i don't know where you're going

Because clearly I should be posting about therapy, but oh look, shiny distraction!

So, I may have made mention that joined an awesome rp over at IJ, and this post will be about that, so for those of you not interested, please feel free to skip over this post. I promise I'll be back to my usual shenanigans soon-ish. ♥

Anyhow~ So, my fourth(!) character got approved a week or so ago, and it occurred to me that I probably need to sit down and figure out where my characters are going. That is partially what this post is about. Without further ado: a detailed line list!( Read more... )

Dear ShipSwap author,

Thank you so much for writing for me! I'm sure that I will absolutely adore anything that you write for me, because I do adore all of these pairings immensely. Just being able to see a new story with them will make me quite happy, all in all. ♥

That being said, I'll throw a few ideas at you and let you know things I find no good or just straight out squick me. Feel free to take these as suggestions (except the dislikes; please, please don't take those as guidelines). So, let's move on to the requests!

( Getting the party started~! )

Of course, these are all just suggestions, so feel free to write what you feel inspired to write. I'm sure I'll be all over it. Thank you so much again!

♥Sherri

Last night, I finished Final Fantasy IX. So, I said in a previous post that I would do a write up for each game that I finished. After some thinking, I have decided that, yeah, I'll actually do the write up, but that I'm going to section it off into sections, much like my Les Miserables review, just with different categories.

For the Final Fantasy reviews, the categories will be: Characters, Villains, Battle System, Plot, Overall Impressions. Let's get started, shall we?

( I so happy. )

Next up: Final Fantasy VIII. If I can do two games a month, that would be amazing. But I guess we'll see.

Also! Because stars_apart is amazing and awesome, for every game I finish, she's going to write one fic. For Final Fantasy IX, she wrote post-game fic: and we are merely players. Go read it. It is amazing. ♥

Because I really miss playing, and these types of posts are apparently useful to some people.

There are two kinds of defense (D) in basketball: man-to-man and zone. Depending on the strengths of your team, the flow of the game, whether or not your ahead or behind, etc etc, a coach may choose to implement one or the other. Both Ds have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Zone Defense

Zone defense is when each defensive player on the court takes a 'zone' - that is, they are responsible for a portion of the court. If a player and/or the ball moves into their zone, they are in charge of stopping that player and/or the ball. Once the player and/or ball moves out of their zone, technically they are no longer responsible for that player. (I say technically because I know many players who will still mark a particular player as 'theirs' and keep on 'em. Really, you shouldn't do this, but I was guilty of it, too, so.)

There are many variations on zone defense, which I'll go into a little later.

Strengths

• Ball stays on the outside. This minimizes the risks of layups and forces the offense to pass, which increases the risks of a turnover. It also forces them to shoot from the outside if they want to beat the shot clock, and if they don't have decent outside shooters, it increases the defense's chances of getting a rebound.


• Constantly transitioning between zone and man keeps the offense on their toes.


• If you have someone in foul trouble, zone is a great way to keep fouls to a minimum.

Weaknesses

• Pressure on the ball is not as intense as it is in man.


• During rebounds, there are no clear-cut box out assignments, so an offensive player can slip in and put the ball back up

Man-to-Man

This is exactly what it sounds like: you have a mark. You are responsible for that mark at all times. Offense, defense, doesn't matter. That person is yours. Additionally, if you are subbed out for some reason, it is your responsibility to tell your replacement who your mark is.

Strengths

• Intense pressure on the ball. You are up close and personal with your mark.


• Every player is accounted for, so there is no confusion about who has whom.


• Easier to protect the key because you're not on the lookout for someone else entering your zone.

Weaknesses

• Fouls.


• The paint isn't protected, so if your mark gets away from you, it's an easy lay-up unless someone abandons their mark to protect the paint, but then you have an unprotected offense player. Never a good situation.


• Exhausting. If your team doesn't have enough stamina to keep it up, it can be easy for the offense to overtake you.

Now, there are ways to mix this up. For example, let's take Seirin vs Touou. Seirin is on defense, Touou on offense.

Variation 001: Box & 1

In a box & 1 play, one player is going man-to-man with someone on offense (usually their 'ace') while the rest of the team zones up around the key. The four players in the box are playing zone defense - someone comes into their area, that person is theirs. The second they leave, they're gone. The 1 is on man, following him around everywhere. The 1, in the example's case, would be Kagami on Aomine.

This is a good strategy if the offense has just one consistent scorer. This also gives you the opportunity to double team in each zone without sacrificing coverage everywhere else.

Variation 002: Triangle & 2

Often referred to as 'triangle,' this works in a similar vein to box & 1, except that you have two people on man (either different ones or the same one) and three in zone. The zones get significantly bigger in this type of defense, so it's something to be wary of. In the example's case, it could be Kagami on Aomine and Hyuuga on Sakurai.

Great if used correctly, but often penetrated due to increased floor space an individual is guarding.


Full Court Press

Now, the d's above were written with half-court in mind. You can use both in a full court press. What does this mean?

Say Seirin scores. Instead of running to the other side of the court, allowing Touou to pass the ball in and bring it up, say Seirin starts their defense immediately after the ball goes through the hoop. This is full court defense.

Now, full court man is easy to understand and implement: instead of picking your person up at the half court line, you pick them up as soon as the ball is in the basket. Simple, right?

Zone press is a bit different. There are a few different formations: 1-2-2, 1-2-1-1, 1-3-1, 2-2-1, etc etc. Basically, this is the same as half-court zone: each player is responsible for a portion of the court, including any players and/or ball that comes in it. Depending on the strengths of the team, the coach will pick a combination.

Generally, zone press starts at the free-throw line and spreads from there.

An example of a zone press in 1-2-1-1


There is no exact art to all of this, of course. But hopefully, this is a decent starting point for how D works. ♥

If you are not paying attention to Kuroko no Basket, feel free to skip this post because I will be talking about things that are only really interesting to me. XD;;

ANYWAY.

So, for the past... month? two months? I've been trying to work out Teikou's plays and positions. Some are pretty obvious, while other's aren't. What I'm really trying to puzzle out, though, is how a team of five individuals can beat an actual team every time. I know that the Miragen are supposed to be ridiculously amazing and what not, and that's sort of the point of the series, but. Anyone who watches or plays basketball knows that you need to have some element of teamwork, unless you're playing 1-on-1, which I think was probably what the Teikou strategy was. (Reminiscent to the chapters where Kagami and Aomine went at it while the rest of the teams just... sort of hung out on the side.)

Anyway. Positions. There are five positions in basketball for offense and five for defense. With Teikou, I'm assuming that their typical defense strategy was man-to-man, so there's really no need to diagram that.

Half Court


Now, this is what a half-court looks like (when drawn by me, so please forgive the lack of spatial accuracy. And the horrid blocks). The orange line with the circle in the middle of it at the top is half-court. The circle is where the tip off occurs at the beginning of the game and at the beginning of half-time.

The Five Offensive Positions


At the top is the point guard (PG or 1). This is the play maker/strategist. This is a beast of a role to play because you have to be aware of the entire area and every player. Hilariously, this is usually played a shorter player.

To the left of the PG is your shooting guard (SG or 2). This is your best shooter. Usually, they have fairly consistent accuracy with outside shots.

To the right of the PG is your small forward (SF or 3). This is usually your best driver and your strongest all around player - they can make shots from the outside, they can drive into the paint and score, they can shoot from the top of the paint... Basically, they can shoot anywhere.

On the bottom left is your power forward (PF or 4). They play a similar role to the SF and the center but down at the bottom of the key. They are the bread and butter of shooting from the inside and in the middle range. (Incidentally, this is the role I played.)

On the bottom right is your center (C or 5). This is usually the tallest player and a beast in the paint and at the bottom of the key. They make your backboard layups, as well as do the rebounds and put backs.

Teikou - Before Kise


Before Kise joined up, it was pretty obvious who played what: Akashi was the PG, Midorima the SG, Aomine the SF, Haizaki the PF and Murasakibara the C. Pretty simple and easy. Each fits the roles perfectly. (I'm aware Kuroko isn't here... I'll get to him.)

Teikou - After Kise


Now, I have Kise as the SF here because of his play style, and it's more than likely that he and Aomine (who I have as the PF) were switched around at Akashi's discretion. Aomine likes to make his fights up close and personal, so realistically, PF or SF are both positions he could play, but, from canon, he likes to drive, and as PF you don't have many opportunities to do that.

Kuroko


Kuroko is interesting. He doesn't fit any of the traditional roles. A good passer would generally be at the top of the key in the PG position when necessary, but Kuroko doesn't possess the basic skills necessary. His dribbling is crap, he can't shoot from inside, let alone the outside, and he doesn't drive (until Seirin, but this is Teikou). The best position for him, then, would be SF, but he doesn't stay in the general range. He's all over the place, so a different type of play would have to be adapted for when Kuroko is on the court.

So yeah. Of course, this is all speculation, but I thought it might be helpful to... someone? Maybe? And if I used any terminology you don't know or understand, let me know. I'll explain it. (I may make a term post later.... >.>)

I have done both the online classes and the in-class classes, and I honestly think that both have their merits. I completed my Associate's Degree 100% online through the Community College of Aurora, and I found it easy to do. I did feel that I was lacking that face-to-face aspect, and that I didn't really know my classmates outside of their writing and their avatar, but it was convenient and fit in with my schedule since I was working full-time in retail, which isn't really conducive to going the traditional route.

After I obtained my AA, I transferred to the University of Denver – the Women's College. The format here is very traditional – we're in class one night a week per class, the class sizes are fairly small, and I have that interactive component that I was missing in my online education. However, the convenience factor went down since there are now set times and days I have to be in class.

I found no difference in the level of the work between the two, although I will admit that online education takes a lot more self-discipline than the in-class setting. You are completely reliant upon yourself to remember deadlines and get into discussions, and since everything is online, you have to hold yourself to a higher code of ethics.

Personally, I prefer online education, but then, I'm a very self-motivated individual who likes to do things at my own pace. I think that for people who are working full-time and juggling all sorts of other responsibilities, online education is the way to go. There are tons of places that are accredited where you can get your degree, so don't let people tell you that you can't.

Disclaimer: 001, 004, and 005 all contain trigger-y things in canon.

Let's dig in, shall we?

( 001: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins )

( 002: Robin Hood: Men in Tights )

( 003: Once Upon a Time )

( 004: Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton )

( 005: Buffy the Vampire Slayer )

Deathmatch is over, and I can finally do my own reveal. And if you haven't picked me out, yet, I am going to be so severely disappointed in you. Seriously. So, for those who haven't yet guessed, I was kyoji kagami.

( To spare you the meta and the rambling )

That all being said, I want to thank everyone who read and voted and participated, especially my team, because they were awesome. ♥