can be a successful kicker in Minnesota yet this season, from corse178's blog
I stare at my phone. Discount NFL Jerseys Australia .That sentence sounds like it could be the first in a movie script or in an exciting story Im about to tell. (Potential next sentence: An urgent text message appears.)But thats not how I mean those words. Instead, I mean them as an identifying characteristic, a sentence that describes me: I work for ESPN; I play basketball; I love good coffee; I stare at my phone.Now see what I mean? Its a response to the question, So what do you like to do? How do you spend your time?Its also an admission and an embarrassingly accurate description of my nearly constant state. See me on the subway platform, head down, oblivious; or on my couch, attempting to read a book, but stopping every paragraph to refresh Twitter; or at dinner, asking a friend to repeat herself because I was reading an email; or at my desk, convincing myself Ill write after reading one more news article.Or right now, writing this, fighting the urge to Google some random factoid -- any random factoid -- to avoid the discomfort that comes with actually thinking, with actually being -- with creating instead of just absorbing. Theres long been a link between absorbing and creating (first comes one, then the other), but these days, Im rarely doing the other. Im like a sponge that never gets wrung out.The bottom line: Im concerned about the future of my brain. Im also concerned about other peoples brains -- including, potentially, yours.Theres no news hook that exists, nor one reason why readers should care about this right now, staking this storys rightful place in the news cycle. These thoughts exist not because of the news, but in spite of it. Im writing this because I need to. Its all I think about. Which means that, maybe, other people have also thought it -- even if the thought is buried beneath the rubble of text and Twitter and the endless stream of headlines.***I have long struggled with anxiety, but its usually only attached to work -- specifically to doing TV or speaking in public. Anxiety has never just buzzed inside me all day long. Usually, if a steady and persistent thought swims in my mind, I know I must sit down and write. Writing helps me process emotion. Whenever I felt confused or like I had something to say, I knew I could work through the feeling using just pen and paper.For me, deep thinking feels like going for a run. Its a kind of detox.But lately, Im feeling clumsy. The good thoughts feel farther and farther away, and if I do manage to grab one, its slippery and impossible to hold.My view used to seem expansive. Now it feels claustrophobic.And now Im feeling like I can no longer control my anxiety. Its become my companion. Perhaps the scariest part is that this endless scrolling distracts me from the anxiety, even as it feeds it.Consider the cycle: When Im lonely and anxious, instead of sitting with the feeling, trying to process it, I launch my phone in hopes of dulling the sensation. And it works -- temporarily. But Ive done nothing to cure the underlying loneliness and anxiety. So, an hour later, or a day later, the feeling will come back stronger. And how will I fix it that next time? And the time after that?I think we both know the answer.This cycle is an addiction masked as productivity, as connecting. When I was playing basketball at the University of Colorado in 2000, I didnt yet have a cell phone. And during my first year on campus, I had a reckoning of sorts: I wanted to quit and give up my scholarship. Did I even love basketball? Why was I unhappy? These thoughts swirled in my mind, without distraction, every day as I walked across campus.When I think back on that year, Im thankful that I was forced to sit in my uneasiness, process it and come out the other side, clear-eyed and committed. When muddled emotions or feelings of loss arise now, I do everything but sit with the feeling. I wonder what this kind of confusion must feel like for younger people today, who have answers at their fingertips, but perhaps not solutions.Personally, I have no excuse for letting it get this bad. The year after we published Split Image,?a story about the suicide of a student-athlete, I immersed myself in understanding how technology and social media affects us -- I actually wrote a book for Little, Brown about Madison Holleran and young people and rising rates of anxiety and depression. Its called What Made Maddy Run, and its coming out in August 2017. Heres a snippet from the books manuscript:I wrote that a year ago -- an entire year ago! While I would never spend a year drinking Mountain Dew, then puzzle at why my fitness had deteriorated, here I am, spending most days staring at my phone, reading each click-bait article and wishing I could have my brain back, wishing I could sit down and write and think the way I used to, with a kind of clarity and stamina I took for granted.The solution is obvious: spend less time on my phone. The thought of that feels promising and clear, like driving with the top down. And, simultaneously, the thought is scary. I want to hang out where everyone else is hanging out.And it seems like everyone else is in my phone.But, then again -- are they? And what version of them -- of each other -- are we getting?This is the part where Im supposed to share my detox program. Or offer my hard-won solution, followed by encouraging advice. But I dont have one. Not yet, anyway.Truth is, writing this essay was as far as I got. Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Australia . Takahashi, who had a 10-point lead after the short program, received 268.31 points after the free skate to finish 15 points ahead of second-place Nobunari Oda. Wholesale NFL Jerseys Australia . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. http://www.cheapnfljerseysaustralia.com/ . The 43-year-old closer, in his 19th and final big league season, has said hed like to play the outfield. Yankees manager Joe Girardi says hes thinking about allowing Rivera to do it this weekend, when the Yankees finish their season with a three-game series at the Houston Astros. EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- After Blair Walshs two misses helped cost the Minnesota Vikings a game on Sunday, theyll take a look at other kickers.Coach Mike Zimmer said Monday the Vikings will work out several kickers on Tuesday. Walshs extra point hit the upright in the third quarter and his 46-yard field goal was blocked in the fourth quarter of the Vikings 22-16 overtime loss to the Detroit Lions.According to a league source, Kai Forbath and Randy Bullock are two of the kickers who will work out for the Vikings on Tuesday.Walshs extra point with 23 seconds left helped the Vikings take a 16-13 lead, but when the Lions drove to set up Matt Praters game-tying 58-yard field goal at the end of regulation, Walshs missed PAT from earlier in the game loomed large in the final outcome.Walsh, who struggled at the beginning of the season following his 27-yard miss at the end of the Vikings NFC wild card loss to the Seattle Seahawks, hadnt missed a kick in three consecutive games before Sunday. Now, though, he leads the league with three missed extra points, and his 75 percent field goal rate ties him for 26th in the league.The Vikings stood by Walsh after the Seahawks miss and following his mishaps at the beginning of the year, but Zimmers frustration with Walsh has never been far from the surface.Asked on Monday why the Vikings decided to try out other kickers, Zimmer said, Have you been watching all year?At some point in time, you have beelief and confidence in guys, because you know what theyve done in the past, Zimmer said. NFL Jerseys Outlet. Weve missed three extra points this year. Weve missed several field goals. The way our games are being played, they probably come down to a lot of close games -- Im hoping, at least, anyway. We have to look at all avenues as far as what gives us the best opportunity to win football games.Asked if Walsh can be a successful kicker in Minnesota yet this season, Zimmer said, I think Blair can be a successful kicker, yes.After the game, Walsh bristled at the latest round of questions from reporters about his misses.Its not that Im frustrated with you. Its just, you guys have got to understand, what do you want the answer to be? Walsh said. I want to be there for my team. Of course I want to make it. But come on. You guys ask the same questions every week -- Did you make it? Why didnt it go in? I mean, if I had the answer right away, Id tell you. Im confident in what Im doing. I know that Im going to be fine. But its tough right now.Walsh also kicked a touchback after a roughing penalty on his extra point put the ball at midfield; Zimmer said the Vikings were aiming for a mortar kick that landed between the Lions 5- and 10-yard line. The touchback helped start the Lions drive to set up Praters field goal. Wholesale China Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale Authentic Jerseys Nike NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Nike Basketball Jerseys Hockey Jerseys China Supply Baseball Jerseys Football Jerseys Sale Authentic College Jerseys MLB Jerseys China Stitched Soccer Jerseys Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap Nike Jerseys ' ' '
The Wall