Frank Sinatra Lives

[Frank_Sinatra]

Kicked a few times. The weather was beautiful all last week, like Chicago will be bypassing spring entirely. This weekend we came back to more spring like weather. It isn't nearly as raw as the beginning of April, but the wind can still be overpowering.

Monday April 21. Millennium Park for an hour plus
36 contacts tiltless
symp mirage> terrage> symp mirage
backside smear (weak side - 1st time)

Wednesday April 23. IP for two hours w/Josh & a special guest appearance by Fred. Zeke & Ronnie were there, and frisbee was being played. I had lots of nearly sealed DODs. I think the dexes were clean.
ducking pdx mirage (weak side - 1st time)
10 contact butter/pdx mirage string

Friday April 25. Millennium Park for about 40 minutes, until it started raining. Tried heel set whirl on my strong side & whirling heel on my weak. IMO whirling heels are good for cleaning up whirl dexes. Heel set whirl was close on my first try, but its too hard on my hip to school. Shouldn't be that hard of a move if I can get the hip movement right.
symp mirage> plo> repeat

Saturday April 26. Two sessions. Winds of 26 mph, gusting to 36 mph. First at IP for an hour and a half. I found as out of the wind a spot as possible at IP and had kind of a leisurely session. Mixed guiltless/tiltless, I'm favoring my strong side too much though on the threes. Hit DOD.

Hit a car on my way to the second session. I was on my bike. Woman pulled right out in front of me (about 20 feet away). I didn't hit her too hard.

Second session was at Welles with Josh, another hour and a half. Josh had some great stuff. Non-great-stuff highlights:
muted pixie clipper> whirl
terrage> symp mirage both sides
Pretty chilled session. Didn't hit anybody on my ride home, but the wind was brutal.

And I kicked today with Jake and Ronnie at Welles. Jake and I freestyled for about an hour. I was trying smear> muted pixie clipper> whirl but the whirls were always poorly sealed. I was hitting a bunch of my weirder stuff with guays/whizzes/etc. I hit guay> whirl. I've been cooking up an idea but until I seal it I won't say anything else...

We played some two square, I won a game against Jake and then Ronnie showed up. I got a shut out against him. To be fair, I was warmed up and he wasn't. But still, VeryHappy VeryHappy.

Then Jake had a good idea - let's just hack. We hacked for about an hour... what can you really write about a hack circle? We mocked Bloughchi, we mocked Churney, we had long rounds and we had long periods of doing nothing but poorly serving/passing the bag. Anyway, we should really bring the hack back to the Circle. I like squares, but squares isn't a natural segue into freestyle. I'd like to see some new freestyle recruits.

All of these last few sessions feel like one long progression, with peaks and valleys but generally steady progress. I'm hitting four contacts guiltless before bailing tiltless, throwing a few basic threes around midstring (mostly toe stuff). But also doing some tiltless drilling every couple strings. What I really need is to get my flip BOPs into the strings more frequently. It'll come, but not without a conscious effort. Then after the BOPs, flip pixie midstring.

And I had a wipeout on my bike on the way home from today's session. This one was just my stupidity. I was fucking around and being reckless with the spaces I was trying to fit through at high speeds. I came too close to a curb, and the pedal hit the curb. So I was like on the border between recovering balance and losing balance. I lost. And bailed into a light pole. My left leg like flying clotheslined the pole, right above the knee on the inside. I've got a few scrapes and bruises, nice black and purple ones, and I'm icing my knee right now. So I don't think I'll kick tomorrow. I should really stop riding so recklessly.

[Zeke]

I should really stop riding so recklessly.

Glad you're ok. I would rather fly into a curb or pole than into moving traffic. I've had more than a few close calls recently, I should tone it down as well.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Yeah, it could have been worse. This reminds me of my favorite uncle - as he puts it, every five years he comes about an inch from dying, but makes it through. This year his classic 'vette's brakes locked up, and the front end got sucked under a semi. Its painful to look at the photo of that car totaled on the side of the road, but he walked away.

My knee is fine. I finally played on it, and didn't notice anything. Could've been nasty. I told a friend of mine about the accident yesterday and he said "you're a prime candidate for arthritis." Pretty much.

Hadn't played all week, due to a combination of weather and work. Took a client live at end of day Friday, so we'll see what this upcoming week is like... at this stage of the project, I don't anticipate any serious problems, but it's always the unexpected problems that freak me out.

Finally played today, big session at Welles. Started out w/hack w/Ronnie, Jake, and Reile. It was fun.

Freestyled with Josh & Jake, then Andre joined us. Probably freestyled for about three hours. Only highlight I can think of: DLO out of Osis. I played fine, only thing to mention is my legs started to burn whenever I got in the 15 contact neighborhood. Oh, and I've got to get flip pdx mirage consistent.

Andre's progressing. I'm happy to see that.

And as all this is happening, there were like five net players keeping games going, and some four square as well.

Then after a little break I played some squares. My legs were shot, maybe I shouldn't have played but I kept fairly competitive and didn't want to quit. Eventually I won a game of three square. At times I was frustrated with myself, and at other times I played well, but I didn't dominate at any point. Anyway, basically from 2pm to 7:30 I was playing some type of footbag. I actually wanted to try some net, but maybe another time would be better.

Good weekend. To top it all off, I got to hear two of the songs that are reminders of my favorite concerts: I heart LA by Subtle, and Bleeding Hearts Show by the New Pornographers. These moments are just like... transcendant. Like the music just fills me and I'm so happy and all of my cynicism washes away and I'm just a googly eyed fan boy with a big shit eating grin. Anyway, Modest Mouse playing 3rd Planet the first time I saw them, Subtle playing I heart LA at the Empty Bottle, the New Pornographers playing Bleeding Hearts Show at the Metro (salvaging an otherwise miserable night), and the entire Desmond Dekker concert... Superchunk opening their concert with Throwing Things. Yep. That's what that keeps me going to concerts.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Kicked all of twice since my last post, and most of it was circle kicking. Waiting for this weather to get its shit together. Maybe it doesn't get nice out until after the Birthday jam?

Thursday May 8, solo at IP for about 45 but then I was joined by no less than four (4) people to circle kick for another hour or something. Solo highlights:

whirling heel (1st time on flipside)
DOD
flip DATW first try> run w/flip Terrage

Other than that I was playing ok. Fine on individual tricks that I wanted to practice or just hit for fun, but my average string length is still lower than it was last summer, even on strings of comparable difficulty. EDIT: NERD! End of Edit. Oh, and I'm getting one-sided again. Just need to practice my flip clippers & butterflies more I guess, but I can't do that if I can't even practice.

So, since I just felt like I was playing ok, it was really nice to have these hackers that joined me telling me how awesome everything I was doing was. Three of them were friends from an art school (not sure which one), and one was a photographer from an art school (ibid). And they kicked well and had some tricks. Let me put it this way: they were familiar, and comfortable, with the word footbag. So that's promising, right?

So I told them about CIC Sunday sessions and pointed them towards Modified to find out more about when we're kicking. I know better than to get my hopes up too high. I guess I'll just be satisfied with the thought that I left an impression. I'd like to think that I am now a regular topic of conversation amongst them & their group of friends, and that they are also in the process of exaggerating my every move.

Cinco de Moustache 2008

I played a lot of hack. Tried some stunts (spinning flying clipper off of a car's trunk). Not much else to say. You guys didn't miss much, but there was also nothing egregiously bad... no "comedians"... pretty low key affair this year.

[xXLoss_of_ControlXx]

two more weeks of ultimate then im back on the footbag scene!

[quadgun]

bad... no "comedians"...

Just wanted to put some emphasis where i think it was needed.

[Frank_Sinatra]

I've kicked more in the last week than in the entire rest of May.

Tuesday May 13 - solo at Millennium Park for 1:30

Not truly solo - I kicked with a junky for about a half an hour. He kept leaving the circle to panhandle, and talking about being in prison, and trying to insinuate drugs into the conversation. Oh, and he asked every possible question about footbag. I couldn't get rid of him. I don't get it - usually I'm so good at driving people away.

After he left to "support his dope habit" (his words) I just schooled clippers and infinities. Infinity x4 contacts, 25 times. Haven't just hammered away at such a grueling (for me) goal in a long time. My infinities have changed for the better I think - lower set, attacking the dex, foot work is quicker and more consistent.

Friday May 15 - with Josh at Millennium Park for 2:30

Got there about an hour early and schooled more butterflies and clippers. Only went for infinity x4 contacts 10 times. Had a ton of 20-30 contact strings, mostly guilts.

symposium mirage> terrage> repeat

Once again, more random bypassers kicked with us. For instance, a priest. No ministers or rabbis though. Well, dude was wearing some kind of habit, maybe he wasn't technically a priest. Bunch of kids from Kentucky who were on a senior trip gawked at us. You take the good with the bad I guess.

Josh was mostly doing toe shuffle because he rolled his ankle recently.

Saturday May 16 - solo at Independence Park for 1 hour

More clippers and butterflies. Infinity x4 contacts times 10. Butterfly> pdx mirage> repeat times 10. Haven't drilled that in a while. But clippers & butterflies are still the priority.

Also went to a concert that afternoon/evening. The Cool Kids (fun Chicago Hip Hop - they were great), Andrew Bird (somewhere between DeVotchKa and Radiohead - more like Andrew Bored! Am I right? Eh?), Talib Kweli, and Cake. Was looking forward to Talib Kweli the most but it didn't really live up to my expectations. Cake... when their songs are on, I enjoy them, they definitely write good songs, but I think the cosmos just don't want me to see them in concert. I'm fine with that.

Sunday May 17 at Welles - Tom, Zeke, Ronnie, assorted free points

Got there a little before everyone else and schooled clippers and butterflies again. Slight improvement. Need to stick with it. Then as people showed up we hacked it up, and then played some squares. I played really poorly. Then I freestyled with Tom. Do you ever have a session where the bag keeps hitting you right on the toe but falling off?

Played some more squares after some hackers from Lane showed up. I won three games in a row, probably because I wasn't freezing my legs off. Then we ate some fat ass Mexican at Garcia's. The food was good, too. Hey-oh! Reile met us & we went to see Iron Man, then hacked outside the theater afterwards. I may have spent equal time hacking and freestyling this month... weird. Doesn't seem to be hurting my game.

Happy birthday CIC!

[Frank_Sinatra]

I'm going to see Indiana Jones in about an hour, figured I kill some time by blogging and enjoying a smoothie. Banana/Kiwi/Strawberry/Vanilla soy milk - enjoyable enough but I should experiment with the proportions a bit.

Kicked the last four days. The weather has been very borderline - more like late April than late May. I'm still getting out and playing but I'm really impatient with some nice weather to get here. I feel like all of Chicago needs that lightening of mood that you get with some nice summer days. I know I'm pretty tense, and the chilly-ness has not been helping. Let's do this bullet point style:

Wednesday May 21 - 1:30 solo at Millennium Park
ATW> Pixie> rpt to 42 contacts (new record)
Butterfly> pdx mirage> repeat x 10 sets, best of the day was 13 contacts
Infinities to 4 contacts x 20 sets
inward DATW practice

Thursday May 22 - 1:15 solo at Millennium Park
lots of clippers, probably hundreds
Infinity to 4 contacts x 10 sets
flip inward DATW for the first time

I've now hit DATW both directions, both sides. That has been one of my footbag goals for such a long time. It is surreal to think about how that seemed like an unattainable dream two or three years ago. Like Desmond Dekker said - you can get it if you really want. It. The it is implied. Is.

Also tried flip backside smear some. A lot of times it comes out pixie op rake, I think I've hit a few actual smears, but it does need a lot more work. Dammit, enough of this exposition. Back to the bullet points.

Friday May 23 - 1:30 at Millennium Park w/Josh
30 minutes clipper/butterfly practice before Josh showed up
Dimwalk> DLO
DLO BSOS (from clipper)
Barrage BSOS
Double Pickup strong side

Came close to flip double pickup once or twice, I think eventually I'll get around to working on that again. Also think I should start work on my flip toe DLOs now or at least sometime soon.

Saturday May 24 - 2:15 at Welles Park - kicked with Zeke and Carrie briefly, who then played net, I freestyled solo for about two hours
hundreds more clippers - about 45 minutes on just clippers
infinity to 4 or more contacts x 10 sets
butterfly> pdx mirage> rpt x 10 sets, best was 12 or 13 contacts
same butterfly> pdx mirage> far butterfly> pdx mirage> repeat
flip inward DATW three more times
osis x10 each side (individually)

I never hit that same butterfly drill, I was really pleased to hit it. And for flip osis to not be such a mystery was pleasant. Actually, the whole session was a pleasant surprise.

I'm happy with how I've been playing. My goal is to practice clippers/butterflies for two hours each week. This week I've done about 3:30 or 3:45 on clipper & butterfly. I just really want to make it stick so I can move on. I don't want to go another couple weeks barely playing and then have to start back at square one again.

I'll let you know if/how badly Indiana Jones sucks.

[CIC flurry]

You were quite quick and precise when we played the other day.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Thanks Tom! I'm really glad you are back from Greece.

Continued to kick pretty frequently this week. Kicked Sunday with Zeke and Ronnie. We hacked, then I did about an hour worth of clippers and butterflies, then we got Garcia's again. We ate in Lincoln Square and then fought off the lethargy to hack some more. That's a good spot - but lots of very little kids running around, so there's the added dramatic tension of whether or not some kid is gonna get booted. I hit a new trick - symp dragonfly - but I don't like the way I hit it.

Had two sessions on Memorial Day, first was like 40 minutes solo on clippers and butterflies, second was about two hours with Tom. During the solo session I finally got to twenty alternating clippers. Then during the session with Tom I hit Fairy Legover for the first time. I tried some symp dragonflies, Tom hit it right away. I like how his look.

Kicked with Tom again on Thursday. Not a good session for me, I was really struggling with consistency. I did about 45 minutes solo before Tom arrived, just clippers and butterflies as usual. There was this band playing, and they were so intensely mediocre. Like if Nickelback and Live had a child, and only tought this child to read hallmark cards, and only let it watch Beverly Hills 90210, this is the music that child would create. Even the tourists in Millennium Park didn't stay more than a minute to watch them. I don't know why I associate tourists with middlebrow entertainment, but I do. Anyway, I really didn't want to be there with them playing and that kind of got inside my head and may have affected my play.

Or I could have played like shit for some other reason.

Tom got to the park right as the band was ending. Lucky. After maybe five rounds I knew I had to drop down to basic tiltless because so many things were off (symp mirage, pixie sets, flip butterfly). Eventually I found a little bit of flow and did get to 30 contacts tiltless twice. I was hitting fairy & near legover in strings though, which is very rare for me. I started working barfly. We kicked for around an hour.

Kicked Saturday with Zeke, Ronnie, Josh, Tom, and Vince. Probably two hours of freestyle, Tom busted out early and missed seeing me hit flip DOD for the first time. VeryHappy VeryHappy. I didn't scream when I hit it this time (did I say scream? I mean roar like a lion. Like a manly lion.) Also hit dimwalk> PS mirage. To end the session Josh worked on PS Whirls and I kept working on Barfly. Josh hit PS Whirl on one side, I footed Barfly, but eventually we both gave up. Played two games of squares after that - won the first, lost the second. And my legs were shot.

And then we kicked today. I got there at least a half hour before everyone else and did my clippers and butterflies thing again. Getting better with clippers but my butterflies seem less consistent or controlled than a week ago. Hit infinity> ss butter> repeat to seven contacts. I started to wonder if anyone was going to show up. Then, of all people, Zeke showed up (thought he might not make it out due to net-related obligations) lugging the big ass net & court. We were both a bit disgruntled. Good thing people showed up!

Andre showed up first, then Javier, Nick, Ralph, and Vince. Zeke went to set up with Vince while we hacked some more. I finished up a few more sets of infinities while the squares court was getting set up, then went in and dominated the first two games. Javier has great defense so there were some good points when he was in, but when he wasn't it was pretty much score at will. That painted a big target on me and everyone was after me in game three, which opened it up for Javier to win. Josh and Jake showed up around the end of game three.

I'm not going to say much about game four. I just thought there was more bullshit than I had patience for and stopped playing. Its only a game, so I don't understand why people put so much time into bickering over a single point. To me it isn't fun, but if everybody but me wants to play that way, I can just go drill something. And even though I was frustrated with the way people were playing, I'm glad their crew came out, they're really nice guys and I enjoy hanging out with them.

So, Jake and I started freestyling and Josh joined us, then Tom shortly after that. I had some four contact guiltless runs or run starters, terrage> butterfly> infinity> pdx mirage on both sides but not BSOS. Getting to five guiltless occasionally. Terrage was feeling really good all day. I'm dropping on flip symp mirage a lot. Came close to Paradon and Barfly again, the dexes are feeling better. I'm still kind of alternating between short bursts of guiltless and longer tiltless runs that rely on drills. I want to get away from the drills and be more spontaneous but also start substituting threes for twos.

Then there was a lot more hack after I decided I was done for the day. Actually a lot of people hung around long enough to have a big circle, which was a lot more fun than I remember big circles being. I'm glad we're doing more circle kicking lately. Ok, I've written enough.

[C-Fan]

I just got netflix and started watching 30 rock, so only now do I get your blog title. I also liked his advice about how to dress.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Hey Ken! I don't remember that line about how to dress. 30 Rock = best show on television. "You messed with the wrong honky grandma!"

Kicked five more times this past week.

Monday June 2 - solo at Millennium for 1:45 or 2 hours or something

Got kicked out of the high-tourist-traffic area. Found a nice spot near the lake with shade, so it was much cooler, but none of the water fountains nearby were working. Alternating clippers x10 or more contacts x10 sets. Infinities x4 contacts x10 sets, x6 contacts x5 sets. Tiltless x20 or more contacts x10 sets. Really could have used some water while doing this last one.

Wednesday June 4 - solo at Millennium for 1:15 maybe

Preemptively kicked myself out of the touristy area and went over by the lake. Same clipper> op clipper> repeat x45 contacts. Infinities x22 contacts. Drilled flip pixie a little bit, started landing weird on flip Smear and called it a day. I was out of water anyway.

Friday June 6 - hack at Blues Fest for about 45 minutes

Too windy. Ran into a friend of mine, though, and showed her the difference between footbag and hackysack.

Saturday June 7 - solo at IP for 1:20

Drilled clippers and butterflies. Spent most of the day fighting my equipment. My left ankle hurts when cranking it because the shoe is tight, but if the shoe is too loose I can't control my clippers. And don't even get me started on my broke ass bag collection. Having a real hard time finding a replacement for my current preferred bag - a footfighter nearing the end of its lifespan. Ended the session by working on osis - individually twenty times each side and then osis> osis x5 sets.

Sunday June 8 - Blues Fest for 4 hours.

Freestyled with Fred for 40 minutes. Hit butterfly> pdx mirage> symp mirage> repeat> butterfly> ps mirage. We met up with Zeke & for the rest of the day we pretty much hacked. We found White Jumping Ronnie, and had pretty good circles for most of the day. Javier, Zach, and a friend of their's came out. Al came out and kicked. Bunch of other random people. Some freestyle occasionally broke out. I hit motion for the first time towards the end of the day. Then I hit it again.

I stuck around to watch BB King. He didn't sing much, and didn't play much. He spent a lot of time mumbling in between songs. The songs would just stop after like a minute, and then he'd start mumbling at us again - every fourth recognizable word out of his mouth was 'blues'. I had a chance to see him years ago and didn't go, and everyone who went told me how great it was and I was always kinda jealous that I didn't get to see him. And then I finally did see him and it was pretty disappointing. So it goes.

I'm really sore and tired. I hope its raining this afternoon, otherwise I'll try to kick again.

[PegLegHolly]

I didn't scream when I hit it this time (did I say scream? I mean roar like a lion. Like a manly lion.)

I was hackin the other day and hit flip butterfly. Squeel is the word I use.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Holly, I think I tend to shriek more than squeel. I can't remember the last time I had a good squeel, actually.

Kicked the last three nights, super fast recap:

Tuesday, solo 45 minutes, clippers and butterflies and ankle pain
Wednesday, solo 1:30, alt clipper x24 is a new record
Thursday with Fred for an hour. I hit a clean toe whirl, I think for the first time. We had like 30 kids watching us towards the end of the session, and got pretty exhausted trying to play hard for our audience. I almost had a midstring DOD.... Then when we were about to quit I was like "I will now hit paradon and barfly." Hit both on my strong DOD side. Woo haw.

Windy City Cup this weekend, I'll be out there, watching and freestyling, freestyling and watching.

[C-Fan]

Hey Ken! I don't remember that line about how to dress.

Dress every day like you're gonna get murdered in those clothes

[Zac Miley]

Hey Nathan!

Haven't checked your blog in a while so I just kinda caught up. Props on the new double dexy-shnazz.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Thanks, Ken. That's also good advice, though its harder to follow. I can only wear my oversized Biggie Smalls Ready to Die t-shirt to the office so many times a week. Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Zac, thanks for the props! I've wanted those moves for a long time, but I've got a long way to go to really own them.

Kicked the last three days, making it six days straight.

Friday - quick (40 minute) solo session in the 60618. Just worked on individual moves that I can hit on both sides like dimwalk, whirl, drifter, plo. Want to add some flavor to my game. Only highlights I can remember:

PLO> butterfly> infinity> pdx mirage> repeat
terrage> butterfly> infinity> pdx mirage both sides. Going for a repeat on this drill but coming up short.

Saturday - 3:30 at Windy City Cup, first solo, then with Jake, then Val, Scott, and Jon.

Reile was watching me freestyle for a little bit & had me trying a few moves. He suggested I work on my ducking & diving again. Good call, those concepts have come pretty naturally to me, and they look smooth, and they will be a nice changeup for my game.

illusions
toe grifter
toe diving osis

Hadn't kicked with Scott or Jon in a long time - a really long time since I kicked with Jon. After we switched to a heavier bag we all played a lot better. Towards the end of the session Scott was hitting a lot of stuff I've never seen him hit. Crazy shuffle with pixie, fairy, atomic, and nuclear. I don't know if he's been schooling that lately or if he just usually chooses to do the flapper/osis/pincher thing in public instead of shredding his hardest?

some longer tiltless
outward datw> dod

Then I played some squares and tried net for the first time. I got tattoed. It stung a little at first, wasn't bad, but I don't want getting hit in the face with a hard-assed plastic ball to be part of my footbag experience. So, I'm not gonna play net, but I'd definitely watch net again.

Sunday - 2:30 with Reid, Grant, and Jake

More people I don't play with enough. Reid was throwing down like a beast as usual. Grant has gotten good fast. Smog like it's nothing, pixie ducking like it's nothing. Dayumn.

really long tiltless run (maybe 40+? Give or take a few)
datw heel
played out of DOD a couple times

Footed barfly and paradon once or twice again. Dropped on lots of symp mirages again. Too many ss pickups.

I watched one of the net doubles semifinal matches, and then after shred watched the singles final. Very impressive and fun to watch. Net at a high level is a way better spectator sport than freestyle at any level. The event seemed very professional and well run. It is impossible to fathom a freestyle event executed like that. I will now supress my urge to rant about fucking freestylers.

Too sore to kick today, I brought my gear but I really shouldn't use it. I would probably play bad and get pissed anyway. Wish I could play though. Not planning on playing tomorrow either - that's my M:tG night. Me and my nerdy hobbies. I'm doing a demo for my coworkers on Wednesday and I really want to impress them & make them understand & respect what I do. I think I might suck instead.

[Rieferman]

you wrote:

I'm doing a demo for my coworkers on Wednesday and I really want to impress them & make them understand & respect what I do. I think I might suck instead.

Damn dude, you always make me laugh out loud at something that you write. This was hilarious (and partly because these types of demos usually are exactly what you're expecting!)

[Frank_Sinatra]

Thanks Bob!

So the demo last Wednesday was like 45 seconds, very much an afterthought. I was wearing a suit and lavers. I dropped on DOD (and I was so nervous & uncontrolled that it was closer to DOD swirl). Eventually hit DATW. I think my boss was impressed, but whateva.

I've switched up my drills. First, I'm trying a new method for drills that I'm kinding of falling into a rut with. Basically I pick a drill and a number X. Then with my first run I establish a number of contacts to beat. Then I beat that number, and establish a new number. I try to establish a new personal best for the day X times.

I also started drilling the following:
ss clipper> drifter> repeat
whirl> op clipper> repeat
ss clipper> osis> repeat

So I applied both of these changes on Thursday. Highlights:
ss clipper> op clipper> repeat x40 contacts
op clippers> x29 contacts (new record, completing one of Reid's challenges)
DOD both sides a couple times
ss clipper> infinity> repeat x13 contacts

And basically a ton of clipper to clipper drilling in a two hour solo session. It was great. I did my new drills 5 sets each and was happy about that. Then on my way out of the park I ran into kids playing hackysack. It was probably the least enjoyable hack circle I've ever been in, but I stuck around and kicked for another 45 minutes.

Kicked Friday for like 45 minutes, my ankle was really hurting. I couldn't control my clippers or set properly out of them. I shouldn't have been playing at all.

Kicked Saturday at Welles with Jake, Zeke, Vince & Ronnie. Almost an hour of hack, an hour of squares, and maybe just a little over an hour of freestyle. Vince won the first game of squares, then Zeke won, then I won. In the first two games I started real slow but ground out enough points to get to 2nd highest score & be the defender on game point. With my defense-oriented game this should actually be a good position to be in. In the third game I stopped Zeke on game point a couple times before eventually winning. Hoorah.

Freestyle highlights? Double Fairy with a very thin or completely the second dex. Don't remember anything else from me. Ankle was still tender but not excruciating. I Brockad my shoes that evening before going to a pretty lame concert. Oh, the stories of lameness I could tell you.

Kicked again Sunday at Welles with Tom, Josh, and a hacker named Adam. Zeke & his net pals were there as well. I had a nine contact guiltless string, and another the-ass double fairy. Played ok I guess. Didn't notice much of a difference with the Brocka. I'm also going to do like a reverse Brocka on the outside by making an incision into the upper and removing the foam. There's definitely a correlation between how tight the shoe is and how much my ankle hurts when cranking, equipment is part of the problem, but form (smacking my foot into the ground on most of my flip clippers) is probably a bigger part of the problem.

Don't know how much I'll be able to play this week. I already missed out on kicking with Fred last night, because of work. I had to cancel lunch plans, and cancel M:tG tonight, all because of work, because this client didn't provide the info we needed and now the whole timetable is fucked. Basically I'm going to do 8 hours of training each day this week, then 4 hours of config afterwards on a couple nights. So little to no social life. Sucks.

[Reid]

op clippers> x29 contacts (new record, completing one of Reid's challenges)

Props.
Do I need to give you some more challenges?