jockeye

Yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is a mystery,
But Today is a gift.
That's why they call it "the present!"

Love, hope, goodnight.
:-)MC

I feel like I'm in the middle of some sort of journey right now, or something, on a larger scale than I'm able to wrap my head around.  And, in this journey, or story or whatever, I'm at the part where I'm in the middle of the woods.  Not in a bad way necessarily, but I don't have a great sense of direction right now.  It's easy to put one foot in front of the other, but hard to chart my course.

It's a pretty woods, even if I feel a little lost in it.  Like a huge bamboo grove or something.  Lots of little shadows.

In perhaps a related note, I've really been fancying getting punched in the face, or body, or wherever.  It feels like a cathartic urge, and a little self-mutilating.  I have a sense of emotional detritis that is piling up somewhere, and this is kind of my impetus to knock it loose.  Hmm.

Did you know that one of the greatest wielders of the kusarigama (chain and sickle), Yamada Shinryukan, who killed many swordsmen of feudal japan, was himself killed when lured into a bamboo grove by swordsman Araki Mataemon.  In the grove, Yamada-San was unable to swing the chain and trap his opponent's sword.

So, if I meet that guy, I'm gonna fuck him up.  :-D  But maybe after I let him punch me in the face.

My neck is sore.

My knees are covered in rug burns.

My chest is bruised.

I'm still looking for chocolate frosting on my face and in my beard.

And my heart is filled with love and happiness!!  :-)

It was a very good birthday.

I've been meaning to post regarding the end of Worlds, and all the craziness of those couple days... but I'm still not there yet. Balls. In the meantime, I'm going to talk about music.

I may have said this already, but the new GirlTalk album is the cat's pajamas.

Also on the studio mash-up tip, I downloaded The Hood Internet vs. Chicago yesterday from thehoodinternet.com. It's pretty slick, more consistent than either of their earlier mix CDs. (BTW, if you like hiphop and don't mind the cursing, check out the "GHOSTFACE and RAEKWON vs CARIBOU" remix that's up on their site.  It makes me happy-sad.)

Finally, I was happy to hear that Zach De La Rocha was finally back in action, together with the drummer from the Mars Volta. The album's called One Day As A Lion, and the song "Last Letter" has been getting some KEXP airplay. It's good, kind of like Rage Against the Machine with less nuttsack.

Sigh.  Now I need to get back to work.  This whole "returning to real life" thing is kind of a rough re-entry.  I love y'all, tho.  :-)

We beat Colombia, 17-10, to advance to the semifinals of Worlds.  They were short, fast, and good.  But we won.

I'm exhausted.

Food water stretch.  Ugh.

I hope I feel more ready tomorrow.  We're playing Japan again, this time for keeps.  I'll need it.

We don't have a game until 4:30 today, against New Zealand.  Sleepy is mine.  Breakfast, videogames, movies.  Chill.  Stretch.  Type on massive laptop.  Rinse.  Repeat.  :-)

The down side, if you can call it that, is that I've had the time and mind-share to really miss all the people I love.  But, I know that's how they're feeling too (only much more so, in most cases), so it's actually kind of nice to share that with them.  :-)  Hearts a ll around!!

It's bizarre, but it's been such an intense experience so far that I feel like I've been here for a week, not just a couple days.  We've only played one day so far.... surreal.  I wonder what it will feel like in another couple days.

Gimme an "F"!
Gimme a Rub!
What's that spell?

FRUB!

I've just learned the URL for the official Worlds photographer: http://www.nzsnaps.com .  Look for the WUGC 2008 links.  Pretty pictures!

Also, MIA's "Paper Planes" has been in heavy rotation in our car. Great song.  :-)

We were alarmed and dismayed when we could initially find neither a coffee shop nor grocery store that was open at 6:30 in the morning on a Sunday.  Maybe a tall order, but goddamn, need the food and coffee!  Fortunately, the Green Goliath of Starbucks came through for us.

We had the Netherlands in the morning.  Nice guys, tall.  We had some first game jitters, they were actually up 2-1 early on.  Final score was 17-4, USA.  We're finding that a lot of international teams are not used to the physical nature of our game, and have some trouble dealing.  We're trying hard to be nice and respectful of the difference, but still play our game.

Afterwards, we watched the US Junior Boys (age 19 and under) against Great Britain, and I felt old.  Those kids are absurdly good.  (I will say, I'm really glad we got Matt Rehder, our 17-year-old wunderkind, and they didn't.)  They were slowly pulling away when we left to warm up for game 2... not sure of the final score.

Our second game was Finland, which we heard would be faster than our other European opponents and give us a good test.  But, our D squad was taking this as a challenge, and got jacked up to the eyeballs (with excitement, and caffeine), so it didn't really matter.  They were the first team whose defense tried to run with us, which was a nice change.  We see that all the time in practice, so it felt comfy.  We took half 9-2, and rode out the win 17-6.

Hung around and watched a middle school team from Seattle (ASA-Mercer) take on a local team in an exhibition game, and then headed back to the house.  Hopefully an ice bath is in my future.  :-)

I miss everyone in Sea-town!  Hope y'all are enjoying the weekend.

Thoughts from the opening ceremonies of Worlds:
 - A huge group of ultimate players milling around together before being introduced generates a huge amount of energy.  I was SO jacked up by the time we went in the stadium.
 - I've really missed the ladies from San Fran.
 - Apparently, when those in Asian countries imitate American speech, they say "Frub frub frub!"  (I don't know but I've been told.) 
 - Indian dance is like hip-hop, but more chill, and those dancers can come over.
 - Italian women's ultimate players dress to impress.  And they do.  Mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg.

I'm in Vancouver for the World Championships.  Showed up at 11:00 last night to the house my team was slated to stay at.  To find that two of the house residents had decided not to vacate for the week, one was reputedly an asshole, the other had a dog, and there was no way in hell we were going to fit my team in this place.  The chick who brokered the deal with us was very very sweet and helpful, but me and four of the other dudes were still up till 2:00 in the morning trying to find other options.  Hotels, no.  Other housing rental?  No.  I had a sad.

Ironically, a guy who used to play for our arch-rival (the Vancouver team) offered us his place to stick half our guys in.  It's 15 blocks from the other house, and I'm finally relaxing about it all.  Man.

Fortunately, we get to take it all out on the Dutch tomorrow morning.  There are two things I can't stand: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch.  :-)

So, some of you may know that my beloved ultimate frisbee team, by virtue of winning the last two north american championships, is transforming into...

TEAM USA!!!

... for the upcoming WFDF World Championships (August 2-9 in Vancouver, BC). Woo!

As our final preparation to battle the rest of the world, we are playing a "friendly" match against the German national team on Tuesday, July 29th, in Seattle. If you are at all curious about this crazy sport, or just want to giggle at me at my jockity-jockiest, please come out and spectate! I'd love to see you there.

Here are the deets:

Team USA vs. Team Germany
When: Tuesday, July 29th, at 7:15pm
Where: Hamlin Park, 160th and 25th Ave. NE, Field 6 MAP (Make sure you look at the directions for Field 6!)
Admission: $ 5.00 for general public, $ 3.00 for any Seattle Youth Ultimate Camper wearing a camp shirt.

For more deets, hype, and funny pictures, visit our team website.

*hearts*
jockeye

The male half, that is.  :-)  Have fun in Chicagoland!

...of our iPod, which was stolen out of our car (in our condo parking lot) last night.

Mother fucker.

EDIT: Anyone in Seattle have advice on replacing a car window for not too much $$$? Where to go, etc?

I believe one of my designer-y friends has uncovered a gold mine - a text generator that spouts almost-grammatically-correct advertising nonsense.  I am beside myself.  The sensation of reading this stuff is like orgasming just as you throw up all over your own genitalia.

Here's an example:

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Class lather how special asked comes grand mild anything flash, smile extravaganza secure than aroma. Effervescent get whiter hit squeezable genuine yet we, latest. By tasty sure than fat-free generous. Thirsty every quality distinct money, as easily on remarkable aromatic exotic. Inside millions secure, keen distinct talking choosy multi-purpose magically, choice credit-card, messy, sporty more just. Unique we dazzling, great works sparkling bigger. Silky need parents savor ever wealth absolutely free low-cost rosy dazzling goodbye whopping fast sleek. Want ultra artificial flash effective seeing, families available survey affordable, wherever racy finest jiffy.

• Clean miracle money-back natural
• Rosy tasty introducing crunchy can

Dazzling, pleasure commercial satisfying yummy thought. Durable plush $19.95 choice burst, adore reputation. Durable excites sleek tasty humongous, invigorate boast in our low-cost. Sparkling screamin' gigantic premium each, goodbye industry free, oily velvety. Permanent multi-purpose thick, energy hello snappy. Picky energy industry clean go permanent, smart hearty leading like smells price comfort fast proven. Comes extra makes, now, unique formula makes special, simulated, rosy waxy sensible.

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UhhhhaaAAAAHHHH-BAARRRRRRRRRRFFFFFFFFF!!!!

*EDIT*  I found it!  The generator is here!  But it's better than just marketing glop... it ALSO comes in Technobabble, Hillbilly, Pseudo German - I'm looking at you, rope_marks, :-) - and other assorted flavors.  Yay!

*Warning: jockiness to follow*

I just watched a recording of the Japanese television broadcast (!!!) of my team's final game at the Dream Cup, versus the Japanese champs.  OMFG it was a beautiful sight.  Just like sports on television!  It would have been even more beautiful if we'd won by 1 point, rather than lost by 1, but still pretty amazing to see full pro-sports production values applied to my little team. 

And seeing yourself in slow-motion replay while two Japanese commentators jabber furiously about what you just did?  Priceless.  Pardon me while I go deflate my head now.

Also, the Japanese commercials in the commercial breaks were pretty fun to watch.  Except they use the "chorus of children's voices reciting [insert company]'s tagline" waaaaay too much.  Erg.

My favorite D&B DJ is releasing a new double CD soon!  Just in time for the heavy lifting of the season, too.  Nothing like sweating and screaming while having your heart massaged with dance music that sounds like industrial drills having sex.  Murgh.

Now I just need the money to buy it.  Hah!

I just turned into Martin Lawrence for, like, two seconds.  Two amazing, interminable seconds.

It's funny in retrospect, but I kind of hope it never happens again.