Dark Plot

Sox and I got out to see the Dark Knight. We enjoyed it, but both felt it was too long. I thought there was a great place to end the movie, before Harvey Dent became Two Face. The effects were good, but some of the gadgets a little too over the top.

One of the reasons I liked the Batman Begins was that the gadgets weren’t too over the top, and they were generally introduced well. This time they were glitzy gadgets made to fit the plot.

Heath Ledger was an amazing Joker. He made the movie. Without that character he created it would have been pretty dull.

This was also a fun time out for Sox and I, and it would have been better if the family behind us hadn’t brought their kids (ages approx 4 and 6). The 8pm showing of this movie is not for kids. They were tired and at one point the daughter said “I want to go home”. They stayed and the parents seemed mad at the kids. This made me angry. The kids were taken out to the lobby and the parents took turns watching the movie. Not the right move if you ask me.

Destruction Drivers

I was out at Western Speedway’s Eve of Destruction this past Saturday night. The event writeup read like this:

DEMO CARS “EVE OF DESTRUCTION”, CRAZY CANUCK CAR JUMP, DEMO TRUCKS, MINI FIGURE 8’s, MINI VANS, BUS JUMP, TOTAL DESTRUCTION DERBY and FIREWORKS

Basically a hit to pass night on steroids. Man was it a hoot! The demo cars and trucks were awesome and loud! Lots of tight racing action and lots of good spinouts. The mini figure 8 drivers are still crazy, but intensely entertaining. The minivan class is just getting going and they really need more vans out there. The small group they had were good though. Hit to pass, with a ridiculously bad turning radius meant the drivers were trying everything to get their vehicles sideways around the corner. So many times the vans were up on three wheels.

They played a trick on the crowd and made us believe this van was owned by someone. They picked it up, drove it down the front stretch, lifted it up high in the air and dropped it!

The Crazy Canuck did his car jump, and I was too busy watching to get a good movie. I forgot to start recording! Doh! I got something though.

Then it was time for the bus jump. They drove a bus off a jump into the cars. The first attempt (got a good movie this time), was hilariously unimpressive. He tried to drive it away and got it really stuck. They brought in the big loader, pulled him off, and he drove the bus back for another shot. The second jump was much more impressive and had the crowd on their feet cheering for a long time. Same problem where I forgot to start recording.

The final race of the night was the boat race. All the cars, trucks and vans had a boat chained to their vehicle. When the light went green they took off. At the end of a predetermined time, the driver with the most boat left attached won. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. There was so much chaos and destruction. Before the first turn several boats had been ripped from their chains. Next time around they gunned for the boats.

One driver ended up with his chain wrapped around his wheel. As he drove the chain shortened until he stripped his own boat off. McFly 33 below was the winner by a long shot. He dragged the shell around for a long time and kept slowing down so people could hit the boat. One car got lodged in the boat and dragged a little ways. Another truck took a good run at the boat and ended up launching into the air.

The fireworks show ended the night. I was prepared for something a little lame, but they put on an excellent show that was quite impressive.

All in all a most entertaining evening, and all for $18. Can’t beat that.

Header Crisp

The first double header is over and I survived pretty well I think.

The first game was a lot of fun. The other team played very well and there were a lot of very long points. I was handling very well. Throws were crisp and precise and very few didn’t end up at their intended location. My energy level felt awesome and I kept up a very good activity level. There was only 1 sub so I didn’t sit off very many points. In the end we lost 13-2. 🙁 Still, I really enjoyed playing with the other team.

Since the game was over quickly we had a big break.

A big break that allowed us to cool down.

And we lost our sub due to an injury.

Second game started and the other team was immediately over powering us. We seemed lethargic and couldn’t get our act together. Throws were nowhere near their mark, and they zoned us pretty effectively. It was frustrating, and not at all enjoyable. Eventually they stopped zoning us, perhaps out of pity. It didn’t help and our playing never got better. We lost that game 13-0 🙁

It was pointed out after the game that just have a big problem finishing points. We can march the disk up the field no problem, but we just can’t get it caught in the end zone.

Next week is another double header. We’ll see how we do. After that is the playoffs.

Throwing Position

I was really dragging my butt this morning. I was feeling tired and groggy and my plan to ride to work was on my mind. Sox asked me if I was going to ride and I really was about to bail on riding, but then during my shower I decided to go for it anyway.

My ride this morning was actually quite nice. I was feeling tired, but my legs felt strong and overall I felt quick.

My ride to the field tonight was short and steep: I went straight up Foul Bay hill. Again I felt strong and was really looking forward to the game.

Warmup went really well. I got my throwing in and was feeling pretty good. We only had 2 subs tonight, so I knew there was going to be a lot of running. When the game began the other team took advantage of the wind and did a pretty consistent zone.

The Green team may have had a similar record as us, but I felt they played a lot better. Our team wasn’t doing very good cuts. This made advancing on the zone difficult. Lots of swing passes to keep the cup moving lead to a slow march up the field. Once close to the endzone inevitably we threw away the disc. I was at fault a couple times too which made me feel crappy since we had worked so hard to get to that position.

Halfway through the game we lost our two subs. No more cooling off on the sidelines. Hard cuts, lots of running and hard playing were in order. I actually had a great time this game. I wanted to run and I got to run.

There was this one check though. When he was checking me he kept telling me what to do and where to position myself. I had to just tune him out. I know he was trying to help, but I really didn’t want his input. Just to prove that I knew what I was doing, several times I ran and cut extra hard and made sure I beat him to get the disk. Petty, but it made me feel better.

Nearing the end of the game I could feel myself running out of gas. I couldn’t run as fast as I could, so I backed off a little to try and avoid hurting myself.

Game over I jumped back on my bike and rode hard on the way home. Great exercise day overall.

Endzone Arc

I realize that I am almost a week late with my Ulti post, but here it is anyway.

Last Wednesdays game was an odd one for me. The game started at 6, but for some reason I had it in my head that it started at 6:30. I arrived to the game late, got my cleats on, and jumped in without any warmup at all. I tried to take it easy the first couple points to get my hands warmed up but I really felt slow and uncomfortable. It took me a long time to get into the game.

Of course it was windy so the other team was zoning us. I am usually a pretty good handler, so when calling the play, I was put in as a handler. I felt like I played pretty bad, and when I could finally feel a sweat being worked up, I was getting into the game.

Still, I was having problems with my forehand throwing, and couldn’t get them to arc nicely, nor be speedy and accurate. I was constantly worried about a bad throw causing a turnover. On one play I made the rookie mistake of not watching the disc to my hands. The throw was near and I looked away to make a connecting play. This was the time that the disc was higher than I thought and I turned it over.

Nearing the end of the game we neared our opponents end zone. We were a couple yards out of the endzone near the right side, the wind was picking up, and I had the disc. I made eye contact with one of my teammates and I could see his check wasn’t looking at me. I pointed to the sideline and tossed the disc, hoping to arc the disc around his check. It sailed out of bounds and wasn’t looking good. Thankfully the wind picked up and brought the disc back inbounds and into my teammates hands for the point. I got lucky on that one, or was it skill 😉

I had another throw that a teammate dove for. I put it out for him a little low, and I fully thought he was going to get it. When he didn’t get back up right away I was a little concerned. Turned out to be a dislocated shoulder. I helped him get to the hospital and looked after his dog while he got worked on. 2.5 hours later he walked out with his arm in a sling. 🙁

Keep it safe kids. The ground is so dry right now that it is very easy to injure yourself.

Police Command

After the Salt Spring Island day trip we decided we needed a few days at home to rest. It was a busy week. Sox had heard about the Victoria Police’s 150th birthday celebration at the Empress. After asking Sprout, he was in, so we headed down to check it out. There were demonstrations, a marching band, dog demo’s, firetrucks, emergency vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles, and more

Sprout enjoyed pretty much everything and wanted to see it all. We caught one of the dog demos and a funny thing happened. There was someone in the crowd that brought their big German Shepherd to watch. The spectating dog was barking and causing a bit of a scene. The police dog got distracted and actually started running toward the spectators barking. A quick sharp command from the handler brought the dog under control, but I was a little shocked. First, why bring your own dog to such an event? Second, I thought police dogs were trained to not get distracted?

The motorcycle drill team did their performance, and it was pretty amazing. One of my favorite moves was their figure 8. They kept making it tighter and tighter until they were within inches of one another. My other favorite was when one rider came flying at the group and each pair in the group had to deak out of the way. Very cool.

It was a pretty fun event. More pics are here.

Daytrip Breathtaking

The day after we got back from the camping trip we had a daytrip over to Saltspring Island to visit with some of the same family that we were camping with.

It was a great day, but pretty long. We got on a morning ferry and Sprout enjoyed the trip. The boat was full and some cars actually didn’t make it on. Weird thing was when I walked to the front of the ferry there was an empty spot that they could have fit another couple cars in.

Once in Ganges we met up with Sox’s family, got some food, then headed headed out to try and find the beach on St Mary Lake. We had some trouble finding it, and when we finally got there we understood why. The beach was all of 30 feet wide. Tiny.

We spend the next three hours there. Sprout and his cousin had a ball playing in the sand and water. Getting buckets of water, pouring them out, getting more. Sandcastles were made and demolished. Rivers were created, rerouted, filled in, and created again. Lunch was eaten and the playing resumed.

I had heard about a photography exhibit at ArtSpring called Into The Light. I had also heard about a gallery called Galleons Lap. I was hoping to check them out, but I was adamant that I wasn’t going to leave Sox at the beach with two children and no car. When Beet started getting sleepy, Sox suggested I take her and go. I did, and I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits. There was on picture in particular that was breathtaking. It was called “The Horns at Sunrise” by Steven Friedman. Awestruck. I literally stood there and stared at this picture for minutes. I perused the rest of the exhibit, then went back to that one image. If I had the cash burning a hole I would have that picture with me right now. Alas and alack I have not a spare grand. 🙁 I was definitely glad I got to see the show. Galleons Lap had some excellent images too, including a very creative set of pinhole camera pictures from Victoria.

The rest of the day was fun, and the return trip to Victoria was easy as pie.