My Future in Ultimate

I've spent a lot of time this summer facing obstacles in the advancement of my ultimate carrier, at least, in how I saw it going while I was in college. I always thought I'd make an elite club team within the first two years I graduated from school, and that I'd be traveling around the western US playing high level disc. Well, by the time DUI ended I had been cut from both Jam and Revolver, and I had to settle on how to spend my summer.

If I was still in school at Claremont, the decision of where to play would have been easy. All I would have to do is find the best way to get better individually over the summer off season. Well, seeing as I no longer have a college team as a reason to devote myself to individual improvement, I had to reconsider my reasons for playing competitively. I thought about my personal goals in Ultimate, and decided to by into Yeager's desire to improve the UCSC program.

I agreed to co-captain a team with him, and once again became excited about the game. I wanted to help the Slugs, and have an outlet for playing quality disc with friends (of course, being in a position of leadership wasn't a downside). I also told Yeager that, seeing as I was helping to captain a Slug centric team for the summer, I'd be more than happy to help the Slugs prepare for the college series in whatever capacity I'd be useful. Even with these new reasons for playing the club season, I was unsure of my individual aspirations.

After a couple of practices with our fledgling team, Yeager and I led a rag tag bunch of 14 to solstice and wound up winning the open devision. This promising result, combined with picking up some Stanford kids and a couple more Yay Area club players started to get me reall stoked about the team's potential, and I dedicated myself to actually getting in good shape for Ultimate. Then, right as I had started to get into a grove in terms of workouts, feeling a little in shape, and even climbing reasonably strong (flashing easy 11s, redpointing some harder 11s and working on some easier 12s, still only climbing v5 though, I hadn't broken back into the 6s) I tore up my knee.

Injuring my knee brought me out of focusing on the short term success of SCUC (the Santa Cruz Ultimate Club, sort of what we settled on for a club name, we can still have different team names at tournaments), and back to thinking about my long term plans for ultimate. When I told my boy Robin I was no longer sure of why I play the game he responded "I think I get it. You've invested a lot of time in the community and you're well respected within it. You also have a lot of potential to advance your standing."

Robin is right, it's easy to know I'll continue to play ultimate for a long time just from the fun I have playing, and my involvement in the community. The real question is what are my competitive aspirations. I guess in every short term situation I play for my teammates (and therefore will remain dedicated to the SCUC guys this summer), I've just been struggling with finding a reason I play for myself.

I understand that at 22 I'm still young and have a lot of disc still ahead of me, but I'm no longer sure I'll need to play on the absolute best teams to fill my competitive aspirations. I'll still want to push myself athletically, and playing elite is one way to do that, but wanting to play elite is no longer the main reason I play competitive ultimate. I guess what I do next summer will really answer the questions I have about my competitive aspirations. Either I push myself to get in shape for the tryout season and dedicate myself to the process, or I show up in not the best shape again, and wind up playing with a second tear team for another summer (and likely many more). It seems that in the end I can't come up with the answer just sitting at my house and over-thinking it. I do know I want to make it back to open club nationals, and I would enjoy playing playing with the best. I also know that I don't have to play with the best to be satisfied, I just need teammates.

Word.

P.S. I really appreciate the concept behind Bob's WDUPU series.

Lifting

I lifted for the first time in a long time about a week ago. Anyway, I remembered how fun it was. Anyway, I did some easy lifting today after playing a round of disc golf with some friends. So, as a tribute to all of those who post their workouts, here was mine today (I'm also just trying to be a good blogger, look at me!).

Warmup (10 min run, stretch)

Lift:
Bench (3 x 10 @ 100 lbs.)
Lat Press (3 x 10 @ 70 lbs.)
Lat Pull-down (3 x 10 @ 70 lbs.)
Curls (20 per arm @ 20 lbs.)
Leg Press (3 x 10 @ 155 lbs.)
Calf Raises (3 x 50 @ 90 lbs.)
Hamstring Curls (3 x 8 @ 60 lbs.)

Core (all tups done on an incline bench holding a 6 kg med ball, all pushups done with feet on a yoga ball):
(30 situps, 20 pushups) x 2
(20 twist situps, 15 pushups arms wide) x 2
(15 situp then twist side to side, 10 diamond pushups) x 2
lower back thing with 10 lb wait (20)

Shits and giggles:
Campus pullups x 10 (The gym where I workout is the climbing gym I work at. Anyway there is this chinup bar that has another chinup bar a foot and a half above it and maybe 6 inches out. Well, do a pullup on the lower bar and explode to grab the upper bar with both hands, then go down with both. It's fun.)

Anyway, I didn't really push myself on the lifting front, I guess I'm just building a bit of a base. I'll probably do this again later this week, then go a little harder next week. The best part of lifting today was the shower-sauna-shower combo I got in. Word.

The End of My Season

I drove Connor to the airport this morning so he could fly to Boulder and play in college nationals. It really happened, and I could have been there. I'm happy with my decision not to go to school. Anyway, I get to go to Claremont instead.

Brazil IV - The Last One

The morning of the finals seemed very normal, but everyone was a little more distracted than usual. I borrowed a bike someone had rented so I could get to the fields faster, but then the chain kept on coming off, so then I tried to put the chain back on, but I should have been mentally preparing // warming up. Anyway, that's just the sort of distracting thing a lot of people were going through. I hope I can learn from this sort of lack of mental preparation and be more diligent before tournament finals in the future (well, I mostly hope I'll have reason to learn from this).

The other big distraction was that the masters final was going on while we were warming up, and a lot of us wanted to support the masters guys in their effort to take home the title. Well, we were ready to take the field just as they were pulling for game point. Up until that point their puller, Jason Trevor, was throwing rollers so they could get down field without giving the other team a brick. On the last point he made a great adjustment telling his team he was going to float one to catch the British off guard, so the D needed to hustle down. The adjustment worked brilliantly and the US guys got the block on the second or third trow, then converted the break to take the title. It was really great, and inspirational leading up to our game.

Our game started with us going down wind and our O scoring on one possession. Our D then went out and forced a turn pretty quickly. Well, we weren't able to convert, but we got it back again, and once again weren't able to convert, the Germans finally scored, and I knew things were about to go south. Basically, whenever a team wins a hell point, they'll definitely win the next point, or at least that's what I've observed recently. Well, sure enough our O turned it and the Germans converted on their first chance, putting them up a break. I went in on the next O point and set my guy up for a deep cut right as the disc was being centered to our captain and main handler Dave. Well, the throw went up, but it was a little slow (dave puts a ton of spin on his throws, so they tend to move slowly, but they're very accurate) and thus gave a poaching German defender enough time to catch up to the disc and make a play on it, well, I was ahead of the disc waiting for it to catch up to me, and I understood that I had no chance to make a play on the disc until after he did. He layed out and tipped it, but I was still able to catch it easily for a goal (check facebook for some pics). Well, we traded for the next 30 min or so (only really eventful moment was me turning the disc over right after calling a timeout, man I'm good).

Anyway, the game was tied at 9-9 and we were going downwind and once again on D. Well, they moved the disc well, but we finally get them to turn it on a high stall count throw that they try to put up the line. Finally, our D fastbreakes effectively and we move the disc down with two long gaining in cuts. After the second in cut Erin gives me a quick little dish and so I have the disc 5 yards out and maybe 5 yards from the left sideline. Well, right as a catch the disc Erol runs between me and the near sideline and says, 'Yeah Joaq!' as he's running towards the flick side of the endzone. Somehow I knew what he wanted and put a high backhand right in the near side of the endzone and he turned just as he crossed the perpendicular between me and the endzone. He caught the goal easily and we took our first lead since 1-0 at 10-9.

Between points the time cap went on, and according to the rules of the tournament we then played to 11. A fresh D line went on and we pulled for the win. The D got the turn near the endzone, and after a few quick passes Arnie threw to Carla for the win, and the gold. We all rushed the field and partied on Carla for a minute or so before going and having our post game spirit circle with Germany. Right after the spirit circle, the guy I was covering most of the finals comes up to me and says "Do you want to trade jerseys?" I quickly replied "My white for your white?" He said "Yes." and we had a deal. I was stoked that he was down with the white jersey, because I had already arranged to trade my red to a Philippines player.

After hanging with the Germans and cheering them multiple times, we all set up in the bleachers with beers to spare to watch the next two finals games. Both games followed a similar path. The team with fewer players come out strong and gets a couple of breaks before running out of gas and eventually succumbing to the depth of the other team. The only difference was that the US women were not only short on players, but aside from the other Americans, they were short on crowd support. The Philippines on the other hand, were the darlings of the tournament, so in a way it was nice to see the 'villainous' Ausies win, seeing as they were put in the same spot as we were.

When the open finals ended the tournament awards ceremony was held in the stadium. There were commemorative discs presented to the people who got the most assists, goals, and D's in each devision, along with and MVP disc for each devision presented to the person with the greatest sum of D's, goals, and assists. Well, three awesome things came out of this. First, in the open devision, guys from the Philippines won in each category. Second, in the Mixed devision, we didn't have a single person win any of the discs, in either gender, showing how much of a team we were. And finally, in the Woman's devision, Becca Tucker from the US won all four awards, now that's just sick.

Anyway, after the discs were presented, medals were given out, and each gold medal wining team got to give a short speech. Everett was very eloquent in giving ours, and made a point to shout out the Spanish team seeing as they were the only ones to beat us. After the ceremony was over the Peace Team organized a small ultimate clinic for the local kids, it was really cool, and they all dug it. I don't think it'll last long in Maceió, but it was all the rage while we were there, and there's a small chance it will have some staying power.

I left part way through the clinic to go back to the hotel and do some packing//sopering up//cleaning up for dinner and partying. We tried to get a team dinner at the nice all you can eat place in the back of the beer themed party venue, but it didn't quite go down. People from both the mixed and masters teams rolled through, and we all had a good time (I mostly ate sushi, I mean, it's not that often that you get down on some all you can ear sushi). As dinner was ending everyone was feeling real tiered, but a couple of shots of espresso later and we were inspired to make the trek to the party.

Once again we were duped into walking do to faulty information, and once again we walked through some sketchy ass places to get to the party venue. When we finally arrived we found that the party venue was full, and that no ultimate players were there. Luckily there was a sweet bar with a huge patio just down the street and all the ultimate folks just changed venues (and I was able to sneak some jungle juice in, so there was no need to buy drinks inside). Anyway, at the party I was introduced to the medal game by some of the Ausie girls. The game goes like this, if someone is able to dunk their medal in your drink while it's still around their neck, you have to finish your drink. All in all, it's pretty sweet, and a good way to make friends and get drunk, what more do you want?

I think this party is where I let loose the most, it was really fun. Even though I left earlier than from the other parties, I'd say I partied harder. So, I guess you could say I mailed it in, but I'd just say I went home early.

Anyway, the next day went by quickly. I packed then caught a cab to the airport with some teammates. The whole trip home seemed much faster than the trip there (and that's not only because we had a 2 hour layover instead of a 12 hour one). The most memorable part of the trip home was saying goodbye to all my new friends, but seeing as we all play ultimate, I'm sure I'll see them all again. Anyway, Sunya and I made it home safely and swiftly.

Okay, that's it, nobody has to endure any more poorly written brazil posts. I guess it's time to asses the college ultimate scene (and maybe write a quick something about lei-out). I should have a post up after next weekend's Stanford Qual. I'll be out in Palo Alto on Sunday, so I'll try to write about the elimination games. Word.

Brazil III - Pool Play (II)

Here we go agin. After getting a whopping three and a half hours of sleep, I got up for food and warmups. I made it to the fields around 9:15 and began warming up down by the beach fields (our game against Germany was on the main stadium field, but it was occupied). Anyway, the Germans had played a game already that day, so we knew they'd be warm and that we couldn't afford to come out cold against them. Well, we were probably more ready for this game than any other of the tournament. We started out on O (as was our want seeing as we were playing timed games with no halftimes) and converted. On our first D point I guarded Rue and got a D when they had to try a bail out huck to him. We then converted the break and were on our way to victory. Somehow, I wound up guarding more handlers than cutters latter in the game because we had a lot of tall guys on D. Anyway, the strategy they were employing in terms of dumps was to break the mark without having the handler move. After a lot of yelling by one of the masters guys watching the game (I heard he coaches Florida), we adjusted and started playing right on the dump's hip. Well, this adjustment led to me getting a layout catch D on a dump pass then throwing a goal. Over all, I think this was my best game of the tournament, we wound up winning 11-7.

After the game we had a great rapport with the German team, and, luckily, we had a great cheer that was set to an old German drinking song. Well, after hanging out with the germans for a bit we had a long break until three, at which point we were to play the Canadian team.

Going into the tournament we had all assumed that the Canadian team would be strong, and that playing both them and Germany on the same day would really test us. Well, much to our surprise, the Canadians were floundering for the first few days of beach worlds. Our game with them wasn't necessarily representative of their abilities due to the very windy conditions on the beach fields that day. I don't remember too much about this one, I think Tucker got his callahan in this game (another tall guy eats up a floating upwind dump pass), and we won easily 10-2.

Well, after having only two games we all stuck around the fields to watch the game between Great Britain and the Philippines on the showcase field. It was the only game going on at the time, and as such had a huge crowd. It was during this game that everyone at the tournament fell in love with the Philippines team. They had a total of 8 players, one of whom was a woman, and another was a water boy during important games. So, they were playing one of the top four open teams at the tournament with a rotation of 6 players, and because there were only 60 seconds between points, the Philippines players would drink water on their way back to the line.

The O that the Boracay Dragons ran was very give and go heavy and made great use of the amount of touch they had on their throws. Basically, they'd overload one side of the field with 4 players, letting the 5th rest upfield from the disc on the far sideline. They'd then throw as many quick passes as they could to gain yards, and when the D adjusted they'd either reverse the field and use the resting player, or they'd swing, and the player who wasn't involved would cut deep. Every possession they had was a ton of fun to watch with multiple rediculosly athletic plays. Also amazing was how GB kept hucking, assuming they could get jump balls over the smaller Philippino players, but inevitable, one of the Dragons would make a sick play, and they'd get the disc back. I think my favorite part of the game was when the game was clearly already won by the Boracay Dragons and the relented to the crowds chants of "Number 9! Put her in!" It was really cool to see the whole team get playing time, especially in such a big game.

Well, after the game we had an impromptu west vs. east us scrimmage, which turned out to be very fun, with the west dominating (I don't actually remember how it went down, but I'll at least claim we rocked house). Anyway, after the fun, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up then off to a team dinner at pretty nice Brazilian all you can eat place. The food was good, and it was nice to hang out as a team. After dinner we went as a team to the party. I really enjoyed the dinner to party transition, it lead to a warm team bonding sort of feel to the whole night, and I think it translated well onto the fields in the following days.

The party that night was at a large beer themed bar that had a very fancy all you can eat place in the back (if only we had known that ahead of time). The place had a very classy feel with good lighting, hardwood floors, a large outdoor patio, and a stage and two bars inside. All the classiness and chillness almost made me feel bad for sneaking in some jungle juice, almost. There was a cover band playing classic rock like the Beatles and Pink Floyd. They rocked some harder stuff towards the end of the night, but it was all good. I think it helped the social atmosphere, but there was still a sweet dance party. The biggest effect the music had was determining who won the party. Even though some of our team stayed until the end, the swiss were there in force, rocking out. It was a decided swiss victory.

The next morning we had an early 8 am start (our first of the tournament) against the winless host team Brazil. It was a chill game, and we wound up winning 18-3. I don't remember to many stand out plays, but there is a big one I'll shout out. Grant got a layout callahan on a dump pass, where he landed on his knee, thus staying in bounds for the goal. So, that made four of us with callahans on the tournament, we joked we should make "I got a callahan in Brazil" T-shirts, I still think it's not a bad idea.

With our victory against Brazil we secured an afternoon by and our spot in the finals. Still, we were left with a final pool play game against the Spanish team that was ineligible for the finals. We had to play them on the windy beach fields, and they were incredibly motivated to beet us. Well, we had a turnover riddled windy zone-y game and they wound up winning. We had a lot of trouble stopping their three woman possession oriented O, and he had even more trouble scoring up wind. This was also the first time we didn't come out strong in a game, something that was troubling, especially since our only remaining game was the finals. Well, even though we were humbled by a loss, I don't think it helped us in the next game. After the game I went to lunch with Kali before her women's devision semifinal with Australia. After lunch we went back to the fields where I watched and supported the other US teams in their bids to make the finals.

After the games ended that evening there was a lot of drinking and a pickup game between the pickup teams at the tournament (Currier Island and the Peace Team). I played with my hommies on the peace squad, and I'll say we won the battle of the pickups. I then headed back to the hotel before going to the trade night at the point.

Trade night was held in the cleared out banquet room at Hotel Ponta Verde (the sight of player registration). The room was very bright and different teams had their own sort of trading stations set up around the room. Also, Michele played some music for the people. I had a blast and got to see a lot of sweet jerseys and shirts from around the world, and I also arranged trades for Brazil shorts and sandals, and a Philippines jersey. After the trading I headed out to dinner with the guys from the Peace Team, some of the younger guys from the US open team, and J9. We had dinner at the all you can eat place close to the fields. Dinner was light (relatively) and I capped it off with an espresso before heading out to the party.

Due to some confusion and accidental misinformation we thought that the party bar was close and easy to get to, so we decided to walk. Well, it was relatively close, but out walk was mad sketchy, and we probably should have been a lot more nervous then we were. I guess we were to excited about meeting sweet people and being in Brazil to be overly concerned about where we were walking. We wound up making it to the bar after about 20 min.

This party was awesome. All the teams that had been eliminated were getting real shitty (especially the US guys and the Australian women). Anyway, for a team with an early finals game the next day we made a great showing. Dave, Ken, and Erol were their with the Brazilian girls they had met earlier in the week, X was there being his usual 24 hour party self, and J9 and I were busy meeting new people (and trying to mediate the stolen hat affair going on between the US open team and the Australian woman's team). Well, despite our presence, we were outlasted by one German man. That's right, in the battle for the party, we lost because one guy from the other team held down the fort (to be fair, he was their with his hot girlfriend from the Spanish team).

Well, we all made it back in time to get at least 6 hours of sleep before the finals the next day. I guess that wraps up pool play, at least I made my personal goal of getting this post up before the end of January. Still, I have to write another Brazil post and a Lei-Out recap in the coming weeks.

P.S. I hope you enjoyed my lack of proof reading.

What I Did This Week

I arrived home from LA Tuesday morning to find cold weather and a need to restock the wood piles (downstairs inside and out, and upstairs) . What I didn't anticipate was my dad's back acting up and the need for me to take my mom to Stanford for her 8:00 a.m. appointment on Wednesday morning. Without much time to relax, I updated myself on the world through the internet, then hauled some wood out in the cold.

Stacking and hauling wood affords me the opportunity to reflect on life; it's the time when I'm most introspective. I usually think about my house and what I want it to be like. I look out at the woods and picture what they could be like; I think about a vibrant and healthy forest. I look back towards the house and picture it in different colors, with different decks, and with a better kept garden. Basically, I picture my house as my paradise. I think this process is my way of dealing with loss. I think about what things will be like in a few years, how they'll change, and what will be good.

After finishing the wood it was time to head over to Palo Alto for the night. My mom and I left around three, just avoiding traffic, and got into Dinah's Garden Hotel around 4. I don't like dealing with people I don't know well (and even more so when they know of me), especially if what I'm doing is a personal matter, so when we arrived mom checked us in while I waited in the car. Through my parents frequent visits, my mom knows the whole staff of Dinah's Garden Hotel well. In particular, my parents have become friends with the concierge, David. David is an ex-navy man and, according to my parents, an exceptional concierge. He's in his late 40s and wears a smart blue suit, a buzz cut, a sizable belly, and small glasses with a strap the connects the ear pieces. After checking us in he showed us to our room and told us that we should feel free to ask if we needed anything.

He left us outside the apartment that was to be our room for the night. I was excited that we had an apartment, because I knew that whatever the room looked like, I was stuck with it as my stomping grounds for the next 18 hours or so. Basically, there was no way I would be roaming around Palo Alto looking for things to do. The space was nice. The living room had a couch, a typical hotel TV, and a nice desk. The kitchen was attached to the living room, in fact, the only reason it wasn't part of the living room was the floor changed from carpet to linoleum tiles. The kitchen was fully furnished with a small table, a stove, a microwave, and a full sized fridge stocked with soda, wine coolers, juices, and a coupe of Heinekens. The bedroom was sizable with two beds, and the bathroom was a typical hotel bathroom.

After having a quick look around, I helped my mom mover her stuff then settled down for a night of internet browsing and IM chatting. I had brought a couple of books, but I didn't feel like I had the focus it would require to read either of them. The night went on uneventfully and I eventually went to sleep around midnight. The following day was simple and went according to pan. I took my mom to the hospital then returned to the hotel. To my pleasant surprise I had the focus to read while I waited to go and pick up mom. When the time came, I went back to the hospital, picked up mom, then we went back to the hotel to pack and check out before heading home.

When we finally got home I went strait to work then had a typical Santa Cruz do nothing night.

Okay, so what's the point of this post. Well, I've started reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg and I decided to write a little something now, and compare how I'd write similar things as I continue to read. Basically, I'll try and write little "What I did this week" posts every once and a while, and we'll see what happens. I think the first thing I've noticed is that I need to be more descriptive in my writing. I guess I'll see where this all leads, hopefully it'll make my blog a bit more readable.

Brazil III - Pool Play (I)

Well getting the next post up quickly really didn't happen, but I can blame the massive power outage I went through for that one. Anyway, I'll try to tackle at least the first few days of pool play.

Well, there was a rain storm the night before our games started, and we lost power for a while (meaning the AC turned off and I woke up all sweaty, how lame). Anyway, it was relatively clear when we woke up for breakfast but you could definitely see stormy weather on the horizon, Our first game was against Ireland and conditions were clear when we started. Games were to time with no half so we chose to start on O. We scored the first point easily, then got the break right away. Things were looking good and it seemed like we would role. Then the weather happened and we all know that wind is the great equalizer in ultimate. Anyway, we began trading down winders, but somehow it still felt (to me) like we were rolling. I guess we just came out of the gates quickly so I figured we continued. Well, the eventually got a wind break, making to score close, but we were able to get it back and score downwind to win 8-6 (the games were like 50 min long).

After the game we had a spirit circle, as is costume in international ultimate. What our captain didn't know is that the wining team's captain is supposed to summarize the game with what worked and what didn't, then the other team's captain talks, then the teams to the gifts and such. Well, this lack of knowledge made out first day's spirit circles kind of awkward, but I think things got better after that. Also, we were blessed to have someone who's a cheer expert on our team, and always had great songs for our opponents.

I think it was after this game the J9 decided we should mix a bunch of jungle juice (how American, right) and give bottles of it as gifts to our opponents. After the 10:00 am game we had a long bye until 3:00 then another game at 5:00. We used our huge bye to go to the super market and buy ingredients to mix some delicious jungle juice. Our first attempt at mixing our gift involved stealing the large trash can from the hall and a big trash bag from the kitchen. Well, this round wasn't incredibly successful, that is, we lost a lot of the juice in the poring process, but it was delicious. Well, we finished with two 1.5 leader bottles of our new gift, and just in time to get to the fields and not warm up for our game (we also learned that we needed to make some sort of funnel).

Our 3 o'clock game was against Great Britain, and we went into it really confidently; we had done well against them a couple of nights before, and that was without our whole team. The game went by smoothly, I had my first layout D of the tournament in this game, and I scored a few goals. We wound up winning 18-3 (no wind makes a big difference). Chilling with GB after the game was maybe better than with any other team, I guess there just isn't as much of a culture gap.

Our Last game of the day was in the arena against Trevor and Tyler's team, the Peace Team (a pickup team that also volunteered to do some outreach stuff in Maceio). This time our start wasn't as strong, it seemed like they lulled us into playing pickup style disc, still, we never trailed. the game was 4-3 then there was a hell point where Xtehn and I were the guys for our team and Trevor and Tyler were in for their team. It was really fun playing against those guys, and we eventually got the break to go up 5-3. After that we went on a huge run (partly because we had a lot of depth, and with Trevor and Tyler tiered from the hell point, they had lost two of their top three guys). It was 10-3 before anyone really noticed. We closed out the game kind of slowly and wound up taking it 13-6.

With our games for the day over and the sun setting we all headed back to the hotel and the adjacent little burger stand for showers and dinner. After dinner J9 and I got to mixing jungle juice for Ireland, our opponents for the next day, and to have at the party that night. Our refined mixing technique involved a smaller trash can that we got from one of the bathrooms, a 1.5 liter bottle with the top cut off and turned upside-down to create a funnel. We also began to rock a new recipe with a 12 pack of beer, a fifth of Pitu (cane sugar rum), and a lot of powdered flavor packets. So, with our concoction in hand we went to the party.

The party was at a small bar on the beach front, and it was a good thing that we pre-gamed // brought our own drink. The party was fun and full of dancing. As it wound down there was a skinny dipping group (not my thing), and I also threw my fire at this party (a story for another time, all you have to know is that I wanted to throw my fire in Brazil, and I made it happen). I wound up leaving around 1 a.m. and got to bed by two so I could be ready for that 10 a.m. game.

We had the same buys on day two as we did on day one, so that was nice for our internal clocks. Our first game of day two was against Austria. I don't remember too many details from this game, I just remember that it was very clear, and they didn't like the level of physicality we played with. The final score was 13-1 and I know they were disappointed with how they played, but they also said that we were much more physical than they were used to, and they felt that we were unspirited because of that. As I see it, we were a lot less physical than is typical of ultimate in the US and we toned it down more so when they asked us to. I also think that it shouldn't be fully on us to change they way be play. People play the game differently in different places, and everyone has to realize that. I understand that international ultimate is less physical than US ultimate, but I also think that a lot of teams didn't give us a chance and had decided how they would perceive our play before the game started.

Anyway, our next game was against Scotland and it was also pretty uneventful. The Scots were a really young bunch and they relied a lot on hucking to their athletes, the only problem was we were more experienced with better athletes. That is, I don't remember much, and it was windy. I think Erol got our first callahan of the tournament in this one, it was on a floaty dump pass in the up-wind endzone. The final score was 13-4.

Our last game of the day was against Switzerland. They had beat us in the little three team round robin scrimmage thing, so we got up for this one. We came out really strong and played hard D and efficient O. I got called for a couple of travels during this game, and the guys explanation was "you're taking 3 or 4 steps after you catch the disc every time." I said I'd try to stop faster, but I was going left right left then pivoting to throw, so I wasn't really traveling, but good spirit // ambassador of the sport and so on. I also got a callahan by getting a layout catch D on a dump pass after a stoppage (would that sentence be at all readable if you don't play ultimate? I didn't think so).

The post games activities were the same for day two as day one, small time dinner and big time drink mixing. This time the party was at a legit club, so we all took cabs that way after dinner and partied it up. There was a small issue with getting in because the people who were working at the club hadn't communicated well with the owner and didn't understand the tournament party thing, but it just resulted in a sweet 30 min outdoor party and dance circle, so all was good. This night was by far the biggest for me. After leaving the party around 2:30 or 3:00 we went to a little stand on the beach for late night food and drink. I think I wound up not going back to the hotel until the sun was rising around 5:30 a.m.

Anyway, that gave me plenty of time to rest up for our 10 a.m. game with Germany. I'll discuss that along with the rest of pool play next time.

Shelter From The Storm

The big west coast storm did a pretty good job messing things up around Santa Cruz county yesterday morning. The power was out in most of the town and roads were out everywhere. So, if you know where I live, it' not surprising that my house has been without power since 8 a.m. yesterday. Around 1 p.m. yesterday I realized it was going to be questionable whether or not I would be able to make it of the mountain for much longer, so I sought refuge in town. I went to Robin's house to grab a shower (they had watter but no power) then spent the rest of my day at the climbing gym (luckily the power was on in their part of town). Well, knowing I wasn't going home I decided to get good and drunk last night and rely on my friends for a place to stay (I was already stuck in town, i might as well get drunk was the logic I was using). Anyway, the power is still out at my place, and will be until tonight. I'm just thankful that robin has let me chill here at his house, even while he takes his girlfriend to the airport. Basically, I might be out of touch for a while.

Now for the real reason for this post. Drew, I've already read a book this year. That's right, Joaq 1, Drew 0 :). I know I'm going to loose this race so I have to gloat while I can.

EDIT: Still no power, staying at a hotel. Life is surreal.

Brazil II - The Tourist Days

My first few days in Maceió were amazing and really touristy. After raging the buffet and getting settled into our rooms, Sunya and I went back to meet up with Trevor and Tyler. We met up around 10:00 am and spent the rest of the morning tossing on the beach and swimming in the warm ocean water (it was my first time being around warm ocean water, and it was amazing). After finally accepting we were in brazil, we decided to get lunch and a nap before evening pick-up (yeah, there was international beach pickup, under lights, on the arena fields. Well, some teams didn't participate and instead just practiced, but we all know that's lame).

So, we hit up the local fare (burger/sandwich-y things with mayo) and parted ways for some (barely)afternoon napping. Well, I hit the bed around 11:45 and read maybe 10 pages of my book before passing out hard. So, how the hotel we were in worked was, you had to slide the key into this port thing in the room for the electricity in your room to work (well, luckily, the mini-fridge was exempt from this rule). Anyway, I wanted the electricity for the air-conditioner while I was napping, so I had the key in the room. Apparently, at some point in the afternoon my roommate wanted to get some things, but couldn't because I slept through him banging on the door for like 15 minutes. My plan was to be woken up for some beach chillin' before evening pickup, but that never materialized. Luckily, I woke up just as one of my teammates (with a bike) was leaving for the pickup/scrmmages. It was on the way there that I realized there are lights all along the beach-front at night. Also along the beach there is a bike/skate park, volleyball courts, basketball courts, and three soccer pitches (two of which had sand trucked into them so they could become beach ultimate pitches).

We got to the fields just as Switzerland was wrapping up beating GB for the second time (apparently Switzerland, GB, and us were playing a round robin with games to three and a three wins and your out rule). Well, after Switzerland beat GB we were up to play them. I jumped in on the first point (a D point) rocking a sunburn and some sweet DTB shorts. We wound up getting the turn and I went deep and caught a sweet huck from Kenbrah. We didn't get the second break in a row, but we managed to score our O point without turns, then get a break to win the game. This brought us to what our leadership (who was present at the time) built up as the important game of the night. Apparently us loosing to them with our skeleton squad was unacceptable, and we needed to lay the hammer down. Well, we didn't quite shut them out, but we did get one break so we won 3-1 having started on O (I'd like to think my showing up made the difference, but I actually think it was just our team respecting them and deciding to really play). After beating the Swiss we took care of GB again then called it a night (in terms of ultimate).

After playing we headed across the street to one of those all you can eat meat places and gorged ourselves on some delicious food. Brazilian all you can eat restaurants are super sweet. How it goes down is you hit up the buffet for some appetizers, then the waiters start coming around with different cuts of meat on these huge skewers and you just say if you want some. When you do they cut you some meat and there you have it. It was also at this dinner that I was introduced to the Brazilian national drink, the Caipirinha (fermented sugar cane with limes and lots of sugar). After dinner I was once again exhausted, and didn't make it out the the clubs that night, instead retiring early with my book for a good night's sleep.

The next day was awesome. We got up at a reasonable hour, hit up the breakfast then made our way out to the reef on a sweet $7.50 a person boat tour. What happens is you head out to the reef area where all these boar tour boats park and snorkel around with the option of ordering food and drinks from the kitchen boat. Now, these boats aren't motorized, actually there really rickety little sailboats, and the experience is awesome. Our boat tour lasted al morning and involved a lot of waist deep tossing with Grant from L&C. One of the best parts of doing the reef thing was spending time together as a team. I think hanging out together was more valuable than playing together could be. We acted like a team all week, it didn't matter how much we had played together, just that we all got along and gelled well socially.

After the boat tour we had a really low key day hanging out at the hotel, going to the grocery store, and the flea market thing. After lazing about all day we hit up the little burger place next to the hotel for dinner before going to the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was really nice, all the different countries marched through with their flags and formed a huge circle. The TD then gave a speech, and finally it turned into a party. There were frisbee drinking games being played on the beach stadium pitches, and Michele (of Paganello fame) played songs for the crowd. I think the music played until around 1:00, then got some food with J9 (this was probably the best food I had the whole trip, and only because we just asked for the same thing as what the locals just got). Well, we got back to the hotel around 1:45 to get some sleep before our 10:00 am game with Ireland.

Well, that does it for the pre tournament festivities and posts, I'll get to posting about the games soon, and by soon, I definitely mean there will be less time between this post and the next.

Brazil I - The Trip Down

I love Ultimate. I love the anonymity of it all. I love that the journey to a world championship event has humble beginnings for all the players who come from around the globe to play. That's not to say that the journeys themselves are small or easy, just that they aren't glamorous. What people will go through to get to an Ultimate tournament is immense, and it only magnifies their emotional investment in the outcome of the tournament. One story I heard was that a player from the Philippines flew to Tokyo, then to San Francisco, then Miami, then Sao Paulo, and finally to Maceió. Now, my trip wasn't as long or epic as his, but it'll have to do for now.

So, my journey started on an average Saturday morning in Santa Cruz, some fog, low 40s, you know, that horrible December weather. Sunya and my flight was at 11:30 so we met our friend Anna, who was giving us a ride, at 8:00 and got on the road. We got to the airport comfortably around 9:30 then went through the long an arduous process of checking in for an international flight. After waiting in line for like an hour we finally got to the check in counter. When the lady asked for our tickets Sunya handed over hers and I just gave my ID. She told me I'd need a ticket, at which point Sunya and I looked at each other with that "oh shit, is this really happening?!?" sort of look. Well, I just said "I was told by my travel agent that I'd only need an ID" and let it ride.

Five minuets went by with awkward silence and a lot of typing by the lady behind the counter, then out of the blue she hands us both our boarding passes and says "have a nice flight." What the fuck, right? She didn't say anything the whole time, and there was a lot she could have said. There wasn't a "You're right, the ID will do fine." No "I'll try and get you two seats next to one another." No, "Sorry, I can't get you guys adjacent seats." Nothing, just awkward silence and typing. I seriously thought I wasn't going to Brazil for those 5 minuets, and man, that sucked balls. Anyway, I guess it worked out. After getting our boarding basses we hit up an airport book store where I bought a Rolling Stone mag, and Empire by Orson Scott Card (I wouldn't recommend it, btw). After making our plane reading selections (Sunya bought a People mag) we made our way through security and got some food before boarding our flight.

The first leg of the trip was relatively uneventful, and the plane was empty enough that we could sit next to each other. Over all, it was nice, and I managed to resist listening to the iPod shuffle I had brought. I was really happy with the collection of music I put on the shuffle. It was really eclectic, and I found it all pretty jetset-y. I think I liked my selections because it was all good background music, but also great if you wanted to pay attention. Also, the music I chose isn't the greatest driving music, but it all does well for traveling (I'll post the list at some point). *

After landing in Chicago, Sunya and I garbed another quick bite to eat before boarding our long flight to São Paulo. I was expecting this ten and a half hour flight to be the real kicker, but it went by relatively quickly. I traded my isle seat for the easier-to-sleep-in window seat and the book I bought proved very readable, even if I didn't enjoy the politics it was plugging. Also, the music really carried me through on this one. Anyway, the flight became bearable, but I didn't get nearly enough sleep. I thought I might be able to get like 5 or 6 hours on the plane, but instead I got about three. Normally I could function enough to make it through the day on 3 hours, but after all that traveling, I was starting to fear the 12 hour layover in São Paulo.

After getting into Brazil (south of the equator for the first time ever!) we spent about 90 min in the airport figuring out details about our next flight, changing and brushing teeth, finding lockers and getting maps. After taking care of all our airport business we took a cab to down town to check out the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP). MASP was really cool. I dig museums, and this one was great. It had two floors of modern art below ground, an outdoor market at ground level, to go with floor of photography and a floor of fine art above ground. I think we spent about three hours looking around, but I could have used at least another hour (especially if I wasn't so tiered). Down town SP was pretty sweet, it was really hot and humid and there were Santas and Christmas decorations everywhere, like bizarre-o Christmas. Also, we went to the coolest public park I've ever been to, it was really jungle-y and there were kids play structures everywhere. I was exhausted the whole time and I tried to drink inordinate amounts of water to make up for it. It almost worked, then, in the museum, I fell asleep while walking and almost tripped into a priceless piece of modern art. Right then I knew the layover couldn't end soon enough.

Luckily that was toward the end of our stay and the museum, and it was dinner time. We found a restaurant at a hotel for some food, then after dinner we took a bus back to the airport. It was a nice charter type buss and we both got a good hour of sleep in, followed by the usual airport business and a nice two and a half hour flight to Maceió. Well, after sleeping on the bus and the plane I felt really energetic, and I was mentally prepared to stay up all night in the airport. See, our plane got in at 1:30 so we had our bags around two meaning we either had to get a cab to our hotel and wake people up around 2:30, or we could just stay up in the airport and save money by taking a bus in the morning. Well, it seemed to inconvenience the fewest people if we stayed up, also, saving money is always good on trips. So, after getting our bags we made our way up towards the airport eateries.

About a half hour into our airport all nighter we encountered a couple of fellow ultimate players who had the same plane. We had seen a few on our flight, but they all went off to grab cabs and meet up with teammates. Well, the two we met in the airport were predictable american college students who had been studying abroad in South America. When we met them, Trevor, captain of the University of Utah Zion Curtain, and Tyler, baller from Tufts, were wavering from there initial airport all night plan and were contemplating hitting up a hostel for the night, luckily the met us and found inspiration to stick it out in the airport.

I couldn't have been happier with how the airport thing worked out. First, the Bob's Burgers (I know, what a sweet name for a Brazilian fast food chain) stayed open all night, giving us a constant source of burgers, shakes, and fries, and second, Trevor and Tyler had tons of awesome stories from their semesters in south america. Basically, I remained energized all night, and the sun made an appearance at like 5:30 because of how far east in the time-zone Maceió is. At around 5:40 we asked some employees about busses/cabs into the city and they told us about a 6:00 am bus that'd get us where we needed to go. Jumping at the opportunity to save money we jumped on the public transportation and got a tour of both the outlying slums and some of the rougher neighborhoods that Maceió has to offer (the crazy thing is, the people who live in these neighborhoods all dress nicely to go to work in the touristy areas, also, all the women in Brazil wear high heels). We told the buss driver where we were going and they let us off where they said was really close. It just turned out to be about six blocks to far. Anyway, we had a nice little adventure figuring out where our hotel was, and eventually got there around 8:00 am. Just in time to hit up the breakfast buffet and chill with teammates. Meanwhile Trevor and Tyler walked the 4 additional blocks to their hotel, which turned out to be right across from the arena fields.

Okay, so that's the journey down. I'll try to get a post up about the pre tournament activities and the opening ceremony soon.

* I guess if you've also read my Road Trip posts you must think that I get really excited about any travel playlist I put together. This is partially true, I'm always excited about it right after I make it, but they don't always stand the test of time. In retrospect I really like the 1st, 2nd, and 5th I-5 playlists I made, and so far I'm still into my Brazil playlist. I could get into this whole thing more, but I really need to just organize my thoughts and devote a whole post to long playlists.

Quick Update (and thoughts on tonights Warriors game)

I've been plaining posting about Music, what I'm listening to and the art of making playlists (one of my favorite thing), but it's taking longer than I would like to motivate myself to write it. So, to at least get myself writing, here's a quick update about my ultimate life.

My club season hangover has finally worn off and I'm really feeling college disc again. We had a great practice last weekend and I finally felt comfortable as a teammate. Now it looks like I might be moving to O instead of staying with the D line. O has the potential to be a ton of fun, but I think it takes more chemistry than D does, or, more accurately, the chemistry O requires is harder to build. Also, it's easier to heckle as a D player than as an O player (calling your teammates brutes just isn't as fun as calling them prima-donnas). Either way I'll be happy, I just want to figure out my role soon.

In other news, I've also started a regimented workout, finally. Starting last week I've been working out before climbing on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Basically, I'm doing a winter workout day two, except climbing for an hour or two between the jumps and the core. It's pretty fun, and it's getting my ass in (better) shape before Brazil.

EDIT (this doesn't warrant a full post, but I want to put is somewhere, so here it goes): The Warriors win tonight was so awesome. If you don't know, the Warriors beet the Kings tonight 103-96, despite shooting 8-31 from three and having each of the teams three captains pick up a technical foul. In any of the seasons since I've been a Warriors fan, including last season, this would have turned into a big loss somewhere in the 2nd half, probably when either Baron or Jax picked up their tech. Basically, I was expecting them to loose because the Warriors have never really known how to win before, they've just been mentally week. That was also true of this team early in the season, but it's all changed since Stephen Jackson came back from suspention. The Warriors now have a swagger and mental toughness to them that's just a joy to watch. Seeing Jackson make back to back triples when the team had only made 6 of 29 to that point really drove it home that this year's Warriors team expects to and knows how to win. Also, the Warriors' D in the 4th was inspired and this is the first time I've seem them both be a high scoring team, and a good defensive team. Anyway, I'm trying not to get to excited about this recent spurt, because every team has it's ups and downs, but, needles to say, I'm really hyped on this year's team. GO WARRIORS!

State of the Blog

Moving from the club season to the college season, I find that it's harder to write about my team. With Family Style, I knew most, if not all, of my readers were not my opponents, and I feel like writing about club ultimate is not as personal. If I was with the Braineaters, I think I'd feel better about writing about the college season; but as a player on a new team, I don't feel like it fits my role to keep a blog about our play. I might still write about how I played, and I'll probably give a mid season report and such, but if I write about ultimate, it'll usually be about how Claremont gets no respect (well, I'm learning they get a little bit of respect, but I still say not enough!).

I can say I really like the Slugs. I'm finding a role I enjoy (even if I go back to being around the disc) and I'm having lots of fun. There might not be a week long trip to Mexico for fish tacos, Pacifico and a lac of working out right before the series, but it's still fun. I'll also say it's different not being in a leadership role on a college team, but I like being one of the players. I like getting to hear what everyone has to say about the captains, and I like not running practices. I also like having enough committed people and field space for separate A team and B team practices.

So I guess my Blog won't be as much about college ultimate as I initially anticipated it might be, but I will write about things like Lei-Out, Beach Worlds and club tryouts. Also, I've found I just enjoy writing, so it might be hard to resist the everyday life non-ultimate sort of things.

Life Update (Roadtrip: Visual Key)

Luckily for Robin, Miles, David, and I disposable cameras still exist. None of us are the I take my camera everywhere type, so being able to buy disposable cameras was essential to us chronicling our adventure. I didn't know that Robin was going to be so on top of things in this regard, but I am very happy it turned out that way. The following is a brief trip through our road trip:

The gas station where Miles paid $40 for $20 in gas:



The alleged thieves:
Miles and Robin at the first night's party:


Fatso and Robin:


The morning after at Fatso's (really, check the size of those calzones):


Our trip to the mountains (David, Robin, me, Miles, and Matt):

Matt's birthday party:

The trip home:

If you want more pictures, you should friend Robin on facebook and check it out.

Life Update (Road Trip Recap Pt. III)

Wow, so I got distracted by Scrubs and by real life. Well, back to the trip. We got to Matt's in Santa Fe around 7:30 P.M. MDT time after leaving Claremont around 6:15 A.M. PDT. Instead of feeling drained from a long day of driving we were all energized by the prospect of crazy parties and new people. When we got to Matt's we were greeted with some delicious bbq steak (first meal since Del Taco in Flagstaff) and some new faces. We met Matt's housemates, Rainer and Emily, along with some of his New Mexico homies, Amber and Katie. After eating it came to our attention that the party we were going to had some cover, $5 if you had a costume and $10 otherwise. As such, we went scouring through Matt's house for what to wear. Robin wound up with a gold shinny sweater and a pink boa, Miles got a female African ensemble going on, and I found a pick, a tie dye shirt, and two headbands. Everyone threw their costumes on and we all headed off to the party (after buying another disposable camera, thankfully).

The party was pretty sweet, the garage was set up for root (like almost every other college-house garage), the living room was clear for a dance floor, and there were three kegs in the back yard. What I didn't expect was how much the altitude would affect my tolerance (Robin also didn't see this coming, usually he's a tank, but he actually puked, although it was after two consecutive beer bongs). At the party I learned that one of Matt's friends had 5 visitors from Colorado, so Matt had a reel full house that night.

The next morning (around noon) we all went to a place called Fatso's for some ridiculously large portions of food and general hangover recovery. It wasn't until we drove around Santa Fe a little bit on Saturday that I really got a feel for the place. I realized on Friday that most of the people seemed strait out of the 90s, but Saturday I found that the place reminds me a lot of Beck, The Pixies, and Techno, so I guess, by association, lots of drugs. Santa Fe has this crazy combination of altitude, desert, and standardized architecture that all adds up to a drugged out feeling, like it couldn't make sense unless you were from there or were on drugs (or a crazy road trip, it was kind of the ideal place to find as a destination). I can't say my conclusions about the kind of place Santa Fe is were hurt by Matt's particular group of friends, but I still think it's a crazy environment.

Anyway, my conception of the craziness of New Mexico would only increase from this point. Later that afternoon we went up into the mountains to have a wilderness experience. We went up into the Aspens. It was sweet because I'd never been in a deciduous forest before. The idea that all of those Aspens share a root system was kind of too much for me to handle. We were only able to spend about an hour up there before we had to go back into town to set up for a house party at Matt's.

Man, Matt's house party was huge, we went through 2 handles of vodka, three 30 racks, and a 24 pack. Not to mention it was byob. There was a root room, an outdoor area, a smoking/lounging room, and a dance floor. A good time was had by all, and I think Matt had a great birthday party.

So, all the out-of-towners crashed at Matt's that night, but the Colorado kids left around 6:45 am so the morning had an exceptionally empty feeling. That next day flew by, we got some breakfast at a sweet local spot, we then cleaned some, watched the brains doc (shy gave it to me in Claremont and I was too stoked on it to wait), then went onto campus to see a crazy 25 piece alt-rocky band (think Weezer + Phil Spector, I guess). Matt then gave us a quick tour of his crazy campus (old military combined with art school combined with Santa Fe architecture), then we were out.

The ride back was went by surprisingly quickly, well, considering we drove pretty much strait through to Berkeley. We left Santa Fe around 5 pm MDT with me taking the first and Robin manning the tunes. I don't think I fully understood the magnitude of the drive we were leaving on. We were to have about 19 hours of drive time with only Robin and I able to take shifts driving (Miles was clearly not an option and I wanted to give David the chance to get some sleep before he had to drive from Claremont to San Diego at 4 am). This sort of deal may be common place to some of you cross country travelers, but I don't think anyone in their right mind does it leaving at 5 at night. So, I drove the first 6 hours from Santa Fe to Flagstaff, we had one stop for gas that somehow took over a half hour because Miles was looking for a cigarette to ac adapter so David could write a paper. Well, we eventually got out of there and made it to Flagstaff and back to the Del Taco.

The Del Taco wasn't exactly what we were looking forward to in Arizona. The real prize of making it back to the same gas station was the nick-nacks. Robin and David both got gifts for the girl friends, and miles bought like 4 shot glasses, but all that paled in comparison to the big purchase, a bull skull. That's right, a Georgia O'keefe status (but without a vagina like rose), bull skull. Well, David, Miles, and Robin went in three ways on the skull than guessed who was closer to a number from 1 to 100 that the gas station attendant chose to see who would get the prize. David won, and I hope it's chillin' on his wall in SD. With the skull ordeal out of the way Robin took over driving and I rode shotgun. Robin got us all the way to Barstow, before we had to stop for gas again (we didn't stop in NEEDLES!, and instead chose to drive on in hopes for more reasonable [$3.60 a gallon?] prices). Well, it was Miles's turn to rock the gas, so he put down the $18 he had left to his name (true story, maybe he shouldn't have spent like $40 in Flagstaff on a bull skull he didn't win and 4 shot glasses, but I guess that's Miles for ya). Anyway, I took over driving again due to familiarity with the LA area and such. We continued into Claremont and got there at 4 am.

We had a couple of missions to accomplish while in Claremont. First of, we had to get the original party cam (disposable camera 1) from 'Shwa's room in north quad CMC, and we wanted to score some adderall so Miles and Robin could stay awake for the drive. So, I parked by ducey so Miles and Robin would have a strait shot back from Josh's. Well, somehow, they didn't make the connection of where the room was in relation to the car and they took like a half hour to get the camera. I had no luck finding any adderall for them, and decided I wanted some Carl's, unfortunately I also decided that I would wait for them to get back first. As such, we had no time to get food and instead had to just refuel and leave (luckily Miles still had a couple of energy drinks to compliment the 2 1L Mountain Dues I had from Barstow, and the Fritos I was getting). Well, Miles put down both the energy drinks before we got on the highway, and we were off.

This last stretch of driving I did was the most taxing I've ever done. I went from about 4:45 to 7:00 (2 to 7 if you count from Barstow) and I hadn't slept since 11:30 the previous morning. Luckily for all of us, I stayed awake the whole time, although the last 20 min were getting dicy seeing as Robin was asleep in the back and Miles managed to dose off while ridding shotgun. Anyway, I pulled over on some random road north of Harris Ranch and let Robin take over the driving on his massive 2 hrs of sleep. He got us back to Berkeley at 10:30 am in one piece and got that great relief of being home. Miles and I took quick 1 hr naps and got back on the road to drive down to SC. Feeling rejuvenated, but knowing I couldn't eat on pain of falling fast asleep, we made it back to Miles's in about 90 min, he gathered his things and I made the final 20 min trek back home.

Somehow, we all made it back without harm, and I made it home safely. I was also able to stay up until like 7 pm allowing me to not completely fuck up my sleep cycle (I slept until 9 the next day, which is like really early for me). Well, I guess that's the tale of my grand road trip. I should probably have some final thoughts and such, but I'll save those for the next road trip post, a kind of wrap up // picture guide post (thank god for disposable cameras).

So, that's it for now kids. Maybe the next post will be more road tripin' maybe it'll be recapping Sean Ryan, maybe I will get caught up in TV and life and not post for far to long. However it turns out, writing this has been fun; I hope you liked it.

Life Update (Road Trip Recap Pt. II)

The second long drive was much weirder and harder than the first. For one, nobody in a car slept more than like 4 hours, with Miles sleeping 4, Robin and David sleeping 2 and myself sleeping 30 min. Still, we were all surprisingly sober, apparently the concept of a 12 hour drive will sober you up when you've stayed out late drinking and partying (getting late night Carl's also helped). So, we were supposed to leave Claremont at 6 in the morning, and as such I left Never Land at about 5:40 and got to the car at about 5:50. Being the impatient type, and wanting to save some time I went to fill up on gas and buy some personal driving fuel. Seeing as this wasn't an all night drive we were about to embark on I decided on a 1L bottle of Coke instead of ramping all the way up to the Dew. I got back to the parking lot at about 6:05 to find Robin, Miles, and to my surprise David, waiting for me. Initially Thomas a.k.a. 'Jenga' was considering joining us, but that would have been 6 strain driving weekends for him (fall break, road trip, UCLA tournament, Sean Ryan, SoCal Warmup, something else) so he decided against it. Well, David is a free spirit and an awesome guy who realized that the San Diego wild fires afforded him a great opportunity for a sweet life experience (reading On the Road and writing a paper about the mystique of the road couldn't have hurt either). Robin, Miles, and David all got in the car, we then made a quick stop by David's car so he could get some things, then we hit the road at about 6:15.

I took the first driving shift because it was my car and I couldn't have slept with someone with less than 4 hours of sleep that was not me driving it (unless that person was Shaggy with a 2L of Mountain Due or an appropriate amount of physics homework and coffee). Robin took shotgun with the responsibility of staying awake and choosing the music seeing as none of us undertook the task of making a 12 hr playlist. Luckily for me, Robin had his laptop and thus a sweet assortment of music that I don't have. His musical choices combined with the post apocalyptic feel of the early morning I-15 were enough to easily keep me awake.

There were already a ton of cars on the road when we started our drive. False dawn came around 6:45, bringing with it a red haze through all the smoke that had drifted north with the wind along I-15. The early morning traffic (well, the flow was between 60 and 80 mph at all times) combined with the red haze and the still visible moon gave the drive a Mad Max sort of feel that really tripped David, Robin and I out in our sleep-deprived states. Unfortunately for Miles, he slept like a rock and never got to see the smoke, even though that was a big goal of his for the trip (he had even suggested that we take a detour to see the flames if it wouldn't take to long, in fact, on the way down he was almost insisting that we do so seeing as the flames were visible from the 5 and we were on it, but we got off at the 210 instead of driving through LA just to see the fucking fires).

We got off the 15 on the north side of Barstow and got on I-40, which apparently connects Wilmington, NC to, um, Barstow. When we got on the 40 we were greeted with a sign saying Needles 144 miles, Washington D.C. 2,556 miles. Somehow we decided that this meant needles was a very important destination, and that yelling NEEDLES! anytime we saw a sign for the place was a very funny and entertaining action. Well, it seemed logical that we should fill up in Needles because we'd be be at about a half tank then and we didn't want to spend a ton of money each time it was your turn to fill up (I couldn't convince everyone that we should go till just about empty then play credit card roulette for who pays). Little did we know that Needles is such an important destination that gas costs $3.70 a gallon there (luckily for me I payed for gas in Claremont and wasn't hit with the bill in NEEDLES!)

I traded off driving to Robin in Needles and decided to play captain iPod for a while. After about an hour of this we went to instrumentals and started freestyling, basically, we all sucked compared to Robin, but we all improved greatly during our first forte into freestyling on the roadtrip (except maybe Miles, he's kind of special when freestyling). I think my favorite part of freestyling was trying to get Miles to rhyme. Inevitably, when he did, he'd try and rap about Man Ferns, but he couldn't mess up without being to self conscious. I really liked "Man Fern, yeah, Man Fern, man fern, uh, man fern, fuck." as a rap. Anyway, the hours flew by and Robin drove until we got to Flagstaff, at which point I (unwisely) took over again.

After about a half hour of driving I realized I was far to tiered to drive, and that I should pass the torch again. Well, I started driving again for two reasons, first, Robin is a really good driver, he's just not that fast of a driver, and I wanted to get to Santa Fe pretty quickly, second, Miles is a crazy sob when it comes to driving, I am often legitimately scared when I'm in a car and he's behind the wheel. Somehow, in my drowsy state I forgot that I was so hesitant to let Miles drive. When I pulled over to hand over the driving responsibilities I foolishly let Miles drive thinking I'd just nap in the back and not get scared/stressed. Well, I should of known that this was a bad plan when Miles got up to 120 mph just getting back onto the highway. I was about to fall asleep when I heard my car fucking roaring so I looked up at the speedometer from the back seat and saw a new speed record for my car. I was like "what the fuck Miles, you're going 120!" He was like "oh my god, sorry, I was looking at the other meter and was wondering why I was going only 40." "Well, just slow the fuck down" I said. Miles responded "Okay, don't worry." Needless to say, I didn't sleep to well.

Eventually Miles's horrible driving lead me to become very aware and awake. I had him pull over at the first gas station and we switched back for driving duties. At this gas stop we lost all of the time that Miles's craziness might have gained us because he paid to put $20 in the tank then never actually did because he assumed one of us would pump the gas even though he didn't tell us he'd paid the $20. Anyway, we got back on the road and I noticed that we were still at half a tank so we turned around and had to go back to the gas station. This time we filled up with no hitch and were on our way. Thankfully that was our last stop before we finally got to Santa Fe. Wow, that took a while, still, I'll try and write about the weekend and the trip back for later tonight.

Life Update (Road Trip Recap Pt. I)

So, before Wednesday the 24th of October I'd never really been on a road trip. This past summer I took a NW trip, that took me to Seattle for Potlatch and the 4th, then backpacking with Alison and her friends, then finally to Vancouver, WA to visit my brother and his family. It was a sweet 2 week trip, but there was far to much hanging out time compared to driving time, and there was no crazy all night drives. Well, two weeks ago I took a real road trip.

The seeds of my trip were planted last summer when Miles promised Matt he'd find a way to visit him in Santa Fe this semester. This promise developed into the idea of Miles and I road-tripping down to visit Matt for his birthday. We then combined this idea with visiting friends in Claremont and vwala, a road trip was born.

Still, the magnitude of the trip was not yet clear to me. The unpredictability of a trip with Miles was exciting, but when Robin decided to join us I was elated. Robin really knows how to party, and having a second competent driver was a relieving prospect (I'll get back to this point).

Our initial plan was to leave Santa Cruz the morning of Tuesday the 23rd and stay at USC with Miles's high school friend Hans. In order to add Robin to our trip roster, we had to scrap this plan and instead postpone leaving until Wednesday. It was disappointing we couldn't visit Hans, but it was nice that we would have another travel partner, and we'd cut down on the total trip time and money spent. So, we scraped this plan and came up with a new schedule.

Our schedule became leave Santa Cruz in time to pick up Robin at 12:00 on Wednesday. Drive to Claremeont, and stay there Wednesday night and all day Thursday. Party Thursday night and leave Claremont for Santa Fe at 6 a.m. Friday morning. Arrive in Santa Fe in time for dinner and a Friday night party. Chill Saturday, then hit up Matt's birthday party Saturday night. And finally, recover on Sunday and leave at 5 p.m. so we could get back to Berkeley by noon Monday when Robin had an office hours appointment with a professor. It was a tight schedule and looked like one of a real road trip.

So, Wednesday came and we were on our way. I picked up Miles in town at 10:15, we then proceeded to Mountain View so Miles could sell some comics and get money for the trip. From there we went on the B-town to pick up Robin. After picking up Robin we got some gas, a disposable camera, and Miles donated $5 to breast cancer so he could get a plastic pot for a Man Fern. (Okay, quick sidebar, Miles really wanted to get a Man Fern for Matt as a house warming gift. He was planing on digging one up while in SC, but never got to it. As such, he was on constant lookout while we were on the road in case he spotted one and we could dig it up and take it to Matt. Anyway, the quest for a Man Fern was a constant subplot for our trip).

Our drive down to C-mont was painless and quick. I feel like a pro making this drive by now, it flies by. Also, I made a new I-5 playlist for this one, 6 sweet hours of hip-hop, old school, and dance music. We got into Claremont around 7 and split up. Miles and Robin went down to CMC to figure out where they would stay that night while I went to find Shy and chill out for the evening. My Wednesday night was chill, Shy and I went and got some brew at Vons then proceeded to watch footage from club regionals and last year's Brains doc. Jay came to join us for the footage watching, then we all went to the Mudd Hole. Over all a chill night, and what I was looking for.

My experience was far from what Robin found at CMC. From what I gathered, Robin was trying to avoid ending up in an ex's sweet/bed and wound up falling asleep on the CMC baseball field. He then encountered camp sec and went to the apartments, winding up on the couch of said ex. Well, he claims it was a positive experience because he wound up with home cooked muffins in the morning.

My Thursday was pretty mellow and real sweet. I got some China Star with Case and the Markstein brothers (unbeknownst to me, Miles' younger brother David joined us in Claremont, he's a UCSD student and didn't have classes because of the wild fires). Then I had my fantasy draft with Jay, and finally I went to Braineaters practice. Honestly, I was nervous that Weston would just shut me down, and I wouldn't be able to get open, but luckily I had success cutting. Still, Wes is clearly improved as a defender, and got a pretty nice lay out D on a dump cut I made (I wasn't expecting the throw because I was setting up another cut, but yeah, excuses are the nails that built the house of failure). Anyway, after practice I hit up dinner with the team, then went to chill with the NL kids. I wound up taking a bunch of stuff from the Mudd network before heading down to CMC to drink and live it up. I managed to have a pretty mellow Thursday night, playing some root, hitting up a little dance sesh, then a TNC after party before going back to Mudd and getting some Carl's. I wound up sleeping about a half hour before having to leave at 6 a.m. and start the second and more epic leg of our journey.

Part two coming soon (hopefully late tonight).

Food Poisoning

I would have finished my road trip post for tonight, but I've been feeling horrible since I got home from climbing (honestly, I wasn't feeling that great at the gym, but I still got a 10.d and an 11 in there). Well, I guess tonight was a right of passage for me, my first bout with fo0d poisoning. Anyway, I have a busy weekend of ultimate ahead of me, so I might be a while with the road trip post.

Life Update

I got a MacBook Pro. It's awesome. I love it. The only thing is I'm having problems with the iSight camera thing, apple store, here I come. Along with this new toy I got one on the new iPod classics (the thin 80 gig one). My only complaint is that I wish they still made them in white. It'll be nice to have a music library for my car again, although I'll need to make new playlists.

In retrospect, I'd say using the iPod shuffle did good things for my musical horizons. It really made me realize how much I don't listen to good music by some of my favorite groups like The Roots, De La Soul, J-Live, and Zion I, and it helped me realize a couple of sweet things about hip-hop. Fist, if you shout out Slick Rick in your song, it'll probably be great (see "Mellow My Man", "1nce Again", "Grindin'" "It's Like That" from The Grind Date), and second, that J-Live is like three great tracks away from me being able to make a sweet greatest hits style playlist (right now I'd go with "Wax Paper", "Braggin' Writes" (the original, not the one with the retarded kermit voice thing), "Them That's Not", "The Best Part", "Satisfied", "Like This Anna", "Do That Shit", and "All Of The Above" (mosty because he shouts out Optimus Prime)).

Now I have to go and upload all my music to my new iPod and make those new playlists.

Mission Statement

Okay, so I made this blog for a couple of reasons, first, I think it'll be sweet to have a place to put down my opinions on the things I love to do, second, I'm not going to school this fall, so this might be a way for me to keep my mind occupied, and finally, Jay said I should. With that said, these are the things you should know about what will show up here:

1. A lot of typos. I'm a horrible speller, and my grammar is questionable at best.

2. My predictions about sports. This will be mostly on Ultimate, but I think the NBA will make an appearance or two.

3. My opinions about music. I like writing about music, and I don't know how good I am at it, but I'll give it a shot.

4. Some everyday boringness. I like reading about what my friends are up to, maybe you guys will appreciate reading about what I'm doing.

So, with all that out of the way, here is where I'm at in life right now:

I'm living at home after having recently graduated from college. I think it's both good for my parents and myself, also, if and when I get a job, living at home will allow me to maybe save some money while paying off loans and things like that. For the current club ultimate season I'm playing coed with a Santa Cruz team called Family Style (FS). As a young guy who wants to play 'elite', I'm lucky to have a team like FS to play with because it isn't a team with a lot of carrier co-ed players. I really like my teammates, and I'm fortunate to be able to play with and learn from veterans who've played top level open and womens.

Also, my iPod was recently stolen at a party. As such, I've had to make do with my mom's Shuffle for my car music. Although it's a bummer to have lost all my playlists and the random songs I've gotten from friends over the years, not having my iPod has made me focus on music a little bit more. I'm actively seeking it out, and really thinking about what I want on the little 1 GB shuffle.

So, that's kind of where I'm at in general. Word.