B: "It's okay, I ate green skittles."
Me: "Those aren't leafy greens."
B: "I could've arranged them in the shape of a leaf..."
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Strippers pie
(Through text)
K: "What are you making for dinner?"
B: "I made strippers pie."
K: "STRIPPERS PIE?!"
B: "Like shepherds pie but reveals more of the stuff you're not supposed to see"
K: "So less mashed potatoes?"
B: "More donuts"
K: "Wait what? Your shepherds pie has donuts?"
B: "maybe"
K: "I don't understand!!!!!!!!"
K: "Picture please"
B:
K: "Omg are you serious. Its shepherds pie with a donut on top?"
B: "strippers pie"
K: "Haha ugh weirdo"
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Thesis
Me: "I need to print two copies of my thesis for the library. Do you want a copy?"
My advisor: "No"
Friday, October 7, 2011
Compliments
While trying to fall asleep last night...
K: "You're my favorite Bryan."
B: "Prove it!"
K: "I'm in bed with you."
B: "Anyone can get in bed with you."
K: "WHHHHAAAAAT?! Are you calling me easy?!"
B: "No..."
K: "Yes you are! You totally just called me easy! You need to compliment me to negate your insult."
K: "Yes you are! You totally just called me easy! You need to compliment me to negate your insult."
B: "Your eyes glisten like toilet water."
K: ...
B: "Not a dirty one, but a clean one."
K: ...
B: "With a really bright light over it."
K: "...That was the *worst* compliment ever. Try again."
K: ...
B: "Brand new ones at the store."
K: ...
B: "That are freshly painted."
K: "You're really bad at this."
B: "Your hair is like..."
K: "STOP! STOP STOP! Goodnight. You're such a winner."
B: "Winner!"
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Patience is a virtue
Teaching my mom how to use the computer makes me want to bang my head against the wall. I just spent 25 minutes trying to teach my mom how to attach a file to an e-mail (in IE, so no easy drag-and-drop function. I installed Chrome for her but she doesn't use it.). It started out pretty promising because she said she already scanned the paper, which I taught her how to do a few months ago. But then she didn't know what she named it. And she couldn't find the file. And then she found it, renamed it and removed the jpg extension. And then she didn't know how to to click and drag. And then she couldn't find the desktop. ...
Me: "The desktop is the blue screen right when you start up the computer, that has like the recycle bin and my computer on it..."
Mom: "There's no blue screen! There is only My Documents."
Me: "But the file "My Documents" is on a blue screen, right?"
Mom: "No, there is only My Documents"
Me: ...
And then after a few more minutes she FINALLY got it!! By this time I was pacing and gesturing like a lunatic in the student center. I must've sounded like an idiot, "The DESK-TOP... is the BLUE... SCREEN right when you turn on the COM-PU-TER... It's just blank! With a few icons on it!" Anyway, I was super excited when she finally did it (I made her email me too), even though she had removed the jpg extension on the document.
And THEN she was like, "I need to do this so many more times!"
Me: "That's okay, you know how to do it now! I taught you how to fish!"
Mom: "Fish?"
Me: "Nevermind. You just did it, you can do it again now!"
Mom: "It's too complicated. I will just send them all to you and you can send them to Uncle, ok?"
Me: "MOOOOMMMMM if you can send them to me you can send them to Uncle!!!!"
Mom: "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah."
Me: *smack* *smack* *smack* *face-palm*
Mom: "I don't know how to do any of this. You also need to teach me how to upload pictures from my camera to the computer."
Me: "Another time, Mommy, another time, please."
I know I really should be more patient with my mom, especially because she's my only parent left, and my dad used to take care of all this stuff. But I really am proud of her; she's learned a lot in the last few months, learning how to pay bills herself, getting a credit card for the first time in her life, taking care of the rental house, finding new tenants, etc. Just sometimes, no, a lot of times... I need to be more patient. Sigh...
Sunday, September 18, 2011
We're going to Regionals!
Which means Bryan is coming back to Boston again! Haha, I think if we didn't make Regionals, he just wouldn't come back. :P
Scores: http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#mixed/tournament/9648
Our first game in our six-round pool play was against Odyssey. We were down the entire game (we let them get one break on us early on) and didn't end up tying it up until 10-10, and then came back to win 13-10. Our second game was against Rorschach which we won relatively easily with a final score of 13-5. The Slow White game was a lot of fun to watch, and we did pretty well and we probably could've made it more competitive if we tighten lines, but we didn't; final score 12-9 them. We played Detroit Lions last on Sat, and got burned deep one too many times, final score 13-10 them.
On Sunday, we played Apocalypse Meow first game, won 13-8. Then we won the last pool play game against Sucker Punch (which I just learned is a movie), coming back from 7-8 to win 10-8. That was a really fun game because everyone was super pumped up!!
Some highlights that we talked about afterwards:
I called lines for three games on Saturday. Calling lines is really hard! I've never done it before, let alone for games/tournaments that matter. I felt so mentally exhausted after every game, like I had just taken a final or something. Actually, I read an article a few days ago about "Decision Fatigue" which describes the phenomenon that making many decisions makes a person tired so that he/she are more likely to make the "default" or lazy decisions. They studied parole board's decisions depending on the time of day and found that prisoners were more likely to be given parole during the morning or the hour right after lunch, basically times when the parole board was more awake and had the mental energy to make difficult decisions. And towards the end of the day, they tended to make the default decision not to grant parole. "The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways."
I definitely felt mentally fatigued after line-calling. And I wonder if my line-calling got worse throughout the day because my mental energy level for putting together good/fair lines was depleting.
There are a lot of factors that I considered during lines calling. There's men/women, handlers/cutters, primary/secondary cutters, O/D, zone positions (although that didn't really come up on Saturday) and people who play well together, I call that the gel factor. And then there's the flow of the game: Are we down? Do we need to tighten lines? And then during the Slow White game I was told that I need to always put a tall person on (Matty/Entz/Nolan). And sometimes it makes sense to keep the same line on two points in a row because things have been working well for them.
And all these factors need to be taken into consideration the moment immediately after the previous point ends. Ideally the line is called within 5-10 seconds after the previous point ends. If I was too involved in a point, cheering from the sidelines, it took me more time to get a line together. And if I was thinking about the next line I was going to call (which is usually two lines, one O and one D because you don't know which one is needed yet), I felt myself not really paying attention to what was happening on the field. Or maybe I was taking all of this too seriously :/
One thing that I definitely struggled with (and I think a lot of other women who call lines too) is the "unfairness" of playing time. If we're down a lot, we're going to play our O line more and the D line won't be getting much playing time. Plus, during the Odyssey game, we played 4 women for a lot of the O points because our women were our strong point, and when our roster only has 8 women and 16 men, a lot of the men won't be getting much playing time. There were definitely some games when some people played only 0-3 points per game. I'm sorry :(
I think I started to get a hang of calling lines maybe after a game and a half. Many times it was, "Yay! We won the point! CRAP I need to call the next line NOW... um um um, crap." After a while it got easier, but it was still tiring and mentally exhausting. Anyway it was definitely an experience and I have a newfound appreciation for people who call lines (like Hatch Michelle and Jin!)
Scores: http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#mixed/tournament/9648
Our first game in our six-round pool play was against Odyssey. We were down the entire game (we let them get one break on us early on) and didn't end up tying it up until 10-10, and then came back to win 13-10. Our second game was against Rorschach which we won relatively easily with a final score of 13-5. The Slow White game was a lot of fun to watch, and we did pretty well and we probably could've made it more competitive if we tighten lines, but we didn't; final score 12-9 them. We played Detroit Lions last on Sat, and got burned deep one too many times, final score 13-10 them.
On Sunday, we played Apocalypse Meow first game, won 13-8. Then we won the last pool play game against Sucker Punch (which I just learned is a movie), coming back from 7-8 to win 10-8. That was a really fun game because everyone was super pumped up!!
Some highlights that we talked about afterwards:
- Bill's 85-yard huck to Doris for the score
- Pretty zone O
- Jenny cutting and catching aggressively
- Matty catching a D and then dropping it on purpose (no one really noticed, right? :P)
- Wu's double-D in one point (point-block) and then D'ed someone in the endzone, but they were both caught and they scored. But they were still nice Ds... haha :)
- Nolan's pretty flick huck to Wu in the endzone
- Kes and NG got a couple nice layout Ds, sometimes making up a looot of ground to get there.
- Dillon and Yang's awesome talk from the sidelines
- Sluts made some pretty key cuts/dishes this weekend. It was really awesome to watch :)
- Miriam open everywheerrree
- I laid out twice both for scores (both catching with my left hand, my uninjured side).
- While standing 5 yards from the endzone line, trapped on a sideline, pump up a huge high throw to someone in the endzone, and MattyB caught it above 3 people, one of them NG, to score the winning point against Apoc Meow.
I called lines for three games on Saturday. Calling lines is really hard! I've never done it before, let alone for games/tournaments that matter. I felt so mentally exhausted after every game, like I had just taken a final or something. Actually, I read an article a few days ago about "Decision Fatigue" which describes the phenomenon that making many decisions makes a person tired so that he/she are more likely to make the "default" or lazy decisions. They studied parole board's decisions depending on the time of day and found that prisoners were more likely to be given parole during the morning or the hour right after lunch, basically times when the parole board was more awake and had the mental energy to make difficult decisions. And towards the end of the day, they tended to make the default decision not to grant parole. "The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways."
I definitely felt mentally fatigued after line-calling. And I wonder if my line-calling got worse throughout the day because my mental energy level for putting together good/fair lines was depleting.
There are a lot of factors that I considered during lines calling. There's men/women, handlers/cutters, primary/secondary cutters, O/D, zone positions (although that didn't really come up on Saturday) and people who play well together, I call that the gel factor. And then there's the flow of the game: Are we down? Do we need to tighten lines? And then during the Slow White game I was told that I need to always put a tall person on (Matty/Entz/Nolan). And sometimes it makes sense to keep the same line on two points in a row because things have been working well for them.
And all these factors need to be taken into consideration the moment immediately after the previous point ends. Ideally the line is called within 5-10 seconds after the previous point ends. If I was too involved in a point, cheering from the sidelines, it took me more time to get a line together. And if I was thinking about the next line I was going to call (which is usually two lines, one O and one D because you don't know which one is needed yet), I felt myself not really paying attention to what was happening on the field. Or maybe I was taking all of this too seriously :/
One thing that I definitely struggled with (and I think a lot of other women who call lines too) is the "unfairness" of playing time. If we're down a lot, we're going to play our O line more and the D line won't be getting much playing time. Plus, during the Odyssey game, we played 4 women for a lot of the O points because our women were our strong point, and when our roster only has 8 women and 16 men, a lot of the men won't be getting much playing time. There were definitely some games when some people played only 0-3 points per game. I'm sorry :(
I think I started to get a hang of calling lines maybe after a game and a half. Many times it was, "Yay! We won the point! CRAP I need to call the next line NOW... um um um, crap." After a while it got easier, but it was still tiring and mentally exhausting. Anyway it was definitely an experience and I have a newfound appreciation for people who call lines (like Hatch Michelle and Jin!)
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Hot or not
K: "how would you rate yourself in attractiveness, scale from 1-10"
B: "20"
K: "and me?"
B: "one billion"
K: "and W?"
B: "1"
K: "and X?"
B: "1"
K: "and Y?"
B: "1"
K: "and Z?"
B: "1"
K: "and Arnold?" (Schwarzenegger)
B: "10 billion!
... but only when he was younger"
K: "oh ok"
...
B: "20"
K: "and me?"
B: "one billion"
K: "and W?"
B: "1"
K: "and X?"
B: "1"
K: "and Y?"
B: "1"
K: "and Z?"
B: "1"
K: "and Arnold?" (Schwarzenegger)
B: "10 billion!
... but only when he was younger"
K: "oh ok"
...
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
In anticipation...
I'm super pumped for Club Sectionals this weekend!! :D And Bryan is coming back on Thursday night! Now only if my shoulder will cooperate, everything will be fine.
I made a horrendous layout on Sunday during practice, hit my head pretty hard, scraped up both my elbows and both my knees, and sprained my right shoulder. I took an injury that point but played for the rest of practice and didn't feel my shoulder until a few hours after practice. By Sunday night I couldn't lift my arm beyond 45 degrees from my body in any direction.
I got my ice pack from Keith's (it had been living there since we moved out of Antrim because I don't have a fridge/freezer at Ashdown, I use my roommate's mini-fridge), cranked down the temperature (sorry for the frozen milk...), and am icing and resting a lot, per our in-house medic Jin's recommendations. I got a shoulder brace from Amazon that's supposed to hold things together and provide additional support. I saw someone at MIT Medical today but he was pretty unhelpful. Hopefully by Sat I'll have enough range of motion to throw mid-distance throws. If you have any other suggestions to make me healthy faster, let me know.
In other news, yay NU football! :)
Oh hey we're about to score :D
And the team sang the fight song with us afterwards!!
I made a horrendous layout on Sunday during practice, hit my head pretty hard, scraped up both my elbows and both my knees, and sprained my right shoulder. I took an injury that point but played for the rest of practice and didn't feel my shoulder until a few hours after practice. By Sunday night I couldn't lift my arm beyond 45 degrees from my body in any direction.
I got my ice pack from Keith's (it had been living there since we moved out of Antrim because I don't have a fridge/freezer at Ashdown, I use my roommate's mini-fridge), cranked down the temperature (sorry for the frozen milk...), and am icing and resting a lot, per our in-house medic Jin's recommendations. I got a shoulder brace from Amazon that's supposed to hold things together and provide additional support. I saw someone at MIT Medical today but he was pretty unhelpful. Hopefully by Sat I'll have enough range of motion to throw mid-distance throws. If you have any other suggestions to make me healthy faster, let me know.
In other news, yay NU football! :)
Oh hey we're about to score :D
And the team sang the fight song with us afterwards!!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Dumping
I'm so bad at dumping, especially to guys, especially to Wu. Three things I'm working on and going to remember to do:
1. Put it to space
2. If my dump is being face-guarded, put it to space, not over the dump.
3. If my dump is face-guarding me, fake one way and throw the other.
I guess with that, I need to pay attention to what the dump D is doing. Sadly, I confess that I don't know whether the dump D is face-guarding me or the dump.
But other than that, practice was a lot of fun this morning :)
1. Put it to space
2. If my dump is being face-guarded, put it to space, not over the dump.
3. If my dump is face-guarding me, fake one way and throw the other.
I guess with that, I need to pay attention to what the dump D is doing. Sadly, I confess that I don't know whether the dump D is face-guarding me or the dump.
But other than that, practice was a lot of fun this morning :)
Monday, August 22, 2011
New cleats!
I haven't bought new cleats in 3 years. My current pair of cleats were given to me as a gift from Keiko on Hatch 3 years ago. If I remember correctly, they were first given to Doris because she forgot her cleats at Club Regionals, and Keiko was like, "I have a box full of cleats in my car!" And she really did have a box full of cleats in her car; she was literally driving around a cleat store that just carried size 7-8 women's cleats, it was pretty epic! Apparently she buys cleats and if they don't fit her, she just leaves them in a box in her car for other people.
Anyway, that's how I ended up with my pair of Keiko cleats. I love that pair of cleats; they lasted 3 years (through 2 seasons of college and 2 seasons of club), they never gave me any problems and they were amazing. It was only recently that I felt my feet sliding around a lot in my cleats and they're just starting to fall apart.
I bought three pairs of cleats on Zappos last night (Bryan, don't freak out if you see a $150-charge for Zappos on our Mint account, I promise I will return two pairs of cleats once I figure out which one fits the best, haha). They're supposed to ship to Ashdown, but I don't move in until Thursday and I hope they don't arrive before then and the front desk sends them back because I'm not there yet! I plan to break them in at Chesapeake, not the smartest move, but I really need new cleats.
These are the ones I ended up ordering:
Puma Esito Finale
Nike Tiempo Natural
Puma Powercat 3.10
I had an old pair of the Nike Tiempos; they were comfortable but the cleats were flat and wide, and I kept slipping a lot. It looks like they changed them into pegs, so hopefully they will be better. I secretly hope the Puma Powercat fits the best because they just look so awesome. :D I was also told that Pumas run small, so I got a half size larger for the Pumas. Anyway, we'll see.
What cleats do you wear/like?
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Wuwu! (Day 2)
We won in the finals (4/3 Div 1)! We beat Stonecutters in the quarters and Gothrilla in the semis, and then we played Swingers in the finals. There were impending t-storms, so we played until we first saw lightning. We were down 4-1, and then 6-3, and then somehow we went on a 5-0 run so that at 8-6, when lightning struck, and we immediately stopped the game and we had won! Lucky timing, haha.
There were some amazing Ds from Kes, Wu, and Yang. Pretty hucks from Shawn and Bill as always. Many point blocks by Matty (although there was a guy who managed to throw in between his legs, haha!) Injured Doris a lot by making her lay out; hehe jk, the "Doris is pretty" play worked *almost* every time, until she broke. X had a few nice grabs as well. Anna and Cindy were clutch with their continue cuts. Props to the ladies who powered through this weekend; played with 4 on Sat and 5 on Sun (and 3 during the finals). I surprised myself by laying out a few times; maybe NG is rubbing off on me, next step: some layout Ds! :) Bryan, you'll teach me, right? :)
It's always really fun giving it your all. Even though some people think it was "just summer league" I played really hard and had a great time. I'll miss playing with these people. Luckily they're all on Mixed Nuts so we can continue playing together for a few more months :)
Who has the team picture?!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Wuwu! (Day 1)
We won all our games today! I'm also really proud of myself for training Craig how to dish (to me) properly.. heh heh heh. One by one they will all be converted :D
Also the only point I remember out of the whole day: Wu with the disc in the middle of the field about 5 yards out of our endzone. Then Doris makes a cut on the open side, she's WIDE open, 15 yards in front of her girl, and Wu is not even looking at her. So Doris yells, "WU! Are you serious?! I'm going to kill you!" Hahahaha and Wu *almost* turns it by throwing it into the mark, but luckily for him it was a foul, he got the disc back, and we scored. :P
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
New Backpack!
HI MOM!
Look I bought a new backpack so I can fit everything I own into it and then I don't have to worry about losing stuff when I move at the end of the month. It's a little bit heavy though so I'm thinking of attaching some wheels on the bottom so I can just push it along.
LOVE,
KAREN
---
So I recently sent that picture with the above message to my mom. And she just sent me a blank email back. So I called her and this is the conversation that resulted:
Mom: (laughing) "Are you crazy?!"
Me: "What..."
Mom: "Why did you buy a backpack that big?"
Me: "It can fit a lot of stuff!"
Mom: "Are you crazy?! How are you going to get it down the stairs?"
Me: "I'll pack it at the bottom of the stairs!"
Mom: "How are you going to put it in the car?!"
Me: "I'll tie it to the top of the car. I have some rope."
Mom: "Are you crazy?! It's going to smash the car!"
Me: "It'll be okay. Cars are strong."
Mom: "I think you should return it and buy a more practical backpack."
Me: "But I like this one! And it can fit so much stuff!"
Mom: "It's going to crush you! How are you going to carry it!"
Me: "Well, I told you, I'm going to buy some wheels and attach it to the bottom and pull it around."
Mom: "People will just see a backpack moving by itself because they can't see you! And you're going to crash into something."
Me: "That's okay. It can fit a lot of stuff."
Mom: "You're crazy! I think you should return it and get a different one."
Me: "But this one can fit so much stuff!"
Mom: "It looks like its for giants! You will look tiny, like Mickey Mouse, very small. Like Tom and Jerry in the cartoons!"
Me: "It's fine, Mom. Don't worry!"
Mom: "I have to take Grandma to physical therapy. Bye!"
Me: "...Oh ok... bye!"
Friday, August 12, 2011
Riddle!
A conversation took place between two friends, a philosopher and a mathematician, who had not seen each or heard from each other in years. The mathematician, who had an exceedingly good memory, asked the philosopher how many children he had. The philosopher replied that he had three. The mathematician then asked how old the children were. His friend, who knew how much most mathematicians enjoy puzzles, said that he would give him a number of clues to the children's ages.
The philosopher's first clue: "The product of the children's ages is 36." The mathematician immediately replied that this was insufficient information.
The philosopher's second clue: "All of the children's ages are integers; none are fractional ages, such as 1 and ¼ years old." Still, the mathematician could not deduce the correct answer.
The philosopher's third clue: "The sum of the three children's ages is identical to the address of the house where we played chess together often, years ago." The mathematician still required more information (but assume the mathematician remembered the street number).
The philosopher then gave his fourth clue: "The oldest child looks like me." At this point, the mathematician was able to determine the ages of the three children. Here is your problem: What are the ages of the three children?
The philosopher's first clue: "The product of the children's ages is 36." The mathematician immediately replied that this was insufficient information.
The philosopher's second clue: "All of the children's ages are integers; none are fractional ages, such as 1 and ¼ years old." Still, the mathematician could not deduce the correct answer.
The philosopher's third clue: "The sum of the three children's ages is identical to the address of the house where we played chess together often, years ago." The mathematician still required more information (but assume the mathematician remembered the street number).
The philosopher then gave his fourth clue: "The oldest child looks like me." At this point, the mathematician was able to determine the ages of the three children. Here is your problem: What are the ages of the three children?
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Jetblue
A few months ago, Bryan and I were booking plane tickets. When I put in "1 adult" the price per seat was $119, but then when I put in "2 adults" the price jumped to $329 PER seat. I tried switching back and forth a few times but whenever I put in "2 adults" the price always jumped to $329 per seat.
My solution was to purchase one ticket on my computer and another ticket Bryan's computer simultaneously. But of course it didn't work; my purchase went through for $119 and Bryan's Jetblue page said "ERROR" on it. We figured that there was just one seat left at the cheap price.
We decided to switch to Virgin Airlines altogether, because they had flight options that fit our travel plans, at $139 a flight instead of Jetblue's $119, but we had to cancel my Jetblue flight first. So Bryan calls Jetblue customer service and I overhear:
B: "I need to cancel my wife's plane ticket." ... pause ... "Well, it's just.. it's just... ALL wrong, everything is wrong, she just did it ALL wrong!"
Me: (mouthing) "Seriously?!?!"
B: (to customer service) "Ok great, thanks!" then hangs up.
Me: "What was that?!"
B: "What?! It worked!"
My solution was to purchase one ticket on my computer and another ticket Bryan's computer simultaneously. But of course it didn't work; my purchase went through for $119 and Bryan's Jetblue page said "ERROR" on it. We figured that there was just one seat left at the cheap price.
We decided to switch to Virgin Airlines altogether, because they had flight options that fit our travel plans, at $139 a flight instead of Jetblue's $119, but we had to cancel my Jetblue flight first. So Bryan calls Jetblue customer service and I overhear:
B: "I need to cancel my wife's plane ticket." ... pause ... "Well, it's just.. it's just... ALL wrong, everything is wrong, she just did it ALL wrong!"
Me: (mouthing) "Seriously?!?!"
B: (to customer service) "Ok great, thanks!" then hangs up.
Me: "What was that?!"
B: "What?! It worked!"
Monday, July 25, 2011
OMK Recap
Mixed Nuts played in Ow-My-Knee (OMK) this past weekend in Albany (but actually Schenectady). The Northeast has been experiencing a heat wave this whole week and Saturday was projected to be hot hot hot, like high of 100 deg with lots of humidity (Look! Temperatures were near BOILING point!). We had a solid roster of 7 girls and 9 guys for the weekend and I was really looking forward to playing some awesome competitive ultimate :)
We decided to drive up on Sat morning because our first round of pool play started at 10:45am, so we only had to leave Boston at around 5:30am or so. But on Friday night I was really regretting my decision to leave Sat morning because it reached a high of 103 deg in Cambridge in the middle of the day on Friday, and the during nighttime, it was still an uncomfortably warm 81 degrees. During the day on Friday, Bryan and I found out that our AC unit was broken ("Hey, it's the same temperature in our room as it is in the hallway..."). The damn thing was never really working particularly well in the first place and it just crapped out on us altogether when we needed it the most. Anyway, I didn't sleep until 1:00am and the whole time I was tossing and turning and thinking, "Right now we could be sleeping in an air conditioned hotel room!!" Anyway, getting up on Sat morning at 4:45am was rough to say the least, but the car ride kept me entertained most of the way to OMK :)
The conditions on Saturday was really hot with occasional gusts of wind (some of them were cool breezes!) Most of the teams we played against played man defense and occasionally they (and we) would play some zone D. We had three rounds of pool play and a crossover game on Saturday. We were actually seeded last in our pool (a mix-up with the TD caused him to seed "Mixed Nuts," a NY-based team that no longer exists, instead of "Mixed Nuts (MA)," which is us.) Anyway, the seeding in pool play didn't really affect anything.
Our first game was against Hucks and Kisses. They mostly played zone on us, which we were able to work through. Towards the beginning of the game, Dent had a great D that he caught, which we capitalized on to make the score 3-1. A few points later, a well-timed huck from Wu to Miriam and an easy backhand to Kes makes the score 5-1. During the next point, Randy puts up a huck to NG but it falls short, and hits his foot as he turns around to find the disc. We give him a hard time for trying to catch the disc with his foot :) During the next possession, Shuangy gets a point block, and throws to NG who's cutting in, who finds Claudia in the endzone to make the score 6-1. A few points later, Craig finds Michelle going up the line, who puts up a huck to Kes for the score, the first of many Michelle/Kes points of the weekend. For the rest of the game, we abused their zone defense and used both in and out cuts to make the final score 13-4.
Our second game was against Shostakovich and the Angry Buddhas. The story of the game was trying to stop their hammers to the breakside for the score. The final score was 9-13 and the majority of their points (7 of them!) resulted from hammers or I/O breaks. We started off on offense, and worked through the zone D to start the game, 1-0. The next three points were from hammers and I/O breaks, 1-3. The next point we turned it around and scored on their zone defense, although we only really used 5-7 yards next the sideline, way to jam it up the sideline, guys! Kes got a huge run-through D the next point, which tied the score at 3-3. We traded points for the rest of the half where Nuts scored on my huck to Matty, an around break from Bill to Dent, a point block from NG, Dillon's layout D, and Bill's full-field huck to Miriam, to make the halftime score 7-6.
In the second half, we started off trading points, but we we dropped two breaks and couldn't convert. There were a few interesting points: Bill threw a hammer to MattyB for a layout score. I remember thinking, "Just because they score every other point on hammers doesn't mean we need to as well!" and Randy had a few nice hucks to people in the endzone. Brian Wu contracted rabies during this game when he tried to throw a backhand huck and instead backhanded his mark in the face. He has a couple of nice teeth marks in his hand to show for it. At the end of the game though, we fell short and the final score was 13-9.
Our third game was against Bidness Time. We started off trading points in the beginning... they also played zone on us, which they quickly stopped once they saw how useless their zone D was. After 2-2, Bidness didn't score another point for the rest of the game. We saw Michelle put up a few nice hucks to Craig and Kes in the endzone. Our dump-swing looked really good during this game and we had a lot of nice breakside scores. The last point was scored with a typical Shuangy I/O to Dent at the front of the stack, who threw it to Claudia going breakside. Final score 13-2.
After a nap in the shade, lots of hydrating, and playing with the puppies at the tournament, we played a crossover game against Hudson Valley Club Ultimate. We lost the first two points pretty quickly while our awesome guy handlers were still waking up from their naps. Wu bobbled the disc and dropped it on the first point, and Bill uncharacteristically threw one straight into the ground during the second. But they eventually woke up and we got on the score board. We scored the first point with Bill's huck to Cindy, who found Anna in the endzone for the score. Wu put up a few good hucks to Footsteps and Dent for a few more points. There was a painfully epic point with 8 turnovers (I was counting), a timeout, and an injury, which we eventually scored. The next point was pretty funny: we put on a zone defense with Bill as the deep deep and Hudson Valley sent two girls to their endzone and put up a huck, which went straight through Bill's hands and one of the girls caught it for the score, 4-3 us. (We ended up giving spirit nuts to the girl who "skyed" Bill, haha.) After that though, they didn't score another point.
The first point of the second half, a guy faceplanted in front of Shuangy while trying to get the D, and she threw one to Bryan for the score. The last two points of the game, I got a point block in the cup, then Shuangy did the same, the guy handlers were pretty pissed that women kept getting point blocks on them that they would nudge/push us afterwards. :P Final score 13-3.
Sunday conditions were a lot cooler but not as much wind. Our win in the crossover game put us in the championship bracket with a first game against Darkwing, the team we lost to at Mixed Easterns 13-12. We traded the first few points, with Bill's huck finding Footsteps in the endzone a few times. (Bill credited it to cuddling together the night before. I believe his words were, "We should sleep in the same bed more often." haha) We had been down a break when Kes had a huge layout D that brought us even again. We took half 7-6. During the second half, we won a few breaks, and were up 12-9. On the last point of the game, Wu put up a huck to Kes, but it fell short, almost landing directly in the hands of a Darkwing defender, but not until NG sprinted down to grab it, then threw it to Kes for the score. Final score 13-9.
We played Rut in the quarterfinals. We traded points during the first half, and I think we took half 7-6 but I don't actually remember. Michelle found Kes in the endzone with her hucks a few times, Randy had a pretty huck to Anna, and someone tried to get a D on Bill, but just smacked the disc into his hands anyway. In the second half, we went down a few breaks and couldn't come back. Final score 13-9.
In the fifth place bracket, we played Detroit Lions, which was a really fun game since I knew most of the women on their team and it was a pretty good match-up in general. At one point we were up 9-5, but they started gaining on us when we were making silly drops on easy catches and throws. I remember a timely D from Footsteps, a few nice hucks from Bill, and Miriam was really open for me in the endzone for the last point. Final score 13-10.
Wu and I tried to bluff our way through the last game against Urine Trouble by getting them to forfeit. We didn't really want to play another game, but we didn't want to just forfeit either so we were hoping that they would forfeit first. So Wu and I walked up to them and asked excitedly, "Are you guys ready to play?!" and they were like "Yep!" (We were hoping to hear "We are tired and want to go home" haha) So Wu were like, "Oh...well... then..." We eventually decided to play a shortened game to 7 instead. They played vertical stack with 4 women for many of the points (their women were all so tall!), and the women Nuts were able to bracket and contain them pretty well. I had a lot of fun playing this game even though I was pretty exhausted. I remember getting a few Ds, which is always fun. Final score 7-2.
Then we got ice cream from the ice cream truck! And french fries from McDonald's! And played "Contact" in Wu's soccer mom car the whole ride home. My favorite question was Footsteps': "Do pigs eat out of you? In a biblical sense?" for a word beginning with "M" hahaha.
All in all, a really fun tournament. I feel like I'm learning how to play with certain people a lot better and I'm learning how to play on the D line. I felt really dehydrated and exhausted the whole weekend. I slept for 10 hours last night and I still feel tired today, and I spent the last 2 hours writing this and gChatting. Productivity fail :(
Things that we can work on as a team (I feel like it's always the same list):
- Dump swing (dump's first look should always be for the swing, who should always be yelling for the disc)
- Not getting beat deep
- Backpedaling and maintaining our buffer on defense
- Timing of cuts and flow (sometimes there were 2 cuts at once, sometimes none), but I think we got better on this throughout the tournament
- What to do when being poached off of, esp third handler
- Popper/deep movement in zone O (having the deep come in wen the popper gets the disc)
- Handlers keeping the disc too long instead of looking to dump early
Things that we did well on:
- Switching on defense (I saw a few instances where we successfully helped each other out on D)
- Our endzone looked better than previous tournaments. I wouldn't say it's something that is perfect, but it did look better than it did at Mixed Easterns.
- Cutters looked to the dump early
http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#mixed/team/12092
Any favorite points/plays from the weekend? :)
We decided to drive up on Sat morning because our first round of pool play started at 10:45am, so we only had to leave Boston at around 5:30am or so. But on Friday night I was really regretting my decision to leave Sat morning because it reached a high of 103 deg in Cambridge in the middle of the day on Friday, and the during nighttime, it was still an uncomfortably warm 81 degrees. During the day on Friday, Bryan and I found out that our AC unit was broken ("Hey, it's the same temperature in our room as it is in the hallway..."). The damn thing was never really working particularly well in the first place and it just crapped out on us altogether when we needed it the most. Anyway, I didn't sleep until 1:00am and the whole time I was tossing and turning and thinking, "Right now we could be sleeping in an air conditioned hotel room!!" Anyway, getting up on Sat morning at 4:45am was rough to say the least, but the car ride kept me entertained most of the way to OMK :)
The conditions on Saturday was really hot with occasional gusts of wind (some of them were cool breezes!) Most of the teams we played against played man defense and occasionally they (and we) would play some zone D. We had three rounds of pool play and a crossover game on Saturday. We were actually seeded last in our pool (a mix-up with the TD caused him to seed "Mixed Nuts," a NY-based team that no longer exists, instead of "Mixed Nuts (MA)," which is us.) Anyway, the seeding in pool play didn't really affect anything.
Our first game was against Hucks and Kisses. They mostly played zone on us, which we were able to work through. Towards the beginning of the game, Dent had a great D that he caught, which we capitalized on to make the score 3-1. A few points later, a well-timed huck from Wu to Miriam and an easy backhand to Kes makes the score 5-1. During the next point, Randy puts up a huck to NG but it falls short, and hits his foot as he turns around to find the disc. We give him a hard time for trying to catch the disc with his foot :) During the next possession, Shuangy gets a point block, and throws to NG who's cutting in, who finds Claudia in the endzone to make the score 6-1. A few points later, Craig finds Michelle going up the line, who puts up a huck to Kes for the score, the first of many Michelle/Kes points of the weekend. For the rest of the game, we abused their zone defense and used both in and out cuts to make the final score 13-4.
Our second game was against Shostakovich and the Angry Buddhas. The story of the game was trying to stop their hammers to the breakside for the score. The final score was 9-13 and the majority of their points (7 of them!) resulted from hammers or I/O breaks. We started off on offense, and worked through the zone D to start the game, 1-0. The next three points were from hammers and I/O breaks, 1-3. The next point we turned it around and scored on their zone defense, although we only really used 5-7 yards next the sideline, way to jam it up the sideline, guys! Kes got a huge run-through D the next point, which tied the score at 3-3. We traded points for the rest of the half where Nuts scored on my huck to Matty, an around break from Bill to Dent, a point block from NG, Dillon's layout D, and Bill's full-field huck to Miriam, to make the halftime score 7-6.
In the second half, we started off trading points, but we we dropped two breaks and couldn't convert. There were a few interesting points: Bill threw a hammer to MattyB for a layout score. I remember thinking, "Just because they score every other point on hammers doesn't mean we need to as well!" and Randy had a few nice hucks to people in the endzone. Brian Wu contracted rabies during this game when he tried to throw a backhand huck and instead backhanded his mark in the face. He has a couple of nice teeth marks in his hand to show for it. At the end of the game though, we fell short and the final score was 13-9.
Our third game was against Bidness Time. We started off trading points in the beginning... they also played zone on us, which they quickly stopped once they saw how useless their zone D was. After 2-2, Bidness didn't score another point for the rest of the game. We saw Michelle put up a few nice hucks to Craig and Kes in the endzone. Our dump-swing looked really good during this game and we had a lot of nice breakside scores. The last point was scored with a typical Shuangy I/O to Dent at the front of the stack, who threw it to Claudia going breakside. Final score 13-2.
After a nap in the shade, lots of hydrating, and playing with the puppies at the tournament, we played a crossover game against Hudson Valley Club Ultimate. We lost the first two points pretty quickly while our awesome guy handlers were still waking up from their naps. Wu bobbled the disc and dropped it on the first point, and Bill uncharacteristically threw one straight into the ground during the second. But they eventually woke up and we got on the score board. We scored the first point with Bill's huck to Cindy, who found Anna in the endzone for the score. Wu put up a few good hucks to Footsteps and Dent for a few more points. There was a painfully epic point with 8 turnovers (I was counting), a timeout, and an injury, which we eventually scored. The next point was pretty funny: we put on a zone defense with Bill as the deep deep and Hudson Valley sent two girls to their endzone and put up a huck, which went straight through Bill's hands and one of the girls caught it for the score, 4-3 us. (We ended up giving spirit nuts to the girl who "skyed" Bill, haha.) After that though, they didn't score another point.
The first point of the second half, a guy faceplanted in front of Shuangy while trying to get the D, and she threw one to Bryan for the score. The last two points of the game, I got a point block in the cup, then Shuangy did the same, the guy handlers were pretty pissed that women kept getting point blocks on them that they would nudge/push us afterwards. :P Final score 13-3.
Sunday conditions were a lot cooler but not as much wind. Our win in the crossover game put us in the championship bracket with a first game against Darkwing, the team we lost to at Mixed Easterns 13-12. We traded the first few points, with Bill's huck finding Footsteps in the endzone a few times. (Bill credited it to cuddling together the night before. I believe his words were, "We should sleep in the same bed more often." haha) We had been down a break when Kes had a huge layout D that brought us even again. We took half 7-6. During the second half, we won a few breaks, and were up 12-9. On the last point of the game, Wu put up a huck to Kes, but it fell short, almost landing directly in the hands of a Darkwing defender, but not until NG sprinted down to grab it, then threw it to Kes for the score. Final score 13-9.
We played Rut in the quarterfinals. We traded points during the first half, and I think we took half 7-6 but I don't actually remember. Michelle found Kes in the endzone with her hucks a few times, Randy had a pretty huck to Anna, and someone tried to get a D on Bill, but just smacked the disc into his hands anyway. In the second half, we went down a few breaks and couldn't come back. Final score 13-9.
In the fifth place bracket, we played Detroit Lions, which was a really fun game since I knew most of the women on their team and it was a pretty good match-up in general. At one point we were up 9-5, but they started gaining on us when we were making silly drops on easy catches and throws. I remember a timely D from Footsteps, a few nice hucks from Bill, and Miriam was really open for me in the endzone for the last point. Final score 13-10.
Wu and I tried to bluff our way through the last game against Urine Trouble by getting them to forfeit. We didn't really want to play another game, but we didn't want to just forfeit either so we were hoping that they would forfeit first. So Wu and I walked up to them and asked excitedly, "Are you guys ready to play?!" and they were like "Yep!" (We were hoping to hear "We are tired and want to go home" haha) So Wu were like, "Oh...well... then..." We eventually decided to play a shortened game to 7 instead. They played vertical stack with 4 women for many of the points (their women were all so tall!), and the women Nuts were able to bracket and contain them pretty well. I had a lot of fun playing this game even though I was pretty exhausted. I remember getting a few Ds, which is always fun. Final score 7-2.
Then we got ice cream from the ice cream truck! And french fries from McDonald's! And played "Contact" in Wu's soccer mom car the whole ride home. My favorite question was Footsteps': "Do pigs eat out of you? In a biblical sense?" for a word beginning with "M" hahaha.
All in all, a really fun tournament. I feel like I'm learning how to play with certain people a lot better and I'm learning how to play on the D line. I felt really dehydrated and exhausted the whole weekend. I slept for 10 hours last night and I still feel tired today, and I spent the last 2 hours writing this and gChatting. Productivity fail :(
Things that we can work on as a team (I feel like it's always the same list):
- Dump swing (dump's first look should always be for the swing, who should always be yelling for the disc)
- Not getting beat deep
- Backpedaling and maintaining our buffer on defense
- Timing of cuts and flow (sometimes there were 2 cuts at once, sometimes none), but I think we got better on this throughout the tournament
- What to do when being poached off of, esp third handler
- Popper/deep movement in zone O (having the deep come in wen the popper gets the disc)
- Handlers keeping the disc too long instead of looking to dump early
Things that we did well on:
- Switching on defense (I saw a few instances where we successfully helped each other out on D)
- Our endzone looked better than previous tournaments. I wouldn't say it's something that is perfect, but it did look better than it did at Mixed Easterns.
- Cutters looked to the dump early
http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#mixed/team/12092
Any favorite points/plays from the weekend? :)
Friday, July 22, 2011
Mixed Nuts
Some thoughts on recent practices
- Humidity makes throwing backhands really difficult for me. The disc tends to stick to my hand and I release it way too late, causing all sorts of accuracy/speed problems. Wu suggested having a shorter backswing; I've been trying it with varying levels of success.
- It really helps me to hear "swing!" or "Karen!" when I'm getting the dump and getting ready to swing the disc. I basically make the decision on whether I'm going to swing the disc as I am catching the dump, and it helps to hear that someone is cutting for the swing before I can see him/her.
- It helps me to hear people talking on the field in general. It improves team cohesiveness, morale, and prevents me from tunnel-visioning. :)
- Recently I've been hearing Dillon more on the sideline when I'm on the field. It helps to hear instructions when I'm marking. Thanks Dillon!
- Speaking of Dillon, I think he should get an inverse mohawk (shave right down the middle of his head) to complement Craig's mohawk. "That way when one stands in front of the other, they look like they have a full head of hair!" -Bryan... Anyway, who's with me?! haha
- When cutting, it's really important to run at a person before changing speed/direction.
- Hydrate hydrate hydrate this weekend!!
Follow us while we play at OMK!
http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#mixed/tournament/9380
- Humidity makes throwing backhands really difficult for me. The disc tends to stick to my hand and I release it way too late, causing all sorts of accuracy/speed problems. Wu suggested having a shorter backswing; I've been trying it with varying levels of success.
- It really helps me to hear "swing!" or "Karen!" when I'm getting the dump and getting ready to swing the disc. I basically make the decision on whether I'm going to swing the disc as I am catching the dump, and it helps to hear that someone is cutting for the swing before I can see him/her.
- It helps me to hear people talking on the field in general. It improves team cohesiveness, morale, and prevents me from tunnel-visioning. :)
- Recently I've been hearing Dillon more on the sideline when I'm on the field. It helps to hear instructions when I'm marking. Thanks Dillon!
- Speaking of Dillon, I think he should get an inverse mohawk (shave right down the middle of his head) to complement Craig's mohawk. "That way when one stands in front of the other, they look like they have a full head of hair!" -Bryan... Anyway, who's with me?! haha
- When cutting, it's really important to run at a person before changing speed/direction.
- Hydrate hydrate hydrate this weekend!!
Follow us while we play at OMK!
http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#mixed/tournament/9380
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Pranking John
Keith and I get back from Phoenix Landing on Friday night and he mentions something about pranking John by filling his room with cups of water (John was in Chicago for the weekend). Being the enabler and also a little bit tipsy, I said, "OK. WHERE ARE THE CUPS!?" So Keith brings out all the cups we have in the apartment, and we start placing and filling cups...
Keith starts at one end side of the room with teeny tiny paper Dixie cups ("I hope these cups don't disintegrate... they have to hold up for a few days."):
And I start on the other side with more durable Solo cups. I also got really ambitious and put lots of cups of water behind his bookshelf:
By the way, filling up cups of water at 3:00am while trying to sober up is not the best idea in the world. BUT IT'S STILL WORTH IT.
At this time, Keith has the sense of mind to remove anything valuable off the ground that might get wet, like... John's guitar. =P
At around 3:30am, we run out of cups, and go to bed, vowing to continue the next morning.
Next morning... after sleeping in and eating a hearty breakfast, I walk over to Walgreens in Inman Sq and clean them out: 6 packs (3 packs red, 3 packs clear) of 80 solo cups each for $5/pack. And continue working our way through John's room:
Pretty soon Keith finishes his side:
And then comes over to help me with mine:
At this point, Keith yells, "KAREN YOU LEFT THE LAMP ON!!!" ... crrraaaaaapppp. See that lamp in the top left corner of the previous picture? Yes, we had already placed about 20-ish rows of cups in front of it. So I carefully remove two cups in the middle of the sea of cups, gently step into the hole, turn off the lamp, and carefully step back. Ninja skills win!!
More filling:
See how much care we take into going around stuff like the chair? :)
I find a few more cups in the cupboard, and after about 30 min on Fri and a little more than an hr on Sat, we have our final masterpiece!
John gets back at like 12:30am on Sunday night, the EXACT SAME TIME as Keith and I get back from a wedding. So I follow John to videotape his reaction:
Then we all help him clean up (takes about 30 minutes between the three of us):
And Keith even mops John's floor:
And John still loves us!
But I am still going to watch my back for the next two months...
Happy 4th of July! :D
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Good at ultimate
K: "If you could repeat any year in the last five years, which one would it be?"
B: *thinks for 30 sec* "The first one."
K: "But we weren't even dating then!"
B: "But I could be so good at ultimate...!!"
K: "Fine..."
B: *thinks for 30 sec* "The first one."
K: "But we weren't even dating then!"
B: "But I could be so good at ultimate...!!"
K: "Fine..."
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Scrimmage
Nuts scrimmaged Zerg + pickups tonight (15-13 them). Some thoughts:
- Everyone seemed very dead, and lazy --> sidelines were quiet, not much talking on the field either.
- I still tunnel vision (bad, Karen, bad), sorry Doris =P
- When handlers are poached, come to the breakside to get the disc to 1) keep the disc in the middle of the field, and 2) open up the break lane. Right now we throw to the poached handler who is stuck on the sideline, and we have a hard time getting it off the line.
- We still get beat deep a lot.
- Some moments of great dump defense to get a high stall count throw.
- Marking needs to improve: marking with feet, sealing the around, listening to the sidelines for strike, inside, and around calls (of course having loud sidelines would help for that).
Chicago for the weekend!
- Everyone seemed very dead, and lazy --> sidelines were quiet, not much talking on the field either.
- I still tunnel vision (bad, Karen, bad), sorry Doris =P
- When handlers are poached, come to the breakside to get the disc to 1) keep the disc in the middle of the field, and 2) open up the break lane. Right now we throw to the poached handler who is stuck on the sideline, and we have a hard time getting it off the line.
- We still get beat deep a lot.
- Some moments of great dump defense to get a high stall count throw.
- Marking needs to improve: marking with feet, sealing the around, listening to the sidelines for strike, inside, and around calls (of course having loud sidelines would help for that).
Chicago for the weekend!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Important announcement
I have an important announcement to make: NG show is my new frisbee crush. Those calves DO work!!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Mixed Easterns
I played in my first real mixed tournament this past weekend, Mixed Easterns! I know I've been to other mixed tourneys before, but this one was the first time lines were called! The team I played for was Mixed Nuts, and there are all sorts of creative/gross cheers when you throw the word "nuts" into the mix :)
We went 2-2 on Saturday, and the 2 that we lost were both on universe point.. heartbreaking :( I feel like our team just fell apart towards the end because we were so tired, at least I was really tired. I don't think I've ever been so tired after day 1 of a tournament, not even when I played college where sometimes I played like 90% of the points.
I also kept cramping. At first, my toes would cramp, and to stretch out my toes, I would walk on them, which in turn made my calf cramp. It was a vicious cycle. There was one point where Bryan's groin cramped, so he took an injury, and 5 minutes later (yes, same point), my calf cramped when I was handling in zone, so I had to take an injury too. Couple fail :(
All in all for Sat, I give ourselves a 5/10. I think we played pretty well for a bunch of people who sorta know how to play with each other, but we still have a long way to go in terms of actually learning how to play with each other. A few things come to mind regarding what we need to work on:
1. A standard dump. I think guys and girls set up for dumps very differently and at least for me, it's hard to tell where someone is going to get open for the dump. I remember several instances where I got faked out by the dump's cut and made him lay out for a dump (sorry, Bling). Personally I need to be better about recognizing when a guy is open on the dump, and be better about putting it to space.
2. A standard endzone. Oh man, our endzone was messy. There was no stack and so much clogging, so many double cuts. I think we had one nice dump swing, score on the break side. But otherwise, our endzone was always breaking down.
3. Flow. I think people cut each other off a lot and there was a lot of inefficient cutting. I think having girls on one side for ho-stack, guys on the other, helps to some extent, but there was still issues with flow.
I felt like we played a lot better as a team on Sunday. We one our first two games, and lost the third, which made us tied for 19th or something (out of 36).
Some things I need to personally work on:
1. Dump cuts when the disc is in the middle of the field. I did it a few times this weekend but I had to really think about them before cutting, it's not the most natural dump cut for me.
2. Scanning the field, no tunnel-vision, not throwing to poaches.
3. Execution on throwing. There were a few times I tried throwing softer/putting more touch on my flicks, which backfired. I should just throw normally and expect people to catch them.
4. Backpedaling and dictating, I need some backpedaling drills or something, there was one point where I tripped up on myself and fell backward, that was kinda embarrassing.
Anyway, some memorable points this weekend:
We went 2-2 on Saturday, and the 2 that we lost were both on universe point.. heartbreaking :( I feel like our team just fell apart towards the end because we were so tired, at least I was really tired. I don't think I've ever been so tired after day 1 of a tournament, not even when I played college where sometimes I played like 90% of the points.
I also kept cramping. At first, my toes would cramp, and to stretch out my toes, I would walk on them, which in turn made my calf cramp. It was a vicious cycle. There was one point where Bryan's groin cramped, so he took an injury, and 5 minutes later (yes, same point), my calf cramped when I was handling in zone, so I had to take an injury too. Couple fail :(
All in all for Sat, I give ourselves a 5/10. I think we played pretty well for a bunch of people who sorta know how to play with each other, but we still have a long way to go in terms of actually learning how to play with each other. A few things come to mind regarding what we need to work on:
1. A standard dump. I think guys and girls set up for dumps very differently and at least for me, it's hard to tell where someone is going to get open for the dump. I remember several instances where I got faked out by the dump's cut and made him lay out for a dump (sorry, Bling). Personally I need to be better about recognizing when a guy is open on the dump, and be better about putting it to space.
2. A standard endzone. Oh man, our endzone was messy. There was no stack and so much clogging, so many double cuts. I think we had one nice dump swing, score on the break side. But otherwise, our endzone was always breaking down.
3. Flow. I think people cut each other off a lot and there was a lot of inefficient cutting. I think having girls on one side for ho-stack, guys on the other, helps to some extent, but there was still issues with flow.
I felt like we played a lot better as a team on Sunday. We one our first two games, and lost the third, which made us tied for 19th or something (out of 36).
Some things I need to personally work on:
1. Dump cuts when the disc is in the middle of the field. I did it a few times this weekend but I had to really think about them before cutting, it's not the most natural dump cut for me.
2. Scanning the field, no tunnel-vision, not throwing to poaches.
3. Execution on throwing. There were a few times I tried throwing softer/putting more touch on my flicks, which backfired. I should just throw normally and expect people to catch them.
4. Backpedaling and dictating, I need some backpedaling drills or something, there was one point where I tripped up on myself and fell backward, that was kinda embarrassing.
Anyway, some memorable points this weekend:
- Shawn's layout point-block from behind the thrower. I have no idea how that happened, but it was amazing.
- Shuangy has some mad ups on Sat, jumping for dumps that were too high. Sluts said there were people on the sideline from the other team saying, "Shorty's got ups!!" hehe :)
- Sluts' layout grab in the endzone for the score on Sat.
- Dillon and Craig's couple point! Craig to Dillon to Craig for the score! awww
- Kes layout grab D in the Ballo game on Sun.
- Bryan boxes out a guy a head taller than him and then layout catches a score. The next point, Doris does the same thing. :)
- Bill Bling's amazing hammers in zone O
- Doris skys two people (a girl and a guy), I guess that's pretty standard for Doris :)
- I toed the line for the first time! And for a score!
- I think Dent and Randy, our pickups for the weekend, were both awesome.
- This morning when Bryan and I woke up, he turns to me (groaning and going "ow ow ow" the whole time) and goes, "Do you think this is going to be us all the time when we get old?" and I said, "Bryan, we are already old." SiGH...
- There are obviously many more spectacular points but I can't remember them. Can you??? :)
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Spring hat tournament!
These are the only pics I have :)
It was a beautiful Sunday, we were wearing my fave color, there were tiny chairs, I got to play frisbee with Bryan, Daphne, and Matty, we won our all our games, AND we went to Kimball Farms for dinner and arcade games afterwards. What a perfect day :)
It was a beautiful Sunday, we were wearing my fave color, there were tiny chairs, I got to play frisbee with Bryan, Daphne, and Matty, we won our all our games, AND we went to Kimball Farms for dinner and arcade games afterwards. What a perfect day :)
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Day 29
Day 29 – A picture that can always make you smile.
LOVE Smeri's expression!! hehe
Also in order from least to most attitude (from left to right).
LOVE Smeri's expression!! hehe
Also in order from least to most attitude (from left to right).
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Day 28
Day 28 – A picture of something you’re afraid of.
Bryan dying from high cholesterol and diabetes.
And Sluts, I'm afraid of Sluts:
And Sluts, I'm afraid of Sluts:
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Day 27
Day 27 – A picture of yourself and a family member.
Me + my fave LITTLE brother, First Lieutenant Gordon Shu.
Me + my fave LITTLE brother, First Lieutenant Gordon Shu.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Day 25
Day 25 – A picture of your day or favorite day
My favorite day in recent memory was when we went to San Diego to visit Sluts and she took us on a mini adventure to Torrey Pines. Charles was trying to get on a ledge to appear taller as I was taking the picture and slipped off. Hahaha!
My favorite day in recent memory was when we went to San Diego to visit Sluts and she took us on a mini adventure to Torrey Pines. Charles was trying to get on a ledge to appear taller as I was taking the picture and slipped off. Hahaha!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Day 24
Day 24 – A picture of something you wish you could change.
I'm not saying this is necessarily something I would change, but I just wonder what my life would be like if I didn't go to grad school. Actually, who am I kidding, if I could do it all over again, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have gone to grad school.
I'm not saying this is necessarily something I would change, but I just wonder what my life would be like if I didn't go to grad school. Actually, who am I kidding, if I could do it all over again, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have gone to grad school.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Day 23
Day 23 – A picture of your favorite book.
I don't have an all-time favorite book. But I just finished "Ender's Shadow" which I liked a lot. (I've been reading it on a Kindle so I didn't know the cover of the book looked like that until now... it's really ugly.) I was going to post a picture of my Kindle but that's kind of silly.
A book that made a big impact on my life recently is "Half The Sky." It's very eye-opening and inspirational.
I don't have an all-time favorite book. But I just finished "Ender's Shadow" which I liked a lot. (I've been reading it on a Kindle so I didn't know the cover of the book looked like that until now... it's really ugly.) I was going to post a picture of my Kindle but that's kind of silly.
A book that made a big impact on my life recently is "Half The Sky." It's very eye-opening and inspirational.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Day 22
Day 22 – A picture of something you wish you were better at.
I wish I was better at 1) prioritizing what I need to do, and 2) not stressing out, and 3) not thinking about things that are bothering me as I fall asleep.
I wish I was better at 1) prioritizing what I need to do, and 2) not stressing out, and 3) not thinking about things that are bothering me as I fall asleep.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Day 21
Day 21 – A picture of something you wish you could forget.
What a silly question. I don't think I would forget anything. Unless I already forgot it, and in that case, I don't remember what it is...
...your face!...
What a silly question. I don't think I would forget anything. Unless I already forgot it, and in that case, I don't remember what it is...
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Day 20
Day 20 – A picture of somewhere you’d love to travel.
Greece! I've wanted to go ever since I watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants...
Greece! I've wanted to go ever since I watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants...
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Day 17
Day 17 – A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.
Cofffeeeee <3 I love you so much.
Cofffeeeee <3 I love you so much.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Day 16
Day 16 – A picture of someone who inspires you.
Two people: my mom and my grandma (mom's mom). They're both such strong, caring, independent, loving women. Also, I love that my grandma's shirt says "Welcome to America." :)
Two people: my mom and my grandma (mom's mom). They're both such strong, caring, independent, loving women. Also, I love that my grandma's shirt says "Welcome to America." :)
Friday, April 29, 2011
Day 15
Day 15 – A picture of something you want to do before you die.
I had to think about this one a lot, but I *think* I want to have a kid, eventually. I change my mind a lot depending on my mood and how annoying I think kids are that particular day.
This is Audrey, Bryan's niece when she came to Boston.
I had to think about this one a lot, but I *think* I want to have a kid, eventually. I change my mind a lot depending on my mood and how annoying I think kids are that particular day.
This is Audrey, Bryan's niece when she came to Boston.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Day 14
Day 14 – A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.
Patrick! I mean, ... Bryan!
Patrick! I mean, ... Bryan!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Day 13
Day 13 – A picture of your favorite band or artist.
Glee! Ok so they're not really an artist/band, but I just like watching them perform.
Glee! Ok so they're not really an artist/band, but I just like watching them perform.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Day 11
Day 11 – A picture of something you hate.
Giant bugs in the Amazon.
This picture was taken in summer 2006 when I went with New Tribes Mission to the Amazon to build a school. One morning I went to the bathroom (an out-house type of building) to find this guy crawling on the wall. The funny thing was a friend went to the bathroom before me and never even saw it (it's really dark in the bathroom -- no electricity/lights and it was dawn). She freaked out when I pointed it out to her. =P
I took the picture while a boy held it between a stick and a leaf. The thorax of the bug is probably a lot smaller, it just looks creepy because the stick looks like it could be the thorax.
Giant bugs in the Amazon.
This picture was taken in summer 2006 when I went with New Tribes Mission to the Amazon to build a school. One morning I went to the bathroom (an out-house type of building) to find this guy crawling on the wall. The funny thing was a friend went to the bathroom before me and never even saw it (it's really dark in the bathroom -- no electricity/lights and it was dawn). She freaked out when I pointed it out to her. =P
I took the picture while a boy held it between a stick and a leaf. The thorax of the bug is probably a lot smaller, it just looks creepy because the stick looks like it could be the thorax.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Day 10
Day 10 – A picture of the person you do the craziest things with.
Doris - I bit her once. Accidentally!
And Smeri - She makes rainbows.
My mouth is open in both pictures... =P
Doris - I bit her once. Accidentally!
And Smeri - She makes rainbows.My mouth is open in both pictures... =P
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