I play with girls.

I never fully realized the amount of "hatin' on Co-Ed" that was going on in the Ultimate world until I travelled down to Florida this last weekend for Nationals. I know that both the Open and Women's Divisions consider themselves more competitive, and on the broader scale, I would have to agree. But then I also assumed that the Mixed teams that actually practice and compete all season to qualify for Nationals were excluded from this no-better-than-league-team bias... From what I've heard, however, this seems unfortunately true.

What I do know:
In the Twin Cities at least (Ok, I know that there's a Central Region bias that I working against here too...), if I were to invite the best 30 players in Ultimate to a "Best Players in Twin Cities Ultimate Party" I would start looking 1. For men on SubZero (open), get a lot of my guest list, but I would then go to Flaming Moe (Co-Ed) to fill out the spots, and 2. For women I would take a couple from Bait (Women's), but not have to go very deep at all before once again filling the ladies spots with Flaming Moe players again.

My point here is that the men and women on the elite Co-Ed teams in the nation aren't the rejects of other divisions. Most of the players on Moe could plug in to a top Open/Women's team, and some could be stand out players.

Personally, I don't think I could make SubZero, but I do think I could make an Open team or two at Nationals, and I could certainly be a key player on any second tier Open team. This just wasn't at all appealing when I was starting my Club career 3 years ago. And It still isn't. If I'd liked the people on that are now on Dingwop (Open) or Liquid Assets (Open), I might be there instead now, but that's not the case, and besides, those teams deliver so much less in terms of training, practicing and competition. I'm seeing much better Ultimate and improving my game more by playing for Moe.

How about this? I would play Open with the men on Flaming Moe... So it's not just an Open Division thing that I don't like. It must be a social thing...

From rec.sport.disc:
"You point out how Coed is more of a social sport which is all well and
good, there is no question it's fun, but it's not at the same level of
competitiveness because they are outweighed by the social gathering
aspects."

Part's of this thread were what got me thinking and writing about the Mixed Division, and not all of these points are bad, but seem mostly misguided. So yeah, I do play on a Co-Ed team for social reasons... but I would be playing on any team for social reasons! Lord knows that nobody is gaining anything financially from Ultimate.... there are no endorsements, nobody is getting any notoriety in larger society, and I'm sure as Hell I didn't get drafted by Flaming Moe. (Nor am I about to give my agent a bonus for extending my contract with the team.) "Social Reasons" have to be a ways up there for anyone competing in this sport right now.

The balance between the team I can play for as a person and the team I can play for as an athlete is Flaming Moe. And I would also argue, Mixed is on it's way up from it's past as a 'retirement division.' Now Mixed is able to attract many elite players despite the historical bias against it... Young players like myself will be drawn in to this division more and more every season when they compare the options in their home towns and find the same balance I have, on competitive, spirited, and hard working Mixed teams.

A final thought:
•Should we have Mixed, Women's and Open Nationals (and finals) at the same venue? (Another rec.sport.disc topic.)
Why not? If anything the Mixed Finals were the most consistently entertaining to watch. Women's was a blowout (again), although of course it had it's moments, and the Open final shifted so rapidly between intense/exciting competition and stagnant call arguing that it was easy to stop paying attention. And if we're worried about our spectators in this sport, why not supply another opportunity to watch on Sunday?

Ok, that's all I got for now. See you on the field.
Moe #22

In this post 9/11 world.

Oops, I did it again.

I often forget to check my pockets before going to the airport, so I will sometimes find myself in a moment of panic, waiting in line for the X-ray machine, wondering what I might have to turn over to the airport security people... Or, in this case, what I might NOT have to turn over...

You see, I carry a little Swiss Army pocket knife on my key chain and for the second time now, it's found its way onto a plane with me at the Minneapolis International Airport (MSP). Both times the keys were sitting in the bottom of my carry-on, and both times they have passed through the X-ray without bringing any attention to themselves.



I have to wonder: do the machines really not see knives when they pass through, or do the people running the machines not see them? Or do these people not really consider this 1.5" blade a significant weapon and let it slide? (Too much of a hassle?) I really doubt the latter, which would mean that airport security, like most effective security, is mostly about show. In other words, these people aren't set up to catch criminals, but to deter petty ones... and (mostly?) to offer some degree of comfort to airline passengers.

I wouldn't have any real criticism of this kind of security if it weren't purported as a means of defense against terroism. It's obvious to me that if sufficiently motivated, someone could sneak a harmful device or substance onto a plane without much trouble.

I guess I really just think that it's a bummer that all of what everbody hates about going through security at the airport is also what keeps people faithful in flying. As long as the nation's fear out-weighs it's annoyance and frustration things won't change much. And I'll try to remember to check my pockets next time. I realy don't want to lose that knife.

My Moe-tivation

I wrote this (to the team, kind of) back before Regionals, but I thought I'd add it here now anyway...


-For me, playing for Moe means doing what I can to make sure that my friends on this team get what they've had coming to them in terms of competition, respect, and reward in the Ultimate world. I want to do everything that I can to let these people know that when they put on their jersey, they are amongst the best of the best in their sport. Individual/one-on-one comparisons are meaningless, histories stay in the past, the now belongs to Moe.

-Something I wrote after listening to a business strategest/ self-help guru on MPR (and I thought it pertained to any group... like a sports team):
Weakness is irrelivant. We, as individuals do have to realize our weaknesses and know each other's weaknesses as a team, but only to see that in the face of our combined strengths those weaknesses are truly irrelivant!

-People are good at owning their personal weaknesses, and most try to carry them alone. Every team is even better at owning/knowing it's weaknesses - the better teams try to compensate for, or adjust to them. What I want everyone of you to do: start owning the strengths of this team. They are yours. You earned them. Make them your own!

WE throw every huck, WE get every D, WE win every game.

In the Face of Our Strengths,
#22

Predictions

Making Regionals/Nationals predictions is a tempting, but usually unhelpful process. For a member of a team participating in Nationals, predictions can be a meassure of confidence and a measure of hope, but if the predicted standings become the source of confindence for a player or a team, those people are bound to be frustrated if and when he/she/they start to fall short of their goals.

I get worried when I hear my teammates making these kinds of 'outcome-based' goals. "I just want to beat TEAM-X," or "We're going to make it to Yth place." Some of this is good, I know... to live in that moment, or visualize success. But otherwise these types of goals are shallow and unnecessary to have as serious, top priorities. The way I see it, a team's or an individual's outcomes in sports should be a result of having and accomplishing specific skill, strategy, performance-type goals. Knowing you can beat another team is not enough. (This is an outcome based goal.) Because when the opponent scores a couple points, the person who just knows they can win gets frustrated and will often "lose it" (mentally, then physically, then for real). "God! I know we can beat them!!!"

Knowing HOW you can beat another team will proove a better strategy going into a game, and you know how to beat a team when you look at your team's strengths and assign performance based goals. Concentrating on optimizing your team's performance and capitalizing on your team's strengths will lead to the outcomes that you desire, and you won't waste time thinking about who you should/could beat in such an ambiguous way. This time when the other team scores a couple of points, instead on concentrating on what should be happening, you'll be thinking "This is how that happened and this is how we'll fix it."

Ok. With that being said, I know, and I know how Moe can beat at least 2 teams on Thursday. I don't know enough about Brass Monkey (besides that they're the 1 seed) to say if our know-how will be good enough. Hopefully we'll have the advantage against a team that probably just "knows" they can beat us. Beyond Thursday, I think we'll know how to play and win a couple more games at Nationals. And that's as far as I'll get with my predictions.

One game at a time, one throw at a time. Let's go Moe!

The peaks we reach.

I'm flying down to Florida for Nationals tomorrow night and everything seems to be coming together for me and for Moe. At practice last night I felt the best I have since May. I think I'm finally getting over the humps, both physical (being out of commission for a month in middle of the season) and mental (my priorities were definitley not on the field leading up to my wedding) that have been holding me back in some degree for much of the season. Regionals was possibly the best tournament for me this season, even in my limited role, and I've only gotten better, in every personal/physical/mental way, since then. My teammates around me have only helped this post-season progression. We all seem to be building in strength and enegry for this week. I'm confident, however, that I will prove my way into more PT in Florida, amidst the growth of others around me.

Last season, my best tournament was Bozofest (boo, in May). And while I like to have a good tournament no matter where, or what, I'd prefer to shine when it really counts. In fact that was a major goal of mine this season. For all I know, my early injury might have saved me and helped me achieve it. Moe plays so hard for so long that it's difficult (for me) to hold up and be at the top of my game when I really want and need to be. But how ever it happened, I'm glad that I may have already achieved my goal of being strong when I want to be, and more importantly, when it counts for the team. I'll be doing all I can to really drive this home in Sarasota.

An Inconvenient Truth

So tonight I saw the film An Inconvenient Truth at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis. I expected it to be pretty good. I expected myself to mostly agree with the points of Gore and his film. I expected to feel exactly how I do right now. Selfish, no wait--> Frustrated, umm--> Moved, yeah. And then--> Hopeful?

Hopeful... After seeing a film like An Inconvenient Truth (or even more obscurely, a film like any of Michael Moore's) there's always that glimmer of hope... that feeling that can sometimes last all the way until the lights come up... which is about when I realize that I'm about to enter back into the cruel, indifferent, REAL world where nobody cares about anything enough to do anything, including myself .

Soon enough I cycle back to my natural state of broader/global/moral reflection: selfish and frustrated.

But not this time. Not yet!

Maybe it's just good timing, but I'm still hopeful a full hour after seeing this film! By good timing I mean that I can feel the real possibility of this film's effect on society. Good timing because on the way home from the movie the analysts on NPR were talking about the likely tilt to the left American politics. I feel more faith in the world to do right after seeing this movie.

Maybe that's because it's just a good movie. Gore does a good job of restoring our faith in each other with this film by reminding us what we've done already, what we are doing now. So many bearers of these messages are so eager to throw their truth and their facts and their consequences at you that you end up flying by HOPE on your way from cluelessness to wary frustration. Gore mentions this himself and combats it by reminding us of our previous battles. Like CFCs. Remember them? And the unstoppable, life threatening hole in the Ozone. According to Gore, the measures taken globally, and especially in the US to cut down on CFCs alleviated the problem, which was far beyond the scientists' goal to merely slow it. A battle we won, and never heard much about after the fact, besides it not killing anyone... Weird how we don't publicly celebrate that fact after fearing the possibilities of CFC pollution for years.

Lastly, I liked how Gore took on the opposition to his theories, or lack thereof. Everyone of us, I'm sure, can rattle off some theory on how Global Warming isn't happening; that it's just a natural cycle; whatever. In Gore's research he found that 100% of scientist will say that Global Warming is at least partially attributed to human activity. AND that it is a problem! Personally, I would have taken 75%. That number doesn't really matter. The point though, that OVERWHELMINGLY, the science community agrees on this matter. There's enough evidence to say that it's worth doing something about, and that it doesn't really matter if they ever find the exact contribution of humanity. Any account of Global Warming not being caused by humans is brought to our attention by the media, and is really an excuse for inaction brought on by some energy conglomerate.

Ok, that's getting a little Oliver Stone, but seriously! It seems like a ploy that all of the focus on Global Warming in the media is about 'the cause', because it seems like whatever the cause, if we don't do something we're screwed.

And a cherry on top. This was a good movie. Well paced. Gore was a little corny, but you could tell it was only because he's so damned serious about this. You should see this movie. Go to its website. Tell your friends.

Rice Krispies Treats Cereal, you are not forgotten!

ATTN: Rice Krispies Treats Cereal Lovers.
At least in the Far North (meaning Minnesota, but not as far north as Chicago...), this popular, tasty, and good-for-you (err... Nutritiously or otherwise) cereal has been stripped from the shelves of all of the major grocery stores for no good reason. Fortunately, and despite the obvious cruel intentions of the Kellogg Corporation to isolate us from our precious purple-boxed Snap, Crackle, and Pops, Amazon.com Groceries has come to the rescue, once again, offering the cereal at a comparable rate, and sometimes in bulk.

Thank you Amazon.com, for making the world smaller in all the good ways!

Scrabble® Scoring Anagrams

Possibly the best game ever, and definitly much better than the Scrabble® that everyone knows today, Scoring Anagrams made its way into my possession as a wedding gift from my Aunt Juli and Uncle Tom. The game has a history in the Hagstrom family, and I know that Tom and Juli had to search high and far to come across this copy, so I'm really excited to have this original edition set. Information on the game and instructions on how to play are here. Now I just need some opponents!

Dear Mr. Briefcase, pt. 2

So it looks like Briefcase and Moe will be set up in the same pool Day 1 at Nationals. Seedings thus far are:

1) Brass Monkey
2) Mischief
3) Bad Larry
4) Gendors
5) Slow White
6) Whoreshack
7) AMP
8) Mr. Briefcase
9) Flaming Moe
10) Puppet Regime
11) Hooray
12) Rival
13) Flycoons
14) Tandem
15) The Salsa Police
16) Deliverence

Resulting in the following pools:

A: Brass Monkey, Mr. Briefcase, Flaming Moe, Deliverence
B: Mischief, AMP, Puppet Regime, Salsa Police
C: Bad Larry, Rorshack, Hooray, Tandem
D: Gendors, Slow White, Rival, Flycoons

Our seeds are unlikely to change, and while I still want you (Briefcase) to do well for yourselves and the Central Region, I'm sorry to say that your day will have to be Friday because Moe is going to stomp the ^#@$ out of you on Thursday.

Sincerely,
Moe #22

The Story of Flaming Moe

I found this in a dusty, torn up old book, on an otherwise empty shelf in the abandoned city library...

"In the beginning... there was Tom Walker, and he was good. Then, in the dawn of the third millennia A.C.E., Tom created Fire, and he named that fire Moe. In due time this Flaming Moe became cognizant, and it scoured the land, calling out the great men and women of Middle West to band together in a quest for the most ultimate reward.

For six years Flaming Moe has been traveling from coast to coast, and even to Canada, to break the forces of darkness and evil. Losses have been suffered, but nothing has been able to conquer the spirit that is alive in that now legendary flame.

Battle proven, Flaming Moe has emerged to compete in the Final Fight. The time is nigh for Flaming Moe to leave the world of mortals and enter into the halls of gods and champions.”

Dear Mr. Briefcase

Mr. Briefcase,

This is crap.
From rec.sport.disc.
"the central has not placed two teams
in quarters in recent history. every year
there is some talk about how they are
especially strong, but other than the CLX
exception, a team that won their regionals
handily, and WHO WON'T EVEN BE AT
NATIONALS, the central has not historically,
and despite each team's own claims, shown much
strength at nationals. So putting TWO
teams in quarters, neither of which is
CLX, seems something of a mystery
to me."

There's no mystery.
Let's show 'em.

#22
MOE

Nationals, here we come!

Saturday afternoon, October 8th, Flaming Moe secured it's spot at the 2006 Club Championships in Sarasota, FL. This team, that I am so proud to be a part of, and that has been waiting a long, long time to get this far, dominated with a performance that would have taken any opponent to their knees. It was inspiring. It was assuring. It was a lot of fun!

Sunday afternoon we lost the finals to CLX, and taken off of our high horse, lost the 2/3 game to Mr. Briefcase (who was coming off of their 'game-to-go' against ICE).

Saturday Moe wanted to win that game more than any game they'd ever played, and it was awesome. Sunday we played well, but couldn't match CLX powerhouse nor the energy of Briefcase after their succesant wins. We ended up disapointed when all was said and done.

Before leaving on Sunday, Jeff (Moe #20) commented on this disapointment and how, even after attaining our #1, most important, longest standing goal, we were left wanting more and knowing that we could, and will do better. What a great sign for this first-time, Nationals-bound team!

Congratulations Moe!

NetBooks

It would be cool if there was a service like Netflix, but for books. I know that with conventional books this might be impossible... the books would wear to easily to keep sending out, the postage would be too expensive, but maybe it would be possible with Audio Books, on CD or DVD? Or Netflix could extend its service to include them.

Or maybe public libraries could charge for this as a monthly service that some members could opt for. I'd pay $15 a month to have an interface like Netflix with my library. Maybe I'll let them know...

Married Life

Things are finally starting to settle down since our Big Day back in August. Maybe I'll have time to write in this 'journal' some more. Pictures from the wedding are hosting on my website.

Finding freelance work has been a blessing and a curse... the money will be great, and hopefully the recognition of Whatmoves will spread, but I'm just not ready to dive headlong into my business yet. Always nice to produce good work on the side though... gratifying.

Regionals

Going to Naperville this weekend to play in the 2006 UPA Mixed Regional Tournament. Some very good teams will be there. Flaming Moe is ranked third, which is sensible, but I think we can win this one. It's going to be a big Saturday, and I'm already nervous. But I'm also excited. I can feel the energy in this team. It's a feeling that can take us all the way.