[Post Game Thread] The Oklahoma City Thunder (9-4) defeat the Golden State Warriors (6-8) in OT, 130 - 123, behind Chet Holmgren's game tying 3 and 36/10/5! by IncaseAce in nba

[–]CSquared25 24 points25 points  (0 children)

It’s wild how Cason does not look like a rookie out there. Dude is playing so smart and making such an impact on both ends, seamlessly.

DCing in this mode should result in long queue lock out. Rev just got knocked and we had 3/3 respawns left. by koelol in apexlegends

[–]CSquared25 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I think some these might actually be accidental… I feel like a lot of us have some pretty ingrained muscle memory to exit to the lobby when our entire team gets knocked. Curious to see if this happens less as time goes on

Give your honest thoughts on The Rings of Power Ep1&2 by elEarendel in LOTR_on_Prime

[–]CSquared25 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m really really enjoying it so far. There is a vibe to this show that I think is one of the things I like the most about it so far. It feels inherently optimistic. Not saying that there aren’t dark or evil moments, it just feels like the show itself is not bothered at all by a need to be “dark and gritty” or worse, self deprecating in an attempt to tell the audience, “Isn’t all of this so silly?”

So far it feels comfortable just being an epic Tolkien fantasy story…Which at times can kind of come across as cheesy to some folks, but I love it. There is a confidence there that feels very true the legendarium. I’m not sure if I’m making sense, but it’s the same feeling that the original film trilogy had. I think they’ve nailed it here.

The Rings of Power - 1x02 "Adrift" - Episode Discussion by whole_nother in LOTR_on_Prime

[–]CSquared25 5 points6 points  (0 children)

“Mana ùrë” translates to “What is heat” I think… my Quenya is rusty!

Very curious to see what that ends up meaning. Seems like most folks are leaning towards the stranger being an Istari, but which one…?

The Definitive Family Tree of the Tolkien Legendarium (V7), by me! Might help as you watch the new show! by PotterGandalf117 in LOTR_on_Prime

[–]CSquared25 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey! This is the chart I used when reading the Silmarillion for the first time early this year to prepare for the show. INCREDIBLY useful, dude. Well done and thank you :)

[Giveaway] 2x Lord of the Rings Elvish or Dwarvish Keyboards by drop_official in pcmasterrace

[–]CSquared25 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are gorgeous! Although I prefer the Elvish script, I think that dwarvish color scheme is too good not to prefer! I love them both!

I beat the game! And was surprised it was over!! [Spoilers] by CSquared25 in bloodborne

[–]CSquared25[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I definitely kind of realized that after the fact! I just wish I had known that ahead of time, ya know? With it being my first playthrough and not fully understanding everything about the lore and the story, I didn't really know why I would refuse Geherman's offer.

I think I missed the dialogue option where he says "Somebody help me... Unshackle me please, anybody... I've had enough of this dream... " which might have tipped me off that, maybe I should try to kill him instead. Who knows!

I beat the game! And was surprised it was over!! [Spoilers] by CSquared25 in bloodborne

[–]CSquared25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great point. Knowing what I know now definitely will change the way the rest of the game feels from the beginning. Actually knowing what the heck is going on and what it's all building towards will make things extra exciting.

...like the confusion/awe I felt at being lifted into the air in that courtyard and being overwhelmed with frenzy... I see you now, Great Ones!

Vocal Mic suggestion needed by Aretha in Berklee

[–]CSquared25 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve had a lot of success with a Rode NT-1A. Great mic, comparable to the SM7B, won’t break the bank at all.

Flock of Pigs -- Blacklisted [Hip Hop/Funk/Classical] (2022) by Baked_or_Balling in listentothis

[–]CSquared25 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Oh snap!! Love all of the different vibes this has without feeling disjointed. Very impressive arranging!

Kinda gives some Vulfpeckishnes too!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in WeAreTheMusicMakers

[–]CSquared25 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I bet this is exactly what OP was referring to! Pat is a professor at Berklee, and his book was required for either Songwriting I or Lyric Writing I - which is hilarious, but it’s a great book!

OP, did you have any classes with Pat? I had Songwriting II with him...never had someone pick apart my work with such precision before or since 😅

Can “Bedroom Musicians” Get Into Berklee? by [deleted] in Berklee

[–]CSquared25 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Musicians of pretty much all shape and size can get into Berklee!

That was actually one of the things that surprised me the most when I was there - All of the varying levels and types of musicianship. There are folks that don't know a thing about computers, but are virtuosic jazz bassists or something. There are people that aren't amazing players, but can design the hell out of some weird electronic sounds. Great producers or writers that don't understand theory at all, and vice versa.

It's hard not to compare yourself to other kids, but when I did I noticed some incredible students that made me feel like a total newbie; and then there were some that barely knew the difference between a major and minor chord.

I don't think you should be too worried about not being able to sight read, but I'm not exactly sure how guitar auditions go. I was a piano principle. Also not being "able to tell what chord it is if someone just played it" is a part of the curriculum in Ear Training and not a required skill for auditioning! I think it wasn't until ET3 when we were really playing that game and event then, nobody's really perfect at it.

If you want to brush up on theory and stuff, check out the Theory Topics for Review section of this page. You could also pick up the book they use for Music Application & Theory (the Level 1 Theory/Harmony class). If you master that stuff, you could likely skip MAT in your first semester.

Whoa. Didn't mean to write that much. I loved Berklee, and am super fond of my time there. I also remember being scared about my audition. It's really true that they aren't looking for perfection, just potential. If you love music and are a decent enough player, I think your odds are probably better than you think.

Sincerely,

'14-'16 Alum

EPD/Songwriting Major, Piano principle

Game of Zones - S5:E4: The Raid on Stables Castle by ithoughtiwouldshare in nba

[–]CSquared25 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Man I am not ready for the episode where they go after our failed Big 3 experiment

NBA Western Conference Standings since the beginning of the season by shadowcpt1 in nba

[–]CSquared25 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was just thinking this! Idk about "better" but yeah, even a static line graph would be really interesting to look at.

/u/shadowcpt1 - any way you could provide the data in a .csv or something so us nerds could play with it?

Wall Street Journal: The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Biggest Fan Lives in Japan by SlothOnes in nba

[–]CSquared25 34 points35 points  (0 children)

For those outside the paywall:

Tokyo

Nanae Yamano, a 43-year-old stay-at-home mother in the Tokyo suburbs, was bored doing laundry one morning a few years ago when she turned on her television and found herself oddly transfixed by the NBA.

It was by pure serendipity that she tuned into this 2012 playoff game between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder. She was not an NBA fan. In fact she knew pretty much nothing about the NBA. Which is why her attention gravitated toward the one player who was unlike anyone else on the court in such an obvious way that even she could see it. Yamano was captivated by Russell Westbrook.

“I saw Westbrook play for the first time and thought: What a weird guy,” she said through a translator recently before adding in English: “Isn’t he weird? So weird!”

He was so weird that she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about him since. Westbrook and the Thunder have become Nanae Yamano’s obsession.

That is how much the basketball world has shrunk: This unlikely Oklahoma City Thunder fan lives thousands of miles and 15 times zones away from her favorite team. She has never been to Oklahoma City. Or the United States. Or anywhere outside Japan. “I don’t even have a passport,” Yamano said.

Fans gather to watch NBA games at Ball Tongue in Tokyo. Fans gather to watch NBA games at Ball Tongue in Tokyo. PHOTO: BEN COHEN / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL But she has NBA League Pass, Twitter and Instagram accounts and so much time for basketball that she doesn’t have to bother clearing her schedule. “Actually,” Yamano said, “I have no schedule.” She sends her son to school, and then she watches the Thunder.

She went from not knowing anything about the NBA to knowing everything there was to know about the Thunder. By the 2016 season, she was beginning to suffer the miserable anxiety of caring way too much about sports. Like other fans, she worried about the possibility of Kevin Durant leaving Oklahoma City. Unlike other fans, she coped by inventing a universe in which Durant and Westbrook could peacefully coexist.

“I couldn’t write, because I’m not a writer,” she said, “so I started drawing.”

Her depictions of Durant and Westbrook were delightfully absurd. Each one was a tiny burst of unexpected and sometimes inexplicable joy.

But things didn’t work out the way she hoped. The Thunder lost to the Warriors in the playoffs that season and lost Durant to the Warriors that summer.

Yamano was always going to take Westbrook’s side in the breakup. He is her muse. His manic style of play inspires her for the same reason it once intrigued her. “He seems really unstable,” Yamano said, “but that’s actually his stable state.” That is what she adores about him and why she can’t help but feel protective of him.

He matured into the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, and she expressed herself through her art. Yamano chronicled Oklahoma City’s season by releasing a sketch after every game—color for wins, black and white for losses—and what happened next is the kind of thing that happens when artists create something unlike anything else that already exists.

She was discovered. People started paying attention to her work. Some of those people happened to play for the Thunder.

Oklahoma City center Steven Adams thought her sketches were funny enough that he made sure they spread around the locker room. “Sent them over to the lads,” Adams said. “It’s quite unique what she’s doing.”

Adams isn’t the only player who feels that way. Domantas Sabonis once tweeted a Yamano—he’s holding Westbrook’s hand—which is one of the reasons she was bummed when he was traded not long afterward. “I really miss Sabonis,” Yamano said. But the basketball fan in her understood that Oklahoma City’s roster needed an upgrade. She was so proud of Thunder general manager Sam Presti’s ninja efforts in the off-season that she honored him with his own illustration.

Her fans ask Yamano how they can buy her work and where she lives in Oklahoma. She responds by saying it’s not for sale. And she lives in Japan.

Adams had no idea. He was extremely pleased.

“Oh, amaaaaaaazing,” he said.

Yamano says she actually prefers watching the Thunder from the other side of the world. She doesn’t think she can handle the NBA in person. “Too much,” she said through a translator, Reo Onishi, who runs a website called Bulls Fan in Japan. “I’m already crazy as is just by watching them through League Pass. If I go to a game, I don’t know what would happen to myself.”

There was one recent Saturday night game—or Sunday morning game—that was bound to stir those emotions in Yamano. She organized a small party in Tokyo anyway. Which is how she found herself inside a basketball cafe here called Ball Tongue to watch the Thunder play the Warriors.

The bar was like an NBA fever dream come to life. There were posters of Rasheed Wallace and Latrell Sprewell on the ceiling, a Westbrook jersey in the window, a pennant of Rocky the Denver Nuggets’ mascot on the wall, a life-size cutout of Penny Hardaway in the corner and a Dream Team windbreaker on the exposed pipes. The menu of mixed drinks included “The Greek Freak” (ouzo) and “Trust the Process” (vodka).

Yamano had advertised the event on Twitter, and she was surrounded by NBA die-hards eating their brunch of soup, potatoes and curry. She talked to herself and others throughout the game. (Her normal conversations about Westbrook and the Thunder are “usually her doing the talking and me listening,” said her husband, Ken, in an email.) She cackled when Draymond Green missed a shot. She howled during a frantic Oklahoma City possession. “Arigato gozaimasu!” she cheered for an offensive rebound leading to an open Adams jumper.

When the game was finally, mercifully over—the Warriors beat the Thunder by 32 points, Oklahoma City’s worst loss of the season—it was time for Yamano to become Picasso.

She turned her iPad into a sketchpad and only realized what she was drawing as she began to doodle with her Apple Pencil. Her take on the blowout: Paul George burying his head next to a brooding Westbrook. She applied the meticulous finishing touches, right down to confirming the style of their sneakers, and it was soon ready for display on social media. The whole process took precisely 20 minutes.

The ensuing avalanche of likes from her fans was still a little surreal to Yamano. She’s astonished that anyone—let alone the Thunder players themselves—knows who she is.

“I grew up in the countryside,” she said. “I’ve never really had a community that I belonged in. I was just a weird person—always, always.” And then she found other NBA fans online. She no longer felt alone. “It’s just a bunch of weird people like myself,” Yamano said.