WEEK IN REVIEW: The most incredible game of roto caps ever

Monday was Qingming (Tomb-sweeping) Festival, which meant we all had the day off and spent it at Chaoyang Park playing some beer frizz before getting Sultan for dinner and going to Kevin's new apartment for roto caps. Then this happened:

We were down to our last game of roto for the night, and it was Jim and Andy (7 individual wins) vs. Sam and myself (6 individual wins). The cross-game featured Kevin and Alicia and a couple others, but for the purposes of this story, they don't matter.

Andy and Jim go up 1-0, and Jim counters one of my shots. Fair enough. They go up 2-1 when I counter one of Andy's shots, only to have Jim double-rebut me. Fair enough.

We tie it at 2, and that's when things get silly. I proceed to hit THREE CAPS with the game tied at 2. Jim counters ALL THREE SHOTS. After the fifth rebuttal of the game -- TO THREE POINTS, mind you -- everyone goes nuts. The other game practically stops to watch. Jim can't stop laughing. I'm incredulous. Moments later, Andy hits, and my rebuttal goes off the rim.

CAPS MADE THAT GAME:
Sam, 2
Andy, 4
Jim, 5
Tao, 5
POINTS THAT GAME:
Sam, 2
Andy, 3
Jim, 0
Tao, 0

Un-fucking-real. 16 total caps made in a game to 3. Put this one in the Hall of Fame.

(For the record, Kevin and Alicia were up 2-1 over Angela and Nina that game when it ended. Somehow they made 3, during which span we made 16.)

Oh, and that win gave Andy the overall night win over me, 8 points to 6.

PICTURES OF THE WEEK:

Well, we haven't done this in a while ...






EMAIL OF THE WEEK:

Tao, to Stuart Ralston's comment about Rebecca Black (to Rob Hogg's YouTube link (to Mike Shyu's email asking for English teachers)), 4/7:

I've been thinking a bit about Rebecca Black in all the wrong sexual ways recently and I've come to the conclusion that she raises a very pertinent eschatological question: what happens if Saturday does not come after Friday, and yesterday was not Thursday when today is Friday? What if these "days" are all arbitrary tags masterminded by the Great Blogger Above to keep us from realizing our free will to "make up [our] mind[s] / [over] which seat [we can] take"? Would Rebecca Black's eyes then be sunken coals wherein demons of the planet Anareta lurk as antipodes to all our earthly creation?

I am reminded of the poem by Linda Pastan, "In a Northern Country," in which "yesterday in a northern country / my last aunt died," and "the litany / of months, September ... October ..." drags on, tiring the writer to "the way the seasons / keep changing." I can't help thinking that Rebecca Black too is tired of the way our days merge into the next day, Friday to Saturday, and before Friday, Thursday; how nights become a sort of purgatory where our sun -- which is not really the sun, you understand, but a symbol of individual ego in a universe hurtling toward destruction -- may decide, one day, "to hell with it, I'll stay here." Would we then thumb our desktop calendars to the next page? What is "next day"? What is anything.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Big Brother Jedi Council meeting, Marc and Veronica's belated engagement party at Hercules, Power Hour at Alex's, Andy's music swap

The title says it all.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Christmas casualties

Triple H cooked at Marc's place on Saturday night for a group of us. We did a white elephant gift exchange that proved, as these things always do, confrontational, then combative. Nina and Jim mutilated Doc. YJ channeled her inner ninja. Three people died. Beijing Ultimate will never be the same.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP, pt. 1: Saying goodbye once again

She texted us the following day with a simple message at 12:20 pm:

Bye friends! [heart symbol] Pnut

And that was it. Tina Yen -- known everywhere as Pnut (even in Chinese -- "Where's huasheng?" the bar manager asked me) -- has left us. Again.

On Friday we participated in a party in Wudaokou themed "P is for PNUT's Party!" We went to PBD Pizza and then Solutions -- a Propaganda-like bar next to Propaganda -- for drinking and dancing. The idea of the party was to have people dress as something that starts with the letter P. Sam, for example, went as Peter Pan. Pnut went as Poker Face. Lots of people decided on "player," which is so prosaic it doesn't serve a capitalized P. Baby Girl, my roommate, went as Pearl -- the tampax. And I went as Period Pad.



It was truly disgusting -- even to me. And that's saying something.

We did get a cool group shot though: Andy is "Pillage captain," i.e. Mike Shyu; Nina and Alicia are Pink, um... pink. And Chirona and her friend Chelsea are preppies.



Something tells me this picture below will eventually find its way into the wrong hands and I'm going to be made to look like a MAJOR douche. I shudder to think what people will say about Jehan:



Remember, the costume is PERIOD PAD. The two shades of blood are a nice touch, but does it beat Baby Girl, going as Pearl tampax, wearing all white except for a red hat, with a string dangling from his shorts?

It was, in the end, Pnut's party and we were all just visitors. Here is her stealing the show:





Jim as Popeye.


We're going to miss you, Pnut. We may not be seeing any of this anytime soon, but we'll sure remember it. We'll see you soon.

POSTSCRIPT:

For such a one with an
Unpretentious smile,
Could we not say, with all the colors in the
Kaleidescope of the heart,
That in this most brutish, most awful
Reality we might find
Understanding,
Communion, sweet
Karma?

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: More than just mojitos went down at 1-kuai mojito night at Fubar...

After the final regular season game of summer league concluded on Sunday, a bunch of people went to Fubar for its monthly 1-kuai mojito night, except this time they weren't serving mojitos -- they were serving margaritas. And it was so cold that some people who shall remain nameless, like Andy, puked on the spot due to the drink's "coldness." Later, Baby Girl stumbled home and kept saying how fucked he was, which is true -- he puked the next day, multiple times. (But way to keep it down on Sunday night, champ.)

It's good to see summer league captains representin'.

But they aren't the story. No, the real story involved a couple of people who ACTUALLY shall remain nameless. Hint though: this is the fourth consecutive post in which Jim's been tagged. (UPDATE, 8/9: Picture here.)

POSTSCRIPT: Pnut gave Ben Redden a black eye.

Ben: "I'll head-butt you."
Pnut: "If you do I'm going to punch you."
Ben: pretends to head-butt Pnut.
Pnut: socks Ben in the eye with an overhead right.

Pictures to come, I hope. I'll track down Ben and snap a photo if I have to go all paparazzi on him.

Nice to have you back, Pnut.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Hickball!

The Ultimate Frisbee team in Candice's kickball extravaganza ended up going 0-4-1 with one-near fight and lots of shenanigans. (Not as many people got drunk and lost stuff as last year, and things weren't generally so contentious.) Our team, the Super Dupers, were "superheroes that didn't quite make the cut." I was the Pink Phantom.


Picture by Ben Redden


Picture by Alicia Lui

More pictures to come later, possibly in next week's Retrospective. (Update: pictures here.)

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Beijing wins another Ultimate tourney (party)

More news from the 2nd annual Kunming Hat Tourney later, but it was a great weekend of Ultimate and sunshine. And this is what we did for the party (thanks to Jim and Chaitkin for these costumes):

At Speakeasy on Saturday night.

Pink party 2009!

Hey everyone,
So I know everyone loves pink... everyone loves drinking... everyone loves charity (and this is a good one)... and not everyone is in HK (okay, most people are, but if you're one of the lame ones like me who has to work)... come on out!

So for those of you who are still around, come on out in your classy pink ultimate gear. Information is below. If you're interested, shoot me an email or just come out, i should be out there with friends. Information is below.

Love from the westside
Andy

p.s. jeff, can i get that wig?
p.p.s. if you are going to email about my improper use of elipssseessss... *cough* tao *cough* please make it a private response...

**
*PINK Party- Friday Oct 23 at Xiu*

This year United Family Hospital launched the United PINK Campaign to raise awareness for breast cancer prevention in China. With the slogan "Show You Care", come drop by Xiu on Friday night with your best pink attire for a drink and dance to show your support for breast cancer awareness and prevention!

All proceeds will be given to the China Breast Cancer Foundation.
**
*Why*: To drink, dance, and raise money for underprivileged women who need to receive breast cancer treatment

*Where*: Xiu, Park Hyatt

*When*: Friday, Oct 23 from 10pm-2am

*What*: Wear pink and donate a drink to charity (20 RMB donation to charity)!

For more info about the campaign, check out: http://pink.ufh.com.cn

Xiu Club:
http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/listings/nightlife/bars/has/xiu/

<http://pink.ufh.com.cn/>

*About the United PINK Campaign*

**

*“Show You Care”*

The United PINK Campaign was initiated by United Family Hospitals (UFH) to help raise awareness and educate the women of China about the rapidly rising cases of breast cancer. We hope other organizations can also get involved to help us spread the word about the importance of prevention. We know that actions speak louder than words, so let’s all work together to *show you care*.

*Mission Statement*

To educate women about the importance of prevention and to energize our community to help us raise awareness about breast cancer in China.

*UFH Pink Project Goal*

Provide 100 underserved women with free digital mammograms in Beijing United Family Hospital.

Website: http://pink.ufh.com.cn

WEEK IN REVIEW: Actually, we're gonna look ahead...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Summer league Week 1 results

FIELD 1: Candice and Xiaozhi defeated Alph the Sacred River (Tao and Margaret) 11-8
FIELD 2: Alchemy (Kevin and Alicia) defeated Mike and Kelly 13-7

The first summer league after-dinner:


Kevin, the MacGyver of beer bottle opening...

Not too late to register, for all interested.

POSTSCRIPT: From Friday's Guys' Night Out, Jeff Orcutt taking a picture of him dealing three fives on the flop followed by two fours.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Happy times on an island called Jeju

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WEEK IN REVIEW, Monday edition

This is usually a Friday feature, but as Betsy took up the entirety of last week, you get the Week in Review today.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK:

From Pia Ybanez's camera at the Hang Time mini-hat tourney two weekends ago, won by the team of Doc, Helen, Char, Jim, Li, Xie, and Betsy. (If you can read Chinese, here's Shen's recap.)


G-CHAT CONVERSATION OF THE WEEK:

David: Who's Betsy? Does she think all Western boys are excellent?
Sent at 12:07 AM on Tuesday
me: she's equal opportunity
that's what i like about her
David: Meh, I prefer to take every advantage I can find.
me: i'll put in a good word for you
she's type you try and discard
David: Wherefore discard?
me: it's like dating a stripper
i mean
it's not liket hat at all
she will break your break
David: My break can be broken?
me: fuck
David: Heart? Back? Bank?
me: hear
t
fuck
Sent at 12:11 AM on Tuesday
David is typing…

GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

Andy Young, posting a link that was instantly stolen by former Beijinger Roman Ryan and reposted on Facebook:

Dear Betsy,
You need to get one of these to enforce better:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1896628

From this Google groups thread, started at 9:08 a.m. on Jan. 12, by -- well, who else -- Betsy.