Moxie

[qphox]

Learn to love the legover, Emily. Legovers are your friend. Open your heart, if you let them in they will love you too.

*regains consciousness*

..Wha...what? What just happened?

[quadgun]

I don't know why I mentally really dislike the idea (of me) doing legovers. I think that I think they're harder than they are or something. And I hate pickups for the same reason.

I think you don't like them, because you always hear me rambling about how stupid they are.

[Moxie]

Thanks Kevin. Yeah, I'll learn to embrace the things that I find to be the most unpleasant. Like this stupid cat who lives in my house and likes to wake me up at 6am(!) to ask for food even though it knows that I never feed it. yep, legovers and cats.

And Kamil:

I think you don't like them, because you always hear me rambling about how stupid they are.

yeah, because I'm SUCH a pushover. "If Kamil thinks (blank), that's what I think too."

...but you do ramble quite a bit

[Jackbag]

Emily did I hear that you hit pixie legover?! Niiiice.
I hit legover>pixie last night, oh, and legover BSOS.
You stopped posting, so I'm using this as a way to kick-start you again.
How are your bags coming? Is closing easier?

Hope to read you soon,

*A

[Moxie]

Thanks, Amelia. I know I haven’t posted in here for way too long, way to keep me in check. And my craft stuff is going pretty well.

I’ve been kicking by myself every day (or sometimes every other day depending on how work was on that day.) I was skooling individual moves for a while so I could get some good drills down and it’s working well. I’m digging doing osis and pdx mirages right now. When I do stalls like toe>op toe I usually can keep going for a while but I drop because I get tired. So I’ve been working on stamina and got 93 in a row the other night. Nothing impressive, but still an improvement on the 60 something which was my previous high.

So to catch up on things:

On Sunday Jan 23rd (I think), Schneider, Carol, and Ahren met me at Golden Gate Park for a nice session. It was such a fun day. One of my problems with recapping sessions that I have with these really good people is that I still can’t recognize what I’m seeing a lot of the time. And when I ask what someone just hit, if I don't already know what the move is or looks like, chances are the name won’t stick in my mind. Anyway, I asked the guys if they could tell me what was hit by who so I could tell you so my blog entry wouldn’t be total dribble for once.

Jon said he's sure he forgot stuff, but here's what he remembers:

Ahren:
-Atomic Ducking Dragonfly with very good amplitude (a good big jump)
-Gyro symposium whirl

Carol:
-Many tripless combos of ripwalks, sidewalks, blurs, and paradox whirls
-Really nice swerves
-Rake to forehead stall to double-knee didit

Jonathan:
-Hit his second ever Fog (ripwalk to fog to a big long string which
included torque and spinning osis and whirling swirl)
-Some good stings of linked rolling tricks

I worked a lot on osis and I got some really useful advice. And Carol suggested trying butterfly>same butterfly, which I don’t even know why I hadn’t tried before. It’s great being able to kick with people who are comfortable enough to give suggestions. It’s so frustrating when people think they don’t know footbag or you well enough to tell you what you could try to do to help with something. I also hit pixie (ss?) drifter without planning on it.


CSS 6 is going to be so much fun!

I tried to skool fairy set for the first time a few days ago too. It was really fun (and really ugly looking.)

Hmm, a few days ago I played hack-sack in the park with some people. What else… for a few days I was considering giving up footbag for the semester because I hear all of these dedicated students talking about how they don’t play during the school year. I’m really wanting to do well this semester, so I figured I’d take things away that would distract me from my schoolwork. But after a friend told me his point of view on the matter, I realized that yeah, 20-30 minutes a day isn’t that bad even when I’ve had a long day.

I still don’t have full mobility with the bad ankle that I hurt in December. I’m trying to stretch it slowly because it’s just not as flexible as the right one. It still hurts some, and I can feel that it’s not as strong as the right one.

School starts on Feb 7th for me. Only a few more days of freedom left.


On a side note, in case any of you didn't know:
I've worked at a few different hotels, and before that I had no idea that you can usually bargain with them for a lower price if you're a walk-in. If you make a reservation, they probably won't budge at all on the price. But when a place isn't full and you don't look like a punk ass teenager who's going to trash the place, they'll usually work with you if their rate is just a little too much for you for the night. Another thing to remember, is when you go inside to ask for a quote, don't send the scrubby looking person out of the group because the price will change depending on how you look. It's not always like that at every hotel, but it's helpful to remember.

I saw a nice round rat scurrying about at one of my jobs the other day.

I decided that I want to try to spend at least like 10 min outside everyday. It's a waste to go through life not doing small things like that, I think. Nature's too nice for that.

Well, I just got home from work so I'm going to go do some drills.
Thanks for reading.

[mc]

On Sunday Jan 23rd (I think), Schneider, Carol, and Ahren met me at Golden Gate Park for a nice session. It was such a fun day.

holy crap. what was jon S doing out there? what an amazing circle, you're so lucky... good times, I'm sure.

by the way, is your last name pronounced "cool chick"?

m

[Uranos]

by the way, is your last name pronounced "cool chick"?

m

hahah i laughed so much nice one matt. It's a cool surname though.

Nice work on the pixie ss drifter! And thats so awesome that you got to shred with some big names!

[Moxie]

by the way, is your last name pronounced "cool chick"?

It sure it.

EDIT: Because of confusion, no, that was not sarcasm. That is the correct pronunciation.

[Moxie]

holy crap. what was jon S doing out there?

Oh yeah, he was visiting family in San Francisco.

[qphox]

Matt's right, that's a great circle. And I went, "Yeah!" at the computer when I read you'd hit pixie (ss?) drifter. SS or not, both moves are awesome.

Nature is nice.

[Moxie]

Damn it, okay, sorry guys, you thought I was WAY better than I am.

Okay, so when I did a pixie-no-plant clipper someone said it was pixie>drifter. So, not knowing that a real pixie>drifter was a hard move, (or rather, a move that’s too hard for me,) I didn't question that I hit that. Long story short, I did not do that much more difficult move. Anyway, I thought it was lame that it was pixie>drifter because it felt waay to easy. I told someone (the person who informed me of the mistake which was made) that it felt like it was like a cheating way to do a drifter.

Well. Everyone needs something to be embarrassed about every once in a while. I was long overdue anyway.

I'll see you at CSS. I'll be doing mirages, toe stalls, and clippers.

please don't stop reading my blog

[Moxie]

So I actually played with another person in town yesterday. Nate Maertens, who doesn't play much anymore, used to kick with the SoCal crew (Sam, Pinkus, Chad, etc). We're trying to get our schedules to allow us to play at least a few times a week. School started on Monday and I'm still working to it'll be interesting seeing when we can kick. No real highlights. We were both a little out of footbag shape, but that should change soon if we can get a routine schedule going.

Well that was boring, but it belongs here.

Check this out:

"Barely developed, the males — mostly packets of sperm — look like larvae and seem to subsist on remnants of yolk."

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archiv ... local.html

[CIC flurry]

What up E!

You seem to be playing a lot lately...that's great. 20-30 minutes is totally doable too, don't be like I was and not play during the whole semester. It just takes a little organization and will, and u will do it.

Tom
CIC

[Moxie]

Hey Tom! Sorry I haven't been posting lately.

Yeah, so I have been a total slacker with footbag recently. Before this weekend I probably played a few times a week for like 15 minutes each time. So what sucks (for people who weren't able to go but have earned it) is that even though I haven't played enough to deserve to go, I went to CSS6. Oh my god, Amazing. You'll see the videos. Yikes.

I played poorly, no surprise, but I'm not giving up. Any one who wants to should feel free to ask me as often as you'd like if I've played today and if not, please feel free to yell at me. Yep, by the summer I want my level to be non-suck.

[Maraxus]

Emily! It was great meeting you at CSS6. I hope you had as much fun as I did, even though I did lose some.... stuff. Maybe we'll kick some day in Cali when I go up north to hit a shred session. Take care, peace.

[Moxie]

Hey Aaron. Did you get your stuff back? You should try to make it to LA to kick with those guys if you're still in the country for a while. Or if you're up in my area we should hang out.

Since a big name in footbag requested it , I will be posting later on about my experiences at CSS6.

[Senor Grommet]

Emily,

Whats the coolest link you've ever hit?

What's your favorite trick?

What is the best tourney you've ever been to?

[Moxie]

Whats the coolest link you've ever hit?
What's your favorite trick?
What is the best tourney you've ever been to?

Hey Jeremy. Well, I can't hit the "coolest" anything that I've ever hit, so I don't even want to talk about it right now. I'm pretty disappointed at how poorly I'm doing right now. But I did play today (thanks for asking, Kamil) after I got home from work. And at work while the boss was gone I did consecutive kicks because, well, just because.

I’m having trouble deciding which tourney was my favorite. It’s like deciding which of your children you love better. Maybe you secretly love one more, but you would never admit it, even to yourself. Obviously, CSS6 was completely fun (maybe the “obviously” won’t make sense till you read the rest of this post, assuming you do.) My first Christmas/NewYear’s Jam in Chicago was the best for sentimental reasons. If you see any video from it you’ll understand. The turn out for that was what really did it. They say the people make the event, and I think they’re right. I think Worlds wins because it was so long. I know that no matter what, the events are only going to get better because my knowledge will only grow, and I’ll know more people with each event.


My story for the day:

It actually started a few weeks back while I was at the car lot job. I was doing something with a footbag and a couple asked what it was. I started telling them and they said that there is a man at the Capitola beach who's always hopping around with a little bag like I was describing. I made a note to try going to that beach sometimes to see if he was there. But I never did get around to it because of work/school/etc. Anyway, back to present time again. Today I was talking with a guy in my math class during the break and he asked why I had gone to Denver. I told him that there was an event that some of my friends went to. He asked what kind of event it was and I said Footbag. "Aw, footbag! That's cool," he said. No, he doesn't play. And he didn't really get how it's different than hacking. He said that there's a guy who owns this shop in Capitola who sells footbags and is really good.

So this classmate invited me to come play hack with him and his friends between classes. I went and played hack for a while with him and one other guy who had a dirt bag. They were so impressed with me just kicking it and said I am the best girl hacker they've ever seen. I was definitely on today. Probably a direct result of so much hack happening at CSS6. So, more people came and were complaining about the "hack" being too empty. I offered my old 32 panel. People were a little weirded out by it but said it's the nicest hack they've every seen. I explained about how it's different than a regular hacky sack. They didn't think it was cheating when I did inside stalls, clippers, butterflies, and mirages with it. One guy seemed really interested in learning some tricks and showed me his 62 panel footbag. I asked him where he got it and he told me that it was from this same guy in Capitola at this bikini store. He described the Capitola guy by saying that he wasn't sure "if he is gay or just really Brazilian." He had just played with the Capitola guy the day before.

So after my next class was over I went on a small journey to downtown Capitola which was only a few minutes from school. I walked into what I thought was the right bikini shop and asked the guy if he sells footbags. He gave me a blank stare… "hacky sacks, you mean?" "Yeah," I was a little disappointed, though I hadn't been expecting too much. He asked me if I had ever been on worldfootbag.com and said he doesn't play much now but the people in the store next door have a good group of about 5 people that play and are pretty good. I went next door but they're closed Mondays and Tuesdays. So I left a note. This is fun, like a treasure hunt or murder mystery that keeps unfolding.

Part of the fun today was just hanging out with random people because I do have friends here, but I still haven't gotten to know as many people as I'd like to in Santa Cruz. I don't care, I still think hacky sack is fun and it's okay for it to exist without people being converted to freestyle. But if people show interest… wow, that must be the greatest feeling, to introduce someone to footbag and have them really take to it. I think I'm going to introduce them to 4-square in the months to come.

Okay, kind of pointless, but fun for me to retell. And there was a footbag subplot ending with a cliff hanger.



Brad K. made my week for real in the CSS6 Results and Commentary thread. Man, everything's going right for the moment. That's always a little worrisome because usually after a big up there's a big down. But I'll forget about that and just coast for now.



Well, I don’t have the know how to give good descriptions of the weekend, but I can tell you what I remember about the experiences (since there was a special request.) I’m sure I’ll be missing names and people from stories so this can be an interactive thing where you can tell me what/who I’m missing

The first thing is that I knew Tim Werner, Eric Reile, Mike Hansen, and Steve well prior to this event. And I had talked to some people at worlds for a little, but I didn’t really know more than like two people there even from other events. It felt like a high school event kind of, or like summer camp- how you start off knowing just a few people but you know almost everyone by the time you go home to different places. Blah. Okay, back on track.

Thursday 2/24

11:45pm Flight takes off from San Francisco Airport

Friday 2/25
5:38am get to Chicago Midway Airport
8:25am get on the plane to Denver and arrive at 9:59am Friday

I went to the hotel and checked in, took a shower, and then went to the Art Museum for a few hours. I got back, still no lavers in site at the hotel, so I ate and then went down to go wonder around down town for a while. I was getting in the elevator as Luis Monhollon (yes, I would find out later he does rock as much as much as everyone said) was getting out. I said “Lavers!” He looked down and was like “Hey, yeah!” or something. I don’t know, it’s always fun seeing the first person at a place. The door was closing so I said I’d see him at 7pm on the 2nd floor.

I got out of the elevator and was walking across the lobby when I saw Mike Hansen. We walked down the street and went in a store. When we got out there was a very large hack circle right outside. We joined. There were about 13 people at one point. Denver’s neat. The people seem really chill, the town is clean, and the public bus town up and down the main street is free. Anyway, we went back to the hotel and there were shredders unloading a car and walking around inside all over the place. How fun. It was neat, because at this point, there was only one person there who I knew. We went to the 2nd floor and there were people hanging out and kicking. I met Brad K. and Chris Holden who are amazing for keeping everything so together. If I were in their position, I would probably be tense and yelling the whole time. (Special thanks to Brad for teaching me that “F” comes before “G”) People played for a really long time, had fun, blah blah. …so I’m not the best with telling stories. We moved down the hallway and there was 4-square. But since there were so many people, we played teams of two people. I was on a girls team. Even if I sound like a moron, it was really neat to be around people of so many different abilities. There were hackers and world class shredders. I met Evan Lovely and Lon Smith, which was highlight for me. I gave Evan props on Sunday. It’s awesome when someone says thanks and sounds so sincere. I remember a when I saw Lon’s 2001 “black or white” routine for the first time. It was one of the first videos I saw on my own. I had just found out what Footbag.org was and was randomly searching around the videos section at work. It blew my mind how much fun it looked like he was having with the music and the footbag routine itself. Music is such a huge factor when you’re watching a routine. This post is never going to end. Back to CSS6… of course I met some people in person who I had talked to only online which is always really neat. I got to hang out with Brad a bunch which was cool because I had never really gotten the pleasure of talking with him before.

TWO MORE WHOLE DAYS!!

Saturday 2/26

The competition was at Saint Cajetan's Church and was so fun to watch. You’ll see the videos. I’m banking so much on other people actually putting their stuff out there. Lovely was there (yay Lovely Films) plus maybe four other people with cameras at different points, so between that and the results you can get a pretty good idea of how stuff went down. I felt bad for the DJ who didn’t quite understand that while people were up on stage competing he should have just kept the track going. They wanted no pauses, no scratching; just a beat. But he got it later on. Crap, I so should have written this down sooner because all of the details are seeping out of my brain. Anyway, after we left there, a bunch of us went to get Pizza at Two-Fisted Pizza (I’m trying to remember who was where when… was it Stephen, Brad, Mike Hansen, Eric Reile, Steve and me? I’m pretty sure I’m missing like two people… anyone wanna help me? Was it Bean? Sorry, I’m so bad with names, numbers/dates, directions, faces… yeah ) After that, people went back to the hotel. More playing on the 2nd floor. Lon wanted to get a bunch of full hacks before we could play 4-square. It was just fun hanging out with people.

ONE MORE WHOLE DAY!

Sunday 2/27

Like others have said, Lon, Penske, and Daryl on stage was amazing. (Other threads have the cool info like who hit what.) The organizers provided pizza and everyone chowed down. Daryl was organized a free 4-square event on Sunday. Before the game Jack paid me a dollar to massage icy-hot on his back. Oh yeah. There were 3 courts. I got to play against Nate, Daryl, Jack, and some other people. Wow, it was SO much fun. I didn’t find out who got what place besides Steve, who said he got 1st place. I got 13 points. I was just happy to make it on the board with any points. I can never tell how much people are going easy on me because I’m a girl or a lower level player or whatever. But it’s fun to play no matter what. J. Bean is so cool. He stayed in our room all three nights and on Sunday he was capturing footage onto him computer. We're all waiting for that to be posted There were quite a few people in 903 playing Pigs while there was some Worlds footage courtesy or Eric Reile. Later, Penske, Lon, Luis, Loren Baum, Eric Reile, Tim Werner and I all went to the 3rd floor to hack some. We left a note on the 2nd floor so people could find us, but apparently the note didn't do the trick because of poor instructions with the placement... anyway, drank some tea, had some fun. We went back to 903 and watched some good cartoons. I am a wimp and I decided to get forty minutes of sleep before we had to leave for the airport at 4am. I guess Mike, Tim, Reile, and Loren stayed up the whole night having adventures.

We were another one of the cars with 4 people in the back seat of the car.

Monday
4am leave for the airport
6am flight to Chicago
1:35pm flight to San Francisco
6pm Home sweet home.

What a great weekend.

In general:
Even though people were talking about a lot of big names not showing up this year, it felt like a start studded event. I enjoyed talking with Sunny. She seems to have the same views on the “punches” game as I do Luis’ style is like butter. And this was his first event! And our little Evan from Las Vegas is so impressive.

I feel like I’m missing so much. I didn’t buy any new bags. No wait, I got a “Granny” bag that Lon’s grandmother made. Oh yeah, Zeke, you owe me $10… ask Tim I’m planning on going to SoCal with Dat in a few weeks for a weekend to visit the crew there. I was thinking about going up North some time in the next three or four months because I’ve never been up that way past (San Francisco I mean.) But that depends on if I have to sell my car because it’s in such bad shape. Ahh, now I’m ready for bed. This has been a day long post so sorry if I’ve repeated myself or anything doesn’t make sense. But I’m not reading it again. Thanks for checking this out.

I was fearing this would be longer than it was...

[Moxie]

Today my boss got the wireless internet working at the hotel... I'm never going to get any homework done now. He left for dinner so I put on my lavers and kicked in the back room for a while.

Then after I got home I played to The Best of Fleetwood Mack, Modest Mouse, and Katchafire. I was actually linking tricks again. For practice I had fun doing butterfly>far legover.

Tomorrow I'm doing a mini footbag demonstration for the hackers at my school and I'm going to try to show a few of them some video to give them a better idea of what it's like when it's done extremely well.

[Seath]

footbag promo's rock, get everyone addicted!