The Darkshredder's struggle

[HG]

Footbag owns. Never stop. Ambition is key. Eat an ambition cake

[Darkshredder]

yes Henry. It certainly does own. People don't even KNOW. I've got a storeroom of ambition cake I'll have to open into. Custered. MMmmmm.

K so HEY! LAST POST! Had a session today before going to this presentation about becoming a librarian. . . It was for extra credit and I needed the extra boost because I'm going to botch this assignment I'm about to start after I finish writing this. So anyway it was a fine session. Nice and relaxed. I'll be back to speed in another day or two and then I can be happy again. Here are some things I'm thinking about (since the session wasn't overly impressive):
1) After watching Star Wars: Episode III again, I realized just how good yoda would be at footbag. NUTS. He'd be inventing sets off the wall and like triple-spinning double dex tricks. Too bad he's died a long time ago. in a galaxy far far away and all that yeah we get it alright moving on.
2) I should keep my arms in front of my when I torque. See my body is torquing but my arms just saying nope to the motion and staying all loose. It hurts honestly because they get whiplashed in the process. I also seem to be hitting it on more often because of Mosher's advice (thanks Tom). Oh wait. I hit toe torque today first time. Second try. Footed it on my flip. Hm. Forgot about that. It wasn't very well done. I'll have to try those more later when I care more about torques.
3) I pixie slap (meaning the dex doesn't get over and I just literally slap the bag to the floor violently. Some of you may know of which I speak. I do it way too much still) because I'm setting too high and dexing too low. I also need to just set harder too. Low will be the key I think with me.
Some fun almost do-able strings I've been thinking of -
flail > osis > symposium bubba > simple swirl > string
swirl > reverse swirl > osis > whirl
. . . > zooming ducking osis > zooming ducking osis > inevitable drop.
Been thinking a lot about pdx barrage too for some reason. I can't do a toe barrage because I don't practice it and I can rarely do a clip barrage so I have no idea why I'm even going over the motions for it.

[Darkshredder]

k well I guess I can't leave this blog for too long. It's like a little part of me and I like the idea of blogs on this forum regardless of the lack of importance of this particular one when surrounded by Jorden and Mosher and like 13 other blogs for that matter. So yeah here's what's been going on since the month or so:

I twisted my ankle on a reverse whirl a week ago. All better.

I've been working on some new concepts and trying to hit at least one new trick every session. I'm still playing just about 5 or 6 days a week for a few hours each time. I figure the amount of time I practice will kind of dumb down the fact that I'm a really slow learner and progress has never been my strength. Slowly and surely, I'm working my way through the motions. I can do a bunch of atomic tricks both sides (nothing bsos yet but that's because I haven't really tried). Atomsmasher bs, legbeater bs, tap bs, tapdown bs, and flux is the latest edition to the family. I tried to hit reactor the other day but nope. Set isn't high enough. It was a long shot but I try one of those every now and then toward the end of my sessions.
Fairy is also a very new concept for me. Honestly I think it has only been really two or three days in the workings. I can hit fairy ss butter and fairy butter (not too sure what these names are). I'm very close to fear and fudge. The cool thing is that I'm working this both sides and the flip side isn't nearly as retarded as my flip pixie (which I FINALLY figured out today actually. . . . . ?). Ferocious is also hit and nagellem (sp?) is also in the bag.
Let's see. Ah yes. Gryo. I'm revisiting the gyro concept and harnessed its energy today for the first time probably since the summer. I think the string was something like gyro clip > gyro clip > spinning clip > pdx mirage > butterfly > pandora's box (gyro pickup?). Gyro, spyro, pyro. . all of these are pretty odd to me and well within my capacity to make them a very important part of my game.
Drifters. Thanks to some tips during KICKASS from Chris Dean I'm finally pretty novicely good at drifters. This is to say that I sucked amazingly at them before except for the toe drifter. I especially enjoy going into a drifter from an osis. ripwalk > drifter is an intense combo for me and I enjoy it with a side of bee sauce.
Ducking and Diving. Another very important aspect of my game. My latest and greatest achievement is hitting ducking pdx mirage bsos. Diving osis is surprisingly strong for me and if I can think of it I usually like to add it in after a few infinities and then into the opening of a nice varied guiltless/tiltless string. Inf. > inf. > diving osis > pdx illusion > tapdown > pdx mirage > blah blah yeah that kind of thing.

So that's what I've got going on. I'm going to the Rochester New Years drumming gathering in a bunch of weeks and I'll be getting my camera from Steve Gale who has been keeping it nice and warm for me. I'll take my own footage of the event and then post something myself on modified. And then who knows. I'd like to put out something specifically for myself. The last video I sent out was um. . . less than satisfactory.

[mc]

hey pat, sounds like you're hitting some awesome stuff. Your blog is definitely important to me, being that you're someone who I watched from just after you got started. So don't be shy about updating

It's great to hear that you're making progress with your concepts and getting them going in your strings. The stuff you're mentioning is a lot more advanced than the stuff you were hitting at the end of last spring, so I'm really looking forward to seeing you play at the jam. It's going to be a great time, I'm glad you're coming.

Keep up those basics and build those concepts! see you soon.

[Darkshredder]

Thanks a lot Matt. Yep. You've pretty much been there since the very beginning for me. Mirage > legover > clipper > drop. . . yep. (I still stand behind my word that at that first session you and I had I wasn't playing as best I could!!!! ). Yeah and as for the New Years, I hope I can stick with my goal of December being Torque and Stepping Set Month! for me. MAYBE by then I can use them in focused strings. I did my first stepping to stepping to other guiltless string combo the other day which I was pleased at. I'm sure I could've a while back but I just didn't practice it.
Heh. That's a common theme with me. I practice a lot but there are always really important things that I never do. I know I can GET to them but for some reason time flies by so fast or I just forget them. I need to seriously take a look at what I do during each of my sessions and just go about it more intelligently instead of just going HEY! FOOTBAG! and constantly dropping and picking it up (even though that's very good exercise).

In other related news this week is going to be sucky for footbag. I've got a whole lot of work to be done - a lot more than I originally thought. So yeah. I'm going to work it in as much as I can but I just can't screw up on papers. Papers and writing is to me what sith lords are to jedi knights. They're my speciality! Or at least that's what they say. So yeah I won't be practicing too hard this week but after exams and papers and stuff (after the 12th) it'll be back to the drawing board a la gymnasium avec le crepe or something. Pastries. Cheese.

Check back to this blog later on tonight to see what kind of foolishness I accomplished after dinner and writing more. Same foot blog same foot hour.

EDIT : Not too amusing of a session. My ankle is still a little tender I guess and it gets beat up pretty bad with all this stepping practice I'm into. But I DID hit nagellum on my flipside which I'm pretty stoked about. Flipside fairy and it's still pretty new! Maybe I'll be one of those awesome style guys who uses fairies like 90% of the time in strings. I love those. Fairy w/ atomic and w/ "bails" to stepping (if they're sick nasty players).

There were these two outsider kids at the gym while I was playing and they ask the usual question: "Are you a professional hacky sacker?" and I go "Yes. . . Yes I am." I thought my biting wit was simply uproarious. They're basketball players. I don't like basketball. I always jam my fingers when I play. I like footbag. I've only jammed my fingers twice while playing footbag (once as a circle kicker years ago and one less than a year ago I think trying to hit paradox whirl)

[Darkshredder]

Paper writing break ::

Sorry for those of you simply on the edge of your seat wondering what fantastical advances I made in my footbag game. I didn't play today . No I'm taking a break from footbag till I can get a good FOOThold in my papers and it was just a really hectic day in general. I haven't signed up for any classes for next semester (about three weeks overdue) and my naive advisor is clueless as to how to help me. It's his first semester as an advisor and he doesn't know how the system works. It's my first at Siena College too so I have no idea. So it's actually pretty funny to meet with him and be like. . Sooo yeah. Sorry I couldn't get onto <this> or <that> to get <this thing>. Wanna just meet on friday? But I got to read a little bit of Dante's Inferno in his room while I waited for him to get some stuff and papers together so we could "talk" so that was cool. I haven't read all of it but a few years back I read the ending. I thought I'd read a little bit of the middle. Man that book is crazy. I love it.

I'm not a really religious person myself. But I DO consider myself pretty virtuous and "spiritual" (if that makes sense). I was brought up Roman Catholic but I've kind of turned away from it a few years ago since I really don't believe about 65% of the Church's teachings. Heh I'll still capitalize the Church and Roman Catholic because I've just grown to at least respect religion in general. . . not just my parents'. Right now I consider myself a Taoist if there can be one in modern times. But seriously. It's a bold statement to say one is Taoist but I sincerely believe 99.9999% of this Ancient Chinese School of Thought. Funny because Taoists don't really call it a religion. Well technically speaking they don't call it anything at all. They just shake their head at you and call you stupid if you ask them what the Tao is and what they believe in. Which I find pretty funny and badass. Old chinese monk guys kicking someone's ass with their cane because some schmoe (footbag reference!!!!!) asked about their faith.

So anyway back to footbag. There are a lot of videos being produced lately. I'm always amazed to come back every day or so and find like three new videos up. That's just amazing. So yeah I'm really motivated to make a new video of myself playing some. But I'm really cross as to what the music should be. I've got a million and one songs I really want to use but about 20,000 of them are way too cool to use on me at my skill level. I almost feel like PMing a really good player and requesting a video with that song in it and see if they do it. Matt C - I've got a song in mind for you in particular, man. I'm too scared to PM Lon or a few others to ask them so . But rest assure. My next video will be pretty sweet. I'm going to release one themed around tiltless/guiltless (meaning just not amazing players. The groundlings, if you will) players at the New Years jam. I think that'll be cool. Represent the awesomeness of what it means to be the backbone and origins of footbag. I've already got some good ideas I could do for the shred. It's being kept a secret so you all can laugh and enjoy yourselves. And then I'll post a personal video very soon after that (probably with Greg Pestillo filming and doing a little bit of shred as well).

K well I've got to go back to writing this paper. Thanks for reading this loooong post. I liked writing it. I hope you enjoyed reading it. "Keep it real" (Rawsko, 34)

[Darkshredder]

Still playing. Not today though. Today I felt lazy. A sad thought came to mind. I'm going home for the holidays and home is very VERY anti-footbag. None of my friends play and there in lies the major problem #1. I don't want to be an ass and not do stuff with them (and I won't) but I know I really am close to improving a lot with stepping, pixie, and fairy and I can work atomics into strings now which I'm very excited about. I need all the practice I can get for the New Years jam (which my mom today said they may not allow - - - "We'll see how the weather is") . Ugh. A very bad day for the bag, as it were.

Yesterday I played for a good 3 hours. An hour at Siena gym and then two at the mall so that I could get a few things for people for christmas, meet people for dinner, but mainly just shred and publicity . You could call me a footbag whore. I like it when people watch. No fault in that, I think you'll all agree. But anyway I was playing next to Dick's Sporting Goods and this lady walked up to me and told me where she could get one for her son who I guess hacks. So I directed her to a skateshop on the lower level that I was sure sells sandmasters. I showed her my A910 mini and confused her with the thought that I emailed someone who lives in California who then sewed it himself and sold it to me. She enjoyed my tale of footbag. Then I went to play where there are no security cameras or guards and played there for a looong time. Can't remember if anything amazing was hit. Ducking osis > diving osis was hit. OH! and drifter > drifter was hit very sloppily and weakly. I'll definitely have to strengthen that out this week. Spinning clipper record is now set at 4x at first attempt so I could probably do more. I hit the nicest torque I ever thought possible by my still tender osising foot. Think I figured it out.

It happens again and again. I need to be more focused at sessions. I figure I only get to play with other people like 5 or 6 times a year or so I can just get to business on all other days and then set aside particular days of the week when I just fool around, work on string length, and try to set personal records. I think that'll work out well I think.

[KronoKicker]

.Hey Pat! I hear you about the whole anti-footbag north country... My family isn't against it, and I have a friend who freestyles, but I find it difficult to have things meet (have a place, time, motivation, etc.) Over vacation we'll have to try meeting in watertown or something and get a good little session going, show the hicks what we can do .

And as for the weather, if she is worried about the weather of friday, I'll head out on thursday and we can come out my apartment a day early when the weather is good . If that doesn't go over with her... I'll hit her on the head and kidnap you?! Sound good

[Darkshredder]

Heh. Yeah man. I'll have to PM you my address for "Operation Get Pat Away From Syracusian Player Haters". At least they seem to like it when I play at their summer festivals. Matt I think has done some shred at the Syracuse Jazz Fest. . . Um not too sure where I was when he did that. Maybe he didn't know me then. I probably would've run from him if I had gone that day and saw him playing because I would've known what footbag was but I was too scared to play. I'd be like "HE"S LIKE PETER IRISH!!!!!!! AAAAHH!" (Pete's was the only name I knew for like a year and a half)

Anyway I just had an epiphany just now watching 12.12 of the christmas bonanzaa going on in the videos section. I thiiink I've got an idea for improving my stepping set. Not sure. I seem to "revamp" my stepping set like 8 times to try to get it easier and higher. If anyone wants to post their opinions on how hard you think the stepping set is at first you should do so pretty soon because I'm getting annoyed at how physically taxing it is. I do parkwalk > sidewalk > ripwalk > pdx mirage and I have to catch it because I'm all BEFUDDLED with how much work I had to put my legs through. And I wouldn't say I'm "out of shape" at all.

[KronoKicker]

I think you're probably doing the right thing, experiment -> practice, practice, practice -> experiment -> repeat

Try doing ripwalk b2b as many times as you can, at least 3 or 4 times at the beginning and end of your sessions. Really pushes your endurance and definitely will help your set become stronger.

For me, quantum... I can only do so many in one string before I start dying. Atomic used be 10x as bad, but I found a new way of doing the set, and now they're cake.

[Darkshredder]

awesome thanks aric. I can't do ripwalk back to back sadly. . . very sadly. but I'm pushing my flip very very hard so it'll happen very soon. I can do blazing legover bsos so I mean it's not far off. K though. At least I know I'm in the right circle of practice. Oh and Aric. . you need to teach me quantum. You're the man at that set and it'd be awesome if you could finally shred some light on the subject for me. I humbly ask.

Alright so I just got back from a 2.7 hour session at the fantastic gym. Nothing awesome and new was hit. After a 40 minute warm-up of osis and BOPing and all that I started at my fairy/pixie/stepping practicing. Um I guess something new would be pixie ss knee bumping mirage (pimpy mirage?). Hit that 1st try. My flip pixie is coming along great. It lost everything at the bitter end of the session so I decided to play atomic stylie and I FINALLY hit legbeater bsos!! If I had enough energy and time at the end I would've probably done tapdown bsos. I'm abandoning atomsmasher for the moment till I can get the set high enough with the same level of ease and comfort I can do the set now. I can do it both sides. That's enough for me.

The quote of the session: "Wow. You're really dedicated to that hacky sacking, aren't ya?" DAMN STRAIGHT WOMAN! go play your volleyball
- - And I always like to use this smiley and haven't in a while

[Darkshredder]

I had a few hour session yesterday in the cold cold lobbey of the gym. Got a nice comment from one of the coaches. He's cool. We talked for a while about footbag and shot the breeze about siena basketball and how cool the Pepsi Arena is (I haven't been there and I couldn't care less about siena basketball. . I like watching basketball but I like Syracuse basketball 100x more). Anyway he said he thought footbag was pretty sick and that he liked watching. I told him I'm really still kind of a novice player and he laughed. So did I. So it goes.

Unlike last post, there really WASN'T anything new hit during last session. Just a lot of skooling and getting that stuff done. My flip fairy is weird. It feels so wrong but somehow it gets the job done like 2/5 times (hey I'm happy with those numbers!). K well I may post later today if I play around studyings. K I've got to go start on that. Later.

[Darkshredder]

Okay I need to post this. I haven't been shredding in two days because of finals and i'm sick. Aw too bad but that's not the reason I'm posting here today. I had the best footbag dream I've ever had this morning after I hit the snooze and almost overslept for my exam. But no worries, I made it with time to spare . K so here's the jist as I remember it walking back from my final just now:

So I'm somewhere in the fall. I know this because there are leaves and stuff everwhere and it's been raining. I'm in this courtyard thing with people I seem to know when I notice this dude on the other end of the place with this huge 6 ft. weighted pole! He's shredding with it! He's like flipping it over his feet and tossing it up and doing spins and all this crazy stuff. But I liked how he would plant it on the ground in some fashion with his foot and then do like legover-like things to it and he would also jump over it as it was starting to lean one way and then he would land and spin and stall it again before it would hit the ground completely. Amaaaazing. This was like 1/4 of a footbag-like sport I think I may have invented in my own subconscious! K so after I chilled with him and watched him osis and spin around this pole thing, we went into this Discovery Channel-ish store and guess what they had in STOCK!>?!?!? ABSHIRE FOOTBAGS! Wahoo! Who'd have imagined!? Yeah you bet. Abshire and freedom footbags were all over this wall and they came in these cloth cases that held like 8 of them each and they were only like 32 dollars for the whole thing. Amazing dream. Yeah um I think that was pretty much it. I woke up shortly after to find out that I had slept an extra hour and it was 10:36 and my final was at 11:00. Sooo yeah I hopped on over to the place and had a very difficult final that I probably did "just alright" on. But I got a huge paper back (worth more than the final) and I did very well on that. So I'm only a little unhappy.

Well yeah. I'm sick. I"m not going to play today. I'll just chill, make sure I know my stuff for one last final tomorrow, and I'll shred like nuts tomorrow when I get back in to Syracuse. Oh and my parents say I may not be going to the New Years Jam in Rochester . I can't believe this horseshite. My parents can be such nasty people some times. Soo yeah Aric if you're reading this you need to IM me or PM me or something and we need to figure out a way to get my DV recorder from Steve. Somehow. I don't care as long as I get it. Not that I don't feel safe with it with Steve. I just need to record myself and make a video. It's time and I"ve got some ideas flyin all over the place. AND we could set up a time to shred you and I somewhere like Watertown like you said. So let's do something then. I'll know for sure if I can go to the jam probably at the last second unfortunately. But I'll still try my best to make it.

Pat out.

[mc]

wtf mate, why don't they want you coming to rochester? that's farkin bullshit. call greg and make him take you, or take amtrak, it's cheap. you gotta make it!!!

Matt

[Darkshredder]

Merry Christmas and happy giving seasons to all!

I went sking the other day and saw one of my old "hack buddies" and I guess he's still playing and trying to get the other kids from my high school to keep playing. He was saying how one kid walked up to him and bragged that he had played with "THE Pat Thomsen" long ago. I laughed. Those were good times. I even got a kid to get lavers. That was a happy day. I'll have to stop by some day when they get back from winter break and play a little. . . and to mess with my old principal again. He loved footbag. He knows he misses me and my silly little pre and post class sessions with my friends in the halls.

So um. Syracuse. Need I say more? Yeah so noooot playing too much. Really starting to piss me off. I'll play tomorrow and more later since I don't have too many more parties and family outings anymore. I'm returning a few gifts and rebuying other post-christmas things for the family so that'll be a nice getaway from the house and really play more. The last time I played, like three days ago, I had a great time. I was hitting some of the longest strings I ever have. Alas. I'm not progressing this month like I thought I would. Upsetting. After I get passed some of this early guiltless nonsense I think I understand and am able to do more advanced tricks so I can start focusing on new tricks and combos more than just skooling and string length. But that could just be wishful thinking. I'll take things as they come, though.

Well anyway, as for my skills are concerned I'm working on flip pixie tricks and bothsided fairy tricks but I'm getting much better with pixies midstring which is what my strings have lacked for about a year. My drifters are getting easier and my flip drifter for some reason can work best if I hit it from an osis. Fine by me. That's pretty stylish in my opinion. I haven't played enough to work on torques like I said I would. But I'm not worried as much since I most likely won't make it to the new years gathering so I won't have to impress people with some new things I'm incorporating.

K so about the rochester jam. I'm about backed into a corner as it stands now, only like 5 days from 0 hour. My parents are not telling me why they don't want me going since weather is no longer a factor. The idea that Greg would be driving me is not something that would make them allow me to make it. But the battle to end all battles will take place in the next few days and only one shall will resurface from the ash. Aric and I are going to meet right after the jam in a place near me called Baldwinsville (B-ville as we in the business say) and we'll shred and he'll give me my camera and maybe I can get him to get a bag for me and I'll pay him back when we meet up. I'm not sure if there will be a stitcher there. I need a footfighter or perhaps a mosherbag. One or the other.

[KronoKicker]

Your parent got to let go of the leash... what are they going to do when you are offered a great job a 1000 miles away from NY? Move with you? Come on!!

Either way, I can pick you up a bag if you want, probably will have better luck getting a footfighter for you. And if greg is still going you should give him my number 585 506 8343 or give me his number so that we can try car pooling together or something.

I'll try and call you sunday or monday when i'm in b-ville, let ya know whats going on.

[Darkshredder]

My mom - "Sometimes I think you should'nt play that anymore."
me - "Yeah I know what you mean."
My mom - "You spend so much time doing that alone. People will start to get the wrong idea about you."
me - "Oh. um. Well I was just thinking I should stop because it's really really hard and I'll blow out my knees eventually."
My mom - "Ugh you know what I meant."

Yeah they do need to stop. And the cruelest thing is that they know they need to lay off. We've gone through counselling for this stuff too! Not for footbag exclusively of course but you know. . . them in general. Now I know why my brother moved out to LA. I got my semester grades back and I did well enough to perhaps see about going abroad for a whole year if I can get into Trinity College in Ireland. Not sure why I'm hesitating on it either. I should be jumping at this chance to go away from everything for a whole year.

Footbag wise Aric is in the area . .. and we haven't played yet. Definitely looking forward to getting my camera back though. I'll have to post a video pretty soon. Maybe I'll get footage before I go back to school. The last time I played was yesterday and it wasn't very fun at all. I was all excited to play on the way over to my spot and then I got there and was all bummed for some reason. One of those days where the bag hits the corner of the toe box and is happy to jump right the hell off every time you want to do something cool. I could spin and my instep game was fine though so I practiced gyro and spinning butters. At some point very soon I can see myself hitting the famous: Spinning clip > gryo clip > spinning clip > gyro clip drill. I love that thing. It's so smooth when done correctly. And I'd use it a lot to open up a nice more intense string just after it.

I got Fourkast for Christmas. I love it. I'm not too sure who it is who's playing in one of the sections but he hits toe symposium reverse whirl. I'm really into reverse whirls and so I was amazed. No one really ever does those. Ever. Come to think of it, I played right after I saw that and didn't try it. That was dumb. I should've. I put the two informational flyers that come with the purchase to good use. A kindly woman who showed an interest got one and the fine employees at a Payless Shoes store also got one after a few of them gave me 15 cents in change for doing a legbeater for them. That was a good day for spectators and random people walking up and asking why I'm sweating from playing hacky sack. Ugh.

Well plans of going skiing fell through (or at least I think they did. You never know with my group of friends till it's too late or just about to be too late whether something has taken place. We live for suspense). So I'll probably call up Greg or hopefully Aric will call or something because I feel as if I should play more today.

[Darkshredder]

Back -

I love how I pick the days I have a bad session to sneak back to modified and update my blog or see if there are any more good videos in the section. But I need some inspiration. I've been "dry" shredding for a looong time, that is, not watching ANY other footbag except my two feet and the little bag that goes up and down a few times. But overall I'm pretty happy with how well I"ve been doing alone and without video aid or anything. I've got a pretty odd way of doing things which has come about due to this lack of leadership or guidance. I like to base what I do when I play as if I were playing a video game with certain levels and bosses i have to beat to get to the next level. I'll warm up for a while, then just screw around for like a half an hour trying odd combos and working on string length (pff). Like yesterday this is what I did:

1) 1 adds and stalls, making sure I'm in the mood to play
2) bothsided long tiltless strings
3) SHRED LIKE NO OTHER! (get real tired and useless)
- - - drink water - - -
Level 1 - ss butterfly > ss pickup > guay > (rpt) ss butterfly > ss pickup > guay > and you get the idea. I don't know. This was pretty easy but it just looked really fun to do.
Level 2 - three double legovers
Level 3 - three torques
- - - now it was about this time that I suddenly got descent at torques - -
Level 4 - four torques
Level 5 - THE BOSS LEVEL - Tried : pixie (ss) whirl and catacomb

Bonus Level - Random practice of pixie and fairy set.

So that's what it was like for me yesterday. Today was much less interesting and nothing seemed to work just right. Ducking and diving was giving me trouble especially but luckily that means that since pixie and ducking weren't working that others were: atomic fairy and stepping all worked fine. Soo yeah I did a whole bunch of legbeater bsos, bunch of park avenues, and a small bundle of ripwalks, schmoes, and blizzards.

Realizing now more than ever that I've got time to be a fine player. I mean I'm not going to be a name to be reckoned with. I won't play in Worlds and I won't be world reknown. I don't think I honestly have the chances to do that with a lack of better people to guide me. But that's fine. All I want is to play till my body falls apart and for someone to go to a competition and hear that I'm coming and be like, "Oh hey, that's cool. He's pretty good." Maybe to win a competition or three, to stitch a bag here or there, maybe invent a trick. Who knows. I've got probably another decade or so to figure it out. I mean I'm weak guiltless and I've been playing for like a little less than two years. That's nothing to brag about but I will anyway. It deserves a anyway.

[mc]

Hey pat,

I hope you can go abroad for a year, you'll have a great time and really find yourself. I commend you for sticking with footbag even though there's negativity coming from the parental side of things. I know how hard it can be to choose something your parents don't really agree with. I hope you can make it to GRASS this year.

See ya,

Matt

[Darkshredder]

Yes'm I would sure like to come to GRASS. That's probably the next prospect on the horizon unless something cool comes along in or around Philly or other NY/Canada areas. I think I gave my parents so much shit from the last rochester event that they ceded all their powers over to me in the area of footbag. Sooo yeah I don't think they care any more. They didn't seem to mind anyway during winter break when I would tell them I just came back from playing and they asked how it went. Much better. Good, parents. That'll do.

As for studying abroad, I am indeed going to study abroad in Ireland starting at the end of the summer for a whole year. I'll be either going to Dublin U or Limerick. I don't really need to find myself as much as I need to expand my horizons and leave the country. I'm a very introspective and emotionally intelligent (based on the multiple intelligences spectrum)person for my age. . . .or at least that's what they tell me. Anyway the whole thing will be amazing and I hope I have a great time.

- - footbagwise - - I'll not be donning the shorts as I've got a lot of classes on Wednesdays and I'll probably be needing the time to run errands, homework, and giving my legs a break. I find if I play for more than three days in a row for the few hours that I play, my knees start to do odd, painful things when not in motion (like when I sit). All temporary, though, so all is well.