Ivan I's Footblog

[Derek]

My offer of a free bag for some video still stands.

[isirc10]

Dully noted. I've been putting the camera out in my last few sessions, but not recording. I play like shit when recording, so I'm trying to just make it a habit to have the camera out during a session. I played last Sunday, Thursday, Saturday, and a bit today. I have a session planned with Ryan at Wentz tomorrow. Footbag highlights:
Barfly BSOS
PS Whirl!
Pdx Whirl BSOS
Also footed blurry whirl on both sides. Reactor seems to be a bit harder to get. I've made decent progress on drifters, and the drifter>whirl drill is getting easier each time I attempt it. I'd like to get pdx drifter on flip so I can hit drifter>pdx drifter rpt.

Surprisingly (or not), I did so much more than just take finals and play footbag last week. I machined a mount for my flashlight for my bike. Yeah, the light might be a bit overkill as it looks like a headlight, but it means cars notice me when I'm riding home in the dark. Reflectors aren't quite as effective.



I also finished up a long term project last week. Ever since I made my first shiny locomotive, I wanted to make a steam version of it. Well, Aside from a few little details, it is finished. I took pictures of the processes detailing how I made every part, but I think I'll save those for a model train forum. Enough words, more pictures:


Hope you like it! It was way more complex than the first engine, and posed new challenges, but it is incredibly rewarding being able to run it. Well, that's all I have for now modified. Back to editing video, stitching, and playing hacky.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hey, I'm off Wednesday. Session at Wentz Run Park round noon?

PS Whirl!?!? Props!

[isirc10]

Had a solid session with Nick and Ryan yesterday. Only warmed up after Nick's camera battery died, so nothing from me in terms of video. Highlights:
Toe Symple Swirl
Far Symple Swirl
Atomsmasher>Tap rpt
Omelette > Omelette
footed Quantum Drifter, Atomic Drifter

Kicking sometime this weekend. I'm finally feeling like I'm making headway, and not just catching up to old milestones before my injury. Now hitting newer, harder tricks and throwing down some nicer strings.

[isirc10]

Saw Mad Max on Friday with some friends from high school, it was awesome. I was expecting an intense movie with awesome props and crazy action, and I got all of that plus some nice humor. Spent most of it recognizing the different parts they used on the props/cars. It would be sweet to make stuff like that for a living.

Played for two hours today with Ryan, had fun and destroyed my legs. Both of us were tired.
Atom>Atom>Omelette>dropped Omelette
Ducking Illusion BS
Ducking Osis B2B
Toe Whirl > SS Whirl > PDX Mirage rpt
Blur > Atom > SS Butter rpt

Probably some stuff I'm forgetting... finished the session by playing a game of horse. We were both dead and dropping really easy links. I did get Clipper > PDX DLO per Ryan's challenge, and that's a trick I have only hit once before, so that's nice.overall a fun session. Looking to kick once or twice next week.

[Lycanthrope]

Nice toe stuff, Ivan. I have a challenge for you:

[eggbeater (from toe) > pixie pickup > repeat] > [dlo > plo > rpt]

It's a long link, but you got it.

[isirc10]

Good challenge. Flip pixies and eggbeater are something that needs work, so I might as well get on it while I'm young

It will be an end of year goal for me.
Speaking of long term goals, my goals for the summer are:
Play. Don't get injured.
Rubberman
Atom x 10
Omelette x 6

And I'd like to make a video for the worlds video contest. That's it for now I suppose.

[isirc10]

Played a bit today, had to cut the session short because my mom needed help with stuff. Shot video. Nothing amazing, but I guess getting something on video is better than getting nothing on video.
Hopefully I can do videos like this every now and then, and they will get better by the end of the summer. Just don't expect any fancy edits.

[Add Block]

Nice Illusions, Blizzards would look cool with that style

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

nice stuff ivan! more game then parker brothers! super smooth atomics. last link is legit too.

I know a pretty decent video editor if you ever want to step up production values

[isirc10]

Thanks guys.
Vojta, I'll throw in some blizzard>omelette combos into the next video. Your challenge of omelette>omelette really helped push me to get better at that trick.

Kevin, I was immediately reminded of this: Looks like I'll have a session tomorrow evening, and then something over the long weekend. We'll see. Possible trip up to Keminoland in the works. If not, I'll kick locally.

[Kylescook]

This is the first video i've seen with you in it, and i'm very excited to see more clips.

[anhkhoashevakt]

Wow man sick improvements lately. I can't wait to see you guys back in SC when Art Fest comes!

[isirc10]

It was my sister's sweet sixteen party thing today (she decided to go white water rafting, which is cool I guess) and we drove up to the Lehigh River. During the 2.5 hour float, I was free to bike the trails and ended up doing around 26 miles. It was a beautiful day out.


Sunday morning I'm picking up Ryan and driving up to Matt Kemmer's place to play hacky, watch movies, do things. Coming back Monday afternoon. It's looking like a pretty sweet weekend.

[isirc10]

That was an awesome weekend indeed. I had a write up ready a week ago but modified decided that I took too long and logged me out. F*** that. Looks like you just get pictures now.

Saratoga Springs is a really nice town with some pretty fancy areas. Matt is a really nice host with some pretty fancy sundial reading skills.


There were a bunch of covered spigots ejecting foul smelling liquid, allegedly from the Saratoga Springs the town was named after. Matt, Ryan and I drank some to have the complete tourist experience. Blerg. Had to wash that stuff down real quick.


We played for 4 hours straight in a pretty sweet covered area next to an inoperable foul water dispenser. People would come by and be visibly upset when they found out it didn't work, even though there was a working one not fifty feet away. Silly Saratogians. Or tourists. Whatever.


Matt Kemmer is good at footbag. Dan will be good at footbag. Ryan and I repped Blue Bell hard with our three contact strings > drop. I worked on a lot of stuff with the help of Matt, and some of his advice might have stuck. Only time will tell. I didn't film at all, I was having too much fun learning and adjusting my game.

We all ended around the same time, and Dan headed home. Matt, Ryan and I went home, showered and grabbed dinner at a local bar/brewery. We all got different varieties of Mac 'N Cheese. This was the stuff of legends, and the portions were large enough to satisfy both Ryan and I after a 4 hour shred session. Matt wussed out and only ate half of his. That food pretty much held me over for the next day. It was amazing. Afterwards we went home, watched footbag videos and then went to the theater to watch Ex Machina. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and it even surprised me with some of its plot twists (which is getting harder and harder to do). Kids, don't ever fall for a sexy robot Ai. It's lying to you.

Monday morning we got up early and went hiking, per my request. My hips just about locked up when I got out of the car, but they warmed up nicely when we started hiking. This wasn't the best idea, as the mosquitoes were absolutely brutal, and we were all tired. Still, we made good time and blitzed the first ascent. I stopped to take a picture, and was immediately inundated by a swarm of those winged assholes.


We hiked down the way we came up and called it a day. On the way down, I was killing mosquitoes at a rate of one every 5 seconds, often times in groups of two or more. Matt drove us home, we showered and headed back to PA. The drive back was a bit annoying due to NY traffic, but we made good time. Top speed achieved: 97 mph. Lowest speed: dead stop, rolling backwards on a hill. Total drive time: 4 hours 41 minutes.

As stated earlier, I had an incredible time. Big thanks to Matt for his hospitality and Ryan for agreeing to sit in the car with me for 4+ hours. Sorry for my corny jokes and slightly aggressive driving style (at times, mostly when listening to Infected Mushroom). I love spontaneous footbag roadtrips.

[Cass]

Oh, Ivan. I thought you of all people would be prudent enough to save your blog entries in a word processor until they are ready to be posted!

Very nice post nonetheless! Looks like a great location. Four hours is a massive session. I too am a huge fan of spontaneous footbag roadtrips!

[isirc10]

Thanks Cassy, the write up wasn't quite up to your high standard, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. About saving things in text editors... it was late at night, I wasn't planning on writing a lot, turned into a proper write up, forgot to copy the text before clicking submit... not my finest moment

Yesterday I played with Nick and Nathan, along with two of Nathan's minions. I played pretty poorly, as it was a 5 man circle and I couldn't get my legs to move properly without being afraid to keep the bag for too long. Still, I enjoyed watching the others play, they are a great bunch to kick with.

Today I kicked for two hours solo, working on drifters and paradons. Mostly just wanted to put Matt's advice from last weekend to use. Got some drifter drills on film for Paul G. Couldn't atomic for shit today, so the session actually remained focused on one or two concepts instead of trying every trick I could possibly hit. I think I might be catching on to the timing and delays for paradons, because they got a bit easier mid session and I was able to hit paradox mirage/illusion out of them without too much trouble. We'll see how they feel later this week.
*finally using my KCook bag, all of my other footbags were dirty or got holes. Also, my shorts are on backwards for two of the drills in this video... I only noticed midway through the session.


In other news, I'm finally finishing a project I started 4 years ago. Some people will know what this is, others will just have to wait till it's finished and running.

[DC Clinks]

I concur with Cass, nice write-up. Cool to hear about what went down after I had to bail. Playing with you guys was fun, you should make spontaneous footbag road trips more often did you see Paul's new video challenge? Any plans on entering that?

In other news, I'm finally finishing a project I started 4 years ago. Some people will know what this is, others will just have to wait till it's finished and running.

Knowing you, I'd have to guess it has some sort of awesome in it. I'm interested in seeing the end product. Fo sho talk to you sometime soon.

[Derek]

Pretty pictures. Really appreciate all the Iakimenko footage, 'tis lovely.

[bluevampire101]

In other news, I'm finally finishing a project I started 4 years ago. Some people will know what this is, others will just have to wait till it's finished and running.

I think I know what it is... Maybe. At least ideas and parts.

Keep on being cool, Ivan