Fanzine

[Muffinman]

Do you have a swanky smart phone? Allan shoots all of his hack videos with his phone. I think as long as it's an iPhone 4 or equivalent it'll be pretty decent HD.

[C-Fan]

I have an iPhone 4s, but don't think it's a great long term solution. For one, I don't see any good tripod mounts on it, but beyond that its a govt phone so I'd have to take the clips off it on my work computer. I think a new camera on black Friday is the way to go. In the meantime, I've dusted off an old camera I used last year. It's a bloggie, which is one of the worst designed cameras ever. Its tripod mount is defaulted to filming portrait instead of landscape....WHY!?!?! Anyway, I'm going to try and film with it this weekend and see if it's better than no footage at all. If it is, I'll try and get some Gatesman footage when I'm in Vegas. Or at least get some handheld of Evan in landscape.

Thanksgiving is almost 3 weeks away, but its definitely in the air. For some reason, seeing the leaves come off the tree this year have made my mind drift to my time in Japan. Despite the fact that it was one of the most important times in my life, I've never really recapped my overall experience there in my blog.

Thanksgiving is usually a quiet time in my blog. The tournament season is over, and I'm usually playing less due to daylight savings and the weather. On Thanksgiving itself I'll sometimes make a list of footbag-related things I'm thankful for, but every year it's pretty much the same list. This year I'm going to do something different, and a little more in-depth, by writing about my Japan experience.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, because it's basically the only holiday with a purpose I can get behind. Be thankful; take one day of the year to stop, take stock of where you are, and appreciate all the good in your life. I can get behind that. That was one reason why I proposed to my fiancee last Thanksgiving. That said, I'm not even sure though that my proposal last year was the most significant Thanksgiving of my life.

8 years ago, I made the decision to leave Japan. This was the toughest decision of my life, and I'm sure there are parallel universes where I chose to stay there. While I've written a lot about Japan in this blog (I started this blog while I still lived there), I've never written in depth about my overall experience there. I've described many trees, if you will, but not the forest. Eight years ago when I left, I was optimistic for the future of Japanese footbag, but I honestly didn't know if it'd keep going strong or not. I also had a good bit on my own mind, figuring out my own next steps, and hadn't fully digested my own experience in the country. This Thanksgiving though, for whatever reason, my mind keeps going back to that last November in Japan.

Before I can put my departure in context, much less talk about footbag's progress in Japan after I left, it'd make a lot of sense to talk about where footbag was in Japan in 2002. Which, to me at least, makes more sense in the context of where I was with footbag in 2002. So let's start there.

It's August of 2002. I just graduated college, and frankly wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with my life. I had done a teaching program the previous summer, which was one of the most enjoyable experiences I had ever done (looking back from 2013, this is still true). So I applied for a job as a high school English teacher in Japan, and I got it. Here's the footbag snapshot of me in August 2002. I started playing seriously almost exactly 5 years earlier. I improved pretty quickly in my first couple years, and had got BAP votes at Worlds the previous year, even though I didn't go (teaching program). Like most other players at the time, I was terribly one-sided, with short string length. Neither of those things mattered much in those days. This video sums up both my game, and the footbag level at the time pretty well:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R-bc4yR1EI[/youtube]

Wow, blast from the past. Believe it or not, that was some pretty badass shred for 11.5 years ago. Kinda embarassing. Anyway, the important things to know about where I was with footbag in 2002 are:

I had been playing for 5 years, which seemed like a long time. Based on the level I had achieved, I was OK with retiring (more on this later) if I had to.
The only true footbag scene I had been a part of, was the New York Footbag Association. In my four years at Brown, I had founded a footbag club but it never had any real traction.

Next: I go to Japan

[C-Fan]

Quickie entry.

I exhumed my old bloggie camera, to see if it can fill the void between my old camera dying and me buying a new one on Black Friday. As I've complained about in the past, the bloggie's only tripod mount forces you to film in portrait, instead of landscape, which is insanely stupid. Anyway, I filmed a session like this on Friday. It was really challenging, since filming in portrait mode reduces your filming field by 66%. So I wasn't able to move around much, which meant I mostly stuck to short drills:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHlFWuRn7MA[/youtube]

The good news is, I'm never filming like that again. On Saturday I played again, and experimented with filming without a tripod. Instead I just rested my camera on the floor and tilted it a bit against my shoe. Doing that was tricky, but enabled me to film in landscape mode. I don't see this being a long term solution, but maybe it'll grow on me. Anyway, I'm making that video now, and plan on shooting/playing again today. Hopefully I get more comfortable with this....regardless, no more suffering through portrait mode. Nice.

[Max Power]

That video from 2002 was my first footbag tournament and the first time I had even seen any kind of good footbag. You can see me in the background failing at just kicking. Thank you for posting that.

[C-Fan]

I've gotten a couple requests to continue my Japan entries, and I plan on doing so. I've just been a bit sidetracked lately due to some dental issues I'm having. Missed a couple days of work this week because of it. My teeth have always been so bad...

Shredwise I played a lot this weekend. I managed 4 outdoor shreds in a row, which is impressive this time of year. I'm still adjusting to filming with the bloggie. Not just getting to shoot in landscape, but things like knowing how long it takes to charge the camera, and finding out the limitations on its memory. So my filmed sessions have varied in the quantity of usable footage due to these variables. Hopefully I'll have it down to a science by next week, when I will be shredding with Gatesman in Vegas. Definitely need to empty my memory card before then.

I haven't really approached my recent sessions with any concrete goals. I'm still trying to go dense, but I'm also not stopping my runs when the occasional bail does happen. I've been trying to throw more quantum in my runs, and occasionally some nukes, but I don't feel like I'm making any concrete progress with the nukes. Also just generally trying to play on my toes more.

Here's footage from my first session filming in landscape with the bloggie:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNd5qWRMbPI[/youtube]

[boyle]

Looks much better in landscape....looking forward to checking out the new Japan entries.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Nice Toe Blurry Whirls. That's a cool trick. Jealous of your quantums. Ill be working on mine soon though. Shred is looking tight still.. like always I have noticed one more thing.. sometimes your runs end on dyno. id like to see your next density video with stepping out of dyno or other bigger tricks from dyno.

Stoked to see footage from you and Evan soon.

[C-Fan]

My next Japan post will have a Japan video, but in order to avoid a text-only post, here's a raw video of one of my shreds last weekend:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJqMLmc5jqI[/youtube]

On to my Japan post. Scroll up to the 2nd post on this page to see part 1 of my Japan reflections.

Japan Part 2

My last Japan entry basically detailed where I was at in the summer of 2002. The key takeaway there is that I felt I had pretty much peaked as a player, and was happy to have reached the level that I did. This is important in the context of where I thought my life was going post-college.

Though this may sound dramatic and extremely stupid, my view of post-college life was grim. I had done summer jobs in the past, but as I prepared to go to Japan I couldn't shake the feeling that my care-free crazy fun times were over. It was time to put away toys, and become a cog in the machine of the real world. As I packed my suitcases for Japan, I intentionally did not bring most of my hang-out clothes, and focused on packing work clothes. Even when it came to something like shorts, I went out and bought a bunch of business casual ones, which I figured wouldn't raise eyebrows at a company barbecue. In retrospect, this was all incredibly naive and stupid. The next 3.5 years in Japan would be filled with more fun and free time than my entire time in college was, even factoring in a 9-5 job every day. My social life wasn't ending; it was just beginning.

But in August 2002 I didn't know that. I was packing suitcases to move halfway across the World, to a town I'd never heard of, in a country where I only knew 3 people (my uncle, aunt, and cousin...who would be about a 4 hour bullet train ride away). In short, I was mentally preparing for the worst. On a lark, I looked on footbag.org to find any footbaggers who might be in the country. I think I only found one. Richard Sadowski, an expat American, who lived in Osaka. I looked at a map: Osaka wasn't anywhere close to where I'd be. To my knowledge, there weren't any Japanese footbaggers, and only one footbagger to speak of in the country as a whole. In this context, I debated even packing my lavers. It seems completely unbelievable to me, writing in 2013, to think that I was considering giving up footbag when I moved to Japan. But that's the reality of it. Even then though, I liked footbag enough that I brought two pieces of footbag to Japan with me. The first was my lavers, and the second was a VHS mixtape I made of all my favorite footbag videos. Both would prove to be surprisingly important in the next year.

I arrived in Tokyo for orientation in my new program, but within a few days I was up north in my new home: Iwate Prefecture (Japan has 47 prefectures, which are their version of states). If I had to think of an American equivalent to Iwate, I'd probably go with Montana or North Dakota. A big state with brutal winters and not a lot of people. The nice part about arriving in summer though, is that it gave me a little time to get my bearings before the snow arrived. My first 2 months or so in Iwate were disorienting, to say the least. I spoke almost no Japanese before arriving, and I can vouch that it's not an intuitive language to learn. I was also getting used to the routine of going to work for 8 hours a day, and also figuring out what exactly work entailed. Throw in basic stuff, like going to the supermarket and not being able to read anything, and I was feeling pretty overwhelmed. Cue footbag. Ah footbag, my reliable stress relief, my compass, my port in the storm. I'd used footbag in the past to help me through tough times like breakups, but I didn't realize what a lifesaver it'd be in those first couple months. Like I mentioned, the weather was good enough through September, that I was able to play a little bit on weekends outside.

Then winter came. The fun, walkable, lively little town I was in appeared to hibernate almost over night. With nobody to shred with, and now no place to play, I stopped footbagging. It wasn't even really a conscious decision. It just stopped happening, and I didn't give too much thought to it. I was slowly acclimating to my new surroundings anyway, and I was happy to spend my free time with my new best friend Vinay. Vinay was the only other foreigner in my town, but even if he would've been a great friend. Hanging out with Vinay had its positives. He helped me learn Japanese, and he introduced me to a bunch of Japanese people who would become my friends. Vinay was also a bit of an alcoholic, which led to me drinking more during this period of my life than at any other time. Not bad per se, but the point is I wasn't footbagging with Vinay. Or anyone.

Then Tu Vu decided to visit Japan, an event which ended up changing the future of footbag in Japan forever.

[C-Fan]

Quick non-Japan entry (though I've already started work on the next installment).

A few days ago I wrote:

I've just been a bit sidetracked lately due to some dental issues I'm having. Missed a couple days of work this week because of it. My teeth have always been so bad..

I ended up missing 2 days from work because of my teeth. One day at the dentist, and one day recovering from the dentist. Long story short, I have gum and tooth pain that doesn't allow me to chew solid food, so I've been making green smoothies for most of my meals for the last few days. They taste OK, but I know I'm not getting the calories/protein/energy that I had when I was on a normal diet. Maybe this will be some kind of cleanse, who knows. Anyway, as I've been dealing with these dental issues, I haven't been playing much footbag. I went out one day to try and play, and just felt low energy throughout. Like, low energy mentally and physically. As such, I mostly just went for short combos, and I even ripped off a few I read in Polini and Hogan's blogs, cause I couldn't be bothered to be original. Watching the finished video, it doesn't look like a horrible session, but trust me when I say I felt tired throughout.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUUvwuP5HeM[/youtube]

Weather is on the cool side tomorrow, but then gets really cold on Sunday. I'm going to make a strong effort to play outside tomorrow because of that. Feel free to PM me if you have any reasonably easy requests...I'm still on my liquid diet, so don't expect crazy long symposium runs or anything like that.

[C-Fan]

Japan Part 3:

I started this writeup because the Thanksgiving weather was making me nostalgic for when I left Japan, but as I reminisce and recollect more on my time there, I realize that Thanksgiving was also the time that footbag in Japan began to take root.

In my last installment I explained how I brought my footbag gear to Japan, but half expected to walk away from the sport. Indeed, as winter came on strong in Iwate, footbag increasingly seemed like a high school and college hobby in my past. Something I enjoyed doing in my previous life, but that wouldn't play a big part in my new one as a teacher in Japan. Then I got an email from Tu Vu.

I first met Tu at the New York Footbag Explosion in 1997, which was my first exposure to footbag. At the time I was too intimidated by his celebrity to really interact with him, so I didn't really connect with him on a personal level until Worlds 2000 in Vancouver. We stayed at the same hostel, and became good friends. When I went to San Francisco in 2001 for Sunil's UCSF jam, we strengthened that bond. Back in 2002, there was no Facebook, and the only online footbag community to speak of was the email lists run through footbag.org. In order to stay in touch with people, you had to either call or email them, and once I moved to Japan I basically was only reachable through email. Thankfully, when Tu decided to visit Japan, he knew that I was in Japan and emailed me. In another stroke of good luck, Tu also thought to contact Masa Shigeoka.

Some of you know Masa, since he's been at more Worlds than any other Japanese player. Masa works at a juggling store in Tokyo, which somehow led to him going to Worlds 2002 in San Francisco. There he met Tu, and gave him his email. I had to miss Worlds 2002, since it happened right around when I was going to Japan. Had I gone, I probably would have met Masa, and gotten an earlier start on the footbag scene in Japan. But who knows. In any case, when Tu came to Japan he emailed Masa, who then contacted the other footbaggers in Japan.

Yes, there were footbaggers in Japan in the fall of 2002. But none of them were on footbag.org, mostly due to the language barrier. This will become something of a recurring theme/challenge in this narrative. Also, while the Japanese footbaggers were aware of each other, they weren't playing together. This may also seem weird and counterintuitive, but as I get deeper into this writeup, you'll find that a lot that we take for granted in footbag culture in America simply didn't exist or work that way in Japan.

Back to the narrative: Tu comes to Japan, emails me, emails Masa. The only problem? Tu is going to Osaka, which as we established earlier, isn't anywhere near where I live. Not just that, but I haven't traveled outside of my prefecture a single time. In fact, traveling within my own prefecture was something I was still getting the hang of, mostly because I was still learning Japanese. It should also be noted, that learning spoken Japanese is quite a different thing from learning how to read or write it. I'd go to the train station, and not only was everything written in Japanese characters, but nobody spoke English at all. So I'd study the train schedules, learning the characters for the towns I knew to be at the ends of each train line, and figure out which side of the tracks to be on based on what time a train arrived (for example, say the train heading south was scheduled to arrive at 4:40, and the northbound train was arriving at 4:46. If I was heading northbound, and a train arrived on my side of the tracks at 4:40, I knew to get to the other side of the tracks). So getting from my small town in Iwate to Osaka was no small challenge.

In retrospect (and I mean like 1 year later), my best bet would have been to fly. But booking a flight when you can't read Japanese was basically a non-starter. I studied train maps, and figured out that I could take a bullet train to Tokyo, then another bullet train to Osaka. Not cheap, and overall like 6 hours travelling on trains, but it was the only solution I could figure out. So I did it.

Osaka station is gargantuan. I'm talking huge, like an indoor amusement park. Luckily I had a cellphone by this time, and Tu had given me the number of some of the Japanese footbaggers. With my broken Japanese, we somehow managed to be in the same part of the station. Unfortunately, I had never met any of them, so had no idea who I was looking for. In a minor miracle, one of them recognized me from a footbag video. He'd later tell me though that in the video I had a mohawk, so he had trouble making me without it. We did our introductions, then they shuttled me off to the shred spot.

All told, I think there were 7 of us. Tu, Henmo, Octoe, Masa, Otayan, and Kim. Only Otayan and Henmo were from that area (kansai), while the rest were from Tokyo. I think it says a lot about their interest in footbag that so many people came out to shred with Tu. I hadn't played hardly at all for the past couple months, but it came back to me quickly. I even remember one combo and one trick I hit, which I was stoked about: blw-inspinning eclipse, and pixie diving double down. There was a video made of this session, but I couldn't find it. Moreso than individual combos, I remember vividly the sensation of feeling my love for footbag coming back. I described it in an email to my friends like this:

After pretty much not playing footbag at all in Japan, I played 3 days straight, long sessions, all weekend. I really felt like I had recovered a vital part of my identity, something that I had been missing, and now I feel more like myself. it felt so good to play my hobby with fellow enthusiasts, to feel the energy of the circle, to give high fives and stay pumped with others. I also felt like I was playing as well as I had before I left, like my game had not deteriorated at all, and it really touched a chord.

The Japanese players varied in ability, but what struck me was the dynamics between the players. Yes, they had lavers. But none of them were laced or modified for freestyle. Yes, they did tricks. But usually they weren't linking tricks. Yes, there were 7 players at the session. But they didn't initially stand in a circle together, and when they did they were all about 8 feet apart from each other. The concept of sharing a bag, passing it around and taking turns...all of this was alien to them. As for giving props, an encouraging word would be spoken, but no high five or anything like that. Then again, why should they? Up until a year or two before, they had never seen hack...much less a hack circle. Circle etiquette? High fives? Why would any of that be built-in?

The main things I remember from that session were getting people to play closer together, teaching them high fives, and the euphoria of playing footbag again with other people. I hadn't done that since I left NYC four months earlier, and it really felt like I had rediscovered a part of me that was missing. That night a couple of us went out to dinner, and I realized that none of the Japanese footbaggers hung out together socially. I think in most cases it was the first time any of them had met each other. Having a footbag celebrity visit the country though brought them together, and I think planted a seed.

I was in Osaka for a little over 2 days, and we got in 3 sessions over that time. By the last session I was feeling it, since I was way out of footbag shape. I also remember Henmo got injured during the first session, which I thought was unbelievably unlucky. I also remember modifying everybody's shoes and tying them correctly, as well as getting them to all buy oval shaped shoe laces. For some reason, I thought those were good for footbag back then. One night Tu and I went to a ska concert and saw the Miceteeth, a Japanese ska band. At the end of my trip though, I had gotten contact info of all the players, and promised I would come visit in Tokyo. I had also rediscovered my love of the game, and unwittingly participated in the nascent creation of footbag in Japan.

[boyle]

Great writeup, I definitely know this feeling of using footbag as a tool to escape and to relieve stress when you move to a new country and barely know anybody or what anybody is talking about!

Now, just need a footbag celebrity to come here and get things rolling...

It is really great that the Japanese scene is still going really strong all these years on, you must be so proud of building that up.

[C-Fan]

Well, this morning has really thrown me for a loop. The original plan for this week was to go to Las Vegas from Tuesday through Sunday. My fiancee has a conference there Wed and Thurs, and we were going to extend through the weekend for a mini-vacation. I was going to hang out with Evan the first couple days and lounge by the pool, and then hang out with my fiancee through the weekend.

Instead, my fiancee got a call this morning that her grandmother had passed, so I've spent all morning making calls to cancel hotels and transfer our flights from Vegas to Atlanta, where the funeral is. My head was already lounging by the pool under the palm trees, and now I'm packing up a suit for a funeral. What can you do though? Just gotta stick by the fiancee and help her through it.

A video, to avoid making a video-less post:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CkdieYLW6I[/youtube]

[C-Fan]

Back in Colorado, after spending much of last week in Georgia. Apparently I missed the first real snows of the season. Georgia was warm, but gloomy, and not just because we were going to a funeral. Rainy a couple days and overcast everyday, so not ideal footbag weather. But we weren't out there for footbag, so I'm lucky to have played at all.

I ended up getting in two sessions over the course of 5 days, and it was nice to play outside again. For some unknown reason I messed around with symp whirling legover (knife hit?), which is a trick I used to love back around 2006, but hadn't done in a few years. Very funky, but not great for my shins I bet.

The trip to Georgia...well, it wasn't Vegas, that's for sure. But it was important to support my fiancee and her family, and I'm glad we went. There's also a chance I get to go to Vegas for work in January, so hopefully I get to see Gatesman and the rest of the Vegas crew sooner than later. In the meantime, it's back to my gym to school basics for the next month. My next trip is to Tucson for xmas, where I hope to get in some outdoor shreds. Until then, it should be pretty quiet on the video front here for me. I have some backlogged videos from this fall and Georgia, so I'll pepper my entries with those.

Speaking of which, here's my first Georgia session, which I was very happy with:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRe7sFlw-cY[/youtube]

The first combo in the video is a tribute to Sunil's Sick3 at Worlds 2002, complete with his celebratory gesture.

[C-Fan]

Memories are a bit hazy, but I still want to document my time in Japan. Here's Part 4 of my Japan recollections:

Japan Part 4

It's hard to overstate the importance of that trip to Osaka. If Tu hadn't come to visit, or if I had chickened out at the daunting logistical hurdles of getting there, I don't know that I would have met the handful of Japanese footbaggers. Thankfully though, it happened. I exchanged numbers and emails with all of them, and promised we'd meet up in Tokyo next time. If I learned anything from the train odyssey to Osaka, it was that getting to Tokyo was half as expensive and much easier. When I left Osaka and told my new friends I'd see them soon, there was a sense in the air that this was not an idle promise.

When I got back to my (already freezing) apartment in Iwate (Japanese Montana), my lavers didn't go back into the closet. I didn't figure out a great spot or routine for playing regularly just yet, but at least I had banished any thoughts of footbag retirement from my mind.

My first winter in northern Japan was really tough. My Japanese was still developing, so I hadn't made any close friendships with Japanese people in Iwate. As winter settled in and my town went into hibernation, I began to feel my isolation very intensely. Just little challenges of everyday life, slowly stacking up one on top of the other. One quick example: my fridge began to smell, so I decided to go buy baking powder to absorb the odor. I made the trek out to the local grocery store, hoping I'd find a baking section. I didn't. In the US, or anywhere else I spoke the language, I'd probably be able to explain to somebody that I was looking for baking powder, even if I didn't know the word for it. But in Japan? I can't remember if I even tried, but I doubt my Japanese was good enough back then even to get it done. So I made the defeated hike back home, and the next day I looked up the word for "baking powder" on the internet at school (oh yeah, setting up internet at home was too much of a challenge for me too).

It was in the context of this isolation that I decided to go down to Tokyo in late December to footbag. I think I just wanted to be somewhere I felt I belonged, and even though I didn't know these footbaggers that well yet, I knew I'd feel at home in a hack circle. So I shelled out the $300 to take the bullet train down to Tokyo, even though I knew it wouldn't be much warmer there. I remember meeting USK and Tencho for the first time, and was impressed that Henmo made the trek out from Osaka to come kick. This was my first time playing at Yoyogi park, which is now one of my all time favorite shred locations. It couldn't have been warmer than 40 degrees out, but I needed to play. Amazingly, footage still exists of this trip:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzJqUf_vxEA[/youtube]

I remember at this session having to still get people to warm up together. The level of shyness amongst the Japanese footbaggers still surprised me. After the shred we all went to go eat and have some drinks. I remember seeing the Tokyo crew begin to bond, which excited me since I knew that is usually the beginning of a scene. I also remember them trying to be social with me, and my Japanese still sucking too bad to really converse. In the hack circle earlier that day I was in my element, but stepping outside that circle I was back to my fish-out-of-water self.

Not quite this dramatic, but close:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eix8GvsxehM[/youtube]

Even then, I recognized how friendly and accommodating this crew was. It definitely helped motivate me to get better at Japanese. These were good people and I wanted to be their friend. I also wanted to be part of the scene that I could see forming before my eyes.

[boyle]

That was a fun video - at first I thought you had grown some kind of wild afro in your isolation, then I realised it was just a beanie...

[Tjuggles]

Awesome stuff man.

I miss Japan, and reading about the scene that I have spent 8 years with being created is a real treat. It would make my day to be in Yoyogi with you kicking again one day.

[Muffinman]

Really enjoying the memories, especially as history that I can now associate with videos I grew up on.

This has always been my favourite Somolinos video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNsSRHcjSm0[/youtube]
In fact I just had to go look up some of the music since it still holds such a strong impression on me!

[C-Fan]

Damnit Erik! I was going to use that video in my next Japan installment! In the meantime, here's a quick non-Japan entry.

Thanksgiving was really nice. I got early dismissal the day before, and it was nice enough out that I could play outside. I'm really excited about Jay and Anz's "link of the day" project in December. Excited enough that I got Jay to leak me the first 8 combos, so I could try and film them on a day with good weather. The combos were overall interesting, and definitely gettable. Apparently though the next batch is a lot gnarlier. Anyway, it was fun playing outside, and nice to have concrete goals to work towards. Its so satisfying when you finally hit a combo you weren't sure you could.

I didn't footbag on Thanksgiving itself, since it was too cold out. I used that as an excuse to stay inside and drink and eat. I also bought the Walking Dead video game, since I'm a fan of the comics, and it was on sale for $4. Verdict's still out on it...I find the controls clunky, but I've only played a couple hours. Need to give it more of a chance. I do like that the visuals are clearly based on the comic book's style.

Back to footbag news, the black G-Unit from my mis-matched pair is officially dead. I took a quick vid of it before throwing it out, which I'll post next time. Now I only have 4 full pairs of G-Units left. Two are extremely worn down, but I'm going to ride them into the dust. The third pair is my Yankee units I used at Worlds and USO this year, which I hope to use in competitions the next two years if they last that long. They're still in very good shape. My final pair are my only new ones. Hunter green units, which I've kept in the box for the last 5 years or so. I looked online on Black Friday, and no luck finding new G-Units anywhere. I'm hoping I can wring out around 4 more years from these 4 pairs, but who knows. I'd be surprised if my current pair makes it past the start of Spring.

For the past few years I've posted what I'm thankful for in footbag on Thanksgiving. I kinda like that tradition, so here's this year's list:

Thankful I had no major injuries this past year, as that was key in helping me achieve some career goals. Speaking of which...
Thankful I was able to attend both USO and Worlds this year. There have been times I couldn't attend tournaments in the past due to lack of vacation days, or work getting in the way, or life getting in the way. Thankfully that wasn't the case this year; it was really nice to cross a couple goals off my list.
I'm thankful there's still a footbag community on the internet (here on modified and on Facebook). Footbag's popularity definitely ebbs and flows, and while this is clearly an ebb period, it would be so much worse if there wasn't an easy way for the community to stay in touch.
Thankful I found this crazy sport 16.5 years ago. I can't imagine my life without it.

Shifting gears, I'll close out with a video from a couple weeks ago. It was easily the windiest conditions I've ever played in, which I found challenging at first, then incredibly frustrating. The wind was clearly moving the bag during some of my runs, and it also kept knocking over my camera. Unsurprisingly, this footage isn't my best shred, but the wind and my reactions to it are hopefully amusing. It wasn't funny while I was playing, but I laughed at it when I cut up the footage later.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drMK8wwOqu4[/youtube]

Hacky Thanksgiving, modified.

[Matt K]

Which Walking Dead game did you get? There's two, one of which seems to be great and one of which seems to be terrible.

[Muffinman]

Sorry Ken :'(

I didn't know there was a second game. Apparently it is terrible?
I assume you got the Telltale game? It's flipping brilliant -- I'd love to hear what you think of it, especially since you're the one who got me into the comics. I think the TV series is absolutely terrible, but the game is just really, really good. Like, what the show SHOULD have been. It will break your heart.