Fanzine

[C-Fan]

It's dumping snow on us now in Denver, but in 2 days I'll be flying to Las Vegas, to do a 27 day detail at Hoover Dam. I'm looking forward to trading snowy cold weather for sun and temps in the 60s. I'm really hoping I'll be able to get in shreds after work, and at the very least be able to shred outdoors with Gatesman on weekends. I really want to start getting in shape for Worlds, and to even start preparing routine elements already.

One week later, it's dumping snow on us in Denver again...and I'm not in Las Vegas. Whaaa? So yeah, for those of you who don't follow politics in the news, the US Congress is pretty dysfunctional, and they've been particularly bad about coming to any agreements on budget issues. I work for the Federal government, which means we are periodically used as pawns/hostages/victims in these pissing contests. On March 1st, a slew of automatic cuts to the budget known as "sequestration" went into effect, which resulted in all my work travel being canceled for the forseeable future. So instead of spending March in Vegas (warm, shredding with Gatesman), I'm spending it in Denver (too cold for footbag). There really isn't a silver lining on this, at least not from a footbag perspective. All I can do is hope that the weather turns spring-like sooner than later, and that I'll be able to start training after work in the next month, since Daylight Savings is due to kick in this weekend. But as for right now, I'm looking out the window at snow, and the forecast is predicting over 10 inches this weekend. *sigh*

I did manage to play last weekend. Overbo was in town, but while we were able to connect one night for drinks, footbag wasn't going to happen due to logistics. I did a few preliminary run throughs of my routine, and while I can tell stamina is my biggest challenge now, I can also see myself getting it into good shape by the summer. I really want to practice it harder than I did last year. I'm thinking I will focus on just preparing one super strong routine, unlike past years where I tried to prepare two.

If I can find my exacto knife, I'll mod my new pair of G-Units this weekend. Really, not much else I can do footbagwise anyway.

Here's a short vid I put together from my sessions last weekend:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8s6g-_h5eg[/youtube]

In other footbag news, I'm planning on going to USO and Worlds this summer. I'd like to buy tickets and lodging for both, but the Worlds people have been completely unresponsive with any information (I think this is going to be a Net Worlds, where Freestyle is an afterthought), and I want to wait til the dust settles a bit with USO before I commit to tickets. Hopefully though I can lock these down sooner than later.

[C-Fan]

It's spring here in Denver, which pretty much means we go through periodic snowstorms followed by stretches of perfect weather. Before daylight savings this meant that I'd play on weekends if it was nice, and not play if it snowed. Now that daylight savings has started, hopefully I can start playing during the week if it's nice. Last weekend snowed, so I ended up going 10 days without footbag. It was perfect out yesterday, so I took an hour off from work and got in a session. Happily, my muscle memory hasn't deteriorated too badly. I'm confident I'll be back at my old skill level within a few sessions. What really got worse for me though, was my stamina. All my runs are shorter, it's harder to push through hard links, and when I practiced routines the last 45 seconds are just brutal. I'm hoping that working routines will accomplish two things though. First, it'll help me rebuild my stamina. Second, and likely more importantly, it'll start drilling the cues and timing of my routine song into my brain, so it'll become more and more automatic. I've got over 4 months til worlds, and over 3 months til USO. The only potential danger of starting my routine practice this early is that I'll burn out, but I think I'd rather risk that than go into tournaments feeling under-prepared. I've hit 6 dropless routines in my career, but none last year. I'm writing off 2014 for tournaments since I'm getting married that summer, so I really want to make a strong push this summer with my competition results.

My competition goals for this summer are:

1. Make routine finals at Worlds. I think it'll be especially hard this year, since a lot of the top US players will go (Penske, Flash, Landes probably) on top of the usual top Euro players, who seem to be less daunted by travel to compete at Worlds. Working in my favor is the fact that I won't be jetlagged nearly as badly as last year. As I broke down in my blog earlier though, even if I do great routines at Worlds, I'll still need a good amount of luck to squeak in.
2. Win routines at USO. I don't care if I win ugly or I win pretty, I just want to win routines at a major. I've finished 2nd at USO and Euros, but never higher. I think this goal is more attainable than finals at Worlds, but I'm definitely going to have to work for it and get a little lucky.
3. Go dropless. Ideally this happens in semis at Worlds, or in finals at USO, as that'd help me towards one of the other goals. But really, it'd just be nice to get another one even if it's in a meaningless qualification round. I know people go dropless all the time these days, but as a player who came up in the 90s, I still think they're pretty special. It'd be nice to retire with more than 6 under my belt.

In other footbag news, I bought my tickets to USO last week. I'll be going with my fiancee, and sticking around for 4 days total. I'm not sure who else is going, but I really like Justin and Reilley, so it'll be a fun trip regardless. It'll also be a good chance to see what shape my routine is in.

Today is also beautiful out, so I'm going to take a couple hours leave to go shred and practice. There's rain in the forecast for tomorrow, but with a bit of luck I'll be able to play Sat and Sun. It'd be nice to get in 4 days in a row playing after taking 10 off. If the mood strikes me and I hit anything good on film this weekend, I may cobble up another video.

[C-Fan]

It's spring here in Denver, which pretty much means we go through periodic snowstorms followed by stretches of perfect weather. Before daylight savings this meant that I'd play on weekends if it was nice, and not play if it snowed. Now that daylight savings has started, hopefully I can start playing during the week if it's nice.

It's still spring in Denver, and the spotty weather continues. I'm glad I took some time off work last week to play, since it hasn't been playable since. It's still light out after work, but it's too windy or cold for outdoor shred. And this weekend the forecast is calling for snow again. Fuck. In good news, I got in three sessions over a four day span last week. In other good news, I'll be going to San Diego for a few days next week, so I should be able to sneak in a few outdoor training sessions. I don't think I'll bring my camera, but just setting up the speakers and running through routines should be good for me. I really want to start getting some traction with my training, which so far I've been unable to do.

In other footbag news, I recently sent a ton of old footage to Jay Boychuk. In a nutshell, my editing software was being difficult, especially with large files, so I was sitting on a pile of footage from shreds with Flash and the Vegas crew. I used dropbox to send them to Jay, in the hopes he'd be able to put something out with them. As it turned out, dropbox ended up making my computer unstable, so I had to stop sending the files halfway through for the Vegas footage (he got and used all my Flash footage). Because of this, I had kind of low expectations...and then Jay blew my mind:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uFTQ_0WwXg[/youtube]

Seriously, what a great job with the editing! Almost all that footage was tripod, and he somehow made it a lively, entertaining video. If you're wondering why there's so much bad dancing in the video, it's because the footage is from September or October, back when Gangnam Style was blowing up. I got a bunch of good footage and even replicated some scenes from the video, so we could do a footbag parody version. But then I had to sit on the footage so long, Gangnam parody videos were long passe, so I'm glad Jay didn't go that route and instead made something creative and fun.

Speaking of Las Vegas, I feel bad I missed the Vegas Jam. First time in 3 years I think that I missed it. Due to work and the amount of leave I have though, I couldn't go on my own dime. I did receive word today though, that I might still get to go out there for 30 days sometime in the future. But there's no guarantees yet, and it's out of my control. Still, crossing my fingers.

I'm hoping that I can play enough in San Diego to at least get some of my basic stamina back. With a bit of luck, by the time I get back to Denver the weather will have taken a turn for spring in April, and I'll be able to start regular sessions after work and on weekends. I'm going to make an effort over the next month to stop going for big tricks or even drills, and to work on increasing my string length even if it comes at the cost of guilting. My routines this summer don't have to be guiltless, so if my goal is to get to the point of 2 minutes of stamina, why not work towards that goal in a way that emulates routines?

I'm also hoping to blog more once I start playing more regularly.

[C-Fan]

Snowed in this weekend, so no footbag. In good news though, I'll be in Southern California starting Tuesday night, so I should be able to get in some training outdoors while I'm there. I'm not going to bring my camera, in the hope that it will help me focus on stamina and routine training. With any luck, I'll be able to continue that groove when I get back into Denver in April.

While I wasn't able to play this weekend, I did manage to accomplish two important footbag goals:

1. I bought an exacto knife, and modded a new pair of G-Units. I haven't played in them yet, but just walking around in them they feel (comparatively) stiff and bulky. That said, they also have great tread. So hopefully I can get these broken in over the next 2 months to the point I can compete well in them. I had meant to do this mod a while ago, so it felt good to finally cross it off the list. I am a bit sad now though, since I only have one clean pair of Units left. I think my plan is going to be to break in my new pair, use them at USO and Worlds, and then put them back in the box and revive my old pair after comps are over. Then I'll run my old pair into the ground, and use the new pair for competition next year, if I compete next year.

2. I bought my flights for Worlds. My Plan A for getting there fell through, so I'm paying more for my flights than if I had been more conservative and realistic a couple months ago. Lesson learned. In a perfect world, the schedule of events for Worlds would be up and I'd tailor my arrival date around the freestyle schedule, but I didn't want to wait any longer before buying tickets, since Montreal in the summer is always in high demand. I'm arriving Saturday afternoon and leaving early Sunday morning, which guarantees I'll be able to compete regardless of what the schedule ends up being. And if I have some time to kill on the front end, well so be it. It's not like it's hard to find fun stuff to do in Montreal anyway.

To avoid doing a video-less post, here's a short clip from my last session, where I hit a new bsos for myself:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efr-y0k4wW4[/youtube]

[grek]

Nice Bsos! It looked rather effortless! Props!

[C-Fan]

Quick, video-less update post.

My trip to San Diego was fun. I managed to get in three sessions while I was there, all in perfect sunny 60 degree weather. I didn't bring my camera on the trip which was a good decision for a few reasons. The main one being that it helped me focus on practicing routines, but also because I was using a new pair of G-Units. The first couple sessions they definitely felt stiff and pinched my feet a bit, but now they're starting to feel a bit better. My routine practice in SD went well. I still haven't hit my routine dropless yet, but the choreo and cues are coming more naturally now, and my drops are definitely down. I'm really hoping to stay diligent with my practice. If I continue to train my routine seriously, and my shoes break in by USO, I'll be putting myself in a good position to succeed.

When I got back to Denver it was rainy and chilly for a couple days, but now we're in the middle of a very pleasant warm streak. The sun sets late enough now, that on warm days it's possible to get in a shred after work. Yesterday I got in my first post-work session, and it felt great. I'm really hoping that from here on out I can get in 2 sessions per weekend, plus 2-3 weeknight sessions too. Even though I don't compete for a couple months still, my plan is to do less filming and more drilling/routine practice/stamina training. I will probably do some filming here and there just for fun, but I'm anticipating that will be less of a regular occurrence. In Anz's Perustreenit series, he did a new link of the day for each session, which may be my filming exception. It'd be cool to periodically post a new both sided link in the New Runs section of the forums.

Not much else is new on my end. I still need to book my hotels for USO and Worlds, though they haven't announced anything on the Worlds front in a while. I filmed yesterday's session, so I may try and throw together a video of that soon.

[C-Fan]

During our recent stretch of nice weather, I put together a 5 day string of playing footbag. Towards the end of that span, I felt like I was getting back in shape and that my routine was finally gelling. Then we hit a cool stretch this week, which resulted in 4 days off (maybe 5 if its too cool for footbag after work today). Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful, but then we have another 5 day stretch where rain and snow is in the forecast. I'm getting pretty frustrated with the slow start on spring, since I feel it's holding me back in my tournament preparation. I'm strongly considering getting a week pass at the gym next week, and just playing there after work every day. I doubt it'd run me more than $20, and that's certainly worth a week of training to me at this point.

My normal clip-cutting software crapped out on me last week. As an alternative, I've started cutting my video clips in Windows Movie Maker, which is actually better at cutting clips than the old software. The drawback is that it still sometimes gives me that visual hiccup in my clips, but if I'm only exporting a small amount, I can normally get a clean take on my first or second try. Maybe the old software crapping out was a blessing in disguise.

I was able to throw together a short vid from some of my recent sessions. A lot of drills, and a lot of work on flip open set. It's been a while since I've posted a vid of mine in here though, so I'm happy I was able to slap something together:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfmYcAB8a_Y[/youtube]

My G-Units are slowly breaking in, and I'm getting better at playing with my new bags. Over the last 2 years, I've played with very heavy, very broken-in bags. On one hand this raised my confidence, since my bags were so reliable. On the other hand, it put me at a disadvantage in circle contest when I'd have to play with lighter, stiffer bags. I wouldn't describe my current routine bags as "choice," but that might actually be making me a better player. I'm going to continue training with my current equipment, and hopefully in the course of the next two months both my shoes and bags will break in to that dank level, where your equipment makes you better.

[C-Fan]

The weather warmed up a bit at the tail end of last week, so I managed to shred outside Friday, Saturday and Sunday. By Monday afternoon though, it was snowing again. Blergh. Forecast looks crappy for the next couple days (its still snowing now), but with a bit of luck I might be able to play outside Thursday and Friday afternoon and through the weekend. This has been one of the snowiest springs in recent Denver memory, which is really making it hard for me to get into a training groove. At least my primary routine for the summer is fully choreographed at this point.

When I played over the weekend I didn't feel out of shape, which was promising. I didn't do any routine practice though, because I didn't want to risk getting frustrated. I try to make a point though to listen to my routine songs every day no matter what, and visualize myself doing the tricks on the cues. That's better than nothing, but clearly not a substitute for actually doing routine runthroughs. I'm going to make a point to do some this weekend, and really ramp up the routine practice in late May and June.

US Open is basically two months away, and I'm already excited and nervous for it. My fiancee is coming with me, which meant I couldn't do the host hotel, which also means I'm still figuring out that logistic piece of the puzzle. Hopefully I can get that resolved this week. My competition plan for USO is to compete in routines and circle, and to have 2 different routines prepared. If the schedule gets weird at USO, I'll scratch from circle, since all I care about this year is routines. I'm guessing though that won't be an issue, since they're spreading out all the events over two days. I also feel like doing Circle has never really hurt me in routines, and if anything has sometimes helped me.

I'm a bit nervous for routines at USO, because I'm planning on preparing 2 routines. Obviously, I will put more work into my finals routine, both because I want the best chance at winning, but also because I plan on using that routine at Worlds as well. That said, I don't want to miss finals at USO because my first routine sucks, and not even get a chance to do my good routine. At this stage, I still haven't decided on what my first round routine will be. I've got a few candidates, which range from downright silly to overly dramatic. Maybe I can do some test run-throughs this weekend and figure out which one to flesh out.

The only other bit of news, is that I've decided to try and make a 10 part video series of drilling sessions for me. This is directly inspired by Anssi's Perustreenit series. While my goals for the summer revolve around routines, it probably won't hurt to work on form and stamina by practicing drills. My goal for this series is to have each video clock in between 2-3 minutes, with a link of the day on both sides, and a few drills which I find challenging. I'll also throw in some normal strings too, but the idea is to really work drills and stamina. I've already shot 3 sessions, but the holdup in the line is the video editing. Who knows, maybe I'll get better at the process as we go along...or maybe I'll lose interest. I want to get out at least 4 vids, but hopefully I make it through the full 10.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvq91OeHL-c[/youtube]

As always, comments are welcome and appreciated.

[jay7]

Thoughts:

1.) You're obviously finals material, for USO. Worlds, is another story, but, since you're blogging about USO I'll give my 2 cents on USO. I'd pick an easy song that you can easily play through, that isn't mentally challenging, drop less than 3 times and make it into finals. I'd honestly just care about finals, and, not put too much thought or pressure on "semis", since... You're good, consistent, and have done a boatload of routines at this point.

2.) The last drill of your Anz copying video was my favourite. Also, needs more Kebab.

[grek]

Just watched your April video, and I got to say, the run where the kid asks you, was amazing!!! Obviously the rest was nice too

Also, Jay I think it is spelled Kebap

[jay7]

Also, Jay I think it is spelled Kebap

I was speaking purely of the spelling from Turku, Finland. The location where Anssi was hatched from 6 Kebaberian men in an attempt to fuse a backyard Superconducting Super Collider, with 12 pounds of their finest Kebab, 14 Nordic Virgins, and a Rave. The aftermath of this project, induced however a series of unforeseen side effects, which included all of the Kebaberian men within the city limits to make Kebab far superior to any other establishment, ever. From that day forward, many scholars, hobbyists and newcomers alike have found a certain state of unpleasantness whilst eating Kebab from North America, Mainland Europe and Papua New Guinea. On the rare occasion that non-Motherland residents, (Suomi) find themselves in Turku, they will find a desire created in their brain, on par with the power of a teenage rabbit's sex drive, to find Kebab. For the rest of their conscious lives, they will live in fear that they will never again have said Kebab, and will most definitely know how to spell it. Why, you may ask? Because when they perhaps die, or, are otherwise missing, if anyone finds any legal documents, [passport or otherwise], the field in which they ask for "next of kin" or "If found please contact", all that will appear is a smear of sauce, spelling "kebab". This is so they know to find the National Finnish Kebab Assocation database, and cross reference the sauce with each Kebab shop. At a funeral, everyone will understand that before the death, they had the best meal of their entire life, and know that person died in peace. However, the more likely situation, is that in a famine-induced Rage, the missing party may have burrowed straight to their Kebaberia, and will be found gorging like Jabba the Hut.

-Source: http://www.kebabille.com/arvostelut/kunta.php?kid=382

[grek]

Well in this case, disregard my post.

[Anz]

KEBAB.

[C-Fan]

Well, I'm glad we got that settled. Kebab it is.

Lots of stuff going on on my end, so in no particular order:

1.

my 2 cents on USO. I'd pick an easy song that you can easily play through, that isn't mentally challenging, drop less than 3 times and make it into finals. I'd honestly just care about finals, and, not put too much thought or pressure on "semis"

That sounds like good advice. At this stage I have no idea how many open routine competitors will be at USO, or what the cut structure will be like, so its probably a waste of time to prepare anything fancy for my alternate routine. I'll still likely do a few runthroughs to get more familiar with where the cues are, but yeah, good call on not spending too much effort on this.

2. My laptop died. It was having some battery issues, but then last week it officially died. That means that all my footage for Perustreenit 2-4 are gone, and also means I no longer have access to Adobe Premiere. In good news, my new laptop should arrive today, so hopefully I can get some basic software and at least release periodic clips. But the days of video editing are on hold for now. That might not be a bad thing in the months leading up to competition, as it makes it more likely I'll focus on stamina and routines and less on flashy combos.

3. Spring in Denver continues to suck. Check out the 5 day forecast. That's right, its supposed to be 71 degrees and sunny today, and tomorrow its supposed to snow 4-6 inches, with a high temp of 33. And tomorrow is the start of May. I heard talk that this April Denver/Colorado set records for snowfall, and March was similarly white. Because of these crazy weather fluctuations, my footbag patterns have been something like 5 days in a row playing followed by 5 days off, rinse, repeat. Hard to get a training rhythm going that way.

4. Tokyo Shredder Gathering 11 happened this past weekend. My heart really swells with pride and joy when another year comes around and I see this tournament (and Japanese Champs too) still happening. Last year I filmed a special video message for the 10th one, and this year I sent a big prize package with t-shirts and footbags in it. It was cool seeing photos of people with the prizes on Facebook over the weekend...I really miss that scene. I got nostalgic and watched video from my Sick 3 demo at the first TSG, and it was hard for me to believe that was really 11 years ago. Anyway, props to the Japanese scene for continuing to go strong and throw these tournaments. I promise I will go back and attend one one day.

5. Some guy approached me to do a footbag demo/booth at a food truck party on Memorial Day weekend. I won't get paid for it, but apparently I get free beer the whole night. This could be a good opportunity to find potential players in the area. I'm going to get Mina to come with me, and I'm gonna set up a 4square court, so hopefully this goes well. I should probably buy some freedom bags in bulk so I can give them away or sell them.

Don't like leaving blog posts without video, so here's an old favorite of mine from a trip to Salt Lake City:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ7C_2ob3k0[/youtube]

[boyle]

Those are some great combos from Japan, particularly the last one. Impressive that you have been involved for so long in the footbag scene, and also impressive the long running Japanese tournament. I would love to go someday to kick with the Japanese players.

" I won't get paid for it, but apparently I get free beer the whole night."

Sounds just as good!!

[slapdash21]

wow ken i didnt know you were so good at trials! i mean i guess i had some idea but that was impressive. think you could do big links down steps like that, maybe like mob-gyro dlo?

good stuff.

[C-Fan]

Thanks Pete! I don't do a lot of trials anymore, but I always thought they were fun:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNwWPc51Ybg[/youtube]

At the risk of jinxing it, I'd say the weather in Colorado has finally turned spring-y. Or summer-y really...we didn't have much a spring. But at least it's been warm enough for footbag after work, and other than the occasional thunderstorm the weather has cooperated for footbag. In any case, I finally feel like I'm getting into some kind of rhythm with my footbag training, and that my body is getting into footbag shape. I keep a health spreadsheet where I track footbag and exercise (amongst a bunch of other things), and over the last 10 days I've played footbag 8 times. The forecast for this week is promising too, so I'm hoping I can get a real good run of practices in.

My training regimen lately has been conservative and a bit boring. I try to limit my sessions to less than 90 minutes, but I try and play every day. I think doing that reduces my chance of injury, but also helps my muscle (and routine) memory. I make a point to not go for new tricks or big tricks, and I really try and incorporate routine elements into all my runs. I've also been doing this thing where every session I do 3 runthroughs of my routine. It doesn't matter if my first try is perfect or close to perfect, or if all three attempts are terrible. I do three full runthroughs no matter what. Three doesn't sound like a lot, but it's surprisingly tiring. Even when I space them out over the course of a session, I sometimes feel like throwing up after my last one. That's probably a sign I need to improve my stamina, but already I feel like I'm getting through them better than I was a few weeks ago. I've also done a few attempts at my first round USO routine, but I plan on following Jay's advice and not spending too much time on it. I have no idea how many open competitors there will be at USO, or what the cut structure is, and I'm also hoping that working on my primary routine will indirectly help me with at least the stamina component for any other routines.

I still haven't played with the video editing software on my new laptop. Maybe I'm putting it off because I don't want to get in the cycle of filming sessions and putting out vids, because that'd tempt me to stray from my routine training regimen. Or maybe I'm just lazy and would prefer to play TF2 after sessions, as opposed to cutting and editing vids. I think the next day I take off from footbag I'll give it a shot.

To avoid making a video-less post, here's a vid from a trip I did to Montana nearly 2 years ago:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv6io_d3wy8[/youtube]

I think it's interesting to see me feeling out fearless links...at the time I shot this video, I had only hit 10 fearless once, and that was in January of 2007. A couple years later I made it a personal challenge to hit some new 10 fearless links, which turned into it's own video project.

[C-Fan]

The weather has been good for footbag for pretty much the last month. I've really ramped up my training over that time period, and I finally feel like I'm getting into competition shape. Over the last 31 days, I've gotten in sessions on 21 of those days, and the forecast for this week is promising as well. I feel like I'm getting through my routine more easily now, and the drops are down too. A couple weeks ago I was averaging 1-2 drops, and these days it's more like 0-1 drops. Hopefully I can keep up my training regimen over the next month, and by USO I'll be getting dropless pretty consistently in practice.

I haven't been filming my sessions lately, which definitely changes the pacing of them. I think it also frees me to spend more time on stamina and consistency training, since I'm less tempted/distracted by going for big links or tricks. One thing I'm considering doing to cross train for routines, is to do more playing in public places. 2 weeks ago I played on the main mall in Denver, and that was a good exercise in keeping the bag up. Over this past weekend I did the same in Boulder (with Luis Lipchak) and I thought it was similarly positive. And this coming Friday I'm performing at a local street fair, whose goal is to encourage people to get outside and do physical activity. Luis and Mina will come man the area with me, and I'm hoping that'll be a combination of showboating for crowds, and maybe doing some 4square to get them involved. Either way, these public exhibitions feel like good opportunities to increase consistency and stamina.

Kind of a boring blog entry...but with USO just a month away, that's not a bad thing. I really want to give myself my best shot at USO, and I think my training regimen will set me up well for that. If that means boring blog entries and predictable sessions, so be it.

To avoid a vid-less entry, here's an old Suderman special I watched this morning. I could watch Johnny play all day:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWNMht8-rKg[/youtube]

[Kom]

Haha, the way you talk about the weather kinda makes me glad I live in Texas. Footbag all year-round!

(although the unbelievable heat during mid-summer makes it very tiring)

[C-Fan]

One quick anecdote, and one update.

The parks where I play footbag start to fill up with events during the spring and summer. One of my parks is almost always guaranteed to have quinceaneras (Mexican coming of age parties for girls) on weekends, and the other often has weddings and wedding receptions throughout the summer. Well, yesterday I was in the wedding park in my usual spot, just getting in some footbag training. I made it through my warmups, and had just started my first routine runthrough of the day. Halfway through, I hear somebody walking nearby call out my name. I stop and look up, and to my surprise it's one of my friends who I volunteer at the food pantry with. It takes me a second to recognize him though, since he's dressed in a suit. "Want to come to my wedding?" he asks. He had already invited me to his wedding reception party a couple weeks from now, but I never stopped to think that he might be doing the actual ceremony on a different day, much less a random Thursday evening. "Sure!" I reply, and I go over to the gazebo where he's doing the ceremony. It was a casual affair, but I was still by far the most underdressed...I was wearing cargo shorts, g-units, and the East Coasts 2012 shirt. I made myself useful and shot video of the vows, had a glass of champagne, then went home. Definitely one of the most random things to happen during one of my shreds.

Denver footbag update: today is the day of the street fair with beer and food trucks and footbag. I ordered 30 footbags from Freedom, which I'm going to sell and give away as prizes tonight. I stayed up late last night making a poster that says "FOOTBAG." Felt like I was in the 6th grade working on a project with markers again. I've got Mina and Luis meeting up with me this afternoon, and I'm bringing chalk for foursquare. I'm hoping it'll be a pretty chill afternoon of foursquare, showboating, and busking. The event organizer has also asked me to do 2 demos, so I plan on doing my USO/Worlds routine for both of them. It'll be my first opportunity to perform in front of a real crowd/audience. I'm not going to dumb down the performance any...I really want to treat it as a test for my routine readiness. Hoping for 0-1 drops. The only thing that has me nervous for today's event is the timeframe and the heat. If we don't have shade, that means we're going to be kicking in the sun for 4+ hours. It's a 3 day weekend and I really want to train the remaining days, so I don't want to blow out my legs today either. Hopefully we'll have enough audience participation that it won't be an issue. Even if I overdo it today, I can take off Saturday and still play Sunday and Monday. Did I mention we're getting free beer for our efforts? Definitely stoked.

I finally booked a hotel for USO, but I still need to figure out my housing for Worlds...it's coming up soon.