So I brought lunch to work today, which means I have time to write and planned to blog on a bunch of misc. things, including the season finale of Californication, the half hour Vatz and I just had on how to construct a facebook message, and thoughts on training for the ultimate season, for the fall, for the spring, individually, and as a team. And somehow my lunch break has 5 minutes left and I'm just starting. Whoops. So here's the deal, I'm gonna go ADD on this blog post for a few minutes, I'm prolly not gonna get to the training stuff, but it'll come sooner than later, and I'll definatly do a Collegiants recap after we get back. As far as long term blog posting, I'm thinking one of the best things to do so I stay on it is turn it into a little Q & A. I think Talle and Vatz both have had this idea before, but never really stuck to it. So from here on out, figure a large majority of my blog posts will be things that you, the valuable reader, leave in the comment section or send in an email. With that being said, here we go...


-SPOILER ALERT. If you watch Californication, or plan to (and trust me, if you haven't you really need to plan to), skip this paragraph, as I'm going to talk about the season finale.
I can't even point into words the effect this show has had on me. My whole weeks revolved around waiting till 10:30 on Monday. If the show ended on a good note, I'd be in a great mood for the next few days. If it ended on a bad, or sad note, I could be on suicide watch for the next few days (like the episode where the daughter basically tells Hank she doesn't believe in Happy Endings because of him. I listened to the song that ended that episode (Deathcab for Cutie-Passenger Seat) non stop for three days while contemplating getting a prescription for Prozac I was so sad). As Karin said yes to Bill at the altar, and all the scenes that followed, it was incredibly bittersweet. On one hand, I was happy that Hank had been able to turn a corner, realize his mistakes, and it seemed be able to come to grips with it as well as you can do with such things. On the other hand, I've become to attached to his character, anything less then him benig happy was going to have an everlasting emotional effect on my well being. I'd deny that my eyes were wattering up over the past 5 minutes of the show, but Pat and Eddie could just call me out on it since they were watching with me. No tears, but watering up. So when she jumped into the car, I was estatic, and the sad water in the eyes turned to happy water. I'm not sure if they'll be able to maintain the quality of the show next season with them together, but honestly I don't care, if only because I don't have to go jump off the Cathedral now because things didn't end catastropically. I'd be more than happy to discuss this further in depth with anyone who would like to do so.


SPOILER OVER, come back and play. I will say, if you skipped over that it means you either didn't see the episode, or haven't watch the show yet. If it's the latter, trust me, you need to. It's changed my life, and it can do the same for you too. Kind of like, heroin. Except the opposite. But still kinda the same.


We get to go to good ol North Carolina this weekend for Collegiants. Always good to play in a Mike G tournament, as he always has his shit together. I don't expect this to be any different. Plus we get to go to Parkers for dinner, and since there's only four people left on this team who have even been there (me, Evan, Tony, and Rob, who got the Seafood last time, in one of the biggest misorders in food history, as evidenced by the fact that 3 years later I still remember it), it should be a nice treat. It should be an interesting weekend, as this is the first time this team as a whole plays together (sans Vatz, Brad, and hopefully Bill Shonk, but he's another story for another day). Personally I am looking forward to playing as much as I can with Evan/Rob/Chris, as you can tell there are times where when we play together that we can be unstoppable. Mike G tournamnets are always a tough test because you play so many games, so there will prolly be a few gut check situations over the course of the weekend.

So far we're set to play Maryland, Duke and Richmond, who apparently wanted to play us which I think is kinda neat. Maryland always baffles as me, as I never understood why they aren't better than they are. Big school, plenty of field space, better weather than most of the ME, and they have some ballers down there. Even back in the day those teams with Cuneo, the Franchise twins, etc always seemed like they should have finished higher than they should have. Maybe it's coaching, or leadership, or they just don't want it, but I always kind of hope Maryland makes the jump, as it'd be nice to have another elite ME team. With that said, I know they have plenty of players (Sam B., Ultimate, etc) who are really good, so we gotta make sure we're ready to play.

Side note-Ultimate (don't know his real name), is a good player. But thats got to be the worst nickname I've ever heard in my life. I mean, come on. Ultimate? Can't come up with anything better than that? If only they had The Bird or Talle down there.

There was a time where I'd look a little bit past Duke and Richmond (we'll call that time, Pre OSU on Saturday) to JMU or whoever the crossover would be, but you can be sure that won't happen here. Don't know much about those teams, although apparently Richmond likes to play zone? Either way, we'll be focussed and ready from point 1 for both of those teams, so if they beat us it won't be a Dayton or Miami game where they jumped on us when we weren't ready, it'll be because they were a better team. Hopefully that is not the case.

Assuming we get that far, definatly looking forward to playing NC State and UNC. I have a respect for a lot of those guys which hopefully is recipricated, and I always look forward to em. Plus universe point games are fun, and thats what always seems to happen when we play NC State. And we owe UNC one from Nationals last year. This is our last tournament of the fall and will help set the tone going into the offseason. I have high expectations for it putting us in a good place as we shift focus in more training and stuff, even if getting back at 4am on Sunday is going to singlehandely ruin my life next week now that I'm a full time working memeber of society.

Speaking of work, I need to be getting back to that about 20 minutes ago, but I talked about girl stories so I gotta deliver on that. One situation is a classic Josh/Vatz overanalyzing the shit out of it. We just discussed for a half hour or so what the approrpiate response is to a facebook message, and as usual we came to the conclusion that our response is 100% the way to go. The tragedy is that because we both feel 100% confident, it's prolly the exact oppositie of what I should be doing, yet I digress. However I feel like this situation will have more to it in time, so I'm not gonna go into details yet.

Situation two is a little funnier and something everyone can relate to. Everyone has been in a class where they kinda go through a thing where they throw looks at a girl, she throws em back, you both notice what the other one is doing, but you'll never actually say a word to each other. You can tell me this has never happened to you before if you want, but I won't believe you. So yeah, I have one of those in one of my classes. Thing is, she looks different a lot. Not a two face by the Seinfeld definition, because she looks good both ways, but just really looks different sometimes, not even really sure why. Well in one of my other classes, I have a girl who I'm in the same exact situation, and the funny thing is she looks remarkebly similar to the other girl. But I've never been sure if it's the same person or not, because they always look different. Kinda confusing. So anyway, in one of my classes, she comes up to me, and says hey your in my other class, do you know what the HW is. And I get kinda flustered, because this is the first time I've actually realized, wait a minute it's the same person. So I take out my notebook, look it up, and tell her what the HW is, and that's that. Didn't get a name or anything, it just kinda went as quickly as it came, and I was a little flustered off the bat because I now had to merge these two different people in my head as one. So I'm kinda pissed because I didn't handle the situation better. But then old reliable Josh kicks in accidently. It's not a surprise to anyone here that I'm not exactly the best student in the world. So when I realized I wrote down, and gave her the wrong HW assignemnt, not only was this expected, but it was a blessing in disguise. Now she HAS to talk to me again, if only just to call me out on giving her the wrong thing. So I go home, talk about the sitaution with Pat, and we do some incredibly craft facebook stalking (and by we I mean me, and he watched, but I'll say we because it makes me feel better about the situation) and find out who she is. Except I can't message her or tell her I told her the wrong thing or anything like that, because she never told me her name. Then she'll figure out how I got her name, and be either really creeped out, or really impressed. I mean I'd be impressed, as I had nothnig to work with. But I'm guessing I'm the minority. So anyway the next day, we're walking into the building at the same exact time, couldn't have planned it better. And we're talking about it, and I'm just like yeah, sorry I realized I gave you the wrong thnig, and she's like it's cool someone in my group email me about it later. And I was telling her how I would have told her about the assignment, but I never caught her name. She laughs, and literally right as she's about to tell me (not that I didn't already know, but again she doesn't know this, nor can I let her know this), some guy walking in asks her if she studied for a different test. I'm now in a situation where I have to wait for someone I don't know in a weird situation, or keep walking. I decided to keep walking. I finished my hour and a half test in about 45 minutes (and will be lucky if i broke a 40% on it, i wasn't done quickly because I did good) before anyone else, so I didn't see her again and that was that. I hope there's more to this story, but there prolly wont be. Haha, that was also really long, and you just wasted your time reading it. Suckers.

What it really comes down to from a girl standpoint right now is on November 14th I'm seeing Bruce Springsteen, and I bought a ticket for my serious girlfriend. Problem is, I don't have a serious girlfriend. So all effort in girl department goes to filling that ticket, because if I have to take my backup girlfriend (Pat Hammonds), it might be a little depressing. But at least not as depressing as the Californication finale wasn't (or was, depending on how you look at it). Until next time...

Weren't expecting this now, were ya? I was thinking about it and I realized that since Talle isn't with us anymore and that was the best way for people to really get an idea how the season was going, someone else needs to do it. I will do my best to give it a shot. I can't make any promises on consistency of posting, as between working full time and being a full time student in addition to trying to play frisbee doesn't exactly leave a whole lot of time. However I can promise a few things when I post:

-It will prolly remain just as focussed as the last time when I blogged. Which was not very focussed at all.
-If you're a grammar/englishy person, this isn't the place fro you.
-It will be entertaining. Don't necesarily confuse that with good. In fact sometimes it will be really bad. But hopefully really bad in a Snakes on a Plane kind of way where it's so bad that it goes full circle into being good.
-The purpose of this blog is really for the alumni to know what's going on with Pitt Ultimate. If you sort through all the bullshit in here, I will try to make sure I accomplish that.

With that being said, here we go...

We went to OSU fall brawl with two split teams. One was more O line based (me, Rob, The Bird, Brenenborg, Chowder, etc). The other one was more D line based (Nick, Pat, Jake, Eddie, etc). It was a good way to get people used to playing with each other since we were really only missing two people (Vatz and Brad), and also gave Nick/Rob/Weasel a great opportunity to evaluate players before the next cut. I can't really give too much on what happened with the other team except for their last game which I got to watch, so this is really a recap of my team.

First we played Miami or Dayton. I don't really remember which was which. We did not do a very good job of preparing for this game, as I think everyone just assumed we would be playing a crappy Ohio team and figured we'd just roll. Usually this type of thing falls on a captain/coach, but I don't think it'd be fair to blame Rob here. People who were supposed to be setting an example (myself included), didn't really do that and we just had a weak mindset going in as a team. It was kinda windy, the game was ugly, and we pulled out a win.

Next we played the other one out of Miami or Dayton. (I think it was Dayton). The best way I could describe this, is that we lost to Miami or Dayton. Bad news bears. I had a really shitty game, I know Chris had a really shitty game. Kind of hard to win when two of your top players are the top two residents of turnover city. Weasel flipped out on us a few times, me specifically, which was definatly a good thing, and we didn't stop fighting towards the end of the game even though I don't think it was that close. Things learnt from this game. It takes us too long to make adjustments. We kept making the same mistakes, we kept letting them do the same things over and over. It sucked.

We finished up the day by playing CMU. We don't lose to CMU anymore. This game was no different.

The other Pitt team rolled through what everyone said was lesser oppenents. It was a really bad day for out team, myself in particular. I'd like to chalk up my bad play to rust and having not played in a while, but I mean the reality is some days you have it, some days you don't. I didn't have it. I was really pissed off about this on Saturday, right now I'm kinda ok with it because it was a Saturday in October that in the grand scheme of things doesn't matter as long as we learnt from it. I think we did.

Me and Rob stayed after for a little bit and talked about the day, the team, and captaining. This talk somehow turned into a talk about interviewing for jobs. We just kinda roll like that sometimes. I think Rob is in a tough situation because unlike Nick who'se been coaching for a little while, he's had to learn on the job a little bit. I remember when I started I had a lot of problems, but I had Sean there to catch me when I fell. But I think he's been learning a lot, I think he's already been doing a great job, and I think he's just gonna grow in the role even more so as the season goes on.

A bunch of us went to the Mongolian BBQ for dinner, where sadly our old friend Malia no longer works (for anyone who doesn't know Malia, she was a waitress at the place we always went to, me and her kinda developed a love/hate relationship over the years, which kinda hit a wall when she wouldn't make out with me in an RV after we had a discussion about how we should make out in the RV so we could start a "I made out with someone in an RV" facebook group.) I haven't quite recovered from that one yet. Instead me, Rob, Bailey and Eddie kept ourselves amused by throwing a bunch of shit in Eddies drink and rating all the girls who were at the resteraunt. I forgot how cool of a kid Bailey is because I haven't hung out with him that much over the past two years because he didn't play and was on Pitt B before then. He looked good at the practice I was at. I hope he makes A.

Sunday started a lot better. We were a lot more focussed warming up. We played Michigan State's mostly A team. They're not the Nationals 9th place powerhouse they used to be, but they're still a good team with a few BAT guys leading the charge. What was really encouraging was that our O didn't give up a break until late in the game. Me, Chris, Rob and Evan all seemed to be getting into a rhythm downfield, and were getting open at will. And when we did turn it, we had a sense of urgency that helped us get it back. Chower, Plunkett and Julian did a great job in the backfield this game. Plunkett impressed me all weekend, as I had some concerns about his skills and attitude going into the weekend, but he put them to rest. I'm really excited about what he can do this year, and his career with Pitt in general. We talked a lot after we got eliminated and his head seems to be in the right place for the most part. Very cool stuff.

I had a really cool catch on a hammer that chowder through. It's one of those ones where I hope it looked as cool we it felt, cus I was fully extended and it was tailing away and then I through an upwind goal right after. Chris also had a great grab at the end of the game on a huck I through, and Rob and Evan just played rock solid mistake free offense all game. If this game was a preview of what is to come in the spring (and this is even without Vatz, who is obviosuly a HUGE weapon), we could be a very very good O team.

We got knocked out by Penn State after. Not too much to say about this. They played their game, which is put up a lot of swill and come down with it. We kept trying to force stuff and had a lot of bad mistakes. They won, we didn't. I can deal with this because I know what's going to happen then next time we play them, and it makes me chuckle. We then watched Penn State knock out the other Pitt team. This was a little more frustrating because the two things we didn't do (work the disc up the middle instead of trying to play the deep game. And keep your head up downfield on D because they put up stuff to people even if they look covered), they didn't do either, and it took a while for them to make adjustments even with us telling them about it. Side note in this game, Tony on Penn State was arguging with one of our guys and soem guys on our sideline were chirping at him a little bit. He yelled to them "why aren't you guys out here playing." I yelled back "Don't worry about it, we'll send them a postcard from regionals." They stopped talking after that.

I know both teams wanted to finish higher than they did, and I know it looks bad that both teams got knocked out by Penn State. Honestly though, it's October, and it doesn't mean anything. It was what we needed it to be, everyone walks away with something from this tournament, and when we run train on those guys in the spring (well except for the track kid, 6 dudes already ran train on him, Rob and Chris get this reference, and it's funny, I promise), then they can celebrate their victory in Obtober all they want.

Since they're wasn't enough randomness in this post, I'll freestyle for a few minutes, and then I need to get back to work.

-I am obessessed with the new Jimmy Eat World CD to the point that I listen to it in class.

-What do you call a masturbating cow?....Beef strogonoff!!!

-I am also obessesed with the TV show Californication. If you haven't checked it out, you should. It's by far the best half hour of my week.

-I put together a 90 minutes 90's song power hour (and a half). It's really good. It also gets you drunk.

-It wouldn't be a Josh blog post without some girl story. Unfortunatly, it's been drought city for me around here, but hopefully there's something good on the horizon. Me and Pat always bet on bowling, and my idea for this one was that we go on a double date, whoever loses has to bring the other one a hot girl who theyve never met before as their date (I would come up with that as a bet). I lost. I started going through my phone, and I realized two things. One, every girl I ever get somewhat emotionally interested in shortly thereafter ends up in a serious relationship with some dude that isn't me. That was a little depressing. The second is that I don't really know many girls left in Pittsburgh who Pat doesn't, since most people my age or older are gone, and most people younger, he knows. So for those of you who remember the trio of girls from Deleware who graced us with their presense last fall, let's just say me and Pat will be taking a trip to Deleware for a reunion of sorts. And it's one of those situations where the ceiling of things that could happen has been removed. It could go good, it could go bad. But if I had to take a guess, I think it's gonna be me finding Pat or Pat finding me in the morning, going up to the other one, and just being like, dude we need to the THE FUCK out of here. Running to the car and flooring it out of there, only to tell a story about...well that'll have to be for another blog post. Time to be a productive member of society again, I'm at work and I don't think they're paying me to write about girls in Deleware. Until next time...