Music - A List of Awesome Songs

So I just came across a comment from a while back from this guy named Pieter thanking me for recommending The Glitch Mob to him. You should check out his blog, I recommended them based on some music he had posted. He also is an awesome writer with a really neat short story he translated about... well you should read it yourself!

In any case, I thought it was appropriate to thank him for his thanks, and I thought to myself I should share some music I enjoy and maybe people will enjoy it as well. So here is my list of songs in different categories for you to enjoy:

1. If you want to feel intense like you want to rip something apart (Great for working out) then CLICK HERE.

2. If you want to feel really chill like you are sitting at the top of the amazonian rainforest thinking intensely about some epic problem CLICK HERE.

3. If you want to feel like you are flying over the ocean dipping your hands into the water as you fly across the atlantic CLICK HERE.

4. If you want to feel like you are unstoppable and have shivers run down your spine (Make sure you watch in HD, so intense) CLICK HERE.

5. If you want a song to pump you up and make you want to do pushups (Again make sure you watch in HD, even more intense) CLICK HERE.

So anyway there are my top 5 recommendations depending on how you are feeling. Let me know which one you chose and what you thought!

Movie Review - X-Men: First Class

I will try my absolute best to ensure I leave out any spoilers and simply focus on what made the movie good and what made it bad. That said, here is my review:

X-Men: First Class, the fourth or fifth installment in the series depending on whether or not you count Wolverine's movie, manages to find a niche unto itself which the other movies had not covered. In the previous movies the X-Men were already well trained, in control of their powers and keen to fight for their side. Whenever there was a battle, the audiences focus was on the ability for one characters power to beat another one's power (think this scene).

X-Men: First Class, being a prequel, takes the concept of powers in a different direction. We see internal struggle, with mutants having to overcome their own limitations, fears and humanity to rise above the rest. Those aspects made this film great, and allowed the audience to connect more with the mutants on an emotional level. This connection kept you distracted from the at times massive suspension of disbelief necessary to reconcile some of the situations.

In terms of the plot, the story builds slowly, adding in cameos and explanations to the origins of some of the characters from the first three movies. The other neat thing about the plot is that it does a great job of integrating actual history with the "what if?" of mutants existing. Speaking of mutants, so as to not spoil anything let's suffice to say that the powers in this movie are pretty cool and definitely subtly enforce the characters flaws/character traits without barging into centre stage.


I give this movie a hearty 7.5/10.

Movie Reviews Possibility

So I have been thinking of taking a break from the various posts about Ultimate Frisbee. I will be seeing X-Men First Class today and figure I will put up a review of it by tomorrow. If there are any movies you would like me to review post them in the comments and I will be sure to check them out! In the meantime here is a tough game that takes some practice to do quickly. What is your fastest time on easy? Mine is 29 seconds! Post your times and suggestions in the comments.

Ultimate Frisbee - Positions

So Francis Caron asked here about what positions there are in Ultimate Frisbee. This question gets asked a lot and it is a tricky one to tackle due to the variety of positions there are. I will try my best though. It is best to start by saying that every player on the field has two positions depending on whether or not your team is on offense or defense at the time. Your team is considered to be on offense when one of your team members has the disc in his or her posession. Your team is considered to be on defense when your team does not have the disc. From here we can break down the positions into offensive and defensive.

Offensive Positions

1. Cutters

• Cutters are the offensive players that run and try to create open space to move the disc upfield. Cutters either play a horizontal or vertical offense. In a horizontal offense the 4 cutters form a straight line across the field and "cut" (run) in and out to try to beat the defensive player marking them. In a vertical offense, a vertical line is made in the center of the field and cutters run to either side hoping to beat their checks.

1. Handlers

• Handlers are the players that have the disc the most, they stay furthest back and pass with one another to reset the "stall count" (The stall count is when the defence counts to 10, if they reach ten and you have not thrown the disc your team loses posession). Handlers are usually split up into swings and dumps. The dump is the handler who runs directly behind the player with the disc to offer an easy throw to reset the stall count, whereas the swings are the other two handlers who offer a longer throw to gain some yards forward as dumping the disc loses yards.

1. Strikers

• Strikers are essentially cutters but are more geared toward running long for "hucks" (long throws).

1. Poppers

• Poppers are essentially cutters but are more geared toward running (popping) into the cup for a short pass as an alternative option to a dump.

 Defensive Positions

1. Man

• A man defence is where each defensive player marks an offensive player, usually players try to mark offense of equal skill so there are no mismatches.

1. Cup

• A cup is a style of zone defense in which each player is marking a zone of the field rather than a player. When a cup is put on there are usually three defensive players who mark the person with the disc in a semi circle shape (hence the term "cup"). The next three players mark the zones in front of the cup, or the middle, hence they are called "mids". The last player is called the "deep" and marks any long throws to strikers.

1. Rabbit Wall

• The rabbit wall is a variation of the cup in which there is one "rabbit" who runs after the frisbee constantly being the only person to count stalls. It is an exhausting position and the wall's job is to prevent any throws up the field. This leaves the team on offense with the option of swinging the disc back and forth between handlers. The idea is that the more throws you force the other team to throw the higher the chance there is they will drop the disc. Because you now have 4 people marking rather than 3 you sacrifice on mid. This leaves you with two mid's and a deep.

So I hope that semi clears up the different positions, if you have any questions feel free to ask! (I am thinking about perhaps making some picture diagrams as I can imagine this must be quite confusing to someone who has never played). Hope that clears things up Francis!

Ultimate Frisbee - Moving Up a Division

So unfortunately even with all the luck you guys gave me there were no games last night due to rain. I thought this was supposed to be summer! I still have a practice Sunday and a game Tuesday so I will get a chance to play but I hope this rain lets up or all the fields will remain closed. Short post for now, will give you all something neat later on. For now be appeased with this song:

See you all later today.

Ultimate Frisbee - Championship Video

So in the comments for my Ultimate Frisbee post there were two that stuck out (1 and 2). I thought I would post one of my favourite highlight reel videos from the 2009 UPA Nationals. The best moments to look at in my opinion if you don't want to watch the entire video are 00:58 for an example of a great read, 1:07 for an awesome layout/cross field hammer, 1:45 for a good recovery and 2:31 for a guy outskying two players. Now the best moment in the entire video deserves a section all to itself so please CLICK HERE to see the most amazing layout (quite possibly ever). If anyone knows of video of one that beats that let me know in the comments! The video is underneath:

 

I hope you enjoy and seriously CHECK THIS MOMENT OUT!

Ultimate Frisbee

I currently play on two Ultimate Frisbee teams, one quite competitive and the other one more lax. I am really enjoying the sport, been playing for at least 6 years now. The competitive team I play for just moved up a division so hopefully it will be even more intense. First game in the new div is on Thursday, hope all goes well as it is a double header against Sheet It Out and The Incredible Huck. Here are some recent pictures of some play: