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All the right words, in all the right places?

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Staving Off Inevitability

I got reading glasses, well, progressive lenses, put it off as long as I possibly could, can make due with regular glasses, but easier at the computer and duh, reading, with these. Turning my head from left to right and right to left and everything is warping. I guess sooner or later, I'm gonna be the guy with the glasses in the straps hanging from my neck, and tilting my head down, looking at people when I talk. Sigh.   
nevets88

nevets88

8
 

Civilian helicopter landing in 240 fps

I like watching landings because I like experiencing the prop blast of wind. What can I say? Didn't stick around to see who came out. It looks like I'm holding the camera steady during high frame rate, but that wind is blowing around my arms pretty good.  
nevets88

nevets88

4
 

Montreal bagels

Went to Montreal's two well known bagel shops a couple of times. St Viateur and Fairmount. Although I've had Montreal style bagels at Black Seed Bagels in NY, wanted the real thing. Not religious about which is better, they are different. Montreal bagels are crunchier on the outside, more dense on the inside, a bit smaller, a big plus for me, cheaper, and there are some interesting types - rosemary for one. I'm not sure what seedless was. Nonetheless, I really liked them, but they're different from NY bagels, which are chewier for one. One thing though, Montreal bagels don't keep as well. You have to eat them straight away, otherwise they dry up quickly, maybe I don't know the locals' clever methods to keep them fresh. Will stop by Black Seed one day just to gauge how they are compared to the real thing while the taste is fresh in my mind.  
nevets88

nevets88

1
 

American slang/idioms

Rewatching Band of Brothers, there's this scene where a CO says "Channel is socked in. No jump tonight!". Having seen BoB so many times, never bothered to look up "socked in". In context, knowing the situation, Operation Overlord, you just easily guessed D-Day was postponed because weather. But this time, I actually looked up "socked in". http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=24601 OED https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/sock MW https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sock in Now maybe if I were an amateur pilot or airplane enthusiast, would have known this, but I'm usually pretty diligent in looking up things I don't know, especially now with smartphones, have a good dictionary on the home screen, but language is a big thing, slang/idioms constantly changing and expanding. Makes me wonder all the slang I don't know, even though born and raised in the US and watch a lot of tv and movies. Thank the gods for Urban Dictionary, I say.
nevets88

nevets88

16
 

Novice t-shirt designer

Am by no means artistic, but I have fun making up t-shirts when an idea percolates. This one is in tribute to Jonny Greenwood, who recently scored Phantom Thread. The repeating note is from one of the themes used in the movie. I thought this one would sell, but alas, no takers.  
nevets88

nevets88

5
 

Going from HD to 4K/HDR

4K/HDR is better than I thought it would be. Usually an earlier adopter regarding things tech so late to the 4K train, didn't think it would be that much of an improvement, but beginning to see more of a difference than when in the store, looking at different TVs. When you're at home, rewatching the shows you're used to seeing in HD, that's the better distinguisher. It helped that the new screen is bigger too, going to 65 from 50. Could have bought earlier, but saved a ton waiting a bit, got a decent deal, barely did any research and comparison shopping and got a decent set under $700, free shipping, no tax, was looking at sets costing $2K a year ago. Even the free economy shipping took only 2 days. Amazon Prime's show, Mozart in the Jungle, was the first UHD content I tried and the color and sharpness stood out although I could barely tell the difference between that and and The Expanse, which is HD on Amazon, dunno if upscaling is helping or my eyes suck. Upgraded Netflix to UHD, watched Dark, and it was more obvious than Mozart, the picture quality. The kicker was Planet Earth II, which is UHD. This is obviously the show to tax a tv's ability to the limit. Still assessing sports and output from the Bluray player. Guess there will be a movie that will eventually convince me to go Bluray 4K, The Last Jedi, but will have to see how the current Bluray library is, how well it upscales. So with dramas, it's a little better, but with science fiction, like The Expanse, with detailed ships and planetary details, you can really see the difference. Looking forward to what The Masters will be like. Even though trumotion is turned off, still seeing a little Soap Opera Effect. Going to take a bit to play with all the picture adjustments.
nevets88

nevets88

13
 

Practicing with video - tips that may hopefully help you

Some of this is obvious for experienced players, I'll list them anyway for the benefit of those starting out. Will add as I learn/discover more.   Duh, camera angles are very important. You probably know this already, but will mention it anyway. Always bring an alignment stick, which will make pointing your camera much easier. You may hit a cr@p shot, but video may redeem you by showing you you actually did what your instructor advised. That's a good thing, you're changing the picture. This should gave you encouragement, you'll eventually hit the ball more solid with the new piece. Everyone around you may be hitting more balls than you, it may seem video is slowing you down, but you're seeing what's actually happening versus guessing. By associating feel and real, you're actually making faster progress than those not using video. You don't have to be at a range to use video, practice your moves at home and video them. Even without a ball or club. Frequent shorter spurts of practice is much better than cramming. As per @billchao, work on one thing at a time. Usually there's a better angle for a specific piece. For shallowing, down the line, impact, face on. Review your swing in realtime, 30fps and high frame rate, 120/240+fps. You'll see different aspects of your swing.  Switch up the camera position often, don't stay with down the line or face on too long. You'll get caught up in one aspect of the swing perhaps to the detriment of another. There's also the posterior view. I'm pretty sure your range will frown upon you using a drone for overhead views. Review your swing on a big screen the night of or day after. You'll notice things you didn't see on the small screen. Use Analzyr (Mac) or Kinovea (PC). My preference is Analyzr as it's much simpler but feature rich. If your range has dividers that block the face on view, pull the mat back past the divider. If your stall is walled on both sides, you could try turning 45, 60 degrees to get a face on view, that's what I've been told, have yet to try this though, comment below if you got this to work (or not). If it's sunny and blistering hot, put a large towel over your head to review video, you'll look stupid, but you'll see the video better, save battery life and get respite from the sun. Get a tripod bag. Be prepared to say, no, I'm not going to hot yoga. It'll make life easier, trust me on this. When using an iPhone to record video, to save battery life, I turn off the GPS and turn on low power mode. When recording, I turn the screen brightness down - you're not watching the screen, so it doesn't matter. Yes, it's annoying you have to turn the screen brightness back up when viewing. Not sure how much this helps, but in theory it should save some battery consumption. Or you can painter's tape a portable power bank to your tripod and your phone will outlast you, no battery worries there. It shouldn't make manipulating the tripod any harder. I'd recommend a model that's at least 20,000mAh so you don't have to charge the bank as often.   You may forget one or two important things your instructor told you, no matter how many times you watched your lesson video, reviewed notes. When you're in the thick of practicing, not hard to do. Copy your lesson text and/or video to your phone so you can read/watch again when things get pear shaped. I use Evernote for text, Dropbox/OneDrive/Google Drive for video. Try and put all your lessons in the cloud so that they're easily accessible. It's the closest thing to having your pro with you without him/her physically/remotely being there You're going to have lots of video in storage and you'll probably delete them, don't delete them all, leave a couple of videos, preferably the last swings from the practice session, on your phone for quick reference. Learn how to clip videos to save space. A full swing, 240fps, on an iPhone, takes up about 15-30 megabytes, depending on how much ball flight you capture. Portrait mode is looked down on, but is better for down the line views, you don't have to set the camera as far back as landscape and you can see more of the ball flight if you hit it high. Heck, use portrait all the time, that's what all my instructors do, they know a thing or two.   To see if your shaft is pointing inside or outside the ball at A5 you can use a straight edge to superimpose over the display as opposed to a swing analysis app to draw lines, don't use a credit card or transit pass or anything important (duh), it's going to increase the chances of you losing it. Use a clubshaft as a straight edge, just superimpose it over your smartphone display. Or if you have a removable case, use that as a straight edge, or even the bottom of your hand made into a karate chop.   If you're hitting into the sun and you lose track of the ball and you're recording in high speed video from down the line, you'll be able to the start line and maybe some of the initial curvature depending on conditions. To see if you're hitting the ball fat, when videoing face on, if your mat is wet, you'll see the splash the water makes, it'll be especially obvious when you hit it fat. If it didn't rain, pour some water onto the mat. Same goes for when you make contact with the mat after hitting the ball.   To protect your smartphone while videoing yourself in the rain, trying using a rain cover provided with a bicycle smartphone mount. I use this from Morpheus Labs, it's a very snug fit, actually a bit of an effort to get on, but you can still use the touch screen, you'll have to press harder. The fingerprint scan won't work though and it'll widen your phone so your tripod mount will need to accommodate the extra width. If it protects the phone while cycling, which I found it does, pretty sure it's good enough for videoing your swing in the rain. You can use your bicycle smartphone mount as a portable kind of gorilla pod if there's something nearby to mount it to.   Zooming in is very handy. From down the line, I'll max out the zoom in and focus in on the ball, to see where on the club head the ball hits the face. You can see heel, toe, thin, fat better this way. Instead of using a heavy power bank, you could use a lipstick charger and a short cable, the lipstick is not heavy enough to pull the cable off your phone. Don't need tape, simpler.
nevets88

nevets88

19
 

The New Tappan Zee Bridge

Not crazy about how it was named the Mario Cuomo Bridge (passed in wee hours in secret by his son), but official opening is tomorrow, in my mind, it'll be the new Tappan Zee Bridge. Maybe the Nyack - Tarrytown bridge?   http://www.newnybridge.com/ready-and-waiting-new-bridge-prepared-for-friday-nights-traffic-shift/    
nevets88

nevets88

13
 

Observations from Northern Trust Tuesday

Disparaging remarks from some players on Sean Foley Talk about hotels and points and yawn, boring. No charging stations. Momofuku here too, same as US Open (tennis). Generally, students of the game hover around the short game area. One spectator struck up a conversation w/a player about pitching. Haven't been to a tournament in awhile, radar everywhere. You can park behind Starbucks, walk across the coliseum to the buses (10 minutes, just like the US Open - tennis), avoid parking fee. 1/2 hour shuttle w/o traffic too long. Now more of a student of the swing, notice more of what's going on in short game swings. Seems most of players are "using the bounce" now. Not as much ball way back chop down. Was hoping to see McIlroy, Day, nope, but got to see almost everyone else. Was on the fence, didn't think it was worth going, glad I went.
nevets88

nevets88

0
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    • bkuehn1952
      Is It Important to Have a Caddy on Tour?

      By bkuehn1952 · Posted

      Interesting subject to discuss.  I mostly go long with your ideas.  Outside of the physical effort of carrying the bag and grooming the course, I imagine one of the biggest reasons every pro has a caddie is because they can have one.  And they are afraid that IF a caddie might make a 1 or 2 stroke difference, then they sure as hell want to have that advantage when everyone else in the field has a caddie.  
    • Vinsk
      Is It Important to Have a Caddy on Tour?

      By Vinsk · Posted

      I of course agree with this. But FWIW this component of caddying was rather minimized during the Kuchar thread. 
    • phillyk
      Is It Important to Have a Caddy on Tour?

      By phillyk · Posted

      Ill admit I left out the physical exertion required of these guys and why caddies make a big difference there. But outside of not being tired, I wouldn’t say they make a huge difference in performance. 
    • Buckeyebowman
      Is It Important to Have a Caddy on Tour?

      By Buckeyebowman · Posted

      Also, a lot of caddies are very good players. They just aren't Tour level, but they know the game. So, they function as more than mere "sack draggers".  And consider what Tiger said when interviewed after the last round at the Genesis. He said, "Yeah, I'm tired!" The pros were up and on their feet a ton last week, and that takes a toll. Imagine if anyone was carrying their own bag!  Now comes the WGC in Mexico City at altitude, which will be another physical test. Heck, a couple years ago my buddy was on vacation so we golfed it up big time. We played 108 holes in 5 days, and I could barely get out of bed the day after! And we were riding in carts! 
    • iacas
      Is It Important to Have a Caddy on Tour?

      By iacas · Posted

      On the PGA Tour, push or pull carts are not allowed. And you're really under-estimating just how much endurance is required to play competitive golf on the PGA Tour for a season. That's a big part of why virtually every Tour player objected to Casey Martin. They understand just how integral walking is to the game, and thus, even carrying an extra 20 pounds around would add substantially to the challenge. PGA Tour players take caddies because they feel it's worth it, that they'd be at a disadvantage without it. That what they pay is worth what they get.
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