Boulder, Colorado

I had the honor of being selected to speak at Ignite Boulder 6. Ignite is an entertaining night of presentations from members of the community - speaking on a wide variety of topics. The catch? Their presentations, each 20 slides, advance automatically every 15 seconds.

It's limiting for sure, but the pressure makes you focus on crafting a meaningful and memorable talk.

This was my third time speaking at Ignite Boulder. The first was <em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt1oN7cNWZE">A Whirlwind Tour Through 8 Decades of Food Advice</a></em> at the first Boulder Ignite - a crowd of roughly 150. The second was <em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbmBzc1rkkY">My Mom Just Joined Facebook, Now What?</a></em> at Ignite Boulder 4, to a crowd of almost 500.

This time I talked about the lessons I learned through a life of playing video games in <em>Our Princess is in Another Castle</em> to a sold out crowd at The Boulder Theater - roughly 800 people.

The night was fantastic, and the other presenters did an amazing job. I always enjoy the challenge of entertaining the Ignite audience, and though this presentation wasn't as funny as my previous - I'm proud of the result. Check out the video below.

When I was 18, I played for Cooler by the Lake, Milwaukee's prominent Ultimate Frisbee club team. We advanced from sectionals to regionals (there are only three tiers leading to a national champion - sectionals, regionals, and then nationals - the 16 best teams in the country) and I didn't get to play - having just moved out to upstate New York for college.

This summer I wanted another shot at regionals.

I got it with the local Boulder team Love Tractor. After losing half of my season to a hamstring - I returned healthy and ready to play, playing some of my best frisbee in Cow Patty, an August tournament held in Greeley.

We took to the amazing fields at Dick's Sporting Goods complex (outside of Denver) and played some of our best frisbee of the summer.

Though I have complained that we often play like we know the result before it happens (play just well enough to beat weaker teams, and play like we expect to lose against better teams) - it didn't happen this tournament. In fact, we took an early 3-0 lead against the top seed in our bracket (in a game to 11).

In the end, the top 8 teams advanced to regionals and we placed...8th. For the first time ever, I had no turnovers for an entire tournament (though we had a lot of subs so I only played about 25% of our points).

And I saved the sad part till last, I re-injured my hamstring (which had already kept me out for the middle half of the season)...and cannot play at Regionals in two weeks. Excuse me now while I weep softly...