Wasabi: M(s)+J = BLAST

[Wasabi]

I've taken a week off from the internet, modified, and pretty much most of my personal life just to stay at home and stitch for Worlds. I've developed a weird strain on my right elbow and I hope I'm not getting anything like tennis elbow and whatever. My right wrist feels funny, and my index finger and thumb feels worn down. Arthritis hurts, but I'm managing well.

So far, I have... 8 bags available for sale. Six 32s and two 12s. More 32s and probably another 12 panel is in the works, I believe. For some of these bags, I'm considering selling to certain kickers going to Worlds. Trades may be possible, though monetary gain is something of a priority I need to consider in Florida. I don't know.

In the course of my stitching, I've found three snazzy new bag patterns that I'm not sure if they have already been discovered yet by stitchers. I'm trying to pump them out to show off at Worlds. I also made a pattern variation from one of these patterns that I've found. A huge, HUGE hint: Ultraman Tiga. <3

I haven't been playing seriously in the entirety of my stitching regimen. I just know that I didn't play so well last week due to the humidity and improper form, and that Sunday was the last day that I had a serious footbag session. It was with Alex Strassman and Wiktor and Gosia from Poland. Drew Martin and Barrett Neimeth were the other two players that showed, and we played in Barrett's NYU dorm at some recreational spot due to rain. It was a pretty fun session. I literally giggled like a schoolgirl when I saw Wiktor and Gosia's amazing freestyle doubles routine. I want to see them at Worlds and watch Doubles Freestyle.

My clippers suck. I really need to take this final week before Worlds to really train on them. I'm considering taking this entire weekend just to do clippers and only clippers, because that's what I really need to do the most.

My dog is the cutest and most obedient dog in the world. I think his barking misfit the other week was due to drunken violence from the night club around the corner of my block, which caused him some concern. He does feel lonely at times, but I try to support him the best I can.

I also feel tired for tutoring my niece this entire summer. I'm also thinking that I'm being too harsh on her and her academics - it's summer and she is a kid after all. She developed a stomach ache and fever just a few days ago. Not to worry - she's a fighter, eventhough she complains a bunch.

Come on Waylon, don't be nervous for Worlds! Pep up! Get EXCITED!

PS: Met up with my ex a couple of days ago. She was the bulimic girl that I mentioned in some of my posts in this footblog. We've had our share of problems in the past, but we were on friendly relations on two play dates last week. I met up with her on a Thursday and she had a full body - not a twig-like Polly-playhouse-figurine mess from what I remembered. She looked fit and healthy. We walked around book stores in Times Square and whatever. On Friday, we both watched the Simpsons movie and had a blast watching. I still felt that we were on separate grounds, which is perfectly fine.

I just wish she could hold back on the make-up more. Seriously. I couldn't keep a straight face nor could I look at her face to face most of the time.

[Wasabi]

I'm going to make this post short and sweet.

I'm packed up. Backpack and carrier are full of footbag gear. I got my shred essentials in my back pack, and my stitching stuff in the carrier. It's safe to say that the facile I'm taking with me (ALL OF IT!) has literally taken up a quarter of the room in there.

Facile trade at Worlds! Be prepared!

I brought my filler stuff too.

I think the only stuff I didn't bring is cold medicine and facewash. I can get those in Florida. And I don't plan on putting in my 528MB mp3 player. I barely listen to it for, maybe, 4-5 months. I just don't listen to music that much anymore, unless it's through the computer with speakers and internet access. Plus, shred music will be everywhere, I'm guessing.

If I buy Quantums at Worlds, I'll have to try to find a way to fit them somewhere, sans box. This is very likely if I plan on buying two pairs (casual and shred, I don't know - depends on the final price). For now I'm not too worried. I have yet to take a look at them to make my final judgment.

I have... 10 bags for sale, I think. I was thinking of selling my 32s for 35 and my 12s for maybe 25-30, but maybe my usual $30/$25 deal is good? Ken gave me some sagely advice about Carol Wedemeyer, and how she goes on a stitching spree throughout the entirety of Worlds just to make money. I think that's a fine idea, so that's why I'm still thinking about the price. Depeneding on the situation, and how tight money is for me, I'll probably up the amount.

This does not apply to people who reserved bags from me, or to people whom I've been tardy to concerning their order. NYFA discount still applies for those going to Worlds.

w00t w00t! WORLDS!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Psyched psyched psyched PSYCHED!!!! Flying tomorrow!

[bdams19]

sick dude! does this mean you're not coming out to play?

[Wasabi]

I'm really tired and exhausted, so I'm not going to be specific on what happened at Worlds, or my recent footbag progression. Bleh....

Worlds was a blast (2 weeks too late to inform this). There's a lot to absorb. I had a lot of fun.

I have tennis elbow. My wrist hurts on occasion. My lower back and right shoulder blade are in a ton of pain. Holding a pen feels like a miracle to me. Starting school again feels pretty shaky, especially now that I feel very academically devoted to graduate.

The last bag I made was for James McTeague. I finished it early this week. I slipped the bag into a white envelope and had it stashed inside my backpack. After rummaging through my backpack on the day of August 30th, I find that I lost it! Literally, I just freaked out. I almost got an ulcer and nearly coughed up blood. I'm certain I lost it around college, but I don't have any recollections of ever taking it out of my backpack. It's not even that. Having known that something could so easily slip out of my backpack reinforces my views of it and how reliable it can be. I've had it for 2 years, never had exceptional and precious slip out, and finally had something as stupid as this happen to me.

Really, because of this, I could quit stitching. This is too stressful for me. I'm a poor example of a stitcher. The first and foremost aspect that I see myself as a stitcher is reliability. If you pay me for a bag, you will get your bag within a few days, no questions asked. This incident is... well... I just feel extremely troubled. Like, I just jipped James of his well-payed $30 because of this. Ridiculous.

I'm a retard.

I could try to stitch another bag, but I just feel like it's a waste of time to me now that my classes have started. I've enrolled into 2 intensive writing courses, an advanced poetry workshop, and two very group oriented classes. I don't think I can afford much time to stab the needle. Plus, I just don't like the idea of stitching a bag, lose it in a few days, and having to restitch it with the same type of colors, filler and weight. Active Green is rare (unless I buy a yard or more - I don't have the expenses to shell for it), filler is expensive (I'm literally using spare pf filler from my Streetfighter from Worlds to incorporate with the fillers in bags that I stitch), and I have arthritis. Painful.

Maybe I should increase my price range to $35. I don't know. Things have become much more of a hassle for me now. Stitching feels less fun than I used to believe. Like, I reeaaaallly want to experiment some more. A lot more. Like, mess around with templates, stitch other types of bags other than 32s and 12s, and just have a leisurely, feel good feeling of pumping out hot bags. I've lost that twinkle in my life, probably after having to stitch bags for Worlds like a mother ****er.

Whatever.

Oh, and because of college, I'm not going to Funtastiks. Have fun everyone. This was to be my third Funtastiks, but I can't formulate my assignments to be submitted no later than the day after Labor Day. My teachers are pompous ****ers for not wanting to take late submissions. ****. I wanted to meet Erik Savage and Roy Bradish.

[Rabbit]

DAMN WAYWAY you need to cheer up hope your feeling better/ hope your classes are going well. I really could just call you but I feel like I should do this every day. Its more fun than calling people. You best be coming out tomorrow!
-B

[Wasabi]

Hi. It's been forever since I posted in this blog! I just hate how busy my life has become (it's a good thing academic-wise, but I'm out of touch from all modified stuff!). It kind of has motivated me to play more footbag than to fool around the forums, though, which I like.

Alright, let's get started!

I haven't aggressively stitched a bag since forever. Probably a good thing, since I was a stitching freak a couple of months ago. Left me sitting on my ass more often than actually playing footbag. I have a super sweet bag to present at the Cornell Jam, and probably a few for the November NYFA tournament. Still, a lot of people (NYFA club members) have been pounding so many orders on me. Agh! They want to abuse my stitching arm to the extreme!

Plus side, I'm playing more footbag! My toe game is really sweet now. Clippers are feeling righteous. I've definitely gotten a grasp on pdx mirage bsos. Right now, I want to pixie everything. Lately, I've been trying to hit pixie ss illusion, pixie ss mirage (a la Lon Smith and/or Ken Somolinos, form-wise), smear, parkwalk, dimwalk, and... SMOG! Crap, I sooooooo want to hit SMOG! Pigbeater is next after Smog.

I still have to work on osis. I think I need to shift my body more, and spot the bag better.

Spinning is SO COOL. I love spinning, and I think I'm getting better at it. So far, I can only bail to toe after spinning from clipper, but I really want to hit spinning stuff soon. I need to watch some more Anz Trickz on how to properly train with spinning. Spinning clipper and clip set > spinning legover is next on my repetoire.

I really want to try to be more consistent with ducking, diving, and hopefully zulu. Now, I have a grasp on phoenix more consistently, but it's not enough. i feel like I'm just footing it and not exactly sealing it confidently. Definitely need to work on that.

Alright! I think that about covers it. This has been a brief escape into modified. Now I have to go back into reality and socialize and some shit.
Bye Blog.

[Wasabi]

Umm... let's see. I should update this, I guess.

Matt Cross and David Clavens gave me a reality check over at the Cornell Jam. My form is bad. Awful. Sucks. And I've been playing in this form over the summer. Wasted time. So much wasted time. I swear, during some part of that jam, I didn't even know what was right and wrong. I was clearly upset with myself. I didn't feel like talking much, let alone party happily like I would usually do at a tournament.

I'm even more upset that not many people would even mention that I have bad form over these past months. I'm glad that someone stepped up saying that I'm doing something wrong though. I really need to rethink everything downtime. Just downtime. Downtime. Ianek talked with Matt Cross over at the chinese restaurant at Collegetown, Ithaca about muscle memory and just how frustrating it is just to rework it over again. I feel like they were talking about me, or rather, I myself was interpretating it as the story of my life in footbag.

Oh footbag, I don't even know what I'm going to do with you. People will always think of me as an expert of stitching, but I don't want that title anymore. Stitching is stitching. I mean, I like it, but anyone can do it. I just want to play and excel my expectations in this game, have great form and not disappoint myself or others of my skill. How long have I mentioned and rambled on this topic for? 2 years? Ever since I created this blog? I'm getting tired of this, of college, of stitching - everything. I'm really tired of typing mopy stories of how horrid I am in footbag.

I think this is the last post I'll ever type concerning how much I suck in footbag. If I get told how bad my form is again, I just won't type it into my blog. Well, I'll probably not type in my blog at all, let alone modified in general. This place is depressing as hell. I should probably start a new blog and get a new type of motivation to help me improve. I only see sad stories and even sadder ones over that. The only positive reading I see here is stitching and my private life.

I have more personal feelings I could share into this blog post, about my position in footbag, but it will probably be a little bit difficult for people to read.

I know I typed a lot of negative shit, but I'm actually pretty excited for the NYFA tournament that's coming up this weekend. I've been sewing lots and been pushing out a lot of cool footbag designs. I think people will enjoy them as prizes. I have a particularly cool footbag design in store for Ian Brill. I hope he likes it.

When I play in a footbag circle with people at Washington Square, I expect some constructive criticism from people. Like, really dig into me and dissect my form. My bad form has hindered me for more than 2 years. I don't want to make it 3 or 4. That just might make me quit footbag.

edit: I just noticed how excited I was in the second to last post, and how it just plummeted to suicidal toward the next one. What a contrast.

[Senor Grommet]

why waste your time listening to a critique of your style? You don't need anyone telling you what to do. Just play footbag and have fun doing it. Do realize that reaching shred level X is not going to happen to everyone, only to those who are dedicated, motivated, and blessed with innate skill.

On top of that, you are a stitcher, which means you always have less time to devote to actually playing. I think that observing and feeling the way your body moves is the best way to make subtle or major changes to your own style.

With that said, and given that we also don't know each other, I do believe that people will expect your shred to be on par with your stitching. They might even gawk at the fact that it's not. But fuck other people's expectations. Do what you want to.

[Wasabi]

That's the reason why I want to put off stitching for some time, Jeremy. I think too much about it. I want to play more. Playing footbag is far more important than stitching the bags that make the sport. I worry too much about the little things so much that I just feel like I have enough of it already. I can read stitching like the back of my hand. It's a blessing, and an annoying little bug, like an earwig, festering inside your head laying eggs that will eventually kill you.

But even that, it's a stupid obsession of mine, and my interests are conflicted. That's my conundrum at the moment.

I'm going to see to the NYFA tournament this weekend to assert my feelings about footbag. I want to pursue footbag (playing it) like a crazed axe murderer.

... I don't even know if I want to go to the Chicago NYJ. Actually, i think it's already too late for me. The price for plane tickets are probably at their highest right now, and I haven't bought them yet. I don't know if my air miles will cover it, and I believe I have a lot of college work in store for me even through the winter months. I think its best for me to devote time then to just play, play and play.

[Eskimo Joe]

Hey Waylon, it is nice to see you blogging again. I took a nice break from stitching to put some time into playing as well. But the stitching was always on my mind. But it is super rewarding to see some form of progress playing. I felt I spent too much time stitching and not enough playing, but I have recently fixed that!

It is really funny that you wrote about earwigs and their digging ways. I just saw a special about them a day or so ago, and found out that these little critters do not burrow into ear canals at all. They also do not lay their eggs in there and hatch, then feed off your brain causing dimentia. But it is even funnier to note that in almost every language that these guys have a name in, there is the mention of the word ear.

I look forward to reading about progress in your footbag game.

Take care Waylon.

[mc]

Way, I hope you take some comfort in knowing that we weren't talking about you in the restaurant. We were talking about EVERYONE; you're not even close to being the only one with this problem. Everyone needs to fix something about their style.

See you in NY. we'll have another watch / learn session. There was a lot of stuff to cover last time, but you caught on to everything I was saying very quickly. Until then, drill those downtime legovers, ss mirage b2b as many times as possible, and hopping in to clippers. once you can do those things, your style will be able to grow. We will make changes together, and really get your style going.

[Wasabi]

The NYFA tournament was fun. It really conflicted with my school schedule, but it was comforting to have something like footbag to escape to, even if it's only a day or two long.

I managed to tweak my left ankle again through interchanging clippers. It just gave in. At least i fell to help sustain the injury, but still... it really sucked. Like, I can walk properly and all that, but now I'm revisiting the horrors of climbing up/down stairs and bending down for clippers.

I nearly broke down from all of the pain that I was feeling, but I was motivated to make Saturday the weekend to help perfect my form. The more I played, the more the pain didn't phase me, but I can still remember clearly how much flinching trauma that resonated on my left ankle as I bent down to clipper.

Anyway, I hope all NYFA sessions could be more intense. I just think we're kind of slacking in our hacking, but that's just me wanting people to be more critical of my form and everyone else's.

Btw, I fell down the stairs on Sunday. Apparently I slipped on some foot powder. I have this huge gash on my right elbow from a jagged floorboard, and it hurts to rest it on a surface and such. It kind of hurts to bend it a bit, but I'll be fine. I kind of joke that this will keep me away from stitching for awhile (:lol:) but alas, some punk footbaggers want my bags badly. Bastards.

Had japanese with Barrett and Matt Monday evening. It was good. I wish there were more footbag moments like this.

[Pengu]

I don't like reading my friends getting broken. Please take care of yourself Waylon. You keep spraining the same ankle over and over and your body is broken from stitching and falling.



You keep working on good form though. It's a step in the right direction in staying injury free.

I wish I could have been at NYFA this weekend, but I'm sure we'll have another opportunity to hack together.

Take luck buddy!

[Wasabi]

I'm swamped at university. I don't think I can do much footbag. This sucks, since my mental state is now in "footbag mode" after the NYFA tournament.

I can't wait to graduate out of college. In that era of my life I can concentrate on footbag and work. Not education. My brain won't be fried any further.

I talked to my father about getting a new mattress. I think this is the problem for my bad back, and bad arm I guess. I think I'll be getting one for Christmas.

Btw, I think I found a new routine song that people won't be easily copied from other footbaggers. I think it's a band that not many people know, but can be used perfectly for footbag routines. It also uses a fusion of English/Japanese lyrics and instrumentals. I think they're wicked.

[Zac Miley]

Stitching sucks balls!

[Wasabi]

The amount of research and research papers that I have to do is leaving me to think that stitching bags would be a better alternative for me. What a way to go, Waylon.

Even if this drives me down, playing footbag is very important to me. I have to continue typing that phrase every now and then to justify the importance of footbag in general. I'm finding a lot of things in my life (graduation especially) that is leaving me to reconsider footbag.

I'm so stressed out. I think I'm going to hibernate and solo after this semester is done. Oi!

In my free time, I've been practicising clippers like crazy. I've been trying to catch it into rooted positions as well, going into smooth walkovers and such. My bad ankle still needs time to adjust to this, though, since cranking with it is fine but pressing my body weight on it is not ideal. Also doing a lot of spinning bsos, and gyro bsos.

People who watch me kick think I'm silly. I think that's how I socially identify myself before others in this stupid college.

[Wasabi]

So in my spare time today (which isn't particularly true, but hey, you make time), I devised a checklist for people's orders that are pending:

-Benny Kellman - replacement 32
-Marco Hartig - trade
-Paul Gressett (sp?)/HXCFOOTBAG - trade
-Ken Somolinos
-Lance Morrison
-Lotus - trade
-Shannon Koontz
-Guydro F. Hydro
-Pat Thomsen
-Bruce Dole
-Katya Sorokina

From all of this, I've gathered, in total, that I'm supposed to sew 15 footbags for all of these people. I hate you all. All paid orders that are listed here will be based on the $30 criteria, and will not be affected by the $5 increase pass New Years. I'm not going into the specifics on these orders because it'll be too much to talk about, and I have everything listed already inside my stitcher's logbook.

It's going to be a looooooooonnnnggg winter. Joy.

Other than this, I'm experimenting on a 14-panel design. I keep looking at my Streetfighter footbag and notice how inconsistent the square/rectangular panels are (sorry Kolo, didn't mean to bash). Also, I'm looking at my oldschool Sandmaster and kind of imagine how cool it would be to make a nice and functional 14-paneled bag that could have this type of an aesthetic quality. I tried doing this for a 32 panel, but it didn't really meet up with my standards in function. I showed its unique template to Matt Cross, and he's pretty observent on this claim as well.

I just imagine that if it doesn't work for a 32, a solid 14 could be in the works. It would be more even, and could function like a much better Sandmaster, but with proper shot fill instead of sand. Just my opinion.

No footbag playing whatsoever. I'm going insane. I want out of this college now! Graduate, graduate, graduate!!!

[colefieldhouse22]

Stupid school getting in the way of footbag! I def know how you feel, hon. When do you graduate? After I do, I am thinking about taking a year off to waitress and play footbag. We should do a world tour!

[Wasabi]

Adrienne!

I think I'm going to graduate sometime in the Fall of next year. If I push myself hard enough, I think I can graduate by the summer of next year. I don't know really, since I'm being conducted under a point system at this college, and there are some instances in which I make an entire semester just to pass a class to keep my focus.

I also forgot to mention someone under my list of names in my previous post (though, I'm not too sure if he wants a bag from me still): Dylan Fry. He wanted a rainbow/white spinner from me during the week of Worlds, but I thought it would've have been too time consuming for me to sew him a bag when I was working on Benny Kellman's. I didn't get into any more details about him wanting a bag from me afterwards.

That's it.

[Wasabi]

I'm starting to suck in footbag.

I threw a fit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I should stop playing in jeans.

I'm going to stretch my calves and ankles more often.