I never was big on Van Eyck, as I usually found the facial expressions in his paintings to be very bland and similar. I've heard people joke that everybody in his paintings looks like Putin, including the women. But I found this analysis of a reflection in one of his more famous paintings to be real interesting: https://www.futilitycloset.com/2017/08/ ... ective-13/
I have been playing basketball quite a bit lately. I am really bad at it, but I've been enjoying going to a park with a local hoop. Today on our walk I went to another park in the next suburb with higher hoops. So I missed even more shots!
Wait what? All hoops should be at 10 feet. Were you shooting on a netball hoop before or something?
I think there are quite a lot in parks and school playgrounds which are set at 8 feet in Australia. But of course in competitions and proper centres, they are at 10 feet. The local park just has the hoop and backboard and a little cement area (which works well as a space to kick). It doesn't have any markings or anything. Netball height is actually also 10 feet for official matches, though a lot are lower for kids playing.
Interesting painting. There is certainly a bit of Putin in each of the characters. I don't think I'll spend the money on getting a similar style mirror, which they mentioned in the post. Intriguing that it was exactly 500 years later (1434-1934) that the guy came up with the particular explanation.
Just had a short session today, but it provided a new trick. Pixie diving symp mirage. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqBikrulPgC/ I've hit quite a few similar tricks, but not that one.
Nice trick.
Still impressed with all of the Instagram videos you post. And so many big tricks in them too.
I'd call this pixie zulu symp mirage though, or zulu assassin, since it's diving far.
You're right, that is zulu. I do the pixie diving ss mirage quite a lot, starting on the other foot. I don't think I could do it on the other side but might have to have a try at it.
I think Instagram is a really wonderful platform for footbag, it's great to see more players using it, but I would love to see even more. It's awesome to share a short string, or a drill, or whatever and have people comment or react immediately. For about the first half of the year I was doing most of the time a daily post on Instagram but I've cut that down, with the idea of trying to get more quality than quantity.
A lot of the time I'm only having quite short sessions, in my lunch break etc, so it can be nice to get something cool on camera in that short period (or frustrating to waste the precious time not getting anything!)
Yes, psyching him out without even knowing about it! Adam has been playing for a long time, right? I saw his name on one of the older lists from Worlds I was looking at the other day. I think they call that (or at least some people do) royal assassin.
Today was one of the wasted short sessions I mentioned in the last post. I was trying to hit some sick 3s, but I don't think I got any combos at all. Maybe try again later.
Made some progress on a few things. Finally hit a sick 3 combo for that Latino comp. I might see if I can better it in the coming days, but at least I have a decent combo in the bag. It's a 5>5>5 but I imagine there will be better combos in there. I will save that actual combo from the video, but it would probably be easy enough to guess as it's something I do reasonably regularly.
I hit parkwalk>motion sickness>ducking clipper - if I could make that final trick something better, that could be a great combo. Rafal Kaleta posted that combo he did in the Czech comp the other day - I think it was bs bedwetter>pixie motion>ducking ps torque. That guy has been really playing hard this year.
Another one I was trying was phoenix>blurry whirl>mobius, but I seem to have lost ability on mobius, I'm just not getting in the right position for the catch.
I started my Joulu video and actually I was making good progress but then had some problem with a corrupted file. I don't mind too much as I hadn't made that much progress. What was good to realise is that I probably already have enough footage to complete the video.
The total years playing time is a weird one for me, particularly because I had such a long time of just playing hacky sack - circle kicking and also consecutives. I got into freestyle in about 2001-2, but then I dropped off the scene for a couple of years, then came back around 2005, which is when I finally got some Lavers. Though I started playing hacky sack at school in 1997. I usually just say "more than 10 years" when people ask me how long I've been playing for.
All that's a long time ago. Speaking of a long time ago, in the past week I've seen a couple of friends play in bands that have marked 10 years as a band. Though both of them only play occasional shows, it's easier to get to that kind of mark. Which brings an interesting point to something Ken has been talking about lately - when do you stop being an active footbag player. Everyone has their own definitions on that, and some people go from active every day to active every couple of years. In other sports, you retire and maybe try to get a job as a coach but there's no setup in the background to do that in footbag. It seems particularly with players in the very top level, maybe they see a "window" and they really put a lot of focus into something like winning Worlds - then regardless of the outcome, they just stop.
I haven't done much extra work in my different project ideas. Today is slow at work so I might make some progress on there. Speaking of projects, I'm not sure I've mentioned this one here before but I'm in the process of attempting to write a book (fiction, nothing to do with footbag). I had a good run where I was writing something every day but I've gone off that, but it's something I will keep plugging away at.
That's pretty much what I said at the start of my last post.
- I sent off my Joulu video to Ryan. I couldn't fix my poor old files, but I was able to do the video again last night. Spoiler alert, I didn't manage to hit a beast to put in the video.
- I sent of my entry for the Sick 3 to Sergio. I didn't really get the chance to try for a better one. I see an error in my previous post, the combo was darkwalk into motion sickness, not parkwalk.
- I've been plugging away at a few more of these profiles. I'm getting the idea of releasing one each week for next year on my Sport/Life site. I think if I can get about 20 done by the end of the year, that will be something worth pursuing.
A short video - https://www.instagram.com/p/BqWs2N9FpZU/ - I was feeling sick the last few days but I'm recovered from that now. Not sure what that was all about. Just tired now. I stayed up quite late getting the video done and then had to be up early to go to work. I've got quite a few days off work while Francisca is organising a conference next week. Hopefully I can get some decent kicking sessions in over that time. We'll see how that goes.
- I've been plugging away at a few more of these profiles.
I'd love to help with this. I still can't see the back end of the submission form, so I don't know who you've done already or what's in there. Let me know if you'd like a hand or another set of eyes on this.
I'm excited to see the Latino Big 3. I was kind of hoping to participate myself, but I've been laywaid with bronchitis for 3 weeks now, to say nothing of my equipment issues.
I'll send you a PM, Ken. I'll send the list directly and otherwise just send a list of names. It would be great for some help with some of the older players that I know a bit about, but you would have a lot more detail.
It's great Sergio is running these. I was looking at some of those old Modified online competitions a while back - there was really hard stuff being hit in the sick 3 competitions and they were running regularly for quite a long time.
Hit a couple of new tricks today. Spinning ducking pickup on both sides (definitely new on flip, I believe on good side also). Flipside spinning diving butterfly. Also spinning ducking legover on flip. These are tricks that I should have done before but probably haven't even thought to try. I hit most of them within a few tries, though I found spinning ducking pickup quite difficult, but got it eventually. I had a weird kind of session this evening. Things weren't really clicking most of the way through but every now and then I'd get a decent run or cool combo. I did twirl>blender, which I'm not sure is a new link but it felt cool.
Looking forward to having the next few days off work. Almost a week actually, so that's pretty good.
On a less good note, it's coming up to one year since my Mum passed away. My Dad is going to come up and be staying here and we will do something together as the family to mark the day. It's a weird one, we've had things like Mothers Day, her birthday and this kind of thing which hasn't worried me too much, but this date in the calendar I've been looking at with some concern for a while, but I think it should all be fine.
The song I used in my calendar video is particularly about dealing with grief and also how sometimes people's well wishes don't really help. I was thinking of getting something together in time for that date, with a video to that song, but I think some people might not appreciate that, so I've made it for my Joulu video. I will say a bit more on that once it comes out, don't want to give it all away!
I can't believe it has been a year already. Holy shit.
I was talking with someone yesterday about parents passing away, that is, how my dad passed away back in 2003. I still think about him everyday and have so many things to ask him, so many things I want to do with him, etc. I don't think that will ever go away, but I do know that it gets easier to manage. The first Father's Day was harder than the second, which in turn was harder than the third, but it gets more manageable. I think you should be ok. What a crazy existence this is eh?
On a lighter foot, looking forward to seeing the video! I was planning on getting something together, but I can't seem to find the time. Excuse? I think so.
Looking forward to the video too.
Props on the new tricks. You should try gyro diving pickup -- even harder and cooler than spinning!
Also twirl > blender does sound super fun! Gonna try that next session!
Gyro diving pickup. That sounds pretty hard but within the realm of the possible. What I am super glad of is that the video is done already. We've had a lot on our plate and I think if I was trying to get a video out now it probably just wouldn't happen.
So I have had most of the past week off work, I said I was hoping to kick a lot. I don't think I really kicked for more than 5 minutes (which wouldn't have helped to make a video either).
Things are progressing, kind of, with the house. We are due to settle next week and hopefully that is going to happen just fine. I am waiting for one piece of paperwork which should have been sent today, but it wasn't, so I will chase them up tomorrow. The bank we were dealing with at first were taking way too long, so we called up another bank which we had started a process with before looking at houses and they were able to sort things out basically within just over a day - starting on a Saturday! Just waiting for a final confirmation on that. So that's been something, but it should all be resolved fairly shortly.
We have just had a house inspection today, which, just like always, is a pain and not worth having at all. The next one will be our final one of an empty house though, so we will get some professional cleaners in for that.
It's been a bit of a strange week actually. We got together with the family on Sunday to mark the one year mark, that was nice to be together. In the evening there was a concert on TV. I think Mum would have really liked it actually, particularly this song.
I've been a bit sick actually for some time now, different stuff seems to come up every few days. About one week ago I was not well at all and that seemed to pass through the family, then over the weekend I had bad indigestion/reflux sort of stuff at a level that I've never had before, I actually went and got something for that as it wasn't just passing by itself. Now I seem to have a bit of a cough, though that's not too bad - just annoying as summer is just around the corner, though today it's been raining quite heavily.
The other thing that is still pending is each year you need to register a certain amount of professional learning to keep being able to be a teacher. This is a real pain when you are not teaching regularly and I have heard more than one person say it means a lot of casual teachers slip out of the system. They always talk about bringing in "new tough measures to increase the quality of teachers" (funny that higher pay is not one of them). For practically every one of these new measures, it simply means extra work for teachers, and less teachers overall in the system.
I gave some money to the crowdfunding to the US Open tournament. I like that idea of crowdfunding for footbag, though I don't think this has been particularly well done (which is why it has less than 10 donations). I only gave a small amount and it's more in the idea of the future. There's some thread here on Modified in regards to crowdfunding to footbag tournaments, there's a lot of potential for it, a lot of possible issues, but if there's not going to be any sponsors, then it's a good way to get some kind of money into the tournament.
Actually really fun to hear about your house planning! I'm really into domestic stuff. Fun!
For the crowdfunding... Yeah. This has been something that keeps coming up at US Open that I haven't been very supportive of. (Last year they wanted $2000 just to stream live video??) I think the biggest problem I have is the way the organizers have been asking for money. All Jeremy Mirken did was make a post (the first I had seen this year) whining about why so few people had donated. He didn't explain what he was asking for money for, he didn't ask nicely, he didn't try to promote the sport or event in any way, he just said something, like, "Sad that so few people have donated" and then linked the funding page. Prior to that the only post I saw from him RE: US Open basically said something, like, "Book your hotel room through (enter person's name), or you'll be sorry. Don't say I didn't warn you." Super caustic and aggressive. Makes me specifically not want to donate money at all just because of the way he broached it. Or attend the event. Or support the event. Or anyone attending. Also, not only did he not explain where the money was going, specifically, but the funding page didn't either -- I read the multi-paragraph description... Like it gave a general idea, including prize money... but $2500 is a lot... How is that being allocated if they raise it all?
Sorry, that turned out really rant-y. I guess it was all to say that the way that people ask for money makes a big difference.
I agree with you completely. I could go on a longer rant, but you have said my thoughts exactly. I still gave some money but I didn't feel positive about it - I only gave a small amount of money anyway. This guy Jeremy seems to be like this all the time. I don't know if he's always been that way, I think he was much more involved in freestyle back in the day.
On a more positive note, I will tell you about my day yesterday. I went up to Sydney and saw Frenzal Rhomb (they are a classic Australian punk band), they were playing on a boat cruise on the harbour. It was pretty awesome. They have a song called "Ship of Beers". Appropriate. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq5dxFmFL6z/
I caught up with a guy I went to uni with, had a good time with him and some other friends. Then a couple of the guys from other bands were from Canberra as well, we used to go to a lot of the same parties and things long ago, so it was good to have a quick catch up with them. Then I caught the bus back home straight after, so that was a long journey but I was able to sleep most of the way home.
I'm not sure I would describe the house process as "fun" - but we're almost there, and that's something really exciting. Then we start the moving process - that's back to not exciting at all!
Two really cool videos to start off the Joulukalenteri. Exciting time of year. I saw that they are doing a similar thing with freestyle football this year, though they are only short videos.
I haven't played so much in recent days. I did make a vlog from the aforementioned trip to see the band on the boat.
Haven't done one of them in a while either. That was a fun trip. It's not the greatest quality as I took plenty of shots from within the action close to the front, so was getting knocked over etc. I might try and do a couple more vlogs before the end of the year. The last one I did was for the trip away for my birthday, and that's already 3 months back.
Erik would like this, we settled on the house yesterday and started moving some boxes in today. We will take our time to move across, probably about 6 weeks in total with the cleaning and everything, because it's going to be a big job to move the stuff. We've been in this current house for 4 years, so we have quite the collection of objects. If we can clear a few of the smaller things out, that will be a good start.
I was certain something would go wrong, but nothing did, so that's relieving. It's a pretty big deal, good to be done with that.
In the dinner break today I got a few of the link of the day. I hit dragon rev swirl>osis, though that's not quite the combo. I was about to pack up and got this little combo done. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq_6jD1FaWU/
I've had a look in the garage in the new place. The roof is a bit low so it's not as good a shred space, but there's a long driveway and another paved area. There's lights in the garage as well, so it will do the job when it's cold and dark too.
Niiice.
Also sweet fearless.
For the height of the garage, have you played in a short space before? I used to live in a basement apartment and the ceiling at its highest was about 2-3 literal inches above my head. I played footbag in there all the time and only once hit my head. And it was on a pdx blender, never anything symp, or eggbeaters, or tricks that I would expect to have jumped higher on.
