Muffinman

[limester816]

Insoles are also a healthy alternative, without costing you a new pair of shoes.

[hacksterbator]

Insoles are also a healthy alternative, without costing you a new pair of shoes.

umm, you really have to know erik, more accurately his shoes, to understand that it's not going to "cost" him a new pair, the kid NEEDS a new pair. there's nothing holding his together!!!

[limester816]

Insoles are also a healthy alternative, without costing you a new pair of shoes.

umm, you really have to know erik, more accurately his shoes, to understand that it's not going to "cost" him a new pair, the kid NEEDS a new pair. there's nothing holding his together!!!

Ah, I see

[Muffinman]

I'm really giddy!
I'm about to play FOOTBAG @_____@
I haven't played since one of my last blog posts. It's SUPER hot out. I decided last night that I will start stationary cycling again -- my doctor told me not to because it's bad for my knees; I neglected to tell him that it was a recumbent bike (which my mom and brother pointed out) and so I looked up "recumbent stationary bike and bad knees" on google, and found that they are better for your knees that regular bikes!!!

So I was all excited to stationary bike today after school, because all of my baking and lack of exercising is actually making me pudgey in my stomach, but walking home from the bus stop I realized "Holy crap it's so fantastically hot outside, how the heck can I bike indoors??" (moreso because it would be so hot, not because I would rather be in the "nice outdoors", although that's a factor to a degree as well)

I did some clippers at the busstop at school in my airwalks and I thought, "Gee I sure would love to do some spinning moves". So now I am going to do some light dexless schooling and maybe try double spinning again!!!!! It's actually my knees that are bothering me more than my hip right now, and a teeny little 5-second jog actually ened up hurting a lot, on Sunday (or was it Monday?) so I'm going to be careful...I can't wait to cycle a lot, though, because it will strengthen my hip AND knees!!!

I'm actually really tired and only got 4 hours of sleep last night (probably less actually), so I hope I can actually play...being hot and tired is making me lose interest already...I should go get my shoes already!! I'll report back later!


EDIT: Nothing eventful. I played for about 45 minutes, then cycled for about 25 (I was going to go for at least 30, but my knee started feeling irritated so I stopped. Spinning was fun, but I still felt like I needed to hit something after I finished...you know when your muscles kidn of feel restless and you know a certain move will loosen you up? Double spinning would have been NICE, but I didn't even attempt...I was super stiff and shouldn't have even done what I did. I basically BOPped (that stands for butterfly, osis, pdx mirage, right?) but with spinning and ducking clippers, and minus pdx mirages. I also tried some endurance things like mirage > sameside clipper [repeat], but didn't really succeed much there. Osis is WEAK still. It is very mosquitoy and cankerwormy out. And, like crazy unbelievably hot, after like 2 weeks of rain. Gee.

[Muffinman]

I was going to write something but I forget what.

Well I had some troubles with my "Hackrifice 2004" DVD, since my Adobe Encore trial expired. I had found a bunch of copies of the full version and tried to completely RECREATE the project (which took 4 hours...), since the trial project file would not load in this other version, but ended in that I found that my 4 hours of work was in vain and the project had one of those unidentifiable errors. In addition my system harddrive partition isn't big enough for the memory required to copy a DVD disc! So I asked my brother if he could burn a handful of DVDs for me (mostly for my workshop -- I'm not sure if I will hand out to everyone, but at least a bunch...as prizes?). So he came over and ended up simply changing the directory preferences so that I could use the space on my other partitions to burn from...gee -- so simple, hey? So I just finished burning 8 DVDs Yay! It's still sad about Encore not working...I have other DVD project I want to make too.

So I am getting healthier.
I'm not very knowledgeable about healthy eating, but my meals lately have mostly been consistant of this sandwhich I make which is like a BLT but with cheese instead of bacon. I also discovered a cucumber in some drawer in the fridge tonight and added some of that! Cucumber is AMAZING in sandwhiches!!! and I eat mostly whole wheat crackers for breakfast in class every morning, drinking lots of water.

And I have an exercise routine again now. I do at least half an hour of biking (while reading homework -- sweet double-tasking!!), unless my knee starts to get irritated -- then I stop, and then about 10 minutes worth of crunches, pushups, weights, and various stretches. Plus at least 30 minutes of walking, since I don't have a bike (...exercise bike...).


I thought I had something to say.
My workshop is next week, and so are my last two classes and my final (which is going to be SUUUPER hard, apparently -- EEK!)! Then I am FREE (to learn french). I have, like, a week to just relax and DRAW! My readings for this literature class are INTENSE (I end up just NOT reading a lot of the books! It SUCKS!!!!): Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, Virginia Wolff, Joseph Conrad, J.M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, John Fowles...not to mention T.S. Eliot, Hopkins, and Yeats...Seriously intense. I haven't been able to draw much and work on my anatomy for the past week, which hurts. I am still sooo excited to learn this! I even find myself doodling poses and leg and torso anatomy, as much as I've studied, in the margins of my notes -- I've never loved drawing so much before!!

My turtles are REEEAAALLLY stinky and my house SMELLS! I walked in yesterday, I think, and the smell just knocked me over! It's the first thing I noticed when I opened the outside door.

It hasn't rained for a few days, I think, so hopefully we can do some gardening this weekend! I'm going to get sweetpeas for my girlfriend and grow them in her own little corner (I guess against the wall, 'cause they're viney, hey? I hope they grow well in this climate). I also made her an origami flower arrangement for our anniversary -- orchids and lilies and primroses. She was surprisingly really happy and her sister said she thought it was my best gift yet -- I was really worried she wouldn't like it. It's pretty frightening when you don't know how your girlfriend will react to something (like other love or hate, you know?) -- scary @______@ But's it's all super good. She said she was trying to order me Lavers for our anniversary, but I was too difficult and inquisitive, and ruined the surpise >_____< Plus apparently they're discontinuing the coloured Lavers? Maybe I will try those shoes that Andrew wears after I see how they work for him -- I notice lots of people using them now. Climacools? I wonder how much they cost and all.

Anyway, gee! It's 2:11, my class starts in about 6 hours and I gotta shower and stuff. Maybe I can finish a reading tonight, since I'm not terribly tired and I only have, like....24 pages (48 photocopied pages, but I try to be as optimistic as possible... ¬______¬) -- I completely skipped most of the two 500+ page books I had to read and...hmm. Maybe I read all the rest? I'm probably going to skip The Heart of Darkness, though. It's only going to be for the last two classes, one of which I won't be there for, plus if I'm going to read anything, after this play, I want to finish Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman -- this one is actually really good! (Like...I'm interested @______@)

My turtles smell SOOOO bad!!!!!

[mosher]

Hey Erik,

I can help you find a pair of climacools.

You can find them on e-bay and the average winning price is usually around $20-something US plus shipping.

Let me know if you need any help tracking them down.

I reallllly really think they'd help out with alot of your body problems.

Take care.

Tom

[Muffinman]

Hey thanks Tom. I'll keep that in mind after I've seen Andrew and if I think about getting a pair

On a sucky note here is, like, the ultimate frustration.
So I finally copied those DVDs for my workshop (after not understanding how for over a month). And then I got to print DVD clips and disc sticky labels, BUT it turns out for some reeeaaaally stupid reason I deleted the images I created for for this. Now, no big deal. It took me about an hour to properly size everything and make it look exactly how I wanted, initially. So I figure, okay I just need to figure everything out in photoshop as I print off tests to make sure everything lines up alright. Right?

So I go to print my first test and the printer eats the paper (and subsequently about 10 other pieces of paper). So, oh gee, the printer doesn't work and my demo is on Monday and, oh no what will I do? Maybe I can't give out DVDs

So finally I'm like, hey I can go to Marita's house and use her printer, BUT they have a super slow computer and don't have photoshop or anything. So I copy photoshop and all the files I need (to completely redo all of my images from scratch) onto a rewritable disc and run over to Marita's house. I get there and it turns out that the bloody disc didn't copy. UGH -- frustrating. So I decide I will come back tomorrow and make sure it works before I leave and get this done at the last moment on Sunday night after work.

So after Father's Day jazz, I burn the disc and test the contents on my computer and the downstairs computer. I get the right files on both computers -- SWEET! This might just work!! So I run over to Marita's all happy and what do I find? The files don't work, again. Luckily I somewhat anticipated this and I emailed myself at least the image I need to recreate everything from scratch. I figure if it comes down to it I can find a demo of Photoshop easily and download it, right?

So first I try to avoid downloading anything (except the image, which I get successfully) and I just try irfanview, and then realize I need to do some text and a little other details. So I look around and know that Windows at least has that imaging program, right? So I go in there and whip something up. I save and open the image in irfanview and what do I get? Static-y CRAP! Why doesn't the image look the way it did in the imaging program?? Geez.

So then I try to download a Photoshop demo on Windows 98 -- estimated download time 5 hours. Yay. So then I look up image editing on download.com for something a lot smaller. This is my last freaking resort. Macromedia Fireworks MX2004 -- I have no idea what this will be able to do, but it's 25 megs and it's only taking about an hour to download (SUH-WEET!)

So IF this downloads, and IF the program does what I need it to and IF everything prints already and IF IF IF then MAYBE MAYBE MAYBE I can MAYBE start working anothe hour to recreate and then maybe another half hour to print and crop and then MAYBE I can MAYBE get to bed before 2 tonight before my demo tomorrow...and oh maybe some time I will MAYBE get to squeeze in an INCH of studying for my FINAL EXAM on Thursday....hm. SUCKY?????

I can't believe how frustrating something SOOOOOO simple is!!!!!!
I did test the printer and it prints nicely so...oo only 5% more! That rant really helped me not freak out and kill myself just now @__________@

[Muffinman]

My bags arrived, like an HOUR too late yesterday and luckily I HAPPENED to have just enough Mr Sandman's of my own to pass around for the workshop. There was frustration with the bag issue, too. I called the teacher 3 weeks ago to ask how many kids for sure to expect so I could order the right amount of bags. He had quoted me 10+ before, so when he didn't call me back I ordered 15; that's safe, right? So then two days later he calls me and says there are 6+ kids. Now I don't really have the money to squander on stuff. But I figured, oh well -- extra footbags...I guess I will just never have to buy one ever again. Plus Jess said she wanted to buy a load off of me, so...that's great. But then I got home today and there was a little tag thingy saying that I can go pick up my bags from the post office for $15 taxes. So..that's sucks. I hate it when they do that. I wish all footbag companies would send packages marked as gift So Daryl gave me a discount because the bags were for a workshop, but the charges really made up for that.


WORKSHOP DAY 1
This workshop is making me realize how bad I really am at speaking. It was pretty horrible at first, but things are getting better and I took the time to memorize everyone's names already. Speaking is scary @_______@ (especially teaching!)

On a good note the workshop was decent. My noobs LOVE foursquare!! They got tired really fast (it was HOT out!) we watched Vasek's section on The Move, the first section of VOTDS2, and Jorden's routine from Worlds (Sick 03 wouldn't play on their player, but I am going to show Vasek's routine from 2003 today).

One of my kids hit 27 consecutives for his little test thingy. A couple of them are SUPER bothsided, which rocks!!!! And I think ALL of them can do stalls of some sort We had some FUN rules in foursquare I made sure to make rules that made them use bothsides

Anyway, today is session #2 and I'm expecting Andrew any second to pick me up. We're going to start out stitching this morning and then hopefully do some more foursquare and stuff this afternoon. I actually brought a net bag this time so we can try that, though I don't think they liked that as much as foursquare. We ended with 30 minutes of casual circle kicking yesterday.

One of the teachers also bought us creamsicles! SWEEEEET
K, I'm gonna go get ready. Wish me luck!

[Muffinman]

WORKSHOP DAY 2
Today was AWESOME! I owe a lot to Andrew for coming out to help! We didn't manage to get the stuff we needed for stitching, so hopefully we will be doing that tomorrow morning.

We started with an hour of foursquare, which was a blast. Andrew brought some rules with him which I didn't know about (as I've never really even played foursquare) -- actually MOST rules. Haha. It was a lot of fun with Andrew, especially with THE FIFTH SQUARE -- we had so much fun with that even after Andrew left. I'd never heard of this before, but it's this teeny little box, meters away and if it happens to land in that box everyone but the last square are out and the last square moves to the first (server). It was so great Here are some favourite rules we developed today:
-If it lands on the line players on either side of the line are out. If it lands in the middle everyone's out
-No stalling and carrying to fifth square (this happened a LOT! Haha!!)
-Final contact must be a head kick
-Various effects based on landing the bag in the little square that leads to the lineup (based off the the fifth square concept)

I made some rules that never lasted long, particularly that you have to have your foot in that same little outside square before you kick the bag, so you have to run around and get your foot in it. Nobody really managed to do this... I also had a rule where you have to have your foot on the outside line on your final pass. This never really made it far either.


We played golf, with Andrew's help. We broke off into two teams and each did four holes -- my team had lots of trouble with even the simplest courses we made up. It was a blast, but kind of slow-moving. I think the kids felt the same way, but I'd love to try this with Hackrifice some time -- it sounds like it can be super fun!!

More foursquare.

Then we did some individual practicing of basic kicks both sides. I noticed that almost everyone was trying toe stalls, so I asked if they wanted some help to learn stalls -- they said yeah, and so I gave some pointers and EVERYONE could toe stall. I think everyone toe stalled both sides, too!!!! I was sooo proud!! Then one of them started trying tricks and I handed out the Freedom Flyers and my own handouts and they started trying ATW on their own. One kid hit it almost first try and then almost two in a row!! I think almost everyone hit ATW MULTIPLE TIMES!!!! Now get this! After two days one of my students hit ATW BOTH SIDES!!!! One side was practically a pixie set (no -- it was!) I hope I expressed my enthusiasm well enough, because I was so excited about this!!!!

Then I did my "testing". First I did consecutives (each kid individually) and then asked if they wanted to try a trick or stalls or anything. Some completely didn't even try, but the rest either got close or did a toe stall both sides or something. One of my kids hit THIRTY SEVEN consecutive kicks!!!!!!!!! This was all one one foot, I think. Most of them are pretty bothsided. Another hit 27 yesterday! He's pretty bothsided.

Today was super fun and I think I owe that to Andrew for helping to break the ice and helping me feel more comfortable with them by making them feel more comfortable. It was really great overall and we played 15 minutes into lunch and even past the finishing time. I was, like, "game point" for foursquare, and they were, like, "awww"


So stitching tomorrow; hopefully some net, since I have my bag; hopefully Andrew can demonstrate some REAL freestyle. And that's about it for today, I think. Time went by pretty fast Oh yeah, and the teachers always kept walking by asking them "so what have you learned today?" and I felt it was in mockery, but then when the principal asked as they were leaving at the end of the day the bothsided ATW kid said, "I learned two tricks today!" and it was, like, "In your face! FOOTBAG IS AWESOME AND I'M LEARNING FREESTYLE MOVES"...kind of.

Anyway, I gotta study a bit for my final (.............) and I will update again tomorrow Oh yeah, and my schedule is basically shot and we just do what they feel like doing, which is working out a lot better, isn't stressful, isn't confined and is just overall fun and helps everyone learn a lot more


Any suggestions for tomorrow and Friday?
Marita suggested I show them VOTDS2, because I made it and because she thinks it is a good video for non-footbag players to appreciate (speaking of which, I was also impressed that every time one of them says hacky sack, they instantly correct themselves and say footbag!!!) -- I played them the intro and the first half of Shred Zero, which was probably too long, and the really repetative song probably didn't help, but they seemed to LOVE it up until the last minute or two! So I think I will continue showing some of that tomorrow, as well as Vasek's routine which I didn't get to today. We also spent all day outdoors instead of the gym, since it was a perfect temperature. What a great day

[Asmus]

Sounds so good, and cool that they are all improving so fast. Thanks to teacher i bet.
Its really cool that you are writing these really long reviews really useful when anybody else is going to make a workshop like it.
The new 4 square rules sounds so fun.
Good work! Keep it up!

[Colin]

Man, what a high spirited post. Nice to see that your workshop is working out for you, Eric. I know you've probably said it already, but exactly how old are these kids?

[Muffinman]

Thanks for the replies guys!!!
The guys are in grade 11 and grade 12 -- half of each, and they kind of tend to clique together. MAN! i just got goosebumps thinking about this, though. So there is one kid who has a heavy accent, I think he said he's from Germany (but I didn't really hear what he said...) He never really speaks and he kind of plays a distance from everyone else, even when we were all in a circle yesterday, he had a huge gap on either side of him 'cause he was backed up so far.

But get this: FOURSQUARE.
In foursquare this super shy kid starts proposing rules, arguing whether the bag is in or out or if a player is in or out. I think I realized this the most when a group of teachers walked by and said something super nice to him, like, "Good work Daniel", or maybe it was a loud comment to fellow teachers, like, "Wow look at Daniel go!!" It made me feel so great and I love that they all come together and feel so chill when we play foursquare This has made me come to LOOOVE foursquare and I juts want to play all the time. I get them to learn new things, make rules so that they had to use both sides, and stalls, and everything, and it isn't as physically draining as playing individually. FOURSQUARE ROCKS!!!!!


Oh yeah, I'm also super proud that I remembered all of their names!!!
I'm making them cookies right now for tomorrow!

[Muffinman]

I have my final exam in British Literature on Thursday.

My prof said it will be HARD -- super emphasis.
This course was INTENSE. I will neever look at a novel or any collection of the written word the same ever again -- there is so much packed into so much of so much. Geez. It makes me think that EVERYTHING is really super ambiguous, but you seriously need to know your history about EVERYTHING to be able to back up arguements about ANYTHING.

So yeah, I should be studying, and I haven't. I keep just sitting here at my computer on Modified, watching episodes of Gargoyles, talking to Marita and preventing her from HER homework. I'm so lazy. I think after this week I will get some stuff done, though. Maybe I will actually do a TAD of reviewing as soon as I finish writing this, but I also have been craving to draw and I have something I really want to draw, so maybe that after I review. I am so bad at studying. I never go to the libraries on campus. I totally do ALL of my research EVER on the internet. Is anybody else the same? It must be SOOO nice to live on campus, though. It takes me an hour to bus one way!! Umm, I lost my train of thought, so I will stop whining about not studying and MAYBE open my notes...I will force myself........now! Go!!

[hacksterbator]

tomorrow i suggest we play some net, do a freestyle demo, and maybe some stitching. stitching is long lonely work that only people with good concentration will bother to get into, and when it's nice outside i doubt they want to spend an hour sitting at the tables cutting bits of fabric and dental floss and stuff. i suggest we give them the option tomorrow of doing some stitching or doing something else and see what they choose.

[SlashC]

Hey Erik,

It's cool to hear about your teaching experience! I'm so excited for you and your students! I'll have to try the 4 square thing at the friday YMCA sessions and see how it works. It never even occured to me. I've never really played 4 square before. I might try playing some videos too.

I've also been kind of thrown into a teaching role. I just got hired as a space camp instructor at the edmonton science center. Today my supervisor was training me in how to spin the kids in this astronaut multi axis thingy that spins the kids around in circles (upside down). I was so nervous half the time I forgot to put in the safety pins! :O . Luckily, I got paired with a girl with an education degree, so I have a bit of time to get comfortable talking/teaching the kids.

After ShrEdmonton i'm thinking of starting a frisbee/footbag golf course at the University of Alberta campus to help promote footbag. (Footbag Golf is fun!)

[Muffinman]

WORKSHOP DAY 3
It seems that every day is more fun than the last! Maybe I am more excited than the kids. HAHA. Well...probably. I'm pretty sure half of them would rather be doing their own thing, although they are all here by choice (of many options), so at least they're pretty into it.

They keep surprising me. I take notes when I do my "testing" and the first day one of the kids was really lazy and just didn't do ANYTHING, then later on HE was the one to get excited and hit ATW both sides and try super hard and everything! There's one kid who doesn't really try very hard, but everyone else is pretty into it. Actually the one who doesn't try very hard has the highest consecutives record. MAN! Okay....today he hit, what -- SEVENTY???? 70 consecutive kicks!!! On day three! This is the one who got 37 yesterday. And then one who hit 27 before beat his record with 28 today, and the next highest, previously 19, hit, like, 22 today. Good stuff. Everyone has improved!!

This is exciting -- apparently not everyone had hit ATW yesterday, but when everyone showed up today, one of the guys comes up to me and he's like, "I HIT ATW THIS MORNING!!!" Like....he played on his own BEFORE the workshop to try to hit a move!!!!! Isn't that AWESOME???? They have been complaining that they are sore every day and that it's super tiring. But at the same time they are ALWAYS kicking!!!!

K, I just got goosebumps. We spent the morning stitching (I will get to it after this), and after lunch we came back and opened with a game of foursquare. One of the guy's was, like, "Yeah, I'm totally going to teach footbag at summer camp this year!" I was so excited!! Then he asked where he could buy more Mr. Sandman bags. I said to check out the website on the Freedom Flyer, or that he could call my number which is on the other handout I gave out and I could set him up. Others were interested in more bags too

So back a couple hours.

We started with a game of foursquare -- one of the kids was 15 minutes late; another was half an hour late. I figure, "whatever", they're paying for this and they can show up or not. If they're really interested they will come and enjoy themselves. So I didn't get too upset over this, though I probably wouldn't have anyway, since I am so meek, and they probably know this. But like I said, whatever.

After about 45 minutes we went inside and Andrew started us on stitching 4-panel Mr. Sandman-esque bags with crushed panne and plastic beads and the lead balls or whatever they are. We stitched for about 1:15. I think they really enjoyed it overall. They seemed to get bored and a little frustrated to the end, but two of them finished a bag within this time. One gave up completely because he made his stitches too far apart and too wide and Andrew said it would leak, and the other two were having difficulties and didn't want to finish after class. I think they liked the experience, but were open with me and said that they didn't really want to do it anymore. There was the one kid who basically requested this whole course and made a special request for making bags that was excited, and I offered everyone crushed panne to take home to stitch with, and only he accepted, pretty eagerly He was one of the two who made a bag. Their bags turned out well and they really like them Well, all of them liked the two bags made, but only two actually made them.

I'm going to finish mine tonight, if I can master this without Andrew's help, since I only know in theory how to make one, from his instructions. I'm super excited though. I want to start stitching, now that I understand the basics. Andrew said that 32s are easily, just that they take, like, 8 times longer to make! So maybe after Quebec he'll help me with that

After lunch, like I said, we had another foursqaure game. It was fun. Let's see, I made a couple more rules that they really took to:
-you have to have your hands on your head during the whole match
-you have to keep one leg off of the ground the entire round, starting after the bag is tossed (so if you're on the ground when the bag leaves the server's hand you're out!)
-if you get the bag in the little line-up square you get 5 points, you move to the servers sqaure and everyone else is out. Everyone liked this one a lot, but nobody ever actually got to use it. This one kid who is now notorious for shoulder-stalling and dropping the bag on the line, the fifth square and the line-up square tried to do his shoulder move, but we voted against him, because apparently, luckily I said you have to kick it in. So then I made a rule that cleared up that you can't stall onto anything.
-EVERYONE can vote, the server only gets one vote (as opposed to 2), and the last person in the line gets 2 votes.

I was proud of the last one and the one-legged one, especially


Then we went and played net while I did the testing, after the one game of foursquare. Testing went well. Then we tried some net, more organized. We didn't like the net bag, and found that we liked my two Carols best -- they worked well for our purposes. We tried "TRIPLES" first, because we had 6 people today, including myself. Then we broke off into a doubles game and a singles game. The two playing singles gave up and lay down, so we took over the whole court and played another doubles game, since they seemed to really enjoy it. It was hard, and we only had about 3 or 4 actually decent rallies (like even kicking it back over and then returned again), but they enjoyed it and I had fun and after we revised our own rules it was pretty fun. That was actually really neat and I kept giving everyone props

We ended with 15 minutes and I said we would do a foursqaure game for a DVD (first competition). We ended up postponing the game, after getting about halfway through, since they were kind of eager to get home. So we'll do that tomorrow. I think they want some more golf. I think that was enough net -- half didn't enjoy it too much. Foursquare is their fave and -- OH YEAH!!! They were saying how, "I wonder if the foursquare will stay here all year?" "Yeah -- even if it doesn't we should make our own!" -- I guess this was the grade 11s -- and I was, like, "Sweet -- you guys want to play later on?" And they were really eager about playing on their own next year in school. GEEZ! Goosebumps again!!!!

So they took off.
K -- here's something I'd LOVE some advice on. Getting them to come to Hackrifice this September. We don't have a set date, so that makes it difficult to tell them to come. Could I offer something if they come to the tournament? Prize money won't interest them, because they'll be, like, "Well I won't win anyway". maybe something we could do at Hackrifice to encourage newbies? Like, hmm....I dunno? We have tshirts with event-fee...How can I convince them to come to the tournament in a couple months??? Please help -- I want these kids to get into footbag!!!



Andrew was awesome.
I gave extra cookies to the teachers in the office and they gave me an icecream sandwhich

Well...off to study (haha....) and finish up my 4-panel bag Footbag is AWESOME!!!! GEE! I never thought that I could have so much fun with footbag while I'm injured! We will have to play a DAMN lot of foursquare and golf next week Andrew and Jess seem really into golf, so I guess I'm all set YAY Footbag!

Oh. I also told them all about the footbag community (per Marita's suggestion <---so great! [the girl, and the suggestion]) on the second day -- yesterday. We were watching VOTDS2 and I explained stuff about the tournament in Calgary and about how when I first went to Calgary I had never met Rob Fuller, but we were instantly best friends and I stayed at his house every summer following (although, I actually didn't say this then...just that I stayed with him without even knowing him.) I told them that If I went anywhere in the world I would have a place to stay. I told them that Worlds are in Helsinki, Finland. One of them asked, "Where is that?" and everyone laughed (he must have not heard me say Finland...hehe). I should mention tomorrow, when I show more of VOTDS (if I remember), how Mark and Joel went to a tournament in Montreal (pre BAP-Yax) and stayed with Kolo, and how within minutes of first meeting him he handed them keys to his house and said, "My house is your house"! HOLY FUCK FOOTBAG IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!! GEEZ!



EDIT: Thanks for the replies, again. Yeah, Rory -- teaching is scary, hey?? HAHA I thought forgetting the "safety pins" was hilarious!! Hehe. Good luck at Shredmonton! I'm so sad I can't make it! It's going to be soooo awesome!!!!

Unfortunately we didn't have time for Andrew to do a shred demo, plus he's leaving for Edmonton on Friday and can't come for the last day -- so they won't know what REAL shred looks like live. Not now anyway...help me convince! My knee is hurting right now. Not lots, but it's crappy.

[hacksterbator]

erik, don't forget to tell them that honza gave me the keys to his appartment when he wasn't there in prauge. and that i got to crash with paul c. in berlin, having only ever met them once each.

i really wanted all of them to finish bags, but we had limited time, so what ever. the guy who made the all green bag, his bag is going to fall apart because his seams weren't lined up. i just know it. the guy with the earrings, his bag is really really awesome! it should last him for a while. which one of them wanted to take the material home? earring guy, or theater guy? i don't remember thier names... if i even learned them...

[Muffinman]

The guy with the earrings was the one who took the material. He's the one who asked to make bags in the first place. I didn't have a bag, but I'm bringing him some filler tomorrow. I finished my bag last night instead of studying :p I'm so happy!! I took it to my exam as a good luck charm. Well, just basically because I love it. I'm going to carry it with me everywhere!! Mine is good, except for the final stitches. I had trouble figuring out the blind stitching without your help, but undid it and redid it the right way, after I knew what not to do :p But then either I didn't pull the last stitches up the last side tight enough or I didn't tie the final knot close enough to the actual bag, and so all of the stitches on the last seam are visible (well...half) and it doesn't leak yet, but you can make a hole big enough to fit beads in the top. Oh well -- I'll make more! It was fun, but yeah -- the last stitches were FRUSTRATING :p And then pushing the needle all the way through and heaing the pop of the knot was super satisfying





I just got home from my final exam! It wasn't bad (for not studying at ALL...). I should study next time. Gee. But you know...holy crap! I can't believe I actually got to sleep last night. It's 33 degrees today with NINETY-FOUR percent humidty!!! It is soooooo freaking crappy outside!! I was sweating just sitting on the bus to my exam! THAT SUCKS! Luckily we were in an air-conditioned building. Even then I think I may have sweat a little inside -- I didn't realize until after I left the building that it was air-conditioned. The heat literally hit me all at once when I left. I hate this weather more than anything and I couldn't even walk properly because my legs were all sweaty walking home. I get super grumpy when it's this hot out. It is worst for me because I sweat twice as easily as anybody else in the world. I just SWEAT. And I think this is why Chinese people are skinnier, because it's SOOO freaking hot there!!!

Well, I guess I'm free I'm sitting in front of my fan on full blast and still super hot. Oh yeah, so the way I managed to sleep was to soak my sheet in ice-cold water and sleep with the fan full blast on it. I felt like I was going to get pneumonia or something, but wow did it work! It was so hot out last night that my sheet was dry within like 10 minutes and I hadto soak it again.

I'm lucky -- tomorrow it's supposed to be 21 It would be SOOO freaking crappy if tomorrow was this hot. Anyway. Enough rant. I don't have much else to say, though. My hamstrings were a bit tight today, which kind of felt neat. My knee is hurting as I sit here, though, and that's not neat. Knees are so fragile -- it sucks.



I'm really happy. One week until Quebec, PLUS my Scott Pilgrim #2 book should arrive next week before I leave!!! I'm going to draw all next week, I hope. I hope I can learn enough anatomy before I leave that I can feel comfortable drawing for fun while I'm there Though I will probably not end up drawing much at all. I can also read again! Wow...maybe I will get Harry Potter 6 while I'm gone!!! Anyway, I'm going to get food. Maybe I will make some pie or something. What's something cold I could make?

[bigdirtyfoot]

Hey Erik - you should come down south! It can get around 40 degrees celsius here! I just checked a converter so I know I'm right! And it's always humid too. I also prefer cooler whether. I like fall the best here.

Anyways, here a personal thanks for the postcard you sent me - THANKS!

[shreddaily]

I get super grumpy when it's this hot out. It is worst for me because I sweat twice as easily as anybody else in the world.

We need to kick sometime pal. ha

That workshop story was great! Definatly seems like those things should be happening in every city/town. Canadas weather is silly.