Category: hobbies

Introducing the Hula Shower Juggle!

Today, I spent a lot of time practicing the shower juggling pattern. I didn’t know it at the time, but I invented a new variation of the shower: the hula. I made a video of it and about a minute and a half into it, I noticed I was doing the pattern wrong.

It looked like I was doing the hula! I was trying to get the horizontal pass across at first and was doing OK—until I wasn’t.

I think part of the reason was that I was tired of making only a couple of throws at a time. Doing the hula seemed to raise my average.

According to Juggleman:

Doing it wrong will make you an artist.

Juggleman

I guess inventing the hula shower juggle makes me an artist. You’re welcome. No applause necessary—just throw money.

Beating My Head on The Shower Wall

I’ve been practicing the shower juggling pattern. I’m combining at least a couple of different methods, which may or may not be helping me improve.

I’m using JuggleMan’s advice about trying to get some extra space in between the balls so I feel less rushed. I’m also trying to use Taylor Glenn’s method of combining the vertical and horizontal tosses.

Using both looks pretty ugly. So, what else is new? My horizontal transfers look snappier but are lopsided according to some experts. I consciously try to hold my dominant slapping hand up higher to avoid the gradual sloping up to a half shower flip up. That up slope often causes mid-air collisions between balls on one side. And I’m getting a little extra space in between the throws, so I’m starting to get one or two extra throws.

I’ve been learning to juggle since last October. It’s fun but definitely not easy. All the stuff about machine learning and artificial intelligence in the news lately got me wondering whether AI can learn to juggle.

It turns out that people have been working on this for years. I gather it takes a while to teach a robot how to juggle. Making a robot able to teach juggling would probably take a very long time. I don’t think it’s as fun to watch a robot juggle as it is watching a person juggle.

Juggling isn’t a very practical skill, although if you’re a really talented juggler you can make a little spare change busking with juggling. A machine doesn’t need spare change and doesn’t appreciate admiration.

By the way; John Henry was a steel-driving man. He beat the steam powered drill, a machine—and sacrificed his own life doing it. Machines don’t understand sacrifice.

Where is Juggling and Foosball on the Homunculus?

I saw an interesting article published in Nature about the homunculus being outdated because of a new brain MRI study indicating that there’s a mind-body connection between the motor cortex and neural networks controlling planning and thought. There’s a mouthful for you.

It makes me wonder about a few things. For example, can I improve my juggling skills simply by thinking about it? Actually, I spend quite a bit of time both practicing juggling and thinking about it.

Sena has recently started thinking about and practicing juggling. And I made a little video about the cascade practice in an effort to help her get unstuck from the 3-ball toss and catch at the 1-2-3 and catch stage. It’s a slow-motion video of me demonstrating the 1-2-3-4 and catch stage. It’s intended to help her visualize how to let go of that pesky ball in her non-dominant hand after the third toss.

The implications of the new brain study for helping patients recover from the effects of stroke are fascinating.

It reminded me of the game foosball. What do you mean you never heard of foosball? It’s a table football game which was enormously popular in the 1970s. You could probably find one in any bar, along with pong, a sort of electronic table tennis game that was also popular in the ‘70s.

The foosball table was usually located at the back of the bar, across the mandatory squishy carpet and kitty corner from the bathroom.

You could never get on the foosball table at one of the local bars in my hometown. It was always monopolized by a gang of local tough guys who would slam the ball so hard into the goal slot you’d swear it would burst through the end of the table.

In a way, it was a good thing foosball occupied those guys. It distracted them from what they liked to do most of the time, which was to bash anyone who got in their way. I think foosball might have cut down on the number of bar fights in small towns.

There was this guy I used to work with who told me stories about bar fights, some of which he enthusiastically got involved in—when he was younger, of course. Somebody named Stumpy (or maybe Stubby?) was a friend of his who had a wooden leg and never missed a chance to mix it up despite his prosthesis. When a fight broke out in a bar, Stumpy would just back into a corner, brace the wooden leg against a wall and whale away at anyone dumb enough to throw a punch at him.

But when foosball tables got installed, the tough guys tended to take out their aggression by slamming balls. You could always spot a foosball gang. They braced themselves, one leg back and one knee sort of braced against the table. They could twirl the little men with great skill and could fake, pass, and finally kick the ball like a rocket into the goal. It was often sort of a grim spectacle. They didn’t look like they were enjoying themselves so much as making believe they were tearing people apart limb from limb.

I’m not sure where the foosball neural network is in the brain, but I’m pretty sure it’s on the hands of the homunculus in the motor cortex.

That’s also probably where the juggling network is.

Practicing the Shower Juggle Inches Along

I’ve been practicing the shower juggling pattern and progress has been slow. Part of the problem is that it’s a difficult pattern and very fast. I have trouble getting elements of it solid.

For example, I tend to make the horizontal transfer from my non-dominant hand more of a toss-up. That makes it look more like a shallow half-shower.

I tried to compensate today by trying to hold my left hand a little higher. That helps a little. But then I have to toss the balls higher, which is difficult to get just right. I drop a lot of balls. But then I usually do. I’ll have to work pretty hard to get more than just a couple of throws in.

It’s pretty ugly, but that’s the name of my YouTube section—Ugly Juggling.

Sena The Flashy Juggler!

Sena is a flashy juggler now, OK! She is now able to do the 3-ball throw and catch (for the cascade eventually), and in my Learn to Juggle manual, that means she is now juggling.

She counts the throws, pays attention to the juggler’s pane of glass (the juggle space) and just generally has a good time.

She has been diligently practicing and is now wondering the same thing I wondered (as I am wondering now about the shower pattern).

How the heck to let go of the balls?

Tufted Titmouse Playing Peekaboo

Once in a while when I’m filming wildlife, I get an odd feeling that the animal somehow knows it’s being watched. It looks up and seemingly right at the camera.

I got that feeling while making a short video of a Tufted Titmouse the other day. It seemed to stare at me while I filmed it through the window. A tree branch was in front of it and it was really tough to get a clear shot of its face. It looked like it was playing a peekaboo.

Some people say the bird has a friendly face. It also appears to be coy. The name titmouse just means “a small bird.” They’ll pull hairs from sleeping dogs, cats, and squirrels to line their nests.

Why Sena’s Juggling Balls Are Resting

Sena’s juggling balls have been silent lately, meaning I’ve not been hearing them hit the floor. She is pretty busy doing other things, like gardening.

But I’m pretty sure another reason is dropping the balls. She and I are probably at about the same learning stage in juggling. She’s trying to get past the hurdles of learning to juggle the cascade pattern. I’m still trying to get past the hurdles of learning the shower juggling pattern.

I practice every day. When I drop the balls (which is very often), I pick them up and try again. Some of my bloopers are funny, so I included them in an ugly juggling video. I don’t include all the bloopers because that would be monotonous in the extreme.

But you can tell I get pretty frustrated—and a little out of breath. I do the usual lunging, grabbing, and faking.

It’s still pretty fun. Keep trying, Sena!

Update: Sena practiced today! The evidence is on the floor:

Ugly Juggling Shower Slow Practice is Still Progress

I’m still practicing the shower juggling pattern. I’ve got an ugly presentation with claw-grabbing, flattening the half shower fake jobs, and uneven throw spacing. But I’m not quitting yet.

I’m trying to follow the JuggleMan’s example.

I didn’t get a breakthrough until yesterday when I tried my black and gold Hawkeye juggling balls. I guess they’re lucky!

Sena is still practicing the basics of trying to introduce the third ball into a cascade pattern, just like I’m trying to get the third ball into the shower pattern. She thinks one to two minutes is long enough to practice, though.

Slow progress is still progress.

How Are Water Heaters and Jugglers Alike?

Let’s start off with a riddle I think I made up. I can’t find it anywhere on the web:

How are water heaters and jugglers alike? The answer is at the end of this post.

I’m still practicing the shower juggling pattern. Progress is slow. I found a YouTube channel called YouJuggle. It’s this guy called JuggleMan, a professional juggler who is older than I am. His site has way over 10 million views. He describes and demonstrates how to do the shower a little differently than other jugglers do. The title of the video is “How to Juggle Three Balls in a Circle.” It’s for beginners.

He teaches the two-ball practice by showing that you start with two balls in the dominant hand, then toss them both up. Then before the second ball drops you pass the first ball over to the non-dominant hand. You almost have to slap it because it comes down so quick. Now I understand why my Learning to Juggle book says almost exactly that:

“Take two balls, one in each hand, and do the schoolyard throw. Toss a ball into the air as an over-the-top throw with your strong hand, then pass the other ball by the short route to the strong hand. Actually, it’s more of a slap of the ball from one hand to the other.”

Then the author tells you to take 3 balls and “just go for it.” Right. The instruction is the same as others have; you have to throw two of them from the strong hand, one right after the other, …” following the same path as the first, and then slap the third into your empty strong hand…”

Anyway, guided by JuggleMan, so far, I feel like I’m making a tiny bit more progress moving from the 3-ball toss and catch to even trying one extra throw.

The key is to time the tosses so that there is even space between each of the three balls. That’s to avoid getting that rushed feeling, because it’s a very fast pattern.

For me, trying to juggle the shower pattern is a lot like trying to take a cold shower. I had experience with this when our water heater failed. We learned to take really fast showers.

But I don’t want to do the shower fast—I just want to do it. Speaking of water heaters, here’s the answer to that riddle for you:

How are water heaters like jugglers?

Answer: They both get rusty. And that’s why jugglers practice.

Juggling My Birthday Glow Balls

Hey, it’s my birthday and it turns out the juggling glow balls are my early gift. Sena decorated my cake, using cookie icing that sort of spread out.

You got to love the birthday card she got for me. “Selective Listening Ensures the Survival of Man.” Or at least this man.

Just for the occasion I juggled my glow balls. I can program the color changes, but it’s sort of a numbers game. You have to click the right number of times to make your selection. Sena likes the 1UP2UP trick.

And according to someone who wrote the book, “Age is just a number and mine’s unlisted.”—Manya Nogg. OK, so you probably first heard it like I did, from the lady on the Boost High Protein Nutritional Drink commercial.

I don’t really feel my age, and nor do I act it. I do not drink Boost—yet.