I played with him against a Scrabble program he wrote. I learned some, which was fun. His name is Jason Katz-Brown, he got like 6th in America and 7th in North America. Nice guy. I couldn't show him footbag cause I'm injured (and therefore purposely left my shoes in NY), but he seemed excited to meet a top footbagger. I was happy cause he seemed impressed with some of my best plays (of all time, not tonight), including FILIALlY and DIOcESES. But in Scrabble terms, thats like somebody who has hit a couple hard 5 add moves, but cant link tiltless consistently I played a terrible game against a different friend today, where I just had crap tiles all night. I did play "AERIE" as a vowel dump, but that scored horridly, and I got vowels right back
Had a very nice, laid back Pi day celebration today. My friend and I went out and bought a large sampling of pies for his dorm, and MIT will pick up the bill. Today's best pies (imo) were:
1. Lemon crunch
2. Dutch Apple
Tied for 3rd: Strawberry Rhubarb/Pumpkin
I didn't try the Pecan or the Blueberry.
Ankle is feeling good. I'm guessing I'll wrap up my CSS blog on Thursday.
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Mar 2006 12:41, edited 3 times in total.
I really need to stop reading my blog before going to bed. I've been having lots of random footbagger dreams. I think last night, or 2 nights ago, I had a dream where I was playing basketball or footbag near my old elementary school, and then Jon Nagela popped out of an alleyway wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and started dancing around. Then he ran into another alleyway, but somehow we were in Little Italy now, and he found a canolli in a dumpster and started eating it. I got a little angry/jealous, because the canolli looked really good and new, despite its having come from a dumpster. Weird shit.
Alright, let's wrap up this CSS blog finally.
CSS, Sunday night
By now, the evening was feeling really late. Hot tubbing and cocktails seemed like years ago. I'm glad I had both my drinks, because by the time we got around to shredding, they had long ago lost their effect. A group of us walked around the hotel (outside and in) in an attempt to locate the 4square people, but had no luck. After sitting around in the Monhollon's room for an hour (more?) watching Regamey mod Gatesmans shoes, I finally said "fuck it, I still have shred in me, lets shred."
Gatesman, Clavens, Regamey and myself all headed down to the room by the hottubs. At first, the circle was just Evan, Dave and myself, since Kevin had a warmup routine to go through. We started off real slow, playing real lightly. It was pretty much just a mess-around session, which was fun, and in retrospect, a good way to warm up. Usually at tournies I just hop directly into serious shred, leaning on my adrenaline as a substitute to properly warming up.
During that first circle, Dave and I played pretty averagely, but I thought Evan played real well. His style reminds me of Bryan Fournier, which is a big compliment in my book. Good both sidedness... and I'm not just talking about basics like stepping/spinning/atomic. Stuff like repeated swirls on his flip side, which is pretty rare. It felt good to play with him too, because I had called him on 2 thes during his Sick3 (the barrage in blurrage looked thin, and from my angle it looked like he missed the whirl on ps whirling rake), and you never know if people will take that kind of thing badly or not. It was his first session playing in Lavers with the canvas cut out, but he seemed to like them like that. He gets crazy height out of his atomics... they almost look like zoid sets the way he does it, like even more pronounced than Tuan's atomics. Atomic blender like nothing.
After a bit Kevin stepped in and Evan tagged out a little later. Around this time the 4 square group showed up, and then more people after that. Finally! Kevin's toe stuff was really impressive. Most impressive was that it was pretty even too. Bothsided clipper game isn't too rare, but balanced toe game is even rarer. I can't recall too much, but alpha predator really stood out for me. I think that was the start of a combo too, which is even crazier. Unfortunately, Kevin sat out after a bit, which left me and Clavens, and we had been playing for a while by this point. Luckily, with all the new people there, we convinced some to hop in. Lon was in the circle for a couple rotations, but he was just messing around in long pants. Even so, he did manage to hit double spinning clipper bsos, which was phat. Sam C stayed in the circle until Dave and I eventually tired out around an hour later. I was real glad Sam stepped in, cause I hadn't had a chance to play much with him to that point.
There was a really cool vibe to this late night session. At its peak, there must have been 20 footbaggers sitting around the room just watching the one circle shred, and nobody was saying a word. It was a really cool silence, cause it was caused by everybody just focussing so hard on the shred. I had never really seen anything like that before. It was kind of like the 2002 Worlds Silent Night, but it wasn't imposed on us. In fact, at one point, the hotel security guy came, and I asked: "are we being too loud?" He shook his head no and left, but in retrospect I'm glad he didn't think I was being a smart-ass with my comment; we couldn't have been more quiet if we were getting paid. The whole atmosphere was really intense. A few people filmed this session, and I'm kind of curious to see how they edit it. Will they put music over it? I'm kinda hoping some of this session survives with the real audio intact.
As for what was hit, I can't recall too well. That whole session was kind of like a trance for me. I feel like I shredded my best, or very close to it. Definitely harder than I ever had at a tournament before, and that was an awesome feeling. I remember one run where Dave did a peeking osis, but kicked out his leg as a tribute to Luis. Saw him hit whirlwalk too. Had some decent looks at gauntlet as well. Just overall really strong. Almost every turn was a strong run, and he had a couple strings which must have been in the 50s. Maybe that's just my perception, but at the time it seemed like Dave was just going off.
Lon kept requesting I do eclipse tricks, so for a while in the session I did a ton of different eclipses, inlcuding something like 5 or 6 five-add variants. I also hit a lot of tricks that I hadn't hit in a long time, which is always a good feeling. I only got one new combo all night, and the people in the circle didn't even see it! Hopefully it'll make some video though.
I asked Pete to join in, but he declined with: "not with you guys playing like that!" which I thought was a really nice compliment. I didn't get to play with Pete, which was a shame, but I had fun watching him earlier in the day. Blurry ducking pdx dragonfly, ripped warrior swirl, stepping ducking inspinning stuff. I also had hoped that Jim would play, and earlier in the night he said he would play, but at the final session he said that somebody had stolen his shoes! Looks like the footbag gods were determined not to let me play with Penske at this one.
Eventually Dave tagged out, and I followed after a few more runs myself. Dylan, Sunny, and Nelson continued the circle for a little bit, and I nearly collapsed. I hadn't shredded to that point of exhaustion ever before, and it was a weird feeling. Some people hit the 7-11, and I asked for a gatorade, which Pete hooked up for me. Best tasting drink of my life. As I stretched down, I talked with Emily for a bit to help her with her Duncan presentation. Reminiscing about the history of footbag, right after having had my best shred ever, it all brought it together for me. Footbag. Yes. Hell yes. What an incredible way to end the tournament. Sunday was so good from start to finish (minus that indigestion thing), it really left a great taste in my mouth. Yeah, my competition results were my worst in quite some time, but given the circumstances, it didn't even bring down my confidence. I had fun every single day, I played hard every single day, and I played well. I felt like I was leaving the tourney with no bullets left in the gun. You can't ask for too much more than that.
Last edited by C-Fan on 19 Dec 2016 14:31, edited 1 time in total.
you really should do some form of major writing at some point in your life...very detailed and attention-holding at the same time. i cant wait to start going to a lot of jams every year (when i get a bit older and land a car) so i dont have to miss any incredible experiences similar to the one you just related.
You had me when it was just you and a few others in a circle and everybody was watching in silence. Pure euphoria. You definitely need to be a journalist/sports writer.
Waylon Lew - maker of Wasabi bags
NYFA represent.
"Footbag can be pretty frustrating when it's supposed to be fun. I was partly driven by this forum - practice, practice, practice... As that is true, I think someone can be too focused on progressing and training that they miss the fun aspect of it." - Bander87
I think I mentioned in my CSS blog a possible deal between Mike Hansen and myself. My use of the word "think" here isn't just a rhetorical device. Because, due to the fact that the deal has become reality, I cannot check my own blog to see what I've written before!
OK, just for the sake of clarity, here's the background: On Sunday of CSS7, I sat by Mike and watched a good shred circle which included Clavens, Penske, Pete, and maybe Red? Anyway, Mike was stitching a bag while watching the shred, and I had a good long conversation with Mike while I also watched the shred. The conversation took many turns, and we began talking about his bags. I had played with a really sweet Hansen bag the day before, and since I saw him stitching, I asked if he was selling bags as well. He said that he only stitches occasionally, and not real seriously. Our conversation drifted to Modified, and I mentioned how I had been weaning myself off it for some time, and how I'd like to give a shot at taking a month or so off. It was then that Mike suggested a trade: I stay off modified, with the exception of my blog, and in return he'd give me one of his bags.
For me, this was perfect: a nice footbag would be the perfect motivation for me to take a break from modified. And since it was Mike, he'd be able to post in my blog for me. You see, this post that you're currently reading, was actually posted by Mike. For a 1 month period, I will email him my Fanzine entries, and he will post them under my name. Today is now my 4th day off Modified, and with the exception of some mild dizziness, I feel fine.
This is probably a good place to mention that if you want to contact me, you should e-mail me, not PM me. Feel free to post in my blog. Also, if you need a moderator to take care of something for you, you should contact somebody else.
I checked the Japanese footbag forums today for the first time in ages, and it was kind of depressing. The site has been hacked by pornographers, which really bugs me. Why don't people hack corporate messageboards, footbaggers have never hurt anybody. Fuckers. The other thing that depressed me on the J-forums was seeing a thread about CSS7 with the competition results. I feel like I somehow let down Takumi or something... he was surprised that I "scored" 150 in Shred, and that I had a clipper in my Sick3. Gah. It's not even worth explaining, but it still bugs me.
My ankle is feeling OK. It only really feels weird when I put it in the clipper position or land on it too hard. The plan is to stretch it everyday, and walk on it normally. On Sunday I played on it lightly for a while, using the ankle brace. I liked having the support of the brace for left foot clipper moves, cause it gave me more support for my weight. But for right foot clipper moves, I felt it really impeded my ankle crank. I'm thinking I'm going to take another week off, and then have a tiltless session without the brace and see how that feels.
Today I watched a DVD Evan Lovely gave me at CSS. It has a bunch of his Lovely Films, which I'm really excited about. He does such a good job of syncing shred to music. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I saw him at CSS and he told me he didn't have his camera with him. I always wanted to appear on one of his vids. Just last night I was trying to think who had my top 5 favorite styles in the game and thought I came up with a rough list. Then today I watched one of Lovely's past CSS films, and realized that I hadn't even considered Ricky. Damn. Hm, could be a fun topic to write about later.
This modified exile is not without its perqs. Now that I'm posting via proxy, I can finally litter my blog with photos!
This first shot was taken right after coming back from the Raw Chestah NYJ. Talk about a pimp ride. That's my chauffeur with the gas money.
This was the last night of CSS7. As I was packing my stuff in the next room, I found my camera in my bag. I didn't even realize I had brought it with me! I popped into the living room, said goodnight/goodbye to everybody once more, and took my only photos of CSS. Dave's eyes are bloodshot from too much hardcore partying. That or he is a T-800.
Today I got a one-month membership at the local YMCA. The hope is that by the end of the month, my stamina will be up due to swimming, and I will have more arm muscle, which'll make me look a little less silly in my NBA jerseys. Today I did some underwater shredding, and felt fine. The problem is when I do a right foot clipper in real life; I still feel pain. I can walk, jump, and do everything normally, except put that ankle in the clipper position. I'm gonna continue with the stretching and underwater regimen, and hope for the best.
Last edited by Moxie on 24 Mar 2006 10:22, edited 1 time in total.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Started with sparse low lines, built intensity with rythmic variety, went to 16th note lines in high register, than went to octives, than block chords for my last chorus... If you understood that last sentance than you should be playing music and not checking the internet.
I could have phrased it better. What I meant was to say that not all of the all stars are in the picture, not that there are people in the picture that aren't all stars.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
March twenty...something. Time starts blurring without a regular routine, a job, a life. Gah, still no job. Frustrating. I want back in. Want back at a job so I can bitch about having a job, but get a life again. My East Coast trip was great, but predictably, returning to the Arid Zone was an emotional let-down. The injury makes it all harder too, since footbag is my number one coping mechanism.
Been doing pool rehab everyday. I spend 90% of my time in the pool swimming, to maintain my stamina, and 10% "pool-shredding" to maintain flexibility in my ankle. This injury really puzzles me. It's been good enough to walk on for about a week now, but putting it in the clipper position hurts or feels weird.
But today I just couldn't take it anymore. Swimming is all well and good, but with all the stress in my life these days, I needed to play footbag. Just to stay sane, I needed to play. I laced up the Gs, and took my time just doing kicks to warm up. I played without the brace; when I played a week ago, I used a brace, but felt it was too constrictive. Since my ankle was feeling stronger, I figured I would risk playing without the brace.
All in all, the session went well. I still don't feel like I have regained full ankle crank in my right foot, but I was able to clipper sufficiently well to do most tricks without pain. After the session, I stretched down real thoroughly, and the ankle felt OK. We'll see how it feels tomorrow, but I think it'd be a good idea to take a few days off before the next session.
As for the session itself, it was excellent. Shredwise, it was nothing special, but DAMN it felt good to play again. My stamina wasn't as bad as I feared it would be, probably due to all the swimming. I'd like to continue swimming as cross-training once I'm fully healed. Since it's no-impact, it should help my stamina without endangering my legs in any way. The only real notable part of the shred, was alllllllllmost hitting a new trick; I had toe haze roll off my toe a bunch of times. I've hit a couple variations on toe fog before, but toe haze uses my weaker quantum set, which is exciting. I think I should be able to hit it within a few more sessions, especially when(if??) my strength returns. Other than that, I just had fun hitting some easy stuff. In no particular order:
*smudge-plo-repeat
*pdx blender 1st try on both sides
*smudge-parkwalk bsos
*ducking osis-barfly bsos
*smear-plo repeat to dimwalk-pdx mirage repeat
*A run that started with slap-parkwalk, then later had the other slap-dimwalk.
*Toe egg-ss dlo, repeat.
My runs were a bit short, but given my circumstances, that was quite understandable and acceptable to me. I just felt good to play again. At no point did I feel any bad pain, but there were moments (mostly osis tricks) where I felt aware of my ankle. I'd like to think my ankle has made progress since 2 weeks ago, when I first injured it. I'm going to aim for a minimum of 4 days without playing on it, and play it by ear from here. Wish me luck.
I was just thinking the other day how cool and useful it is to have a blog. Thanks in large part to footbag, I've been lucky enough to have made lots of friends around the world. Usually I'll write to them when I see something that reminds me of them, but I don't have the energy or time to be really diligent with correspondence most of the time. That's where the blog really helps. Take for example my friend Dyalan in Australia. If something basketball/movie/The Kinks -related happened to me, I'd probably drop him a line. I'd probably also mention how footbag was going for me, but I'm not sure if I would have mentioned my ankle. But thanks to the blog, Dyalan knew about my ankle, and sent me an email with some great advice on how to rehab it. Blogs are cool like that, how you can check up on your friends' lives without any pressure to write back or write a lot.
Speaking of the ankle, it's feeling a lot better. I've been doing stretches everyday and staying active. It's still not 100%, but I can flex it around more easily without pain than a week ago, and I've had a couple almost pain-free light sessions on it too. There are still some motions that feel a little strange, and I'm keeping my runs a little short to be safe, but I feel much more optimistic about a complete recovery now than I did just a short while ago.
The last few days have been pretty excellent. Lots of stuff to go over, so I'm just going to dive right in. About a week ago, our neighbors called and said they were going to Mexico for Spring Break. They were renting a condo in San Carlos, but a couple family members cancelled on them, so they were wondering if we'd like to fill in for them? Oh hell yes! I churned out a couple more job apps, placed a couple eBay bids, and then *BAM* off to Mexico I went. The trip really couldn't have come at a better time. I was stressing out a bit about jobs and my future, so 4 days without Internet, TV, or anything... just me and the ocean, well, it was just what I needed.
Mexico was also real good for me physically. Everyday was exhausting, filled with activity. I swam in the ocean, kayaked, walked about town (the one day I picked to go into town, there happened to be a huge parade, with local beauty queens riding on top of cars, marching bands, and people dressed like animals throwing candy at people on the sidewalk), threw frisbee, dug a pit and gathered wood for a bonfire, learned windsurfing, and yes, even played a little legball. Learning to windsurf was surprisingly good ankle exercise; balancing on the board requires lots of small adjustments using the ankle muscles. I went to bed exhausted everynight, and my body was getting rehabbed while having fun. Before heading out on the trip, I found an old, floppy carol bag of mine and filled it up with leadshot. I ended up playing with it way more than with my Ilja on this trip. The floppiness probably makes it easier to catch, which in turn is easier on my right foot clippers. I think I'll continue playing with it for a bit, and then gradually go back to the Ilja when I feel I've recouped enough ankle strength to do more precise clippers.
I didn't play too much footbag in Mexico, but when i did play I felt good. I brought my gear down with me because I couldn't pass up the chance to add another country to my "countries I've played footbag in" list. I've now played footbag in the USA, Mexico, Canada, Spain, Finland, Czech Republic, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. I think I may have played in a couple other countries too, but its hard to remember. Anyway, in Mexico I didn't do too many hard tricks, or particularly long strings either. I mostly tried for cool/stylish combinations of 4 adds, or just interesting mix-ups in my runs. Some random highlights were:
*4 pixie ss mirages, real easily. This shows me I need to work on doing flip pixies out of mirages more. I can flip pixie pretty well out of legovers, but mirages still aren't 100% natural.
*7 contacts of ducking butter-spinning butterfly repeat to start a string.
*pdx mirage-dimwalk-ripwalk-pdx drifter-dyno...........repeat! This just felt real stylish for me. For some reason, dynos feel much easier on my bad ankle than blenders do. In any case, this was probably my favorite combo of the trip.
*double switchover x2, first or second try. I don't do this often, so it still feels fun when I do hit it.
*flip torques felt strong, I was putting them in links I don't normally do, like blurriest-flip torque.
I don't think I did a single 6 add trick, or double dex set during my entire trip, both which are good things. The whole time I never felt like I was forcing anything; I was just flowing. It'd be cool if my style improved as a result of this injury. I'm just going to make a point not to rush my recovery too much. I took yesterday off, and I think I'll only play lightly today. Maybe I'll try out my new pair of shorts I picked up in Mexico. It's my first pair of red shorts...I was willing to take a chance on a new style, partly because they were only $6.50. Oh, and speaking of new equipment, last week I decided to look on eBay for g-Units on a whim, and was surprised to find a sweet deal. I already have enough back-up pairs of g6s, but when I saw a pair online for $24.99 (S+H included) I had to put in a bid. When I came back from Mexico, I saw that I won! Whoo! I've had really good luck with G-Units so far. I got my first pair for free as a gift from my friend Guido in Sydney. Then I bought two new pairs off eBay for $40 a piece. Then Mike Jauss "traded" me another new pair in exchange for a CSS shirt (really, it was like a gift from him), and now I just won another new pair for $25. So on average each of my G-Units has cost me only $25! Pretty excellent. There are still size 7.5 G6s on eBay selling for $25. I would have posted this sooner, but I wanted to win the first auction myself (*oops*)
Yesterday was Tokyo Shredder Gathering 4. To me, that's a huge deal, because it's the first major Japanese tournament that I didn't help run. I was hit by a strange combination of feelings. I felt sad that I couldn't be there. I felt a bit frustrated that I don't have a job yet (if I did have a job, I could justify my absence much more easily). But more than anything, I felt really happy and proud that the Japanese scene is going strong without me. Being a part of the birth of the Japanese scene was really special to me, and I remember during the first couple tournaments, having that small doubt in the back of my head about whether or not the scene would continue going strong, fall off, what. So yesterday I mailed Kim's cellphone before the tournament, telling him to say "hey" and "good luck" to everybody from my part, and wishing him the best in running the show. Today I got a mail from Takumi with some results, and it sounds like it all went well, which I was really happy to hear. I can't wait to see how Takumi does at the next World's he attends. I really miss the Japanese footbag scene. So many good times, so many good friends. Hopefully I can get my life on track enough that I can hit the Japanese Champs, whenever those are held. Shout out, Team Japan. I love you guys.
I'm kinda liking my new regimen. No modified and no YouTube make me feel like I'm wasting less time. I still rabidly follow NBA, but I somehow see that as less of a vice. Swimming everyday is also making me feel good. Typing right now is a bit difficult, cause I jammed a needle deep into my thumb last night while I was patching up my G-Units. I hadn't felt pain like that in quite a long time. The toe flaps of my modified G6s come undone after a while (exposing my big toe below), which is the only real drawback I've found with the G6s. Its not too hard to repair though. I just stitch it back with needle and thread, and then I bond the flap to the shoe using crazy glue. So the crazy glue goes over the stitching. The mod seems to work real well; it doesn't get in the way, and it's been pretty durable on the right shoe so far.
Yesterday afternoon I decided to get a light session in. I only played for 45 minutes or so, which I think is good for my recovering ankle. I decided that a light session would also be the perfect opportunity for me to try out my new shorts which I bought on the cheap in Mexico. When I got back stateside, I compared them light session would also be the perfect opportunity for me to try out my new shorts which I bought on the cheap in Mexico. When I got back stateside, I compared them to my best shred shorts, and found that the Mexican ones were a bit longer than ideal, and the cut was a bit less comfortable. Still, they looked like they had potential, so I put them on and went out to shred. I brought with me my Ilja bag, as well as a floppy Carol and a floppy Miki bag (Japanese stitcher). I warmed up with 100+ kicks and some toe stalls using the Miki-bag, then stretched some more.
I thought about what I wrote in my blog, how clipper tricks are more legit using the Ilja bag, and how I'd like to rehab the ankle to the point where I can play legitly with a non-floppy bag. With that in mind, I decided I'd make my first guiltless combo in my new shorts be infinities using the Ilja. I dropped the bag into a butterfly, and started doing some infinities. My injured ankle felt very good, and since I had started counting already, I decided to keep going til I hit a nice round number like 30. But when I hit 30, I felt so strong that I kept going. By the time I hit 60, I still had no ankle pain, and decided to go for it. 70...80...90... by now I'm trying to remember my infinity record. Was it 102 or 111? I get a bit nervous around 100, but keep pushing. Finally, I drop on my 119th attempt. 118 infinities! Not bad for my first guiltless combo of the day, and my first guiltless combo in these shorts! I think my recent swimming routine is helping my stamina.
I love getting a milestone or new trick hit in the beginning of the session, cause it sets a nice "can-do" tone for the rest of the shred, and takes off any pressure to "accomplish" anything for the rest of the shred. 118 infinities with no ankle pain felt good, but my optimism was tempered a little because I knew that osis moves hurt that ankle more than butterflies. Thanks to my new record, I decided it might be a good idea to drill consec osii. I got 21 on one of my first attempts, which I hurt that ankle more than butterflies. Thanks to my new record, I decided it might be a good idea to drill consec osii. I got 21 on one of my first attempts, which I was real happy about. My record is closer to 50, but 21 without pain was a big deal for me. My next try I got 29 consec osii, and with that I decided I had enough osis practice for one day. I spent the rest of the session just going for consec records, with a few sparse combos sprinkled in between. I was very proud that I didn't try a single 5/6/7 add trick, triple dex, or double dex set in the entire session. No reason to push too hard, and a day working on fundamentals is always good. Here are some highlights. New personal records are indicated with a $ sign.
*Double switchover x2 $(ties record. I should be able to beat this if I try)
*Magellan-plo repeat
*Hippy atom smasher x 4! $ I was stoked on this, cause I got the set for #5, and just choked on the toe stall.
*Tap x 13$
*Magellan x 11 or 12
*25 contacts of osis-pdx mirage-ss bfly repeat, before I got confused and did 2 osis in a row. D'oh! I think I will make this part of my warm-up from now on.
*Pixie ss mirage x5$ This is a lame record; I should really skool it. It's especially bad, when compared with:
*PLOx 15$ I think thats a new record. Felt good and strong
*11 drifters. I wonder what my record is for this. I should be able to get 20 at least.
*Pdx Drifter x 5. $ I was REALLY excited about this one, cause I think my record had been only 3 on each side before. So getting 5 on flip, and 5 on my strong, which is the injured clipper, was unexpected.
*Pdx drifter x9$ on strong. Yeah...since it didn't hurt, I tried to break 5, and was real surprised and stoked with 9. I tried to break 5 on flip, but no luck.
*I closed out the session with diving osis-pdx drifter repeat, which I thought was pretty stylish.
Overall my ankle felt excellent once it was warmed up. I'm going to make a point to warm up slow from now on, and keep my sessions on the short side for a little while. Felt very satisfied with the session; new shorts worked well, set a bunch of new personal records (using the Ilja), and the ankle felt good.
In other excellent, tangential footbag news, I got my favorite hoodie back today from Australia! Yes! I love this hoodie so much, and I felt so bad when I left it in Aussie. Thanks Gareth! Thanks Guido! Who should I send money to?
Next: a photo of all my footbags. I feel kind of bad, cause a friend recently sent me a very nice mini-bag, but since my ankle injury, I've stayed away from small bags. On the flip of that, my super-floppy bags have come out of retirement, and are getting use again. I'm thinking my sessions will be a mix of floppy bags and Ilja, slowly transitioning to just Ilja, then hopefully to using the Ilja and my minibags again.
Last night I went to intermediate yoga with my Mom, and it was no joke. Pride pushed me to tough it all out, and I impressed the teacher by keeping up, but DAMN. That's hard work. Difficult positions requiring lots of flexibility, which you hold for several seconds, and take a ton of strength. One of the most physically challenging hours of my life. I woke up this morning with every muscle in my body aching, including some I didn't know I had.
Despite all the body aches, I decided to shred today. I played for over an hour, which was probably too long, but I really enjoyed it, and felt like I needed it. I spent the first 20 or so minutes playing with my Miki-bag, which is really growing on me. I didn't feel much ankle pain during the shred, but I'm still not 100%. While my last session was all about consecutives and no hard stuff, today's session was more about doing cool repeat combos, and some cute 2-move "phat combos."
I spent some time trying to hit atomic grifter, which is even harder than it
sounds. That's saying a lot, cause it always seemed hard to me, even before I tried it. I think I could get it on a good day with some luck, but I didn't even feel that close today. I also gave some token attempts at toe haze, but not too it. I think I could get it on a good day with some luck, but I didn't even feel that close today. I also gave some token attempts at toe haze, but not too seriously. I didn't hit any new tricks this session.
Kim mailed me the other day with the results of TSG4. I was real happy to see that so many "Phat Combos" were hit. Takumi's safety was bigwalk to torquescrew, which is a great rewind combo. In the semis, he also hit surreal-spin pdx blender! Damn. Other than those combos, all the other entries were stuff I can hit, so I thought it would be fun to try and hit them today. In no particular order, here are some TSG4 combos which I hit today, as well as the players who originally hit them.
I probably shouldn't have hit that last one, cause it ends on the weak ankle, but I wanted to be as complete as I could, so I sucked it up. I also hit alpine leg to ps egg, which may have been a first for me. Not too hard. I spent most of the shred going for repeat combos.
Here are some of my better ones:
*ducking osis-pdx whirl, repeat
*pdx drifter-pdx drifter-pdx whirl repeat
*pixie ss osis-pdx egg repeat
*stepping ss illusion-toe ripwalk repeat
I also spent a long time trying for flurry-toe drifter repeat. It was real fun in a teasing way, as most of the requisite links were new to me, but I knew I could get it. I had several achingly close looks at the combo, including flurry-toe drifter-dlo-toe drifter a couple times, and toe drifter-flurry-toe drifter-barra...miss. I also had a couple tries where I got weak flurry-toe drift- and then I overflew the toe with deep dexes on my strong flurry. This was towards the end of the session, and I was happy I was getting flip flurry pretty consistent, so I was allllmost ready to just leave it for next session. But thankfully I persevered...and nailed it! Woo hoo! Very very happy about the combo, probably the session highlight. I'm thinking I should try flurry-hippy legbeater next session. I remember seeing Sunil bust that at 2000 Worlds, and it was huge. I've seen Chad hit it with hippy legbeaters, but I think leggy would look cooler. I'll try it both ways.
Oh, and my toe mod on the left foot held up beautifully and looks good. It was worth the pain of jabbing my finger. In other equipment news, I played in a t-shirt today for the first time in ages, and it felt hot and baggy, even though it wasn't. I've really come to like playing in NBA jerseys; I think I'll stick with them from now on.
Got slammed by a baaad case of stomach flu (gastroenteritis maybe?) yesterday, and am still recovering. I haven't been this sick since I got the flu almost exactly a year ago; I really felt like death warmed over. I had a light dinner 2 nights ago, then the next morning I violently puked up breakfast, and didn't eat any solids for 24 hours. Considering I puked up breakfast, I didn't eat anything for 36 hours total. My head still hurts, and my sides still ache a bit from all the puking, but I think I'm finally over the worst of it. I've been eating some light rice gruel today, and no problems so far. Yesterday I felt so bad, I just spent most of the day watching NBA games I had taped. It hurt just to move. I also caved in a bit on my modified-fast, and looked at some blogs. Considering I didn't have the energy to do job apps, and was bored out my mind, I don't feel too bad about having violated my modified exile. I was real excited to see Bob Riefer has a blog. I really enjoyed reading his first few entries, it read like a real good story, and it was a bit surreal to see events mentioned that I attended. I was really happy to see that he's digging footbag so much now. I went through a similar phase, where I had to leave the game for a bit and come back with a different viewpoint in order to play my best.
On a similar note, I also enjoyed reading Ashley's blog. I can totally relate to what she was saying about "playing for others" and not for herself. It's real important she realized that, and even if she needs to take time off from the game, the main thing is that she enjoy herself, and enjoy footbag for reasons which are right for her. Oh, I also looked at the
video section in the hopes that any CSS footage has come out, but no luck there.
I was kinda hoping to hook up with the local shredders this weekend, so I could give them their CSS7 shirts and get in ashred. But I'm not sure if I'll be sufficiently recovered by the weekend to play. Probably better to play it safe and rest, but I have trouble resisting these sorts of things.
Below is a photo of all my shred-able bags.
From left to right: Carol W bag, Miki bag, Henmo bag, Lesh bag, Ilja bag.
Up until recently, I had considered the Carol and Miki bags retired, because I found them way too big and floppy for my taste. But I've re-filled them, and have been enjoying just messing around with them, playing less dex-y, and so they're now out of retirement. My Henmo bag is still a bit too rolly; I think maybe I should get drastic and use some fabric softener on him. The Lesh bag is officially dead, it busted a stitch a while ago. I wanted to include it though, cause it's one of the best bags I've ever had, and I've mentioned it a lot in the blog (my "Oxana bag"). My Ilja bag is my best bag, probably one of my top 3 ever. I initially thought he'd be too big, but he's been perfect.
This is a photo of my mini-Abshire and my Modified bag. I've had the mini-Abshire since TSG3, about a year ago. The last bag was sent to me by a generous stitcher on modified a couple months ago. I was totally tripped out when I got it, cause it's like the twin brother of my mini-Abshire! I wonder if that's just coincidence, or if the stitcher saw my old bag, and wanted to mess with my head. Seriously, when I first got it, I thought some weird prank was being played on me. I haven't had time to break it in, due to injuries, but I think it'll be sweet for dex-heavy shred when I get back to that point.
I played a terrible game against a different friend today, where I just had crap tiles all night. I did play "AERIE" as a vowel dump, but that scored horridly, and I got vowels right back 
Hopefully it'll make some video though. 
