Doin' Work

Check back in later for the report. It'll be at least mediocre, I promise.

Edit: Slept 19 hours ish. Time to do actual work. Blag'll happen later.

So. I fall asleep at around 9 the night before to be a responsible frisbee player and get a good amount of sleep before a tournament the next day. Plus, I was supposed to go drop my car off at the mechanic before the tournament, so I had to wake up extra special early. Of course, one of my friends also playing in the league called me at 1am to see if he could get a ride, and I couldn't fall asleep until 5. Thanks to some creative scheduling I got my sister to take my car to the mechanic for me, so I got an extra hour out of that.

Breakfast was a chocolate chip muffin and some diet pepsi, because fake sugar is how champions are made. After trolling the SCG forums and stealing my sister's socks, we were good to go.

Game 1 was the social league semis against Powder, the 2 seed (by 1 point in the point differential). We were a bit short staffed, especially on men. We started about fifteen minutes late. I started off alright with a early layout grab to save possession (I don't layout for points obv.) and solid play. Unfortunately after taking the first point of the game we gave up three straight to go down 1-3, and the game ended up going to hard cap with us losing 9 - 6. Our big studs (B-Ri, Ercan, Will) didn't really put up a fight against Dasky, and it showed. I think if we were allowed to play the game out until 15 we would have made our comeback, but we have to play by the tournament rules and my social league team was knocked out. On the opposite side of the bracket Green knocked off White, meaning that Edson was the only player left that could get the fabled double win.

I had about fifteen minutes between games and decided to spend it sitting on bench under an umbrella drinking water. No, it wasn't raining. It was completely clear and about 90 degrees, and it was only noon, meaning it would get hotter.

Not much to talk about in Game 2. We took half 8-2 and won 14-8 after getting soft-capped. I didn't play much -- I really only came in on D-points to keep our studs fresh for offense. I got torched one or two times but other than that played alright. Pete started getting really pissed around point 3 and that was really the end of that game. Once than man learns to control his anger he'll be a far better player. Regardless, we advance to the finals and keep Edson's dream alive.

Both leagues got a bye to eat pizza and hear league awards. On my team Sonny got best handler for the men, Caitlin got MVP for women, Liv got best cutter for men. Can't disagree too much, although Ercan put it best when he said that Sonny wasn't even the best handler on his team.

I got recruited to play some pickup in between games and decided I would play as a Standler in order to keep my throws fresh but not get too tired before the finals. My pickup team ended up crushing the other one, but they weren't really fair teams.

Finals. Orange vs. Green. On paper Orange definitely has the advantage. Squeege, Q, Flash and Will match up favorably against Sonny, CG, Ercan and Liv, although not by much. We had the MVP for women so we had the advantage there. We had one or two more subs than them.

The first half was definitely Orange's, and if you only watched that, it'd be easy to think that the game went as the first half did and they won. Squeege had his way with Liv in the first half and made some very impressive skies and deep runs. We stayed in the game with CG taking Q deep when Squeege was out a few times and Caitlin doing the same on their women. Half ended at 6-8 them but it felt worse.

Ercan said that the only way we are going to beat them is to start putting a body on Squeege because if he gets a clean jump off there is no way we can beat him, or them for that matter. We received on half and it was all Green from there. We won the game to three with an amazing layout D by Liv against Squeege and we rode that momentum the rest of the game. Our 1-2 subs normally would not have mattered, but Will, after playing two games earlier but needing to play more points than I did, started getting calf cramps. He played through them the best he could but almost every other point was stopped by him needing to come out. Their lack of depth showed, as they had to put 2% in for way too many points (imagine a slower, worse version of me) and me, Edson, and Chip had our way with him. Liv made an impressive layout grab on a huck by Ercan and later skied Squeege on the penultimate point. The game was tied at 9's and we ended up running off 6 straight to take the game and the championship, 15-9. Edson lives the dream of being a double champ. Sonny survived the best handler heckles all game, as did Will, who won the spirit award (every time he caught it it was a "spirit catch", every time he threw it it was a "spirit throw", and he used the power of Heart). For winning we got a bottle of champagne and a trophy to drink it out of. Pictures, handshaking, etc. There was also way too much pizza so I got to take one home. We don't get to keep it because they are going to get the team color and year of every winner etched into it.

I'm excited to try to repeat next year, and to outperform my draft position. Hopefully I did enough work this year to earn some respect -- its tough to break into this crowd.

Let me tell you, it sure feels nice to win. Quite honestly, I'm hooked. There won't be any question next season if I want it, trust me.

Stuff

When I don't play ultimate I feel the need to talk like I know something about it. I also like to read articles written by other people and then try to expand on it like it's something I wrote. I also refuse to believe in transitions.

Anyway.

The biggest problem with the team last year was dedication. Dedication to the team and dedication to get better. Not a single person on the team went without a period of time when they were questioning their priorities and where they stood in regards to the team. This doesn't mean you can't take a week off if you're feeling burnt out, but a lot of improvement was lost when people just didn't show up for a month, or something to that effect.

This starts with the captains. They're captains for a reason -- they lead. When the captains don't show up because they just don't feel like it, other players on the team see that as acceptable behavior. Captains set the tone for the rest of the team. This goes for practice attendance, intensity, and injury management. A good portion of the team walks through practice, plays through injury, and that's even if they show up. It is no coincidence that some of the captains have those habits. As a captain you cannot expect people to listen to you if you don't even listen to you.

The tone of next season from the beginning must be dedication. If practices start at 5, that means the captains are there at 430. If it ends at 7, that means the captains leave at 730. You show the team that you are willing to put in the extra time. Similarly, if you establish that practice starts on time, people will show up on time. It's awkward to have to run around when everyone else is doing stretches.

A course in time-management would be a good idea for many of our players who feel they are among the best on the team. Last semester I registered far after all the freshmen and the worst conflict I had was class going to 420(LOL) twice a week. And I had two additional days off every week. And my earliest class was 1050. So don't act like you can't schedule around practice. Sure, some classes are only offered at a certain blahblahblah. That one class isn't five times a week and if it is then I don't know why you are complaining about going to tournaments if you can't go to practice. You get papers and projects assigned at least weeks in advance with almost all teachers handing out a syllabus with the due dates for EVERYTHING on it on the first day of classes. That means, with proper scheduling, you should never miss a practice due to homework. Ever. You know when everything is due ahead of time, there is no excuse. You know when your midterms are, you know when your finals are. Don't act like a teacher told you to do a 20 page research paper in 2 days, because they don't.

I said this before, but the only perfect mindset is one that is set on being perfect. You work 100% in practice because you want to get better. You show up early, stay late, throw during the day, go to the gym (OOPS WELLNESS CENTER) because you want to get better. You are not satisfied with how much you improved (Although you are happy with it) because you are not yet perfect.

I don't expect everyone to show up to practice 5/5 times a week (even though its very possible), but anything under 3/5 means you simply aren't trying to come. I understand it is too late to redo your schedule now (kinda), but next semester is a different story.

I don't want to waste another freshmen class by having a bunch of veterans show up and set a tone of goofing around and not trying to get better. That is what pickup is for (PS we desperately need to have pickup on Sundays). Even if the first few practices aren't gung-ho ultimate (lets not scare them away), people should still be at least running 100%. We don't want to establish a culture of jogging during practice. We are going to get 50 people next fall that want to play Ultimate, it is our job to keep them interested.

Practice is to make the team better. You should practice throwing on your own time -- when we can only get our full roster to a practice once a week I'd rather not spend 30 minutes of that on breaking the mark when people can do that by themselves or at a less than full practice. Strategy and team cohesiveness are something that can really only be practiced with everyone there. I don't want to cut 20 minutes out of every practice by throwing around -- we already do a warm up drill to start every practice, why do I need to warm up again. If you want to warm up your throws even more, show up early.

Also, my biggest pet peeve is the "take a few minutes and stretch whatever else you need" after we do team stretches. What else could you need to stretch? We stretch everything, that's why everyone stretches. At most two people will do an additional stretch and for the rest of the five minutes people mess around and cool down. It seems like the time is just used to plan the rest of the practice. If someone really needs to stretch something else out, there should be time from when people run their lap to when we start stretches or even during the normal transition time between things. If multiple people are finding a problem with having something not stretched enough, then they should bring it up with a captain and get it integrated into normal stretches.

I think an issue with a lot of the players is that they don't feel like they're a part of something bigger. They are only concerned with themselves. They don't realize that they are part of a team. Personally, I get better for two reasons. To make myself better, and to make the team better. I am driven by two separate motivations, and I think that helps me stay focused. A lot of the team doesn't have the second drive. If we can make them feel more a part of a team they will put more into it.

I think that's it. I always think of more ideas and then forget them because outlines are for squares.

And I took the airbounce out of my backhands. They are much nicer now.

And I didn't re-read this for glaring grammatical errors like I normally do. So eat it.

PS http://www.the-huddle.org/features/college-ultimate-a-review/what-defines-a-nationals-level-team/

PPS It just occured to me that for every point you are down (EX: 11-7), your defense has to score that many points(4 in this case). I guess that means if we are down a good amount we would need to put another O player or two on the field for D-points in order to make sure we get our breaks.

This post is lackluster, but ultimately (GET IT) necessary

The ride up started rather uneventfully; Rob didn't back into Brad's Car, everyone had a seat, and we didn't get lost. Yeah, I used a semi-colon back there. What up. The house was pretty badass with a very open floor plan and sweet retro-style chairs and stuff. The dog kept barking and the birds annoyed the fuck out of me, but such is life.

We left to go to Wegmans, which I later found out is the greatest place on earth besides Pizza Hut during it's Lunch Buffet hours. With only minimal direction mishaps, we arrive at Weggles (yeah, a pet name for a supermarket) and I was drawn in immediately by the Chinese food.  Although somewhat overpriced and somewhat lackluster, it was definitely food. The General Tso's was actually spicy. It was kind of scary.  We bought a lot of bagels and Eli bought some rice-cakes or something.  

The rest of the night was rather uneventful. I got a couch cause I'm just cool. Some people went to Rob's brother's comedy show and the rest hung out. Bridget tried to sleep, Rob prevented that.

We woke up at an unusually appropriate hour and ate bagels. The owner of the house left us some extra bagels and orange juice which got nomnom'd pretty quickly. We left on time and only got lost once we got to the fields, which resulted in us actually being there with enough time to warm-up. Throwing, running, stretching, normal warming things. Threw in a baby bit of dynamic warm-up but not enough to full quench my hunger, if one can actually quench hunger. 

Game one was against SUNY-Buffalo and was typical New Paltz. Drops all around, swilly throws all around. I don't remember much, but I remember a distinct lack of dump and swing action, and far too many hammers. We ended up losing by something like 15-5? Scott Kuhner ends up going to the hospital after sacrificing his right hand in order to save us all from a wild pack of ravaging rabid alliterating alley-sabertooth-cats. He got some Vicodin out of the deal, so it's probably a net-gain. As a side-note, SUNY-Buffalo ended up qualifying for Regionals.

Our quick loss gave us effectively a bye and plenty of time to check out the sweet playground, which was sweet. I got really dizzy, woodchips down my pants, and some people almost died. I might be exaggerating, I don't think I got that dizzy.

Game two was against SUNY-Geneseo.  We played slightly better than game one, but also against probably easier competition. Tom came down with a case of Appendicitis (diagnosed by me) but still played like a champ for two or three points. One of those points was the most beautiful dismantling of a zone defense I have ever seen, with swings and dumps and good cuts and only one hammer. It was pretty. I think we lost like 15-7, but I like to make things up.

We had forever until Game Three, which ended up being on the other fields (AKA the wind tunnel). Unfortunately, all but seven players decided to leave and either get pizza or make sure Scott survived the sabertooth attack. This left us not warmed up against Potsdam. Luckily, we skullfucked them. We won 13-12 after getting soft-capped at 11-11 and hard capped at 12-11 (our favor). We played pretty Conservative zone-offense besides when we had giant hucks of doom, which many players threw. The wind was pretty bad, but we played better in it and some players like Chichester in particular did not give up on discs. Speaking of 2x4, he learned how to stop people from crashing the cup, which was beautiful. I needed a new pair of pants after I saw a few of the stops he made. In other news, Charlie threw a backhand during the game. I needed another pair of pants.

Game 4 was against Ithaca college. We came out motivated to do one thing -- go home. Half was something gross like 8-1. Many of our players were in the car to keep warm or to keep from injuries, and about halfway through the 2nd half I had taken my cleats off. Despite this, for whatever reason, we closed the gap and ended the game at like 15-11, or something not gross. The Freshmen that played played out of their minds and kept it close while Rob and Ben played savage, or at least close to it. 

We got back with no trouble and I immediately passed out on the couch until David woke me up asking for money for pizza. I obliged and fell asleep until David woke me up and told me to eat pizza. I obliged and went back to the couch where I wanted to sleep but was too busy obliging and eating pizza. A lot of people left to go to the comedy show again while the rest of us stayed to watch Harry Potter 4. I had planned to "Accidentally" fall asleep on the coach again but Cedric dying was too much of an emotional drain and I accidentally passed out on the floor. Oopsies. 

I woke up in the morning pissed off that I didn't sleep on the couch, pissed off that my back hurt because I slept on the floor, and pissed off that the pizza tasted even worse the next day. Cookies were delishlish, especially the Oatmeal Raisin, although the chocochocochip ones were surprisingly good. People had tea, I signed a card, we got into cars, I fell asleep. Good deal.

The owner of the house seemed pretty OK with us staying there, so hopefully if Cornell hosts it again we can stay there....again. Plus they have a Pinball machine. (Insert 'The Who' reference here)

Rider, Day 2

We got an e-mail late Saturday night. Three people looked at it and had decided that we didn't need to show up until 1020. Upon further review today I can see how that logic is flawed. It was. We got a call from some bro that BJC knows (AKA Everyone) and missed our first game. Don't worry, it was double elimination. Before we left, Rob's mom (BEST MOM YES) again had cookies, brownies, cupcakes, coffee and tea ready for us before we left. 

We show up somewhat on time and meet up with David to find the field for the 2nd game. It was Goucher again. They wanted to go eat wings instead of play Frisbee, although they did propose to play a game of WAH for it. I was happy to go that route, but the legislation never passed. We got our first win of the tournament. Because of this bye we now didn't have a game until 2pm. For those keeping score at home, that is a lot of hours to wait. 

BJC and David played for Montclair St. to pass the time. Rob, some blonde chick sitting out for Montclair, and I played Fantasy. I of course 1st picked some guy wearing a hat that was number 4. Everyone knows that the best player on the team is both always a handler and always wears number 4. Rob picked a Freshman. This would lead one to beleive that I would easily win this game. Unofrtunately, I lost -2 to 6. I failed to notice that Number 4 (Montclair) had a nosering. Thems the beats.

We ate some (someone ate a lot of them) cookies that we had from Rob's house and went to go get Bagels at some place that was probably a Bruggers and just changed its name. David paid for my bagel (Sugar Cinnaminidfjksfhsdkljf obv.) because I am a bum and my money was in Rob's car. The bagel was passable. It tasted like food.

Our final game of the tournament was against some team wearing black. Our injuries were alright, but people were definitely tired. I liked our chances considering it was our only game that day and David was fresh. We went down some ungodly amount of points (5?) through our normal tactics of dropping passes and swilly throws. At some point they threw zone at us for two points and then never threw zone again. I wish we weren't so completely dominant at dismanting a zone so we could play against it more since that is really my only strength as a handler (ten yard forehands). Regardless, we came back after half and we got soft-capped making the game to 12, brought it to 11-9, and got hard-capped after scoring to make it 11-10.

This was our third game losing by 1 point. Two were comebacks, one we lost it after having 3 game points (two on offense). There are several reasons behind this.

List:

• We take too long to get into games. Either we don't warm up enough (Showing up the fields late, Jerking off, etc.) or we don't get mentally into the game. We often come back after half because we spent the entire first half warming up.
• We don't make mid-game adjusments, often waiting until half. This is waiting too long. We can't give up 3-4 points trying to sort stuff out until half. 
• We get complacent(sup 2x4) when up by a few points. We think that we are just a better team than them and don't play as motivated. This also happens when we are down.
• There are three ways to handle pressure. One is to be dwarfed by it and have your game suffer. Two is to ignore it and play your normal game. Three is to use it and play above yourself. There is no one on this team that is in the third category. 
• That was a list inside a list. What up.
• We don't have a kill-switch. We can't say on the line "We're taking this point" and know that we're taking the point. This isn't to say we don't have the play to be able to run something and get the point, but we need to be able to just turn it on and take a point or half.
• Taking too long on the line. We get hard-capped enough that we should not be taking a minute+ figuring out who is covering who and what side to force. This is a simple thing that can be taken care of before the line is out and we literally needed ten seconds longer to force universe point in our last game.
• I forgot the rest. Should have written an outline.

I rode home with David/Ellen/Tom. I played ff5 and had to pee really bad.

Props --

Rob's mom. The best.

Fields. Not the best, but at least they were a normal size. They also didn't cancel the tournament even though the fields got owned.

Alex for not turning the disc over like ever.

Rob for finding out the password to his wireless internet

Wireless internet

Slops --

Sloppy fields

Rob's car almost exploding

$9 tolls

Tolls

unnessecarily long slops lists

Bridges

2-3 subs

injuries

Dropping pancakes

Getting caught in the thunderstorm while carrying my stuff inside and then getting bluff checked by the rain and Tom.

I have come to the conclusion that this team could be anywhere from the best team at a tournament to the worst depending on how many pancake catches we want to drop. We easily would have won 4/6 games this weekend if we caught most of them and would have been in our remaining two games instead of getting blown out by ten.  

This is honestly because of one thing -- Practice intensity. Every sports program places a premium on practice intensity because it is difficult to play at one speed all week/month and then just turn it on for the weekend. Not sprinting(sprinting>running) during drills and things like that affect your play during the weekend even if you are already a good player. Sloppy play and organization during practice translates into sloppy play and organization at a tournament. Every player at Rider droped passes, every player made bad throws, every player made poor decisions. You can always get better. 

Sports.

Rider, Day 1

Ride down was a car ride. Lots of tolls. Thank goodness Rob has EZPass. Stopped at a gas station and didn't have to pump our own gas. That is the one redeeming quality of New Jersey. That and BJC.

Night 1 consisted of Tom walking in and breaking Rob's previously-broken-but-was-fixed-until-Tom couch. We then ordered pizza and Rob's mommy (best mom evar, btw) went and got it. We ate a lot and had a lot left over. Tom I think ate an entire pizza by himself. We then watched Quantum of Solace, or everyone else watched while I played FF5. We dabbled in American Beauty at some point and some other movie for a bit I think too.

BJC claimed the good couch and I was relegated to the broken one. I ended up staying awake with Rob waiting for Ninja Steve, but attempted to sleep just before I got here. I tried thinking of random trivia (QBs, RBs, DB's for every NFL Team) to fall asleep, but I couldn't remember the 4th team in the AFC South (Tennessee Titans) for literally 30 minutes and that kept me up forever. I think I fell asleep around 3.

Someone got a text or phone call around 615, which everyone thought was the alarm to wake up fo' reals. Except me. I ain't no fool. The real party started at 630, when everyone got suited up and climbed upstairs to find Rob's Mom (Best mom evar, btw) to have gotten us cookies, tea, and coffee. This was a morale booster and a tummy filler. We stepped outside to find it raining, which pretty much confirms the notion that I am the team's little raincloud. Such is life. 

We got bagels on the way. They were warm and were primarily used as a warming device.  The ride was about an hour long and we somehow did not get lost. We got there and JO'd for a while. Some people went potty, some people put cleats on. Regardless, not much happened. I concluded that with plastic bags coming out of my feet and a survivor doo-rag on I was literally uncoverable. If you(the reader) are well-versed in literature, that would be foreshadowing.

Our first round was against some team. I think it was Middletown, but I don't know. They had white jerseys. They were legitimately a bad team. Unfortunately, our team was worse. Alex was the only player who had any game. Ihop was closed for most members of the team (No pancake catches, get it!?) and throws were swilly or rushed. It was like 3-5 them and it ended up being 4-12. 

Our excellent national ranking got us a 2nd round bye. We piled into Rob's car and some of us napped. Most of us ate bagels. The car got very smelly. I got lost going to the bathroom before the next game. 

Our 2nd game was against St. Joes. They had really nice Jerseys. Again, Ihop was closed for most of the team and we couldn't get anything going. We held out ground and I think the score was 3-3 (They were not pleased to be tied with a team that has T-Shirts for jerseys) and ended up losing 4-12, or something similar to that. I also heckled a lot this game. Some Ultimate girl on the sideline either wanted me or wanted to Heckle me. I couldn't quite tell. This team would go on to be re-seeded for Day 2 as the #1 seed. 

The previous two games don't have much about them because it is difficult to say whether or not our offense worked or if we just didn't catch. 

Game three was against UNH. They had collared jerseys, presumably to intimidate a team without them. They looked surprisingly classy. Despite them being a very similar team to us (Slow) they were up 7-2 at half. The first half looked a lot like our previous two games. For some reason after half, however, we stepped out game up. Ihop reopened for business, making our Vert Stacks actually work. The other team was probably in awe of such actions and we took five straight points to even it at 7-7. We continued to play a solid game, with Stephen Nachriner playing professionally and I believe getting some bookends. Mitch I think got a layout D in this game, but it might have been earlier in the tournament, like game 1. The game was tied at 10's at the 15 minutes-to-go mark, and it went to 11's eventually. Unfortunately, due to roughly their entire team becoming open at once, they scored about thirty seconds before hard cap, winning 12-11. Although we won the second half 10-4, it wasn't quite enough. At the end of the game Brad had to leave, although not before realizing that he left his Les Claypool ticket in New Paltz. He said he could print it out and I'm assuming he did because we haven't seen him since.

Our final game of the day was against Goucher. In a similar position to us, Goucher had 4 subs (7 guys 4 girls) and was tired. We agreed to a shorted game (9 points). To decide pull we took two freshman on each team and balanced a waterbottle on their back while they kneeled down and then whichever team to knock of the bottle from 10 yards away with a disc, alternating possessions, got to decide pull. Of course we win. We decide to play D first. Tom O' Malley decided that it was his turn to be the Freshman superstar and play professionally. I believe we took half 5-3. Again, people were making their pancakes. I think our lack of subs (two for the last game, three all day) finally caught up to us, and they eventually tied the game at 8. Despite a courageous effort by BJC to not throw the game away we would, and they won it 8-9, putting us at 0-4 for the day, making my tournament record this year to 1-9. 

I slept on the car ride home, got into Rob's house and immediately started to drink. I didn't drink that much, probably because my body subconsciously told me how stupid it was. Rob's mom (best mom evar, btw) made us a literal feast of hot dogs, cheeseburgers, chili, and pasta for dinner, along with of course cookies/brownies/CUPCAKES. So good. We ate, returned to drink more beer and watched The Incredible Hulk. It wasn't all that incredible, but definitely better than the first one. Then everyone went to sleep and here I am.

We alternated between Ho and Vert most of the day, dabbling with the German Offense very early. In my opinion we didn't give the Germans enough time, especially because we weren't running it correctly. Regardless, Ho and Vert were probably equally productive. Vert, when executed properly, was much more effective than Ho executed properly. However, Vert was much more prone to turning into the Clusterfuck offense than Ho was. This made Ho more consistent, but Vert more explosive. We had many points of 1-2-3's on Verts. 

I personally played very poorly, and I think that is because I am in some of the worst physical shape of my life. I could not get open, my throws that went more than 20 yards were often swilly, and I only had one layout grab (I layed out for two more that were catchable but I didn't get a hand on them). 

Alex was easily the MVP of Day 1 with very few turnovers and solid fundamentals throughout the day. Stephen Nachriner and Tom split MVP honors for the games we didn't suck in, but Alex played solid then as well. Tom had chances for a bunch of bookends and I believe in Game 3 the Freshman Duo had nearly 1 million D's in a row. 

Our day two chances rest on a few things:

Firstly, is the injury status of Stephen Nachriner, who is currently out/limited with a Groin/Hernia-area injury. He played through it later in the day but was definitely hindered and was in severe pain. Ninja Steve likewise had injury problems with cramps in both calves but still saved my swilly throws from the ground. I have a blister.

BJC and Alex went to bed early, so we should have some decent legs for tomorrow. We'll see how I feel, but I am not exactly a speedster regardless of my sleeping pattern. (despite what my cleats say). 

How well we pancake. Our last two games were games because we figured out how. Hopefully it doesn't  take us 2.5 games to figure it out again.

I probably forgot a ton, I probably got a ton wrong. I only spellchecked it and didn't read it over It's 2am. S my D. 

P.S. My NCAA bracket is garbage.

See you tomorrow for part 2. Or the next day.

Nocternal Decisions ends Frisbee Remissions

That's right, I have a rhyme in my title. What up.

This is a long post. It was a long weekend. Plus there is a bonus section. Get amped, I am.

There will be a ***** when the Frisbee talk starts happening. Do a CTRL + F to get there.  But I warn you, if you skip the rest of it, there will be about 3 lines of text and nothing funny. If you sift through the meat of the blag post, you will find at least 1 funny joke. I think.

Friday started off as any other would -- Sleep through my first class, fail a quiz in my second, and sleep through my third. Normally I grace Kate McCoy's class with my presence, but there was a pressing issue at hand. Namely, Corn Rows.

Kelsey, Master Hairdresser (among other things) got to work at approximately 3pm. By 315 it was deemed impossible to Corn Row my incredibly silky and annoyingly straight hair. An audible was needed. Enter lots-of-little-ponytails, AKA Coolio. By 420 (LOLOLOLOL) I looked like a douche bag. Mission complete.

It was at that time that I went out to find my fellow Nocturnal Decisioners. Apparently I was not the only one attempting to look like a giant douche. David got a Mohawk. Charlie got rid of a lot of his hair and the seed was planted to make him do the Dan Miller facial hair look. 

We had planned to leave around 5pm.  We left the parking lot around 615. Right on time.

David and myself had a command center in the backseat. I read Magic: The Gathering (LOL) articles while David played an SNES emulator. Ben napped instead of navigating. Charlie burped a lot. Bridget was not thrilled. Eventually, we reached our destination of Rob's House, Staten Island. 

We enter. His mom is less than thrilled to see Coolio and Mohawk Man. She resists the urge to make us sleep in the car. 

Eventually, because I don't know how many minutes passed by, Rob's Mama feeds us. It was delicious. Spaghetti (some other pasta was there too but me, David, and I think Charlie ate it all. It was a weird shape), Meatballs/Sausage/Marinara, Bread, and Garlic Bread were served alongside Water, Coke, and The Elixir (Diet Soda). I of course took down The Elixir. 

We went to a parking lot and tossed around for a bit. I dabbled in IO flicks in an effort to learn them. I have, again, come to the conclusion that they are deep magic, similar to dodging a Blue Shell while in first.

We made our way downstairs eventually (We got side tracked by Rob's game of Ping Pong or Beer Pong or something. It was a Bridget-sized Ping-Pong table). To put it lightly, Rob's basement was The Gift. Kitchen, Potty room, Bar, Giant HD TV, comfy carpet, 2 reclining comfy couches, and a Fireplace. It was amazing. It was at this time that we started our activities for the night.

Myself, Rob, Charlie, and Ben played Risk (Normal, not New Paltz) variety while Bridget and David watched Star Wars: Episode 1. Bridget was sewing or knitting or something and took a power nap. David might have too. Who the fuck knows.

Risk was epic. I got the choice of South America and Australia to start, so naturally I took both. Ben was dealt 3 in Africa, so even though I had 2 he took it. He also placed 2-3 troops in his one country in every continent to annoy the fuck out of everyone.  Charlie was dealt most of Europe and took it without much of a fight. Rob was likewise dealt North America and took it with little resistance (Besides Ben's fucking 3 troops everywhere). Ben and I had a brief truce while establishing ourselves and once that ended I broke his Continent from Australia I believe 3 rounds in a row. Charlie was also broken a few times in that span, while Rob and I remained untouched. I was broken only once before the mayhem began. I forget exactly how it happened, but I believe it started when Charlie turned in and broke Rob through Greenland. That started a chain of events leading to Rob relocating to some country in Asia. Then I think Charlie spread out too much, got very broken in Europe, and then I think Ben took him out taking his Risk cards. The next turns were Rob making ill-advised attacks that got the luck of the roll to severely damage both me and Ben, but because of how the dice were going that day, we all ended up very spread out playing off only the risk cards. Eventually, after Rob failed to kill me to get my cards, and then Ben failed to kill through Rob to get to me for my cards, and after Ben failed to kill me again later, I turned in and swept from Australia to Central America to kill Ben for his cards and the win. 

TL;DR version -- I won cause Risk Cards are rigged.

That was a lot of text on Risk that no one is going to read. Eat it.

After that I sat on the couch and my knee hurt for no reason. I proceeded to drink soda, Vitamin I, and Rob's Mama's cookies. Delish. 

The not-Bridget people dumped a giant tub of legos on the floor and built battle cruisers. Rob built a rescue boat or something, Charlie built something with 15(?) cannons, and Ben built something weird. What did David build? A tea party in a castle. 

We finished 3 Star Wars movies before falling asleep around 5am I believe. Well, David fell asleep before the 3rd one was over I think. Bridget got Rob's brother's bed, Rob got his Bed, David got a couch, Ben got a couch, and me and Charlie rocked the floor together. It was cute. 

We woke up around 2pm. Rob and his Mama reheated delicious dinner from the night before and we ate at 3 or 4. It was then told to us that she would be making Roast Beef with Mashed Potatoes and gravy for dinner. 

YES.

We watched Episode 4 and 5 before dinner. Maybe only 4, I don't remember. 

I think we finished eating at like 8. I don't quite remember. Then we started to get ready. Charlie shaved his facial hair in a manner dedicated to Dan Miller. Normal preparations happened.

We took a few pit-stops on the way to the Superdome. First was King Kullen (a supermarket). We walked in with Mohawk Boy and White Supremacist Charlie together, and Coolio somewhere behind. We picked up some Wa Wa, Gatorade, Powerbars (Ben got Tigerbars or some garbage), and Bananas. White Supremacist Charlie had a conversation with the cashier about life. Bridget broke the self-checkout. All was right in the world. We stopped at CVS to get 5-hour Energies and had a semi-fight about tax and how much money to give. There was no tax.

We arrive at the dome at pretty much exactly 1015 after only two wrong turns, a record for a GUNX tournament. We all went potty and then registered and started to toss around. 

*****

We accidentally all put our stuff next to the Marist kids and start warming up. Charlie and Rob are on the same team with some other kid that I can't remember. I believe Bridget is on the same team as Chetti. Ben and I fly solo. Liz and Steve Balbour are on the same team.  My team name was the Fallen Angels. Of course, our team cheer is "F 'n' A".

My first round opponent was of course Bridget's team. A lot of hucks happened. Some girl got laid out by the biggest man this side of Rob. I thought she died. Apparently she didn't. I played alright. I didn't play that well on offense, but I skied someone for a D that I had no business skying (I guess I did) and faceguarded someone  deep to prevent another. I really need to look up to find out if that is legal, and I'm not sure why it wouldn't be besides a rule explicitly saying it's not. Ben thinks it is illegal, but I want to check. I threw a shitty pass to someone and it turned over. I believe that was one of two turnovers I made all day, which was pretty much the only redeeming quality of my performance. In the end Bridget's team beat mine by 2 despite us leading for most of it.

Of course, my team has a bye next. I walk around, heckle Dave, Ben, Rob, and Charlie a bit. I don't drink enough water. Bridget informs me that she kind of feels like dying, but isn't quite dead yet. I don't know how to handle the news.

Our third round opponent had no one I knew on it. I didn't play much this game, just by virtue of not getting in that much. David gave me a tip for marking that I knew but for some reason throughout the year(s) (jk just one year) I had forgotten. I (you) (everyone ever) needs to stay on their toes and bend their knees and be in a good athletic stance on the mark. That is the best stance to move from and the best way to have a good mark. Regardless, My team ended up losing a heart breaker that went back and forth and eventually went to Universe point. (Rounds were 40 minutes running time and when time was called you stopped playing unless it was  tied. It was.) 0-2 so far.

I don't remember our 4th round, 3rd game, like at all. I know we won, bringing us to 1-2. Sorry bros.

We then had a 15 minute between pools break. I met up with Ben, had a powerbar, and found out that Bridget had in fact died. I then found out I had a first round bye (FML) and went to go eat pizza with Ben. Read any sports book or Ultimate website and they will tell you that Pizza is the best food for between rounds. Then, right before the round started, we each took our 5-hour Energy in hopes of being energetic and taking down a win next game.

My 4th game opponent was none other than Benjamin Campbell's team. I covered Ben for about 5 seconds before he moved and someone told me to switch. I don't remember much of this game either, as it was getting late and I don't remember anything after a certain point really. I know Ben's team won, but it was only by 2 or 3 I believe. We are now 1-3.

My 5th game was our biggest blowout of the day. We ended up winning by I think 5. I went to make a cut about 15 minutes into the game and rolled my ankle and pulled myself out immediately because I know that I have bad ankles and don't want to mess with it. Unfortunately, it was probably one of the worst times to sub and my team was less than thrilled. We ended up scoring on the possession anyways. I at some point went to make a deep cut and the other players on the team just wanted to give me a shot to get something so they put it up. About 15 yards out of the endzone my legs stopped working. Although the huck was a bit long, it was definitely catchable. Later in the game, in an effort to redeem myself, I threw a beautiful 45+ yard forehand for a point. No one saw that coming from the fat coolio. We had 7 guys and 4 girls for the entirety of that game, making Doober very tired.

I don't remember the 6th game except that we lost. We ended up 2-4 in Pool play.

We then had another 15-minute break at which point I got some Wa Wa with Ben and I think Will on the sidelines while they turned the lights off and played with lightups.  I ate some more pizza. We then went outside to check the schedules and learned we each had a bye. I think. I honestly don't remember if we had a bye, I just remember sitting around and eating pizza at some point. We then each played a game. I don't know who won my 13th place game because we were just messing around and often fielded 5-women lines. 

By the way David's team ended up winning. They got a yellow book for a prize. So jel.

Thats the end of frisbee.

We drove home and we talked some frisbee. We almost went to a Diner with Chetti and Liz and Steve and/or the Marist peoples but opted not to. We drove back to Rob's dropped off the dying Bridget, and went to one around the corner from Rob's house. It was delicious. Perhaps too delicious. We all got a lot of food and ate a lot and then paid and left. I don't remember too much of it. 

We got back and I claimed a couch immediately. I was prepared to fight to the death for it. Rob put on Nationals '04 and then went to bed. I watched all of it and Beau was really fast but couldn't throw. It was cool. I passed out between when someone put on '05 and the first pull of that game.

We woke up, packed, and left. I passed out in the car before we got on the highway and woke up in New Paltz. I think.

We all showered, for a while, and stumbled over to Has for victory. Then I stayed up until 6am and slept until 630pm. I went to bed the next night at 3pm (I think) and woke up at 2pm, despite setting my alarm and having 4 classes. 

BONUS SECTION FUCK YES.

I went to videotape Indoor tonight as Ben, Owen, Brad, and 2x4 were playing. Unfortunately, 2x4 decided to not check the batteries and I got about 2 points of footage total. Oh well. I think I got him blatantly not using 2 hands to catch and then dropping it. 

I didn't watch a ton of Ben or Owen playing, but Brad played pretty solid. He has the same problem as 2x4 of having incredible speed so they have to respect him deep. They drag their man deep and then don't realize when to cut back in so they lose their opportunity. 2x4 also needs to stop telegraphing his throws because he gets handblocked too much and can't get the throw he wants off enough because the person marking him knows where he is going. If he doesn't look down his man or throws in a fake before throwing to the person he wants to he will be fine.

I'd write more but it is late and I can't remember what else. Plus this post is already ungodly long. This was 2507 words long. Ish