SandWraith's Footnovel: Now with more footbag!

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 09 Apr 2006 17:59

Played a bit today-- less than 40 minutes. I was kinda tired and lethargic, and I just wasn't kicking well. On top of that, it was a little chilly, so I figured the potential for getting sick coupled with the suck factor just made kicking not worth it. It's supposed to be mid 70s Monday and Tuesday though, bumping up to around 82ish for the rest of the week after that. I don't have Chem Lab, Physics Lab, or Chem recitation this week, so my Tuesday and Thursday are totally available: nothing on 'em at all.

And I think I have figured out what I'm getting for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the grand total looks to be around $250 to upgrade my computer with a "high-end" video card, and an extra gig of ram. I should be able to play the game silky-smooth with 2.8 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, and GeForce 6600 256 MB AGP 8x card. I'm hoping the prices on some of that will drop a bit over the next month, but $250 is about as much as it has cost for all my entertainment all year, so I guess I can't complain that much....

Tjuggles · Post by **Tjuggles** » 09 Apr 2006 19:18

Hey.

Im glad to read that you are healthy enough to start shredding again

I havent written in my blog for so long now, so I think if I have time after this I will

I have noticed too that schooling the basics is so worth it. It really improves your game.
Keep letting me read about your progress, and good luck with women.
I bet if you come to Japan, you could find a women...

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 11 Apr 2006 19:12

Hey! I was wondering what had happened to you. I hope you start posting in your blog again (or come to St. Louis).

Kicked again today, mostly working on clippers, ducking, diving, and a bit of whirls. I want to be able to hit strings of 15+ with those elements and major control before moving on, but it's hard. Dropping something so basic as a clipper is a real psychological downer, so it's hard to keep motivated by it. On the other hand, it only shows how much more work I must do with clippers. Dropping a clipper means I don't have my clippers down enough (especially flipside).

Working on a ten page research paper now... ugh.

Tjuggles · Post by **Tjuggles** » 11 Apr 2006 20:17

Wow! A ten page essay paper?!

The reason I have been lazy (outside of the fact that I can only get online at work, at my school just had its spring break), is that I have been working on my elementary school's english curriculum. When I say working on it, I mean MAKING it

I think it is just about done, so I will get back at blogging.

good luck with the clippers, and dont get too frustrated, that will only weaken your mental game, which is also really imnportant.

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 12 Apr 2006 22:13

Tjuggles wrote:dont get too frustrated, that will only weaken your mental game, which is also really important.

I kept that in mind, and I think it helped. I really enjoyed kicking today, actually. It was mid 80s and somewhat humid out, so I was sweating but not in a lame way. I felt like I was accomplishing things and I think it showed. I hit 14 flipside ss clippers in a row, and went on to do 10+ pretty consistently on both sides (I can do 15 strongside without much ado). The thing is, last fall (when I was at the "top" of my game), I couldn't do more than 4 ss clippers, and even then it was sorta chase-the-bag-around style. These were controlled, well-set clippers and it felt good to see the precision. I feel like, even though I'm doing very basic things, it's gonna help my game a ton in the long run. I also worked on ducking and diving again, and did some whirling to boot. I did clipper > ss clipper > whirl > ss clipper > ss clipper > op clipper > [whole thing rpt] starting on both sides, and did ss clipper x 10 > op side ss clipper x 10 > op side ss clipper x 5, and some other things. Yes, lots and lots of clippers.

I sat in the library 5 hours and wrote 8.5 pages of that 10 page paper, and it seems to be going pretty well. I'm having difficulty judging the accuracy of it, as far as how on-topic I am, but it seems as though the class is more of a "you do the homework, you get the grade" kinda things, since it's a general requirement.

-------

With Spring here, though, I'm really feeling that lonely aspect. Even though I have my friends and my sports, I really wish I could have a girlfriend. It's wrong to want one for such silly reasons, but I'd just like to be able to hangout with someone under a blossoming apple tree, or sit outside and listen to the rain with someone. It's petty and sentimental, but it's becoming something so pronounced that it is becoming hard to ignore. To make matters worse, there's a girl that seems nice and that I find pretty that I would like to get to know if I ever saw her. She's actually a sophomore, and I barely know her at all to be honest, but with this Spring fever I can't get her out of my head. I'm taking this as an exercise in patience, in that I'm not gonna go out of my way to find her; I'm gonna wait till I happen to run into her. Also, perhaps that way I can just wait this thing out until it dies away. Ugh, I can't understand why I'm feeling this way (or why I'm alone).

Tjuggles · Post by **Tjuggles** » 13 Apr 2006 18:30

Good stuff on the essay! Way to crank it out...

the essay, that is

As far as girlfriends go...

I've realized a few things about me that might help you:

When I look for a girlfriend, I can't find one.
When I have given up looking, I find one.
When I have a girlfriend, I want many.
When I don't have a girlfriend, I want just one.

Figure that one out

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 13 Apr 2006 18:52

Tjuggles wrote: When I look for a girlfriend, I can't find one.
When I have given up looking, I find one.
When I have a girlfriend, I want many.
When I don't have a girlfriend, I want just one.

The one in red doesn't really work for me. Even when I'm perfectly content, I don't seem to find a girlfriend. I'm not sure what the issue is. I think I might put my pic up on hot or not sometime just to see if I'm hideously ugly and just don't know it.

Footbag was great today. I didn't have any classes (no chem lab), so I went behind the middle school a bit early. As I was doing a run with a bunch of mirages and stuff, some kid (maybe 7th grade) that was walking by yelled, "nice eggbeater!" I was really caught off-guard, partially because he knew a footbag move, and partially cause I hadn't done an eggbeater. I didn't want to correct him though, so I just turned and said, "thanks," and smiled. Later, Mika came by again! He's the grad student Spanish teacher that started a footbag club to try to teach the kids at the middle school how to play. He doesn't really play footbag, per se, but he wants to learn. He was giving one of the kids there a ride home, and the kid, named Ali, happened to be a member of the club. I kicked with them for a bit before they had to go.

I continued practicing clippers, with a bit of ducking, diving, and whirls as has become my bag. My clippers are getting damn good. I can do 10+ either side pretty easily, and I can do long 20+ clipper sequences. I did 32-moves worth of 5 ss clippers > 5 ss on the opposite side > repeat, yada yada. It's cool to be able to do that. What's more, I would sometimes reward those runs by busting into some actual freestyle and, even though I haven't done almost any dexterities since I started playing again, my runs are LONG. Working the basics is definately giving my game a boost.

I'm almost done with that paper-- 9.33 pages completed, but I'm just about out of info. I'm trying to fluff what I have up to 10, so we'll see how that goes.

((and I'd recommend a Mirken bag to anyone that likes heavy bags-- they're small, dense, and have a good feel; plus, they're considerably cheaper than a normal bag: something like $20 at the moment))

Tjuggles · Post by **Tjuggles** » 13 Apr 2006 19:00

SandWraith wrote: I'm almost done with that paper-- 9.33 pages completed, but I'm just about out of info. I'm trying to fluff what I have up to 10, so we'll see how that goes.

((and I'd recommend a Mirken bag to anyone that likes heavy bags-- they're small, dense, and have a good feel; plus, they're considerably cheaper than a normal bag: something like $20 at the moment))

hmm... I bet you will get a girlfriend before you know it.

As far as Mirken bags,

I like heavy bags! I wonder if he will ship to Japan

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 14 Apr 2006 18:43

I hope so. They're definately nice bags. I'm probably gonna get another one soon just in case mine dies unexpectedly.

I was sorta tired today, so footbag wasn't that great. It was pretty close to normal level, but I was getting winded quickly, so I only kicked about an hour or so. I realized that this spot behind the middle school has quickly become one of my favorite spots in the world. I'm just enjoying footbag so much. I feel like my life has a purpose, and that I'm unique again.

Working consistency is SO much better than working new moves. With new moves, if you hit it, great; hitting it again is hard. Then, once you get good at hitting that move, you move on and suck at another move. If you work consistency, you don't hit a move once: you hit it 20 or 30 times. That constant success is euphoric. And then, it transfers so well! For example, I've been doing some stuff with op clipper > whirl > repeat, and found that paradox whirls aren't hard at all as a result. I don't want to focus on p.whirls though, cause I need more work on regular whirls and clippers.

The words of the day were "whirl" and "clipper." My whirls are finally consistent on both sides, and feel much more natural. Of course, this doesn't mean I'll stop working them. There is much more practice on this level in order before I move on.

And I'm working both lower and upper body now. I play footbag for a while (2 hours?), and then go to the gym for about a half hour and do upper body and abs.

((School is just becoming annoying. The freedom of the weekend, the liberation of a warm, wispy breeze: concentration is escaping me.))

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » 14 Apr 2006 19:16

Are you talking about his 12 panels?

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 14 Apr 2006 21:44

Yes ma'am. They've become my favorite bags. So small! So heavy! So soft!

HG · Post by HG » 15 Apr 2006 05:14

yeah i absolutely LOVE my mirken 12 panel. But yesterday i was doing pdx whirls and absolutely scraped the shit out of it. there are at least 3 tiny tiny holes in it. I will get another once my mirken 32 dies

by the way, its great to see you are back into footbag and ripping it up. GO ZAAAAACH

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 15 Apr 2006 19:05

Yay Henry! We'll kick this summer fo' shizzle.

No footbag today, as it was rainy and I went with a friend to a public storage facility to get that all squared away. $70 each to store our stuff over the summer vs. $540 to rent a van for each way. Total score (for my parents, that is: I'm not really saving anything).

I worked out today though. All upper body and abs, as footbag is my lower body generally. It felt good, though I'm not all that strong. It was just nice to exercise

----------
I've been thinking a lot about symbols. Specifically, I have been thinking about the power of symbols. As representations of ideas, symbols embody our feelings and goals. What struck me, though, is how caught up we can get in them. For example, so many people live their lives chasing money. Money is power, as they say, but what does it all amount to? Power is just a means of attaining the holy grail of any person's life: happiness. So instead of trying to find happiness, whiching is what they really should do, these people try to amass dollars and cents, thinking that it will bring them this elusive feeling.

But what I was specifically thinking about, and have thought before, is how caught up people get in the concept of love. I noticed it often in high school, and am grateful for that observation: people will date just about anyone in high school regardless of who that person really is, as long as there is no uncool stigma attached. Sometimes it would seem as though they never even learned the person's name; it was just "boyfriend" or "girlfriend." And while often these relationships were not attempts at finding real love, occasionally they were.

As I've said before, I've felt as though these feelings I have about finding a girlfriend are mere manifestations of this very same concept: I don't want a girlfriend for who she is, but rather to be able to do things with her. It's like some perverted form of loneliness. But perhaps "loneliness" isn't the right word. It's more like this: when it rains out, I wish I could have someone with whom I could sit outside and watch the rain. And when it's nice and warm and lazy out just after dusk, I wish there was someone with whom I could just enjoy the sweet summer air and the peace of the hammocks. I feel more than comfortable with my friends and I love the stuff we do together, but those sorta experiences are reserved to the realm of romance. I really would like to get to know someone on a level much different than that of friendship. There are just certain facets of personality that are too intimate for normal conversation.

Ahhhh, but I truly am just a sentimentalist at heart.
----------

And you can be assured that almost everything within those dashed lines will be of no interest whatsoever. It's more me just writing my thoughts so that one day when I look back at them I might remark on who I was and what I felt. To me, a blog is more than a journal of events, but a recording of a person's life. I'm going to try to start living up to that belief.

(("Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances." -Bruce Barton))

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 16 Apr 2006 15:16

Yesterday was definately one of the most memorable days of my life. So surreal, and so intense. I mentioned a bit of what happened, but here's the long and short:

It started with Alex and myself taking a taxi at 1 pm to visit a public storage facility, which we ended up renting for our stuff over the Summer. We then walked a couple blocks down from this place into a residential neighborhood and asked some random lady who was watering her plants where we should go to eat. She recommended a place that served hot salami (we were in the italian district in St. Louis). We walked over there and enjoyed a very quaint meal. The sandwich shop was one of those corner-of-the-street places, right next to a big park. It felt small town, and was a definate change from WashU. After our meal, Alex and I started walking back to campus-- about a 6 mile trek. I somehow remembered the route the taxi had taken perfectly, but as we began the journey it started to rain. We walked about 5 miles in the warm weather and the cool rain, which was pretty nice. As we approached campus, I asked if he'd mind if we went to the grocery store first. We did so and, as we stood in line to check out, we noticed the person in front of us was the chancellor of our university! We introduced ourselves and talked to him for a minute, and then he asked us if we'd like a ride back to campus. We assented, and so we got to ride back in his pimped out lexus and talk with him a bit more.

After getting back, I just did homework till 10:30, when Peter and I had planned to go out and do some more urban exploring stuff. There was a particular building we wanted to get in, and we did so by taking the methane tunnels to this adjacent building, then using the third-floor walkway to get into the building we wanted (labeled A, for descriptive purposes). Upon entering, we found that there was still a professor at work in one of the doors nearby. We ducked under the window and continued on, quickly finding the door labeled "roof access." Unfortunately, it was locked and there was a metal sheet in front of the lock so one couldn't just card in. We let that slide for a bit and instead explored another connected building (B). The door to the roof of this one was locked as well, but it was locked via tumbler and not deadbolt, so we didn't have any chance of getting past that. We went down to the basement of building B, and connected to another building in the sequence, building C. We stayed away from the library that was connected to it, as the libraries have cameras, but did manage to get into a spot that had some expensive-looking biological equipment and a lot of experiments. On the third floor, we found a 1 mm radius iron wire, and realized that we could use it to bypass the deadbolt lock of building A. We headed back over there-- down to the basement of C, across into B, up to the top level and over into A. I stood lookout and Peter did the pick. Up we went to the roof, and looked around. The roof of A connected to B, so we made our way across to B, me giving him a leg up, him giving me an arm up. Unfortunately, building C wasn't connected above ground, so we couldn't get over there. Instead, though, we decided to head back to the methane tunnels. First, though, I kinda freaked out because I forgot the door to the roof opened inwards, and thought it was locked as I tried to pull it open. We woulda had to work our way throughout the ceiling equipment-- lights, wires, etc.-- to get back down which woulda sucked. Back through the methane tunnels, we investigated a building under construction. We'd been there before, but couldn't find the way to the roof. This time, however, we did. This building, we discovered, was connected to another-- score! We explored about, finding a nice spot to sleep out sometime, and then headed into the building. We were hungry at this point, so we popped into an open teacher's lounge and checked out the fridge. There was some $10 ripoff meat and cheese platter, so we ate it.

It wasn't even that good.

It was now around 1:30, so we headed back to the dorms. As we were about halfway back, I got a call from one of my friends who asked why there was an ambulance outside of my hall. I didn't know, but we headed over there right away. I found out it was a friend of mine, and that he had been founded unconscious with his eyes open. We live in substance free and I know he doesn't drink or anything like that, so it definately wasn't substance-related. I found out today in a schoolwide email that he ended up dying and they don't know why-- "natural causes" is what they say, but then go on to state that more investigation is pending. I didn't know him super well, but he was a guy I woulda sat down with for a meal and I took fencing with him all last semester. It sucks....

Well, Peter and I didn't know he had died, and standing there watching the ambulance wasn't gonna help anyone, so we went to get something to eat. Afterwards, as we walked into an adjacent dorm, five kids were wheeling a passed-out guy by the stairs. An RA stopped them and tried to wake up the guy in the cart, and then called the cops. As Peter and I were leaving the dorm, I guess I opened the door right in front of the cop on his bike, because he kinda skidded off to the left and braked with his feet. I said I was sorry and we went on our way.

Overall, it was a day filled with lots of weird experiences. Surreal.

TODAY:
I played footbag for about an hour and forty-five minutes, and hit some darn good stuff. I had 53 contacts of 3 clippers per side, which broke my all-time run length record, which happened to be my consecutive clipper record of something like 46. Later, I hit 7 sequences of op clipper > whirl, and dropped on the 8th whirl. Considering that Friday I couldn't hit 4 sequences of that, I was happy (I went on to hit 6 and 4 a couple times). There were some long repeats of op clipper > ss clipper > ducking clipper, and just other stuff along similar lines.

And Peter and I had a bratburger fry about 20 minutes ago, which was nice what with the good weather and the good food. Mike's coming back later tonight, but I'll be studying for my last test before finals. Then I have two weeks of relative ease.

((If he died of natural causes, then that means he could have spent today just like me, and then just up and died. It shakes a person to the core to realize that any given day could be his last.))

Tjuggles · Post by **Tjuggles** » 16 Apr 2006 15:44

Um, well that is one of the weirdest days I have read about

But on a lighter note, Props on beating your clipper consec. records

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 17 Apr 2006 19:36

Thanks.

I hope I can keep working consistency like that, cause it really is very satisfying.

I couldn't play today because I had a chemistry test. It went alright, given that I barely studied since we get to drop one test and I did about as well on the first two tests as I can reasonably expect.

I'm done with all tests till finals now-- three weeks.

Wondering if I should ask my RA and friend to help me just find this girl. Maybe when she eats lunch or something so I can get this outta the way. I find that, since I'm trying to just bump into her, I'm looking around a lot and that just ain't fun. Ho ho this sure is a game of raging incompetence.

School has brought a sentiment of antipathy. I am understanding that numbing lethargy that eventually supplants all other considerations: when you don't want to have to think, do, or contemplate anymore. That's why Summer was invented.

From what I've heard from other, it seems to be a pretty universal feeling at the moment: to be expected when everyone's been working their tails off for seven and a half months, I guess.

(("I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing." - Agatha Christie)) (not that I am-- I just like the quote)

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 18 Apr 2006 19:04

---------
Misoccupied
It's like occupying yourself incorrectly. Like when you try not to think about something, and you try so hard not to that you end up constantly thinking about it. There's some intermediary that has to be kept in check. Really, thinking about it, the whole thing is a matter of the unknown. I think it's interesting how people in general fear what they don't know, but grow bored with what they do know. There's gotta be a bit of both-- just enough unknown to keep the known from getting stale.
---------

Footbag was decent today, though it was windy outside. I took shelter in this outdoors cafeteria inlet part of the middle school, which was flanked on two sides by a long array of windows. I have made working clippers a big part of my warm-up, and started just using clippers as a foundation for drills, like op clipper > ss clipper > diving clipper > repeat, and things like that. Mostly worked ducking, diving, whirls, and butterflys. Ducking has gotten very strong, as has strongside diving, with 20 contacts of the above diving drill completed. I could only get 5 or 6 contacts of it flipside though, so I really have to work that flip diving. The problem is that I don't dive fast enough; it's not a matter of not being able to, I just don't for some reason. I also did 25 ss clippers strongside and like 15 flipside, though the discrepancy is partly due to the fact that I had been working my flip a lot during the day and so it was tired.

It was a decent day, as I said. Everything would be perfect if I could get this girl stuff out of my head. I have a one-track, feverishly persistent mind, and it seems to be sagging under this soggy torpor.

((I really do enjoy the posts you guys leave. I think I'm gonna try to be more active in reading other people's blogs; there's a cozy feeling knowing someone spent 4 minutes finding out how your day went.

))

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 19 Apr 2006 17:24

Got my chem test back today-- I freakin owned it! Wowzers. The mean was a 58, standard deviation was a 15, and I got a 88. That was a huge surprise, and means that I don't have to worry much about the final. Yay!

We were also supposed to get our housing information today, but it was delayed till tomorrow. The mailroom has it, they just didn't get around to putting it in the boxes <8( We're very unsure if we'll get a 6-person suite as we had wanted, but one of the Residential Life advisors told someone I know that almost everyone that wanted a 6-person got it.

Footbag was rather enjoyable, though it's hard for it to keep its luster. Repetition is an innately boring activity, but just remembering how long I couldn't play me appreciate what I have. I can't remember all the good stuff that went down, but I know I hit over 50 contacts of tiltless, though it consisted almost entirely of clippers and oses. It started with 3 ss clipper > 3 flip ss clipper > 4 strong ss clipper > 4 flip ss clipper > onward to 5 and 6, and then followed by some oses and more clipper goodness. Now if I just threw some phat 4 dex moves in there....

I also hit 3 sequences of op clipper > op clipper > butterfly on each side, which I had been unable to do in the last few sessions.

After 2 1/2 hours of footbag, I decided to go running, which I haven't done in a while. I intended to run about 2 miles, but went exploring the neighborhood near the middle school and ended up running about 4 miles. I realized running is almost entirely psychological. That whole last mile I felt like stopping, quitting, walking, but I just thought how pissed off I'd be if I quit then, and walked a mile in shame back to my water bottle. I feel better for running that mile.

And finally, I am determined to talk to my RA today about that girl. I'm not gonna ask him to do anything; I will present the issue and my analysis of the matter and let him decide what recourse he thinks would be best.

(("Notice the gifts that make you the person that you are."))

SandWraith · Post by **SandWraith** » 19 Apr 2006 20:49

I play behind a middle school nearby. Here are a few pics.

Footbag

My shred spot

The sun beating down on the pavement. The sweat makes me feel like I accomplished something. It feels good.

Tjuggles · Post by **Tjuggles** » 20 Apr 2006 15:28

nice pics.

I know what you mean about how sweating makes you feel like you did something. I love it when I sweat my ass off shredding.

BTW,
I think it would be kind of cool to see all the various locations that people shred. The place where you shred and I shred for example, are very different.