The Darkshredder's struggle

Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
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BenRea
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Post by BenRea »

your looking at this right now, so im not going to call you.


im half way done with your bag.
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Post by BenRea »

TRIPPLE MEGA POST


Image
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

Doug you have a few PMs in your box.
Ben. . Ye of little faith. that's why I call myself THE ILLUSIONIST! MUWAHAHAHAHAHA twisted smiley face :twisted: :twisted:

I'm actually more intimidated by the paradox blur. I read up on it last night and Ken S. says it's a real tough trick. . . Riiight. Well I'll give it a try anyway. I tried a quasi set not too long ago and wasn't too far off, actually. And if I can make it a bit more downtime who knows.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Post by BenRea »

you have to show me quasi today because i tried and i think i failed misserably but maybe i didnt. i feel like i can do it. but maybe not, then again i am 'ye of little faith'



sorry my dad sucks at taking pictures^^^^^
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Post by mc »

i liked the edited sign. good pic!
BRICK!

rfa::never give up::
nyfa
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Post by Darkshredder »

another loooong day of shred. I probably shouldn't keep doing this to myself. I got there at 2 and played with Ben for a while. Played well. Had some fun. Met this guy who plays guitar sometimes when I'm at the skatepark - busks for tips and stuff on this patch of grass right by where I usually kick. So he came over, took off his sandals, and joined in as the circle kicker. He had some skills, though, and he did legover > legover (barefoot, mind you). Also had a descent ankle crank and was able to clipper kick/stall it a few times. Kind of messed up the flow and mood of the shred but whatever - he wasn't punting the bag, making fun of us, or asking us dumb shit. Ben told him he should go and get a real footbag, not a crotcheted or a 15 gram pellet POS. So who knows. Maybe we'll have another Syracuse player. Doubtful.

Anyway the guitar guy got told to leave and we were told to step away from the hot dog stand THAT TOOK OVER MY OLD SHRED SPOT IN THE SHADE so we played about. . . like 30 feet away.

Suddenly I hear "Hey look at these losers playing hacky sack!" and I'm like 'that sounds like Doug Tank' and sure enough Doug and Ian come strutting over to us and joined in. Four players in Syracuse. Pretty sure that's never happened before. Anyway, when they got there somehow my strings suffered a bit for about 20 minutes and that freaked me out. But I regained control and overall the day went real well. So the count was this.

Arrived at 2. Doug and Ian got there at what - maybe almost 4? Played for a bit and then Ben had to leave to go to a graduation party. And the three of us playing until 6:40. And I didn't break at all unless I was getting water. Good god. Absolute murder on my knees. I'm surprised I lasted that long. The exercises I've been doing to fix my knee injury is really helping a lot apparently because it wasn't until just before we left I was starting to suffer and couldn't step any more. Oh but I could still play. My last strings were all BOPs and tiltless mashes of crazy stuff. Fun.

I wish I could remember some of the funny or strange quotes of these sessions because we have a good time. All I know is I really liked it when this BMXer kid who had been riding up to at least me all day rode by and goes, "Still playing hacky sack? Don't you get bored with that?" and Ian goes, "Don't you get bored riding that?" and the kid just goes ". . . no?" - perfection. Good I have people with me lately to come up with these witty things. I'm hard pressed to come up with new ones.

Anyway some good things were hit. We all had some great strings. Some highlights were as follows:

Ben - Ripped Warrior. Footing Spikehammer. Footing alpine rev tomahawk (or did he hit it. . pretty sure footed).

Doug - Some more crazy easy assassins and phoenixes as well as LEGBEATER! If you read his blog, he says he hit this "surprise" trick and that he was saving it up for one of the RFA people or me. Yeah. He hit it midstring in one of the first runs he had. I was like wait. HEY! And it was well executed. Then later on he hits atom smasher. Smaller dexes but nevertheless very clean and definitely struck. I think I saw a rev whirl > infinity > rev whirl attempt on command that was really close. Nuts.

Ian - Real controlled string with far legovers. BSOS'd osis. Symple legover > symple legover. And then I told him he should try it from a clipper and he did it after a few tries. He also had a flip stepping set that was very close to getting up under his leg. Real close. real high, too. He also ducked with dreadlocks. That's gotta count for something, right? Right. Can't remember what else - it was a good day for Ian is all I know. I know there were a few other things. Sorry if I forgot anything else.

Me - Footed paradox grifter. Pixie ss DLO. Witchdoctor - I may have raked it. I don't know. Ian was looking away and Doug was at the drinking fountain when I did it. Meh. I'll hit it again in a couple days and try to clean it up. Oh and a nice little surprise came to me as I footed helix TWICE! Man that thing is very close. I tried my hand at the guasi set and it looks like with a little more practice and a bit of support leg tweaking I might be able to get voodoo. I make no promises with paradox blur since I'm realizing how hard it is NOT to do it symposium. Ken was right, pretty much. I had a run with pdx whirl > spinning clipper on both sides today. My flip was a bit raw but whatever. It was still cool. I was also schooling the link between atomsmasher to legbeater for rubberman but kind of forgot to keep going with it. It's not THAT bad. It's definitely the hump with that drill, though. The test of skill, as it were. I'll get it. My flip pixie was pretty bad today, but not hindering. I still had some pretty elongated runs thanks 100% to the fact I can now throw in a plo or a dimwalk on my flipside midstring without really thinking too hard about it. Spinning and gyro were okay. BSOS'd a few things with that. One of the last runs I had was bsos'ing spinning pdx mirage QUITE stylishly I might add.

Anyway it was a good day for footbag. I've had some nice downtime since, had some ice cream, watched a movie with some buddies, and my legs are sore, but not that bad actually. But I'm still taking tomorrow off. And maybe the next day. We'll see. I need to get back to exercising my leg again. Ankle weights are possibly the greatest purchase I've been yet in the footbag world. Besides maybe shoe goo.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
DTank126
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Post by DTank126 »

Yo you goin to Buffalo today? If so check your pms, if not.... you suck. :P
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Post by Darkshredder »

now that I'm back in modified's grill, I can't have my blog drop to page 2. So even though I don't have any news, I shall post.

I went to milford, PA this weekend for a family reunion. The first day was pretty much laying low, eating dinner with my grandma and my aunt and uncle, and such. But I got a chance to play a little after dinner and after nightfall. I found a spot near a Rite Aid and dicked around with the bag for a while, not really doing anything. I was tired, full of food, and not really feelin' it. But I managed to hit a few new tricks while I was fooling around with zulu.

:arrow: zulu mirage bs
:arrow: zulu legover
:arrow: zulu butterfly (I think I pulled it on my flipside so I guess it was a zulu refraction? Eh. . m)

"I like zulu" - Matt Cross

anyway so I finally lost interest in footbag for the night and it was getting late so I decided to leave and go find my parents at some bar they went to with my aunt and uncle. I couldn't find them BUT I found this church we used to go to when I was a really little kid and it had this new addition to it and it looked like a footbagging stadium, if one could ever be erected. It was amazing. And it shown ever so brightly. I spotted it two blocks away. It was THAT BRIGHT. So I was all about going there the next night to play, but that didn't end up happening because the rest of the family came saturday and we spent the ENTIRE night playing board games, eating deliciously summery foods, and um. Drinking. Ah nothing like the Thomsen family getting together and missing the good ol' days together with bottles and bottles and bottles of wine and coors lite. Yikes. We're a loud, emotional family. It's a good thing we're in our element - at these lakes in the middle of the woods we've gone to since before I was born. We usually get the cops called on our family reunions we have in public. That's just funny. I have a few cousins who are like late 30s to their mid 40s and they've still got the party spirit of a 19 or 20 year old college student. Only they're much better drinkers and much funnier than most college kids I've known/seen. It's great.

Anyway no footbag was played. At one point I was really bored and started juggling my Rea and Cross bag and my 4 year old cousin walked up to me and grabbed my Rea bag after he got bored with chasing me around with a flashlight he was convinced burned through my skin. Last time I saw this kid he was but an infant and I showed him a footbag and he was keen on the whole kicking of the bag. But now he's got the throwing thing going on. So he started throwing the bag at my head and stuff every time I'd give it back to him and tell him to kick it. Just wouldn't work. So finally he throw it into the screened in porch and I shut the door behind him and locked him in there. He didn't like that and when I let him out he ran over to the lakefront and almost threw the bag in the lake. I got to him before that, though, and put a stop to that.

So I'm back in town now and it's decided to be windy and rainy in SYRACUSE NEW AMSTERDAMYORKSHIRESVILLE. But pff. I want to play. There's no way in hell I'm NOT going to play. So yeah I'll be figuring that out for the rest of the day.

More about footbag, I'll be most likely working on the following if I get to play today:
1) flip frigid things - frozen dyno, frozen torque, etc.
2) nuclear
3) rubberman
4) a string I came up with in the car just now that'll help with atomics: tap > eggplant > tapdown. and I'll do that on my flip too.
5) flipside flailing? ? ? ? I'll forget. . . :roll:
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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BenRea
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Post by BenRea »

i thought you said we werent going to play this weekend? wtf , i didnt know you were gunna be back this weekend....
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Post by DTank126 »

Dude, I didnt know you were out of town for a family reunion... Im out of town for a family reunion......poser

Whatever, I'll just own you in a battle next time we play. :twisted:
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Post by Darkshredder »

I'm not a poser. I'm a poseur. Get it right.

Well I wasn't going to post but I had to respond to this outrageous claim by Doug, though I could've just called him up and then hung up on him when he answered the phone and then giggle quietly to myself.

So yeah - sesh'd it up with Ben "The Ray" Rea and I must say. . his atomics are both looking swell. A bit awkwardly leggy but he's fast enough so that he can dex the back and swing in to split the atom and beat the leg.

I was playing alright today. Had some nice long strings and some pretty hard combos strung. I wish I had done a bit more in the way of stepping. A lot of my strings were more spinny and ducky and BOPs. Meh. I'll do better next time. I had a few runs with atomics thrown in midstring just to make sure I could still hold my own with atomic technology against these people learning the set. Still got it. :wink: ka-ching.

Besides that, I hit a few more new things I know I could've hit a while back but I'm starting to go back and touch up some things just to say I can hit them. I won't list them here because I'm ashamed I haven't done them till now. I'll just name a couple: my flip dragon was hit a couple times and I got about 5 swirls in a row. As in swirl > catch > swirl > catch > swirl > etc. you get the idea. Anyway that was kinda cool.

I was messing around with ps whirls today as well because Ben and I were CHATTING about how I shy away from such tricks because of my left knee and my fear it'll snap one day on a symposium. So here's what I came up with. On my flipside, I need to jump off the dex'er and tuck in my other leg after lifting off. I sometimes fling it off to one side or in front of me and it ruins the dex. Anyway the flipside whirling dex is far from being clean at the moment and I'd need to do some hardcore practice to get it down. My stronger side, on the other hand, could have the dex in a day or two, I'm sure, but it's on the shifty knee and it's on the side where the whole ps jumpy weight shift motion is really awkward still. But I'm making excellent progress with that by doing loads of (p)s rev whirls and far symple legovers and pickups on that side. It'll come.

Trying to think - what else. Ah yes. Smear > flail. Something I was working on. Seemed stylish and easily mid-stringable as soon as I dial it. Tomorrow I'll see if I can do it on my flip. My other flail is a little more reliable because it's a bit faster, though not as accurate.

I thought of a run I should've done at the jam while watching The Last King of Scotland tonight: pixie ss mirage > pixie ss mirage > magellan > parkwalk > stepping legover > dimwalk > ripwalk > schmoe > plo > plo. I figure it's a good simple run, do-able, and would work both pixies pretty well while not boring the other players who might be watching. Too much.

Apparently they have ultra suede at Joanne Fabrics in Fayetteville. "Will Pat become a stitcher?" 8O



















:roll:
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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BenRea
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Post by BenRea »

they dont have ultrasuede LIGHT at joannes, penis head.
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Post by mc »

pat,

you can learn how to stitch with ultrasuede, but I'm going to assume it's a little harder to pierce and stitch through, which can be harder on the wrists.

how do you plan on learning to stitch? I would be glad to teach you, if we could sit down for a few hours some time.

matt
BRICK!

rfa::never give up::
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BenRea
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Post by BenRea »

or he could learn from a pro.


contact me pat.


just kidding matty, i wouldnt mind sitting in on that session either.
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Post by Darkshredder »

well it was just a thought. I didn't know even know you could make bags out of ultrasuede and I'd never heard of light before. I don't go to the bags and equipment section or anything all that often.

Yeah I was probably going to ask Ben to teach me the ropes because he's easy access but if I go to Buffalo in two weeks w/ Ben then I would definitely be up for a tutorial from you, Matt.

I've been pretty good about not spending money on CDs and other stuff some might deem "not worthwhile". SO I might spend some of my next paycheck on some materials at the kfm site or through the websites I've been told supply some of the things I'd need. I'm not going to play today and maybe even tomorrow because I've realized I haven't seen a bunch of my buddies around here all that much lately so I'm going to do that. On my down time, though I'll check out some threads and stuff here on modified and other people's sites to see where I can get the best supplies for not so much money.

Pretty sure I've said this before about stitching in my blog but I'll say it again: stitching will really just solidify the passion I have for the game. I mean I'm pretty much obsessed with footbag, but being able to stitch my own bags adds a whole new level to it (no news here, eh?). What I'm trying to say here is I'm kind of excited about this. Having Ben here makes it a little easier to get into stitching, too.

K well that's all for now. As I said I'm probably not going to hack today. I'm going to go to KB Toys, get an inflatable pool with my friends matt and andrew and try and cool down on this 94 degree day. And maybe see the Transformers movie. Or that pixar rat chef movie. Rattatatatoowee.

Oh and by the way, Matt and Ben - thanks for offering to give me some lessons. Helps a lot. And I'm not a penis head, Ben. . . I'm "anatomically unsound".
Pat Thomsen
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Post by BenRea »

anatomically unsound...lol


hey,

so i destroyed my finger at work and fractured it so they sent me home untill my doctor releases me which my be in like 2 weeks. i still get paid though coz of workers comp. which i understand is awesome. but i didnt injure my foot which means i can play footy sack MANY DAYS....hhehehehehehehe.
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Post by BenRea »

wanna shred today?!~
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Post by Darkshredder »

No footbag today. Work > dinner > pool > walk around and be a hooligan with some of my pals.

Today at work I went into the woods near where we were doing . . . work. . . and I found a sturdy vine so I decided to climb it. I climbed up it so that I was probably about four feet higher than my head if I were standing on the ground and then decided there was no good way I was going to get down without killing myself so I just let go and fell and landed on a dead stump and twisted my ankle. But no worries, lads. It was the least major twist I've probably ever gotten and it's already completely normal after only like two hours.

footy sack. If I stitch I need to call them legballs or footfuckers or something. Oh and I realized today at work (not playing footbag. Just thinking) that atomic illusions are much easier for me than atomsmashers so I'm going to do them more I think and I think I'm going to name them something cool. I was thinking of something similar like atomsplitters or something outlandish and dumb. We'll wait and see until my muse comes to me and hands me a slip of paper with the name.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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BenRea
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Post by BenRea »

i have some fabric for you i cut about 5x5 inches of each color i got. i WAS going to give it to you today but you stood me up on our date!
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Post by Darkshredder »

fabric! OOOOOO! Now I can finally make that dress I've always wanted!

Now we'll SEE who's the prettiest at the ball :twisted: . :| 8O
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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