h4x354x0r
computing geek, hackysacker
h4x354x0r
Circling the Circle on a Friday Afternoon
Another awesome session! I bailed on my usual Footbag Thursday because the weather was marginal, and I was stuck working an important project anyway. But, I got my schedule cleared on Friday just long enough to enjoy the peak weather with a footbag session on Speakers Circle!
This session was loaded with variety, so I went a bit crazy with the videos this week and posted 4 of them. When I got there, there was a "Jumproping for Muslim" thing going on, with the circle full of people jumping rope. Someone dressed in a gorilla suit was also there playing an accordion, and I taped a rally with me kicking to the Accordion Playing Gorilla (sorry you can't really see the mask in the video).
The jumproping group left shortly afterwards. Then, KCOU 88.1 FM showed up and started playing some tunes. I taped an impromptu promo rally for them that also features my Phat Tyre Sport. A Caped Shadow also came by, and Shadow Hacked with me. Plus, the Circle the Circle session feature rally (at top).
Two other people also came by and kicked with me for a bit; one of them looks quite ready to take it to next level with some freestyle moves. I hope I can keep in touch with these guys over the winter. Still don't have anything but the Secret Hideout, and I haven't brought myself to that, just yet.
I'm not giving up on outdoor sessions. There are still some occasional really nice days, and if I can skate out of work to play footbag, I plan to do just that. Weather forecasts say next Tuesday might be nice. Iz Hatching Planz!
2:00 / 63:00 - Thanks for tuning in!
Kicking for OccupyCOMO
Hey, I was there first, but... I don't mind showing up to kick for the cause now that the OccupyCOMO group has occupied one of my favorite kicking venues. They're a lot more respectful than the preachers in Speakers Circle, that's for sure!
I've been overwhelmed by "blog slog" lately. I used to see how fast I could "turn around" one of my footbag sessions, with blog and video posted and announcements out to Twitter, FB, and the like. Sometimes, I could do it in 2 hours. Now, it seems to take me days to get around to ingesting, producing, and posting.
Last week, I posted the vid, but didn't tweet or post it anywhere but YouTube. I meant to write a blog post, but... after a couple days, the thoughts and meaning of the moment have leaked away. What would I write? After getting over my shock of dead batteries last week, I pretty much tore into my session. This week, the cold, wind, and a possibly busted camera couldn't hold me back. I broke past my 60 hour per year goal today, with almost 10 weeks to spare.
Now, with the summer season over and little prospect of a decent indoor winter place, I'll be stuck to writing blog posts. Let's hope I can keep them going. My goal is to capture at least 5 years of my "end of career" zenith. I'm only in 3 so far, I can't give up now.
2:00 / 1:45 / 61:00 - Thanks for tuning in!
Return to Red Shorts in October
Yes, the black shorts will be back. I plan to rotate each pair of shorts in turn. I also have a specific rotation for my footbags: the PhatTyre Sport, Mr. Softy, Fattie (original), Repeat, and The Man. I'm trying to stick to one full song per footbag, one taped rally per song. Discipline and Regimen. I haz them!
I would be inclined to tape later rallies with each bag, after I've adjusted to each one, but this week I was killing the first rally with each new bag/song, so I started filming that. Unfortunately my best super rally on tape won't export out of my camera (MiniDV) correctly. Still, the one I could post isn't too bad; 45 consecutive 2+ adds.
I started early-ish. The weather has been phenomenal! Reaching ~60 deg. F. around 9:30, sunny, usually not too windy early in the morning. Having the students around is so motivating! I ended up putting in 2:45 and only stopped because I had afternoon appointments. One more epic session this length, and I will meet my annual footbag goal. Here's hoping for continued great weather!
2:45 / 57:15 - Thanks for tuning in!
Black Shorts Debut
That's right, I've gotten a new pair of footbag shorts. Shout goes out to my honey for getting them for me; I love the new shorts, love you, thank you so much!
Great weather, great time, felt great, kicked well, had an awesome time! Mizzou students are the best. I get all kinds of props from these peeps. I've got another in-depth student interview project in the works, did an impromptu 30-second interview for another project, and wound up on who knows how many other cell phones and cameras today.
I remembered to search Twitter after my session, and found 5 tweet-outs. My favorite? the hashtag #badass. And, as usual, the words old and shirtless top the word cloud. Grooming the "Weird Old Guy" image? I'm doin' it rite!
Feeling great today too, smoking through 2:15 of high-energy oldschool before the first twinges of muscle cramps. I had a meeting coming up, I had to stop anyway. There was none of the popcorn calves or muscle cramps today; in fact I was able to hammer the bike pretty hard on my way home at the end of the day.
Oh, I also decided to give my PhatTyre Pro to some some complete stranger, because he said he liked my videos and asked if I had an old footbag I could send him. Since my PhatTyre Pro was a gift to me, I decided to pass it on. Best wishes yoyoskater! Shred it up!
2:00 last week, 2:15 this week, I'm up to 54:30. Thanks for tuning in!
Roots n Blues n Barbecue Fest
Sorry, no video this week. Bringing along my video equipment is too much for the uncertainty of a music festival like this. I need simplicity and mobility: water, towel, footbags. Bicycle.
My experience shows why. Ticket prices had doubled, and I didn't want to pay $35 to play footbag (if allowed to) inside the gates for just a couple hours. I wanted a level, paved place just outside the fencing where I could hear the music. But the fencing and barricades were well designed to foil my plans.
I found one decent spot near the Peace Park stage and kicked to one band for maybe 15 minutes until they broke set. I decided to check out some other spots again, taking off on my bicycle. It started raining! I ended up spending almost 30 minutes alternately seeking shelter from rain, or looking for a halfway dry spot to kick.
Thank goodness I was traveling light! I was about to give up and go back home. I had stopped in front of a checkpoint, beyond which was a potential kicking spot that was still outside the wristband gate proper. One of the volunteers, of course, asked me if they could help me find my way.
"No, I'm actually looking for a place to play Hacky Sack." I said, staring intently at an empty stretch of sidewalk, dry and sheltered by some trees, just past them and some cones.
"Hey... " the other volunteer started. "...aren't you that amazing guy that I used to see play on campus years ago?"
"Speakers Circle?" I asked, then, without waiting for an answer, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's me."
I got the kicking spot. 
It turns out this guy used to roam campus with a camera, and catch me kicking in Speakers Circle sometimes, nearly 15 years ago. Another volunteer at the actual wristband gate turned out to know me through the local newspaper discussion boards. He was delighted to have me kick right there, just outside the fence on a nice wide piece of sidewalk, where I could hear the band perfectly.
It stopped raining, too.
The rest of the session was awesome! People coming or going from the festival kept bunching up at the gate to watch, often pulling out smartphones or cameras for a quick shot or giving me props. The volunteer kept taking me up when people stopped. A number of people obviously knew about me already, greeting me with my preferred "Hack Man" moniker.
Sweet!
Rarely does a session experience turn around like that. In the end, I was very pleased. And exhausted. I felt great. A day later, I'm still in the halo of euphoria. I love freestyle footbag!
1:45 / 50:15 - Thanks for tuning in!
48th Birthday Footbag Bash!
And, a celebration of over 30 years of playing footbag!
(slightly marred by prosthletyzers...)
Overall, a great day, a great birthday treat to spend a couple hours kicking on Speakers Circle. I played well, but the heat and the sun together really took it out of me!
I'm about to give Speakers Circle up for dead. Jeb and the hoards of his variants dominates the circle all day, every day. I haven't been able to kick there during session without a conflict with these people for a couple of years now. Never a break, never a shred of courtesy, never even the vaguest consideration of sharing the space. Not even today, on my 48th birthday, 30-year celebration session.
Today's group was a particularly (cough) righteous (cough) group. I swear I had to ask one of them to stop prosthletyzing to me over 10 times in a row. Another kept coming over, suggesting I move elsewhere, asking when I would leave, just being... abrasive. Most of them made snide comments about my footbag while they were hogging the circle.
Oh well... I still had a great time kicking and got lots of props from the students. I didn't shoot much video, just 4:20 worth over 2 hours, but... I wrote stuff like "It's Hack Man's 48th Birthday!" and "Celebrating Over 30 Years of Kicking!" in sidewalk chalk around the circle, and "Hacky Circle," and of course my wacky internet handle, h4x354x0r!
I'm very pleased to be celebrating over 30 years of footbag. It's been an incredible journey. I've met incredible people. The gift of footbag has been one of the most powerful positive forces in my life. I grew up, emotionally, in the footbag community. It took a long time. I'd like to thank the footbag community for their incredible patience, and ask forgiveness for being such a flaming fucking ass sometimes. 
Footbag really changed my life. It was that spark of inspriation, of passion, dedication, purpose, and the joys and rewards of hard work. It was, for lack of a better analogy, my salvation. Because footbag did so much for me, I felt compelled to share. I traveled. I competed. I ran tournaments and clubs.
It took me 15 years (and a couple of kids) to realize footbag was MY salvation, but it wasn't going to be EVERYONE'S salvation. Yeah, slow learner there
It's still totally awesome, because footbag can still be my salvation - even if it isn't anyone else's. I've loved footbag since that first circle, where for one of the first times in my life I was encouraged to keep trying an activity with a group, despite the fact that I sucked. That gave me so much momentum that I ended up getting pretty freaking good (for my day). And, I still love playing footbag today, just as much as I ever did. More than ever, in fact.
At this point, I would go so far as to claim my weekly footbag sessions as spiritual. I drink a gallon of water and sweat it all out, cleansing my body. I lose myself in the music and the motion. I push myself. I inspire students. I get my funky groove on. I completely exhaust myself. People are always grabbing a quick shot of me with their phones and cameras. It rocks! It almost always leaves me with an incredible sense of physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.
Maybe I should try to declare Hacky Sack my official religion. But, why bother? I believe it is, regardless, official declaration or not. It works for me.
Keep being beautiful, everyone!
2:00/ 48:30 - Thanks for tuning in!
The Follow at Courthouse Square
On arrival at City Hall, I could hear a band playing in the distance...
Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!! It turns out to be The Follow, playing a block and a half away at Courthouse Square, where the Twilight Festivals used to be held on Thursdays, years ago. It's probably been over 10 years since I first got to kick to them, and instantly became a devoted stalker fan when they played at the festivals. One time, they even had to ask me to stop kicking when they were playing in the tiny Walnut Street park. I was getting WAY too wild that evening.
Since the end of the Twilight festivals, I kinda lost track of them. So finding them in town, by sheer luck, was a very special treat. The Follow was here this time to raise money and collect school supplies for Joplin Missouri US, which got struck by a devastating tornado this spring. This band is so awesome... in so many ways! Thank you for sharing your time and passion for music to help your brothers and sisters. You ROCK.
The final bonus for the day: my daughter even showed up and kicked with me for a bit.
Next week is my big 48th Birthday Footbag Bash. I'm headed back to Speakers Circle for a late morning session, roughly 10-noon. The best part? A record enrollment of students is back on campus!
It's been 3 weeks since the last blog post. Gotta do the accounting thing...
2:00, 2:00, 1:30 / 46:30 - Thanks for tuning in!
Concert Groupie
Downtown concert got moved, I moved with it.
The Blue Note had to change concert locations because too many business owners were complaining about the 9th street closing disruption. The new venue is totally awesome for a small concert: a private park next to MoJo's they can cordon off. There's no place to kick inside the area, but there are a few places nearby. I tried the Cafe Berlin parking lot.
I started late, because of the heat, and with the first act of the concert, so I only had about an hour of sunlight. After that, streetlights. I finally packed it in at an hour forty five. Another great session, I didn't really play all that great but got tons of props from the crowd.
1:45 / 41:00 - Thanks for tuning in!
Adds new Phat Tyre footbag to lineup
Concert downtown tonight. Music. And People. Everywhere!
Thanks to the generosity of Flying Clipper / Dirtbag Footbags, I have added a brand new Phat Tyre to my rotation of footbags. Tonight I was changing bags each time I took a towel / water break.
The Phat Tyre is obviously a worthy footbag. I had some really good rallies with it. I like it a lot, but I was having trouble adjusting to the weight and size compared to my other footbags. 80g! I'm definitely keeping it in my rotation. I can't lie and say there's no difference between this $12 footbag, and the custom freestyler-made footbags like my Abshires. But the Phat Tyre, all in all, is still a pretty good bag.
I bet it works great for the intermediate hack circles, and that's one reason I like it so much. Having a more durable "hack circle" bag in my arsenal, that I'm used to, will be nice.
I got to kick to the entire set of Drew Davis. A wee bit countrified for me, mebbe. But, live music is always inspiring, and there were tons of people coming by. I had an awesome session, and got major props from the crowd. I wish I could have kept kicking as the main attraction Darius Rucker took the stage, but... I was at the 2:15 mark, and I was TOAST.
I also got another journalism student that wants to do a story on me. I had to warn him the J-School profs might be tired of me by now, but he's still gonna make the pitch. I really enjoy being the subject of their projects! It helps sharpen my interview skills, and I usually get a good footbag promotion tool that I can share with the world.
2:15 / 39:15 - Thanks for tuning in!
Three New Footbags!
There's nothing like 3 new footbags to pump me up! All the other forces were against me: rain today, I had to start late to get dry pavement; plus, one of those "heavy lifting, massive contorting" kind of physical work days at work. My back was killing me as I was prepping to kick. It even felt very strained for a while after I started.
But those three new Abshire footbags? They delivered the Total. Freaking. Smackdown. on the negatives. I wasn't carving up the difficult moves, but I was still playing well and keeping the bag off the ground. I had an awesome time tonight!
In fact, I had such a good time, I'm officially declaring today my 30th anniversary of playing footbag. I don't really know the exact date, it was probably actually later in the summer, but I'm tired of waiting, and believe these 3 new footbags are my anniversary present.
Yes, BTW, it was hot and extremely humid. I hit total saturation, even to the point where my socks started 'sklishing' inside my shoes. Remind me, I need to bring even more towels. Two aren't enough.
LATE UPDATE: Flying Clipper is also going to send me one of their new Phat Tyre Footbags! I will soon have four footbags in my kicking rotation. I feel rich
2:00 / 37:00 - Thanks for tuning in!