Jon: Kicky Sack Memoirs

[jon]

Thursday, December 8, 2005

Sadly I wont be able to make it to the New Years Jam, as I will be in Victoria BC spending time with my family.

I got to play with Owen and Aron last night in Waterloo. My calves were being bitchy and really sore again. By the end of the session they kind of loosened up but today both my leg are sore. Because of that I am putting off leg day at the gym again and will be doing back and bi's tonight instead. I think I will take the next two days off footbag and then start playing again come saturday so I can get some practice in before I go to Toronto to shred. I have a feeling that my legs might still be sore then but whatever, I want to work out my legs.

The shred was fun last night and it was good to play with other people again. Aron and Owen's outlook on footbag is a bit different then mine which I didn't realized before. They like intense strings where as I like more relaxed, controlled, and longer strings. I think that is why I don't push my self too much. I also am against guilting. I thought it was the goal of most shredders to get to the guiltless level but ontario players seem not to be concerned at all with it. Maybe everyone is right and I am wrong. But I am not gonna start guilting now. I would much rather do butterfly after butterfly then toe stalls, pickups, clippers, and legovers.

Owen also has inspired me to start doing more pixies and fairies, I just need to force myself to learn them now But I think I am finally ready to commit myself to learning them this winter. I didn't used to care about pixies because everyone pixies and I thought it was kinda cool to be different but I guess I will give them ago, more variety won't hurt my game.

I think Aron was upset that I called the on some of his stuff. I feel bad now. I don't usually call the except with people I know. But I don't think its done a lot in Ontario so from now on I won't.

The best part of the night was when Owen hit 58 pickups!! His longest string ever. Mad props to him. We also had a great time playing addon, my new favourite footbag game. Its sooo fantastic. It works the memory and the legs.

In other non footbag news I am gonna cycle off the creatine. Gonna take a month off starting today and start back up when I get home. This winter before I start working out again I am gonna take lots of pics so I can compare progress I make in the new year. I am also gonna get more serious with my diet and start eating A LOT!!! I will force my body to gain weight. Mind over matter and all that good stuff. I am gonna take two weeks off from lifting when I go home for Christmas to give my body a chance to recover a bit, recharge, and let everything heal up. I look forward to seeing what affect that has.

I am gonning to play sooooo much footbag this coming week so I don't stink in Toronto. Wish me luck.

Peace

[mosher]

What about getting big appeals to you?

(not trying to dis what you're doing, just being curious)

[jon]

Good question tom. Working out feels awesome. When I work out I let out so much aggression and energy. When I don't have an outlet for the energy, either through working out or footbag I get depressed. Laura thinks I might be a compulsive exerciser. I think it might be possible.

Here is a definition from a site I just found:
Compulsive exercise (also called obligatory exercise and anorexia athletica) is best defined by an exercise addict's frame of mind: He or she no longer chooses to exercise but feels compelled to do so and struggles with guilt and anxiety if he or she doesn't work out. Injury, illness, an outing with friends, bad weather - none of these will deter those who compulsively exercise. In a sense, exercising takes over a compulsive exerciser's life because he or she plans life around it.

But I think this can be said of a lot of footbaggers that play most if not all days. I just love being active and feel more happy and fullfilled when I do get exercise.

What is it about bodybuilding that I like? I like the online community aspect of it, the amount of information to ingross myself with, and the workingout itself. I have always wanted to be more fit, stronger, bigger. Perhaps I am conditioned by society to feel this way but to be honest I don't see how being fitter/stronger can be a negative so I don't worry about it too much. The only bad part about the amount of exercise I do is the time I lose with other people. I am fairly certain I still have an obsessive compulsive nature and things like footbag and working out feed into that nature. The goal of bodybuilding is to get bigger and so that is what I will strive for. I don't ever want to look like the guys on the fitness magazines full of steroids but I do think I have a lot of potential gains to make the natural way. If I do gain some muscle I will be happy because I set myself a goal and achieved it. I think getting stronger legs will help with footbag and balance out my body symmetry. At the moment I have a common footbag problem which people refer to as 'chicken legs'

Gaining more size and muscle will help me as I age and reduce the odds that I become one of those unhealth old people with a sore back and bad health. I also honestly prefer the look of a more muscular me. The road to my goal is slow but will also be rewarding. I want to find activities that I can do as I get older and to be honest I won't be able to freestyle for ever. Outside of footbag and lifting I also really enjoy rock climbing. I like activities that tire me out and make me feel exhausted. (The reason I don't enjoy juggling that much is because I don't get tired in the same way as other activities) What I don't enjoy is any form of cardio where the goal is anything but fun. I only do things because I enjoy the act of doing them and this is true with lifting. If I didnt intend to get bigger then what goal would I have when I did go lift? It is just what happens if I stick to a schedule so I decided to imbrace the results and see what can happen. I think its exciting and fun.

In terms of the looks I am not sure of the effect. In terms of attracting the opposite sex I have mixed feelings. At the moment I don't care because I am with Laura. Honestly I feel that Laura is not a fan of bodybuilding thing I am doing. She says she doesnt like bulgy muscles and already thinks my arms are too big. She thinks my upper body is out of proportion to my legs and thinks I am too skinny. If it were up to her she would like to see me with more fat and not as bony. I think I know how see feels because who wants to hug a skeleton, hell that girl from the OC scares me because she is soo skinny. I bet lots of other woman out there think the say way she does, and dont really want a big guy. That being said I think a lot of woman do like guys with some muscle on them as long as they are not too big, and I believe I am very far from being too big. I am not working out for the ladies though, I do it for myself because I enjoy it. It all boils down to having a good time and working towards a rewarding goal. I would much rather spend the time in a gym improving my apperance then be like 90 % of the population and go out and spend money on expensive clothing and still be the same in the end. I want my changes to come from the inside out and think bodybuilding, at least for now is something I want to continue doing.

But who really knows ... I have been working out on and off since highschool. I first started in OAC (grade 13) and after a little while the initial results were so rewarding I kept up with it for a long time. As other things came up in my life I worked out less and find that I tend to work out in cycles. This time it is different I believe. I am getting more into it, reading more about, going about it more scientifically, and I am more determined. Its gonna be interesting to see what happens

[jon]

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Since the last post I played once last week with Owen in Waterloo. The session was awesome and I think we really pushed each other's game. It was fun but I don't remember a lot of specifics.

I played last night for 20 minutes. Hit one new link: atomsmasher > toe blur. Didn't really work on anything else as I didn't have much time.

Everything is hectic trying to get ready to leave work and return home for christmas. I am having a hell of time trying to add course for the Winter semester.

End post.

[jon]

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Played today for 20 minutes outside. It was probably 10 degress in beautiful victoria, bc.

I wanted to hit a new drill I thought of in bed this morning: clipper set dlo > dlo op side > paradon [repeat]. I was only able to get through the drill on one side and wasn't close to hitting the whole drill. My flip is crappy.

Hit a couple of new cool links:
quantum butter > barfly (bs)
spinning clipper (flip) > barfly
spinning ducking clipper > barfly (flip)
barfly > spinning osis (bs) great feeling link as I hardly ever hit anything good out of barfly

then it got dark and everything got really hard and I had to stop

playing with allan tomorrow at the ymca, should be fun, will update after the session

johnnys posts tonight were awesome

[Jdigges]

hahaha yea they were awesome

props on the new links. Barfly is such a fun trick. Although i twisted my ankle twice doing em so they sketch me out.

[jon]

Friday, December 30, 2005

If anyone reads this blog post saying hi :p

So I forgot to mention the session I had with Tom Mosher the week before I left to return home. He drove up to Guelph and we had a nice 2 hour session of leg ball with lots of sick stuff hit. I think I put a damper on the day because I am not as positive as I should be sometimes, but I hope tom had an ok time and will return again sometime soon. We tried to film but I think his camera got messed up so I don't know if any videos will come out of it. I have some old footbag of Tom from months ago that I know he would have liked to have made into a video so I will try and get to that when I return home. Its the least I can do for such a nice guy. The only highlight for me was a trick tom inspired me to try sym quantum butter (bs).

So on my birthday I got to play with the victoria crew one again It was awesome to play with both matt and allan again and to see the victoria shredditas. Both matt and allan have been out of footbag for a while but they both still are awesome at leg sack. Matt has a great flow with lots of dragon osis type moves. Its very refreshing to watch. Allan is bomb! He said he hadnt played in months and when he was warming up he hit fog bs and mobius without a drop. He hit some nice stepping ducking and sym rev swirling tricks and some sweet quantum tricks as well.
We got to play with one of matts 32's which was a nice treat as well. I think I played ok for being out of practice (respectively of course, I play often compared to the victoria crew it seems). Highlights were barfly > barfly first try and a string with paradon swirl (first try) + whirling swirl. My strings were kinda short though. I did however self serve once I was trying blurry whirl as the first trick of a string and caught the bag after my step. BAD ME! The low part of the session was when i was trying a trick out of paradox whirl and my heel came out of my shoe and I came down funny on my foot. At the time it didnt feel that bad but it has felt bad all day just walking around the house.
After the session matt, allan, and I sat around and talked footbag for a while. Always fun. We said we would try and play again at least once more this week so I am excited about that. Hope my foot feels better.

That night I went out with my family for a birthday dinner to a restaurant called the blue crab. I ate an appetizer of crab cakes, then ate a stake and half a lobster and more seafood, and then bread pudding. The food was awesome but on the drive home I felt like I was gonna be sick I was so full. I just sat there quietly and made it home and then felt better

Right now I am hiding in my room, there is a party downstairs made up of my parents friends and neighbours. I am tired of the forced small talk and have retreated to the internet. I am such a nerd. I really miss Laura. End post.

[jon]

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Happy New Year! This year looks to be very interesting indeed. I will graduate, moving in with Laura this summer, and beyond that I have no idea. I wish I had some idea what was going to happen! I feel somewhat lost.

Play with Allan and Matt again today. About an hour before the session I fell down at home walking down a step and hit my tail bone hard on the hardwood. It hurts! The session was however very fun. Unfortunately Allan forgot his shoes as he was coming directly from a dentist appointment so for the first 45 mins he left to try and buy some G-Units. He came back empty handed and had to play in the shoes he was wearing. Amazingly he played very well in them. Clippers, toes, and osis stuff no problem. Without my cheater units I would be lost. Highlights for me were sumo > torque a string with blur > quantum butter bsos, food a few times, and also lots of stepping stuff and lots of basic fives. After the session we went to a local pub for some food and beer and talking footbag. I learned a lot and because I love talking footbag I had a great time.
I don't know when I will play with these guys again as my parents are moving to Calgary and don't know when I will be back to Victoria. Good luck to both those guys and thanks for the good times.

[mosher]

Good to hear your Victoria experiences are going much better than in the past!

Can't wait to lay down some adds with you soon dude!

[jon]

Friday, January 27, 2006

Havn't kicked a bag since my last post.

My courses are going well, I just got a sweet new job as the IT guy for 5 departments on campus, I am hitting the gym 4 days a week, I am trying to eat a lot but its hard and some days I get lazy and don't eat much at all.

I am going to apply to do a computer science masters this fall. Laura found out today that she got an interview at UofOttawa med school. Soon something really interesting to me will be announced to all of you, I hope you all can help.

Peace
Jonathan

[jon]

Monday, March 20, 2006

Hey all that read my blog

I know it’s been a long time since I posted but I figured it’s about time. I mentioned in my last post about something interesting to come. Will today my study was released, better late then never. It was actually ready about a month ago but I had to go through four revisions of my proposal to get approval. This doesn’t leave me much time to compile all the results but I think it will turn out alright. I also need to get cracking on my literature review that will accompany the report. The final paper will be presented to two professors and a grad student and will be marked by two profs.

I want to do well but I don't really feel pressured about the marks I get this semester beyond passing all my course so that I can graduate this summer because I found out last week that I got into grad school!

I know I mentioned before about applying to law school for the fall but I don't think it’s going to work out this year. I got rejected from U of Ottawa and I have yet to hear back from U of Windsor. If I get into U of Windsor by some odd chance I will go but I don't think it’s likely. My plan now is to take two years and get my Master in Computer Science and then reapply to law school.

My area of research which I won't get to until my second year will be online communities (Something I have always been into, long before I got involved with Modified) I am pretty lucky that one of the profs here is also into this area of research and did his phd on the subject of lurkers. Most computer science professors are either into math or coding which I am not into so I really lucked out. Besides this prof I know of only one other comp sci prof in Canada that is knowledgeable in this area.

Enough about school, I got a new apartment! I move in May 1st. Laura might live with me this summer depending or not on whether she gets this job in Ottawa. I am going to play lots of footbag this summer because my summer job (the same place I have been working all semester – mentioned in previous posts) is only promising me 22 hours a week I might be poor this year.

As for footbag ...I played once for 10 minutes in February. I am actually hoping to play this weekend though At this point I feel like a footbag poser.

Why haven’t I been playing? I blame all the weight lifting. Sadly though, my lifting has not been great lately. I have not gained a single pound in the last 4 weeks. Up to that point I was gaining a pound a week. I have decided to eat like a horse for the next week and see what I can do. If I can't gain a pound this week I am going take a week off to let my body reset and play lots of footbag

Wow, I thought this post would be more interesting ....

Le Fin

[Johnny]

I was wondering if you were ever going to post in this blog again. Props on getting into grad school, your life seems to be coming together which is nice to hear. Footbag will always be there when you get bored of life without it.

[jon]

Sunday, March 26, 2006

I played footbag yesterday!

Played for about two hours with chad. Leg sack is hard. At first it was a lot of fun, I was stoked with my leg overs and osis. Amazed that I could actually hit some tricks after all this time. But then as the session went on I got frustrated. It was annoyed because I couldnt think of tricks to hit because my brain is not really in footbag mode.

Highlights:
barfly > barfly
food
spinning blender
mobius
barfly > torque bs
barfly > pardox whirl bs
pardox rev whirl strong
rev whirl flip

Lowlights:
Getting pissed and trying barfly > p. torque about 200+ times and not hitting it

Also something new... I was getting chaffed between my thighs. This never used to happen so I am going to have to assume its because my legs are bigger. Big legs = good, thigh chaff= bad

I think Chad and I are gonna play next saturday too. As the weather gets better I hope to start playing more and actually get a couple of solo sessions in.

Someone post anything in my blog

also I now weigh 158 pounds! woot

[mosher]

Go Jon!

[Skippy!]

158 pounds?!

Jon Haber, you manbeast!

[ninjo]

Hi Jon,check your pm's PLEASE.

[SandWraith]

I wear underarmor, and that keeps my legs from chafing.

[jon]

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Played leg kick. Long time no kick. I put my skill level at about what it was early 2004. Will play again tomorrow. Took the day off from the gym because it was leg day and I wanna be able to walk and kick properly this week. I am also gonna take next leg day off as well.

Peace out,
Jon "the footbag poser" Haber

[jon]

Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Started playing kicky bag again. This past weekend I went to the weed march in Toronto but didnt smoke weed or march. It was a lot of fun. To get ready for the weekend I blew the dust off the units and had some solo sessions before the day of the big event. 5 in total. Leading up to the day I worked my 2's and then moved up to basic three's and my typical fours. My fives are shitty.

It was a great feeling to be shredding with a lot of people again. The Toronto crew is always fun and I always have have a good time when I get to shred and chill with Camille, Andrew, and Paul. I also got the pleasure to meed a lot of new shredders in the area and put a face to the names which I see on Modified. The biggest suprise of the day was meeting Tashi. I love his shred. It is strong, fast, and fun to watch. Becayse of him I feel inspired to buckle down and really learn this shuffle deal that seems to be so popular

The highlight of the day for me was being in a circle with tashi, greenwood, and paul with a very large crowd gathered around to watch. The circle lasted for probably 45 - 60 minutes and probably had a few hundred spectators over that period of time and it made me feel so good. It also gave me a chance to work double around the worlds and torques as they are always crowd pleasers. Tashi was a standout when it came to shredding for the crowd. He put down long shuffle filled strings they got everyone really excited. Next to his shuffle my downtime is dull and boptastic.

With that realized I am planning once again to learn to PIXIE on bothsides! and I will get this blasted stepping problem I have fixed. Then I will throw in my atomic and quantum and be good to go.

Personal shred highlights were few. I hit mobius for the crowd early on but every attempt after was a failure. I also hit scorpian's tail and some ps whirls. I would appreciate some comments from people that saw me play on what I should work on for the summer.

I need to step back from the working out and get back into the footbag shape instead. At the moment my skills are dull and I know I can improve. My lifting has plateaued but I feel like my footy skills could take off. I want to be ready for the next group shred and represent with a better bag of tricks.

....

The other Toronto players are rocking the circles. There are a lot of newer players that already so good and yet relatively new to the scene. Toronto and Ontario have a very promising scene indeed. We arnt gonna be the new Finland by any stretch of the imagination but its nice to have a youthful and energetic group of new players out there pushing their limits.

For now I am gonna focus on stepping, pixie, and I would like to learn barraging. I will try and get out and practice to make these goals a reality.

Please leave comments on what I should work on or just to say hi.

Peace,
Jon

[Skippy!]

Yeah Jon Haber!!! I knew you couldn't stay away from footbag forever. With any luck, we'll get in more than a few sessions over the course of the summer!