Because I never needed the protection of a fuckin' gun

Quite the season opener.

Only ran like 10 miles last week, but Tom showed me these sweet ab/chest home exercises that are awesome. I bet by this time next week I will have control over my boobs individually.

Freshmen are looking good, both in numbers and quality. I'm a bit nervous about how many will show up for week two, but I'm keeping my hopes up. They sure do love partying, though.

Gotta get my eating under control, especially for the weekend. I think I am going to only drink once a week, but that is quite a difficult proposition. Twice tops, definitely.

I'm gonna go for 3+ miles until Friday because I will be out of town for most of the weekend and be unable to get any work done. I can still do pushups on the road, though.

I feel like I am in better shape, but haven't quite noticed it on the field yet. Hopefully we get to battle someone soon so I can see how my powers have progressed.

Gotta love line breaks.

"Rather than focus on what you perceive as "wrong" in your game, or anything else, I would suggest focusing on a positive: what you are looking to accomplish, improve, change, grow, and build upon. What are you trying to accomplish? You might be trying to win more at Magic, qualify for (or win) the Pro Tour, win your FNM with an original deck, build a collection of cards, meet more people who share a common love for Magic, or be inducted into the Magic Hall of Fame. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, your strategy could vary.

Many of these things are things that a number of very intelligent and motivated people are also dedicated to doing, and by necessity, they cannot all be successful, at least at the moment. Rather than place expectations on yourself (“I will win this tournament, or else...”) or make hollow threats and lies to yourself (“... or else I will quit Magic”), you might instead take a long view of what it is you are trying to achieve. This tournament, this FNM, this PTQ, this PT, this year... attachment to any of these things can bring suffering."

"The point is that when you are looking for direction, when you are looking to figure out what you are doing wrong, what to change to get better results, the journey starts inside you. Sam Stoddard wrote an oft-referenced Magic article that helps shine a light on a useful way of looking inside in order to understand where you personally need to go: Creating a Fearless Magical Inventory. If you have not read it, I highly recommend it. If you are stuck on a plateau, even if you have read it, you may want to consider pulling the trigger and creating your own Fearless Magical Inventory."

--Patrick Chapin, http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/19885_Innovations_Getting_Your_Eyelids_Out_of_the_Way.html

It's been a pretty bad week, but I have enough excuses that I don't feel bad about it. I have been walking and doing my pushups/excruciators, so it is not a total loss. I'm ready to start it back up fresh on Monday, and the gym is open long enough that I can't even use a deadly hangover as an excuse.

We'll be doing a combine-style practice for the first week or two; get everyone comfortable and acclimated to college before the real stuff starts. Wednesdays will be fun.

I will be in the gym 5+ days a week, or at least running someplace. I want to throw a lot of frisbees one day every week because I just don't know how to throw and it would probably help if the main handler on a team knew how to throw.

I am going to ask all of the returners to make their own Fearless Ultimate Inventory and post it someplace (I will be posting mine here, on the school blag, which everyone can use if they would like, someplace in my aparment, and maybe even Facebook), but if you want to get a head start I won't tell anyone. I'll send out the message detailing the exercise along with my personal Fearless Ultimate Inventory to give everyone an idea of what it is. If you are looking to get a head start, the Magical version is linked above and my first inventory is someplace back in April I think.

There will probably be a returners team meeting someplace, but that hasn't been finalized nor even discussed. It is probably a good idea to have one, though.

Didn't pack tonight. Ate a lot of cheese and it gave me a tummy ache. Drank a lot of water. Feeling the pain of eating a whole bag of Herr's Salt and Vinegar chips.

And we won a Team Incentive Pack!

Oh wait that was last week.

Except the first and fifteenth pretty much

Didn't play flawless in Social semis, but I don't think perfect play from me would have had us in the Finals. Our ladies ran savage, Sonny wasn't there, and the other handlers would prefer to throw a stall 8 desperation huck than dump it to me when I was poach calling for it. I did make a pretty sick layout grab but that was about it.

It was 8-7 in our favor in the finals, and the other team decided they wanted to win and we didn't. We jogged on defense, didn't respect their hucks, and didn't focus.

I got pissed off after they went up 12-8, went on, got scored on, and told the line (who was entirely B-line) "If we are going to lose, let's not lose like this" and we went on a roll and got a few points from capitalizing on White's turns and got to 13-11 Then most of the A-line came on, played lazy ( "I think they are going to give us this game"), and we lost 15-11.

We expected them to roll over, and they didn't. They wanted to win. We didn't.

At least I learned something.

Whoa.

Cold water is delicious.

191.8.

And I had a really bad week. This is cool.

EDIT: I ate pizza and diet pepsi : X

DOUBLE: At least my base set of pushups is up to 60.

I check cheddar like a food inspector

I was definitely not going to run tonight, but nothing really motivates you like WINNING A TEAM INCENTIVE PACK.

YES

EDIT: Until my headphones break. Walking an extra 2 miles, I guess.

DOUBLE EDIT: Just wrote all of the team bios. You have been warned.

T-T-T-T-T-TRIPLE EDIT: I am just really into pushups again. oops.

Goals

Some practice goals --

Start on time. We have limited practice time and it is imperative we use it efficiently.

Have a plan for every practice.

Team dynamic stretching before, team static stretching after.

Never walk. Ever. You don't walk in ultimate, you don't walk at practice.

Freshmen set up and take down the field.

If your team gets scored on, you sprint back to your line. No reason to conserve energy at practice.

Keep the intensity up. Positive energy all the time.

Without a doubt undoubtedly

"What step should you start with? The easiest one, of course! You want the step that will gain you the most ground on your way to your goal, the one that will create the best result."

-- Patrick Chapin, Next Level Magic

The biggest jump I could make in my game was to lose weight, so I am doing it. That doesn't take up my time while actually playing ultimate, so I needed something else. I was comically bad at backhands, a major flaw in my game. I addressed that. One should not neglect their strengths, but rather identify their biggest weaknesses and aim to bring that part of their game up to par. Ask yourself why you aren't getting the playtime you think you deserve, why you aren't starting over someone else, and address those problems. Do not accept your flaws as fact, as something concrete. Take a jackhammer to them and prove everyone wrong.

I didn't want to go to league today, but remembered I promised Paul Travers a ride so I went anyway. Turns out none of Green wanted to go either, and we took the forfeit win into a lock for a first round bye. My team sat on the sidelines and heckled the other two games, which was pretty fun.

While warming up for my actual game that didn't happen I tried to rework my backhand form and made a little bit of progress, throwing much more accurately into the wind than I had before. I know I still don't have it because I was only tossing them about 50 yards. Still, baby steps.

I noticed that my forehand huck is only accurate as long as I can use my normal throwing motion for it. For instance, whenever I have to throw it really far I totally change my motion in order to muscle it out and I lose most of my accuracy. That means I need to learn how to incorporate more of my body into my normal motion.

I didn't run today, but I walked the dog an extra time so it burned the same amount of calories that I have been the past few days. Fun fact -- walking burns almost as many calories as running, so while it is not nearly as effective for improving cardiovascular health or muscle gain, it helps us fatties lose some lbs.

Been doing a lot of GUNX paperwork lately -- got in the T.I.P application about a week ago and we find out on Monday if we get free stuff, and I just sent in the facilities request for about thirty minutes ago. Talked to Slip about some scrimmages and he seemed very interested.

I just can't wait to do a great lift at the gym and then walk down to practice.

If it was actually made out of ice and kept my drink cold

192.6.

I guess a diet consisting of grilled chicken, salad, eggs, and water will do that to you.

Whether he's on salary, paid hourly

Needed one win out of two today at Social to secure a first round bye. Two losses combined with White wining two would put us in the third seed. 1st game went to Universe, with us receiving. I picked up, moved it to the other handle, who threw a very catchable, although not perfect pass to one of our better cutters who ghost handed it. The other team didn't give us another shot and calmly moved it down for score.

We went down 3-1 in the next game and decided to play some defense, and ended up winning 6-4 to secure the 2seed for the playoffs.

I played almost savage, I think 3 points off in 2+ hours of gameplay, as I was the only one with throws again. My hucks were way off, especially my forehand. It was quite windy, but I just couldn't get anything to not blade. I had a lot of really good breaks, though, and once I layed off the bombs and started just breaking the mark literally every time I touched the disc we did a lot better.

Running today was a lot harder, but I was about twenty seconds faster than I was last night so who knows what that means. My lungs were absolutely fine; my legs were gassed before a half mile.

I stared at the diet pepsi in the store today for a solid thirty seconds before walking away.

Is treat everything like it's your first project

Played like 4 points today at summer league. We were up like 14-8 and turned on cruise control to end with with a sick layout from Brian at 15-12. Still haven't locked up a first round bye as there are two games left and 3 teams within 1 game of each other. 1 win in the next two weeks locks it up for us.

Fat Zac noticed that I don't know how to throw and tried to help me, but I only got a few tosses in before we had to play. He said that all the power comes from the hips and that I should be pretending that I am lifting something very heavy when I throw a backhand and that I need to get lower. I'll try to rework my motion to incorporate that. A big goal of mine for the fall semester is to rework all of my throws because I am honestly just muscling them out right now.

He was also teaching some other kids how to throw an IO flick and made a point to exaggerate the curve when teaching it, which I think is a great idea. It is much easier to teach the motion in when you exaggerate than when you only put a little curve on it.

Waking up after Golden Corral yesterday was the worst (sorry, 2nd worst), but I just drank two ices and became a dinosaur and all was well. With no partying on the horizon for the next two weeks I am likely to be clean aside from a few trips to Dinotopia, so we'll see if I can really lose some pounds. My GUTS shirt fits for the first time, well, ever.

I am really encouraged by this weekend, but it also shows that we all have a ton of work to do if we would like to make any noise.

I walked both dogs and ran two miles. Ate well, and I've been off gatorade for a whole week now. I don't drink nearly as much water as I did gatorade, but I feel as hydrated.

Three weeks left. Just stay hungry.