Sitting here with Fred on the couch, knees ensconced in ice bags, and I'm sipping some water to restore my fluids. Sprawl had a fantastic practice tonight, running through an excellent "Killer" drill*, a tight "Mayhem"**, and then some solid scrimmaging. Things are going well on the Ulty front; my pinky toes are screaming (bad blisters - I'll spare you the pics) and my knees generally don't feel fantastic - arthritis is a cranky mistress - but I'm playing okay and, more importantly, doing a reasonable job leading the team. I had a couple of big huck highlights to Pat Nardi tonight and generally tore things up on my hucks in the Killer drill. I may be on the cusp of 100000, but I still have something to contribute. For now.
* - One player makes five yard in and out cuts, catches the disc and fires a huck after each one to a streaking teammate. It's basically 20 hard, quick cuts with throws in between; it's very tiring (more than you might think) and requires a lot of concentration to keep making good throws while your legs are wobbling beneath you. And the rest of the team is making deep cuts for half an hour. We used to do these at Rice ad nauseum, and there you had to throw a huck to all the other members of the team and THEN hit them on incuts, too - we cheesed out a bit and just did 20 deep throws tonight, but it worked well. Took a while as there were 30 people present this evening - but it was great to have Sprawlers encouraging the tiring main guys. All 30 people did it, regardless of whether they really have the throws for it; good team knowledge and gelling exercise if nothing else.
** - Two teams of seven on the sideline, they sprint to the middle, a disc gets tossed to a random spot close to the endzone, and the offensive side is called. It's a drill designed to practice transitioning from the chaos of just after a turn to an organized endzone offense - we are trying to put in our offensive plays, and they need work. Tonight, though, things looked reasonably solid.
ASU is slowly picking back up - I've gone in twice this week only to be greeted by an empty lab for the most part, but tomorrow I am going in to get some work done and to meet with Jenny / Jason for some course prep stuff. Jenny has rehauled the university intro Bioethics class, a 200 person ordeal that should be quite good. She's basically removed all the heated content that lends itself to entrenched positions - abortion, stem cells, end of life, etc. - and instead focused on other bioethics topics that will force students to really engage the methodology and not just get caught up in controversy. I am psyched for the course, though perhaps less psyched that I am the only TA and there will be written exams and papers. Of course, my kind and I have been battling cancer since the age of dinosaurs, so it's not like we're unused to monstrous challenges. I'll keep you posted. Classes start this Tuesday.
Been a little sickly of bit, but I am fighting through. Beck runs the P.F.Chang's half-marathon in Phoenix this weekend; I'm sticking here to cheer her on in lieu of joining the Tuftsmen in L.A. for a Lei-Out reprise. Probably for the better, as the sand did a number on me last year. But I'll miss me some EMen nonetheless...
I know essentially no one is reading this far down, but I'd like some feedback on the album reviews. I'm driving through my collection somewhat arbitrarily, and if there are discs I could cover or different approaches I could use that would be more helpful, let me know. I'm ultimately trying to say something about my own experience of the music and not just rehash info you, too could pick up on allmusic or wikipedia. But I feel like I slip into track by track boring descriptions sometimes, and I can't tell if those are at all intriguing for people who haven't heard these works. I digress - just give some feedback if you get a chance. Gracias in advance.
No comments:
Post a Comment