Captain's Log: 73106

Captain's Log: 73106

Big Ass Truck hosted the Motown Throwdown in Detroit, Michigan last weekend. The weather was hot, humid, and for the most part, shadeless. But that's okay because we only had five games to 13 with no byes, barely any time between games, switch fields after almost every game, and play good to great to elite competition every game (no gimmies). But that's okay beacuse ten players backed out of attending the tournament, including seven on Wednesday night or later, most of them being potential handlers. So we had 14 players...until Dan injured himself five points or so into the first game. Okay 13. But it wasn't like it was 95 degrees or anything.

So how did we do? Very well given the circumstances.

Saturday's schedule showed us playing GOAT, Chicago2, Skeet Shooters, Machine, and Jawbone, in that order. A rather favorable schedule, I think.

v. GOAT. They turn early on and I catch a huck for the first point. They turn early again and another huck...I drop. We get it back and score, 2-0. We trade points and it's 3-1. Then 4-2. We're tied at 5s and 6s, receiving to take half with a break. First throw turn that doesn't even pass the endzone line. They take half and feel a little more secure. We tie it at 7s, 8s, and 9s. They are not enjoying it. The second half because a call/argument fest as they are clearly not intending to lose to a team of coed/summer leaguers/high schooler. They do the dirty work, though and take the game 13-9.

v. Chicago2. We come out flat and uninspired. I think they take a 3-1 lead, which is a common thread through most of the rest of our games. We start to zone instead of man, which is also a common thread through the rest of the games. We eventually take half 7-6. I think we end up winning 13-10? maybe 11. Both six seeds from pools A and B were good teams that didn't happen to win any games. These guys were no pushovers.

v. Skeet Shooters. I don't especially care for these guys. Stupid pregame cheers. Agro-college/no fun attitudes/aren't even that great of college players type people. We take half 7-5, win 13-9?

v. Machine. After losing to GOAT, we wanted this second chance to prove ourselves. We quickly fall behind 3-1. It felt like CLX v. Moe at Aquatennial where we'd turn it and turn around and somehow they're scoring already. Fall behind 1-6. Take two points back before half 7-3. We actually have them at a decent spot at half...no longer afraid of being upset by a team of coed/summer league/high school people. We come back in the second half, but the deficit is too large and we can't finish off some crucial points. We come within two points a couple of times, but can't score to close the gap any further. We end up losing 13-9 after fighting a lot harder in the second half.

v. Jawbone. Good news, they pick up two players right before the game that help them out a lot. We know this game is for third place, giving us a shot at semis the next day. We fall behind (surprise!) 3-1. I don't remember who takes half, but the game is a brutal dogfight. Not a lot of calls, but lots of turnovers, big d's, full-field hucks, etc. They are playing very tight at the beginning, but fall into our style and give up the disc a lot more as the game wears on. I also can't remember the final score, but I want to say 13-11.

Sunday play:

v. Burgh. I did not enjoy this game. Already hot (90?) at the start of the game at 9:00AM. These guys are not fun to play and we start by arguing and trading calls. We fall behind 3-1 and they don't turn the disc over until 4-2, I think. We zone and end that, taking half 7-5. They tie at 7s. We score and zone, lead 10-7. They tie it back up at 11s. We are able to score and get the next defensive point to win 13-11. This game should never have been that hard, but we had various levels of soreness, various levels of defense being played, and that casual attitude we get against the occassional team we think will be a cakewalk.

v. Madcow. Quarters and a chance to make semis in a fairly tough, central region filled field of teams. We fall behind 3-1...again, before zoning, which they sometimes have a problem with and sometimes don't. I honestly don't remember how we won this game because they didn't seem to turn it over very often. I think we played great when it was necessary. I think we were down 7-5 at half. Took a two point lead at 10-8. Tied at 10s. Took a 12-10 lead. Tied at 12s. Scored the last one to make it 13-12 and a berth into the semis. I played all but one point of this game, which was facilitated for the most part by our tendency towards zone defense. I think our rotation was also down to about 11 people at this point.

v. GOAT. Rematch. They score first. We score second. They take the rest until half, I think. The third point was a bear of a point, that we had a couple chances to score and just couldn't. We are losing 10-3 when a massive front moves in a brings with it scattered lightning, high winds, and rain. We make a quick decision to leave and not wait to continue and forfeit the rest of the game to GOAT. As far as I have been able to gather, the tournament was left unfinished.

Notes:

-I would give myself a B/B- for this tournament. My defense was porous at best when marking and trying to guard faster cutters, but good against handlers who don't run me around as much. I felt I played an effective wing spot in our zone. I was able to come up with two big Ds in the Madcow game, including my first big layout D of the season. Lame that it should come so late and I should be so happy about it. Here's to many more to come.

Offensively, I didn't have the best confidence as a thrower and when I got tired I was not making good decisions, but on Sunday, I played back as a handler more and didn't try to push anything and felt like I was doing well. As a deep, I called more fouls than usual and dropped two easy scores, but felt like I did as well as I could have and usually do. Nothing spectacular, but nothing to be ashamed of, either.

-Our marks were...not good. We seemed to have better luck with man defense after throwing the zone for a couple of points. That usually produced turnovers and points, and then maybe when in man D again, they were too desperate to score again?

-Drew from Madison played very well for us, provided a great team-minded positive attitude, and I'm glad he chose to pick up with us. Bennett was a good pickup and all-around fun guy to have on the sidelines. Michael Brisbois played well for us, stepping out of the high-school ranks to play teams like GOAT and Machine and not fairing too poorly, either. As the tournament progressed, it seemed like Michael progressed as well and had an extremely fast learning curve. It was great to play with Brad "The Machine" Eugune Caruth again. He was the same old Brad I enjoyed playing with during my ISUC days. It was also enjoyable playing with Paul. The guy can throw the disc a long ways, which is great, because I like to run and go get it.

-Wes played better than I've seen him all summer. He still has a tendency towards the occassional misread disc or mistimed jump, but he caught a lot of crucial hucks when we needed a bigtime score. He also got a big D in the Madcow game that I think put us ahead for the first time.

-All in all, a good tournament. A long drive, but offset by shenanigans and fun games. Hot weather, but offset by much Gatorade.

-A very special thanks to team manager Lana Meyer. Without her support on the sidelines, her endless supply of water and Gatorade, her defense of the Gatorade Cooler, and her endless supply of heartwarming smiles, I couldn't have made it through the weekend.

Next tournament: Five days. Madison. Coed. Possible 2nd CLX-Moe installment. We'll see what Mr. Briefcase has to say about it.

Awkward

I just realized the other day that I never finished off the top-10 ultimate games, stalling at the tenth game. Well, the "t" in ten has not been uttered, so I'm still good. Later, #1 game.

Today I'll be trying to describe the awkwardness of one of my most embarrassing moments. Remember if you will back to sixth grade and how easy and smooth gender relations were. Got it? Maybe you remember them as a lot easier and smoover than I do, because I was, for the most part, deathly afraid of girls until I was about 19 years old.

In sixth grade, one of the cool things to do was to sneak up beside somebody and tap them on the shoulder by reaching around their back. Basically, tapping them on the right shoulder if you were on their left side, and on the left shoulder if you were on their right side. Thus, getting the sucker to look off into a direction where nobody was standing and confusing them as to who it was who wanted their attention. Then, they'd realize it was the person on the other side of them and a good laugh was had by all. Sidenote: We did this in sixth grade. Lana still does it to people ALL the time. It is one of her endearing qualities.

So, here we are at indoor recess and I notice a girl all by herself near her desk. I don't even know her well, we weren't particularly friends, but I thought it would be a great idea to try to do this to her. As I creep up I'm thinking to myself how sweet it will be when she realizes what has happened. Like a cat I silently creep closer, closer yet, until I am within striking distance. I raise my arm, pointer finger extended and prepare for hilarity. My hand is on its way down...

But wait! Disaster! She unexpectedly whips around and looks me right in the face. My arm, though, is already careening downward with unstoppable momentum. My face must have turned from smug contentment to embarrassed horror when I realized I had just ran my hand down the front of this girl's chest.

What did I do? Well, I calmly explained to her the joke that I was trying to pull and how she had turned around quickly and it was all just a misunderstanding and an accident. No, that's not it at all. Unable to speak, I simply stood there, mouth agape in shock as my best laid plans had gone awry. All I could say was something to the effect of "um...I ah....um...uhh..." On her face was a look of disgust and equal embarrassment. Then anger. Then on the top of her lungs, "KEVIN SEILER YOU ARE THE BIGGEST PERVERT EVER!"

Recess becomes oddly silent and faces turn to see what had happened. We sink into opposite corners of the room, both disturbed, embarrassed, and confused about what has just happened. I never was able to tell her that the whole incident was an accident or ever apologize for any harm done. So, even though she'll never read this, I can say I'm sorry for any embarrassment caused, some 15 plus years after the moment occured. I hope that you've gone on to accomplish much greater things than I have since that day and continue to do so in the future. Best of luck.

So, that's what I usually tell people is my most embarrassing story.

Addendums

Little add-ons to former posts:

-I've tried some old Gatorade flavors and some new ones in the past couple of weeks. Found some Citrus Cooler in Tennessee, Lana found Watermelon Ice somewhere, I saw some kid with Tropical Cooler but couldn't ask him where he got it. I also tried Victory Lane Orange (not recommended) and the new Grape-Cherry X-Factor. The Watermelon Ice was something I could drink all the time and never get sick of. The Grape-Cherry is good/great, but not something I'd want to drink all day at an ultimate tournament.

-My summer league team is now 8-7 with one week left of regular season.

-Jake, Lana, and I went to Abram's Falls in Smokey Mountains National Park in Tennessee, as you may have read on July 1st. We went swimming near the waterfall in the cool pool of water that collects there before running downstream again. Apparently, a college student drowned in that same pool of water the next day after being pulled under the waterfall by the strong currents. I could definitely sense a strong pull back towards the waterfall, but I never thought it could be that deadly.

-Soccer...I skipped the World Cup finals for 4s at practice, that's how concerned I was to watch the game. Watching the highlights was sufficient for me. I am going to play a soccer game this weekend against my brother's friends. Ten of his friends against ten of us local ultimate players.

-No Crazy Kevin and the Flying Kevins practice...yet. My fingers aren't blistered anymore, though, so I'm clear to play guitar again. No more Helter Skelter.

-CLX is kind of confusing this year, maybe as much to other players as I've found out recently as to myself. I need to send out an email to the team, but will post here some first, I guess. We won't be going to nationals, which begs the question, do we compete in the series? Then, do we try to recruit new players to the team when this year is sort of just practice for worlds? How do we deal with pickups? These questions need to be answered soon. I have to admit it has been tough to get into workout mode for this season because I don't know what our team goals are besides "win tournaments".

-Trifurcate stream. Recently. It was a trip to watch.

More original material to come.

Top 25-A review

On RSD, every so often somebody throws a thread review out there, just so everybody knows what has been going on.

I reached the 25 blog milestone this week. Has the world improved since I started my blog? Not really. Israel and Lebanon are fighting. The bird flu threatens to be the most deadly virus since WWI. Dave Karsten quit CLX. Iran and North Korea are proceeding with nuclear weapons programs. The Wayans brothers made another movie.

What have I accomplished over the last 25? I've written about Gatorade, ultimate, CLX, disc golf, Jesus Christ/Christianity, painting, urination, random thoughts and Tennessee, among other things that I can't remember now. Hopefully, some posts were thoughtful and worth reading, maybe some made you laugh, maybe some made you think.

What have I learned? I don't think I should write about disc golf anymore. It isn't very interesting when I do. I think I should try to write about more non-ultimate related topics. Hmm. I'd like to write about the national parks I've been to, but I doubt my words could do them justice.

I have to thank Shawn for being the most prolific commenter. Once in awhile, I felt like I had to make it interesting for Shawn. I knew I was enjoying writing, but that I had at least one person who I had to impress, otherwise, he might not comment! I loves me some comments.

Well, maybe my next 25 blogs will be more world-changing.

Israel and Lebanon...come on! Stop it.

Iran and North Korea...come on! Stop it.

Wayans Brothers...come on! Stop it.

Dave Karsten...I'll play with you again at worlds and keep watching Dingwop during the byes. Keep dingin' buddy. Well, not that kind of dinging, you know what I'm talking about.

Captain's Log: 71506

Captain's Log: 71506

Disregarding Poultry Days, which is fair, CLX had its first coed tournament of the season over the weekend. In an earlier log, I wrote that the Minneapolis Ultimate Disc Invitational COULD have some great competition. It didn't happen. I don't know how well Chaos was playing, but CLX was kind of there to play Flaming Moe in the finals.

Tangent...Talking 'Bout Orange Shoes Blues indeed. I had just resewn my orange cleats, which I've been using for over two years now and have had fixed a number of times. They may have finally been retired after taking extensive damage on Saturday. Stitches busted. Cleats nearly torn off and very vulnerable. Not good. I have a backup pair of Copas that I can't complain about, but it's just not the same...

Our first five games of the tournament were challenging only in the sense that sometimes we had to overcome our own lethargy between games. I can't even remember all the teams we played now, that sounds kind of elitist and I hope people don't think of CLX like that. But, I don't think there are any teams in the central region past Moe, Ice, and Briefcase that can beat us. It brings to mind a Principal Skinner quote: "Prove me wrong, children, prove me wrong."

Finals against Moe. We start off taking a 3-1 lead and the game is looking like a classic CLX-Moe final. Then, they outscore us 7-3? or 4? and take I think an 8-5 halftime lead. Dragging over from previous games are lack of mid-range cuts. We have a lot of short yardage gainers and long cuts, but nothing really happening in the middle. Second half is more of the same and and we trade a lot, maybe all downwind points to lost 15-11? I don't even know the final score. Maybe Moe got an early upwinder. Scratch that, I remember now, a big backhand huck. Unless that was first half...

Moe is looking good. Like 2004 good when they should have made nationals and surely would have performed better than Carleton or Hot Action did. I think they could have easily finished top 8 that year, even though some of my teammates did not agree. 2005 Moe was confusing. They were not scary anymore. We beat them 7 times, I think, though they did take CHCs. We played them in the game to go to nationals, the third place game at regionals, and it was like they had decided they would lose before the game began. Well, they're back and possibly better than ever. At least I think their men are. They didn't cut Joe and Lou, which was a great move. They had two, three, or four other new guys, two of whom seemed to be call-heavy, which sucks, but it was only one game, maybe it won't continue. Most all their guys are solid throwers and good cutters. I didn't get a good feel for how their women are. They had some new ones and it seems like their women aren't as much of a threat as in year's past, but that will be found out in future games. I like that the rivalry is back on, but not that we lost!

Other notes:

-We were missing some players, but not enough to say that we could have/should have won. Moe beat us. Brian and Abby could have helped with handling and Darren and BJ could have helped with D, Sheldahls cutting, but enough to win the game? I'm not sure.

-I expressed a need for handlers before. Still goes. Solarz is great and will certainly help us out for the rest of the season and in Australia. Stu play more this weekend and a lot more active than Poultry Days. But, I wish both of them would look to huck a little more. I don't know if they got the CLX-memo about risky throws being okay... We could use another guy hucker, though. Jake threw some quality hucks.

-Next tournament out in Detroit. Against really hard competition. Looking forward to it. Time for bed.

Tennebelievin'

Over the Fourth of July weekend, I went down to Jake's hometown of Oak Ridge, Tennessee with Lana and Jake. I wasn't thrilled to do a lot of driving, but was excited to be down there. We left Friday night and drove straight through the night, 12 hours to our destination.

Saturday morning after two hours of sleep, we ate a big breakfast unlike any I've had for months (bacon, eggs, juice, toast, the works) and headed off to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I've been to ten national parks now and have only once been disappointed. Stupid Badlands. Over the course of the day the three of us biked the 11-mile Cade's Cove loop, jogged 2.5 miles out to Abrams falls, hiked another 6.5 miles back from Abrams falls and up to Chimney rocks, and did some small rocking climbing at the Abrams falls waterfall and on top of Chimney Rock. So, yes, I was sort of on top of Old Smoky. But I didn't really think about it until now. It was a long, busy day, but well worth it. Our drive back to Oak Ridge was supposed to be along a scenic stretch of highway, but we weren't able to get out to it because of construction, so we headed home.

Sunday, we played two disc golf courses in Knoxville. The first I was excited for because of some reviews I had read online. The first hole was great, which required at least a 200 foot drive to clear a lake with trees to negotiate on both sides of the lake. The second through eighteenth holes were kind of a disappointment. I had high hopes, especially after hole one, but there wasn't a lot of difficulty to a lot of the holes. That, and I couldn't putt well. The second course we played was more fun, but I wasn't too keen on any more disc golf by that point. I had fun playing, but used to course to throw rollers, hammers, etc. I think I had two drives over 500 feet, but both were downhill.

Monday, we went rafting on the Ocoee River (pronounced Oh-coh-ee). The 5-mile section of river we rafted on had rapids ranging from Class II to Class IV. The Class IV rapids were fun, but I wish there had been more. The rating scale goes up to Class VI. It was a great first-time rafting experience and definitely a highlight of the trip.

I also got to visit the Sunsphere, of Simpsons fame. Unfortunately, there was no wig shop in the top of the Sunsphere.

I've been thinking about a lot of vacations I'd like to do lately and here's some of the places I'd like to go:

-Make a trip out to Boston/Philadelphia/NYC area. I'd like to see all the Colonial America sites in Boston and Philadelphia. I'd like to stop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, too.

-Hawaii. I'd like to visit the two national parks in Hawaii, as well as other places.

-Alaska. The whole state is a wildlife refuge. I'd like to climb part of Mount McKinley. It would be worth travelling above the Artic Circle, too.

-Northern Minnesota. Voyageurs national park/Boundary Waters/Grand Isle National Park are all in this area. It would be fun to portage a canoe around, go camping, fishing, eating fish, swatting mosquitoes, etc.

-Everglades/Key West area. More national park fun.

-Jerusalem. Yep.

-Hike the Pacific Crest Trail. It starts on the US/Mexico border and doesn't stop until the US/Canada border. Travels through Sequoia/Kings Canyon/Lassen Volcano/Cascades/Crater Lake/Yosemite/other national parks and through Lake Tahoe, near Mount Hood in Oregon, near Death Valley, near the Redwood Forests, near Mount St. Helen's. It would be a dream to spend March through September or so hiking this trail.

Later.