Played soccer barefoot
Tried to emulate Zidane
Tore off calus. Damn
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
and you thought your night was bad...
Time: 1:20am
Place: Northwest Quad Dorm
WTF!: Fire alarm
Right as I was about to turn off my computer and go to sleep the fire alarm goes off. Then it stopped, and then it went off again. I exchanged a few confused looks with other people in the hallway before we decided we should go outside. I threw on some clothes and proceeded to stand outside for 15 minutes or so before we were given the all clear to return to our rooms. The fire alarm had simply malfunctioned.
Time: 1:45am
Place: Northwest Quad Dorm
WTF!: Fire alarm %$!!!$#%*$# again!
This time it sounded more serious and didn't shut off. Figuring we'd be told immeditated to return to our rooms, I left the building wearing only shorts. Once we had gathered outside, we were told the fire alarm was broken, that a mechanic was on the way to fix it, and that we would have to stay outside until it was fixed. At least it was a warm night.
Time: 2:45am
Place: Northwest Quad Lawn
WTF!: Thunderstorm
I had been outside an hour, laying on the grass and intermittently talking and sitting in enraged silence with the other geology REU students. This entire time I had been watching lighting and darker sky move slowly towards it. At this time, with maybe 200 people outside, the storm hit with pouring rain and winds that pushed it horizontal under the overhanging roof we were hinding under.
Time: 3:15
Place: Northwest Quad Dorm Lounge
WTF!: Hard as concrete carpeted floor
Clay, Shannon, and I had gone into another dorm around 3am and were attempting to sleep on the floor in a bightly lit room when we got the call finally that we were allowed back into our rooms 90 minutes after being evacuated. They hadn't fixed the fire alarm though, but rather had decided that someone at the front desk had to push the reset button on the alarm system every 10 minutes to keep the alarm from continuously going off.
Time: 3:30
Place: Northwest Quad Dorm
I finally drifted off to sleep for a nice 5 hour respite before waking up to go to work.
Place: Northwest Quad Dorm
WTF!: Fire alarm
Right as I was about to turn off my computer and go to sleep the fire alarm goes off. Then it stopped, and then it went off again. I exchanged a few confused looks with other people in the hallway before we decided we should go outside. I threw on some clothes and proceeded to stand outside for 15 minutes or so before we were given the all clear to return to our rooms. The fire alarm had simply malfunctioned.
Time: 1:45am
Place: Northwest Quad Dorm
WTF!: Fire alarm %$!!!$#%*$# again!
This time it sounded more serious and didn't shut off. Figuring we'd be told immeditated to return to our rooms, I left the building wearing only shorts. Once we had gathered outside, we were told the fire alarm was broken, that a mechanic was on the way to fix it, and that we would have to stay outside until it was fixed. At least it was a warm night.
Time: 2:45am
Place: Northwest Quad Lawn
WTF!: Thunderstorm
I had been outside an hour, laying on the grass and intermittently talking and sitting in enraged silence with the other geology REU students. This entire time I had been watching lighting and darker sky move slowly towards it. At this time, with maybe 200 people outside, the storm hit with pouring rain and winds that pushed it horizontal under the overhanging roof we were hinding under.
Time: 3:15
Place: Northwest Quad Dorm Lounge
WTF!: Hard as concrete carpeted floor
Clay, Shannon, and I had gone into another dorm around 3am and were attempting to sleep on the floor in a bightly lit room when we got the call finally that we were allowed back into our rooms 90 minutes after being evacuated. They hadn't fixed the fire alarm though, but rather had decided that someone at the front desk had to push the reset button on the alarm system every 10 minutes to keep the alarm from continuously going off.
Time: 3:30
Place: Northwest Quad Dorm
I finally drifted off to sleep for a nice 5 hour respite before waking up to go to work.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Fayetteville Summer League
After the pretty good competition at pick up and the tournament over the weekend, I have to admit I came away from my first summer league games a bit frustrated. There were a lot of people new to playing organized ultimate, so actually playing an offensive set was not really possible. I am also probably the most solid handler on the team. I say solid as opposed to best, because there are people who make better dump cuts, or have better throws, but I think I have the best combo of throws, cuts, knowledge, and a holster on hucks. Our team also has 12 guys and we were playing 4/3 coed at times tonight, so playing time was sparse. In our 11-9 second game win, I think I played maybe 6 points. My highlights included a sweet 50 yard backhand huck for a score and a sky catch for a score. Lowlights included some pretty lazy defense and a couple rather sloppy low release backhands that I made very hard for the receiver to catch (one was caught, the other was dropped).
So, the question is what can I get out of this? Since our team is full of cutters, I have resigned myself to handling for the team, so I'll be working on that, noteably trying to make the offense run through me and then having consistent throws, smart successful hucks, and no turnovers. Handling was even frustrating tonight though as the inexperience players would make horizontal cuts in front of the disc and then clear out right next to the handlers, so at times we had five people behind the disc, making it kind of hard to get open for dumps. Hopefully that'll improve as our team learns the game more. As for now I still have pick up on Thursday and Sunday and practice with an open team on Wednesday to work on my cutting.
So, the question is what can I get out of this? Since our team is full of cutters, I have resigned myself to handling for the team, so I'll be working on that, noteably trying to make the offense run through me and then having consistent throws, smart successful hucks, and no turnovers. Handling was even frustrating tonight though as the inexperience players would make horizontal cuts in front of the disc and then clear out right next to the handlers, so at times we had five people behind the disc, making it kind of hard to get open for dumps. Hopefully that'll improve as our team learns the game more. As for now I still have pick up on Thursday and Sunday and practice with an open team on Wednesday to work on my cutting.
Monday, July 10, 2006
The Sticky Fingers Classic
I got to play in an ultimate tournament this weekend which was a ton of fun. Originally I was going to pick up with a team based out of wichita, but they ended up having enough guys, so I picked up with a local group of University of Arkansas students and recent alumni. I had met some of them on Thursday at pick up, so it was slightly less awkward. Like most college ultimate players, they were a fun bunch. They were also very tall, which was also very fun. I'm not used to playing with people who are 6'5', so it was nice to be able to have that huck and hope option that tended to work more often than not.
Our first game was against another local team who's members continued to show up in various states of sobriety throughout the game. We went up on them big quickly, and I came out strong as well, throwing 3 scores and catching 2 in the game. However, the other teams studs showed up in the second half and before getting drunk, brought them back and they ended up winning on universe point 13-12. Our next game followed pretty much the same pattern, we went up big early, decided we didn't need to play anymore, the other team caught up, but this time we got our shit together and pulled off the win. Also in this game I tried to do a layout greatest and failed, succeeding only in landing on a pile of rocks and brusing a bone in my thumb, my kneecap, and taking a chunk out of the skin on my knee.
Our third game was against tourney favorites and actual coed team, Ups. Since they're trying to make nationals, they're pretty good, though were having a fun time and drinking beers as well. We tried to keep it close with hucks to our tall guys, but lost 13-8 or so. The fourth game we decided to take seriously since we wanted to finish the day 2-2. We were so serious about it we split up into O and D lines. I got some entertainment from this as without telling them anything about how I play, just from watching me they had me playing as an offensive mid cutter (the exact same position I play for Dartmouth). The game was tight. We went up a couple breaks, but then they broke us back to take the lead. That sparked us again as we finished the game on a run and won by 2 or so in hard cap.
That ended day 1. I thought I had played pretty well, especially since my bruised knee had been slowing me down most of the day. My cutting was good, I didn't have any drops, and I had maybe 2 throwing errors. I was really tired though, and that showed on defense at times as I'd get lazy. I need to work my endurance (as I've already said) so that I have the energy to continuous play good D as opposed to just in spurts. The party that night was at the apparently infamous Karl Doege's house. Good beer and the usual antics (wrestling, fireworks, really really drunk older people, and hook ups) were on tap. I ran into a couple OU guys I know and talked to them for a while.
The way the 6 team round robin format worked out, we had to play the same team (the team I was originally going to pick up on) twice to open up play on Sunday. One for our last pool play game and again since we were both gauranteed to be the 2 or 3 seeds in a 4 team playoff. The other team had been about as drunk as mine the night before, so we decided to just play one half of our first game to warm up. We won that 7-3. The next game was serious and they went up on us 6-2 before we brought it back to tie it at 10s for universe point. This point was my signature play of the weekend, as I came from no where in the endzone to catch a stall 9 desperation hammer that was thrown to space. I then preceeded to kick spike the disc.
Unfortunately though, that win sent us to the finals which was occuring at the same time as the world cup final. To cheers of "World Cup!" our motivation to win or even try in this came quickly evaporated and we lost again to Ups 13-6 or so. I then rushed to watch the Azzuri win the world cup, which was awesome.
As for my play on the weekend... I thought it was decent. Good considering I hadn't played since Class Wars in early June. I was tired though on Sunday, more tired than I think I should've been even though we only had 8 guys (tourney was 4/3 coed) and was 90 degrees and humid. I'm also realy sore today and my hamstrings are making me dread even the smallest flights of stairs. Still, I threw maybe 5 scores on the weeked and probably caught 6. I had a couple completed hucks, and a couple other attempts that were decent but just not quite on the money. I didn't have any drops, but did have a few throws in my direction I feel I could've put more effort into to try to get as opposed to watching my guy D it. My cutting was also pretty good, though it suffered from me being tired and our offense being a clogged disaster at times. Defense always needs work, and specifically I need to work on pulling the trigger to layout and playing a full point at 100% intensity. The good thing is that I have at least 4 summer league games to work on all this stuff, so we'll see how it goes.
Our first game was against another local team who's members continued to show up in various states of sobriety throughout the game. We went up on them big quickly, and I came out strong as well, throwing 3 scores and catching 2 in the game. However, the other teams studs showed up in the second half and before getting drunk, brought them back and they ended up winning on universe point 13-12. Our next game followed pretty much the same pattern, we went up big early, decided we didn't need to play anymore, the other team caught up, but this time we got our shit together and pulled off the win. Also in this game I tried to do a layout greatest and failed, succeeding only in landing on a pile of rocks and brusing a bone in my thumb, my kneecap, and taking a chunk out of the skin on my knee.
Our third game was against tourney favorites and actual coed team, Ups. Since they're trying to make nationals, they're pretty good, though were having a fun time and drinking beers as well. We tried to keep it close with hucks to our tall guys, but lost 13-8 or so. The fourth game we decided to take seriously since we wanted to finish the day 2-2. We were so serious about it we split up into O and D lines. I got some entertainment from this as without telling them anything about how I play, just from watching me they had me playing as an offensive mid cutter (the exact same position I play for Dartmouth). The game was tight. We went up a couple breaks, but then they broke us back to take the lead. That sparked us again as we finished the game on a run and won by 2 or so in hard cap.
That ended day 1. I thought I had played pretty well, especially since my bruised knee had been slowing me down most of the day. My cutting was good, I didn't have any drops, and I had maybe 2 throwing errors. I was really tired though, and that showed on defense at times as I'd get lazy. I need to work my endurance (as I've already said) so that I have the energy to continuous play good D as opposed to just in spurts. The party that night was at the apparently infamous Karl Doege's house. Good beer and the usual antics (wrestling, fireworks, really really drunk older people, and hook ups) were on tap. I ran into a couple OU guys I know and talked to them for a while.
The way the 6 team round robin format worked out, we had to play the same team (the team I was originally going to pick up on) twice to open up play on Sunday. One for our last pool play game and again since we were both gauranteed to be the 2 or 3 seeds in a 4 team playoff. The other team had been about as drunk as mine the night before, so we decided to just play one half of our first game to warm up. We won that 7-3. The next game was serious and they went up on us 6-2 before we brought it back to tie it at 10s for universe point. This point was my signature play of the weekend, as I came from no where in the endzone to catch a stall 9 desperation hammer that was thrown to space. I then preceeded to kick spike the disc.
Unfortunately though, that win sent us to the finals which was occuring at the same time as the world cup final. To cheers of "World Cup!" our motivation to win or even try in this came quickly evaporated and we lost again to Ups 13-6 or so. I then rushed to watch the Azzuri win the world cup, which was awesome.
As for my play on the weekend... I thought it was decent. Good considering I hadn't played since Class Wars in early June. I was tired though on Sunday, more tired than I think I should've been even though we only had 8 guys (tourney was 4/3 coed) and was 90 degrees and humid. I'm also realy sore today and my hamstrings are making me dread even the smallest flights of stairs. Still, I threw maybe 5 scores on the weeked and probably caught 6. I had a couple completed hucks, and a couple other attempts that were decent but just not quite on the money. I didn't have any drops, but did have a few throws in my direction I feel I could've put more effort into to try to get as opposed to watching my guy D it. My cutting was also pretty good, though it suffered from me being tired and our offense being a clogged disaster at times. Defense always needs work, and specifically I need to work on pulling the trigger to layout and playing a full point at 100% intensity. The good thing is that I have at least 4 summer league games to work on all this stuff, so we'll see how it goes.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Summer Workout Program
As I have learned previously, trying to maintain a rigorous schedule of training while seperated from the Dartmouth Ultimate Team, at least for me, not only sucks, but just isn't possible. My motivation admitedly is a little lacking. Therefore my plans to stay in shape this summer shouldn't really be looked at as a workout program but rather as a "workout program". My two main goals are to improve endurance and improve my throws, so priority number one is to play as much ultimate as possible. So far so good on that one, as I've found outlets for ultimate 4 nights a week while I'm in Fayetteville and 3 nights a week for when I'm home in Norman. On the other nights I may try to go for longish runs to get my endurance back. That'll pretty much be it until school starts back up. I may try to do some of the ultimate workout depending on how competitive I get with Emily who is currently on week 4. I can't have her outrunning me....
I've been at the University of Arkansas for two days now, and both days I've managed to go out and exercise a bit. Yesterday I ran to the park where pick up is and did 15 5/10's in between practicing hucking. The 5/10's felt good, the hucks did not. Forehands especially need work. The run home was uphill in the evening heat and was rather excruitiating and very slow. I'm blaming the 5 pounds of camelback I was carrying and assuming that if I run unhindered I'll be fine- or at least that's my story. As I was returning to the dorm I ran into the rest of the REU group and went with them to the gym where I did some rock climbing, which was fun. There's a sweet overhang problem there that I am determined to send before the end of the summer. After climbing I did some crunches. All in all like 3 hours of exercise, I was pretty tired.
So today was my first time to go to pick up ultimate. It was a lot fun and it was great to be out playing again after a month off. Considering the month off I think I played rather well, though it's hard to guage given the lax atmosphere of pick up ultimate. I had a pretty sweet layout catch and some good sky D's, plus some solid continuation throws and cuts. Of note were two drops on difficult, but easily catchable throws, so as always after a while off, I need to get my hands back as they are probably my greatest asset. I had two forehand huck attempts as well, and while one was completed, they both sucked. So reclaiming the long throws will be the immediate goal.
I get to play in a tournament this weekend on a shortsided team, so hopefully I'll have lots of opportunity to work on stuff as as well as run a lot and improve my fitness. Should be a lot of fun.
I've been at the University of Arkansas for two days now, and both days I've managed to go out and exercise a bit. Yesterday I ran to the park where pick up is and did 15 5/10's in between practicing hucking. The 5/10's felt good, the hucks did not. Forehands especially need work. The run home was uphill in the evening heat and was rather excruitiating and very slow. I'm blaming the 5 pounds of camelback I was carrying and assuming that if I run unhindered I'll be fine- or at least that's my story. As I was returning to the dorm I ran into the rest of the REU group and went with them to the gym where I did some rock climbing, which was fun. There's a sweet overhang problem there that I am determined to send before the end of the summer. After climbing I did some crunches. All in all like 3 hours of exercise, I was pretty tired.
So today was my first time to go to pick up ultimate. It was a lot fun and it was great to be out playing again after a month off. Considering the month off I think I played rather well, though it's hard to guage given the lax atmosphere of pick up ultimate. I had a pretty sweet layout catch and some good sky D's, plus some solid continuation throws and cuts. Of note were two drops on difficult, but easily catchable throws, so as always after a while off, I need to get my hands back as they are probably my greatest asset. I had two forehand huck attempts as well, and while one was completed, they both sucked. So reclaiming the long throws will be the immediate goal.
I get to play in a tournament this weekend on a shortsided team, so hopefully I'll have lots of opportunity to work on stuff as as well as run a lot and improve my fitness. Should be a lot of fun.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Metaphysical Question of the Day
Pre-Script: Since I leave Dominica today, the use of this blog as a means to relate my travels ends, at least until I do more traveling. However, I plan to keep updating the blog mostly with things I find funny, interesting, or about ultimate. So, if that interests you, please keeping checking back. If you're only interested in hearing about what I'm doing in paradise... yeah, I'm leaving. Sorry.
Back to the point at hand: Having some downtime this morning while the others are getting money in Roseau, I have decided to entertain myself, and hopefully others, by relating a couple IM gems I've had recently. The first is dealing with stereotypes of Wellesley girls. I had just established with Emily that Shannon and Jesse thought Wellesley girls were either elitist lesbians or sluts who stole MIT men. Emily, while not agreeing, certainly undertood where the girls were coming from, and then commented to me that it's funny Wellesley girls get labled both as lesbians and man-stealers. To quote myself:
Me: That is funny Wellesley has both those lables
Me: What would be funnier was if it was the elitist lesbians who were stealing the men.
Me: Though that brings up the question of what use the men would be to the lesbians?
Me: Perhaps as ottomans....
So, MIT guys, watch out, you might end up as an ottoman.
and the other: Last night I was again throwing ideas out to Emily about things we can do together in August...
Me: Climb Mt. Washington
Me: Go see Junior Worlds in Boston
Me: Visit Fishie
Emily: She won't be there
Me: Won't be where? We'll go to where Fishie is.
Me: How can Fishie not be where Fishie is?
Indeed. That's an interesting question. Is it actually possible to not be where one is? In my upcoming two day absense from the internet, I leave you all to ponder that.
Back to the point at hand: Having some downtime this morning while the others are getting money in Roseau, I have decided to entertain myself, and hopefully others, by relating a couple IM gems I've had recently. The first is dealing with stereotypes of Wellesley girls. I had just established with Emily that Shannon and Jesse thought Wellesley girls were either elitist lesbians or sluts who stole MIT men. Emily, while not agreeing, certainly undertood where the girls were coming from, and then commented to me that it's funny Wellesley girls get labled both as lesbians and man-stealers. To quote myself:
Me: That is funny Wellesley has both those lables
Me: What would be funnier was if it was the elitist lesbians who were stealing the men.
Me: Though that brings up the question of what use the men would be to the lesbians?
Me: Perhaps as ottomans....
So, MIT guys, watch out, you might end up as an ottoman.
and the other: Last night I was again throwing ideas out to Emily about things we can do together in August...
Me: Climb Mt. Washington
Me: Go see Junior Worlds in Boston
Me: Visit Fishie
Emily: She won't be there
Me: Won't be where? We'll go to where Fishie is.
Me: How can Fishie not be where Fishie is?
Indeed. That's an interesting question. Is it actually possible to not be where one is? In my upcoming two day absense from the internet, I leave you all to ponder that.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Time Spent as the 3rd Wheel
Tonight is our last night in Dominica [tear]. Currently we are spending it packing as opposed to raging. As our month in paradise comes to a close, it's interesting to reflect on the changes in group dynamic that have occured. A few days before we flew here, we had never met each other and aside from meager attempts at small talk were very quiet. It took island life and having nothing to do in the evenings but talk (and a certain amount of Caribbean rum) to really loosen us up. The first couple weeks when Henry and Glen were here we generally hung out and talked after dinner every night. We got to know each other and made fun of the lame Texas A&M people. Stories were told. Fun was had.
The addition of the CSUSB people and the departure of Glen added another wrinkle. Glen's consistent Gin and Tonic induced post dinner chill sessions were gone, replaced at times by harder drinking and at other times by awkward silence as we all stared at computer screens. Occasionally a CSUSB girl would drop by and talk for a bit, but generally the group of us gave off too cliquish a feel for her to stay apparently.
Anytime a group is together for a while I feel they tend to slowly divide into smaller circles. With 6 people that's not really possible, though I've noticed we've tended to spend more time alone. I tend to be on my computer, crusing World Cup or Ultimate Frisbee news and talking to Emily. Matt tends to talk to his girlfriend on the phone, go to bed early, and play computer games. Shannon I think hangs out either in the general area with me and a couple others or with the girls from the other group. Clay has been reading a lot and going to bed early. Richard and Katelyn are hooking up now, which while great for them, has put a damper on hanging out, as they are constantly trying to be alone and everyone else gets this unwelcomed or 3rd wheel feeling. None moreso than me I think, as I usually stay up the latest after them because I'm talking online. I can definitely tell that around 11 or so, they're just waiting for me to leave. So I can tell that after this long in a place with nothing to do in the evening that we're wearing on each other, which is really to be expected.
What happens when we get back to Arkansas will be interesting. I don't really know how much longer the Richard/Katelyn thing will play out. Richard and Matt will be home essentially. I will be close to home and playing ultimate 3 times a week with Fayetteville people. Shannon and Clay will still be thousands of miles from home in a strange area. I think that we'll continue the trend of having more individual time, but there will be more do to, so we'll notice it less, and then enjoy the time spent as a group hanging out more. We shall see.
The addition of the CSUSB people and the departure of Glen added another wrinkle. Glen's consistent Gin and Tonic induced post dinner chill sessions were gone, replaced at times by harder drinking and at other times by awkward silence as we all stared at computer screens. Occasionally a CSUSB girl would drop by and talk for a bit, but generally the group of us gave off too cliquish a feel for her to stay apparently.
Anytime a group is together for a while I feel they tend to slowly divide into smaller circles. With 6 people that's not really possible, though I've noticed we've tended to spend more time alone. I tend to be on my computer, crusing World Cup or Ultimate Frisbee news and talking to Emily. Matt tends to talk to his girlfriend on the phone, go to bed early, and play computer games. Shannon I think hangs out either in the general area with me and a couple others or with the girls from the other group. Clay has been reading a lot and going to bed early. Richard and Katelyn are hooking up now, which while great for them, has put a damper on hanging out, as they are constantly trying to be alone and everyone else gets this unwelcomed or 3rd wheel feeling. None moreso than me I think, as I usually stay up the latest after them because I'm talking online. I can definitely tell that around 11 or so, they're just waiting for me to leave. So I can tell that after this long in a place with nothing to do in the evening that we're wearing on each other, which is really to be expected.
What happens when we get back to Arkansas will be interesting. I don't really know how much longer the Richard/Katelyn thing will play out. Richard and Matt will be home essentially. I will be close to home and playing ultimate 3 times a week with Fayetteville people. Shannon and Clay will still be thousands of miles from home in a strange area. I think that we'll continue the trend of having more individual time, but there will be more do to, so we'll notice it less, and then enjoy the time spent as a group hanging out more. We shall see.
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