Muffinman

[Muffinman]

Stretching is super important for me especially, actually, since I'm so prone to injury. Don't worry, Ken

I just had my second recovery session. I almost didn't go out, even though it's a super perfect 17 Celsius, since I was struggling with a bit of glute pain all day (like sciatica, I guess?) My back pain mostly disappeared but was replaced with pain down my right leg. I have one stretch that helps quite a bit, but it's been pestering me for a while. Anyway, I did manage to get out for a cycle to find a secluded shred spot. OMG such a mess of non-social-distancing!! One of the first things I saw was a family of like 15 BBQing along the bike path! WTF! Ugh. People D:

I probably played for about 20 minutes or so again. I didn't really time. My speaker died about halfway through which kinda sucked, but was a good sign to wrap up. Let me try to remember highlights:

-spinning clipper > gyro clipper repeat
-ducking clipper > diving clipper repeat
-a 45-contact run
-(clip > pdx mirage > clip > near mirage) repeat > (clip > far legover > clip > near legover) repeat > (far pickup > near pickup) repeat -- wanted to add the illusions, but didn't push it since illusions are tough for me

That's about it? I did film a little too, so got some of this on video:




Watching this video now, I think this is a good time for me to work on a couple of things: stalling my flip osis longer and getting rid of that strange claw that happens to my flip hand...

I think I'll aim for playing once a week for now, keep it safe. Maaybe twice if I can space them out far enough.
I guess while I'm here, I've been working on a fun project at work, which is rad. I had a lot of fun building some database interfaces with this new software that we're implementing. My manager is on vacation this week and my homework was to build out a specified number of databases, which was kinda super daunting, but once I figured it out I was having a real blast and even lost track of time and worked past end of day a bit. It's nice when work is that exciting.

Also in other news, my brother decided to re-host our family Minecraft server, so we started playing that again, and OMG it's so addicting. My older brother, his wife, my fiance, and my younger brother (but not his wife) all play Survival together. My most recent build was a Nether path that connects all of our bases through Nether portals, which minimizes the distance you have to travel in the overworld down to 1/8 through the Nether, which is great especially because there's a giant, dark, scary forest that fills the overworld between our places. Also I built the entire floor out of glass so that zombie pigmen can't spawn in the tunnel.

Oh yeah, I also got roped into yet another footbag project, lol, also sounds super fun, so, gonna try to find time for that some time... But I haven't touched that first one in a few weeks...

Anyway, shower time and then daily drawing.



EDIT: Oooh, top post again! I just got Eliza Ivanova's artbook in the mail today. So gorgeous.

[boyle]

Great stamina there, long runs.

What are those buildings in the background? Looks like a cool place to shred.

Excellent that you're back to shredding - hope you can keep at it without anymore injuries.

[cammel]

Awesome video! Really cool spot. Really makes me want to train more ducking and spinning. Pretty sure the only time I used to spin was during an osis or if I was falling over. That 45 contact run was impressive! The drill with all the combinations of near/far mirage, illusion, pickup, legover seems like a really good goal, adding that to the list .

[Muffinman]

Thanks guys!

What are those buildings in the background? Looks like a cool place to shred.

The buildings are part of Ontario Place, which is, hmmm... like a... "Entertainment venue", Google says. It's got like, a water park, an enclosed pond with swans and swan pedal boats, I think there are animals, like maybe a petting zoo? There are concerts there, I saw Cirque du Soliel there last year... The big dome in the background screens movies, though I don't think I've seen one in there. I should! Apparently it was the first permanent IMAX theatre in the world. I live just a 3 km bike ride down the lake from Ontario Place.

Nice Milk Erik!

This is a quote from Mathieu's blog, but OMG. You know all of the same artists that I love! I never think these are high-profile artists until I see you know them all too! Or maybe we're just in the same bubbles... I'm curious what artists you'd recommend I check out. It seems like we have very similar taste!



I played in the same spot today, but filmed from another angle to mix it up. I don't know why I played in the same spot. If you notice, I kept stumbling on that ridge of cement and grass, and it was all on a slight incline, so spinning kept throwing me off. But it was a nice session, despite 28-celcius heat! (Google says that's 82.4 F) I had zero back/glute pain all day! That's going to be a main qualifier for these recovery sessions is that I'll try to cycle every day, but only stop for a hack session if my back is 100%. So far so good, though I've still got sea legs! Also, too bad, I didn't get to show off my quarantine haircut, lol. The fiance cut it last night and it looks... better than expected! (But still bad, hahaha)

I was pretty frustrated to see that I framed the shot way too low, but now I know to just aim significantly higher than I think I need to. I also started a fun routine where I film on my phone, then when I'm done the session, while I’m catching my breath, I just edit it quickly in iMovie, and then upload when I get home while I'm stretching/doing yoga. It's such a more seamless process! I think you said this is what you've been doing for a while now, Ken. I see why!





I happened to check out Twitch a couple nights ago. I'm rarely on there, but I'm subscribed to gamers who stream Souls games, and also some friends and artists. I happened to catch Paul Gresset's stream. He's a former footbagger and streams really hard Mario Maker levels. Every time I catch one of his streams he asks about footbag, so he asked to watch my latest video and played it on his stream, which was pretty neat. There were like 75 people watching live, which isn't a lot compared to big-name streamers, but that's a huge audience for a hacky sack video. Haha. I managed to capture the reaction, though it goes all sideways when I tried to read the comments:

[cammel]

Nice! Glad to hear there was no pain! The water there is giving me serious anxiety, is it as close as it looks? My footbag definitely goes flying out in random directions fairly frequently and I'm sure it would end up at the bottom of whatever body of water that is. Loved the swirls, I never really got comfortable with that movement.

[Muffinman]

Thanks Gray.
Actually, I can do reverse swirls, but not regular ones -- I could never figure that out either.
The water was far enough away that I wasn't concerned, since i'm not doing any big tricks that would fling the bag that far. It's nice to be by the water though



RECOVERY SESSION #4
Alex invited me to a session with him and one of the new guys on Sunday, but I'm a night owl and I usually stay up until somewhere between 4-6 AM on weekends, so I didn't make it. But then suggested we jam today at a closer park (the Sunday location was also pretty far and an up-hill cycle, so that along with the lack of sleep was enough for me to pass). Anyway, we met up today and played for 1-1.5 hours? Maybe? I don't know. A bunch of time was spent trying to find a nice, smooth, even, social distanced spot to play in this big park with tons of people. We did play with separate bags, and keep our distance, and I wore a mask when I wasn't playing and when I wasn't cycling. This was the second time seeing someone in person since work at home started. The first time was my brother and his wife briefly dropping off face masks for us, but they didn't even leave their car.

Anyway, not really much to say, but I filmed a few runs, and it was great to see Alex!
Oh, also, I pushed a little more than I meant to, so we'll see how that feels tomorrow.

[acxel22]

new guy ? wait those exist?

[Asmus]

Looking good!

[Tjuggles]

Nice stuff!

How are your rev swirls out of osis?

[Muffinman]

new guy ? wait those exist?

Lol. Technically I guess he's not new anymore, so maybe not...
Apparently our other "new guy" contacted Alex recently, out of the blue after a long absence, so that's also neat. He's an older new guy, but I think this newer one has trained harder and has more tricks/control.

Looking good!

Thanks Asmus

Nice stuff!

How are your rev swirls out of osis?

I think they're okay. I had this comment in mind at today's session, but I forgot to try. Next time! I guess I would try something like osis > twist > far osis > twist repeat? Or did you have something else in mind? I did a few twists today -- (far clipper > twist) x6.



Whew, met up with Alex, Camille, and the new guy, Mark. He's not actually that new now, since he's been playing a bit longer than I've been out on injury, which has been a while. And actually he saw us play footbag back in 2007, so he's known about it and us for a long time, just only recently started learning true freestyle. Today he learned near mirage from toe for the first time and immediately was doing mirage and near mirage BSOS! Good stuff. Alex was playing pretty well. Camille was playing maybe the best I've ever seen!

Let me try to remember some highlights. Keep in mind I played a lot harder than I intended to/probably should've:
-10x legover > 10x pickup > 10x near mirage
-10x spinning clipper > ducking clipper > 10x spinning clipper > rev mullet > hand catch
-20x ripwalk > blurry whip
-10x ducking legover > paradon > hand catch
-barfly, paradon, ddd all BS
-ducking symp mirage BSOS?
-spinning whip BSOS
-whip war 2 first and only try

Hmmm, not sure what else.
It was perfect weather, and just a blast to spend time with friends. We social distanced and used separate bags. Also, I think we played close to 2 hours off and on! There was a lot of just standing and talking, which was great by me, 'cause my stamina is terrible. I'm just winded so easily now!

Video from today:

[Tjuggles]

Great stuff, Erik. Really glad to see you back at it.

[cammel]

Awesome stuff! The blurry rev whirl > stepping rev whirl drill looks great. Rev whirls as definitely a concept I never really put any time into doing, I should try those out.

[boyle]

Looks like awesome weather there. Cool to see the new players popping up, even in a time of pandemic.

[Muffinman]

Thanks guys.
Yeah, weather has been great!
The new guy here, Mark, has been around since last season... well, almost 2 seasons ago I guess. But it's great that he's coming out and is so motivated!



RECOVERY SESSION #6
I missed Sunday's session (I think it was Alex and Mark) and had been dying to play all week, but I've been super exhausted lately. I nap on my lunch break for probably 45 minutes, then I sometimes nap after work, and then I even try to get to bed early, getting 9+ hours every night, but I'm just barely awake all day. I almost played yesterday but then my back felt not 100%, so I put it off. Then today it also wasn't the best, but I decided that I needed a session for my mental health more than anything else. I'm glad I went out. I biked just 1 km to a community centre down the street, checking out their cemented outdoor area. It was kinda gritty and not super flat, but it was more secluded than the school yard that's literally across the street from my apartment. I didn't want to have to deal with people talking to me or anything.

I played for 30 minutes, though I thought it was 45-60 'cause the time on the old iphone I use for my music is completely wrong. It was super hot out though, and I forgot my sweat towel, so I was drenched! I didn't really do much, or any freestyle runs, just some osis-focused drills, which I want to work more on. So the notable things are in the video I put together. I did forget to say that from the last session I hit ((pdx mirage > near butt > osis) x2) x10, so 60 contacts. That was nice. I remember feeling kinda out of control, but the more repetitions I did the more I got used to the pdx mirage motion, which is what was throwing me the most.





VIDEO GAMES
The Last of Us 2 comes out tomorrow. I pre-ordered it and I'm pretty excited. I'm in need of a linear, story-focused game. Though I did also get Horizon Zero Dawn this past week because it was $10 for the complete edition, in physical form! Actually, my fiance's been playing that and really enjoying it. Otherwise, I'm stoked for the Demon's Souls remake. The only reason that I would try to buy a PS5 on launch is if Demon's Souls or Elden Ring were launch titles, but that seems unlikely. I'm also super excited for Baldur's Gate 3, which will have early access at the end of the year!

[C-Fan]

Loving the osis-stepping links, on both sides.

How are your double spins? Would love to see some, as I think they'd look dope with your style.

[cammel]

Seconded! those osis-stepping links are awesome. Every time I see one of your videos it makes me want to train ducking and diving more.

[Muffinman]

Thanks guys.
Double spins aren't back yet. I tried a few times during session #5 (3 sessions ago) and it was too sloppy. I'm still working on just getting single spins back consistently, lol.

Jammed with Alex today. It was sooo hot out. He said that there was a heatwave warning and that people were encouraged to not be active outside. Oops! I didn't play too well generally, like lots of short, lame runs, but I'm happy with the highlights I was able to get into the video. Alex's footage is being saved for Worlds competition, so I didn't include any.

The only note is that the gyro diving clipper > ripwalk > spinning ducking clipper > ripwalk drill is something I don't think I've hit before, but have tried, so it feels good to be back at a point where I can hit decent things I was trying before! Otherwise, still struggling just to get back to basics. My flip pixie is always one of the hardest things to get back... ugh.

Oh, also, that osis and twist drill was for TJ. Will try to add in far osii next time.

[Tjuggles]

Oh, also, that osis and twist drill was for TJ. Will try to add in far osii next time.

Yay I saw that! Looking good. I find adding swirls like that really helps me with balance. It also helps me with ensuring the delay is solid.

[Muffinman]

Yeah, I could use better balance. I wish I could slow down my game somehow. Just be less spastic and be more smooth. Anyway, had another solo session. Was super stiff to start, but warmed up after a while. Oof, my body takes so much longer to recover now that I'm getting pretty close to 40! I'm super thankful I can play at all though! And, actually, playing twice a week is more than I was playing when I was last active, so that's awesome! Also great, 'cause I could use the exercise. It feel like I'm still gaining weight. Need to double-down on my diet!

RECOVERY SESSION #8:

[Tjuggles]

Need to double-down on my diet!

...or if you are really serious, symposium double-down!