Wednesday, August 11, 2010

White Yo-yos

I have this thing for white yo-yos. They are just so pretty.

I have had more memorable yo-yos that where white than any other color. Some that come to mind are my Velocity, a bearing-ized Butterfly (until I broke it), and one of the espionage 401k's (sup Ed?). I don't know what it is, but I like white yo-yos.

Now I have a Nimbus that is white.

Photobucket

Maybe not a very good paint job...

But I like it.

Oh, uh... about that purple string there...
Yeah, the gap was closed even more and made rough by painting it. Ummm... yeah, I can't explain that away. You caught me. Using the fat Cone string on this narrow gap is intolerable.

I'll make it up, promise.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Wait a bit...

It's August the 8th... (more than a month since the last post, sorry)

I started this project in October. That's only two months~ish away...

















i has a sad

A year is almost up? I know Worlds snuck up on me this summer, but have I really spent that much time playing all-cotton strings?

I was thinking about trying some more thin-gapped yo-yos once this cone ran out, but I'm not ready for it yet.

Ed is a lifer, so he doesn't have this same mindset (even though his year is up in only one month). Steve probably has better things to do and another three cones in his attic or packed away somewhere. I have been using strings faster than either of my companions, and I still have another two years or so (judging by the diameter, not the diminishing circumference). But this is still the home stretch, and we are about to be "done"? This is the same feeling that I got graduating from high school.

I don't know if I will actually change anything after the year is up. Maybe get some more slick 8, if anybody carries it still. I have absentmindedly broken the 15-strings-at-a-time rule by having one on all of my yo-yos at once. I like the process, and don't want to make a bundle of strings ahead of time to take them out of a bundle. It would feel like cheating.

...have I made every throw count?

I don't think so. I have played more holistically, but in retrospect, I could have done more. I let distractions grip me, and have narry a new "real" video made (but one in the works). I have a month to catch up, and another month to dwell on it. I will keep updates coming.

WORLDS, shaving, and the future...


the great dilemma of our time: do i bring the cone and ball down? just the cone? should i just pretwist a few strings?

i'm not competing (i mean besides ladder, fixed axle, and pink slip... and maybe in some 'eating dares'), so i don't have a great need for my string to be at its 'highest level of performance'. honestly, the way this stuff lasts, i could probably swing worlds with one string. it would be kind of cool though to reunite the cones (and/or balls - lol). steve's coming, and i assume he'll bring his. no worlds for you this year, j-def? that's where you were at when last we talked.

i've always wanted to roll up to worlds with essentially one yo-yo and minimal clothing/toiletries. my first time down, i brought this mammoth box full of yo-yo's, and it was just this ridiculous anchor for the whole weekend. since that experience, i kind of dare myself to underpack in the extreme for contests. this is at odds with the general truth that i'm a man who likes access to his 'peripherals'.

in other news, special thanks go out to that mos def of deffenbaughs for turning me on (back) to 720s for 2a. i hadn't tried a pair since switching to type 10, which laughs cruelly at most looping yo-yo's. these however, work splendidly, and after near on 10 months of spitting, hissing, and biting, i finally have 2 pairs of 2-handers that do what i want them to do (the others being a set of clean machines for which i finally solved the gap equation). i have to say, i also miss the kind of 'suicide-consistency' that only polyester provides. i'm the first to admit that with good technique, you can nail suicides on virtually any yo-yo with virtually any string. but while poly will give you some string-tension 'fudge-room', if you're not close-to-neutral, type 10 cotton gives you basically no window at all.

i'm still undecided on what my string plans will be come october. ain't no way i'll run out of this stuff by then. i've definitely evolved toward the mindset that yo-yo string is SUPPOSED to be white (call me an antiquated string-racist if you must). the practical perspective is that white goes with all my clothes AND is nicely visible. i've never cared for that ultra-white poly string though (i find it too thin), so i'm virtually assured at this point to stick with white cotton. i miss the plug-n-play ease of type 8 with wood and loopers, but i think pulling a string off a skein will feel distinctly alien now, and i'm afraid the string will seem limp and insubstantial by comparison.

to go back to 'peripherals' for a minute, i started shaving with an old-timey safety razor a few weeks back. since buying it, i shave every morning. before, it had become something that i would do only after reaching a level of scuzziness that could no longer be politely ignored by society. however, i've finally embraced the ritual after abandoning the series of 'nice' modern, multi-bladed razors that are designed to make shaving 'easy'. my safety razor was designed circa 1930, and i can remember watching my grandfather use one exactly like it. it's heavy and shiny and it will carve your neck like an easter ham if you handle it sans attention. i WANT to be the kind of person who maintains attention. i think the prospect of needing to maintain attention while shaving is, ITSELF what has driven me to shave daily since buying this device. i WANT to care about little rituals and give my mind up to tiny details and not just sloppily rake a 5-Blade Mach 5 Turbo-Power across my face until all the hair is gone. i WANT to be someone who appreciates and accepts the consequences should my attention break down.

and, it occurs to me, that's also why i like this string. and why, i expect, when my year is up, i'll be sticking with it. BECAUSE of its inherent difficulties (and not despite them), i'm a more attentive, focused player. and that's worth hanging on to.

see you at worlds!