Nick "Houdini" Polini

[PrunusAberration]

Damn, this sounds like a blast! How many people are coming do you think? Anyone from here?

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Yeah, it should be a fun time. I have a 0-confirmed head count, as of now, so thats always dope Once I make it official with a date and everything, maybe people will rsvp.

I drilled a lot of stuff tonight. Set a record on a trick on both sides (flip # = strong #) that I have sucked at for a while. Pretty happy about that. Had a good realization about that trick. I wasn't making my leg do this thing. I had to make my leg do that thing to get the right thing. Also realized that this trick will pave and weed my pathway to a bigger version of that trick. Can you believe that!?!

Three cheers for being vague!

So, aside from footbag, I just wanted to share a quick story…

So I was walking into the living room earlier and I see my dad sitting on the floor, combing Panther, our black cat. I sit down near them. My dad starts to rub his hands together quickly, like you do while trying to stay warm on a cold day… My dad is really into Rubenfeld Synergy, which is sorta like hippie energy healing that primarily uses the hands to transfer positive energy into the patient. He has given me Rubenfeld before and I knew you often do this hand rubbing motion to kick off a Rubefeld session. I looked at my dad… "Dude, please tell me you're not gonna give the cat Rubenfeld…" He laughs and says, "No, but that's next on the list. I'm rolling Panther's fur into jewelry." Me: "*Silence*...Yeah, that's way creepier than giving her Rubenfeld". He then tells me that he has over 20 long cat fur rolls (3 different colors from all 3 of our cats) stashed away somewhere and that his ultimate plan is apparently to make clothing out of it. Hilarity ensued on both of our parts. My dad is awesome. He's a father, but he's also a best friend to me. It's always been that way. For anyone that actually knows me, maybe you can understand why I am how I am now, or especially after meeting my dad in person, like some of you have done.

Just had to type that story so it lived on.

Good night.

[Cass]

So was he just bullshitting you or does he actually have this cat fur saved up?

Edit: I gotta quit posting first thing in the morning. This actually seemed like a valid question at the time. But then, knowing your dad I'm still not totally sure..


I'm pretty glad I got the opportunity to meet your dad before. He's a wise man.

[PrunusAberration]

Hopefully, you can get a good amount of people to your event. I want to come out to the East Coast event. It sounds amazing! Are you driving out to New York or taking a bus or something similar?

By the way, the cat coat/shirt/pants/whatever the heck he is making sounds really weird, but sounds like a fun project. But still extremely weird. I can't tell if you are kidding or not. hahah! Your dad sounds like a badass by the way!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Cassy: I… don't… know? He is a mastermind of bullshitting, but he is also a very smart man. I honestly couldn't tell if he was joking or not. I'm gonna look for the rolls sometime soon. I feel like i'm going to go into the basement, find a wall that opens up, and discover a fucking shrine of them. *gulp*

Prunus: Driving my car. Funny story I forgot about NYFA last weekend. While driving through the city, I was surrounded by taxis at a red light at one point. I thought nothing of it… then I realized.. I drive a yellow Hyundai Accent. The group of taxis sort of engulfed me and we were now one dangerous super organism.

Tonight was great. Fuck this, lemme go get a burrito. brb…

Damn. Alright, Burrito. Let's do this.

I'd like to make this quick'esque? I have to pack for Maryland this weekend and it's 2 am on the dot. Lots of great/dope junks happened today.

1) Drilled some footbag. Was tempted to try to hit Lon's 100 Guiltless challenge. I dropped around 70something, but the run was pretty dense and had a good touch of variety, so that was cool. I could have easily BOPped my way through, lil e hardcore, but I wanted to do it well. Here is the video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tp1V4blcoQ[/youtube]

Side note that transfers into number 2 quite nicely: That phone call I got in the middle of the string was about a fisheries biologist job that I applied for!

2) Got a call from a fisheries biologist job that I applied for! Long story short, my dad is a biologist at a pharmaceutical company. He recently helped out this other company, Normandeau, with making an invention that makes recapturing a marked fish much easier. Apparently, my dad went out of his way to help them. He also dropped my name and said I'd be interested in working in that field and I have a degree in Wildlife & Fisheries Biology. The guy called tonight and basically said, "no promises, but we're going to do all that we can to try to get you in with us." That was just music to my ears. Please cross your fingers for me. I can't tell you how many wildlife biologist jobs I've applied for and just not heard anything back. Hoping this is the one, Neo. I'll keep you all updated on that.

3) I hit an intense drill tonight, by the way. It's on film and I plan on throwing it in my 2014 video.

4) I taught this little neighborhood kid Inside kicks bs, toe kicks bs, and Inside kick x2 bs tonight. This story had a ridiculous ending, but I'd like to save that for when I actually get the video of this edited and uploaded.

Maryland tomorrow. Going to try to scope out some sort of shred area that I could use for the proposed jam. Also! I get to see the new boat finally! And the new golf cart My mom is more stoked for the golf cart lolz. I'll take some pictures, for sure. Hopefully will be shredding with/teaching the twins some more footbag. But hell yeah! I plan on driving the boat… fast.

[DC Clinks]

Sick job on the guiltless video and the intense drill you can't tell us about and congrats on the possible job, I know you go HAM with that shit, fingers crossed for ya.

[PrunusAberration]

That is such a great mental image of you chilling with the taxis. How many people did you have to fight off from trying to get into your car? Also, sick attempt at the 100 guiltless challenge. I find it funny you got a call for a job in the middle of it. When will you hear back from them? If you don't, totally call them back and inquire more information about it. Ask your dad as well. We wish you the best of luck!

[Derek]

Your dad sounds like quite the cat Great stuff, on your 100 attempt. So Dense! Stoked for a new video from ya, especially if it drops before The Coasts. Hope that job comes through for you, buddy! Lookin' forward to some pics.

[Robertsmith]

hey nick its robert

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Yo Robert! Glad you got your Modified account working We got some good practice in this weekend, eh? Like I said, you and Michael should try to get 5 alternating (left-right-left-right-left-hand catch) by the next time I see you guys. If that gets too boring, take a break and try to work on some Toe Stalls. Tell Michael I said hey! If you guys need help setting up your Footblogs, just private message me and I can help you. Looking forward to reading both of your blogs! Cya soon dudes!

Dan: Thanks man! Yeah, I'm excited for the opportunity.. and I have always spilled the beans about stuff I film for videos, but I don't want to spill any beans this time.

Andre: Several people tried to flag me down, but I just blank-face stared at them and drove by. I think they realized I was just a Hyundai. No idea when I'll hear back from them. Playing it by ear. I wish you the best of Chuck, too.

Derek: My dad is basically a cat… knocks stuff off tables just to see what will happen, does weird shit when you're not looking but then you catch him in the act.. nah, but he's awesome. Huge role model in my life, if you couldn't tell. Thanks for the job hopes.

I have few things footbaggy to report, even though I played a ton over the weekend.. all for the camera. Here are some general highlights of the weekend:

1) I kicked with Robert and Michael a little while on Sunday. After that, their family and my family had this bodacious crab cookout. Robert, thank your parents for the crabs again! They were phenomenal! When I say "bodacious", I mean it. I had like 3 monster-sized crabs. I have never eaten 3 crabs in one sitting before. There was corn too, but screw the corn, the crabs were ballin'.

2) Film. All I want to say is that I got some good footage.

3) I got to drive the boat for the first time! I immediately fell in love with boating. I've driven the old boat before, but that was a motor with a handle on it and it was sit-down. Our new boat has a steering wheel and it's stand-up or sit-down. It was way too fun. I got some footage from that which I will probably put in the video. But yeah, I was ripping through some gnarly swells… That sounded so "surfy". But I assure you, the only Surfing I do is Fairy Symp Swirling

4) I found this really awesome place to film. Don't want to reveal what it is, but I had to bike through a substantial chunk of wetlands and woods to get there, which made for a great shot.

5) Our campsite got hit with a large squall. It was especially fierce because we are right on the bay and we were just so open to it at our location. But I love storms, so it was really awesome for me. During the storm (which ended our crab party), the Smythe family (including their dog) , and the Polini family (including our cat) all piled into the RV to ride out the storm. I decided a good way to pass the storm would be to teach the twins how to make a footbag. So we got some panels traced out, but then the storm died down and they left. Oh, I also helped the twins make Modified accounts, if that wasn't clear

6) Got to drive the golf cart around It's not very fast, but it's a fun little electric cart to get from place to place. I drove it to my shred spot and back during the first few days.

That's about it. Very fun weekend, over all

Just got home today. In the car I was reading the Vasek manual again and I got some good tips from him. So when I got home, I went out and drilled a few things. Got really close to a dream trick that I think I can get on camera soon. Drilling went smoothly. Placed my flag a little further forward along my path than my last drill session.

Good night all.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Drilled again tonight. Feeling pretty good. Want to feel better before East Coasts though.

I dont recall if I mentioned it, but I started working out again. Mainly pull-ups. I messed up my arm the other day trying to do too many. I could only extend my left arm a little more that 90 degrees (at the elbow) the first day. A little less than full 180 today. Still kills though. I know I can't jump into them too quick now at least.

I also started drinking whey, I think? That's never a good thing.. to tack on an "I think" after saying "I started taking this muscle building supplement". I'm like 80% sure it's whey protein stuff. Rielley Adamson sold it to me when he was trying to do his intent store footbag fundraiser. Bummer that failed on him. I had that stuff sitting around and figured I might as well use it, because it wasn't cheap.

I hit some new tricks tonight on both sides. Some easier than others. I think it was one 5 add on bs and one 2 add on bs and from multiple sets. The 2 add was definitely my favorite though. Oh and I got a new 6 on both sides. No add hunting was done. It was all stuff I should have been able to do by now. But like I said, I really love that new 2 add. It's one of those tricks that is severely failed by the add system. I'm going to try to get really good at them and hopefully be able to pull it out real easily soon, as a "shred monotony" breaker. And interlude, if you will.

This week has been harsh with work. Got out really late both nights so far, due to Labor Day. Just sucked.

Weird night. Can't explain it. Just weird. I just looked through a bunch of old footblogs and more than half of the bloggers don't play anymore. Sorta depressing to see all the dead footblogs. But then I realized.. Quality vs Quantity. I think the quality of the current community is really great and I feel that we have some promising seeds that have been planted that will grow into awesome players.

Just got into this band, Tame Impala. Kevin and Boats showed them to me at NYFA. They've been my soundtrack for the week so far:

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

Edit: I forgot about the big highlight of my day. Can't believe that.. Driving home from work, there's this kid walking along the side of the road. He's dressed in a hipster hat, big hipster glasses, dirty hipster shorts, high hipster socks, and hipster boots. He had a big hipster mustache too. Pretty much looked like a stereotypical hipster kid. He was pacing along the road holding a bit of cardboard that read "Travelin'. Hungry and broke. Anything is greatly appreciated." I've seen those people with "homeless, need money" signs and I don't trust them. Half of the time they use the money to buy drugs, most likely. I have also heard people saw them later that day and they were not actually homeless. I tried to not make eye contact and just keep driving. I kept driving, but I could not stop thinking about that dude. I remembered that this hipster kid (also around my age by the way) was not claiming to be homeless. His sign specifically said "Travelin'". I was running all this through while driving away. He really reminded me of Pipenberg, and how he probably did this sort of thing while hiking the Appalachian trail. I drive further and further away and realized I would severely regret not turning around. So I turned around, even though I had already driven a little over a half a mile past him. I pulled back around and found him. I honked and he looked at me and jogged over to my car. I gave him all the extra food I had from my lunch, which was a bag of trail mix and a pack of crackers. You know when people say "thank you" as an ordinary every day thing? Like, they almost have to say it and there isn't much emotion behind it? This was different. This was the most appreciating "thank you" I've ever received. You could just tell that I just made this kid's day. Or even his week. He even started tearing up a bit, which later made me get a bit emotional too. As soon as I drive away, I realized how much we take for granted on an every day basis. That kid was like SO fucking thankful that a stranger wanted to give him a measly pack of crackers and a bag of trail mix. His smile was enormous. And the best thing about it is that once one lady saw me giving food to him, she also decided to give him some food from her grocery bag. I really hope that kid makes it to where he wants to go. I wish I would have asked him. I felt really awesome knowing that I just helped make this kid's day.

[boyle]

It's funny that whenever people write about bands, they are from Australia. In reality I don't know anything about Tame Impala, but I have some friends that really like them.

[Cass]

The Toronto indie radio station has been playing that song in its rotation for a while now.

I really like your story about the travelling hipster. Psychology is really interesting. Like, that lady probably would have never given him anything. But because she saw you give him food it became an acceptable thing to do or something. Anyway props on that, very cool.

[PrunusAberration]

I have never given anything to a homeless person before except this one time when I offered soda-pop to a homeless guy. He just looked at me blankly and said he needed money. I was extremely irritated that the person didn't want the drink and the only time I have ever offered some kind of help, it was turned down. Though, I am glad he took the food and seemed generally appreciative about the gift. I think, it's a good idea to carry information on you about shuttles that are near by and places that help introduce those individuals back into the world.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Danny Boi: I also just got back into this Australian band I used to listen to in high school. Architecture In Helsinki. Really weird beats, pretty calm and down-tempo. I've always liked Australian bands. A few others I enjoy that you may know: Zombie Ghost Train (Psychobilly), Commissioner Gordon (Ska), Area 7 (Ska), Titan Outfit (Skacore), The Porkers (Ska). Ever heard of any of them?

Cassy: Glad you enjoyed the story. True stories make the best stories. And I agree with the psychology bit. I was thinking about that when it happened. The chain reaction of kindness and selflessness was so in-your-face. I wish I experienced more opportunities like that. Also jealous of your Toronto indie station. American radios don't know what music is, it seems.

Andre: Good idea, but this kid had a bike with him, so he knew what he was doing. He was just trying to live life his way and I respect the shit out of that.
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Continuing on with this hell week at work. Ugh. Got out really late again tonight. One highlight from work was that this one gangster dude co-worker came up to me and asked me, "Yo Nick, do you wanna get in the football pool?" (I guess they were doing fantasy football at work, which is just like the cool kids' version of Dungeons and Dragons) I knew what this meant, but I decided to make a funny situation out of it. I reply, "Well, I'd like to test out the water first, because I don't like swimming if the water is too cold. Also I tend to prune easily, so maybe not." I hate this dude in stitches AND I avoided answering the question and having to say that I didn't like football. Win win. I think entertaining is in my blood. I have always loved entertaining. Also why I really love street performing.

Anyway, tonight after work, Nathan and I decided to have a drill session. We drilled during this session, go figure. We both worked on some Spinning drills. It seemed that both of us were pretty happy with our progress in just this one session. I had 4 goals and I fulfilled all of them. Certainly pushed myself to get there.. not too much and not too little, which is important. I'm really pleased with the progress I made during this session.

I assigned Nate some homework which is due during our next session. I expect him to work on it and I can already see he's going to "hand it back to me" and I will look it over, giving him an A+ (School references, because I'm sure he doesn't want to hear about school anymore Fun session though. I like Nathan's intensity, but I also like the fact that he can have a lot of fun and laugh a lot in our sessions. He's a really great student. I'm kind of jealous of how quickly he learns. There were several accounts where he hit some brand new bigger tricks first try both sides, just after simply mentioning "hey try this trick".

I like how we both push each other to do certain tricks, drills, or links. I know many people don't think it's very possible, but you're looking at another Vasek/Clavens-like creature in the future with Nathan. He thinks footbag all the time, ghosts stuff at school, etc.. He told me he has been ghosting Ripwalks under his desk during Math class and whatnot and he doesn't care what others think about it. Go Nathan. It's a great feeling to be bringing up a really serious footbagger who will do whatever it takes to be awesome.

I know my PSU students are super serious about it too, but I'm not around them as much, which is disappointing. Ryan Morris seems to be doing a smashing job leading the club this year. I will see the club soon enough for ECFC. Can't wait. Then, I don't know if I mentioned it earlier on, but I'm going to be going to State College a few days before Pumpkin Jam to see The Misfits with Ben. Kind of random, but he told me about it and I said hell yes. Thats going to be a really fantastic show. Pretty stoked that Ben will be my concert buddy on that one.

I have nothing else to write about I guess. Blogging for about a month until ECFC with no "trick highlights" might seem boring to a lot of you, and it honestly is a bit boring to me too, but I just want to try it out, because I think it'll be worth it in the end. I've always wanted to do what Sunil used to do and not tell anyone what he's been hitting and then just showcase it at the next jam. So this is my attempt at doing this. Several concepts have already visibly improved, which is a great thing to be able to witness.

Well, I'm going to rake in my zen garden, listen to Tame Impala (on a heavy kick of their music. Holy crap, so good), then fall asleep.

Good night.

[boyle]

I have seen most of those bands a few times. Area 7 are actually getting back together, playing some shows to mark 20 years. Aside from The Porkers, I don't know the other ska bands.

There is one song from AIH that has a really cool video, animated with some people driving in a car having a good time.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Dan, that was wicked cool to read. I love those bands. Its so crazy to hear that you saw some of my favorites. I have never heard of anyone that has seen or even heard of any of those bands lol I appreciate your taste in music.

Last night, I went out to have myself a little drill session. Had a few goals in my head. One specific long term goal that I've recently come up with is to become a "shuffle machine". I have always sacked at shuffle. If you put "technical" on one end if a balance and "shuffle" on the other end, "technical" would be sitting on the ground with no chance of being outweighed by "shuffle". So after chatting with Jay a little bit, I went out to try some stuff. At first I tried some basic stuff like Ripwalk> Ripwalk> Blur> Legbeater bs... I could hardly make it to the Legbeater! Each trick just felt so bad. Like I was trying way too hard. A mental trick that has helped me a ton lately came to mind.. Tell yourself: "Others can do it, so I can do it too".

I told myself this. Along with telling yourself, you have to think a lot about HOW to accomplish it. After some mental milling, I figured out the path of least resistance. I tried it again and hit the link easily on both sides. I was pretty happy that a little thinking was all I had to do to fix my problem. I decided to try a drill... Ripwalk> Ripwalk> Blur> Smear> Dimwalk *Rpt... I nailed it first try.. So I did it a few more times, hitting it almost every try. Like magic. My last attempt, I wanted to kick that drill's face in. Ripwalk> Ripwalk> Blur> Smear> Dimwalk *Rpt x20 contacts> Ripwalk x6> hand catch. Longest shuffle run I've ever had. Exquisitely happy about that. It's a good stepping stone into being a shuffle machine.

Practice some atomic afterward too. I had a new mental "click" with those last night. Can't wait to try some more today.

Cool combos I was happy with:

Symp Whirl> Ss Symp Blink bs
Rev Swirl> Symp Whirl> Rev Swirl bs

That's all for now. I'm going to be drilling later too. Will blog that. Peace.

[bobgreen]

Peace.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

What's uppppppp, Beatrice?

Relaxing day off… work.. not off of footbag. Hell no.

It was raining for most of the day, so I drilled inside with plans of only practicing Reverse Swirls. Well, that got boring rely quickly and lead to more shuffle. Bang bang bang! Gunshots were the beat. Knocked out some serious shuffle this afternoon. Sealed some heavy 20something shuffle contacts with Blender> Mobius> hand.

And last night, I realized that error in my Atomic sets, and today, I put that into full effect. I don't think I've ever hit so many clean Atomic sets in one session before. That shit was on, finally. 12 contacts of Ripwalk> Blur> Legbeater *rpt, first try. Also made a bit of mental progress on Nuclear. Some physical progress, but more of that will come with time.

Some other highlights:

Spinning Muted Reverse Swirl bs (I think this is new on flip).. this is cool to hit, because a while ago, maybe this past January, I remember trying to hit that on both sides, but I couldn't get it flipside, so I decided to just work on Toe ss Reverse Swirls instead. Seeing practice pay off is a really nice feeling.
Spinning Muted Blink bs (not new on either, but really rare to hit either as well as I am now)

Hit some other nifty links and tricks, too.

Here are some cool photos I took tonight during the thunder storm (I've really been enjoying photographing thunderstorms lately):

This is the Schuylkill River, mid-lighting strike:



And I just noticed that it looks like the lightning projected a shadow of the electric lines onto the water below! That's sick.

This one is easily the most artsy photo I've ever taken.. This is so Salvador Dali. I timed it perfectly, I think:



Going to charge my camera right now, because I have a date with a certain lady (Nadine ) tomorrow to this hiking destination with 21 waterfalls. Getting up super early, so we can take as much in as we can. Also, I'm going to try to film some footbag there for my upcoming video. If not, at least I can get some really pretty shots there. Stoked!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hi internet,

I started being really inspired by Clavens recently. The dude's shuffle is off the chains. The way he strings is just sick, too. I think I've started taking a different route in footbag. I'm doing a bit of a job down Clavens lane.

Tonight was honestly the best I've ever played in my life. Practicing those shuffles seriously boosted my game, I feel. Tonight was really cool for 3 reasons…

1) Played awesomely. Just busting tonight. Felt so good to have every run up in the 20's with good variety.

2) Got at least 1, maybe 2 new footbag players. The one I think is really going to take off with it. His name is Jon. He's a student at Penn State Berks campus. He's been hacking for years and when he saw us doing freestyle, he just about shipped his drawers. He got into it really quickly. Was getting toe stalls b2b with good form and style, also hitting ATW (one side), Wraps (bs), Insides (bs), and Clippers (bs). He only wants to do stuff on both sides and he already realized that getting really good at basics is how you get good at other bigger tricks. Also, he's a freshman and he'll be going up to Penn State Main next year. Hoping I can teach him a lot this year. He seems to learn quickly.

The other dude is Freidrich (Freed-Rick.. cool pronunciation). Wanted to practice barefoot so he could get better when he wore shoes. I told him it's freestyle, so do what you feel like doing. Seems pretty into it. But we'll see by next Sunday.

Jon wants to reanimate my Berks Footbag Club that I started years ago, with practice sessions during the week, then Sunday night sessions with myself and the third cool reason….

3) Corey Hahalis (Corey Corey Corey, some of you may know him as) is now under my wing. He lives 20 minutes from Berks now, so like I said, he'll also be meeting up with us on Sunday nights. Corey has gotten a lot better since we last played. He's flowing a lot better. I gave him some footbag homework tonight to work on until we meet again on Sunday. I know I can get Corey to Open level. He's got it in him.

Oh cool, highlights:

Blurry Whirl> Blurry Drifter bs
Blurry Whirl> Fog bs, then almost BSOS (missed the Legover on final Fog)
Rubberman bs (first time getting it on flipside) Flipside had 3 bonus Rubberman contacts
Strings like a motherfather.
Blurry Torque> Ripwalk> run bs (then a different run with Blurry Torque> Ripwalk almost BSOS (missed Stepping set on final Ripwalk)
Sick combos midrun… I felt like I wasn't me tonight.


So this was some of the cool stuff that happened just tonight..

This morning and afternoon was exceptional.

Woke up around 5 am, out the door by 5:40 am.. Picked Nadiah up (we hadn't seen each other in a while.. like 2 months.. We took a break because she had to get other life stuff figured out first before she could let herself be in a relationship). We drove 2 hours to Rickett's Glen. I am so happy we decided to do this trip today. The sights were just unbelievable. We only got to see like 5 out of 21 waterfalls that this trail had to offer. Going back to see more sometime in the future, hopefully. You could just feel the energy & power from these falls. It was truly an experience.. I can only sum it up by some photos.. Which I will upload soon.