Juggling Tricks

So here is one of those 'nobody really cares' posts but I'll post it anyway cause it's my blog and you can't stop me!

I've recently been working on a few club moves and made a little progress. I was having trouble throwing more than 1 double throw in a row, but can now do a 3 club flash and continue juggling. Not exactly a killer move but it is at least progress. I also have been working on body throws with one club trying to get the throw correct. I can generally throw a reverse body throw (back to front) and last night actually caught a regular body throw (front to back) without the club smacking me in the head or flying away from me and crashing into something. I am also able to hit a 3 ball 3-up 180 pretty regularly now too. I've attempted a 3 up 360, but they are still not working. I need to spot my props better cause I still get a little dizzy after the spin. Oh well, small steps.

Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager

Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager (episode 1)

I was winding down after a few hours of programming last night and I ran across this video at YouTube. Of course I have always loved Star Wars, so I love things like this and other fan videos like Troops. This one is great; Chad Vader, Darth Vader's less-talented, less-charismatic younger brother. Enjoy.

Vova, Olga, Jason and the WJF in Time Magazine

So I guess the title leaves little to explain, but in next week's Time magazine (July 24th,2006) there is an article about Vova and Olga Galchenko, with references to Jason Garfield and the WJF. Here is a link to the story online

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1214960,00.html

This is some great publicity for the Galchenkos and also for the WJF.

You can check out more about the Galchenkos at http://www.galchenko.com

and more about the WJF at http://www.thewjf.com

Google Local Ads?

I was skimming over some videos at youtube and saw a ad for a candidate for a judge. I thought that was kind of strange especially when I saw it was for St. Charles, MO. The video had nothing to do with judges or St. Louis. So I wonder now if google is taking IP address location as well as page content into consideration when serving up adsense ads. Since my IPs are out of Collinsville, IL which is pretty close to the St. Louis area. Very interesting. I wonder how far Google will be able to push this trend to serve local advertising content down to the end user. So those targerted ads just got a little more targeted.

The problem I see with this is for people like me who live out in the sticks. My IP addresses are served out of a city that is 30 minutes from here. So, my 'local' advertising will be just St. Louis based. I think until Google can pin me down to a closer radius, local advertising will only work for people who live close to where their IPs are registered.

Digg This Entry

3 Ball - 3-up 180

Well I took a break while programming tonight and had a short practice. In which I finally started hitting some 3 ball 3-up 180s. I had done it once before and was not able to replicate it, but tonight I did it 15-20 times. Something clicked. I think a major part goes to a tip Jason Garfield gave me on how not to get dizzy while doing 360s. He said that 'spotting' the balls was very important on giving you a focus point. So instead of throwing the 3 balls, turning and hoping they hit the right spot, I followed them through the turn, not only was I not dizzy, I could see where the balls were (imagine that). This may sound like common sense to some, but it made all the difference. Now that I can do the 180, its time to make that 360 work.

5 balls is still troubling me, I still need to put a bunch of work into it.

We Have a Winner!

Well, its official. I just checked the Barterbee.com website and my 3rd bee video "Bee Checks the Mailbox" has won the 2nd round of the Barterbee "Be the Bee" contest. So what do I get for this accomplishment? Well, I let my wife pick the prize, telling her if I won, she could have it. Well she chose the iPod Nano 2gb. I hope she likes it. Anyway, I guess I can call myself a prize winning animator now (or something like that).

You can watch the video here

I owe some thanks to Digg.com and Diggnation since it was the Diggnation podcast where I first heard about Barterbee. Thanks guys!

There is also some cool news coming up as I have begun working with the World Juggling Federation on some media projects. I'll write more about this later.

Another Barterbee Entry

Well, after thinking for a while, I came up with this entry for round 2 of the Barterbee.com be the bee contest.