Trying Not To Hurt Myself

If you want to reach me and see anything newer than the last post (2004?), go to http://www.jayoconnor.com

out to dinner

We're on our way out to Buca in a few, but before I go....

today was all about working choreography on the wires. It was insanely difficult. We tend to take our feet and gravity for granted, and when its not there, our bodies have to readjust. Mine did, everyone else's had to as well.

I got to rappell pink panther style (upside down) between the wire fighting. It was ok. If I had better control to keep myself upside down, it would've been better....oh well.

I'll be home on Sunday, ready to eat and get my spot back on Ocean's 12.

Movie Time

Today was wall running, Australian rappelling (facing down and walking down buildings) and more cool wire stuff.

flip

spinning fun

more spinning

Wire Work!!

Finally, the stuff I was really looking forward to. Martial arts and wire work.

We started the day learning choreography for a Wu-Shu fight and a small sword fight. Totally great, as I love doing the flashy glitzy martial arts stuff (even if my form isn't right for actual self defense and there's no real power behind my moves).

After lunch, we got the wires. My first rotation was to do some of the Wu Shu choreo on the wires. This is new, and while I'm sure I can get used to liking it, I used to have an advantage over some other people because I could jump high. That's no longer there, and now I need to rely on having balance. Do'h. I have video of this on someone else's camera down the hall and will try to get that online for y'all.

Next up was general wire work -- flips, small choreo, and running and landing. Tons of fun. I actually had to allow myself to get into it after a while, cause I was so amazed at the idea of me flying that I was stiff as a board. I got Dave Boushey (head of the school) to come over and kick a barrel out from under me and deliver me one of his "picture punches." For those who know him, you'll understand that, if not, its really not important. Again, I have video, I need to get my butt down the hall and get it.

Next -- and i'm not happy about it -- single rope rappelling. Single rope has you go fast, and its supposed to heat up a lot quicker. We did one of just going down and another "the drop" -- where we just jump off the ledge then slow ourselves down on toward the bottom. I'm not sure what it is about the single rope, but I LOVED it (in comparison to me not liking most rappelling beforehand). This was, again, free rappelling -- this time off about a 40 foot drop. I didn't get to do the upside down sliding (think pink panther) because there wasn't enough time, but I will before the week's up.

for now...Leland on the wires.

day one done

Well, technically day two. This was the first day of doing rather than watching, though. They split us up in three groups of 8, and sent us on our rotation. Being in group 1, I will be able to explain that more clearly.

First up -- Rappelling
We started on the outside of the airplane hanger, rappelling down the wall. This was fairly easy, especially after free-rappelling before (see last year). Getting over the edge was a gigantic pain in the ass, however. That hour flew by quickly.

Rotation two -- Fastrope
I don't know if there's an easier was of explaining this other than when SWAT and military go down a rope outside of a helicopter quickly. Both hands and both feet are used to create a small amount of friction so that you go slightly slower than gravity, and more importantly are able to slow yourself down before the "splat" of the body hitting ground. We started off doing this off a ladder, getting used to the positioning and "locking out", so that we completely stop without much effort (wrapping the rope and stepping on it), then we worked on the sliding.

Rotation three -- Ratchet
I'd done this before (again, see last year), and I loved it. I had a problem of not being not animated enough last time. My goal, fix it (duh). And I did! My body was EVERYWHERE. I may have even been too animated. Whatever, I can find balance if I need to, but it was a lot more fun than being stiff (it was hard for me to focus on moving when its happening). We did the simple pulls from the back. Ass kicking. That's the only thing I can say about this rotation.

Lunch
Holy crap! I can eat again....lovely lovely food. There's a pretty good deli where I got a macaroon the size of my fist for a dessert. Nice.

Rotation one (after lunch)
This was free-rappelling. I had trouble letting my body be loose, and I looked a bit odd going down. We did it standard and upside down.

Fastrope
Now we're going off a landing about 25 feet up. Not horribly high, but still ok. I thought that fastrope was going to be insanely hard, and it really wasn't, which pleased me in all kinds of ways. We also worked on the ranger stops (which is when the body is in an L shape). Then, we went fast!! Awesome.

Ratchet
This was a bit less easy, as the earlier ones were straight back, these were over shoulder, twisting, and general rag-doll type of things that were going to happen to the flyers body. More fun than watching penguins dance in unison. I have video of H-Bomb (a wrester girl named Helene -- HBomb is her wrestling name), and there's video of me on someone else's camera doing cartwheels in the air (i had no idea what was going on -- but everyone was laughing when i got down). On the upside, I heard it was after the initial part, so that's ok, because the real shot would've been over by then.

I now present to you the H-Bomb.


And to put icing on the cake of a good day, Ocean's 12 called me to do extra work. When I told them that I was working out here, they said "no problem, call us when you get in town and we'll get you something else." WHOOOO HOOOO! I wanna get hit by Don Cheadle, or Ving Rhames, or Matt Damon....i don't care.

I fixed the above link for the airplane photos. Whoops.

13 hours of sleep and a couple pieces of sushi

I feel good. A bit of a headache (possibly from sleeping so much or not eating much). The store down the road is fully stocked with sushi, so I was able to get some vegetables and rice in bit size packages.

Today we start. There are 8 stations setup for us, 5 kinds of common wire rigs (simple, with spreader bars, etc), a rappelling station, fastrope, and rachet (jerk harness).

I'm gonna shower and get some breakfast.

To everyone reading this, thanks. There are a lot more than last year. In case anyone was wondering, I did get somewhere on my program on the plane. I also snapped a few photos.

i'm doing better now, for those who were interested. Today was pretty much lecture and demonstration (we didn't do anything)

bad shape

I think I have food poisoning. I thought that 4 times overnight. 4 times waking up, going to the bathroom and being forced to think that.

let me rephrase that, 5 times.

This is going to be great

I just got here and already I know its going to be fantastic. I'm back in the same hotel, with a lot of the same people. Keith, Vicki, and Justin are back. Two others from chicago are here (including Leland -- 13 years at medieval times experience).

Wow. I'm excited as can be (but that might be partially sugar related).

7am, and I'm tired

I'm at Midway. its 7. My flight is at 835. This place smells like cinnamon buns and coffee.

Enough choppy sentences. I'm here early, and without much of usefulness to do (with the exception of finish writing a program that I started last time that I was on a place (in August). At Target yesterday, I saw some headphones that looked nice. They're Sony ones that look like earbuds with wraparound earpieces. My first experience with them is that they suck. I think that someone, at some point, and backed by some doctor decided that the traditional earbud is bad, because while these are similar, they face the front of my ear, rather than inside (as I'm accustomed to).

There are a lot of yawning people in this place, but its not nearly as full as I'm used to (flying out of Ohare). Somehow I feel like I'm betraying what I know and love, but in all reality I'm not a frequent flyer, and the big flirt of Chicago's airports probably doesn't even notice that I'm missing.

These headphones are downright eerie. I keep peering up to make sure that no one else is listening to the same Basement Jaxx that I am.

While the thought of Potbellies is appealing, as it always is, I have early morning/hangover stomach. I didn't drink at all last night, so its only the early morning one, but the feeling's the same.

I need food.