I worked Saturday but took a much needed break Saturday night to join some friends at a bonfire. I worked all day and night Sunday. And yet, this project drags on. I should have blazed through this part of this particular project but it has been like trying to run through chest deep waters. I am terribly frustrated and dejected.
Category: Daily Life
Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.
I’m nuts!
I just flipped back in my journal to four years ago.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. –Albert Einstein
I’m certifiable.
That’s my boy!
Show went pretty well
I really enjoyed tonight’s juggling show. A friend from the juggling club showed up and showed some real expertise. He obviously practices far more than I do. We started with the setting sun blinding me. For much of the first show I might as well have had my eyes closed but unfortunately could not use that as an excuse for my drops. I tried to introduce a new trick that I’ve wanted to do for years but forgot to bring a longer rolla bolla board. Coupled with my nerves and having the rolla bolla on slick concrete, the trick met with fail (but not fall). The 2nd time I tried it I picked a volunteer who was too young. That was awkward and I should have bailed. I didn’t even try getting her up on the rolla bolla. Going to set that trick aside for older audiences only and only after I’ve fine tuned it. Performing that one was a bit like a magician buying a new trick on the way to the performance and trying it out for the first time in front of the audience.
On the most exceptional side, Mike and I were able to jump right into some decent passing without even a warm up. We even braved 7 torches although we rethought that one quickly and adjusted down to 6. I think if the two of us would practice together with any regularity we could be passing 9 clubs and torches in no time. I would love to put together a fully produced show at some point Karamazov style with musical accompaniment, laser lights, video screens, smoke machines, okay wait…maybe just music and microphones and we can grow from there. I had a blast! I owe Mike big time.
In other news, The Flying Karamazov Brothers have a three letter domain name! Wow!
Dr. Internet
Okay. What disease do I have? My leg has acquired a rash. I’ve never seen anything like this. When I sit at my chair and put my foot under my seat, the skin from the calf touches the thigh exactly where the marks are so it is likely the rash started in one place and spread to the other but it is not getting an larger nor spreading anywhere else. Doesn’t seem to be getting better either.
Juggling and Fireworks tomorrow
I will be juggling fire, knives, people, and other things at West Park Baptist Church’s annual fireworks show tomorrow from 7pm-9pm. West Park is on Middlebrook across from Fox Lonas. Hope to see you there!
Child Protective Services – Don’t read this
Here’s some additional information about the rolla bolla from my comment on Cathy’s flickr set:
I now get to tell a story which may or may not add a little bit of a technical appreciation for what’s happening in this picture. My rolla bolla freaks other jugglers out. Mine is completely homemade. It uses a 4 inch diameter thick pvc pipe. The board itself happens to be exactly the same length as a shelf in a homemade bookcase I built for my dorm room in college because it is one the shelves which happen to be precisely 19 inches in length. Most jugglers are more accustomed to using rolla bollas closer to 3 feet long. For instance, Dube’s is 29 inches (btw, there’s your spec).
Juggling is all about physics. This is center of gravity trick. The longer the board, the greater the center of gravity. In essence, if you drew a line from the ground up to the top of your head (or the head fo the person on your shoulders) that divided your torso symmetrically and simply made sure that line never passed over your foot, you would never fall down. Since my board is so short, there is very little room for error. One way to cheat the physics is to use a larger diameter piece of pvc but frankly the 5 inch pvc tends to flatten a little taking away from the visual effect (in addition to simply being disproportionate to the other equipment and plain ugly).
Regarding the pvc when making a homemade rolla bolla. I learned the hardway that the pvc pipe should be the same width as the board (or slightly larger). If it is smaller you create a third degree of freedom and you might as well be doing this trick on top of a ball.
Don’t use those stupid stoppers on the bottom of your board! If you look at the Dube rolla bolla you will see that the underside of the board has stops at each end. This prevents the board from flying at high velocity to your left or right severely hurting people. Instead the board stops and you go flying at high velocity to the left or right breaking yourself and the people standing beside you. When we were first learning this trick. My brother fell off the board and sent it flying into a filing cabinet. 3 days later we were still trying to open the drawer. Without the stoppers you can safely take the board to the very edge without falling. I mean the very edge being exactly at the halfway point on the pvc pipe. Instead of the stoppers, control your board.
You can break things with a rolla bolla! These things may include: glass, bones, teeth, spines, and metal cabinets. When learning to stand on a rolla bolla do these things:
- Get a partner! Have the partner stand behind you with their arms underneath your armpits but not touching you. When you fall, they will spot you and keep you from breaking yourself
- Make sure your feet are at the edges of the board.
- Wear shoes!
- Practice daily in short spurts
- Start with the board touching the ground on one side and about one third of the board on the pipe. Starting by jumping up to a horizontally balanced board is cool and fun but an advanced trick that will land a beginner on their hind side.
The rolla bolla will increase your balance, develop your abs and back, and tighten your buttocks.
Warnings!
- Don’t let people stand to your left or right. I cannot emphasize this enough.
- If you fall…er…when you fall, think of yourself as being on a skate board or inline skate. Protect your wrists! Better to belly flop on concrete than to impact your wrist, elbows and knees
I will happily get together with anyone that wants help learning the rolla bolla.
Today’s Stress Level
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being comatose and 10 being nuclear, I’m about a 14 today.
Can I borrow your mic for Friday?
KNOXVILLE: Do you have a Shure WCM16 Hypercardioid Headworn Condenser Microphone I could borrrow for Friday night? Actually, any head worn countryman style microphone with a T4 connector will work. (Two would be ideal as I have a partner working with me)
Several years ago I loaned my wireless headset microphone to a friend. He crushed it. I thought nothing of it because I figured the expense in my rig was the transmitter and receiver so I’d just buy a new mic. However, I only do 3 or 4 juggling shows a year so there was no rush to find a replacement. I’ve been asked to juggle Friday night at West Park Baptist Church’s fireworks show from 7pm-9pm possibly with a show on the main stage (which would require me being mic’d). Lapel microphones are horrible for juggling and a hand held mic is just comedic. I promise I won’t crush your microphone!
It’s 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Do you know where your mind is?
I dreamed in bits and bytes
Last night in my dreams, I dissected some code for a client to produce a quote for a new project. I awoke muttering, "database abstraction layer." The Matrix has me!
From the mouths of babes
Evan, 4 years old: "Dad, I gotta go!"
In case you are unaware of why you teach your children to walk, it’s so they can run away. Embrace them at every opportunity. There will come a day you have to let them go.
Spidey’s in da house!
Regarding parenting, they don’t tell you these things
Nothing feels better than having a little guy or girl snuggle up in your arms, tuck their head into the crook of your neck, and totally relax as they fall into a deep sleep. The small child totally surrenders themselves. They give their full trust that you will protect them and keep them safe during their slumber. It puts you on top of the world!
Evan must have had a rough night last night at the grandparents. Either he was up late or they had a serious fun at church. Evan drifted off in the car on the way to the grocery. When I picked him up, he had turned into a rag doll. Wiped. Zonked. Gone! Playing in the land of Zs. Snoozeville. I could have skipped the store and gotten by on whatever is in the pantry but instead I parked Evan on my hip, gently rested his head on my shoulder and went into Kroger for a couple of quick items. Standing in the coffee isle grabbing the very last item on my list is when I felt liquid puddling in my flip flop under the heal of my left foot. I glanced down and about the same time I saw something dripping off Evan’s big toe, the left side of my shirt turned very warm…then very wet.
Something happens to the brain when you have children. The processing goes haywire. I don’t think we get dumber but perhaps more reactionary. For instance, in college, when your drunk friend starts to gag, you simply turn them away from you and give encouraging words as they turn into a human geyser. There’s not a parent on the face of the Earth who hasn’t cupped their hands and placed them in front of their child’s mouth in a similar situation. So what happened between college and parenthood?!
There’s four things that go through your head when holding a small child and simultaneously feeling urine run down your leg:
- Is it me?! (no, I’m not that old yet)
- Yuck! Pee anywhere but me! (This is associated with using both hands to hold the child as far away from you as possible. The child remains rag dollishly deep asleep. The urine no longer is disguised by your clothes but instead drips from the child’s ten toes resembling a garden sprinkler.)
- Has anyone noticed? (This is associated with the action of bringing the child back to your hip. Saying a prayer that he’s almost done. And hoping your cotton clothing is very absorbent.)
- Get me the hell out of here! (This is associated with running away from your cart and the puddle on the floor, and bee lining it directly to the restroom where you stand a sleeping child at the urinal while nothing happens.)
If having a child sleep on your shoulder is one of the greatest feelings in the world, having that same child pee on you in aisle 8 of the grocery stores is one of the most disconcerting.
We went to the mall yesterday
Cathy covers it in her introvert/extrovert post.
