without room for dissent that it is finally and completely over.
It's sad, too, because if people would give it a rest I actually liked the book and the movie.
Man, you really need that seminar!
Hitting someone with a frying pan? What fool would take that?
Using your fists on someone
But using a blunt object? If you're anything other than a spaz, you'll crush a few ribs the first time you connect. Then the fights over.
Is this what it looks like when geeks fight?
Face Masks! Pool Cues! Knee Sniffing!
ugh.
Starsucks
farkslash
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.
Dear Michael Messner,
Please accept this large steaming cup of shut the hell up.
Sincerely,
BigTanGringo
Yes, I am a smart ass; it's better than the alternative.
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.
"Boys have these warrior fantasies picked up from popular culture, and schools sort of force that out of them," he said. In these fantasies, "The good guys always resort to violence, and they always get the glory and the women."
Hmmm. Well I sit at a desk most of the day and play(ed) my fair share of violent video games. Yet I don't feel the need the fight another person to make myself feel better or get laid. The results of my hobbies, working on old cars, old motorcycles and playing in a band get me enough glory and sex.
Anyway, my favorite part is the two professors eagerly spouting theories about "fight clubs" as though they'd ever heard of this before the USA Today reporter came calling.
No, my real favorite part is:
Fast forward to Marital Fight Club...What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
it's alot better to fight other nerds than get beat up in real life... At least that pocket protector will save you :)
They should try a moshing. At least you get to beat people to music.
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.
Hopefully we can someday return to the world where none of thoseexisted, and men never fought each other.
Okay, I call shenanigans. This just sounds too ridiculous to be real.
How many times in the past have we see some tech story get reported on and posted on slashdot only to find out that it was all trumped up - like "toothing" - people in UK using bluetooth phones to look for sex partners? I say "nerd fight club" is the same thing.
Everyone knows that real dorks adverse to physical fitness - I mean, hey why go outside when you can spend more time in front of the computer? I'll exercise next week after I rebuild my second desktop system and finish upgrading my asterisk pbx...
Oh, and nerd *fighting*? Nerds are the last people who are going to want to blow off steam by real, painful, physical fighting... Everyone knows that. Nerds would invite others for a frag-fest, whomp on their mmorpg character, hack their coworker's/nemesis' home server, and fill their cubicle with styrofoam... but fight... and risk getting hurt?
If we liked to fight, we probably wouldn't have followed the path that made us nerds in the first place.
There's nothing there about the winner getting the girl. Sounds kinda homoerotic to me in addition to sadomasochistic. Hey, whatever pops your cork.
What?
Step 1: Learn a martial art. See below. Step 2: Become a master Step 3: Step 3 depends on step one. See below. Akido-Laugh at people as they discover that their attacks are turned against them. Taekwondo- Laugh at people as you kick the living crap out of them. Wrestling- Laugh as you drop people on their head. Jui-Jitsu- Laugh as you break limbs. Judo- Laugh as you start throwing people over your hip. Kendo- Laugh as you teach those idiots in the article about how to use those sticks. In all seriousness, I've taken martial arts before and I think it's kind of pathetic. PS. Is this the first Slashdot article that actually mentions S&M .
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
USAToday reports a new phenomenon hitting some of the cubicles of Silicon Valley. It seems that engineers and developers previously confined to sitting in front of their computers are getting their anger out the healthy way: by pummeling each other.
I am Slashdot's smirking indifference
His name is Linus Torvalds.
His name is Linus Torvalds.
What a fucking stupid and homoerotic way to relieve stress.
Yes, buy things like the Fight Club DVD, you sheep. Some people, if worried about excessive consumerism, would stop buying shit.
Videogames. Always videogames. I'm surprised he hasn't blamed myspace.
Imagine a fnatic from each side going at it. The clash of the ignorant! "Steve Jobs is a fagg!", Yells the MS guy. "Bill Gates is a wus!", yells the Mac guy. "I'm going delete your flowery ass", yells the MS guy. "Oh yeah, I'm dragging your bitch ass to the trash can PEE CEE BOY!"
Doesn't get any better than this...
I already see a lot of stupid comments about how they should just play halo or some other random DM game. Ever played lasertag and compared it to even skirmish? Some of you make me laugh.
If you're able to be satisfied by weak approximations of real life enough to judge on others seeking a thrill then you are probably the one that has it wrong.. not them.
insert joke here
... as long as nobody farts on my meringues. Thanks.
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
Fight Club's message hinged around a somewhat homoerotic S&M theme.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
start crashing server farms instead.
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD
"You get to be a superhero for a night," Klimanis said. "We have to go to work every day. We're constantly told to buy things we don't need, and just for a couple hours we have the freedom to do what we want to do."
And that is beating each other up? Idiots...
bash$
There are many MA clubs where sparring with or without protective gear is allowed. There are also mixed-martial arts clubs where you can learn and practice (sparr) strikes, throws, grapple, and do submissions just like you see on Spike TV, or Ultimate Fighting. Why not go join them where the skill levels are high (so you dont get killed by accident), and competition is stiff?
In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
for (int i = 0; i 10; i++) println("The " + i + " rule of fight club is, you don't talk about Fight Club");
(I know, I should use a static array of "first", "second", etc., but I left it out for brevity)
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
Strangely my brother in law and his coworkers have been doing this in NYC. They're not geeks though, they're all automechanics for Mercedes Benz. When I heard what they were doing I shrugged at their stupidity. There are more creative and energizing ways to vent frustrations, unload stress. What is going to happen when one co-worker goes overboard and really injures someone. By USA Today and other media outlets even giving these idiots the time of day, I can see where the younger crowds get the moronic ideas from. To each their own, but common sense dictactes that teens who see that article will likely take the "well if the adults can do it so can we...". What kind of example are those guys setting. As in the movie fight club, they shouldn't have talked about it. The least they could have done was some PPV "Geek Extreme Fighting... Microsoft Developers vs. Open Source Developers" ...
Infiltrated dot Net
CBS has videos of these guys fighting.... I mean look at this: http://cbs5.com/video/?id=11369@kpix.dayport.com Who fights with magazines??? The most dangerous thing these people use are plastic knives...
Christ, I'd kick my own ass if I was wearing shorts like the guy in the picture.
wait... this sounds familiar...
...they're all history.
Good theme for a game, actually.
Are those the same people who defend brutal video games by claiming that young adults can tell fiction and reality apart? Seriously, that was a cool movie. A MOVIE!
I see the new geeks on the block have now learnt what that word, F E T I S H, means.
So they like getting beating up.
On a serious note, having a good run/swim/workout at the gym does wonders for the body, but there are few things that release whatever that stuff in the brain is that makes you feel alive. The two easiest things to do are 1. Get laid, 2. Be in a punch up.
We can see what is happening here, there guys need get LAID!
PS. I feel like punching someone right now....
Look at the position of the leg with regards to the arm.
If it was a straight in kick, his leg would be tangled up with his opponent's hand.
If it was a side kick, his leg would be connecting with his opponent's shoulder. Look how his kicking foot is outside of both their bodies.
10 REM Nerd Fight Club
20 REM packetmon
30 FOR X=10 TO 1 STEP -1
40 PRINT X;"Oh yea";
50 IF X<>1 THEN PRINT "!";
60 PRINT "take that,";X;"jackass";
70 IF X<>1 THEN PRINT "!";
80 PRINT "give in!"
90 NEXT
Infiltrated dot Net
...we wouldn't have invented larping. Seriously, if you want to experience your "warrior fantasies", punching someone until their or your rib breaks just isn't the constructive answer... Though, these people sound less pansy than some larpers I know...
That said I was really interested in the SCA until I actually learned how to fence, then the SCA wasn't interesting at all... Oh well, maybe I should have tried heavy weapons after all
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
If they are true geeks, towards the end of the fight they would be wondering how to pull out the opponents still beating heart as part of their final kill combo.
We have "fight clubs": boxing, martial arts, football, rugby, and lots of other sports. But, I suppose, that requires more dedication and skill than these people can muster.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
...but you beat me to it. A nice and fun way to get your crazies out without hurting anyone or getting hurt yourself.
And yeah, you shoulda done heavy. It's a freeking blast. Especially melee.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Monkey see, monkey do.
Anybody up for a club in Mexico City? :)
***serius***
Carlos Niebla
According to my Seattle PI version of this story, Jordan Robertson wrote the story about techie fight clubs. It could be an assumed name, but you could always Google for his home address.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Based on a lot of our techs at work, sumo wrestling would be a better pastime for some of these IT folks! They already have the correct physique... Put them in a diaper, point them towards the ring, and they're all ready to go!
Slightly outside the realm of IT, but if you want some real serious sumo wrestling, I'd start a fight club with people who answer calls for a living! While some of my IT brethren may indeed be very overweight, at least they do get up on occasion to mess with computers. People who don't have to get up at all for a living tend to get very large...
In fact, when I was a member of a call support team (previous to my illustrious IT career), I used to get tons of ads for everything from headsets to office furnishings. One of these direct mail advertisers hit the nail on the head though... One day I get this postcard advertising specialized chairs for phone representatives. The only difference between this chair and other copmpetitors office chairs was advertised in large letters, next to the product description: "Holds up to 400 lbs!!". They definately know their target audience!
All kidding aside, the 1st poster had this right: This whole fight club sounds like a buncha nerds trying to make themselves into something they're not... Jocks!
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
you are correct, the stats say
"The rate of violent crime victimization in the United States declined by more than half between the years 1994 and 2001."
so we could extrapolate from that the rise of the violent FPS Video games (circa 1994-2006) has contributed to a significant drop in the level of violent crime (as the DOJ doesnt say what is actually responsible for the large drop in numbers)
of course we can prove anything with statistics but something is working, or they are all in jail (1 in 136 us citizens is in prison)
Aj
I'm tempted to believe that those doing this are the ones there to collect a paycheck, and that those who make up the genuine geek culture have more worthy goals.
This comment is really damn funny -- unfortunately, I don't have mod points. But yes, seriously, what a sad, pathetic article this is, in both content and execution, and Otter has pretty much summed up the lamest parts of the whole sorry exercise. Kudos to you, small aquatic mammal.
Idiots
Send them to Iraq. That should help them work through their repressed feelings. And pronto, no doubt.
Ever watched a bunch of monkeys? The guys fight, and the winner gets the girl.
That's a nice theory.
However, as any evolutionary biologist would tell you, the real truth is more complex.
In real life, the "winner" turns out to have one of the successful reproductive strategies, but the other major ones are the "dad" and the "lonely outsider/milkman" strategy.
A lot of birds that we think of as monogamous, for example, turn out on detailed genetic study not to be. The same for chimps, gorillas, etc.
So, if you die in the fight, or get wounded, you may have lost your reproductive chances. Girls like the losers too - in fact, they do pretty darned well if one examines it scientifically.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
If these morons can get jobs in computing, then the return of $10k signing bonuses can't be too far off; woo hoo! DotCom revisited!
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
IANAEB, but I hereby declare my point as still standing.
If you got "the solution to our problems is kicking each other" from Fight Club the movie, then you must have only watched the 1st 1/2 of the movie.
Extremists misinterpreting literature for ideology is hardly new, though. These people are hitting each other with heavy metal objects, they are probably addicted to the body's painkillers or the feeling their brain makes while it is being made retarded.
Ok, as someone who *has* been in more than my fair share of fights, studied martial arts, etc, I'm confused by this to a certain degree. Not by the fight clubs, just the news story. I haven't had to use my martial arts skills in anger or self defense, because my insturctor taught self respect and that first rule: the best way to not get hurt by a punch is to not get hit by it. That means he focused on avoiding blows, not blocking them, but it also means he focused on avoiding fights in the first place. Anyway.
The reporter is making these folks out to sound like crazies.... They aren't. They are men frustrated by their daily lives. I can understand this desire to vent physical frustration in a very real way. I learned that I don't need to hit anyone in order to do that, just pratice the martial arts forms I have learned. That is either not something these guys have tried, or found to be satisfactory. That's fine, and as long as they all agree to what they are doing, have at.
He focuses on one guy at the end who is making... questionable choices, certainly from how they where presented. Married later in life (than social norms, mind, for all that's worth), choosing to go to this fight club instead of taking the time out to be with his wife, on their first anniversary, for a very important event in her life. Talking about how tough it makes him feel... sounds like he's got other issues to me. Sounds like the writer is trying to focus on that.
Oh, and the trying to link teen violence to this stuff, and childhood media exposure? That's just poor reporting, and poor taste.
I'm modding this story -3 troll.
It is a fact since there was no violence before the airing of the classic ship-jacking thriller "Steamboat Willy".
Rule #11: Only two bits to the rules.
Should be:
Rule #11: Only 10 bits to the rules.
The Society for Creative Anachronism gives you a way to dress up in functional armor and slam similarly equipped people with rattan "swords". At major events you can practice infantry tactics with thousands on a side.
The SCA does have safety standards and values a code of honor, so maybe that answers the "why not".
while indian tech workers continue to take i.t. jobs from the u.s., american i.t. workers are happily beating the fuck out of each other with frying pans and sticks.
where do I join?
The first rule about Nerd Fight Club is - you don't blog about Nerd Fight Club.
The second rule about Nerd Fight Club is - YOU - DON'T - BLOG - ABOUT NERD FIGHT CLUB.
...is that the themes in the book / movie really hit home for a lot of people. Sitting back in your chair laughing at the idiots may be fun for the armchair warriors at large, but not everyone has really been tested and that was one of the core themes FC - how do you know what you've got if you never put it to the test? How do you know how you'll react to a fight when you've never been in one? How can you prove you've really pushed yourself to the limit without scars to show for it?
And talk about a way to find out - if it's either kick some tail or get yours kicked in for you, I think that almost everyone would go into a full on a$$ kicking mode. At that point, it's the better man that wins but either way you're gonna push yourself harder than posting comments on a web site.
For the office warrior who never got into a fight in his life, I can easily see this as thrilling beyond compare.
I wouldn't recommend this to everyone, and there should probably be some safeguards put into this as even the UFC has rounds and referees to stop fights when it's clear that 1 person is taking too much of a beating, but I get it.
I think you underestimate the primal aggression of women. Not surprising since the concept of the demur woman is ingrained in our culture. True, you will rarely see them attacking men (& you rarely see men attacking women outside of domestic events). But when it's chick on chick they can be pretty ruthless.
One could easily argue the opposite - most in fact don't lead the lives of warriors, but in practice most humans have normally been farmers, or shepherds, and some hunter/gatherers. Most mythology speaks of warriors as a "breed apart".
... ;-)
However, your arguments that the warrior class is a method to climb the social ladder are good arguments. Whether they're acting out of true imperitives or just an acquired mythology is the question, however, and most people who write articles tend to present either a strongly positive or strongly negative view of a group they spend time interviewing.
Most genetic fathers turn out to be Dads or Milkmen or Outcasts, actually.
I blame the media of course
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This is basically the same story that National Public Radio broadcast almost a year ago. Some of the interviewees even seem to be the same.
? prgId=7&prgDate=30-Jul-05. "Making Something Out of the 'Fight Club' Trend"
Sounds like
1- USA Today wanted some filler, and recycled a year-old NPR concept & story
or
2- the Gentleman's Fight Club decided they needed more publicity
Check the NPR archives. http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php
Nothing to see here, move along.
-----
Sig saw.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
hehe.. oh you were serious?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Ontopic though, my reason for my point is my very casual observations of humans (and animal friends) seemingly universally getting off from fighting each other. It's perfectly possible that my negative views of this make me exaggerate it.
If you think anyone has ever worked out any mental issue by LARPing, then you have a healthy ignorance of the hobby.
Exclusive pictures from one of the fights.
Maybe not
Now that there I geek fight clubs not only do I have to worry about being laid off I now need to worry about Kumar in the call center getting stressed out while hopped up on the energy drink du jour and rampaging through the QA department cutting down testers in his path. I don't get paid enough for this.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
"i did not thteal your effing code your thuch a dumbath" dear god...does anyone else think this should be on PPV??? i'll tivo that... it could be like in the WWE where there are weapons under the mat...like keyboards and IDE cables i'd pay to see that....
...their homoerotic sides are betrayed. Ouww! You hurt me! Lets make anal love. As heard at "club"//
SCA type fighting is pretty low impact and risk- a one in a thousand shot may hurt you if it happens to hit an eye. These fight clubs have the potential to do permanent damage.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
but fight... and risk getting hurt?
You understand that this is NERDS fighting nerds, right? Nerds can't hurt anybody.
paintball
Really? I'm free to do what I want (within the law and sometimes without) every minute of my life. What is with this bitching about (/voice cartoon baby): 'We're constantly told to buy things we don't need'. Jesus Christ, are you that feeble minded? If advertising hurts your life so much, you're gonna need more than this to help you.
"They want to feel differently. They want to get hit, they want to feel something real." What ever happened to good old fashioned Bong Hits?
'sig' deleted due to the stupidity of it's 'nature'
I bet they've got a website...and its backend uses SOAP.
"The reporter (or more likely editor) is a PC fool whom doesn't realize the simple basic truth. Violent Video games save us from wayyyyyy more random acts of violence then they do encourage them. Anyone whose actually played the things in a bad mood knows what I'm talking about."
Nearly without exception, anybody claiming to be stating a "simple basic truth" is stating nothing of the sort.
This claim is, I think, substantially more absurd than the counterclaim that violent video games spawn violence.
...has anybody else been getting belligerent e-mails recently from everybody on their Slashdot foes list?
Find free books.
The zeroth rule of Fight Club is, you don't post about Fight Club on Slashdot.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
That a major premise of the story is that Tyler Durden is an imaginary / alternate personality of the narrator and that it's about somone having a major psychotic break?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Because 10 90-pound weaklings is still 900 pounds.
until someone gets hit with a power supply.
Gates. I'd fight Bill Gates.
In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
I've been doing MMA (mixed martial arts) for the last 5 years or so. I'm a production artist at a videogame company, so I sit on my ass all day. When I get out I want to play, and I don't like team sports so MMA is where it's at.
I think if you come up from inside it (rather than looking at it from the outside) it's surprisingly normal. Most of the time I do submission wrestling (brazilian juijitsu), but I'll box and do muai thai every other week. Havn't had any amature fights yet, but I've knocked a few willing participants out at parties (and the asshole who wants to "go hard" at a party play fight usually has no idea what he's doing).
We, as a society, are largly out of touch with our bodies. You put yourself on the line and you learn what you can and can't do, what really works and what's movie magic (*cough*aikido*cough*). Getting choked doesn't instantly kill you (like in the movies), and kicking someone in the knee won't make it snap ala American Ninja 2 (it is, however, remarkably easy to twist and snap the acl and whatever else is in there). Also, for the love of god, eyepokes and groin pinching won't save you from a good boxer... I won't even get into how confused we are with other bodily things (sex).
But, as the average bloke is too scared of this stuff (mostly on account of ignorance) - and the average bloke makes up the majority, I guess it will stay at the fringes.
I'm sorry, but anyone who is even partially capable of swinging a bat could put a lot of people either in the hospital or 6 feet under in this activity. I don't really see how it helps you release agression anymore than beating up on inanimate objects... it isn't about "feeling something" if you wake up in the hospital with a broken head!
stuff |
In my opinion thats awsome.
On top of the contact, there is a lot of running and sprinting, teamwork and coordination is required for some positions. I could see why these might put off some nerds, but I think that these guys would benefit from something rigourous. I do not consider hitting someone for a few minutes with a pillowcase with a coke in it very rigourous. Most fights at these fight clubs is more just people flailing away without any control. Maybe that is carthartic, but I think if they were able to channel that energy into something more constructive, they would find it more theraputic. Just my opinion.
One of the nice things about rugby is that there is a position for practically every conceivable body type (from the short fat guys to the tall skinny guys). Heck, I remember playing a match where the other team's hooker had a prosthetic leg. Frecked the crap out of us when he called for a minute before a scrum and sat down and removed his leg!
And kendo seems like it might be another good exercise- hitting someone with a stick while shouting should be pretty enjoyable. It does require discipline and has a significant component that is spiritual, but I think that forces you to focus on improvement. It seems to me that after a year of fighting in a techie fight club, I would want to feel like I have improved and gotten fitter and stronger. I don't think that will necessarily happen unless I participate in something that is organized.
Perhaps these techies are so fed up with corporate life that they are rejecting things that feel organized and by extension, restrictive. That is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There is something rotten with corporate culture in many companies, but that doesn't mean that organizations are all rotten.
Everytime I step onto a rugby pitch, I view it as another character test- will I play 100% without slacking off? Will I support my teammates to the best of my ability, in spite of how tired I feel?
"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
I think we all agree that these guys are being idiots.
The thing I don't understand is the popularity of The Fight Club in the first place. What's cool about a bunch of guys getting together to beat the shit out of each other in order to demonstrate their manliness?
I never saw the movie (or read the book), so am I missing something?
The most rabid believers in American Exceptionalism are the exact same people whose policies are destroying it.
I can just see it now:
"Gentlemen and eerr.. gentlemen...
In the Vi Corner....
In the Emacs Corner...
"
I just can't be bothered.
I did the same thing years ago when working at IBM on a death march project before they were called that. Joined a local boxing club. Got very in shape and good at beating people up which I fortunately never unleashed outside of the boxing ring. My anger only grew. In the end, I only found peace by understanding that I had a problem with anger and that love was the answer. I've never looked back. I do as best I can to avoid things that I don't need that make me angry: the media, angry people, excess. I try to do as many things that bring peace: family, church, wholesome movies, healthy exercise like running and books.
-- Ignacio Valdes, MD, MS
-- Editor: Linux Medical News
-- http://www.linuxmednews.com/
http://www.LinuxMedNews.com Revolutionizing Medical Education and Practice.
Yeah but then you would be a SCA nerd. The kind to nerd other nerds look down on.
...you do not talk about fight-like-a-girl club. For obvious reasons.
Procrastination Man strikes again!
Sorry to say it but these days most of the martial arts you mentioned are now either sports with rules protecting the combatants or have bugger all to do with common ways of being attacked. This includes stuff like UFC which rule out attacks on "vital points" like eyes, throat, groin.
Look, they generally start as powerful self defence techniques which can be used when attacked by untrained attackers but the instant you start competitions, add rules they become methods of fencing for points. The training and techniques change for the tournaments to the point that they are largely useless against the kind of wild untrained and violent attackers they were originally designed for.
You do what you train and if you're training for head height roundhouse kicks , as good as it looks, you will end up on your arse when you try to use one on the street.
So, if you're going to practice a martial art, make sure it's with a teacher who teaches the original self defence art, not watered down long distance tournament fencing techniques. This is the elusive "become a master" step. It has nothing to do with the particular art or style btw, they're all ways of manipulating the opponent through force. It's purely down to the instructor.
p.s. you don't take or know a martial art, you have to practice it.
Deleted
1/ Select Opponent
2/ Right click portrait
3/ Click "duel"
(how ironic, the word to confirm I'm not a bot is "brawler")
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
After looking up this guy up, i realized he (if it's the right one) lived right next to a Kaiser Hospital
t a+Clara,+CA+95051&ll=37.343277,-121.977789&spn=0.0 0737,0.013808&t=h&om=1/
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=976+Kiely+Blvd,+San
You are right that fist to skull contact is more likely to result in a broken hand. But orbital bones can certainly break under contact with elbow (as sometimes happens in basketball games).
The skull is NOT impenetrable. A properly swung baseball bat can easily penetrate it. More to the point, a properly swung staff or wooden sword can do the job as well. It can most certainly be accomplished with a hammer, but you'd have to be VERY skilled with a frying pan (though you could certainly kill with blunt force).
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/0
For the record, one punch can CERTAINLY kill if the person is hit in the correct way. The fact that you have not perished yet does not constitute evidence.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Non-stoppable degeneration of "geeks". This field is more and more filleld with idiots.
I liked this quote:
"You get to be a superhero for a night," Klimanis said. "We have to go to work every day. We're constantly told to buy things we don't need, and just for a couple hours we have the freedom to do what we want to do."
We are constantly told to buy things we don't want. Is this guy a fukin idiot?
Customer: I DON'T want it.
Best Buy: Then why are you here?
C: They keep telling me I am told to!
BB: Who keeps telling you?
C: The ads do!
BB: (to shirt mike) We have a 714 in aisle 6. Please send assistance.
BB: Sir, what don't you want to do?
C: I DON'T WANT TO BUY THIS (DVD | VIDEO GAME| CD | TV)
BB: Then sir, don't buy it.
C: You mean I don't have too?
BB: No, you don't.
C: Then I guess I can go?
BB: Yes, sir. The door is to your left.
BB: Cancel the 714 in aisle 6 but be on your toes. I see another 714 in aisle 13.
Sorry, "Fight Club" was about rebellion and self realization. Same thing with another movie of that time "American Beauty".
The protaginist (he has no name) is a bitch office worker who subconsciously develops an aggressive persona that manifests itself when he "sleeps". There was no homo-sexuality in the film. The only person who got fucked was Marla. The fact that men were hugging in a testicle cancer support group is meant to be farscicle.
Quit projecting.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Let's see, a guy who treats his wife like shit and likes to hit people. Sounds like a wife beater to me.
I had a semester of boxing in college and wasn't a big fan of it. My instructor said if I didn't perform in the final I would fail and retake the class. My shirt, shorts and shoes ended up being thoroughly splattered with my opponent's blood and I passed. I guess I needed the right motivation. Was I all happy because now I was "tough?" Sure, I had my little ego trip, but I've regretted what I did to my opponent ever since. People who like to hurt other people and get some sort of satisfaction from it have some major underlying issues that would be better addressed with a psychiatrist.
I used to do "fightclub" here in Denmark when i was younger. Most of the guys there had a major interest in martial arts, but the actual useability of what we knew? pff :/
A 3-48 months in various things like karate, taekwondo, wing tsun etc, but mostly it didn't matter at all.
It was fun, that's for sure. Altough it hurt at times, we had alot of great laughs, both from participaters and observers during a match.
People would make "rules" before a match, like, no blows to head, no kicks, grappling only, etc.
Nobody really got badly hurt (broken something, dislocated shoulder etc), but a guy or two would be humping back to busstop some times. With a smile.
For me, and a couple of the other guys too, i know, it actually worked on getting the stress level down. You know, you've just been on a vacation, it's summer and 25C outside with a nice sun, and you just hummer around at work on a little cloud, going "humm humm...yeah, sure, sounds great" no matter what's happening to you. Nothing can rock you. People provoke you, you just go "Sure, whatever" with a distant smile and go on with whatever you were doing.
What these guys do...dunno about it. If you need protection, you're doing something wrong. Using any kind of weapens is unnecessary. Satisfaction comes from having a great time, not seeing the other guy crawling home. The fun comes from being able to use all the force you want, not from seing that force make some guy cribbled or badly hurt. Instead of pulling punches and blocking kicks in a weak way, like you would usually do when hanging out and joking with your friends, you can just let go and follow through with your whole body in that big punch (probably won't hit right anyway), or block that incoming kick with a handchop to the knee/shin area. It's a completely different way of thinking.
Also, it isn't like a real, _real_ fight, where you panicly hit and kick the fastest you can without any control, hoping to not be the one riding the ambulance from there afterwards.
These guys are your friends, you can hit like you want to, and they won't hold it against you. It's friendship, fun and harmless.
Everybody should try it at least once with a friend or two =)
... in these losers' supreme quest for the ultimate geek, they missed Geraldo and Jerry Springer. Now that's fighting - eyes getting poked out, blood everywhere, people screeching ...
Wait, that's just my recollection of the last office party. Sorry about that.
Your email has been returned due to insufficent voltage.
You're missing a lot. I suggest you at least try to see the movie. The whole premise behind the story is a reaction against a society increasingly dominated by materialism and specifically today's consumerist culture. Fight Club was never about trying to "prove your manliness", it was about rebellion against a society where they are left as "God's middle children, with no special place in history and no special attention." And so the response becomes increasingly violent nihilism and the creation of mayhem and chaos... Read (or watch) and understand...
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
they bring in MS developers.
Or the guys behind the Oracle Form Builder.
OR the guys who made Driver 3.
or.. there's so many people out there I want to beat the shit out of, I'm just gonna join.
But we just play Soul Calibur 3.... :D
sweet! Too many stupid people out there, it's about time they start weeding themselves out. I hope they all fight to the finish.
As George Carlin says, "Imagine the average person out there, then realize that half the people in this world are stupider than than! God Damn the're a lotta stupid people walking around out there"
Rent the movie (it'll only cost you a few bucks and a couple hours). The less you know about it before you see it, the better you'll find it. The actual fight club and fight scenes make up a very small part of the movie. The movie has a lot to say about modern society (most of it negative). It's also one of those rare movies where you pick up something new each time you watch it. It also has the best movie PHB outside of Office Space.
After all, they're talking about them.
Game... blouses.
>>We live in a nation where 45% of eligible voters believe the world is 6000 years old
>No, we live in a nation where people can make shit up and get modded insightful.
Who, exactly, are you referring to?
It was Gallup who ran the 2001 poll that had 45% of respondents agreeing God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.
But Gallup did not get moderated insightful, so could you make explicit who is making things up and getting modded insightful?
It was a book long before a movie. Why are we giving actors credit instead of the original author of the concept!?
The reporter is mixing up two distinct groups of people. The geek fight club folks that he profiles seem like people with limited to no martial arts experience who get together and have 1 on 1 fights. The pictures show guys in pads and gloves, each using sticks. From the descriptions these are fair "mutual combat" fights. Common sense tells you that these fights have at least some rules. Could one of the stick fighters use his weapon to thrust and take out his opponent's eye on purpose? I doubt it. I am sure that a player who is no longer able to defend himself or submits is spared from any further beatings.
The other group he described that uses frying pans and beat up on someone is is a different group entirely. They are emulating the "Extreme" wrestling fad where people are thrown through tables, hit with boards, slammed on tacks and bludgened with all kinds of various objects. They are set up more like jackass style stunts than combat.
And the 6 vs 1 wasn't a fight club, that was a beating.
After 30 years of in depth study, I can confirm that video games do not cause violent behavior. I'd be willing to bet that I have more experience in the subject than Michael Messner.
This reminds me of the article posted at my kids pedeotricians office. The "Dr." that wrote it claimed as evidence, that when he brought video games into to house, he thought they were just fun for his 11 year old sone. But, over the next three years, his son became more withdrawn and argumentative. Obviously it was video games!
complete lack of surprise at human stupidity.
Ok Ok! I love emacs and lisp. I give up! lisp wins! Parenthesis are sexy!
Table-ized A.I.
(The brain has no nerve endings, so I suspect you can suffer a lot of injuries there without being able to personally tell much. Actually, that WOULD explain why Silicon Valley has been turning out such crap recently - they're all brain-dead.)
Yes, frustrations are understandable and evidence of a sick, unhealthy work environment. A healthy work environment should have ways of avoiding stress building up (such as by ensuring employees aren't treated as raw meat - frozen until fried). That should be when tech employees (who are supposedly intelligent - WAY above average intelligence) figure out better ways to do things - and do them. Y'know, given the choice of kicking someone half to death in a bout of frustration, or setting up a startup that has none of the stress issues, gets twice as much done, and has devoted employees because their brains are intact... I know which I'd call the smarter.
These fight clubs are stupid and ultimately have to destroy their participants. The body can only absorb so much - it doesn't repair indefinitely and you don't get to regenerate. However, the corporate attitude that creates them is not merely stupid, inferior and inefficient, but as close to evil as a secular environment can get.
This is the kind of attitude that was featured in the ORIGINAL "Rollerball" - the craving for more and more violent outlets, because of pressure. Hell, this is the kind of attitude which created historic figures like Nero and Calligula. Never mind the pop psychology, we have real-world examples of what happens to a society when senseless self-destruction becomes the only meaningful outlet.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
You know I'm clicking anything tha "the ladies are into" just to see where that's going but I wasn't expecting that. You had to go put that link there and then I clicked it and now I can't ever get clean again. It's like a combination of that creepy embarrassed way you felt when you watched all those sad bastards in Trekkies with just a touch of homophobia I didn't even know I had.
Fuck you so much man. Fuck you. I wish that page and those people had never touched my consciousness.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Click on #15, Euphemisms.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I had to say it. Mod me down, I don't care, I'm an Anonymous Coward anyway... not like it will stick.
If they were real techies, wouldn't they be beating each other over the head with keyboards, trying to strangle each other with mouse cords, and slamming each other's heads into monitors.
That said, it's still a stupid idea. "I'm close to getting fired so I'm going to go vent by getting my arms broken thus forcing me to take off large amounts of work; when I finally do return to work, my output will be even worse because of the excruciating pain I'll be feeling."
I've never read/seen "fight club" so if someone could explain the "first two rules" everyone keeps mentioning, that'd be helpful.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
Um, where to begin? Well, I make my own decisions so even though "Thirst" wants me to drink Sprite, I'm drinking water at the moment. I still have control over my free time. And if I'm unhappy at work I can quit. These people need about 10 minutes with a real parent figure or William Shatner so they can move out of the basement and kiss a girl.
Got a woman without resorting to violence. I'm surprised he didn't allude to the idea that if they weren't beating each other up, they'd be fighting crime in spandex trying to fly. I mean, when I look at the first picture, I keep hearing "lightning bolt, lightning bolt" in my head from the LARP video. Why don't they try paintball or LARPing or just maybe take a karate class?
And why is it always the games/movies/cartoons? Most of my sci-fi has lots of violence in it and it's in books!
Um. Ok, so now we know. These are mentally ill people that need help, and the fight club organizers are exploiting them. So what we need is dateline to go on a chatroom and pretend to be a mentally ill computer programmer that needs to feel "something real" and do a 4 hour special. (When you read "something real", did you hear the word "Breasts" in your head too? Because that's what I think they need to be feeling.)
Ok, see, he should be feeling breasts instead of some other dude. This guy is heading for a divorce on the grounds of mental illness.
This further supports my research that what causes depression is a lack of healthy sex. Myself and every guy I know is happy when they're getting regular sex. The only really unhappy guys I know aren't getting laid regularly. So depression is caused by a lack of sex. I think it's the same for women, and if there are any attractive ladies that are depressed reading this, then let me show you the cure for your depression.
Why are women so complicated? Find out how little I know here.
I agree, fighting with friends is extremely satisfying. Anything that puts strain on my body and makes me feel pain makes me feel alive. Everybody who scoffs at the idea is missing out on feeling human. People forget that we've only been out of the trees for a few thousand years.
What's the kind of tape nerds use to hold their glasses together in the centre? I see a rising star!
They did actually interview the people involved in this club. It's quite possible they expressed their influences, instead of having to guess at them.
This headling is misleading, even the original article doesn't act like this is a trend, just one case.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
I prefer my "techie" steam blowing method:
Join Bike Club.
There's only one rule to Bike Club, and that's to always bring your wallet. Mostly it involves getting on a bicycle and pedalling to either where you want to go, or to where you don't yet know you want to be.
So far I'm the only official member, but membership is growing.
Oh You POS
Sorry, but I'll bite.
The reason we are nerds is because we have mastered these primitive impulses. Remember why you didn't play sport in highschool? Because only idiotic jocks did... Remember why you didn't pick fights with weaker people and beat them up? Because that was for troglodytes. We can be better than this.
Now how many of those same tech weenies would yell in protest about any attempts to curb violent video games or as any type of "entertainment". They are the perfect example of "violent media" leading to "violent behavior". This is clearly cause and effect. If that movie had not come out, this violence would not be happening.
Violence like this is *not* funny, and I won't laugh.
If your co-worker was featured in this article?
Where we work, if the customer doesn't come to pick up their computer, we fill out a customer abandon form, approve it, and then we crush it.
Yes, crush it.
There's nothing like the satisfying sound of a dell pc being turned into a toilet-paper roll sized hunk of metal and plastic.
I already have a black belt in origami.
remember to loot and pillage before you burn!
Only morons take blows to their body, or deal them out to others, when they don't have to. Boxers stand around and get hit; they don't last long and have a lot of problems later. REAL fighters use hard tools and leverage, and resort to hand work only when necessary. And a fighter does not take blows, he gives them out. If you're taking shots to the head, you've lost, even if you make it out of the fight.
Tears in the rotator cuffs. Brain damage from sudden acceleration of the skull. Wrist damage. Bone compression. Arthritis, in the wrists, the jaw, the knees, the back, the neck. Muscle tears that never really heal. Tendons pulling out of sheaths. Damage to the stomach and intestines from gut shots. Eyesight loss. Dental damage. Broken blood vessels. Nerve damage in the striking surfaces. Cartilage damage, big time. Clicking jaws, with pain. Ear damage.
Young jackasses who never believe they will get old think they will never have to pay for their stupidity. They will, oh yes, they will. The arthritis alone will be a warm feeling to nurse for the rest of their lives. I smacked my own wrists hard, once. I can't do pushups anymore without agony, and that's forever. Keep it up, kids.
This is worse than people trying to live out comic book hero fantasies in spandex. These are numbnuts trying to emulate a movie where the hero is 1) violently insane (people forget that little part!) 2) able to take blows that would literally cripple a man and walk away laughing. Believe me, you don't.
Here's the premise as I understand it:
A man find's his work and his life unsatisfying. He is unable to express his individuality and to have the sort of life he wants.
His proposed solution: to spend his nights with other losers punching them and trying to hurt them while they try to do the same to him.
How is this an improvement? To me it seems far worse.
Did anyone else read this headline as 'Trekie Fight Club'? There would be Shatner commando rolls and vulcan nerve pinches flying around... "Captain's Log, I kicked Spock's ass again today, he really has to lift his floor game.. rubbish."
"The stupider people think you are, the more surprised they will be when you kill them..."
So many comments here imply that anyone who fights is an idiot. I take offense to this. As a martial artist who's wife and young daughters also train martial arts I find it offensive that people just assume we are all idiots. Learning to fight and defend yourself and your family is something I see as my responsiblity as a father. My girls need to have these tools, and they enjoy it very much. Unlike many of the bastardized, watered down martial arts training gyms (National Karate, ATA TKD, etc) would have you believe, in order to learn to fight/defend yourself you actually need to fight...my girls don't go in the ring and try to knock each others block off, it's light and fun, but some of us adults do and we shake hands afterwards. I also train with mixed martial arts cage fighters, myself and some of these people are far from idiots...IT guys, programmers, stock traders, real estate professionals, teachers, police officers. Granted, a few of them have a screw or two loose upstairs, but please, don't assume that we are all idiots, cuz we are not. But, whether idiots or not, we are all well conditioned, strong and healthy people.
dB Masters
I love FIGHT CLUB, but is there really a need for nerds to prove themselves? I mean, why not play that awful PS2 game version instead?
http://nathanlindsell.blogspot.com/
When I heard about a "techie fight club" that involved pummeling, I just assumed that it was two nerds sitting in front of their computers, running Quake3, and having their characters stand still and pummel each other to see who wins....
After 10+ years of playing intense video games... can someone explain to me why a bleeding paper cut still freaks me out? Yup, I'm desensitized all right. God I'm sick of the violent-pop-culture-makes-kids-violent crap. Maybe if parents tried actually raising their children, the kids wouldn't have so many issues.
Suggesting that Fight Club carries homoerotic themes is not to say the movie is about homosexuality. Many of the film's most important scenes involve half-naked, sweating men in close contact with each other. The contact is violent and a "legitimate" equivalent for the close contact men and women have in the film.
A clear example of a homoerotic theme present in the movie is the subplot where the unnamed narrator ("Jack") becomes jealous of Tyler Durden's relationship with Angel Face. While beating Angel Face's face to a bloody pulp, the narrator confesses
These images are partially veiled sexual references, "Panda that wouldn't screw"; "open the [. . .] valves [. . .] and smother"; and "I wanted to breathe smoke". Of course these images mean other things, too: reckless abandon, species suicide, environmental destruction, etc. But they also can be read sexually. (You, willtsmith, might say "they are susceptible to sexual projection.")
The final proof comes after Angel Face is carried away and Durden (lighting a cigarette) asks the narrator, "Where'd you go, psycho boy?" and the narrator explains "I felt like destroying something beautiful." In other words, the male narrator reacts to the blond man's beauty by beating the beautiful man up. This scene from the film directly links homoeroticism and male-on-male violence.
My guess is that the idea of sexuality being present in this film gets your panties in a wad, which is reasonable considering the film is also about macho men who in no way would be gay. But, really, it's OK. Just because sexual themes are present in these scenes of hypermasculine violence doesn't mean your wrestling buddies want to bugger you, not all of them anyways.
blog
When I read this, I couldn't help thinking of a skit I saw performed on the old SCTV comedy show back in the early 1980s.
The skit was a goof on the old "Battle of the TV Network Stars" shows ABC used to produce. This was called "Battle of the PBS Stars." The highlight of the show was a boxing match between Mr. Rogers (played by Martin Short) and Julia Child (played by John Candy).
Mr. Rogers pretty much got his ass kicked by a 350-pound French woman.
Why do I imagine this is the same thing?
Joe Dougherty, Florida, USA
The words I thought I brought, I left behind. So, never mind.
The worst part of that entire article was that they had to sneak in an "expert" to say that the desire to do this was caused by playing violent video games as a child.
That is almost as appauling as reading "teens who played violent games..." to start headlines about the Columbine massacre. You know those 2 kids may have listened to Marilyn Manson and played Doom, but so did millions of other teens who did NOT go on a killing spree.
When people do crazy things it is because they are crazy.
When these losers want to "feel something", they beat each other. When I want to "feel something" I go get a massage.
Want to guess which one of us gets the great job and the raise and which one gets his ass fired for calling sick all the time or coming to work beaten and stupid?
since it requires waiting until an anniversary date.
Quicker and easier ways include:
1) call your wife by her mother's name during an argument (I know a guy who does this deliberately -- what an idiot, it's like throwing water on a grease fire!)
2) call out the name of your wife's best girlfriend (better yet, younger sister's name if she has one) during sex.
This Is Your Computer
And You Open The Door And You Look Inside.
Were Inside Our Computers.
Now Imagine Your Pain Is an overclocked Opteron 144.
Thats Right !
Your Pain - The Pain Himself - Is an overclocked Opteron 144.
I Dont Think So !
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
In the book it's a little more gruesome. Earlier in the book, he'd developed a hole in his cheek from fighting that never healed. At one point after he's realized that he's mad, he tries to stop Tyler Durden by getting in a fight with everyone at a fight club. This results in his face getting torn from the hole to his lips on that side.
Not much later, he tries to shoot himself to put an end to the whole mess. The bullet wound there slips and rips open the other half of his face leaving him with a permanent, jagged smile. In the movie, all that happens is that the bullet comes out of his cheek near the jawbone, with only a little hole left that he is covering at the end.
I guess they couldn't figure out a good special effect to have Edward Norton's face torn in half for a good part of the movie.
(**** Now for the book spoilers. I highly recommend the book. If you are affected by spoilers, stop reading now and go get the book. ****)
His "suicide" is an attempt to kill Tyler and not himself as he explains to Marla and all the support group people that she calls to his aid. The building doesn't explode because Tyler (possibly deliberately) did not mix the explosives properly. He ends up in an insane asylum, delluded into thinking that it's Heaven, where he gets letters from Marla and where the bruised orderlies tell him that they miss him, that everything's going according to plan, and that they look forward to getting him back once they've broken up civilization. In the end, after his metaphorical death he still can't escape the monster he's created which is now far, far bigger than him.
And no, the Pixies do not sing a happy song as civilization ends at the end.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
In the movie, all that happens is that the bullet comes out of his cheek near the jawbone, with only a little hole left that he is covering at the end.
I always figured that they were saying that Tyler was his complex (imaginary) component and therefore existed 90 degrees out of phase. It makes about as much sense as anything I guess...
Plus, if Superman wanted to go out and beat people up for fun, he wouldn't return with broken ribs.
well, though we in south america would certainly love to pummel each other from time to time to release some stress, a common choice is to rather rollick under the sheets and have some nice rough sex with our partner(s).
If a partner is not available at a time, you can always purchase some warm time and company for a reasonable fee (still arguably better than punching someone in the face - for those moralists out there).
If there is still an imperative need to cause harm, my collegues and I share the view that giving a headshot or slicing your project manager with a knife in CounterStrike (any flavour) does the trick in most cases, thus we adopted it as a weekly practice.
The first rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club.
;~}
The second rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club.
When growing up I used to wrestle with other kids. Frequently the match would end when someone scraped up an arm, or hit their head hard enough to make them dizzy, or one of the big guys rolled over the leg of one of the little guys. In college, we sparred quite a few times.
I always hated this. The idea of someone pawing and walloping me was never very appealing. Nonetheless, many, perhaps well meaning, individuals attempted to get me to "join in the fun". That's my bubble you're encroaching on, in a very intimate fashion. It wasn't pleasant. Sweaty palms abounded, and most of the instigators smelled quite poorly. I don't think most people find this prospect very appealing either.
Personally, I suspect that most of these people are closet homosexuals trying to cop a feel, then covering up by thumping the target of their affections. I think the rest are in some way trying to cop a feel too. And all that walking around naked in showers. Come on. Who are they trying to kid?
We live in a free society, but, there are bubbles ok. Some people have bubbles. Please respect that.
May the Maths Be with you!
"This is as close as you can get to a real fight, even though I've never been in one," the soft-spoken Siou said.
My second job is bouncing at a dive bar. Unlike those meat heads you saw in that documentary on HBO, real bouncers try to prevent fights, and when that is not possible stop them once they've started. Because the parties involved are usually drunk, it can take a fair amount of 'convincing' (read: put in headlock and drag outside). So I think you can get a bit closer to a real fight. Infact it's not all that hard to achieve in actuallity.
"It's because they're stupid, that's why. That's why everybody does everything." -Homer Simpson
The Fight Club phenomenon existed before the book or the movie (ask the Author as he, like me, participated in some of these gatherings).
But there is a far better alternative. Take up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or Boxing or Submission wrestling or any one of a zillion other MMA disciplines. The MMA world is flourishing thanks to the UFC, there are lots of places to study. You learn technique and you spar hard - and you do it in an environment that is safer. The fights are far more intense because everyone knows what they are doing - so they are more satisfying and you learn techniques that will help you hold your own should you ever need to.
I study at the local Gracie Jiu Jitsu academy We still get the broken ribs and the bloody lips and noses and bruised ribs - or worse stuff like torn ligaments. These things happen in other sports as well (skiing anyone?) But you are actualy learning to fight and ultimately you are learning how to spar safely as well.
The guys you spar with are far tougher - but you will learn to stand your own and that is far more rewarding that some of the silliness in these backyard battles.
I'm one of these geeks who sit behind a desk all day, writing code and working on servers. I've found that I build up massive, MASSIVE amounts of energy each day that has me fidgeting my brains out if I don't do something to release it. So what do I do? Damn near every day after work, I go and practice Taekwondo for a couple hours. I burn myself out in the first 20 minutes, and then push myself to the edge for the next hour. By the time I'm done, not only am I totally physically wasted, but I've been learning an awesome, practical skill with which to impress all those ladies I don't get.
For real though, it's kept me sane for years. You train in a relatively safe environment (but of course accidents do happen, I've sprained toes, ankles, wrists, fingers, and almost broken quite a number of those as well), but you get to punch and kick the crap out of bags, boards, and bricks, and release massive amounts of stress at the same time.
Additionally, no matter what art you do, it's bound to involve a degree of meditation. Now, I don't mean necessarily sitting there like a monk focusing on nothing, although we do that here and there, no - I mean the kind of medidation that takes place while doing patterns (kata, forms, etc.) - it's a great way to calm yourself and mentally reset.
I strongly recommend it in favor of doing something as unregulated and, IMHO, stupid, as these fight clubs.
Matt
If you're talking about the first picture at usatoday, red-shirt is pulling blue-shirt's head down and kneeing him; he's not executing a "kick" at all. It's a relatively simple and effective move if the opponent's guard is down. Of course, red-shirt would get more power if he pulled blue-shirt down a bit lower and used his left knee for power instead of stretching his ankle and foot way out like that. However, its sloppy execution suggests that it is genuine to me.
The photo aside, it's unlikely that I'd be interested in participating in open brawls such as these. An expert fighter knows how not to succumb to emotion in the ring; untrained fighters often fight based on adrenaline, rage, and the techniques they have seen on television. The (admittedly few) street fights I've been in have shown me that brawlers generally have little respect for their own safety and even less for that of their opponents; submission techniques are of little use when the opponent doesn't care how far out-of-joint his shoulder is. I plan to continue practicing martial arts well into my 40's or 50's; I don't need some hotheaded desk jockey disregarding his injuries and coming in to ruin one of my joints.
The article forgot one main thing:
1) You do not talk about Fight Club.
2) You *do not* talk about Fight Club.
Foo. These people are so silly. They should fence: full contact, safe as houses, makes you the Baddest Cat at the Bus Stop, available in every major city and most minor ones. Check for a fencing club in your area, chances are good you'll find one.
PLUS, it won't give you any silly illusions about prevailing in a brawl.
Not a web designer.
It's the invisible man who *Made* the sky.
* lon3st4r*
Guys, we have just found a new Goatse, look at this.
This is the scariest thing I've read in a long time...
"Says with gross lisp due to huge overbite" 1. Kicking only, we dont want to hurt our precious upper peripherals. 2. No hitting in the face; too close in proximity to our optical storage devices. 3. No kicking in the DB-9 connector, or dockable unit; we must ensure the furthering of our superior genes. 4. When someone starts crying, the match is over...we dont want to get into trouble or anything.
"Patience is not a virtue, it's a waste of time."
I've heard enough quotes from people in their profession to come to that conclusion. There's my unsupported claim. Anyway, this just reinforces my desire to stay away from any sociology classes. I'd much rather study psychology and social anthropology, thank you very much.
Like someone else pointed out here, there was violence among humans way before video games, movies, or even any kind of fiction or art. Humans have inherent tendencies toward violence, which anyone should be able to see just from looking at the world around them.
I didn't believe him till he took me down there and I watched two clumsy nerds slap each other for 5 minutes before getting tired and reaching for their inhalers.
That's not difficult to get going.
Just find an Intel fanboy and an AMD fanboy, put them in t-shirts with the respective company logos, give them lots of caffeine, then goad them on and set them at each other.
The same can be accomplished with ATI/nVidia and PlayStation/Xbox.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
I find physical contact relieves stress. Many people get involved in pugilistic sports to calm themselves.
The better trained you are, the more control you have and you should cause less injuries. When practicing Judo or Hap Ki Do, instructors demand control so that students are not injured. Someone who causes injury will find they have no one who will spar with them.
When practicing Kendo, Arnis or Floro, we use 1/4" PVC covered in pipe insulation or flexible rubber. Even without head gear, a hit doesn't hurt even younger children.
A black belt is defined by calm and confidence, and the theme of Hap Ki Do is by combining our strengths, we succeed.
...still a poser.
this is BS, I live in SV and I've never heard of such place..
plantronics headset
Everybody go read http://www.youaredumb.net
Yesterday and today's columns (May 30&31) are part of the Be A Better Nerd series and are all about how to tell when it's time to euthanize.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
"Uh, no. Stealing from any number of sources is plagerism.'
Uh, no. It's plagiarism. If you're going to be pedantic, you should be careful to spell everything correctly. Now go stalk your hobby.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
Jeez the shite you hear on slashdot. Force equals energy OVER TIME. If you smack a cinder block hard but not quickly the energy delivered by the blow propogates through the material in a wave, and can come back and hurt your hand. If you do it quickly enough the amount of energy is the same, but delivered in a smaller amount of time, therefore is effectively a sharper blow. Bam. Exactly what every other poster in the thread needs.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
I was kidding for crying out loud. "Flamebait"? Are you kidding me? You ain't seen me throw out Flamebait suckers. If you did you wouldn't be modding it down. You'd be too busy fighting in the flame war I started!
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
The video is here.
Favorite lines are...
Fighter1: I came for a new life.
Fighter2: I make and sell soap.
Fighter1: Thanks - my life has meaning now.
I found the video scene on this Google cache.
without prejudice
The first thing that hit me was why kick each other's ass? Go after the CIO, the CFO, the CEO... don't bother with the little guys...
It wasn't until after I tried to click the link did I read far enough to see that I really didn't want to!
Let's face it.
/.
You live in a nation where fully ONE HALF the population is of BELOW AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE!
What other nation could claim that?
If you're in the top half, I suggest you move to Canada.
If you're in the lower half, stay home and browse
There is a difference between homo-erotic violence and just plain violence. In homo-erotic violence, the gay guys get an erection.
There is a realization here that the innate desire to pummel in the back of every guys mind and letting it out helps one realize themselves cathartically.
No, I'm pretty sure you are super-imposing your desires on the film. Who hasn't wanted to beat up some "pretty boy" at some point. I think you need to unwad your panties. I'll keep my briefs thank you.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!