wasn't it Matt's birthday yesterday?

thanks olive, it was indeed my birthday, go to the top of the class for remembering

I had a lush day. Lovely sunny day in brighton, bloody cold tho. Sat on the beach and had a beer for the first time this year. Went out drinking with loads of good friends. It was great because we don't all get to go out together much any more.

Then headed to a stand up comedy night in brighton, really funny. Then on to a crazy party afterwards.

All in all a top birthday, feeling old tho because my mum and dad got me a washing machine for my flat. Which is great, but did emphasise the fact that i'm not a kid any more, i'm 26, i have a mortgage and a washing machine

Anyhoo, belated happy birthday messages are greatfully received, will be buying a camcorder within a few weeks to make all the nw S2 videos with,

4 years of poi. That's pretty crazy. That means 4 years ago today i would have been learning butterfly, 3bt weave and a few reels. Thinking "there's a finite number of places and planes to spin....i'll learn them all". 3 years ago i was probably learning 4 beat butterflly (double ttn), i could do btb weaves by then, what else? Wraps, that's right, after exhausting the hop lessons i remember getting into wraps, realising that there was a lot more to poi than i had expected. Also got well into all that leg stuff after alex in san francisco taught me some stuff . 2 years ago i started bustin out the throws in a big way and concentrated on that pretty much exclusively for a whole year while everyone else was getting way better than me at tangles. The past year i've been concentrating mainly on tangles and wibbles and can finally start freestylin tangles and am just beginning to mix up my wibbles and tangles.

Each year up to last year i've looked back a thought that surely it can't get much more hardcore than it was then. This is the first year that i truly understand there is sooooo much more to it, and that's thanks to all you lot. I've created a space for us all to geek out but it's all you spherculists that have turned sphism into a most increadible poi site. Thanks for that.

So what will be in the report next year? I will have fully integrated wibbles and tangles into my freestyle spinning. Will i have nailed whip catches? I've been pulling off some vaguely repetitve patterns using whip catches so possibly. So that lessens the gap between wibble and tangle since you catch directly into the tangle. Inversions are high on the agenda. I've got a couple weaves and butterflies but needs to be a lot slicker. Crossers need a lot more work (once i'm happy with my tangles). I need to apply my box planes and trinity into more patterns and explore atomic patterns a lot more.

Then of course the last year has been spent building this community. Which, lets be honest, has far exceeded my wildest expectaions!!

Well we've already achieved a great deal with the poidia. I loved that project so much because it was something which i really wanted to happen but i didn't push it. I waited for it to be suggested, provided everything necessary for the completion of the project and had very little input other than that. I'm very proud of what the community achieved by doing this. Then of course there was the first annual sphercular ball which was so good. A small event but great to meet some of you and once again proof of what this community can achieve.

And what will we have achieved with spherculism by it's second birthday? Spherculism 2 is just around the corner, all the pieces are slowly falling into place. S2 was originally intended to be a dvd but will now be a cheap monthly pay site. I'll probably release the vids on cd's available to members to make life easier for poiple. I've been meaning to write up a full intro to S2 for a while now. I think i'll start a new thread for that later.

By the end of next year spherculism will no longer seem exclusively like a poi site. The first new additions will be staff and diablo, hopefully with an encyclopedia for each. As for poi, the wiki will form the structure of the site. With the definition being followed by videos and 3d poibot plus links to articles written by you lot which draw together all relevant infomation on each topic drawn from the muddle of information in the forums. Hopefully the information in the wiki will be used to create an intelligent teaching system, you tell it what you can do, it replys with ideas of what to think about next.

In the first year we grew to around 1300 members. I wonder how many spherculists there will be by 2006?

Well, i'm gonna eat some breakfast, then write that post introducing S2,

take her easy,

¦m¦

[quote="matt"] The past year i've been concentrating mainly on tangles and wibbles and can finally start freestylin tangles and am just beginning to mix up my wibbles and tangles.

The past: truely inspirational and great to have been a part of

The future: Can't wait

ATB matt- thanks for the continuing saga of Spherc- its been a major part of my life in many ways (both in time and the people and arts its exposed me too) and I'm truely grateful.

Looking forward to reading the S2 post... (off there now)

HAPPY B'Day BTW

Chutney

bugger- I saw him the other night-
I'll have to say hi on tuesday
cheers

Chut

Happy birthday you youngster!

some days late... but still HAPPY BIRTHDAY matt. I ve learnt a lot from this site, cheers, chris