
Top post painting: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... -neck.html
I love these NYT breakdowns of art. There's so much detail in them, and so much to learn. Makes me miss going to museums. These days the most risk I'm willing to assume is running into the grocery store at non-peak hours while wearing a mask and getting out in less than 5 minutes. I miss a lot of stuff about pre-pandemic times. Not being able to play in an air conditioned gym has made this Worlds filming period super brutal, since the heat and smoke just don't seem to go away.
Worlds filming...has been tough. Really really tough. I focused 90% of my energy on Shred Off, since that's the event where my body and camera are least likely to overheat. I had some bad luck ending up in the pool with the top seed for the event, but my previous rounds weren't great due to my playing conditions so it wasn't a total surprise either. Once I saw I was in the pool with Honza I decided to go all out, because I figured it'd lead to one of two outcomes:
1. I upset Honza and go back to Shred Off finals.
2. I don't upset Honza, but I go out on a strong note with a 2 minute video I can be proud of.
I think this was the right decision, but man it almost killed me trying to get 2 good minutes of footage. Several sessions where I finished with a headache or dry heaving, several clips that didn't film due to camera overheating, and several clips I had to refilm on other days due to poor video quality from the smoke. I got the results this morning and Honza beat me, but I feel very proud of my submission. Especially given the conditions I had to play/shoot in to get it.
I didn't touch Shred30 until after my Shred Off footage was submitted since I knew the deadline was later, making it a lower priority. I worked on it a bit this weekend and feel like I just need one lucky run. Ideally I'd plan it all out and make it through the 30 seconds with no improv, but now I'm thinking I should make it as far as I can following my plan, and once I start losing control just close out the remainder of time focusing on not dropping. I have until Friday to get something shot, though I also have work (and a sick kid again) between now and then so we'll see if I can get a submission together. We're all competing for silver, since Vasek apparently cracked 280. I don't see myself getting there even on a good day.
On the topic of barely submitting something on time, I woke up last Friday still without any routine shot. Work got pretty crazy in the morning so I thought it likely I'd have to scratch from routines entirely. Then out of the blue Mathieu pings me on Discord. He tells me Nathan is scratching and he encourages me to just film anything, as I could probably limp into finals even with a crappy intermediate routine. I decide he's probably right so I went out and tried to film something. My legs were heavy from all the ShredOff pushes of the past week, and it was hot as hell out. I set a time limit for myself, and mercifully was able to hit an easy dropless routine on my 3rd try. I got the results this morning and it looks like Mathieu was right; I was able to limp into Finals with it. Now the million dollar question is what am I going to do for finals? I don't have anything prepared, and my playing situation doesn't look like it's getting any better... the smoke has cleared a bit, but the heat is still brutal, and now it looks like I have a sick kid to deal with too.
Oh yeah, Shred30 is due tomorrow at midnight and I don't even have a backup fimed. Yipes.