One of the women coming out of the meeting stopped to tell me they all appreciated me being out there to entertain them during sometimes incredibly boring meetings. Then I felt bad for distracting them, but she assured me it was a good thing and they always looked forward to me on Thursdays. 

It's been a long time since my last Blog post. Busy, but I've still been posting videos. Not much new to say, or rather, no good news anyway. This rally is probably a bright spot. Let's catch up on the last few weeks: 

Thursday 3rd was my last big regular school session on Speakers Circle, and I got a volunteer guest DJ to come spin a few tunes for me. Thursday 10th I wasn't even planning on kicking, but I wound up with just a few extra minutes, so I got down to Speaker's Circle for one last short (50 min) Finals Week Session. Thursday 17th was my City Hall 2012 Debut, where I had to bail at 1:30 because... my old bladder sucks.

Which brings me back to this week and my 2-add game. I've obviously lost something. My technical ability has been on a slow downhill slide for years, but in the last few months I've experienced a huge sudden drop in ability. As far as I can tell, I'm going to have to re-focus on my 2+ add game. I can't seem to maintain 3-add level for more than a few moves anymore. 

My knees hurt. A lot. I can't crouch down so much anymore. It's like I've suddenly dropped below the threshold of being able to take enough knee pressure to adequately control spin and balance. And, I'm having hella time pulling the bag straight up and in on sets. 

I think I can improve my knees with hamstring stretching exercises. But I think the problem is deeper than that; maybe some neuropathy from my back problems. I don't really know. 

This is exactly the kind of thing I was intending to catch and document with my blog. I wanted to capture the effects of the aging process on a lifelong hardcore athlete like me. 

I still love kicking and have no intention of stopping. I think my physical abilities would drop off a *LOT* faster if I didn't keep up the activity. I feel very fortunate to have such a demanding physical activity I love so much at this age to keep me so active. 

2:30 / 50 / 1:30 / 1:50 - 49:10 - Thanks for tuning in! 

Getting there early and getting a jump on the preachers doesn't work. 

The moment I move out of the center of the circle to take a drink, or towel off, or anything else, they just barge right in. I've never dealt directly with this guy before. I dub him "The Judger" because the central refrain of his spiel kept coming back to, "I am here to judge you." 

When he first barged in, I tried to make a deal with him, that he could have one side, and I got the other. But the moment I moved around a bit, away from the center, he just moved right in. As a result, I spent a lot of time kicking directly in front of him. 

I contrasted him. I outlasted him. Both my radio and the Accordion Playing Gorilla outblasted him. He packed up and left after an hour. 

Having the Accordion Playing Gorilla show up was definitely the highlight of my day. I had an absolute blast kicking to his music! 

I seem to have developed a new filming style, too. It's called "accidentally leaving the camera on." I've done this, I think, the last 3 times in a row now, including Thursday's session. I didn't even realize I was filming that rally. This especially sucks because I'm still using MiniDV tape; it's expensive and the ingest time is a bore. I've got to get a handle on that, even if this accidentally taped rally was a winner this time. 

I thought I needed to get a handle on my footbag rotation, but this may not be true. I was rotating through 5 different bags already, and just wound up with 3 more. Rather than hold some back, I've ended up putting all 8 in rotation. Rather than having the same specific order every time, I'm just going to mix them up and plop them down in random order, with one exception: my PhatTyre Sport bag named Rasta always goes first. And, The Man, my blue/white Abshire bag, is gets last or next to last. And, there's got to be at least one other bag in between the the two Black/Gold, Gold/Black Abshires named MIZ and ZOU. 

More props to another fellow footbag player goes out to Allan Haggett who does the most awesome incredible multilevel footbag moves. He has inspired me to have a little fun of my own on the stairs on Speakers Circle. 

Guiltless rallies still elude me though. It's like my skill just dropped off a cliff. Since midwinter, before I got my new shoes, I've barely even hit a string of 10 - no matter how hard I've tried. 6 months ago, my benchmark was 20+. That's a precipitous drop. I just can't do it. It's hard to explain. 

After the preacher came, barged into the circle on me, spent an hour on his spiel, and finally left, I stepped into the circle to make the following announcement: 

2:25/42:30 - Thanks for tuning in! 

At this point, I'm convinced Jackass Brother Jed and his minions are stalking me. They haven't been at Speakers Circle all week, but on the one day I can go out there to play? Of course...

So, I've started playing the whole thing up. The atheists help too. They now come and plague the hate preachers at every chance as well, making sure that there's plenty of action at Speakers Circle any time the preachers are there. They provide a great foil, getting right in the preacher's faces with their signs, and often drawing them out of the center of the circle for a 'discussion'. That's when I move in.

One of them carries around a sign: "I will give $500 dollars to anyone who can convince me your religion is real" I've seen the envelope with the money, he really does carry it on him when he does this.

A couple times now, I've been able to use this as an opportunity to loudly proclaim: "Hacky Sack is MY religion! Can I convince you Hacky Sack is real? After all, I could really use the $500 bucks. I'd buy EVERYONE here a Hacky Sack with that money!"

The students seem to love that.

The best part is, I got at least 3 new "converts" to Hacky Sack today. The one guy in the video, whom I ended up giving a footbag to; a soccer player who swears he had never played footbag before today, but freaking tore it up (and I think he's genuinely hooked); a girl that does hula hoop (like, seriously); and I think there may have been one other guy who was trying it for the first time as well.

I had been solo kicking for nearly 2 hours when the soccer player and a couple other guys came over and asked to use one of my footbags. Within 10 minutes, there were 8 people in the hack circle, and we pretty much took over the area. I ended up hacking with the circle of students for another hour and a half, showing them how to do tricks like pendulums and clippers, or whatever else they asked.

At a few points, I would count the people in the circle and loudly proclaim: "The Hack Man has made SIX new converts today!" The crowd always cheered for that, too.

Before I go, I should link in last week's video too, since I didn't write a blog for it last week. You can hear all the banter between the hate preachers and their hecklers, who drew them out of the circle for me.

I think I might have started something. Until I challenged Sister Cindy a couple months ago, the preachers had pretty much total run of the place. Since then, the students have been setting up tables in the middle of the circle almost every day, denying them their 'place', and the atheists and other hecklers have been both very creative and absolutely relentless. Last week it was some guy with a "God Hates the Seattle Super Sonics!" sign, totally dogging the preachers and ruthlessly mocking them.

I've lost what few shreds of reservation I've had about the issue; when I show up now, I just crank up my radio and literally hack right around them. We are going to reclaim the circle from the hate preachers. 

2:15 / 2:30 (was actually 3:30 but almost 1:45 circle kicking) - 40:05 for the year so far. Thanks for tuning in! 

To be clear, this is not the fault of the new Abshire bags I just unboxed. I had some decent rallies that day, I just didn't get them on tape. But the definition of "Decent" has degraded to a more just a measure of length, not difficulty level. I haven't plotted it yet, but this has been going on since last fall. I just can't hold guiltless rallies like I used to. 

Part of it, lately, is the new shoes. They felt so perfect and so wonderful when I tried them on at the shoe store. Two weeks later, I hated them. The left shoe was way too tight. Do my feet really swell up that much? I finally crammed a block of wood and cloth in it for a day and a half. That has stretched it out, but the new shoes still feel really clunky when I kick in them. It's been so long since I broke in my last pair of shoes, I don't remember what it was like. I don't think it was this bad. 

The core issue, though, is joint pain and strength. My knees hurt all the time now, and I just can't put that much bent-knee pressure on them. But I really blame my back for this. My sciatica has been the worst it's ever been in springtime. It usually bugs me in the winter, and gets better in the spring. Not this year. It gives my hip joints, knees, quadraceps, and ankles 'phantom' pain. And no matter how much I tell myself it's just phantom, my body refuses to ignore it. 

The end result is, I just don't have the strength and accuracy to play at the 3+ add level much anymore. This week's best guiltless string was probably in the low teens. Even when I was going crazy for my student project filming a few weeks ago, I'm not sure I broke 20 contacts. A year ago, I could almost always break that; suddenly now, I rarely attain it. 

I certainly hope I can get back to the typical 20+ guiltless contact level, but there are no guarantees. I'm getting older, and life isn't getting any easier. I didn't even get to kick at all Spring Break week, despite the beautiful weather. I had to work, work, fucking work. There's no sign that will let up, either. 

Now, since it's been so long, I'm trying to reconstruct my kicking time. Last post was just before a Thursday session. Using my Twitter stream and past YouTube posts to reconstruct my footbag timeline: 

Thursday 3/15 - 2:15, First session with my new shoes, and I gave away my Red/Black PhatTyre Sport to some students doing a scavenger hunt. Of course with the legendary Hack Man's footbag, they definitely won their scavenger hunt challenge! 

Thursday 3/22 - 2:15 again. Between last week and this week, I got new PhatTyre footbags, and filmed my First Rallies with them. Thanks Toes and Flying Clipper Footbags! 

Thursday 3/29 - The tweet says it all: @h4x354x0r Today is my hallowed FOOTBAG THURSDAY! And… I'm pretty certain I'm going to get screwed out of kicking today. Work is hell. And, I most certainly did get screwed out of kicking that week. 

Friday 4/6 - Finally caught up with footbag log! I would have done more, but was squeezed between work appointments and family obligations. Barely 2 hrs. 

So, 6:30 total footbag time since last post, for 25:20 hours total for the year. Still doing great on annual time goal, now if I could only do bit better on the guiltless strings. Thanks for tuning in! 

Last week, I just plain jack-ass forgot how to kick. Worst session in years. It was the first session in new shoes, but indoors at the Secret Hideout. That was a bit of a let-down after all the great outdoor sessions I've had. In fact, I'm pretty sure I was was still hurting from the previous Thursday session blowout. I played hard, well, and for a long time; then, walked some unknown number of miles. I had a very slow and unpleasant muscle recovery. 

So there I was the next week, last Thursday; indoors, new shoes, knees hurting, my best guiltless string? Three. Ouch. I just couldn't control the bag, at all, couldn't keep my weight forward or the bag in close. A rather humbling experience. 

But, another hour towards my goal. This wouldn't be the first time I've had an exceptionally horrible session immediately after an unusually good one, either. I've experienced this before.

So here I sit, the evening before my hallowed Footbag Thursday, stayed up a bit late, then couldn't get to sleep, now on the couch with a cat purring and shedding obnoxiously in my lap. Writing my blog because I'm tired of all the other shit on the internet. A half night's sleep is already lost. 

I don't really know what's going to happen tomorrow / later today. My knees feel a lot better, and I know the outdoors and Speakers Circle always helps me out. But, I've stopped liking my new shoes. They seemed fine at first, but now they seem to be breaking in funny. And there's all the walking beforehand, lack of sleep tonight, possible venue competition with other freak shows, and... 

It could be a disaster. It might be OK. I don't know, but I'm going to take my old shoes at least. We'll see where it goes from there. 2 hours is my goal. Now, I'm going to re-try going to sleep for nearly twice that long. Next blog post could be soon. Footbag Thursday, here I come. 

1:00 / 18:50 - Thanks for tuning in! 

My boom box and iPod were at work, but I had everything else in my trailer and I decided to take a gamble and ride straight to the circle on the hopes that some kind of audio (maybe drummers?) would be there.  

No such luck. But, the Ron Paul supporters had their tent in the middle of the circle, and the Bible Science Theater guy with his portable belt-worn PA system was off to the side. I buzzed back to my shop to grab the radio, and send out this little tweet: 

So I got there, started getting set up, and Naif Bartlett, the J-School student doing his project on me, showed up. I told him he should go get his camera. Now. Then, I checked in with the Ron Paul tent, and talked them into moving thier tent for me. As I was helping them move their stuff, I told them I bet the preacher guy would walk right into the circle, and they might have to back me up on the fact that they were "Saving the circle specifically for me." 

Sure enough, Mr. BST Preacher guy shufflied into the center of the circle before I could even get back there myself. I just told him point blank that I had talked to the Ron Paul supporters before, and had actually arranged for them to hold the circle specifically for me, that a journalism student was going to be filming me today... all of which was absolutely true. 

"But this is better for hearing," he says, which is true for the speaker in the center of the circle, but it's the acoustic equivalent of an optical illusion, "...and surely people can still see you off back there?" he asks. 

"No." I insisted. "Seriously. I talked to them. I arranged this. They moved their stuff specifically for ME." (long pause)... "Not you." I gestured to the students standing at the tent. One of them glanced back. 

And.... he folded. "OK." was all he said, and moved back off to the side where he was before. Yes! Hack Man Scores 2nd Consecutive Win Against Preachers! 

Now, let me tell you how out of control I got. Kicking the preacher out of the circle was just the start. Once I got warmed up, Naif showed up with the camera. It was SHOWTIME! I haven't seen his video yet (and there's no guarantee I'll ever get it) but I'm pretty sure he caught a couple really sweet rallies. 

We ended up getting really obnoxious, setting up for various shots, getting in people's way, egregiously using unwitting Speakers Circle crowds... and to top it off, I do an audio interview about an hour into one of the hardest sessions I've shed up in months. Remind me to never do that again. 

Really. New rule for all journalism projects and media contacts: I do NOT do audio interviews for 24 hours after I've started playing footbag. Every time I've ever done it, I've interviewed *very* poorly. Like, a brainless blithering idiot. Because that's what happens when I play footbag; the "thinking" part of my brain goes into hibernation. I can barely even speak, let alone put together a coherent sentence. So... either interview first before I get started, or not until the next day. Mid-session interviews are a disaster.

Still, it was an absolutely beautiful day, I know Naif got some really choice video of me playing footbag, I totally f'ing spanked one of the preachers, and got to give a shout-out to the Ron Paul peeps for saving the circle for me and making it such a great footbag day.

Thanks Mizzou Youth for Ron Paul - You Rock! Good luck with your petition!

2:20 / 17:50 - sudden cramps hit at 2:20, I stopped there. Blistering 115 hr/yr pace so far, and all I wanna do is keep 'er floored. Thanks for tuning in! 

Now, back to The Case of the Stolen Lunch: 

When I arrived at work, loaded down bike trailer in tow, it looked like a recycling bin had exploded. There were thousands of pieces of paper strewn everywhere. Oh well, it wasn't exactly my problem. I unloaded most of my stuff from the trailer, but left a gallon of water, box of sidewalk chalk, a few other misc. items, and a bagel with cheese slices and an apple. This was my lunch. Well, it was supposed to be my lunch. 

I figured it couldn't hurt to leave the stuff out in my trailer; it was cool, so the food would stay cool. The rest of it wasn't exactly valuable. I had the food wrapped in a translucent plastic produce bag and tucked into a side pocket of the trailer, with the sides folded in to a triangle. I thought it would be safe. 

A couple times as I came and went from my office, I noticed students out picking up the trash. From the way they were carrying out the task, I'm sure they were ordered to do it... or else. I didn't think about my lunch. 

When I was finally ready to eat, I went out to the trailer, and... MY LUNCH WAS GONE. First, I was convinced I had done something else with it, and just couldn't remember. I searched all the stuff I brought in. Nothing. I went and looked in the trailer again. Nothing. But everything else in the trailer, more plainly visible than the food, had been left alone. At least all the loose paper had been picked up by now. 

Now, rich people stealing billions of dollars from taxpayers, is no big deal. That happens every day in America, and the thieves are practically worshipped. But... stealing a guy's lunch?!? THAT'S low. It was just a bagel and an apple! I was crushed. I was filled with about 1/3rd wonder that someone would have felt the need to steal a bagel and an apple, and 2/3rds anger that some lowlife prick had actually done that. 

I finally went somewhere and bought a couple "replacement" bagels (but apples are harder to come by downtown). About that time, I had another thought: Squirrels. And the more I thought, the more I thought, "Fucking. Squirrels." 

The food was not easy to see. But, a squirrel could smell that stuff from a mile away. There were other, more valuable-to-humans things in the trailer, that were not taken. But... if squirrels took it, there should have been some remnants of it, perhaps in the bushes nearby. I searched, but found nothing. Then again, maybe those remnants got picked up when the students were picking up the rest of the trash strewn about the area. I just couldn't know. 

I was convinced I would never discover the truth about where my lunch went. I got bagels anyway, I got to play footbag anyway, and I realized I had to let go of my disappointment over the missing lunch and forget about it. Life goes on. It was just a bagel, some cheese, and an apple. 

The next day, having just locked my bike to the rack and gotten settled at my desk, my co-worker came in and said, "Hey, did you know there's a squirrel out there investigating your bicycle?" 

Aha! Don't criminals always return to the scene of the crime? It took this one less than 5 minutes to come back looking for more NOMs to steal! Campus squirrels are ballsy. But this time, no food. It would leave empty-pawed. Next time, I might even wait nearby, with my trusty "squirrel stick" (just kidding). 

So, the case of the missing lunch is solved: I WAS PUNKED BY SQUIRRELS. There was no evidence, because of the paper disaster. The students picked up and threw away the evidence when they were cleaning up. 

As for the actual footbag session, when I finally got going, well... it kinda sucked. The temperature just didn't get that warm, and it was cloudy and windy. I had to wear a shirt! You know it's bad if I wear a shirt when I kick. I never did get warmed up; I felt shaky and chilled the whole time. I played rather poorly. Just don't call me a quitter: I was still out there for 2-1/2 hours. 

A couple students that have started following me on Twitter came by around 3PM and kicked for a bit. A woman from the school-affiliated radio station KBIA came and did an interview with me. A couple of giggly young ladies stopped to take a video, and then try themselves. Despite the cold, it was still a good day, with lots of positive interaction and no confrontation. 

I only got to kick in the circle for the last little bit, when I got this video. Earlier, there was a Ron Paul supporter group with a tent and a table set up right in the middle. They were totally cool though; not pushy, or rude, and they ended up asking me when I would be out there again, so they could plan to move their tent off to the side so I could take the circle. 

Next Thursday, if the weather is good! Thanks so much for offering! 

Speaking of next Thursday, I was totally bummed when the weather predicted for this Wednesday when I went to kick, decided to manifest on Thursday. I rode through Speakers Circle as I was shooting a service call across campus the next day: Warm, sunny, and a group of musicians with drums and guitars out there playing and girls with hula hoops. Damn, damn, damn, damn, DAMN! If only I could have known, I would have waited until Thursday. I stopped and talked to a couple of the drummers, begging them to come back on the next nice Thursday. Getting to play footbag to live music, sharing the space with girls doing hula hoops? Now THAT's my idea of a great time, and a totally awesome use for Speaker's Circle! 

Now, I'm determined to make that happen. 

2:15 / 15:30 - Thanks for tuning in! 

I'm such a n00b at going viral. After continuing to see my view count go up on my viral video - over 42,000 views now - I finally thought to search Google for "Hack Man vs Preacher." I had no idea.... There are 2 main versions of the video now that have found their way onto well over 20 different websites. Holy cow! About the only place it hasn't shown up is directly on YouTube's featured videos. 

But, the glory of being viral means nothing in the Secret Hideout. Just me, my brain, my body, and my bags. Back to reality, and a couple problems: Somehow, my iPod lost all it's playlists. But all the music was still there, so I dove for artists and albums. First choice? Fatboy Slim. It did not disappoint. The part that does disappoint is the fact that the headphone jack on my iPod is fucked, and keeps cutting out. I had to wedge the audio cable and the ipod between my radio and a Tweaker Tool to get a reasonably consistent connection. 

Of course almost every one of those Fatboy Slim songs is 5-7 minutes long, so each rotation of my bags takes almost 30 minutes. I did my Guiltless String counting on the 2nd bag rotation instead of waiting until the end of my session. Much better than last week, but... still a little weak: 

Phatty Pro: 15 

Mr. Softy: 15 

Phatty Original: 18 

Repeat: 16 

The Man: 12 

Not sure what happened to The Man there; he's usually, well, The Man when it comes to this. No H8 though; even The Man deserves a break sometimes. At least I was fairly consistent tonight, and broke 10 with every bag. Shoulda been able to break 20 with at least one of 'em, though. 

I've also started working with a student on another "Hack Man" class project. This one is more involved than most. It will take several weeks, and includes photos, audio, video, etc. Last week's part was a photo shoot. Since we didn't have a good indoor place to use, and I'm a bit of a stickler for realism, we ended up doing the photo shoot on Speakers Circle. It was well below freezing: 26F/-3.3C. I spent a good 15 minutes playing footbag out there in shorts and a T-shirt. Thank goodness is was at least sunny and calm! You bet I'm claiming that 15 minutes against my annual goal. In fact, I feel like I should get to charge double for that. I was chilled to the bones the rest of the day. 

Tonight, I was planning to just do an hour, maybe 1:15, and tack on the photo shoot time. But... I just can't stop! I blew out another solid 2 hour session. That puts me at 13:15 for the year, in just 7 weeks. This is nearly a 100-hour per year pace. I've never been anywhere near this far ahead this early in the year before. It seems like my 5-footbag rotation helps drive my session length a bit; I can't stop in the middle of a rotation; I have to play through all 5 bags before I stop. This keeps making me blow through stopping points. 

It seems like a couple years ago, a solid 2-hour session was my absolute limit. Today, it seems like nothing. I must give credit to a friend and fellow footbag player, Ben Benulis. He competes in Tough Mudder, too. I observe, slack-jawed in awe, of what this guy can do. He's been kind enough to coach me on diet, and hell yes it makes a huge difference. "Fruits and veggies" he reminds me. "Lay off the pizza. Fruits and veggies." Well, my muscle stamina has improved by a good 30% so far. I'm not getting cramps, at all. And damn you Ben, now I'm totally addicted to bananas! 

I've decided I'm going to set a small "side" goal: I want to be able to do a solid 3-hour session, at least once this summer, without suffering muscle cramps. My diet still has a LOT more room for improvement; if I can keep eating smarter, I'm confident I can do it. 

0:15 / 2:00 / 13:15 - Thanks for tuning in!