Well we got our Zoodisc jerseys pretty early this year. Instead of going with an usual Ultimate jersey provider like VC, Gaia, or Patagonia. This year we got NikePro jerseys, and they are pretty nice. They remind me of NikeWorld jerseys that are worn by like Ohio State and Texas; they are pretty skin-tight at the top and the shorts are extremely baggy. There was one problem though, my home (light) jersey was printed on a small because they mixed up the sizing with a teammate, so he got my size and I got his (the kid's like 5'4 and 100 pounds). It'll be like another 2 or 3 weeks before I get my home again, but its ok, we won't have a chance to step on the field until about early April anyways.





Also the Downtown Brown shorts that Bob sent arrived today, they are pretty nice, my first pair of FiveUltimate shorts. They were a bit short for a large, and didn't have a number (printing mistake), but still pretty sick. They remind me a lot of the GAIA shorts we got during freshman year.

So classes begin tomorrow, LETS DO IT!!!

Ranting Reflection

Upon reading some inspirational emails from the captains encouraging us to continue working our asses off during our winter break and what that could yield got me thinking of how I came upon this sport in the first place.

I had the pleasure of growing up in Amherst my entire life (in the U.S. anyways), and was surrounding by Ultimate, I just didn’t know it. Up until freshman year of high school, I thought Ultimate was an altered version of golf or something. So in band, I chatted up with some of the percussion players, and found out one of them was on the Ultimate team. I enquired into the sport, and soon realized that it was actually a full-fledging varsity sport, and our school was one of the premier teams in the nation and I had been ignorant all this time about it. Despite ARHS fielding 3 teams for guys and girls (Varsity, JV, and Freshman), I went out for the baseball team, made it, and then quit after just a week due to conflicts with the coaches.

Anyways, I moved up to the highest level of band in the school in sophomore year and found even more Ultimate players, including Gabe Hart (Carleton), Andrew Hollingsworth (USA Juniors, Tufts), and Sam Kanner (Carleton, Subzero), and more. I became more immersed in the sport, and though again I didn’t’ try out for any of the teams (got to love Asian parents and pressure to excel in standardized exams), I slowly learned the basics, such as pivoting and whatnot from just tossing with them during breaks.

Junior year was probably the first year I got really involved with Ultimate. I joined the school’s intramural Ultimate league, and was drafted onto Team Crimson by the captain Gabe, along with Jeremiah (Wisconsin), Shira (Tufts Women), and others. I had no backhand back then, thus my primary duty on the team was to play the lanes and go deep. Looking back it was sort of funny because we had a Korean-Chinese kid on the team, and several other members who were in Chinese class, so we’d shout plays and stuff in Chinese. Anyways we were one of the better teams, finishing I think 10-1 before the playoffs. I remember one game in particular, we were playing the top team in the league, and it was pouring rain, and the score was 12-12, we were trapped deep in own end, I threw my first completed flick of the season, also took off my receiver’s head though. We ended up losing that game 13-12 on universe point because I was beat to the cone on a hook cut, I laid out but was inches short. I think I was so angry with myself that Gabe (dude’s a great coach) had to hold me out for the first half of the following game so I could regain my calm. When playoffs came we were seeded 3rd I think (top 4 teams make it into the playoffs), and were blessed with good fortune to face the 2nd seed, Purple. Purple was a pretty raw team, and they had a couple guys who eventually made it to Amherst Varsity, they were fast but small. We took advantage of that and shut them down with a 1-3-3.

The finals were under the lights on the soccer field against our rivals Eggplant, and it was one of the single most amazing events I’ve been to for Ultimate. Several hundred people were gathered on the tracks around the field, the lights beaming down from above, that feeling was electric. However one of our go-to guys, Elmo, injured himself during pre-game drills when he went up for a disc and came down awkward, and was more or less useless for the championship game. If I recall correctly, he was our tallest player, and with him out, Eggplant’s deep, who was like 6’3 or 6’4, tore us apart. Gabe, Jeremiah, and Noah (Claremont) handled brilliantly, but we couldn’t overcome our defensive lapses. Don’t quite recall the score, but we lost like by 3 or something. Despite finishing second, the intramural season got me addicted to Ultimate.

I played JV and then senior year I took up Cross Country alongside Ultimate. Cross Country was amazing because like half the Ultimate players were also on the XC team and it was a great way to get in shape (keep in shape for others). Played JV again senior year and there wasn’t many great memories (can’t remember much from senior year Ultimate at all actually), all I know is that we got whipped pretty good, and finished the season with a losing record.

And the rest… history. Well, playing for Umass until this past fall, where I kind of faded in and out of Ultimate. Didn’t make A cause fucked up right knee playing basketball during the summer and couldn’t walk properly until about mid-October, and then got discouraged and stopped attending practice overall. Got out of shape, so trying to work self back into shape, hoping for a better Spring season, and maybe a call-up.

Hit the gym this morning on part of the winter workout from Zoodisc, and it felt damn good. Spent a good 20 minutes digging my car out of the snow, and in the process of getting my car out I buried the car next to me even deeper. I couldn’t describe the feeling while driving to the gym, everything was perfectly white as far as the eye could see, it was magnificent.

So got to the gym and started with some cardio and rode the bike for about 20 minutes or so on various hill workouts, then moved on to upper body/pectorals and ended with some calf workouts. Overall spent about 50 minutes or so, had to get back to park car, eat breakfast, shower (?), then go to work.

During lunch break planning on heading to the University Textbook Annex to buy my textbooks for the spring semester, and its going to take a pretty big chunk of money… The courses that the annex has in supply currently are:

• Accounting 312: Systems Analysis & Design, $93.00
• Accounting 331: Cost Accounting, $132.00
• Sch-Mgmt 310: Inside Business Writing, $20.50
  Management Communications, $51.00

So the total for these 3 classes alone is $296.50. This is not counting the textbook for Accounting 322, which uses the same textbook as a class I took last semester (thank god, saves me like $100 or something dollars), and then there's Accounting 371 (Tax), which does not have a book listed yet, so who knows. Lucky I am working a lot this week so I can pay off that stuff.

Planning on going running tonight, and I'll make sure to wear longer leggings this time so I don't come back with frostbite.

OK so, moments after writing what is above, I get a call from some parent. I was on duty last night and the on call phone was forwarded to my cell phone. The office should have been opened at 10, therefore the phone would have been unforwarded. However it seems like nobody is in the office since the call to the office was forwarded to my phone. Anyways, I picked and its the parent of an athlete that lives in my hall. The team had gone on a 2 week training session in Puerto Rico, and when she got back to her room, she found her door partly opened. The parent was furious and was cussing me out, accusing me of allowing her door to be let opened. I explained to her that several days ago maintenance did a routine check on every room to make sure that the fire alarms were working properly, and that its possible that they may have left the door ajar, because when I came back I found my door opened as well, though nothing appeared to be missing. I suggested her daughter going to the police because its possible that someone broke in, though her mom made it sound like we don't care and we don't have the ability to do anything. A curious thing is that, her daughter got back Saturday, so why the hell is she calling on Saturday, dumb.

Whatever, her problem now. Time for lunch and spending lots of money on books.

Snow Day!

Alright just thought I’d share some experiences so far this winter. So if you are not currently in Amherst right now you might not know the weather situation; it’s currently snowing like hell outside. So instead of going to the gym and running on the treadmills and whatnot (I would have to dig out my car somehow and drive up a huge slope, not very likely), I thought” what the hell, I should run around Amherst”, and grabbed my shoes, threw on some cold gear, and jumped outside.

On my first step out of my building, I took the step and sank straight down, past my knees, and for the duration of the run around Amherst I was running in snow about halfway up my leg, and I hadn’t bother to wear long leggings. Eventually my legs began to freeze up and I had to seek warmth in some building for a couple minutes before coming out to finish the run. I don’t know much what else to say expect that it was one of the more enjoyable runs I’ve had in quite a while, despite that my legs were frozen and my lungs hurt and I couldn’t see half the time and took couple pretty spectacular spills.

Don't Sleep

I seriously ought to reconsider my sporadic sleep schedule. Since the beginning of the work week I’ve pulled two all nighters, plus another one where I was up until 5 AM before finally deciding it was wise to try to sleep at least several hours before work. On these nights I have done the following:

• Caught up in Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece in terms of episodes and manga
• Re-read Death Note
• Taken up GTA: San Andreas again, playing it probably 5 or 6 hours a day
• Trashed my room to point where I can’t find the floor

Very productive indeed. Either way this morning I was still up around like 5-ish from reading Kubo Tite’s Zombie Powder, shame he didn’t finish it. The character design is almost identical compared to Bleach, and just as hilarious, with many of its characters reflected in the mangaka’s second series. So looking at my clock, I was faced with the dilemma of sleeping for 4 hours before waking for work, or going to the gym (not running outside in freezing weather). The gym won in the end and I was shocked to find the amount of people in the gym, though it was mostly middle-aged men. So, after returning from the gym at 7-ish I was determined to sleep for about 2 hours, but I was compelled to finish reading Zombie Powder (ran until chapter 27, then was cancelled), and by the time that was done it was near 8:30. So yet again, I am at work, and barely staying awake.

Fall Semester in Pictures