I figure now that this site's semi-automated, I might as well use it to yap more often. But, naturally, that means yapping about subjects other than specific news-worthy topics or relating the bizarre episodes of my ancient history.

So let's go with something more current.

This month marks my tenth year of playing semi-competitive Ultimate. (Aka, "frisbee", but Wham-O owns the trademark, so it's just Ultimate.) I would say "competitive", but I've played on a number of teams that weren't exactly, um, competitive. Even if we were supposed to be.

In fairness, I'd dabbled in the sport before. When I went to a summer "camp" at Duke after seventh and eighth grades, we played something called "Ultimate". But it involved an entire class playing against an entire class at the same time, making for a bright side of chaos only usually seen in a test tube.

But ten years ago was the beginning of my "career" in Ultimate. It was then that I learned to throw a forehand, and then when I found out that Ultimate actually involved plays rather than simply running circles around the guy with the disc and screaming "throw it to me!!!!".

Sadly, if I were to put together a tally of all of the games of Ultimate I've played, I'd bet I'd have a career record of something like 157-415. Basically, my "career" dates back to playing in college and getting our asses kicked by the three "national champions" in our area, playing club and getting our asses kicked by the elite teams in our area, and playing local league and getting our asses kicked by the other teams in the league. Yup, lots of ass-kicking, and I was usually on the wrong end of the foot.

Today was the first day of the fall season in my local league. My summer season didn't really end that well - we went on a end-season decline that was pretty brutal and demoralizing. So I kept my expectations reserved for today, even if this was a completely different team.

I guess I should point out that I'm not really the most consistent player out there. Case in point a game I played on Thursday. I was so completely erratic, it was laughable. I made several really amazing plays, but made equally as many blisteringly stupid decisions. I'd like to think I'm an above-average player, but it's hard to ignore my record. (I have to have some responsibility there.)

I think part of my problem is that with ten years of "experience", I feel like the team is relying on me for some kind of leadership. So I try and do more than I'm capable, or expect to do something beyond my actual talent. Sometimes it works, and I do something amazing. Most times, though, it doesn't work out as planned, and I look like the goat.

Anyway, back to today. During the first game, we come out strong and go up early. Then, they come back. After a lot of point-swapping, we go up 12-9, and figure it's in the bag. Then we drop the next three points to tie it at 12.

The last point of the game goes on forever. Everybody's running everywhere, and we're somewhat disorganized. I figure I might as well just run to the middle of the field and let everything happen around me.

Just then, a positively beautiful throw goes up and one of our players comes down with it in the end-zone. Score.

See? I did squat and we won. Not a bad way to play the game.

We regroup after the game, and notice that our opponent for the second game has a TON of players. If I had to guess, they probably had seventeen players, while we were down to twelve. (Seven play at a time, so the more you have, the more subs are available, the better off you are towards the end of the game.)

We start out on a tear, and go up 5-1. Right about then, we hit the wall. Their team storms back and takes the next four points, tying the game at 5.

At that point, we start swapping points. We go up a couple, they grab a couple more. Then, out of nowhere, one of our players goes down with an injury. About five minutes later, two of our players have to leave. Suddenly our squad of twelve is down to nine. And, yeah, they still have seventeen.

We figure we're toast.

The other team decides that this is the time to put in their "big" lineup. Our tallest guy is probably 6'1", and four of the players they put out are over 6'3". They run a set play - the guy covered by our shortest player goes deep, huck, score. They score one more to go up 11-10.

Strangely, though, the plays are so quick that we're actually able to rest our exhausted squad. So we bear down and turn it up.

Two great defensive moves, and we're up 12-11. They collect themselves and tie the game at 12.

The next point lasts an eternity. We turn it over, and my heart jumps as they move down the field to score. Near the end zone, they turn it over, and we start to move it back down the field.

After several more turnovers by each team, we finally get the disc within a few yards of our end zone. Everyone is running everywhere. It's a totally convoluted mess. An errant throw comes up, and we turn it over. Again.

But wait. There's a foul on the throw. So we recollect ourselves. I call out a play, which everyone proceeds to ignore in favor of more running amok.

Just when things look bad, a short throw goes up to the front of the end zone. Catch. Score.

The greatest part about the second game was that we counted ourselves out numerous times over the course of the game. Especially at half-time. We were so completely exhausted, we figured the game was a total loss. Yet, somehow, we never gave up and came out with a win.

Sure, my play-by-play sucks. And I haven't mentioned anything that I did, other than, you know, not doing something. That's actually the coolest part, though - when my team's playing well, I tend not to notice where and when I made a good play or a bad play. I seem to remember a couple of really nice grabs (and a couple of not-so-great throws), but, honestly, my own performance wasn't the highlight for me.

I have to admit - these kinds of games are the most fun to play. I played in a tournament recently where we either blew out the other team or got blown out by the other team. And while I had fun playing, the games weren't fantastic. The best games are always the ones that go down to the wire - where each team is giving it their all to the last point. Even if you lose, you go home with the satisfaction of knowing that you were never out of it.

For me, Ultimate is usually just a way to hang out with fun people, win or lose. Ultimate folks don't really have to have anything else in common - they can simply come together and enjoy each other's company for a couple of hours. (And sometimes they do crazy stuff like the Whopper Mile.)

But I can't hide the fact that winning kicks ass. It's nice being on the right end of the foot.