The Darkshredder's struggle

[BenRea]

Not too bad bub!

looks better than i can do on a 32.

[Darkshredder]

yep. Not bad I suppose for a first-er. I want to buy a bit of satin material from walmart and make a 12 or 32 out of satin. I bet it'd be really delicate and it'd get holes like crazy after only a few sessions. But it'd be a novelty bag. Just kind of take it out and give it a few rotations in a circle just to make people go "Oooo satin! It makes my feet cozy!" or something to that effect.

My knees are a little sore from yesterday and I'm not sure why. Trying to decide whether I should go hard today after classes and work or save up for Saturday in Kingston. What I'll probably do today is not drill at all. Just shred and do happy things and solidify a few things I noticed I was weak on yesterday. But I definitely need to play for the whole 2 hours. I need to work my endurance back up. I had dropped back to hour, hour and a half sessions. Not good. K I'm off to the library. Peace

[Darkshredder]

back from kingstone and now I'm utterly swamped. Not sure how well this week will treat me, but it won't be fun. Teachers need to communicate better with when they're going to assign midterms and papers. So I can go to canada and watch 1400 people between the ages of 18 and 26 go absolutely nuts on shitty "frat" food and gratuitous amounts of dollar beers. And then be let loose into a 3 block radius in an otherwise pretty laid back college town. It made Mardi Gras look protestant.

hey and people play footbag in kingston, ONtario! Played a little legball with John Bagi and Greg Raymond(first time meeting him). Played shittily on the whole, but at least I was good for a few stylie runs to show them how I do things.

anyway like I said I'm really way too busy over the next few days. Footbag will suffer. Couple day break at least . I'll use the time off to do some leg exercises, stitch, and uh well probably do way too much studying and homework.

NYC JAM!

[Darkshredder]

well I got a chance to break away from campus with my lavers and a few footbags. Don't you hate it when you really want to play footbag, get all pumped up, and then can't go for as long as you'd hoped? Yeah well that's what happened to me. Played for about an hour and a half and wanted to find something to drink (NOT ENERGY. . I'm trying to knock back the caffein. Bone density ) and then find a more pleasant place to play. I had been playing on this slanty, gravley, little path thing and it was making my style fly all over the place.

but then my legs got super cold and cramped and I lost it all when I got to this brick oval space next to a deli. I'll have to go back there. It was pretty sweet. There's also a spot by a bagel place that is closed in and seems like a backyard garden area. . . well at least I think it looks good.

and so this has been kind of a disappointing day for footbag for me. BUT I managed a few new links and worked on quantum a bit more. I'll have to write an EDIT for that later because I've got one foot out the door with my roommate pausing on and off Super Mario Bros on our TV to annoy me and get me moving. . . he has ways.

k gotta go. Check back later for the strings (if I can remember)

EDIT:
ducking butter > DLO bs
ducking pdx mirage > diving mirage > ducking legover
one of the more controlled toe shuffling I've ever done. Short but very very in control.
ducking ps mirage bsos
and I tried to hit spinning ps mirage. Probably could've done it but it was about this time that I stopped and moved on.

so that's pretty much it. Nothing really amazing. No new tricks, no huge combos. Hopefully I can make a bit of progress in some things before the jam this november.

[Darkshredder]

pixie spinning mirage footed
pixie zulu clipper
zulu clipper > ripwalk bs

my style is changing and I'm not doing it on purpose and I don't like it. How do I know this? Because I'm getting cramps for the first time EVER and I've been having a hard time with string length.

now I know this is probably more of a me just being lame and in a slump or something but I'm seriously, you guys. I can feel it. Something about the way I play is definitely different from how I was playing about two months ago. I have no idea what's going on. Oh well. I'll figure it out. I need to play with Ben or Doug again and ask them what I'm doing differently. I need to play with music. Ugh. Music is so helpful.

k. Time to write a paper.

[Darkshredder]

Hey so part 1 of my travels to find sweet urban shred spots in Downtown Albany so I can spice up my solo shred life a little and not go insane this winter. Not bad, not bad.

I figured out parts of what I do differently - check it:
Q: why do my stepping sets suck all of a sudden
A: when you stall it, you're not waiting that .34 of a second longer than you think you need that magically helps with shuffling. Oh and you've stopped lifting up the dexing leg straight and are just swinging it right after the set.

Q: why am I losing my atomic sets
A: you're still jumping off the support leg too much. Jesus, how many times do people have to keep telling you. Stop doing it. Dick.

Q: is my style changing?
A: yeah. For some reason you're catching your clippers a lot closer to your support leg than you used to and it's messing up your timing and it's hurting your knee more. Don't do that any more.

so some new stuff was done:
legbeater > ripwalk > farside symp reverse whirl . . . a variation on a link Asmus did not too long ago (he had tripwalk instead of legbeater, but I'm still getting the hang on quantum sets ). Got this link both sides.
pixie outspinning clipper pyro clipper? or is it just pixie spinning clipper. Meh. Still footing mirage
phoenix and darkwalk in the same string.
nice controlled stepping shuffling when I realized what I was doing wrong (at least some things. It's still not like it used to)
drilled flip parkwalk and pixie ss clipper on my flip like a madman for like 20 minutes straight. Did it alright I guess. Ugh. I hate my toe game so much.
smear > symp mirage bsos geniune guiltless for about 6 or 7 contacts before hand catching and looking around to see if anyone had seen it. Yay flip smear.
lots and lots of eggbeaters on both sides with hand catches in between. Soon I'm going to break free from the mind block that's keeping me from hitting these things midstring. How is this move so awkward for me? ILLUSION!!!!!

I need to take apart my new bag I'm making. I realized I'm tying my knots wrong and I've been doing it for half the bag. So I need to take some afternoon I'm not doing anything and just redo it. Pissin' me off. Plus I don't know if I will have time this weekend. Lots planned and what time I have to myself I want to just shred. I'm in the mood of solo shred right now and I feel like making some hardcore progress.

Oh and I might as well add a little something about my life outside of footbag. People seem to do that here a few times and not many people know me. Um. Well yeah the other day I sent IGN.com an email asking them about job opportunities working as a columnist or editor's assistant or something. Go to conventions, write about games, that sort of thing. The guy got back to me and said that they may not be looking for someone like me just yet (college student, no real experience in editing) but that they would take my resume. So I'm in the process of updating my resume and I'll send it to them after midterms are over. Sooo yeah. That's pretty cool. And I'd be working in Brisbane, California. That's right on the north tip of San Fransisco Bay and about an hour and 15 minutes from Santa Cruz. . . where I've heard there are people who play freestyle hacky sack on occasion. But I'm broke. I don't want to say just how little money I have to my name right now but it's not much. . . at all. So my tentative plan for . . my life. . right now is to graduate as soon as I can, get a job doing lucrative for a year or so in Syracuse to get money, maybe live in an apartment with a few old high school chums, and then find a way to get over to California.

Writing about video games, playing footbag, being in California. . . Yeah. I'd be pretty much the happiest I've ever been if it happens.

a little Pat for ya. It's all I've got. Take it in. Stir it around. Digest it. Post in my blog? I'm trying to post more in other peoples blogs and in other threads. It's just I don't ever know what to write and whatever I say usually repeats what someone else said two posts before. So I just stick to footblogs and videos.

Man. Long post. Thanks for reading if you've read all this. If not, then I hope you at least read those new combos. I was proud of the first. Later.

EDIT: shit. I use waaaay too many smileys. Heh. That's awesome.

[slapdash21]

sweet man


a dab of shoe goo smeared in/onto each knot helps gurantee they'll hold and doesnt affect play.



i love finding awesome urban spots to kick downtown

see yeh in a few weeks, son!

[DTank126]

Good to hear you figured out the problems with your game, Im lookin forward to seein what your styles like at NYC jam. Its SOOOOOOO close.

Thats sick about the possible Cali dealio as well. Haha, that would be so ridiculously perfect for you.

[Darkshredder]

it is very close, isn't it. Very very close.

mid-post randomness: I really want to go to Denmark and shred. Preferably with Soren Thomsen. You may not have noticed but we have the same last name. I bet we're related somehow through my great great grandfather who came from Denmark. The other 99% of me comes from the little footbag-less rock next to England. That Danish guy was probably like "Oh! So THIS IS NEW YORK CITY! Hi. So YOU'RE AN AMERICAN. Irish? Oh. Um. Good enough."

I had a message up on my AIM the other day saying I hate being poor and my parents saw it so they messaged me asking what I need money for besides food and I told them that I want to further my career as a gamer so that I can be the best gaming columnist I can be. And then I said that I'd like to also be able to afford a few more footbags. Needless to say they aren't too happy with some of my goals in life. Oh well. What do they expect from a younger sibling of a guy who graduated from one of the best business colleges in the country only to wind up in LA writing for a new Terminator television show (Sarah Connor Chronicles. Coming this Spring on FOX. Watch it, please. My brother needs money too). Pff. Now they have a slightly insane younger son who would rather play Metroid Prime Corruption and see how many times his legs can go around a little BALL (Yeah I said it) before dropping.

hey so I download the feel good movie of the year, Worship the Sack earlier today and watched it while waiting for people to show up so I could eat dinner. A-ma-zing. The essential footbagging video, I thought. I love listening to players talk and see what they're like, since I rarely get to go to jams. I remember the first time I went to an RFA session and heard someone else call it footbag for the first time. Well, besides Chris. Steve Gale I think was the first one to say "footbag" and I just got all warm inside. Since then it really hasn't died, either, since I'm almost always surrounded by non-footbagger people. Both my roommates call it footbag, which is funny. One's German (Bavarian. sorry) and so he says it funny. My other roommate calls it footbag all the time, but never calls me Pat. He calls me Patrick. And when I used to hack with Dominik, the Polish fella in Ireland he used to call it zoska - as you all know, that's what they call it over there. And I got in the habit of calling it that too actually. Change of pace. And it just sounds badass. Footbag. Right. About as creative as the name "peanut butter and jelly sandwich". Right? Yeeeeeah.

anyway I wanted to play today because it's friday, the end of midterms, and um. It's friday. I may still for about an hour. But night is coming and my powers of legball will leave me soon (I can't play at night unless I'm with other footbag players - KICKASS I as a prime example).

time to watch 30 Days of Night. peas.

[Darkshredder]

amazing session at el mall waiting for some people to get there to watch 30 Days of Night. 5th session caffeine free, too! Feelin' good about that. Some highlights include:
eggbeater bsos (broke the mind block). I've sauced it before but this was really tightly executed and relatively effortless.
definitely a new guiltless record. Mostly BOPs, but that was the plan. Tons of BOPs, go into a few stepping shuffling, throw in a few ducks and weaves, some pixie stuff. P.S.: I don't count contacts. It's too hard. I just know it is a new record.
spinning knee bumping butterfly bs - second try each.
spyro mirage midstring

just an all around solid short little session. My knees are killing me from it, though. I didn't really warm up since I only had like an hour to play. Just went right into long easy guiltless and every so often I'd get a few ideas for intense tripless. Oh which remindes me. I also did an easy little sick 3. Two throw-away tricks linked to a midstring tripwalk. I think it was like dimwalk > ducking pdx mirage > tripwalk or something. It was the first time clearing a quantum set after a ducking trick.

30 Days of Night is a pretty excellent movie - till the end. I didn't like the end. But the other 95% of the movie was great. Finally, a good vampire movie.

I'm off to go get a haircut now. It's getting to be a bit of a hassle when I shred. And that's really the only reason, sadly. I don't want to wear headbands either. I have a nintendo wristband that might fit around my head. But probably not. I have a big head.

[Darkshredder]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPU0nl-xOP0



no footbag today. I'm in serious pain.

[Darkshredder]

finally a 2 hour session I feel good about. The last few have come just short and it's gotten me kind of mad. But hey, it's college. Things to do, tests to slap in the face, you know how it goes. Some fun stuff happened this weekend that I'd like to share, but first some footbag news:

the sessions was fair at best. Lots of good stuff, but some things weren't working or weren't practiced at all. Atomic, quantum, nuclear, blenders, trailing, and torques were put on the back burner today and that's not good. These are all the concepts I'm slowly losing track of. Ugh. I need to play with people to keep me on track. Or something.

still a lot of cramps. My breathing's way off. I'm wondering if drinking more water would help with cramps. I'll do some research into that. It's painful and totally out of the blue.

Now that that's through, GOOD THINGS:

little apple bsos
osis > far osis rpt. record. I counted. 15.
three eggbeaters on each side
zooming pdx whirl - haven't done this since the summer
loads of drifters all with stepping out of them. Probably like four on each side in the string either linked to a blur or a ripwalk. Pretty cool.
spinning osis > ducking butterfly > stepping far legover > parkwalk > spinning osis > ducking clipper > spinning clipper > hand catch. I liked it. Short but nice and spinny.
REALLY huge schmoes string. I was laying out the schmoes like it was something I had to take care of.
some more progress with flip double dexing. DOD, barfly, etc. it's coming. I swear.
pixie muted gyro clipper?

BAD THINGS:
dropped on every pdx DLO attempt
dropped on most spinning butterflies . . . ugh
toe came was pretty off today. Uncontrolled and low.

STITCHING:
I'm redoing my bag. I've taken a long break from it and it feels awkward using worn material that's already kind of crumpled with holes. It's not going to be a very good bag, but at least it'll look much nicer than my first. I'll be doing that and I'll post another picture with all of my bags I have.

-------------------------
I technically have access to a video camera. One of my roommates has one and he doesn't really use it. Maybe one of these days I'll actually make a second video of me. Yeah. I have made one before, if you don't know. It's probably on pg. 23 of the videos. Don't look for it. It's really not worth your time. I was only a few months into my game at the time.

So we'll see.

[DTank126]

Its actually page 35. Yeah, just cuz I have that kinda time... well actually I should be studying for sociology, but meh.

Anywho, DUDE what awesome song selection! Richard Cheese! I havnt heard him in forever, and then Riding the Fourth Wave!? Im somewhat partial to the Streetlight version but either way, sick!

I cant believe that was only after a few months, thats like where my game is now. You totally gotta make a new video man, show the world the new and imrpoved Pat, the one who doesnt tuck in his shirt when he plays.

Anyway, cool vid man.

Peace

[Darkshredder]

I used to wear really baggy shirts and it would get in the way of the bag.

arg. I hate that video. I saw it on page 35 right after I posted and was afraid to click so I just read the comments again and the thread just above it giving everyone a warning that it contained ADULT CONTENT. . ah the memories.

it was a bit more than a few months in as I look at the date. Probably like 5. And um . Doug. You're MUCH MUCH better than I was. If i knew anyone who could hit phoenix before playing for a year I would've soiled myself, which would've then gotten my shirt all soiled because - ya know. . it's tucked in and all. Well first I would've had to look up what phoenix was.

well it was inevitable that people would look for it if I mentioned it. So yeah. Pg 35 I guess. Watch and be amazed. Old School Pat for ya. I have a video on my PC that has me hitting barrage and merkon (sp?) for the first time a little while after that video was made as well. Real deep barrage, too. Heh I may post that if I ever get a hold of my PC again. My parents use it.

I really should make a video. I was thinking about it while I was doing homework earlier this afternoon. What music to have, where to show the shred, whether to have it be footage of one day or two sessions, etc. Contribute a little more than footblog and random posts here and there. Not to mention the fact that I have a sneaking suspicion that I've been playing certain tricks awkwardly and people have never said anything to me about it. Something with my leaning into my knee when I do drifters. I have weird balance when I play. I'd like to see if anyone else notices.

[Darkshredder]

nice long intense session. Hardly any highlights, unfortunately. Just good shred. But WAIT! So today was one of those sessions where I get ambitious and try to hit new tricks for once. Or at least see if I'm close to any new things. Here's what I came up with.

flipside blurriest closer than I would've ever thought.
marius? Yeah it was footed.
massacre and pdx illusioning symp illusion (not a clue what its paradox form is) but yeah. This is a strong possibility and probably would've been hit if I were playing with people, listening to music, or if I had coffee beforehand.

new plo record = 7. Yay. It's gettin' there
sidewalk > blender. . . blending dex cleared but as John Bagi can tell you all it's just never quite there.

Though I'm never really able hit lots of new things every session, I'm once again quite pleased with my shred. It's as good as it can be while I still curse my bad habits and push further.

Some intermural soccer players keep watching me play and say that I should stop doing footbag and just play with a real soccer ball. And then today they were like, "Wait. Is your hair green?" . . . so I bust symple dyno > far symp reverse whirl > behind the back hand catch and say "Yep." and continue going.

P.S.: I think I got a new gyro clipper record too. Not sure how many, but it felt really long. I think I figured out how to do them differently.

oh and that whole thing about gyro not requiring a muted component (except gyro clip) is complete bullshit. I wanna know the reasons behind it. I mean if mobius has a plant, let me at a bag. I'll bsos it right now. Same with vortex. It's like 30x easier with a plant because with both feet on the ground you can turn just that little bit faster and more controlled. Stupid. Whatever. I'm just going to do muted gyro things. It feels better and gives a whole new level to different tricks.

[Darkshredder]

just closed bag #2. It took so long to finish because I messed up and had to redo about half of it. I said this in a few posts above this. The general consensus is that it may not break for a week or so if I play with it. I put some glue on it like Bowler suggested so that might help and I tied the knots correctly anyway this time so it shouldn't be much of a problem. I honestly thought this bag was going to be good. I mean I was sooo careful about the stitches and gave just about each side a look-over and a such. But somewhere between having it half done and now as I stare at it alongside my other bags I shake my head in disgust. About a 1/4 of it is a disaster. Not sure why. But I'm reflecting:

I did differently:
stitched as close to the sides of the panels as possible without sacrificing strength of the material. I have no idea if this is a good thing or not. Seems like it couldn't hurt, right?
connecting each hex was backbreaking labor with how much of a perfectionist I became. Again, not sure if this is the most necessary part of a bag. I assume it's the bleedhole. So somewhat important.

What I think I did wrong:
the thread. It's really shitty cheap thread that starts to fray if you run two pinched fingers along. . . it came in a kit.
inconsistent gathering. Definitely. Though I definitely tried not to do this. Somehow it didn't work. No idea.
I can't do the pull inside-out technique thing without ruining that entire side of the bag and making it hideously over-gathered.
- I can't seem to hide the last knot. So yeah something went wrong in that process.
pattern. I was supposed to have it be half green half orange with blue pents. Nope. Not even close. I blame the fact I had to restart it pretty much.

in Shred news:

I'm using weights to strengthen my upper leg. My calves are overpowering them again and it's causing me more pain. . again.

I'll probably play today. Very likely.

in Other news:

I'm going to be late for my class because I'm writing this post. It starts in 4 minutes.

peace. (I'll post a picture of the bag later today)

post classes edit: I forgot to write about the good parts of the bag.
better coloration. Green.
stays relatively round when you kick and stall
shreddable right now. . . I think. Theoretically it's shreddable. It's all floppy and kind of reminds me of an old Mosher bag I got. First one I ever got from him.
I have more control over gathering in most places. IE looks a little more professional. Nothing like a Cross but still getting there

[BenRea]

ankle weights?

would they be ok?

or too hard on your knees...

hmmm...

[slapdash21]

sup pat-

im definitely going to bring my stitching shit with me when i come to ny, and we can stitch and chill n shit.

typically if you stitch the thread closer to the outside edge of the panel, the bag winds up with more flat panels and stitching it farther into the material makes more poofy panels, but it also has to do with how much you gather the bag and how many stitches per side, obviously. i just stitched my first 3 stitch per side bag, with a pretty deep stitch into the bag, so it made for a pretty decently poofy bag. i'll hopelly not have lost it in the next two weeks... so i can show it to yah.

for gathering consistantly you should just practice spacing the stitches out and having one set number on every side, everytime so that the thread always comes out to connect on the right spot on the bleed hole between the hexes. a few other people have recommended gathering around...a round object (wow, such an awkward working....actually so was that...anyway) such as a battery, or a pen cap, or a marker or something. you just stick it inside the pentagon on the inside and pull the end of the thread when you've already finished the last hexagon and then knot it off to save the perfect gather. i've done this a few times with satisfactory resluts. usually i just bullshit it now and it comes out aight.

also thread is pretty important to, like you were talking about. as you've observed, cheap thread can be unreliable. i was recommended to upholstery thread and i've used it since. it doesnt know the meaning of the word fray, and is virtually unbreakable (like, by hand). its good shit. if i remember to bring one of my extra spools i'll bring one, or if you want to buy your own they have upholstery thread in all sewing shops, and a few random other places like maybe fabric stores or whatnot. anyway, i feel free to take none of all of my advice, considering the source. although im not gonna lie i pretty much stole most of these tips from other people and other threads in the bags and equipt. forum, where there's a few good threads in the archive on the topic if you search for em. anyway, like i said, we'll stitch at the jam anyway.


yeah sorry for the long post, i was a bit baked, and bored, but i hope some of it was helpful.

[Darkshredder]

nah man I'll definitely try some of that stuff. I'll go to Walmart in the next few days and get some upholstery thread. The kit I got was really cheap and I got it at the campus store . Thanks! Yeah we'll have to stitch and stuff - it'll save me from myself. I was already talking to Doug about the fact that every time I've been to NYC I've stayed up all night and gone nuts walking around and being all touristy. Now I'm going with a whole bunch of footbaggers there so there's pretty much no possibility that I won't shred all the time and get no sleep. I'm just going to be trying to convince people to go out with me to larger central areas in the city and shred there. Like Madison Square. Urban shred is teh shit.

aw gross. I'm listening to an online radio thing and a really shitty pop punk band just came on. God and the whole above section was all done to some really good band. Damn these guys suck.

anyway. The trip. Yeah I'm going to be more broke than broke. It'll be funny. I'm going to bring like a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a whole bunch of power bars and stuff so that I don't need to spend too much while I'm there. I'll be going commando. Looking forward to it.

damn it. Another shitty band. Ugh. If this keeps up I'm just going to do my homework to trance or breakbeats. Oh wow. I just stopped to listen to the rest of this song and I was spaced out thinking about what I need to write next and all of a sudden a strange new irish punk band came on. Huh. They're good. They're called Blood or Whiskey.

hey so I played some hacky sack yesterday It was an awesome session. Didn't play for too long because I had to go to a gaming club but that's alright because I left on a really high note. Probably the best thing was that I hit vertigo on my first try (that session). And it was sooo smooth. My drifters were so on in general. And ducking was also on. Hit a whole bunch of minor new zulu stuff. Just completing the basics for it. Like zulu mirage, illusion, legover, pickup, butterfly, etc. I think the best thing I've hit from zulu is a symp reverse whirl. Oh and I also did a midstring ducking far symple dyno and footed the strongside (yeah it was the first time hitting it flip). I wish I wasn't a dyno dude. I'd rather be a blender boy, but it's just not working for me. Sucks dynos don't get a pdx add because then I just wouldn't do blenders, though blender tricks have all the cool names. GYBAS is better than food processor. I think they did that on purpose because they realized blenders have mind bender and all sorts of others. - - - anyway I had some pretty nice whirling strings and hit just about every whirl-based trick except for hatchets. But tomahawks were sauced for the first time in a while and that felt good. I need to skool those a LOT more. Losing them.

Oh well I played with my bag earlier - friday. It stood the test and I played with it for about 40 minutes until I got sick of how big it was and it isn't as crsip as some bags and doesn't set all that straight because it's pretty floppy. So my gyros were for shit that day.

alright I really need to get to homework. I'm sitting up on the top floor of the oldest dorm hall on campus and the hallway I'm in is supposedly haunted. I believe in the paranormal to some degree, but we took a friend of ours up here who's completely skeptical of that sort of thing and even he thought he felt weird when he stood some of the areas. There's a map of the floor (one of those floor layout things you see in hotels a lot) and it's in the shape of an upside down cross. We thought that was hilarious. Some creepy things about this hall.

PEAS

[Darkshredder]

oh I forgot to mention @ Ben - the ankle weights are not for shred. They're for leg raises or something. Not sure what the exercise is called. You just sit and raise and hold your feet straight out in front of you for a while. I went to a doctor's a while back so that my parents could let me hear from a doctor all the ways footbag is a bad thing so that I would know enough to stop it and he explained why I might be experiencing the pain I've been having. Something to do with uneven tugging and pulling /friction against the joint below the knee. So he suggested I do this exercise to even things out a little bit. And my parents suggested I stop playing footbag.

shredding with the ankle weights would destroy me come to think of it. The yank of a pdx whirl with these things around my ankles would probably literally tear my knee in two.