Frank Sinatra Lives

[Frank_Sinatra]

Kicked three times since the last post - Friday, Sunday, & Monday. Around 7 hours total EDIT: don't think I'll be kicking after work. This is gonna be a long post, just warning you.

Friday - Jazzfest. I went over straight after work, and saw three people hacking in the field. One of them was so drunk he peed himself. But he stopped playing when I got there, and the other two guys were very competent hackers. So we hacked with somebody's Dirtbag, I did a few tricks & short runs here & there but it was pretty hackeriffic.

After a little while the circle broke up, I went to shred on the Northwest corner of Grant Park (by the stairs, tables & benches), and one of the hackers (James) came with me. He said he was used to hacking solo, so our circle was more like he'd hack for a while, then I'd freestyle, and we weren't passing much. Which we were both fine with I think. My red/blue footfighter ripped again, so we started breaking in a new one.

There were a few people sitting around or walking by, and they all had that amused 'not sure what to make of this hacky sack thing' look on their faces. I hit flying spinning clipper, and looked up at the people around me, and they were all like: Seriously, all there faces were yellow and their eyes distended past the edges of their faces. Paramedics had to be called in.

I hit 35 contacts tiltless (maybe more, but at least 35 contacts) by putting a couple drills together - 20 atw> pickup> repeat> 15 (or more?) mirage> legover> repeat. Which caught the attention of this douche who joined our circle for like ten minutes or something. You know the type - can do one trick but he thinks he's king shit, demands answers for things that are pretty obvious if you freestyle but are a pain in the ass to explain to the unmotivated, wants to use his big, floppy sand bag he bought at the mall... [EDIT: Oh my god I was this type when I first met CIC. I am a hypocrite and a masturbator.]

Also at one point these frat boys walked by and were like "he's better than I was a year ago when I played." I was like "I bet I am." Then me and James mocked them mercilessly (after they were out of earshot). There was a lot of somewhat strange interaction with people walking by, but they all expressed how impressed they were so I guess it was good exposure.

Some kids from Aurora joined us eventually - Adam and this other guy (can't remember his name). Adam could hit butterfly, atw, heel stall, pendulum, probably some other stuff, in skateboarding shoes. I told them about footbag.org & modified, so maybe they'll make their way here sooner or later. Also this dad and his two small kids joined us. The circle pretty much disintegrated, I worked on my double dexes while the kids played with a sandbag, then I joined them for a cool down.

I felt like I proved something to the people who were watching or passing by. I was playing well and having a good time, which is probably more important. A few people were like "you're the best hacker in the world" and while (obviously) I know its not true, its still nice when people say things like that.

Sunday - Jazzfest again with Rav5 + Mahood. Nice to see Mahood again, the first time I met him was pretty soon after I met CIC, and I remember as I was leaving that session he was like "good luck with your shred." I remember him being really gracious and welcoming even though 1: he was way good and obviously wanted to shred hard, and 2: I sucked. But I really appreciated his comments & positive attitude.

Kicked for about 3 & 1/2 hours, my legs were pretty beat by the time Fred showed up, but I still tried to kick for a while. I think I played OK. Highlights:

DLO midstring
new trick - Smudge
22 contacts of pixie> same butterfly> pickup> repeat (new record)

I thought up a 50 contact drill, started working on the different parts of that. I think its possible that I'll hit this within a few weeks, which would be pretty terrific. The drill is: (clipper> pickup)> repeat> (mirage> clipper> pickup)> repeat> (mirage> legover> clipper> pickup)> repeat> ((mirage> legover)> repeat> clipper> pickup)> repeat> ((mirage> legover> repeat)> (atw> pixie> repeat)> clipper> pickup)> repeat

Monday - Welles Park with Josh. Kicked for about an hour & 40 minutes. My legs were so tired & stiff and I had like no energy. I had to take a break halfway through to go get a clif bar & some vitamin water. Also used some of this ointment Josh had called Unger's (I think). I gotta buy me some of that. Josh played well - Smog BSOS, DATW with each leg, each direction in one run, and a bunch of other more shit. Rough session for me, but still a few highlights:

30 contacts of mirage> legover> repeat (new record)
got through different parts of 50 contact drill with just 3 drops
clipper> pdx mirage> repeat> butterfly> pdx mirage> repeat

Infinities felt good, flip DATW was sketchy as hell, Barrage took a while.

August Recap

Some new personal records:

Infinities to six contacts
33 contacts of ATW> Pixie> Repeat
3 PLOs
4 Smears
20 legovers
19 pickups
39 contacts of clipper> pickup> op repeat
30 contacts of mirage> legover> repeat
22 contacts of pixie> same butterfly> pickup> repeat
25 contact non-drill string

New moves:

Barrage (both sides)
Dyno (strong side)
Flip Ducking Mirage
Ducking pixie (weak side)
DATW ending on inside (strong side)
Flip Ducking Legover
Ducking Pickup (both sides)
Flip Ducking Butterfly
Flip Pixie Pickup
Double Over Down (strong side)
Smudge (strong side)

New links:

Osis> pdx mirage
Terrage> terrage
Smear> PLO
Osis> ss butterfly

Random other:

DATW midstring
DLO midstring
Dimwalk> Pdx. mirage> butter> butter> osis
5 contact no plant combo

I was thinking about doing a recap of the past 100 days - tomorrow will mark 100 days since I started kicking in the 60618, also 100 days since I fully returned from a sprained ankle. Might be pretty time consuming to do it the way I want to, but I think it'll be good to take a step back and see how far I've come this summer. We'll see...

[xXLoss_of_ControlXx]

Holy poop!

you don't mess around with them updates!

[Frank_Sinatra]

Sure don't, but while I was reviewing them for the recap I realized how similar all my posts are. So maybe I'll try a little harder to just skip to the important stuff. Or make up codes for all the possible things that happen during a session, like RH = random hacker joined us; RHD = random hacker douchebag, ZF = Zeke Flipped out and killed a guy, etc.

That being said, here's a long-ass recap of the past 100 days of shred. I wish I could just upload the spreadsheet I used (I am such a dork).

Timeline

May 28 - First session after taking a short break to fully heal up. First 60618 session. Think I hit my first ten contact string that night, although I didn't write that down so I'm just relying on memory, so I could be wrong. The session that started so much: so many awesome sessions with Freddie, maybe a few more not as awesome sessions with Freddie, lots of kicking, lots of progress, brought "Bermuda Cryangle" & "Lake Independence" into the lexicon, established IP as a shred spot.

June 1 - Hit DLO, after so many painfully close attempts.

June 21 - Flip Terrage.

June 22 - Hit Phoenix clean. First & only 'respectable' five-add, IMO. Haven't hit it again.

June 24 - Flip DATW. Tricycle Lunches!

July 2 - Started drilling BOPs.

July 5 - 19 contact string at Taste, at the time it was my best string yet. I still feel pretty good about it, because it was all spontaneous & just felt smooth.

July 8 - kicked with Henry in Whitewater. Played somewhat poorly but still had fun.

July 17 - first 20 contact tiltless string - finally!

July 22 - First 4-4 link - Dimwalk> Diving Butterfly

July 26 - Fredator joined CIC!

July 29 - grueling 3 hour solo session.

August 1 - halted BOP drills.

August 6 - Barrage both sides. Redeemed an otherwise poor session for me.

August 9 - 5 contact guiltless string (non-drill)

August 21 - 39 contacts of clipper> pickup> op repeat drill. Longest string to date.

August 24 - Another big solo session. Terrage> terrage for the first time, flip pixie pickup & flip ducking butterfly for the first time.

August 26 - Double Over Down. I was footing this back in March or April. It was so good to finally seal it.

September 2 - Smudge. Kicked with Rav5 + Mahood.

September 3 - Last session in the timeline, 30 contacts of mirage> legover> repeat, a handful of other 20 contact strings, almost BSOSed Barrage.

New Moves - 41 new moves, if you count each side as a different move (and I am).
Ducking symposium mirage
Pixie Dragonfly
DLO
Fairy SS osis
Illusion (both sides, eventually)
Magellan
Pixie ss clipper
Pixie ss osis
Symposium pixie (both sides, eventually)
Parkwalk
Flip Terrage
PS Mirage
Phoenix
Ducking heel (both sides)
Flip DATW (outward)
Cross-body Heel
Pixie muted Cross-body Heel
Ducking Legover (both sides, eventually)
Diving Heel (both sides, eventually)
Butterfly ending on Heel
Diving osis
Pixie op Heel
Pixie ss Mirage
Refraction
Barrage (both sides)
Dyno
Flip Ducking Mirage
Ducking Pixie
DATW inside
Ducking Pickup (both sides)
Flip Ducking Butterfly
Flip Pixie Pickup
Double Over Down
Smudge

Challenges - Completed challenges in red. Obviously I need to work on some of these.

Challenges:
4.Right clipper>far legover> mirage>right clipper> same side legover>left clipper>far legover> mirage>left clipper> same side legover>/right clipper>mirage>inout ATW>left clipper >mirage>inout ATW

1.Clipper X26
2.Butterfly X10
2.Ducking clipper X6
3.Ducking butterfly X2
1.legover> same side tap legover> repeat X2(eight contacts)
1.Toe ducking toe X 10
3.Toe ducking legover X 4
2. In ATW> pickup> out ATW > pickup>out Atw>pickup>in Atw>pickup
2. Same as above but legover instead of pickup.

challenge:
pixie (no plant same foot) clipper
ducking legover
pixie (no plant same foot) clipper >ducking whatever

i challenge you:

butter > osis > pdx mirage > rpt both sides
infinity > infinity > osis > rpt starting both sides
butter > pdx mirage > rpt x 4 (10 contacts)

Breakdown

70 sessions in 100 days. Right on target (I was shooting for 70 - 75 sessions).
45 sessions with Freddie
23 sessions with Tom
20 sessions with Zeke
13 sessions with Meinard
11 sessions with Josh
10 sessions with Reile
7 sessions with Jake
7 sessions with Ronnie
7 sessions with Abe
3 sessions with Kamil
8 solo sessions
25 sessions with only one other person (20 of those were with Fred)
attended zero tournies/events

Wish I could count how many times I switched up my drills.

Well, that's the last 100 days in a nutshell.

I want to kick tonight. 60618, anybody? I know the lighting is questionable, but I don't have my gear with me so it'll have to do if I want to kick. Also, I thought I'd have the 2nd interview at that consulting firm today, but its going to be on Friday instead.

[Zeke]

Wow, you really got your shit together!

Fredator He's got all the coolest nicknames!
-Freducator
-Fredward
-Sweet Simon
-1/2 of Team Fartin

[xXLoss_of_ControlXx]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=R3nU3k6_Mmk

[Frank_Sinatra]

Whoa. That's amazing. 43 seconds in is why I'd never try that, though. I really like the run where he went back up the stairs.

I think I'm gonna edit the recap a little, so look back up for updates. If you're interested.

EDIT: here's some highlights from yesterday's session, Fred & I at IP, I kicked for 2 hours 45 minutes. Goofuckinsession. Slake your thirst on these tasty licks:

DATW> (Butterfly> pdx. mirage> repeat) to 8 contacts guiltless - new record
PLO> PLO> Smear> Ducking Butterfly
DOD again
almost BSOSed Barrage again
20 or more contacts of five of my drills (tried to get to 20 of pixie> ss butter> pickup> repeat but failed, best was probably 15)
at least 10 20 contact strings

Oh yeah and I think I'm gonna kick tonight. Gotta buy some shoes to go with my fancy clothes for tomorrow's interview.

[The Actual Sized E]

DATW> (Butterfly> pdx. mirage> repeat) to 8 contacts guiltless - new record
PLO> PLO> Smear> Ducking Butterfly

to both of those. If you turn that ducking butterfly in the second string into a pixie butterfly you'd have four contacts of shuffle (double dex links). Have you done that before?

[Frank_Sinatra]

Thanks man. Re: shuffle: I've never thought of that. I could do that. But could I do it 9 times? I just don't know...

[Frank_Sinatra]

Hey guys, I got the job!

Thank you, power tie.

EDIT: The job is Microsoft Office Sharepoint Administrator/ Consultant. Basically I'll be learning the Sharepoint product inside & out, then traveling to different clients and setting it up for them, customizing it for their preferences & so they can get what they're expecting out of it.

My full responsibilities are a bit more nuanced than that, but that's pretty much the short answer.

It was either this or go back to school, really. As most of you know I've been wanting out of my current company for a while.

[CIC flurry]

yeah!

[Zeke]

[CIC flurry]

I finally set aside some time to red that recap, and it is hamburger delicious. So cool.

10 contact string to stringing like a mo (39 -50) is so great.

You've improved sooo much, and I know this. But this time line makes it so clear. Your organization and diligence are to be admired.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Thanks Tom for the progress props. If somebody had told me six months ago that I'd be doing 20 contact tiltless strings almost every session I wouldn't have believed them. If somebody had told me I'd be kicking solo for 2+ hours or kicking for 10 to 12 hours a week with almost no pain I wouldn't have believed them. But now I think its time to push it to the next level.

Thanks for the congratulations, guys! I'm super excited (and anxious and maybe a little frightened) about this new job. Right now I'm really happy that I'll be leaving my current company behind. In fact, I'm so happy about the new job that I even felt good walking home from a really shitty session on Friday.

Friday - solo session at Independence Park, about an hour & a half. For some crazy reason I thought I'd have a really good session, but it was probably one of the three worst of the year. I was playing with one of my new footfighters, it was playable but rolly. The bigger problem is it's yellow, red, gray, and dirty, so it's hard to see in the low light conditions of IP at dusk. Plus, it was humid as fuck and my glasses were fogged/smudged & I couldn't get them clean.

And then the humidity was a factor all on it's own. There was eventually a circle of wrung-out sweat that was at least 2 feet in diameter. It was so humid that by the end of the session it looked like I had jumped in a swimming pool with my shred gear on. It was so humid that I took off my shirt. Scandalous.

So maybe without those external factors it would have been an OK session. Whatever, at the end of the day, if you didn't play well, its because you didn't play well. Highlight:

PLO> PLO> Smear> Dimwalk (that's for Work Zone)

I decided on Friday that it was time to move on with my drills, so I'm not going to work on these four any more: atw> pixie> rpt; atw> pickup> rpt; mirage> legover> rpt; clipper> pickup> op rpt. I've started doing butterfly> pdx. mirage> rpt & working more on the 50 contact tiltless drill - trying to do it in ten or more contact segments but not with the goal of doing the whole thing through any time soon. So these drills went into effect as of Saturday.

Saturday - solo session at IP, about 2 & 1/2 hours, didn't start until after 8, so the field lights were on & the lighting was much better than the day before. I also cleaned my footfighter the day before & it felt more broken in. First session with new drills, although I did still do the old ones in a less regimented way as part of the warm up.

Butterfly> pdx. mirage> repeat took about 40 minutes to complete ten times. Like my other drills, I have to repeat the drill before it 'counts' - so I had to seal the flip pdx. mirage before it counted. Got to seven contacts a couple times, but my flip pdx. mirage is really the weak link. Hoping that this drill is the best way to improve it. I'd forgotten how challenging working on a new drill is. Highlights:

DATW inward> DATW outward
PLO> PLO> PLO> PLO

Satisfying session.

I also bought a smoothie maker on Saturday. It is my most wondrous creation.

Sunday - Welles Park - Zeke, Ronnie, Tony, Freddie, Meinard, Cuba, & a woman net player. I freestyled for 2 hours & 15 minutes, played squares for an hour after that. Most of the freestyle was solo, until Fred joined me towards the end. Highlights:

DOD (again - twice actually)
Smudge (again - hope it was as clean as I thought it was)

Tried some other shit for a while - flip DLO, some three dex stuff, Barrage BSOS - but didn't feel any closer to any of it. Maybe Barrage BSOS will be a reality soon. It was probably unrealistic to think I'd hit a 3-dex move this season.

Played squares after, played like ass for the most part but somehow won the last game. I always have this problem with going from freestyle to squares, where I can't extend my legs enough & miss a lot of outside kicks. Need to figure out like a cool-down from freestyle & warm-up for squares routine. I want to do well at squares at NYJ, but right now I don't think that will happen.

Zeke, Ronnie, & Cuba came over to my apt. after & we got Leona's pizza. We asked for sun dried tomatoes but only got regular tomatoes. Unforgivable. We also had some smoothies. Smoothie time for all.

Zeke & I talked a bit about NYJ, just thinking aloud about ways of planning it out that takes some of the responsibility for basic shit off of CIC and puts it on the attendees. Where it should be. Of course eventually, inevitably, that turned into telling stories about the ridiculous shit that goes on here in the Windy City. Thanks for coming over!

So, here's what I'm planning to do today:

look at prices for a suite & conference room (after hours shred room)
revisit my recap, looking for correlations between who I kicked with and learning new moves.

[Frank_Sinatra]

I was sick for a couple days so I've only kicked twice in the last week. Would've liked to at least kicked last Thursday since it was so nice out, but no dice.

Tuesday - solo session at Grant Park, 2 hours. Drills drills drills. And then it got dark & the lighting wasn't great. I wasn't playing for 2+ hours every session last year, so I didn't realize how much lighting would be an issue. Hizzle:

Butter> paradox mirage> repeat to 11 contacts (record for this drill & for guiltless string - completed one of Josh's challenges)
Smear x 5

The real highlight of the night was the smoothie I made afterwards:

8 oz premium apple Juice
2 bananas
2 ripe kiwis, peeled
8 oz ice

Scrumtralescent.

Sunday - Welles Park w/ Zeke, Reile, Ronnie, Tom & Josh. Also a net player but I don't know who (& I didn't play any net). 2 hours of freestyle, also played foursquare. Won a game of 3 square & a game of Highlander Gamma - finally found some of my foursquare game, although Zeke was destroying me with close to the line shots & I didn't take it very well. Sorry man. What is it about foursquare that brings out the whiny baby in me?

Freestyle went pretty well, it was pretty easy to get to 20 contacts of tiltless, hit most of my stuff without too much difficulty, but no new tricks. I wanted to freestyle for a little longer & work on new stuff, but my legs were really tired after two hours & I didn't feel like I had it in me. Well, I guess I worked on Illusion some so that was probably beneficial. Highlights:

38 contact tiltless string
23 contacts of pixie> ss butterfly> pickup> repeat (record)
Dimwalk> Barrage
Smudge again

Oh yeah. The 38 contact string was part of my 50 contact tiltless drill. That drill is just clipper> pickup> op repeat but there's an expanding group of toe to toe tricks in between the pickup & the op clipper, with like 5 stages of different tricks. If that makes sense to anyone, let me know, & I'll mail you an embossed hand-signed certificate of authenticity. Anyway I started on stage 5, which is 20 contacts on its own, then went through stages 1, 2, & 3. Definitely my best string yet.

Then after kicking Zeke, Tom, Reile & I went to Giordano's, maxed, and discussed NYJ. Good meeting. I think it'll come together. The suite/ parlor/ room situation is a little confusing to me right now. Like I can't get my head around all the different possibilities and all the different, at times conflicting, preferences that people might have.

I've got my gear with me to kick tonight, so I hope I'll be able to do that.

[Frank_Sinatra]

This is my last day at this job & I'm holding two knives in my soul. I just got paid for the 56 hours of unused vacation time I had, too - awesome. Hookers and blow time!

My new job starts Monday, not Sunday as I had been told, so I can kick this weekend & whatever else. But I do need to put some time aside to make sure I'm prepared for Monday morning.

Also, I'm not picking up my new company laptop today, probably won't need to pick that up until the week after next, so I'll be off modified for a little bit. I guess I'll have some bullshit to catch up on when I get back. Call me for jams. Don't know how much time I'll have to kick next week - I know I've got a lot to learn and should dedicate my time to making sure I understand it before I put any time into kicking. Summer's over bitches!

So, knowing that I might not be able to kick as much in the future, (either due to weather or my new job) I've kicked solo all four days this week.

Monday - Grant Park, 2 hours; Tuesday - Millennium Park; 1 & 1/2 hours. Made the switch to Millennium Park on Tuesday for better lighting. Pretty uneventful sessions, mostly drills. Highlights:

footed flip DLO
maybe clean toe-set barrage on Monday
DOD again
probably clean toe-set barrage on Tuesday

Wednesday - Millennium Park, 2 hours & 15 minutes. Great session - butterfly> pdx. mirage drill started to feel easier, got all my drills & warmup done in an hour, so I had plenty of time to try new stuff. Highlights:

Pixie ss Pickup (new move)
Backside Smear (new move)
definitely clean toe-set Barrage (new move)
Pixie DaDa (new move - first 3-dex!)
34 contact tiltless string
at least 3 30 or more contact strings

So I didn't want anything DaDa to be my first 3-dex. But the last dex may not have been clean, so there's still hope. I could probably use a cleanliness check on my toe Barrages, but I know that at least one of them that I hit on Wednesday was super clean.

I don't think I've ever hit four new moves in a single session before. I do remember a really good session around this time last year where I hit symp. mirage, swirl, & heel-set ducking butterfly all for the first time. This session is right up there.

It was great to hit Backside Smear after giving up on it for a couple months. Not sure when I learned to jump, but apparently I can now. Also figured out the footwork & timing on Backside Pixie same Mirage, but need to lift my leg more on the mirage - might hit this soon.

Thursday - Millennium Park, 2 hours & 20 minutes. After Wednesday's session I didn't really know what to expect - actually I was expecting a let down. But instead I put two really good sessions together back to back - amazing. Highlights:

Double Pickup (new move)
Whirl (new move - both sides)
45 contact tiltless string
Backside Smear again

I started doing Double Pickups just because I thought I could probably hit it. I hit it strong side, but only got under the bag once on my flipside, can probably hit flip soon. Attempting Double Pickups finally made Whirl clear to me, so I started working on that - hit it both sides! Also tried some stepping, which started to make sense to me after all the Double Pickups/ Barrages.

I was so tired after the 45 contact string. My legs were twitching & shaking & I needed to take like a ten minute break, then warm back up with basics before I could go on to anything else. Oh, guess what I dropped on? The last legover, of course.

But the real highlight of the session - a security guard told me what "footworkin" is Apparently its a lot like footbag, but without a bag, and its a dance where people "shake their feet around" in the words of the security guard. So who wants to start a footworkin group? Maybe we could incorporate the Vanilla Ice swarmed by bees dance?



Exceeding the expectations I put on myself makes me very, very happy. So I've been insufferably pleased with myself the last two days. Just looking back over the last four days of kicking - the butterfly> paradox mirage drill was such a bitch on Monday, and yesterday it was so much easier. And then learning Whirl? And kicking for five days in a row and feeling good, and planning on kicking the next three days as well? That's fucking nuts. I can't believe how far I've come this summer.

Oh, did I mention I start a new job? On Monday?

I'm yodelling with delight & self-satisfaction. Take care of yourself, Modified, until my triumphant return!

[The Actual Sized E]

Boy, you so cray-zay!

It sounds like you just jumped up a whole step. I can't wait to see you hit whirl and double pickup

Here's the official footworker's seal

As long as you live by those two little words, jumpinisnot and acrime, you'll always stay fresh

Don't forget to take a shit on your desk before you leave today.

[CIC flurry]

props on the new moves. I wanna see them. Reading makes me wanna play. I read 1/3 pages of that vanilla ice thing and it was great. Sounds like you could have wrote it, similar humor, cept not as funny, so maybe you wrote it at age 7.
shit on it.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Well, I'm back. Actually I did have a few minutes here and there last week to visit essential Modified threads, but not enough to post. Don't really have enough time to post everything that's been going on in the last week & a half, at least not right now. So here's the abridged version of everything since the last post.

Fri 9/21 solo session, Millennium Park, a little under two hours. Didn't play great - had a big ole lunch (Edwardo's Stuffed Spinach Pizza) that didn't sit so well. There are no highlights.

Sat 9/22 mini session w/Tom at IP. I think I stuck around after he left, to finish up some shiz. Highliz:

Double Pickup again
Strong Whirl again
Backside Smear again
24 contact string

Sun 9/23 Welles Park, I don't remember who all came out - Rav5 + others I think. Hizzlee:

Double Pickup again
questionable Toe Barrage
Flip Whirl
Flip DLO (not a complete seal, but good enough - first time this side)

Tues 9/25 solo at IP - study break session. Humid & side/stomach cramps, thought it was gonna be a shit session but I guess it turned out about average. Highlylie:

pixie> ss butter> pickup> repeat to 22 contacts
butter> pdx. mirage> repeat to 12 contacts (record)
37 & 32 contacts of 50 contact drill
Double Pickup again

Sat 9/29 at Welles, Zeke & Reile. Mostly 4square, still not playing well. Then after 2 hours of squares I started my drills, but just wasn't into it & the lighting wasn't sufficient, so I didn't complete my drills or usual stuff list. So I had to double up like R Kelly the next day. Hit Backside Smear for Zeke & footed Backside Pixie same Mirage (which is a mouthful).

Usually if I can't complete my shred plan for the day I really agonize about it, but for some reason I didn't. Weird. I just don't want to let my skills deteriorate out of laziness - that's the whole reason for the Usual Stuff list. But I did have some thoughts about maybe taking some stuff off the list or adding stuff or just refining it - very rough thoughts.

But it is time for me to start thinking about changing my shred plan. I think I really have to work on flip pixie & flip osis. I've been saying it all summer but haven't done it, and haven't come up with a plan to do so. So after talking to Reile last night about flip pixie I've got some ideas.

Also, I bought a bike on Saturday. Yay bike.

Sunday 9/30 Welles Park - 2 hours shred, lots of squares afterward. Zeke, Tom, Ronnie, Cuba, Marty, Josh, & Meinard all came out. Hzzz:

38, 34, & 28 contact strings (50 drill)
Whirl both sides again
Double Pickup first try
Toey Toe Barrage (that's why they call me Toey Lawrence. Whoa!)
Backside Smear
footed Backside Pixie same Mirage again

There must have been some kind of psychic bond with Tom yesterday. I kept thinking of moves, then he'd hit them. And then at one point he was like "how many whirls do you think I can do?" I said 14. Guess how many he hit? Yep, 14. But then Tom shafted me in squares with a play so low-down dirty shameful that I won't even say what it was. I'm shaking my fist at you H. Marengo, wherever you are.

Ummm, squares... I suck. I used to think of myself as maybe near the top of the second tier of Chicago 4square. Like maybe 5th or 6th, and on good days I could be the best. I mean, earlier this summer I went 4-0 against heavy fucking competition. But lately I've been getting punked by everybody - by players that I used to be able to swat like gnats. Maybe my memory is selective, but there were a few months there, where unless Zeke, Tom, Reile, or Marty were in the squares I felt like I was guaranteed to get the point, and probably did get the point.

That was then, this is now. And I've realized that I need to rebuild my game from the ground up, and my attitude needs to be one of totally relearning the game. No more beating myself up for losing to someone who I presume to be better than. Because I'm not. I've been playing like a scrub, so I'm a scrub.

At least I've been making progress in freestyle.

As it gets colder I don't think I'll freestyle as much, just worried about muscle strain (unless some kind of indoor spot magically appears). So more squares, more practice, and maybe I'll be back in good enough form by NYJ to at least not be a pissed off free point scowling at everyone else's fun.

Don't really have much time to talk about the new job - my certification tests are actually tomorrow & Wednesday, so maybe I'll have an update after that. The job is a lot to take in, I think its going alright, I think I'll lake it infinitely more than my last job. [EDIT: I couldn't possibly LAKE it more than my previous job. I Laked that job so much.] But like I said its a lot to take in & also there's more pressure to deliver and just more work, more complex & challenging work, so in a way its premature to say much more about it. I do like my coworkers though, and just the contrast between this place and the last - I didn't even meet any coworkers on my first day at the last place. It was like a prison colony or something. Whoa!

Further EDIT: One thing I did want to comment on re: freestyle was how my mental game seems a lot sharper. Lemme splain. So the way I envision the process of improving one's form goes a little something like:

1: Attempt trick> 2: Observe results> 3: Improve form> repeat

That might be an idealized notion. Obviously someone can attempt a trick, see that it didn't work, and try some other way of doing it that is actually worse than their first attempt. Or, more frequently for me, I can figure out what to do differently (or get advice from someone I'm kicking with), but can't make use of it, physically. Basically in those situations I'm not getting what's in my head out into how my body is moving.

This is what I mean by the mental game. With all of the new stuff I've been hitting, there's been a mental breakthrough prompted at step 1 or 2, but more than that I've been able to tie those two strands of cerebral knowledge and physical capability together. So yay me.

[CIC flurry]

That 4 square play was mad funny. I better not ever be attacked by a wolf or I'm fucked.

[Zeke]