!!!!!DELAKONG!!!!!

[delakong]

I think it's time I started a blog. I love reading everbody else's and I'm here all the time so why not? I'm sure I'll enjoy reading about my progression a year (and hopefully years) from now.

Sooooooooo, let's see, how to start..........

ABOUT ME

I'm a 22 year old Puerto Rican/white guy. I'm 6'2 and weigh about 150 lbs.. Yep, I'm tall and skinny. I have long (middle of back) brown hair that hasn't seen a new style of haircut since I was 14. Yeah, I still rock the undershave. I work for an attorney as a legal assistant (fancy word for secretary or lawyer's bitch). I have a girlfriend named Jamie that I've been with for two and a half years. She loves to watch footbag and tries to play sometimes.

ABOUT MY GAME

I've been kickin for 8 years and learned about freestyle in Feb. So far I can do most of the basic freestyle tricks (ATW, mirage, butterfly, etc...) but most of them only on my right. I'm practicing on my left but it doesn't seem to want to cooperate with me and my footbag needs. I can do all normal stalls consistantly but mess up on sole and heel every so often (both of which I can only do on my right). I can read Job's but can't write it very well. I have Lavers and have done the toe box mod and cut out the inner layer (put two holes, one big [sewn up] one barely noticable) and the lacing mod of course. I kick with a Mr. Sandman, blue and yellow, named Mitch (after Mitch Hedberg and it's Michigan colors, I thought it was fitting).

I don't really practice alot, but I try. Mostly on saturdays. I kind of practice during the work day when ever I go out for a smoke, but I don't think that really counts as practice. I wear dressy shoes at work so it makes things hard.

WHERE I LIVE

I live in Havelock, North Carolina.............. Yeeeaaaahhhhh............... There are alot of trees here, um........, Havelock is home to MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) Cherry Point. There is a sign by the front gate that says "Pardon our noise, it's the sound of freedom," which I guess makes sense. It doesn't sound like freedom, BTW. It sounds like really fuckin loud jet fighters screaming by 100 yards above your head. You get used to it though.

WHO I KICK WITH

Me, which really sucks. I think I'd progress ten times faster if I had someone to kick with.

So this is my first post in my soon-to-be massive blog. Get ready for years of entertainment and improvment.

[delakong]

Weather's shitty. I can't even just kick the bag around under the cover outside my office. The wind is blowing the rain sideways. Like horizontal. Shitty.

Well yesterday I did some of my community service work at the Salvation Army. You wouldn't believe the kind a shit they throw away!!! I got a Nintendo.....A FRICKIN NINTENDO........with a bunch of games for my girlfriend. She likes Nintendo and all the old games, I think it's because she has them all memorized. I got myself these home entertainment speakers. They sound amazing. I got my friend Erron some skeleton halloween decorations. He likes that kind of stuff. He said he was gonna make one of them a little chainmail thingy and put wire through the holes in the other one. The wire one, he's gonna put in the fetal position and put it in a jar with oil or something.

While doing my community service (which will henceforth be called "chillin") at the Salvation Army I was practicing the thing that I've been practicing. It's clipper to ATW. I'm trying to get strings down but I think I'm still used to hacking. When ever I do a trick I automatically just try to kick it again. I'll try to mentally picture the three tricks in a row but just can't seem to do them. This is a simple example of what I'm trying to do and what I actually do (and a practice at Job's)

TRY
clipper>op ATW>ss butterfly
DO
clipper>inside>ATW>butterfly

I really can't seem to control it. It's like an automatic reaction. Oh, and I was wondering what this trick is called if nobody minds answering it for me.

ATW and butterfly combined. Like you start with an ATW but you end in a clipper. Does that make sense??? Well anyway, I haven't got it yet, but I'm right there.

[vanderwax]

Hmmm. It sounds like the move that you are attempting is a Whirl. Basically you do an around the world, from inside to outside. But instead of catching the same foot you kind of go past the bag and bail to a clipper. Does that make sense?

Either way, whirl is a pretty hard move for someone new to freestyle. I have been playing on and off for about a year and I still cant hit whirls.

You should try to focus on strings like these; they are hard but if you hit them, very rewarding:
Clipper>opp Clipper (Do that one as many times as you can)
Atw>legover, repeat
Atw>pickup, repeat
mirage>legover, repeat

Good luck man, and if that move you are attempting is a whirl, keep practicing and you will soon hit it!

[delakong]

Thanks for the drills. I can do the clip>op clip most of the time but I alway want to kick it with the inside before I do the other clipper. I'm getting oround it though. I'm still working on dexing with the left. That's really hard for me. I'll get it with practice though.

The way you described it was perfect. Whirl. Sweet, I'm pretty close to hittin it. I'll be adding whirl to my trick list soon, I hope. Whirl is a double dex, right? If so it'll be my first double dex, if not then I still got a new move to add to my repetua...repe....tricks I can do list .

[delakong]

Damn, whatever the trick I'm trying to do is isn't a whirl. I just watched Tricks of the Trade to see it done and it didn't look anything like it. Oh well. Whatever it is, it's syposium, and that's good enough for me for now. It'll be my first syp move. Progress is always good. It's more like a DLO but instead of catching it on a toe, I catch (well try to catch) it in the clipper position.

It's shitty practicing right now. The Blue Angels are flying over my house and it's really hard to concentrate. Guess I'll just watch them for now then keep practicing after they're done.

[HG]

I think it is a dada curve.


So you start on right toe, set it up, go around in to out with your left leg, go around out to in with your right leg, and catch on a left clipper?


If not please clarify. Try to use Job's notation.

[Senor Grommet]

i read you little blog here. I wanted to say first that what you dscribe as an ATW and a butterfly in one trick is prolly a dada as the post above me clarified.

something like: toe>same in> op out (no plant while)>op clip
this is the "pixie version". It can also be done starting from the op toe, so mirage-like in otherwords.

Secondly, it is documented that you will permanently lose you hearing, approx 20-30 dB or so, simply by living so close to that air station. be careful!

[SandWraith]

As long as we're talking about your health, have you thought about giving up smoking? Blah blah blah bad for your health blah blah blah get winded blah blah.










...and it'd improve your footbag game (think of the endurance!)

[delakong]

Yeah, I think dada is the one, I'll check a video later. Thanks for clearing that up for me guys. Hearing the jets all the time isn't as bad as it sounds. I'm inside most of the time anyway (work). It only sucks when your outside trying to talk to somebody or on the phone. I can't quit smoking, how would my states economy look if I quit? I could put some poor farmer out of a job! But seriously, I'll quit one day, just not anytime soon. I enjoy smoking and I know all the health consquenses and whatnot. I'm still young and invisible!!!

This weekend I didn't get to practice enough. Saturday the airshow was going on and when the Blue Angels perform, they do it around my house. Six F-15's (I think) flying low altitude formations over your house isn't an easy thing to ignore. On sunday I had to go shopping (whoopeeeeee ) with my girlfriend, her best friend, her sister & baby, her sister's best friend & baby , and the 15 year old. I'm sure you can imagine the endless pleasure that is shopping with 7 females. I should've stayed home to practice but I got suckered into going with the lure of getting a new hat bought for me. I didn't get the hat.........I really want a new hat. The one I wear now makes my head look funny.

I got to kick with other people sunday evening though. One is my protege of sorts. He isn't improving very much. I told him to get some Lavers and a sandbag but he doesn't. I gotta go for now but I'll finish later.

EDIT: Okay I'm back to finish.

I've taught my "protege" everything I knew, well tried. He just doesn't have enough control yet. I'm trying to get him into freestyle but he needs to calm down with his kicking first. His name is Matt but we call him "The Fuzz" because he's going to school to become a corrections officer. Hopefully he catches on soon so I have someone to kick with soon. I only see him once a week, so it's hard to teach him stuff, but he'll get it soon enough.

So close to the dada curve. I can almost taste it. I'm trying in my work shoes, maybe when I get home and put on the good ole Lavers I'll actually catch it. It's on my foot but it slides off. Not rolls off, slides off. See, that's how close I am to getting it. Stupid shoes.

[delakong]

Sooooooo, I left my bag at home today (hopefully at home, not lost) by accident and I have no idea what to do with myself. I'm so used to pulling it out and playin with it all through the day. When I go outside to smoke. Whenever I'm waiting for a fax confirmation. My legs feel like they want to run a mile but I'm trapped in a closet. It's like waiting for the trip to come but in this case waiting for me pull out my sack, but not being able to. Does that make sense?

Yesterday I didn't get a chance to practice because after I got done doing community service and ate it started to thunderstorm. I really was gonna dedicate an hour to practice but I guess I'll either have to wait untill tomorrow after com service, or sunday during the day. I'm leaning towards sunday more because I like to kick during the day. Helps with the tan.

I watched this really fucked up movie last night called "Vulgar", it's fuckin crazy!!! It's not a particularly good movie, it's just fucked up. It kinda reminded me of "King of the Ants" if you've ever seen that. It was really funny to watch the movie because we all got so into it. Everyone was glued to the TV screen. I'd look at everyone every once in a while and they all had the same look on their face. Kinda a mix of and . The eyes off the first one and the mouth off the second one.

I got paid today so I might go and grab some more postcards. It took me long enough to send the first two batches, so I figure by the time I get around to sending these it'll be in the middle of the next batch . I'm gonna kick ass at poker tonight. I know it's friday the thirteenth but I think that's gonna work to my advantage. I have pretty shitty luck every other time so maybe this will be the opposite. Normal poker night=bad luck, friday the thirteenth poker night=good luck. Actually, it's bad luck just to talk about winning before playing but fuck it, I'm used to losing anyway. It's only five bucks and it's not like there's a better way to spend five bucks in Havelock. At least this way I might win more than I came with and I'll never lose more than five or ten dollars. And it's fun to drink and talk shit to an old man that looks like Santa Clause.

[delakong]

Skip to the bottom for complete summary of whole post.

I decide to stop practicing for a week (probably won't last) since I got frustrated trying to get strings. I just started kicking the bag in a hacky-sack kinda way to calm down and I really enjoyed it. I still thew in clippers (it's turning into a habit, which is good I guess), butterflies, dragonflies, ATWs, and such, but it was mostly just a half hour of kicking. It felt soooo good. I originaly found .org because I was just looking to learn more tricks that I could do while kicking (guess it worked, huh?) but fell it love with the beauty of freestyle. And I forgot how much I used to do flying clippers. Got back into doing those and I can do them with my left now too.

I got another postcard yesterday!!! It was from Oliver (Blue Turnip) in Singapore. He fit soooooo many words onto a postcard. Never though it could be done. Thanks to Oliver!!!

This happened last week but I haven't thought about it again untill just now......

I decide that I'm gonna walk home from work cause it was a beautiful day. Sun shining, nice cool breeze blowing, perfect temp, birds singing, blah blah blah, and all that. It's a nice walk. A couple people I know stop and ask me if I need a ride, I tell them no, it's a spledid day for a walk and continue my travels. So I get to my house and decide to kick a little before I go inside. So I do my kicking, practicing some simple clip>op clip kinda stuff (still working on stopping myself from the clip>inside>op clip BTW). I start getting kinda hot and think to myself, "Josh....Why the fuck are you sweating your ass off and trying to practice in your work attire (thin long sleeve shirt, slacks, dress shoes, tie) when you could just walk inside, take off the tie and shirt, grab a pair of shorts and your Lavers?" So I take my thoughts into concideration and go and do what I thought I should do. I pull out my keys, slowly push the door open, see Spence (my cat) staring at me, feel the A/C in my house, smell whatever it was that my mom was cooking, and grab my mail.

Suncom bill-don't open-I'll pay it right before they turn my phone off.
A dentist postcard reminding me to make my annual appointment-suuuuure.
And then as I'm reading the return address of the last letter, my mom, as if in some weird design by god, yells from the kitchen, "Josh. What's the letter from the SHERIFF'S OFFICE say?"

................

My perfect walk, the beautiful day, my cat, all crumble around me with one return address and one yelled sentence. You see, I was a bit of a trouble maker in my teen years. I made the average trouble maker seem like a saint. I was a very bad teen. I've changed ALOT since then though, but still, a letter from the sheriff's office isn't something a former juvinille delinquent really wants to see in his mail. What should I do? Should I just put it with the Suncom bill? Should I throw it away and say I never got it if questioned at some point in time? And then I remember my mom. She's gonna ask again.......she does it. So I gotta open it. I grab a knife from the drawer, slice through the top of the envelope and slowly remove the folded letter. The moment of truth.........................Joshua A. Annis, You have been summoned to serve jury duty in the the superior court of the 3rd district blah blah blah..........Moment of tremendous relief...........moment of tremendous realization...........moment of confusion.

Okay, so I'm glad it wasn't some kind of "please come to the jail we've been ordered to incarcerate you" kind of letter, but now I gotta serve jury duty. I've alway kinda wanted to serve jury duty, but only if it was some kickass kinda case. With my luck it's gonna be larceny of a dog, or something stupid like that. So I'm still not sure if I should use my greatest weapon (my boss=attorney=friends with the DA and a couple of the judges) to get out of it, or if I should be exited about it maybe being a interesting case. For now I'm going with the interesting case scenario.

Well, sorry if you read that entire story, but this is my blog and you had other options.

Summary:
Quit practicing freestyle for a week
Really enjoyed just kicking and throwing some tricks in there.
Walked home the other day.
It was really nice.
Got a letter from the sheriff
Got jury duty.

[bigdirtyfoot]

Word man I read your whole blog finally. We definitely should get together and play footbag some. I sent you an e-mail. So yeah, because we need to start up a crew and really, an hour or so away from Greenville isn't too bad. We could figure it out. So anyways, I'm sure I'll talk to you later. Peace out!

[delakong]

David......Oh yeah!!! I get my licence back next month if I can afford insurance. I sent you and email. I'm not really good but with other kickers, I'm one hundred percent sure that I'll improve at an alarming rate. Can't wait to get up with you, hopefully I make it to Raliegh before August, but if not, see you in Greenville.

Skated (board) halfway to work this morning, still half drunk, realized that I really shouldn't be trying to dodge traffic in this condition, walked untill I got to Trader St. (small road leading to work, no traffic ever) and then skated the rest of the way. I only came to work today cause I know you fellas post so much shit on thursdays since I do communty service on thursdays . Just kidding, I had to come today.

Jamie (my girlfriend) had an interview with NADEP (Naval Aviation Depot) today and she says she doesn't think she did good. That really blows. We are hoping she gets the job so that we can move out together. We really need to get a place together. I could afford to get us a nice apartment, but then I wouldn't have money to do anything ever. We need her to get this job so we can have disposable income. It would be really badass. It's really a co-op program for her school. She'd get paid like thirteen buck an hour (give or take some change) and still go to school to get her A&P (Airframes and Powerplants) licence. After she graduates, I'm gonna go to school for the same thing. It'd work very well since I'll have the books, she'll have the knowledge, and I can apply for a Pell (sp?) Grant. Basically the only way I'd ever have enough money to go to take classes.

IN FOOTBAG NEWS:

I didn't really practice (since I said I wasn't for a week) but I did kick around a little. I did do a clip>op ATW and clip>ATW while kicking and was wondering if they had special names for them or were two seperate things. Hey, for me thats good. I think I might be able to start doing strings once I start practicing again. But then again, that's what I thought when I started trying to do strings. Fuck it, I can just kick away and enjoy. But every time I watch a video all I can think is I REALLY WANT TO DO THAT!!! It screams in my head and I have to go outside and try to do things that I don't understand. Practice, practice, practice. I'm really sick of that word. But it's what I gotta do to get where I want to be. Honestly I don't think anybody in footbag is where they want to be. Everyone is always improving. No matter how good everybody else thinks they are, (kicker) doesn't think it's enough. I really like that. That's really weird for me to think/say that, I'm usally the kind of person that thinks if it's good then why make it better. I really didn't word that right but I don't know how to put what I'm thinking into words.

It's really funny how I started looking on the net just to learn a couple more tricks and now it's completely changing the way I once thought of "Hacky-Sack". You all have really inspired me to really dedicate a lot of time and a lot more than I would've ever thought to spend on "a little cloth bag filled with beads". Fuck "hacky-sack", footbag for life.

Thanks Modified. Extra special thanks to .org.

[SandWraith]

for the clipper > op/same ATW's those would either be pickups, reverse pickups, far pickups, or far legovers

clipper > same in > same toe = far pickup
clipper > same out > same toe = far legover
clipper > op in > same toe = pickup
clipper > op out > same toe = reverse pickup

Congrats, those are pretty good moves. In fact, I'd say those are some of the most common/used tiltless links (all are 2 adds). I'm glad you're enjoying footbag so much, and I really hope you and your girlfriend can move out soon. And as far as disposable income, I could mention about smoking again but I don't want to make all my posts on your blog about that. ^_^ Keep it up!

[delakong]

Thanks Zach. I'm glad you told me what those were, I really hate to make new post in the other forums about stuff like that. Don't want people gettin mad at me for making a post that someone has made before a bagillion times.

ABOUT FOOTBAG:

Yeah, my not practicing for a week thing is over. It hasn't been a week, but I can't help myself. I guess I'm addicted. I think the reason I can't do strings is because I'm shocked that I did what ever trick I just did. After I land (proper term?) what ever move I look at the bag and just don't know what to do. I think about the strings before I start but right after the first trick my mind goes blank. I'm just like, "Whoa, what now?" Oh well, guess I just have to get used to being badass .

Still working on flip. It gets tiring trying do do something and failing every time. I can't even do ATW!!! I hate my left leg. My left footed clippers are awesome though, guess that's good. I know why they're good though, it's cause I school them everywhere!!! Standing in line, school clippers. Smoking a cig, school clippers. Bored at a friends house, school clippers. I've probably done hundred of thousands of clippers in the short time that I've been able to do them. Seriously. For real. No kidding. No joke. Serious. No lie. Maybe a little exagerated but I've done alot.

RANDOM OTHER STUFF:

Okay, it's later. Shitty, shitty, shitty! Earlier this morning it was beautiful now it's rainy and wet. It's starting to clear up but that doesn't help me now since the ground is all wet. SHITTY! I was hoping to get some kickin in before poker tonight. At least I still get to play poker. Maybe I'll do good. Last week I won so I doubt I'm coming up on top this week. Probably gonna have to wait untill next friday the thirteenth to win again.

[delakong]

ABOUT FOOTBAG

Didn't get much practice in this weekend, but in the hour (if that) that I did practice I hit dada curve (took long e-fuckin-nuff). I was soooooo happy. After I hit it once it seemed like I've known how to do it my entire life! I was having so much fun. Of course I didn't nail it every single time but I probably did it like ten or fifteen times and the times I didn't get it I was soooooo close. When Jamie got to my house to pick me up to go to the BBQ/babyshower I tried to show her that I could do it, but I couldn't anymore. That completely took all excitement away from me actually nailing it. Oh well. Now that I've done it I'm sure it'll become natural soon.

Other than that nothing special happened with footbag. I tried to work on strings but got tired of that quickly. I was still kinda drunk from the night before. But still, dada curve has been my goal for a while now and I finally got it! You don't have to tell me....I know I'm the badassest fella you know.

RANDOM OTHER STUFF

Poker went great!!! I had to pay for me and Jamie to play but I won both our money back plus five bucks. Rock on Josh. It was a pretty spectacular come back too, if I don't say so myself. I was down twenty cents on the last pot but I was 65% sure that I had the hand won. I think I had a full house, tens over nines, or something like that to beat Mr. Ed's flush. It was great. Too bad Jamie didn't win too. But still, it was all good, came out with more than I brought. Always a good thing.

BBQ/baby shower was grand. I've never been to a baby shower before but if this is what all baby showers are like, I hope every girl I know gets pregnant!!! With the exeption of Jamie of course. We got there kinda early but it was cool since we still had to go to the store for beer and other stuff that they had forgot. Paul and Rob went to the ABC store and got some tequila. When the actual baby shower started all the people with penises went outside and smoked a doobie. I was ripped from that point on in the day. It was good fun. Ate good food, took three or four shots, smoked A LOT, drank four Budweiser 24's, and a couple of Guiness.

After we left the BBQ we went to Melissa and Rob's appartment, got a couple more 24's, and rented Team America. I didn't like it very much. The only part I really liked was the "Dicks, Pussies, and Assholes" part. Oh yeah, and the "America...Fuck Yeah" song.

Yesterday I went to Marsh and Samantha's house. Good fun there too. Sat out on his back balcony and drank. He shaved my undershave. I needed it bad. I was gettin really bad Inspector Gadget curls, if you know what I mean. Glad that that got taken care of, my head is so much cooler now. Cooler as in not hot, not cooler as in more kick ass cause that's just not possible. So on the way back home from Marsh's we stop by Wendy's. I've never been wigged out upon so bad as I was yesterday! I'll spare you the experience, I'll just let you in on me getting screamed at for ordering cheese on my baked potato.

[mc]

hahaha, nice quote, that was a fun surprise...

[delakong]

Yeah I thought it was a great quote. Very signature worthy. My girlfriend Jamie and my buddy Erron think very highly of it too. Now I can't help but smile anytime I think about it.

[HG]

"My brother jumped in to save me, forgetting that he had a pocket full of blueberries. Needless to say, he was ripped apart by the gorillas, and they played catch with his dead body like a rag doll"

[C-Fan]

I'm still young and invisible!!!
.

So.... do you spend all your time in the girls locker room or what?

DaDa Curve was my first 4 add too... good luck with that. Try and make it to a tournament. Nothing like a tournament to give a boost to your game.