Maxblog: now officially living in Sydney!

max · Post by **max** » 21 Apr 2008 00:39

hacksterbator wrote:max, as foreigners it would be really funny if we won at the aussie nationals. wanna start training doubles?

that would be fun

I'll be up for some doubles for sure let's get there first and talk about it in Sydney

max · Post by **max** » 07 May 2008 00:37

Well I've officially lodged my first Visa applications with the Immigration department in Australia. I'm still planning on moving early September. Things are well under way! Work is hectic though these days and has been a source of un-needed stress.

Footbag-wise I've been plagued by a recurring ankle pain that kicks in every session after about 30 minutes, stopping me from having long sessions of any kind. But the sun is out these days so I kick anyway. Although I've been slightly out of shape after this long winter I did hit a couple of nice things here and there yesterday:

pdx egg > ss ws to start a run.
duck osis > ripwalk rpt with my weak ankle
bed > barrage
plo > magellan > symp imrage > magellan > dlo > magellan > barrage maagellan > symp mirage > run... with my flip magellan!
recently hit rev swirl > ripstein too which is always nice

Anyway.. I'm happy that my Oz projects are moving along, happy it's summer here at long last! I'll hopefully be having two consecutive summers this year, which seems only fair after last year's dismal weather.

King Monkey · Post by **King Monkey** » 07 May 2008 01:01

Heheh its not as funny as you may think Andrew, it happens most years

Or if they dont win, they squeeze all the Aussies out of the top 3.

max · Post by **max** » 14 May 2008 00:19

So I played twice in two days. That hadn't happened in a while! I didn't hit anything too bewildering as I've been plagued by constant ankle pains lately. I did pull off these combos to start strings though:

whirr > torque
whirr > pdx drifter
pdx drifter > pdx egg
avalanche > leg (dropped)

and lots of other stuff I've no doubt forgotten...

Anyway the great news is that I have officially received my entry Visa for Australia! This is just a Work-Holiday Visa I'll be using to get in the country and started off while my main Visa application (temporary resident via skilled immigration) is processed. Hopefully I should buy my plane tickets during the month of June.

If all goes well I should be in Australia in September. This is going to be awesome.

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 15 May 2008 06:26

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! that's awesome Max! I'm really happy for you two!

some cool whirr stuff in there. particularly the pdx drifter. my whirr's aren't good enough to hit anything other than bops out of them. What's avalanche? i've never heard of that one before. frigid osis something?

max · Post by **max** » 15 May 2008 06:49

Cheers Andrew, I'm super stoked for Oz, I can not wait! I'm getting two consecutive summers!!

I think Avalanche is alpine blur, but now that you mention it I have doubts... Ok I checked, it's alpine blizzard. What i meant to post was:

spike hammer > leg...

max · Post by **max** » 20 May 2008 02:23

had a quick 2 person shred session yesterday.
Didn't hit much..

new combo: paste > wonton butter

tomahawk > spinning whirl

was close to spinning whirl > fog
and I think I may hit stepping ss reverse swirl one of these days...

unrelated: GMAT exam tomorrow. Not to worried about it. I still have some work left for my MBA applications though..

Outsider · Post by **Outsider** » 20 May 2008 06:55

Bon jour, Amigo.

Just did a very quick little run-through of your last few blog entries. Australia... cool. Tell all those blokes I said "howdy, mates!"...

Also glad to hear that you're still heavy into the game, even if its been giving you troubles lately.

The real reason I'm writing, though, is:

I think Avalanche is alpine blur, but now that you mention it I have doubts... Ok I checked, it's alpine blizzard. What i meant to post was:

Just a funny little nugget of history -- Avalanche is, I beleive, where the term "Alpine" actually came from. That is to say, Ducking Blizzard was hit and named "Avalanche" (by Dave Holton, one of the first two guys to really learn 'Stepping Ducking' [along with Eric Wulff, of course {back then, they were almost the only guys to actually be any good at, and really use alot of ducks and dives, and they were both pretty hard-core}
who beat Dave to Ripped Warrior by a very slim margin]) before anyone had invented the term "Alpine" to refer to Stepping-Ducking tricks. Avalanche was probably only the third stepping-ducking trick done (by Dave...), and Dave, being a mountain-guy from up in Aspen, appropriately named the trick Avalanche, because it was like a bigger badder Blizzard. If I recall correctly, somebody (no way I'm gonna look that info up now...) then suggested something like "wouldn't it be cool if ALL stepping-ducking tricks had some unifying name to describe them, like ALL stepping-paradox tricks can be called 'Blurry'. How about we call them all ALPINE, because thats LIKE an Avalanche... avalanches occur in alpine places...".

Now, I always thought that this line of reasoning was pretty weak, and that the name Alpine itself was also pretty lame, but, well, I didn't really have any say in the matter, and it just caught on pretty quickly, and that was that.

The funny thing about it, to me, is that the name Alpine is perfectly common now, and everybody knows it, but the move Avalanche is not really done very often, and the name, as you just saw in your blog, is largely unknown. I think thats funny.

So, now you know.

Anyway, good luck on your exams, and good luck in the southern hemisphere, and good luck with your ankle.

Au revoir, mate.

edit: oops... that was supposed to be a PM...

but screw it.

Nothing all that private... Now everbody can share in this important knowledge.

max · Post by **max** » 20 May 2008 07:39

haha thanks for the little history lesson Jon.

I always thought "Alpine" had to do with the height (altitude) of the set.. Alpine regions usually being at least some considerable distance above sea-level

(by Dave Holton, one of the first two guys to really learn 'Stepping Ducking' [along with Eric Wulff, of course {back then, they were almost the only guys to actually be any good at, and really use alot of ducks and dives, and they were both pretty hard-core}
who beat Dave to Ripped Warrior by a very slim margin])

I'm glad to see someone around here likes brackets even more than I do!!

max · Post by **max** » 22 May 2008 01:28

Well I passed the GMAT exam yesterday. For those who have not heard about this test before: it is a combined Mathematics and English test required in all applications to enter MBA programs in business schools.

It's a fairly long exam (about 3 and a half hours) cut into three parts.

- 1h during which two essays need to be written (discussion of an issue and discussion of an argument)
- 1h15 for reading comprehension, critical reasoning and other English questions. This is actually the hardest part of the exam I think.
- 1h15 for Mathematics questions. The level needed here is not very high, but the questions are purposefully constructed in a way to trick you into selecting wrong answers.

Anyway I didn't have time to finish the Math part, I thought I'd muddled up the English part a bit also as I needed to guess a couple of answers.

Well it turns out, I D-O-M-I-N-A-T-E-D it none-the-less!!

So yeah I scored 730 so far in my preliminary grade (my essays still need to be reviewed and graded, but I'm fairly confident those went well). From what I've seen this is amply sufficient to pass the GMAT requirements of even the top business schools.

So I was relieved after that and had a celebratory footbag session to let the stress go a little. I actually played really well hitting some rather long runs, some nice combos and generally being "in" as we say in French.

mitko · Post by **mitko** » 22 May 2008 13:38

Whaaaat!!? 730 preliminary grade

isn't 800 the maximum ? Congrats Max

max · Post by **max** » 23 May 2008 05:15

mitko wrote:Whaaaat!!? 730 preliminary grade
isn't 800 the maximum ? Congrats Max

Yes 800 is the maximum. Scores are not linear though, they follow a bell-curb distribution. This puts me in the top 4% apparently. I must admit that I was very (pleasantly) surprised by this score as I thought I'd only done "OK".

anyway, here's a short little string for Steven Barne's one shot challenge. I'll film another tonight!

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

Sporatical_Distractions · Post by **Sporatical_Distractions** » 23 May 2008 06:56

Congrats on the 730 Max!

That's a pretty cool little square you play in.

Best of luck in Australia!

max · Post by **max** » 26 May 2008 08:20

Things are looking alright these days. My multiple Visa applications are well under way, I'm currently locating a certified translator to translate all my university courses and diplomas. I've managed to track down my employers from the past ten years and ask for specific references (seriously, the requirements for these visas are insane).

My MBA applications are also well under way, and I'm currently drafting all my personal statements before having these reviewed by colleagues / family for comments and advice.

All in all in looks like I'm heading to Australia in September, I might also be accepted in a good MBA program to boot!!

-- footbag wise: I played yesterday, it was the third time this week, something I hadn't done in a while. So I was quite stoked about that. We filmed the session but I don't think anything crazy was hit. Benoite my g/f hit her first diving clippers

I was super close to osis > gs whirl and hit a couple of OK runs.. Julien was off the hook as usual, hitting drifter x11, and loads of shuffle too... anyway, was good to kick!

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 26 May 2008 09:11

Props on killing the GMATs, that's the best feeling. I remember when I got my GRE scores I was flying high for over a week.

I also feel your pain on finding old information. I have to find every address I've lived at and every job I've held going back 7 years, plus references from each place in order to get a government job.

Your girlfriend Benoite isn't the same one who was at worlds in 2003 is it?

max · Post by **max** » 26 May 2008 09:48

C-Fan wrote:Props on killing the GMATs, that's the best feeling. I remember when I got my GRE scores I was flying high for over a week.

Thanks, yeah it is a nice feeling indeed!

C-Fan wrote:I also feel your pain on finding old information. I have to find every address I've lived at and every job I've held going back 7 years, plus references from each place in order to get a government job.

I know... the requirements are ridiculous! They even asked me for a list of every overseas trip I've done in the past ten years... Similar to asking an American every single state visit he's made in the last decade!!

Tracking down old employers is one thing, getting them to write out references is another... anyway, I'll get there in the end, I just need to be very patient.

C-Fan wrote:Your girlfriend Benoite isn't the same one who was at worlds in 2003 is it?

Yes indeed, one and the same!

max · Post by **max** » 28 May 2008 00:46

I just received my final GMAT scores. My overall score stays the same (730) and my Analytical Writing score is 6.0, so I can't complain there. Sweet!

Currently I'm up to my neck in work.. but that should ease off as I'm handing in my resignation this Friday. That should also give more time to footbag hopefully!

max · Post by **max** » 04 Jun 2008 01:04

Had a great session yesterday. I had a hard day at work and needed to let off some steam. Julien and i kicked for one hour, filmed most of it and essentially just tried some single tricks an combos.

I hit a new trick: toe blizzard
a new combo: vortex > spinning swirl
hit a couple of triple dexes I hadn't hit in a while: beta bedwetter and croissant (pixie symposium whirling swirl)

It was a fun session for sure.

Other good news: my g/f just received her entry Visa for Australia. So we're set to buy tickets now. I think that I can pat myself on the back because I will meet my planned deadline of being in Australia in September.

So I guess that's my big news for today: I'm moving to Australia in September!

CJ · Post by CJ » 04 Jun 2008 01:24

Awesome news Max!
Do you know where you'll live yet?

â™« Caroline â™«

max · Post by **max** » 04 Jun 2008 01:43

CJ wrote:Awesome news Max!
Do you know where you'll live yet?

â™« Caroline â™«

No, not yet. This will depend on some pending MBA applications. But it will be Melbourne or Sydney with a big preference for Sydney. Either way I will spend a month or two holidays in Sydney before settling down anywhere.