Orbit!

I'm a bit older than your average Spherculician, so I have a lot more things I could talk about in my intro... but I'll try to stick to the relevant bits.

Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I've seen fire spinners for years. They perform at parties, between bands at concerts, and of course at Burning Man.

In July 2002, I got laid off from a job at Adobe Systems (if you have the new Adobe Reader... there's an eBook button. That's one of the things I worked on. But I'm not an engineer). Two weeks later, I saw some friends spin fire at a party for our Burning Man camp. I decided that hey, if they can do it, so can I.

A month later at Burning Man...
On Monday I lit poi on fire for the first time. On Tuesday I lit my fur vest (waistcoat to you brits) on fire. Oops. We didn't know much about safety in my camp back then. Friday night that year, I had an amazing evening that opened up my mind in whole new ways.

The last year and a half have been loads of fun. I've been living off my savings, crashing on couches, and then eventually moved in with my sister. I've travelled to 8 countries, and spun poi/fire in Thailand, Cambodia, Taiwan, and London... plus of course here in the Bay Area. In 2003, I spun with the Fire Conclave at Burning Man -- more than 300 fire spinners in a huge circle while 30,000 onlookers screamed and shouted. What a rush!

I try to meet as many different fire spinners as possible... but I hadn't ever dug into the forums on HOP until recently... and then Spherculism showed up and offered a lower-bandwidth way of diving into the more advanced bits. I've been lucky enough to have met and spun with some amazing poiple around the world. bluecat, PK, Nick Woolsey, some amazing guys in Thailand, Nasu from Wildfire, my friends in Sintillation/FirePixie, GlitterGirl, and so many others... and it's only been a year and a half!

I find that my interest in poi just keeps growing. My focus shifts back and forth from moves to flow... from fearing fire to overconfidence... from thai poi to south african poi to sock poi to fire...

I am currently in the process of starting a magazine about poi. With my business experience and my travels, I hope to be able to piece together something that's interesting and compelling. If you have any writing experience and are interested in taking part, please let me know!

Roger/Orbit