12/03/09

1.3 mi hill interval run

4x
20 banded 12lb mdball squats
20 lunges
20 stepupkicks
10 jump squats
8 12lb medball pushups
8 clap pushups
8 elbow tight pushups

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12/1/09

Tabata Banded In-Outs

8 x (12lb Medball):
10 Slams w/ "Full Crouch Catch"
4 breath rest

2x (4lb Ball):
20 RHand Overhead Wall Dribbles
20 LHand Overhead Wall Dribbles
20 RHand Shoulder Wall Dribbles
20 LHand Shoulder Wall Dribbles
20 Stationary Soccer Throwins
20 Stationary Chest Passes
20 RHand Sidearm Throws
20 LHand Sidearm Throws
20 RHand 3/4 Throws
20 LHand 3/4 Throws
20 RHand Overhand Throws
20 LHand Overhand Throws
20 RHand Underhand Throws
20 LHand Underhand Throws

1x
20 Glute Raises
20 L-Leg Raises
20 Bird Dogs
20 Single Leg Raises
20 Hip Adductor Things
12 Clap Pushups

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11/30/09

1.3mi Hill Interval

4x
20 banded 12lb medball squats
20 lunges
20 high knee high stepups
10 jump squats
8 12lb medball pushups
8 clap pushups
8 tight elbow slow pushups

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11/28/09

Some hours of windy Brumfis Boot.

Raph, Walt, Dono, Frenchy, Jaeger, MJ, Jake the Jake, me.

(Crash didn't play. Neither did Mellen nor Jamie Rose. That didn't stop me from blading a disc at the latter. It was surprising that J didn't D that one. Fortunately, he's not the brains of the operation. Disaster was averted prior to her mother sitting on her. No no, on purpose.)

A descendent of Team Uber ruled the day.
Including a fitting throwbacktheclock end.

Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale: Tasty.

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11/25/09

1.3 mi hill interval run (stay springy and bounding on toes)

assorted 12lb medball twists
moving some heavy stuff around

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11/24/09

4x

20 12lb Medball Squats
20 Lunges
20 Stepupkicks
10 Jump Squats
8 12lb medball pushups
8 clap pushups
8 pushups (elbows tight)

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11/23/09

1.3 Mill Hill Interval Run
(There was a suspicious car down at the end of the bottom hill. So I cut that part off because I wanted to focus on me, not them. Which is hard for me. Not them.)

40min Interval Training w/ Variable rests no more than 90 sec and no closer than 10 seconds apart. Various throwing, weight transfer, rotational, full-body, explosive, etc movements. All over the place as I just tried to vary what I was doing as much as possible within the realms of workouts that I've done recently. So, things like "This next interval will be medball pushups" or "The next three intervals will be Throwing the Medball against the wall" or whatever combined with knowing which parts of my body are more/less tired after a given interval...

Anyway, the point is that it is hard because I can change it to make it harder/easier for myself as I go. Which is its own challenge.

The intervals were all set on a watch, but I set ~ 13/14 intervals of varying time, and I won't be able to remember 13 or 14 intervals while keeping track of the other stuff I'm doing. Well, not yet at least.

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11/22/09

90 min 7 v UPENN

7 win despite le(masque)on and amanginger still pretending to have college eligibility. Maybe 15-9? 10?

It was also determined that we are just the sort of people to take advantage of cheap Sixers tix.

Fun running around w/ Barfighters and Barfoughts.

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11/20/09

20 min stretching

100 4lb Medball Burpees for time
(10:31)
Medball burpee is just a Burpee with a Medball held in both hands the whole time

1x
20 Glute Raises
20 L-Leg Raises
20 Bird Dogs
20 Lying Hip Adductor
20 Single Leg Glute Raises
12 clap pushups
10 Glute Raises

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11/18/09

1.5 mile hill interval run

4x
20 12lb Medball Squats
20 Lunges
20 Stepups
10 Jump Squats
8 12lb medball pushups
8 clap pushups
8 pushups

2x
20 Glute Raises
20 'L'-Leg Raises
20 Bird Dogs
20 Single Leg Glute Raises
20 Lying Hip Adductor
12 Clap Pushups

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Hot

That is the first thing I remember


It is not, however, the first thing [I] remember after all the things [I]'ve forgotten.

[Warning: This is classic blogposting with little editing or care for craft. Deal.]

This year was hot and humid beyond what I (or Pike, for that matter) was prepared for. That is, combine 5-10 outbreaks of swineflu, hantavirus, SARS, tetanus-induced lockjaw, death and many other psychosomatic and real illness with practicing in 40 degree weather with sideways rain for three post-regionals weeks with attendance in the preteen region as well as the whole "16 Nationals Virgins" and, well, you go 1-6 on the weekend. What a coincidence. 16 was our seed. Yay seeding folks. You accurately seeded the team which couldn't find a game all season.

Not that I'm saying we deserved to play against better teams ('deserves' is a highly loaded word full of connotation and all of that shit), but if you take a sample comparison between SoL and Pike it will be apparent that SoL was able to play the following nationals teams prior to regionals:

GOAT x3, Bodhi x2, Ironside, Truckstop, Machine, Revolver, Pike

Compare to the zero nationals teams that Pike was able to play despite both teams going to the same tournaments and finishing the same at Regionals in 2008.

---
The thing I am proudest of Pike for is never once playing scared at Nationals 2009.
Stupidly, braindead, selfishly, and many more colorful descriptors can be used, but not one of them is 'scared'. This is more than I can say for the 2007 team. The 2007 team, on the other hand, wasn't dumb. I'm not sure which team wins here. But I'm losing, I'm sure of it.
---

Day one was a trip. We were up on GOAT at 4-3 in the first game, we gave up half 5-8. We pulled to within 7-9 and 11-13 before giving up the ghost at 12-15.
The last time I saw Revolver, we were down 2-4 on our way to 5-15. I think the D outscored the O in this one.
Then, finally, a shot at Truckstop, where we went up 2-1 by breaking on the second D point, then fell behind 4-7. The O scored, and the D broke us back to 7-7 AND had a chance to score to take half, but didn't. I remember 8-10. But the rest is foggy.

We didn't exactly roll over against revolver, but it wasn't good. GOAT and Truck definitely had more cohesive teams than Pike, but hell... they've been to nationals recently and kept rosters intact relative to Pike's unusual "keep most of the roster in odd years and jettison 16-17 players in even years" schedule used since 06.

---
While there were no Waffle House early-AM ho-train shenanigans (despite the presence of Dan Yi), Glen Poole did bite the top off of a bottle.
---

The drive up/down from TPA to Sarasota is a good time at Sunset. Having made the drive nearly every year I've been at Nationals on Thursday night, I have no idea what people do on Thursday nights. Stupid/awesome girlfriends.

The way folks in FLA drive is decidedly different than in the MidAtlantic (and don't get me started on those fuckers in the midwest who make you get pulled over for going 70 in a 65 because EVERYONE drives 69. Losers with no cojones. Seriously, you don't think you can pick up the pace a little bit? Even just so that when I'm trying to drive fast you can clear the passing lane so that I avoid the Jersey Weave?

The key thing seems to be that on the highway, you can drive ~83 or so, without even thinking about cops. If you go over that, you're asking to get pulled over. On the city streets, all you need to do is accelerate out of the turns/redlights and get into the open space created by the lights/turns in the first place. Then you can drive just a bit faster than the rest w/o risking a ticket or running into that group of cars ahead of you.

---
Day two started with Bodhi who broke us early to the tune of 0-3. Considering that, the 5-8 halftime deficit wasn't too shabby. Nor was the 11-15 final score. I like playing them, for the most part. Especially now that they've gotten the massive chip off of their collective shoulder and instead Just Play Hard (and in their case, very well). Maturity will do that.

The next game was against Streetgang. We scrapped the O/D lines and reverted back to the way we originally planned the subbing for the season. This was good. Streetgang seemed really surprised that we could play at all. This was good for us, as GOAT+Truck had seen us often enough over the years to know that we didn't suck, and Revolver simply didn't give the disc back after a turn... so their assessment of us was irrelevant.

Notching a victory pre-shitbox was good. It did us no good at all in terms of final finish, but it was a good Team-Level-Psyche kinda thing.

---
In a related story, I'm terrible at subcalling and hope/plan/expect not to ever have to do that again until I retire to coaching.
---

Overall, I had a solid though unspectacular weekend. I was responsible for very few turnovers (though I did have 2 drops in one point against GOAT, which was bizarre... but then again, there were 7 total drops in that point-- 4 for Pike and 3 for GOAT. One of the other Pike drops was on a throw that I threw, but that came back on a foul.) though I could have done a better job involving myself directly and obviously in the offense. I threw some goals, caught some goals. Made some good reads on what the D was doing against us and acted appropriately. I had at least one D, and while I got worked for a couple of deep scores here and there when I tried to, as Ellis said, "Be too unpredictable on D" overall, my defense was good.

---

Day Three matched us against Machine in the first round. That was fun. I think we went up a break early and may have taken half, but they rallied and made a run in the late second half to take the game. Ricky looks young and plays young enough to be in the right division. There was also no brick in my field bag.

The rematch against Streetgang was not good for our squad. Their offense was just as efficient on D as it was on O this time around. Our will was finally starting to fade a little bit, and while we didn't pack it in, we just... didn't have it in the tanks any longer.

The mental battle of playing these games is fascinating.

---
I then meant to get hammered in the beer garden, but not only could I not see any games I wanted to see from the garden, it turned out that my DD was drunk. Time to go watch some ultimate.

Seriously, there are some Masters guys I like to watch, but don't put the beer tent on their games. Put the damn beer tent on the field for Open semis. That is ridiculous. I am channeling my inner Toad here, but if we actually want this to be a spectator sport for the spectator/players who have just fought their hearts out in all of their crappy games, at least make it like a real arena. You know... beer while watching. Not "Hey, I'll be back after I go chug 4 glasses of beer because I have to go into the garden and can't come out with the beer... so... you know. I'll try to be back after a point or two."

Yeah. Those are healthy drinking habits. Thanks, UPA!
---

The event this year was really well run as always.
I do, however, wish that when they said "The massage folks will arrive at 8am each day" that it wasn't a lie.

The time I spent in the massage tent was the best/worst time of the weekend. I went over because of the myriad problems of 2 replaced ACLs, one of which never really healed fully due to a staph infection while in the hospital (blah blah blah) plus a somewhat unique throwing motion.

The fella there really worked some magic on me as I could not only walk evenly, but run without undue pain. The problem was that as he was working on various muscles in my right leg/hip, random other muscles would decide to cramp up, causing some combination of consternation/amusement on his part.

Such an overused body for me to fix up in this offseason.
Speaking of offseason, time to hit up PADA Mosh (w/ Johnny Pivot-Foot and the Ten Stall Counts) and Ultimax (w/ Barfight!) and make plans for traveling fun tournaments (Kaimana! Lei-Out?) without disrupting my offseason recovery plans.
---

You know, the more I think about ultimate, the more I realize that it is just a way to break down the body before it is on many levels just a decrepit piece of flesh-n-bone. Replace warring and battling with neighboring tribes with warring and battling with neighboring tribes. The body pays a price. The aches. The pains, the grassburns and stains.

What what else to do with this thing? Sit on the couch? Let it decay rather than use it up? Fuck that. A sedentary life is not a life fully lived. I will continue to call on my body to make sacrifices for a flimsy piece of pavement-worn/pristine plastic. Use it or lose it. And now, more than ever, losing it terrifies me.

Great. Now I've jinxed myself.

---
There were some sublimely hideous jerseys at nationals.
Just because you can print whatever you want doesn't mean that you should.
---
The team purchased a sweet pullover with an embroidered Pike crest, my number and my name on it.
That I don't recoil from my own name is a sign that the gift means something more to me.
---
Collected my pint glass. Hoo-ray!
These trinkets mean more to me than they should.
But I'm not trying to change that.
I'm sure it will change on its own with time
---

This season... was unique in a wonderful way.
I'm sorry to see it end, but I know
That they can't take it away
No they can't take that away
From PIKE.

That is to say,
To put it another way:
TEAM FIRST, bitches!

Read More......

meanwhile, back at charger city...

the smerfs were attempting to play ultimate

with their hands wrapped right round
(spin me right round)
their very own necks as something tender slipped away.

It was a great stop on the first leg of this trip, but one that needed to have a different ending. We won our pool on Saturday. We got up 5-2 with the disc to take half 6-2. We took half 6-3. At 7-4 I threw my only turn of the day on a deep look to Evel off of a stoppage from The Howitzer. They converted.

This weekend, it looked like our team would need D players. So, I took to playing defense on Saturday whenever we were slow to get 4 guys to the line. This seemed to work pretty well. I stayed on for a couple of O points here and there, but by and large, I just worked to play honest, tight defense and take shots I liked on turns, but not to force anything outside of my game. As has happened recently, my game was not a perfect fit for my short-term teammates. Stylistic incongruities. Threw some goals, caught some goals. One D called back on a contested strip. One D a split second too late and resulted in an uncontested foul as I visegripped my opponent's wrist instead of the disc. Not bad, on the whole. Certainly positive fantasy numbers (See: Timeouts, Reason #4080 that timeoutcalling people are shady). Certainly a positive +/-. Certainly stretches of good play. No drops, no turfs. No utterly uncatchable throws. The timing (wa/i)s alwaysall wrong though.

Too slow too know just howhere to go.

This is why I Like FunUltimate but Love ClubUltimate.
Which was a good reminder for me this weekend. And
Interestingly tells a lot about me as a p(lay)er(son).

I took my left cleat off to investigate my toe, which hurt.
AHA! The Culprit? MYSTERY BRUISE!

At 9-6, I put my cleat back on.
At 9-8, I retied my laces.
At 9-9, I tightened them for D to Win.
At 0-0, I watched two D's get caught.
At 0-1, I took them off and drank until Monday.

We watched Team USA get down to Chicken Pax, and win.
We watched Team USA get down to Tender-whomever-we-lost-to, and win.
We watched Team USA get down to TC, and win.

Their men are very good.
Their women are crazygood.
But, SMERFS are still, by the transitive property of ultimate, a far superior first-half team than Team USA.

I got pointblocked at another coed tournament.
That's a pointblock per coed tournament since like... 2007.
That's a far higher number than per open tourney in any 2-week sample of practices, tournaments, whatever.

Odd.

I never thought I'd go to Poultry Days again.
It took a suprise confluence of events (including a plan to drive to Iowa anyway).
But now I remember how fun the P-Days be.

Go at least once.

Also, the Game 4 Orlando Magic to Pre-Quarter SMERF comparisons are getting old.

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What you know

is unknown
now/later.


There is far less luck than I knew there was.
Plays are far more useless, for one reason,
Offenses are far less, for another reason.

Players are players
Ringers are ringers
Ballers are ballers

Shooters gotta shoot.
Some shooters shoot
Better than others.

Leftys are still cheaters:
Just because they use the
Right side of their brains.

Heaven is still just like
A wise man once said it was
When unplaying the fool.

("It's all in the flip
Not at all in the cup!"
P-H-I, L-L-Y: Now what's up?

"This is what happens...
Do you see what happens,
When you [go cups v Pike?]")

Ultimate's a game for innovations:
New solutions to the same equations
Of discflight's patterned iterations.

Different ways of stressing
Of attacking and defensing
But all the same song sing:

"Give nothing +
Take everything =
Win anything."

The same song sung
Echo in every tongue
At eachnevery rung

Of competition
Of sport
Of game.

For money
For nothing
For allthesame.

Just another
Way tokeep
No score

And see
What there
Is to see.
----
Pike's ceiling is higher than it has been since 2005.
Pike's floor is just as low in 2009 as it was in 2006.
Pikes is ready to put the I back in Team First in 2009.

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Bellcracked

Managed to find a team for Bellcrack.

I'm not sure I helped them, on the weekend, but we lost in Quarters to Hooray.
Great. Now my undefeated Bell Crack record is in the toilet.

Then again, I'm pretty sure I was not a negative addition to the team.
I could always be wrong. Perhaps w/o me, they would have made finals.

As usual, every team I play with tells me that if Amy was there they'd be happier.
What does this say about me? Unclear, but there were a lot more serious teams at BellCrack than in years past. That is not to say better or worse, just more actual club coed teams.

----

From Deceptisomething to Deceptinothing.
or
"I forgot to remember we took a timeout. That timeout gave him the rest he needed to get his foot there."
And other thoughts that have gone through my head since I got footblocked.

If I wanted a shorter title:
"Drew Jones gets Ten FIDY'd."

----

League Games start this week.
Er, pre-season games do.

Then again, with this many (50, I think) teams, who knows what's what when we can't all possibly make the playoffs. There is a non-zero chance that I should read the Captain's Handbook which PADA has been kind enough to provide me. If I could only remember whe...

Oh yeah, my team is a well-(c/d)rafted group of miscreants. Off (and, I think) on the field. IF we can only figure out how to get our guys out of the way.


----

Light optional Pike practice Saturday morning was not terrible. The team with fewer drops in the drills had far more drops in the games.

Official full-on Pike tryout weekend next weekend.

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Dogfishhead

That place was awesome.

Yes, both [1, 2] of them.

The tournament was fun too.

First Round Byes on Both Days made for Late Nights.

Which is good.

4-0 on the Day 1 over Drexel Spitfire, Wiretap, Old Sag and Above and Beyond. Wiretap was up at half. Everyone else was down at half.

3-0 on Day 2 over Red Hook, Wiretap and Swarthmore Alums(+).

Pike has won all odd-numbered Beth Coltman Memorials (03, 05, 07, 09)!!!

Good weekend with good players all: Returners, Not-yet-Pikes and Ghost of Pikes-Past.

This season is shaping up entirely differently than last season, thus far. Perhaps we won't lose 17 players? That would be sweet.

Anyway, every single player had good moments and bad. Most more of the former than the latter.

PikePikePike.

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While I Prefer a Dubbel...

Fools Fest was fun

much in the way Kaimana, Mars... and whatever other 3-day Ultimate tournaments with ample beer and competition I'm forgetting are fun.

Played mixed with Stimulus Package (Puppet Regime+Some PoNY+other). Two losses on the weekend. One avenged in quarters against Lefty Loosy (NC). The other handed out by eventual champs The Way of the Jackalope (Various) to the tune of 15-11. Jackalope was definitely the scariest of the tights teams on the weekend.

For everyone who looks at me funny when I drink beer while playing, I submit to you Spaten. (Optimator is great if you love dark beer. Go for the premium lager if you like lighter beer.)

Then again, I didn't need to hear it from someone else that beer is my drink.

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Kaimana 2

"Don't worry, only the finalists don't get poke. We're covered for lunch."

Game 1: Sanban
Sanban was far more warmed up than Pilthy. This, at 11:30, was our first game of the day so we countered their advantage by sleeping late. Some of us got there early enough to get our legs warmed up. Some of us went to the ocean and contemplated the infinitude of waves (water, sun and wind) crashing down upon Waimanalo over forever and infinity over again.

Sanban's sneakyquick IO looks combined with and their hucks of different angles/timings than we were prepared for gave them a bit of advantage mentally early, theough they did not capitalize consistently on our mental mistakes. Our key in this game was to keep the pace up on O AND D and maintain our controlled physicality. That is, we weren't all faster than them, but we play physically, and we weren't slower than them. We also, to a man, outweigh them. Eventually they have some lapses under our consistent pressure. As they slow down a little in the second half, we put the pedal to the metal and rely on Godzilla in a change-up defense. Win, Philthy.

"Come to Kaimana, get international caps."

I'm now 2-0 against Japan with at least one bewildering but friendly bilungual foul-call discussion in each. Sweet. My brother's Big In Japan. Speaking of which, we thought Thoughts was Philthy.

We were misinformed.

Game 2: Ono
We played terribly against Ono. They might say they caused it. I would say they caused about 40% of it, and we caused the balance. That game blew for everyone.

Either way, the Sanban win secured us a quarters spot against a team to be named later. The team to be named later (So called, though I imagine they picked the name a while ago): The Southern Dandys. Headed by Kid and reaching back into ultimate today and yesterday for players.

To be clear, it is unclear what happened that night aside from Philthy Survivor Flipcup. This was good or bad. I recall recalling, however, that Lonestar carried on the tradition of "underachieving team sitting around all day suckering unsuspecting folks into playing ace-to-the-face." Which everyone on Philthy would like to thank them for. It is a dirty game, but someone has to play it.

Game 1, Quarters v Southern Dandys.
Tim 'lost' the flip to The Count for shirt color with the Count looking very pleased with himself. Also, Luke can say now he D'ed me. I threw a blade right to him in their 1-3-X look ~3 points into the game. Well, at least we didn't waste energy on defense that point.

I was reminded early in this one how much of an advantage these monkey arms are. You can teach speed, but you can't teach length. (That's what she said.) Arms also don't get shorter over the course of the tournament, no matter how well you revel. One nice rip off in this one, but it came back on a travel on the guy who threw it to me. They called a lot of travels. I suspect were traveling a lot.

"2-0 vs jerks who made us go non-pinstripes."

Game 2, Semis v Voltron.
They don't, apparently, appreciate references to their team namesake as much as we'd hoped. Or perhaps we wielded encyclopaedic cartoon knowledge while they had the goddamn Sword of Voltron.

They also didn't let us score as much as we'd hoped. Nor did we, ourselves, let ourselves score as much as I'd hoped. Really, the funny thing about ultimate is that you're just playing catch/monkey-in-the-middle with the general intention of moving down the field. If you can't play catch, you can't win. We didn't, and we didn't.

"I'll form the Head."

Well, they didn't in Finals. Ono slapped Voltron around like a delicious fish-slapping dance do. While Toonsky watched (A joker, on the sidelines...), the crowd ate poke and paradise... paradised.

Some goodbyes sadly said, and another Kaimana in the books. Until next year, when you'll find us at the Kona Brewing Co. to start it off on Friday.
----
(Kaimana Preface)
(Kaimana 1)

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Kaimana 1

I see you rolled your way into the semis. Dios mio, man.

pic from Kaveh Kardan

(Back: Trey, Raja, A.Peters, Eug, TP)
(Front: Rob, dusty, Tim, Jamie, Butter, Furf, Jimmy)

Semis? That's not too shabby. We played some terrible games and lost, some medium games and won some, some good/great games and won.

10/12ths of our team smiled in the picture (see above).

2/12ths of our team+1 were in a fender bender due to "kids in a bike in a field across the road who later pointed and laughed at our dented bumper... And rightfully so." The American Dream was rumored, at the time, to've had a beverage here man. But not the driver. Who wasn't driving.

3/12ths+3 of our team spent the pre-KK22 week in Kaua'i. BeautifulGreen. I still prefer the Big Island's massive views, but this place was right in its own right. The glass sand beach is strange enough to have been compared to a marketing gimmick of the highest order (as a compliment) by Poppa Bear while not wearing his hair in JayBay-coined "L.A. Douche Bag style."

Kaua'i: Notes
Waimea Canyon: Virtual Infinitude of roosters.
Kalaheo Coffee Co. & Cafe: Breakfast.
Kalalau Trail (Na Pali Coast): Difficult at night.
Hanakapi'ai Falls: Worth the hike.
Koke'e Park: Hike-n-sleep w/ Full Moon.
Hanalei Bay: Nice, quiet little beach community replete w/ real reactionaries.
Ninini Point: Sweeeeet.
Po'ipu: Sunsets.
Princeville: Unreasonably inflated gas prices.
Any Fresh Fish Market: Buy poke. Drink White Wine. Repeat.

9/12ths+8 of our team went to a beachhouse on the North Shore post-KK22. Edward PairedPseudoSub-40hands, Caserace pilots, "Shu, shu-shu, shu-shu-shu-shu [BUTTER!]," beaches, cliff-jumping, sunrises, beers, hangover cures, kegs-n-eggs, drinking asshole, shooting the moon many times (and still-owed drinks), making ice-blended drinks out of whatever, too many hamburgs/hoddogs not enough poke/seafood, and so forth. Good times with folks from Philly I don't see often enough.

?/12ths +? of our team then went to Maui. Some Philthy/Phine/S.Dandys rumored to convene upon and/or win local hat tournament. Fun times, but I didn't make it this year. The expense-approval dept. doesn't appreciate the new $15 per bag convenience fees charged to the working press's line of credit to pad ledgers at failing airlines everywhere.

Anyway, snap back to reality.
We write about ultimate, right?

Game 1: the Stanford.
The college team. They had some runners and a couple clearly more experienced players. I'm assuming that this is not their full college team because we beat them pretty easily in the end. They could have beaten us-- we played very averagely in this game-- but they didn't. There were good individual plays on both sides. Good teamwork on the whole on the part of the Stanford.

Game 2: Skeletor.
Joined by one-time Philthy codefendant Toonsky, Skeletor remained skeletal. Toonsky, after passing on his chance to hitch his wagon to a PHILTHYstar, faded into obscurity by later joining a third team (Voltron) which didn't also win the tournament. This was after Skeletor and the Stanford later became one team after The Pulse got stung by a scorpion. Or sprained his ankle. What I'm trying to say is that the guy was a lopsided Hopalong Cassidy when we played the Stanford.
As Skeletor can confirm, Philthy did not play well in this game. Whether this lack of goodness was due to them or us is up for debate: I would say mostly us, they might say them. We lost by one.

"Kevin Der says hi."
"Nice! He should be here to tell me his own damn self."

Game 3: Bag-O-Wine
Game played during a box of rain (and wind). They ran some zones that we busted by mixing deep strikes and quick movement. Their man D, though very tight/aggressive, had consistent weaknesses. Their offense started out not turning it. Then their offense started and continued to turn it. And we kept scoring... eventually. We started to nail down the correct pace as a team (downfield and behind the disc) during this one. Timing works both ways in ultimate-- from handler to cutter and from cutter to handler.

(...much of the difference between positions is due to the importance of a player's throws on the run v. a player's throws on an established pivot...
...a better handler than a cutter, for example, reads the field before catching the disc and moves the disc before...
...primary cutters get in-cuts and then turn upfield to assess predetermined flight paths...
...[3rd?]...)

Game 4: Aloha Spirit Team.
The opposition included some more familiar faces. We got this win too, though there were some ridiculous(ly exciting?) deep throws on both sides.

Sweet. 3-1 is rarely a bad day.

Simultaneous to our Aloha Spirit game, as I learned later, the Stanford beat Skeletor (Which gave the Stanford sufficient confidence to bail on the power pool and combine with Skeletor to form "Some super loser team"* as Philthy Santa Cruz alums informed me) which made us #1 in the pool and the Stanford #2. On Day 2, after another first round bye, we would crossover with Ono and Sanban, the Japanese team.**

The night included much cross-cultural exchange.

That night, the Stanford was unable to sing American Pie. Unacceptable this tight to the anniversary of the day the music died. Will should cut each and every one of you.
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* - Unlike Voltron, which combined to form some super loser team without the blazing sword of their namesake. Else they would have dispatched Team UPS in the finals circa 1/3rd of the way after the third commercial break.

**- Which, now that I think about it, might mean that we played one more game than everyone else in our power pool, and that everyone in our power pool made the semis which all sounds perfect to me.
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(Kaimana Preface)
(Kaimana 2)

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Kaimana Preface

This year's Kaimana (#22, in standard linear time) left me with a tripartite memento numquam mori.

Once I've had the editorial board... editorially board it, we'll get it out there on the internet in a serial format. (Yes. You'll need to buy "a cereal for Matt", which will contain, as a prize, the story broken into three parts which, when read [though not when blue] in [any] order produce a particular journey for the reader.) Possibly with some pics here and there, once we get the photography department up and running. Er, sifting. (Er, photography departmenting.) If they were running, it would be difficult for them to attend to the task at hand. Which is the one for which they were conscripted. Er, hired. Up and running? What with the sweating and all? What with the...

Babbling and all.

I'll non-segue to this list of Artist – Album(s)/"Tune(s)"+(“Tune(s) of particular import”) which comprise the 2009 PhilthyKaua'i aural experience. Done with ado:

Aesop Rock – "The Harbor is Yours"
Allman Bros – from At Fillmore East, Brothers and Sisters, Eat a Peach and Idlewild South
Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold ("Like the Rest of Us" and "Wild Wild Horses")
Blackalicious – "40oz for Breakfast" and "First in Flight"
Bob Marley – Live!
Boukman Eksperyans – Kalfou Danjere
Brian Eno & David Byrne – Everything that Happens Happens Today
Brian Wilson – from That Lucky Old Sun
Cage – "Shoot Frank"
Calexico – "Victor Jara's Hands"
Cee-Lo Green – from Cee-Lo Green... is the Soul Machine ("Die Trying")
Common Market – from Tobacco Road ("Nina Sing (feat Funklove)", "Gol'Dust" and "Certitude (feat Chev)")
Curtis Mayfield – from Roots and Superfly
Cut Copy – from In Ghost Colours ("Hearts on Fire")
Damian Marley – from Welcome to Jamrock
DANGERDOOM – from The Mouse and the Mask
Deltron 3030 – from Deltron 3030 ("Positive Contact")
Depeche Mode –"Only When I Lose Myself (Gus Gus Short Play Mix)"
Desmond Dekker – "Shanty Town"
Dire Straits – "Desperado"
Dizzy Gillespie – Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods
DJ Krush & Toshinori Kondo – "Sun is Shining"
DJ Shadow – "Intro" from High Noon single
Elmore James – from King of the Slide Guitar ("Done Somebody Wrong" & "One Way Out")
Erykah Badu – from Mama's Gun
Fleet Foxes – from Fleet Foxes and Sun Giant EP ("Mykanos" "Sun Giant")
Gang Gang Dance – "Blue Nile"
Grateful Dead – "Saturday Night" (Steppin' Out w/ the G.D.)
Grip Grand – from Brokelore
Heiruspecs – from A Tiger Dancing
Hercules and Love Affair – from Hercules and Love Affair ("True/false, fake/real")
Hi-Tek – from Hi-Teknology ("The Sun God feat Common & Vinia Mojica")
Iron and Wine – from The Shepherd's Dog
James Blunt – "1973" and "I'll Take Everything"
James Brown – from Soul Pride 1960-1969 and Star Time ("Grits" and "Tighten Up")
Jay-Z – "I Know"
Jaydiohead – "Dirt off Your Android"
Jean Grae – "Love Thirst"
Jerry Jeff Walker – "Gypsy Songman"
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – from Electric Ladyland
Jim O'Rourke – "Ghost Ship in a Storm"
Jimmy Cliff – from The Harder They Come
John Lee Hooker – from Live at the Café au Go-Go (and Soledad Prison)
John Legend – "Alright"
John Lennon – from Anthology (Disc 2: New York City)
Johnny Nash – "I Can See Clearly Now"
K-Os – from Atlantis - Hymns for Disco
Kings of Leon – from Because of the Times and Only by the Night
Krayzie Bone – "Rolling Up Some Mo'"
Lauryn Hill – from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Madvillain – from Madvillainy
Marcelo D2 – from A Procura da Batida Perfeita and Meu Samba é Assim
Max Tundra – "Number Our Days"
Michael Jackson – "Billie Jean"
Mos Def – "Umi Says (Zero 7 Mix)"
Murs – Murs for President ("Everything" "The Science" and "Road is My Religion")
Neil Young – "Walk On"
The Neville Bros – from Live at Tipitina's (disc 1)
Okkervil River – from The Stage Names ("John Allyn Smith Sails")
Phish – from Rift and The Story of the Ghost
Prefuze 73 – from Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives
The Raconteurs – from Consolers of the Lonely
RJD2 – from Loose Ends and Since We Last Spoke
Rolling Stones – from Exile on Main Street
Royksopp – from Melody AM+remixes
Santogold – from Santogold and Top Ranking
Seu Jorge – from The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions
Slickers – "Johnny Too Bad"
Soulive – "Bridge to Bama (Hi-Tek mix feat. Talib Kweli)"
Souls of Mischief – "'93 'Til Infinity"
Squarepusher – "My Sound"
Steely Dan– from Citizen
Tahiti 80 – "Heartbeat"
Talking Heads – "(Nothing but) Flowers" and "Burning Down the House"
The Tallest Man on Earth – from Shallow Grave
Tinariwen – from Aman Iman: Water is Life
Tito & Tarantula – "Back to the House that Love Built"
Tom Petty – from Wildflowers
Traffic – "Light Up or Leave Me Alone"
TV on the Radio – "Golden Age"
Vampire Weekend – "Walcott"
The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit) – from 'The Very Best' Mixtape
Victor Wooten – from What Did He Say?
The White Stripes – from Icky Thump
The Who – from Quadrophenia
Tom Waits – "Big in Japan"
Zero 7 – from Destiny CD1

(Kaimana 1)
(Kaimana 2)

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Looking Ahead to

Kaimana22: The blogournament.

There are far too many players expected at the Waimanalo Polo Fields who are (self-)important enough to write blogs. From my own team (Philthy): Me, Mr. Thoughts and Mankind (Link withheld to protect the innocent T-Rex). From the Southern Dandys: Statler, Waldorf (the other way round?) and Warning, may contain frisbee-like substance. From those young Stanford punks: The Pulse and probably some more reputable journalists. What do I know about Stanford anyway? Likely some Ono talking about how great they are too. For the love of god, I hope I don't hear one more joke about LemonTree. You can cry a river, lead a dead horse there, toss him in, build a bridge and get over it, but you can't make frisbee players stop beating the poor bastard.

And I'm sure there are more. This is a blog, not an exhaustively researched (and still fallible) paper of record.

Anyway, the fact remains that this could be a total eclipse of [coverage]. An inundation. A saturation. A battle royal covered from all angles. Then again, we could decide that Hawaii is more fun than Vegas (I have already confirmed this independently, for those of you scoring at home and/or looking for expert opinions. To Wit: Kaimana>Tempe>Vegas) and still not talk about it.

For the record, I will not, under any circumstances, be bullied into boatracing against Kid and/or Count. I'm from NYU, we had kegs of Anchor Steam at parties. No need to drink fast. Put it on the backburner and slow your roll for the marathon. That is, "I see your challenge, accept defeat and challenge you to beers for breakfast and many rousing rounds of Ace-to-the-Face."

Anyway, the Philthy team this year has some newly signed roster surprises, and once again some fly-ass jerseys. Some of us will be tourin' Kaua'i the week before, some of us will be north-shoring the week after. The select unemployed pretend-writers amongst us will be doing both. To that end, I invite any+every one to drop by the Kona Brewing Co at the Koko Marina before you head to the polo fields and campsite on Friday. We'll be there circa 11am until our long liquidbreakfastlunch provides sufficient tent-erecting fuel. (Directions: Take H1 east until it turns into Route 72. Once it does, get into the left of the two lanes when it gets down to a 2-lane road. When it makes you turn left onto Lunalilo Home Rd, you're in the right complex. Yeah, only Chevron in the area.) Hope to see you there!

And then? I hear we have 3 days of games+beach in paradise to look forward to!

Hell yes-- Just livin' the dream
and hoping I don't wake up.

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Pike <05 Reunion

Club Vegas 2009

"Me First"

roster:

Crash
Paul Darling
wtk9
Regetz
Jaeger
JT
BLo
Heckman
Trey
Jude
Dono
Geoff
Mio
dusty
Straw
Ryan Todd
Eug Yum
Joel Wooten

This weekend should be Aces.

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Bird-Bowl

The game will be covered conventionally.

Many simple-sounding story-arcs like "The Eagles versus the Cardinals: Rematch of Thanksgiving day bird-massacreeeee" and "Quarterback battle between aged/re(juv)invented Kurt Warner versus retested/inexplicably reviled Donovan F. McNabb" &c.

Meanwhile, the bedrock story, the most pertinent and basic information, is swept under the rug. To wit: the Eagles' defense is specifically engineered to attack the Cardinals' offense.

Not in the solely conventional connotative sense of "That is what a defense does, dodo" but also in the specific *type* of defense. Multiple cover-corners (as many as FOUR, depending on the weekend that off-brand DBs like Lito decide to have) and various variable blitzes which disguise and fake-disguise varying coverages.

That is, the offense of the Cardinals relies on similar principles as the Greatest Show on Turf did. This is in no small part due to proclivities of Kurt Warner. His tenure in the NFL has been marked by an ability to read the downfield defense and make informed decisions about where the ball must go at the last possible instant. This lesson, learned at the feet of Offensive Genius Miek Martz, has served him well. Well, so long as he isn't gi(v/ft)ing the ball to the other team.

The read-react-adjusttoball routes of Zona rely on a strong QB-WR connection. They (WRs) read the defense and react in the same fashion as Warner, again and again, in an instant. This is the essence of the NFL. Repetitive pressure-filled (300lb+ lineman pus others are always pressure!) short-burst instense stress. Over and over again, both sides work to maintain full-focus and divest themselves of the affliction of pain. The price paid by body is determined by mind. No questions, no excuses, just act. Perfectly. Now. Now again. Now again. Again.

This QB/Receiver connection is precisely the sort of thing that Jim Johnson looks to disrupt. It is not the "everyone knows what is coming" pass that the Eagles defend well (please see continued inability to defend receivers like Plaxico on complicated routes like "I'm 6'6". Throw it high, motherfucker." Which, to be fair, leaves Larry Fitzgerald space to do something traditionally him-like. E.g., come down with a 50/50 pass or two in tight double-midget coverage.) but rather the timing routes and the concomitant adjustments to pressure that the QB-WR connection rely upon when the QB is under duress.

That is, the Iggles blitz the shit out of QBs so that they remember that it hurts to take a hit, even if the hit is delivered after the completion. (See Dawk's highlight reel) This is playoff football. QBs get hit in the playoffs. Which is good for all of us. except for them. Well, actually, the sport of football is about physical contact. QBs play the sport of football. This benefit is subordinate to the "decrease the amount of time the offense has to read the coverage."

IrRegardless of that batshit ranting, the pressure applied by the Eagles leads to the opponents relying upon their pressure-reads to get the QB out of trouble and get the ball to the WRs et al. When, over the course of the game, time-pressured adjustments are iterated, there are bound to be errors. There are a limited number of effective adjustments in any given route combo. By going to work on every down and every distance, the Eagles force the opponent to show their hand early and often. They take chances and rely on Dawkins to play the role of The Wolf, who'll be comin' directly.

The Cardinals need Boldin in this game. The defense of the Eagles can limit one receiver to acceptable levels. The addition of the second WR leaves a positive variable unaccounted for, which is where the mixing of schemes on the part of JJohnson and the ability of the Eagles D to make plays when it is time (not before or after) enter into it.

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and again...

i wish i didn't have to sort through

so much crap to unearth goldmines.

does that make it more or less worth it?

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The09Trip

Finally got my affairs in order.

Agenda:

Trouble in Vegas with Me First. (oldpike)
New Year's Fest with the Philly team. (I blame Ultimax.)
Kaimana with Philthy. (We're going to appear thin this year.)

Sweet. Now to get the details sor(di/te)d... and not miss flights.

One month, three tourneys, three teams.
Trouble in New Year's Paradise.

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