WEEK IN REVIEW: Welcome to the Year of the Rabbit

Bringing down the Boom since 2004, rollin' into the decade of doom.

PICTURES OF THE WEEK:





From Steph and Ken's party on February 2, eve of Chinese New Year.

GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

Tao, 1/31:

(Excuse the jumpiness in each video... trying to get that cleaned up.)

Youku: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjQwODc1ODEy.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=735559645435
(If the above doesn't work, go here:
http://beijingultimate.blogspot.com/2011/02/beijing-ultimate-2010-sli...)

Three parts plus a prologue, total run time about 34 minutes.

Thinking about February 19 as a tentative screening date. Like last year, we'll be at a bar with discounted drinks, hopefully.

The people, in order of appearance (parentheses implies either not Ultimate or not Beijing):

*PART 1*
Anthony Tao
Gareth Marshall
Helen Lu
Sandy Wang
Joe Pellicano
Matt Mueller
Jim Kirchhoff
Therese Mendez
Kevin Reitz
(Hilco Beukema)
Pat Li
Hsing-hui Hsu
Jeff Orcutt
Alicia Lui
Chris Boehner
(Dray Abrahamian)
Andrew "Baby Girl" Moffat
Candice Lee
Ellen Wong
Shan Wu
Michael Chaitkin
(Amy Gardner)
Steph Kwan
Char Lam
Tina Xue
Michelle Tang
Yin Kong
Brian Marterer
Ben Redden
Nina Helmke
Doc Tobin
(Amos Irwin)
Chad Hensler
Andy Young
Bill McGrath
Casey Guo
Nick Liu
Jesse Day
Richie Liu
Guy Sivan
Caleb Heine
(Nihir Shah)
(Christine Laskowski)
(Tom Pile)
Jehan Azad
(Warren Pottrill)
Zahlen Titcomb
(Alyssa Li)
Wang Bin
(Valerie Min)
Happy Rat
Kelly Yang
Lin Lin
Brice Dudout
Yan Hao
Ryan Perez
Zhang Yang
Cai Cai
Zhang Pu
(Omar Pandoli)
(David Brown)
Angela Chen
Jeff "Drunkbus" Kessler
Xie Yuhui
Xiao Zhi
(J.I. Nuega)
Joel Brand
(Liang Zhuang)
Emma Shyu
(Vince Chen)
(Edward Wang)
(Michael Hsu)
(An Zi)
(Kenny Zhu)
(Chen Jie)
(Matt Wang)
(Carter Li)
Steven Zhang
Lauren Reed
(Nick Hatt)
(Alex Hutson)
Jenn Brown
(Juliet Lu)
(Panoy Delos Santos)

*PART 2*
Kara DiFrancesco
Chris Carlsen
Sam Trachtman
Eileen "Peach" Regan
Peter Tzeng
Ricky Jassel
Kelsey Watterworth
Ethan Lo
Mandy Yeung
Jon Lin
Marc Hiller
Yan Lei
Ryan Leung
Carissa Wong
Tina "Pnut" Yen
Cal Lee
Brendon Mrosak
Wally Mann
Chirona Silverstein
(Chelsea Rudman)
Jane Li
Alan Faiola
Mark Wunderlin
Jen Howells
Larry Zhou
Brian Guo
Patrick Marco
Jordan Yust
Ziggy
Ovid
Helen Shyu
(Cause Abu)
(Fan Yang)
(Ivan Xu)
Xiao Di
Li Hao
Ken Dry
Addy
Zhang Wen
(Leo Feng)
Charis Chiu
Marc Zeiger-Guerra
(Box Zhang)
Wes Haynes
Zach Fanders
Rob Hogg
Liz Lin
(Zoey Lee)
(Zheng Zheng)
Tommy Li
Leigh Bloomberg
Alex Ornik
Ingrid Akerlind
(Katie Bradstock)
(Leslie Sim)
(Fabian Ho)
(Geoff Ng)
(Chris Calvert)
(John Kelly)
Matt Sheehan
Nitai Deitel
(Kirby Carder)

*PART 3*
(Pia Ybanez)
(Kristin Franke)
(Jon Greenberg)
(Lien Ngo)
(Jia Xie)
(Jason Lopez)
(Uli Burke)
Mark Scott
(Lincoln Cheung)
Ken Su
(Mel Lozano)
Nicki Fung
(Kevin Cho)
Angela Yang
Maggie Rauch
(Jack Yeh)
Yujuan (YJ) Tan
Aaron Leung
Adam Nowak
Alex Stephens
Apple Zhao
Eric Wu
Feng Qi
Haiyin Kang
Jia Zhe
Joel Rosen
Belem
Maria Filimonenko
Neal Jones
Nick Cheng
Aurora Wang (Yao)
Altay

SPORCLE GAME: Guess who appears this many times:
68
52
52
35
32
31
31
28
28
22 (tied 10th most appearances)
22 (tied 10th)

WEEK IN REVIEW: Last pickup of the year

After this Saturday, pickup is OFF until after the holidays. We will resume back up at BCIS on Wednesday, January 12, at 7 pm per usual.

We were graced by the presence of Aaron Leung for a few days this week. We'll write about it in the upcoming Weekend Roundup [update: here].

On Thursday, Ken Dry invited us to his apartment to drink his liquor (and help him clean some things). It was a good time.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:
See yesterday's post.

And this (explained below):


GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK, pt 1:

Candice Lee and her bowling league (titled "BOWLING 2011 (almost)"), 12/15:

Hello Bowallers,

I hope everyone is doing well and getting ready for the new year/new bowling season!

In January we will commencing next bowling league, so get out your shoes, your balls, and game face.

This coming *Monday, Dec Thursday, Dec 20* will be a *WARM UP BOWL at Gongti 100 at 9pm. *

It's going to be a real casual bowling session, but it's just a good opportunity to massage our egos and shine our balls. I know this is a bit last minute, but come on out if you have time! We can just rent lane by lane and sip on some cocktails（tiger beer?). btw, byo.

Also,* if you're interested in signing up for bowling league next year, send me an email before January 10 so that I can set up the brackets*. I'm thinking Thursday nights at 9pm, similar to last year. The *start date will be January 13.* This year I will really send out the final scores and be more organized. It will probably be about 45 rmb per person per league game.

Each team can have from 4-5 players (4 main players, 1 alternate). Try to have teams co-ed, but I understand otherwise. * Send me team names!*

Please forward this out to anyone who would be interested in joining! I can put them on the mailing list (I'm sure I've forgotten bunches of people). Otherwise, if you want off, just let me know and you will no longer receive fun emails from me. ( for bowling at least, not guaranteed for kickball)

There will also be an* impromtu pre-pre bowl tomorrow night, Thurs Dec 16, at 9pm.
*
Let's get em rolling,

Candice
[number redacted]

GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK, pt 2:

Betsy! 12/15:

frisbee adobo,

betsy is back after basking in the philippines and getting her fill of beaches, sunshine, and chiseled, tropical, testosterone-filled men (read: lincoln) before returning to freezing beijing to hibernate for the winter. she knows you (read: tao) were going through betsy withdrawal, but betsy wouldn't abandon you (read: baby girl) and
deprive you (read: still baby girl) of her scintillating seasonal sauciness. because she loves you (read: oh crap, maybe was that andy?). yes she does.

WEEKLY ITEM #1: Schedule

Pickup Wednesdays 7-9pm and Saturdays 2-4pm at BCIS

no practice until gareth deems it warm enough to cut off that awful facial hair.

_________

WEEKLY ITEM #2: Upcoming Tournaments

Vietnam Hat tournament, December 18-19th, 2010
Bangkok Hat tournament, February 12-13 or 19-20, 2011
Phnom Penh Big Phat Hat tournament, March 5-6, 2011
Boracay Beach tournament, March 20-21
PAGANELLO! Beach tournament, April 21-25, 2011

_________

WEEKLY ITEM #3: Lunch time Poll

1. matching: who asked for what for christmas?

A. gareth 1. an iphone
B. sandy 2. an iphone
C. ken dry 3. a new boyfriend, or at least his abs back
D. kevin 4. a new boyfriend, and possibly new shorts
E. leigh 5. a green man
F. chaitkin 6. a new roommate
H. Ingrid 7. a few more inches on his "vertical"
G. doc 8. what's christmas?

2. which of the following couples are so hot right now?

a. chaik-fil-a
b. destijimmer
c. drewleigh mobloomfat-young
d. muelin mattgrid
e. garcraft
_________

now is the time in the weekly email when betsy gives her weekly shout outs and call outs. remember, you want to get shouted out, but you do not want to get called out.

--special manila edition--

a shout out to zahlen. sure, you are fatter and slower, getting older, and not as sharp-witted as you once were. but something something thanks for playing with big brother in manila. it was pretty great.

a call out to ellen. next time baby girl invents a game that directly involves embarrassing and upsetting you, try harder not to be embarrassed and upset. it ruins all the fun.

a shout out to rob. betsy doesn’t care what everyone else says about you, she still thinks you are fun.

a call out to subic. possibly more parking attendants would improve the experience. beijing did not feel like all their parking needs were being met. just a suggestion.

a shout out to chaitkin. yay chaitkin.

a call out to kevin. more botched jeepny rentals, please. what does a girl have to do to get completely lost and ripped off in the philippines nowadays? go home with a green man, perhaps?

a shout out to nina. nina played an entire tournament without injuring anyone. jim’s feelings do not count.

a call out to green man. betsy knows what happened on the golf course, and she’s never going to be able to think of “hole 10” on the “back nine” the same way again.

a shout out to femtight. gareth can tell you why.

a call out to penifresh. betsy is allergic to tutti-fruiti and now she has a rash. on her feet. joe can tell you why.

a shout out to hhh, nicki, baby girl, gareth, and jim. seriously, you all deserved the awards given to you. no joking. for reals yo. also tao and zach for the greatest. seriously everyone.

________

and finally, your moment of zen…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GS6gKxG_jo

catch you on the field,
betsy
xxxooo

And Tao, a mere 25 minutes later:

Oh, great, Betsy is back whoring up the town. Are you using protection this time at least, you skank?

But Alex Ornik is REALLY excited. No, seriously.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Preparing for Manila with a Thanksgiving dinner

Ken and Steph held a very lovely potluck dinner on Thursday night just before a group of folks boarded planes to Manila. Hopefully pictures from the evening turn up eventually.

And Ken Dry's iPhone ... whoever has it, please speak up. Now. Lost iPhone's aren't funny.

Some people, like Jim and Nina, have already been in the Philippines for a week, and they have pictures to prove it. But they don't have pictures like Kevin, who loves showing off... we'll reward him anyway with this week's...

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:


GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK: Some serious Beijing Ultimate Committee news here:

Alicia, 11/25:

Hey Beijing Frisbee-ers!
嗨，北京飞盘盘友们

We love people, so for the month of December we'll be launching a monthly special called *Bring a Friend**, a great chance for you to introduce someone new to the game of Ultimate and get a little discount on the side -- 10 kuai off pickup for you AND your friend. Stipulations below.
我们希望飞盘能有更多的人气在寒冷的北京，所以我们准备在12月份开展一个“找朋友玩飞盘”的活动，这是一个很好的机会我们可以让更多人了解飞盘，参与到这项活动中。而且，如果你带了一个新人来玩飞盘，我们会给你还有你的朋友10元的优惠。详情如下。

A reminder about our December pick-up schedule (six total sessions):
12月飞盘活动提醒:

Wednesdays: Dec 1, 8, 15 from 7 - 9pm
Saturdays: Dec 4, 11, 18 from 2 - 4pm

周三：1，8，15日，晚上7-9点
周六：4，11，18日，下午2-4点

All sessions will be held at BCIS. Venue details and directions will be sent out a few days before pick-up. As always, stay up to date with info at www.beijingultimate.com or ask to be included on our Google Groups listserv (site itself is blocked by Great Firewall).
我们现在所有的飞盘活动都在BCIS，详细地址和地图都会在活动前的两三天发出，你可以在任何时候登陆我们的网站，www.beijingultimate.com 或者让我们知道你希望加入到我们的Google Group.

**Friend = someone who has never been to pick-up with us in Beijing. Discount applies for as many times as you bring someone new out, BUT never more than once per session (so more power to you if you bring two friends each session, but we can only give you 10 kuai off each time; both your friends, however, can enjoy the 10-kuai discount).*
**朋友=就是说带来一个从来没有参加过我们北京飞盘活动的人，你就可以得到10块的折扣。希望每次的pickup你都可以带一个你的朋友，不过呢，你要是带了很多新朋友在同一天，你也只能有10块的折扣,但每个朋友能享受优惠。*

**

Hope to see you and your friends out at frisbee!
希望在飞盘活动看到你和你们的朋友！

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Ken Dry's birthday party - epic

Photo from Kevin Reitz

I wasn't at this party because, like mentioned earlier, I'm Stateside (Overland Park, KS, currently), but Kevin Reitz was. He takes it away on his blog:

Ken's birthday was a week ago, but we got together and threw him a redneck party on saturday. It was one of the best random costume parties in Beijing so far. Everyone got into character, spoke in a southern accent, and used plenty of white trash slang. Please read the remainder of this post in a southern accent... think Forrest Gump.

Howdy Folks! This here's a story about me, Cleatus. As you can see, i'm a handsome man, but none too bright. I ain't never won no awards fer thinkin and my momma never did send me for no book learnin. My wheels still turning, but the hamsters dead.

It goes on to detail all levels of hilarity. Go read it.

POSTSCRIPT: Via Urban Dictionary, Cleatus is "a classic slack jawed yokel type moron" [sic].

RETROSPECTIVE: Ken Dry, BUSL 2009

WEEKEND ROUNDUP, part 2: Ken Dry, we'll be seeing ya

Ken, the man on the right in the pic above, seen with his girlfriend Steph and Jim on Friday night, has departed for South Carolina.

It's this blog's opinion that nothing good ever happens in South Carolina, but Ken's gone to finish some important and worthwhile work, and when he returns it might be for good.

Until then, godspeed.

***

Saturday was Adam's housewarming / Nicki Fung's birthday party at Adam's apartment near Chaoyang Park. Lots of people went, and at least one girl showed up wasted beyond recognition, resulting in hilarity and embarrassment. Afterwards some people went to Fu Bar, which just may become Beijing Ultimate's new classy hangout, as opposed to Chocolate, which will always be our sordid hangout / exactly where we're gonna end up this Saturday after Lauren's going-away pink party, because there's only one good way to send someone off: with naked dancers and vodka. Can't wait.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Happy birthday, Ken and Steph!

Backdated 10/21


The girl with the butcher's knife is Steph, and Ken Dry is the one in blue. They are a couple, and isn't it always so cute when couples share a birthday? Who's a cute couple... that's right, they're a cute couply wouply.

On Friday night they had a birthday gathering at a Xinjiang restaurant across from Worker's Stadium. Afterwards we walked over to Paddy O'Shea's to see The Redbucks, currently the hottest bluegrass band in town, featuring Beijing Ultimate's own Chris Boehner, et al.

WEEK IN REVIEW: The reason Beijing will win the Shanghai tourney party yet again

THE WELCOME BACK KEN DRY EDITION (he's pictured below as Tennessee Ave.)

A week and a day away from the Shanghai tournament...

As the party theme this year is "Construction," Beijing Big Brother will be going as Doozers, those lovable creatures from Fraggle Rock who must continually build cubic sugar (crack?) structures in order to survive. Here is your PICTURE OF THE WEEK, via Betsy's May 26 post:


YouTube clip (the original Yes We Can)

This is an appropriate follow-up to Beijing's award-winning (everyone knows Beijing should have won) costumes from last year's Shanghai tourney.






This was during a rough stretch in Sandy's love life.

Be sure to check this site Tuesday for the pre-Shanghai retrospective.

GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

Betsy, for the fourth straight week, 6/2/09:

frisbifarians,

betsy is all aglow this week. she is well rested from the long weekend and has eaten enough glutinous rice balls to last through the winter. if she never sees another zong zi again in her life, she will be sad, because they are tasty.

so she's got that going for her, which is nice. then there's the whole big brother world domination at shanghai in only 11 days thing. get pumped.

WEEKLY ITEM #1: The Weekly Schedule

Every Tuesday, Pick Up, 8-10pm, Deshengmen
come work on the skills from the last few practices: switches, break throws, hard marks, and the first step after your throw.

Sunday, Big Brother practice, Dulwich, 2-4pm, followed by pickup 4-6pm

Thursday, Fraggle Rock Viewing, Club Sandwich, 8-10pm
it's no secret that fraggle rock is all abuzz these days. everyone's talking about it, even the uncool kids like doc. he says things like, what’s a fraggle? regardless, everyone’s excited. jim got the masses joined together in a theme song sing-along at laurene's BCD. then they cried sweet, sweet tears of anticipatory joy. gobo would be proud.
_________

WEEKLY ITEM #2: MAILBAG
every week, betsy gets a lot of emails inviting her out on dates, complementing her on her leadership skills, asking her ultimate related questions, and wanting to know who she is. the mailbag is where she answers these questions. as always, these are real letters from real readers.

Letter #1:

hi betsy,
i haven’t been coming out much lately but i was wondering, are there any new studs in town i should keep my eye on? i appreciate any tips!

looking for fresh meat,
c-dice

hi c-dice:
first of all, you know our arrangement: after betsy’s had her pick you can slum off the leftovers. but the sad truth is, there isn’t much to work with these days. even our resident bachelors are shacking up… kevin, chris, doc, and tao, against all odds, are getting lucky. and there have been few replacements as of late. joe and jeff are still technically available, although they don’t like to be separated. how do you feel about indian?

betsy
xxxooo

Letter #2:

hi betsy,
this is gavin, from the dragons. why don’t you ever come out to play ultimate? i have never seen you there.

can’t wait to play with you!
gavin

hi gavin!
thanks for writing! betsy has been out, almost every week. she’s always wanted to meet you, but the truth is, she’s a little shy in person. you will have to make the first move.

heart-a-fluttering,
betsy
xxxooo

_________

now is the time in the weekly email when betsy gives her weekly shout outs and call outs. remember, you want to get shouted out, but you don't want to get called out.

a shout out to laurene. thanks for teaching us that some french people are actually pretty cool. you’ll be missed. betsy will come visit you in brazil.

a call out to kevin. catch your cares away? you get your head out of your butt. even doc knew that one and he’s more clueless than tao. shake shake, kevin, shake shake.

a shout out to jeff. jeff remains on semi-permanent shout out status. this week, betsy congratulates him for yet another bumbling adventure which eventually descended into complete drunken madness, culminating in repeated bouts of falling down. that was disc on saturday. also for that time when he drank a half bottle of whiskey.

a call out to aaron and tao. you have one more weekend before shanghai to set up the awards party. do not tempt betsy’s wrath. she’s been in a good mood lately.

a shout out to marjory. betsy appreciates how your minions sing your praises… “the trash heap has spoken! nyeah!". betsy will be taking lessons on thursday, and will soon have her congregation praising her thusly.

a call out to sandy, tao, alicia, doc, charlotte. you all are making betsy work hard for material this week. even harder than you need to work to get with tao’s mom. fortunately tao’s mom is still comedy gold.

a shout out the whole frisbee community. you make betsy proud. get pumped. shanghai is only 11 days away.

a call out to jehan. why haven’t you called? betsy doesn’t like to play games.

_________

WEEKLY RUMOR THAT MUST BE TRUE: betsy witnessed a perverse display of man-on-man-beast action after laurene’s bcd. while joe looked on with jealousy, jim was seen taking luxurious body shots off jeff: salt in the belly button, lime squeezed onto the nipples, mouth-to-mouthing the tequila. hsing-hui while practicing for a future in gay porn, captured the whole thing, put it to music, and will be distributing it at all the local dvd cellars. the reception will be outstanding. look for a sneak preview at this week’s fraggle rock showing. hsing-hui has already leaked information about her next installment… doc the peep and brian the martyr starring in “middle-aged lovin”.
_________

and finally, your moment of zen:

…will be shown this thursday at club sandwich, from 8-10pm.

catch you on the field,
betsy
xxxooo

The honorable mention goes to Jehan, for the effort...

Betsy,

I don't play games.

I play *game*.

(Yes, I really wrote that)