Wasabi: M(s)+J = BLAST

[Wasabi]

Where to start...? I'm feeling pretty sore. I haven't been checking on my health efficiently this past week and such. I've been eating a lot of crap, and thus is making me feel a bit like crap, I guess. Ehh, still, I'm having a lot of fun just playing footbag. I just need to push myself more in having a much more nutritious diet.

My visit to Temple was fun. I was kind of disappointed due to the drastic cut of players not showing, which put a downer into my shred confidence in a way. Drew Martin injured himself before the appointed date, probably due to his knee that he felt uncomfortable with since three weeks past. Chris Balch couldn't come since Drew was the one that was supposed to pick him up. Jon Schneider had an injury since two weeks ago I heard, but he may have stopped his trip due to other plans for St. Patty's Day. Well, I still tried to push myself, but my strings just got shorter and shorter toward the end.

I was trying for plenty of smears, dimwalks, paradons, and atomic-y moves beginning and mid-string, but I really felt off. Spinning was also out of the question, since G-units + carpet = super grippy traction. And the carpeting felt much more firm than what I felt in the gymnasium at Cornell, which was like smooth synthetic strands and fibers. I think it's safe to say that I completely sucked in my promise to push for an A-game. Then again, all I had to eat that morning was a few crackers and a handful of cranberries. Ah, whatever. I'm excusing myself way too much. I have nothing to blame but myself for my performance.

The Temple crew is a small but strong club. They have plenty of enthusiasm for footbag, which I really liked about. Carrie LaGreca had a large amount of confidence in her strings, pulling out a pdx. mirage, pickup and x-bod rake wherever the bag is. She felt a bit sick, so her play time went a bit short. Drew Krause had a very calm playing style, where his osises were well spotted and direct. It reminded me of Greg Nielson's shred. He would also pull out a dyno with quick response, which was definitely cool. Of course, the special thing that happened in my visit was that after a few trial and errors with whirl, he got it quickly with no problem! He has a great sense in adjusting his tempo for footbag, I can't wait to see him bsos it. I've forgotten his first name, but a man named "Hobbes" came to join us as a fourth person, and he was a general hacky sacker playing in some Nikes. He had plenty of cool moves, like clipper to ducking pickup, consecutive butterflies and pendulum. Good to see that he wasn't intimidated by players of footbag. I respect that.

After a two hour shred, I was completely beat. Me and Drew had plenty of time to chat about footbag, and I think we both felt very motivated about his achievement on whirls. Carrie joined us a bit later for some food. I had a slice of Sicilian. It tasted great, along with some Gatorade. We all chatted during our meals about Worlds and the Penn State crew. I really want Carrie and Drew to meet all of the players around the East Coast, since it doesn't seem fair that they're restricted within Philly as of yet. Well, their careers have only started just recently, so there will be plenty of time for them to enjoy and anticipate upcoming footbag tournies and jams.

What else? Oh! Carrie hit top shelf in assbag (footbag played while sitting on your ass). That was pretty cool. She was using an extramini 32 bag I stitched a while ago that I just gave to her (I had the feeling of giving away this 32 to someone, but couldn't decide to whom over the past few months). So that was cool. I tried to go for Matt's version in that it's like an anchor stall with an erect leg up in the air, but I failed miserably. Snowcone was out of the picture as well. Whatever. I chilled with some drunk college peeps and that was it.

I really can't wait for the April chapter to begin. Temple U. definitely has a thriving, open scene perfect for footbag. More East Coast players should visit on April 21st!

PS: Temple U. Is the first place I've been to that had an automatic revolving door! Remarkable! FASCINATING!!!

[Footbag Forever]

Hey it was really cool meeting you this past weekend! Glad you had a goodtime even though there was only a few people here to play. Really lookin forward to April shred!

[Wasabi]

Nothing exceptional this week. NYC is having an influx of crappy weather as usual. I lavish at the thought of being bathed by the sun's rays on a good day.

I haven't seriously kicked since last Saturday, to tell you the truth. I've been busy with college lately, although it has been a slow academic week. I'm working on a few papers and incompleted work from last semester. I've been pushing myself to stitch, and yet again I'll be a bit late in my submission of bags to sponsor in tournaments (specifically this year's Todexon). But, I'm doing my best and I'm nearly complete with my second 32, so I have high expectations.

The first 32 to be submitted into Todexon is a mini Blue Hawaii/Princess Purple 12/8 Blur bag with Flash Red pents. Filled with steel shot mix and seed beads. Looks really good. The second one (the one I'm working on) is a mini 10/10 with Leopard Print/Ocelot and Splash Blue pents. I'm sort of troubled here, since I'm planning to fill this with lead and I'm not too sure if European footbaggers want a bag with lead shot in it. I can fill it with steel, of course, but it might be a bit different from the first 32 in terms of the mix quality. The third will be a regular 10/10 Blur with Tulip/Sandy and the pents will be Petit Pois. Steel will be easy to fill a bag that size. Overall I'm pretty stoked to stitch again.

All this stupid Fearless 55 talk is making me want to stitch a 32 with the "radiation gobstopper" pattern or whatever gay name there is for it. I have my panels cut and waiting for me after I finish the Todexon bags. I chose these colors since they all work very with each other: Flash Red, Marmalade, Tulip, Active Green, Atlantis, Amatista, Country Cream and Animal Print. It's going to look and perform pretty badass, imo.

Ben Roscoe is possibly having a deal on Tungsten. I could chip in enough money for 3-4 pounds of the stuff, but that's about it. I have some Tungsten on me from leaking it out of two abshires, and it is pretty dope. I really want to get my hands on more of this stuff. But knowing myself when it comes to filler I'm a selfish prick. I want a good ready supply of filler to use for bags, and having just a small amount won't do for me. That's about it.

Yesterday I met a casual hacky slack girl that I've known for some time. She's some freshman in my college. She had this cool 32 that I immediately went and hand kneaded. It's actually made of facile, but it's big and filled with plastic pellets I think; it was really light. The pents are Atlantis and the hexes are Leopard Print. Pretty keen. I want to talk more about stitching whenever I see this girl again. She told me that her friend stitched it, and I want to meet this friend and talk bag theory! Seriously, that's all. I don't even have an interest in her personally. I'm so evil.

No footbag tomorrow. I've been feeling crappy and under the weather lately. Some girl is pushing me to go into some study group for most of the day, so I'm doing that instead of playing. Whatever.

PS: I feel as though I need to consult my parents or some relatives about seeing an astrologist or a Buddhist monk. I've been feeling a bit superstitious about my progression in life. Yes, I know I'm a fool when it comes to things like this, but I think this is something I have to do. I do love reading up my horoscopes...

[Drew]

Horoscopes are interesting, particularly when they end up coming true.

I loved how your bags looked, we definitely need to trade if you get some free time in soon. let me know.

How is the weather in NYC this week? Hopefully some spectacular weather will motivate you to get out and shred!!

[Wasabi]

This post contradicts the positive hype from the previous posts. Fair warning; try to bear with the obscene language I'm about to vent out.

My thoughts:

• I fucking suck at footbag. I feel like I'm below tiltless whenever I play. My strings are beyond short. I can barely link two or three moves together. I have little control. MY STAMINA SUCKS HAIRY, GREASY BALLS.
• I regret ever spraining my left ankle. It hurts whenever I point my toes, or bend inward. My ankle is my fucking crutch.
• I have fucking fat thighs.
• I barely clipper properly. I don't know what I'm doing with my flip clipper.
• My pixies sometimes bump on my chest from setting; I fucking hate it.
• I mirage too quickly. I rake when catching from miraging dexes, especially from setting the bag with an uptime move.
• I can hit whirl one out of eight or ten tries.
• I barely watch any footbag videos. It takes about 7-10 minutes for my stupid computer to fully boot up. It takes my Winamp a good minute or two to fully load, and even then there is still a chance that I won't be able to watch my downloaded shred videos. I need a portable media player to watch shred vids, but I'm too fuckin' poor to invest on a good model.
• I don't lead a competitive life; rather, I can't find a person with a similar build and height like my own to compete with. I think competition is a way to improve one's own confidence positively, not with any malicious intent, trying to mimic at the same level as the person you are competing with. I have very little confidence in my own abilities because of this.
• Yes, I stitch awesome bags. But I feel that I get no fucking respect sometimes. Actually, I do get respect (I just don't get any fucking orders), but I don't want to be known as only a stitcher. I want to be a great player of the sport as well.
• I have very little motivation to stitch. I need to be proposed with a bag idea from an interested buyer/trader in order to stitch a bag. Any bags I stitch out of a whim are either given away, sold, or sponsored in tournaments. I barely stitch any bags for myself.

Today, I verbally spoke out that I should maybe quit footbag. I believe that was the most awful thing I've ever said in my entire life. Again, I fucking hate and fully regret having sprained my left ankle. But that in of itself is just an excuse of what is truly in my mind. The problem is, I think, is that I have very little motivation and confidence in my footbag career now. I don't know what to do. I obsess about footbag every day, but I don't have the means to show my love for the sport. I feel that I can't keep up with everyone, and it sucks a great deal.

Whatever.

Stan tells me that to go guiltless, I should bust 15 links. Uniques accounted for or not, I don't know. Just 15. I can imagine it happening, but it feels like it'll be too long of a road for me to reach that goal. Maybe my ankle will heal along the way, but... I don't know. I fucking hate the flinching pain I feel with every movement and impact my foot touches the ground.

I finished stitching 3 32s for Todexon. I sent them out to Jan Strus, or Dexter today. Let's see if I get any publicity or bragging rights (unlikely). Maybe pics of them on modified? (Ha-HAH!!!) Or maybe they'll just get confiscated or lost in the mail like in the Chicago NYJ incident (Fuck it, whatever).

A week ago, my dad gave me one of his many cameras to use. It was a digital camera. I've only seen him use it once in a blue moon, and it's adequate and has amazing resolution. Sadly, he misplaced the CD that's necessary to upload the pictures from the camera via USB to the hard drive. I gave it back to him immediately.

Today, it was a breezy 50-something degree weather (Farenheit), sunny and partly cloudy. Humidity was 70% from what I remembered. My body felt cold all day.

I fucking hate NYC.

edit: The third 32 submitted to Todexon is not Tulip/Sandy/Petit Pois 10/10 Blur. It's the radiation gobstopper I was ranting about in a previous post.

I watched how TEN works on the YEAH 2006 competition footage. Kind of makes me want to school double downs so that I can train on my Barflies. I have paradon down somewhat on my strong side; I have problems setting low and away from my body.

I want to go to GRASS this year, but my finances are always troubling me. I also want Tom Mosher to help me refill a couple of bags for me with his v2 Gluefoot fill. Plus, I think I gave a bag to Pengpeng or Tom during last year's KICKASS to be refilled, but never got it back. It was an older Peng bag model, Sable and Flash Red. Well, I have both Sable and Flash Red, so I might as well stitch a 32 out of that, since the bag was originally my friend's. It'll be a good reason for me to stitch him a bag as a consolation for this mishap. That Peng bag was probably not suitable for a proper refill anyway, I don't know. Whatever.

I suck at numbers.

[Wasabi]

I think I've made a decision. I'm going to put off footbag for some time, maybe two or three weeks, and train on my stamina. I've taken up jogging, got me a pair of Nike Free 5.0s, and made a semi-layout on where and when to start my schedule. I'll probably start with approximately a 5 x 5 block radius as a warm-up, and increase the distance I travel from there.

I want to concentrate on certain types of dashes to make footbag much more comfortable for my ankle and for my overall well-being. Toning my thighs is also another aspect I want train on, so that I can extend the power and agility my legs can utilize.

If there are exercises for the hips, that would interest me. I want to fully understand the stepping set sometime this year.

There's no point in crying over spilled milk.

[dp]

It'd be cool to see you at GRASS.

Sorry bout not getting that picture of your bags. My brother who's in Cleveland has my camera.

The bag I bought from you is still going strong and I still love it.

Good luck with the new work out.

[Wasabi]

On Monday I did a little speed-walking in my Nike Frees to see and get a hang of the environment that I would jogging around. I haven't been around my neighborhood in ages. What I mean by that is, well, most of my life is active in Manhattan, and I just usually go straight home in Queens to rest a spell. I would sometimes go to the market or a Broadway for commercial fair, but the travel there is pretty straightforward. I just found out that they're building a Holiday Inn around the block of where I live, and some of the usual stores from my childhood are now gone. Bummer. Change is everywhere.

At least one thing hasn't changed. Two blocks away from my household, there's this house with this beautiful cherry blossom tree. It's one of the many places I enjoyed walking in front of when I was little. Around the middle of Spring would the cherry blossoms bloom and then rain down after a day or two. Right now, the blossoms have yet to bloom during my walk, so I'm anticipating for that moment to come.

I think I caught a little cold in my trek, so I felt a little grumpy when I got home. I cut panels for two 32s I'm planning on working on sometime this week. It helped relieved some stress, but I felt exhausted. Not just physically, but mentally. What helps to perk me up? Modified, coffee, and a little Youtube.

I'll be honest and blunt. I'm very jealous of people who have Lonn bags. Those were the bags that I fell in love with when I started playing footbag. The colors of Tulip, Saffron and Blue Spruce in a 10/10 Blur pattern on a mini bag still ring true in my head to this day (thanks a bunch Ted Fritsch). I never really got a Lonn bag to call my own. Drew gave me a broken Lonn and I studied it like crazy. I made it my business to stitch like her, at least in my own pace with a few variations. I'm happy with how my stitching has progressed to this day, but I felt a bit pissy as well. The resurgence of Lonn bags and how cool they still are made me want to repair the Lonn that Drew gave to me.

For a good few months, I didn't know what to do with it. I just left it shelfed and forgot about it, like a good book that was finished some time ago. But with a portion of a nylon tag from an old sweater, patching tape, and nerves of steel, I managed to repair it pretty well! I had to close up a bleed hole with super glue, though, but I'm pretty proud of my achievment. I filled the bag with steel shot and poly pellets, 53.2 grams, and I'm now loving it to death. Sure, it's really big and floppy, but she is definitely a Lonn bag. It's like love at first sight for a stitcher like me.

edit: Something didn't really feel right with my mod approach after hand kneading it a bit. I felt a weird bump, and it would show itself when the bag is stationary. I took another 2 hours replacing the whole pentagon with a template size similar to it, and stitching it up again. It's kind of weird to see new facile on a worn out bag (Colonial Red hexes/Storm pents; I used Stone Grey for the replacement pent). Especially a Lonn. Whatever. Still looks and feels damn cool.

Yes, I know this whole turn of events is silly and all, but I just wanted to record this into my blog. Hell, I'm going to go hand knead my Lonn right now!

Kisses.

[Wasabi]

The weather's been crappy lately, right around the 40s as the highest. My body tells me this is not ideal for jogging or footbag. Sucks. At least it's sunny, but the clouds look pretty heavy, so rain is possible.

I'm smoking the last bud of weed that I have on me. My New Year's Resolution was to quit around March, but I think now is the best time for me to stop (Spring Break and all). It's too pricey, so my habit for it has been dwindling lower and lower now that my finances are much more imprtant. The next time I'm thinking of smoking is 1) when I'm cleaning out all of the resin left in my bowl (grimey, possible) and/or 2) when I go to Worlds. After that, I'm going to stop.

I still love the feeling of getting high, but some things have to stop, y'know? Plus, my ankle doesn't need weed to make the pain go away (at least not care so much about it), so that's pretty good. I have several papers I need to work on, one in particular that is an incomplete and is somewhat difficult (Aristotlean logic, Epicureanism, Stoicism; I have to explain one of them and argue against one of the other two). I'm a bit worried about that one, but I'll make it through.

I was in my jeans and Nike Frees today. I had the repaired Lonn bag with me as I took a walk around the city. I got 3 consecutive osii, but I dropped on 4. I'm pretty happy about that, since I usually drop on the first osis all the time.

I found a pair of 3 lb. weights. I have a pair of 1 lb. wristbands, so added up I can weight train myself more efficiently. I also have a pretty heavy iron bar that I found in my backyard, so I can use that for squats. Needs cleaning.

I couldn't find FFVI Advance anywhere. All the stores I went to were sold out. I felt pretty upset about that. I might go to ebay, but we all know that during the first few months of a game's release everyone is going to try to make an easy buck off of it.

Stitching, stitching, stitching.

[Wasabi]

I just counted how many facile colors I have in total. 42!!! Colors that I have in bulk? 39!!! That includes print colors.

I'm thinking of making a 32 with each panel having their own individual color (I don't know the name of the design nor do I want to know, because I'll think it'll sound gay). I'm also thinking of doing something really special for modified by making such a bag, so whoever is reading this stay tuned!

[Wasabi]

I feel a bit conflicted on my travel plans to Worlds. Should I make the drive down, or should I take an airplane flight? I don't know. I want to bring some good stuff down to Florida, but how should I sneak it in if I'm flying? That'll be hard. Maybe stuff it inside a jar of peanut butter, or a canister of coffee grounds? Very risky. I could make the ride down, but I have about 17,500 air miles that'll expire by July. My sister told me the other day not to waste them.

I do not want to resort to condoms.

Maybe I should reserve a large stash with Peter Bowler and ask him about it. I want to get my hands on some purple cush.

Emil Tsao PMed me about a bag. Sweetness! I'm cutting panels for him now. 2/3 stitch pattern, standard size I'm guessing, with Splash Blue pents and Snake hexes, 55 grams. This is going to be a sweet bag.

I want to get Amatista facile so bad these days. I was rushing around NYC hunting that facile color down. I may have found a source.

edit: I watched "33 Feet" on Youtube. It's inspired me to go back to basics more in-depthly. I also watched a few clips of Ellis Piltz doing some instructional freestyling. I really need more work on my clippers, since most of the time I'm doing a Vasek-like toe-hop on my clippers instead of bending at the knees. I guess that's where my frustration on dropping in clipper is coming from.

I feel like a jackass from wasting time on doing clippers in incorrect form. I should also stop doing indoor schooling in flip-flops as well.

[Wasabi]

I want to vent further:

There wasn't really anyone in my family who really pushed me forward to do anything that I wanted to do in my life. I always had to challenge my elders in a way. In a typical asian family, success is of the utmost importance. My mother and grandmother wanted me to be fluent in Chinese, have a doctorate in some medical field or become a teacher of some sort. It didn't really matter in any case, since they were only concerned about my financial well-being. I'm currently a Creative Writing major, part-time job hopper and footbagger. Nothing fulfilling in their eyes.

I'll have to admit, and it pains me to write this but it's true: my father is a lazy bastard. Before retirement, he was a hard worker and the breadwinner of the family. Actually, in my eyes, "hard worker" feels like an overstatement. He always had the right thing to say in social gatherings. A "Yes man" in a way, but I'm sure he worked hard as a carpenter to help support the family. After retirement, all he does is watch TV and complain when things don't go his way. He never really pushed me to do anything; whatever I did in my life that made me happy would be the correct path in my life. I've thought about that concept tonight, in my career as a footbag player, and I feel like I've just wasted two years of my life through shit and hell without noticing it. I almost feel like a reflection of my father in this image, and it fuckin' sucks balls.

I really fuckin' HATE how my grandmother attempts to put me down with whatever fuckin' word she speaks out to me. She only speaks and points out the negative things in life. It's the most fuckin' annoying aspect that I've had to live with throughout the whole course of my life. I guess that's why I'm so fuckin' passive aggressive.

I read through some of the posts that I wrote in my blog. I made it to page 4. The only thought I had in my mind was "what the fuck was I doing these past two years!?" Other than adding a few moves and improving some tweaks on some of my footbag form (that feels like an overstatement), I don't feel like I advanced much in footbag. Just "experienced" more and more. There was no integration into my own person. All I had to talk about was stitching, stitching, stitching.

I feel so weak minded. So many excuses, just to put my mentality into a safe haven or a small comfort zone to please myself. Now that I realized that, it feels bittersweet. No, just plain bitter.

I think I made my decision. I'm going to move to Canada after I graduate from Hunter College. The shred scene is much more intense, even if the weather conditions can be colder than NYC. I think it won't be as random as NYC weather, though, so that will be better for my expectations. More of my East Coast buddies would be closer around that area as well. I keep saying that I want to move somewhere warmer than NYC, but I have to admit to myself that my footbag performance and overall mentality can't be judged by weather alone. I'm the person at fault here.

I want to learn how to drive at some point in my life, before the age of 26. For so long I've been afraid of driving and cars in general. I don't want my fears to belittle me.

My need for weed kind of died down now that I feel this way. I think that since I smoked so much during the winter, paranoia has settled in me without knowing. That fuckin' sucks. I still love weed, though.

I can't forgive myself any longer. That's the only sentence that makes sense in my mind now.

For some reason, I want to go and meet Erik Chan. He PMed me sometime ago that we're a lot alike. I also remember from overhearing a conversation at KICKASS '06 that he was an artist, and that intrigued me just a bit.

I'm going to work out just a bit. Maybe do some sit-ups and push-ups, but I really want to do a ton of squats now. I'm still going to stitch tonight and tomorrow.

PS: I keep saying that my ankle sprain is restricting me from playing any further, but it's more than that. I am. I think my sprain has adequately healed itself about a month ago. It kind of reminds me of that scene in "Prince of Tennis" (anime) where Momoshiro was complaining about his ankle sprain at the Regionals or Prefecturals, I think. That inspired me tonight, and I've had that feeling of bellittling myself for a long time now. I want to fight at 100% now. No, even more than that.

This pains me, but I don't want to go to GRASS now. I need time to improve. Matt, Tom, RFA, Will, Dave, Bevier, Aidan and whoever is going to GRASS: have fun.

[PegLegHolly]

aw thats nonsense. youd have fun at grass, whether you like your game or not. buck up, waylon... things will get better!

[cd]

Waylon, you've got to realize that it's never good enough, no matter how good you get. Every footbag player deals with this problem, and although you may never be Vasek you still know there is something great and worthwhile about this sport and the community. Please don't downplay your own role in the footbag player's experience.

GRASS is practically the first event of the 2007 footbag "season," which is bound to be a historic year for our hobby. I think that once you get back to the events and gatherings you will remember why you have been committed to the sport so long. The best is yet to come, so don't bail out on us now!

[BenRea]

Yea man. Latley i have been saying "GODDDDD I SUCKKKKKK!!!" but then yesterday i took a video of myself and i was hitting longer better flowing strings than ever. at that point i relized exactly what chris said, no matter how long you have been playing or how good you are, you can always be better. For some people that can bug the shit out of 'em and for others that can be seen as just another challenge in the world of footbag. thats how i try to view it.

[Wasabi]

Thanks for the kind words. Tom Mosher also gave me some very helpful advice. I just feel like I need a reality check, especially at times when I whine and whine but have no place else to vent it into. So I just put it into my footblog.

I haven't gone to a footbag event in a long time. All I remember was the excruciating ankle pain and stress I felt from the Cornell Jam last year, and how much I didn't enjoy it. That bugged me out tons.

I just get very lonely in NYC. It sucks here. I need to get me a girlfriend that likes to play hacky sack and isn't a psycho. I also need to play freestyle footbag with people around my age. Drew is around my age, but he lives in NJ. I don't see Benny Kellman very often. Bruce and Stan are way older than me, but I see them as great players and mentors, but not exactly people I can mess around with. Ted Fritsch is Ted Fritsch; he's a cool guy, but way older than me. Barret and Rizz are doing their own thing: Barret is concentraing on his classes in NYU (he also sprain his ankle a couple of months ago) and I haven't heard from Rizz in a LONG TIME. I sometimes wonder what happened to her.

I haven't smoked in so long, I guess in that last blog entry I was feeling withdrawal pains. I also eat a lot of crap, but when your daily meal plan is revolved around oily/greasy Chinese food, it gets to you. I seriously hate it.

Tom tells me to be a FUCKING ALPHA MALE. I need to drill that in my head.

I'm going to go jogging in an hour.

[mikeanello]

Waylon,

I confess I never read your blog before until I saw your post in the GRASS 2007 blog. I am sorry that you feel so down. I have only known you through the few events I have seen you at and you were always way happy and an uplifting person in general. I hope you can come out of this slump you are in and I would be happy to lend you an ear anytime.

As for GRASS, I am excited that you are going to try and make it. I will not even be there for much of the event except Saturday night and maybe Sunday. I sure hope people are still shredding Saturday night because I will want to kick so bad once I see all the great people there, including you. I am not sure if my skills have changed much since KICKASS 2 but we will find out.

As for your shred, if you would like some advice please send me a private message. I have made a lot of changes in my own style of play and how I practice and what I practice and it has helped a lot. Most of the positive changes I have made were from advice I had received from other players, and not all of them pros, but all of them very observant and generous people.

As for greasey Chinese food, I don't know what to tell you. I eat a lot of white rice and seafood and other meats, but I usually make it myself and I always use good ingrediants and cook with extra virgin olive oil. I do not enjoy greasey food as it makes me sick to my stomach. I can't remember the last time I ate french fries, and unfortunately I really like french fries and ketchup. Bad food will make you feel bad. Have an apple or orange once a day.

As for smoking, or not smoking, quiting anything you once enjoyed is tough for anyone. You are not alone in this. If you have not done it in a long time because of your own personal choice then you are a strong individual and should remind yourself of that once in awhile. Only when you can enjoy life without it should you enjoy life with it. Hmm, I need to remember that.

PM me and we can work on our skills together.

Peace.

[Wasabi]

Thank you Mike Anello! There is no one I know that worked the hardest in footbag than you! And from what I hear from Matt Cross, you are an excellent cook. I will PM you after I get a footbag session sometime this weekend.

Here are my thoughts from jogging just now:

- It was a freezing 37-40 degrees from what I saw in weather.com. The sun was out, so it was a bit warm.
- It was windy, so it was coooooold! I only had a small sweater underneath a half-zipper cardigan and a pair of shorts.
- I jogged at a 4x2 NYC block radius. I started fast today. That was bad.
- I got bit exhausted during the middle of my jog during the second 4-block setting.
- I walked back on the last 2 blocks.

I think the reasons why I was exhausted is because I didn't drink many liquids before my jog. I only remember drinking a cup of milk in the morning and a half-a-cup of water. I ate a cup of yogurt in the morning, and a bowl of rice with some beef and asparagus for lunch. An oatmeal raisin cookie as a snack between breakfast and lunch. I'm drinking gatorade now.

My thighs ache a bit from doing squats last night.

I'm cutting out templates and going to stitch soon.

I'm going to watch my copy of "Big Trouble in Little China" for my Asian American Studies class. I need to do a 4-page paper on it. Wicked! I remember there was someone on footbag dot org that had the username "eggshen." I don't know how I feel about that, but whatever.

[mikeanello]

Jack Burton ... ME!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090728/quotes

Waylon,

A word of advise when running in circles. If you plan on circling a block or a few blocks for your run, perform half of your training in one direction, then turn around, remain on the same side of the street, and run the second half of your session in reverse. When you train on an uneven surface, such as a road, you can develop unevenly and this can lead to all sorts of problems from your hips to your knees all the way down to your feet. The way to combat this is to run half your session in one direction and the other half in the opposite direction but on the same side. If you start out with the road leaning left, you should end with it leaning right.

Peace.

[Wasabi]

Rolled my ankle again, at Philadelphia. I think I was working on whirls when I suddenly landed badly. It sucks, but I'm determined to get it healed again. It doesn't seem so bad, not like last time, and I'm going to do my best to watch my every move just to be extra careful. I want to make it to GRASS and play well and have fun, so this week is solely for recovery.

To tell you the truth, I'm seeing myself in a whole new light. On the bus ride back, I felt that this injury is only going to make me stronger. I don't feel that this is going to hinder my progression, since I'm kind of used to getting this ankle rolling over and over again.

Just a thought, but maybe the heel of my left foot is not proportionate to the outer ankle bone. I think that's one of the reasons why I keep getting the feeling that my foot is shifting inwards during shred. Another might be the G-unit toebox: it feels kind of big around the ball of my feet, and I'm starting to enjoy shoes that are extra snug. I keep saying that I'm going to mod my Nastase Milleniums and never do, but I think sometime this week seems appropriate. In comparison, the pair I have has a smaller toebox than my G-units, and feels a bit snug like regular Rod Lavers.

Dipping my foot into really really cold water, since I don't have ice.