Ow

Pain has been a dark cloud over me the past week. My back is finally better, which is nice. I think it was just a muscle strain, nothing involving the spine, which is a huge relief.
The
left foot however is another story. It has been hurting for almost a month now, ever since the San Marcos jam

I went to the doctor, he took a look at it, twisted and pinched all different ways, most of which didn't hurt. It really only hurts going up and down steps, and torsion about the ankle. He's only a GP, not a specialist so he doesn't know everything. He said it was either a deep muscle tissue strain or a fracture. I got an
x-ray the other day, they haven't called me back to tell me the results. I need to call and check in and see what the dealio is.
I'm still shredding, but the pain really limits my game

Strong side spinning and strong side symposium hurt a lot and I am trying to avoid them at all costs, which is tough, becuase I really enjoy them. It's forcing me to only doing those concepts on my flipside which I guess is a silver lining.
Pixie set is still developing, but it's good to know I have it somewhat. I've been neglecting BOPs and it's starting to show, my consistency with them isn't what it was.
Anyways... session the other day. Word to the mother
10/11/06, 1 hr 45 minutes with Cody and John
Cody is working on his game and I think shredding solo a lot. Definitely an "old" dog learning new tricks. He hit blur and ps whirl mid run, which are usually tough for him. He also had some attempts at
trixie 
(triple pixie), a challenge from Jeremy Mirken when he was in town. He hit it both times he tried it (one side only), but the last dex was questionable both times. "Clean enough to be thin" as they say. Also, he has been fooling around with surging set (one side only) and I've told him it looks good. So he schooled it some more and it's really coming along! I think he could totally hit bigwalk or surge if he just works on it some more.
John is continuing to improve at a very rapid pace. I was worried about him neglecting his flipside, but this session it looks like he has made a concerted effort to work his flipside which is good. He was attempting and hitting all his moves on both sides (except for rev whirl). He hit mirage and butterfly both BSOS in seperate runs. Also his rev whirl is getting more under control such that he can hit other stuff out of it. He had a few runs where he was SHREDDING, like ~10 contacts 2's and 3's with a couple toe bails here and there.

As for me, I was really limited by pain. I DID hit DLO a couple times (3rd and 4th time ever), smear and dimwalk again. Also, new trick, flip spinning clipper! Hooray! Not much else. Run length was terrible and I was getting fatigued really quickly. It's ok, I'll bounce back.
I'm very pumped for
TEXAS STATEWIDES coming up, although my preparation for organizing the tournament has been minimal at best. In the past few days I've gotten several emails from people saying they are coming, which is cool. It should be a good turn out! Also the weather should have cooled down, which will be a good break. Summer just hasn't wanted to die in Texas this year. We will give it a furious sendoff with the tournament!
In other news in my life, I have decided to apply to graduate school for hopefully a masters in environmental engineering at the university of Texas. So I need to take the GREs, get my letters of rec together and hope for the best. The past 3 years working for the man I've saved up enough money to be able to do it. I was just thinking about my job and selling computer processors, it's not as noble work as people try to crack it up to be. Bottom line is I work for a company that's trying to make money no matter how green they say they are, they are just trying to make that green. I see so many problems in the world today, so many conflicts and things that need to be fixed. I'm often frustrated feeling like there's nothing I can do. I'm no good at politics, but I've got a good engineering mind and I think this would be the perfect way for me to contribute to the greater good. Living in Texas with summer riding well into October, I see global warming first hand. We've got to do something, I want to help. It will be good to go back to school and just get to do something I'm passionate about.
Well that's all, may your runs be long, your big tricks be monster and may the footbag gods be delighted with your shred.
Ben