34 Hours.

Only 34 hours until one of the biggest tournaments in my Ultimate career so far. So pumped. So pumped. Ready to rip some faces off. Getting the kind of determination, focus, adrenaline rush that only really hits me at about this time of the season, when it really matters. Envisioning myself get that layout grab deep for the double-game-point in the game-to-go. Just watched footage of our win over Pitt, and I think there's good reason to believe that we will trash the shit out of Maryland and Pitt.


It's official, we've beaten two teams that are #1 in their regions (Michigan and Pittsburgh), and another team that has a good shot at being #1 in their region (Harvard). I'm going to watch some Ultimate highlights.

Near close of semester

Wrapped up my sixth-to-last day of classes today, and it was an uneventful one. Learned about cancers in my molecular biology/genetics class. Learned about ...??? in statistics. I have a five-page history paper due tomorrow, which I am half-done with, and intend to start at past midnight because I really don't care. Took my bio lab practical yesterday, it kinda sucked, but hey, whatever. I'm done with that sad part of my life now.

Fast times in the Illadelph. [For reference, 'Illadelph' is a badass way of referring to Philadelphia. So logic holds that I refer to the city in said manner.] Colbert hosted his 'Colbert Report' for much of last week in Penn's Annenberg Center. On Friday, Obama spoke to his largest crowd ever, ~35,000 at Independence Mall. (I didn't go.) Last night the Clintons dropped by the Palestra, Penn's basketball arena. Pro-Hillary people shouted, chanted, even marveled at their own frivolity as they scared the shit out of people crossing the intersection of 34th and Walnut. Trucks with loudspeakers kept crossing the intersection, blaring artificial crowd-noises that kept chanting, 'Obama'. And almost anti-climatically, today was/still is the primary election day. Most important of all, there are only five more days of school before dead week and finals.

I'm pretty sure half of our team is Jewish. This week happens to be part of Passover, so they can't eat leavened bread, beer, and other stuff. I can't tell who on our team is not Jewish. I can't even tell if I'm not Jewish. But at least I don't play on BYU's Ultimate team. Also, for anyone out there who knows: if your cleats are tight so that the your toes bend at the end, does that have an effect on your leg muscles? Because my cleats are really tight, and all of this season my legs (especially quads) seem to have gotten tired prematurely.

Man. Who cares about school anymore??? Seriously.

The Series.

Note: This post will be almost entirely devoted to College Ultimate. Sorry Ginny.

It's almost 2 AM. What am I doing up? I was going to do a mini-workout, actually. And I can't seem to concentrate on any sort of work (surprise?). So I must pour out my Ultimate-related thoughts...

First off. NW Regionals. Good show by Collin, David, and Greg to make regionals. Not an easy task (at least for WA/BC sectionals). David's GURU proving that they were underrated. Collin's Sweets challenging for the section crown before falling in two close defeats (what if...? A possible 1 or 2 seed could have been?). Greg's Beavers (?) going 6-1 on the weekend. Nice. I can't believe Western played so poorly this weekend.

My guess for NW Regionals seeding:

1 UBC
2 UCSC
3 Stanford
4 LPC
5 Oregon
6 Cal
7 Washington
8 Whitman
9 WWU
10 Victoria
11 OSU
12 UC Davis
13 Humboldt St
14 Lewis & Clark
15 BYU
16 Gonzaga

My guess is that UBC and Stanford make it out, and UCSC doesn't hold up to its seed. Whitman will be the upset specialist.

Also, I'm going to talk about the Great Lakes Regionals for a little bit as well, because I always think of Luke. And because we've faced 3 of the region's four top teams (Michigan, Ohio St., Notre Dame). We've beaten Michigan, lost to Notre Dame once, and lost THREE TIMES to Ohio St. (though each time they were close games, and we practically gave away our third game against them). I think Michigan and Illinois will make it out, but look for Notre Dame to make some serious noise.

Anyways, on to the region everyone loves most!

My guess for ME Regionals seeding:

1 Pitt
2 Maryland
3 Penn
4 Delaware
5 Edinboro
6 George Washington
7 Carleton Univ.
8 Cornell
9 Princeton
10 Penn St.
11 Bucknell
12 Lehigh
13 RPI
14 Queens-Kingston
15 Hofstra
16 Vassar

I see Pitt beating us in the finals, and then us beating Maryland soundly in the game-to-go. Our previous loss to Maryland was coming off of a deflating loss to Ohio St., with one of our best players (a 6-3 grad student who would demolish Stout from Ego) out. We didn't play with energy (we didn't have any left), and I think we would come out fired up in a rematch. Also, Cornell and Edinboro are underrated.

Here are some very good Ultimate blogs...

http://matchdiesel.blogspot.com/

http://tnilan.blogspot.com/

And I'm sure you all read RSD? MSSUI? Woo.

Spring and motivation.

Spring is here. That means many things, I know. One, it's getting close to my birthday! Two, the weather's getting better. Three, the college Ultimate season really heats up. Four, school is winding down.

That last one seems to have hit me hard. I just lack any sort of motivation these days. When the weather starts to get better, I just can't help but daydreaming about late summer afternoons, shirt, shorts, birkenstocks, aviators, hat, watching Ultimate. And perhaps some beach volleyball, because that sounds like the shit. I also can't help but think about the fact that I have just over three more weeks of classes left, and how that will be gone in no time. So I am lazy. My thought process on homework as of recent:

1) I should probably do that bio reading
2) But it won't hurt if I do it later. Let's watch that basketball game
3) I should probably do that reading before I go to bed so that I understand lecture tomorrow morning
4) Fuck it, let's go to bed
5) I didn't understand the lecture at all. Maybe I should read the book
6) How about not, I'll just read up before midterm/final. At least I went to lecture
7) I have a huge midterm tomorrow, I should really read that stuff in the book I swore to read many times over
8) Meh, it's probably not going to be on the exam

7 and 8 haven't actually happened yet, because I haven't had a midterm in a few weeks. I hope it won't happen. When I do subject myself to reading, I skim at least half the time. But my thinking is, at least I go to lecture! I was talking to my friend Edward the other day (he is also a premed, and plays Ultimate, and is awesome). He said he had skipped his last three classes, which gave me great comfort. Later that day I talked to another friend who mentioned that he knows some people at Penn with 4.0s, who took more courses than I did fall semester. And he also mentioned another friend at MIT who thought his classes there were easier than those at his high school. I got really freaked out by that.

But these days I am slacking off!!!!! I probably do an average of one hour of work per day. Last semester I probably averaged about 2.5 or 3. I don't know why/how. I don't know if it's because my classes are easier, or what. But I think that might be the general attitude here, because my stats professor cancelled two future quizzes because of Passover on one Friday and a big Spring Fling concert on another, with Ludacris, Gym Class Heroes, and OK Go (he then proceeded to tell his that the reason for that was that he had had a dream recently about Ludacris and diet coke). Yeah, sweet, I know.

And I'm also just bumbling along in life in general. Tomorrow I'm going to have to buy a new printer, I recently took a tumble while wiping off dust on my shelves (which are up high), and I must have landed on my printer/scanner. When I couldn't print anything, I looked at the scanner thing and the glass was all shattered. And before that I had accidentally sent a letter without a stamp (unless I just forgot and had actually put a stamp on it). I have to rewrite that... ...

But it'll all be over soon, just one and a half more months...

Roll Call, D.C.

Void of UPenn took a short three-hour drive down to Poolsville, MD (near Washington, DC) this weekend for a 40-team tournament.

We were placed in a power pool (there were 2 power pools) as the 5th seed, meaning we were seeded 9th overall. Luke's North Park, being 1 seed of the second non-power pool, were then 11th overall coming in.

Our first game on Saturday was against Wesleyan, seeded fourth in our pool and a huge question mark. We had no clue what they were about. As it was, Void overcame some sloppy end zone offense and spotty defense to pull out a victory, 12-9. Wesleyan ended up 0-8 for the weekend. During our second-round bye, I went over to watch North Park face Northwestern in a cross-town battle. Incidentally, one of our best players is a grad student who played at Northwestern, so he was on the opposing sideline watching as well. Anyways, Luke is a tool. Just kidding. He played pretty well.

Our second game of the day pitted Void against MetroEast powerhouse and nationals contender, Pittsburgh. Pitt was coming off a successful weekend at Centex where they had taken down the great Wisconsin Hodags. In their first game of the day they had beaten Maryland in a close encounter, and their second game against Void would prove to be no different. Void took an early 3-1 lead with flow-offense and a strong dump-defense, but Pitt went on a 4-0 run using poor spirit, bullshit calls, and deep looks. While on the sideline I distinctly remember a Pitt player mentioning, "we're not losing to some nerd school". Pitt would take half 7-6 and would stretch the lead to 10-6, leading to a Void timeout.

Void would regroup and come out strong, cutting the Pitt lead to 10-7, then 10-8, 10-9, and eventually 10-10, an unlikely combination of two break points and two downwind points in which Void capitalized on Pitt turnovers. Pitt and Penn would trade points, eventually reaching 12-11 Pitt, game point. Void would score downwind, setting up double-game point, and med student Tim Gaulton's upwind forehand huck to a wide-open Birdo (not me - our captain actually has that nickname) in the end-zone. A mosh-pit would ensue. It would be Pitt's only loss of the weekend.

The next game would have Void facing Leadbelly of Ohio St. A letdown was inevitable, and Tim re-aggravated his hamstring while Void took a 13-10 loss. In the following round, an exhausted Void couldn't keep up with regional contender Maryland in a 12-8 loss. This would see Penn end up as fourth in their pool, setting up a pre-quarters matchup with another regional opponent, Cornell.

Sunday - Came out flat early on and traded points (breaks) with a good Cornell team, until Void took half 8-6 on a break. Void would eventually take the game 11-8, setting up another inter-Ivy-League matchup with Red Line with Harvard.

Harvard had thrashed Western Washington on Saturday as the 1 seed in the other power pool, and was seen by most as the top team in the Northeast region. A disappointing performance at Centex had been forgotten with a 4-0 record on Saturday, and a thorough pounding of George Washington in pre-quarters. Now they faced a pumped-up Void that aimed for yet another upset...

A few things about that game. Harvard had a med student playing, and he was really good... he wore glasses, scrubs, and a strip of cloth like some football wide receivers like to do, but he was good nonetheless. He was intimidating. Also, George Stubbs was roaming the sidelines, but I didn't know it was him until like, just now.

All I can say is, Red Line was impressive, but they were mostly unable to stop Void's flow offense, which relied on very solid handler play. Soft cap sounded with Void and Red Line tied at 8, and Void would score deep. Game to 11. After Void set up 10-9 game point, Harvard would come back and score, setting up universe. And yet another upwind huck to Birdo, from Grant, would propel Penn to semis, with another quality win.

Semis saw Void face Ohio St. for the third time of the season, and Void controlled much of the game until 11-8, when Leadbelly went on a run. They would eventually take a tight game, 15-13, and promptly get trashed by Pitt in the finals.

All in all, Void would have an impressive weekend, positioning them for a 2 or 3 seed at regionals, and a great shot at making nationals. Penn Void has now notched wins against Michigan, Pittsburgh, and Harvard - three teams widely regarded as the cream of the crop of their respective regions. As an added bonus, Michigan and Pittsburgh both have beaten the Hodags.

Another thing. It seems like teams like Harvard and Pitt are really good when I watch them play other teams, but when they play us it seems like they suck. I can't figure out why.

Boulder is not as far away as I thought.

Phone

My phone is freaking out, so I'm sending it in for repairs. If you want to reach me, just do it by email or facebook.

jaybrd526@yahoo.com

Going to North Carolina

In eastern Virginia, on our way to North Carolina again for our second tourney...