Muffinman

[Cass]

Any suggestions for the hacky blues?

I think it's important to force yourself to be positive. I know it's hard sometimes but I find that it really helps. For example, when I was working on the Level 2 badge I found myself saying "I can do this" in my head a LOT. Even when I wasn't totally sure I could, I told myself I could and then I did it.. So yeah I strongly recommend trying this when you are playing alone and trying to hit difficult concepts etc.

Fake it 'til you make it. Pretend to be positive and you will eventually be that way.

[akprice]

i understand how you feel. i liken it to creativity. you can't force it. sometimes i think you just need a break and then come back to it. like i haven't felt creative in a while with my photography but i know that when it hits i'll be ready for it and step right back in.

[Muffinman]

Thanks guys <3

I was excited yesterday. JJ called me out of the blue and said he would come to me to have a session. Minutes before he called I was whining to Jenn about how I wanted to work out but had no motivation or energy, so when JJ called it was just perfect. I was also kind of more excited to give him a personal training session and get him to try some new stuff. But two things messed up our potential session: 1) He plays footbag on the subway and occasionally gets kicked off. This happened, and he called me saying that he wasn't allowed back on the subway, haha. And then also, 2) it had started raining, so I just cancelled. I didn't feel I would have the drive to play in the rain or indoors. I kind of want to meet up with him some time to give him lessons and just to play more frequently during the week. Camille said she might be interested in that some times too. Soloing is rough lately. I had a lot of fun with it in London, but here not so much. Maybe because I know there are a ton of people who I COULD be playing with instead.

Today's session was fun. I had, like, zero stamina and had to keep catching my breath. Cassy and Camille were both playing really well, I felt. Camille had some longer runs and was doing some pixie stuff. Cassy has some good long, consistent runs with some of her trademark unusual stuff. Lots of pinchers, rakes, dragons. But also some good pixie and fairy shuffle, some eggbeaters. Her stepping is like perfect form. She was really close to both blurry drifter and vortex. She also hit the spinning drill for the Level 2 Badge that she's been struggling with. But I missed it 'cause some Brazilian guy came up to us and started talking about Ronaldo. He was really impressed, and it was kind of neat to talk to someone who appreciated the complexity of what we were doing. He didn't speak English too well though, so most of what he said was, like, repeating, "You good. You good! You like Ronaldo!"

Uh, I played eh. Not bad, not good. I did lots of torques, which was kinda neat. Dropped a lot of them, but still felt nice to be doing something a bit different. Fusion BSOS. Blaze > pixie whip [repeat]. I had one run with, like.. blaze one side and then blazing butterfly the other side. I find blazing butterfly to be one of the hardest basic blazing tricks for me, so it was neat that I pulled that out midstring without planning it. Not awesome, just kinda neat. Uhhh. Some pdx blenders. Lots of short sucky runs. Haha.

It was so hot out. The wind was nice, but then I sweated way more on my subway ride and walk home than playing. It's definitely shorts weather, but I hate wearing them because I don't like the way my legs look :p

[boyle]

"You good. You good! You like Ronaldo!"

You haven't put on weight recently, have you?

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Who the fuck is Rondalado?

Nice stuff, Erik. Definitely sick stuff with those Blaze sets. I think the opposite though. Blazing Butter is so much easier than Blaze for me Try it b2b sometime.

Sucks you didn't get to have a session with JJ. I hope you do get to teach him a bit. I had a mostly teachy session today. Some new guys coming to us from street jacky sack, kinda like JJ. Touch to break those old habit in them sometime. I'd like to see JJ get good. I bet you could help him.

I kinda know what you mean about having the drive to solo session and not wanting to because you live close to so many other players. I love playing with my crew, but sometimes I wish I didn't live near so many players, because I would have more time to solo drill, and also, when they ask me to play and I want to let my legs rest… I end up playing and adding more recovery time to my legs, which seriously pisses me off. But I do love my crew. But back to the "finding drive to solo session" thing… Sometimes, I don't want to solo session, because of a hard day at work, or just tired in general, I watch some slow motion of a certain concept I want to get good at. Usually, I'll pick something out in this person's form that they do and I don't, and I'll realize what I'm doing wrong, then that gives me the hype for a solo session and it usually ends up being a great idea for me. Maybe you could try that?

[boyle]

It's easy for me to not worry about solo sessions, as the nearest players are thousands ok kilometres away! I have previously had that feeling though, that I "should" or "could" be playing with various people, because they are not so far away at all.

I guess we just have to appreciate the chances that we get to play at all.

[Muffinman]

Fun session with Alex and Camille. FAT is the greatest. Alex was on fire. A great run with flip stepping midstring a few times! Long runs too. Camille was playing okay too, though I think she had sciatica pain. She did, like, 10-15 infinities at one point and that seemed like more than I'd ever seen her do.

I played really badly, like worse than the previous sessions I whined about. I hope it's really just a stamina issue like Nick suggested. Alex is suuuper eager and in town for another week so we're planning to play every second day. Hopefully that will help me get my juice back. Adam supposedly came back from England today too so I hope we can get him in on those plentiful sessions. I ended the session with mobius BSOS and spinning whip > gyro whip BSOS. Otherwise nothing really. I average, like, 6 trick runs probably. near-ish the end I tried to internalize Cassy's advice of just being positive and that helped a bit. I just approached it as an opportunity to get a cardio workout in and just did BOPpy stuff and consecutives of tricks I can do consistently. I think that's how I will try to approach this upcoming week's potential flurry of sessions.

[Muffinman]

Really fun session with Alex, Camille, and JJ.
I finally played well! I didn't play great, but good. It felt amazing. I also had my first significant solo bike ride in the morning. Really wanted to bike again the 22km-ish round trip to the session, but knew it was a bad idea since I haven't biked in a long time and I didn't wanna have bike legs.
Some highlights:
-Whirr > hand catch > other side (really wanted BSOS after Nick's latest videos -- I think I will be able to start doing this trick)
-lots of 20-ish runs with good stuff. Lots of mobiuses again. Nothing really notable that I remember, I don't think. But it felt good and I had good runs mostly. Pretty consistent. I ended the session with an 87 low-difficulty run and... a good run with mobiuses BSOS and some other 5s or something? I don't remember.
-Oh I had a run with spikehammer and other side stepping ducking clipper, which felt nice

Really fun. Great vibes.
Also, after 6 months of looking for a job I finally got a callback and interview for tomorrow! I'm not even nearly prepared since it came out of nowhere, having not received even a callback in half a year... It's with a talent agency, so it won't hurt me as much to not be super prepared, but in retrospect I probably should have stayed home to prepare instead of being out all day and night. I had to do some online tests for which I got 93% on each, so that felt good. Wish me luck tomorrow!

[Cass]

Awesome Erik!

Remember to tell yourself positive things and be totally confident and you will kill it today

[Muffinman]

JOB STUFFS
Thanks Cassy
The interview was good. It was good experience since I haven't been in an interview in aaaages and haven't even had a single callback in 6 months! It was with a staffing agency who will keep my resume on file and think of me when relevant (mostly government) jobs become available through their clients who pay them to find them employees. It was really neat too because she seemed to actually be familiar with my field, and rattled off some buzz words like records management, archives, information technology... It should at least widen the scope of my job search. They won an award for best managed company in Toronto, so that's something. Then that night I spent, like, flipping 6-8 hours writing 3 incredible job applications. I better get at least one callback for those. Super frustrating sometimes when I have the EXACT skills and experience asked for and then some. And don't hear back.



HACKY
Anyway.
Incredible session today! SO FUN!
I played really, really well and it was just a beautiful day, a great turnout, good loud music, passersby, and a great, positive vibe from everyone. Everyone played close to the best I've ever seen. So good. I got my game back somehow. Don't know what was happening before, but hopefully that's behind me. Some highlights before I forget:
-13 barflies (my previous record was, like, 8?)
-big apple both sides
-11 spinning ducking clippers (12's my record? Only tried once, I think)
-spinning clipper > gyro clipper [repeat] > spinning clipper x2 > gyro clipper [repeat] > spinning clipper x3 > gyro clipper [repeat] > spinning clipper x4 > gyro clipper [repeat] > spinning clipper x5 > gyro clipper [repeat] > spinning ducking clipper
-spinning ducking clipper > ducking clipper [repeat] > spinning ducking clipper x2 > ducking clipper [repeat] > spinning ducking clipper x3 > ducking clipper [repeat]
-a good run with the spinning ducking clipper > gyro diving clipper drill midstring
-footed fusion BSOS
-footed quantum whip BSOS
-spinning whip > gyro whip [repeat] > spinning whip (thought I'd try two rotations)
-footed mobius x2 first try (I've done it both sides before, but I would LOVE to be able to do 3+, or vortex > mobius [repeat] or something, a la Nick Polini)
-a good warm-up run with pdx blender BSOS
-pdx torque > osis > torque > osis > pdx torque?
-blurry whirl x2?
-blurry whirl > blurry whip > blurry whip > blurry whirl?
-footed montage (regular, not reverse -- I've hit it before I think, though -- in like 2003? Hahaha)
-brainfart trying stepping whirl -- legs don't move that way any more
-footed double spinning clipper > ps whip [repeat]
-spinning ducking clipper > double spinning clipper > spinning whip (hit flipside, footed good side -- Sam requested a "sick 3" with DSC, and also wanted to know if I could play into it and out of it. I guess I can? )
-close to spinning mobius and double spinning whip

Lots of solid runs with good tricks, and more variety than usual. It just felt really, really good



FAT
So originally the session was just going to be me and Alex, as his last day shred in town. Adam said he'd come last minute last night. And then just before I left, Sam "liked" one of the posts, which insinuated to me that he was thinking of coming. I messaged him and told him where to meet us and he said he'd come!! Awesome. I love shredding with him -- super nice style, and a really positive attitude -- like Josh Lackey. I think I would overload with positivity if I was in a circle with both at the same time. JJ was a maybe as far as I knew? No, he texted me too saying he was coming late? And then I thought I was gonna be late 'cause the subway does weird things near my place on weekends lately, but I was right on time. And then I THOUGHT I saw Cassy just walking toward the area we said we'd meet at. But I wasn't 100% sure and didn't want to wave to a rando. Especially since she specifically said she wasn't coming today. But then all the neon made it pretty clear that it was her and I went and connected. It was such an incredible turn-out with so many friendly faces

Cassy was busting a lot of shuffle. She was close to breaking her record of 6 a few times I think? Lots of variety, neat weird things like wauxspins and rakes, but also harder things like atomic and fairy tricks. I remember seeing some things I don't often see her hit. Paradox whirl seemed uncommon? Long, consistent runs.

Sam was also busting consistent runs. Lots of 20-ish contact runs, with super smooth style. It was his first session in over a month, I think? And he doesn't play much at ALL lately, so it was a real pleasure to shred with him and see him bust. His style kinda reminds me of Tom's? Just really pleasing to the eyes. Spinning osis BSOS a bunch of times really stood out to me. Great bothsidedness. And I really liked his pixie muted clippers. Style.

JJ has been getting really good! His runs were pretty long -- some probably close to 20 contacts too! We had a discussion about him on the walk to the subway after about how we love his originality and street style. Adam said if we could change one thing from "mainstream" shred to add to his game it would be bothsidedness. And we all (Adam, Sam, and I) agreed that we would hate to see him lose his street style tricks.

I... don't think I even played with Alex much today? I can't remember much. I may not have shredded with him at all? He was doing stepping tricks BSOS. I remember that. Nope, not much else. I think I must have been shredding with him for, like, maybe 5 minutes total? I don't remember. It was his 5th session in a row though. I have this thing going with our club where I will stitch a bag for anyone who shows up to 5 weekend sessions in a row. For "out-of-towners" who have a decent commute, I said, "3/5 sessions in a row." Camille was the first to get 5 in a row, Cassy just got her 3/5 last weekend, and then I added a rule for out-of-towners stating that you can also get one if you make it to 5 sessions in a row, including week days, if it includes at least 2 weekend sessions. And he just accomplished that by today's session. So I've got a bag to make Cassy and Alex now. Cassy's is going to be REALLY choice. I'm doing a facile/amaretta hybrid. I've only cut the panels so far, but... OMG. She wants to give it up as a prize for the skydiving event, but... I would recommend keeping it herself :p It's going to be ridonkulously good. Like, not to toot my own horn, but... that amaretta.....

Adam was playing awesome as always. Gauntlet > handcatch > gauntlet (same side). Barroque a few times. Dense, dense runs with lots of 5s and triples. He makes stepping dual dex tricks look so stupid easy. I have to put so much oomph into my fogs and bedwetters and he just glides over them like nothing. I have trouble remembering his exact highlights because every run is always so good. We had a fun moment near the end of the session where we just did big tricks and combos after everyone else had stopped. I love shredding with him because we are really close to the same level and can feed off each other's games so easily. I felt I played awesome today, but in general I think he's surpassed me by quite a bit. I hope we can play more together and I can be motivated to try to overtake him again We're gonna jam just him and me on Tuesday, I think, so I look forward to that. We also plan to make a video where we run around the city and film in front of pretty scenery. I did that with Mike Faille back in 2007 and it was both super fun and made for a great video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xptsScA9Un4[/youtube]

Cassy says frequently how lucky she is to have FAT to shred with regularly, and I feel the same. So many great players and nice, fun people! This is going to be a great summer! EDIT: Also, the song from this video is how I felt today. I had such a good time

[Cass]

Crazy, we posted our blogs about today and the EXACT SAME TIME! Yours is much more detailed though

You played awesome! Such a great day!

I like how you recognize me from the neon

I really wanna come live in Toronto soon *crosses fingers*

[Muffinman]

Thanks Cassy!
You're my #1 blog fan!

I stayed up last night to make a couple of videos. I mentioned a video I'd filmed to Adam in passing on Saturday and decided I'd actually get to editing it. I filmed it in 2012 after I finished school at U of T. But my desktop isn't fast enough to edit HD video, apparently. Or maybe it was the speed of the external hard drive I was using. I don't remember. In any case that's why I put it off for so long. It's not as awesome as I hoped it would be or put the time into making it and I had to cut a ton of stuff (like spinning ducking DLO, 'cause half of my body was cut off due to not having a viewfinder on my GoPro!), but it's okay.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngXmf7-PhGo[/youtube]

Then I also threw together some bonus footage that I had filmed the next day in order to flesh out the video, since I didn't think that I had enough for a whole video.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnxIpqDX7Eg[/youtube]

Plus, looking at my desktop hard drives, I realized that I have footage from a FAT session with Dante that I never touched. So maybe that in the near future too. I remember he played really well and Adam did too, but I didn't, which is probably why I put that one off for so long (a couple years again?) :p

[krustykrakk]

Hairik.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Watched both videos. Awesome stuff man. Your work is appreciated.

Sent from my C6916 using Tapatalk

[Muffinman]

Thanks Nick (and Ben?)
Had a great (and huge) FAT session today with our out-of-town guests, Roy Klein from Israel and Andrew Dunford from Nunavut. Johnny, Zach, and Alex came out from the London/Paris area (that sounds a lot more exotic than it actually is...), Adam, JJ, and Camille were there. And some significant others. I kind of feel like I'm missing someone, but I hope not? We went to Yuk Yuk's comedy club after and it was really fun. Roy was saying that too bad it wasn't too conducive to conversation though. But most of it was really funny

I saw Johnny hit triple pickup both sides. He also had a drill that was... fog > barrage > paradon [repeat] > blurriest x2? Other good stuff. I had a run that was 100+ easily (I stopped counting after about 60ish?). Another few that were probably 60-ish. Pretty solid. Overall I played well. I had some good harder trick runs too. Such a hot day out. I knew I would burn and I just got home and, yeah, I'm gonna hurt tomorrow. Gonna need a cold shower. And maybe I will have to pick up aloe vera gel.

Actually I think everyone's SOs were there except Adam's and out-of-towners. Jenn wasn't either, but she met up with us for the comedy club. Andrew and Roy had their girlfriends, Lane was there, and Sari (Sarah?) was there too. Looking forward to a week of footbag!!! I was so winded today, probably a lot from the heat, that I felt nauseous a few times and had to sit down. Like I felt like I was gonna puke. At one point I thought it would be pretty cool to be able to say that I shredded so hard that I did puke, but... probably not as glamorous in reality....

[Muffinman]

Wow another semi-impromptu session today!
I haven't really been able to play two days in a row for years, but I was really feeling it again today. I was sweating buckets. Like sometimes I'm shocked that I can even sweat more than I already do. It was just a really pleasant day. Cassy decided to show up super last minute, which is always a great surprise, and seems to be happening more and more frequently. In fact the highlight of today's session was probably her positivity. She was so hyped on footbag and just smiling uncontrollably. It made for a really nice atmosphere. It was Andrew Dunford, Camille, Cassy, and me. And also Andrew's girlfriend whom I met for the first time.

I played pretty well. Nothing super special, but kinda consistent runs with my standard fare. Kinda boring, but like I was telling Andrew I really want to solidify what I know before I try anything else, particularly after a couple months of frustrating inconsistency. I did double spinning clipper BSOS first try later in the session. Oh, I also remembered a highlight from yesterday's session: blaze > paradon [repeat] > barfly x2 > blurriest x2 or something? Oh, I actually kinda footed alpine scorpion's tail today both sides. Hahaha. I can't figure out spanishflies for the life of me. They were probably super the, but I mean, whatever. I was shocked that I came even somewhat close on flip. And in just one try. Oh yeah I also ended a long-ish run yesterday with a spender that I was shocked to have caught. Hahaha. Tried that again today but was nowhere close. Oh I also did blurriest > mobius BSOS yesterday, which felt nice.

Cassy hit a lot of new tricks today. Gyro DLO (both sides? I don't remember), nova (BSOS??), doof? not sure if that was new? And some other things?... I feel like there was an atomic trick too? Or maybe nuclear. We were all playing with that a bit. I'm not too familiar with Andrew's game. He and Camille are really hard on themselves and refuse a lot of passbacks. I feel like they'd both benefit from dialing down the difficulty in their games to get more satisfaction out of it. Especially Andrew who's forced to solo 99% of the time in Iqaluit.

Speaking of which, after Camille and Cassy had gone home I had a nice rest of the day with Andrew and Sarah. Sarah's really nice and I'm glad I got to meet her. We walked on Bloor a bit and went for a beer, which Andrew refused to let me buy for him even on his birthday! And we had some nice talks about everything. It would be great to see them again soon. Also the whole weekend I kept forgetting to suggest that we take group photos! I even mentioned that while the three of us were hanging out and didn't think to do it then either! Apparently Camille took a lot of pictures both days, though, so I look forward to seeing those. I'm gonna get a lot of exercise this week. Footbag Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, potentially Friday with Cassy in her neighbourhood, and then obligatory weekend shred. Then I biked for like.. 14km on Saturday, I'll be biking about 7-10 tomorrow to get to an appointment, and then potentially on Wednesday I'll bike... maybe 10-14ish for another appointment? Feels good to be active. I can feel my inner tube shrinking :p

Super, super sun-burned.
Like it hurts to move my arms. I think I'm too sunburned to do my yoga. I didn't even do basic hamstring stretches or cobbler like usual after today's sesssion. Can't wait for Jenn to lather the aloe vera gel all over me.

[Muffinman]

Another good session today. Roy Klein, Camille, Adam, and Cassy sneakily showed up out of nowhere again!
Highlight for me: flip scorpion's tail x2 (second try)
It was super controlled too, and as soon as I hand-caught, I realized I probably could have at least tried a third. This was particularly notable because I had hit it good side a ton of sessions back and wasn't able to do flip for many attempts.
I also had a neat flip spinning combo: spinning ducking clipper > vortex > spinning whip > mobius > hand catch
I was telling Adam that I think my flip spinning is now my good spinning? For a lot of things anyway.
Nothing else for me, really? I played well, but not super great. But it feels good that I'm not reverting back to that terrible couple of months I was having. Feels good to be able to hit stuff!

I haven't played this much footbag in years!
Third session this week so far, and I'm hoping to connect with Cassy and Nathan in their neighbourhood on maybe Friday, anmd then we have a big FAT family get-together on Sunday where we will be seeing some of our old friends who haven't been able to make it out for ages because of kids and family life and stuff. So looking forward to it. BBQ, beach, footbag, disc golf. Gonna be amazing <3

Adam was playing soooo well. Just stupid long runs with huge variety and huge tricks. Cassy was playing well too. Roy was super consistent with his runs and was the best I'd seen him play. Camille seemed like she was still struggling with her injury.

Roy's applied to go to school here so I hope he gets accepted and we can have more sessions and hangout in the future. His girlfriend is an artist so it would be fun to get to know her too since my girlfriend and I both are also.

[boyle]

Toronto seems like it has such a cool scene, with lots of players kicking all the time. I'd love to come visit some time.

[Muffinman]

Yeah, it's definitely been THE Canadian scene in the past year-ish. Super great to always have someone to shred with Definitely take it for granted too much of the time. You're welcome to stay at my place if you're ever up here. It would be great to see you again.


OSHAWA SESSION
Had ANOTHER session today. Jenn and I are staying with her parents for a few days in Ajax, to the East of Toronto. We have a birthday thing to go to tomorrow, so we decided we'd just spend a few extra days with her mom and her new baby love bird. I bussed out to Oshawa to meet Cassy, which is kind of further than I always remember it being. I've driven it a bunch of times before and I'm always surprised how far it actually is. I always think it's just next door, but there's another town in between. Also the bus ride was just empty field after empty field. Thank god for mobile Google Maps, 'cause I wasn't 100% confident that this bus was taking me where I had to go. But I saw Cassy doing dragons and anchors as I got off the bus, so, sweet.

It was a semi-chill session since we'd played so much this week. We played indoors because she had some crazy reaction in the sun the other day, which was fine with me because I got a double sunburn on the weekend too. I'm just getting over the pain now, but I'm in the bubbling and peeling phase, which is kinda gross. I really wanted to film since there is a real shortage of Durham Region shred sessions, but my stupid battery charger thing that I use to keep my GoPro juiced while filming decided to turn itself on at some point in my backpack... so it was dead. And then I realized that my GoPro itself was dead too after "filming" for about 15 minutes. Oh well. Probably for the best since it was pretty laid back. I felt pretty stuffy playing indoors after so many outdoor sessions, and sweated more than usual. I did mobius double BSOS, which I thought I'd never done before, but thinking about it now I probably have. I BSOSed scorpion's tail a few times, pdx blenders, which was cool, 'cause I barely missed any today... so random. Nothing else really. I tried some of Cassy's weird tricks like rev swirling things, wauxspins, rakes... I felt so bad at them. Cassy had one run with blink and twirl both BSOS. Oh and she hit a couple more new tricks: pdx blender and spinning rake? I struggle so much with trying to think of new tricks I can do. I'm not creative enough to think outside of the ripwalk box.



SPOILED
Then she drove me all the way back to Ajax, which is at least a 30 minute drive, I think. A lot more significant if you have to drive all the back from where you started after. I felt pretty spoiled, but we had a nice chat on the drive. Then when I got back, Jenn's mom brought out all of this amazing food for me to eat: sushi, pork bone soup (a favourite), Korean glass noodles (another favourite), TWO bubble teas (one of my favourite things in the world), and then offered me even more things... MORE of what I already had and egg tarts and other Chinese desert things... I'm so full. Feeling even more spoiled today.

We still have the FAT family BBQ thing on Sunday. So much footbag! I'm really, really excited to see Josh Lackey. And to do some non-footbag things with my footbag family. the comedy club earlier in the week was really fun with our out-of-town guests.



JOB FRONT
To top it off, I got a call for a job today. They want to interview me on Monday, which is super cool. What's more cool is that they apparently emailed me TWICE before calling and leaving as message. The emails went to my spam folder, which has suddenly made me super paranoid about getting no callbacks for half a year, but it gives me a lot of hope that they were so persistent about getting in touch with me! I'm ridiculously overqualified for the position and ALL of my experience is exactly what the job demands, so I'm absolutely perfect for it, and I think it would be really fun for me too, so wish me luck! I have to fit in some time tonight and tomorrow to prep for the interview 'cause I've had an unusually busy week! (In a really good way!)

[Cass]

Probably closer to 20min and my house is closer than school so I didn't mind! It was a good opportunity to talk (and then rock out to music alone on the way home).

Good session! I would have went harder if my ass muscle wasn't acting up

As I recall you hit wauxpin, gyro toe, spinning rake, and some blinks. Not so bad