Progress in the past six months

Like happens to most blogs, my enthusiasm for writing on this one faded after several months. It faded so much, in fact, that myself and my three (3!) readers have had absolutely no action happening on this page for more than six months. So here is a brief summary of my juggling life since then:

• Practiced with little bean-bag-like balls, which were really helpful for training 4 balls.
• Purchased 4 sil-x balls, plus one additional small orange-sized ball
• I visited the Katacomb in Berlin
• I attended the European Juggling Convention in Munich, where...
• I met other jugglers! This was really cool, as before summer 2010 the circus kids at Kalamazoo and the gang in Beijing were basically the only other jugglers that I knew, and aside from Federico, Gus, and a few select others,I was one of the more skilled jugglers I knew. EJC was great because it allowed me to see and meet other people who were better than me, which provided some great inspiration and motivation.
• I bought a 75mm acrylic for contact juggling and...
• I´ve begun to practice a little bit of contact juggling, mostly playing with isolations, but a tiny little bit of body rolling and stall point practice, as well.
• I am getting ever closer to achieving a five ball cascade. In a recent practice I was definitely in a beautiful state of "flow," achieving upwards of 20 catches before the pattern fell apart.
• I have decided that the five ball cascade will be the beginning and end of my career as a numbers juggler. I have decided that I will focus on three balls, highlighting how...
• My juggling has become more and more "dancy." This is influenced in great part by my specific physical background, but also because I took some breakdance, locking, and popping classes while I was in Beijing during 2010-2011. After a friend made a comment about it, I have decided to actively embrace this, trying to combine various body movements with three ball juggling.
• I´ve begun to think of myself as a "low-level Stephan Sing combined with a low level Komei." I obviously have a long ways to go, but I like both of these styles a lot, and I hope to grow to do something like that in the future.
• Box variations: I like the box pattern, and after a workshop at the EJC on variations, I have decided that this is a series of moves that I am interested in learning.
• I have also decided to save up money to potentially go to more juggling conventions in the future. Which ones and when I go will, of course, depend on available funds.
• As a way both to keep track of achievements and to motivate myself, I have started to train for and record some specific moves, with the goal of repeatedly breaking my personal records.