A New Toy

Long time readers will know that I have the attention span of a hyperactive ferret and a penchant for toys that can maim and/or kill. When I acquire a new hobby, I usually bore everyone with it until they either scream at me to stop talking about it, or they try it themselves out of self-defense.

Thus, it is my fault that Big Gay Jim and Squid have hundreds of dollars worth of kites. It is my fault that Squid, Zeus, Nerdy, and Pink Princess have hundreds of dollars worth of boomerangs. It is my fault that just about every resident of Flock Hall has at one time or another had a welt on their sword arm from smatchet fights in the long hallway.

But THIS time, the new hobby is NOT. MY. FAULT.

Big Gay Jim spins poi. He has the soft practice kind, the sock kind, the flag kind, the kind with tails, and the "I'm rolling soooo hard" flashing LED kind. I have watched him spin quite a bit - it's very cool, especially when it's dark and you're a bit too intoxicated to do anything but watch. I've even given then a spin myself, with mixed results. I have had some success, as much Florentine sword work transfers to poi nicely. Unfortunately, poi seemed to lack a crucial component of any hobby that is likely to addict me - it seems almost impossible to actually kill yourself doing it. Sure, I cracked myself in the nuts a few times, and I know you can scorch yourself pretty badly with fire poi, but I really need the possibility of trauma leading to death in order for it to be truly fun in my eyes.

Enter the meteor.

While looking at poi with KT, I stumbled upon it. The meteor, or as some sites call it, meteor poi, is another flexible, spinning toy. It has its origins in the Chinese weapons known as the rope dart and meteor hammer. The rope dart is just as you might guess - a metal dart with a rope attached to it for retrieval and whipping attacks. The meteor hammer is it's big brother; a metal weight on up to 5 meters of rope or chain, made for smashing atacks. When wielded properly it can crack an opponent's skull. Of course, it can also fuck up the wielder quite nicely - hence my interest.

I looked for videos and found a few (all praise YouTube). After seeing this one, I knew I had to try it.

As you can see, the fun version of today is actually a double-ended meteor hammer about 6-8 feet in length. It combines the techniques of staff (one long thingy) with that of poi (two shorter thingies) to create a very fluid style of spinning.

I've constructed a practice meteor out of nylon rope and tennis balls filled with pennies (as instructed in The Meteor Book, by Rhys Thomas) and begun hitting myself in the shins and head regularly. Even while training in hell this week, I have found some time to slip out to the parking lot and spin. Mark and Flynn have also both given it a try, and liked it. Flynn has particular promise - during his first night of spinning, he managed to hit himself in the junk with both ends, simultaneously. That's actually quite hard to do...

I'll be boring you all with updates on my progress. It won't be too long before I may give the fire meteor a try. Look for a flaming Reverend in the near future. (Not that kind of flaming, Jim...)