Nick "Houdini" Polini

[C-Fan]

I felt the stress of it. It was really stressful that I would be the only one of the only ones helping so many new players every day. .

[bobgreen]

Back to this startup business.

My friend Leon and I have been discussing plans of a startup company recently. I've been really excited about it. Some people think "oh, cool, startup… that's going to be fucking hard. You won't be successful with it.”

Once we do the research, it's gravy cakes from then on.

Hey Nick, I love your enthusiasm! I know you didn't ask for 'em, but here are my unsolicited opinions on the above:

"oh, cool, a startup…”
Working at a startup can be very, very cool!

"that’s going to be fucking hard.”
It is! Its going to be really, really hard. It also has the opportunity to be so incredibly exhilarating to to help conceive of, develop, and build a product and to subsequently develop markets for that product.

"You won’t be successful with it.”
You do have to be smart, but even more important than that you have to be scrappy and just really, really bust your balls. No problem. You definitely demonstrate massive work ethic in your footbag pursuits. You put that energy into anything you are passionate about and you really have a chance of success.

“it’s gravy cakes from then on.”
Gravy cakes *might* be a stretch. Typically at each stage of the process there are new obstacles to overcome, but working through new things at different stages is very exciting.

I’m no expert on the statistics of startups as a whole and the opinions expressed above are just my own thoughts after spending most of the last 8 years at 2 startup companies.

Anyway, the short version is that it is going to be hard work, but that it will also be very rewarding work. I wish you every success!

FYI, there is a PBS American Experience called Silicon Valley that is about the development of that area as a hub for startups starting in the 1960s. It is pretty fascinating.

Sorry to be so wordy in your blog.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Ken: Nice bear

Bob Green: Thanks for the really helpful input on the startup situation. Honestly, been so mixed up in the head ever since Leon and I dropped the project on ourselves. I did a bit of research today. I might stop updating on the startup thing for at least a little while, because I'm going to be doing a fuck load of research. But anyway, thank you so much for believing in me. It honestly helps so much to hear that people believe in me. You helped steady my mind a bit tonight, Bob.

So, yeah, like I said.. Mind has been racing lately. Been getting very scared and excited and everything all at once. This is the biggest thing that has ever had the potential to happen in my life. And I plan on treating it like I did footbag at the start… Obsessing over it.

So, I had to get my head cleared out tonight because of the bigger shit in my life that has been worrying me (startup stuff) and decided to do that with a little session.. Figured I'd blog it because I was pretty happy about my 2 highlights:

Highlights:

Ducking Osis x6 bs.. Can easily do more on strong side, but I'd like to keep pushing them and I'd like them to be even in the end.
New Osis Personal Record: 163 This is still in my NEM Lavers, so my crank couldn't cheat it at all. Old record was 106 like 3 years ago in Quantums with the brocka mod with bad scoop form. Definitely a huge improvement since then.

[akprice]

congrats on the new osis record... holy shit!!! awesome!

also, thank you for everything that you have done for my game. you are one of the few that are making a difference in this community. and thanks for hooking me up with david, darren and george!!! i think i'll call us oak city freestylers!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

edit: happy thoughts

[Cass]

.

[krustykrakk]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw4crAlWj_o[/youtube]

[C-Fan]

that last part about Oak city Freestylers brought a huge smile to my face and sent child throughout my whole body

Whoa.

[Derek]

I'll buy the shit out of your startup product, if it's injectable.

[Max Power]

I love you ken! too bad your married

[acxel22]

Hope everything still works and can see you next sunday!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

edit: Kicked it 5 times with right foot only, pretty stoked.

[Cass]

.

[Derek]

Tacos.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

edit: BSOS Toe stalls!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So that stuff is finally over and done with. I put the person of conflict on "ignore" so I can't see what she posts anymore. For me, it's really nice this way. I'm going to stick around. But first I want to write a message to modified users..

I apologize if you read the explosion that happened between Cassy Taylor and myself. Cassy and I have decide to forget about the entire thing and be civil towards each other. When that initial comment was made about me, I was already extremely stressed out from life and important life things, so you know when someone says something that offends you on an already bad week that you're currently having? The initial comment/personal stab at me was made on a day that I was already about to explode from a crazy string of shitty life occurrences. Before seeing the post, I was a mental mess but I was trying to keep it together, but when I saw it, it forced my cork to pop off. Hurtful things were said on each side. I was not my myself and I immediately regretted my first retaliation to what had been said. It quickly turned into a fucking Katamari Damacy ball of really big bad things and enormous feces and sewage plants. And if you've ever played katamari, you know you can't stop a katamari ball that starts eating houses. All jokes aside, I'm not proud of how I acted and I wanted to make a public apology for my actions during this last week. I've learned a valuable lesson from this at least and that is to just turn the other cheek if someone throws a personal attack your way. I handled the initial attack badly because of the "wrong place, wrong time" phenomena. I know this will all blow over in due time. So modifieders/friends/romans/countrymen… I have something to say: My sincerest apologies to you all for having to put up with my bullshit this week. I hope some/all of you can forgive me for my actions. There is no excuse for how I acted. Stress played a small role, but that means I just need to learn how to control and manage my stress levels better. But yes, I'm sorry everyone. Hope you still want to play kick bag with me in the future.

However, I have decided to stick around modified. So here is my first real blog post after the insanity..

I had a drill session tonight. It went really well. The highlight of the night was actually not footbag related. As I was skating hoe from my shred spot, I was kind of just mentally meditating while cruising, and staring off into the night sky. Then directly in front of me, I saw the biggest meteor/shooting star I've ever seen in my life. I smiled as soon as I saw it because it hit me like a ton of warm water after being out in the snow for hours and it just made me feel so at peace with everything. It told me that everything was going to be alright and that I had a bright future ahead.

[acxel22]

don't let the bag drop

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

I’m only making this one post in regards to the topic but it think its pretty shitty that no one is considering what nick is saying or having his back. From my perspective dude was kinda called pompous for no reason and I think it’s fucked up no one is disagreeing with that. Nick listing the various footbag hookups he’s created is no different then highlights, various footbag events and 7 page writeups with photos, quotes and personal reflections that we all post on here regularly. Honestly, his achievements are more important then some of those things in my opinion. Nick played a key role in creating one of the best scenes in the US at the moment that I’m sure people will remember for years.

I feel the same way Cassy does about promoting footbag and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with preferring focusing on yourself and own game as opposed to crazy promotion of the sport. With that said, I think it’s bullshit that anyone would try to insult or discourage someone else who is so actively promoting the sport (and doing a great fucking job at it) for virtually no reason. Of course there have been enthusiastic players like Nick with a knack for spreading the sport and they’ll always be more, players come and go after all, but he’s here now, doing the footbag thing and doing it well and why aren’t we supporting him?

This sport needs good vibes, to take itself less seriously and more free thinking, good spirited people like Nick. Cassy be classy, you’re a world champion and a human being, I don’t like seeing you at the center of so many conflicts. this sport needs new players more then it needs the existing ones being eskimo brothers.

Its just fucking hack you dicks. Show your friends a little love.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks for the support on my side of things to Paul & Kevin and others that sent me texts instead of supporting publicly.

Tonight, in honor of promoting footbag, I promoted footbag. Not just me online messaging new players.. I went out with my crew and did a long 4 hour demo in a local town. It was awesome. We all had a blast.

First, Jeremy and Corey met up at my place and we walked into Phoenixville, where I used to be a paid street performer. I took a cool "we're a cool band that is too cool to care" photo while we walked across the bridge (sideways picture, sorry!):



Jeremy, in the back, is obviously the drummer. Look at him. Definitely the drummer.

As soon as we got to the spot, we set up and had a cool club sign next to us on a whiteboard that said :

"PA Gravity Abusers

Today's Goal: Find 1 person to join our club

Come join, we'll teach!"

Something like that.. I gave 2 business cards out to people who were interested. The one that seemed most interested was this girl, Nicole (accent on the I, so it was like Neecole). She was cool and learned toe stall in sandals bs. She said she had fun and she wanted to come back. We'll see. Like I said, business card was given out. Nicole told me I looked like "Houdini", and I laughed at first and said thank you, but then I thought about it. That would make a sick footbag nickname.. Houdini, because it rhymes with my last name. Anyway, just a fun thought I had. The other kid was scared to try. He was a skateboarder gangster's dude. Nice kid. But I felt like skateboarding was higher on his priority list. He ollied over a huge bench that I would have never been able to do, even back in the peak of my skating career. So, good for him. He found what he wants to do. I actually used his board for a minute and "hit" (I've been playing footbag for too long ) an Ollie and a Kickflip. Kinda made me miss my skating days.. then I hit a bunch of sick shit Double Spin links and didn't care so much about skateboarding Been heavily inspired by Bear very recently.

Highlights:

Double Spinning Clipper> Mobius bs!!! With demo bag. Bang.
Spinning Osis> Double Spinning Clipper bs! Never zoomed into a Dbl Spin. Felt awesome.
Spinning Ducking Clipper> Double Spinning Clipper bs!
Ripstein> Double Spinning Clipper! (strong side only… when I needed you most, WHERE WERE YOU, FLIP RIPSTEIN!?!?! I can't believe you would do this to me… WE'RE THROUGH!!!!) I'll drill it later, I guess
Wrecking Mirage bs!!! BSOD. That rick is epic when you can actually do it. Been trying for a long time. I think I hit strong side once before, when I didn't deserve it, so this is technically my first one on bs. Can't wait til it's super easy. I can see it being one of those tricks.
Full hack with Nicole! First full hack in like 2 years lol
Session ender: Spinning Ducking Butter> Blurry Drifter bs!!! This is one of those links where I'm not really sure how cool or impressive it is to others, because I never really thought I'd be doing Blurry Drifters, and on top of that, never thought I'd be able to do them out of a Spinning Ducking Butter. I loved how it felt, so it works for me and I think it deserves to be bolded as a higherlight.

Oh and there's this picture.. Jeremy was trying Nuclear sets and nailing a few of them to around waist height. Then I glanced at the side of his leg and saw blood. He didn't even realize it, but he was scraping his shoe against the back of his leg during his nukes. Had to take a picture of that:



I watched that new Jindra video after the session and I was pretty blown away. Specifically 1 link has been rattling around in my noggin, and it seemed to just be waiting for me, since my current game has almost been calling out to it for years. Now it's so very close to being attainable. Double Spinning Clipper> Spikehammer. Oh shit. That was so great. I feel that coming soon, especially now that Dbl Spins aren't super far away from having locked down.

Well, that's about it for the night. Meeting with Leon tomorrow morning for our weekly business meeting.

[akprice]

love the band photo and way to get out there and promote the sport. awesomeness!