Thoughts.

And when I do, I’ll be taking a bit of a hiatus.

As of right now I don’t really have much to put up, so if you’ve ideas or something you want to share or write about, feel free to hit me up. I might post a few odd links or short blurbs, but that’d be about it ’til I come back to Japan (and need more diversions to stay sane).

I’m back in the States from 12/19-1/10, ostensibly for medical school interviews (wish me luck) and with the pleasant side effect of being able to see all my family and many of my friends who are bound to the US.

Shoot me an email if you’re interested. Shoot me an email if you have ideas for other ways to fill the time. Shoot me an email if you’re in the Northeast (ideally NY/NE area) and playing any kind of pickup over the dates listed above.

No notes about talking in positives here.

For any/all of you RSS readers out there, you should note some of the comments of late–I’ll try to draw attention to them retroactively when appropriate, but I recently added a “recent comments” widget to the sidebar to hopefully encourage some more discussion. New insights can come from divergent opinions, and even simple components or fundamentals can go overlooked, so please don’t feel shy about chipping in your two cents.

…my apologies. Work has been busy lately, with a couple school events on Saturdays cutting into my usual writing time.

I’m likely to cut back to 2 posts a week for regular posting, Likely M/Th, with Saturday/whenever for when I feel like doing more. Though I happen to keep coming up with new things to write about, I’m pretty positive that there’s a limit to fundamental skills talk, so this is also partly an attempt to extend the life of this blog.

Officially home for the winter.

I’m sitting here in my room in Albany, with little to do (the curse of the Dartmouth quarter system: nobody’s home): I’ve already read up on the latest developments in the hot stove on ESPN.com (The Sox have all sorts of stuff in the works; we may have a more or less completely revamped infield and outfield by the time this is all over. At least ‘Tek’s untouchable); I’ve spent as much time harassing my 10-year-old brother as I could before he went to sleep; I’ve yet to fully explore blitzversation options, as I’d rather save it for when I’m truly bored; I’ve explored playing several of the many video games in my extensive PS2 library, to no avail. The boredom remains.

So, here I sit, laptop on lap, blogging. Ah, the blog. Depository for many a late-night rant.


I definitely feel like the blog’s been a positive tool for me. Helps me get thoughts down when I can, and puts them in a place where I won’t lose track of them. As an added bonus, it’s available for anybody to read, saving me the trouble of trying to say things, often repeatedly which I’m much better at expressing in writing–I actually find this to be something of a theme for me; as much as I enjoy conversation, I feel so much more empowered using a keyboard, playing with grammar, and setting a cadence that can only be had through writing. At the very least, my conversation is much better when I’ve had a chance to organize my thoughts. Part of why I spend a lot more time listening than talking is because I’m often better prepared to speak after a second’s pause instead of interrupting somebody. And I hate to stop somebody’s train of thought and have them lose it.

I’ve been told more than once that I have a very good writer’s voice; I’m not sure whether my enjoyment of writing came before or after the development of said voice, but it’s a productive combination, I think. At least, I enjoy writing. That’s all that really matters, isn’t it?

I’m thinking that my ultimate-related thoughts are going to diminish in frequency in the coming months, and as such I think I may branch out into some broader introspection and reflection so I can keep writing (a return to class will likely help some, too). Maybe some less serious stuff, too, but I’ve never been great at generating humor–I’m much more of a situational humorist, playing off of whatever’s happening around me. But yeah, we’ll see how well this goes.

I’ve been thinking about this for most of the summer, and a combination of a lot of free time this term and a need to put some of my thoughts into a forum where I’ll be able to see them later (I’ve been doing lots of freewriting on my computer, but I lost all of my last year’s thoughts when I had to get my computer fixed–motherboard got replaced).

Oh, also that ultimate thing too, I suppose.

I’ll probably just use this for general stuff about my life, probably a lot of ultimate-related stuff hopefully, since that was the motivating factor to create this. I’m certainly not at a point in terms of my skills or experience where I can come up with anything new and exciting, but I figure eventually people might benefit from how I work to improve myself and my game.

We’ll leave it at that for now. First post to come…soon.

I started this blog way back in September 2005–after a summer of intense blog exploration and throwing practice every day, and going into my sophomore year and first on a college A team, I felt compelled to dive into the blogosphere and use it to chart and guide my progress as a player.

Over the years I slowly started writing more and more for an audience outside of my friends, until finally, after wrapping up a solid run at nationals with Dartmouth my senior year (’08), I dedicated more fully to writing down what I’ve learned.

There are some good resources out there for beginning ultimate players, and likewise there’s a lot of great high-level advice from elite players; I seek to bridge the gap between the two.

I hope this proves to be a helpful resource for players who, like me, strive for excellence on the ultimate field (and off).

-Mackey

Where to Start?

• If this is your first time here, I’d suggest starting with the overview category to get an idea of some of the topics I’ve covered, or with the the popular posts in the sidebar.
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