Fanzine
Lots of good footbag news on my front.
I've now been in Denver for almost 6 weeks, and I'm settling in nicely. The weather has been nearly perfect my entire time here, minus a cold snap at the beginning of last week. It was in the 70s during Halloween weekend, and its forecast to be in the high 60s this week. Partly due to this, I've managed to play a ton of footbag so far, including 3 group sessions. A couple days ago I finally got to shred with Rippin'. I've hit 11 new beasts since moving here, 7 if you don't count x-dex or x-spin. I've also hit a bunch of new hard tricks, mostly involving whirling swirls (5) and double peeking/gyro tricks (6). While it's been fun to hit a bunch of new tricks/beasts, my string length and overall stamina have suffered because of it. I'm going to work on getting those back up to par over the next month.
While the weather has been perfect until now, I know it won't last forever. Next weekend is daylight savings, so this will likely be the last week when I can still play outside after work. I've done some research, and I've found a nice recreation center that's halfway between work and home. It has a big pool, pickup basketball, 4 racquetball courts (which I can reserve for footbag), and a carpeted exercise room up top. Best of all, I can get a 6 month pass just for the cold months, and work will pay for half of my membershipas part of a fitness subsidy program. I feel much much better about my winter footbag prospects now that I've found this gym.
The other big piece of good footbag news, is that I finally bought my tickets to NNYJ! This year will mark my third one in a row. Now I just need to set up housing, and work on a routine. I'm also looking forward to making a hackoff video with Zac Miley. I should probably skool my osis and gyro clippers... On that note, thank you to everybody who sent me PMs of support last week; I greatly appreciated it.
Here's a fun run from my last session, on Sunday:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4FLRS7y1fo[/youtube]
I've now been in Denver for almost 6 weeks, and I'm settling in nicely. The weather has been nearly perfect my entire time here, minus a cold snap at the beginning of last week. It was in the 70s during Halloween weekend, and its forecast to be in the high 60s this week. Partly due to this, I've managed to play a ton of footbag so far, including 3 group sessions. A couple days ago I finally got to shred with Rippin'. I've hit 11 new beasts since moving here, 7 if you don't count x-dex or x-spin. I've also hit a bunch of new hard tricks, mostly involving whirling swirls (5) and double peeking/gyro tricks (6). While it's been fun to hit a bunch of new tricks/beasts, my string length and overall stamina have suffered because of it. I'm going to work on getting those back up to par over the next month.
While the weather has been perfect until now, I know it won't last forever. Next weekend is daylight savings, so this will likely be the last week when I can still play outside after work. I've done some research, and I've found a nice recreation center that's halfway between work and home. It has a big pool, pickup basketball, 4 racquetball courts (which I can reserve for footbag), and a carpeted exercise room up top. Best of all, I can get a 6 month pass just for the cold months, and work will pay for half of my membershipas part of a fitness subsidy program. I feel much much better about my winter footbag prospects now that I've found this gym.
The other big piece of good footbag news, is that I finally bought my tickets to NNYJ! This year will mark my third one in a row. Now I just need to set up housing, and work on a routine. I'm also looking forward to making a hackoff video with Zac Miley. I should probably skool my osis and gyro clippers... On that note, thank you to everybody who sent me PMs of support last week; I greatly appreciated it.
Here's a fun run from my last session, on Sunday:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4FLRS7y1fo[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 11:48, edited 1 time in total.
Fall in Denver was really good to me footbag-wise. We had t-shirt weather all the way through Daylight savings time, and I took advantage of that by playing outside almost every day. After daylight savings the weather took a cold turn, and it looks like it'll stay that way. We may get a random day in the 60s in the winter, but it's a safe bet that I'm going to be playing indoors until April probably.
I decided to mark the end of the outdoor season by taking a full week off from playing. Nothing was really hurting, but I figured a little bit of time off would be good for my body. I also wanted the mental break so I could shift gears. My camera only shoots well in outdoor light, so towards the end of the season I was making a conscious effort to hit hard tricks and combos on tape, so I'd have some footage to edit into a video during winter. I figured I could work on consistency and stamina in winter, and that I should use my last days of good shooting conditions to hit harder stuff that is more video-worthy. This proved to be a lot of fun, and I surprised myself with some of the things I hit, but it also meant that my consistency took a hit. By taking a week off, it should be easier for me to get out of that hard trick mindset and get back into drilling mode.
On that note, yesterday I officially joined a gym. In addition to playing footbag for the first time in over a week, I also got to shoot some basketball, juggle a soccer ball with some people, and use free weights. I'm going to try and take advantage of the fact that I'm in a gym, and work on my overall fitness and not just footbag. Footbagwise, there are some decent spaces in the rec center, but it can get a bit cramped. The lighting isn't terrible, but my camera most likely won't shoot too well in it. My overall goal for the winter is to focus on making my flipside stronger, and just improving my form on all my basics. I particularly want to make my flip spins more natural.
I fly out to NYJ in exactly a month. My goal is to practice at least 25 out of those 30 days. I think I found my routine song, though I'll likely need to edit it, and also start mapping out the choreography. Once I do this, I should make a point to practice my routine. My last two routines (Funtastiks and Worlds) went very well, despite not practicing them too much. That said, they both felt a little lucky, and I think putting in some disciplined practice will improve my chances of performing well.
The last piece of footbag news on my end, is that I've decided to buy a new laptop. My plan is to get set up with Adobe on it, so I can edit videos on my own time at home, and make HD videos. My first three projects would be:
1. A new video with footage I took in fall.
2. A re-edit of Menagerie, in HD this time, minus the visual glitches, and plus a few more recent Beasts.
3. A NYJ video, provided I get enough good footage. I plan on playing a lot, so this might end up being a question of whether or not people help me with filming duties.
I didn't film at all yesterday, but I don't like making video-less posts in my blog. Here's a run from a couple weeks ago:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWfKwymXUx0[/youtube]
I decided to mark the end of the outdoor season by taking a full week off from playing. Nothing was really hurting, but I figured a little bit of time off would be good for my body. I also wanted the mental break so I could shift gears. My camera only shoots well in outdoor light, so towards the end of the season I was making a conscious effort to hit hard tricks and combos on tape, so I'd have some footage to edit into a video during winter. I figured I could work on consistency and stamina in winter, and that I should use my last days of good shooting conditions to hit harder stuff that is more video-worthy. This proved to be a lot of fun, and I surprised myself with some of the things I hit, but it also meant that my consistency took a hit. By taking a week off, it should be easier for me to get out of that hard trick mindset and get back into drilling mode.
On that note, yesterday I officially joined a gym. In addition to playing footbag for the first time in over a week, I also got to shoot some basketball, juggle a soccer ball with some people, and use free weights. I'm going to try and take advantage of the fact that I'm in a gym, and work on my overall fitness and not just footbag. Footbagwise, there are some decent spaces in the rec center, but it can get a bit cramped. The lighting isn't terrible, but my camera most likely won't shoot too well in it. My overall goal for the winter is to focus on making my flipside stronger, and just improving my form on all my basics. I particularly want to make my flip spins more natural.
I fly out to NYJ in exactly a month. My goal is to practice at least 25 out of those 30 days. I think I found my routine song, though I'll likely need to edit it, and also start mapping out the choreography. Once I do this, I should make a point to practice my routine. My last two routines (Funtastiks and Worlds) went very well, despite not practicing them too much. That said, they both felt a little lucky, and I think putting in some disciplined practice will improve my chances of performing well.
The last piece of footbag news on my end, is that I've decided to buy a new laptop. My plan is to get set up with Adobe on it, so I can edit videos on my own time at home, and make HD videos. My first three projects would be:
1. A new video with footage I took in fall.
2. A re-edit of Menagerie, in HD this time, minus the visual glitches, and plus a few more recent Beasts.
3. A NYJ video, provided I get enough good footage. I plan on playing a lot, so this might end up being a question of whether or not people help me with filming duties.
I didn't film at all yesterday, but I don't like making video-less posts in my blog. Here's a run from a couple weeks ago:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWfKwymXUx0[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 15 Aug 2012 10:12, edited 1 time in total.
Last weekend I was thiiiiis close to buying a laptop, when I read an article that said most retailers were going to offer their Black Friday deals online starting on Thursday. Since I was going to buy online anyway, I figured it's probably worth it for me to wait a few days to pull the trigger, considering there's a chance it might save me some money. If everything goes well, I'll wake up early Thursday morning, find a good deal on one of my top laptop candidates, and save some money.
I've been very diligent about going to the gym and practicing. My camera doesn't film well at all in the low light, but I've brought it a couple times so I can check the cleanliness of tricks. I also decided to participate in the ShredGlobal bsos sick 3 event, so I filmed a dexless entry for that. I figured anything with dexes would just look blurry and ugly, and I just wanted to participate to show support.
My gym visits have been more regimented and less fun than my outdoor sessions, but that's to be expected since I'm drilling. I've been working a lot on open drills to get my flip open set stronger. I also liked Tom K's blur-smear-dimwalk drill for the same reason. In addition to footbag, I've also been cross training with basketball and lifting free weights. While I'm not going to become Aaron Orton any time soon, I figure it's probably just good for me healthwise to work out my upper body, since I never use those muscles. On the basketball front, my biggest highlight was setting a new personal free throw record: 21!
Here's a drill I took from Tom's blog. Apologies for the poor lighting.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9eMPXb1r1I[/youtube]
I need to start practicing my routine for NYJ. I'm tempted to do something silly and fun, but even that would benefit from some practicing.
I've been very diligent about going to the gym and practicing. My camera doesn't film well at all in the low light, but I've brought it a couple times so I can check the cleanliness of tricks. I also decided to participate in the ShredGlobal bsos sick 3 event, so I filmed a dexless entry for that. I figured anything with dexes would just look blurry and ugly, and I just wanted to participate to show support.
My gym visits have been more regimented and less fun than my outdoor sessions, but that's to be expected since I'm drilling. I've been working a lot on open drills to get my flip open set stronger. I also liked Tom K's blur-smear-dimwalk drill for the same reason. In addition to footbag, I've also been cross training with basketball and lifting free weights. While I'm not going to become Aaron Orton any time soon, I figure it's probably just good for me healthwise to work out my upper body, since I never use those muscles. On the basketball front, my biggest highlight was setting a new personal free throw record: 21!
Here's a drill I took from Tom's blog. Apologies for the poor lighting.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9eMPXb1r1I[/youtube]
I need to start practicing my routine for NYJ. I'm tempted to do something silly and fun, but even that would benefit from some practicing.
Last edited by C-Fan on 15 Aug 2012 10:15, edited 1 time in total.
Nice Zach! I hit your challenge drill, but I'll either show you at NYJ or maybe I'll get my vid done before then.
Can't believe that in 8 days I fly to Chicago for NYJ. Where did the time go? I still haven't done a single run through of my routine, though that's partially due to a lack of equipment. I should be getting new headphones and portable speakers today though, so I'll make an effort to do some routine practice this weekend.
Overall, things have been going well for me lately footbagwise. I'm not at my most motivated right now, but it's natural and acceptable to go through periods when you are less than enthusiastic, especially during the off season. My main concern is that I've had a scratchy throat for the last few days (hurts to swallow), which I'm hoping won't develop into a cold. It'd suck to be sick right before/during NYJ. Will try to use sheer willpower to keep it at bay. The other piece of badly timed bad footbag luck is that my g-units are literally falling apart. This happened to me this time last year as well, and I used a new pair at NYJ, which worked well. I'm still undecided if I will do that again this year.
I've been pretty good about playing everyday after work in the gym. Denver weather also gifted me with two outdoor sessions after Thanksgiving. I really didn't expect to get in an outdoor shred in early December, but I took it gladly. At the gym my routine usually consists of an hour of footbag, followed by pickup basketball, and then doing some reps with 15 lb free weights. I'm hoping the crosstraining will help me with stamina for footbag, but who knows. As a pre-NYJ precaution, I'm abstaining from basketball from now through NYJ, so as not to risk injury.
Probably the biggest footbag news for me, is that I got a new laptop which has Adobe Premiere on it. I've done some messing around with it, and I've figured out how to export HD video to YouTube. I'm very excited by this. My first project is going to be to make a video of my fall footage. I need to pick out a good song for it. Most of my clips are of single big tricks and sick 3s, so hopefully I can find something that'll make those transitions work. I think my second project will be to make a remix of my beast video, because I really wanted that in HD. I'll also add 5 or 6 new beasts to it, so it's not all old.. The other thing I'd like to do in the future (when I'm filming my sessions more regularly) is to make session highlight videos. These won't have much editing at all, but will be more convenient than having to click multiple YT links, the way it's been in my blog in the past.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BvTZ1Me8-0[/youtube]
Can't believe that in 8 days I fly to Chicago for NYJ. Where did the time go? I still haven't done a single run through of my routine, though that's partially due to a lack of equipment. I should be getting new headphones and portable speakers today though, so I'll make an effort to do some routine practice this weekend.
Overall, things have been going well for me lately footbagwise. I'm not at my most motivated right now, but it's natural and acceptable to go through periods when you are less than enthusiastic, especially during the off season. My main concern is that I've had a scratchy throat for the last few days (hurts to swallow), which I'm hoping won't develop into a cold. It'd suck to be sick right before/during NYJ. Will try to use sheer willpower to keep it at bay. The other piece of badly timed bad footbag luck is that my g-units are literally falling apart. This happened to me this time last year as well, and I used a new pair at NYJ, which worked well. I'm still undecided if I will do that again this year.
I've been pretty good about playing everyday after work in the gym. Denver weather also gifted me with two outdoor sessions after Thanksgiving. I really didn't expect to get in an outdoor shred in early December, but I took it gladly. At the gym my routine usually consists of an hour of footbag, followed by pickup basketball, and then doing some reps with 15 lb free weights. I'm hoping the crosstraining will help me with stamina for footbag, but who knows. As a pre-NYJ precaution, I'm abstaining from basketball from now through NYJ, so as not to risk injury.
Probably the biggest footbag news for me, is that I got a new laptop which has Adobe Premiere on it. I've done some messing around with it, and I've figured out how to export HD video to YouTube. I'm very excited by this. My first project is going to be to make a video of my fall footage. I need to pick out a good song for it. Most of my clips are of single big tricks and sick 3s, so hopefully I can find something that'll make those transitions work. I think my second project will be to make a remix of my beast video, because I really wanted that in HD. I'll also add 5 or 6 new beasts to it, so it's not all old.. The other thing I'd like to do in the future (when I'm filming my sessions more regularly) is to make session highlight videos. These won't have much editing at all, but will be more convenient than having to click multiple YT links, the way it's been in my blog in the past.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BvTZ1Me8-0[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 11:49, edited 1 time in total.
I'm really having trouble believing that tomorrow I fly to Chicago for NYJ. Like, it doesn't seem real. Maybe it will once I start packing tonight.
The explanation/justification for why I feel unprepared and surprised by NYJ's arrival, is that I've been battling a hellacious head cold for the last 8 days. It was one of the worst colds I can recall...I took 1.5 days off from work, but that's just because the worst of it hit on a weekend. I woke up in a sweaty t-shirt a couple mornings, so I probably had a touch of fever as well. All this meant that I didn't play footbag for 7 days. While it sucks to get sick right before a tournament (since you can't practice and you lose conditioning), at least I didn't get sick DURING the tournament. That'd be so much worse.
The good news is that, for the first time in a week, I woke up this morning feeling better than the day before. I'm still not out of the woods, and I'm still taking medecine, but at least now I feel good enough to go. A couple days ago I was strongly considering canceling my trip altogether, because I questioned the intelligence of going to sub-zero Chicago while I was trying to get over a cold. Now, I'm definitely going to go. I'm on the fence about competing, but I'm at least going to go.
While I was sick, all I did was drink OJ and play videogames. My new laptop is great. I played through Portal for my second time, which I would have to say is probably my favorite video game of all time. I also played lots of Team Fortress 2, and I'm almost done with Half Life 2. All incredible games. That said, I'd rather play footbag.
On the laptop note, I also spent a lot of time trying to put together a footbag project in Adobe Premiere. I spent about a day total, but when I tried to export it, it said that some files were missing. I think it's because I was drawing from video files in different folders...I'll have to experiment later and see if I can't figure out what I did wrong. Annoying.
I got in a light session yesterday, my first in over a week. I should have filmed my first 10 minutes, because they were pretty comical. I was literally missing toe stalls and ATWs. I couldn't believe how much touch I has lost. Things improved over the course of the session, though my stamina is going to be an issue. I fly out Friday right after work, which means tonight will be my last chance at a session before NYJ. I'm gonna make a point to play, mostly just to stretch out the footbag muscles and try and get back some touch. At this point I'm not going to worry about a routine or even stamina too much. I had bad luck/timing with my health, and there's nothing I can do about that. I'm just excited to see friends.
Token blog vid:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT1KZEk_ML4[/youtube]
Well, so much for that.C-Fan wrote:I fly out to NYJ in exactly a month. My goal is to practice at least 25 out of those 30 days. ...Once I do this, I should make a point to practice my routine.
The explanation/justification for why I feel unprepared and surprised by NYJ's arrival, is that I've been battling a hellacious head cold for the last 8 days. It was one of the worst colds I can recall...I took 1.5 days off from work, but that's just because the worst of it hit on a weekend. I woke up in a sweaty t-shirt a couple mornings, so I probably had a touch of fever as well. All this meant that I didn't play footbag for 7 days. While it sucks to get sick right before a tournament (since you can't practice and you lose conditioning), at least I didn't get sick DURING the tournament. That'd be so much worse.
The good news is that, for the first time in a week, I woke up this morning feeling better than the day before. I'm still not out of the woods, and I'm still taking medecine, but at least now I feel good enough to go. A couple days ago I was strongly considering canceling my trip altogether, because I questioned the intelligence of going to sub-zero Chicago while I was trying to get over a cold. Now, I'm definitely going to go. I'm on the fence about competing, but I'm at least going to go.
While I was sick, all I did was drink OJ and play videogames. My new laptop is great. I played through Portal for my second time, which I would have to say is probably my favorite video game of all time. I also played lots of Team Fortress 2, and I'm almost done with Half Life 2. All incredible games. That said, I'd rather play footbag.
On the laptop note, I also spent a lot of time trying to put together a footbag project in Adobe Premiere. I spent about a day total, but when I tried to export it, it said that some files were missing. I think it's because I was drawing from video files in different folders...I'll have to experiment later and see if I can't figure out what I did wrong. Annoying.
I got in a light session yesterday, my first in over a week. I should have filmed my first 10 minutes, because they were pretty comical. I was literally missing toe stalls and ATWs. I couldn't believe how much touch I has lost. Things improved over the course of the session, though my stamina is going to be an issue. I fly out Friday right after work, which means tonight will be my last chance at a session before NYJ. I'm gonna make a point to play, mostly just to stretch out the footbag muscles and try and get back some touch. At this point I'm not going to worry about a routine or even stamina too much. I had bad luck/timing with my health, and there's nothing I can do about that. I'm just excited to see friends.
Token blog vid:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT1KZEk_ML4[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 11:49, edited 1 time in total.
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CIC flurry
- Amazingly Sexy Man-Beast
- Posts: 3426
- Joined: 28 May 2003 16:06
- Location: Chicago
New Year's Jam 2010
NYJ 10 was one of the most surreal footbag tournament experiences I've had. A week before the tournament I got sick, and even though I had beaten the worst of my headcold/fever by the time I got to Chicago, I was still pretty sick all weekend. The whole experience is kind of blurred together in my mind...there was a constant undercurrent of tiredness, broken up by unexpected naps that pulled me out of consciousness at random times, and brief bouts of concentrated focus while I competed. The only comparable footbag experience I can recall, is when I went to Osaka for my birthday in 2005, and had a fever all weekend. Anyway, I'm still going to attempt a writeup. I find that writeups usually make for fun reminiscing, not to mention closure.
Prelude:
I had such a fun time the last two NYJs, I bought my flight and hotel well in advance this year. In the months directly leading up to NYJ, I was playing a ton of footbag and feeling good. It was therefore very disappointing to fall sick with a headcold/fever the week before the tourney. After taking off 7 days from exercise, I got in sessions the two days before I left, and that was enough to convince me to go. The way I looked at it, I could either stay home in Denver that weekend and be sick and bored, or I could go to NYJ and be sick and see friends. I figured that as long as I didn't get sicker by going to Chicago, it'd be worth it. That's pretty much how it worked out too; I was still sick in Chicago, but I've started feeling a lot better since I got back.
Friday night:
I made it to Chicago relatively easily, cold medecine in tow. My flight was only delayed 20 minutes. When I touch down in Chicago, I realize I don't feel like taking public transportation in the freezing night while I'm sick, so I suck it up and take a cab. I check in, and drop my things off in the room. I step out of the room, and the second the door closes, I realize I put the hotel keycard in my winter coat, which is now hanging inside the room. D'oh! All weekend I do absentminded things like this, mostly misplacing things. It's like there's cotton in my head, and it's more from being sick than from the medecine. I wander about the hotel for a bit, and when I can't find anybody, I call Zac Miley. Apparently, most people were at Reile's place that night. I go to Goldberg's suite where I catch up with him, Zac Miley, and Matt Kemmer. We call it an early night, and I get a solid night's sleep. My body is happy about this.
Saturday:
I'm determined to have a good breakfast, so again I shut up my inner cheapass, and pay for a cab to a breakfast place. Zac, Kemmer and I eat at the 11 City Diner, which proves to be very good. I have a cup of coffee, since I assume I'm going to be competing in the next few hours, and I want the boost. Zac and I start discussing our video hackoff project, which we film over the course of the next two days. We get back to the site, and it's cool seeing everybody again. As I'm warming up, I learn that no competition is happening at the event site that day, since routines have been pushed to the next day, and circle is happening in the shred room. I welcome this news, since it means I have one more day to heal before doing a routine, and I'd much rather do circle on carpeting rather than slippery floor. I decide to play some footbag anyway, and have a pretty rough time. Almost all of my runs are short, and I got lightheaded and saw stars after the few longer ones. At one point, I see light streaming in through the windows, highlighting the dust in the air. I ask the person next to me in the circle if they see it too, because I don't fully trust my eyes at this point. I spend the rest of the day at the site wandering around watching sports and participating in random ones with Zac.
I think after the event site we all went to Steve's suite to hang out. I think I fell asleep in the middle of this party...maybe twice? The important thing that got done, was I gave Brian Bear one of my g-units so he could fix it. I'd only had it for one year, but the outstep had literally ripped off, so the side of my foot was exposed and the shoe had no structural integrity. Brian did an amazing job of fixing it up, which I appreciated because it's really hard to find G-Units anymore, especially in my size. I'm hoping this gives them another 6 months at least. Pizza is ordered, and despite the fact that I'm avoiding cheese while sick, I decide to have some. I figure it'd be a pain to find food on my own, and also it'd be a shame to go to Chicago and not eat pizza. I'm having trouble remembering this party...I don't think I watched or played anything, and I don't remember conversations. Did I go to the sauna at some point? I think I did. I was really out of it. Yeah, I think I went to the sauna. I remember the sauna felt great, since it opened up my pores. After the sauna I went to the shred room, where I laid down...and fell asleep. When I woke up, I think the first circle had started. I didn't worry too much, since I was in the penultimate circle, so I knew I had time. I buy a mountain dew and chug it, because I figured I'd need caffeine (after all, I had just fallen asleep twice in the last 2 hours, both unplanned).
In the first round of Circle, I have Grant Moody, Mathieu GM, and...wow, I can't even remember. I remember thinking Grant was playing very well. I also remember noting that Mathieu had improved a lot since Funtastiks. I think he's approaching the game the right way, focusing on good form and style, and getting everything both sides. He can hit some big tricks, but he doesn't let that seduce/distract him from building his foundation properly. That's why he's going to be very very good in the near future. He had some very long, varied strings in our circle. As for me, I barely remember anything about that circle. In the variety round I made a point to throw lots of fliers, but that's about it. I think I got somebody to film, because historically I've played my best in the first round, and nobody ever films it. I must have felt OK about how I played, because I don't remember feeling surprised when I found out I made final circle. But then, I was so out of it that it probably would have been a challenge to surprise me with anything.
Final circle was Zac Miley, Sebastien Duchesne, myself, and Evan Gatesman, in that order. Props to Zac for making his first finals ever. I think he beat out Scott D to make it too. Again, i don't remember too much from this circle. Seb hit a blurry massacre, and Zac hit frantic DOD, and those both stood out. I hit a triage, which felt very deep (though I'd like to see video). And Evan just played solid. All weekend he was throwing random swirling ss mirages in his strings, which was fun to watch. While warming up for circle comp, I saw him hit ps egg-open swirl rpt. I'm just impressed by the extent of his trick vocabulary, and how well-controlled everything is. The results for Circle finals follows our seeding, which isn't very surprising.
Special shout out goes to dragonfly footbags. I hadn't heard of them before this event, but they're a footbag store in Indiana who supported NYJ this year. They donated $100 for first place in circle, routines, and 2 square, and $50 for second place in those events. Very down to earth people, and their support of the tournament was very much appreciated. In a funny moment, when I met the owner he introduced himself as "John Webber." My eyes instinctively flashed to his shirt to see if it had a picture of himself on it, but it was just a dragonfly shirt.
Request contest was also Saturday night, and I wanted to do it, so I pushed myself to stay warm. I'm glad I did, because I think I played at my best on Saturday night, and this helped me play with a bunch of people. When Request started, I hoped they'd make two circles to make the early rounds move faster, and then consolidate when there were few enough people (like they did at Worlds). Unfortunately we did one big circle, and everybody had three tries, so the first few rounds took forever. In the early rounds I tried to save time by doing my first trick off a hand toss. I also tried making the combos more interesting for me, which ultimately ended up knocking me out of the contest early. That probably wasn't a bad thing, since I was fading pretty fast at that point. The combo that knocked me out was PLO-symp mirage. First try I did PLO and tried to hit a super huge symp mirage, where I set the bag around head height. When I missed, I used my second turn to do the other PLO to a super huge symp mirage attempt. After missing both, I went for spinning clip-ducking clipper...which I tuned out on, and dropped. It was a pretty funny moment all told, and I got a lot of ribbing for it afterwards. It was nice though to just lay down after that and watch. In retrospect, I wonder how far I would have made it, given that there was no nuke or shut set, and that the combos didn't get hard until the very last round. In any case, I had fun, and I enjoyed watching the rest of it as a spectator.
After request I took my cold meds (main ingredient acetaminophen, also good for muscle cramps) and went to bed.
More later.
NYJ 10 was one of the most surreal footbag tournament experiences I've had. A week before the tournament I got sick, and even though I had beaten the worst of my headcold/fever by the time I got to Chicago, I was still pretty sick all weekend. The whole experience is kind of blurred together in my mind...there was a constant undercurrent of tiredness, broken up by unexpected naps that pulled me out of consciousness at random times, and brief bouts of concentrated focus while I competed. The only comparable footbag experience I can recall, is when I went to Osaka for my birthday in 2005, and had a fever all weekend. Anyway, I'm still going to attempt a writeup. I find that writeups usually make for fun reminiscing, not to mention closure.
Prelude:
I had such a fun time the last two NYJs, I bought my flight and hotel well in advance this year. In the months directly leading up to NYJ, I was playing a ton of footbag and feeling good. It was therefore very disappointing to fall sick with a headcold/fever the week before the tourney. After taking off 7 days from exercise, I got in sessions the two days before I left, and that was enough to convince me to go. The way I looked at it, I could either stay home in Denver that weekend and be sick and bored, or I could go to NYJ and be sick and see friends. I figured that as long as I didn't get sicker by going to Chicago, it'd be worth it. That's pretty much how it worked out too; I was still sick in Chicago, but I've started feeling a lot better since I got back.
Friday night:
I made it to Chicago relatively easily, cold medecine in tow. My flight was only delayed 20 minutes. When I touch down in Chicago, I realize I don't feel like taking public transportation in the freezing night while I'm sick, so I suck it up and take a cab. I check in, and drop my things off in the room. I step out of the room, and the second the door closes, I realize I put the hotel keycard in my winter coat, which is now hanging inside the room. D'oh! All weekend I do absentminded things like this, mostly misplacing things. It's like there's cotton in my head, and it's more from being sick than from the medecine. I wander about the hotel for a bit, and when I can't find anybody, I call Zac Miley. Apparently, most people were at Reile's place that night. I go to Goldberg's suite where I catch up with him, Zac Miley, and Matt Kemmer. We call it an early night, and I get a solid night's sleep. My body is happy about this.
Saturday:
I'm determined to have a good breakfast, so again I shut up my inner cheapass, and pay for a cab to a breakfast place. Zac, Kemmer and I eat at the 11 City Diner, which proves to be very good. I have a cup of coffee, since I assume I'm going to be competing in the next few hours, and I want the boost. Zac and I start discussing our video hackoff project, which we film over the course of the next two days. We get back to the site, and it's cool seeing everybody again. As I'm warming up, I learn that no competition is happening at the event site that day, since routines have been pushed to the next day, and circle is happening in the shred room. I welcome this news, since it means I have one more day to heal before doing a routine, and I'd much rather do circle on carpeting rather than slippery floor. I decide to play some footbag anyway, and have a pretty rough time. Almost all of my runs are short, and I got lightheaded and saw stars after the few longer ones. At one point, I see light streaming in through the windows, highlighting the dust in the air. I ask the person next to me in the circle if they see it too, because I don't fully trust my eyes at this point. I spend the rest of the day at the site wandering around watching sports and participating in random ones with Zac.
I think after the event site we all went to Steve's suite to hang out. I think I fell asleep in the middle of this party...maybe twice? The important thing that got done, was I gave Brian Bear one of my g-units so he could fix it. I'd only had it for one year, but the outstep had literally ripped off, so the side of my foot was exposed and the shoe had no structural integrity. Brian did an amazing job of fixing it up, which I appreciated because it's really hard to find G-Units anymore, especially in my size. I'm hoping this gives them another 6 months at least. Pizza is ordered, and despite the fact that I'm avoiding cheese while sick, I decide to have some. I figure it'd be a pain to find food on my own, and also it'd be a shame to go to Chicago and not eat pizza. I'm having trouble remembering this party...I don't think I watched or played anything, and I don't remember conversations. Did I go to the sauna at some point? I think I did. I was really out of it. Yeah, I think I went to the sauna. I remember the sauna felt great, since it opened up my pores. After the sauna I went to the shred room, where I laid down...and fell asleep. When I woke up, I think the first circle had started. I didn't worry too much, since I was in the penultimate circle, so I knew I had time. I buy a mountain dew and chug it, because I figured I'd need caffeine (after all, I had just fallen asleep twice in the last 2 hours, both unplanned).
In the first round of Circle, I have Grant Moody, Mathieu GM, and...wow, I can't even remember. I remember thinking Grant was playing very well. I also remember noting that Mathieu had improved a lot since Funtastiks. I think he's approaching the game the right way, focusing on good form and style, and getting everything both sides. He can hit some big tricks, but he doesn't let that seduce/distract him from building his foundation properly. That's why he's going to be very very good in the near future. He had some very long, varied strings in our circle. As for me, I barely remember anything about that circle. In the variety round I made a point to throw lots of fliers, but that's about it. I think I got somebody to film, because historically I've played my best in the first round, and nobody ever films it. I must have felt OK about how I played, because I don't remember feeling surprised when I found out I made final circle. But then, I was so out of it that it probably would have been a challenge to surprise me with anything.
Final circle was Zac Miley, Sebastien Duchesne, myself, and Evan Gatesman, in that order. Props to Zac for making his first finals ever. I think he beat out Scott D to make it too. Again, i don't remember too much from this circle. Seb hit a blurry massacre, and Zac hit frantic DOD, and those both stood out. I hit a triage, which felt very deep (though I'd like to see video). And Evan just played solid. All weekend he was throwing random swirling ss mirages in his strings, which was fun to watch. While warming up for circle comp, I saw him hit ps egg-open swirl rpt. I'm just impressed by the extent of his trick vocabulary, and how well-controlled everything is. The results for Circle finals follows our seeding, which isn't very surprising.
Special shout out goes to dragonfly footbags. I hadn't heard of them before this event, but they're a footbag store in Indiana who supported NYJ this year. They donated $100 for first place in circle, routines, and 2 square, and $50 for second place in those events. Very down to earth people, and their support of the tournament was very much appreciated. In a funny moment, when I met the owner he introduced himself as "John Webber." My eyes instinctively flashed to his shirt to see if it had a picture of himself on it, but it was just a dragonfly shirt.
Request contest was also Saturday night, and I wanted to do it, so I pushed myself to stay warm. I'm glad I did, because I think I played at my best on Saturday night, and this helped me play with a bunch of people. When Request started, I hoped they'd make two circles to make the early rounds move faster, and then consolidate when there were few enough people (like they did at Worlds). Unfortunately we did one big circle, and everybody had three tries, so the first few rounds took forever. In the early rounds I tried to save time by doing my first trick off a hand toss. I also tried making the combos more interesting for me, which ultimately ended up knocking me out of the contest early. That probably wasn't a bad thing, since I was fading pretty fast at that point. The combo that knocked me out was PLO-symp mirage. First try I did PLO and tried to hit a super huge symp mirage, where I set the bag around head height. When I missed, I used my second turn to do the other PLO to a super huge symp mirage attempt. After missing both, I went for spinning clip-ducking clipper...which I tuned out on, and dropped. It was a pretty funny moment all told, and I got a lot of ribbing for it afterwards. It was nice though to just lay down after that and watch. In retrospect, I wonder how far I would have made it, given that there was no nuke or shut set, and that the combos didn't get hard until the very last round. In any case, I had fun, and I enjoyed watching the rest of it as a spectator.
After request I took my cold meds (main ingredient acetaminophen, also good for muscle cramps) and went to bed.
More later.
Last edited by C-Fan on 28 Dec 2010 06:17, edited 1 time in total.
RipWalker wrote:Yeah dude, portal is an ()
()awesome game.
Nice. Since getting back from Chicago, I finished HL2, so I've been focusing on racking up achievements in HL2 and Portal. The advanced maps in Portal are really challenging; so far I've only managed to beat 3. I'm saving HL2 Episodes 1 and 2 for later, since I want to stretch out my enjoyment of the games as much as possible. Maybe I'll get back into Team Fortress 2 for a bit.I haven't played too much footbag since getting back from Chicago, but in good news I finally feel over my cold. In positive footbag news, I've decided to try again on my Adobe footbag project. This time I'm being careful to have all my clips in the same folder, which hopefully will prevent me from encountering the same error I had last time. I really hope I figure out how to export edited HD videos from my laptop. That'd be incredibly satisfying.
The other bit of good footbag news since Chicago, is that Denver's insane weather granted me an outdoor footbag session on Christmas Eve! I stepped out to take out the trash, and while I was in the sun I realized it was warm enough to play outside. I put on a long sleeve shirt and long socks, but once I was warmed up I don't think I even needed them. It was such a joy to play outside, and to be healthy as well! I managed to hit one new trick and bsos it, which I hope to put in my next video.
Here's some video proof that I played outside:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVl-I1L5VAg[/youtube]
I'll finish up my Chicago write-up next time.
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 11:50, edited 1 time in total.
NYJ 2010 Write up Part II
Sunday
I woke up feeling surprisingly good, considering how hard I pushed myself to play the previous day. Having a bed to myself both nights certainly didn't hurt either. I think the acetaminophen in my cold meds also helped my muscles with cramps. In any case, it was encouraging to start the day off only having to deal with some fogginess in the head. I woke up kind of late, so I decided to have a light breakfast in the convention center. I didn't want to be constantly checking my watch, or rushing back right before competition. I ended up getting breakfast from the worst Starbucks of all time. It was actually kind of humorous how bad it was...slow, rude, and they got my order wrong. The worst is when you go out of your way to be nice, and they don't even reciprocate. But yeah, it was so bad, it actually made me laugh, which is never a bad thing before you're going to compete.
I had top seed in routines, which meant that I didn't watch anybody else compete before me. Even so, I got the sense that nobody did particularly well (i.e. there wasn't the kind of crowd reaction you hear when somebody goes dropless). We competed at the event site, and the floor was very slippery, so I had low expectations myself. Strangely enough, my two drops had nothing to do with the slippery floor, though I did find myself toning down the difficulty several times because I felt my footing shifting under me. Donovan has a cool backpack which is shaped like a turtle shell from the mario brothers games, so I ask him to throw it at me in the middle of my routine if I start to suck.
Scott announces my name and says I'm from New York City. Though I live in Denver now, he's right: I am NYFA. With that nice thought in my head, I start my routine.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r50GXRF8418[/youtube]
It's supposed to begin with a forehead stall to a lap catch to a clipper. Unfortunately, the transition from forehead to lap doesn't go well, as the bag slips between my bowlegged thighs. It's not an automatic drop, since I feel the bag between my calves, but I can't transition out well, and I get my first drop seconds into the routine. Oh well, at least the pressure's off for dropless. Not 5 seconds later I drop again, and it's a bad drop. I miss a transition from a squeeze, and I kick at the bag to try and prevent the drop. This sends the bag into the audience, and I have flashbacks of my horrific 2007 Worlds routine. My NYJ routine has one of the longest, most involved 2-bag juggles of any routine I've done, so I panic a bit thinking how I'll replace that section if I don't get back the second bag. I do a few tricks to buy myself some time, and once the audience throws me back my second bag, I relax a good bit. I end up doing the rest of the routine dropless, though my initial mishaps threw off my choreography for the first half of the routine. I also severely toned down some of the later sections, because by then I was worried about my footing on the floor. My final cue is a mullet on the beat, which I miss (but didn't drop), but I decide to hit the mullet off the beat anyway, because I want a stronger ending. As I make my final bows, I feel relieved competition is over for me, and that I recovered from my second drop. That could have been way worse.
Results are announced very quickly, which I appreciate. I'm happy to learn I took first place, which is $100 cash, a footbag, and a nice footfighter sweatshirt. It also feels like vindication for forcing my body to compete, when I didn't feel up for it. This kind of experience can only help me in the future. I end up giving my sweatshirt to Zach Jahner, since I really don't need any more footbag shirts. Right after competition ends, I go play a game of chess with Tim Werner. I volunteer to play black, which pays off when Tim opens with e4, and I respond with Sicilian defence, and Tim goes: "oh no! I hate the Sicilian defence!" It's one of the few black openings I feel confident playing, and it works out, since I made it to the midgame with some nice setups that eventually paid off (one fianchettoed bishop in particular).
After chess I get a cheap Chicago dog which hits the spot, and I just sit back and watch people shred. I also check out some breakdancing kids nearby, which is a lot of fun. I think the Mayor's sports fest is a great opportunity for young athletes to cross-pollinate ideas and be exposed to other sports. I help clean up the site, and head back to Steve's suite. My backpack felt full, so I didn't think I was missing anything...but when I opened it up, I saw that my sweatshirt was taking up all the space. My smaller sling bag, which had 6 of my best footbags and my G-Units, was nowhere to be found! I go back to the site and scour it, along with the very appreciated help of Matt Kemmer, Tom K, and Zac Miley. I can't find it anywhere, and I'm poking in trash cans to see if it's been thrown out. I start to panic, and get pissed at myself, because I know I wouldn't have lost my gear if I didn't have a cold, and I feel like this is punishment for deciding to go to Chicago when I was too sick for it. Tom calls Scott though, and in euphoria-inducing news, informs me that he has my gear. I'm so relieved by this turn of events, and I was so stressed out by the experience, that I decide to break my 10 day alcohol ban and have a couple beers that night.
Back at Steve's suite we socialize and eat, and then I hit the sauna again. I end up having some really good conversations with Evan and Sinatra, which proves to be one of the highlights of my trip. I think it's amazing that we are all brought together by our shared addiction to kicking a beanbag, and how this strange shared hobby has been the reason I've met a lot of my friends.
At the shred room I crack open my first beer in 10 days, which is also a very good one: a nice Oatmeal Stout. Not exactly the best beer for footbagging, but tasty, and it hit the spot. Sunday night is the 2 square competition, which I didn't sign up for, so the night is a mix of shredding with people and watching 2square. The best match I see all night is Sebastien against Zeke, which really makes 2 square look like a sport. Finals is MGM against Tom Kotsakos, which is not the match of the night. I'd watched one of Tom's games earlier in the night, and when he was in the zone he was awesome. In finals, Tom was off his game. It's tough to see that, because you know he can do better, and you just saw him doing better, and it sucks that he hit a rough patch right in finals. MGM was solid, and took the match by staying in his game.
After squares I played some warzone, which I wasn't a big fan of. I played two games, and the teams I was on won them both, but I think I'm gonna retire undefeated. Just not my game. Towards the end of the night Tom orders a pizza, which is perfect timing. At this point I'm just watching shred circles and enjoying sitting down. I doodle a bit in Nick Polini's journal, which then leads to me doing some anagrams. By far my favorite, was the discovery that "Zac Miley" is "laZy Mice." My original plan was to go to Reile's place Sunday night, but that was before I knew we had the shred room on Monday. After looking over the logistics, I decide it's smarter to stay another night in the hotel. CIC graciously accomodates my last-minute request. Much laughter and Bacon jokes are had. I particularly enjoyed re-telling Chappelle Show sketches with Tom K. Props to Hania for putting up with us.
Monday
Everybody wakes up late on Monday. I end up having a super hard time finding food anywhere, and end up getting a muffin and coffee from a kiosk in the hotel. My server is in a bad mood. Then again, if my name were "Princess" and I was working her job on a Monday morning before xmas, I'd probably also be less than chipper. In the shred room people are off to a leisurely start. I tell myself I'll be fine to shred once the caffeine kicks in, but after two days of getting pushed, my body disagrees. I play a little bit with Dante and Risden, but my body shuts me down. At one point I have a coughing fit, and when I start seeing stars, I know I'm done for the tournament. I change into normal clothes, sit down, and watch the last strings of the tournament. I'm not even bitter; I know I was lucky to make it to the tournament at all, and the fact that I was able to focus during competition and play well was even luckier. I definitely pushed it by going to NYJ this year, so I wasn't going to complain because I had to be sidelined the last day.
I take public transportation to the airport, so I say my thank yous and goodbyes early. My trip back to Denver was pretty horrid, but I'll spare you the details. One nice thing though, was getting to listen to my ipod and not feeling like I had to listen to my routine song. It was also a bit of a relief to know I could get back to resting and video games, and I wouldn't need to use caffeine as a crutch to get through the day.
I'm gonna close out with some shout outs.
Hats off to CIC, Scott D, and Steve for keeping this fun tournament/tradition going.
Big shoutout to Dragonfly footbags for sponsoring the tournament. $450 in cash prize money, plus some nice shirts, are all appreciated.
Matt Kemmer and Waylon, for all their filming.
Brian F*ing Bear, for repairing two footbags for me, and bringing my G-Units back from the dead. Incredibly grateful for this.
Tim Werner, for fun chess, and solid shred.
Lazy Mice, for being a worthy opponent all weekend in a bunch of stupid competitions (I guess Circle finals are included in that).
Bacon, for all our non-kosher fun.
Montreal for making the drive out. Super fun crew, and raised the level of competition across the board.
Evan and Nathan, for philosophical sauna musings.
Zach Jahner, for finally not being injured at one of these, and finally being able to play with me.
Everybody I hung out with, and shredded with. I had a great time.
Sunday
I woke up feeling surprisingly good, considering how hard I pushed myself to play the previous day. Having a bed to myself both nights certainly didn't hurt either. I think the acetaminophen in my cold meds also helped my muscles with cramps. In any case, it was encouraging to start the day off only having to deal with some fogginess in the head. I woke up kind of late, so I decided to have a light breakfast in the convention center. I didn't want to be constantly checking my watch, or rushing back right before competition. I ended up getting breakfast from the worst Starbucks of all time. It was actually kind of humorous how bad it was...slow, rude, and they got my order wrong. The worst is when you go out of your way to be nice, and they don't even reciprocate. But yeah, it was so bad, it actually made me laugh, which is never a bad thing before you're going to compete.
I had top seed in routines, which meant that I didn't watch anybody else compete before me. Even so, I got the sense that nobody did particularly well (i.e. there wasn't the kind of crowd reaction you hear when somebody goes dropless). We competed at the event site, and the floor was very slippery, so I had low expectations myself. Strangely enough, my two drops had nothing to do with the slippery floor, though I did find myself toning down the difficulty several times because I felt my footing shifting under me. Donovan has a cool backpack which is shaped like a turtle shell from the mario brothers games, so I ask him to throw it at me in the middle of my routine if I start to suck.
Scott announces my name and says I'm from New York City. Though I live in Denver now, he's right: I am NYFA. With that nice thought in my head, I start my routine.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r50GXRF8418[/youtube]
It's supposed to begin with a forehead stall to a lap catch to a clipper. Unfortunately, the transition from forehead to lap doesn't go well, as the bag slips between my bowlegged thighs. It's not an automatic drop, since I feel the bag between my calves, but I can't transition out well, and I get my first drop seconds into the routine. Oh well, at least the pressure's off for dropless. Not 5 seconds later I drop again, and it's a bad drop. I miss a transition from a squeeze, and I kick at the bag to try and prevent the drop. This sends the bag into the audience, and I have flashbacks of my horrific 2007 Worlds routine. My NYJ routine has one of the longest, most involved 2-bag juggles of any routine I've done, so I panic a bit thinking how I'll replace that section if I don't get back the second bag. I do a few tricks to buy myself some time, and once the audience throws me back my second bag, I relax a good bit. I end up doing the rest of the routine dropless, though my initial mishaps threw off my choreography for the first half of the routine. I also severely toned down some of the later sections, because by then I was worried about my footing on the floor. My final cue is a mullet on the beat, which I miss (but didn't drop), but I decide to hit the mullet off the beat anyway, because I want a stronger ending. As I make my final bows, I feel relieved competition is over for me, and that I recovered from my second drop. That could have been way worse.
Results are announced very quickly, which I appreciate. I'm happy to learn I took first place, which is $100 cash, a footbag, and a nice footfighter sweatshirt. It also feels like vindication for forcing my body to compete, when I didn't feel up for it. This kind of experience can only help me in the future. I end up giving my sweatshirt to Zach Jahner, since I really don't need any more footbag shirts. Right after competition ends, I go play a game of chess with Tim Werner. I volunteer to play black, which pays off when Tim opens with e4, and I respond with Sicilian defence, and Tim goes: "oh no! I hate the Sicilian defence!" It's one of the few black openings I feel confident playing, and it works out, since I made it to the midgame with some nice setups that eventually paid off (one fianchettoed bishop in particular).
After chess I get a cheap Chicago dog which hits the spot, and I just sit back and watch people shred. I also check out some breakdancing kids nearby, which is a lot of fun. I think the Mayor's sports fest is a great opportunity for young athletes to cross-pollinate ideas and be exposed to other sports. I help clean up the site, and head back to Steve's suite. My backpack felt full, so I didn't think I was missing anything...but when I opened it up, I saw that my sweatshirt was taking up all the space. My smaller sling bag, which had 6 of my best footbags and my G-Units, was nowhere to be found! I go back to the site and scour it, along with the very appreciated help of Matt Kemmer, Tom K, and Zac Miley. I can't find it anywhere, and I'm poking in trash cans to see if it's been thrown out. I start to panic, and get pissed at myself, because I know I wouldn't have lost my gear if I didn't have a cold, and I feel like this is punishment for deciding to go to Chicago when I was too sick for it. Tom calls Scott though, and in euphoria-inducing news, informs me that he has my gear. I'm so relieved by this turn of events, and I was so stressed out by the experience, that I decide to break my 10 day alcohol ban and have a couple beers that night.
Back at Steve's suite we socialize and eat, and then I hit the sauna again. I end up having some really good conversations with Evan and Sinatra, which proves to be one of the highlights of my trip. I think it's amazing that we are all brought together by our shared addiction to kicking a beanbag, and how this strange shared hobby has been the reason I've met a lot of my friends.
At the shred room I crack open my first beer in 10 days, which is also a very good one: a nice Oatmeal Stout. Not exactly the best beer for footbagging, but tasty, and it hit the spot. Sunday night is the 2 square competition, which I didn't sign up for, so the night is a mix of shredding with people and watching 2square. The best match I see all night is Sebastien against Zeke, which really makes 2 square look like a sport. Finals is MGM against Tom Kotsakos, which is not the match of the night. I'd watched one of Tom's games earlier in the night, and when he was in the zone he was awesome. In finals, Tom was off his game. It's tough to see that, because you know he can do better, and you just saw him doing better, and it sucks that he hit a rough patch right in finals. MGM was solid, and took the match by staying in his game.
After squares I played some warzone, which I wasn't a big fan of. I played two games, and the teams I was on won them both, but I think I'm gonna retire undefeated. Just not my game. Towards the end of the night Tom orders a pizza, which is perfect timing. At this point I'm just watching shred circles and enjoying sitting down. I doodle a bit in Nick Polini's journal, which then leads to me doing some anagrams. By far my favorite, was the discovery that "Zac Miley" is "laZy Mice." My original plan was to go to Reile's place Sunday night, but that was before I knew we had the shred room on Monday. After looking over the logistics, I decide it's smarter to stay another night in the hotel. CIC graciously accomodates my last-minute request. Much laughter and Bacon jokes are had. I particularly enjoyed re-telling Chappelle Show sketches with Tom K. Props to Hania for putting up with us.
Monday
Everybody wakes up late on Monday. I end up having a super hard time finding food anywhere, and end up getting a muffin and coffee from a kiosk in the hotel. My server is in a bad mood. Then again, if my name were "Princess" and I was working her job on a Monday morning before xmas, I'd probably also be less than chipper. In the shred room people are off to a leisurely start. I tell myself I'll be fine to shred once the caffeine kicks in, but after two days of getting pushed, my body disagrees. I play a little bit with Dante and Risden, but my body shuts me down. At one point I have a coughing fit, and when I start seeing stars, I know I'm done for the tournament. I change into normal clothes, sit down, and watch the last strings of the tournament. I'm not even bitter; I know I was lucky to make it to the tournament at all, and the fact that I was able to focus during competition and play well was even luckier. I definitely pushed it by going to NYJ this year, so I wasn't going to complain because I had to be sidelined the last day.
I take public transportation to the airport, so I say my thank yous and goodbyes early. My trip back to Denver was pretty horrid, but I'll spare you the details. One nice thing though, was getting to listen to my ipod and not feeling like I had to listen to my routine song. It was also a bit of a relief to know I could get back to resting and video games, and I wouldn't need to use caffeine as a crutch to get through the day.
I'm gonna close out with some shout outs.
Hats off to CIC, Scott D, and Steve for keeping this fun tournament/tradition going. Big shoutout to Dragonfly footbags for sponsoring the tournament. $450 in cash prize money, plus some nice shirts, are all appreciated. Matt Kemmer and Waylon, for all their filming. Brian F*ing Bear, for repairing two footbags for me, and bringing my G-Units back from the dead. Incredibly grateful for this. Tim Werner, for fun chess, and solid shred. Lazy Mice, for being a worthy opponent all weekend in a bunch of stupid competitions (I guess Circle finals are included in that). Bacon, for all our non-kosher fun. Montreal for making the drive out. Super fun crew, and raised the level of competition across the board. Evan and Nathan, for philosophical sauna musings. Zach Jahner, for finally not being injured at one of these, and finally being able to play with me. Everybody I hung out with, and shredded with. I had a great time.
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 11:53, edited 1 time in total.
Happy 2011! During the long weekend that bridged the New Year, I went on a road trip from Georgia to Denver. That meant no footbag and almost no internet for 5 days. It also meant that I didn't get in my first session of 2011 until yesterday.
Blog readers may remember that I got a new laptop a month ago, and I was excited about having video-editing capabilities. Well, adobe Premiere is a very finicky program, and I was having a lot of trouble working with it. I pretty much had to abandon the first project I tried on it. Each time I get screwed by premiere though, I get an idea how to come back and avoid the same problem. I decided to test out my new theory by filming my first session of 2011, and making a very simple movie out of it. My goals were very modest:
Have it come out in HD
Have basic title cards in it
Have basic transitions in it
Get slow-mo to work
Happily, I was able to succeed in this modest project. The final product is at the end of this post. The footage isn't the best quality because I filmed in indoor light, but the thing I care about is that I was able to export it in HD. I have a lot of solid footage from the fall, which looks way better due to lighting, so my next project should come out looking a lot sharper. I also did all the editing for this project in about an hour, so again, the next real project should be sharper. I'm just a lot more optimistic now that I'll be able to make a basic shred video. As recently as a week ago, I wasn't so sure. Tonight I'm going to start work on my next project, which will be a video of my footbag highlights since moving to Denver a few months ago. Crossing my fingers it'll turn out OK.
I'm also hitting the gym again tonight. Depending on how I'm playing, and how many people are using the room I play in, I may film and throw together another one of these highlight vids, since it wasn't hard to put together.
Here's the vid of my first 2011 session. Please watch in 720:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVf7IKHmgyM[/youtube]
Blog readers may remember that I got a new laptop a month ago, and I was excited about having video-editing capabilities. Well, adobe Premiere is a very finicky program, and I was having a lot of trouble working with it. I pretty much had to abandon the first project I tried on it. Each time I get screwed by premiere though, I get an idea how to come back and avoid the same problem. I decided to test out my new theory by filming my first session of 2011, and making a very simple movie out of it. My goals were very modest:
Have it come out in HD Have basic title cards in it Have basic transitions in it Get slow-mo to work Happily, I was able to succeed in this modest project. The final product is at the end of this post. The footage isn't the best quality because I filmed in indoor light, but the thing I care about is that I was able to export it in HD. I have a lot of solid footage from the fall, which looks way better due to lighting, so my next project should come out looking a lot sharper. I also did all the editing for this project in about an hour, so again, the next real project should be sharper. I'm just a lot more optimistic now that I'll be able to make a basic shred video. As recently as a week ago, I wasn't so sure. Tonight I'm going to start work on my next project, which will be a video of my footbag highlights since moving to Denver a few months ago. Crossing my fingers it'll turn out OK.
I'm also hitting the gym again tonight. Depending on how I'm playing, and how many people are using the room I play in, I may film and throw together another one of these highlight vids, since it wasn't hard to put together.
Here's the vid of my first 2011 session. Please watch in 720:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVf7IKHmgyM[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 11:53, edited 1 time in total.
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Sporatical_Distractions
- registered sacks offender
- Posts: 4529
- Joined: 12 Oct 2004 19:14
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Nice work on the video Ken, editing and shredding. I like the reaction at about 1:52 or so. I get those on both ends a lot when shredding, especially after Indian food. Your double spins are really fast.
Looking forward to more vids!
By the way, your r foot stepping set looks a little rushed, but you probably know.
Looking forward to more vids!
By the way, your r foot stepping set looks a little rushed, but you probably know.
TJ Boutorwick
"You can do anything" -Greg Nelson
"You can do anything" -Greg Nelson
Thanks for the nice comments everybody! I really appreciate them. So after the success of making my last video, I decided to do another one. And then I ran into a ton of problems with Premiere. I don't want to get into it, but it got to the point where I was about to just delete the program off my computer, and send my good files from autumn to Eric Chang or somebody so they could make a video for me.
I ended up with a partial victory over Premiere. I was finally able to make a highlight video from my second shred of 2011, but for some reason I couldn't make it come out in HD. So it's indoor light, and only in 360 quality, so not very good at all. I tell myself this is all part of a learning curve, and it will be worth it. We'll see.
Last week at work was insane, so I didn't post much online, and I didn't get to play much after work either. This weekend though i've started playing more though, and I'm having fun playing, which is what counts.
Anyway, here's my second blog video. Apologies for it not being in HD. I think I'll try and make another video tomorrow if time allows. Hopefully it'll be easier than this one, and in better video quality.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hupimB9JXg[/youtube]
I ended up with a partial victory over Premiere. I was finally able to make a highlight video from my second shred of 2011, but for some reason I couldn't make it come out in HD. So it's indoor light, and only in 360 quality, so not very good at all. I tell myself this is all part of a learning curve, and it will be worth it. We'll see.
Last week at work was insane, so I didn't post much online, and I didn't get to play much after work either. This weekend though i've started playing more though, and I'm having fun playing, which is what counts.
Anyway, here's my second blog video. Apologies for it not being in HD. I think I'll try and make another video tomorrow if time allows. Hopefully it'll be easier than this one, and in better video quality.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hupimB9JXg[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 11:54, edited 1 time in total.
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Zac Miley
- Post Master General
- Posts: 5953
- Joined: 04 Jun 2006 12:11
- Location: Kansas City, MO
- Contact:
I don't know if you've tried this or not, but online tutorials for Adobe products are actually usually very helpful. All of their products are a pain in the ass to learn at first but once you understand one the rest come easily.
Jay (8:06:01 PM): Bu-bu-buu-buug--Looks up, and the feeling goes away like a sneeze-bu-buuuh-BULLLSHITTT
Jay (8:06:14 PM): *wipes bellybutton*
Jay (8:06:14 PM): *wipes bellybutton*