Friday, December 28, 2012

2200 Days in a row and counting... still innovating!

This time of the year is special for me.  Not only is it my 46th birthday, Xmas and New Years celebrations all within two weeks, but for the past 6 years I've been celebrating another year of shredding every day, as I started this whole commitment to training everyday on my 40th birthday!  This year I have more to celebrate than just surviving another year.  Today marks the day that I have played freestyle footbag (hacky sack), at an advanced level, every day for the past 2200 days.

In just the past year, I have really made some breakthroughs that I wanted to put together into a single place, to summarize my accomplishments this past year... 68 Videos published to YouTube, of which 13 involved this new concept of Seamless Footbag Freestyle Juggling.  Watch them all here:
FootbagEnlightener Seamless Footbag Juggling Playlist
Seamless Juggling first came to me as a way to integrate juggling into regular footbag tricks without stopping back in 2010, with the first instance of what I now call "Seamless" juggling showing up in this video about "How to Juggle Footbags." This year, I named the concept Seamless and applied it to dozens of tricks in many nuanced ways.  Skyhook is another concept I've applied to several tricks, where I do a dexterity prior to a pendulum, combined into one trick.  See also, Atomic Skyhook.

Along the way, I have innovated many new tricks including Juggulous and Juggulouso... Paradox Drifting Cross Body Rake... PhobicFly and Phobic Vortex... Ryno and Spinning Ryno... Frontside Soles... New Dragonosis tricks... Phairy Same Down Double... Infinity Swirling Drag... Motion Sickness and so many more as seen on my YouTube channel.

I love this sport!  Constant variety.  Thanks to YouTube for all the free hosting.  Thanks to Spenco Insoles for keeping my feet in great shape!  Thanks to my family for putting up with me!  Thanks to mall security where I work for not kicking me out of my double secret shredding locations.  Thanks to everyone who supported me this year too, like Freedom Footbags, Flying Clipper Footbags and Dragonfly Footbags.  Make donations to IFPA (International Footbag Players Association).

Enjoy the moment!  2200 is the number of the day.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

That completes 6 years of playing Footbag Freestyle (Hacky Sack Tricks) EVERYDAY! Year in Review 2012.

That's right! I've been playing every day, for about an hour or more, for the past six years! Tomorrow is my 46th birthday, and I started playing everyday when I turned 40.

A lot has happened in the past year. This is my 'Year in Review', year six. 2012

This year I've published 68 videos to YouTube (that's a new video every 5-6 days), mostly documenting the random tricks I came up with. Some of them were new, some of them are just the first time I've done them. Most of them were filmed on my iPhone, and edited completely on the iPhone as well. Most of them were filmed and edited entirely on the iPhone, as my computer has been broken for most of the year. You can view them at: http://www.youtube.com/user/footbagenlightener

I've played as far north as Petosky MI at the lighthouse, But mostly I stayed around the Chicago area. I try to play in exotic places like beachfront, festivals, rooftops and the like, But mostly I play in my living room, parking lots and back hallways.

Not only do I play footbag every day, but I try to ride my Xootr scooter As much as possible to him from work, I stand all day at work and I'm a vegetarian. So with all that going for me, statistically I should be more healthy. Less likely to get heart disease, cancers and other diseases related to obesity and poor diet. So I got that going for me. And I do feel great!

I started the year with a badly stubbed toe, and I just did it again. Had to modify another pair of shoes, actually just the right shoe this time. See the picture attached. I've got to be more careful walking around my house in the dark.

I look forward to next year, where I plan to get a new computer and make better quality videos, with more of an instructive overtone to them. Tomorrow is the first shred of my seventh year playing every day in a row, and I hope to keep this up the rest of my life!