I’ve been working on that shower juggle pattern for a year now. Progress is slow but a couple of days ago, I noticed it got better when I held my arms pretty rigidly within the pane of glass. You can still tell I tend to morph between a half shower and a full shower.
It’s also called a circle juggle because that’s sort of what it looks like.
I can do on average about 5-7 throws before I start dropping balls on my head. I notice also that as long as I stay in the pane and focus on the arc throw at the top of the arc, I can juggle the shower with pretty much any set of juggling balls.
I think the Svengoolie T-shirt gives me good luck.
Here’s yet another take on the Svengoolie TV show fan insanity. Maybe we’ll get over it someday, but for now I doubt it.
Sena gets in on the act this time as she throws the chicken at me after I tell cheesy jokes Svengoolie style before I juggle the Shrilling Chicken along with a couple of glow balls while wearing my brand new Svengoolie glow in the dark T-shirt. It’s a total fart—I mean gas.
I’m wearing gloves for a couple of reasons. Number one, the first time I tried to juggle the chicken, it dropped awkwardly on my right hand and made my index finger swell up. I had to let that heal up for a few days and I don’t want to reinjure myself. Number two—they just look cool.
Juggling items of different shapes, sizes, and weights is much harder than I thought. I never knew which way that chicken was going to fly. Catching it was total luck.
Doing stand up was a new thing for us. I never knew how hard it is to get your lines right. We had to do several takes to get the joke routines down. Muffing my lines was almost as funny as getting the jokes right.
But those jokes are so lame they’re great! The rim shot sound effect was a free download on pixabay.
Just another plug for Svengoolie. It’s a MeTV channel cheesy horror flick fan favorite. The show airs every Saturday evening at 7:00 PM. Svengoolie has been hosting it for decades and he introduces the movie and shares interesting background about the films and actors. He also tells these really groaner-style jokes which triggers the audience to throw chickens at him.
Remember that Shrilling Chicken I tried to juggle a few days ago? Well, I got my revenge for the sore finger it gave me. This is the message to chickens who peck me.
Chicken, meet your juggler!
This time, I put on gloves along with my usual safety goggles to prevent further injuries from the satanic cluck-meister.
Remember that rubber chicken Sena ordered as a joke for what looks like my transformation into a Svengoolie fan? Svengoolie is the longstanding host on the MeTV channel which shows old, cheesy TV horror movies every Saturday.
Svengoolie always gets a lot of rubber chickens tossed at him after he tells a few jokes. Well, the rubber chicken arrived. Actually, I think it’s plastic, about which I’ll have a lot more to say. It’s called Shrilling Chicken. Sena ordered it from Wal-Mart. We’re still waiting for the Svengoolie glow-in-the-dark T-shirt, which she ordered through the Svengoolie web site.
The chicken is about a foot long and squeals when you squeeze it. It’s sold as a dog toy. It’s red and yellow and the first thing I did was to try to juggle with it along with two juggling balls. I thought it would be cool to get a YouTube video of it, especially while wearing the Svengoolie T-shirt.
I was trying to get the hang of juggling a linear chicken with juggling balls and was just getting to where I could do 3 or 4 throws while also squeezing it to make it squeal. And then it happened: the demonic chicken bit me (or is “pecked me” a better way to put it?)! That’s pretty spooky given the connection to Svengoolie, the horror show host.
OK, so it didn’t actually peck me in a satanic manner, but I caught it awkwardly in my right hand. My right index finger swelled up and it got a little sore. It’s healing quickly although it did leave a faint bruise.
Then I looked up Shrilling Chicken on the web. What a rabbit hole! I found warnings seemingly all over the web against getting within 100 yards of the thing because of allegations it contains toxic chemicals. In fact, pretty much all the warnings came from a group called Ecowaste Coalition, with the chief spokesperson being someone named Thony Dizon, Chemical Safety Campaigner.
Thony’s main message is that Shrilling Chicken contains unacceptable levels of “toxic plastic additives.” He cites a long list of European countries that have banned Shrilling Chicken, despite the labels on the package, one of which is “CE” which means that it meets European Union standards.
The warnings go on to say that children should not be allowed to even touch it, although there are dozens of ads on the web showing where you can buy it for kids, with one image of a child hugging a Shrilling Chicken as tall as he is. I didn’t know they made them that big.
Thony also goes on to cite an “FDA Advisory No. 2020-042” which clearly is opposed to Shrilling Chicken being on this planet. I spent quite a while looking for that FDA Advisory in the U.S. FDA website. I couldn’t find it.
If you don’t look closely, you’ll miss the part at the bottom of the page indicating that the “FDA” referred to is the one in the Philippines.
The Shrilling Chicken label also indicates that the toy is approved for kids 6 years and older. It also has the Green Dot symbol on it. Wikipedia says it’s “…to indicate to consumers who see the logo that the manufacturer of the product contributes to the cost of recovery and recycling.” The Shrilling Chicken is made in China.
On the whole, I would say Shrilling Chicken is less than demonic in any sense of the word. However, given what happened to me, I probably would not toss it at Svengoolie.
Also, I would suggest you not try to juggle with it. I had to lay off juggling practice briefly so I can heal up.
Since we added the step platform, I’ve been wondering how to count steps when I use it because for some reason my smartphone step counter won’t count steps when I try to use it on the platform.
Sena got a handy step counter and it works! It works if you have it in your pocket or wear it on neck with a lanyard.
I usually practice juggling patterns as a warm up to exercising. I’m still working on the shower pattern. Progress is slow.
My exercise routine takes a half hour. Following that I sit for mindfulness meditation for 30 minutes. We are still using our anti-Peloton exercise bike. I do one leg stands for a minute on each leg. I still do floor yoga, body weight squats, planks, and dumbbells. I still count my own steps on the platform: 50 steps alternating right and left leg four times (200 steps). The counter number varies between 170-200 or so.
As a review, a recently published study found that climbing 5 flights of stairs (approximately 50 steps) was associated with a lower risk of ASCVD types independent of disease susceptibility (Song et al, see reference below). There was a threshold effect of stair climbing in the study, meaning the benefit was lost if you went over a certain number of “floors.” Going over 15 or 20 didn’t gain much for subjects. A flight was 10 stair steps.
Step up!
Reference:
Song Z, Wan L, Wang W, Li Y, Zhao Y, Zhuang Z, Dong X, Xiao W, Huang N, Xu M, Clarke R, Qi L, Huang T, Daily stair climbing, disease susceptibility, and risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: A prospective cohort study, Atherosclerosis (2023)
Holy horizontal, heavy, wet, driving snow. At least you could make great snowballs for juggling! I got up around 4 in the morning to shovel. Sena came out a little later and we took shifts a couple of times. I still had to run back out again in the mid-afternoon to clear away what’s probably going to turn out to be better than a foot of snow.
The plows plugged our driveways whenever they felt like it. But we took a break so I could make the best snowballs ever and juggled them. I wore a balaclava which got all twisted on my head so that I ended up able to see out of just my right eye—the one I had surgery on for a torn retina.
Iowa City has web pages for the rules on snow removal by the city plows and by residents.
You can see the pdf of the map for residential street priorities for snow removal.
Shoveling snow or using a heavy snow blower can be hazardous to your health. There is guidance from the National Safety Council about how to remove snow. On the other hand, there are definite rules about clearing snow from your sidewalk.
There are no rules against juggling snowballs that I know of.
We are breaking the internet again as partners in juggling crime. It turns out the 2-person 6 ball juggling pattern has 3 variations:
The 1, 2 Pass: Both partners make two right hand throws, then pass to the partner on the third throw. Always throw from the right side to your partner’s left.
The 1 Pass: You pass after every other throw.
Pass: You pass on every right-hand throw. You could call it pass, pass, fast!
The Pass variation is really difficult, although some jugglers make it look easy. We mainly look funny, but we’re just getting started!
I’m still practicing the shower juggle pattern. I’m comparing how I did in April with how I’m doing now. No doubt, my form is wonky and I still can do only 3-5 throws.
But I think juggling with the big plastic balls is easier when it comes to the shower. I can’t figure why, unless it’s the more uniform spherical shape and evenly distributed weight.
Are we having any fun? You bet! We donned our Santa hats and did the 2-person 6 ball juggling until we fell over.
This is a fun pattern because, even when you mess up, it’s hilarious. When we count out loud, it sort of helps keep us in sync—but not always.
The last part of the video, we did the count sort of sotto voce as we moved from the toss and pass phase to finish with a cascade. This is in stark contrast to what we usually do, which is to keep tossing and passing until the inevitable drops happen.
As always, after the second right hand toss in the cascade, we pass from our right hand to the left hand of the partner. The count is “One, Two, Pass!”
As least that’s the plan. Often, we get line drives to the head, chest or the wrong hand. This is why safety goggles are handy. Ball collisions are frequent, which crack us up.
You know, juggling is often a one-person hobby or show. When you get two persons in the act, it’s ordinary juggling for two, which is a blast.
Go Retire Psychiatrist 