Comments while playing

[sanuke okumatzu]

I get a lot of shit about my sharpied lavers....Aside from that.. that normal derogatory language is not allowed on the forums. Come on guys, read the agreement. -Ken/ignorant stoner hacky sack jibe..that's about it

The public comune can climb a tree.

[LEGOMAN]

The new FAT tshirts have now caused parents to inform their younguns that it's "Freestyle Footbag", instead of "Hacky Sack"...sometimes they will correct themselves after saying Hacky Sack and be, like, "Oh, Freestyle Footbag" and that's when I give them a smile

I asked Andrew Grant about "Freestyle footbag" at Montana. He said he never heard of it and said he got the shirt at a thrift store. I still to this day don't know what freestyle footbag is.

[mr.alex]

some black dude came along and asked.
"Wow that's amazing. Is it like... magic?"
Philip said with a huge smile:
"Yes... it's magic "

I'm hearing pretty often lately:
Wow those hacky sacks are getting really small. They used to be much bigger.

[mc]

I get all sorts of stupid comments. Positive or inquisitive ones, no matter how stupid, get a sincere response from me. Silly, possibly derogatory but really just stupid questions get a slightly sarcastic response and a wink and a smile from me ("wow, you have got TOO MUCH TIME on your hands!!" "no, no, you've got it all wrong, I've got too much time on my *feet*!" that's my favorite one. some day I'll be in a really bad mood and say, "well, you've got too much mcdonalds in your face, fatty. go back to the TV"). Downright derogatory comments (which are getting really, really, really rare) get a phat, long, undeniably cool string. I go for smoothness, style, control, and variety. There's really not much anyone can say to that.

heh, my biggest "problem" with passersby commenting is that they often end up hanging out for a while, sincerely wanting to discuss the sport and enjoy it with me, which absolutely kills my training vibe oh well

[Zeke]

For all you "classic" James Risden fans:

"Wow, that girl is good!"

[ville]

Thank god nobody in Finland knows what hacky sack is so it doesnt' have a bad reputation and we don't have to explain the difference between hacky and footbag. We mostly get positive comments when playing in public. But I've never figured out why the question EVERYBODY asks is:

"What is inside the ball?"

Hey, I'm doing the hardest tricks I can and your interested in the contents of the bag I'm using? And then you have to explain about small plastic pellets and stuff. What do they expect? Rice?

[acxel22]

Here's what I say to the most annoying question:

"Can you do that with a real ball" *soccer ball*

- yes

"show me"

- I will do it if you pay me because I only get pleasure with a small bag


Some other annoying things in public:

- People that walk into you while you shred and don't excuse themselves
- Ladies must all be horny about you (I don't know why I get this...)
- I've seen an asian guy do the same thing but would'nt drop for over 30 minutes


Positive things:
- Anyone asking to try and putting effort to learn.

I usually switch bags for a crappy bag when people ask me to try, this helps people not breaking my valuables.


I agree with James, let's make a t-shirt saying NO I DON'T PLAY SOCCER

[james]

You're right Ville, I get that question so much and I'm like 'uhhh little metal things and stuff'. Who cares what's in it!!

One time at the tams, a little kid walks by and says a few statements all in a row, went down like this:
'mommy look that guy has muscles!'
'look what he's doing!'
'mommy he's got a tattoo!'
'look he's got another one on his leg, look mommy!'

And a few more, it was kinda funny.

[DTank126]

"sweetalicious yo" - some middle schooler

[BenRea]

"Can you do that cool hackin' stuff with this rock?" - random crew kid


P.S.- i hit ATW and far pickup with it, lol.

[dyalander]

Wow some of you dudes are really highly strung
I honestly don't mind people coming up to me and asking me the same questions I hear anytime I play in public. It'd worry me more if they came upto me and started asking questions I didn't know the answer to, "Wow that's amazing, how longs a piece of string?"
I do actually play soccer so my t-shirt would say "yes I play soccer and I better at that than you too." Or perhaps "If I were a 'socceroo' we would have won." (in case you're wondering the australian nation team is called "the socceroos")

I also keep a crappy bag in my hand when I kick in public that way when people want to grab it I just chuck the crap bag at them. If I'm lucky it gets them in the eye, if not and they start to kick it and grind it etc it doesn't matter.

[King Monkey]

- People that walk into you while you shred and don't excuse themselves
-

This one puzzles me too! I mean we play in open spots, so people can see you from quite a distance away. Im not looking where other people are, so i have no control on whether we collide. They can see im flailing my shit about seemingly at random.
So why walk within like 5cm of me when im playing? What are you thinking? Do you want to get kicked in the face? Cos' im sure we can arrange it some other time when im not busy!

*end rant*

[gMoney]

i get people come up to me when i play in school and say stuff like "therez grant playing hackey sack, hey does it bother you if i call it hackey sack? i bet i'm better than you (takes it, kicks it once, lands far away) shit lemme go get that (kicks it twice with same leg, lands far away again) aw dam. how'd you get good? you need to get a life and stop hackey sacking all the time." and then every once in a while my parents will come up to me and say something like "do that one thing again; the spinny thingy," or my dad's famous for saying stupid shit like "ok lemme see ya do a hackey sack."

[Muffinman]

I like answering peoples questions, though I prefer when other players do and I can just watch and listen. I like being nice to people -- very rarely do people bother saying negative things, especially here in Friendly Manitoba.

Umm, I'm sure there are pictures of that "Ask Me About Freestyle Footbag" shirt in the FAT blog; go check it out, it's the biggest blog -- hard to miss.

[Guest_1]

How do you guys handle cute girls who bother you and want to get your attention cuz they see you hacking it up and hitting atws and stuff?

They bother me all the time so I can't kick and they'd rather just talk about how short my shorts are, how sweaty I am, their feelings and how much they'd like to be held him my sweaty arms and snuggled against legs in short shorts.

Like, 2x a sesh

How do you guys deal? Kyle?

[james_dean]

This is why I've never liked playing in public. Being solo 99% of my shred is in my backyard so I have no patience for this crap in public... I'm busy, go away. Just because I'm in public doesn't give you a license to waste my time. Playing with the guys in melbourne is alright, I just let them deal with the onlookers... sorry guys

And no, I don't feel bad about not spreading the word... it's a sport, not a religion.

[james_dean]

- People that walk into you while you shred and don't excuse themselves
-

This one puzzles me too! I mean we play in open spots, so people can see you from quite a distance away. Im not looking where other people are, so i have no control on whether we collide. They can see im flailing my shit about seemingly at random.
So why walk within like 5cm of me when im playing? What are you thinking? Do you want to get kicked in the face? Cos' im sure we can arrange it some other time when im not busy!

*end rant*

oh yeah I seriously don't get this one either. people are stupid. and deserve to be kicked in the face like they will be. geez. this reminds me of that video of randall where he comes within milimeters of destroying that toddler... can't believe he missed ><

also I love dyalan and want to have his babies. or maybe he should have mine, with the long hair and all. will you marry me?

[Zeke]

- I've seen an asian guy do the same thing but would'nt drop for over 30 minutes

That was me


I've seen a woman with a baby stroller damn near walk right into someone shredding! We were playing off to the side of this wide sidewalk near a lemonade stand so I just couldnt understand why she was headed our way. Perhaps she just really needed some lemonade.

Back to comments, we've get a mix of both good and bad. An old school hacker was watching us once and kept yelling at us to pass and I tried to explain that we were playing a different game. He didn't even try to understand. I guess there's only one way to hacky

This one fat drunk dude said that the tricks were all nice and good but we were wasting our time and should just get chicks.

One bystander thought we were part of the circus

People can be rude and ignorant, they can also be nice. Sometimes it's just easier to remember the assholes.

[Camilleon]

hahaha this is jokes... I love gettin the hate out. Thanks, James.

Matt, I was thinking the SAME thing that you wrote... I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT when people say that we have too much time on our hands... in fact, I'm pretty sure that I was the one to give you that statement: NO, we have too much time on our FEET! haha... but seriously, what moronic jerks. Just 'cause we actually have a passion and we actually PURSUE it and we actually PRACTISE it and you're just some jealous loser on the street who can't do shit doesn't mean you can put us down! I don't have too much time, I MAKE TIME. In fact, I don't have enough time, and if I did, I'd be WAY better.

I also really hate stupid "gangsters" that feel it is incredibly crucial to make sound effects for EVERY SINGLE CONTACT made: "what?! what?! what?! what?!" Or "No! No! No! No!" UGHHHHHHHHH UGHHHHHHHH UGHHHHH UGH

Last week at the beach one guy did that, then went into the washrooms and when he came out it was my turn and he totally flipped, started screaming: "WHAT?! SHORTY! SHORTY! SHORTY!" haha it was actually pretty funny and I dropped from laughing. But it's just annoying most of the time.

And yeah, I get a lot of the: "Oh my god, you're the best girl I've ever seen hack!" Really, I'm probably the best person, male or female, that they've ever seen hack (aside from the people I might be shredding with) and they just have to mention that I'm "good for a girl" so that it isn't a real compliment. It's totally backhanded.

Also along these lines: "GIRLS do this too?!" Or the absolute worst, to their friend: "HAHA! SHEEE'S better than you!"

Assholes.

[Grove]

A soccer ball is a big bouncy piece of shit. NEXT.

Haha I actually laughed when I read that.