Two things

1. Eleazer Herbst is one hot guy.
2. I need to be fast.

I mean we're talking about

Practice. (For reference)

Had like 8 people who could play, other randoms showed up (sup Bridget, Meghantron, etc.) and we threw until probably 430 when Robert/Charles showed up. Warm ups stretching good stuff. Had the best end-zone drill the team has ever done, hands down. Laid out and I think dragged the toes to save our streak of two. We got to 5 a million times, 9 once, I think 14, and finally 16 ( goal was 15). People ran hard, and once the intensity was up it was contagious. 

Played ten-pull but to 5, O vs. D. Ended up losing 2-0, but I burned Brad on every point and Rob just needed to rein in his hucks a little and it very easily could have been a 5-0 shutout in our favor. We ran our two laps and I almost died. I didn't die.

We started off our scrimmage with teams of Me, Rob, Milano, and Bradbrochill vs. MC, Nicole, Mitch Mitchell, and Charles. We gave up a few quick ones before clamping down on our garbage and scoring a few. I don't remember many specifics but eventually Ben came in and we called penultimate point (HOWS THAT FOR VOCAB 2X4) and Rob roflpwn'd Ben on a Hammer from someone. It was pretty. Then for real universe I threw a shitty OI backhand (most are) to Ben who somehow came up with it, dumped it to me, and I Stall minus one hammered it to him for the point. At least we ended on a good note.

Rob cone-raced Ben at the end and had a shot to win if he didn't drop the 3rd cone. He then proceeded to do sprints and agility drills while the rest of us threw scoobers.  I figured out how to put some hip into my flick and now it's nasty. Once I get my backhand I will be a passable handler on a passable team.

Today's practice restored some confidence in this team. We ran, hard. Rob ran after practice, hard. We threw after, we talked ultimate after, there were delicious potatoes at has after. I needed that layout during endzone drill badly, and I got it. We'll see where this goes, as I have 2 large papers and a test this week, but after that I think I might be ready to skullfuck. Bard is this weekend and I don't feel like losing again, plus winning a tournament makes Mitchapalooza that much better.

This was much too long for a rather uneventful practice, but I can't let Chichester out-blag me.

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)

Fire

For reasons admirable or not, I am ready to skullfuck sectionals. Literally skullfuck. 

Think the fire is back. Don't quote me though.

PIRATE

PIRATE!?

Blag

Does anyone blag on this team?

Fire

I don't have anywhere near the motivation to go to practice early to throw. I don't have anywhere near the motivation to go to practice, sprint the whole time, and then do a full workout at the gym. I don't even have the motivation to go to the gym. I don't have the motivation to keep up with my man on long hucks to someone else that I know aren't in the endzone. I don't have the motivation to go to the quad to throw at 7pm, let alone at 4am. I don't have the motivation to lay out during drills. I don't have the motivation to lay out during scrimmages. I don't have the motivation to throw after practice.

TL;DR, I don't have the motivation to get better. I was at practice 30 minutes early, staying 30 minutes late, and then going to the gym last year. Sometime this year I lost my fire, and I sure hope I find it.

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.

Anyway

Very solid practice. Started a bit late but what else is new. Warmups were a bit swilly with throwing the disc around while stretching but again, what else is new.  We did go-to and people didn't go-to sometimes but again, what else is new. Drill ran fairly well and I was very tired after. 

We split up into Handlers and nots, and the handler drill we did was fairly ill. Probably the best drill the team has ever run, imo. It was kind of tough to run with only 4 runners and one thrower and the marker was too aggressive with handblocks, but it was very applicable. 

We showed Ho and the demo wasn't flawless but it got the point across. It's not a easy concept to learn but we ran through it a few times. They put man-defense on it which I don't think most people on our team is capable of doing but with our super-fast line we can.

Ten pull was OK. O-line let defense out easy with only a 2-1 win, easily should have been 4 between drops and stupids. The up-line handler cuts were very pro, but they will be less effective against a team that knows about them. We should teach everyone them because then they will look to throw them rather than the conventional dump if they can make the throw. 

We scrimmaged and D-line dominated. I will take full responsibility for being slow for many of the points, but we were just not motivated. 

End post.

HO

FUCKING STACK

PRACTICE!?

It was alright. Endzone was really icky, although I couldn't be that angry at the sectionals roster who showed up because it wasn't really their fault. Blaming the wind for not being able to throw in it is frustrating, though. 

The marking drill was nothing new, and I think it would have been more productive with doing it the psuedo-stack way because a straight-up force is not very realistic for people who don't have monster-hucking-ability to demand it. Regardless, it seemed to go pretty well and the only other change I might have made would have been to make it shorter to keep up the intensity. 

Scrimmage was OK. The beginning had my team falling behind quick mostly because we weren't valuing the disc, which seems to be a recurring problem with the team. We switched up the teams and people came and went, and by the end I was permanent deep-deep/20-yard-dump. A lot of poor hucks were thrown at the end and hopefully we figured out that OI's and even IO's are traps in wind. 

We'll see how sectional's practices go, but I'll be dissapointed with flawless execution from both the captains in how the run the practice and the intensity from the rest of the roster.

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

Need

I need to stop sucking at:

• Throwing IO flicks. They aren't tough.
• Running. Likewise not difficult
• Playing defense. It's just footwork.
• Using my low-release flick in games. It's nasty and needs to be deployed.
• Jumping. My calves are huge.
• Being aggressive on the handle. I don't make enough tough throws that I know I can make.
• Layout D. I am so good at it on offense, I just have to manup and do the same on defense.  I'll just layout at everything and learn that way, like I did for O.
• Not being sick. I haven't been to practice in nearly 3 weeks. Blech

Hippo

Crit.

I am going to the gym tomorrow early, running until I die, and then doing conditioning with the team. I've been milking this ankle injury too long and I have to get something done because once again I am gone this weekend and can't go to practice.

I hope people go to indoor on Tuesday, I'm going through Ultimate withdrawl. 

I have been too fat lately. I need to run. A lot.

Sorry

I can't go to running conditioning, I get shin splints (But I can play Ultimate on the rougher surface of the gym floor)

I can't throw backhands, I hurt my finger.

I can't take you to sectionals.

I'm really tired of hearing that kind of excuse. Either get it checked out, stop messing around with it, or play through it. Doing half of everything gets nothing done. I ran on that track all last year every conditioing session and didn't get a hint of shin splints, so I don't know how you can get them from Day 1.

Indoor was OK. My throws are pretty much where I want them, but its inside so it might be an illusion. I'm really slow, though. I mean, everyone looks slow when they cover Marty, but God damn. I think I'm only gonna lift 2-3 times a week and just run myself into the ground. It doesn't matter much how monsterous my flick gets if I can't get open to unleash it. It's not even that much of a problem getting open as it is playing defense or even playing a long point. I'm really slow and really out of shape.

I got cleated on my ankle when I skied some kid, and then he later cleated my toe. I'm taking Vitamin I and putting a cold beer on it and we'll see where I am tomorrow. I played through it without much problem today and it didn't seem to swell much so I think we're alright.

We've got a long way to go before sectionals, and only 2 1/2 months. Gogogo.

Work

My current hobby is having my away message say "Doing work" so people think I'm studying when in reality I am getting my lift on. 

Literally all I want to do now is go to the gym or play Ultimate. As excited as I am for Indoor, I'm upset I won't be able to go to the gym tomorrow because of it.  I can't even hit up Owen's conditioning tomorrow because I gotta get to the ATM with Rob to pay both him (he's my bookie obv.) and Ben for the ten thousand jerseys I'm buying. 

Regardless, as Treebeard (OLD NICKNAME ALERT) has mentioned, I am having no problem going to the gym. I have planned on not going today for about a week now and the only convincing I needed was Ben asking if I wanted to go today. I'm even thinking about pulling a double-session on Thursday because I won't be able to hit the gym until Monday really after then. 

I'm worried about people's motivation and time going to the wrong places. The six people we get for lifting I'm alright with, but theres a good chunk that swim for one and play hockey for the other at best. Snertz on Friday/Sunday is useless because the people who don't need it (people doing real work) are going to be the only ones willing to go, and the rest of the people will just not go because honestly, who likes doing Snertz. We're better off doing Mini so both parties will show and everyone gets some conditioning and everyone gets to play some disc. Personally I was just as beat after Mini as I was after the track workout on Thursday. The nothing being scheduled on Wednesday still baffles me. 

Normally I'm all for warmup drills, but when we only have an hour I'm really not feeling it. Come early because the gym is open to throw. Then run/stretch/Snertz dynamic warmup (because that's pro) and play. Getting only 25 minutes to play is a bit upsetting especially considering that we're going to get better numbers as the semester goes on and that just not a lot of playing time. 

This isn't to say that if we get a larger chunk of time or we move outdoor that drills aren't needed, but mini is really good at getting people back into the flow of valuing the disc and basic marking/throwing things. Warmup drills in particular don't have much value besides flow and that is really hard to establish in mini, especially since if you do actually get something going you're probably just gonna win really quick. 

The wrap from Oscars tonight was prime. Hot sauce really added something to it. I'm scared I'm going to run out of Dining Dollars by midterm week. I will be a sad panda. I'll be down to 7 wraps worth of money after Indoor tomorrow. I really need to invest in bread + stuff.

Mixed Signals

What'd we have for the track workout Thursday? 13?

We had 6 for Snertz. Well, 8 showed up, but 2 weren't willing to do Snertz.

And we didn't do Snertz.

That's not saying I'm not the type of guy who doesn't enjoy Mini. Fuck, I love it. But switching plans like that last minute due to public outcry is not the type of consistancy we need. I would love for us to plan to play mini twice a week, but I'm really not a fan of last-minute switches like that. 

Regardless, it definitely got me amped to play. I fully plan on being the most hungover person alive on Sunday, but I also plan on being the most amped person alive for Mini during Sunday afternoon. There is a reason why the game starts at 6 -- So I can play mini and have plenty of time to rehydrate and unstink in time for the drunken festivites round 2. 

Mini went pretty well. David's team cleaned house until Ben showed up, then our team cleaned house until the end of the night when David's team decided to at least make an effort to throw before being stalled out and finished the night on top.

 Playing to -2 is crazy, You get two possessions to score if you're getting pulled to, although just scoring one then puts the pressure on the other team to score or lose. 

Hammers are too good and need to be outlawed. No wind = full-mini-field-hammers-from-Doober, and that just shouldn't be allowed.  It's hard enough to stop an upline cut as is, let alone having to worry about Thor dropping a hammer into the corner. 

Stall 5 seems a little short, but I'm not really sure if it's supposed to feel short. It makes it a lot tougher to win if you're getting pulled to, but I guess it balances out with the fact that you can literally huck the field whenever. Tiny enzones balance that out too.

I just read Star City's old Rizzo articles for an hour and a half instead of finishing this. /win

I might go to the gym today, but my calves are saying no.  I think I am going to  err on the side of caution, especially with me mad dropping the mad cash for indoor on Tuesday. Can't dissappoint my fans with a sub-par performance. It's also the TD's Maiden Voyage. 

Fuck conclusions.

Blame

The below post and the previous post have nothing to do with anyone but the top.

It is not Chichester's fault that conditioning is something that is being treated like babysitting, with attendance rules and options that make it easy to get by on minimal effort. Oh, you don't like running? Don't worry, here's 5000 different options to make sure you can get your incredibly difficult two gym visits a week counted for.  Have too much school work? I'm sure you'll be excused to just not go to the gym.  Train different muscles for a different sport and you'll see a vast improvement in your game. 

Oneonta won't call mismatch on you when we're playing them either, they know just how much you don't like running.  They'll say "Oh, this is the team that rock-climbs for conditioning, let's move over to that rock-face over there and continue". I also hear that they're moving Ultimate to more of a Water-Polo type sport, so I guess all the running I had been doing kinda went to waste. Unless you subscribe to the same school of thought that the conditioning captains do, and I'll keep on running for a water-sport.

This, like practice was treated last semester, is not something that you want to put a "You need X practices or else" on. That's the easy way out. That rewards people for showing up and giving minimal effort. That tells people "All you need to do is show up for X practices and you are ready for tournaments." Putting a number of practices or conditionings they need to attend sends the message that once they attend that many, they don't need to go to anymore. They are set. Once Springtime rolls around that will be enough. That's incorrect. It won't be enough. Especially when their twice a week can be Intermural Floor-Hockey practice, which judging by how much conditioning a club sport (us) does, I am baffled at how that counts as conditioning. 

 Don't give them the excuse "Oh I have class so I was excused from practice." No. You didn't go to practice, you didn't work as hard as someone else who did. I registered a month late for classes and the latest I'm out is 420 and the earliest I start is 1050, AND I have two extra days off a week, so it's not like you can't make it work.  When someone doesn't show up for practice, they didn't show up for practice, regardless of the excuse. They missed out on content and conditioning. When you are playing in a tournament, the other team won't say "Whoa Big Red, don't burn that slow kid over there, he had class every Tuesday/Friday and couldn't make it to practice so he doesn't know how to play deep in a zone." No, they'll just burn you all day and we'll be left wondering why we can't stop it. 

I really don't understand how when people claim to know so much about conditioning and working out and they say you're allowed to rock-climb or swim or go to intermural floor-hockey practice instead. I might ask if I can play DotA for conditioning because it conditions my mind to think fast. 

I don't know of an easy solution to figure out who's going that is similar to "X practices a week." Quite frankly, I don't really care. This isn't school. People who want to work will show up. People who don't won't show up. I think I know who I want on the line with me.

Excitement

I'm really excited to be on a team full of all-star swimmers and rock-climbers. Hopefully we can get some floor-hockey players while we're at it. Running isn't really that big of a part of the game anyways.