Wow, that last page of my blog really flew. I guess that`s what happens when you play eight days in a row. Yes, I said eight: I played again yesterday. I`m hitting Tokyo this weekend though, so I`m forcing myself to take today and tomorrow off from playing, though I will cross train by playing basketball. I think I`m going to take up my own challenge and write a few of my entries in the style of other people`s blogs.
I will write the name of the poster I am emulating in white font at the bottom of the post, so while hopefully it will be obvious who I am emulating, if you can`t figure it out, the answer will be there.
Fanzine
thats a pretty cool idea, i my self have taken note to other ppls blog styles but never thought of trying to change my own style to be more like someone elses... kinda dont think i could with my english an grammar skills.
it be cool tho to maybe have a poll on whos blogs style is the best. i think your HUGH daily post are awsome, an i enjoy reading them an i feel like im reading almost a book on your day. wish i could write like that an make every thing flow an make so much sence. i also like lons style, straight to the point, all footbag. also like keeping track ( un till he stoped posting ? ) yax has a awsome blog that i really enjoyed* reading. well im gonna go watch discovery in the tube.
have fun not kicking. 8 days ken... pretty cool your legs have any troubles?
it be cool tho to maybe have a poll on whos blogs style is the best. i think your HUGH daily post are awsome, an i enjoy reading them an i feel like im reading almost a book on your day. wish i could write like that an make every thing flow an make so much sence. i also like lons style, straight to the point, all footbag. also like keeping track ( un till he stoped posting ? ) yax has a awsome blog that i really enjoyed* reading. well im gonna go watch discovery in the tube.
have fun not kicking. 8 days ken... pretty cool your legs have any troubles?
Wed Jun 15th
WORK
Graded tests all day.
FROLF
Didn`t call Joe Crain= no Frolf today.
Footbag
SESSION #8= 90 Min
Knee=good
COMBO'S=Dasein-pdx torque, Jawa-stepping butterfly, EWalk-stepping butterfly, EWalk-PS Whirl, ducking clipper-GDLO (plant), Jawa-Blurry whirl-pdox torque, vortex and mobius same combo using different spins.
MOVE`S= My first Dominatrix in 4.5 years. Frenzy.
DINNER= Lemon Tea and Sushi.
_________________
WORK
Graded tests all day.
FROLF
Didn`t call Joe Crain= no Frolf today.
Footbag
SESSION #8= 90 Min
Knee=good
COMBO'S=Dasein-pdx torque, Jawa-stepping butterfly, EWalk-stepping butterfly, EWalk-PS Whirl, ducking clipper-GDLO (plant), Jawa-Blurry whirl-pdox torque, vortex and mobius same combo using different spins.
MOVE`S= My first Dominatrix in 4.5 years. Frenzy.
DINNER= Lemon Tea and Sushi.
_________________
-
hacksterbator
- Washed-Up Child Star
- Posts: 4141
- Joined: 12 Jul 2003 18:33
- Location: Winterpeg, Manisnowba
- Contact:
it's not that there's a lack of camcorders in japan, it's that no one bothers to edit and upload. i swear at TSG i must have seen about 7 camers at once. where's the footage? probably still on the tapes. I remember tencho even came up and asked me if he could cut a flick with me in it, but i still don't see it. i wonder how many times has ken hit killer killer stuff on camera in tokyo and it's been left on the tape? i can count at least 3. it really is a tragedy! convince tosh to put some stuff together, he's got such a nice camera too!
A.G.
-
limester816
- Multidex Master
- Posts: 259
- Joined: 25 May 2005 18:22
- Location: Albuquerque, NM
Today was just awesome, but more on that later. For now, here`s some bitching recent Kenzo footage:
http://adammadam.hp.infoseek.co.jp/20050615.wmv
More big news: Kenzo and Kim will make worlds, but just the tail end. I also decided today that I will try my best to make worlds... I was on the fence, but now I want to go. If I can get a decent priced ticket...
After today`s shred we all went to eat, then we all went to play ping pong. Here`s a picture of me doing a behind the back shot playing with Keita. The shot went in. The writing says "backshot"... too bad the arrow covers my face...
Courtest of Ryota`s blog:
http://adammadam.hp.infoseek.co.jp/20050615.wmv
More big news: Kenzo and Kim will make worlds, but just the tail end. I also decided today that I will try my best to make worlds... I was on the fence, but now I want to go. If I can get a decent priced ticket...
After today`s shred we all went to eat, then we all went to play ping pong. Here`s a picture of me doing a behind the back shot playing with Keita. The shot went in. The writing says "backshot"... too bad the arrow covers my face...
Courtest of Ryota`s blog:
Hahahahaha!!! That was really funny. Is he still posting numbers? I guess I could just go find out myself, huh?C-Fan wrote:13
Bryan Fournier
Joshua Annis
"Don't Panic..."
"I woke wanting nothing more than a box of Gushers....
DENIED
I shake my first at the sky."-Matt Cross
"Yeah, seriously! When I got back into my cubicle Jazz started throwing dimes at me. What an asshole."-David Wilder
"Don't Panic..."
"I woke wanting nothing more than a box of Gushers....
DENIED
I shake my first at the sky."-Matt Cross
"Yeah, seriously! When I got back into my cubicle Jazz started throwing dimes at me. What an asshole."-David Wilder
Subterfuge
One of the main reasons I`ve been neglecting the `zine, is the fact that I`ve been busy getting my trip to Worlds ready. Last Friday I finalized my plane tickets, which felt good because that`s a biggie. I still need to find lodging (pm me if you are going and have a suggestion, or are a Finn who wants to help me out), sort out my passport stuff, and get a routine together.
Anyway, since I`m going to be at worlds in less than a month, I decided I`d still write in my blog, but try to keep things on the downlow. Maybe I will come back here after worlds and edit it so its normal, but for now I may write things like: "hit my Worlds Sick 3" instead of "hit nemesis-pogo bed- tofu."
I also changed the name of my blog to that of another neglected blog, so that less people read this, and more people are surprised by my game at worlds.
Backlog indeed... I shredded this weekend, but I`ve still yet to report on the shred from the weekend before that!
6/18-6/19
Hit Tokyo to shred. Felt a strange mix of nostalgia and timelessness, as I knew this would be my last roundtrip from Iwate to Tokyo. Next time I take the shink to Tokyo, I`m not coming home.
My job ends soon, so my next trip to Tokyo will be a pitstop on my way to Worlds. When I get back from Helsinki, I will spend a week in Osaka/Kyoto, then a few weeks in Tokyo helping prepare Japanese Footbag Champs 3. Then I`ll hopefully hit New Zealand, and feel out if I can get a job there. But on my shink ride down, I didn`t want to think about all that too much, so started going through creative links in my head that I`d try that weekend.
Saturday was one of those very rare sessions that you have to savor. Some cosmic confluence of events transpired enabling the perfect conditions for an epic shred. These are the days I play footbag for.
I started the day eating some veggie tempura with udon, and having a rootbeer. So right off the bat the day started well. Outside, the sun smiled a little strongly, but in a friendly way. Like when a strong friend hugs you so hard it hurts, but you recognize the friendly intentions. Slapped some sunblock on, got a good song on my ipod, picked up a 2 liter bottle of water for 88 yen, and trekked to the pier in an excellent mood.
When I got there, I was shocked by the people who were and weren`t there. Here we had a day with perfect weather, and yet the footbaggers had the pier entirely to ourselves!
Alright! 
Because of this, we were able to hear our music real well all session, and never felt crowded by tango-ers spinning out of control near us. And while I was happily surprised to find Yoyogi relatively empty, I was similarly surprised by the footbaggers who DID show up. Some of the regulars like Hearts and Paul weren`t there, and instead a ton of shredders who rarely make it out were all there! It was like Tokyo All Star Weekend. Check it: Tencho, BBK, Ryota, Bunko, and Keita! Its rare for me to have a chance to play with any one of them, and here they all were! Rounding out the list were some of my other favorite shredders, including Takumi, USK, X+Y, Morii, and Kim. Tosh was there too, but mostly just filmed.
It was a bit hot at first, but soon the weather became absolutely perfect. Not too hot, occasional nice breezes, lots of light. I mentally made note that I had to take advantage of the day. Perfect shred conditions in Yoyogi + all star cast of friends = Ken must take advantage.
I wasn`t the only one who thrilled to the excellent conditions, as it seemed that everybody was hitting big. It was great playing with BBK, since I hadn`t played with him in ages. I gave him a ton of tips on frantic, and he was clearing the dexes after a bit. Apparently he also hit atom bomb again, but I didn`t see it. Bunko played well. Her clippers are getting more solid, and I`m pretty sure I saw ripalk. I can`t remember too much that stood out, but I recall giving her lots of props, which is a good sign for her consistency. Tencho played well. It`s so nice to see that even when he messes up, he bails to BOP, and stays guiltless. I saw him have marius on his foot a bunch of times, and was annoyingly close to spinning merkon on several occasions.
I was particularly happy to see Ryota going hard again. Back around TSG he had been taking some time off, but he`s obviously gotten back in the game. Lots of fives all day, blurry drifter, blurry whirls, ps whirls. Somewhat close to ps whirl back to back, which I`m not sure if any other Japanese player has hit that. X+Y had some nice shuffle all day, doing parts of rubber and blubber man. Morii played maybe the best I`ve ever seen him play. The big new thing was that his flip pixie has improved, so he was throwing down pixie butterfly bsos in the middle of long tripless strings. Saw him get like 10+ shuffling tripless a few times. He also hit flurry again, which was legit, but not as deep as last time. He also Windsored me on swifter! 
That was funny.
Takumi... man, I almost don`t want to write about him, because I want people at Worlds to be even more surprised. But here`s a taste: peeking osis-spin osis-peek osis-spin osis-peek osis. Fairy same side xbd rake to spinning osis. Decent look at mobiusx2. Spinning whirls got cleaned up. Both blurry whirls no problem. That Moir thing which looks like a messed up bedwetter... like, stepping opp inside kick to symple legover? Yeah that. Midtime phasing osis. I asked him what his spinning clipper record was, and he said 8 strong, 5 weak. Then, 2 minutes later he hit 11 strongside on video. Dynos are stronger too... muted fairy same dyno to dyno. Just straight up strong. I decided that one of the reasons I want to hit worlds is just to see everybodys reactions to Takumi.
I spent 3/4 of Saturday in really high-level circles. I was real happy about that... that the Japanese scene has gotten this strong this fast. It was nothing like this when I first got here. I was also real happy that all day I got to play with real choice bags. A heavy-ish abshire that belonged to Tencho, another nice Abshire mini. Such a joy not to have to worry about playing with a crappy bag.
I had a real good session. This was my first chance to show off my frantic set to the Tokyo crew, and I took advantage. While my frantic is still somewhat inconsistent, I hit about 90% of my frantic tricks first try on Saturday. Frenzy first try, extending my streak of consecutive sessions hitting it. Jawa-haze-smog. Ewalk-haze. Jawa-food. Ewalk-stepping blender. Jawa-WHAT?! Footed Ewalk-swifter on video, but my swifter still needs work. The other 1/4 of my session I spent watching people hit tricks for Tosh`s camera, and even laying down a few lines myself. I shocked myself by hitting toe gdlo on my first try... I haven`t even been practicing toe spins, but they felt real strong all day. In fact, I hit ******* for my first time ever, and I hit it out of fog! Kim suggested a Sick 3 for worlds based on this, which seemed unlikely at the time, but I`ve managed to hit recently. I started one run with blurry whirl to pdx torque (flip), and barely dropped the osis on strong when going for bsos. I also surprised myself by starting another string with stepping whirl to ps whirl, and when I went for bsos, I mistakenly hit stepping whirl to mullet! 
Whatever, it isn`t BSOS but I`ll take it. I also had one run start with ewalk-fog-smog-pig, and later in the same string I had like 10 dexless.
At the end of the session I felt incredibly satisfied. Such an excellent session... I felt like even if I sucked the next day, it wouldn`t matter. We round up a posse of 8 for dinner, and spend the next 45 minutes wandering Shibuya, faced with the impossible task of finding a place that will seat 8 on a Saturday night in Shibuya. God is smiling on us that day though, so miraculously we are seated somewhere, after extensive searching. Takumi came to dinner with us, which I was real happy about. Kid is so mature. Dinner was really funny. A slightly buzzed Kim and Tosh give Takumi an animated lecture about how he should approach High School social life (in Japan, high school is from 15-18, so Takumi just started in April). Takumi takes it all well, and I yell from my side of the table that he should not take any advice about dating from drunken freestylers. Lots of people strike a wistful note, yearning for the chance to do high school over again. I`m sure footbagging makes high school easier to take... it helped me my junior and senior year. Takumi and I are the only people at the table who had the chance to footbag in high school, and then it dawns on me that Takumi has been playing since middle school. Lucky bastard. He rolls well with all the drunken advice... what a trooper. On my side of the table I talk a lot of basketball with Ryota, and get real excited at the idea of playing basketball with the Tokyo shred crew when I`m in Tokyo in August. The food`s real good, the vibe is perfect, and when we`re done, 5 of us head out to play ping pong. It`s shaping up to be a perfect day...
At the ping pong place we need to kill some time before we can get tables, so I play some Capcom Fighting Jam against Keita and Tosh. I`d never fought Tosh before, and he`s better than I expected. I win 2 against Tosh, one against Keita, then we finally go pong. For the record: I hate CFJ, it just feels like it was thrown together. Ping pong turned out awesome. We got two tables, and did 1 on 1, so there was always one person resting. Our skill levels were all over the place, but somehow every match I played was a ton of fun. Against the weaker players I played real silly, doing behind-the-back stuff or switching hands/grips between each hit. I only played 2 games all night, because I mostly found it more fun to just mess around smacking it about. The hour ends fast, but its just the right amount of time.
Kim and I miss our train home, but we cab back and at his place drink some of the Awamori I bought him as a souvenir from Okinawa. It`s real good stuff. I finally get to watch Natural Born Kickers for the first time, but it skips like crazy, so I can`t watch entire sections. It was real good seeing Johnny footage though, and I was pleased with my own string. We also watched Michel Gondry videos again, and I really dug it. Finally we drop off to sleep, and I`m beaming with happiness, having had such an excellent day.
Anyway, since I`m going to be at worlds in less than a month, I decided I`d still write in my blog, but try to keep things on the downlow. Maybe I will come back here after worlds and edit it so its normal, but for now I may write things like: "hit my Worlds Sick 3" instead of "hit nemesis-pogo bed- tofu."
I also changed the name of my blog to that of another neglected blog, so that less people read this, and more people are surprised by my game at worlds.
Backlog indeed... I shredded this weekend, but I`ve still yet to report on the shred from the weekend before that!
6/18-6/19
Hit Tokyo to shred. Felt a strange mix of nostalgia and timelessness, as I knew this would be my last roundtrip from Iwate to Tokyo. Next time I take the shink to Tokyo, I`m not coming home.
My job ends soon, so my next trip to Tokyo will be a pitstop on my way to Worlds. When I get back from Helsinki, I will spend a week in Osaka/Kyoto, then a few weeks in Tokyo helping prepare Japanese Footbag Champs 3. Then I`ll hopefully hit New Zealand, and feel out if I can get a job there. But on my shink ride down, I didn`t want to think about all that too much, so started going through creative links in my head that I`d try that weekend.Saturday was one of those very rare sessions that you have to savor. Some cosmic confluence of events transpired enabling the perfect conditions for an epic shred. These are the days I play footbag for.
I started the day eating some veggie tempura with udon, and having a rootbeer. So right off the bat the day started well. Outside, the sun smiled a little strongly, but in a friendly way. Like when a strong friend hugs you so hard it hurts, but you recognize the friendly intentions. Slapped some sunblock on, got a good song on my ipod, picked up a 2 liter bottle of water for 88 yen, and trekked to the pier in an excellent mood.
When I got there, I was shocked by the people who were and weren`t there. Here we had a day with perfect weather, and yet the footbaggers had the pier entirely to ourselves!
Alright! Because of this, we were able to hear our music real well all session, and never felt crowded by tango-ers spinning out of control near us. And while I was happily surprised to find Yoyogi relatively empty, I was similarly surprised by the footbaggers who DID show up. Some of the regulars like Hearts and Paul weren`t there, and instead a ton of shredders who rarely make it out were all there! It was like Tokyo All Star Weekend. Check it: Tencho, BBK, Ryota, Bunko, and Keita! Its rare for me to have a chance to play with any one of them, and here they all were! Rounding out the list were some of my other favorite shredders, including Takumi, USK, X+Y, Morii, and Kim. Tosh was there too, but mostly just filmed.It was a bit hot at first, but soon the weather became absolutely perfect. Not too hot, occasional nice breezes, lots of light. I mentally made note that I had to take advantage of the day. Perfect shred conditions in Yoyogi + all star cast of friends = Ken must take advantage.
I wasn`t the only one who thrilled to the excellent conditions, as it seemed that everybody was hitting big. It was great playing with BBK, since I hadn`t played with him in ages. I gave him a ton of tips on frantic, and he was clearing the dexes after a bit. Apparently he also hit atom bomb again, but I didn`t see it. Bunko played well. Her clippers are getting more solid, and I`m pretty sure I saw ripalk. I can`t remember too much that stood out, but I recall giving her lots of props, which is a good sign for her consistency. Tencho played well. It`s so nice to see that even when he messes up, he bails to BOP, and stays guiltless. I saw him have marius on his foot a bunch of times, and was annoyingly close to spinning merkon on several occasions.
I was particularly happy to see Ryota going hard again. Back around TSG he had been taking some time off, but he`s obviously gotten back in the game. Lots of fives all day, blurry drifter, blurry whirls, ps whirls. Somewhat close to ps whirl back to back, which I`m not sure if any other Japanese player has hit that. X+Y had some nice shuffle all day, doing parts of rubber and blubber man. Morii played maybe the best I`ve ever seen him play. The big new thing was that his flip pixie has improved, so he was throwing down pixie butterfly bsos in the middle of long tripless strings. Saw him get like 10+ shuffling tripless a few times. He also hit flurry again, which was legit, but not as deep as last time. He also Windsored me on swifter!
That was funny.Takumi... man, I almost don`t want to write about him, because I want people at Worlds to be even more surprised. But here`s a taste: peeking osis-spin osis-peek osis-spin osis-peek osis. Fairy same side xbd rake to spinning osis. Decent look at mobiusx2. Spinning whirls got cleaned up. Both blurry whirls no problem. That Moir thing which looks like a messed up bedwetter... like, stepping opp inside kick to symple legover? Yeah that. Midtime phasing osis. I asked him what his spinning clipper record was, and he said 8 strong, 5 weak. Then, 2 minutes later he hit 11 strongside on video. Dynos are stronger too... muted fairy same dyno to dyno. Just straight up strong. I decided that one of the reasons I want to hit worlds is just to see everybodys reactions to Takumi.
I spent 3/4 of Saturday in really high-level circles. I was real happy about that... that the Japanese scene has gotten this strong this fast. It was nothing like this when I first got here. I was also real happy that all day I got to play with real choice bags. A heavy-ish abshire that belonged to Tencho, another nice Abshire mini. Such a joy not to have to worry about playing with a crappy bag.
I had a real good session. This was my first chance to show off my frantic set to the Tokyo crew, and I took advantage. While my frantic is still somewhat inconsistent, I hit about 90% of my frantic tricks first try on Saturday. Frenzy first try, extending my streak of consecutive sessions hitting it. Jawa-haze-smog. Ewalk-haze. Jawa-food. Ewalk-stepping blender. Jawa-WHAT?! Footed Ewalk-swifter on video, but my swifter still needs work. The other 1/4 of my session I spent watching people hit tricks for Tosh`s camera, and even laying down a few lines myself. I shocked myself by hitting toe gdlo on my first try... I haven`t even been practicing toe spins, but they felt real strong all day. In fact, I hit ******* for my first time ever, and I hit it out of fog! Kim suggested a Sick 3 for worlds based on this, which seemed unlikely at the time, but I`ve managed to hit recently. I started one run with blurry whirl to pdx torque (flip), and barely dropped the osis on strong when going for bsos. I also surprised myself by starting another string with stepping whirl to ps whirl, and when I went for bsos, I mistakenly hit stepping whirl to mullet!
Whatever, it isn`t BSOS but I`ll take it. I also had one run start with ewalk-fog-smog-pig, and later in the same string I had like 10 dexless. At the end of the session I felt incredibly satisfied. Such an excellent session... I felt like even if I sucked the next day, it wouldn`t matter. We round up a posse of 8 for dinner, and spend the next 45 minutes wandering Shibuya, faced with the impossible task of finding a place that will seat 8 on a Saturday night in Shibuya. God is smiling on us that day though, so miraculously we are seated somewhere, after extensive searching. Takumi came to dinner with us, which I was real happy about. Kid is so mature. Dinner was really funny. A slightly buzzed Kim and Tosh give Takumi an animated lecture about how he should approach High School social life (in Japan, high school is from 15-18, so Takumi just started in April). Takumi takes it all well, and I yell from my side of the table that he should not take any advice about dating from drunken freestylers. Lots of people strike a wistful note, yearning for the chance to do high school over again. I`m sure footbagging makes high school easier to take... it helped me my junior and senior year. Takumi and I are the only people at the table who had the chance to footbag in high school, and then it dawns on me that Takumi has been playing since middle school. Lucky bastard. He rolls well with all the drunken advice... what a trooper. On my side of the table I talk a lot of basketball with Ryota, and get real excited at the idea of playing basketball with the Tokyo shred crew when I`m in Tokyo in August. The food`s real good, the vibe is perfect, and when we`re done, 5 of us head out to play ping pong. It`s shaping up to be a perfect day...
At the ping pong place we need to kill some time before we can get tables, so I play some Capcom Fighting Jam against Keita and Tosh. I`d never fought Tosh before, and he`s better than I expected. I win 2 against Tosh, one against Keita, then we finally go pong. For the record: I hate CFJ, it just feels like it was thrown together. Ping pong turned out awesome. We got two tables, and did 1 on 1, so there was always one person resting. Our skill levels were all over the place, but somehow every match I played was a ton of fun. Against the weaker players I played real silly, doing behind-the-back stuff or switching hands/grips between each hit. I only played 2 games all night, because I mostly found it more fun to just mess around smacking it about. The hour ends fast, but its just the right amount of time.
Kim and I miss our train home, but we cab back and at his place drink some of the Awamori I bought him as a souvenir from Okinawa. It`s real good stuff. I finally get to watch Natural Born Kickers for the first time, but it skips like crazy, so I can`t watch entire sections. It was real good seeing Johnny footage though, and I was pleased with my own string. We also watched Michel Gondry videos again, and I really dug it. Finally we drop off to sleep, and I`m beaming with happiness, having had such an excellent day.
Man, I must be on crack or something. I thought I'd reminisce and read some of my old memories, but I can't remember any of those things happening. I did hit that behind the back table tennis shot though...
Kobus Brümmer
__________________
"On résiste à l'invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l'invasion des idées" - Victor Hugo
__________________
"On résiste à l'invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l'invasion des idées" - Victor Hugo
Sunday in Yoyogi.
I woke up on Sunday feeling surprisingly spry, despite shredding hard the previous day and drinking Awamori. Hopefully that`s a sign that my constant after-school sessions are building my stamina. Kim and I buy sushi take out and eat it in Yoyogi. Thankfully, we`re there before anybody else, which means I have time to eat slowly and digest before strapping on the lavers.
As we`re eating, we see a group of like 6 gaijin hackey slacking not 10 feet from the pier. We watch for a bit, and wonder out loud if they`re aware they are playing so close to where some of Japan`s best players play. I decide to go warm up by `slacking with them. I keep my ipod on for most of it, which is kinda antisocial, but I`m just messing around. One of the players has lavers, and they are using a decent enough sandbag, so I wonder... I see a few tricks; standard stuff like jesters and toe stalls. I do a ducking inside kick and some easy fliers, but for most of my time there I just stick to kicks. I comment: "this is a pretty nice bag" and Lavers responds: "yeah, I had it custom made. Its really good for 3 add techniques." I grin inwardly and nod.
After a bit we start up conversation, and Lavers asks me if I know who Kenny Shults is. I`m tempted to say: "yeah, we did Good Morning America together", but tone it down to: "yeah, nice guy." He also asks if I know Vasek. I`m tempted to ask if he knows Ken Somolinos, but figure that`s a longshot. We talk some more, and I mention JFC3 coming up, and tell them that some of Japan`s best will be shredding there real soon. They seemed real enthusiastic, and like they want to get back into footbag (they were all late 20s, and had played in high school). Soon, Takumi and Keita were warming up behind us on the pier, and they were blown away. I wrote down lots of info for them (meeting times, .org, modified, JFC3 dates, etc) and went to warm up with Takumi.
I skipped my traditional warm up, because we already had an audience. I was surprised how fast I could get into my regular rhythm, but in the future I definitely want to stick with my warm-up regimen. I did manage to hit frenzy first try. I`ve managed to hit at least one frenzy in every shred session since my first session where I hit it. Takumi plays well, cute links like stepping same xbd rake to spins. Kim quits after just 30 minutes, because he`s feeling bad effects from last nights drinking. I also feel the effects a bit, but mostly just in that it makes me sweat a lot more than I should. My strings are a bit shorter all day, and everything feels a bit harder, but I still have a decent session. I manage to get jawa to blurrier, and also hit ewalk-stepping whirl-pdx torque. Spike hammer to symposium whirl also felt styly. The highlight of the day for me though is breaking my unique triple dex record. I do so with ewalk-fog-pig-smog-paradon swirl, and seal it with a run to bring the combo to around 20 contacts.
But mostly though I just went for long, easy-ish strings, and watched people play. Keita hit the move of the day, by nailing a beautiful alpine atom. Just flawless. Some more easy predators. Taishi showed up as well, which was a real nice surprise. He`s been schooling... symp whirl to ps whirl was sweet, better spins, and lots of random, solid pdx blenders.
Its during this session that I make my decision to go to Worlds. In all honesty, I`m not as stoked to go as I was in years past. I think my experience last year with the shoddy judging and bad tournament location soured me a bit. But mostly, I was going to write off Worlds this year because not enough of my friends are going. Tu, Floyd (are any kiwis going?), Stan Sagalovskiy, Ahren, etc aren`t going. It`s also makes my moving out period more squeezed. But then I thought to myself: "Ken, money isn`t the problem. Getting time off work is no problem. You are injury free. You are playing maybe the best in your life. When will be the next time you have so many factors in your favor?" When phrased that way, I figured I HAD to go. Seriously, I have no idea if in the future I will again have such a good chance to go. Work schedules could interfere, I may not have the money, I may be injured, I may decrease in skill. Who knows? So I`m going to take advantage of my chance, and go to Finland. Besides, this is my last chance to compete on behalf of Japan, so I`m not gonna pass it up.
As we`re eating, we see a group of like 6 gaijin hackey slacking not 10 feet from the pier. We watch for a bit, and wonder out loud if they`re aware they are playing so close to where some of Japan`s best players play. I decide to go warm up by `slacking with them. I keep my ipod on for most of it, which is kinda antisocial, but I`m just messing around. One of the players has lavers, and they are using a decent enough sandbag, so I wonder... I see a few tricks; standard stuff like jesters and toe stalls. I do a ducking inside kick and some easy fliers, but for most of my time there I just stick to kicks. I comment: "this is a pretty nice bag" and Lavers responds: "yeah, I had it custom made. Its really good for 3 add techniques." I grin inwardly and nod.
After a bit we start up conversation, and Lavers asks me if I know who Kenny Shults is. I`m tempted to say: "yeah, we did Good Morning America together", but tone it down to: "yeah, nice guy." He also asks if I know Vasek. I`m tempted to ask if he knows Ken Somolinos, but figure that`s a longshot.
We talk some more, and I mention JFC3 coming up, and tell them that some of Japan`s best will be shredding there real soon. They seemed real enthusiastic, and like they want to get back into footbag (they were all late 20s, and had played in high school). Soon, Takumi and Keita were warming up behind us on the pier, and they were blown away. I wrote down lots of info for them (meeting times, .org, modified, JFC3 dates, etc) and went to warm up with Takumi.I skipped my traditional warm up, because we already had an audience. I was surprised how fast I could get into my regular rhythm, but in the future I definitely want to stick with my warm-up regimen. I did manage to hit frenzy first try. I`ve managed to hit at least one frenzy in every shred session since my first session where I hit it. Takumi plays well, cute links like stepping same xbd rake to spins. Kim quits after just 30 minutes, because he`s feeling bad effects from last nights drinking. I also feel the effects a bit, but mostly just in that it makes me sweat a lot more than I should. My strings are a bit shorter all day, and everything feels a bit harder, but I still have a decent session. I manage to get jawa to blurrier, and also hit ewalk-stepping whirl-pdx torque. Spike hammer to symposium whirl also felt styly. The highlight of the day for me though is breaking my unique triple dex record. I do so with ewalk-fog-pig-smog-paradon swirl, and seal it with a run to bring the combo to around 20 contacts.
But mostly though I just went for long, easy-ish strings, and watched people play. Keita hit the move of the day, by nailing a beautiful alpine atom. Just flawless. Some more easy predators. Taishi showed up as well, which was a real nice surprise. He`s been schooling... symp whirl to ps whirl was sweet, better spins, and lots of random, solid pdx blenders.
Its during this session that I make my decision to go to Worlds. In all honesty, I`m not as stoked to go as I was in years past. I think my experience last year with the shoddy judging and bad tournament location soured me a bit. But mostly, I was going to write off Worlds this year because not enough of my friends are going. Tu, Floyd (are any kiwis going?), Stan Sagalovskiy, Ahren, etc aren`t going. It`s also makes my moving out period more squeezed. But then I thought to myself: "Ken, money isn`t the problem. Getting time off work is no problem. You are injury free. You are playing maybe the best in your life. When will be the next time you have so many factors in your favor?" When phrased that way, I figured I HAD to go. Seriously, I have no idea if in the future I will again have such a good chance to go. Work schedules could interfere, I may not have the money, I may be injured, I may decrease in skill. Who knows? So I`m going to take advantage of my chance, and go to Finland. Besides, this is my last chance to compete on behalf of Japan, so I`m not gonna pass it up.
Helsinki
Read up a little bit about Helsinki today. Apparently the only famous person I know from Helsinki is Linus Torvaldson.
Helsinki sounds mad expensive. Everybody says Helsinki is real safe, but just the very fact that people play Moukou there gives me some reason to doubt that. I hope they have tasty junkfood there. I`m thinking that this world champs I will try not to drink too much. I`ve cut back on my drinking lately, and I think I play better because of it.
Still need to find lodging for Worlds...
In some good news though, it seems likely that Kenzo, Kim and I are all on the same return flight home! That`d be rad. I should charge them for letting them hold my gold medal... actually, it`s probably best if I focus on winning that first. I can work out my endorsement deals and whatnot AFTER I win world champs. Hm, maybe I should get a routine song on CD first...
Helsinki sounds mad expensive. Everybody says Helsinki is real safe, but just the very fact that people play Moukou there gives me some reason to doubt that. I hope they have tasty junkfood there. I`m thinking that this world champs I will try not to drink too much. I`ve cut back on my drinking lately, and I think I play better because of it.
Still need to find lodging for Worlds...
In some good news though, it seems likely that Kenzo, Kim and I are all on the same return flight home! That`d be rad. I should charge them for letting them hold my gold medal... actually, it`s probably best if I focus on winning that first. I can work out my endorsement deals and whatnot AFTER I win world champs. Hm, maybe I should get a routine song on CD first...
Knowing one person from Helsinki isn't that bad, butchering his name is .
Is Helsinki really that expensive? Helsinki is 23rd in the charts. What do you consider expensive? I don't want to use your bloq as an information channel for Worlds (though it gets read more than the official threads do) but if you care to know some prices in Finland, check out http://modified.ca/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=8498
And just so you know, in normal conditionds moukku isn't being played without both (all) the players knowing about it first
.
Matti
.Is Helsinki really that expensive? Helsinki is 23rd in the charts. What do you consider expensive? I don't want to use your bloq as an information channel for Worlds (though it gets read more than the official threads do) but if you care to know some prices in Finland, check out http://modified.ca/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=8498
And just so you know, in normal conditionds moukku isn't being played without both (all) the players knowing about it first
.Matti
Matti Pohjola
Actually, I was talking about Linus Torvalds`s son. My fingers just slipped when I was typing it.mohkale wrote:Knowing one person from Helsinki isn't that bad, butchering his name is
OK that`s a total lie.
Anyway, I guess Helsinki seems expensive to me compared to Montreal or Prague. For me and the rest of the Japanese players, its mad expensive to fly long distances, so once we get there, everything seems more expensive.
Oh, I also realized that I also know who Sibelius is, but I`m not that familiar with his music.
Stressed out, but still kicking.
Been super stressed-out lately, and while I hoped that footbag would help me cope, I find that my reduced patience due to stress has been making it hard for me to have fun sessions. Yesterday was pretty bad. I`m really trying hard to keep a good mental game, but at times it really feels like circumstances are conspiring against me. Still, the important things are that I am uninjured, and I`m still hitting some good stuff despite difficult circumstances. I`m gonna recap 2 or 3 sessions I`ve had recently in this one entry, cause frankly they are blurring in my mind already.
Lately it`s been wicked humid. Rainy season in my part of Japan comes in July every year, which means I can`t play on several days because its raining, and the other days its like 95% humidity, which makes me sweat like crazy and have trouble breathing.
My job ends at the end of July, so I have to prepare for my move to Tokyo, moving out of my place, saying goodbye to everybody, and getting ready for Worlds all at the same time. Its difficult logistically and emotionally, but I think I`m doing OK so far. It will get harder though. In anticipation of making my move to Tokyo easier, I dropped off a lot of things in Tokyo during my last visit, including both of my good shred shorts, most of my good shred shirts, and my good pair of lavers. That will make my move easier when I do it, but it also makes my sessions harder now. Still, I`m glad I no longer use my good lavers in my parking lot, because my practice space just eats the rubber off my lavers.
Thursday 6/22 First shred with crappy shorts and old lavers. The first half of this session was pretty awful, since my shorts kept flopping around funny and messing up my frantic sets. I went back inside and found my old Stanford shorts, and when I switched to those, the session improved a lot. I will never shred again in non-shred shorts. Hit frenzy again. I also hit frantic ss mirage again, and sealed it with a run that included spinning whirl! It was my weak spinning whirl too, and I threw it in without thinking, and sealed it. Nice feeling. Hit toe gyro whirl for the first time, but only God knows how clean it was. Started some runs with ewalk-blender, which was a fun link. Started thinking about all the cool stuff I`ve hit out of ewalk and jawa, and how few things I had put in front of ewalk. I think I had only hit ewalk out of blur, bedwetter, and pdx mirage. So I skooled it some and hit flurry -ewalk- pdx torque! Woot! The e-walk definitely was more midtimey than when I get a good frantic set. I also tied my unique fearless record by hitting 6. This was particularly satisfying though, since the last time I hit 6 fearless I wasn`t 100% on the cleanliness of one of the links, whereas my new 6 fearless was all completely clean, and had less pdx whirl 5s in it. I almost hit my 6 fearless to pdx blender, but not quite. So I know I can get 7 if I tried.
Friday, 6/23 Feel good I am recapping all this, because its showing me that I have had a few good sessions despite some frustrating ones. On 6/23 I went out to play and said out loud: "forget Worlds, forget your blog. Just play." Recipe for success. Warm up went well. Then I did some run throughs of shred 30s, and I was surprised how well they went! I did like 4 run throughs, and one time I went dropless for the first 28 seconds or so. I wasn`t too worried about hitting a regimented combo, and I recovered well when I "messed up." Never did I panic. Hit frenzy again, and hit a planting mobius in the sealing combo. Surprised myself by hitting jawa to pdx torque, because that pdx torque is pretty weak. Linked ewalk and jawa in a tripless string for the first time too: jawa-blur-hippy legbeater-ducking butterfly-blur-ewalk-pdlo-pxie butterfly-pdx whirl.
The highlight of the session was hitting my Worlds Sick3 for the first time ever. I even managed to seal it with a 20 contact run! I really got a rush out of this, and decided to end my session on this high note. I`m not going to worry too much about competition at worlds. My sick 3 is only a 5-5-5, but I`ve never seen anybody else hit either of the links, and 2 of the tricks are pretty rare and hard. Still, I wouldn`t be surprised if the judges put me behind somebody who hits mullet-whirlwind-spinning blender or some boring one-sided combo like that. But that`s beyond my control... I would just be thrilled if I managed to hit my combo in comp.
Lately it`s been wicked humid. Rainy season in my part of Japan comes in July every year, which means I can`t play on several days because its raining, and the other days its like 95% humidity, which makes me sweat like crazy and have trouble breathing.
My job ends at the end of July, so I have to prepare for my move to Tokyo, moving out of my place, saying goodbye to everybody, and getting ready for Worlds all at the same time. Its difficult logistically and emotionally, but I think I`m doing OK so far. It will get harder though. In anticipation of making my move to Tokyo easier, I dropped off a lot of things in Tokyo during my last visit, including both of my good shred shorts, most of my good shred shirts, and my good pair of lavers. That will make my move easier when I do it, but it also makes my sessions harder now. Still, I`m glad I no longer use my good lavers in my parking lot, because my practice space just eats the rubber off my lavers.
Thursday 6/22 First shred with crappy shorts and old lavers. The first half of this session was pretty awful, since my shorts kept flopping around funny and messing up my frantic sets. I went back inside and found my old Stanford shorts, and when I switched to those, the session improved a lot. I will never shred again in non-shred shorts. Hit frenzy again. I also hit frantic ss mirage again, and sealed it with a run that included spinning whirl!
It was my weak spinning whirl too, and I threw it in without thinking, and sealed it. Nice feeling. Hit toe gyro whirl for the first time, but only God knows how clean it was. Started some runs with ewalk-blender, which was a fun link. Started thinking about all the cool stuff I`ve hit out of ewalk and jawa, and how few things I had put in front of ewalk. I think I had only hit ewalk out of blur, bedwetter, and pdx mirage. So I skooled it some and hit flurry -ewalk- pdx torque! Woot! The e-walk definitely was more midtimey than when I get a good frantic set. I also tied my unique fearless record by hitting 6. This was particularly satisfying though, since the last time I hit 6 fearless I wasn`t 100% on the cleanliness of one of the links, whereas my new 6 fearless was all completely clean, and had less pdx whirl 5s in it. I almost hit my 6 fearless to pdx blender, but not quite. So I know I can get 7 if I tried. Friday, 6/23 Feel good I am recapping all this, because its showing me that I have had a few good sessions despite some frustrating ones. On 6/23 I went out to play and said out loud: "forget Worlds, forget your blog. Just play." Recipe for success. Warm up went well. Then I did some run throughs of shred 30s, and I was surprised how well they went! I did like 4 run throughs, and one time I went dropless for the first 28 seconds or so. I wasn`t too worried about hitting a regimented combo, and I recovered well when I "messed up." Never did I panic. Hit frenzy again, and hit a planting mobius in the sealing combo. Surprised myself by hitting jawa to pdx torque, because that pdx torque is pretty weak. Linked ewalk and jawa in a tripless string for the first time too: jawa-blur-hippy legbeater-ducking butterfly-blur-ewalk-pdlo-pxie butterfly-pdx whirl.
The highlight of the session was hitting my Worlds Sick3 for the first time ever. I even managed to seal it with a 20 contact run! I really got a rush out of this, and decided to end my session on this high note. I`m not going to worry too much about competition at worlds. My sick 3 is only a 5-5-5, but I`ve never seen anybody else hit either of the links, and 2 of the tricks are pretty rare and hard. Still, I wouldn`t be surprised if the judges put me behind somebody who hits mullet-whirlwind-spinning blender or some boring one-sided combo like that. But that`s beyond my control... I would just be thrilled if I managed to hit my combo in comp.
Re: Thank you Fanzine
Changed the blog name again, in an attempt to keep it underground. This zine is the streets yo! OK, maybe not. It`s also an attempt to get Nasty Nate posting in my blog. Soon, everybody will get confused and think that I can do really long dexless runs. Maybe I should become a supervillain when I finish my teaching job...
I wrote the following quote at the top of page 14, less than 3 weeks ago:
Woot. I think some other worthy goals for myself would be 100 guiltless, 20 dexless, 20 unique tripless, and 20 unique double dexes. But I`m in no hurry to break any of them. In some cases the path really is the goal...
The weather looks beautiful today, so I will try and get in a positive session.
I wrote the following quote at the top of page 14, less than 3 weeks ago:
Felt real good to read that and realize: "hey! I did hit that goal!"C-Fan wrote:I`m real happy I keep a footblog. Not only is it fun to reminisce in here (as well as track my progress),
I think I could hit 5 unique triple dexes if I really focussed, which could be a worthy goal.
.
Woot. I think some other worthy goals for myself would be 100 guiltless, 20 dexless, 20 unique tripless, and 20 unique double dexes. But I`m in no hurry to break any of them. In some cases the path really is the goal... The weather looks beautiful today, so I will try and get in a positive session.