Muffinman

[mannampepo]

YAY! im the 1000th comment!

[Muffinman]

I read in Manna's blog from a couple of days ago that he footed gangsta party, almost his first 7? So I decided I would have to beat him to a 7, since I've never done one. Today I hit reverse montage rake third try ever
It's a ridiculously lame trick, but I figure I gotta keep ahead of the kid at least for a little longer.

Just thought I would brag.
IN YOUR FACE MANNA!

[mannampepo]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!


i was just thinking of that before i was trying it. i was like "hmmm i dont think Erik has even busted a 7?" i guess i wont beet you to that now .
i will have to 1up when you come back.


in my face now, but you just wait a couple more years and i will be better.


................... your still to good Erik.

[Muffinman]

IFPA WORLD FOOTBAG CHAMPIONSHIPS 2008, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
Day 1
Friday, August 8, 2008:
I think Marita came home from work with her friend Jess and we all hung out for a while. Then we had errands to do because the day before we had decided last minute to leave a day earlier for Prague via the German carpool service (mitfahr-something). We were supposed to meet our ride at, like, 5 or 6 in front of Starbucks at the train station (hauptbahnhof?). We had lots of errands to do that we never really ended up getting to. We did manage to get to a bank, however, to exchange our total amount of Euros for Czech Krowns. For some reason Marita doesn't know her bank card access code, so unless her bank is open he can't take out money, and for some stupid reason, even though I upgraded to a top-notch bank account for this one month, my withdrawal limit has been, like, 50 Euros a day. A pain! So our total amount of Euros was, like, 120, which translated to 2000-some Krowns. We had been planning to cut my hair, because I hate it, but we ended up doing some window shopping for her instead. My hair still needs desparate trimmage.

We rushed home with little time, packed up the remnants of our stuffs (we'd packed before while hanging with Jess (and playing Pokemon (and Marita wearing all of her clothes at once for some reason?..))) and kicked it to the train station. We waited around a bit. Marita went and got us some snackies with my remaining Euros. Some nice buns and sweet baked thingies. The guy appeared and asked if we were going to Prague. He had a girl with him, who was another passenger. We rushed out to his car down the street a bit and rushed to the outskirts. This was my first experience in a car in Europe. Scary business, but in the end I found him to be an excellent driver! He was also super duper nice. We stopped for more snacks at a gas station before leaving Munich and then I got to experience the Autobahn. Interesting! Our driver (a Russian 3D animator working between Prague and Munich) drove at a reasonable speed of about 140 kph most of the way, and we didn't really experience too much craziness on the speed limitless highway. We were passed quite frequently, but not often at ridiculous speeds. A few times cars must have passed at 200, and I tried to get some of that one video with my digital camera. I got one, but it wasn't one of the faster ones. There was one incident where we were in the fast lane about to pass some semis, when a speeding car came up behind us at, like, 200+, zoomed out into the slow lane behind the trucks, and then back out in front of us with, like, the space of half of his own car length on either side... ridiculous. We had to slow down so the guy didn't kill himself...


The Autobahn: speed limit 120.


The Autobahn: speed limit not 120.


Us in our carpool to Prague.

The ride was more of less uneventful, though the German forests and small towns were kinda neat. There were LOTS of vineyards along the Autobahn. It took 4 hours. Most of the time we talked with the driver. There was a strange tension with the other girl riding with us. She didn't talk much and was really eccentric, like Luna Lovegood. We found out later that she was from a small country which just a few hours earlier in the news had been attacked with, like, 1000 people killed by some Russian faction... Our Russian driver kept asking us when she wasn't around (at stops and such) if we thought she was acting weird because of this, but we were quite sure she was just Luna Lovegood-like.

We arrived in Prague and the guy dropped us off, nicely, at the metro station where we could get to our hostel with only one transfer to the bus line (as opposed to three transfers from city centre). This was where the European culture shock really hit me. Munich was fine because Marita picked me up and helped me get everywhere and I didn't have to figure out the subway systems or anything on my own (we don't have subway in Winnipeg, and I barely ever needed to use the subway when I lived in Toronto). Plus here in Munich it's kinda of like a home away from home, because I have a house to come to; like a base of operations. It's very comforting. So Marita being just as clueless as me made it frustrating and scary. Our Russian driver said that, yeah Czechs speak English. No. Czechs do not speak English. Barely anything is written in English too. So I kinda stressed and hyperventilated a bit, but we managed to get to the hostel without a hitch (oh, well, first we had trouble trying to get change for subway tickets (at midnight when everything was closed...), having only 1000-Krown bills...) Well we made it to the hostel and discovered that we had to pay the whole week upfront with the deposit. I guess we should have figured that, but I kind of just thought it would be day-by-day like a hotel. I've never stayed at a hostel before. So we had to go find the ATM and take out money, but I had exceeded my 50-Euro limit and Marita had no PIN number with which to withdraw... luckily she had her Canadian bank card with money in the account, so she took money out of that account, though we have no idea how much she was charged for that. We went up to our room. Sketchy as whoa. Luckily I had brought a box of kleenex, 'cause they didn't have toilet paper... wonderful. I was stressed, so we just cuddled and slept. I was very happy for the privacy and that we had nobody else in our 3-bed room.


View from the hostel on the 11th floor.





Day 2
Saturday, August 9, 2008:
We woke up at noon-ish (we had no time piece and didn't realize until later that Prague has big clocks by almost all of their bus and tram stops (one of which was right out our 11th-story window); before discovering this clock I had realized I could use the time on my camcorder and add 7 hours from Winnipeg time) and got our stuff together leisurely and showered and all. Broke fast on some buns from the trip and iced tea that we'd picked up at the gas station leaving Munich (where we also got peanut M&Ms that somehow cost, like, 5 Euro??). We went downstairs and got a second key from the concierge after much coercion (they kept insisting that they didn't have a second key...). We stopped at the ATM and got out my daily limit (1000 Krowns (which is about 40 Euros, so I probably could have managed 1200-ish (which actually would have made a big difference the first few days!))) and then got change for the bus from the concierge. We bought tickets at the machine at the stop and bussed to the metro station. Here we spent, like, an hour trying to ind out where and how to buy weekly/monthly transit passes. For some reason 5-day and monthly passes are both 500 Krowns each... We rushed all around from station to station asking people where we could get this monthly pass, and finally, with 15 minutes left, we found the place and asked the woman. She said we needed photos for the passes and pointed to a photobooth just behind us. Actually, by this point we had 2 minutes until she closed. We got in and got pictures just in time... it turned out to be just one huge picture of Marita, though. Too big, and we were rejected from getting our passes. So we tried again but ran outta time and just as she was closing her window we jumped up and asked if we could just get the 5-day passes (which didn't require a photo). We got them and relaxed after so much stress of trying to figure this out, with nobody speaking English, and seriously asking so many people. We figured, screw it, we will just get 2 5-day passes (since we would be there for 9-10-ish days). So, yeah, we'd subwayed from stop to stop, trying to find the main train station where we found a info desk where the man didn't speak English, but after 10 minutes of trying to converse, told us the stop where we could buy our passes. We got on the subway to get there, but went the wrong direction. Got off at the next stop and turned around. Got there with 5 minutes and asked another info station who said you can buy them just over there, as he pointed. We went over "there" and asked at a convenience store in the station... she only sold 5-day passes, and pointed us back where we came... confused we wandered up out of the station and then back down again... we saw the counter between the two places and that's where we found the woman who wanted our pictures.

So we left the station again, less stressed now that we had our passes and wandered around a bit. I don't remember if we were trying to find anything in particular. Just a coffee shop I think. Somewhere to eat. We didn't see anything and couldn't read Czech, so we stopped at a corner and sat down to look at Marita's Germany book that has a chapter on Prague. We figured out how to get to the Old Town Centre by metro and decided we would try to get there to a cafe she wanted to check out. First we stopped at a grocery store across the street from where we were sitting and picked up some things. We got some buns for 4 Krowns each (1 Euro = 24 Krowns-ish) and some bananas I think and TOILET PAPER! And a couple other small, cheap things, on account of our limited funds (especially after spending 1000 Krowns (my daily allowance) on our passes).

We went back to the metro station and subwayed to the Old Town Centre area (I guess the closest stop that it says in Marita's travel book). We weren't sure which direction from the station exit to travel, but we asked a few places. We were particularly looking for the Tyn Church, because Marita's Cafe Ebel that she really wanted to see was supposed to be right beside it. We asked a few people and eventually got a direction. We stopped and got gyros at a little kiosk sticking out of a building. They were yummy, and we sat down to enjoy our meal while watching flocks of other tourists flood the alleys. We went in the direction we were pointed, and I thought I was leading us the same direction taking into acount twists and turns and corners and dead ends in the tiny alleys, but we somehow got turned around and had to ask someone -- oh, another tourist who had a map with which he was tracking his path. Eventually we found the square. Lots of people. And at the mouth of the square there was a little old man playing a crazy instrument and singing I suppose in traditional Czech style... I have a short video on my digital camera; it's very rad! The square was epic and we took lots of pictures.


The Astrological Clock.


Tyn Church from the other side of the square


Tyn Church from Northeast corner (near Cafe Ebel)


A church with a really fancy interior; giant, pure crystal chandelier, and frescos all over the ceilings.

Then we passed through an alley next to the Tyn Church (the giant huge one on the north edge of the square). Oh, there was also a free outdoor concert going on. We found the Cafe Ebel and relaxed and had some drinks. Marita had a "jumbo latte", which was ridiculously large and I had traditional Czech mead. It was nice and made Marita really happy -- Cafe Ebel became her happy place in Prague. We also got traditional Czech honey pie after seeing almost every other patron eating it. It was lso very yummy.


A typical alley in this old area.


Me enjoying my Czech mead like a true viking.


Czech honey pie.

Then we went to check out the St. Charles bridge, which I was told was basically the main tourist site in Prague. It was a little uneventful. Not quite as packed as I imagined, but walking up to it from across the street it was like a wave of people pounding own towards you. Once on the bridge we took pictures of the Christian sculpture adorning the sides of the bridge (very beautiful) and watched a caricaturist draw this woman really accurately. Then I wanted to check out Kampa Park because it is at the end of the bridge and it is an epic footbag location. We went and wandered it but never saw the "Lennon Wall" that I think they always played in at in videos... we went again another day to try to ind this area, but couldn't find it for the life of us. Frustrating


The street leading to the gate St. Charles Bridge. So packed, and epic towers.

Marita has another recommended place in her book that she wanted to go to, a restaurant called Club Arkitectu. It took us a while to find it, since it was tucked away in some dark alley (we must have passed and repassed the area, like, 3 or 4 times). The place was super nice and the food was delicious. We really enjoyed it it felt kind of like a combination of Roman catacombs and Yoda's house on Degoba all lit up with candles. I think almost any time we ate out, we would switch meals halfway through, which I found really fun, like, we would just exchange plates altogether. We tried some "fruit dumplings" for dessert, along with apple pie, I think. The "fruit dumpling" was quite lame -- it was, like, a gooey dough-like lump with jam on it... hardly what we expected. I think this was also supposed to be a specifically Czech sorta food. It was still okay. So we had sweet and sour chicken with mashed potatoes (DELICIOUS mashed potatoes!), smoked salmon linguini with half-skin potato appetizer thingies, banana juice and a latte, "fruit dumplings" and apple strudel. Actually I was gonna brag about how cheap it was, but I have written here that it was 800 Krowns, so 30 Euros, so 15 Euros each... so I mean for all of that food (which totally bloated us) it was still good, but not "Czech cheap" as I expected. Definitely worth it and a rad experience though! I highly recommend this restaurant.

So we traveled back to the hostel, walking up the street from the bus stop (oh yeah, the first night we arrived, we had the hardest time trying to find the hostel too... we were really sketched out. Though I suppose almost any time we tried to find something significant for the first time in Prague, it was pitch black out...) and were walking up to the hostel, when I took a double take at a group of people and recognized Wiktor Debski and Gosia! Excitement! Has Worlds just begun?? We walked over and said hi. Wiktor didn't recognize me at first -- maybe because there were lights making us silouettes? Anyway, it was great to see such friendly faces as the first at Worlds. These guys are so nice. And then I met Michal! Cod! That was a real honour. I also met two other Poles, but I forget their names. One was the guy who hit terraging eggbeater on Modified. I introduced myself to Cod, but made the blunder of calling him Michael, pronounced like North American Michael. The SECOND after I said it, I remembered his signature and how to say it "MEE-how", and kept kicking myself later. I actually told him later about this. So we hung a bit and said hi. Then Some Frenchies appeared from the hostel and came to say hi. I met the three of them, one of them was Serge, who seemed super nice and recognized me, I think. The Poles were waiting for a busload of people traveling from Poland's training camp just the previous week. It was said to contain 40 footbaggers. Apparently they kept getting lost. Well, I heard many elaborations on this story, and they were quite funny. I don't really remember too well, though. Maybe someone can enlighten. So they were waiting, and we decided to go upstairs and just relax. But almost as soon as we got upstairs I looked out the window and saw what I thought was probably this bus, then as people started flooding out I knew it must be, so we went back down ready to meet some people.

We went to the window on the first floor (above the "lobby" floor) and looked out the window to see if I recognized anybody. I looked around and finally saw Kevin Regamey. Marita told me after that the whole time I was looking out the window, people were looking up and recognizing me. That was really neat. Well, no, I guess I did recognize the Finns. But as soon as I saw Kevin, he, like, started yelling, "Erik Chan!!!" Haha. And then we went down to the lobby full of footbaggers. I didn't recognize ANY of them. Well, except Olaf and Ners whom I met for the first time briefly! Maybe a few others too. We tried to make our way outside to see Kevin. Greetings ensued. He then introduced me to his friend Thoumas(?) who I think was the winner of Shred 30 at Worlds. And then I slowly met the Finns. They were kinda intimidating looking. I think Lauri introduced himself first. We talk on MSN somtimes. That was neat. Actually... I'm not sure that I barely saw the Finns play at all at Worlds (I mean, less-so than anybody else!). I met Anssi, who is super sweet and humble. He is also much smaller than I pictured in videos. I saw Mathieu Gauthier and Ianek and side hi. Then Lauri introduced me to Riku Ahola and Samu Ahola, which was cool. They recognized me, which was super cool, since they are such superheroes. Umm.. some others too, I'm sure. Aleksi was there, who is one of my absolute favourite players, but I was so intimidated and so didn't meet him until later.

After hanging and talking a bit we were gonna go back upstairs again. But we ended up hanging out with Ners and Anssi and Kevin in a little circle in the lobby just talking. I also met Gielnik here. It was weird because he said his name and I thought I understood that he was Gielnik The Great, but in his videos also I thought he was huge, like, over 6 feet! He was also really shy and sweet and that was unexpected since he's such an amazing player (obviously, as he is now the world champion...!!!!) We really liked Gielnik. Gee, I probably met more people here, but I don't remember all. I think we met Marco Hartig for the first time. He was really nice and I liked hanging with him. Most footbaggers are just the most awesome, nicest people. It was great.

Then that was pretty much it and we went up to bed.




Official word of Worlds 2008: Splendid (as popularized by Szymon)
Official song of Worlds 2008: Aggressive Alpine Skiing (as overplayed by Dexter)
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIiZ5tIZNG8 )

I have more pictures of these other things, but they are on my manual camera and will not be developed until I am back in Canada with excessive amounts of money. Also more days to come, potentially with actual footbag news and highlights...

[Asmus]

Hey Erik!

Looking forward to the rest of your write-up.

The guy you called Thoumas is probably Tuomas Riisalo.
And yes he is the guy that won shred30 and he is sick at footbagu!

It was really cool meeting you and I would love to hang out some more next time we meet.

Me and my girlfriend both agreed that you are really pretty.

We should totally swap drawings in the future even though we both forgot this time.

Hope to see you in Berlin!

- A

[Muffinman]

Me and my girlfriend both agreed that you are really pretty.

That's really sweet. Thanks guys! I have below zero self-confidence, so it's always heart-warming to get such compliments. It was very nice to meet you guys too. We didn't really hang out much or shred... even once? But next time for sure. Oh yeah, and Marita asked if you were related to Lise. Haha. I told her that everyone asks that.

EDIT: My last year's Worlds writeup will probably remain way better than this year's will be, on account of the lack of footbag this year. I'm re-reading it and reliving the good times from Florida (a million times better!). Here is where last year's write-up starts: http://modified.in/footbag/viewtopic.ph ... &start=640

[Muffinman]

Day 3
Sunday, August 10, 2008:
We woke up around 12 again and again took our time getting ready. While Marita showered I wrote notes in my sketchbook for this write-up from the past two days. We went downstairs and took out money from the ATM in the plaza outside the hostel and went to get groceries from the Albert (in the mall that's off of the plaza). We got some granola bars, donuts, and this sausage rolled in a flaky pastry (which turned out to be our favourite breakfast all week!) -- Marita thought the sausage roll looked gross, but I think I got two anyway for myself.. Then our laundry expedition began.

We had read in Marita's book about a laundromat called "Laundry King" close to a metro station. So great, we went and made it to the station and wandered around looking for the address. Nothing seemed to exist at the right address, so we asked in a bar, where the waitress had to get somebody to speak English for us. He told us that the Laundry King moved to two metro stops away at the city centre, but that was all he knew, so, okay, we subwayed to the city centre and looked around a bit. Knowing we could be looking forever, we went into a cafe and asked where the Laundry King was. The guy said, "Try in this area" (that's what my note says), which was no help. So we found another Cafe Ebel (a really small one with one attendant and one table) and asked where the Laundry King was. She said to find the tourist booth and ask there. We went to the Old Town Square and asked at a booth and he pointed us across the square to a pink coloured building that was supposed to be the tourist information centre. Halfway there we decided, screw it, this is such a pain, let's jst go to one of these many hotels and wash our laundry there. We went in one and asked different people where we could do our laundry -- they had no idea. Czechs are so helpful, yes? So then, whatever, we went across the street and found the tourist information centre. The guy seemed super helpful, he looked it up, gave us a map, marked us on the map and where this laundromat was. It seemed to be in a mall. We walked in the direction we thought it was and soon discovered it was the opposite direction. Once we were coming close, as we thought, we thought it might be this mall that we had pased before trying to find the Club Arkitectu. We got there, and no, it wasn't, but there was a metro station, and so we took the metro to the nearest metro station near this mall on the map. Bingo, since the mall and metro station were attached. We were so tired by this point (3 hours looking?) and stopped at a Starbucks to get Marita a drink. We also asked where the laundromat was. The girl didn't know, but after some thought said that there might be something just down the hall. So we fixed up her drink and went down the hall. Lo: Prague's only laundromat. Nope. Turns out that it's a dry-cleaner and they don't clean underwear, socks, or tshirts...wonderful. That's, like, all we need cleaned. Wow. Prague sucks. Where the hell do you do laundry??? (Oh yeah, the concierge at the hostel had no idea either.) So, this woman didn'tspeak English, but we somehow understood each other and she was super nice and wrote down a metro stop, a street and an address. We decided to shop around a bit, since we needed a few things anyway. We found nothing useful, except expensive socks for Marita (she somehow only brought, like, 3 pairs?) Then we decided to go find this place, hoping that finally it may yield some productive result. We subway to this other metro stop and check our map and walk down the street. We reach the place really soon and walk in the door and see washing machines just down the hall!! Success?? Yes. After, literally, 4-5 hours we found a laundromat in Prague. It was actually super, super nice. There was a guy doing laundry there and he spoke English and helped us figure out how it worked. He also knew about the Laundry King and that it closed down apparently, or whatever. Well, we did our laundry, and the place was called, like, "Wash Cafe", or something -- a cafe and laundromat rolled into one! I think they may have had wireless internet too. We were juts happy to be able to wash our clothes though after such a painful excursion. We hung out for some time and victory was ours.

We went home, got stuff together, and were going to head out to the event site for the first day of Worlds. We didn't make it there until 9ish? We got to the tram stop, but it was dark and there was no stadium anywhere in sight, so we asked many people until finally, like, the fourth person asked, "Stadium Slavia?" And that sounded familiar, so I was, like, "Yeah!" And she directed us down the street. We walked and saw big buildings which must have been the complex, but we had no idea in which building to go. Luckily we passed many footbaggers leaving, I guess, and I recognized, Flash, Aidan, Jay Boychuk, and Ianek, I think. Aiden pointed us in the right direction and said we had 5 minutes left to register. Wah! So we rushed past other potential footbaggers (like I said, I didn't recognize 90% of European footbaggers, which was super weird!) We made it there as they were announcing that registration was about to close. Peter Brocka was sitting behind the table and giving me an eye. I wasn't really sure it was him, but suspected a little, though at first he did look far different than I was used to in pictures and video. So when we registered and gave our names, he was, like, "You're Erik Chan?" And we shook hands and officially met, which was nice. Then we got our players packs. I looked around and didn't really know anyone, so we were just, like, okay, let's go back now... Since registration was over and I guess that was it for the day. Apparently we missed some light shred and stuff, but nothing significant.

We were walking back to the tram and debating whether we should try to find some place to eat, when we were hailed by Seb, Mathieu, and Caro. Well, it was Seb who called out to us. I don't think I heard at all, and Marita gave me a nudge, and we went and said hi. The Montreal crew is all so nice. It was good to see them all again. Caro pointed us in the direction of an Italian place that was still open for 30 minutes if we hurried. We said bye and ended up heading over there. It was terrible service, as they were just closing. Our food options were really limited, and we both ended up with pizza, which was actually incredible. They wouldn't let us have tap water, which is a big downside of Prague and Europe in general. They don't seem to understand the concept of water. (Non-bubbley, free water anyway...) So, the pizza was delish. Mine was, like, spinach and egg, and Marita's was... like a giant pizza pop. A meat pizza folded in half for some reason. We shared half and half, and it was so perfect, and beyond satisfying and so cheap! It was, like, 5 Euro per pizza (pretty big pizzas).

We went back to the hostel and somehow caught Flash, Aidan, and Jay walking back to the hostel too, and walked with them. We internetted it up a bit. Marita checked her email, and then I played around, and Marita kept saying that people were eyeing me like they knew who I was, which was always neat. Lauri came and said hi, and Olaf too, and then I met Asmus and his girlfriend. Yves Kriel also came down the stairs and I saw him and we exchanged strange nods... kind of like he knew who I was, but we'd never met and still didn't... Saw Jakob, Max, and Paul (I don't know if I'd met them by this point.. I don't think so). Talked with Szymon a bit and Anssi. Oh, okay, no, I didn't meet Gielnik last night, it was today... I don't remember if I was still at the computer at this point? I don't think so. Finns were drinking blueberry vodka from the bottle, which was probably not an abnormal occurance. We heard stories about Lauri passing out in the bushes and that Samu was passed out on the floor upstairs. During some discussion we also heard that Jeremy Mirken was at the Polish camp, so I asked if he came to Worlds, and discovered that he did indeed. I guess just for net though... (obviously?)

Then we went upstairs to bed and rode the elevator with Gielnik. He's really, really quiet, and very sweet. He said he was rooming with Kuba, Kuba's girlfriend (I forget her name!), and Norek. We got off the elevator and it turned out that were were neighbours, though we didn't really see much of each other in the hostel. And that was about it for this day. I kind of stopped taking pictures when Worlds started, as my digital camera's battery died, and the stupid Czech outlets didn't work with Marita's European converter/adapter thingy. The Czech outlets (at least in our room) have this stupid single prong that doesn't work with regular European plugs... It didn't make any sense. So, well, I maybe took, like, 8 pictures total, and all with my manual camera... so will have to wait for those. Geez, my luck with pictures at Worlds is terrible. Last year my camera died on me the first day that I started to take pictures. Bleh. NEXT YEAR! Oh also, in the morning, on the way out of the hostel to the grocery store across the plaza, we met Kuba and his girlfriend practicing doubles. I kind of made eye-contact, and recognized Kuba, but I guess I don't think eyes connected, so I kept walking. Marita nudged me and told me that he tried to say hi, but I didn't hear, so we went up and said hi, and this was super cute, and one of the highlights of Worlds for me. We introduced ourselves, and Kuba, in very broken English said something like, "It has always been... my dream... to meet you!" It was super cute and sweet. I wish I had spent more time with them. They were super cute in their doubles routine too. And just sitting in those poofy chairs in the indoor gym later in the week. Anyway, yeah. So I have sightseeing pictures, but... that's about it.I'm enjoying Hania's pictures on Facebook though! Great memories (Worlds wasn't as bad as I make it out to have been... I mean Worlds is Worlds after all. I was just really bitter.)

(Also, yeah, day 3 (although really, only the first actual day of Worlds itself) and still nothing about actual footbag. Yes, it is disappointing, but honestly, there will not be many footbag highlights like in my last year's write-up, simply because there was not much footbag (as I've whined about over and over again). But I will try. There is some, and I did have some fun circles and meet lots of people.)

[Muffinman]

I had my first session since Worlds (so, really, my 3rd-ish session since I injured myself almost 2 months ago) on.. Thursday I think. I was supposed to finally meet the Munich crew to shred, but they all bailed except Markus, who is a player from a town an hour away from Munich. Funny that it was just us and we both came to shred with the Muncheners. He was really happy to play with me since he is all alone in his town for footbag. I did have some minor highlights which was fun. Nothing really big, but nice considering all of these physical setbacks:
-a run starting with sumo, blurry + stepping rev whirls BSOS, and gyro DLO BSOS > handcatch (sumo first try after he was trying)
-A run with fog BSOS and some other stuff. (This isn't hard for me, but I never think to do certain tricks like fog)
-Reverse montage rake (my first 7, just to beat Manna to a 7)

Yeah. That's basically it, actually. In a few hours I am finally meeting some of the Munich crew for shred. Gonna be fun times. I don't think Bjoern is going to be there, though, and he is the one I have kind of known online for years and years... I hope I even get to meet him while I'm here!! I have to leave Europe soon

(Oh, also played with Marita last night. Mostly fooling around while trying to help her school. I played around with some zooming, 'cause I wanna own it, and it is low impact, but it got dark fast. She is stoked on hack again, and I bought her Quantums at Worlds. So I'm gonna bring her hack stuff with me to the session, and maybe she will play with us. I know she is excited to play with me. She wanted to wake up early this morning before work to play, after playing a bunch last night. So cute. Actually we fooled around with some doubles. Our best run was:
Marita toe set > Erik clipper > far legover > Marita toe stall [repeat] > Marita toe set > Erik clipper > sidewalk > Marita toe stall [repeat] > Marita toe set > Erik clipper > blurry legover)

[Anz]

Cool write up Erik. It's nice to read different peoples write-ups. You have some errors though, but that's alright.

I only must correct that Jeremy Mirken wasn't at the Polish footbag camp before Worlds, he was at Turku Open.
The only foreign players at the footbag camp were Ianek, Mathieu, Kevin and me.

[Muffinman]

Had a session today at Sendlinger Tor here in Munich. Finally met the Munich crew. Plus a bonus that I got Tuan Vu -- who somehow happened to be in Munich simultaneously to myself -- to come out and freestyle. This was seriously way more fun than most of Worlds -- jamming with Tuan Vu? And having him know who I am/remembering me? And having him give me props on almost every run Man, he was playing pretty well too. He went straight into a pretty long guiltless run with no warm up. He was playing super light (I've never played with him before) and busting some tougher tricks like food processor, shooting mirage, pdx torques and blurry whirls and such. One run opened with, like, 5 atom smashers (Disco Ninja style of course -- rubberman truly is rubberman when Tuan busts it!).

Daryl is pretty good. He was laying down some consistent runs of, like, 20 contacts or so. Some shuffle and ducking. Interesting links. He hit one combo that he said he'd never sealed before: atom smasher > assassin > butterfly swirl. That was cool. And Tobi had pretty short strings, but he hit some harder tricks for him, like his second ever whirl (and then a few more times?) and DLO and some ducking I think too. His style reminded me of Dan Klokow.

Man, that was really fun. The Munich guys are cool (though I hope I can still meet Bjoern before I leave!!), and hanging with Tuan was such an honour. It was really... surreal. He is another meek, humble player who is just so easy going and impossible not to get along with. I played okay too. Not super well or even great, I don't think, but I had quite a few long runs. My opening warm up run was, like, 50+ contacts. It felt like way more, but I didn't count. I'll try to recap some highlights:
-a run with spinning rev whirl BSOS and stepping rev whirl BSOS and more
-a run with mobius BSOS and ending on gyro DLO > handcatch
-a run opening with lots of symposium (although maybe ducking?), with clipper diving symp mirage BSOS and then ducking PS mirage BSOS, with lots of spinning and ducking linking all of it, and probably no bails between tricks.
-a run of, like, 30+ just ducking and spinning ducking

And then Daryl had set an alarm for me for when I had to go get Marita from work, and so I stopped and rested and started getting my stuff together, and Tuan was, like, "One more combo?" And so I dropped twice on the first trick but then went into a 35 contact run with rev whirlygig BSOS and some ducking symp mirages and stuff. It felt like a nice way to end the session

[Kuba]

Cool Worlds' narrative, Erik! Thanks for mentioning me and my girlfriend, whose name's Dorota It was very nice to meet you there and I hope we will manage to play together some day.

I'm injured, like you, and you inspired me to continue playing even without whirls and double dexes. Thanks!

[ebo]

i can't believe tuan's in town, too.

I hope we can meet up, erik, maybe on thursday? my work/family
schedule is so super tight at the moment, so spare time always comes
spontaneous and unplannable. maybe thursday around 15:00 or so?
i'll let you know!! I do hope we meet before you leave!!!

[hacksterbator]

man, that's so cool that you got to jam with tuan!

[Muffinman]

I just had a brief warm-up session with Marita. I've decided to try to play more frequently, but mybe not very long, and to mostly concentrate on osis and zooming tricks. So fun, so tough for me, so styley, so low-impact! So I hit a few neat things, and osii felt pretty on, and I'm feeling optimistic about this. I hit:
-5 spinning osii (my previous record was maybe 3? But this felt so easy!)
-diving osis > gyro osis [repeat] (from my challenge thread, I think..)

I also hit some other stuff like ducking osis > diving [repeat]; spinning osis > gyro; uhh.. and other stuff? 2 rotations of osis > gyro clipper > osis > spinning clipper [repeat] (so, 16 contacts) to a run.

I also jammed with the Munich crew again on Thursday? I met Bjoern and Max. Man, I love the Munich crew. They are sooo nice. Bjoern showed me pictures of his 7-month old daughter and had these stories about cycling with his family all over the city, which sounds like a blast. Tuan also showed up as I was leaving, but we all got pictures (thanks to Marita for taking, like, pictures with 4 different cameras for us ) and shared some greetings. I met one of Marita's friends or the first time before leaving for back home, and so had to leave earlier, but it was nice. I wish I'd had more time to chat with Bjoern though. He seems like a really swell guy!

[Muffinman]

Day 4
Monday, August 11, 2008:
Woke up at 12:30 again. Got ready and went downstairs to buy groceries at the Albert. Marita had tried a bite of my sausage roll (that's what she said) the other morning and really liked it, so we got one each again today. Delish. We found that they have this "multivitamin" juice everywhere in Prague (Also that grapefruit juice seems to be the most popular kind of juice after orange (and that Banana is pretty common!)), so we tried it (and really liked it!), got more of our 4-krown donuts, some bell peppers and tomatoes, and left for the event site.

We had no trouble finding our way to the event site the second time in the sunlight. If it had been light out earlier, we probably would have found it a lot easier. So we walked past the tram stops, and the other sports buildings in the complex, and came to the football stadium/track where Worlds was held. We were coming up the road to the site and saw a circle with Sergey Kozlov playing at that moment. I froze in my tracks and juts stopped to watch. He EVENTUALLY dropped, and we were gonna continue on to the stands, but then Aleksi Airinen got the bag next and I just couldn't move. Aleksi is one of my favourite players! Man, I can't remember what they were hitting, but it was enough to keep me rooted to the ground. And then, okay, I'll go get a seat and get settled and watch more of this epic circle, but no, Anssi was next and busting his usual double dex madness.. Finally after Anssi ended his run, we pulled ourselves away and continued on. Epic.

We walked from the top of the bleachers down on the left-most side. Right in front was a circle of Canadians (Ben Roscoe and Jay Boychuk), with what I later learned was the Stanford crew. I first recognized Flash and Aidan as the first North Americans I knew and we went to sit down with them. To the left of the Canadian circle was one of those big inflated yellow dome thingies, and to the left of that the epic circle with Sergey, Aleksi, Anssi, and, I think Tuomas? We sat and watched, and I was too engrossed by watching shred that I couldn't bring myself to get ready to shred myself. Justin Dale came and sat with us and we said hi. Then finally we were gonna get changed to play, so we went around the corner to get changed. We came back out and Jeremy Mirken came around behind us. We said hi and I introduced Marita to him, as I did with Justin Dale I think. Uhh. Then Marita and I went and played in priate, warming up (my first time playing in over a month - testing out my ankle) behind the big yellow inflatable blob. Marita was coming really close to legover, trying for the first time, basically. It was exciting, and we were having a good time. I could tell my ankle was weak, and I felt.. worn and like every movement was pretty taxing, shred-wise... but I finally warmed up and Marita encouraged me to go join a circle. I scouted out from our seats for a while, trying to find a small enough circle (I tried to avoid joining any circles 4 people or bigger, and it seemed almost all circles were at least 4 people) and I finally found one. My first circle at Worlds in Prague and I can't tell you the players' names. My bad. Man I was so bad at remembering peoples' names! Like, INSTA-forget. So, people at Worlds may be able to help me out. The one player had black-dyed hair and did pretty well in the first rounds of prelim routines. Man.. I can't even describe the other player. And.. the third, I think I completely forget whom. So bad of me. It was fun, though I played pretty weakly. No highlights really in that circle. Though, Kevin Regamey came and filmed us a little, and then apparently Jay Boychuk and Eric Chang (oh yeah, when Marita and I came down to sit in the bleachers for the first time bfore playing, Eric Chang came running up, saying something, like, "Oh my god, Ken Somolinos! Nice to meet you!") came and sat down just to watch me play. I think the Stanford guys too. It's weird to think that people think about me the same way that I think about players that I look up to. But it never seems to stop happening Marita came and sat too. Szymon came and joined the circle a bit before I left, he said he had wanted to play with me. That was fun. He is so laid back... in his shred and...all other aspects. I also noticed some clapping from the multitude of Poles in the stands during some of my runs (I was glassesless).

So then I was kinda spent, sweaty, sore, and warmed up with my first circle (and first playing in a while after injury) and sat down on the side with Marita and the others to watch. Szymon sat down shortly after and we talked a bit. Then he left and played in a circle with Hania and someone else, and Andrew McCarger. Oh yeah, I met Andrew for the first time, after kind of "knowing" him for years and years. He came up to me in that first circle and introduced himself, and I was a little confused at first, because he just said, "Andrew", but said things that alluded that it was Andrew McCarger. I mean, I recognized him, but he definitely looked different than I imagined. I think it was mostly the facial hair that threw me off. Anyway. Our meeting was kind of awkward because I was in a circle and he came up and we shook hands, and then he was kind of, like, "Well, I'll talk to you when you're not playing." So yeah, the circle of Ners, Hania, someone else, and Andrew. Marita really wanted me to join it because she really likes Ners and Hania. Well I wasn't quite ready to play again. But then Michal (Cod) came and sat beside me and hung out while we just watched some shred and chatted a bit. I like Michal a lot. He was definitely one of my favourite people, if not favourite person, to meet at Worlds. So then eventually I did go and join that circle when the fourth guy I didn't know left. I was neat to see Andrew play in person I watched videos of him over and over before I was guiltless, like.. 8 years ago.

Oh yeah, back when we were sitting on the bottom left of the bleachers (maybe before we warmed up together) the Poles arrived, like, 20+ of them, all in their Polish jerseys. They posed dramatically and stood there posing for a few minutes. For the first while of that first day I only saw Olaf pose in his jersey and sunglasses and not say any words -- just pose. Team Poland was dominant at Worlds for sure.

So when I went and joined the circle with Hania and Ners and Andrew, it was just after Michal came and sat with me, and I felt bad for walking away just as he came to it with me. Then after playing just a bit in that circle, I saw Ken Somolinos (who'd just arrived) warming up in a circle. So after a bit in the circle, I guess Ken had lost most of his circle, and it was just him and Takumi, and he came and stole me and said I should join his circle. I didn't really say anything to my former circle, and just left, and I felt rude for that too. So I greeted Ken and Takumi and we played hack. They both playe pretty well, though not great for their standards -- they were just warming up after all. I was playing pretty bad, but may have hit a few okay things. Ken played pretty hard actually and hit cool links, but then kept restraining himself because of his knee pain. Takumi kept hiting "symposium spinning clipper" bailing from whirlwind, and I gave him props on that. Hehe. Asmus sat and watched, and someone else that I knew, but maybe hadn't met yet too? Sergey? Someone else also shortly after joined the circle. It was someone good, and I felt REALLY out of place, wobbly and out of practice. Who was that player?... Oh yeah, Gielnik. Haha. No wonder. I left shortly after, 'cause I didn't wanna push myself to keep up with them, and I was playing really badly and wanted to stop looking stupid in front of better players Gielnik is so ridiculously light on his feet, and he plays like every trick is just... cake. Oh no, it wasn't Sergey who watched, it was Lauri. I think maybe Lise too eventually? Or Mads? Or both?

Then we went back to sit in the stands a bit more to rest. Marita wanted to move because of some guys who called out at some girls, something, like, "Polish girls are hot!" to an ignored response from the Polish girls. We decided to go for a walk and find water. We walked over a few meters to the stairs where Eric Chang and Steve Goldberg were standing, and I said hi to Steve and introduced Marita. We talked a bit nicely, and unawkwardly (which is also an uber-plus). We asked him where o get water, and he said there is nothing on site unless you want to drink the water from the bathroom, to which he warned against. Later Jakob Wagner, I think, warned me when he saw me filling up in the bathroom, to be careful because sometimes the chlorine levels are really high... Wonderful. So anyway, so left and were walking down the road from the top of the stands and we saw some other footbaggers (Finns) walking the path from the bottom of the stands that converge further down where the hill touches ground. They came by and it was Anssi and Aleksi, Aleksi introduced himself to me, and knew who I was, and that was just super cool. Just so cool. I kind of didn't say anything though, and after wasn't sure if I should have said something, like, "You're my favourite!!!!" or what. He was really down to earth and nice and... really unlike a lot of other BAPsters who I feel kind of really ignore and look down on lesser players. Anyway, there was also Mikko who I hadn't met (in fact never met!), and who has also been really inspirational to me, and I think he knew me too, but for some reason there was only a silent acknowledgement there. Aleksi and Anssi told us that we could get water on the site, at the concession. So we went, and no. Oh, and that was our first encounter with the really, really, really incredibly rude Worlds staff (like, the non-footbaggers that were hired, I guess?) No, no water. So I went and filled up in the disgusting bathroom. Hooray for water at Worlds.

Then we had moved our stuff further to the right to where the other big yellow inflatable thing sat (competitions were held kinda in an area between the two big bubbles) on account of the creep factor. We kind of just sat and watched as an epic circle (perhaps the sickest circle at Worlds I personally witnessed? (Though I for some stupid reason missed the finals night shred...)) formed. I think Andrew Grant was just warming up and then Olaf joined? And then Gielnik and Max Kerkhof. Man alive. Epic. I missed most of this circle because I went off to shred after watching for a bit, but heard clapping from the bleachers every 30 seconds, just non-stop on account of the hardcority. I don't even know, let's see if I'd written down some highlights. Nope, but I remember Olaf had a run with jani > sunil > jani midstring. He was laying down some stuff like food > ripwalk [repeat] midstring, alpine food processors, locomotions; spinning whirl > blurry whirl [repeat] midstring like cake... you know.. typical ridiculous Olaf stuff.. gangsta partys all over. Some nuclear... really hard links midstring that you would never expect. So then I went off and joined a circle with Jakob and someone else whose name I forget. Then Paul joined. It was pretty cool to play with the Berlin guys. I didn't play too well again, but had some okay runs here and there. Jakob is super good. He just owns swirl tricks and dynos. He can do downtime dynos like nobody's business... you think he's gonna bail to osis and, nope, he tosses a reverse whirl in there ahead of it. Paul played just like in videos I'd watched for years. Solid. Apparently a highlight I had was gyro diving clipper BSOS and gyro DLO, and then a note saying, "ankle pain = pretty lame shred overall". Ah yeah, so I was going to leave that circle I think, but then someone announced that they were going to set up lighting since it was going to start getting dark soon, and that we had to move our stuff. So that ended the circle at an opportune moment.

Then I went and sat down and watched Honza and Milan play on the other side of the right-side inflatble thingy. They stopped playing shortly after, but then Norek took it up. Ken came and sat with me a lot which was nice, so I talked with Ken and with Taylor a bit, and actually officially met her for the first time. Taylor is awesome, and we like her a lot. And of course Ken is awesome too. Uhh, I talked about stitching a bit with Taylor. She said she liked my keychain thingy and then told me about how she has this weird problem when she stitches where, like, she uses a larger template than Matt Cross, but that her bags come out smaller? I tried to explain what I thought might be the problem, but I think I looked at one of her bags, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working right for her. I talked to Marco a bit and he'd given me the bag he'd stitched me before, which was really nice of him! Then I talked with Nathan from Australia a bit (I had met him and Caroline Birch earlier when I said hi to Phil Morrison up by the concession and introduced Marita -- he introduced us to his friends when I asked if any other Aussies or Kiwis had come to Worlds). Nathan asked if he could buy me a beer, which was super nice, even though I don't really drink much (though I've started drinking radlers (half beer half lemonaid) a lot here in Germany. So he went and got me one and then I waited 10 minutes or so for him, and then we drank and talked. He was super nice and talked a lot about his daughter whom he said he dreamed about every night and missed a lot. Sergey Kozlov also walked by around here and introduced himself to me, which was super cool, 'cause he is such a star. I felt too intimidated to talk to him all week, but at one point I was sitting with Anssi and Sergey and felt kind of... not out of place, which was weird, since normally I would have. I guess bcause they (especially Anssi) are so nice.

Then we were thinking of going to get some food since Marita was bored and not quite used to the idea of Worlds and footbag 24/7. It turned out that Caroline and Nathan and some others were going to get food anyway, and so Caroline invited us to go with them, though I think we were all planning to go to the same restaurant anyway (the Italian place from the other night). We ended up going with a group (Caroline, Nathan, Ken, Alex from Vienna, Hania, Verena, someone else whose name I forget (sorry!), Scott Bevier, and Marco Hartig and the girl he was hanging with. I was all disheveled from hacky, and found it a little hot, but since I was already sweating (from the not-o-slow walk with 2 really heavy bags), the heat kept it going and I was, like, pouring sweat the whole time in the resturant, which was kinda awkward, and people gave me weird looks. I'm really, really sweaty, okay? Marita and I split a yummy lasagna. A bunch of people got pizzas, which took a while to come (like until after we were done eating...) Marita talked a lot with Verena which was cute. I'm glad she enjoyed herself and made some friends! Also, when we sat down and were eating, we noticed on the other side of the room was another footbag table of Poles, and just beside us a table of net players. Then a bit into our meal, the Montreal crew came in. And close to when we were finishing, well.. basically EVERYONE (Germany and Paris, et al) else came. Everybody totally ate here all the time. They probably hated us, because it was often later when they were closing.

We lft the restaurant and outside I met Tukka Antikainen(?) for the first time. Oh no, wait, I met him when we were leaving the event site as a group for the restaurant. I met Ville outside the restaurant. I was confused because he had hair, and in ll videos I'd ever seen of him, he had a shaved head... actually.. it seems to me that the older Finnish crew all shaved their heads at the same time at one point kind of like the old school Boulder Blades (Daryl, Eli, Rippin, Highlander, etc.) Anyway, so then for some reason when we had pooled our money to pay, we had a couple hundred extra krowns and didn't know how we came to that, so we gthered it together and all went out to the grocery store, Testo, down the street to buy some beers and stuff just because. Marita and I picked up some stuff too while we were there. I only had my stupid teeny water bottle with me, so we tried to buy a bunch of big 1.5-litre bottles. We asked Hania to translate which waters were bubbley and which weren't, which was great, but then we ended up with minral water, which just had a terrible taste. Oh well. We also got some juice and I got an ice cream cone to slow the ebb of sweat. Then we streetcarred back to the hostel in the rain. I showered and got ready for bed but then heard footbaggers down the hall, so I peeked out the door and saw another door ajar. I went and peeked in, since I heard footbag talk (something about Vasek?) and saw footbaggers. Ken was there and some Madrid players -- I met Paloma... well, not really, but kind of. And I just kind of sat there listening to their conversation, but felt out of place, so I left almost right away. As I was leaving, Kevin, Samu, Anssi, and... Tuomas(?) were coming in. Kevin introduced me to the bellybutton game, and I was really bad at it. I tried to battle Kevin and then Samu. I was very giggley. Anyway, then I slept for real.

[Muffinman]

Shred Session 20080830:
Well I decided to play again today, since this morning's session was so brief. I schooled the crap out of osis and zooming. Man. That was fun, but it hurt my shins a surprising amount -- I guess my legs aren't used to the twisting involved in zooming. My ankle also got a bit weak and I noticed my clipper form on that foot looked floppy like back when I first hurt it. Anyway, so some highlights again:
-spinning osis > gyro osis [repeat] X2
-osis > gyro clipper > osis > spinning clipper [repeat] X3
-5 spinning osii again (both sides maybe)
-double spinning osis [both sides] (first time?)
-osis > gyro osis X7? (so 14 contacts)
-5 gyro osii [both sides] -ish?
-ducking osis > gyro clipper X5ish (10 contacts)
-osis > mobius [both sides] (prolly not new, but a bit of light training for repeating mobiuses -- I will be able to do it when my shins don't hurt so much)
-diving osis X3 > ducking osis X3 [repeat] (missed the last 2 ducking osii, I think...)

Probably some other stuff.
Man. It was fun. So yeah, on the mobius note, Ken asked me at Worlds to try to hit mobius X2, 'cause I haven't, and I came the closest I prolly have -- basically off my foot. And then he asked for spinning mobius, which I was pretty close to too. Neato. So yeah. I love footbag, and I can't wait to change up my game again to be even more styley with osis tricks galore!

The neatest parts were probably that it was a workout, but just perfect enough that I could just keep going and going for, like, an hour or so straight without almost any breaks whatsoever. Also it was the most fun just soloing that I have had in... ages. It was so bloody satisfying to hit this stuff and just... zooming feels awesome. I couldn't believe how controlled and Byrin-esque stalled those spinning osii were!



EDIT: Also, I have to share a video of this Munich artist I saw playing in the streets. I took a video with my digital camera, but it was, like, after 9 PM and you can't see anything. This is a great example of how awesome he is. The second time I saw him performing I bought his CD. I had Marita film me shredding in font of different sights in Berlin and Munich (was about to film in Prague when we decided last minute to hop on the bus to Berlin) with which I am going to slap together a video when I can. A track from this guy's CD is going to totally be the soundtrack. Incredible. EPIC:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVigweKMyYI[/youtube]

[Muffinman]

So I live in Munich, Germany now.

I've been italicizing my posts in between my Worlds write-up days like I did last year, but I have been really lazy with that this year, and so much time has elapsed that it just looks bad, since this whole page is all italics now. Oh wellz. I mean to continue the write-up for sure. But anyway. So yeah, uhh, I guess the best way to explain my decision to stay in Munich (I re-booked my flight for, like, half a year away) is to quote what I wrote in the Hackrifice 10 thread:

Dear footbag friends:

It is with a heavy heart that I must report that I will no longer be attending Hackrifice 10. I sprung this on Andrew the other day really unfairly since I had promised a bunch of you a place to stay and a me to shred with. Since he as organizer now has to figure out what to do with a lack of floorspace for 6-some people, I've put him in a giant, stress full pickle. I feel really badly that I will miss out on hanging with people whom with I was really, really, really looking forward to hanging (not to mention that I promised people a place to stay and can no longer follow through). It was a super hard decision to make. I was in Europe for a month for Worlds in Prague and visiting my girlfriend in Munich, Germany. On my last night in Munich I found out that my nice job back in Winnipeg was given to someone with seniority over myself. I was also going to move into my best friend's place either just before or just after Hackrifice, but that fell through too. So I weighed my options, and staying here in Munich, and delaying my flight, and applying for a visa, and looking for a job won over to my hacky-loving regret. Missing Hackrifice was the biggest con about staying here [in Munich] that I had to weigh against, and it was really, really difficult to make that decision in, like, 4 hours.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I hope I will see all of you again in the future.
All my love and best of luck at Hackrifice 10!
I will miss you all!
From Germany with love,
The Muffinman ♥

I avoided posting in my blog until now (I was supposed to fly back this past Saturday) because I know the Munich guys read this some times, and I wanted to just show up at the next session and surprise them. That didn't really turn out, but we sessioned today anyway and it was a blast. I was a little worried that I may have to sit out after a bit, since my shins have been bothering me, but it was fine, and I did some stupid harder stuff that I should've. I'll try to recap some highlights:
-vortex > spinning clipper BSOS (first try?) (dropped on void)
-mobius double-BSOS (dropped on a 5th mobius)
-osis > gyro clipper > osis > spinning clipper [repeat] X5 (so 40 contacts)
-blurry rev whirl > stepping rev whirl [repeat] first try on a pass back was neat (I avoided these tricks for the most part all night to save my shins)
-Windsored Daryl on merkon > paradon [repeat] first try before he tried (he said he wanted to try it); kinda pulled a Manna there I haven't done double downs in... ages.
-blur > legbeater > blur > legbeater > ducking clipper [repeat] (hadn't done atomic in ages...)
-sumo > pixie rev whirl first try (never do much nuclear)
-almost mobius X2 again (though only tried, like, 2 times)
-lots of zooming, though not as much as I'd have wanted, but really it is coming along!! I is soo fun, and surprisingly consistent after... 2 days of schooling?
-a run opening with blurriest, rev tomahawk, stepping rev whirl BSOS, spinning rev whirl... or something (again the blurriest was rare, and I shouldn't've done these harder tricks... bad Erik!)
-right after a run with, like, spinning rev whirl > rev tomahawk BSOS or something..
-footed blurriest X2 on one try (though my "good side" is prolly the, as Andrew always called it on barfly tricks (not paradon though)
-some decently lengthed spinning and ducking runs.
-ended the session with a 48-contact run, though it was weak and opened with bails. I was telling myself I wanted to end on a 50 though, so that was nice.

Other stuff probably. It was a really fun session, and I experienced no pain, though much stiffness in my shins I can feel. I'm trying to stretch my calves as much as possible and do toe raises. I may throw on some Tiger Balm or ice or something too. Umm. So the session was Max and Bea (whom I met for the first time) (I think they are brother and sister), Daryl, and Tobbi (I keep spelling that one different... it's short for Tobias). It's neat to have a fresh club to shred with -- there's a really great energy. It's like my new FAT. Bea has a really solid foundation and it was nice to see her shred. I am going to teach her an Bjoern spinning next session (which may be tomorrow at the lake (for post-shred swimming?)) Marita and I have talked briefly about teaching English in Asia in the not-too-distant-future. She wants Japan, but I think China would be awesome. It would be so wicked to spread hacky in China!

This is getting lengthy. What else to report? Oh yeah. So I'm missing Hackrifice, as the quote stated. It's sad, and I bailed hardcore on my friends, but it's good for me. I'm not sure how things will work, but for now I am here in Munich and it is a blast to be living somewhere else again. And Marita and I are getting along famously. I am the housewife and I love it. I am cooking a lot and inventing rad dishes that she loves every time. It's too bad that I have, like, 50 Euros to my name... I applied to work for a language-teaching company... I don't know how to say that, but basically I would teach English. From what Tobbi said, they hire anyone that is sane and is a native-speaker. They say they require a degree or diploma which I have (not sure if they mean any specific degree...), but otherwise the guy wrote me back and they seem interested in me. So yay! That'd be pretty rad. Oh yeah, I also studied my first German lesson today. I downloaded an audio study system. I used the same system for trying to learn Mandarin (which my brother recommended, and with which he used to learn his impeccable Mandarin). Marita has also been teaching me some random words, like body parts, chair, window, floor, ceiling, etc. I am catching on fast, and it is really fun. I hope I stick with it and learn German. It would be rad to be able to speak another language... not to mention not feel scared to leave the house on account of not understanding anything anybody says.

So...
The landlord, whom we live with, just told me (he doesn't speak very much English) that the next couple of days there is a warning for dangerous hail. A few weeks back he was telling me that they have crazy hail the size of a fist that kills cows and beats cars to a pulp. Pretty scary. I think I hear some small hail right now... I hope Marita gets home alright.

[ebo]

Welcome home

I'm glad you're staying in munich a while! It is wonderful and I'm honoured to have such a great addition like you to our club!
Although it sucks how things worked out for you in Winnipeg.

I really hope you enjoy your stay here, and that you find a job, and
that we meet again soon!

Bjoern

[Muffinman]

Day 5
TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2008:
We woke up at 11:30, went downstairs and internetted a bit before going across the plaza to get groceries -- the morning routine at Worlds. As we were going to the ATM and heading into the mall to hit up the grocery store, Cod exited and we exchanged a few words. He was eating a weiner in a bun and we ended up talking about how yummy they are, but how we like the sausage in flaky pastry much better, and he was, like, "Yeah, me too! But they are all out!" And we weren't sure if we'd understood him right, so we went in and I think we almost immediately went for the bakery section. Lo, they were out! But a peak around the corner after a strange beeping sound informed us that fresh ones were on the way! AWESOME! (They were so yummy!) So we asked the woman (or tried to in English) and she said they would be done in 5 minutes (or was it 15?), so we just stood there. After, like, 20 or so, or much longer than it should have been, and asking another woman who said she didn't have the authority to deal with that side of the bakery and that the other woman was on a smoke break, we finally got our freshly-baked suasage rolls. She had baked, like, 3 and I totally took them all. Man alive. I wanted to brag to Cod. Oh right, we picked up some watermelon too. I'd been eyeing it the other day, and then just the day before we saw Marco with watermelon and he said it was super cheap (we had trouble deciphering produce prices (whether it was by weight or per fruit, or what...)) so we got some on his recommendation. It turned out to be a real mess (really tough to eat half of a watermelon with no knife or anything). So after mangling it and getting dirt and juice all over myself, we gave the rest to Ben Roscoe, the poor man's footbagger. He somehow managed to get practically everything free. I guess when you're not picky, wonderous things can happen.

Anyway, I got ahead of myself a bit. We trammed to the event site as per usual, and when we arrived saw Ben as, like, the first person to meet that day. He came up and was bummed that I had just apparently missed a barefoot sand session in the longjump pit. I think it was him and Jay and.. someone else? I remember someone mentioning it in their blog (Asmus? Marco?) So we said we had to do it again sometime. Although, of course that never happened, sadly. We went and sat near the middle (our new perch) and watched intermediate routines. I should also mention that during the whole morning (and some of yesterday too, I'd remembered?) there was a loud banging of metal on metal. We couldn't figure out for the longest time what the heck was making that annoying sound that was surely disrupting the competitors. It turns out it was a guy banging pegs into the ground with which to set up hammocks. Hammocks are so wicked and everything, but... it was quite annoying. I never even ended up sitting in one. What a gip! The highlight of intermediate routines was this one guy (actually, one of the guys from my very first circle on that first day whose name I never caught/forgot) -- he did really creative stuff. Like at one point he got down on his bum and did freestyle football-style tricks, like, legovers and mirages while sitting on the ground. Then he did some rad stuff on his soles while laying down. Awesome. I didn't follow competition much at all, but did he place well? That was so entertaining, and the crowd went wild for it. I don't think he dropped during that stuff either!

Then was open doubles routines. Kevin came and asked if I would film the doubles routines with his brand-new fancy-pants camcorder. It was a blast to play around with it. Man, and it made me really excited to eventually own one of my own. It is my next big purchase (after probably a new computer, since I don't have one with which to edit the resultant video...etc.) It felt kind of like a waste to be sitting the same spot, but the zoom and manual focus were just a dream and I'm sure it will be fine. His tape ran out, and I had to use one of my own non-HD tapes to continue. I noticed that Eric Chang was filming with HD tapes too. Our perch was next-door to his. A highlights of the first few days of Worlds was Dexter's funny, nonsensical MCing. At some times it was not cool, like when he would make fun of competitors before or after they had just competed... that was quite poor form. Kevin Regamey did an excellent job of MCing when he did. Uhh, some highlight moments from Dexter's eccentricities, however, were his overplaying of "Aggressive Alpine Skiing". It never really got old for me until he played it during circle finals and I felt sorry for Serge who had to play to this potentially annoying song (how do you concentrate with terrible music??) -- I was sitting beside Szymon and Olaf, and then Aleksi when Olaf went off somewhere, and Szymon did mention that Serge's style fit perfectly with the music... Another moment was when he was just rambling, I guess between competitors when judges were finalizing their decisions, when he started saying random... I forget the word for abbreviations, like, "B.A.P." for Big Add Posse. But he went on and on, and we were very amused. It went something like, "IFPA. CFA. STP. MSG. LSD. LOL. THC. BAP." I guess just writing that doesn't make sense, but if you were there and thought it was funny too, then yay.

Then Mathieu came by and asked if I would judge prelims of Circle with him an Ianek and Wiktor. That was kind of an honour, and fun. Ianek asked me last year too, though it felt kind of weird to be asked only for prelims and then not even told that I wasn't judging for qualifications. I guess that's what the judges who went to the judges meeting to become actual judges were for, so whatever. I kind of wanted to judge, but also didn't want to have that obligation. It was nice to have absolutey zero obligations last year at Worlds. There were lots of rounds of Circle. I think Ales took over for Wiktor at one point too. No, wait... right. First I judged Women's Circle with Wiktor, and then Open Circle was with Ales... no.. Wiktor was there. I don't know. Whatever. Right, so with Open, there were so many competitors that they did two circles at a time, which was shameful, since I missed out a lot, and a lot of the more fun circles (no offense to anyone) were judged by the other group of judges. Anyway, so I judged with Mathieu and Wiktor. After a few rounds it started to drizzle. They decided they would play through it. Oh, it had started a bit during women's too, and they wanted to wait it out. So It was raining again, but didn't let up this time. Our papers were getting wet and it was really difficult to make notes. Near the end of the round, Ken run up with an umbrella and sheilded me, and it was super sweet, and that was a highlight of Worlds for me After a break of trying to wait it out again (the sky was, like, black, with no end in sight), they started clearing out the tent with the sound system and everything to continue comps. It was starting to get dark already.

Eventually things were ready, and I continued to judge in the tent (so I got a chair, and got to stay in the tent, whereas everyone else had to crowd around the edges. That was nice.) The lighting seemed okay, though not great. Later on it really messed with the semifinals competitors (oh I said prelim and qualifications before... my bad -- can you tell I know nothing about competition? (Good thing I wasn't a judge? )) I didn't notice at first but Marita was standing behind me the whole time, which was nice. I was worried she was off somewhere not enjoying herself. At one point I was trying to lookfor her from my chair. Then blah, blah. Qualifications ended and Semi-finals started. I wasn't judging anymore, but somehow kept my chair, so I gave it to Marita and we enjoyed the single circles together. I judged until 10:30 (everything was always QUITE behind schedule) and then semis went until... close to midnight? At one point Dexter had to announce that there is a quiet-time law in Prague for after 10, so that we had to be quiet and not rowdy and that if the police should come, well, we know... Wunderbar!)

Some highlights I have a note of here from Circle comp are as follows.
Norek: Every single run was ridiculous -- long with big tricks; opened a run with whirring swirl; hit blurry symp torque at one point; and my last note for Norek says "EVERYRUNHOT!" Hi-Tech! ( think either Gielnik or Szymon explained to me that it is a Polish joke about "hi", because he is short -- I didn't get an explanation about the tech (I guess technical tricks or something...))
Sergey: Ripped warrior X3 > blurry whirl to open a run
Olaf: Blurry torque > ripped warrior; mobius > mobius to open one run; nemesis to open a run; marius > ripped warrior; alpine legbeater; alpine food processor; gyro food > food > mind bender attempt?
Gielnik: Pixie merkon midstring!
Phil: PS whirl > superfly > PS whirl > PS whirl > superfly midstring; whirring swirl; "EVERYRUNHOT!"

After Circle ended, it was the first time I was pissed about not being able to shred that day (little did I know what was to come (or what was not to come? (That's what she said?))) So Marita and I played a teeny little bit under one of the big yellow infaltable things which had a single light hanging from inside? They were... let's say.. big enough inside to hold an average 4-ish man circle with two openings (doorways)... hard to describe. Kinda like big, inflatable, open tents? So we played a little just silly. There was a puddle from the rain and I got my bag wet, but we kept playing a bit anyway. Then some people kept stopping by to talk to us. Asmus, Anne, and Lise came to say hi, and I met Lise and Anne for the first time. They are both super nice and Lise knew who I am which was super. She was, like, "I watch your videos." and I was, like, "I watch your videos too!" Oh, and just after they left, Marita asked me if Asmus and Lise are related, which I found funny, because I'd asked Asmus that before, and he had said that everybody asks him that. So I explained that to Marita. Hehe.

Then it says here also that early I'd met Ales for judging Circle and he knew who I am too, which was awesome. He said I had to have a judging shirt, so he asked some girl to get me a shirt. Neat -- another free shirt! Though they are pretty big for "small", and I doubt I will ever wear them except for cooking here in Munich (since I don't have an apron), or whatever. Also I met Dexter, but I don't think he knew who I am and he was kinda weird... kind of like he is on the mic And that is day 5 (though not day 5 of Worlds... my fifth day in Prague... so... subtract 2 days to get the proper days of Worlds?)

[Eric Chang]

WHAT?! You're no longer in the North America area?! Dude how are we ever going to win doubles! It was going to be hard enough with you over in Canada, but now its Europe!


-sad panda-

I found it amusing that Dexter said almost all the American were from Canada, and all Canadians were from America (though very unprofessional for such a high profiled event. I'm not sure where he got Jay being from the Stanford footbag club, since he's not close to us at all :-p.

It was awesome to read your write up in worlds, I'm glad I made it in there! Was fun to read the "OMG ITS KEN SOMOLINOS!" and I remember constantly giving out other names (hope it didn't offend you). But it was a pleasure to kick with you, and I hope to see you at Worlds again! (I better especially if its in Berlin!). Then we should maybe do doubles and take the title!

Eric/ks Chan/gs represent.