Welcome! We are just to embark on Day 3 of the Thrilled 32 round of the 2014 May Mayhem Tournament of Champions, with some more good folks featured in today's match-ups. But, first, as always, taking a moment to honor America with our National Anthem, as performed by Demi...Lovato (?):
I have no idea who Demi Lovato is, but, now, we shall proceed with today's action!
1) Aneel Arya vs. 8) Pat Bradach
World Men's Region
Since Aneel is probably waiting up for this (he's on Eastern Time), I'll get his match-up finished first, so that he can get to bed sooner; the man has got to get up in the morning and make that money, after all. This is an interesting match-up because I don't see these guys all that often -- well, I don't see Bradach all that often (usually a half-dozen times a year, I'd say), and I've never actually met Aneel.
Due to the limited interactions with both of these gents, I don't have a lot of great stories or memories associated with them. I've had some good conversations with Bradach over the years -- over artwork, writing, creative ventures and the like -- and I interact with Aneel quite regularly during football season, until the 49ers play the Saints -- out of respect, I try not to trash them, even though we got screwed with that hit on Brees last year, and so I have legitimate reason to trash them. Speaking of football, the last time that I saw Bradach, actually, was at the 4th Annual Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving morning.
The highlight of that game being -- well, one was the fact that after all of the trash talking that BDub did (about how he was going to shut me down on "BDub Island"), he didn't bother showing up for the game (typical Fuchs) -- was when Bradach was making a play on defending the ball against John Herboth (receiving) and, some how, ended up on his shoulders or something, sending both of them tumbling to the ground, sunglasses got flung a few yards away.... it was a really physical defensive play. I only note that because it was 2-on-2 with an all-time QB, on a holiday, and half of us hadn't played football in years (i.e. not a competitive game at all, haha). But, hey, that's what you get when you have Bradach and John lined up against one another; both of those guys bring it and that's just part of their game.
Aneel has two things going for him in this match-up: 1) he is, without doubt, the most vocally-invested player in the Tournament this year.... by far. He has created memes for it; has a comment thread specifically for the Tournament; taunts where appropriate (and also where unnecessary); and, yeah, was quite motivated by his falling short in the Championship battle with Andy Gorder last year; and 2) that I don't see Bradach all that often, and he may, in fact, be off the grid, and so, I have no idea when I may see him next.
Had Aneel been up against a heavy-hitter in this round, there's a good chance his quest for the Championship would have been thwarted. However, he didn't and so he advances to the Smooth 16 for the 2nd consecutive year!
3) Kristin Johnson vs. 6) Amy Barker
Portland Women's Region
While, rather incredibly, I haven’t known Kristin all that long, I’ve had some great times with her in the relatively short duration of familiarity. I believe that I met her, officially, within the last year or two; probably 4th of July 2012. That is the first time that I can remember meeting her, as her, Carolyn, and Chloe (I believe) came to Maui & BDub’s 4th of July party. Since then, however, I’ve seen her at dozens of parties (usually for about the 20mins she allots for those functions; though, sometimes bringing delicious brownies), and, most notably, Mardi Gras down in New Orleans this past March. Good times.
While I jest with
her (regularly) about forgetting her ID upon arrival at the airport that
morning, as well as the famed/infamous condiment faux pas from the White Eagle a
year ago, all of my stories and memories with Kristin have been fun ones. So
much so, we’re planning a trip up to see the Mariner’s later this summer (likely
August 13), along with Janelle Johnson (no relation); let me know if you are
interested, because we’ll have quite the caravan of awesome people assembled for
this journey.
As for a single memory or story, I think that it would probably
have to be one from NOLA, because that was a great trip. Actually, one that
just came to mind, when we were in Bernardo’s cab, en route to one of the city’s
oldest cemeteries (side note: Maui was really scared of the cemetery, despite it
being daylight and sunny), we started talking about sports with Bernie – who is
a native New Yorker (Yankee hat and all), who moved down to NOLA about 10yrs
ago. Anyway, I don’t remember exactly how it came up (I probably made fun of
the Mariners, or something like that), but then Kristin dropped the bombshell
that – despite being born and raised in Olympia – that she is a Red Sox fan, to
which, Bernie and I, in unison, exclaimed with great surprise/disbelief. It
made no sense to either of us.
There was a follow-up bombshell that Kristin
dropped on us immediately thereafter, too, but I don’t recall it, thankfully; I
was probably still reeling from the Red Sox bombshell, but I’m not sure if I
would have been able to endure the second earth-shaking revelation that she was
bestowing upon us in the cab. I remember it being equally as surprising as the
Red Sox fanfare, though. I’ll see if I can remember it. I had my “road
Hurricane” with me that day, though, so the details are a little
fuzzy. #NOLA
I haven’t spent much time with Amy over the
years, and so I don’t really have much in the way of a singular memory or story
with her. However, she is one of my favorite people considering those facts and
if she didn’t live 3,000 miles away, I’d hang out with her.
She has always
seemed really sweet and kind; she knows how to (and enjoys) dancing, as well,
which – as we know – I almost went professional after I mastered a few sessions
a year ago. However, the schedule and demands placed upon the professional
dance circuit would have been too much for me to endure. Plus, I would have
missed Spaz if I was on the road a lot – and he doesn’t like it when I go away
for long periods of time – so the professional circuit wasn’t for me, and so I
keep my dancing to my place and, of course, the end zone.
Sadly, we don’t play enough football up here to where I get to really dig deep into my repertoire of celebratory dances, but, nonetheless, I keep a few chambered just in case I’m put on BDub Island (read: being “defended” from 20 miles away).
Sadly, we don’t play enough football up here to where I get to really dig deep into my repertoire of celebratory dances, but, nonetheless, I keep a few chambered just in case I’m put on BDub Island (read: being “defended” from 20 miles away).
Anyway, my lone
memories of Amy are from when she was dating fellow Villan down the hall (Ben
Foran), back in college, and then, shortly after college, when I bought an
excess futon mattress from her, prior to her move to Florida. So, there’s not a
lot there for me to go off of, and so I’ll advance Kristin to the Smooth 16, but
Amy is awesome and this match-up is a good one; Kristin gets the edge due to
proximity and, thus, the more abundant story/memory-making opportunities.
8) Eric Benedetti vs. 16) Stephen Cannon
Portland Men's Region
I don’t have any singular memory or story with Stephen, as we’ve hung out mostly in the house party environment and shooting hoops with Maui over at that one school by the U (Astor?). Anyway, while I haven’t hung out with Stephen all that much, I did enjoy the stories from his birthday shenanigans the other month that involved the typical drunken debauchery as well as laser tag. I also enjoyed his comments and participation when I start hating on Spokanistan (his hometown – to be fair, I poke fun mostly at BDub, who is also a Spokanistan native; but a “Valley folk”, I believe), and that it irritates me when UP grads are bigger fans of Gonzaga – which does bother me, but, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to stay in Spokanistan, either, if I were them. I had my fill of Albuquerque over the course of 18yrs; Lord only knows what they must have went through with 18yrs in Spokane.
Did you know
that, prior to the Internet age, movies and other pop culture only came to
Spokane once a year? It’s true; this wagon would roll into town, from Seattle,
into the town square and, for just one weekend over the summer (the only time of
year that doing things in Spokane is possible, due to snow and generally
deflating conditions), the wagon would show the latest movies and have
contemporary music available for the people of Spokane to enjoy. After the
weekend was up, though, the wagon packed everything back up, and headed back to
civilization. That, ladies and gentleman, is why folks like BDub were so far
behind on pop culture references when I first met him. While that little
anecdote only vaguely applies to Stephen, it’s what I am rolling with. I
appreciated his trash-talking and bold stance when facing sure-elimination as
the #16 seed, and so I gave him a pass into the Thrilled 32 round of the
Tournament.
Meanwhile, due to various 49ers games over
the past couple of seasons, as well as hanging out with a lot of the same people
(Maui tends to be the most common as of late), probably my favorite story with
Eric comes from last year’s 4th of July on the
coast.
Due to his near-expert proficiency with cameras, he got some really
sweet pictures of the fireworks show that we put on for all of the citizens of
Rockaway Beach who were blessed enough to stay up late enough to see our grand
finale. To recap, for those of you unfamiliar, Maui and Glenn were igniting the
last of our cache at midnight as the traditional “grand finale” right before
midnight. Anyway, the simultaneous ignition of the fireworks made for a pretty
spectacular display of light and sound.
 |
| This is a good one; there are a lot of them that were really good, though. |
Eric was able to capture the sequence
with stunning detail and it is one of my favorite pictures from 2013 – so much
so, in fact, that it will likely become a nomination for the new Ryan Award
category this year: “Picture of the Year”. You can thank Maui, the reigning
Ryan Award MVP for the creation of that category, as it shall become the new
tradition of the MVP to create a category (if they so wish).
In more recent
developments with Eric, I enjoyed his taunting of Andy after the unprecedented
first-round exit from the Tournament. However, Eric made a rookie mistake when
it comes to taunting, in that you have to wait until after you clear the hurdle
that claimed the taunted, before you can start taunting. In short: Eric was
premature with his taunting because Stephen just ousted him from the Tournament
as well. #Boom #ShakaLaka
And now, the Round 2 : Day 3 "Marquee Match-Up" presented by John Dudzic, LMT:
If you're aching and need some assistance that only the highest-quality massage can provide, look no further than John Dudzic, LMT. He's friendly, committed to helping others, a great guy, and he's a licensed professional (#20372). The other week, John posted that he (via Palaquin Massage) was having massage appointments for a mere $40! Give him a holla and see what he can do for you.
You don't even need to name-drop me for special treatment, either!! He'd treat you right whether you know me, have never heard of me, or even hated me -- a true man of the people. You can find him on Facebook or contact him through Palaquin (I don't feel comfortable posting his phone number on the Internet, but if you message me, I can send it to you, for sure).
If you're aching and need some assistance that only the highest-quality massage can provide, look no further than John Dudzic, LMT. He's friendly, committed to helping others, a great guy, and he's a licensed professional (#20372). The other week, John posted that he (via Palaquin Massage) was having massage appointments for a mere $40! Give him a holla and see what he can do for you.
You don't even need to name-drop me for special treatment, either!! He'd treat you right whether you know me, have never heard of me, or even hated me -- a true man of the people. You can find him on Facebook or contact him through Palaquin (I don't feel comfortable posting his phone number on the Internet, but if you message me, I can send it to you, for sure).
3) Ember White vs. 6) Janelle Johnson
World Women's Region
In terms of memories or stories, probably my favorite one of Janelle was one that I, sadly, did not witness -- but I hope to catch the rematch. She raced Maui, sometime last year, I believe, and she WHIPPED him....whipped..... him....badly. You're probably reading this saying: "Gee, Ryan, that's kind of vague. What does 'badly' even mean??" - and I'll tell you: Janelle whipped him so badly in that race that:
1) I have heard, from Maui, four different excuses as to why he lost.... FOUR.... ranging from him not having a belt thus his pants falling down, not wearing the right shoes, to Janelle/the judges cheating, and none of them were because Janelle is, simply, just faster than he is; and....
2) the fact that he has come up with passionate excuses as to why he lost, suggests that it had to have been really bad...otherwise, why would he even care? It's not as though a lot of Maui's identity is tied up in his insane athletic prowess or foot speed. Had he just lost by a step or two, maybe he comes up with one excuse, or just begrudgingly admits that Janelle is faster than him... but four excuses? It had to have been by a few yards. Maybe Maui didn't even finish the race it got that bad.
So it must have been bad. Hopefully, as the summer nears, the rematch will be scheduled, and I sure hope that I'm there to see it.
Probably my favorite memory with Ember was when she came over to Maui's to celebrate New Year's Eve with us -- a party that ended up being me, Maui, Ember, and Eric. Throughout the course of the night, after the Knisters departed for the evening, we started playing beer pong in the Sky Lounge of Maui's building. It was a rusty game, at first, because I'm not typically one for the drinking games (however, we only had 4 people at the party, so I stepped up), and Ember, I believe, was rusty, too. Well, after midnight when the security guy kicked us out, so that he could lock down the Sky Lounge and enjoy his own holiday, we moved the game back to Maui's apartment.
Once there, we kept playing and Ember made this RIDICULOUSLY challenging shot. For those of you unfamiliar with Maui's apartment's layout: envision a long rectangle, okay? Then put a couch on one side, with the beer pong table parallel to the couch. On the far end of the rectangle, picture a loveseat and then imagine that the loveseat is situated about 12 feet from the far edge of the beer pong table. Have you wrapped your mind around all of that so far? Yes? No? No bother... Ember sunk a shot, on the far side of the beer pong table, from (if I had to guess) probably a 45-degree angle, while SITTING DOWN on the loveseat. It was incredible.
We then jested that she should have played sitting down the whole night (she had struggled from time to time in the early games). Oh, and then Eric and Maui both didn't believe me or Ember that she was slightly taller than me. Short people. I don't blame them, regardless on if Ember was my height, slightly taller, or slightly shorter, they'd still be looking up to the both of us, anyways.
I'm looking forward to volleyball season in a few weeks/months, too! I may need to start practicing my defensive maneuvers, though, because Ember has a laser-guided serve, and she may be upset with me that I'm advancing Janelle to the Smooth 16 next week. It's a tough call to make, but the bracket says that only one can advance; I'm a slave to the bracket and its demands.
####
And, just like that, we have 3/4 of the Smooth 16 now identified, with the final four members to be discovered tomorrow evening!
-Ryan.
Commissioner
May Mayhem Tournament of Champions
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