Here's my links:
While I move in and out of posting, don't forget to make your own Ultimate card over the coming months.
If you're used to the Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri Cultimate posts, then things are going to be messed up for a little while. Basically:
Here's the links:
So last weeks poll was about different types of posts on blogs and what people would like more. The top six types are:
In my article, I want trading cards or an action figure, I pitched the idea of Ultimate cards. Well, I still want a card, and even though a year has passed, no company has taken the torch. My solution - the virtual Ultimate card set. In other words, this year I will make a virtual Ultimate card set for the Ultimate community. This is your chance to have your own Ultimate card in the 2009 card set.
So, how am I/we going to do this? Basically, until September you will have a chance to make or pass on information for your own card (based on the templates I've built for 2009). Then, once I've made the official set for 2009, I will email out the digital set to each person who contributed to the set. If the set consists of only 10 cards, then so be it, but at least you and I will have our own cards.
What do you need to do? Note that you can not use pictures that you don't have rights for (or logos) since these will be broadly distributed, and potentially printed in the fall. Ask the photographers and artists for permission to use (or use your own pictures and write your team name in the logo spot).
Here are your options for making your player, team, and tournament cards:
While cleaning out my room for my upcoming move I found some Lifewave samples. At worlds last year, I had a talk with one of the reps and he was pushing these Lifewave patches.
So what did I get?
My favourite links this week:
Last week, we all made our guesses on what we thought the PPV market size was for Ultimate. The results are pretty distributed with the spikes sitting in the middle of the options (interesting). Anyway, the guess is between 1000 and 5000. Based on a collective jelly bean counting intelligence, I wonder how close we are?
This weeks poll is based on yesterdays post. Basically, what would you like to see more of on the Ultimate blogosphere (poll right and note you can select multiple choices)?
By the way, this poll will in no way affect how I do what I do (especially badly constructed sentences).
PJ
This old article in the Times takes a look at the styles of columns. Ultimate blog discussion is similar column based, so I thought I would look at the four listed instances they classify and compare them against what I do. Then afterwards I list the other types of Ultimate blog posts.
The four categories for columns are:
The shock set in last week. I've always assumed that 2010 would be my first Masters year as I turned 34 that year. Well, apparently 33 was the magic number.
So, does depression set in. Is it all over? The opposite if anything. It's like a new lease on Ultimate life or atleast defensive life. My last run on a defensive squad was in 2007 on Grand Trunk, and I, personally, love playing defense (mainly on handlers though), but as my years increased and the young guys stayed the same age, it was challenging to play defense at the top levels.
Now, I have the hope that I can have another two or three years having an impact on defense (or offense if I'm needed). The only trick now is finding who to play with. As I've mentioned, I'm off to Oxford, Ohio. Not exactly known for top quality Masters Ultimate. In the UPA central region, the strength is in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and Chicago (not to forget Twin Cities, MN as noted in the comments). So, I might have to look towards those cities for some UPA action. That's not my only option (says the free mercenary ;). I've already passed up to play at Canadian Nationals 2009 due to work commitments, but it is an option in 2010 and beyond, with the possibility of a run at Worlds.
But then, what I also like to dream about is helping put an Ohio team into UPA Championships. Not that a team like Madcow hasn't come close. For me, that's a goal to shoot for, and to be honest, I've learned in London that as much as I like competing, unless I'm building towards something with a bunch of people, I'd rather not just play. I need to help build to really enjoy the game.
Still, my options are open, and nobody can complain about that. Still, last week was a real shock.
PJ
My favourite links this week are all about the new club season in full action:
Last week we had a poll on paying for PPV Ultimate and what tournaments you would consider watching. The results show that 71% of you would pay - great. Unfortunately, that's 47 voters and at $10 a pop over 4 tournaments, the best we could assume is about $1600.
Steven over at Canadian Ultimate had a post discussing his view on the topic. In the following discussion the issue seems to be market size. So, the poll this week is what do you think the market size is for Ultimate. Note, I have no stats on this, so you'll have to make an educated guess (poll right).
Stats that I found and might help:
Hey all,
I got really excited this morning, and I'm not even going to Canadian nationals or flying anywhere within Canada, but Air Canada has a great deal. The deal is called "Explore Canada Pass", and for $700 to fly on Tuesdays or Saturdays you get 4 one-way tickets in Central Canada. There's other tickets for Western Canada to anywhere in Canada for $900 (and so on).
Think of it this way, you want to go to Potlatch and Canadian Nationals. If you live in Montreal or Toronto, for $900 you can fly to Vancouver (and drive down to Seattle) and Winnipeg for a total of $900. Plus you could visit one other city if you some how made it a round trip. The other possibilities include ECC, Flower Bowl, Jazz Fest, No Borders, and maybe even Clam Bake.
Not sure if this is that great a deal, but my spidey sense says yes.
PJ
I'm continuing my study into the big question, "Why is twitter here?" ;) What is it good for and how will it change my life? As I stated earlier, I think it has value in the realm of tournament updates (a.k.a. live disseminated event coverage) as we saw this year at UPA College. Great, but I still haven't signed up for my own Twitter account.
An article on Wired helped explain my concerns as very common in society. Like other technologies in the past, we still don't know what Twitter does. Also, it might never revolutionize anything. I don't have to panic and worry that I'll be out on my porch (if I had a porch) yelling at kids to stop twittering on my front lawn.
Well, I've come to two further insights on how twitter might be useful to us. The first is related to RSD. In the past, we've voted on the health of RSD with concerns it is getting spammed to death (gmail does so well on my mail why can't it work for forums?). I, personally, view RSD less and less due to the spam. That, and I prefer the rss format where information comes to me when it's updated and I don't have to visit.
Twitter might offer us a solution here. Using the tagging system we could easily make rsd twitter discussions. To sort the different topics, we would simply use two tags. The first tag identifies that we are discussing ultimate and the second tag categorizes in a topic.
This sort of live discussion format has been used by some blogs to make the commenting/forum based aspect more community based and live. I think it would work as a second RSD based format, but twitter still lacks the character length for some topics and discussions (maybe links to rsd threads solves this problem essentially filtering the spam). For example, ranking teams would be difficult in 140 characters.
The second insight I've had on twitter and our Ultimate discussion community is actually not mine. This TED talk:
by James Surowiecki gave some insight into twitter, blogging, and social networking. The idea I felt so strongly about was this concept that a collective intelligence is better than an individual, and that's what these forms of communication bring. Therefore, my plea to all you young players (as well as mature players) out there is to get involved in the social community. Sure, The Huddle, Parinella's Blog, and Match are written by top players and knowledgable insiders, but your thoughts and your ideas are just as valuable since they come from another perspective. Essentially, the more critical mass we have the better off we'll be as a whole. Who cares if a topic you would like to discuss was previously covered by someone else. Give it your perspective and add to the collective intelligence. Seems Borg like, but it's actually the opposite.
PJ
I remember one of my recent hockey teams. We were a mid-pack team that would win half our games and lose half our games. For mosts games it would be close and we would have a chance to win or lose. When we did lose, we would assemble in the dressing room after the game, and the guys would come out with their analysis of the loss. Fortunately, in hockey you can blame the refs, but once the ref got a good bad mouthing, we would move on to, "we weren't focused enough".
Crosby, clearly, just doesn't want it enough (sarcasm).
