A Day In The Life Of A Peanut Butter Cup

THE WORLD JUGGLING FEDERATION
Day Zero:
The day before the convention starts, and the day of my flight. The 16th. Well, that was an interesting day to say the least. My flight was scheduled at 7:00 PM EST so I'd already be arriving in Vegas late as hell (scheduled for 11:00 PM local time) but all of the sudden in the middle of the day, it starts to snow like MAD. Which is usually one of my 5 favorite things that happen to me, but today, it meant that the flight WAS running on schedule, but after we boarded the plane we had to get de-iced, and there was only ONE station and three planes ahead of us. So that meant we were sitting on the runway for at least an house before we were even cleared for takeoff. Once we got in the air there were absolutely no problems though. Even the guy who I was sitting next to on the plane found me and the whole World Juggling Federation thing to be interesting, and he was asking a bunch of questions during the flight about it. So that was good and cool.

Day One:
So then we move to day one of the convention. I start off as anyone would, meeting the other jugglers I haven't met yet (Lauge, Sondre, Steve, John Nations, Fowler), saying hi to the old ones I'd already met (Freddy Sheed, Vova, Thomas, Joe Showers, Rob Crites), and being greeted by jugglers who I have no idea who they were. God I love being popular within the community. So, the first day I spent mostly catching up with everyone and preparing for prelims, but that happens later. In the meantime, there was a very early game of combat, and in a MASSIVE field of people who were way better than me (including Joe Showers, Dan Eaker, Joelle, Laura Ernst, etc) I won two games. The first of which was awesome because I ended up having to go one on one with Eaker, and after I made 3 dodges, he dropped after attacking, so he was behind me and I didn't see him drop, but I immediately knew I was because right in front of me, in the most sincere and shocked tone I've ever heard in someones voice, Joe Showers says very slowly, "I don't believe it..." epic win for the massive underdog!

Also before the prelims started, I had been meaning to buy or at least try the new Play One Piece clubs, and I'd waited to buy them at WJF5 because I figured that Jason would have ALL the colors available instead of just the red, white, and blue available online. Of course that was not the case and I had to get 3 conformist white clubs, but I'm planning on getting one of my artist friends to draw all over them in marker sometime soon, because the clubs really do well with sharpies. One thing I LOVE about these new clubs, is that they bounce on the end SO well, I'm sure someone will have a video up within the month of them qualifying a force bounce cascade with three... They're ok clubs, and I'll have a full review next week because this is already going to be an ENORMOUS post.

So. The time comes for the preliminaries of all competitions. Luckily for me the intermediates were last at 5:00, so I had plenty of time to warm up. For what good it did though. I'm not sure what it was, but absolutely EVERYONE, especially me, bombed their prelim routines. I swear noone was able to put a full routine down with any less than 10 drops. I still have no idea what happened, but out of five competitors that tried, I found out the next day, I was one of the 4 that qualified for the competition! That made me just so happy.

And to end the day, I went for my first meal in Vegas, yeah, I didn't eat dinner last night, breakfast, or lunch today. Of course when I realize this, it's already past midnight and all the food places are closed save for one. Kady's Coffee Shop, the GODSEND for everyone at the convention, a burger joint open 24/7. The deals were pretty good too,well, for Vegas anyways. $13 for a bacon cheeseburger with fries, I'll tell you I had probably one of those every two days while I was there, but that's enough about day one, let's talk about day TWO!!!!

Day Two:
So moving on, the next day goes by, and after my complete bombshell of a routine yesterday I decide to run through it a couple dozen times, and guess what, it makes absolutely no difference. I still can't get through it with less then 6 drops. ArGH! Well, all is not lost, at least 3 of my moves are back to being 100% sure things, my 4 ring 2up180 connected to 2up360, and my one handed overheads with 4. But those have been sure things for the past month, so I'm still stressing over it.

Now, one of the big differences between yesterday and today is that I actually remembered that I was hungry, because there wasn't much I needed to do in terms of what was scheduled, so I was asking if anyone wanted to go to Subway across the street next to Circus Circus, and the only response I get is "Too expensive". Wait, Subway? Too Expensive? Alarms start going off inside my cranial cavity, and after 4 responses of too expensive, I ask how much it is for a foot-long over there, they say "Ten Dollars". My jaw drops like an old woman's groceries after she'd just walked into the house and saw her youngest daughter banging her youngest grandson. I can't believe I just wrote that, but it's the only sentence that emphasizes properly how stunned I was. I decide that I HAVE to go see for myself, that and I was already craving Subway because I hadn't had any in over 4 days, and find myself absolutely amazed to see that they were telling the truth. I walk up, order a foot-long Meatball Marinara on Italian herb and cheese, and I say it straight to the cashier as I'm paying, "If this isn't the best damned meatball sub I've ever had, I'm not coming here again for the rest of the week". I didn't get another meatball sub all week. Not to say it wasn't bad, but it was nowhere near worth ten bucks.

So after I get back from lunch, I see someone on their laptop, and after realizing last night that the internet costs 10 dollars a DAY when you get it in your hotel room, I ask him whether it's free here. To my amazement, IT IS! He tells me the password to the WJF5 network, and away I go, or so I thought. Turns out that the router was being used to spur multiple networks or something, because the connection would be there one minute, and gone the next. And when it was on, it was slow as sin. ARGH! Oh well, what am I to expect, besides, I'm not here for internet, I'm here to juggle! So I promptly go over to The New Steve, who is practicing ring passing with Ville I think, and right as he's done, I take over.

If I've not said this before, let me say it now. I LOVE RING PASSING! I love passing rings more than I love rings solo and club passing combined! It's the easiest to do high numbers with, and the easiest to control. I love it. So when I start passing with GoHeads, I'm just so happy about it. We start off simple, 6 ring ultimate sync. Just to warm up a bit and get used to each other, then out of nowhere we both get the idea at the same time to do 360's in the middle of the ultimate sync pattern, which was great, and we decide to jump straight up to 8. Screw the weird odd numbered ultimates patterns of one person crossing throws the other doing outsides, we just go straight for the easy sync stuff. We do 8, again, like it's nothing, but it does take a little bit of dialing in because when done in sync, it's 4 rings apexing at the same time in the same space, so it's a bit tricky. But it was remarkably easy, so I say, "Screw it, let me set up the camera and let's go for 10!" "Sure" he says, and we're off trying to qualify ten ring ultimates. I take a moment to think about what I'm doing, 10 ring ultimates! I've never done that many balls with another person in 2 count! We go for it, and it only takes us a dozen attempts to qualify it on camera clean finish. Can you say epic?

What came next, oh yes! As I'm already done the most awesome thing I can do today, it's time to hang out with Freddy Sheed and the Gangster Gang (redundant, ain't it?) and he once again pulls out a Mountain Dew and thanks me for getting him addicted to them. My pleasure. And then all of the sudden they start talking about how Penn Jillette and the Passing Zone were here this morning and were not going to come in again. The realization hits me and if my life were an anime, my face would become white with a crooked Wario-mustache-like line going across it in blue with a rather large sweat-drop. I had missed one of the things I regretted most after wising up after WJF3, which was that at WJF3, I saw Penn Jillette and the Passing Zone in the gym, but because I was still celebrity-shy, I didn't talk to any of them, and I really regretted it. So here I am now, one of my goals for WJF5 crushed, which was to meet Penn, the man I think should be president in 2012, and my longtime idol (the other being Adam Savage). Well, at least nothing worse than that could happen.

Day Three:
So, since yesterday was such a downer, let's start with the good stuff. Today was the day of my competitions, the intermediate competitions. I am stressing out over it so much I nearly popped a vessel, and I'm not joking. I already knew from yesterday and the prelims that the best I could POSSIBLY do was third, unless everyone dropped all of their tricks and I had a miracle run, because Daniel Eaker is at least 3 times as good as I am, and Cameron Ritter is twice as good. So it's between me and Sondre already for who gets third place, and though his main area is balls, he's still got me covered with rings fairly well. But besides that fact, what lead to my barely-not-a-heart-attack was the fact that so far, in all of my practice sessions in the gym, I had not gotten a run I could be proud of in any way. That and especially going out third and watching Daniel and Cameron go through and do a great job with their routines, I was standing backstage absolutely petrified.

So the time comes for me to go out, they call my name, and I'm walking out thinking "I have no chance", and then it hits me, "I have no chance." I realize in that moment as I'm walking out that I know I've got no shot at winning any of the prize money for first or second, and all I'd get for third is a medal, so in that moment as I warm up in the minute it takes the judges to get ready that this is just to show what I can do, and how much I've improved since last year (which is a HELL of a lot, watch the 2 routines one after another when this DVD gets done). So this weight has been lifted, but I've now got this new weight of "Now show them what you can do", and I nearly have a stroke.

Those three minutes after the judges say "ready" were an absolute BLUR. I started off with my 6 ring pattern and qualified it on the second try, then I moved on and made my 5 ring full reverse on the second attempt. Those two moves were EXACTLY what I wanted to hit and could NOT hit for the past 3 days, and now suddenly my brain is thinking about that, meanwhile my hands are continuing to go through the routine, and I'm just standing there on the stage watching myself doing 4 ring overheads, flat fronts, 2up180 to 2up360, and the whole lot of my routine. It was so surreal, and all that was going through my mind was "holy crap, I'm actually DOING IT." And then the crowd of jugglers starts applauding as I enter probably the best 4 ring one handed overheads pattern I've ever done in my life, and I just decided in that moment to keep it going for as long as I could, and I double qualified it without even shuffling my feet across the floor. Of course, right at the end of the routine, as I get to the tricks that I hadn't practiced, my ADHD hits and I, like I predicted months ago, forgot what move came next. I ask the judges with my routine form what came next and just as I hear the move that I want to do next, I hear the other juggles table go "Time", which was good I guess, because those other moves were my real high risk ones. I acknowledge the audience and gather my equipment, wishing Sondre good luck as I pass him on the way out to backstage. The second I get backstage I collapse from joy.

I think the best thing about it though, was after I gathered myself up and went back out into the audience to watch everyone else, everyone that was near me, including Dietz and Garfield, told me I did an awesome job of it, and I am forced to reply "I'm just SO HAPPY! The one time it mattered and I stomped it!". Absolutely the second highlight of the convention for me. The biggest highlight will come later.

I'm really tempted to just end on that epic note and move on to day four, but that's not the end of it. Freddy Sheed, man, Freddy. He was having EXACTLY the same problem I was having. Up until now, all of his moves that he was practicing in the gym were only being made 50% of the time at BEST, and he's really pushing himself this year, going for the win in Intermediate Clubs. I'm not sure whether the god of juggling was looking down on all of us during these few hours or what, but exactly the same thing happened to him. He somehow pulled it all together and didn't miss a damn trick his entire routine. Of course, his reaction when he got backstage after was much better, as where I took the introverted approach and just kind of broke down into happiness, he let it all out. Screaming and doing laps around the bleachers, hugging and high-fiving anyone withing 18 feet of him, which was really funny and awesome to watch. I can only hope Jason got it on one of the three cameras there.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!!! Thomas and a bunch of the other advanced competitors, after the intermediates competition was over, decided it would make an awesome shot to try and get a bunch of them doing a synchronous DB97531. I was the one with the best camera available, so I was sitting there watching them just try this insane thing for about a half hour. Eventually they gave up on it, except for Daniel Eaker. Of course, he gave up on doing a synchronized DB9, but instead opted to try and be the first person ever to do 2 connected Db97531's. After about a half hour and coming INSANELY close, he was getting tired, and made one to a series of multiplexes back to a qualify. He took that as "good enough", and stopped for the day. Of course this was around midnight, so we all decided that was enough, and went to sleep.

Day Four:
So let us begin this new tale by having me say that if you thought yesterday was awesome, YOU'RE RIGHT! But today was almost just as good. Why? Because the advanced competitions were today, but that's the end, let me take you back to the beginning...

So I wake up late, because I had stayed up the night before VERY late, not wanting that awesome day to end, and I realize right off the bat that I'm hungry. Now, over the course of the past three days I've only eaten at three places. Kady's, Subway, and the expensive (but great pizza) pizza place in the same building as the Subway. So I decided to see what else there was in the Riviera in terms of food. There was an Asian rest, which I passed up, an Italian Place, which I saw was WAY too expensive, a snack bar which everyone was saying not to eat at, and finally the sportsbook. I figured they'd probably have the best selection of food that I like, seeing as how it's the mecca for guys. So I walk in there, and starting me right in the face on the menu is a 16 inch NY style pizza for $11. The best deal in Vegas, I swear, I bought it without even looking at the ones in the heater where slices were taken out of, and then I look at the actual pies and my eyes become a glow. They actually look like authentic NY pizza! Cheese going all the way to the edge of the crust (on the outside), thin but not crisp, and with enough cheese to choke yourself on. I am so happy! It sounds like I'm overplaying it, but ten minutes later when I was having it, the looks were deceiving, it was even better than it looked, which was amazing.

"But Reeses, you just skipped something, doesn't it take 15 minutes to MAKE the pizza?" Indeed it does. "So what did you do in the meantime?" Well, let me tell you my little friend, I went and gambled for the first time in Vegas. Wasn't really anything special, I just went to the video poker machine that was inside the sportsbook. Nothing special about it, I just slipped five bucks in, and went for the deck with Jokers and Jacks or Better. I place max bet, and the very first hand I get. Crap, absolute crap. The only thing in there worth keeping was a king, so I hold the king and hit deal. Two more kings and a Joker pop up for four of a kind. That's worth $25 on max bet! I immediately go "Cash Out! Thank you Riviera for the 2 free pizza's!" and proceed to not gamble again the entire convention.

So, after that whole thing happens, it's time for the advanced competition to take place. I really do have a hard time remembering what happened because I was just in a constant state of jaw-on-the-floor amazement over what was being done. I just remember it was some of the most incredible stuff I'd ever seen in my life. Dietz doing 8 ball tricks in his regular routine, Vova doing 7 clubs 360's in his regular routine, and Arash doing connected 540's like they were nothing! Oh, and I can't forget about Sergei doing exactly the same routine as in 2004 and still blowing mine and everyone elses' mind with it. Besides that though, the side competitions were just as amazing, especially seeing Vova get over 100 catches in 7 club isolated on the first try and just being entirely nonchalant about it. Good God, it almost made me want to stop juggling right then and there, but hey, I have to keep going for next year right? As for what else everyone did, I'm not saying. Why? A combo of "I can't remember" and "I don't want to spoil it for you when you watch the DVD".

Afterwards, as is the new tradition at the WJF, I began standing clubs on their ends and tried making towers with clubs. I made a devil stick tower for the first time using 3 sticks and 2 rings, of course it was really unstable and I barely managed to get a picture before it came down. I realized the new Play One Piece clubs are absolutely GORGEOUS for stacking because the knobs and the heads are flat as anything, so I was able to get a 4 layer tower up before running out of the plays and having to use my fish (which are slightly warped) to try and get the 5th layer. of course out of the 4 tries I made, I couldn't get more than 2 clubs up on the 5th layer before it came down, but oh well, at least I got a good 4 layer tower standing long enough to get pictures. Here's to getting 5 layers again at WJF6!

Day Five:
So, day five, Sunday, the day I decided had the stuff that I would miss the least in order to go see Penn and Teller at the Rio. But before any of that happens, I'm in the gym hanging out instead of jumping around Las Vegas like I should be. Of course, it turned out to be one of the best unintended consequences of a decision the entire convention. Why? Daniel Eaker.

So, I already explained how two days ago he had tried and failed to do 2 rounds of DB97531 back to a cascade for a qualify, well, this morning he decided to try again. And once again, I was the person holding the camera, well, actually laying on the ground next to the camera mounted on a mini-tripod, but you get the point. The point is, camera on and zoomed out properly, he does it! He actually does it. I was absolutely amazed. Daniel Eaker became the first person ever to do 2 rounds of DB97531 to a qualify, and I am the only person that got it on tape. So happy was I, of course he was happier because he was the one to DO it, and his reaction was the best I'd ever seen. Drops to the floor in happiness, then rolls on his body across the floor, it looks awesome. He's uploaded the video to youtube, so here it is right here:

Besides that though, right after I caught that on film, I went over to the desk because I heard the scores were posted for the earlier competitions, and I looked eagerly because I thought I might have done well enough to beat at least Sondre, but nope. I placed 4th in ring intermediates, by 1 point. I got a .6 and Sondre got a 1.6, hey, didn't bother me, because I did what I wanted to do and I made it into the competition and on to the DVD, so it really didn't bum me out too much. Of course I then began thinking about why that happened, I had some connections in my routine, and I didn't drop more than 6 times throughout the entire routine. Then it started to come to me why I didn't do so well. I probably could have beaten Sondre if it weren't for two things.

First, I had a move in my routine that was one of the high risk ones I was going to do last, and I tried it and it didn't work. My 4 ring cross-armed columns, which everyone told me after was really pretty. I was originally planning a month ago to do just 4 or 6 catches back into the basic pattern, but when the whole "revised moves" thing came in, I saw I had to do 8 catches back into a fountain. So I tried 3 times during my routine and didn't get it once, which cost me at least a full point. So that alone if I didn't go for it MIGHT have won me the competition. But then I realized that another move I had done may or may not have counted for anything. My 4 ring sync flat-fronts. When I do them, I always do them crossing, but one of the interesting things that happened when I was doing my routine was that as I was doing that move, about 4 or 6 catches in, the rings stopped crossing and went into a regular fountain. I decided at the time to go with it and made 3 more sets of catches in a non-crossing fountain back into the basic pattern. Sounds great right? Well, For that move to count for anything I had to get at least 8 catches back into the basic pattern, now here's the thing, when I saw the rings stop crossing, my brain lost count of how many catches I'd gotten, so I'm pretty sure that I didn't do enough of either move (crossing or not crossing) to count for any points. I'm not 100% sure about that, so I'll have to wait for the DVD to see if I screwed it up or not, but if I did screw it up, that's definitely what cost me third place. So overall, I wasn't surprised after thinking about it, but I wasn't unhappy either, because I was still psyched just to get a lot of the hard moves I wanted to get in my routine.

Ok, so now that I'd done all that, it was time for me to go to the Rio and see Penn and Teller! Something I'd been wanting to do ever since I realized I missed seeing the show at WJF3. So now this next story might sound a bit mundane and like I'm overstating it, but that's just because you don't know EXACTLY how much I admire Penn Jillette. I already said that he's my choice for the next president of the US in 2012, but let me explain why. He is the person that introduced me to what I REALLY am. A Libertarian. He was the first person I'd ever seen (either in real life, or on TV and radio) that REALLY stood up for exactly the same things that I believe in, and it's too complicated for me to explain, but you get what I mean, I think. I had always thought I was the only person who thought the way I did that was brave enough to think about voicing the way I think and trying to convince people, until I found out what "Penn and Teller's Bullshit" really was. So with that in mind, Penn means almost as much to me as my family does (granted, in a different way, but the same level). It's complicated, just let me say Penn is my idol.

So with that out of the way, I went off to catch the tram, to the shuttle to the Rio, and I stumble in the street and scrape my knees pretty good, but I'm in a good mood, so I just walk it off on my way to the tram. I haven't tripped in a while, and strangely enough, it's something that should be experienced once in a while to remind yourself of what it's like and everything that it means (kind of like how I believe it's important to accidentally cut yourself or burn yourself every now and then, again, it's complicated). So let's stop with these random half-deep-thoughts and move on to the Rio. Damn, I can't seem to tell a story today.

The Rio. Well, first off, that place is really confusing in how it's laid out, and to make matters worse, the funky digital touchscreen map doesn't work worth crap, so I just ask my way around until I find the box office and pick up my pre-paid ticket. So then I ask my way around again until I reach the lobby of the Penn and Teller Theater. Guess who I see there, none other than famous juggling kilt-man Crizzly! I greet him again and exchange a joke or two about how this was the only time that we could actually go see the show thanks to the WJF schedule, and about how he thought he saw a few others from the WJF at this show, but I was really the only one. So I buy a few things at the store, and we go into the lobby and find our seats. The pre-show is cool, just kinda sittin watching Penn and Mike Jonez playing Jazz on stage far-right, but the real show absolutely blew that out of the water, it was AWESOME.

I was really just expecting to see a bunch of routines I'd already seen done in person, like the card-trick drowning tank, broken bottle juggling, Blast-Off, needles, etc. But I was shocked at how much they did that I'd never seen before from them. Of course they did a few things I knew about, such as the Bullet Catch as a closer and the Burning Flag routine, but there were only about 3. One act that REALLY got my attention was Memorization by Penn. The act is an old vaudeville style act, where Penn rigs a nail-gun so that it will fire in a set sequence of nail-air-nail-nail-air, and he goes through the act explaining it and it's history as he goes through the sequence of shooting nails into a board, then putting the gun to his hand and shooting air. It was awesome. There was Teller's new ball and hoop act which was absolutely INSANE to watch, and even more insane to try and figure out.

So the show ends and at the end of every show, Penn and Teller always go out and do photo-ops with the audience members. I knew this beforehand, and when I saw Crizzly in the lobby and talked to him, we decided to be smart and wait until everyone else had finished talking to Penn so that we might be able to have a bit of a longer conversation with him, little did we know how well that plan would work. The crowd around Penn diminishes to just 1 person, and after hanging out with Teller for a few minutes, me and Crizzly walk up to Penn and say "Hey Penn, we're coming over from the World Juggling Federation", he says in a very direct tone "GREAT! You wanna come backstage with me and hang out?"

We looked at each other, paused, and then eagerly nodded. So he leads us back into the Theater lobby and then through the door labeled "Emergency Exit" and through the backstage area to the Monkey Room. He tells us to go ahead and make ourselves comfortable in there and says that he'll be right back after he warms up his dinner, telling Mike Jones that "We've got a couple of jugglers here today". So we go right into the Monkey Room and right there sitting across the couch from us is Mike Jones and someone else that I didn't know offering us sodas from the mini-fridge. Which is fairly awesome by itself. Now, let me take a moment to describe the Monkey Room, which is I think one of the most awesome rooms besides any major room from any of the later Star Trek series'. Basically, the room is filled with memorabilia posters about the history of Penn and Teller and even the Asparagus Valley Cultural Society, and around ALL of that, the room walls are covered with fake foliage and basically jungle stuff. Then all the lamps, fixtures, and furniture, had some sort of monkey on them, and the metal monkeys like the ones on the tops of the lamps had cigarettes in the mouth, because Penn always says "There's nothing funnier than a smokin monkey!", quoting the Marx brothers.

So we are just sitting there, and in walks Penn with his tray of chicken, and just starts asking us all these questions about who's doing what and how's Vova doing, and has Thomas gotten better at English, ad all these other things. So me and Crizzly just start rambling off about what's been happening at the convention over the past few days, and about how Daniel Eaker was the first person to ever do (on video) 2 rounds of DB97531, which Penn was just amazed at, as was every other juggler whom anyone told. Of course, this starts him on a little bit of a trip down memory lane about how in his day, when he was at a convention he saw someone break the world record by juggling 6 clubs; and how even the person that did it, when asked what he though the most that would ever be done was, he very seriously replied "six". And as he's going down this trip and making this monologue, I'm just sitting there and I have this sudden realization, that I am sitting here with Penn Jillette, literally right next to me, eating chicken and talking about juggling, backstage in a room that probably has only been seen by the staff and by other slightly famous people. It just absolutely blows my mind.

So after we talk about nothing but juggling and what it means to Penn and what it is now, he finishes his chicken and says that he's got to get home now. So he walks us out backstage, shakes our hands, and tosses us DVD's and novels and other stuff. And as we say goodbye and walk back out into the lobby, I just can't help realizing how calm and actually there I was. This has been a HUGE problem for me in the past, which was anytime I was around anyone who is famous in any way, I would always choke up and not be able to even continue a conversation, much less start one and contribute something insightful to one. But there I was talking juggling with Penn better than I ever did in any episode of JoJ, and just enjoying myself, like it would have been with any other person that wasn't famous. And that blew my mind just as much as the fact that I was backstage hanging out with Penn, was because I really didn't think I had it in me.

Of course, once we got out of the lobby and it was just me, Crizzly, and his fiance walking through the Rio, I couldn't help but just stare into his face and go "I, am the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet. If it weren't for you being here, I would have probably never got backstage being just one person. Talk about right god-damned place, right god-damned time!" and he's looking me right in the eyes, and he understands PERFECTLY, because I think he feels the same way, that if I weren't there, he probably would have never gotten backstage either, and he just says "Yeah. I know..." and then we both laugh about it. Meanwhile, you couldn't wipe the smile off my face, even if you used a sledge-hammer.

He realizes that he's forgotten his fiance's scarf back in the monkey room, so he says he'll meet me back in the Convention floor. So I'm off to ponder and let sink in, all that has just happened on the tram ride back to the Riviera. And at that moment, on the tram thinking about what had happened, I realized that I never got a picture with Penn. But I could care less, I got him to sign the program, and because I have a story I'll be telling for years...

Day Six:
Well, after last night, I decided that since we came back late (around midnight) that I would stay up all night to try and reset my sleep schedule, because for the past five days at the convention, I'd been going to sleep at 5 AM and waking up at 2 PM, and if I did that again tonight, it meant I would miss being part of the combat tournaments. I figured I wouldn't be able to fall asleep anytime before 5 AM anyways because I wasn't tired at all, to counter your argument of "Well why didn't you go to sleep early". So the nigh goes through and here I am in the open juggling space on the couch, catching up on all the stuff online that I can in the moments when the router decided to work. So it's now 7 AM Las Vegas time and my plan is going well, except for the fact that now I'm laying down on the couch with my eyelids halfway closed, and when that happens, you know what happens next. I fell asleep, but not only did that mean that I broke that rule (don't fall asleep in the convention space), but I also took my shoes off in the dazed moments before I fell asleep (footwear must be worn at all times when in convention space), AND it also means that I didn't get to shower (must not smell offensive during the convention). Great, so I just accidentally broke 3 rules of the convention at once, and I only woke up once everyone had already gotten into the convention space and the combat tournaments were about to begin. At least nobody sharpie'd up my face.

So after that, me and Steve, doing so well with the ring passing the other day, decided that since we're pretty much the only 2 people at the convention that were ANY good with Cigar Boxes, we were going to try and come up with a few new box passing patterns. After about 15 minutes of screwing around, we came up with a REALLY good one, where there are 4 boxes, and we'd take turns by moving the entire set down 1 block, and person A would catch the last 3 boxes on the tail end in the regular set position, and the 1st box that was leading would drop off and be caught by person B. Then person B would pass that box to his other hand while person A does a solo trick with the 3 box set, and it would go back again where person A would throw the 3 box set and catch one of them on the end, and then person B would use the 2 in the air and catch them with his box and catch all three in the set position. Repeat.

A strange pattern, especially to shoot on video, but it was really original and had a REALLY good beat to it. So we figured we'd get it on camera, and we figure the best and easiest way to do it would be the camera on the floor pointing up at the pattern. So we did exactly that, and then Steve makes a really bad catch and somehow manages to smack down on the hand I was using to catch my set of boxes, and that knocks the box downwards out of my hand and straight, onto, the, camera.

Yeah. The lens breaks on possibly the best camera I'd ever used (consumer level anyways), and I figure that since the warranty is out on it anyways, I know Kodak's reputation for REALLY bad service and repair, and I know that the repair cost is more expensive than just buying the same model camera new: I decide to take it apart right there and try to reset the gears. Because after turning the camera on and off a couple times, I can tell the problem is in the gears, so I figure all I have to do is go in and physically force the gears back into the right position. So after finding someone with a jewelers screwdriver, I take the camera apart and I'm looking into how it all goes back together. I'd taken the batteries out to ensure I don't get a shock, and then all the sudden I see what I think is the set of gears I need, and so as I swap my hands around on the open and exposed camera to get good leverage, I accidentally touch the camera's capacitor.

Now, for those who don't know electronics, the capacitor is designed to store a charge and release it very quickly. SO as soon as I touch the capacitor, I get a shock, that though I KNOW it was only 5 volts and about 1 milli-amp (nowhere near enough to even affect your muscles, much less kill you), but that feels like a penny in an outlet. I scream "ARGHHHHHH!!" in the middle of the convention floor where my table is, and all the sudden I can feel the eyes of every juggler in the room focusing on my table. I don't even need to look around to know that everyone looking at me, so I say out loud "I'm fine!", pick up the camera, and put the cover back on and leave it in a plastic bags.

So Steve felt bad about it, and he didn't offer to help PAY for my new camera, but he offered to drive me around Vegas looking for a good deal on a camera. We end up at Best Buy an hour later and I've narrowed it down to getting either the Sony (yeah, I was actually considering SONY! Ugh!) camcorder or a Panasonic SDR-S7 camcorder. I really liked the Panasonic for $199, so that's what I bought right there and used the rest of the week. I'll describe the camera next week, but yeah. What I really found interesting about being driven around Vegas by The New Steve was that I was getting to talk to him one on one about his style of making videos and trade insights about SPEAKING in videos especially. Because he recently got asked by a certain juggling organization to make promotional videos, and he was thinking about making it an entire talking video, but he's not 100% behind all of the members of the organization (ok, I'm paraphrasing and summarizing, but just go with me here), so he was at a little bit of a quandary, and I'm sitting here going back and forth talking about my belief that the only way to convince or promote something is to believe in what you're talking about. "I can't convince someone that religion is good because I don't believe in religion" is the basic summary of my argument. I find a good one on one talk, especially with a guy who thinks like I do as Steve does, very fun and stimulating. So I'm almost glad he broke my camera, as great as that quote would sound out of context.

So, after that, it was almost 9:00, and it's time for one of the things that I REALLY wanted to go to at the WJF. I missed it at WJF3 because I didn't see the point in it (stupid-young-juggler I was...), and that wasn't at WJF4, and that was the Ethics of Juggling workshop. For the past year and a half or two, I have had a slight fascination with Ethics, because it is a very simple idea, and a very easy thing to grasp, but because it applies to EVERYTHING and is ALWAYS DIFFERENT with every case you apply it to, it really makes your brain melt. It makes your brain melt worse than a 6 person game of Risk. I like that, and trying to sit in a room and figure out HOW it could POSSIBLY be ethical to use the Piano Juggling routine by putting your own spin on it, it's just so much fun and so tough, and I love it. The thing is I can't think about ethics by myself because I really don't have the ability to think that anything I think is wrong, so I have to have another person arguing with me to get anywhere. So that was awesome, and then, with my brain melted for that, it was time for the WJF Poker Tournament!

Now I don't want to spend more than a short paragraph about this because this is a HUGE post already and I've still got another day to go, but it was awesome! I didn't win at all, in fact I bought back in halfway through, but I did win a couple good pots and one race which went REALLY well where I hit a flush on the river against a pair. But yeah, I got a pair of aces at one point and won a huge pot, I saw someone hit a 4 of a kind to win a pot on the river, it was awesome. I'll leave it at that and go on to the last day of the convention.

Day Seven:
So the last day wasn't really much in terms of what happened early in the day, so I spent most of it asleep. But then came the Battle for The Presidency show, and it was without a doubt, the best show I'd ever seen. Basically it was a series of random competitions between Jason and Thomas that had nothing to do with juggling, such as who can hold the most PX3's in one hand, an arm wrestling contest, and my personal favorite, who can move 5 Juniors competitors from one side of the stage to the other the fastest. Why was it my favorite? I'll explain later, but all of those competitions were spaced in between a bunch of the competitors doing their regular stage shows, like Lauge doing all his tough tricks that he performs, Joelle doing her routine, and other awesome jugglers. So that was amazing by itself, but with all these awesomely hilarious competitions just made it the BEST show ever. Then came time for the MAIN competition, which was a 7 minute routine between Jason and Thomas. Jason went with his routine first, which despite what I thought would be nothing because Jason hasn't shown himself juggling since WJF4, he has made some vast improvements in his juggling. 7 ball overheads? 8 ring qualify? Yeah, all amazing.

Now before I get to Thomas' routine, let me tell you why the Juniors moving competition was so great. First off, it's the FUNNIEST concept for a pointless competition I've ever heard of in my life, and I was already on the floor watching Thomas go first and picking up these kids and running back and forth across the stage. But then Jason's turn was coming up, so they needed to switch the juniors out for a new set, and as soon as Scotty (the emcee) said that the new juniors should come up on stage, Thomas ran up and stood on the side of the stage where they were supposed to line up, like lightning. I didn't even see him move, he was on the stage, then he was in position, and as soon as I saw another person in the audience stand up it clicked in my head "OHHHHH! So this is the joke!" And immediately after that, the light bulb came on and I realized I was the HEAVIEST PERSON AT THE CONVENTION at 270 lbs. I've never run so fast in my life, and I've never gotten a bigger laugh and cheer combo either. The competition was the funniest thing ever, and let's leave the mystery of what happened up to you. So then let's go on to Thomas' routine, which was his "Juggling Race 2000" game stage act, which is an awesome act by itself, and then he asks me to be the second character in the routine. EPIC! Let me just say, you need to buy the DVD when Jason puts it out. There is no excuse not to...

So after all that was over, a few jugglers weren't going to be at the banquet, so I said goodbye to them, and then came the banquet. But before I talk about that, let me make a note about the one thing I didn't like about the Riviera, and it's not about how big it is. The key cards. The damned hotel-room-key-cards! I swear, I never had a single problem with them, but Joe's and Ville's cards somehow kept getting demagnetized. At least once every two days, one of their cards would stop working. Now, this wouldn't be a problem at all, except that I, being the person the room is under, am the ONLY person that can get the front desk to give me a new card. That doesn't piss me off TOO much, but what sucked was about how when you need any number of new cards, from 6 down to just one, they have to invalidate ALL the previous cards, and as such, I would need to find Joe and Ville in order to give both of them the new cards or else they can't get into the room at night. Damnit...

So, the banquet. Nothing really special happened, I ended up sitting at the same table with Laura Ernst, Thomas Dietz, Marcus Furtner, and basically everyone else at the convention who were multi-lingual. So basically, I'm sitting there not understanding a word of what anyone else is saying because they're all talking about how they all know German, Russian, Slavic, Yodeling, etc. Duh! That's fine. The chicken and ESPECIALLY Marcus' Penne Pasta was awesome. We move on to the winners for all the popular vote competitions (nicest smile, most improved, most inspiring), and as I jokingly asked people to do in my WJF Profile video, people voted for me in the Best Body competition, enough for me to Tie with Vova! I am now co-WJF-Best-Body champion! EPIC! So then we get to Jason's great 45 minute long banquet video, and like the extreme competitions DVD from WJF4, I managed to be the humorous fodder once again. Of course this time right in the middle of the video after he shows me doing a 5 ring full-reverse, he plays over and over again the shot of me wiping sweat from my forehead using my sleeve. Well, thank god I have no shame. Granted, it was.... ...funny as hell.

And that was it for the convention. Congratulations for making it all the way through the post! You've earned 300+ reading points! GO CELEBRATE!!! As for what will be in NEXT weeks post, I'm going to talk about my new camera's, what my juggling abilities are right now, the finale of Heroes Season 3, and perhaps another story. And I'll also fill you in on a few ideas I've had for some upcoming youtube videos and maybe new JoJ episodes, seeing as how Juggling Podcast (Luke Burrage) hasn't been updated in 2 months....

A Day In The Life Of A Peanut Butter Cup ~ Reeses2150