and thanks for the style comments. It really means a lot to me.
edit: whoops, didn't mean to steal your last post by starting a new page
west of philly - bob
-
Sporatical_Distractions
- registered sacks offender
- Posts: 4529
- Joined: 12 Oct 2004 19:14
- Location: Guy's American Kitchen & Bar
Non-footbag story:
My cousin, Blake, was born deaf in both ears. There's a "deafness scale" where you and I would rate very close to one end of the spectrum, and Helen Keller would represent the other side. His one ear was basically Helen Keller, and his other ear was about 1% better than Helen Keller.
Ok, so thats over-simplified, but you understand what I'm saying. He couldn't hear anything. Even with hearing aids, you could stand behind him and shout as loud as you want, and the only reason he'd turn around is because he'd feel the vibration.
Despite the handicap, and starting elementary school as an 8 year old (because he had to learn to talk first.. which is hard when you can't hear everyone else talk), he made it through college and is now a process engineer (basically, he programs industrial automation). Pretty inspiring. And pretty exhausting because he has to pay attention 120% ALL THE TIME just to pick up what the rest of us pick up by paying attention 50% part of the time.
Anyhow, yesterday he had the Cochlear Implant surgery on his worst ear. This implant is basically an electronic device that stimulates the auditory nerves so that a deaf person has the sensation of being able to hear. Some people that have had hearing, lost it, and then regained through Cochlear Implant say the sound is "tinny" compared to normal hearing. Others, that have never had hearing at all, are none the wiser. Regardless, tinny sound and all, the potential benefits are amazing.
Surgery involves basically drilling a hole in his head, and implanting the device to attach to the correct auditory nerves. Risks are all very unlikely, but include death, loss of facial muscle control, complete loss of hearing (if you had any to begin with), and some others.
The good news so far is that none of the major risks seem to have happened. Now, he has to heal for 1 month, and then begin therapy to teach him how to understand sound and cope with a world that can be very confusing when you add cluttered noise to what-was-once a silent place.
So, if you have good vibes to spare, send them in the direction of Pittsburgh PA to my cousin Blake. He's an inspiring guy, and at 29 years old and hearing on the way, I expect only better things are ahead.
My cousin, Blake, was born deaf in both ears. There's a "deafness scale" where you and I would rate very close to one end of the spectrum, and Helen Keller would represent the other side. His one ear was basically Helen Keller, and his other ear was about 1% better than Helen Keller.
Ok, so thats over-simplified, but you understand what I'm saying. He couldn't hear anything. Even with hearing aids, you could stand behind him and shout as loud as you want, and the only reason he'd turn around is because he'd feel the vibration.
Despite the handicap, and starting elementary school as an 8 year old (because he had to learn to talk first.. which is hard when you can't hear everyone else talk), he made it through college and is now a process engineer (basically, he programs industrial automation). Pretty inspiring. And pretty exhausting because he has to pay attention 120% ALL THE TIME just to pick up what the rest of us pick up by paying attention 50% part of the time.
Anyhow, yesterday he had the Cochlear Implant surgery on his worst ear. This implant is basically an electronic device that stimulates the auditory nerves so that a deaf person has the sensation of being able to hear. Some people that have had hearing, lost it, and then regained through Cochlear Implant say the sound is "tinny" compared to normal hearing. Others, that have never had hearing at all, are none the wiser. Regardless, tinny sound and all, the potential benefits are amazing.
Surgery involves basically drilling a hole in his head, and implanting the device to attach to the correct auditory nerves. Risks are all very unlikely, but include death, loss of facial muscle control, complete loss of hearing (if you had any to begin with), and some others.
The good news so far is that none of the major risks seem to have happened. Now, he has to heal for 1 month, and then begin therapy to teach him how to understand sound and cope with a world that can be very confusing when you add cluttered noise to what-was-once a silent place.
So, if you have good vibes to spare, send them in the direction of Pittsburgh PA to my cousin Blake. He's an inspiring guy, and at 29 years old and hearing on the way, I expect only better things are ahead.
Bob R.
shredded/tried some new moves/worked on some moves I have trouble with last night. It was beautiful temperature out and was really nice to have the barn doors open and feel the breeze.
highlights that I can remember:
- gyro mirage bsos a few times (weakside is really weird for me, so I was happy about this)
- swirl bsos
- blur > paradon on both sides different runs (bsdr)
- stepping DLO on strong side
- mid run quantum butterfly strong side
- lots of toe drifter practice. Finally figured that out on weakside.
- pdx DLO practice. Strong side is basically dialed, weakside is getting better.
- spinning legover bsos a few times
- more pixie DLO practice.. really only on strong side right now. Not as dialed as I thought. I can hit it when I want, but when I try to do it effortless and smooth, I miss right now.
That's all I can remember
-------
Need to change up my diet. I have been feeling weak and jittery (like low blood sugar jittery) lately. My hypothesis is that now that I've burned through fat, my body has run out of a good fuel source with my current calory count. I will be researching how to bring the right kind of calories back into my diet - I shouldn't be running the huge caloric defecit now that I'm very close to the correct weight. I'm guessing I'll find that I need a bigger breakfast (currently a banana) that includes some significant protein. I think I'll also find that on days when I shred (or otherwise do significant exercise) my afternoon apple is not enough fuel. Probably carbs are needed about 2 hours before hand along with the apple. Otherwise, I think my diet is balanced and healthy. Just need more fuel.
==============
07/29/08 3:45 p.m.
Lurking on modified right now. Just going to update this post for awhile.
Aaron Orton sent me good info on how to take next steps in my health plan. Basically, a few small changes to what/how I eat (basically, eat more of the right things because I'm not getting enough calories), try to do my "weight lifting" more times per week, and cut alcohol down even more (none during week days is good, but lots on weekends isn't). So that was really nice of him to do.
Nuts few days at work. But mostly died down now, so I'll kick tonight.
Golf lesson was fun. I think I'll enjoy the game.
later
==========
07/30/08 11 a.m.
Still lurking. Not sure why really, I'm just tired and don't feel like seeing my blog jump up to the top of the list all the time.
Anyhow, my weekend of sales meetings (sunday was literally 7 a.m. - 11 p.m. event) had me wiped out. So my session last night was really lame. Like 20 minutes, and at least half of that was me just standing there feeling weak and tired. Going to rest until Friday when I play with Pittsburgh guys. I've played a lot lately, so taking 2 days off is worthwhile.
Got my new food plan pretty much in place. Still figuring some of the calorie counts out, but I think it's the right plan. Body needs good fuel to operate effectively. I think my plan (thanks also to Aaron for his help) gives me the right fuel. It also includes less beer on weekends. Sad, but necessary.
========
08/04/08, 9 a.m.
still lurking, still not sure why
what a tiring weekend. My mom just turned 60 (wow!) and her friends and sister and mom and others held a surprise party for her. She's really gullible (in a lovable way) and totally fell for it. When she came in, they had me and my sister hide behind a corner. So my mom is all surprised and crying, and then I come out... And she REALLY loses it. Big hugs and sobbing. It was really nice. And just as that's dying down, my sister comes out. Repeat the losing it, hugging etc. She was very touched by having everyone there. She deserves it, she's a really nice, giving person.
My son picked out her birthday present. It was a plastic dinosaur. Hilarious. Everyone else got her these expensive, mushy presents. And she unwraps the dinosaur, and it was the hit of the party. Hilarious. Typical Keegan - picking out a present he can play with when he visits grandma next.
Anyhow, I was solo on this trip because it was too much for the kids and their sleep schedules etc. So, that allowed me to meet up with the Pittsburgh guys. Matt B. and I got along instantly and famously. Very similar sense of humor as mine, and very compatible outlooks on a lot of things. So it was really comfortable and chill to hang around him. And of course, Ian and Jake are long time friends so that was fun as hell to see them. I figured out that I've known Jake since he was like 15 years old. ha ha. That's funny. Every time I see him I wish that I lived near him. And Ian is really fun to talk with - we had all sorts of fun conversations about all sorts of meaningful and meaningless topics.
Plus, we played footbag. Friday night, I was HORRIBLE. Between a long drive and too few calories, I was literally seeing spots. It was very frustrating. But whatever. It was so bad, that I convinced Matt and Ian to kick with me again the following morning. That was much better. I still wasn't my best (although I could see, my legs were now thrashed from previous day) but I think they saw a much closer representative of how I play.
Watched our 2nd shred on vid afterwards with Matt. I was very happy that my spins look very nice (if I do say so myself). Really nice actually. And overall, my smoothness and the chapters of my strings were pleasing asthetically. As more components add on, I'm pretty happy with how I can tell a story with a string. I'll never be ripping the difficulty that others do, but I can be good in a whole different way.
Matt is fucking crazy btw. First of all, he's a skinny athletic guy, so he floats around that bag with ease. Second of all, he just gets it. I mean, his outlook on what the game is totally is in line with how I feel about it. And he's driven. But driven by the right things. You'll just have to get to know him to understand what I mean. But anyways, his shuffle is amazing. His big tricks are amazing (atomic ducking DLO??? yikes. that's a good trick). Style and posture are great. And it's just a matter of time before it all expands out into all types of tricks (like spinning and flowy components aren't there yet... but I give it a few months until he decides to just dial those things too).
I was most impressed with Ian's behind the back tricks. Like his dyno's (as long as he sets close to himself) are really deep. His osis is never miss. And now he's adding torque reliably.
Jake's game is actually a lot like mine, except he can hit hard shit when he wants to. Long flowy strings whenever he wants. But then he'll throw in something hard and cool (drifter > pdx drifter > pdx DLO etc.) out of nowhere.
I'm so tired now.
I really want to finish getting toe shuffle together. I realized this weekend that I now have a good stepping set. So, enough already, and finally get around to finishing perfecting pixie, and get that freaking atomic set dialed. It's all doable at this point. Just need to do it.
========
08/06/08, 8:34 a.m.
Had a really fun, hard work, practice last night. It started with swirls again (they're getting close to being able to be put into runs... at least the symple version is) and then moved onto pixie shuffle. Watching Matt B's shuffle really made me want to finally own this. It went surprisingly well and I was able to do lots of links I didn't think were in my bag of tricks. And do them all both sides. I really think some focus here will quickly (like within a few weeks) make this part of my game "finished". So that's cool.
My buddy from Harleysville Insurance is trying to have a position created for me at his company. That's pretty cool. I thought he was going to try to bring me in for something else and let me change the job duties over time, but he emailed me and said he's received initial approval to just make something for me. That's pretty cool that he thinks enough of me to stick his neck out like that. I really hope it works out. I'm totally dying here.
Learned all sorts of new exercises and have been using them in my morning "lifting" sessions. Still bodyweight exercising mostly, but I do mix in some bench press and other things here and there. Also, the new eating plan (basically more healthy calories, specifically at breakfast time) is going well - my energy is better, and I'm really honestly hungry by the time I eat each time. I'm not sure of my weight right now, but my clothes continues to fit looser and looser, and I continue to look more toned in the mirror. So I think everything is working like it's supposed to.
=========
08/07/08, 8:15 a.m.
Did my morning workout with the new exercises. You can tell they're working because of how much your muscles scream. Ha ha. It's a good scream though. Megan is really ramping up her workouts now. She's thin and pretty naturally, but I think she sees me getting in better shape and wants to keep up. That's cool. I want to be that healthy couple.
I can't wait to play tonight. I have to mess up my schedule a bit because I have to bring the dog to the vet (nothing serious, just normal yearly shots) during my normal kick time. But, I'm naturally ready to finish learning pixie and that's cool. I wrote awhile back someplace that I always have about 10-15 things/components/concepts I'm actively working on. And they all progress in baby steps together. And I always am itching to just take one and own it so the list can be shorter (or so something new can come onto the list). But, that 'just shut up and own it' phase only happens when it's ready. And I'm ready for pixie. I mean, I can hit pixie stuff in runs, and I don't usually miss, but I can't stand there and shuffle with it as long as I want. And I can't hit all the variations I should be able to. And it takes way more energy than it should. And some links are difficult. But that can all go away now I think.
I think I'll bring quantum into the mix next. It'll be a low priority because I really need to work on atomic first. Atomic is close to being a good concept, as good or better than my stepping set.
Next to own... I think ducking/diving and spins are ready. Maybe not quite, but soon.
=========
08/08/08, 8:08 a.m.
OK, so it's really 8:19 a.m., but typing all the 8's above was cool, so I went with it.
Had to kick later last night.. at 8 p.m. in fact, and I'm serious about that, not just typing more 8's. Piggy did well at the vet, everything is as it should be, rabies shots etc. Started off with swirls as usual. I'll probably take a break from them soon - I think my body will actually learn them better at this point if I stop trying them. They've been getting better, and I can do them both sides now (symple style.. original style only works on strong side so far) but the next leap in consistency isn't ready to happen yet. I think I'll actually do whirls and dynos as warm ups instead.
Then I did lots of pixie again. It's going to be cool to be able to just add 10 tricks onto any run, because that's where I'm heading with the pixie shuffle. It's coming along nicely after just two practices. I can tell that form will simplify itself out of necessity (because to link all the pixie back to back, big pixies eventually become efficient pixies else you'll miss after just a couple tricks).
drills such as: pixie legover > smear > pixie ss mirage > pixie ss mirage > repeat etc.
At end of practice, I worked on some fun pixie stuff. Hit about 5-6 (out of about 10 tries) pixie dlo on strong side. Footed weakside a bunch but never landed it.
strong side pixie ducking butterfly 4 out of 5 tries!!!!
strong pixie ducking pdx mirage!! first time ever!
weakside pixie ducking clipper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah, it was just a clipper ending, but ducking my weakside pixie set is an awesome development.
Finished up practice with some atomic. Just hanging and shredding with Matt B. made my atomic better. He gave me like 2 sentences worth of tips, and my brain was ready to understand and apply it. Had a run with strong atomic mirage and weak atomic butterfly in the middle of it. Neither was a run starter! nice.
job front: Interview with Harleysville Insurance is next Friday! I finally got a job description, and it's a cool role that I'd be good at and enjoy. Nice varied responsibilities. Would utilize my technical and my business/strategic and my process improvement skills. Which is basically the skills I want to use. I'm the only candidate they're interviewing.
highlights that I can remember:
- gyro mirage bsos a few times (weakside is really weird for me, so I was happy about this)
- swirl bsos
- blur > paradon on both sides different runs (bsdr)
- stepping DLO on strong side
- mid run quantum butterfly strong side
- lots of toe drifter practice. Finally figured that out on weakside.
- pdx DLO practice. Strong side is basically dialed, weakside is getting better.
- spinning legover bsos a few times
- more pixie DLO practice.. really only on strong side right now. Not as dialed as I thought. I can hit it when I want, but when I try to do it effortless and smooth, I miss right now.
That's all I can remember
-------
Need to change up my diet. I have been feeling weak and jittery (like low blood sugar jittery) lately. My hypothesis is that now that I've burned through fat, my body has run out of a good fuel source with my current calory count. I will be researching how to bring the right kind of calories back into my diet - I shouldn't be running the huge caloric defecit now that I'm very close to the correct weight. I'm guessing I'll find that I need a bigger breakfast (currently a banana) that includes some significant protein. I think I'll also find that on days when I shred (or otherwise do significant exercise) my afternoon apple is not enough fuel. Probably carbs are needed about 2 hours before hand along with the apple. Otherwise, I think my diet is balanced and healthy. Just need more fuel.
==============
07/29/08 3:45 p.m.
Lurking on modified right now. Just going to update this post for awhile.
Aaron Orton sent me good info on how to take next steps in my health plan. Basically, a few small changes to what/how I eat (basically, eat more of the right things because I'm not getting enough calories), try to do my "weight lifting" more times per week, and cut alcohol down even more (none during week days is good, but lots on weekends isn't). So that was really nice of him to do.
Nuts few days at work. But mostly died down now, so I'll kick tonight.
Golf lesson was fun. I think I'll enjoy the game.
later
==========
07/30/08 11 a.m.
Still lurking. Not sure why really, I'm just tired and don't feel like seeing my blog jump up to the top of the list all the time.
Anyhow, my weekend of sales meetings (sunday was literally 7 a.m. - 11 p.m. event) had me wiped out. So my session last night was really lame. Like 20 minutes, and at least half of that was me just standing there feeling weak and tired. Going to rest until Friday when I play with Pittsburgh guys. I've played a lot lately, so taking 2 days off is worthwhile.
Got my new food plan pretty much in place. Still figuring some of the calorie counts out, but I think it's the right plan. Body needs good fuel to operate effectively. I think my plan (thanks also to Aaron for his help) gives me the right fuel. It also includes less beer on weekends. Sad, but necessary.
========
08/04/08, 9 a.m.
still lurking, still not sure why
what a tiring weekend. My mom just turned 60 (wow!) and her friends and sister and mom and others held a surprise party for her. She's really gullible (in a lovable way) and totally fell for it. When she came in, they had me and my sister hide behind a corner. So my mom is all surprised and crying, and then I come out... And she REALLY loses it. Big hugs and sobbing. It was really nice. And just as that's dying down, my sister comes out. Repeat the losing it, hugging etc. She was very touched by having everyone there. She deserves it, she's a really nice, giving person.
My son picked out her birthday present. It was a plastic dinosaur. Hilarious. Everyone else got her these expensive, mushy presents. And she unwraps the dinosaur, and it was the hit of the party. Hilarious. Typical Keegan - picking out a present he can play with when he visits grandma next.
Anyhow, I was solo on this trip because it was too much for the kids and their sleep schedules etc. So, that allowed me to meet up with the Pittsburgh guys. Matt B. and I got along instantly and famously. Very similar sense of humor as mine, and very compatible outlooks on a lot of things. So it was really comfortable and chill to hang around him. And of course, Ian and Jake are long time friends so that was fun as hell to see them. I figured out that I've known Jake since he was like 15 years old. ha ha. That's funny. Every time I see him I wish that I lived near him. And Ian is really fun to talk with - we had all sorts of fun conversations about all sorts of meaningful and meaningless topics.
Plus, we played footbag. Friday night, I was HORRIBLE. Between a long drive and too few calories, I was literally seeing spots. It was very frustrating. But whatever. It was so bad, that I convinced Matt and Ian to kick with me again the following morning. That was much better. I still wasn't my best (although I could see, my legs were now thrashed from previous day) but I think they saw a much closer representative of how I play.
Watched our 2nd shred on vid afterwards with Matt. I was very happy that my spins look very nice (if I do say so myself). Really nice actually. And overall, my smoothness and the chapters of my strings were pleasing asthetically. As more components add on, I'm pretty happy with how I can tell a story with a string. I'll never be ripping the difficulty that others do, but I can be good in a whole different way.
Matt is fucking crazy btw. First of all, he's a skinny athletic guy, so he floats around that bag with ease. Second of all, he just gets it. I mean, his outlook on what the game is totally is in line with how I feel about it. And he's driven. But driven by the right things. You'll just have to get to know him to understand what I mean. But anyways, his shuffle is amazing. His big tricks are amazing (atomic ducking DLO??? yikes. that's a good trick). Style and posture are great. And it's just a matter of time before it all expands out into all types of tricks (like spinning and flowy components aren't there yet... but I give it a few months until he decides to just dial those things too).
I was most impressed with Ian's behind the back tricks. Like his dyno's (as long as he sets close to himself) are really deep. His osis is never miss. And now he's adding torque reliably.
Jake's game is actually a lot like mine, except he can hit hard shit when he wants to. Long flowy strings whenever he wants. But then he'll throw in something hard and cool (drifter > pdx drifter > pdx DLO etc.) out of nowhere.
I'm so tired now.
I really want to finish getting toe shuffle together. I realized this weekend that I now have a good stepping set. So, enough already, and finally get around to finishing perfecting pixie, and get that freaking atomic set dialed. It's all doable at this point. Just need to do it.
========
08/06/08, 8:34 a.m.
Had a really fun, hard work, practice last night. It started with swirls again (they're getting close to being able to be put into runs... at least the symple version is) and then moved onto pixie shuffle. Watching Matt B's shuffle really made me want to finally own this. It went surprisingly well and I was able to do lots of links I didn't think were in my bag of tricks. And do them all both sides. I really think some focus here will quickly (like within a few weeks) make this part of my game "finished". So that's cool.
My buddy from Harleysville Insurance is trying to have a position created for me at his company. That's pretty cool. I thought he was going to try to bring me in for something else and let me change the job duties over time, but he emailed me and said he's received initial approval to just make something for me. That's pretty cool that he thinks enough of me to stick his neck out like that. I really hope it works out. I'm totally dying here.
Learned all sorts of new exercises and have been using them in my morning "lifting" sessions. Still bodyweight exercising mostly, but I do mix in some bench press and other things here and there. Also, the new eating plan (basically more healthy calories, specifically at breakfast time) is going well - my energy is better, and I'm really honestly hungry by the time I eat each time. I'm not sure of my weight right now, but my clothes continues to fit looser and looser, and I continue to look more toned in the mirror. So I think everything is working like it's supposed to.
=========
08/07/08, 8:15 a.m.
Did my morning workout with the new exercises. You can tell they're working because of how much your muscles scream. Ha ha. It's a good scream though. Megan is really ramping up her workouts now. She's thin and pretty naturally, but I think she sees me getting in better shape and wants to keep up. That's cool. I want to be that healthy couple.
I can't wait to play tonight. I have to mess up my schedule a bit because I have to bring the dog to the vet (nothing serious, just normal yearly shots) during my normal kick time. But, I'm naturally ready to finish learning pixie and that's cool. I wrote awhile back someplace that I always have about 10-15 things/components/concepts I'm actively working on. And they all progress in baby steps together. And I always am itching to just take one and own it so the list can be shorter (or so something new can come onto the list). But, that 'just shut up and own it' phase only happens when it's ready. And I'm ready for pixie. I mean, I can hit pixie stuff in runs, and I don't usually miss, but I can't stand there and shuffle with it as long as I want. And I can't hit all the variations I should be able to. And it takes way more energy than it should. And some links are difficult. But that can all go away now I think.
I think I'll bring quantum into the mix next. It'll be a low priority because I really need to work on atomic first. Atomic is close to being a good concept, as good or better than my stepping set.
Next to own... I think ducking/diving and spins are ready. Maybe not quite, but soon.
=========
08/08/08, 8:08 a.m.
OK, so it's really 8:19 a.m., but typing all the 8's above was cool, so I went with it.
Had to kick later last night.. at 8 p.m. in fact, and I'm serious about that, not just typing more 8's. Piggy did well at the vet, everything is as it should be, rabies shots etc. Started off with swirls as usual. I'll probably take a break from them soon - I think my body will actually learn them better at this point if I stop trying them. They've been getting better, and I can do them both sides now (symple style.. original style only works on strong side so far) but the next leap in consistency isn't ready to happen yet. I think I'll actually do whirls and dynos as warm ups instead.
Then I did lots of pixie again. It's going to be cool to be able to just add 10 tricks onto any run, because that's where I'm heading with the pixie shuffle. It's coming along nicely after just two practices. I can tell that form will simplify itself out of necessity (because to link all the pixie back to back, big pixies eventually become efficient pixies else you'll miss after just a couple tricks).
drills such as: pixie legover > smear > pixie ss mirage > pixie ss mirage > repeat etc.
At end of practice, I worked on some fun pixie stuff. Hit about 5-6 (out of about 10 tries) pixie dlo on strong side. Footed weakside a bunch but never landed it.
strong side pixie ducking butterfly 4 out of 5 tries!!!! strong pixie ducking pdx mirage!! first time ever! weakside pixie ducking clipper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah, it was just a clipper ending, but ducking my weakside pixie set is an awesome development.Finished up practice with some atomic. Just hanging and shredding with Matt B. made my atomic better. He gave me like 2 sentences worth of tips, and my brain was ready to understand and apply it. Had a run with strong atomic mirage and weak atomic butterfly in the middle of it. Neither was a run starter! nice.
job front: Interview with Harleysville Insurance is next Friday! I finally got a job description, and it's a cool role that I'd be good at and enjoy. Nice varied responsibilities. Would utilize my technical and my business/strategic and my process improvement skills. Which is basically the skills I want to use. I'm the only candidate they're interviewing.
Bob R.
ok, I'll stop lurking to show some recent pics:
Think my kids look a little bit like me?
2 seconds after the above picture.. my daughter likes to share dinner with me:
Bathing beauty
Entire family at Dutch Wonderland (which was sooooo fun btw)
At the local Grange Fair, nice lady made Keegan a Clifford the Red Dog balloon animal. He cried when it finally popped a week later:
He honestly thinks he's surfing:
Think my kids look a little bit like me?
2 seconds after the above picture.. my daughter likes to share dinner with me:
Bathing beauty
Entire family at Dutch Wonderland (which was sooooo fun btw)
At the local Grange Fair, nice lady made Keegan a Clifford the Red Dog balloon animal. He cried when it finally popped a week later:
He honestly thinks he's surfing:
Bob R.
No kicking this weekend. We had a big party at our house on Saturday, so I was in 'get the house ready' mode all day, and then hosting all night, and then recovering all Sunday. At the party, I did play some horse on the driveway. Unfortunately, I did lose a close game of best out of 3 to Brian - it turns out that being 1/2 drunk, playing against a sober player that has a decent shot, is not the way to keep my LONNNNNNNG streak (like several years long) of being undefeated in horse alive. Damn it. Sadly, I'll now have to beat him into submission repeatedly for the next few years in order to feel right again. ha ha. I'm too stupid competitive sometimes.
Bob R.
I was just about to go back into lurk mode again, and then I read Pete's blog entry and decided that I can still meet people that I 100% click with partially because of modified, and that's cool. So eff it, no lurking for me.
Really looking forward to shredding tonight. Rather, practicing/shredding. Pixie all the time until it works like I want it to. Sort of boring, but sort of fun, because when a component is ready to go from good to great, it's validating.
Morning workout today included planks, tripod, bicycle crunches, chinups, pushups, various styles of butterflies. It's much more fun when I use this many exercises - doing the same ones over and over isn't as beneficial, and it gets boring. This new set of things really tears me up.
Harleysville interview countdown is on. Got my suit back from dry cleaner last night. Hair cut tonight or tomorrow. I'm so bored and fed up with where I'm at, it would be extremely satisfying to end the summer with a career change.
Really looking forward to shredding tonight. Rather, practicing/shredding. Pixie all the time until it works like I want it to. Sort of boring, but sort of fun, because when a component is ready to go from good to great, it's validating.
Morning workout today included planks, tripod, bicycle crunches, chinups, pushups, various styles of butterflies. It's much more fun when I use this many exercises - doing the same ones over and over isn't as beneficial, and it gets boring. This new set of things really tears me up.
Harleysville interview countdown is on. Got my suit back from dry cleaner last night. Hair cut tonight or tomorrow. I'm so bored and fed up with where I'm at, it would be extremely satisfying to end the summer with a career change.
Bob R.
-
Sporatical_Distractions
- registered sacks offender
- Posts: 4529
- Joined: 12 Oct 2004 19:14
- Location: Guy's American Kitchen & Bar
Interestingly, I've dominated the gene pool in all ways but a few with my son (as you can see). From my wife, Keegan appears to only have received her family's blue eyes, my wife's shy personality, and my wife's tone deafness. ha ha, maybe I can still overcome that last one and teach him to sing on pitch.looks like he's holding a microphone
Kicked last night, and it sucked. Damn it. All that excited build up for nothing. Emi is sick right now, and I had to drop my car off for inspection, but she was crashing fast so I couldn't kick at normal time and then go drop the car off. Instead, we had to drop the car off while she was still able to stay awake, and then I kicked at 8 p.m. after kids were asleep. For those of you that spend hours in an office environment each day, followed by kids/home responsibilities, you know that 8 p.m. is not a high energy part of the day.
Whatever, I got some fucking bullshit pixie grrrrrrrrrr practice in. Grumpy today. Stressed about job stuff too.
Bob R.
Sessions almost always seem to turn out frustrating/bad when I end up having to shoe horn them in at the end of a day, or squish them in between two other scheduled events at the last minute. You can usually feel it as soon as you start too, and then you know it's going to suck, but you're like, "damn it, I wanted to play all day today, and now I'm out here, so I have to keep going." And then it starts to suck worse because you are irritated which starts hindering your ability to play well...which irritates you more...etc.
Haha, the up side is that the next session is usually way better because even if you play at a very average level, it feels much nicer by comparison and reassures you that you don't actually suck at footbag.
Blah, blah, I actually came in here to ask about your cousin Blake. I don't read very thoroughly sometimes, but I don't think I saw any updates. Did he recover from the surgery, or is that still in progress or whatever? I was trying to imagine what it would be like to hear for the first time after a lifetime of quiet. It seems like it would be really scary.
Haha, the up side is that the next session is usually way better because even if you play at a very average level, it feels much nicer by comparison and reassures you that you don't actually suck at footbag.
Blah, blah, I actually came in here to ask about your cousin Blake. I don't read very thoroughly sometimes, but I don't think I saw any updates. Did he recover from the surgery, or is that still in progress or whatever? I was trying to imagine what it would be like to hear for the first time after a lifetime of quiet. It seems like it would be really scary.
yo matt - thanks for asking about my cousin. He's healing nicely and as expected, but we're not sure of the benefits yet as the device won't be turned on until end of August. The typical therapy time after that is one year (obviously, some benefits immediately, but then lots of therapy to learn to cope with a noisy world.. think of how annoying it is to think when a jack hammer is going off right next to you.. that's about how it is for these patients all the time at first.. i.e. noise filtering is a learned skill). He's a resilient, determined guy, and I think it's really going to change his life.
Been trying to emulate your game in my practices lately actually. Besides the trick selection I've been working on (much pixie, some atomic) I liked your efficiency and rhythm and have kept that in my head as I look to improve.
edit: in practice yesterday, I did some runs, and was happy to find that my usual 3-4 pixie tricks in a run, could be extended to about 10 tricks, and then back into the rest of what I do. That's a nice run extender. It will only get better. Progress has been fast so far, and progress usually has an an increasing rate of return the further you go (i.e. the smarter your body gets, the easier it is for it to get even smarter still)
Been trying to emulate your game in my practices lately actually. Besides the trick selection I've been working on (much pixie, some atomic) I liked your efficiency and rhythm and have kept that in my head as I look to improve.
edit: in practice yesterday, I did some runs, and was happy to find that my usual 3-4 pixie tricks in a run, could be extended to about 10 tricks, and then back into the rest of what I do. That's a nice run extender. It will only get better. Progress has been fast so far, and progress usually has an an increasing rate of return the further you go (i.e. the smarter your body gets, the easier it is for it to get even smarter still)
Bob R.
This is my blog, so no haters allowed in.
wow, the thread in vids section regarding routines finals is amazing. Observations:
1) Some feel that if they have spent time on the sport (not playing, I mean organizing or promoting, or even hanging out with people doing those things) within the past year, they are clearly way smarter than everyone else.
2) Others (I'll include myself here) feel that if they spent time doing the same things for years, but possibly not recently, they're still entitled to make arguments.
3) The 1st 2 groups above are at odds with one another.
4) The modified haters are hilarious. There's totally nothing wrong with a tool that allows people from US, Europe, Australia, Canada (etc.) to have a conversation about a topic. Sure, there's lots of BS on a forum, but really, what are we all going to do? organize a huge conference call every day? Get everyone on the planet to go to the same tourney so we can all argue?
5) In some cases, people with footbag skill seem to feel that their opinions automatically carry more weight than everyone else. Hmmm.. Steve Goldberg? Vince Bradley? Brad Kaplan? picture a long list of similar names of people that aren't BAP, won't ever be BAP, but know a shit ton about the game. edit: Btw, I think all the people I just mentioned are very good players (i.e. my point isn't to say they're all knowledge and no skill)
6) Sergey K. (aka 3rd in routines) made a good post about how routines are kind of obsolete. THANK YOU! TOTALLY! I'm even more impressed with his routine now that I know he didn't even really give a shit about that! Circle contest is sweet. Still needs some tweaking to be perfect, but it's what we all love to do, so why not make it the premier event? It's soooooo simple and pure and cool and fun to watch. Shit, I bet it's fun as hell to compete in. When I show non-players routines vs. circle contest, they all give ZERO cares about the routines. They think they're often hokey, or just not cool in that x-games sort of way. Then they watch circle. And they're like "woahhhhh, those guys are amazing". Seems really clear right?
7) Someone who's way smarter and better at hacky than me said we should just all email the judges for explanation of the scores. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaa. Nice. Wouldn't it be easier to post an explanation of something that's clearly generating a lot of questions? Wouldn't it make more sense to drop the defensive stance and just admit this thing needs to be fixed or scrapped? Nahhhh.
This post is so amazing:
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Anyhow, to defend modified (because I've had my doubts): I get to talk to people like Ken and Nathan (Frank Sinatra) and meet people like Pete Bowler and Matt Beal and keep up with Yacob and Ian. And I'm not sure all of that would happen as easily for me if it weren't for this message board. Plus, I get encouragement from new people I've never met, and once in awhile I have a piece of good advice to give someone I've never met. And we all watch and post vids. And considering everyone these days types at the speed of light, you can get it all done in minutes (except this freaking long ass post). faster/easier than a phone call for me. And I think all those are good things. I'm a pretty good reader at this point, 32 years of practice helps I guess, so I just skim the bull shit and enjoy the good stuff.
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I asked Pete why I play yesterday. I don't plan to host or attend any more events ever. I rarely see other players.
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Yesterday was my 7th wedding anniversary.
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Five days ago was my 32nd birthday.
wow, the thread in vids section regarding routines finals is amazing. Observations:
1) Some feel that if they have spent time on the sport (not playing, I mean organizing or promoting, or even hanging out with people doing those things) within the past year, they are clearly way smarter than everyone else.
2) Others (I'll include myself here) feel that if they spent time doing the same things for years, but possibly not recently, they're still entitled to make arguments.
3) The 1st 2 groups above are at odds with one another.
4) The modified haters are hilarious. There's totally nothing wrong with a tool that allows people from US, Europe, Australia, Canada (etc.) to have a conversation about a topic. Sure, there's lots of BS on a forum, but really, what are we all going to do? organize a huge conference call every day? Get everyone on the planet to go to the same tourney so we can all argue?
5) In some cases, people with footbag skill seem to feel that their opinions automatically carry more weight than everyone else. Hmmm.. Steve Goldberg? Vince Bradley? Brad Kaplan? picture a long list of similar names of people that aren't BAP, won't ever be BAP, but know a shit ton about the game. edit: Btw, I think all the people I just mentioned are very good players (i.e. my point isn't to say they're all knowledge and no skill)
6) Sergey K. (aka 3rd in routines) made a good post about how routines are kind of obsolete. THANK YOU! TOTALLY! I'm even more impressed with his routine now that I know he didn't even really give a shit about that! Circle contest is sweet. Still needs some tweaking to be perfect, but it's what we all love to do, so why not make it the premier event? It's soooooo simple and pure and cool and fun to watch. Shit, I bet it's fun as hell to compete in. When I show non-players routines vs. circle contest, they all give ZERO cares about the routines. They think they're often hokey, or just not cool in that x-games sort of way. Then they watch circle. And they're like "woahhhhh, those guys are amazing". Seems really clear right?
7) Someone who's way smarter and better at hacky than me said we should just all email the judges for explanation of the scores. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaa. Nice. Wouldn't it be easier to post an explanation of something that's clearly generating a lot of questions? Wouldn't it make more sense to drop the defensive stance and just admit this thing needs to be fixed or scrapped? Nahhhh.
This post is so amazing:
Sweeeeeeeeet! He's good at hacky! He must know everything! He's too big/mature to post on modified.. Oh, wait.. he just posted on modified. And it was suchhhhhhhhhh a goooooooooooooood post too! nice work!all you crazy routine experts.
please.
shut up and listen to Vojta!
Or come to next years worlds or any big tourney, play a dropless routine and or/judge the open freestyle finals. then we talk again.
this discussion is not even hilarious any more. many of you are just annoying.
go get a life.
edit: my post was not in response to sergeys but to the talking before. and also sorry, why dont i even bother to answer? modified sucks and has sucked for a long time....its not like its really any important to the real shredders and organizers out there who fucking work hard to make this sport better...
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Anyhow, to defend modified (because I've had my doubts): I get to talk to people like Ken and Nathan (Frank Sinatra) and meet people like Pete Bowler and Matt Beal and keep up with Yacob and Ian. And I'm not sure all of that would happen as easily for me if it weren't for this message board. Plus, I get encouragement from new people I've never met, and once in awhile I have a piece of good advice to give someone I've never met. And we all watch and post vids. And considering everyone these days types at the speed of light, you can get it all done in minutes (except this freaking long ass post). faster/easier than a phone call for me. And I think all those are good things. I'm a pretty good reader at this point, 32 years of practice helps I guess, so I just skim the bull shit and enjoy the good stuff.
-------
I asked Pete why I play yesterday. I don't plan to host or attend any more events ever. I rarely see other players.
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Yesterday was my 7th wedding anniversary.
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Five days ago was my 32nd birthday.
Bob R.
-
Frank_Sinatra
- Avenging Disco Godfather
- Posts: 1660
- Joined: 09 Jan 2007 12:43
- Location: Chicago, IL
Thanks for the shout-out Bob. You've warmed my cold damp heart.
I agree with all of your points about that video thread. But, since I've accepted that 40% of why I come to Modified is for the pissing contests, it is pretty great. (The other 60% is for the footblogs)
Anyway, congrats on the milestones. You play footbag because it gets you girlies, who then compete in intermediates, call each other cunts, and can't hit backflips mid-run.
Or maybe for some other reason.
I agree with all of your points about that video thread. But, since I've accepted that 40% of why I come to Modified is for the pissing contests, it is pretty great. (The other 60% is for the footblogs)
Anyway, congrats on the milestones. You play footbag because it gets you girlies, who then compete in intermediates, call each other cunts, and can't hit backflips mid-run.
Or maybe for some other reason.
Been thinking about it, and I play for simple reasons: It's great exercise, it's fun as hell, and I'm still steadily progressing at age 32. Plus, it's something that acts as a nice mind eraser while I'm playing (me time).
Anyhow, I sort of shredded last night, sort of practiced. I'm supposed to play with some guys in CT over labor day weekend, so I need to practice linking more than working on individual tricks. But I did some of both.
Highlights:
- pixie op symple swirl > drifter > ripwalk > spinning clipper to start a run
- symple swirl bsos to start a run
- figured out that the same leg movement that has made my spin sets consistent can be used to do a different style of ducking/diving
- ripwalk > ripwalk > stepping butterfly > stepping mirage > pixie ss mirage to start a run
- mid run, easily accomplished pixie DLO
- pixie ducking stuff to start some runs. weakside pixie ducking is much harder than strong side.
- atomic set getting more consistent
Anyhow, I sort of shredded last night, sort of practiced. I'm supposed to play with some guys in CT over labor day weekend, so I need to practice linking more than working on individual tricks. But I did some of both.
Highlights:
- pixie op symple swirl > drifter > ripwalk > spinning clipper to start a run
- symple swirl bsos to start a run
- figured out that the same leg movement that has made my spin sets consistent can be used to do a different style of ducking/diving
- ripwalk > ripwalk > stepping butterfly > stepping mirage > pixie ss mirage to start a run
- mid run, easily accomplished pixie DLO
- pixie ducking stuff to start some runs. weakside pixie ducking is much harder than strong side.
- atomic set getting more consistent
Bob R.
Don't even knock that Paulson guy's post. It was a masterpiece. The sentence about all the "real shredders" made me laugh out loud like three times in a row.
That expression being used in ernest by someone I assume is a fully grown adult, is absolutely hilarious. Just picture him walking around with his crew in full swager, confident that he and his boys are the "real shredders." Hahaha.
I'm glad none of my real life, non-footbag friends read this forum. I would be embarassed to think they might presume from posts like that, that we all take footbag so seriously. For the record, I am not a real shredder. Footbag is just a fun way to kill time and stay in shape.
edit: Paulsator, not Paulson
That expression being used in ernest by someone I assume is a fully grown adult, is absolutely hilarious. Just picture him walking around with his crew in full swager, confident that he and his boys are the "real shredders." Hahaha.
I'm glad none of my real life, non-footbag friends read this forum. I would be embarassed to think they might presume from posts like that, that we all take footbag so seriously. For the record, I am not a real shredder. Footbag is just a fun way to kill time and stay in shape.
edit: Paulsator, not Paulson
yo, this is a "real shredder" checkin in. yo. fo real. I'm so bad ass.
ha ha.
Golf.. had one lesson and a bunch of driving range practices so far. I'm hitting from the grass with irons (vs. from the mat with a driver) at this point. I'd say I'm hitting about 4 of 10 straight and true about 150 yards. Issues so far are that my hip turn on the back swing is an unnatural motion for me. Strengths so far are that my arms motion is natural, I shift my weight properly through the swing, keep my head down well. Mostly, my biggest strength will be that a golf swing requires the same type of patience for continual process improvement that a good basketball shot does... and I have YEARS of practice applying improvement techniques to basketball. I need to schedule my next lessons now.
footbag.. I "shredded" last night. I was in a pissy mood, stressed out, and my neck pain is back (it comes back once every few months for about a week). So it didn't go well. I video taped for the hell of it and was able to capture 50 seconds of footage from a 40 minute session. Yeah, it was that bad. Then I posted on youtube, and hated it so much, I removed it. So there. You don't get to see my horrible game. mwuuu haa haa haaaa (evil laugh).
Of course, I knew this is how shredding would go. It's like this every time I spend a few weeks practicing components instead of links. So I have to practice shredding and links for the next few practices so I don't suck when I go to CT.
I also realized last night, that just shredding tends to lead to either a lot of drops, or doing shit you have already linked a zillion times. So, I need to practice links that I want to have in shredworthy condition.
I think I'll brainstorm some practice links right now (note: all links will be preceded by either a couple infinities, or a butterfly to pdx mirage.. just to mimic being "mid run"):
pixie butterfly > ripwalk > DLO
ripwalk > drifter > pdx mirage
drifter > spinning clipper > whirl
spinning clipper > stepping ss legover > pixie ss legover
stepping ss legover > smear > paradon
smear > pixie ss mirage > toe set whirl
pixie ss mirage > pixie legover > pixie legover > pixie ss mirage
pixie legover > atomic mirage
atomic mirage > butterfly > blur
blur > pixie ss clipper > diving clipper
pixie ss clipper > blur > eggbeater
ripwalk > ripwalk > blur
pixie butterfly > DLO > pixie butterfly > drifter
whirl > spinning clipper > stepping mirage
spinning legover > smear
barrage > toe set drifter
ripwalk > stepping butterfly > repeat
stepping ss legover > pixie ss butterfly > ripwalk > repeat
spinning pdx mirage > pixie buttefly
gyro mirage > pixie butterfly
dlo > toe set ducking butterfly
That ought to be enough for now. If you have some you think I should try, please post them here.
ha ha.
Golf.. had one lesson and a bunch of driving range practices so far. I'm hitting from the grass with irons (vs. from the mat with a driver) at this point. I'd say I'm hitting about 4 of 10 straight and true about 150 yards. Issues so far are that my hip turn on the back swing is an unnatural motion for me. Strengths so far are that my arms motion is natural, I shift my weight properly through the swing, keep my head down well. Mostly, my biggest strength will be that a golf swing requires the same type of patience for continual process improvement that a good basketball shot does... and I have YEARS of practice applying improvement techniques to basketball. I need to schedule my next lessons now.
footbag.. I "shredded" last night. I was in a pissy mood, stressed out, and my neck pain is back (it comes back once every few months for about a week). So it didn't go well. I video taped for the hell of it and was able to capture 50 seconds of footage from a 40 minute session. Yeah, it was that bad. Then I posted on youtube, and hated it so much, I removed it. So there. You don't get to see my horrible game. mwuuu haa haa haaaa (evil laugh).
Of course, I knew this is how shredding would go. It's like this every time I spend a few weeks practicing components instead of links. So I have to practice shredding and links for the next few practices so I don't suck when I go to CT.
I also realized last night, that just shredding tends to lead to either a lot of drops, or doing shit you have already linked a zillion times. So, I need to practice links that I want to have in shredworthy condition.
I think I'll brainstorm some practice links right now (note: all links will be preceded by either a couple infinities, or a butterfly to pdx mirage.. just to mimic being "mid run"):
pixie butterfly > ripwalk > DLO
ripwalk > drifter > pdx mirage
drifter > spinning clipper > whirl
spinning clipper > stepping ss legover > pixie ss legover
stepping ss legover > smear > paradon
smear > pixie ss mirage > toe set whirl
pixie ss mirage > pixie legover > pixie legover > pixie ss mirage
pixie legover > atomic mirage
atomic mirage > butterfly > blur
blur > pixie ss clipper > diving clipper
pixie ss clipper > blur > eggbeater
ripwalk > ripwalk > blur
pixie butterfly > DLO > pixie butterfly > drifter
whirl > spinning clipper > stepping mirage
spinning legover > smear
barrage > toe set drifter
ripwalk > stepping butterfly > repeat
stepping ss legover > pixie ss butterfly > ripwalk > repeat
spinning pdx mirage > pixie buttefly
gyro mirage > pixie butterfly
dlo > toe set ducking butterfly
That ought to be enough for now. If you have some you think I should try, please post them here.
Bob R.
Hi,
I completely agree that playing towards challenges produces better results sometime than shredding. So, here are some exercises that I came up with that I think you could either hit or work up to. You know, if you are ever particularly uninspired.
Feel free to add repeat to the end of them:
paradon-barrage-atom-
Pixie far swirl-dyno-DLO-
butterfly swirl- dyno- gyro mirage-
eggbeater-atom-
I completely agree that playing towards challenges produces better results sometime than shredding. So, here are some exercises that I came up with that I think you could either hit or work up to. You know, if you are ever particularly uninspired.
Feel free to add repeat to the end of them:paradon-barrage-atom-
Pixie far swirl-dyno-DLO-
butterfly swirl- dyno- gyro mirage-
eggbeater-atom-