west of philly - bob

[Rieferman]

Ha ha.. That's maybe the 3rd time someone has posted that link in here >> I'm glad the ocassional drink is supported!

I guess I do pretty well under pressure on interviews etc. This interview was such a pressure cooker compared to the many I've participated in before, but the company is so high powered, I guess that's to be expected. I have another phone interview with a separate company (Quest Diagnostic) this morning. The job market appears to be waking up from its holiday slumber.

My biggest problem (and biggest asset actually) at this stage of my career is that I'm a jack of many trades rather than master of one. This creates a lot of potential fits, but usually not many perfect fits. For example, when an accountant looks for a job, it's very cut and dry. For me, the employer needs to breathe in my entire work history to see the connections between their position and my skills sets. When they see it, they love me... but many have trouble making those connections.

Sigh, I hate job searching. Must happen. The thing I'll miss most about this job is that work so close to home that I can go home and eat lunch with the wife and kids.


edit: miraculously my ankle (though sore) will be ready for play tomorrow night. I will be spending 2 weeks on all forms of mirage, illusion, pickup, ATW, legover, clipper, buttefly.

At the end of those two weeks, I plan to spend the following 2 weeks on whirl, DLO, drifter, spins, and ducks.

At the end of those two weeks, I'm going to return to the format I've been practicing lately >> basically, pixie, atomic, stepping, double dexes (DATW, barrage, paradon)

Damn it, I'm convinced I can be good at this sport

[Rieferman]

Had the Quest interview. That one was much more like a regular interview. I knew the position was too junior for me, but went ahead with the interview. HR lady loved me. At the end (which in my opinion is bad form , but it worked out for me this time) she asked about salary expectations. I'm just about double their salary range. Ha ha. In other words, not even close. But the good news was that she liked me so much, she's going to talk to the head honcho's in a couple areas to let them know there's a strong candidate blah blah blah. Sometimes these things work out.

[david]

The thing I'll miss most about this job is that work so close to home that I can go home and eat lunch with the wife and kids.

that must be awesome.

[Rieferman]

It's definitely awesome. It's almost like I work two mini little work days, 4 hours apiece. Seeing the kids and wife during lunch totally resets my mood and my mind.

But alas, for career and professinal happiness I will most likely have to give it up. As long as I'm home at a good hour, I'll get used to it. I need a new challenge, and money is always part of it too. But mostly, when I get bored, work is miserable for me.

Playing hacky tonight. Ankle has bounced back nicely. Ice ice ice.

[C-Fan]

With ankle sprains the general advice is to ICE (Ice, Compress, Elevate) for the first 24-48 hours, and then no more after that. But yeah, ice ice baby.

[Rieferman]

Played last night. As planned, I focused just on 2 adds. I can't clipper yet because of the ankle sprain (my foot literally won't go into that position without shooting pain) but playing on my toes didn't hurt at all. Hopefully on Saturday I can get basic clippers back into the mix.

Funny things:
- I always coach new players to be able to hit 50 tiltless with ease before they attempt to go guiltless. I can't do this myself.
- I structured my "comeback" so that I would focus on fundamentals. And then, I got impatient and started working on harder stuff.
- Tiltless practice is actually more tiring for me than guiltless practice because I can keep the ball going for about 4 times as long.

The good news:
- Although I got impatient about re-learning fundamentals, all the practice I've been doing has made me so much more aware of how to play the game and how to break it all down. I think I actually accidentally improved my chances of learning fundementals properly as a result.
- Because of that, I think a 2 week period will probably be about right to get to the place I want (say, 50 tiltless in a row with good form on both sides).
- I honestly think that strong tiltless means stronger guiltless. So this will be worth it.

[Muffinman]

I find the toe 2s take waaaayyy more energy than the guiltless BOPs. I can do 100 3-add BOPs like cake, but 50 toe 2s is like a huge workout! I've kind of always told beginners that 20 consistent tiltless is a good time to move on to guiltless. Maybe it's somewhere in between the two?

[Rieferman]

Wow, 100 3 add bops? Yikes, that's good. If I tried to have any variety (rather than repeating 10 butterflies in a row a lot) I'd never be able to do that. That's a good goal. First though, on to my tiltless! Ha ha.. I love it. I wonder if all this stuff will ever come together to make me feel like I've gotten better, or whether I'll just get good exercise in my barn dropping a hacky sack for the next couple years.

In any case, good news.. I got the call back from SunGard and the hiring manager wants to interview me! Yeah! With each step in an interview process, your chances increase dramatically.

[Rieferman]

Played tiltless yesterday. Was able to work on clipper stuff a little - ankle crank and pain is maybe 50%. Happily I was able to hit 10 reps in a row of just about all the drills within 1st try or 2nd try. Including some things that I've never really practiced ever before.

[Rieferman]

Did my easy practice today, but started at the end of the of my list of drills so it was more focused on bops and spins/ducks/dives. Clipper is still only at 50% so it makes a lot of that hard to do. But I hit 20 infinities, lots of pdx mirages, lots of ducks/dives, lots of spins. I capped the practice off with about 40 contacts of tiltless and bops. Mostly tiltless because I know the bops work already. So that's good. Ball placement will be much improved by these 2 weeks. I think I'll try to put a vid up on youtube of my fundementals for your review at the end of this phase.

[Rieferman]

Did my easy practice last night. Fundamentals are getting very comfortable. Turns out I can hit fairy tricks on my strong side. Who knew? Hit fear and fairy butterfly. Huh. Nice. Not at all on weakside, but toe set ss illusion and out-ATW practice should wake that up over time. Worked a lot on weakside simple legover in preparation for DLO and other things. Lots of everything really. I didn't even make it all the way to clippers or butterflies because I spent so much time on mirage, legover, pickup, illusion (on all of these, I do all the variations possible). Early to bed to recover from the super bowl, up early today for pushups/situps/chinups.

Interview with SunGard tomorrow.

[C-Fan]

You inspired me to start skooling my BOP warmups again.

Oh, and good luck with your interview tomorrow!

[Rieferman]

Started my practice from the end of my list of drills again last night. I'm switching back and forth between starting at the beginning and starting at the end, else I never get through all the drills. So, it was lots of diving practice, some ducking, lots of spinning clippers, lots of pdx mirages, lots of osis.

Diving - focusing on balance and straight sets and really completing the "dex" so it doesn't nip my ear. For balance and control on ducks and dives (or just about anything), good practice is diving clip > pdx mirage (or same legover or same mirage etc.)

Ducking - These are fine already, just really shooting for a little less travel on the set because I think it's easier to stay in control that way. Also worked on ducking legover and ducking mirage as I think these require more precision and really works the "perfect set" concept.

Spinning - I've been able to spin both directions (but definitely there's a weak and strong side where the weak is far weaker than the strong side) for a long time, but I've never liked my spins. Really focusing on posture, bringing my arms close during the spin, snapping my head around, and landing with great control. Made progress, but still need much more progress.

Pdx mirage - It's my weakside that's really an issue, so I did weak pdx mirage > ss clipper > weakside pdx mirage.. Did this over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Always concentrating on balance and good sets.

Osis - I've always had a bad osis, and I've always tried to mimic the scoopy action you see from people with very natural osii. But scoopy really only works if you have good crank. For me, it's about getting from looking at the ball while setting (and setting straight, not behind you) to snapping my head around to find the ball again on the other side. My natural inclination is to lose my posture and get out of balance, but I'm fighting it hard. Lots of clipper > osis > ss clipper > osis etc. And clipper > osis > pdx mirage > back the other way again. Far osis will have to be incorporated soon, but I want this to be perfect first.

------
It's funny because I'm not really "progressing" per se. But my goal really is to get to the point where the stuff I can do, is "never miss" with good smooth form. If I can get there, I can start layering things on top of it. It's a painstaking process.

Part of me wants to say screw it and get good at shredding in time to play with the Boston crew at the end of March. But that's what I always did in the past >> would just learn links and go with whatever was natural. That led me to a dead end, so I've just got to continue to be patient.

I mean, it's not like I was ever this amazing shredder, so I shouldn't let my pride get in the way now while I learn all sorts of easy stuff.

[Rieferman]

HELL YEAH!!!!!!!


My phone interview went awesome. AWESOME. 10 out of 10.

The hiring manager is the smartest lady ever (Stanford, Duke, and Wharton are all on her resume.. worked for SAS and IBM) so I was worried she'd be a total ball buster. Not at all. Totally nice, totally normal, doesn't speak in corporate speak. Got along great.

She even said at the end of the conversation "I really like you, I think this could be a perfect fit".

So, my face to face interview (the THIRD) interview is on Monday.

This could happen!

[Rieferman]

Did my easy practice again last night starting at the beginning of the list of drills.

Before that, I came home to a present in the mail! I traded Josh Raye my old VHS footbag vids for a bag... And he surprised me by sending me TWO bags! Wow! What a nice guy! He tailored the bags to my request, and I was able to shred with them immediately. So, now I have a Clavens bag with some weight, a Raye bag of same size as Clavens bag but a little lighter, and a Raye bag that a little bigger and floppier (but not at all "big and floppy") and a little lighter than the Clavens. I was able to use all three without any drop off in my performance. Which I love. I like to be able to play with different types of bags so that I can jump into any circle and be good to go. THANKS JOSH!

Anyhow, drills went well. Ankle is back to about 75% so I can actually do butterflies a little better again. Note to self on weakside butterfly: don't forget to open your shoulders to the bag, this allows you to compensate for loss of crank in that clipper.

I can now hit stuff like: clipper > mirage > ss mirage > ss legover > legover > pickup > clipper > ducking clipper > ss legover > ss legover > mirage > ss mirage > mirage > ss mirage > atw > legover etc. etc. etc.

Can hit about 20 whenever I want. By next week, I'll be able to go until I get too tired to care about hitting more tricks.

Set placement, control, balance are all much improved. Spins and ducks/dives will need more work after these two weeks still, but the fundamentals will be good enough that I think I can just use them as warmups and let them improve the last mile over the course of time naturally.

edit: And I weighed in last night. Despite a super bowl weekend where we ate and drank way way way more than usual, I have lost another pound. It's probably more like 2 pounds once the effects of last weekend wear off. I'm closing in on my goal. I look skinny in clothes now, my face is like an entirely different face. By summer, I'll be feeling pretty good about myself.

[Rieferman]

I have the day off tomorrow. Decided to take a personal day so I can hang out with the family, and then in the afternoon I have my interview with SunGard. This could be a very good week if I get that job, or could be very disappointing if I don't. I usually try to be reserved about getting/or not getting a job... But I'm really a good fit for this one and feel like my chances are very good. So I have no buffer to the disappointment I'd feel. Risky for me from a mental health standpoint, but maybe my positive/confident energy will carry me through and I'll get it. If you have extra good luck that you can spare, send it my way.

Very productive practice yesterday. Started at the back end of my list again. Spins, I get my shoulders slightly started as I'm setting the ball, and then whip my head around to spot the ball. The shoulder trick helped my balance a lot. Sets on many things feels like I'm placing the ball on a shelf of whatever height I want. Very predictable sets on just about everything. Makes hitting tricks much easier.

For week 2 of my easy practice, I'm going to zoom in on weak areas as follows:
weakside out-in ATW
weakside illusion (point your toe, carve the dex)
bubba (no "the" illusions!)
Pdx illlusion
weakside clipper simple legover
back to back legovers
weakside toe set mirage
weakside clipper set mirage
butterfly
osis
weakside pdx mirage
spins, ducks, dives


All the weakside references are there because this week I won't work on the strong side on those moves. They're as close to perfect as needed, and I can save a ton of time in practice by focusing just on one side.

[Rieferman]

Cool, it's great when a plan comes together. The practice outlined above was great. I was able to get so many reps in and make noticeable improvements on all of the drills (except pdx mirage and spins etc. didn't have time to try those today).

I remember the first time I saw Nasty Nate play at Funtastiks (he was robbed in routines btw) I was so impressed. He's not overly amazingly athletic like some players, his windows aren't huge either. But he was sooo smooth and sooo consistent and has such great variety. It's because his fundementals kicked ass. Not long after that tourney, I was in OR and played with him and James and Red and others. And Nate was off the friggin hook. All those fundamentals allowed him to learn the next level of tricks with just as much style and consistency.

I want to do that.

[Rieferman]

SunGard interview in a couple hours. So nervous/excited. The third party recruiter called me this morning and told me they've put the other 2 candidates' interview processes on hold >> a pretty good indicator that they're hoping it will work out with me. But still, it's not done til it's done. Got my suit from the dry cleaner, polished my shoes, got the portfolio filled with some questions I have. I'm as ready as I can be.

On a totally different note, I have a couple different companies coming to look at my barn. My goal is to trade the structure and barn wood for removal of the building. If I can break even (zero expenditure) on that part of the process, I can have a brand new barn put up for about $15,000 (includes concrete floor and running the electric.. I'd need to drywall and insulate myself afterwards as needed, not a big deal). We really want the barn to be a garage, with an office/rec room in the back part of it (i.e. pool table, play footbag in there etc.). Probably a pipe dream, but fun to research.

[Rieferman]

Interview went well yesterday. One last interview will likely be scheduled for week of Feb 25th with the executive VP. Then it's decision time. We'll see.

[Colin]

Ooo, final interview.

I suggest being prepared to rip off your pants and bust out some freestyle in case things get dicey.

Good luck!