FireDrums HLGBCS

HIGH-
The theory from Megs workshop, The Pain Machine and nailing some contact staff on fire while drinking a stolen beer on sat night.
LOW-
What sleeping on the ground did to my back and shoulders.
GOOD-
Amount of talent vs. ego
BANE-
Going home without my Poi, upshot though I get to make new ones.
CRUSH-
I guess I kinda fell in love with Firedrums all over again.
SUPRISE-
BOOZE (so much) vs. Hangover (so little) ratio.

HIGH- Getting to watch Meg in person. I'm still wondering if she uses magnets or glue or smoke and mirrors or what (maybe she has some kinda anti-gravity field she drags around with her). Seeing that so many of the Reno spinners came out. They are always a treat to see and their new toys are always fun to watch (those were some bad ass fire fingers). The redwoods.

LOW- Getting a last minute email from my boss saying a move was rescheduled and I'd have to work until late Friday, not be able to ride up with the Fire Groove people Thursday morning, or help Electra with the gate. Missing a half a day of hanging out and getting reacquainted, a full day of workshops, and a full night of spinning.

GOOD- An amazing drive through the redwoods (and no ticks). Getting one of my staves repaired. Hanging with Shiho and the Rangers.

BANE- Sitting in a fog of smoke while doing safety, pitching my tent on ground with that ever so slight incline that meant sloooowly sliding down to the end of the tent and waking up in a sleeping bag puddle. Not being able to figure out what the trick was to make the coffee maker make coffee.

CRUSH- The usual suspects, plus my spiffy new titanium contact staff. (I don't care if Rif says it's overkill. It's not as if I ever listen to Rif :-P). I love my new staff (thanks again Michael and I'll keep you posted on when you can bring down another one).

SURPRISE- Finding out that titanium is one purty colored metal, not quite as pretty as gunmetal (but close), and finally, finally getting to see first hand why Sky gets that look in his eyes when he talks about Fire Drums.

Since when do you post on Tribe Mr. Kael "I don't post on Tribe" GotRice?
Shoot, I kinda like Meg 2.0.

Anyway, you reminded me of a really funny memory from Saturday night... Goes something like:

Kael: Hey man, what are you up to?
Me: Rollin my face off and havin a blast. How about you?
Kael: I'm going to hang out with a chick back at camp.
Me: Word, well have fun!
Kael: Yeah man, we should like totally get some massage going tomorrow or something.
Me: ...Uh, yeah. Massages are awesome!
Kael: Ok, well, I guess I can give you a massage for a little bit but only for a few minutes.
Me: ...Uh, ok.
:: I sit down and Kael begins rubbing my shoulders ::
-3 seconds later-
Kael: So like, this girl is probably waiting and I should...
Me: Dude! Stop touching me and go get some poontang!

Lol... Definitely belongs in the highlight section of my list.

HIGH- Meg (swoon), seeing all of the Vulcan kids again, helping with the beginner contact class

LOW- being a terrible safety due to smoke in the eyes not meeting EVERYONE that i didnt

GOOD- every nights burn had a different feel and each night got better then the last. Playing greeter for a bit....i think 2 cars came. Pulled off some cool stuff while burning, made some really sweet saves :). My sleeping bag kept me warmt he whole time, didnt even realize it was cold out until i got out haha

BANE- Lots of walking thruout the camp....having to go to your car for something then getting back and remembering you need something else

CRUSH- Wow, there is quite a few of them
.
SUPRISE- that everyone was not up there by thursday night :)

High(s)
-Seeing almost every person I've talked to in my travels who actually came. (props to Conway, Dale, Chad, Brad, Roger and Wildfire crew)
-everyone being sooooo happy, sharing caring and helpful.
- Spinning Doubles with Meg
- Watcing Alien put out that fire on that girls boob
- sunrise on sunday, hanging with Yuta, watching Ima on the bridge

Low
- Too pooped for any workshops
- didn't bring enuff socks (thx Neelam)
-didn't enuff time to learn share with friends


Good
- Seeing all the workshop instructors take responsibility for their own classes, so i didn't need to chase people around
-Cleaning the grill in the lodge, seriously took me back to college.
-no bug bites

Bane
-Cold
-Sitting in the back of sky's van ; )
-missing dinner

Crush
Orange or Pineapple

Suprise
Was glad she came = )

Highs -
~Looking out on the field Thursday night and seeing more contact staffers than I ever have before in person at one time and not being able to figure out who to watch, and knowing that things were just going to get better.
~Getting to play on the death machine with Poki and Bryce.
~Destroying / 'product testing' Trick Concepts new fire contact sphere. So psyched to see where their new model is going.
~Discovering new toys to play with and new ideas for some toys that don't exist yet. (Flow wands, so simple yet so complex and the whole new world of objects on string loops)
~ Being able to introduce Tim to the wonderful addiction of multisphere contact juggling and being able to bask in the joy of his learning experience.


Lows -
~ Feeling like I smoked several packs of cigarettes sunday morning thanks to all the smoke and dust from the nights before.
~ Falling into my old habits of overthinking and not just letting myself free to enjoy and play with no expectations or judgements.
~ Knowing I had to leave the kung fu sabre class because my brain was overflowing with new stuff from Meg's contact staff class and I really needed some time to let it absorb before starting to learn anything new.


Crush - Oh so many happy faces that lite up the night and shone through in the day. There was always one in any direction I looked the whole weekend it hardly seems fair to limit it to a list.

Bane -
~ Trying to get a replacement safety and knowing I was just as guilty other times in the weekend not relieving others soon enough.

~ Not being able to take all the classes I wanted to.
~ My memory for names

Surprises -
~ Actually wanting to pick up poi a couple of times during the weekend, even going so far as pretending I could keep up in Rovo's class.
~ Demonstrating that all object manipulation theory is universal as I helped break down a new move for a new friend on a prop that I don't use.

in that case - my goals were simple: learn, explore, relax...brain melt....

successes all around

Okay, glad Meg recovered from her bran fart.

GOAL -
1, Meet Meg and try to figure out it her staff work involved trick photography. It did not.
2. Add a titanium staff to my little collection.
3. Get my first staff repaired.
4. Spend time with friends.
5. Find inspiration.

All achieved.

High:
The sunrise, so many people dancing to the sun coming up and having a great time, you could see it in the way they moved. Having been able to camp in the redwoods (something I said in really wanted to do this summer) AND getting to spin with a bunch of new friends. Being able to eat hot food at the lodge, thanks to all the chefs and people who helped out in the kitchen. Getting warm by the fire at night and watching people get down. Meeting people from Europe, the East Coast, and other far away places. Our dangerous attempts to angel roll from one person to the next was rather amusing. Teaching people things and learning from them. The conversation about flaming boobie tassles in antispin and isolation at pretty much the only place you could get away with such nonsense. Just spinning and spinning and spinning... oh and when I realized that the ground was soft and that I could just get down and really dancing with my staff while doing some contacty goodness. Having this experience of seeing myself as a grid-like framework for staff manipulation after taking Meg's class, really understanding the importance of every little piece of the puzzle and how everything connects and fits together.. learning so much and generating tons of new ideas after taking Noel's class, making the back of my knee bleed in the process. The car ride home thinking of new motions and paths around the body to see if I can open up and explore, processing everything I learned. Being able to meet the people behind the toys, meeting and being exposed to a lot of people doing contact. Having a damn good time and a really positive and opening experience.

Low:
Being so worn out by sunday that I kinda just stumbled around and went in circles, but then again it was kinda cool because I was on my fourth or fifth wind by then and was way beyond the point of being out of energy. Visiting at one of Randy and Morgan's friends house and falling asleep with hot chai tea on my leg, waking up and telling myself that I can't fall asleep because I would burn myself and that would be bad, then promptly falling asleep and waking up with my leg burning. I was kinda too tired at that point to care though. Not getting to meet everyone! Missing some of the classes because so much other stuff was going on...

Goal:
Wow... where do I begin? Everything on my list to learn was pretty much figured out at least enough to teach myself. I spent a lot of time exploring head spins, managed to a steve to head spin on fire for the first time, achieved my goal of going from a matrix to a head spin back into a matrix a few times.. really cleaned up my matrix, well I hope so, I did a lot of them this weekend (ouch, my sides and back still hurt!) With the help of Meg I landed my first meast matrix, got down the minimal steve with the help of Tankboy, learned tons of new things from everyone. More important than the nonsense above is that I learned how to practice more effectively and gained new insight and understanding of how to take things to the next level.

Bane:
Having a bad cold, I decided I wouldn't let something like being sick stop me from having an incredible experience, not to mention the effort and money I spent to get down there.. so I went anyways and nearly threw up on thursday when I was trying to play.. luckily I ate some bread and medicine and felt much better. On Friday I was pretty much fine, I guess the California weather, positive energy, and spinning were conducive to my health and recovery. The smoke and the dust, it was hard to see what people were doing sometimes because I couldn't even open my eyes.

Crush:
Quite a few actually, but everyone lives so far away!! That one redhead who I talked with for a while.. Seeing all the girls with staves was pretty epic too...

Surprise:
Probably the biggest suprise for me was that I was able to relate to so many people, I tend to be kinda shy but I felt that a lot of connections were made and that it's helped me get over some of my awkwardness. So sorry to anyone I didn't talk to in depth, there's always next year or even likely before that, maybe even burningman provided I make it down this year. Everything exceeded my expectations and within the first 10 minutes of my arrival and seeing all these people from all over the world getting down and playing as soon as I stepped out of the car was absolutely incredible. Within that moment I already decided that I am coming back next year.

POST SOME FD VIDEOS!!

*giggle*

goals: learning things, vacation, good times

yup. got it down.

High
Inspiration. Me and Morgan brought our feather bed. Inspiration. A circle of staff passing. Redwoods. Inspiration. Brandon falling asleep and spilling his tea all over himself. So many people doing it, making their living with their love. Inspiration.

Low
Too short, i needed at least a week. The effect of wind on a dozen campfires.

Goals
I finally got fishtails. I wanted to lock down matrices, but hasn’t happened yet. I didn’t even bring out my doubles...

Bane
My lack of self confidence and my hyper self consciousness really block me in developing connections and in letting myself flow and shine. One day i won’t be scared of you all. maybe.

Crush
Nick, Rif, Brandon, Meg, Poki, Noel and most of the rest of you too.

Surprise
that i could still be awed by poi spinning.