giovedì 21 ottobre 2010

New Start

Summer has ended a while ago. While I thought it would have been a chance to do what I couldn't do during the school year, I actually needed that time to not do anything at all- you know, relax, clear up my mind a bit.
Now, October the 21th (time is flying O_O), everything is starting over again. School, girl scouts, fencing training (in a week or so). Also, after months of little or no news, a new Sasuke (26th) has come and passed (airdate next January).
So it's time to get ready.
Last year was a bit of a mess, mostly because of school, combined with all the other things I do. Since this school year is going to be even harder, I decided to be well prepared.
I want to organize my everyday life better. Get ahead with homework, decide when and how to train, and even do stuff like writing a blog every week, just to keep things in order in my mind...and avoid getting crazy if I loose control of the situation, hehe.
Another thing I want to do is come up with a decent schedule for my training, both Sasuke training and non-Sasuke stuff.
I still don't know how I'd get to Japan if hell ever freezed over and I made it to Sasuke, heck I don't even know if there will BE a Sasuke 27 (or 28, 29...) - but you know how that goes. I never loose hope.
Sure, when my mother says things like "Why don't you just wait until they do an Italy Sasuke?" I want to bang my head on a wall, but that's another story -.-"
Anyway, just to make sure I have things ready if/when the moment to show what I can do will come, I'll keep working on an entry video. Though I'll probably ditch the old one and do a new one since I can improve and do better stuff.
Ehemm - perhaps my parents are a bit right...I decide to write a post about a "new life" and half the thing becomes Sasuke stuff...LOL.
That said...the very first thing to do is getting enough sleep, and considering it's half past midnight now...not a good start :P Nighty night!

venerdì 23 luglio 2010

Because if you're American you get a $250k extra!

I would like all of you to read this blog post by RamblingRican, because it pretty much says the same things I think about the latest bad idea by G4 TV.

http://ramblingrican.blogspot.com/2010/07/latest-on-anw.html

Right now I'm not feeling well, I'm sorry if posting the link and doing a copy and paste sounds too lazy. I shouldn't even be posting right now, I just think everybody should read this, and possibly spread it. It's a big mess.

venerdì 2 luglio 2010

One year has passed...

One year ago, I joined the Sasuke Maniac Forums.
Since then my life has changed a lot...and a lot of these changes are related to Sasuke.
I'm not really talking about training, changes of lifestyle etc. I'm talking about all the wonderful guys and gals I've met in this year.
I've grown up in this year, both physically and emotionally.For example, I've learned to be more confident when speaking to new people, something that I wouldn't do before and I would never have done in this small town where I always see the same people.Thanks to the experience of being part of the boards I've learned so much things and had so much happy and funny moments I can't list them all, nor I want to since this would be the longest post in the world.
I just want to thank you, guys. First of all, Arsenette: without you and the wonderful job you're doing with your blog I would have never had met Sasuke for what it is really, and I would never have found the boards. People could say it's just a blog, but really it isn't, it's a way to discover a whole new world for people like me and all those who had the same experience. Thanks for always being ready to help, for supporting everybody. Btw you remember I'm your long lost sister, don't ya? :P
Same for Ube, whose blog I found a little bit later but it helped me understand Sasuke as well.Even only your patience and how hard you work to keep us updated deserve some respect.
Thanks to all you guys on the forums and not, for sharing your toughts, for being like a huge family that supports me every day making me smile, laugh and cry, thanks for being my friends.
Sorry if all this sounds mawkish, but this is how I get when it's 3 am and I can't get this thought out of my head :)

lunedì 14 giugno 2010

Workshop Matera with Laurent Piemontesi 13-14 June '10

When I heard about Laurent Piemontesi (THAT Laurent Piemontesi) coming to Matera again, I completely went mad. He's a legend here for the traceurs in this town. Last year he was here as well, but I was on holiday with my family, so I decided I wasn't gonna miss this if he ever came here again.
Man, that was wonderful. The traceurs' group here is a really small crew (twelve kids) so it didn't feel like a formal lesson.
He impressed me a lot. Quite serious but never strict, he'd help us out even doing imple things, and encourage us when we were scared. There also was his friend Yohann (who looks like Paul Terek, lol). He injured his foot last weeks so he just helped us out but he is a very nice guy.
For example: there was this kinda big jump between to walls in the Sassi, I knew I was able to do it but it simply scared the crap out of me. Aftera a couple of minutes Laurent told me "Come down then, we'll try again tomorrow. It's OK even if you didn't make it, because you at least talked with your fear".
What he said impressed me so much I barely could sleep at night, and the day after decided I was going to try again. I made it! It was friggin...easy. Once I was jumping, I realized it was a kinda small jump compared with other jumps I had made before.
We trained very hard and learned loads of things, but we also joked and mocked each other all the time. Laurent's French accent even when he was speaking Italian was just priceless, we kept mimicking it in front of him and he would just laugh. Sometimes he'd mimick the guys' reaction when they first met him (btw it was an immensely lucky coincidence, he was visiting Matera's Sassi while they were training and they met), or we would harass each other with the circle game (especially Yohann).
These two days have been a real blessing for me. I've never been so serene in months, and I'm also very motivated now. Both Laurent and Yohann told me I have a great potential! A couple of times, after watching me making a long jump or new trick, they would start confabbing in French, then laugh at me desperately trying to get what they were saying - btw I studied French in middle school but...can't remember jack squat- and give me a thumbs up.
In a couple of days there should be video footage and a lot of pictures, by the way.
Gotta go now, au revoir!!!

P.S. Yesterday after furious yelling, my mom locked me at home -also with less than an hour of internet a day- for 3 days because I complained about her bossing me all the time.
Ergo she's doing it wrong because she just proved me right. LOL.

domenica 25 aprile 2010

Maguro Festival 2010

First of all...sorry if I haven't blogged Sasuke 25 yet. At this point even doing that in chunks would take too much time since I'm having way more trouble at school than I should, so I need more time to study. I might try to do what I can as soon as I have a couple of days off school, or wait 'til school finishes...which would be June.../sigh

Posters for the event (thanks Elsie for the find)

However, I haven't given up! This time I'm blogging about the Maguro Festival, a local festival held in Miyazaki prefecture, that happens to be where Nagano Makoto lives.
This is the fifth time they also have some Sasuke stuff as well, which is cool! This time, besides Nagano, All Stars Shingo and Akiyama were there.

Maguro Festival 2010 Sasuke course @syuichidc2

They set up this little course . Thanks to Ube we know the obstacles were: Soritatsu Kabe, Cliffhanger, Rope Untei (which should mean rope monkey bars), Lamp Grasper (tho I didn't see it in any pic), Salmon Ladder, Pipe Slider (yay!Long time no see! And I have one.), and something they call Tarzan - I have no clue about what could it be.

He also found a blog with a nice set of pictures.

Shingo helping out some kid @shimojikonashi

And Akiyama doing the same with another one @shimojikonashi

I always like the shots where they help kids on the course. Tho I always think “Wanna be that kid...wanna be that kid!”

Makoto Nagano getting interviewed @shimojikonashi

Watching this pic I couldn't help but think about how Nagano looked fab, especially compared to how the guy interviewing him looked creepy. Ok, ok, back to blogging.

Oh, speaking 'bout Nagano, I found this pic today and thought it was kinda weird. He looked upset for some reason.

@syuichidc2

Probably it's just me going OCD once again. It's been a week or so...but I digress, again!

Kazuhiko Akiyama getting interviewed @shimojikonashi

As said before, Akiyama and Shingo were there as well. Always nice to see Akiyama in this sort of events, tho I'm sad for Bunpei once again not being there, and too bad Takeda didn't make it as well.

Makoto Nagano freaking out acrophobics (lol Rider) @shimojikonashi

Here I have no idea what he was doing...probably checking out something. However I lol'd at Shingo and Akiyama sitting there in this pic.

@shimojikonashi

Shingo: Scissors!

Kazuhiko: Rock!

Makoto: Could you guys stop playing and help me get down?


Gonna try to post more pics if I find them, and videos if there are. For now that's all, folks!

EDIT: Thanks to the Sasuke Maniac Lennon we have videos!!

Seems that the Tarzan thing was a Rope Glider-ish thing, and the rope monkey bars were for kids only.

Unknown boy no.1 (well, not unknown. Ube tells us it's "perennial STAlmoster Makoto Yahagi". Thank you Ube!)

LOL at Makoto going "Oh crap he's gonna fall from that thing" and climbing his way there just in time to catch the kid when he fell.

Uknown boy no.2 (EDIT: that's Yoshiki Itō, thanks Arsenette)


Scared the heck out of me on the Cliffhanger. He basically caught it while falling straight down.

Now for... Nekkid Shingo!!! LOL

@Bakudankozo

Everybody was laughing at the start. Made me laugh even if I don't know wtf was going on :P after all, Shingo is Shingo. I seriously thought he was gonna take a bath after the Lamp Grasper :O

But hey, Shingo can still pwn the course ya'll ;)

And dulcis in fundo..ok ok I won't even start here's the video :P

@Bakudankozo

Great Run! (said Capitain Obvious after watching this video :P) Besides the fact that he scared the crap out of me on the Shin Cliff -he didn't even swing!- LOL at Shingo suddenly standing and cheesin when he dismounted.

Mwahhaha he looked kinda tiny standing on the top of the Kabe- uhm, perhaps I should stfu since I'm (still) even shorter. I probably wouldn't even have touched the top of that thing :P

Too bad we don't have any videos of Kazuhiko - seems that he didn't feel very well that day so he didn't do any demonstrations. HowevernI still found cute the whole thing, and I'm happy they managed to do this (been told it was basically a last minute project).

EDIT: Props to Arsenette for finding these.

They must from the first day (Maguro festival lasted two days and the other pics I posted should be from day two)

Nagano posing with (lucky) mom and kids. @Blue Diary

Nagano posing for @blife

...

SSSQUEEEEEEAK....


If I find other stuff I'll post it as soon as I can.

See ya next time!

domenica 21 marzo 2010

Sasuke 25 pre-blog

***SPOILERS INCOMING***

Hey there!
Homework, training, boyscouts, crappy internet connection and a baby cousin (kawaiii) took me so much time that even if once or twice a week I've had enough time to write, my brain had already shut down. Didn't even manage to blog about Sasuke 24 (Elsie's blog and Ube's blog) or Pro Sportsman No.1 (Takeda, Nagano and Shingo competed! It was worth skipping a day of school to watch it ^^ Elsie's and Ube's ). Gah.
But it's time for Sasuke 25! I don't know if I'll be able to write a detailed blog about the new tournament, but I'm going to try.
Sasuke 25 is airing on the 28th (taping date was the 20th of February,here's more details about the Navi ), and it's going to be a blast. In Sasuke 24 Yuuji Urushihaara friggin achieved Kanzenseiha and this means... COURSE RENEWAL! Hell yeah.
I was planning on doing a completely different thing but it looked useles snow that I have real info to work on.

Our first REAL info comes from these pictures, scans of a TV Magazine (thanks Ube!)


Sasuke Champions Makoto Nagano, Yuuji Urushihaara and Kazuhiko Akiyama @LostInUbe

This time Sasuke is gonna be an international thing. That's cool! There's people coming from each Japanese prefecture, plus one from each continent! The red thing Nagano and Akiyama use to cover their numbers (Nagano didn't manage to...*cough* 99? *cough*) are the prefectures they're representing (Miyazaki for Nagano, Hokkaido for Akiyama).
Thanks to David from the Sasuke Maniac boards, we have a translation. The Rolling Log(duh...I'd hate getting dizzy if I ever had the chance to compete) and the Jump Hang (yay!) are back, and seems the Third Stage was renewed to be nearly impossible, with the Cliffhanger becoming so hard even finalists from Sasuke 24 were yelling things like "it's impossible!".


Comedian Dandy Sakano attempting unknown obstacle (btw he's representing the Ishikawa prefecture) @LostInUbe

In the second picture, besides the comedian Dandy Sakano competing, the only relevant info is that once again we will have a -dantobi (steps) obstacle.

Yesterday the first TBS trailer for Sasuke 25 came out, and suddenly the Sasuke Manic boards became an anthill...something like 150 replies in a few hours.



That's because the trailer is nothing but...10 seconds of pure shock. I keep watching it again because...dunno.

Signore e Signori...

...welcome backthe Master of Pwnage(@Gavo), the Jump Hang!
This was one of my favourite obstacles back in Sauke 5-17, and I'm ready to see people backflip in the water again.
Then we have a new First Stage obstacle. Hey! I recognize this!




@RamblingRican

It looks a lot like an obstacle that was shown before but never used in the actual tournament, except for the rope at the end (thanks Rider for the correction-I really thought it was form the Trials)
This might be harder than it looks! I bet loads of people will fail it (and I'm worried for Shingo...this time he might take a bath veeery early).

On to the Second Stage...

Holy Crap...this is insane.

The Salmon ladder didn't get replaced...there are two, facing each other!
You have to go up on the first...


then turn (or do it backwards. Not highly recommended)


and jump to the second. Hell yeah! I like it a lot, but there might be some safety issues. I hope nobody will get hurt if they fail the transfer.

Next...aaaaah. Sweeet. Ladies and gentleman, lemme introduce...

The Cliffhanger, version 5.0!
It's even more insane than the Salmon Ladder, but we expected that.Up, than backwards,then up,then another ledge,then an almost invisible ledge...and there might be even MORE, since I don't see the end of the background thing.

Seriously, the thing is HUGE! I bet only a few will manage to build a full-size replica of this one.
The possibility of kicking the wall has also been discussed for a while, but I think it's slanted enough to avoid this kind of issues. Higuchi and the design team must have brainstormed a lot on this.

Aaand...the final Stage 3 obstacle! (We can see the Green Bar of Safety) It's an - uh wait a moment.

Salmon...Devil...

...Jumping...

Pipe...Bars?
LoL I have no idea about how they named this. But I do hope it does transfer into a Pipe Slider-ish thing. Oh and yay! The Tower is still there! The Final Stage has to be The Tower. Because I love The Tower. Sorry...I'm raving...

This commercial gave me a lot to think about. Green mats, Jump Hang and Rolling Maruta coming back...it looks a lot like a return the the Old School to me. The course finally seems impossible again, and I love it! I bet this is going to be a golden age for Sasuke.
Only time will tell! See ya on Sunday, people!


P.S. Other blogs : Rambling Rican, 222Productions, Gavo
There's also a trailer by VenusHeadTrap that I found really exciting.