Muffinman

[pips]

Yeah, that was funny how Matt jumped in to help introduce ourselves. I'm glad I finally got to meet you. It seems like all I did was introduce myself to people and never really had time to hang out except for a few individuals. Next time. Next time. And I want to try some bubble tea still! Too bad your batch didn't turn out right.

[mosher]

Wow, incredible work Erik!

I really appreciate that you're taking the time to say so much!

I have had a great time reading this all.

Maybe someday we will find the time to hang out more.

I still have the caulking and gun that we got to do your shoes.. not sure what to do with them, I guess I just own them now.

[Muffinman]

Day 7
I woke up around 1. Phil Morrison was at our place, and Andrew was, like, "Did you just stay here over night??", and that was kind of funny. He hung out with our house crew a lot, and that was really neat to get to know a BAPster like that. We woke up with some Simpsons, which we also went to bed to the night before. I tried to stitch some more. I didn't really accomplish anything stitching-wise all week, except for filling those 4 bags. The two bags that I worked on I screwed up so many times and now I am just abandoning them -- maybe because I tried to work on them while also trying to hang out with people... I guess maybe I need to concentrate more? I saw people stitching a lot at the event site, though, and really wanted to be able to just like watching Circle comp and stitch at the same time. Nathan stitched a lot in the bleachers, and I hung out with Dave while he stitched a bag for Vasek, while watching some comp. Waylon probably stitched the whole time. I don't think I saw him play at all. I didn't see a lot of people play. Especially some girl players, whom I'd never seen play before and was excited to see. There were some good girl circles in the sidelines, though I never really watched circles as much as I played. Anyway, yeah. So I ate some oatmeal and some other food I had. I was craving something healthy -- that oatmeal was really sweet. Hey maybe I brought some with me, though... I could go for some of that now. Actually, I could really use some soup. I am so sick. I have been meaning to get some stuff done, and I've just been doing absolutely nothing because I don't feel well enough to. I managed to get out of the house to get some prescription medicine today though, and last night to get some losenges. Anyway, this isn't Worlds-related...

Oh yeah, so then Ashley and Sam and Phil were going to go mini-golfing, and then some other people were, like, "Yeah, us too!" And then at the last minute I was, like, "Yeah!" And I'm so happy I did, because I think it was the only non-footbag thing I did all week, and I really needed that, with footbaggers. So we drove around for a while in Ashley's car, and John followed in his van. Let's see... Did Emily come with us? I don't think so. I think it was mostly our house. But I remember riding in Ashley's car quite a bit with Phil on the other side and Emily in the middle. Maybe it was just the four of us, and everyone else in John's van (Johnny, Jon, James...hmmm.. Yeah, I dunno). The mini golf was quite epic. There were huge waterfalls, and moutains to climb and stuff... It was quite something. The best mini golf I have ever played, anyway. We paid for 2 rounds, 'cause there were two different courses, but only ended up doing one, because it was sweltering out!!! We stopped and got slushies and smoothies and that was yummy. I wanted to play more, despite pouring sweat, but everyone else was pretty much against it. I added up scores and I beat everyone by, like, 15 points. When we got back to the house I'd redone the scores because it seemed a little off and I had nothing else to do, and it turns out I only won by like 5 points, and John Bagi beat me, I think, but I beat everyone on my team, and that was neato. I also kept score for our team. Sam stopped playing after a couple of holes (when it took him 12 shots to get a par 2 :p) and filmed the rest of it. So yeah, then on the way back John and crew wanted to go to the mall, Johnny didn't want to, so he came with us, though we were going to stop at the grocery store for some food for Phil and myself. I got more snacky foods, and I also got some pizza, and so did Sam. Oh, yeah, here in my notes it says mini golf was Sam, James, Phil, and me, and then John, Stefan, Johnny, and Ashley...though I'm sure there was at least one more person. Oh well.

Then I made some food, probably the lasst of my delicious smokies. I think I made one for Shanelle too, well, one time I did, and she liked it. And then Dave and Ashley and Phil wanted to play pool and came and highjacked me for doubles, or whatever it's called. I said I wasn't any good, and felt really uncomfortable playing with a bunch of people who were clearly at least good, if not really good, right? It was kind of fun during the first game, though. We had a garage full of shredders (I can't remember if this was later or what, but it was Henry G, Andrew, Ben Roscoe, Rory, and some other people. I also figured out who someone was. I saw a lot of faces and forgot a lot of names, but I met my first person by Modified screenname -- RandomCrayon. I had kind of been around him a lot and his girlfriend all week, but actually thought he was a net player at first, and then I kept calling him RandomCrayon while they were playing, and it was kind of neat and I was saying that we should have all called each other our Modified names, and then Henry was, like, "What's your Modified name?" and I couldn't remember, and then Rory was, like, "Isn't it Erik Chan?" And then we laughed Yeah, so anyway, so the pool table was shoved up against the wall and so we couldn't make those shots properly and it was fun to try to make them anyway, even if they were, like, 90% impossible, or whatever, without access to that one side of the table. That was fun and kind of made it more comfortable for me, because then everyone was handicapped. But then we moved over to the ShrEdmonton house and played a couple of games. I didn't really say anything the whole time, and it was kind of weird. I had a couple of neat shots where I would sink three balls in a row, or whatever, but mostly I missed easy shots every time it was my turn :p Then Dave and Phil were getting really competative and started making up games. They decided to play a game where you have to toss a Laver onto this stool, and have it land with its sole on the top of stool, so it's standing right up... it seemed impossible, and Dave got a phone call, and I was, like, "It's never going to happen", and then his shot landed perfectly. Then they played some fuBball (that's with the German estset, like, how I think it's supposed to be...) and I kind of just left. I wanted to hang out more, but I'm not quite as outgoing of a person and most people, and so I found that I clashed with lots of people because of that.... That's sucky.

We went to the event site (I don't think anything started until, like, 6 or 7 PM?) and it was just like before, but the freestyle events were being held on the other side of this room divider that had been dividing the whole area for the week, and the net had been on the one side. Umm, so at one point shortly after we arrived, the MC called everyone over to watch freestyle on the comp side. Some circles remained playing and whatnot, and that was neat. I saw Sunil, and I saw him start warming up to play a bit, and that was neat. I was hanging out with Jeremy Mirken and watching him try some doubles stuff with Johnny Suderman (like, Johnny would do a blazing set, and then Jeremy was trying to whirl it...stuff like that), and then Jeremy and I went and watched Sunil a bit. It seemed kind of awkward, like, he would totally have rathered nobody watch because he was so rusty, but man, I love Sunil, and I miss seeing him play. I miss all of the older school players that I looked up to when I started. Like... the "Second Wave"... is that accurate? Or am I not even old enough to know what I'm talking about? :p Anyway, I think people from my generation of hack know what I mean. I played a teeny little bit, but was just wasted, physically. Jeremy seemed to think that I was playing hard, which he said to someone, but that kind of made me feel like poop, because I obviously wasn't, and was playing super terribly. I did, like, gyro DLO > ducking clipper [repeat] X2, and that was basically all that I did (like, actually), and that wasn't that great, and I was frustrated, and not really trying, or anything, but I got props from Sunil, who was in a different circle, and that was cool. I went and sat and watched most of the freestyle. Then afterwards there was a bit of shred and stuff. I saw Eric Wulff (I saw him for the first time ever earlier on in the week doing some net practice outside of the milkhouse, before we had ever been in the milkhouse, and were playing in that crap-carpet room) and I wasn't too sure, but I turned to Kevin Regamey, and I was, like, "Is that Eric Wulff?" And he was, like, "Yeah". So then today, I asked him for his autograph on my shirt, and he was, like, "Oh, hi, who are you?" And stuff, and we kind of shook hands and stuff. I think he wrote something about his net team, or something, on my shirt... that was kind of weird. I heard some stories about him from... Jeremy Mirken, I think? Like how he heckles people about coming from freestyle, and makes fun of them, but in fun, because, "Eric Wulff loves freestyle". I liked hearing that. Man, Ironman is a legend. I didn't really watch much net at all..like maybe a couple of minutes total... It would have been okay, but man... there was SO much stuff to do, so many people to shred with and stuff... I couldn't sacrifice anything to watch net :p But I kind of wish I had just a little, since I've never really seen it except from my Hackrifice net buddies... but even then not really, and they obviously aren't as good as the best in the world.

So yeah, I also got Sunil's autograph, and he kind of seemed sketchy as to who I was and stuff, but later on remembered. Umm. I got Red's autograph, and he seemed to know me and was, like, "I haven't seen you since.." and I was, like, "CSS4... 2004-ish" and he was, like, "Yeah, something like that." But I don't think I ever actually met him... maybe very briefly? Man... he was one that I was too intimidated to say hi to, but I was, like, "Well, Ironman, Tsunami... I'm on a roll... Red!" I completely avoided Peter Irish... I don't know. Ultimate intimidation. I don't know why. Maybe because he is completely extroverted and such a big name, and I am completely introverted. I think he maybe looked at me, like, once or something...or maybe said something in my general vicinity that could have been directed to me. It was weird. So yeah. I also saw Chrissy again, and I didn't think to ask her to sign at Chad's party for some reason, so she said that she had to sign, but then I was, like, "Oh they want us for a Team Canada picture", so I said after that. It was taking a bit to collect everyone, so I quickly stepped into a circle with Ken and Kyle Hewitt, I think...and someone else... Takumi maybe? And then they called us all over for the picture, and I saw Kyle standing with his hands on his hips, so I made eye contact with Team Canada indicating that I was on my way, and then swooped around the circle and hooped Kyle, but good! It's kind of weird when hooping goes down and people look confused. So then I ran over and grabbed some Canadians who looked confused, like Ben Roscoe, and then someone pointed out that Matt Cross was in the picture, but then he showed us and flashed his Canadian Citizenship and USA citizenship... or something. Steve took the photo. I was in the back.

Oh yeah, then I joined a circle with players whose names I forget. I think one may have been Zac Miley, based on some things that he said in his blog, but I had no idea who he was at the time. And the other was that guy whose name I forget, that I felt bad about, and Kevin Crowley, and then some people left, and that's when I came into possession of that Josh Raye bag... I think Kevin told me as he left the circle. Then Dylan Fry joined, and then Oxana joined. That was fun. I got quite a few props from Dylan again. He never seemed to last in my circles...he always left after a couple of rotations. He was laying down his usual consistency. Oxana was busting too! Dylan eventually left, and then I was beat, and told Oxana that I was done. She finished off with a run that was, like, 40 contacts. I kept making eye contact with Tina, who was also watching her shred, and we were freaking out -- it was so cool. Soloing with Oxana was definitely a highlight -- she is so cool Actually I kept confusing Oxana and Chrissy --- they look very similar! Oh yeah, so I got Chrissy's signature before this circle, just after the picture, like I said. I think I got a couple others too. Then after I said I was done, I felt bad, especially since I was having so much fun with Oxana, so then I peeked into one of those curtained rooms and saw Chris Dean, and Ianek, and Wiktor playing. Before joining a random circle I would always scout out for the smallest circles, or like, something, ideally, 3 people or less. I tried my best to not join any circles of 4 people or more...though I joined a few 4s because it was all there was. So yeah, I asked if I could join and they said yeah, but that they were playing horse. I didn't know what that was, so they explained, and it turned out that I had played before. The challenge when I entered was legbeater > bubbabeater, which I hit on third try. I don't think I hit any others. I made up bedwetter > pixie diving clipper, but couldn't even do it myself, then Ianek did gyro illusion > dod, or something? Then Chris did something > wauxpin, and I couldn't figure it out, but after they explained it to Wiktor, I finally understood how to do that trick. I will try it sometime. Then that disbanded, because we were getting a 15-minute warning from the Disney crew (I think we had to be out by 9:30?), and people needed to coordinate rides. I realized that I didn't have a ride and was getting a little worried. Lots of people were heading to the Hall of Fame dinner, where Tuan was to be inducted into the HOF. I left the curtained area (where Vasek and Milan were chilling, actually), and walked around a bit. I saw John Bagi and relaxed -- a ride! We jammed a little, waitined for everything to wind down. I was playing poopy, and so I did some spinning and ducking. I did the spinning clipper > ducking clipper [repeat] drill a bunch and John flipped out and said that it must have been 100 contacts. I didn't count, but it was probably more like, maybe 60ish. He was super impressed and said that he was watching a circle with Jorden (where he invented a ton of tricks, I think...like that spinning big apple...) and turned back after 3 rotations in that circle and I was still going... or something. Then I was really close to my feast combo, with some energy-less attempts. I tried rev whirlygig > rev whirlwind > rev maelstrom. I was kinda close. I can hit it, though... Yeah... really onesided. I'll have to try flip, or make it more equal. I also want to try doing more dynos. They hurt my knees a bit, but we'll see. I want to hit spinning rev whirl > dyno BSOS next session. Should be fun. And some GYBASs.

Then we drove back to Terra Verde.
Two circles formed in our garage and Aaron Orton filmed for quite some time. Henry and Rory must have played for, like, 3-4 hours, or something??? It was redonkulous! Oh, I think the pool games and stuff with Dave and Phil and Ashley were around here, actually, not before event site... So then my house crew wanted to go get some alcohol, even though they'd just come back from getting some. Andrew was stretching Jogn Bagi and then Jon Haber. Then Sam made some pizzas, and then I threw mine in too, and I ate, and it was so good. I wanted a super stretch too! Oh yeah, and then I dropped a beer out of the freezer and spent a while trying to clean that up with Shanelle. Sucky, we kept finding glass everywhere. Johnny was doing some handstand walking around and I freaked out and grabbed a piece of glass from where he was about to put his entire bodyweight onto the palms of his hands!! Eep! Oh yeah, the other day he did Suderman's Tail, or something, in Circle comp... like where he caught the bag somewhere and did a handstand and then handstand pushups! Woo! Then he tried another move too... Umm, then after a while I went over to Tom's house, where there was apparently some sick shred going down with, like, Byrin and Jim. We got there and Jim had just left, just our luck (hey I'm so hungry for pizza now!!), but then Byrin continued to play for, like, 5 hours until I went back to our house at, like, 5 or 6 in the morning!! No... and he continued from there. But yeah. Pete watched for a bit too, just smiling, watching Byrin the whole time. I was shocked when I heard that Byrin didn't make BAP. I also felt bad, because I kept bugging him about it, like, once I said something, like, "Hey BAP.. I mean Byrin". That sounds a lot more corny having written it. Stuff like that. I bugged him about it a lot at ShrEdmonton too. Oh well, at least everyone knows that Johnny and Byrin are awesome now So yeah, he did stuff like gyro food processor BSOS a couple times, gyro alpine whirlygig on command (he was taking requests), gyro symp whirl X2 a ton, though people kept saying it was the, so he kept trying a million times, and hitting it a million times until it was better. He got a bit frustrated and hit a montage first try to calm down. He was also trying big apple X2. I think he hit big apple > gyro symp whirl a bunch. Then Jon Schneider said that he saw Vasek hit, like, 3 or 4 big apples in a row, like 3 or 4 years ago, and that he wasn't even trying... Man alive. What else. I think Ken asked if he could duck nuclear. Byrin said that he can't, but that he could try. Within a few attempts he hit sumo thong both sides (that's alpine sumo -- I think Derek named it). Yeah. Just a machine, that Byrin. Then everyone else left, and it was Byrin and Nick Landes for a while. Byrin did some flurricanes, Nick did some pdx flurries and... I think they were both trying nuclear flurry... Sunil came and hung out with me for quite some time and we caught up and talked about his school, and how he wants to be able to play more, but has no time, and will have less after school, during residency, and stuff. Apparently he is delivering babies this week... That was nice. Then I was, like, "Byrin is so good", and stuff, and Sunil was, like, "Oh, that one is Byrin? I heard lots of talk about him -- thanks for letting me know." And then I said that Kevin was awesome too. He did pixie chainsaw massacre again. and I pointed out who Kevin was, and I probably said something, like, "He's the new Chris Pinkus." Then Kevin did some ridiculous toe stuff and came over and said hi, and they met and stuff. Denton was also sitting there and we talked a bunch and stuff. That was neato. Denton is rad. Then, yeah, around 5 or 6, Denton and Kevin and I were going to head back, and so we did.

Oh yeah, then I went back into the house and nobody was around, but I saw the pool lights on, so I went outside and Jon and John and Stefan were there, I think. So I went and hung out, and then Andrew came home, and apparently he was also where I'd just come from. We both changed and got in the pool, and that was fun. We talked about some funny stuff and the future of footbag, and all that jazz. It was great. We talked about how next year Jon should train, but only practice flurricane and do the exact same routine in Prague, but with all of the filler between posing as flurricane just over and over again, because we figured that his routine must have lacked in adds (I think he said that it must have had about 9 adds total.) Haha. Obviously it had a FEW more than that. John Bagi spread a lot of rumours too. Like how I hit 2000 spinning and ducking clippers, and how Andrew Grant is going to make BAP. Hey! Andrew apparently got honourable mentioned for BAP though! WOO! Apparently Derek did in 2004 too. Hooray! I wonder if you have to compete to be considered. This would have been a good year for that... none of the best players were even here at Worlds... all hovelled up in their European homes...

So yup, This was the 17th, and I left the next day. I will do a write-up of that too, but it won't be all that eventful, since I basically just went home. My hands hurt from writing so much. Thanks to everyone who's commented so far and bothered to read my recap

[Muffinman]

Day 8
Well not much happened today; I will write about it anyway, but first I wanted to write about something that I forgot to already. I didn't really pay much attention to competition or anything, but I caught a few, and a few performances really struck me, for instance Dan Ednie's routine (qualifying, I think? Maybe Semi... No wait, both were awesome!) and Lon's shred 30, and Lon's routine (even though he dropped a lot... the song was radical, and so was his game), etc. What really got to me, though, was watching Dave's qualifying routine. He kind of opened it by standing up, taking off his shirt, and peeling off his back brace really dramatically. You can see it just laying there beside Sam and Ashley in Mathieu's video. Then the song started, and that really moving song by The Fray, combined with knowing he was injured and couldn't play at all, and how much that was getting him down really, really tugged at the heartstrings and I found my eyes tearing up a little. I was so happy for him the whole time, and at his cues I clapped a lot and smiled really big. Just watching him play, knowing what he was going through really moved me, and seeing him hit a couple 5s, when I knew that he shouldn't be doing anything. I think it was Ken who was talking to me (in our trunk ride, I think) about how he feels like he has been in the sport so long that he looks at certain people kind of like his kids, even if they are older than him... I don't know if that makes sense, or if I just worded it badly, but I couldn't really relate at that moment. But then I kind of thought about it off and on a little over the week and I kind of realized that I feel that way kind of about Dave. I think it is probably mostly because he respects me a whole bunch, and I only say that because he's said that to me a lot. I remember talking to him on MSN ages ago and he was really excited because he had just hit drifter > vortex [repeat]... it was really weird at that point, because that kind of signalled the point where he became better than me, after watching his and Ashley's videos, from when they could barely guilt (Crappy Webcam Productions). I remember Jane Zerbe, actually, saying that watching Dave was like that Jim Carey movie where his whole life is a TV show, or whatever. Anyway, so I was trying to say that I guess I feel that way because I feel that he's looked up to me... I guess that's it essentially. It's really weird, because I look up to him so much...I feel I must look up to him far more than he could ever look up to me. I think one of the biggest compliments I have ever recieved was when I met Dave for the first time at KICKASS, and he told me that the three footbaggers that he wanted to meet most in the world were Peter Irish, Ryan Mulroney... and me. That just blew me away. I'm getting really sidetracked. So I do feel that kind of way that Ken described... I'm not entirely sure why, but I always feel like... that Dave likes my attention or something? I don't know. That sounds stupid. Anyway, it doesn't matter, but I like it, and I like that he likes hanging out with me and talking with me. It's really cool... I guess it's a radical mutual respect sort of thing. But yes, that's what I wanted to say, I guess... if I actually got around to addressing what I meant to. So yeah, to sum up: qualifications round = teary-eyed and moving; mutual respect; semi-"parental" something-something... the way that Ken described it.

I woke up around 11:30. The phone had been ringing many times and nobody was answering, I was worried that it was Fletch trying to get ahold of me. We had talked beforehand about getting to the airport together, and I was going to meet him at his house around 1PM. After about 2 or 3 phone calls I woke up, and happened to be able to catch another ring. I answered, and sure enough it was Fletch saying that they were booted out of their house or something (they thought they had more time, or another day or something?) and so that they were going to go to the event site, and would I have a ride to meet them there so that we could taxi together from Disney? I said... not really, so he said he would call back. I started packing and getting stuff together. He called back a bit later and said they were on their way to get me. Andrew woke up and we kind of said our goodbyes, like, "See you in a couple of days", and then Jon came down just as I was about to leave and he gave me a pick-up hug, which is basically a hug, but he picked me up...because he is so huge... I guess. Someone else was there too. Anyway, Scott Behmer came in and got me, and they (Justin Dale, Fletch, Emily) were, like, "Yeah, you're going to have to hold that suitcase on your lap." It was pretty big and Emily shared the load with me. Justin held my bag. The ride was terrible. The wind in my face and eyes... I also felt bad that maybe my suitcase was causing undue discomfort to Emily. So we got to the site and we hung out a little. Jeremy Mirken came and got me and made me watch a bit of net. Then I watched some people play. Then Sunil came and talked to Fletch and said that he had a ride for him, and then I asked if he had room for another (I think I felt rude as soon as I had asked that). And Sunil, like, made some calls and eventually it was cool.

We went outside and waited with... gee I forget who. Actually, someone I don't think I ever met? Eventually a car pulled up and freestylers piled out. Oh yeah, I hugged Emily goodbye at the event site and she mentioned that time when CIC prank called her and put me on the phone... and then I hugged Kevin Crowley, and shook hands with Aaron Orton, and some other people. Then at the car, I hugged Waylon, and said bye to Dan Ednie, and some others, and then we got in, and this net player, I assume, introduced himself as Vince. Oh... we rode with Chris Balch, right. He got lost a bit, and I gave him a bit of money for the bajillion toll stops (do we have that in Canada???), I wanted to give more, but only have, like, big bills. I actually accidentally gave him a $50 instead of a $5 and he was, like, "This is a $50." Footbaggers are so honest. So then he dropped off Chris around 2:30, his flight was at like 3:30, and then Fletch and I, and we parted ways, I mentioned something to Vince about Joel Dion and Scott Ellenberger (Winnipeg net players, and he knew them and told me to pass on his "hi". Then I went and waited in the airport for an eternity. I actually decided to eat some airport food (I am very stingy when it comes to food) -- I had an egg and bacon biscuit thingy, and an orange juice, and it REALLY hit the spot. Then I waited like 3 hours for my flight. I listened to some music and napped a bit. There is other stuff that happened, but meh, it's not really Worlds related, and I'm kind of in pain from so much writing now.

When I got home, though, I had a package from Eskimo Joe, who had sent me some lead. Oh yeah, so Dave absolutely abhors lead. I was showing him some bags, and before he would touch them he asked what was inside, at one point I tossed one over and he didn't even attempt to catch it; he asked, "Is there lead inside?" And when I got that new bag that I posted about just before Worlds, I sent him a PM saying that I liked the filler, and was it lead, because it's so nice, and he wrote one back saying, "No, I don't use lead -- I care about my customers... but yes, it is a different filler." So yeah. I kind of wanted to ask him why he hated it so much, but I guess it isn't hard to see why. I never thought of it as a big deal before, but... inetesting. So yeah, and I sent Andrew (Eskimo Joe) off some steel shot today, when I picked up some prescription medicine for this stupid sickness. I hope I can play hack soon... I really want to play with this bag. I have a little, and it seems just PRO, but I am too sick to really do anything other than sit here and type, make some food, and continue my lonesome Lord of the Rings marathon. Ben Roscoe was raving about Super Troopers on the plane ride to Worlds, and I really want to watch that in the near future, especially since I read something about it briefly today too. Okay, gonna go relax and be sick now. Thanks for reading



Oh yeah, PS: I got tons of signatures on my Worlds tshirt. I'm going to list them!:
FRONT:
-Mike Hansen (Mike Hansen smiley face)
-Fletcher Funk (Fletch, in block letters)
-Takumi Ozawa (Takumi Ozawa!!) <-- he giggled a lot with Taishi writing this, because Taishi thought he should write a message
-Jeremy Mirken (Senor Grommet)
-Kevin Regamey (Kevin Regamey loves you. (backwards))
-Will Digges
-Lon Smith (Lon Smith smiley face)
-Ethan Husted (Red Husted)
-Steve Moir (Mr. Destroyer)
-Jonathan Schneider
-Ken Somolinos (his kanji (is that the right word?) right in the front centre)
-Jim Penske
-Phil Morrison (Red Rocket)
-Mathieu something something...can't read the writing, so I'm not sure which Mathieu it is...
-Daryl Genz (Daryl "Genzu Blades" Genz)
-Ben Roscoe
-Stephen Barnes (I think he wrote '08... though maybe in there it says something, like, "See you in '08?...)
-Tom Mosher
-Gray Chadwick (anmd he drew that little cammel that he has as his Modified avatar)
-(some name that looks like "Dan"...? something...)

BACK:
-Luis Lipchuk
-Eric Wulff (Eric Wulff Cha@s #5) <--net reference?
-Jeff O (Jeff-O)
-Chad Devlahovich (Big Add Chad)
-Caro (Caro...)
-"MD" drawn in a heart...who is that??
-Vasek Klouda
-Zach Forth (Zach the 4th)
-Andrew Koller
-Taishi (Nice to see you again!! Taishi)
-Ben Benulis (Iron Clad Ben Benulis)
-Byrin Wylie
-(another name I can't read)
-Waylon Lew (Waylon Lew, and then his name in Chinese)
-James McTeague (spelled right?)
-Mathieu Gauthier
-Zach Jahner
-Pengpeng Du (Peng2) <--- written like, Peng to the power of 2...
-Zeb Jackson
-Will Digges (haha -- again??)
-Matt Cross (Matt Cross!!!)
-Andrew T. Grant
-Ashley Danowski
-Sam Colclough
-Mike....(?)
-Sunil Jani (Tsunami Sunil Jani)
-Tina Aeberli
-Scott Bevier (Flash Gordon)
-Emily Kulczyk (Emily Kulczyk!)
-Richelle (Nice guns Rishell smiley face) oops, I jstu wrote her name wrong this entire blog...
-Johnny Suderman (Sorry about that Erik -Johnny) right under Rishell's
-Kyle Hewitt
-Jay Boychuk
-Henry Griese
-Chris Dean (CD) and then I made him draw me a rocket ship for some reason
-Sunny Genz (Sunny Freeman Genz, and then she drew this really elaborate 32!!... and a sun)
-Cody Rushing
-Yoga (his real name, and then "Yoga", Special Trickz) :p
-Paul Agostinelli
-Aaron Orton (Erik Chan is the shit! then signature, then Aaron Orton)
-Jon Haber
-Chris...something (can't read)
-Jorden Moir
-Justin Dale
-Eric Chang <--- I was excited about this one!!
-Shanelle (Miss World)...?

So yeah, I missed out on a lot because I only remembered to ask at certain times, whereas I met most people while shredding, when I wasn't carrying around my shirt and marker...




SUPER POST SCRIPT: I forgot to mention a reason why I liked Dan's semis routine so much, not only is he an incredible routine player (RIGHT on beat, unlike most routines I've ever seen), but because he used one of the EType songs that I used in my old CSS4 video! I was so into it! I remember there was big hype on Modified when I released those videos really soon after the event ended and everyone [either hated or] loved the music! I hope that's the reason that he chose that song -- that would be so cool. I don't think anyone else got it... except I'm sure Andrew would have, but I looked around smiling and nobody seemed to notice the music... But yeah, that was rad!

And since I keep remembering stuff, I am going to keep a running list of cool highlights/notes that I forgot to mention, right here:
-Dylan Fry propsed me on alpine rev whirlygig and said he really liked my rev whirl stuff!
-Mike Hansen is really pretty
-I never ended up getting any stitching tutourials
-Phil "Red Rocket" Morrison calling me a hero
-

[pips]

Haha...my sisters always made fun of my signature for looking like, "Cliz Fiz." I think I signed right under one of the pictures.

[janis]

That was the greatest event write up ever!
thanks so much, that really made my day.

[BenRea]

man that shirt could be worth a lot in a footbaggers eyes. would you ever consider selling it?

[mc]

Erik,

thanks for including me in your stories i'm glad you liked our thumper session, that thing is incredible. makes my back feel good. I want one.

I also felt weird when there were 3 couples in the pool and me. it seemed a little strange to me that there were so many bagger couples in one place. I'm not used to that. I need my own bagger lady, but I don't see it on the horizon right at this juncture.

anyway, it was great to see you. I'd be glad to take that big white and red bag off your hands, if you think it's similar to that one that I really liked. I have a lot of small bags, so I'd be glad to have a bigger one to have fun with.

talk soon!

matt

[wolfpac444]

SUPER POST SCRIPT: I forgot to mention a reason why I liked Dan's semis routine so much, not only is he an incredible routine player (RIGHT on beat, unlike most routines I've ever seen), but because he used one of the EType songs that I used in my old CSS4 video! I was so into it! I remember there was big hype on Modified when I released those videos really soon after the event ended and everyone [either hated or] loved the music! I hope that's the reason that he chose that song -- that would be so cool. I don't think anyone else got it... except I'm sure Andrew would have, but I looked around smiling and nobody seemed to notice the music... But yeah, that was rad!
-

I got it right away ;-] I watched those videos so much when I first started playing. I asked Dan about it later that night, and he said that your video was the reason he chose the song.

[qphox]

I totally noticed the Russian Lullaby track...and said to whoveer was next to me (Byirn maybe?), "Dude, this is from Erik's css4 video!"

Also, I didn't try a toe beast in competition...that's not going to happenf roa while yet. The one I came closest to was pixie ducking legover > pixie ducking legover > chainsaw massacre. I really should have had that.

[BenRea]

i want more pictures of the bags you are making erik.

[Muffinman]

So many comments
Thanks for letting me know about the song, Mike -- that's great!

Shred: August 25, 2007:
Had a pretty lame session. Nothing really of note was hit by me. Oh, well, Andrew told me a tip that Vasek told him for symp whirls, so I hit some symp rev whirls, and that was neat -- like in the kind of uptime fashion. I BSOSed it, which isn't much, but it felt cool, except for hurting my flip shin splints, so I stopped. I will go for symp > far symp [repeat] when my shins can handle it. Yeah, like pretty much nothing. I was quite sore and tight in my hip/groin.
Andrew wants to do organized stretching sessions after hack, and that should be awesome. He was doing some stretching on people at our shred house in Florida, and everyone loved it! I didn't get one myself, but I really want one. Plus mostly I think we're going to do it like he does stuff and tells us how and we'll do the same thing. Should be good. We kind of also discussed going out for meals or hanging out or whatever after shred some times, and that would be nice. We noticed that every other shred scene does that and we just... don't. This was prompted, I think, by me mentioning how good the food smelled from inside the steakhouse that we shred in front of many times over during the session... man it smelled like battered fish, and it was good! I'm so hungry.
Umm, yeah. I'm writing quite a bit for such a non-eventful session. OH! Highlight -- we totally shredded one of my own bags all night!!! DREAM COME TRUE!! I got colours and patterns from Andrew and Manna and I'm gonna make them a bag each some time. That should be neat. I love this blue-on-blue bag we played with, of mine.

Anyway, the actual highlight was the bouncing session after. I biked with my shred mats, which was a little painful. At the end Andrew tried a couple moves by bouncing the bag off the mats and doing something out of it, and I was, like, "We should, like, only do this for the rest of the night"... and actually...we did Here's some awesome stuff we hit:
-butterfly (Manna)
-osis (Manna)
-stepping same osis (Manna)
-ducking mirage (me)
-DLO (me)
-bedwetter (me)
-rev tomahawk (me) (and maybe symp too?)
-rev whirlwind (me)
-tombstone (Andrew)
-"pdx" torque (Andrew)
-ripped warrior (off his foot a bajillion times... actually, I had that one off my foot too)
-ps whirl? (Andrew)
-stepping whirl (Andrew) <-- this was the one that got us all trying stepping out of the bounce! I flipped out, well not really, but in my head... it was COOL!
I'm sure Andrew hit other awesome stuff too, but for some reason I always forget what he hits :p

Man this is a long post, and the only thing worth reading is the cool bouncy stuff! Manna totally hit ripwalk > ripwalk -- ssoo bloody smooth! This guy has amazing style! I'm gonna film next session, I think, and just slap together a raw video. He also hit blur both sides and broke his osis record, with 7. Man... he's kind of like a new Derek Vandall!!!! Waa! Except, just not QUITE as fast... I think Derek had, like, pixie ducking whirl > ripped warrior soon after... we'll see. Manna super smooth though. It's fun playing with Hackrifice again... it's not just Andrew and me :p

K, blah. What a waste of space.
I miss footbaggers



EDIT: Just found a new bubble tea supplier! My old supplier had crappy selection. I just ordered my two favourite flavour syrups, and some other stuff that I am going to experiment with Oh yeah, so I got:
-Pineapple syrup (my first favourite flavour)
-Green Apple syrup (one of my all-around favourite flavours)
-6.6 lb tapioca
-2.2 lb green tea tapioca (I've been trying to try this stuff for a long time, but my old supplier discontinued due to disinterest)
-and mango cream powder. I've had lots of powders before, but for some reason they just tasted terrible. So I figured that maybe they are just bad powders (like...I don't know). So I am going to try this one and see what's up.
EDIT 2: I realized today that I am blocked on Facebook by this girl that I had a thing with a bajillion years ago...and it's really weird. Maybe she completely hates me or something. And then Marita accidentally friend requested, or whatever, and now it is probably a much more awkward situation ¬________¬
EDIT 3: Ken keeps finding posts of mine and correcting things that I say. It's making me realize that I should stop saying stuff as if it was fact, when I don't really know what I'm talking about :p I said some things at Worlds that he corrected me on too, quite a few times. I feel like he's on my tail. Like the footbag fact police.

[Muffinman]

Footbag errands: complete!
I got quite a bit done today, footbag-wise.
I went on some much-needed errands. Here's some stuff I finally did:
-bought silver + gold gel pen pack
-bought mini scale (thanks Peng!) -- discovered that I think I actually prefer about 50g, over 60. Also discovered that my Abshire is 40! Whoa!...
-bought some duct tape (primarily for fashioning some backpack straps for my shred mats, with which to aid in biking)
-bought black silicon, and totally modded the insides of my black Climas (thanks Brian! -- the tip on spitting on my fingers totally made a huge difference!! It would be messy without that, and I think I did a really nice-looking job. I'm excited to share pictures!)
-speaking of which, I also drove around the city and got lost and finally dropped off my digital camera for repair (so pictures will be possible in the near future (a couple of weeks)).
-decided to plan a shred 30, the instant I woke up.
-tried to practice shred 30, but legs hurt too much. Hit a new move, though, spinning dyno/reverse spender... render? (Haha, after posting this, I also thought of "rhino"... but I think that is too far removed... just sounds like reverse dyno.. no spin really implied. I dunno.)

And yeah, Andrew called me about getting the community club for Hackrifice, which has been scheduled, finally, for September 29-30 (or the three days of that last weekend, rather). There is a post in the Journies to Tournies forum. I kind of got the impression that this year's tshirt can be entirely my design, so that has me quite excited, and I had ideas as soon as he said that, spring into my head. My favourite so far was the one that we collabed on with the bloody footbag. I drew the bag, but it wasn't how I originally drew it, or wanted it, so I am excited to potentially do something that I want to do! I think something simple, but awesome... something like Tom's hack + crossbones, or the Planet Footbag shirt with the footbag with the planet ring thingy (I totally ordered the two last smalls (red and grey) with Alex!!)

Yeah, I felt super accomplished with all of those errands. Maybe there was even more? I'll do some sketches for the tshirt before bed too.
Oh yeah, I also discovered that I'm still not over my sickness. I was completely blech all last week, and then I had absolutely no stamina on Saturday shred because I was sick, like, every way possible... like nausea, headache and dizziness, sinus congestion, sore throat and couching, sneezing and stuff. Actually at one point I was sneezing so much that I sneezed up and burst a capsule of glucosamine and chondroitin frmo my throat and it blew dust everywhere from my mouth and tasting incredibly foul!... It was kind of epic at the time because I saw dust out of the corner of my eye, and then I was, like, "Whoa! That came out of me!" and then I tasted it...
I was so sick on the Friday, too, that I had a steam bath to like, clear myself up, but then after, I got really faint and dizzy and nauseous, and couldn't move, and lay in an empty bathtub, curled up, for like half an hour before I could stand up @_______@

[mosher]

Hey Erik,

You can do what you want with this offer..

I figured it's worth mentioning that I will now be doing screen printing a bit more seriously and if your shirt design isn't too complex (one colour) then I could take on the job of making the Hackrifice shirts.

I will be stocking up on quality Fruit of the Loom t's and hoodies.

Let me know if this interests you, the shirts would probably run about $8 each and you could sell them for a bit more than that.

[Muffinman]

Shred: August 29, 2007:
Another pretty lame-o session. I had some good runs, but mostly my shins and hip hurt too much to even really bother trying for most. I had a neat run with spinning rev whirl, a gyro DLO, a couple stepping or blurry rev whirls, and a spinning rev whirl > mobius to end. I really dig that last combo. Anything spinning to mobius is so cool!
Here's some other stuff:
-rev maelstrom > blurry rev whirl [both sides]
-rev maelstrom > rev whirlygig > rev maelst... (almost my feast combo, but a cooler, much harder, more both-sided one!) (also tried drilling it...should be pretty possible.)
-a nondescript run with rev maelstrom on one side and rev montage on the other.
-rev whirlwind > rev ps whirl > rev whirlwind (may have rolled off the last move, but was going for the drill, and it didn't seem very hard)
-blurry ducking clipper > spinning rev whirl BSOS
-pretty close to alpine rev whirlygig > rev montage (realized that I have to do SUPER hard rev whirl tricks to attempt a beast... hahaha) maybe it rolled off. I was going to try spinning ducking DLO after... hahaha -- basically all of my hardest tricks back-to-back-to-back...

I did some dynos a BIT (like very few), and I learned DODs (which don't really hurt). They feel so cool, but my "goodside" is kind of like blind, because of the difference in my stance from good to flip side [of my body]. I did DOD > barrage both sides a couple of times, though my barrages are the. I don'r particularly care; I want to hit it repeat, because that would feel really accomplishing. I also did some gyro DLO > paradon combos, which is neat. Oh, I did gravedigger BSOS again, which felt neat.



So, actually, it kind of sounds like a productive day, when I recap those highlights. At the time it was lame and frustrating. I brought my camcorder too, but forgot to film, and then when I remembered didn't really have anywhere to set it up; I suggested we play at a different spot today to mix it up, and suggested right by the skatepark (which is a 5 minute walk from our regular spot). It was super fun, and we got WAY more props than we usually get, and positive response, like, some skater kid actually said, "Man, my hip would pop trying that stuff" or something... like wow, someone actually realized that it's not just kicky bag? We got lots of atypical responses -- it was refreshing.

We ended the session really fun again. We played, like, 7 or 8 rounds of 3-square. Man that was fun. We are all, like, inexperienced, I think, so it wasn't frustrating like when I played with CIC (who lives for foursquare). I think I actually won the most games. I kept beating Andrew with this combo where I kicked it off of his serve and then I would aim it right for the border of our squares and fake a second kick... I got him so many times with that. Fun times.
Andrew had some pretty good runs. He said he was playing poorly, and was just drilling, but he had a run with, like, dimwalk > bedwetter [repeat] > dimwalk > fog [repeat] > butterfly > haze > butterfly > butterfly > haze, and then, like, a pdx blender > ps whirl (dropped?) Or something. He also had blurry merlin right off his foot, really clean, though I think he said he's hit it before. I tried, like, a couple times, racing John Bagi.
Yesterday, Andrew schooled Manna on plantless far legovers to get plantless infinities, 'cause he was doing double hops. So I saw Manna come close to beating his new infinity record, but plantless, and really controlling Umm, gee, haha, he also hit legover heel stall > heel-set pixie. That was really out of the blue.

Umm, my inside-modded Climas were rad. I can spin properly again!!
I'm listening to Sigur Ros, and it's great. Staralfur is wonderful. I think I will use them in that next raw video from whatever session I film at next.
Oh yeah, and that girl friend of mine contacted me after Worlds, all excited that she was doing some more moves both sides and stuff, and asking what she should do next, and it's really exciting.

[C-Fan]

EDIT 3: Ken keeps finding posts of mine and correcting things that I say. I feel like he's on my tail. Like the footbag fact police.

Sorry, I don't mean to come off as a dick. I think things are worse now too, now that I'm back at school. I make really fast posts which sometimes come off unintentionally curt.

On that note, I've had this idea for a while now of buying a t-shirt of the band "The Police" (Sting's old band). I would modify it by putting quotations around "the" and wear it at tournaments, just walking around and calling people on "the."

Oh, and thanks again for bubble tea at worlds. That was cool.

[CautionFragile]

That's brilliant !

[Muffinman]

It was all in fun. I'm not upset or annoyed or anything. I just felt like saying. It puts me in my place and teaches me to not talk about stuff that I don't really know about



I'm working on bag #017. It's a Brinard-style pokebag for my brothers before he leaves for Vancouver. I suggested he look up the scene there, and he seemed interested, so that's cool. He's tiltless, with quite a few 3s, and some 4s. Dimwalks, legbeaters, ps mirages, etc. I saw a post about the Vancouver scene, and somebody wanting to revive it, so it seems key.
So yeah, back to the stitching. I am at an awesome stage in my stitching. I make incredibly choice bags, playability-wise. The only things that I really know that I have to work on getting a better consistency with my gather (my stitching is a little inconsistent too, still, but that will come with time, I'm sure). And the other thing is figuring out a good formula for filler to get a perfect mix of feel, volume, weight, and durability (most importantly). It feels really exciting to be working to figure these things out. If anyone has any tips for me, I would be really grateful

So, yeah. Bag #014 was the blue-blue one, and we played it for two sessions. It was 100% steel, and it's starting to die after 2 sessions... I also did #015, which popped a couple of stitches so immediately went onto my shelf where I've lined up all of my bags that I still have, so far. #016 I made for Manna, and finished last night. It is light blue and pink, by request. I started #017 (pokebag) last night, and I've cut out panels for the bag I'm making for Andrew, too, which is some pattern he wants with two greens, and white. Gotta wait for him to show me a bag with the pattern he wants, because he couldn't figure out how to explain it to me.

(Got my bubble tea stuff today -- played around with pineapple, figured out a good formula, and made it for everyone with some rainbow bubbles thrown into the regular ones... yummy. The rainbow bubbles are a bit bigger, and sweeter... neat!)

[BenRea]

hey man,

I know how you like your reverse whirls so i thought i would share this video with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcfgOOcvWlU

Have you ever hit that?

[C-Fan]

Cool! GS rev whirl.